Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Rice Won't Rule Out Force



Rice Won't Rule Out Force

Rice Won't Rule Out Force on Syria and Iran -

and I won't rule out more manipulation of intelligence to fit the foreign policy that always seems to keep the option of "force" at the front of the table rather than putting it in its proper place.

I won't rule out further misuse of our already-overstretched military.

I won't rule out the activation of a Military draft at a time when public confidence in the Iraq war is piddled away with every new revelation of a prior misleading by the Bush administration.

I won't rule out the probability that Bush will never change the course in Iraq.

I won't rule out the increasing growth of al Qaeda-type terror groups as the competitive race for hearts and minds in the Arab world is won by the wrong guys - all because of a wrong-minded policy that assumes that "speading democracy" is done at the butt of a gun pointed at regimes; bombs targeted on neighborhoods where the "wrong guys" happen to live and coexist beside the heart-mind targets. Shooting arrows into hearts is supposed to win people over - not kill them.

I won't rule out the probability that we could lose this war on terror if we can't find a way to culturally support the liberal-minded Arabs in the Middle East without bringing bloody violence to their doorsteps.

Refusing to rule out force should always be our nation's option, for government has a responsibility to provide National Security.

Condi talks tough - and leaders in the Middle East believe her - and with THIS administration, that is a problem, because it feeds into the terrorists' recruiting game.

Not cool, Condi.

"Opportunity Rocks" tour is Underway



"Opportunity Rocks" tour is Underway
Related post at the One America blog
"Join me in this cause. Let's end poverty as we know it in America, and let's create the kind of country that all of us can be proud of."

Senator John Edwards at UNC-Chapel Hill, Oct 17th
Senator Edwards is helping to launch a project called Opportunity Rocks with a two-week tour to ten colleges and universities. Opportunity Rocks is a project of the Center for Promise and Opportunity, of which Senator Edwards is the honorary chair.

The goal of the Opportunity Rocks tour is to get more young people involved in their communities and to encourage them to advocate and promote policies that expand opportunity.

• For more information on "Opportunity Rocks," see One America blog Oct. 7 - John Edwards Invites Young People to Join the Fight Against Poverty


Senator Edwards and Vanessa Cooper stand by a window frame in a house being built by Habitat For Humanity in New Haven, Ct on Wednesday. Cooper will own the house.(BOB CHILD / AP)


Senator Edwards made his third stop on the Opportunity Rocks tour at Yale University on October 19th. Adam blogs from New Haven, CT: "We spent the morning at a build site sponsored by the Greater New Haven Habitat for Humanity.....There were about 20 volunteers at the site. Bill wasted no time in getting a tool belt on Senator Edwards and putting him to work."

Media reports are drawing parallels between John Edwards and his fight against poverty and Robert F. Kennedy and the 1960s Civil Rights movement. "[John]Edwards said when he was a student, Bobby Kennedy had called attention to poverty in Appalachia. Edwards said the desperate poverty highlighted by Katrina could have a similar impact on the current generation." source: Edwards speaks on poverty - NewsObserver.com

On Tuesday, Senator Edwards said, "There is a hunger, a thirst in America for a national community again." Senator Edwards wants college students to increase their community service while [utilizing] the Internet and other tools to link up with like-minded peers across the country. "If we want to end poverty as we know it, we need to start a movement," he said. "We can't count on politicians in Washington, D.C."
source: AP/KansasCity.com

The tour is still due to make stops at:

Harvard University — October 20
Dartmouth College — October 21
University of Texas - Austin — October 24
University of California - Berkeley — October 25
University of Wisconsin - Madison — October 26
Florida A&M University — October 27
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor — October 28