NYT Editorial on Iraq

NYT Editorial on Iraq

From today's NYT editorial:

It was chilling to read Edward Wong's interview with the Iraqi prime minister in The Times last week, during which Mr. Jaafari sat in the palace where he now makes his home, complained about the Americans and predicted that the sectarian militias that are currently terrorizing Iraqi civilians could be incorporated into the army and police. The stories about innocent homeowners and storekeepers who are dragged from their screaming families and killed by those same militias are heartbreaking, as is the thought that the United States, in its hubris, helped bring all this to pass.

I apologize ahead of time for having to say something that is rather blunt, but I feel that it's important. When I read this, I immediately thought about Judith Miller and the New York Times' front page stories before the Iraq War. I suspect that hard lessons have been learned. I realize that there has been a mea culpa from the Times and I appreciate that, but I have to say that the United States government wasn't the only institution that has "helped to bring this all to pass."

As we hear more and more sabre rattling on Iran....more fear mongering whistles through Dick Cheney's bottom teeth and lying twisted lips, I'd ask the fourth estate not to forget what happened in 2002 and to vow to never let it happen again. An editorial like this one is a hell of a good start.

General Zinni: "We've lost Ground in Iraq"

General Zinni: "We've lost Ground in Iraq"

General Anthony Zinni was a guest on this morning's Meet the Press. He said we are now paying the price for a lack of a plan from the Bush administration in Iraq. The administration understimated the situation they were getting into, and they got distracted from the actual war on Terrorism.

He said that we have to see the Iraq war through now - for we are committed. Militias in Iraq are a large part of the problem, and it's disturbing that the Bush administration doesn't seem to be addressing that problem. U.S. intelligence capability needs to be strengthened in this war, ie: getting people to turn against the bad guys. We are not fighting the SS in Iraq - it's a rag-tag bunch of fighters with IEDS, etc. Zinni said that we've needed to win hearts and minds in Iraq and we haven't done that yet, three years on. We haven't given the general populace enough security or reason to turn in the insurgents.

When asked about the benefits of having removed Saddam Hussein, General Zinni commented that it was like comparing heart disease to cancer. Saddam Hussein was bad for Iraq; this sectarian war is certainly not good for the country.

In these three years, we've lost ground in Iraq.

Any positive efforts that are being made on the local level in Iraq are made in vain because of the failure of the overall strategy. General Zinni commented that positive efforts are being made by people such as Lt. General David Petraeus, but hearts and minds in Iraq are not being won because of the weakness of the "strategic brand" which comes from the top down (from Washington D.C.)...not from bottom up. Condoleeza Rice has said "tactical errors" had been made, but America sees that no adjustment has been made for the core strategic errors that came from the very top.

General Zinni thinks that the media is used as scapegoat by the Bush administration. Security in Iraq has deteriorated to the point where journalists, of whom we've lost at least 80 to violence, can't get out without the likelihood that they'll be kidnapped or killed. It's hard to dwell on "the good" when "the bad" is so catastrophic. The balance between the two must be considered and it's not fair to blame the media for reporting on what they see.

Zinni bemoaned all the Bush administration's pre-war spin, the cherry picking of intelligence, the metaphors used to invoke emotional response from the public, and all the shaded contexts (ie: "mushroom clouds").

In reality, the U.S. walked away from ten years worth of planning on serious foreign policy. It was literally thrown away. General Shinsecki was insulted by telling the truth. There was faith placed in Iraqi exiles that any experienced official knew was bogus. These were strategic mistakes made in D.C., not on the ground in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld should be held reponsible for this poor strategical planning -along with anyone who stood by the strategy. They must be held accountable. If they keep defending mistakes of the the past, they can never move on with any success. That's where the Bush administration is now..standing by old mistakes. President needs to annunciate clearly the mistakes that have been made in order to gain any form of future credibility on Iraq.

When General MacArthur screwed up (I know from family experience), the President relieved him. Honesty and confidence have to outweigh politics.



Reference posts:
Counterpunch: "Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time - Gen. Zinni: Heads Should Roll By Sam Hamod


(more to follow)

Russert Frames McCain as Flip Flopper

Russert Frames McCain as Flip Flopper

A very crafty Tim Russert has framed 2008 hopeful John McCain as a flip-flopper of amazingly hypocritical proportions on Meet the Press this morning.

See Georgia's post at Daily Kos
(details coming)

An Opinion on Alleviating Poverty

An Opinion on Alleviating Poverty
Written Especially for the Tar Heel Tavern


After Katrina

In a Seattle Post Intelligencer article by AP writer Allen G. Breed about poverty, we are told that Americans are so overwhelmed by the very thought of attacking poverty that not only can they not fathom how government would begin to end poverty, but because of the government failures after Hurricane Katrina, they see government as the last place for the promise of a solution.

And do you know what I think? I think that they're right. The government in Washington D.C. today not only has no rational ideas about how to alleviate poverty, but the truth is, I really don't think it's a priority of the Bush administration or the "Rubber Stamp Republicans" at all. Just one overview of their agenda, their Budgets for the past five years [see this post for an example], and their legislative record will prove it.

From the same AP article:

Not long after Katrina struck, the Census Bureau released figures showing that the poverty rate had climbed for the fourth straight year. More than 37 million Americans live below the federal poverty level (defined as an income of $19,000 for a family of four), including 12 million children.

Five million of those children live in families that earn less than half the poverty level.

Jane Knitzer, director of the National Center for Children in Poverty, says it's not so much that Americans don't know that poverty exists. They just don't want to think about it, because it's just too hard.

"Very often people feel that there's no solution to poverty, that's it's intractable," she says. "It's a secret nobody wants to deal with."

Anyone who thinks alleviating poverty will be easy is deluded, indeed. However, if we stop believing that it can be possible and if we ignore the problem, we will become an America where being a low-wage or unemployed worker will mean an even further decrease in the opportunity for providing a basic and sound existence for many families.

We have to start somewhere.

It won't be easy. We've become used to one too many slick politicians giving us pie-in-the-sky promises about reform that will end poverty as we know it, yet today we still know poverty as the blight that it is on our respective communties - just as we did decades ago.

It won't be solved by partisanship. No one political party has all the answers.

The past five years have brought us great disappointment in our leadership. Tax cuts are given to the richest. Major welfare handouts go to corporations these days - many of them corrupt - and favors are paid back to well-connected lobbyists. America is divided - there is a wide "culture gap" and one side is constantly at odds with the other. Meanwhile, the poor are still demonized and blamed for their own poverty by ignorant people. There seems to be no strong moral voice in Washington these days to dispel the myths about those who live in poverty, and there certainly has been no balance in Congress. Conservatives rely on dated methods. Liberals rely on dated methods. No one will work cooperatively to find solutions. The minority party is routinely shut out of the American democratic process or simply silenced by partisan shenanigans and rule-changes when the majority can't win the traditional way.

In the AP article, there is an reason given for the alarming public indifference on the issue of poverty which I believe can be attributed only to poor leadership in America. [I had hoped this wouldn't happen.] What I see as a fairly poor excuse for bad leadership was somehow gleaned by Stanford University researchers Emily Ryo and David Grusky. They used data from Syracuse University's Maxwell Polls on Civic Engagement and Inequality, conducted shortly after Katrina. The way I see it, Grusky and Ryo are handing the mainstream media's coverage of Katrina the blame for telling the truth and getting a natural reaction from television viewers. The viewers, in this case, saw that the government's response under the leadership of President Bush to Hurricane Katrina was woefully inadequate.

From the article:

News coverage could partly explain the rise in denier and realist views. Some "did not take well to the liberal lesson that they no doubt regarded as foisted upon them," Grusky and Ryo wrote in their report, and so "the `call for action' story ... was countered by the equally powerful lesson that government intervention is all about inefficiency and ineptitude."

The mainstream media has become an entertainment tool, which is the opposite of what responsible journalism should be. That said, I think the mainstream did a damned good job on the Katrina coverage. They had tons more information - and much sooner - than the Bush administration did. The media hasn't dropped the ball on Katrina, and no one can deny that there was a poverty we'd not noticed before the hurricane that was exposed by the media after Katrina. If the public doesn't care about the poverty of the people from New Orleans or if they're overwhelmed by the very thought of it, we should give the credit shame where it is due - our political leaders. What are people supposed to think when they see their government abdicating their responsibilities? Why should the public care when they believe that their government clearly does not care enough about poverty to do something about it?

After seeing the hidden poverty of the Ninth Ward uncovered by Hurricane Katrina, who among us can we possibly turn our heads and look the other way - or worse, crawl into our shells? What kind of people are we? What kind of leadership does that reflect?

Public indifference isn't the media's fault. It's the fault of leadership who lack a moral compass.

Our best hope is to overturn the House and Senate in 2006 and elect representatives who will change the direction of economic policy in Washington, D.C. We need a better balance of voices in government which will then migrate to the mainstream media. In the past five years, I have learned that cable news media will simply not give the minority party a fair shake. What we are seeing now are the blunt failures of the Republican agenda coming home to roost and a nation looking for that one voice out there that will cause them to have hope that they might be able to trust their federal government to actually lead the way.

The Republican majority in the Legislative branch has been a Rubber Stamp for the Bush administration - and the Bush administration has not led on alleviating poverty.

Is it any wonder the public thinks it's a lost cause?

In the same AP article, a weak excuse is made for President Bush, saying that he was too pre-occupied with Iraq to have time to address poverty. To that, I say "Poppycock!" There have been many opportunities for Bush to include poverty in his agenda, but at every corner, he has simply neglected to do so. If he's too busy doing anything, it's taking care of his richest contributors - gifting them with contracts and political favors.

What we have here is a major failure of leadership. With the Bush administration. With Congress.

There was an article in last Sunday's New York Times written by Erik Eckholm about former Senator and 2004 VP candidate John Edwards and his focus on the issue of poverty.

This is his true passion, he said in an interview, and he thinks that voters may be more responsive in the coming years, both because the middle class is becoming less secure and because of a shared sense of fairness.

If you want to see a political leader who seeks new ideas and solutions to alleviating poverty, I recommend that you take a look at the new John Edwards One America Committee site. Don't miss the new One America blog. I'd love to see the Tar Heelers sign up at the blog and join the conversation. [They were talking about you Tar Heel Taverners on One America just this week!]

It will take a moral leader - a leader with innovative ideas - to steer Americans, famous for their short attention spans, toward remembering that, just as important as rebuilding the damaged Twin Span bridge from New Orleans to Slidell, Louisiana, we need to do the hard work of building real and lasting bridges out of poverty. See my post titled "The Helping Hand".

Excerpt:

Bishop Jakes spoke about the Twin Span Bridge that connects Slidell, Louisiana to New Orleans which was partially submerged by Katrina and will need rebuilding. He called it a symbol of our need to rebuild bridges between our ideas, our perspectives, and our differences - we must build unity. "We can't multiply by dividing and we can't add by subtracting," said Bishop Jakes. If we rebuild that bridge with unity, it could make a real difference, letting go of the divisive illusion that we're black or white; Democrat or Republican; "right" or left." The true vision, he said is "One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

The media, who have been really good at hammering away at the Katrina story, would be well-served to have Senator Edwards as a voice on every talk show. Not to pump him for his Presidential aspirations, but to sit down and talk to him about the issue about which he is so passionate - alleviating poverty. People pay attention and develop the political will to see change when a political leader is willing and able to have a rational public conversation about an issue that, whether we realize it or not, affects all of us. I'm sick of seeing the same old faces on the political talk shows. It's no wonder that America is indifferent.

Bolten's Snow Job - I Predicted It

Bolten's Snow Job - I Predicted It

John Snow will soon be shown the door. I knew it! Only, Card's not coming back to replace him - probably because of Valerie Plame's outing and WHIG's dirty little tactics.

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Jack

Welcome to the Blogosphere, Jack

Jack Huberman has started his own blog. Yay! This is going to be fun.
Link:
Well To The Left Of Attila The Hun

Where's John Snow?

Where's John Snow?

There was a rumor in the Washington Times last fall that I recalled when I heard about Andrew Card's resignation.
Last September, I wrote:

But what's THIS I'm hearing!?! The Washington Post reported Sept. 9 that Treasury Secretary John Snow is once again being shown the door. His rumored replacement is White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who would then be replaced either by Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten. [Washington Times]

Card is gone - where in the world is John Snow? Is it possible that Snow, especially after the talk about his part, as a former CSX chief executive officer, in the Dubai Ports World deal, will soon be shown the door? Will Andrew Card take his place and simply be "recycled" rather than shed from the Bush administration?

"Underwhelmed" by Card resignation

Bolten consoles Bush during time of crisis
art by Anonymoses

"Underwhelmed" by Card resignation
A Yawn for A Pawn Gone

Hearing the news of Andrew Card's resignation, I am not overwhelmed with hope. For me to have hope for any small turnaround in this administration, Donald Rumsfeld would have to go. Even the most wicked neo-cons are unhappy with Rummy.

I wish Andrew Card luck. I wish he could have been a stronger influence on President Bush rather than part of a group that prefers loyalty and partisanship over the better interests of the people of the United States of America.

If there was a hell reserved especially for bad political leaders, Mr. Card would join the majority of the Bush administration in Beelzebub's fiery-furnaced lair.

I can see that I'm not alone.

Josh Bolten is no "gray beard."

I wonder if and when Mr. Card will start to sing about WHIG and the Valerie Plame outing? After all, Cheney's been fingered by Bush's Brain. (ew - that sounds gross).

Poverty, Globalization, and Community Development

Poverty, Globalization, and Community Development
Cross-posted at One America Committee blog

There was an article in last Sunday's New York Times written by Erik Eckholm about Senator Edwards and his focus on the issue of poverty.

This is his true passion, he said in an interview, and he thinks that voters may be more responsive in the coming years, both because the middle class is becoming less secure and because of a shared sense of fairness.

The recent conference titled "Challenging the Two Americas". It was organized by Senator Edwards and sponsored by the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina, an organization that he founded and directs. Mr. Eckholm wrote:

The challenge, Mr. Edwards and other speakers said, is not just to devise better ways to fight poverty but to find strategies with broad appeal.

Experts say that the same economic trends that have been rendering the poor more powerless than ever are also creating hardships and economic insecurity for middle-class families. They believe that policies to improve the security of the middle class will also help the poor. Elizabeth Warren, the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, has blogged about the conference at TPM Cafe.

President Bush's 2006 budget proposal served to scrap the existing federal community economic development system and replace it with an almost entirely unfunded shell, and his 2007 budget proposal is not any more promising. We can do better than that. We need a stronger America right here at home, and that will require new strategies for alleviating poverty. Republicans have worked hard these past five years - for only the few. They have put the big corporations and CEOs first and the majority of the  American people last. When Senator Edwards says that America should work for everyone, it means that he puts the American people first.

Senator Edwards has worked tirelessly to find solutions to the alleviation of poverty and helping Americans find a way to create opportunities for themselves. We are a government of the people and it is an invaluable asset for the people to have a political leader who takes a genuine interest in empowering them in their respective communities in order to achieve a greater measure of social justice and make our democracy strong.

On November 9, 2005, there was a "Summit on Poverty: New Frontiers in Poverty Research and Policy" held at the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at UNC. There is a video available for each panel session, and I wanted to share some information from part of that Conference that I found to be true not only in North Carolina, but in my own state of New York - and probably in most American communities across America. Anita Brown-Graham is a Professor at the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill where she specializes in affordable housing, economic and community development, and public liability. Professor Brown-Graham offered what I found to be great insight into the problems we face today - especially in the new globalized economy. [Video segment here]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT




With new economic and political realities, we need a 21st century version of community development. Opportunities are being created by Senator Edwards and the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at UNC to rethink community development models and how they can play out successfully for the benefit of the most people. Federal government should concentrate on outcomes more than processes. Communities need to better deliver services to people with he development of new and improved strategies. We can become involved ourselves. Becoming well acquainted with the issues, we can be Community Organizers ourselves.

We can start by better understanding  the way community development has worked in the past. There has been a cooperation and collaboration between the private sector, the public sector, and the not-for-profit organizations that has changed with globalization and has presented a need for new and creative strategy-making with the intent to alleviate poverty. The state of community economic development is currently at a crossroads. There are fault lines in the old strategies for successful economic development. Because of political changes, community developers are seeing economic, physical and social conditions in the community that have led them to realize that there is failure where there once was success. The new community development revitalization strategies required  must encompass knowledge about the different kinds of poverty that exist in each respective community. Poverty is not necessarily just the poverty of income or assets. There are dimensions to our communities that also reflect a poverty of opportunity, a poverty of potential (as we see in human and physical capital deficiencies in poorer communities), and especially the poverty of powerlessness. Communities must be made to see the power they can possess in order to change their own circumstances. Whether we realize it or not, we all  have the power. We simply require the will to make a social and political change and the tools for success.

New initiatives often come to the table after all other means have failed. Community organizing and development tends to be focused on areas of private market failures. When much of the investment from the private sector has little to show in our communities, not-for-profit organizations with limited resources are left alone to help - especially where 'big government' has fallen away. (And for all of President Bush's BIG spending, he and the rubber-stamp Republicans have virtually forgotten our communities).  

Not-for-profits are run by well-meaning people with a lot of hope and effort driving them to do what they do, but when they are told that, where 'big government' has failed that they must succeed, it is rarely a realistic or winning strategy.

The "Fault Lines"




Here is Professor Anita Brown-Graham's description of three fault lines in Community Development today:

* The first fault line relates to the challenges that not-for-profit organizations face in our communities. Professor Brown-Graham commented that, after ten years of interaction with not-for-profits, their unofficial motto of "keep on keeping on" has unfortunately only kept their communities in a state of continued persistent poverty because they lack the ability to craft and articulate a meaningful vision of economic change for their communities and they lack the capacity to formulate strategies associated with that necessary change. They also lack the capital necessary to make it happen. Good intentions, in and of them selves, do not alleviation of poverty make.

* The second fault line - In the last twenty years there has been change in the context in which community development and social service initiatives must operate. The first change involves the public sector. The federal government has significantly retrenched from its position of dominance in funding and directing community development activities. In North Carolina, while the state has tried to pick up its fair share, the Professor said that it would be a lie to say that the state has picked up all the responsibility that the federal government has abdicated. What this means is that it is left to local governments to develop, implement, and fund comprehensive measures such as Housing, Water and Sewer, Education, Telecommunications, and all other initiatives required to make a competitive community. Local governments have limited resources, and to believe that the resources that are currently available to them will help them to create a truly competitive community is just something that's not realistic. In the area where Professor Brown-Graham teaches and works, local government is spending 70% of its tax base making its Medicare match. This leaves very little for progressive community development.

* The third and last fault line discussed by Professor Brown-Graham is the one she says is closest to the heart of poverty alleviation. The private sector in our new global market is disconnected from American communities. In a recent article about Senator Edwards' fight against Poverty and the shrinking Middle class, it said:

Globalization gets the blame for moving jobs in manufacturing, service, even medicine offshore and pushing U.S. workers into unemployment. A panel discussion involving Edwards and economists argued that while globalization can't be fought, its disrupting force can be eased.

Not-for-profits need the private sector to support them and their efforts. The problem is that there is no private sector leadership in the particular community that Professor Graham-Brown has been working with. There is a "disconnect" because of globalization. There must be collaboration between public, private and not-for-profits in order to effect successful change. Because of globalization, there is no reason for any limited private sector involvement to have any particular civic connection to the community. Unfortunately, local communities are forced to look inward for development strategy solutions because the private sector no longer respects national boundaries, much less local boundaries.

We must think differently about how our communities connect to the new global world order. I recently read an article about business and how they must be convinced to change to meet the needs of the people they serve in the global economy. There must be a new overall understanding of how global issues such as poverty and globalization affect individual companies and the private sector, along with understanding the significance of these signals to search for business opportunities that help to address them. [See this article]

There are certain communities that are remote - - unseen, many of them rural, and the interventions that may work for most communities in need will not work for them. Some of these communities are typically found in rural America, certain communities in the rural Southern Belt, in pockets along the Mexico/US border, and in some Native American communities. Hurricane Katrina pulled away the curtain on one of those once-"invisible" communities.

For those certain communities, redistribution must be seen as an issue of fairness, justice, and necessity. There will be  people in these remote and impoverished communities that will require subsidization for some time to come. Public policy has been based on the fallacy that we can walk away from these places after a certain amount of time has passed is unrealistic. It's natural for people to become frustrated when they're told that redistribution will solve the problem of poverty in a certain time frame and it doesn't happen. Tax-paying citizens need to understand that it will take a very long time for redistribution to make any difference and political leaders need to honestly speak about and to convince the public of the need for this type of solution in certain communities.


Thinking about how academic work can serve as a new social architecture for community development that will alleviate poverty in the 21st century will be a great challenge. Political leaders can have an effect on the political/public will to eradicate poverty for many people who are visibly suffering in our communities. We citizens can also have an effect on our communities by becoming involved.  

The alleviation of poverty and the success of economic community development will not only rely on academic contributions. It will take all of us to understand what must be done and to learn how to talk to our neighbors in our own communities about alleviating poverty. Conferences held in our own communities may be helpful. So will letters to your newspapers' editors. Teaching ourselves to talk about alleviating poverty can make the difference between politically alienating those who misunderstand poverty and succeeding to brighten the corners of our own cities, towns, and villages with the light of knowledge and inspiration. Most Americans in the middle class are already feeling less secure and we should be appealing to their hope and their shared sense of fairness in order to build a grassroots foundation from the new social architecture aimed toward ending poverty through effective community development. With the collaboration of the private and public sectors, along with not-for-profits, we can help people to help themselves.

As always, thanks to Senator Edwards for leading the way.

Reference and Examples of Community Organization: Organizing Today: Ten Reasons to Cheer! by Dave Beckwith

Iraq News - It Ain't That Good

Iraq News - It Ain't That Good


Oh, that's just great news...

A young physician in Kirkuk confessed on Kurdistan television Monday to having been an serial killer on behalf of the guerrillas, giving lethal injections to more than 40 Iraqi soldiers and police or denying them oxygen. At the same time, he was secretly treating wounded members of the guerrilla movement. - Juan Cole, Informed Comment


Parliament Majority to U.S.: "Out"!
Shi'ites Are Insecure With US Security

Officials of the United Iraqi Alliance of Shiite fundamentalists, the largest single bloc in parliament, demanded Monday that security matters be turned over to Iraqis and taken out of US hands. Reuters says, ' “The Alliance calls for a rapid restoration of (control of) security matters to the Iraqi government,” Jawad Al Maliki, a senior Alliance spokesman and ally of Prime Minister Ibrahim Al Jaafari, told a news conference. ' I have to say that if the US military doesn't even know, as its spokesmen admitted, to which branch of Islam the persons its joint operation killed on Sunday belonged, it really is acting as a bull in a china shop. - Juan Cole, Informed Comment



Prime minister al-Jaafari, Go Away! US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad - Go Away!

The Badr Organization, a political party that represents the paramilitary Badr Corps, the Shiite militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, demanded Monday that Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, be expelled from that country. Under Iraq's constitution, the political bloc with the largest number of seats in parliament has the right to nominate the prime minister. Prime minister al-Jaafari had won the nomination by one vote. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been attempting a compromise that has hinged on the current Iraqi prime minister, all along believing that al-Jaafari was never the unifying figure that Iraq has needed. You call that a recipe for success?


End the conflation of "the struggle against radical Islamism" and "promoting democracy in the Middle East."

Democracy promotion should remain an integral part of American foreign policy, but it should not be seen as a principal means of fighting terrorism. We should stigmatize and fight radical Islamism as if the social and political dysfunction of the Arab world did not exist, and we should shrewdly, quietly, patiently and with as many allies as possible promote the amelioration of that dysfunction as if the terrorist problem did not exist. It is when we mix these two issues together that we muddle our understanding of both, with the result that we neither defeat terrorism nor promote democracy but rather the reverse. - WSJ, Fukuyama/Garfinkle

Stygius has some interesting commentary on yesterday's Wall Street Journal column by Francis Fukuyama and Adam Garfinkle.

What We've Gained In 3 Years in Iraq
What We've Lost In 3 Years in Iraq

John McCain Says Biggest Mistake in Iraq is...

John McCain Says Biggest Mistake in Iraq is...

Going along with Bush's fantasy of a "win" in Iraq (whatever the hell that means), Senator John McCain continued, today, to show his own impractical and stubborn support of Bush's monstrous failure of a war, denying that a civil war is going on and citing a warped priority regarding the "biggest mistake" the U.S. should avoid in Iraq:

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who also attended the White House meeting, said after his weekend visit to Iraq he does not believe there is a civil war, but that U.S. troops should not withdraw at this time.

"I think the biggest mistake we could make is having a calendar dictate the troop strengths over there," he said to reporters at the White House, echoing President George W. Bush's repeated assertion.

"I am confident that we can, and will, and must win because the consequences of failure are catastrophic," McCain said.

The biggest mistake Senator McCain can see is having a friggen CALENDAR?!? Dear God, where is the sanity? Where is the practicality? Why would Senator McCain fail to heed the warnings of those who have learned the lesson already: that the war in Iraq is not now and has never been a war where a "victory" can be quantified to make one more American death worth the result? Afghanistan is still resorting to medieval law in order to persecute Christians. There is a well-documented resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan That is not a victory. The people of Iraq are forming a government that has a Shi'ite majority who is leaning toward the influence of Iran and a theocratic form of government that will enable the men to keep the women down for decades to come. That, to a free woman who appreciates what we have here in the States, is not "a victory."

If we need Iraq for our new Military bases where we'll remain for the rest of this Century for geopolitical safeguarding of the oil and gas we'll need, someone sure as hell ought to admit it now. The American public is sick and tired of being lied to about the wars in which our troops are committed. Our representatives are elected to carry out our political will, and if any political leader expects to be respected in the blogosphere, they'd best act responsibly in their communications with the people of this country. I firmly believe that John McCain is full of shit when he says that our "biggest mistake" is to have a calendar - if we never formulate an exit strategy we will never leave Iraq.

Come on, Senator McCain - get real!

___

"After 2,300 Americans have been killed, 106 from Ohio, and so many Iraqis, we must say that when you go to war, whether you go to war, and
whether you tell the truth about going to war is a moral values issue, too."

- Sojourners' Jim Wallis, at a town hall meeting yesterday in Columbus, Ohio

Replay: Kennedy's Ten Commandments of Good Corporate Citizenship

Replay: Kennedy's Ten Commandments of Good Corporate Citizenship

Here is a replay of a classic - Senator Ted Kennedy's challenge for Wal-Mart to abide by the Ten Commandments of Good Corporate Citizenship:

Thou shalt pay living wages.

Thou shalt provide affordable health care.

Thou shalt pay overtime.

Thou shalt not bust unions.

Thou shalt pay and promote women and men equally.

Thou shalt not discriminate against people of color.

Thou shalt not support sweatshops.

Thou shalt not violate child labor laws.

Thou shalt provide safe working conditions.

Thou shalt not dump toxic waste.

McCain and Feingold in Iraq

McCain and Feingold in Iraq

This is not exactly a bedtime story you want to tell your children about the good news coming from Iraq.

Their visit came as more violence was reported across Iraq, including a terrifying incident earlier in the week in the western city of Ramadi. On Wednesday, armed insurgents burst into the classroom of Khidhir al-Mihallawi, an English teacher at Sajariyah High School, accused him of being an agent for the CIA and Israeli intelligence and beheaded him in front of his students, according to students, fellow instructors and a physician at a local hospital.

One teacher, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because he feared retaliation from insurgents, said that most students ran from the classroom but that some stayed to watch. Many stopped coming to school after the incident, he said. Another teacher, who said he moved his mathematics class to his home to accommodate frightened students, said Mihallawi had earlier been threatened because he worked as a translator for U.S. forces in Ramadi, a hotbed of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

Mihallawi "looked at us just like he was telling us that we do not have to be scared. Even as we were running out of the door, his looks were still telling us that nothing will happen and we do not have to be scared," said a student, whose father asked that his name not be used. "I heard him screaming for a few seconds, then stop screaming."

The father said his son has had trouble sleeping since the incident. "He always has nightmares and he always wakes up screaming and shaking, talking in his dreams," he said.

At a press conference in Iraq, Russ Feingold said he believed "a large [U.S.] troop presence has a tendency to fuel the insurgency because they can make the incorrect and unfair claim that the U.S. is here to occupy the country."

"I think that it's very possible that the sectarian differences are inflamed by the fact that U.S. troops are here," he continued, adding that their long-term presence "may well be destabilizing, not stabilizing."

John McCain put in his two cents worth:

"I believe that premature troop withdrawal is not in consonance with what's going on the ground."

I am of the opinion that McCain's statement was not in consonance with reality. Americans are tiring of politicians who won't talk about the realities that everyone can clearly see. It reminds me of Bush scolding the press for reporting the truth when we all know that over 100 journalists who have wandered around sniffing for "good news" have been kidnapped, shot, or beheaded.

It's time for a plan to bring our troops home.

Wouldn't This Be News?

Wouldn't This Be News?

John Nichols of The Nation writes:

In January, 2004, when the Des Moines Register made an unexpected endorsement of John Edwards as the best presidential pick for participants in Iowa's Democratic Caucuses, it was national news. The Register, an extremely influential newspaper because of its wide circulation in a relatively small state, shook up the Democratic dance card. The Register's editors found themselves being interviewed on national television and radio programs, as political writers for daily newspapers across the country stumbled over themselves to assess the significance of this particularly influential newspaper's endorsement of a still relatively unknown senator. As it turned out, the attention to the endorsement was merited, as Edwards himself acknowledged that his strong second place finish in the caucuses owed much to the boost he got from one of Middle America's most historically powerful and respected publications.

So what would happen if the same newspaper were to come out this year with a strong editorial calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq? And what if that editorial represented a reversal of the newspaper's previous "stay-the-course position?

Would that be news?

Set timetable to leave Iraq
Des Moines Register Editorial Board

Matthews on Imus

Matthews on Imus

Listen to MSNBC's Chris Matthews conversing with Don Imus on March 24th (about 19 minutes long). He speaks of his disgust with Bush and Cheney's misleadings on Iraq. He's a lot more candid here than on Hardball.

Mr. Matthews says that a winning Democrat for 2008 will have to learn to "whack the other side with a chuckle." (Alec Balwin-style). His bets are on Hillary Clinton and John Edwards on the Democratic side, saying that Hillary has a way to go to learn how to be tough and charming at the same time. He calls John Edwards "a star".

*Tip of the hat to lib_dem at OAC.

Stuck in Iraq Mud, U.S. Lost Track of Iran

Stuck in Iraq Mud, U.S. Lost Track of Iran

There is a damning article in the Jerusalem Post about the lateness in the day to spin gold from the shredded landscape and failed hopes in Iraq. I fear that our President, with his series of misjudgements and misleadings, has made a mess of things - and to be honest, I am genuinely afraid of what his administration will do from here. I know I am not alone.

My hope is that President Bush will root out the failure from his administration and show America and the world that he recognizes how seriously astray we've gone by taking our eyes off nuclear proliferation while we took pre-emptive action against a nation with no 9/11 connection - - a nation we understood so little about.

Excerpt:

The world marked the third anniversary this week of the US's invasion of Iraq and the day columns of tanks entered Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.

But once triumphed as the beginning of a new world order, the invasion may have had the opposite effect, former senior Israeli officials said Monday.

Backing Dayan's concern regarding America's ability to act against Iran while stuck in Iraqi mud, Prof. Uzi Arad - a former Mossad official and the founding head of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya - said Israel was also at fault for the US's wrong list of priorities.

While America originally thought the war in Iraq would empower it to deal with Iran, it in fact had the opposite effect, Arad said. Israel, he added, also had high hopes for the war in Iraq but all of those had similarly disappeared.

"Israel hoped Iraq would turn pro-Western, would prosper and would become another country that supported peace with Israel," said Arad, who also served as foreign policy adviser to former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. "We thought it [the war] would be able to serve as an example of what democratization can do in the Middle East."

Israel and the US, Arad said, were "caught up in a wrong set of priorities" and instead of invading Iraq and disengaging from the Gaza Strip, the countries should have invested their efforts in curbing Iran's race for nuclear power.

"There is no reason why Iran could not have been referred to the United Nations Security Council a year or two ago before it was at the stage of enriching its uranium like it is now," he said

Zinn: Uninformed Americans Are Vulnerable to Government Deception

Zinn: Uninformed Americans Are Vulnerable to Government Deception

Howard Zinn asks: How could anyone listening to the younger Bush believe him as he laid out the reasons for invading Iraq?

Chertoff Says Arab-State Controlled US Ports would be "Safer"

Chertoff Says Arab-State Controlled US Ports would be "Safer"

This is rich. Our Homeland Security chief says we would have been SAFER with the UAE government controlling our ports.

Only a complete idiot would fail to understand that comments like this are political poison while we're at war in Afghanistan and Iraq and because of our lack of control of security in either theater. While there is any risk of regional war in the Middle East, comments like Chertoff's are going to make American citizens extremely non-confident in his commitment to protecting the Homeland.

GOP: From Rubber Stamp to Lost in the Woods

GOP: From Rubber Stamp to Lost in the Woods

David Brooks on Republicans:

If you wanted to put these changes in a nutshell, you'd say the Republicans have gone from soaring Bushian universalism to nervous, dumbed-down Huntingtonism.

More like "Rubber Stamp" to "Lost in The Woods".

Republicans have lost their moral compass (and the one they were using had been defective for some time).

I have this idea for a commercial to define these Republicans. Imagine, if you would, a campaign ad with a cute little animated cartoon Rubber Stamp with arms and legs - walking along holding hands with a cartoon version of President Bush.

Suddenly the (political) wind blows a cloud toward them, and as the cloud gets closer, you see it is chock-filled with terrible Bush approval ratings. The cute little Rubber Stamp looks at the cloud, then at Bush as if he's a monster - and pulls away from him - screaming.

Maybe a slogan or song will pop up, such as these lines sung to the tune of the children's song Itsy Bitsy Spider -

Down came the polls and washed way the ink
Now the Rubber Stamp Republicans will have to learn to think..

David Brooks:

"Today, many Republicans have lost patience with Bush's high-minded creedal statements."

Earth To David Brooks. We're tiring of your gullibility. You seem to be one of the few who hasn't quite figured out that Bush is a broken record.

Semantics is .. only important for those who just want people not to talk about the facts, but rather prefer them lost in translations: translation of human drama into body counts, translation of daily killings into ‘war concepts’, translation of truth into lies.
- Frank Biancheri

Oglala Sioux Woman to Challenge S.D. on Abortion

Oglala Sioux Woman to Challenge S.D. on Abortion

The news is spreading like wildfire. When South Dakota moved to outlaw abortion, I'd had many diiscussions with fellow bloggers about my hunch: the Native Americans would challenge South Dakota's law by opening up opportunities for women's freedom to choose on their reservations. It looks like it's happening.

[Indianz.com]The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, was incensed. A former nurse and healthcare giver she was very angry that a state body made up mostly of white males, would make such a stupid law against women.

“To me, it is now a question of sovereignty,” she said to me last week. “I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.”

Strong words from a very strong lady. I hope Ms. Fire Thunder challenges Gov. Rounds and the state legislators on this law that is an affront to all independent women."

Blogger Kathryn called Ms. Fire Thunder of the Oglala Sioux and got permission to post her e-mail address and other information.

Amanda Marcotte has a thoughtful post at Pandagon.
Mustang Bobby has expressed his support.
PZ Myers suggests: How about if we give South Dakota to the Oglala Sioux?

Note: The Oglala Sioux have a rich history in America. See this post, which includes a discussion of some of that history.

Catching Up

Catching Up

Sorry I haven't posted a lot this week. I was hit by the flu late last week and it wiped me out!

Here's some things I've been writing about:

US Ready to Talk with Iran on Iraq - [One America] )

The Iraq War on its Third Anniversary - [One America]

Raising the Federal Minimum Wage - The Myths vs. The Realities - [One America]

Nir Rosen: Witness to Iraq

Nir Rosen: Witness to Iraq

If you do nothing else today and you wish to know what is happening on the ground in Iraq from an unembedded reporter, please read Nir Rosen. [cached version]

Don't bother with Stephen Hayes. As usual, he's feeding the right bloggers a steaming bowl of shite and I'm sure they'll swallow it whole.

All My Children

All My Children

Dedicated to my own Mom

My son, my nieces...they are such an important part of my life.


We take them on long journeys.



They seem so small - and suddenly we realize how tall they've grown while we weren't paying attention.


Next thing you know, your little guy's meeting the President of the United States.


..and he's attending the Presidential inauguration (2005).


We remember the days when they weren't so big - and sometimes wish we could keep them that way.


When they still believed in the Easter Bunny and fairies.


When they could have fun simply by using their imagination...dreaming..


As caring parents, we attend every school sporting and music event. We mark every educational achievement.


As they grow and face a sometimes chaotic world, we hope they never forget the value of solitude and the sunshine on their face.


My favorite Christmas gift from last year.


I had to add this last photo - it's priceless. My niece (in the background) is taking great joy from the fact that she teased her baby sister. She has this cute (evil) smile on her face.

President Bush Gives Volunteer Award to Msgr. Champlin

President Bush Gives Volunteer Award to Msgr. Champlin
Congratulations to Monsignor Joseph Champlin, who received the President's Volunteer Service Award directly from President Bush yesterday when the President visited Canandaigua, N.Y. The Monsignor is being recognized for founding the Guardian Angel Society in 1997, helping to raise nearly $2 million for tuition assistance and technology updates at the Cathedral school here in Syracuse, NY. The Cathedral school has 100 kids, 20 percent of them Catholic, a majority African-American and 75 percent below poverty-level income. The Guardian Angel Society also supports ongoing education for graduates and a community mentoring program.

I have a special place in my heart for Father Champlin, not only for being one of the most inspirational priests I've ever known, but also because he baptized my son. While he was at Cathedral, he invite the Ecumenical group with whom I sing to perform at least once a year.

He has run every year in the Camillus Veterans Memorial 5k Run, which traditionally kicks off our annual Memorial Day parade. A gifted writer, he has penned many books about Catholicism and sprituality. He has struggled with bone marrow cancer, diagnosed with a rare form of the disease in 2002. He wrote a book titled From Time to Eternity and Back: A Priest's Successful Struggle with Cancer. My own mother read and was comforted by the book in her last days in her own battle with cancer. One of my favorite books by Father Champlin is Slow Down, which is a book of five-minute meditations on God and spirituality. (Read a sample - "Blessings in Burdens" - pdf file)

There's a very good article about Father Champlin at the Syracuse New Times.

Father Joe - I am so very happy for you! Congratulations.

Jay Rosen on Newspaper Blogging

Jay Rosen on Newspaper Blogging

Jay Rosen has a new blogpost on newspaper blogging.
See: The Six Degrees of Newspaper Blogging and Why the Guardian is Ahead. [Huffington Post]

See Press Think's Blue Plate Special feature by Briana Mowrey on John Robinson, editor of the News & Record in Greensboro, NC.

The Democrats' Biggest Mistake

The Democrats' Biggest Mistake

At Shadow of the Hegemon, there's a quote from Adam Cohen's recent NYT article about the political power of bloggers:

With very few exceptions, national Democrats in Washington see the blogosphere as composed of uninformed, ranting, dirty masses who need to be kept as far away as possible.

The Democrats are missing the boat with this kind of snobbery. After Howard Dean raised millions of dollars from internet campaigning, they should know better. And I imagine they haven't seen the Wesley Clark grassroots website. During the 2004 campaign, John Kerry had an excellent blogging website.

Former Senator and 2004 VP candidate John Edwards has most recently harnessed some very informed and persuasive citizen-bloggers at the new One America Committee blog. By the time 2008 rolls around, some of these national Democrats, much too late, will realize the organizing power of the netroots and likely won't know what the hell hit them. I would hope, by the sheer power of the ideas laid out by the bloggers at the new Edwards blog, that mainstream media will take notice and offer respectful commentary. If I may offer a personal example of mainstream media giving more credibility to bloggers than some representatives from my own party, my city's newspaper asked me to blog politics at their own website over two years ago. [The Rational Liberal]

Are national Democrats missing a very important boat?

We bloggers don't sit out here and do this work for free because we have ulterior motives or unwashed intentions. Most of us, I'd wager, by the gift of a lot more free time, are more informed by our own conscience and our own choice of reading material than many of our elected representatives. It would behoove them to listen to what's happening out here.

In politics, elitism will get the Democrats nowhere - ever. It turns people off. It may make them popular with pseudo-intellectuals, but there are a lot of concerned and very-much informed common-sense people out here who knew - in 2003, for example, that the Iraq War was an unjust, dangerous, futile, and chaotic mess just waiting to happen.

The Republicans are much better at this game. National Republicans have understood the power that exists on the netroots level, especially when given wings by the support of the national party. They derive much power from acknowledging the credibility of the concerns of their constitiuents. National Republicans have invested in RedState.org, a popular site for Republican citizens to discuss the issues of the day, and you'd be hard-pressed to see Republican leaders laying waste to the intelligence levels of the citizens who care enough to discuss the issues there.

See a further discussion at Crooks and Liars.

Feingold Censure: Will Democrats Stand For Law Breaking?

Feingold Censure: Will Democrats Stand For Law Breaking?

George Clooney is swearing about meek Democrats. (see "I am A Liberal - There, I Said It!" - and great, but what took you so long, George?) Update: [Sheesh - Clooney didn't even write it as presented on HuffPo.]

Molly Ivins is cussing about them too.

Senator Russ Feingold gave Bush a much-needed "what for" yesterday, offering his resolution for censure of Bush on the NSA wiretapping issue.

I suspect that Clooney and Ivins will be disgusted to learn that the Democratic establishment fears the party may appear "extremist" because of Senator Feingold's resolution. If they back away from Senator Feingold now, they'll look like people with no conviction or willingness to protect the People they have sworn to represent. The idea of our President deciding that it's perfectly fine to ignore any standing law and cover his ass later on - and getting away with it time after time - is a frightening thought for those who carefully tend the gardens of democracy.

Senator Feingold is one of those careful garden-tenders. I think that he made a world of common sense yesterday. He made his case strongly, making it clear that the President broke the law - plain and simple. Bush has a pattern of breaking the law, then having his administration and rubber-stamper Republicans fold in behind him to stare down his crevasse of lies and come up with a new law to fill in the deep cracks. That is absolutely anti-American and Senator Feingold was correct in his final lines about the terrorists winning if we allow anyone - even a President - to break the law.

Americans are shaky on Bush. We don't "just trust him." He's f**ked up on Iraq after rushing headlong into it and lying us into it. He's been caught covering for his errors so many times that his lack of humility, forthrightness, and truth-telling doesn't even shock us like it used to. If we lived in a nation of dolts, we would likely be happy to have Bush as our Dolt King. But we're not dolts - and we know what the king of the dolts has done.

When the shock wears off and you get used to your President saying "Screw you, I'm President" to the rule of law one too many times, you know it's time to censure the man. He's not a King. We have a system of government that has not changed in over 200 years. Bush is a deviant and it must be pointed out.

Russ Feingold knows it. Why don't his Democratic colleagues? Their shying away from the Censure is just as dishonest, to my way of thinking, as George W. Bush when he fails to account for his law-breaking. I thought the Democrats showed extreme cowardice when they backed away from Senator Feingold on his concerns about the Patriot Act. When the Democrats decide to go numb to please the mainstream media, they will also have a numbing effect on people who are looking for ethical and rule-abiding leaders. If they believe they are scoring points with moderate voters by abandoning what is right and just, they are sadly mistaken. They lose much respect from American citizens every time they fail to take a unified stand.

You've got lobbyist-pampered Republicans like Sallie Mae's favorite puppet John Boehner calling Senator Feingold's words on the Senate floor yesterday "political grandstanding of the very worst kind." Senator Feingold doesn't strike most Americans that way. I believe that most people in tune with politics see Senator Feingold as a fairly quiet person of reason and common sense, which is why so many ears perk up when he gets up to speak.

For those Americans who are not in tune with politics, they heard next to nothing about Senator Feingold's Resolution on the nightly news last night. Will Democrats leave Senator Feingold swinging in the breeze again? If that's what they have decided, my respect for them as individuals have dropped down the shaft.

Give us an ethical, moral, principled leader who not only can create a spirit of unity in the party, but will stand by his or her convictions with humble demeanor and firm, convincing reason - along with a swift readiness and ability to defend him/herself from the daggers of political attacks. As things stand today, I'm wondering if there is one Democrat in all of Washington, D.C. that I would stand behind with the utmost confidence that they were that kind of leader.

Looking into the halls of D.C., Russ Feingold is about as close as it comes.

And I'm no extremist.

______

UPDATE: Senator Feingold Calls Silent Democrats Cowards [Think Progress]


Anonymoses predicts that "Censure parties" will erupt around the world.

Carte Blanche parties can spring up all over Jesusland, and the money can be used to stuff into the mouths of Chris Matthews and Rush Limbaugh.

Screwy Hoolie has a simple task for you to complete:

If we don't stand up for our Constitutional values, then no one else will. Russ Feingold is doing what we asked. Now it's our turn to take part in our democracy. As we're seeing with the plan to sell off our National Forests, public pressure can turn the most hard-hearted conservatives into servants of the progressive movement. Go ahead and make the call or write the letter. Then tell your friends to do the same.

Just keep banging away at them until they buckle, Senator Feingold. Scrutiny Hooligans salute you.

Iddybud salutes you, too, Senator Feingold.

Here's an easy way to let your Representatives know. While most politicians sat back and weighed the political pros and cons of holding the president accountable, Senator Feingold stuck his neck out and did it. Now it's up to us to show broad public support. Can you sign this MoveOn.org petition asking Congress to join the call for censure?

Chile Elects First Female President

Chile Elects First Female President


Meet Michelle Bachelet, Chile's new President.

In what is being viewed as a major change in the existing social scenario in Chile, one of Latin America’s most conservative nations, appointed its first ever woman president. In this remarkably progressive step, socialist, Michelle Bachelet, who was in political exile and an ex-prisoner of the military dictatorship, was sworn in Saturday as Chile’s first female president on Saturday in the country’s coastal city of Valparaiso which is home to the congress. The ceremony was attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice along with other luminaries from as many as 120 different countries. - [24X7Updates]

Adam Cohen's advice for Netroots

Adam Cohen's advice for Netroots

Adam Cohen has an idea for netroots insiders. [NY Times]

The Democratic establishment could not hold the netroots back even if it wanted to. Their ability to raise money, recruit volunteers and shape the debate will make them indispensable. What "Crashing the Gates" is short on is policy: ideas for providing health care, improving education, and all the other things that make it important which party wins. As the gates swing open, that should be the next item on the agenda.

I couldn't help but wonder, as I read Mr. Cohen's article, what Jerome Armstrong - who is founder of myDD.com and an adviser to the political action committee for Mark Warner - must be thinking about Molly Ivins' trashing of former Virginia governor's candidacy. [All on the same day that Warner is showcased as an "anti-Hillary" in the NY Times' magazine].

John Edwards News & Observer Interview

Senator John Edwards, considered a prospective candidate for president in 2008, recently spoke with News & Observer [Raleigh/Durham] editor Jane Ruffin.

Because I Can - (Tar Heel Tavern)

Because I Can..(Tar Heel Tavern)
This entry has been made especially for Billy the Blogging Poet's Tar Heel Tavern edition.

I play with my cell phone camera on a lazy Saturday afternoon - just because I can.

Check out my Republican and Democrat Beanie Babies. Note that in MY office, the Democrat always shows dominance over the Republican.



I can take a photo of my latest hair cut.



I'm cat blogging because I can. I know it's cheesy, but I've placed my Eliot Spitzer 2006 sign in a strategically noticeable place.



I took a walk through my village, then a ride through the surrounding countryside.



The photo directly above, on the right, is a Ukranian Orthodox church, which springs up majestically from the hills as you're driving along.




Syracuse University is playing Pitt this evening, and my friendly neighborhood Inn is expecting a big crowd for the game.



The photo below is of the Erie Canal, which is within easy walking distance of my home.



The upstate New York countryside..




When I say I am an American, I mean I come from a long line of Americans. My great grandmother Isabell was born in 1780. Think about that. She was an infant during the American Revolution when the Battle of Yorktown was being fought in 1781...before the signing of the US Constitution. She lived right here in Camillus where I live today. Isabell is buried in a very quiet, tiny country cemetary about 3 miles from where I am now living. I visit her often. Her husband John, my great-grandfather, was the son of a patriot - a Revolutionary War soldier. You can see my image as I'm taking a photo of Isabell's stone. It says:

Isabell
Wife of John Pelton
Died February 16, 1840
Age 60 years

I'll end with the moon - and I bid you a Goodnight.

SD State Senator Napoli - Abortion OK for 'Pious' Virgins

SD State Senator Napoli - Abortion OK for 'Pious' Virgins
Misogyny Rears its Head With Outlawing of Abortion
Dear God, Do They Really Think That Way?

I've seen some mocking of South Dakota state legislator Bill Napoli's statement on the PBS Newshour regarding the way an unwanted pregnancy can "threaten" the life of a young religious virgin woman. [Napoli had supported exemptions for cases of rape or incest to the state's abortion ban.]

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

Let's take a step or two further, for the sake of humanity vs. gender-stereotypical religious triumphalism. Values are values. Life is life.

I didn't have to investigate to know which religious platform Napoli was speaking from. As a Catholic myself, I immediately recognized Napoli's rhetoric as "Catholicspeak." What if the virgin was a Muslim? A Wiccan? A Buddhist?

If Napoli can see how a young woman's life is "threatened" when she suddenly realizes she has an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy to deal with, then Bill Napoli is admitting that there are lives ruined and he's admitting that deep emotional scars are left behind because of the pregnancy rather than the abortion. And he's right. If he came out of his triumphalist shell, he might understand how forcing a young woman to endure an unwanted pregnancy, brought about by any means, can shatter her life's plans and/or contribute to mental illness and the suicide rate.

Napoli is dead wrong in saying that any young woman who isn't a regular Christian church-goer, and who gets raped, deserves to have her life "threatened." That is an extremely ignorant, misogynistic, and dangerous way to think. It's saying that it's okay to rape and impregnate a non-virgin because she's a dirty whore. Rapists: stay away from the church-goin' gals - grab yourself a filthy slut and South Dakota will make you s Daddy.

As the aunt of five beautiful young nieces, now children, I cringe at the thought of them growing up in today's South Dakota. Our young women need to grow up with a sense of pride, freedom, equality, respect, and dignity without the men (or women) in their government making rules about who is "decent" and who is not when it comes to their intimate choices. For all the GOP negative talk about "socialism," they become complete hypocrites by making the choices for our young women that they should be making themselves. We parents raise our girls the way we think they should go and the option to worship or not to participate in religion is completely up to the individual. If freedom of conscience is respected, as our forefathers have prescribed, government has no right to judge who is eligible for a safe, legal abortion and who is not.

If SD State Senator Bill Napoli's narrow-valued religious triumphalism had ruled the day, allowing exemptions for only freshly raped, impregnated "religious virgins" to obtain abortions in South Dakota, I guarantee you'd see a hell of a lot more rape charges going up against young South Dakota men and a lot more pregnant girls claiming to be "pious." Let's not push our young generation into this kind of false faith, fear, and judgement. It's ugly. It's apparent that misogyny has existed perenially in South Dakota. It's all rearing its ugly head once again. The abortion ban is betraying religious bigotry and public leaders are promoting a gross misunderstanding of mental illness. What a shameful step backward for women in America and their freedom of conscience.

Note: South Dakota lawmakers have rejected the idea of allowing any exemptions for cases of rape or incest to the state's abortion ban, leaving all South Dakota women subject to misogyny and disregard for their freedom and conscience. In essence, Bill Napoli, in his own way, made an admission that women are emotionally scarred by unwanted pregnancy. If I was a mother of a young man OR woman living in South Dakota today, I'd move out of that state to ensure that my children lived in an environment of the spirit of the freedom that our Founding Fathers intended for them. South Dakota will not get my tourism dollars and I will not do business with any South Dakota firms while this draconian law remains on their books.

American Street's Kevin Hayden says that South Dakota’s "sex nazis" deserve their own country. I couldn't say it any better.

Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

From the One America Committee:
Let's raise the federal minimum wage!

Raising the minimum wage would be a major victory in the fight against poverty, and it could spearhead other much-needed reforms that together could make widespread poverty a thing of the past. So please, co-sign Senator Kennedy’s proposal to raise the minimum wage, and tell your friends and family to do the same.

Is Bill Giving Hillary Bad Advice?

Is Bill Giving Hillary Bad Advice?

It sounds to me as if Bill Clinton may be giving his wife some bum advice on "the strong thing."

A "strong woman," to me, means being a woman of realistic conviction as well as being a woman who is a trustworthy, capable, and job-worthy Commander in Chief. Of course, conviction is subjective. If a woman, from where we stand today, expresses the conviction that we need to stay in Iraq one nanosecond longer than we should while holding to the conviction that her vote on the Iraq War Resolution was valuable, it is the kind of conviction that would drive the majority of Americans away from her at the voting booth. Let's be blunt. One look at the public polls will show any intelligent person that the American public thinks the Iraq War was not worth the fuss, the death, or the treasure. When 70 percent of Republicans believe civil war will break out in Iraq, you know that cold reality is hitting the frying pan and splattering the burning grease of truth onto the lap of Washington D.C.

Hillary needs a new recipe.

72% Troops in Iraq: End War in 2006

72% Troops in Iraq: End War in 2006

A new Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay “as long as they are needed.” The survey included 944 military respondents interviewed at several undisclosed locations throughout Iraq. It was conducted in conjunction with Le Moyne College's Center for Peace and Global Studies.

While 89% of reserves and 82% of those in the National Guard said the U.S. should leave Iraq within a year, 58% of Marines think so. Seven in ten of those in the regular Army thought the U.S. should leave Iraq in the next year. Moreover, about three-quarters of those in National Guard and Reserve units favor withdrawal within six months, just 15% of Marines felt that way. About half of those in the regular Army favored withdrawal from Iraq in the next six months.

The troops have drawn different conclusions about fellow citizens back home. Asked why they think some Americans favor rapid U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, 37% of troops serving there said those Americans are unpatriotic.

Almost 90% think the Iraq war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, and most don’t blame the Iraqi public for insurgent attacks. The continuing insurgent attacks have not turned U.S. troops against the Iraqi population, the survey shows. More than 80% said they did not hold a negative view of Iraqis because of those attacks. However, less than a third think that if non-Iraqi terrorists could be prevented from crossing the border into Iraq, the insurgency would end.

My first impression is that, if 90% of those interviewed believe that Saddam Hussein actually had a role in 9/11 (a myth of which no reputable journalist has ever found proof), then it's no wonder that 37% of them would think it's "unpatriotic" for any of us here at home to demand a troop withdrawl. I hate to say this, but it seems that they are relying on false information, and I wonder who's feeding it to them over there. Is it Rush Limbaugh, the lying gasbag they hear in Iraq on American Forces Radio?

A BIT OF RECENT HISTORY REGARDING AMERICAN FORCES RADIO:

[See Media Matters' petition to have the Limbaugh propaganda removed]

[See Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's statement where he took issue with the fact that there was no commentary on the American Forces Radio service that would even begin to balance the extreme right-wing views that Rush Limbaugh routinely expresses on his program.]

[Last October, New York Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter called for an Inspector General investigation into the partisan bias of AFN programming.]

[See where American Forces Radio Network (AFRN), after plans to air Ed Schultz' progressive talk radio program were scrapped by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber, the "coach" of the now-infamous staged, scripted satellite feed featuring President Bush and troops in Iraq.]

[Blogger Brian Maloney has called the AFN Schultz shunning by the Department of Defense a "phony scenario" - but here we are four months later and is Schultz' voice is anywhere to be found in Iraq? The jury is still out on that one. American Forces Radio began airing “The Ed Schultz Show,” nearly two months after the controversial host was originally scheduled to hit the airwaves. Last December, the first hour of Schultz’s daily show, along with the first hour of the Al Franken radio show and the Sean Hannity show, was broadcast Monday through Friday over the network’s Voice Channel. HOWEVER (and here's the kick in the ass) - not everyone is able to hear the new shows.]

[Last January, the DOD news site wrote about a survey being conducted asking questions of 10,000 service members and Department of Defense civilian employees overseas to determine what they're looking for in radio programming provided by American Forces Network.]

Limbaugh has had the clear propaganda advantage in Iraq. He has made significant inroads into the minds of many of these soldiers, bombarding them with irresponsible misinformation for over the past three years. Let's face it - by the time this DOD survey about radio preference is completed, the troops will probably be home from Iraq - because regardless of what they think about their AFN radio service, 72% have stated, loud and clear, that they think it's time to draw down.

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Related: A post by John Zogby. [Huffington Post]