The pragmatism of prolonged war
The days are getting longer, but the media shadows are no shorter as
they cover the war in Iraq through American eyes, squinting in
Washington’s pallid sun.
Debated as an issue of politics, the actual war keeps being drained of life. Abstractions thrive inside the Beltway, while the war effort continues: funded by the U.S. Treasury every day, as the original crime of invasion is replicated with occupation.
More than ever, in the aftermath of the Scooter Libby verdict, the country’s major news outlets are willing to acknowledge that the political road to war in Iraq was paved with deceptions. But the same media outlets were integral to laying the flagstones along the path to war -- and they’re now integral to prolonging the war.
Debated as an issue of politics, the actual war keeps being drained of life. Abstractions thrive inside the Beltway, while the war effort continues: funded by the U.S. Treasury every day, as the original crime of invasion is replicated with occupation.
More than ever, in the aftermath of the Scooter Libby verdict, the country’s major news outlets are willing to acknowledge that the political road to war in Iraq was paved with deceptions. But the same media outlets were integral to laying the flagstones along the path to war -- and they’re now integral to prolonging the war.
What's wrong with David Obey
The reason I sent the media a video of House Appropriations Chair David Obey (Dem., Wisc.) throwing a bit of a fit http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19392 was not just to embarrass him. Nor was it, as some Democratic Party Die-Hards allege, to foolish split the forces of good and allow the evil Republicans to prevail.
The split between the Progressive Caucus and the Democratic Leadership already existed. The Progressive Caucus has taken a stand for funding only a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and not funding any extension or expansion of the war – or for that matter moving the war to Afghanistan where Congressman Obey claims we could better "attack the people who attacked us."
The split between the Progressive Caucus and the Democratic Leadership already existed. The Progressive Caucus has taken a stand for funding only a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq and not funding any extension or expansion of the war – or for that matter moving the war to Afghanistan where Congressman Obey claims we could better "attack the people who attacked us."
How will you end this war?
I’ve received emails thanking me for speaking out on behalf of my son and other troops serving in Iraq. In addition, I’ve received questions about my exchange with Rep. David Obey that was videotaped by a citizens news group, Kathleen Gabel and Tyler Westbrook, that is documenting the peace movement in the halls of Congress. They’ve covered my visits with other members of Congress as well as the work of other citizens working to end the war.
I’ve come to Washington, DC because my son Cloy, who has been honorably discharged from the Marines with the presidential unit citation, is now facing a possible third deployment. Cloy is suffering from undiagnosed traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder. As Cloy says in one of his poems "every time I look in the mirror I see a casualty of the war." (You can see on http://grassrootsamerica4us.org the impact the war has had on him through his poetry.)
I’ve come to Washington, DC because my son Cloy, who has been honorably discharged from the Marines with the presidential unit citation, is now facing a possible third deployment. Cloy is suffering from undiagnosed traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder. As Cloy says in one of his poems "every time I look in the mirror I see a casualty of the war." (You can see on http://grassrootsamerica4us.org the impact the war has had on him through his poetry.)
The war money can be stopped
If the Republicans in the House vote against the Supplemental spending bill to throw another roughly $100 billion at this war because the bill requires that troops be trained and rested, provides for veterans health care, gives money to Katrina relief and avocado growers, and threatens to move the war to Afghanistan if Bush doesn't make various claims about "progress" in Iraq in the coming months…
And if the Progressive Democrats vote against it because it funds an illegal and aggressive war…
The bill could be defeated. Then the Democratic leadership would have to choose between the Republicans on the one hand and the Progressive Democrats and the American public on the other.
The Democrats held two press conferences Thursday morning. The first was held by the Progressive Caucus, announcing their plan to amend the Supplemental to require that every dollar go to funding a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Here's the announcement they sent out.
And a letter they sent around to their colleagues. Here's Barbara Lee's amendment.
And if the Progressive Democrats vote against it because it funds an illegal and aggressive war…
The bill could be defeated. Then the Democratic leadership would have to choose between the Republicans on the one hand and the Progressive Democrats and the American public on the other.
The Democrats held two press conferences Thursday morning. The first was held by the Progressive Caucus, announcing their plan to amend the Supplemental to require that every dollar go to funding a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Here's the announcement they sent out.
And a letter they sent around to their colleagues. Here's Barbara Lee's amendment.
Subpoena Dick
I've spoken at impeachment forums, debates, rallies, strategy meetings, and workshops, but tonight's event in Washington, D.C., will be the first I've spoken at since the Vice President's Chief of Staff was convicted for lying to protect him. So, I'm going in expecting fewer objections and reservations about impeachment. Still, it's useful to yet again lay out all the familiar ones and why they are more wrong than ever.
I understand that Congressman Henry Waxman may have the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald testify next week. That's an excellent start. But if Fitzgerald will not testify voluntarily, he should be subpoenaed, as should Libby, Rove, Armitage, Bartlett, Matalin, Fleischer, and Cheney. Each of these people needs to be put under oath and on camera and questioned.
I understand that Congressman Henry Waxman may have the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald testify next week. That's an excellent start. But if Fitzgerald will not testify voluntarily, he should be subpoenaed, as should Libby, Rove, Armitage, Bartlett, Matalin, Fleischer, and Cheney. Each of these people needs to be put under oath and on camera and questioned.
Walter Reed's Roach Motel
Thank goodness someone is going to get to the bottom of things at Walter Reed's Roach Motel, aka Building 18.
That likely will be Bob Dole and Donna Shalala. Maybe also Defense Secretary Bob Gates. It won't be George W. Bush.
He's The Decider, not The Doer. Name one success of this two-term administration. Does the name Osama bin Forgotten ring a bell?
The Decider decided to delegate, as usual. He got Dole and Shalala to head a bipartisan blue-ribbon commission. Fret not, you legless warriors and brain-damaged souls. If we can't fix the system, let's study it to death.
Bush didn't address the vets he sent to war, the folks who got the runaround from their government. He didn't talk with members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Bush took his USO tour to the American Legion instead.
That likely will be Bob Dole and Donna Shalala. Maybe also Defense Secretary Bob Gates. It won't be George W. Bush.
He's The Decider, not The Doer. Name one success of this two-term administration. Does the name Osama bin Forgotten ring a bell?
The Decider decided to delegate, as usual. He got Dole and Shalala to head a bipartisan blue-ribbon commission. Fret not, you legless warriors and brain-damaged souls. If we can't fix the system, let's study it to death.
Bush didn't address the vets he sent to war, the folks who got the runaround from their government. He didn't talk with members of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Bush took his USO tour to the American Legion instead.
Congressman Obey says "Idiot Liberals" need to support war money
House Appropriations Chair David Obey (Dem., Wisc.) ran into woman in the hallway in Washington recently and ended up yelling at her and her friends, accusing them of "smoking something that's not legal" if they disagreed with him, and denouncing "idiot liberals."
The woman, Tina Richards, introduced herself to Obey as the mother of a Marine about to depart for his third tour of Iraq, and as someone who has tried to communicate with Obey but received no response. Then she…
Well, watch the video yourself. It may be depressing, but it's certainly entertaining (just like network television): http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19392
Obey claims in this video that the only way to end the war is to fund it, because
1.-They don't have the votes to stop funding it. (Of course, they would if they voted like "idiot liberals".)
2.-Funding a withdrawal would somehow mysteriously harm "our troops." (Will Obey say that to Richards' son?)
The woman, Tina Richards, introduced herself to Obey as the mother of a Marine about to depart for his third tour of Iraq, and as someone who has tried to communicate with Obey but received no response. Then she…
Well, watch the video yourself. It may be depressing, but it's certainly entertaining (just like network television): http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19392
Obey claims in this video that the only way to end the war is to fund it, because
1.-They don't have the votes to stop funding it. (Of course, they would if they voted like "idiot liberals".)
2.-Funding a withdrawal would somehow mysteriously harm "our troops." (Will Obey say that to Richards' son?)
Welcome to lame duck tours
Even by the rushed standards of these presidential jaunts, Bush's current outing to Latin America is a pell-mell affair. First it was Brazil, still smarting from De Gaulle's crack on the way back out to the airport, that "this is not a serious country." Bush got to say hello to President Lula and visit a slum. Then it was Uruguay on Saturday, with Colombia scheduled for Sunday, Guatemala on Monday, Mexico on Tuesday. It's this kind of rushed travel that prompted Bush Sr., in his presidential jaunt around Asia, to mix too many shots of sake with his Ambien and throw up into the lap of the Japanese prime minister, Kiichi Miyazawa.
Air America 2.0 begins today
Today my family formally purchased and took over Air America Radio. Why? Because if progressive values were a stock, now is the time to buy.
This hasn't always been true, as the cycle of politics demonstrates. In recent decades, politics seems to have been governed by physics for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction. William F. Buckley Jr. started The National Review in the 1950s to rebut what he saw as the dominance of liberalism in the academy and opinion journals like The Nation and The New Republic. From 1970-72, Public Citizen, Common Cause and the NRDC were all created in reaction to Nixon's depredations. Similarly, People For the American Way grew out of the rise of the Religious Right under Reagan in the mid-80s.
New progressive think tanks over the past 10 years, most recently and prominently the Center for American Progress, were created to counter AEI and Heritage. And of course, the Huffington Post and Air America were born in reaction to the electronic propaganda of Drudge and Limbaugh et. al.
This hasn't always been true, as the cycle of politics demonstrates. In recent decades, politics seems to have been governed by physics for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction. William F. Buckley Jr. started The National Review in the 1950s to rebut what he saw as the dominance of liberalism in the academy and opinion journals like The Nation and The New Republic. From 1970-72, Public Citizen, Common Cause and the NRDC were all created in reaction to Nixon's depredations. Similarly, People For the American Way grew out of the rise of the Religious Right under Reagan in the mid-80s.
New progressive think tanks over the past 10 years, most recently and prominently the Center for American Progress, were created to counter AEI and Heritage. And of course, the Huffington Post and Air America were born in reaction to the electronic propaganda of Drudge and Limbaugh et. al.
Count the quagmires
Anybody who thought this was going to be an "easy war," please raise your hand.
By now, the horror and scandal have exceeded the expectations of even the harshest critics of the invasion - mine, for instance - and I numbly play Count the Quagmires along with the rest of the media and general public. The latest one has burst into national awareness with a piercing "what's next, for God's sake?"
Afghanistan, Iraq, New Orleans. All of them bear the mark of W. And now, incredibly, we learn of a gulag of wounded and emotionally shattered returning veterans, as forgotten and abandoned as nursing home residents in the Crescent City. Support our troops!
But what we're witnessing under George Bush is not what I would call incompetent leadership, any more than we witnessed, in an earlier, happier phase of his administration - the mission-accomplished phase - "leadership." What we have instead is the guileless void of an administration that has not even tried to lead, but rather, from the get-go has concentrated on manipulating national symbols and traditions to give the American public the appearance of leadership.
By now, the horror and scandal have exceeded the expectations of even the harshest critics of the invasion - mine, for instance - and I numbly play Count the Quagmires along with the rest of the media and general public. The latest one has burst into national awareness with a piercing "what's next, for God's sake?"
Afghanistan, Iraq, New Orleans. All of them bear the mark of W. And now, incredibly, we learn of a gulag of wounded and emotionally shattered returning veterans, as forgotten and abandoned as nursing home residents in the Crescent City. Support our troops!
But what we're witnessing under George Bush is not what I would call incompetent leadership, any more than we witnessed, in an earlier, happier phase of his administration - the mission-accomplished phase - "leadership." What we have instead is the guileless void of an administration that has not even tried to lead, but rather, from the get-go has concentrated on manipulating national symbols and traditions to give the American public the appearance of leadership.