Marine Mom Tina Richards Continues to Pressure the Democrats to End the War

[babylonsister]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_kevin_ze_070314_marine_mom_tina_rich.htm

Marine Mom Tina Richards Continues to Pressure the Democrats to End the War

by Kevin Zeese

Tina Richards, the mother of a Marine facing his third deployment to Iraq is continuing her efforts to pressure Democrats to end the war. After her chance encounter with Rep. David Obey in a Capitol Hill hallway she returned this week to meet with him and met with his staff to get clarification of the Iraq supplemental. Tomorrow Richards will be attending a meeting of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs (10 AM, March 15, 2007) as her son exemplifies many of the dysfunctional qualities of the Veterans Administration.

In the Capitol Hill meeting with Obey’s appropriations staff, she was joined by Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, Linda Schade of Voters for Peace and myself. The meeting was videotaped by WHYNotNews and is available on the web providing an insiders view of Capitol Hill.

In response to hearing the details of the supplemental Ms. Richards said: “Their supplemental is not good for our troops, for our country or for Iraq. U.S. troops need to come home now. Continuing to fund the war will not protect our sons and daughters, it will put them at risk. Iraqi Parliamentarians say they are able to take care of their own country and create their own destiny. The U.S. has an obligation to provide the funds to allow them to rebuild their country since we destroyed it. The Democrats have the power to end the war. It is their war now – 198 service members have been killed since the Democrats had the power to end the war.”

The Democrats Iraq War supplemental is likely to lead to a larger war. It is a very convoluted bill, but the key point is that by August 31, 2008 troops are supposed to be out of Iraq. However, the August 2008 exit date in the supplemental appropriation is more of a mirage because it includes four loopholes. Two loopholes allow troops to stay to “capture or kill” members of Al Qaeda and terrorists, as well as to train Iraqi troops. These two loopholes alone are big enough to drive a war through!

Further, the Democrats are not doing anything to stop Bush from using these funds to attack Iran. As a result, they are providing a clear path to a wider war. Thus, the Democratic leaderships exit strategy may actually lead to a regional Middle East war.

Tina Richards is also pressuring Congress to treat Iraq War veterans better. The case of her son, Corporal Cloy Richards, is a classic that highlights the problems in the VA. For the last two years Ms. Richards has been fighting with the VA to get treatment for her son who is suffering from an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury, PTSD as well as physical injuries to his knee and back. The VA has attempted to avoid treating Cloy saying, ten minutes into their first meeting that he had “childhood issues” rather than Iraq War related health problems. And, she has received numerous letters from the VA to not contact them because they were overwhelmed with incoming claims and could not assist Cloy. Now, Cloy is facing his third deployment without records from the VA describing his various illnesses that making him inappropriate for deployment.

more...

[MADem]

1. Gee, why isn't she pressuring the REPUBLICANS?

Who's she beating up now? Pelosi? Murtha?

Sheesh.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Maybe because they want to give more money to Shrub.

With an empty promise to end the war in 19 months.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. How dare she "petition the goverment for redress of grievances"!!??

What does she think she is, a citizen or something? Maybe she should just send them bribes..er, campaign contributions, like a "good" Democrat and keep her mouth shut and vote for them when called on.

[MADem]

6. Oh, please. She's doing a helluva job acting like an ass. And not helping, either. NT

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. She's doing a helluva job as a citizen dealing with politicians.

Politicians who are trying to sell her a bill of goods out P.T. Barnum's playbook.

[MADem]

13. Glad you think so. Everyone I talk to, all antiwar types, think she's an idiot.

A tool. Being used by a bunch of shitheads who want to be the story.

But hey, whatever. She can go harrass the Democrats who want the war stopped, while the Republicans ensure that we never get to 218 votes. Let's nickname her Brownie, she's doing a heckuvajob.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Want the war stopped while voting to fund it? Don't make me laugh.

Let's nickname the one's supporting the proposal Suckers.

[MADem]

17. Fine, I won't make you laugh. What she's doing isn't funny. It's stupid. NT

[MADem]

11. Gee, so trying to change their minds would do what, then?

Maybe cause them NOT to do that?

I guess "preaching to the choir" is the new strategy. That's real helpful...not.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Persuading them NOT to continue funding Shrub's war is exactly what she's doing.

The "choir" in congress cut out the one good thing in the sham of a bill requiring the fratboy to go to congress before attacking Iran. The rest is smoke and mirrors to pacify the anti-war left.

[MADem]

22. When she turns up in a GOP office, then she'll have something to say.

So long as she keeps bugging Pelosi, Murtha and Obey (those evil neocons, they), she's in the Kook's Corner, AFAIC.

Her efforts aren't working. She's making a pest of herself, and coming off as a useless tool and a crank.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. Then why are you so worried about her?

You seem very eager to attack her efforts to end the war instead of trying to pass meaningless, toothless, bills to fund it.

[MADem]

28. My opinion is this. She hurts the antiwar effort. She brings to it an obtuse and uneducated

perspective. Now, she has every right to be stupid and uneducated about how Congress works, but it isn't the job of legislators who don't even represent her district to have to give her a civics lesson every time she accosts them in the hallways with dumb remarks and bogus assumptions.

And she spends precious little time with HER OWN representative--instead, she's running around badgering legislators who already oppose the war. For WHAT? As a puppet on a string of a bunch of internet clowns who are using her, and she's too dumb to see it.

I am "eager" as you say, to point out a self-aggrandizing effort by a bunch of internet buffoons who are touting their fringe website, using a desperate, plaintive, and rather politically naive, mother as bait. Real class, that.

At the end of the day, we'll see how well her efforts work out. I'm betting she's wasting her time. She's not giving Dave Obey a magic wand to get to 218 with her horseshit.

But whatever. Rah, rah, siss boom bah...YEAH, team.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

32. They're getting to the "magic" 218 by pandering to the pro-war Dems.

And, the already pro-war Republicans.

They've stripped their bill of the only part that had any teeth and are still trying to sell it as a way to end the war when it actually does nothing but give Bush more money to pay for the war.

Instead of raising hell with Tina, try raising hell with the half-assed, papier-mache, politics-as-usual, politicians who are more worried about appearing to do something than really doing something.

Obey, Pelosi, and the rest are waving a magic wand, they're putting on a smoke-and-mirrors show and using the 218 excuse as a way to pacify the dissenters who demand an end to the war instead of the illusion of doing so.

[MADem]

34. My goodness, that bears REPEATING!!!!!

THEY're GETTING TO THE 218 BY PANDERING TO THE PROWAR DEMS?

OK, let's ALL laugh!!

Good gravy, that's a profoundly STUPID statement. I am not saying anything about YOU, mind you. I'm saying that that STATEMENT was the DUMBEST thing to appear on this board in a long, long time.

It was a RETARDED statement, frankly. It was a statement based on a mindset so idiotic as to be completely CLUELESS, and without any understanding of how to end this war using legislative remedies.

It was the statement of a CRANK. A fool. A robot who repeats what they are told. A, dare I say, tool.

I am not associating these words with you, though. I am taking these words by themselves, and disassociating them from you, because I have no desire to insult you personally. I don't want to do that, see.

Say, let's all wave our magic PEACE WANDS!!! That will get us to 218 as fast as this Tina-the-poor-deluded-schmuck-being-conned-by-the-"Internet Activists" nonsense will!!!!

Hmmm...how long before "Tina" sues these assholes who are using and conning her??? How long before she figures out she's not helping her kid, she's helping a sleazy fringe website??? She's making it WORSE for her child, by putting the antiwar agenda in the crank category?

I'm sure a lawyer somewhere would be happy to assist her with the litigation process!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

37. OK. Let me explain to you.

The bill does NOTHING to stop the war. Zip, nada, zero. It is based on the delusion that Bush will happily meet the "certification" proposals that he isn't required to meet even if the bill passes. The "deadlines" that it sets are unenforceable. They have erased the part of the bill that would have required him to get congressional approval to use force against Iran.

Why did they do that?

Think, if you are capable of looking beyond their past record of being "good guys", that it might have been done to get the backing of the blatantly pro-war Democrats so as to achieve the passing of the toothless bill?

You've been the one rationalizing the sell-out, as did Obey, by saying they "need" to get 218 votes and that's why they watered down the already toothless bill to get the "consensus" needed.

The bill, even if it does pass, and is not vetoed, will give MORE funds to Bush to pursue the war. Even if it passes and Bush were to comply with it, even though he's not required to, will supposedly end the war in NINETEEN months, though there's so many loopholes in it that that couldn't occur.

I don't believe for a second the handwringing whine that "It's the best we can do", "We don't have the votes", "Just be patient", and the other excuses for their inaction and supposed inability to do anything to actually end the carnage.

They want more votes to end the war? Let them go to the American people and tell them, openly, honestly, that the war is LOST. That people are dying for nothing. That it it's bankrupting our country, economically, legally and morally.
That, if it's necessary, they will close down the government until the troops are brought home. They can do that. Instead of pandering to the Blue Dogs, they can threaten them. Tell them they'll cut off their campaign funding and that they'll campaign against them. Tell Bush that they'll tie up every spending request he makes with so many additions and deletions that they'll never move. Tell the Pentagon that they'll cut some of their pet programs that enrich their pals in the "Defense" industry.

They can stop this war but they're so goddam eager to protect their precious seats they'd rather play politics with lives.

[MADem]

39. OK, let me explain something to YOU. Shame on you.

Your friend Tina acting like an ASS on the Hill to friendly Democrats does NOTHING to end the war. Nothing. She makes the legislators feel like they are spitting in the wind. She does nothing but provide enormous amounts of fodder to FAUXSNOOZE.

Who's getting paid for that, ya gotta wonder?

The more she does this, the more the GOP can say that the Democrats are the party of Whackjob CRANKS who send crazed, delusional mothers to the Hill, and then film them, like a JACKASS episode.

They CAN'T stop this war, fool, with that kind of nonsense.

What part of adding up two hundred and eighteen votes can't you get through your head? Does Dave Obey need to stick his magic wand from one ear to the other to get it through your brain???

Sheesh.

Your words define the term BOX OF ROCKS. You simply do NOT get it, and you never will, apparently--you're so sure you're right, by crapping on the process. Heckuvajob.

You have to be oh-so-left RIGHT, and in your righteousness, kids will continue to die, because you cannot see the forest for the damn tree in your eye.

Your last sentence in your ill-advised post is profoundly foolish, insulting to the legislators who are working their asses off to end this war--- and STUPID. You are suggesting that our progressive and Democratic legislators are NOT progressive and Democratic. No, you aren't suggesting it, you ARE SAYING THAT. PLAINLY.

I say the pot might be calling the kettle.

STUPID SENTENCE. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.

Live with those idiotic words. Shame on you. No talking to anyone spouting STUPID SENTENCES like that. Good grief....that entire assertion is ignorant, and SICK. And you should be ASHAMED.

But I will wager you're way too self-absorbed to see that you suggested...no, you came right out and SAID... that our progressive legislators who have been busting ass to end the war care more about getting elected than the lives of their constituents.

Your post is OFFENSIVE. You should be ASHAMED. That is DISGUSTING.

But hey, you're a self-proclaimed UBER LEFTY, so we should give you a pass for that shit? Because, despite your profound OFFENSE, you "mean" well?? Let's ignore the rules for you, eh?

Fuck that. I don't THINK so. If you aren't with the left, you're with some other bunch that doesn't share the goals I do. Go home to your pals. They can't possibly be pals of Democrats, with that attitude and those false and dispicable accusations against DEMOCRATIC legislators.

SICK...

You, and your easily led pal Tina, are NOT helping.

SHAME ON YOU.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

42. My heart bleeds for the poor, put upon, legislators.

The ones who work ever soooo hard to pass meaningless bills that you can't even explain.

Your defense of politicians who get ever so upset (pass the Kleenex) when questioned or challenged on the legislation that they attempt to pass is touching.

Oh, dear, the Republicans might say naughty things about Democrats because a citizen confronted them. My, my, let's shiver in fear and show them how tough we are by giving them more money to kill people.

How's that "plan" working so far? 21,000 more troops, with more to come.

As for the "process". It's the beloved process that allowed Bush to get us into the war. And, it's the same process that's allowing it to continue.

But, thanks for elevating the people who supposedly represent us into sacred cows untouchable, and unquestioned, by the peasantry.

[MADem]

44. Thank YOU. For showing everyone here how little you care about the Democratic agenda.

For acting like you are the be-all and know-all, and failing, despite a lot of horseshit, nonsense, and dudgeon, to explain how TINA shitting on antiwar legislators will end the war.

It's not my job to give you, who clearly doesn't get it but LOVES to get all snarky, a fucking civics lesson. Google is your friend. If you stayed awake in your classes in grade school, you, and Tina, might not be so damned clueless. Go back and watch those Saturday cartoons, about "I'm only a bill, and I'm sittin' here on Capitol Hill" to figure out the process. Pay especial attention to filibusters, your crowd is slow on that part.

What's YOUR PLAN? Come on, tell us. What IS your plan? To hector Pelosi? Shit on Murtha? Bully Obey? Have a bunch of fucking punks that don't know a legislator from a security guard tell a representative to FILIBUSTER in the fucking HOUSE?

And film it, in GORILLA, not guerilla, fashion. Yee fucking haw. How COOOOL...not. The act of sad losers. IMO.

Don't try to push your lame shit off by changing the subject. The subject is HOW DO WE GET TO 218, and you can't fucking answer it.

Obey gave your pal a civics lesson in the hallway. Go look at the tape again, if it was too complicated for you to understand the first ten times you saw it.

All you can do is make bullshit accusations, try to change the subject, and act like an ignorant and obstreperous asshole.

Thanks for making those of us who actually want to end the war be tarred with the brush of ineffectual buffoons who only want to tout their stupid website.

Peasantry? Sacred cows? That's not our problem. Idiots and fools, that's our problem.

Heckuvajob. Never mind the Kleenex. Pass the toilet paper, after that idiotic performance you just gave, a good shit is in order.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Neither are their "efforts".

Are they in the "kooks corner" too?

BTW the Republicans didn't promise to end the war like the so called "anti-war" Democrats did.

[MADem]

29. Anyone who supports the war is a kook. So why isn't she going after THEM?

Jesus, some IDIOTS can't take YES for an answer.

But go on ahead with your useless posturing, you're really helping the effort...NOT.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

31. Taking "yes" for an answer. Then withdraw the useless bill funding the war.

Then the "kooks" will take "yes" for an answer.

[MADem]

33. Ah, MY way or the HIGHWAY!!! Meee, meeee, meee!

Real ..... productive.


NOT.

Useful. NOT.

I rest my case.


KOOKS. Indeed.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. How "productive" is the proposed bill going to be?

Want to spell that out for the "kooks". Or, are you so hypnotized by the (D) after the sponsor's names as to find it unnecessary to bother looking beyond the sales pitch?

[MADem]

36. No, you go on and explain to us how hectoring antiwar legislators ends the war.

I don't play the game of cranks, sorry. And people here who do are, IMO, way too fucking PATIENT with the likes of this nonsense.

You tell us, in language that compels us and convinces us, why we should string up Murtha, Pelosi, Obey, Kennedy, and others in the Wellstone tradition.

Go on, do it. Gee, what will we hear? Because some asshole with a (purportedly leftist, but in reality OBSTRUCTIONIST) internet website who has conned some poor woman tells us to?? Yeah, that's the ticket!!!!

I'm sick of explaining to naive and obnoxious children how it works.

Kids are dying, and you aren't helping with your impossibly idealistic, obstructionist, childish, and unrealistic bullshit.

You folk need to get the spirit. Listen to Dave Obey. He ended Vietnam. He has more credibility than some asshole who doesn't understand who on the goddamn Hill can or cannot filibuster. And you get IRRITATED with people who go with a guy who actually DID THE WORK.

Give me a break. You have no credibilty. This 'movement' on the Hill is no better than a lousy, ineffectual BOWEL movement, the movement of fools and cranks.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

38. Thanks. I didn't think you could.

I don't want to string them up. I want them to flex their muscles and end the goddam war.

[MADem]

40. Say, why don't you make another accusation about Democrats in our legislature?

You're so good at it. You sure DO want to string them up. Look at your posts.

They don't do what YOU want, you accuse them of just wanting to be reelected. Sleazy, that.

But hey, that's easy, isn't it?

If you want to run the show, run for office.

Otherwise, give those the rest of us have elected a shot at making it work. And maybe zip it and open the ears for a change.

Sheesh. You're great at bellowing orders...not so hot at follow through or comprehension.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

41. If you ever get around to explaining how that bill is going to end the war,

get back to me.

Maybe after 19 months of continued carnage funded with the help of the "anti-war" Democratic "leaders".

[MADem]

43. If you're ever going to explain how TINA is going to do it by beating up Nancy Pelosi

You get back to me.

Sheesh.

Heckuvajob.

[genie_weenie]

2. Good for her.

I am willing to give the 110th some more time to take real steps to curb The Regime and the End the Brutality, but there has got to be a limit.

[tandot]

4. I wish they would spend all their effort and time in Republican offices

and putting pressure on pro-war politicians.

"The Democrats have the power to end the war" ... where is she getting this from? Democrats don't have a veto-proof majority. Bush can veto and we can't do shit.

As long as Ms. Richards and other anti-war groups focus on their anti-war allies in congress, instead of pressuring pro-war politicians, nothing will be accomplished.

What a waste of energy and time.

[MADem]

9. That's HARD to do, you see. You risk arrest, real press (not fringe press),

asking questions and requiring you to know the issues and exactly what you are complaining about and why you are complaining to the people who share your goals, instead of the Party of Halliburton on the right.

I agree--total waste of energy and time. Reflects poorly on the rest of us, too. Unfortunately.

It's all about that lunatic website--they want to 'be the story.' They don't give a shit about the troops, it's all about them and THEIR role in their adventure on the Hill. IMO. Guerrilla news? More like a bunch of gorillas trying to be newsmen. And they're using a desperate and not-too-bright woman in the process. Shame on them.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. How dare she "petition the goverment for redress of grievances"!!??

What does she think she is, a citizen or something? Maybe she should just send them bribes..er, campaign contributions, like a "good" Democrat and keep her mouth shut and vote for them when called on.

[babylonsister]

10. Right? So much for our freedom of speech; seems some want that

squelched. :eyes:

[MADem]

12. She is FREE to make an ASS of herself. Why doesn't she go argue with people

who want to keep the war going, instead of pestering people who want to end the war?

But sure, she's free to be the tool of a bunch of fringe kooks at an internet "news" enterprise.

:eyes: indeed.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. The same reason the "fringe kooks" protested LBJ.

And, we heard the same crap from the "good" Democrats back then.

[Cha]

19. I'm glad they kept it up

back then, too! "Fringe", indeed.

[MADem]

21. Fringe my ass. Standing room only on the mall isn't fringe.

Some nitwit running around the Hill interfering with the people who are working to stop the war IS.

This http://www.sirnosir.com/timeline/chronology_protests.html wasn't a fringe effort. What your pal Tina is doing, going after people who share the antiwar goals, IS fringe. And STUPID.

[Cha]

23. YEs, I know your opinion on it and

I thoroughly disagree and no amount of your calling it "stupid" is going to change my mind.

[MADem]

20. Wow, now there's some revisionist history. A mall crowded with

demonstrators, a Pentagon parking lot filled to overflowing, isn't some nitwit going around the Hill with a bunch of eggers-on from a fringe internet site hassling the people who already WANT to end the war.

But then, if you weren't there, you WOULDN'T know the difference!

Way to go...you just told me more than you realize!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. You were there, in the hall?

I'll admit that I wasn't there with Tina in the hall calling on the government to actually do something to end the war.

But, my first demonstration against the war in VN was in 1966. And, we were called the "lunatic fringe" and a whole lot of other pleasantries by people like you who defended the Democrats and used the same sorry excuses for doing nothing.

[MADem]

30. No dear. I was there, ON THE MALL. And there were too many of us to be called fringe.

So cut the crap. Your effort to compare a few desperate and confused tools, egged on by aggrandizing whackjobs with a cellphone camera whose sole purpose is to "create news" using a mother's pain for their website, ain't the same as shoulder to shoulder in the bright sunlight. It just ain't. They're no better than Faux for what they do and how they use people.

See, we understood the ISSUES. We knew how to count noses. We could tell the difference between a DAVE OBEY or a Gene McCarthy and the bulk of the pro-war southern caucus. We didn't yell at the guys who were ALREADY on our team. That's what stupid people do, see?

[Cha]

18. Thank you, Tina Richards!

Bless your heart..I know you have a son in Iraq and you're doing everything a mother in that position would do to see that he gets home alive and not maimed. I'd be there too if my son had gotten caught up in all those bushlies.

I'm glad she's going to the Dems..who could work with the bushrots?

Thank you for trying to get the Veterans better treatment after they've been hurt in the misbegotten War On Iraq.

[paulk]

27. these people are idiots

had to love that chance meeting with Obey where one of them suggested a filibuster.... in the House.

LOL