Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Swift Boat Vendetta-The Real Reason

Swift Boat Vendetta-The Real Reason

The right-wing mouth machine got through to their parrot Matt Drudge and we ascertain a glimpse of truth about the reason for the bitter Swift Boat lie-attacks facilitated and given a free ride by the Bushites and the malleable ("we have to present two sides of a story regardless of ethics") press:

KERRY: "Why are all these swift boat guys opposed to me?"

BRANT: "You should know what you said when you came back, the impact it had on the young sailors and how it was disrespectful of our guys that were killed over there."
______________


Has anyone read Four Hours in My Lai? The My Lai massacre was 'Abu Ghraib on speed'. The book should be required reading for every American who enters a voting booth before judging Kerry based on the dishonest political contortions of John O'Neill and Company. No yellow ribbon or Purple Heart or delusions or Swift Boat liar will ever conceal the truth of the war crimes that took place in Viet Nam.

I spent an entire afternoon just listening to A Viet Nam vet a few years ago. He was a cashier at a dollar store. Business was terribly slow. I was making a purchase and the book I was buying caught his eye. We began to talk and the conversation drifted to war. He began to talk about his own life and his experiences as a young soldier in the Viet Nam war. The memory of a young Vietnamese girl haunted him. She sold trinkets and doodads by the side of the road and the Vet's Army transportation vehicle would pass by the sweet, friendly girl nearly every morning. She would smile brightly and wave and the soldiers in the truck would all wave back. It was their routine. One morning as they passed the spot where they'd normally see the girl and wave, they noticed she wasn't there. As their truck came closer, the horror of seeing that little girl's entrails spilling out into the dusty road had poisoned the Vet's mind forever. She'd been killed for someone's amusement...or perhaps someone's frustration or anger.

Do the Swift Boat Vets wish to conceal the truth of the horrors of the VietNam conflict? The Sixties protests didn't happen for no reason. People knew the truth.

Self-examination is a healthy American value. The green and gangly Lt. John Kerry gave us a healthy dose of it when he returned from the war.

Our souls will wither if we fail to examine our conscience. Casting away inquiry will numb us to the pertinence of civility and law.

Whither goest our souls when memory faileth?

Whither goest thou, America?

My War- A Soldier's Blog

My War- A Soldier's Blog



At night here in Mosul, all you can hear the faint barking of loathsome stray dogs coming from the city, and every now and then, all at the same time, this somewhat creepy recording in Arabic is blasted from all these shitty radio shack quality speakers mounted on various mosques scattered randomly throughout Mosul. Its kinda eerie hearing these recordings, which is some guy speaking Arabic, in a monotone voice, versus and parts from the Koran.



It's one of those sounds and you'll experiences here in this country that you will never forget. Every time I hear those recordings being played from those mosque speakers, it completely hits me with the realization that I'm on the other side of the planet far away from home, and that I'm stranger in a really strange land....



This is a great new blog written by a soldier who is serving in Iraq.

What you hear on CNN is not the whole story.

Step into this soldier's boots for a while.


God is not Republican or Democrat

God is not a Republican..
..or a Democrat




People are beginning to talk.

Democratic Underground is talking about it.
The Common Good movement has contributed to it.




...sincere Christians and other people of faith can choose to vote for President Bush or Senator Kerry - for reasons deeply rooted in their faith.

We believe all candidates should be examined by measuring their policies against the complete range of Christian ethics and values.

We will measure the candidates by whether they enhance human life, human dignity, and human rights; whether they strengthen family life and protect children; whether they promote racial reconciliation and support gender equality; whether they serve peace and social justice; and whether they advance the common good rather than only individual, national, and special interests.





Sojourners feels so strongly about it that they've taken out full-page ads.
Freepers are talking about it.

God is not a Republican...or a Democrat.




We believe that poverty - caring for the poor and vulnerable - is a religious issue. Do the candidates' budget and tax policies reward the rich or show compassion for poor families? Do their foreign policies include fair trade and debt cancellation for the poorest countries? (Matthew 25:35-40, Isaiah 10:1-2)

We believe that the environment - caring for God's earth - is a religious issue. Do the candidates' policies protect the creation or serve corporate interests that damage it? (Genesis 2:15, Psalm 24:1)

We believe that war - and our call to be peacemakers - is a religious issue. Do the candidates' policies pursue "wars of choice" or respect international law and cooperation in responding to real global threats? (Matthew 5:9)

We believe that truth-telling is a religious issue. Do the candidates tell the truth in justifying war and in other foreign and domestic policies? (John 8:32)

We believe that human rights - respecting the image of God in every person - is a religious issue. How do the candidates propose to change the attitudes and policies that led to the abuse and torture of Iraqi prisoners? (Genesis 1:27)

We believe that our response to terrorism is a religious issue. Do the candidates adopt the dangerous language of righteous empire in the war on terrorism and confuse the roles of God, church, and nation? Do the candidates see evil only in our enemies but never in our own policies? (Matthew 6:33, Proverbs 8:12-13 )

We believe that a consistent ethic of human life is a religious issue. Do the candidates' positions on abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS-and other pandemics-and genocide around the world obey the biblical injunction to choose life? (Deuteronomy 30:19)





Catholics are talking about it.

Blogger Chuck Currie's talking about it.



We also admonish both parties and candidates to avoid the exploitation of religion or our congregations for partisan political purposes.



The topic is of great interest to Independent voters.

Now I am talking about it.