Fukuyama Abandons Neoconservatism

Fukuyama Abandons Neoconservatism

"...it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention [in Iraq] itself or the ideas animating it kindly."

- Francis Fukuyama, who wrote the best-selling book The End of History and was a member of the neoconservative project, who now has gone as far as to say that "the [neoconservative] movements' advocates are Leninists who "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practised by the United States".

Group's Freedom Appeal for jailed Kurdish dissident

Group Appeals for jailed Kurdish dissident's freedom
Detained for nearly 4 months by KDP for criticizing Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani, group now fears for Dr. Qadir's safety

From Kurdish media: A group called the Free Dr Kamal Sayid Qadir Campaign is appealing to the international media, all human right organizations, and all western democracies countries, "particularly those that participated in ending the dictatorship and tyranny of Saddam’s regime" to support human rights, freedom of press, freedom of expression in Kurdistan and put effective pressure on the Barzani leadership to free Dr Kamal Sayid Qadir, without any conditions, bails and restrictions to enable him to return to his job in Austria as a free man with untarnished character and intellectual integrity.

Bob Woodruff Update

Bob Woodruff Update

We haven't heard a lot about ABC News co-anchor Bob Woodruff's healing progress in the news. The last I read, Bob was still in a drug-induced coma at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. People magazine's website provides a message from David Woodruff, Bob's brother:

"On behalf of all the Woodruffs I wanted to reach out to Bob's entire ABC family and thank you again for your seemingly endless supply of love and support. It means everything to us and to everyone involved in Bob's recovery." Regarding his brother's condition, David Woodruff said: "Bob's amazing team of doctors, nurses and corpsmen continue to be pleased with the progress he makes each day and they are optimistic about his recovery. But the more we learn about Bob's injuries the more we appreciate just how lucky he is. We need to remind ourselves it's only been 2 1/2 weeks since he sustained his injuries in Iraq. We live in a world of instant gratification where patience as a virtue is rarely practiced. Our family now has a whole new appreciation for the word and what it truly means to be patient."

Bush & Ahmadinejad Thrive on Belligerency of Each Other

Bush & Ahmadinejad Thrive on Belligerency of Each Other

Norman Solomon on the Iran crisis:
First the Bush administration will be diplomatic, then they can bomb.

We Are Free....

We Are Free....

...to create cartoons to inspire new terrorists.

...to laugh at ourselves in the face of taunts and slurs.

...to create a group of innocent victims of two extreme positions, who recently happen to be the majority of moderate Muslims living in the West.

...to hear an explanation as to why certain cartoons were published in a Danish newspaper.

...to spread fearful rhetoric that creates Islamophobia, leading to hopelessness and the inevitability of war with another culture.

...to clearly see that a government being framed as evil (by those who employ the rhetoric of fear) do not wish for their own people to continue to participate in the cycle of extremism.

...to seek peace, justice, tolerance, and cooperation or to seek war.

Tar Heel Tavern - 1st Anniversary

Tar Heel Tavern - 1st Anniversary



Bora at Science and Politics hosts a dynamite first anniversary edition of the Tar Heel Tavern.

John Edwards Shows Support for Hotel Workers

John Edwards Supports US Hotel Workers



Boston Globe:
Making America work for the working poor
by John Edwards and John Wilhelm

In their op-ed column in today's Boston Globe, former Senator John Edwards and John Wilhelm, president of the UNITE HERE hotel workers union, concentrate on the working poor - and more pointedly American hotel workers:

The consulting firm Ernst & Young, in its outlook on the hotel and lodging industry, says: ''The Good Times Continue to Roll." But good times for whom? Profits have risen to pre-9/11 levels, yet the average wage for a housekeeper is below the poverty line. Hotel chains are finding the money to invest in their image, their grounds, and their rooms, while wages for hotel workers remain far too low. Hotel chains are investing more in imported cotton sheets, yet relatively less in wages for workers.

Hotel workers all across this country believe in the American ethic based on the principle that hard work can lead to a better future. They do not lack motivation, dedication, or skill. What they lack is power. About 90,000 workers in the hotel industry are represented by the union UNITE HERE. In such cities as New York and San Francisco, where UNITE HERE has made significant progress on behalf of workers, wages are significantly higher than in cities where most workers do not belong to a union.

Hotel workers who belong to unions have been able to save money, buy homes, and give their children more opportunities. Imagine what it would mean for such cities and towns as Boston, Lynn, and Framingham if the wages for hotel workers could match the wages of disappearing manufacturing jobs. These families would be able to move out of poverty and into the middle class, which would help reinvigorate these communities.

To support the hard work of hotel workers by giving them more opportunities to achieve the American dream, we are launching the "Hotel Workers Rising" campaign. Our goal is to build a broad coalition of hotel workers, community activists, religious leaders, political leaders, and people of conscience to encourage the hotel industry to make good on the American promise.

Related Stories:
+ LA Times - Union Aims to Build Momentum as It Prepares for National Hotel Talks
+ San Francisco Chronicle - Hotel workers kick off campaign in SF
+ New York Times - Eye on Presidency and Ear on Hotel Workers' Grievances
+ BeyondChron.org - Over 2000 Rally in SF Kickoff for National Hotel Workers Rising

Asbestos Bill Fails

Asbestos Bill Fails
Sunk For Now, It's Back to the Drawing Board

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin derided the failed asbestos bill as "an Armageddon of special interests."

Asbestos victims oppose the asbestos bill, saying that creating a trust fund to redress their ills is nothing more than a corporate 'bailout.'

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., a cosponsor of the asbestos bill (with Vermont's Senator Patrick Leahy), said in a news conference Thursday that if the bill failed, he doubted there would be another. (Specter's wrong, it was an idle threat - it's gone right back to the Senate floor because the White House wants to curtail citizen lawsuits and save the offending corporations).

"Last chance!" says Senate majority leader Bill Frist. (as if it's some great prize).

The White House will support the bill if it pays "only those who are sick." (Bureaucracy to determine whether or not you're sick? *shudder*)

Why Democrats would not support the bill: Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee estimated the fund would fall short by $150 billion.

Supporters of the legislation say the trust fund would better compensate victims than would suits, which are blamed for bankrupting more than 70 companies.

On the market, asbestos shares slid as the relief bill failed. (Investors realized that corporations would not be bailed out at this time).

There are loopholes for offending corporations, and many of them have resorted to using them, screwing citizens out of settlements. USG filed for bankruptcy in June 2001, yet the Corporation reported record net sales of $5.1 billion for 2005. Knowing they can't get around the situation, they've hoped for a bailout. When bailouts do not come, what does a Corporation do? Seeming ethical (while relying heavily on the bill being passed - fully expecting their bailout), USG has set aside their own $900 million trust fund for settlement of all asbestos claims against it - what USG estimates to be its obligation under the trust-fund bill -- and a contingent note for $3.05 billion, which would be canceled if the bill is enacted.

"While USG and companies like them will derive enormous benefits, many small and medium-sized companies that support hundreds of local communities around this nation will need to shut their doors."

- Tom O'Brien, chairman of the Coalition for Asbestos Reform, exposing S.852 for what it is

Would the market take care of itself if left alone - each company working ethically to resolve these claims? Why do the Fortune 500 companies win out from the passing of this bill while smaller companies will likely fail? Even at the Business level, the rich get richer and the poor get wiped out.

Opponents claim that this USG deal exposes a Fortune 500 'windfall' from the Asbestos Bill.

"USG's announcement of an agreement to resolve asbestos personal injury claims should show the U.S. Senate once and for all exactly why S.852 is a boon to a handful of Fortune 500 companies and a death knell to smaller and medium-sized companies," said Tom O'Brien, chairman of the Coalition for Asbestos Reform. "It is rare that the financial benefits inherent in a piece of legislation for a single company are so clearly quantified -- no wonder companies like USG are spending millions of dollars on advertising to get this bill passed."

Republicans are always pounding rhetorically about 'no unnecessary taxes.'

It's utter hypocrisy!

The truth is, they (and the White House) want this bill to pass (on the cheap, which is why the Democrats are obstructing its passage). They want to bail out corporations to protect the richest while the poor are left to depend upon the Bureaucracy that Bush purports to bemoan! They'll tell the public that trial lawyers are the bad guys (and most of the Legislative branch are lawyers themselves) while tying citizen's free hands in chains to the bureaucracy - and American taxpayers will foot the bill for the cancers caused by bailed-out corporations.

Harvard Study Blasts 'No Child Left Behind'

Harvard Study Blasts 'No Child Left Behind'

NYT - Harvard Study Blasts No Child Left Behind
..a surge in the number of schools identified as ``needing improvement,'' including many considered top performers in their state, has stirred opposition to the law nationwide -- from a legal challenge in Connecticut to a rebellion by state legislators in staunchly Republican Utah.

David Brooks Frames Muslims and Left Bloggers

David Brooks Frames Muslims and Left Bloggers

Wow. David Brooks is going extremist on left bloggers. I'll bet many bloggers will take serious offense to what this well-paid Republican mouthpiece is going on mainstream talk shows and saying about them - most of them ordinary and free-thinking citizens who get paid nothing/zipppo/nada for voicing their personal opinion and conviction.

He is calling left bloggers "semi-nuts" and saying that left bloggers "..insist on a Stalinist line of discipline."

I think David Brooks needs a vacation. Obsessing about a Hitler cartoon, as he did in a recent NY times column, while dancing the soft-shoe around some of his Islamophobic thoughts (using the lame disclaimer "I don't mean you Muslims) is definitely not a good sign of quiet reason.

His words - speaking of Islam's male scholars:

"...you have a different way. When I say you, I don't mean you Muslims. I don't mean you genuine Islamic scholars and learners. I mean you Islamists....You frame the contrast between your world and our world more bluntly than we outsiders would ever dare to."

Brooks' words to describe left blogdom come back to me: "semi-nuts" ... "..insisting on a Stalinist line of discipline.."

Brooks, who accuses "the Other" of framing to keep the dividing lines bold is no more than a pot calling the kettle black - framing the contrast between the mainstream media's world and the American left blogger's world "more bluntly than we would ever dare to."

I guess, when you're drawing battle lines, you need to make "the other" stand out in frighteningly bold contrast.

Brooks is framing Muslims, and he's framing left bloggers.

Is it our turn to frame David Brooks? Personally, I wouldn't waste my time. Yet, he seems terribly interested in framing bloggers as insane. It's interesting that he chose to say it on the Chris Matthews show. Two poor bruised ego cases who party with the elite while being paid handsomely acting as amanuenses for the Oval Office. We watch them become the new shadows of the once-great journalists like Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow.

From his Hitler-colored NYT column:

"In my world, people search for truth in their own diverse ways..."

Like Muslims, left bloggers are, for David Brooks, part of some "other" world where no one dares to write a thought that's out of line - Stalinist-like. Stalinist? Is he joking? No - I don't think that he's joking. Brooks is humorless.

If you're not a part of David's view of the world, you are probably "opting out of civilization." On the News Hour (PBS) last week, Brooks denied the fact that the recent cartoons have been directly responsible for provoking a clash of cultures. He removes all accountability from the knowing provocateurs of violence the West. In his Times column, the propagandizing Brooks scapegoated Islamists for not "cooperating" with or looking forward to the "coming of democracy", which to the young men on the Muslim street is code for 'bombs will soon be falling and we will soon be occupying your neighborhoods.' (a la Iraq).

On PBS, February 10, Brooks said:

I do think it's not a clash of civilizations or the West versus Islam, but these people who were the fundamentalists have opted totally out of our civilization and, you know, we've been sort of measured in how we respond to them which I think is silly. I mean, they are fundamentally opposed to the way we live; whether we're measured or not is not going to make any difference in their minds.

And listen to this schlock:

We're involved in this democratic moment where they feel threatened, at the same time they feel strong; they're winning elections. But the elections are a threat to their mentality...

What a couple of nonsensical and incongruent sentences.

We can all find common ground in deciding how we can keep the people of the world from blowing each other up. We can champion freedom and justice for the oppressed victims of poverty and violated huamn rights. We won't reach any consensus with ego-trippers like David Brooks framing certain people who earnestly take part in what Brooks calls our diverse search for truth as "semi-nuts."

I have an idea.Let's ask the New York Times to replace David Brooks with Albert Brooks for a while. David needs a breather.

Oops

Oops

I hope that Harry Whittington will be okay after being shot accidentally by VP Dick Cheney while hunting quail. I'm sure the fact that Mr. Whittington, a Republican loyalist, was appointed Texas State Funeral Service Commissioner by former Governor George W. Bush will not be lost on the late night television show humorists.

WaPo's Joel Achenbach snidely says that he finds the story "reassuring..."

Cheney is a man who doesn't just talk the talk. No, if he's going to send American soldiers into harm's way, where they might be shot at any moment by a deranged fanatic, he's also going to do the same thing to his close personal friends. He's giving his hunting buddies a taste of life in the Cheney Era, when you count yourself lucky just to get out alive.

My comment? I'll bet he was a "hero in error."

________________


Pointin' To Who Dunnit

Deadeye Dick
by Iddybud

Deadeye Dick went out with his pals
Lookin' to flush out a covey o'quails
The birds flew up, Dick raised his gun
The birddogs barked in the Texas sun

Dick imagined the quail and grits
Once he'd bagged those precious hits
Hurry, Dick - you must not tarry
Yowza, Dick - you just shot HARRY!

Dick thought: How can this be spun
To not look like "Girlie man with a gun?"
How to minimize Harry's terror
So Dick could he be a "hero in error?"

___

* * * Credits roll with theme song from "the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"..(lyrics modified.) Dick is riding away on his trusty bird-dog toward the West Texas sunset.

"The man who shot Harry Whittington.. he was the bravest of them all......"

Credit for Cheney photo belongs solely to internetweekly.org

Islamophobia Top Ten

Islamophobia Top Ten

Numbers of stories about Islamophobia are increasing in the Google News archives:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Boggers Being Spied On by Government

How dreadful. Glenn Greenwald analyzes a story you'd expect to hear about a government in some Banana Republic whose government fear being found out - exposed for the crony-enriching mess that it's become. We should be alarmed that he's talking about the United States.

The same goes for this story.

Especially this one.

Self-Interested Boehner & His Web of Lobbyists

Self-Interested Boehner & His Web of Lobbyists

New House Majority Leader is
Pampered by the Lobbyists
For Whom He Writes Legislation

Rich man Dives, he lived so well,
Don't you see?
Rich man Dives, he lived so well
Don't you see?
Rich man Dives, he lived so well
When he died he found a home in hell.

From the spiritual song I Got a Home in Dat Rock which was based on the parable found in Luke 16, also told in the spiritual Poor Man Lazarus

For those who take the Bible seriously, men like Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, who happens to be the selection of the GOP House reps to lead them in our House of Representatives, may have the secret directions to Lucifer - - the map straight to hell. And he's taking the American people's democracy with him.

Wa Po - Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who was elected House majority leader last week, is renting his Capitol Hill apartment from a veteran lobbyist whose clients have direct stakes in legislation Boehner has co-written and that he has overseen as chairman of the Education and the Workforce Committee..The relationship between Boehner, John D. Milne and Milne's wife, Debra R. Anderson, underscores how intertwined senior lawmakers have become with the lobbyists paid to influence legislation.

The working poor in America have people like the new House Majority Leader to thank for keeping them in the poorhouse because of his self-interest. What Boehner has done is apparently not illegal, mind you. What is clear, however, is that he does not have the interests of the working poor at heart when he pushes legislation in the people's name.

The restaurant industry has long fought minimum-wage increases, seeking instead to augment restaurant wages with tips that become more valuable if they can avoid taxation. Despite numerous attempts by Democrats and some pro-labor Republicans, the minimum wage has not been raised since 1997, when it was lifted from $4.75 to $5.15. Since then, inflation has eroded its value to near-record lows. That such companies would hire Milne is no mystery. His firm overtly promotes its connections to influential lawmakers.

I was a waitress at a time when I was a student - just trying to make ends meet while I studied. I worked my tail off and the pay for waitresses was shameful. Waitstaff were left to fend for themselves to fight for their tips like whores or slaves, doing stressful and hard work just to meet the already-disgustingly low minimum wage. At times, it was very demeaning and thankless work for meager pay. That was over twenty years ago, and nothing has changed. Luckily, it was not meant to be my permanent line of work - yet I know that for many men and women, it is their sole profession. They are forced to depend on tips to put bread on the table for their children.

To think that there's been someone like Rep. Boehner who was supposed to be looking out for the interests of all Americans - heading up Committees on Education and Workeforce issues while looking out for "Numero Uno" rather than the men and women who wait tables today, and knowing that he is now the House Majority leader, is disconcerting to say the very least.

He is the man who is addicted to the fine life - free golfing trips at luxury retreats around the world; addicted to Barclay cigarettes - the chain-smoker who passed out Big Tobacco lobbyist's bribes on the floor of our House. If you call him on all the perks he receives, he'll tell you that you're treating him like a child.

His lobbyist/landlord says that he's an "excellent tenant" who pays his rent on time.Obviously, "the Good Tenant" passes the Landlord's business wishes and ideas on in the form of legislation in the People's name, too.

Some might call that "The American Way" - and they'd be right. The Abramoff/GOP scandal proves that there ain't no flies on these legislators. They know how to work the system, all in the name of self-interest, to maintain the elite lifestyle for themselves while screwing the American worker.

These are the same politicians who claim to be from the party of God, but I'll wager you won't hear the parable of Lazarus and Dives at any D.C. prayer breakfast anytime soon.

Listen to this song (which is sung by a group which happens to include my son) about Poor Man Lazarus and Dives. Lyrics include:

Rich man Divies he lived so well,
Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue,
'Cause I'm tormented in the flame.
And when he died he went straight to hell,
Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue,
'Cause I'm tormented in the flame.

The story goes..:

"There was once a rich man, who dressed in purple and the finest linen, and feasted in great magnificence every day. At his gate, covered with sores, lay a poor man named Lazarus, who would have been glad to satisfy his hunger with the scraps from the rich man's table. Even the dogs used to come and lick his sores. One day the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up; and there, far away, was Abraham with Lazarus close
beside him. "Abraham, my father," he called out, "take pity on me! Send Lazarus
to dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this fire." But Abraham said, "Remember, my child, that all the good things fell to you while you were alive, and all the bad to Lazarus; now he has his consolation here and it is you who are in agony. But that is not all: there is a great chasm fixed between us; no one from our side who wants to reach you can cross it, and none may pass from your side to us."

Coulter Says Islam's Not a Real Religion

Coulter Says Islam's Not a Real Religion

Ann Coulter is well known for pulling no punches about what she believes. She believes that Islam is filled with hate. She insinuates that Islam is not a "real religion", but instead a car-burning cult.

Even if you are disgusted by that gutter level of insult, I think you should read her words carefully, understanding that she employs the visceral at the cost of complete ignorance. She fails to entertain the truth of Identity Politics as we see them playing out today in the Middle East. If anyone would feel politically disenfranchised, marginalized or disadvantaged relative to the wider global society, it would be the people who are hitting the streets in the Middle East. Why are they hitting the streets? Because some idiot editor in Denmark (who knew better) sent them a brash insult that confirmed to them - especially after the unilateral actions of America and its occupation of Iraq - that their societies were targets of a racism and Islamophobia at levels never before seen (at least not since the friggen Crusades).

Coulter is contributing to that rampant Islamophobia, whose push toward hatred and fear of over a billion people of Islam who live all around the world will serve to shape their social identity in ways that work against our national security interests. What brain trusts! What great Americans! I wonder - is all of that worth a few jabs at "liberals?" Some of the people in right wing journalism seem to have lost their sense about what it means to be an intelligent American patriot coexisting with many others in one nation (they consistently write in favor of two Americas- regardless of the cost).

Ann goes for "the gut" (see Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce) in order to bypass the intellect that so many Americans are missing. That's her style. She is the Queen of the Dunces. But she's fairly pretty and she's got good legs.

CIA Official: Intelligence Community's Work Politicized for War

CIA Official: Intelligence Community's Work Politicized for War

This is very important news. This is the the first time that a senior intelligence officer has so directly and publicly condemned the Bush administration's handling of intelligence related to its pre-Iraq war decisions. Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, has written an article for the the journal Foreign Affairs which says that the Bush administraion was not only determined, but willingly blind to the full scope of available Intelligence information at the time of the Iraq war lead-up. It is clear that a war of option (now known as a failure because intelligence was ignored) was not going to be denied the hyperfocused administration.

From the Washington Post:

Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005, acknowledges the U.S. intelligence agencies' mistakes in concluding that Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction. But he said those misjudgments did not drive the administration's decision to invade.

So what DID drive the administration's decision to invade? (Remember, our House and Senate voted for the Iraq War Resolution in 2002 on the predication, from documents supplied by the Bush administration, that the intelligence presented was sound)

"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq."

You may ask - what were "strategic-level intelligence estimates? Why would they have been important to consider before committing our troops to a ground war in Iraq?

Pillar says that the entire body of official intelligence analysis was not taken into consideration:

"If the entire body of official intelligence analysis on Iraq had a policy implication, it was to avoid war -- or, if war was going to be launched, to prepare for a messy aftermath.

He also blames some in the Intelligence Community for their weakness and their bending to the administration's hunt for reasons to support war:

They .. knew, [Pillar] wrote, that senior policymakers "would frown on or ignore analysis that called into question a decision to go to war and welcome analysis that supported such a decision. . . . [They] felt a strong wind consistently blowing in one direction. The desire to bend with such a wind is natural and strong, even if unconscious."

Mr. Pillar describes a process in which the White House attempted to frame intelligence results by repeatedly posing questions aimed at bolstering its arguments about Iraq. They were focused on a Saddam/al-Qaeda link, which has never been proven by one shred of evidence from any reputable journalist or investigator. The administration's hyperfocus caused them to become blind to any contradictory intelligence evidence.

The Bush administration, Pillar wrote, "repeatedly called on the intelligence community to uncover more material that would contribute to the case for war," including information on the "supposed connection" between Hussein and al Qaeda, which analysts had discounted. "Feeding the administration's voracious appetite for material on the Saddam-al Qaeda link consumed an enormous amount of time and attention."

Pillar says that the general belief among experts in the Intelligence community was that Saddam was being contained and that a war was not necessary. Put that thought up against the aftermath of the American occupation of Iraq. If you're not enraged, you simply are not paying attention.

"...the prewar intelligence asserted Hussein's "weapons capacities," but he said the "broad view" within the United States and overseas "was that Saddam was being kept 'in his box' " by U.N. sanctions, and that the best way to deal with him was through "an aggressive inspections program to supplement sanctions already in place."

Flemming Rose Goes..

Flemming Rose Goes..

Flemming Rose goes on vacation, that is.

It seems that the Jyllands Posten cultural editor could be as unapologetic as he liked about taunting Muslims, but when he dared to say he'd consider printing Iran's proposed Holocaust toons - and maybe some Jesus funnies - -

Zzzzz-oooooooooooom!

Flemming was whisked off on an extended vacation.

Pissing off the West?
What was he thinking?!

NY State Has Largest Education Funding Gap

NY State Has Largest Education Funding Gap

At my Syracuse.com blogsite, you can read about the shame of New York State - the truth that Governor George Pataki would rather have you not know.

If you do not know about the largest education funding gap between the haves and have-nots in this entire nation, read about it - and learn about A.100 - Schools for New York's Future act, which will turn the tide and provide every public school student in New York state with a sound basic education.

Michael Berg, Father of Slain US Citizen Runs for Congress

Michael Berg, Father of Slain US Citizen Runs for Congress

"We cannot afford to be distracted by this war any longer while our planet passes the point of no return in global warming. We have urgent business to attend to such as the disgusting practice of American corporate CEOs of stealing profits in their yearly bonuses that exceed what most of us would earn in ten lifetimes. Yes. The war is too costly and I am against it! I am against any plan that has our troops and civilians occupying territory anywhere in the Middle East region for one more day. Only when we withdraw from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the rest of the Middle East will we cease to be a target of terrorists. I am against the continuation of this war for another day, another hour, another minute, another life, another heartbeat of one of the world’s sons or daughters."

-Micheal Berg, father of American citizen Nick Berg, who was slain in Iraq.
Mr. Berg (Green Party - DE) is running for a seat in the US House of Representatives.

Some knee-jerk war apologists have gone deep into the territory of falsehoods and complete disrespect for Mr. Berg to combat his strong conviction. It seems that they would say just about anything to divert people from the truth - a truth that is proven more and more as each day passes.

Budget Cuts Reveal Bleak GOP Hypocrisy

Budget Cuts Reveal Bleak GOP Hypocrisy

Mary Matalin recently appeared on Hannity and Colmes, referring to some of the speakers at Coretta Scott King's February 7 funeral, and had the audacity to blame African American leaders for keeping their community members feeling victimized - sinking as low as to calling civil rights leaders "racists. Meanwhile, the immoral and socially irresponsible policies of the Bush administration and the GOP cry out for realistic scrutiny. The truth speaks louder than the spin. The recent budget cuts are a perfect example of not only racism, but an outright abandonment of America's working poor.

I think these civil rights leaders are nothing more than racists. And they're keeping constituency, they're keeping their neighborhoods and their African-American brothers enslaved, if you will, by continuing to let them think that they're -- or forced to think that they're victims, that the whole system is against them.

I wonder if Mary Matalin realizes how many poor mothers of minority children cry when they think about the bitter truth - that kids in the suburbs are regularly prepared for college while their boys are ill-prepared for anything except future incarceration and their young girls face a future of motherhood at far too young of an age?

Wake up, Mary Matalin. The system is stacked against them and the facts prove it. Your party's indifference to social democracy is not helping you to create the moral society you brag about wanting to achieve.

I am calling these people on their sheer hypocrisy and false spin about matters of race, social justice, and class.

How moral or just, in its effect, is the slashing of $49 million from the federal budget for the reintegration of youthful offenders into society?

Fact: The United States is already the world leader in execution of youthful offenders. Due to the many years it takes to process appeals in the United States , juvenile offenders are sometimes in their twenties or even thirties by the time the executions take place. Nevertheless, between 1990 and January 2000, the U.S. executed more juvenile offenders than the rest of the world's nations combined. The U.S. Juvenile Justice System in general, seems to favor incarceration and punishment over rehabilitation and treatment when dealing with juvenile offenders. With social workers replaced by lawyers, juvenile courts increasingly have taken on the character of the adult criminal court system, violating international standards. In many cases children in the US are detained and incarcerated following conviction when other options such as counseling, rehabilitation, and restorative justice programs are available.



How hypocritical is it to know that, while President Bush tells us that we need qualified teachers in Math and Science to make all of our children competitive in the global economy, that Teacher Quality Enhancement has been cut to the tune of $60 million?

Fact: President Bush's “American Competitiveness Initiative” would result in the recruiting of 70,000 new math and science teachers and encourage 30,000 private sector math and science professionals to teach in the schools. However, since the proposed fiscal 2006 budget decreases funding for elementary and secondary educational programs, we can only assume that the funding for these new teachers will fall to the states. It couldn't come from any other source.

Read about the priorities that were listed for the State grants for which a whopping $60 million of support for teacher enhancement in the states have been torn away:

U.S. Department of Education Priority Areas For State Grants:

Initiatives to reform state teacher licensure and certification requirements so those current and future teachers possess strong teaching skills and academic content knowledge in the subject area that they will teach.

Innovative reforms to hold IHE teacher preparation programs accountable for preparing teachers with strong academic and teaching skill.

Innovative efforts to reduce the shortage (including the high turnover) of highly competent teachers in high-poverty urban and rural areas.

The Republican plan for education is revealed as an emperor with no clothing. All hat - no cattle. Pro-business, anti-social. It leaves the already tax-burdened states' children to hang. States are already having great difficulty meeting the financial burdens placed on them by the No Child Left Behind act. Over 50% of US schools lack the resources necessary to implement No Child Left Behind standards. The GOP policy has made it more difficult for low and middle-income American families to send their kids to college,cutting grant and loan programs that would finance that education.

If Bush and his rubber-stamp GOP were truly concerned about our children competing in the global economy, they would never have cut out their support for states to fund educational grants for children from pre-school through college age.

Where's the beef?