"99 percent" - TONY B. CONSCIOUS

Robert C. Byrd Spoke With Clarity Through Fog of Post-9/11 Days

"Truth has a way of asserting itself
despite all attempts to obscure it."
~ Senator Robert C. Byrd

Senator Robert C. Byrd was one of my heroes in the dark days of post 9/11 Bush-led America. I chronicled his words as I blogged from day to day at Iddybud. I'm sad to hear he has passed away and wanted to share some of the lines of his that I heard clearly when so many of my leaders seemed to be speaking in vague, cowed whispers. Senator Byrd gave us far more than whispers. Thank you, Senator Byrd. May you rest in peace.



From "We Stand Passively Mute" - by US Senator Robert Byrd - Senate Floor Remarks on February 12, 2003:

"..To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war. Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war..."

"...war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highest moral traditions of our country"..."



From The Truth Will Emerge - by US Senator Robert Byrd, Senate Floor Remarks - May 21, 2003:

"'Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, - -
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers.'

"...Was the American public deliberately misled? Was the world?"

"...Democracy and Freedom cannot be force fed at the point of an occupier's gun. To think otherwise is folly. One has to stop and ponder. How could we have been so impossibly naive?"

"..I contend that, through it all, the people know. The American people unfortunately are used to political shading, spin, and the usual chicanery they hear from public officials. They patiently tolerate it up to a point. But there is a line. It may seem to be drawn in invisible ink for a time, but eventually it will appear in dark colors, tinged with anger. When it comes to shedding American blood - - when it comes to wreaking havoc on civilians, on innocent men, women, and children, callous dissembling is not acceptable. Nothing is worth that kind of lie - - not oil, not revenge, not reelection, not somebody's grand pipedream of a democratic domino theory.

And mark my words, the calculated intimidation which we see so often of late by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall."


From "The Road to Coverup is the Road to Ruin" by Sen. Robert C. Byrd - US Senate Floor Remarks - June 24, 2003

My Note - Senator Byrd had a way with words. I loved the use of the word "massaged" in this part of Senator Byrd's speech. It was quite colorful. [Iddybud blog]

"..Whether or not intelligence reports were bent, stretched, or massaged to make Iraq look like an imminent threat to the United States, it is clear that the Administration's rhetoric played upon the well-founded fear of the American public about future acts of terrorism. But, upon close examination, many of these statements have nothing to do with intelligence, because they are at root just sound bites based on conjecture. They are designed to prey on public fear."


From A Nation with Questions - by Robert C. Byrd, September 29, 2003

"..The Bush Administration's single-minded focus on Iraq has ignored, in large respect, the terrorist threat that produced the attack of September 11, 2001."



From The Emperor Has No Clothes by US Senator Robert Byrd - Senate Floor Remarks on October 17, 2003:

"...the time has come for the sheep-like political correctness which has cowed members of this Senate to come to an end."



From - Senator Robert C. Byrd's remarks, delivered in the Senate on April 17, 2007:


"...I was quite surprised recently to hear some Senators take the position that this body is wasting its time in drafting and passing legislation which the president threatens to veto. Let me remind all who listen that the Congress legislates for the people, and has a Constitutional obligation to act independently from the White House. As Senators already know, there are three separate but equal branches of government.

The Constitution's Framers never considered a president to be the final arbiter of the public good. Whether the question relates to military, foreign, or domestic affairs a presidential veto threat is not the last word in what should become the law of our land. Those decisions are left to the representatives of the people, along with the power over the purse and other Constitutionally enumerated congressional powers.."

"Let the President issue his veto threats, but also let the Congress dutifully represent the will of the people."

"Members of Congress are elected to make laws based on sound public policy, not to capitulate to presidential threats. The Senate must never become a rubberstamp for any president."

"...members of Congress and officials of the Executive Branch have a duty to try to find common ground, especially when the issue is a violent and controversial war, with our troops in harms way every day. I shall hope for a more reasonable and more realistic tone from our President in the coming days. More light and less heat on this matter would truly be in the best interests of our troops and of our sorely divided country."



From Unprepared for Peace in Iraq - By Robert C. Byrd
Thursday, January 15, 2009 [Washington Post]: Also posted at: [Iddybud blog]

"...A hallmark of true leadership is the ability to admit when one is wrong and to learn from errors. Candidate George W. Bush spoke about the need for humility from a great and powerful nation. He said, "Let us reject the blinders of isolationism, just as we refuse the crown of empire. Let us not dominate others with our power -- or betray them with our indifference. And let us have an American foreign policy that reflects American character. The modesty of true strength. The humility of real greatness." It is time for the Bush administration to swallow its false pride and return to that philosophy of humility before it is too late."

Remember Iddybud Journal

VISIT ME

I'm Moving - Please Come and Visit

I'm Moving - Come and Visit

I've been told by many that this site took too long to load. I'd regret to think I'd drive readers away with a painfully slow site.

I'm in the process of moving my content over to my new Beta Blogger site.

Please come on over to
IDDYBUD JOURNAL.

Your comments about my new site would be welcome and appreciated.

Add me to your links: http://iddybudjournal.blogspot.com/


Thanks!

- Jude

Sen. Kerry Should Apologize

Sen. Kerry Should Apologize

In 2004, I can't tell you how frustrated I became - more and more by the day - by Senator Kerry's slowness to tap into the pulse of the people. My blog was filled with advice to Senator Kerry to speak out on the Iraq war with force and convincing reason - and to defend himself against the Swift Boat political operatives.

This time, I'm afraid it doesn't matter what his intent was in making that lame joke. He can try to defend it 'til the cows come home and the stupid (but unstoppable) media machinery gears will keep on rolling right over him until he offers a heartfelt apology.

Listening to his rationalizing about his unfortunate choice of words, refusing to apologize, I could imagine many people out there seeing him as

- still angry having lost the election with the knowledge that he lost, in good part, because he would not speak out strongly and early enough on the Bush-made miserable mess that was (and still is) the Iraq war. Politically, I think that it's too late for him to grouse about it now.

- just as stubborn as Bush when he's wrong.

- for many who could not afford college for themselves or their kids, his arrogance probably made them see him as an elite bumbler who wouldn't know a poor, struggling person if he stepped on one.

- for military families, sadness to see the 2004 Democratic candidate make a joke against Bush at their families' expense. I'm sure they never expected someone like Kerry [for whom many say they voted in 2004 Dem primaries because of his "gravitas"] to do something like that.

He needs to apologize and clarify. My hope is that, if he can create a speech that includes an apology - and then if he can proceed to focus on the real issue at hand, which is underhanded and institutionalized methods of military recruitment of our youth at a time when a Bush-administration-generated abuse of the military may cause the military to be weakened a la "shake and bake" [aka conscription, which is fatal to military performance and unsettling to politics], then perhaps we can really get somewhere. Kerry is an expert, unfortunately, at being in a seemingly endless war where the enemy is invisible and the goals are not clearly delineated and the military is demoralized. He could turn this media hype around to America's advantage - and I hope he can and will do so.





By the way, there could not have been a sicker or a more disrespectful joke made at the expense of our troops and their families than Bush making a JOKE of the absence of WMD in Iraq. I'm sure you remember his disgusting attempt at humor - a video of him groping around the oval office and under his desk looking for WMD. He never paid politically for that, and I wonder why Kerry would have to politically pay for something far less insulting?

Bill O'Reilly (from the woefully unbalanced Fox News network) has actually made a comment with which I agree:

"I don't believe John Kerry meant to demean any American military member. I just don't. I think that fair-minded people know that that would be political suicide for the senator. He wouldn't do it" ("O'Reilly Factor," 10/31). [source: National Journal]

You've got to love James Carville's snappy wit:

"It is much easier to say, I botched a joke, than to say, I botched a war."

Ask a Democratic politician seeking office on November 7th who's been to the Iraq war. Tammy Duckworth, a major in the Illinois Army National Guard who lost her legs in the Iraq war and is now the Democratic candidate for the open 6th District seat in Illinois, said had this to say:

“Nobody needs to tell me the quality of the men and women I served with in Iraq. I know....What our troops need isn’t more political rhetoric and either party playing games with this. What our troops need is a plan for how to get them out of Iraq safely, responsibly, while providing the Iraqis with the security forces that they need. If you really want to support the troops then let’s come up with a measurable plan for how to get out troops out of Iraq.”

Note to MSM: Enough with the Caviezel Jesus Thing!

Note to MSM: Enough with the Caviezel Jesus Thing!

If I hear one more reference made to Jesus Christ every time the MSM shows the actor Jim Caviezel in one of those anti-embryonic stem-cell research ads, I think I'll scream. On ABC Nightly News Sunday night, it happened again. They showed the ad and for the umpteenth time, I heard a news anchor say "That is the actor Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus....." Oy!

Get over it, MSM.
Jim Caviezel is not Jesus Christ the Savior, already!
He's an actor no one would recognize unless the MSM pulls out the Almighty-connection every time he shows up on the news.

Whats next? Will Caviezel show up on the next anti-Michael J. Fox ad with a robe and flowing hair and beard? Will he be walking on water?

Does playing Jesus qualify you as a holy spokesman? No more than playing Marty McFly makes you able to time-travel. Duh!!

Introducing The Sole of Africa Campaign

Introducing The Sole of Africa Campaign





A Message From Mike Kendrick; Founder of Mineseeker

Landmines kill, maim, terrify and starve the population. There are over 100 million landmines buried beneath the surface of this planet. Every twenty minutes a land mine kills or maims someone… usually women and children. They render over 800 thousand square kilometers of land useless and terrify millions of people who live in constant fear.The cost to human life is horrific and the economic effect is devastating. This is not an act of God, or a natural disaster - It is a man made disaster that is bigger, in terms of lives lost, than civil disruption and economic deprivation, including the Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina or the Pakistan earthquake.

Using current technology and strategies, it has been estimated that it could take up to 600 years to rid the planet of these devices. It takes a mine clearance operative one day to clear 40 sq meters. However, the Patrons of Mineseeker discovered a new technology that was available that could condense the removal of landmines to the next fifty years. This ground-penetrating radar, when carried on a stable aerial platform, can scan the ground at 100 meters per second. This technology, developed by the British MOD, has been licensed to Mineseeker for humanitarian de-mining. We deployed the system in ravaged Kosovo and tested it in live conditions. The results were spectacular. This system can fix the problem within our life time. While Mineseeker will liberate the designated landmine areas, it will not stop there. We have introduced the 'Sole of Africa' campaign to make sure that the land is used to grow crops, feed the local population and, most importantly, to empower the people. We intend to take the land and form a cooperative, dividing the land into small farm units.

This cooperative will teach the local population to, sow, grow, harvest and sell the produce. We have formed an association with leading not-for-profit organizations including 'Feed the Children' and The International Youth Foundation to provide a 'Foster Management' to create a workforce and training to farm the land and sustain the development of the land.

We have identified Mozambique and Angola as two areas of outstanding need and will concentrate on those areas until the project is completed. The 'Sole of Africa' logo is a poignant reminder of the job at hand, as it shows just one foot print: Most mine victims that survive only have one foot, so this shows a footprint in the earth… the earth we intend to release back to the people.


- Sole of Africa Homepage

- What is Mineseeker?

- The Sole of Africa blog

Press Releases

09.15.06: Stellar Cast is Joining The Sole of Africa Campaign

08.06.06: Mineseeker to supply new cost effective AIDs tests to Africa

07.07.06: Mineseeker delivers new limbs to Maputo amputees




AMA (Pty)
ANACIN
Artificial Limbs For All
Baron Stationary
Bell Pottinger
British Telecommunications
Charity Technology Trust
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Cisco Communications
Faubion Art
Feed The Children
Food 4 Africa
Fun Money Good Network
Giving Globally
Greenbox Productions SA
Habib Investments
Haines Watts Accountants
Heidi Baker's Iris Ministries
International Youth Foundation
Lele & Associates
Lightship Group
LLoyds TSB
Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Giving
Maputo Municipal Council
Mozambique National Demining Institute
Nelson Mandela Foundation
Nourish the Children
Pacific Institute
Paul Mitchell Hair Systems
Pulse 40
P.I.M.S.A (Pty)
Polana Serena Hotel Maputo
PR Traffic
Promenade Pictures
The ROK Corporation: The Rotarians
Salvation Army
Smart-Europe Ltd
1000 Angels
2GC Maputo
The United States Department of State for Defense
The United Nations
Trinity College Dublin
Virgin
Wace Morgan
World Trust Foundation

Novak Pretends to Know What Dems Are Thinking

Novak Pretends to Know What Dems Are Thinking
Opines on Race Rather than Individual Conscience to Make Baseless Predictions

Hopping on the bandwagon of the moment, conservative columnist Robert Novak buys into the latest hype over Barack Obama, thinking he has a finger on the pulse of how Democrats will vote in the 2008 primaries long before any potential candidate has even declared their intentions:

Neutral Democratic political operatives believe the emergence of Sen. Barack Obama as a 2008 presidential candidate after his performance on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' may do less damage to front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton than to John Edwards.

Former Sen. Edwards' campaign strategy is focused on the South Carolina primary, but Obama figures to do well with African-American voters comprising about 40 percent of that state's Democratic primary vote. Obama also could threaten Edwards in the tip-off Iowa caucuses, where polls have shown Edwards leading Clinton.

Note his cautious use of the modifiers "May" and "Could." He uses race - sheer race - to predict how individual South Carolinians will decide. He hasn't got a clue. He's certainly not a Democratic insider - not many Democrats will confide in him - especially after what he did to Valerie Plame and her husband Joseph Wilson IV.

I've seen no indication that the appreciation that Iowans clearly have for Senator Edwards has been negatively affected by the presence and emergence of other Democratic leaders. Novak has provided no new polls or other solid estimation of public opinion to back up his hot air.

Where's the beef, Mr. Novak?

Bill Kristol's Full of Baloney on Election 2006

Bill Kristol's Full of Baloney on Election 2006

If any Republican wins on November 7, it surely will not be because of the Bush Republicans' great leadership on the Iraq war. It will be because of local politics.

On today's Fox News Saunday panel, the neoconservative cult's favorite journalistic representative William Kristol extended his fantasy that the upcoming election is to be a referendum on whether America is committed to winning the war in Iraq or whether they're not committed to winning the war. I think you'd have to be insane, at this juncture, to believe that this ridiculously false choice is what the referendum on Iraq will boil down to.

Americans want their nation to have a good and strong international reputation, credibility, and successful outcomes in all the efforts the U.S. government responsibly carries out. The troubling thing to voters is the fact that we've lost our standing as the influential superpower we once were and that the preemptive attack on Iraq was entered into impulsivley and irresponsibly. The proof of it lies in the fact that, out of the ever-changing [20+] rationales handed to the American people about going into Iraq, not a one of them has ever emerged as clear, justified, or accurate. We've been abused by stovepiped, cherry-picked intelligence and intentional misleading. We've been partisan rubber-stamped and voo-dooed to death on the Iraq war.

So, maybe Mr. Kristol isn't too far off. Maybe this election will be about whether or not we want to "win" as a united nation of people who want America to succeed. It's going to take a change - not a change in semantics about Republican war propaganda, but a substantial change toward a regaining of the good faith in a nation that was once a superpower in every sense of the word - not just a brute force fighting blindly against an enemy we can't see with no clear plan for victory.

The film character Rambo comes to mind - begging the U.S. government to give him a war he could win. I'll bet he'd have a lot to say about the war that William Kristol was dreaming of [see PNAC] until his fairy tale came real with the worst President in U.S. history at the helm. Why does Mr. Kristol think so many 2006 GOP candidates are running away from any connection with Bush this season?



Rambo would oust the Bush Republicans on election day 2006.

My Online Encounter with Michael Schiavo

My Online Encounter with Michael Schiavo

You never know who you're going to get the opportunity to chat with when you belong to an online community.

Last July, Michael Schiavo bashed U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave at a campaign event for "inserting herself in the wrenching national debate" over the prolonged death of his wife, Terri Schiavo.

This week, Rep. Musgrave had authorities physically remove Mr. Schiavo from a public campaign rally, a long-practiced and extremely undemocratic George W. Bush tactic.

Musgrave could make a three ring circus out of Mr. Schiavo and his family, but she couldn't take public accountability for doing so. Instead, like a coward, she asked others to remove the man from her queen-like sight.

Who knew I'd get an opportunity to tell Mr. Schaivo directly that I'm sorry for what he had to go through - then and now -and that he would send an acknowledgment back?

That's precisely what happened yesterday at Daily Kos.

Seymour Hersh Keynotes at S.U. Nuclear Iran Symposium

Seymour Hersh Keynotes at S.U. Nuclear Iran Symposium


There was a symposium hosted by the Law School at Syracuse University on Friday where an esteemed and knowledgeable panel gathered to discuss why Iran wants to be a nuclear power; whether Iran has a legal right to become a nuclear power; the regional ramifications of such newly acquired technology; the U.S. policy of preemption; the capability of the U.S. military to take action against Iran; the extent to which the U.N. Charter would allow a U.S. preemptive strike, or military action by any country, in the absence of Security Council authorization; and the various actions that countries other than the U.S. might take in confronting a nuclear Iran.




Seymour Hersh was the keynote speaker at the afternoon session where, immediately after he spoke, there was a subsequent panel discussion about U.S. options titled: From Preemptive Military Action to Diplomacy and the Use of Sanctions. A hypothetical situation was proposed in which the U.S. and the global community learn that Iran has developed weapons-grade nuclear material, and panelists were asked to debate the range of legal and policy options that the U.S. has in confronting Iran.







The Next 815 Days

Mr. Hersh, whose article appear in the pages of the magazine The New Yorker, came to the podium with an admittedly anti-feel-good message. He began by stating the fact that there are 815 days left with President George W. Bush as president, and each day that passes is an opportrunity lost. In his words, "We have a real problem." Any plan to deal capably with a nation like Iran would have to:

- assume rationality in leadership
- assume the intelligence used has not been stovepiped or subject to manipulation
- assume good faith in leadership

The spectre of strategic disaster in Iraq overshadowed those assumptions. You could get a sense of near-complete acquiescence in that "connect" throughout Grant auditorium as Mr. Hersh stated his professional belief that, between 9/11 and the Iraq war, American leadership was taken over by what he called a "cult" of about 8 or 9 major players - all neoconservatives. He asked what happened to Congress; to our military; and to the U.S. press in those days between 9/11 and Iraq when those 8 or 9 people took over America's direction on foreign policy? When speaking about the obvious bad news coming from Iraq on a daily basis and the President's ongoing "we're winning" vibe, Hersh referred to the old Richard Pryor joke about adultery that culminated in the punch line: "Who you gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?"


On Iraq

Mr. Hersh spoke briefly about the U.S. military Generals - some of whom he says have spoken to him off the record. Mr. Hersh said, "I hate to see bright and good Generals forced to tap dance" on Iraq. His conclusion about President Bush (to whom he refers as the worst President in recent history) is that there is nothing more dangerous for our country than a revolutionary who is incapable of changing course. Mr. Hersh firmly averred that he believes Bush is incapable. Bush has stated that he believes, in 10-20 years, history will have proven him 'right.' He likely believed in the existence of WMD in Iraq. He sees himself as a President who's 'doing the right thing.' To protect his own historic integrity, Bush thinks that he must stay the course. All that - and maybe God's talking in his ear, Mr. Hersh wryly added. Mr. Hersh strongly recommended that whatever we do, we should "take Bush literally."


There are only so many comparisons one can make between Vietnam and Iraq - two completely separate wars. Mr. Hersh applied one direct comparison, and that is that we don't "see our enemy" in Iraq, just as we didn't see them in Vietnam.

There is no current plan for an exit from Iraq. He has heard secretly from top military sources that, should things get really bad there, that the military would likely "boogie" North over the mountains into Turkey. It would be too dangerous to exit from the South.


Creating a New Caliphate

When it comes to Iran, we don't really know what Iran has in the way of nuclear weaponry. The intelligence that is available is not reliable enough to make declaratory statements with any certainty. What is certain, however, is that a cast of extremist figures in the Middle East such as Beirut's Hassan Nasrallah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, have become political "rock stars" [My note: Compare Bill Clinton's political 'rock star' status in the U.S.]

We are, whether we admit it or not, creating another Caliphate with our foreign policy. Bush won't talk to people he doesn't like, and that bodes fatally for diplomacy. Prefacing his opinion with the hope that it does not turn out to be so, Mr. Hersh said that his instinct tells him that the U.S. will eventually use a military option to attack Iran.

Mr. Hersh believes America had much more to do with the Israel attack on Lebanon than we were led to believe and now there's a real threat to the pro-Western Lebanese political factions with Hezbollah, hurting anti-Syrian groups like March 14th who had been on the rise. He reiterated something I heard again and again at last month's Clinton Global Initiative - that the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict is the key to the extremism in the Middle East. The only recent "progress" is that the Gaza strip has been sent back to the Stone Age. Even though many who are economically able in the Middle East are still willingly choosing to send their youth to America for a solid education, hope is diminishing in that part of the world.


The Closing Story - A Chilling Tale

Mr. Hersh finished with a chillingly compelling story about his days as a writer telling the story of the My Lai massacre - and he added that "only in America" would he get a journalistic award for a piece like that. There was a young soldier who'd participated in some of the slayings of the Vietnamese villagers and had witnessed a two-year old [a sole survivor who'd been protected by his now dead-mother] being "plugged" in the back of the head while trying to run away. That soldier came home without one of his legs - convinced that God would take retribution upon and curse all who participated in the massacre. What Mr. Hersh was leading up to was a later visit to that soldier's home - a ramshackle home in Virginia in which he lived with his mother. He had clearly not had the opportunities in life that most of the people sitting in Grant auditorium on Friday had had. The mother greeted Mr. Hersh and made a statement to the effect that when she'd sent her son away, she'd sent a soldier to Vietnam and they'd sent her home "a murderer." Imagine the remainder of that young man's life - his personal outlook and mental health.

Mr. Hersh contrasted and compared that experience with writing, some 40 years on in his illustrious career as an investigative journalist, with the story of Abu Ghraib. He spoke of photos of horrific torture obtained from the least expected of sources - a mother of a mentally depressed and struggling U.S. soldier. The gravely concerned mother had called NPR and, by chance, had been allowed to slip in her phone number over the airwaves of the radio show. The soldier involved was a daughter - a female volunteer who had come home from Iraq changed for all she'd seen and all she had done. There were photos on her personal laptop that most of us have never seen - perhaps never will see. We may remember the one now-infamous photo of the Belgian shepherd dogs being "sicced" on the naked Iraqi detainee. These photos offered to Mr. Hersh once he contacted this soldier's mother were of the same man - only in this particular series of photos, one could see that the dogs went much further. There were pictures of them tearing at the man's flesh; of his blood all over his body; of hands suturing the fresh gashes made by the attack dogs. The young soldier was finding life to be a haunting battle. She'd tattooed her body in increments, a tattoo here one day - a tattoo there the next day - from her legs all the way up to her neck - almost as if, according to her mother, she'd wished she could completely "change her skin." Mr. Hersh's point was that we are just beginning to see the effects of mental illness on the troops coming back from Iraq.

President Clinton Rallies With Upstate Democrats in Syracuse

President Clinton Rallies With Upstate Democrats in Syracuse




Al Stirpe greeted supporters before the rally began



Lisa was passing out Maffei for Congress stickers and signs



President Clinton is brought onstage



Mayor Driscoll welcomes President Clinton



President Clinton with Dan Maffei



Michael Arcuri and Dave Valesky look on as President Clinton speaks




Thumbs up




President Clinton joked that the current Republican leadership is not that of your typical Lincoln Republicans - not even Eisenhower Republicans... President Nixon looked like a Communist compared to today's Republican administration. He urged the group to talk to their fellow community members who are Republicans about the need for change in State leadership as well as the need for change at the national level.




Speaking with supporters at the rally




Greeting Democratic supporters

NY-25: Of Earmarks, Values, and the Rotten Rubber Stamp

NY25: Of Earmarks, Values, and the Rotten Rubber Stamp

Dan Maffei, the Democratic challenger for James Walsh's long-held Congressional seat, has asked why our district has stayed in recession for the last 20 years if the appropriations of which he boasts [the kind of earmarks that were at the heart of recent lobbyist scandals] have meant so much. Maffei has also pointed the contrast between Rep. Walsh's ability to 'turn on the federal spigot' and the heavily-weighted negative offset of steep cuts in areas of social spending such as Medicare, Medicaid, and student loans that have been approved by the "Bush agenda rubber-stamp" Republican Congress and have been signed into law - with Rep. Walsh's support an overwhelming 9 out of 10 times. While seeing his own pay raised each year, he voted to permanently reduce taxes on multimillion dollar estates, holding the federal minmum wage initiative hostage in what many see as a Congressional double-cross.

Don't we have the right to expect more of our representatives than the promise of fat earmarks dedicated to selected projects with a decades-long faltering Upstate economy and an anti-social "drown-'em-in-the-bathtub" Bush agenda trade-off? Shouldn't we dare have the imagination to hope for more?

Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne recently observed that "the entire Democratic ticket, led by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Eliot Spitzer, the party's candidate for governor, is expected by just about everyone to sweep the state" in November. How will this translate in the race for Jim Walsh's Congressional seat? It's now conventional wisdom among pundits that the Bush administration and the Republican leaders who have made the mistake of employing partisan pack-mentality when voting with the publicly unpopular Bush agenda will have a surprising effect on local races. Mr. Dionne quotes Dan Maffei:

Maffei sees the immediate trend toward Democrats powered by frustration with President Bush and the Iraq war. But it is also rooted in long-term factors: the economic troubles of many Upstate communities, the area's "libertarian" leanings on cultural issues and the homelessness felt by many moderate Republicans in the face of a national party increasingly dominated by conservatives.

"Bush Republicanism," Maffei says, "is not for them."

Mr. Dionne compares the political environment in Upstate New York to be far more Midwestern in nature than what is seen in downstate politics. Values are important to Upstate citizens. Values, to the Upstate New Yorker, means more than the two issues one automatically thinks of in the the national political 'Conservative values' vein: Life and Gay marriage. Values encompass every walk of life and require not merely lip service, but serious contemplation, moral leadership, and righteous action by our representatives.

When citizens see their representatives scrambling on a national level to bring tax cuts to the richest while voting for bills like the bankruptcy bill (now law) to protect the predatory lenders and banks - putting the crush on families who experience serious illness and job loss - don't we have to ask what values really means to those who are making our laws?

I'm hoping for real change in Upstate New York politics this November. I want my son to go to college and come back home to a thriving economy and burgeoning opportunity in Upstate New York. I don't want my neighbors to have to lose their family businesses that are unique and treasured to Upstate citizens. I also want a leader who will answer my pleas for sanity in our foreign policy. I'll be voting for Dan Maffei.

23 Years Ago Today in Beirut

23 Years Ago Today in Beirut

23 years ago today, October 23, 1983, a truck bomber struck a building in Beirut that housed U.S. Marines. 241 of those U.S. Marines were killed. President Reagan responded by pledging to keep a military force in Lebanon and not give in to terrorists. In February of the following year - four short months later - he pulled American troops out of the region. You can find the names of the dead on this list.

AmericanHeritage.com asks:

Why were the Marines there? Why were they left vulnerable to such an attack? What lessons did and should we learn from the incident? These questions remain as relevant today as they were two decades ago....

...[In 1983], military activity and the American efforts to train the armed forces of the Christian-dominated Lebanese government, convinced Muslims that the multinational force had taken sides. Warnings about this change in perception went unheeded in Washington.

If this scenario - this gross misjudgement of the hearts, faith, and minds of the people struggling to create their own democracy - doesn't even remotely remind you of what is happening in Iraq's civil war today, I'd ask you to sit back and think a little harder.

Frank Rich on Obama & Dems: No More Human Weather Vanes

Frank Rich on Obama & Dems: No More Human Weather Vanes

In a column about the Liberal love affair with the decidedly impressive freshman Senator Barack Obama, Frank Rich speaks frankly (no pun intended) about the Democrats' fatal malady - putting up "another Democrat who won't tell you what day it is before calling a consultant, another human weather vane who waits to see which way the wind is blowing before taking a stand."

Says Frank:

If the Democratic Party is to be more than a throw-out-Bush party, it can't settle for yet again repackaging its well-worn ideas, however worthy, with a new slogan containing the word "New." It needs a major infusion of steadfast leadership. That's the one lesson it should learn from George Bush. Call him arrogant or misguided or foolish, this president has been a leader. He had a controversial agenda - enacting big tax cuts, privatizing Social Security, waging "pre-emptive" war, packing the courts with judges who support his elisions of constitutional rights - and he didn't fudge it. He didn't care if half the country despised him along the way.

According to Mr. Rich, a Democrat with a snowball's chance in hell of winning will need to "stick up for core principles when tested and get others to follow him." It seems that Senator Obama is being groomed as a poster-child [and pollster-child] for what Mr. Rich labels as "the party of terminal timidity and equivocation." Mr. Rich will still need to be convinced that Barack Obama is battle-ready and firm in his convictions in the hard-knock political arena. Let's hope the Democratic party has learned from past mistakes and isn't in too much of a rush to lose 2008.

__________

In an Adam Nagourney/Jeff Zeleny article in today's NYT, an Obama campaign advisor named Steve Hildebrand was quoted to have said the following regarding the reaction of Iowa Democrats to the party's rising young star: “The reaction that Obama got in Iowa was like nothing I’ve ever seen before with another politician.” Not that it is untrue, but Mr. Hildebrand has a professional stake in saying so, of course.

I am not paid a dime to give my opinion. I can state with certainty, keeping close association with a good number of Democratic grassroots activists in Iowa, that Senator John Edwards strikes the most common chord with Iowa Democrats for 2008. But you don't need my witness for proof. The WaPo's Chris Cillizza wrote about the Hawkeye State Surprise last June.

______________

Bloomberg political chief Al Hunt has what I see as the wisest quote. He says, if American politicians were stocks, that Sen. Obama "would be a Warren Buffett investment: great long-term value."

____________

In a NY Sun article by Josh Gerstein, there is a quote from former Democratic chairman from South Carolina Richard Harpootlian that doesn't quite complete an intellectually rational circuit when it comes to the mostly unpredictable phenomenon known as American politics.

Admitting that he is not excited about any prospective Democratic candidate [whew - there's a real vote of confidence in your party's leaders], Mr. Harpootlian says that he doesn't think Sen. Obama can win the nomination, particularly because he has "never served in executive office." Mr. Harpootlian is surely not a big fan of Sen. Clinton as a presidential candidate, judging by this quote [found on a Hillary Clinton-dedicated website]:

"We all believe she's wonderful. But we also believe that if she's the nominee, it sets up perfectly for the Republicans to win the White House for another four years...Do we really want to rehash Whitewater and all the stuff we had before?"

In Josh Gerstein's current article about Sen. Obama, Mr. Harpootlian says,

"He's a tremendously talented young man but I think he's a little green at this point .. I'm sure it's flattering to hear this talk, but I think he needs to stay in the Senate awhile…He's got to get re-elected first. That was John Edwards's problem the last time around."

I think Mr. Harpootlian is not only hypercritical of all three potential presidential candidates, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards, but he is also wrong in this statement because national politics, especially today, is not about how much time you've spent in Washington, D.C. The majority of Americans feel that our nation is headed in the wrong direction and that the D.C. leadership culture is not working for their best interests. It's more about who you are and how long the public has had to get to know you that determines how well you'll do in elections. Politics does not require a set list of prerequisites. For all we know, it could very well turn out that the public decides that they like Sen. Obama well enough to understand he didn't recently fall into D.C. out of some pumpkin patch - that he spent many years in Illinois politics - and that he's ready to lead the country. Perhaps his entrance into D.C. politics has not been lengthy enough to have hurt him. The political culture is changing rapidly with the sharp downward turn in public confidence in the federal government.

Remember this: The fact that former Senator John Edwards is not in D.C. with a Congress that is receiving 16% approval ratings today may be far more of a winning political strategy than Mr. Hartpoolian realizes.

Being articulate and interesting to listen to is definitely a delightful anti-Bush concept - perhaps it's refreshing to those citizens who long desperately for a more intellectual discussion of issues - but does it equate to readiness for leadership of the free world? Voters will have to decide, but I'm afraid that in a race for POTUS, voters will decide against someone so very new to them and so very young, regardless of how articulate and intelligent he may be. When I say "I'm afraid," I mean it. We have witnessed far too many Democratic losses over the past decade. We can no longer believe that it is not a great fault in the Democratic party's strategy that has strengthened the great right wing machinery's death-grip on the American mind and the voting booth. The MSM uber-hype over Sen. Obama has me greatly concerned. One exciting convention speech does not a world leader make. I firmly believe that Sen. Obama has the potential for greatness, but it takes time to build trust and confidence in any one American citizen who would be in the running for POTUS - especially in the post-9/11 and post-Bush 43 world. Voters will always have the last say, but we all know too well what uber-hype can do. Look at the Howard Dean campaign for one example. America was just getting to know him and the MSM stroked him like their furry little pet kitten one moment and flattened him the next over his [and his supporters'] enthusiam - as if enthusiasm was a crime. The Democratic party did not want to risk a man of such strong conviction in 2004 and wound up with Sen. Kerry, a candidate who, as much as you may like him, would not defend himself or his convictions when the time was right and ripe for him to do so.

It would be my wish for Mr. Harpootlian - and all of us - to become excited about a Democratic candidate. My point is that the MSM is still a tool that reaches millions of Americans who never read blogs or the alternative media. What they - in conjunction with the Democratic strategists - pump out as hype still has a major effect on our political successes and failures.

____________

I totally disagreee with Chuck Todd and Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf in their opinion that, if Obama were to enter the presidential race, that, along with Sen. Clinton, it would "suck up all the oxygen" in the Democratic political room. That's rather unimaginative and an insult to all Democrats out here in America who desire and welcome a wealth of diverse voices in the Democratic primary presidential race. If anyone were to accomplish the task of political oxygen-sucking, however, I think most Democrats would agree the person to do it would not be Sen. Obama, but instead would be none other than Albert Arnold Gore Jr. When you consider the change in the dymanics of the race for 2008 that former Vice President Al Gore's entry would bring about, I believe that the possibility of an Obama entry pales by comparison.

Look at Buffalo, NY!!

Look at Buffalo, NY!

This place is a disaster. I don't think I've seen one tree or bush that was not affected by the freak snowstorm that occurred on Friday the 13th [of October]!

See Phil Fairbanks' Buffalo News story.

The following photos were taken today at Mount Calvary Cemetary in the city of Buffalo.

The people of Buffalo need FEMA's help as soon as possible.

Douglas Turner of the Buffalo News has a suspicion that politics is playing a role in if and how fast disasters are declared and FEMA is activated by the Bush administration.

It took President Bush only two days to declare Hawaii a major disaster after Gov. Linda Lingle asked him to.

At the time of this writing, it's eight days since metropolitan Buffalo was devastated by a freak storm and Buffalo still was waiting for the prime declaration by the president.

Storm costs will reach three times the cited damage in Hawaii from an earthquake.

What happened in Richmond, Va., might be an object lesson. Six weeks ago, Richmond Mayor Douglas Wilder asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help after the Virginia capital was slammed by the tail of Tropical Storm Ernesto.

Wilder said parts of neighborhoods were wiped out. Wilder is still waiting for FEMA's help.

What can be the difference between Hawaii on the one hand, and Buffalo and Richmond on the other? It can't remotely be that Buffalo and Richmond each have black Democratic mayors. Could it be that Virginia has a Democratic governor and New York has a lame-duck Republican governor whom Bush never much liked?

Seen in North Carolina

Seen in North Carolina

For this week's Tar Heel Tavern, I'll share a few of my photographic memories of a recent trip to your lovely state.



Elizabeth Edwards Greets a reader at a book signing in Charlotte



Common Market, Charlotte NC


Senator Edwards and Me in Concord NC



Anonymoses reads Elizabeth Edwards' book "Saving Graces"



The Charlotte skyline



The Atomic Geezer performs for Iddybud



Common Market, Charlotte NC



Sen. John Edwards Rallies for Congressional candidate Larry Kissell (NC-8) in Concord NC

Humanity: Divinely Minted Coins-Each Unique

Humanity:
Divinely Minted Coins - Each Unique

Rabbi Arthur Waskow compellingly contrasts the New Testament story about Jesus' recommendation to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's with the Talmud passage regarding the creation of humankind by God in Genesis I: 27. Adding one simple yet revelatory line to the New Testament passage, a whole new light is cast upon the lesson to be learned. As every snowflake is unique, no two human beings are alike.

Gospels, Meet Talmud:
Whose Image on the Coin?

This Shabbat, as the Jewish community begins its yearly new spiral of reading the Torah, there arises a passage of the Creation story in Genesis that itself has given rise to both Jewish and Christian teaching (Gen I: 27): "God created humankind in his Image; in the Image of God did he create it; male and female did he create them."

The ancient rabbis explored the meaning of this passage. (Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 38a; Soncino transl., p. 240):

"Our Rabbis taught: Adam, the first human being, was created as a single person to show forth the greatness of the Ruler Who is beyond all Rulers, the Blessed Holy One.

"For if a human ruler [like Caesar, the Roman Emperor] mints many coins from one mold, they all carry the same image, they all look the same.

"But the Blessed Holy One shaped all human beings in the Divine Image, as Adam was shaped in the Divine Image [Gen. 1: 27], 'b'tzelem elohim, in the Image of God.' And yet not one of them resembles another."

Even among Jews, this passage is not terribly well-known; among other religious communities, hardly known at all. Yet it offers a profound connection with one of the best-known stories of the Christian Gospels -- one that has puzzled many Christians for centuries..

The story appears in Matthew 22: 15-22, Mark 12: 13-17, and Luke 20: 19-26.

According to the story, Jesus' opponents among the Pharisees (many modern scholars think he was a radical Pharisee himself) came to trick Jesus into providing a pretext for his arrest.

One of them spoke up, saying:

"Rabbi, we know that what you speak and teach is sound; you pay deference to no one, but teach in all honesty the life-path that God requires.

"Give us your ruling on this: Are we or are we not permitted to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor?"

Jesus said to them, "Show me a silver coin."

When they dug one out for him, he asked them: "Whose image is on this coin, and whose inscription?"

What was the problem? The coin had Caesar's image on it, with the inscription "Divus" -- "God." To the Jews, treating an emperor as a God was idolatry. So just using the coin itself might constitute idolatry in Jewish law, and thus be forbidden. But by Roman law the taxes must be paid.

So by answering one way, Jesus would break Jewish law; by answering the other way, he would break Roman law.

But Jesus had not quite answered. Instead, he had answered the question with a question (an old Jewish habit): "Whose image is on this coin, and whose inscription?"

The man who had challenged him answered, "Caesar's!"

And then Jesus responded: "So give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

This answer, say Matthew, Mark, and Luke, took his opponents by surprise, and they went away and left him alone.

But for two thousand years, Christians have argued over what this answer meant. What is Caesar's, and what is God's? Are there two different spheres of life, one ruled by Caesar and one by God? Should people submit to Caesar's authority in the "material" world, while adhering to God in the "spiritual" world? How do we discern the boundary?

Now let us place alongside this New Testament story, the Talmud passage we have already seen. Any learned Jew of the time – and Jesus was one -- would have known the teaching comparing God's Image upon Humankind to Caesar's image on the coinage

Now reread the Jesus story with a single line and gesture added:

"Whose image is on this coin?" asks Jesus.

His questioner answers, "Caesar's!"

Then Jesus puts his arm on the troublemaker's shoulder and asks, "And Whose Image is on this coin?"

Perhaps the troublemaker mutters an answer; perhaps he does not need to. Not till after this exchange does Jesus say, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's!"

Jesus has not just avoided the question and evaded the dilemma. He has not proposed dividing up the turf between the material and the spiritual. He has redefined the issue:

"Give your whole self to the One Who has imprinted Divinity upon you!" The coin of the realm will matter very little, if the troublemaker listens.

Why does the line I have inserted not appear in the three versions of the story that we have? Maybe it was censored out, to avoid collision with Roman authorities; or perhaps Jesus never needed to say the words, because his "Pharisee" questioners understood the point perfectly well

For me, reading the two passages together enriches them both. Read together, they fuse the spiritual and the political, instead of splitting the world into two domains. In this reading, the claim of the Divine Ruler to rule over an emperor includes the political realm. God can create infinite diversity and eternal renewal, and so is far richer than the imperial treasury -- which can create only uniformity and repetition.

But this is not just a philosophical or biological point. Because God rules over all rulers, because God calls forth from every human being a unique face of God, each human being must follow God -- not Caesar.

And together, the passages also teach us that God calls on us to create human cultures that are unique, diverse, precisely because they carry God's Infinite Image – rather than insisting that our cultures, like Caesar's image, be uniform.

Diverse and connected. Judaism and Christianity are unique, and should listen far more closely to each other's wisdoms.

How could we bring these teachings more deeply into our lives?

One liturgical possibility, and one in social action:

As Jews prepare to chant the Bar'chu, calling each other into a prayer community, and as Christians begin their prayer services, what if we were to pause to look from face to face around the communal circle, pausing at each face to say to our selves:

'This is the face of God. And this, so different, is the face of God. And this, and this ..."

And what if we added the faces of people in New Orleans and Bangla Desh, in Tel Aviv and Gaza City, in Baghdad and Washington? And the green faces of God, in trees and grasses?

And when we examine the use of torture by governments we like or dislike, what if we asked: " If we torture the Image of God, do we make ourselves into images of Caesar?"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You can find dozens of such commentaries on the Shalom Center Website at Torah / Commentary/ Portion of the Week. If you find this or other Words of Torah / Bible / Wisdom useful, please think about making a (tax-deductible) gift to The Shalom Center. (Go to http://www.shalomctr.org and click on Donate Now.)

Iraq is FUBAR and They Can't Credit God

Iraq is FUBAR and
They Can't Credit God

At the Nation, Tom Engelhardt's point about Bush and current Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki is short and sweet. The fact that the Bush administration has not been able to set up an Iraqi government that has both legitimacy and that meets America's desires is not lost on those who have paid any amount of attention to the 3 1/2-year long disaster of a war.

The news headlines today might as well have have been written three years ago. President Bush should have adjusted his strategy as soon as he knew that we would not be greeted as liberators.

- Democrats Urge Bush to Change Course on Iraq
- Major Change Expected In Strategy for Iraq War

The fact that he waited so long - so stubbornly - and that he'd insinuated that his critics were just as good as traitors at every turn has been a constant reflection of his poor leadership skills.

Long undecided about which way to turn - only looking dogmatically and blindly ahead - Bush is now faced with a severe deficit of public support and no easy choices. The choices may have been far better ones for America and Iraq had he acted responsibly, quickly, and with accountability three years ago - or had he not rushed and lied us into the war to begin with. Alas, we know we cannot go back in time.

When all else fails, it's easy to blame (or credit) God for the good you claim you've tried to do..and have miserably failed to do.
Top US general Peter Pace defended the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying it is "inspired by God." Violent Islamic jihad is also "God-inspired." It doesn't make those who claim to be God-inspired righteous when innocent people are in the targets - or when they are caught in the crossfire in a war on terror..especially a completely unnecessary war like the war in Iraq.

Robert Scheer writes:

An occupation initially advertised as a “cakewalk” war to disarm a tyrant is now, according to our politically desperate president, a fight for the soul of the world—good versus evil, democracy versus tyranny.

But the carnage we have visited upon Iraq represents nothing of the sort. We are not building democracy, we are creating mayhem.

The evidence arrives daily in the form of dozens, sometimes hundreds, of mutilated bodies. But even the few ghastly images that actually make it onto the television actually underestimate the horror. And it is getting worse, not better: The killing of innocents is now 10 times higher than a year ago.

I am more inclined to look up to the Heavens and cry, "My God, what have they done?" than to believe God was in Rumsfeld's ear telling him what was righteous and moral for our country or for humanity. Moses sent us God's message and His commandment of 'Thou Shalt not Kill' probably meant what it said. When Jesus told us to love our enemies, it was a political statement, and it meant, at best, don't kill them. If I'm not mistaken, there was also a commandment about the sin of lying, and lies were systematically told to the American people by Rumsfeld and others to get them to accept an immoral war of choice with which even the Roman Catholic Pope could not abide. General Pace claims that Rumsfeld "leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country." I think it's ludicrous, at this stage of the game - simply ludicrous - for the good General to expect that faithful and responsible people of America will swallow this whole and not see it for the bitter pill that it is.

Pat Tillman's Brother Calls for Change

Pat Tillman's Brother Calls for Change




When it came to the war on terror, the Tillman boys signed up for the cause because they trusted the intregity of our American leadership. Pat gave everything he possessed here on this Earth for you and me...for our country. He laid it all down. His brother Kevin is speaking out about all that he has learned since those days of trust. To say that he is bitterly disappointed and disillusioned - even angry - would be an understatement.

I share every one of his concerns as well as his sorrows. He and Pat are my American brothers and I'm proud of Kevin for taking up the mantle and calling for a change before America becomes just another lost ideal in the dustbin of History.

___________

Whoever the sicko is in Washington DC coming to my blog looking for nude photos of Pat Tillman, don't expect to find any here. [Is it you, Mark Foley?]

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