More from The Bush War...bs

The Torture QuestionOct. 18, 2005 at 9pmFRONTLINE goes behind closed doors to investigate the struggle over how and when to use what was called "coercive interrogation." The film begins with a policy born out of fear and anger and tracks the increasingly tough measures taken to gather information about Al Qaeda and the growing insurgency in Iraq. This examination begins at the White House and ends in the public debate about alleged abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Abu Ghraib.

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

Every generation the wide world of corporate sports produces an athlete with the iron resolve and moral urgency to step off their pedestal and join the fight for social justice.

Today we may just have a figure to join their ranks in the NBA’s Etan Thomas.

This past weekend, Etan made a play for pantheon status. Etan took it to that Ali level, by delivering a blistering poetical speech as part of the weekend’s anti-war demonstrations in Washington DC.

Here is the transcript. Read and pass it along – it has the power to topple tyrants.

“Giving all honor, thanks and praises to God for courage and wisdom, this is a very important rally.I'd like to thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts, feelings and concerns regarding a tremendous problem that we are currently facing. This problem is universal, transcending race, economic background, religion, and culture, and this problem is none other than the current administration which has set up shop in the White House.
In fact, I'd like to take some of these cats on a field trip. I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the ‘hood. Not to do no 30-minute documentary. I mean, I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance.
I’d show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I’d employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I’d take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison.
I’d sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I’d tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven’t been taught, and then I’d call them inferior.
I’d soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I’d paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I’d close the lid on that barrel of fool’s gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I’d grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.
Give them health benefits that barely cover the common cold. John Q. would become their reality as HMOs introduce them to the world of inferior care, filling their lungs with inadequate air, penny pinching at the expense of patients, doctors practicing medicine in an intricate web of rationing and regulations. Patients wander the maze of managed bureaucracy, costs rise and quality quickly deteriorates, but they say that managed care is cheaper. They’ll say that free choice in medicine will defeat the overall productivity, and as co-payments are steadily rising, I'll make their grandparents have to choose between buying their medicine and paying their rent.
Then I'd feed them hypocritical lines of being pro-life as the only Christian way to be. Then very contradictingly, I’d fight for the spread of the death penalty, as if thou shall not kill applies to babies but not to criminals.
Then I’d introduce them to those sworn to protect and serve, creating a curb in their trust in the law. I’d show them the nightsticks and plungers, the pepper spray and stun guns, the mace and magnums that they’d soon become acquainted with, the shakedowns and illegal search and seizures, the planted evidence, being stopped for no reason. Harassment ain’t even the half of it. Forty-one shots to two raised hands, cell phones and wallets that are confused with illegal contrabands. I’d introduce them to pigs who love making their guns click like wine glasses. Everlasting targets surrounded by bullets, making them a walking bull's eye, a living piñata, held at the mercy of police brutality, and then we’ll see if they finally weren’t aware of the truth, if their eyes weren’t finally open like a box of Pandora.
I’d show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder. The bird of democracy flew the coop back in Florida. See, for some, and justice comes in packs like wolves in sheep's clothing. T.K.O.d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope.
When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections.
They keep telling us all is equal. I’d tell them that instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, financing corporate mergers and leading us into unnecessary wars and under-table dealings with Enron and Halliburton, maybe they can work on making society more peaceful.Instead, they take more and more money out of inner city schools, give up on the idea of rehabilitation and build more prisons for poor people. With unemployment continuing to rise like a deficit, it's no wonder why so many think that crime pays.
Maybe this trip will make them see the error of their ways. Or maybe next time, we'll just all get out and vote. And as far as their stay in the White House, tell them that numbered are their days.”

America Is Not a Free Country

by Fred Reed
What about smoking? Why is it the government’s business? If I want to let people smoke in my bar, it’s my affair. People who don’t like it can, once again, go somewhere else. I don’t say this truculently. Customers have every right not to patronize establishments that they find disagreeable. If they don’t like the smoke, or the music, or the food, or my ugly mug, that thing in front with the hinges on it is available. A "door," we call it.
I don’t go to places I don’t like, and don’t expect anyone else to. Why is any of this of concern to the government? To any government? Why must we be eternally diapered by tiresome prisses in power?

Today, what the government ought to do, it does badly, and what it ought not do at all, it does too well – such as snoop, control, meddle, and impose the ways of the unwashed on everyone. And it’s going to get worse. Much worse.

Do you believe him?

Pure Evil


Bush on vacation at work ?
Bush lies !
http://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=off&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-06%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=bush+lies&btnG=Search

http://www.bushlies.com/

http://www.bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm

http://bush-lies.blogspot.com/

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20021125/alterman

http://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1182/article11417.asp

No Pump Left Behind

September 1,2005
As I post this every station in town
has raised their price today to $3.35
per gallon.Thank you mister Bush
and your Arab buddies.
MUTTBOB

No Pump Left Behind: "NPLB*
Proclaimed a HUGE Success!
*NPLB = No Pump Left Behind
Volume III, Number 5, May, 2005


The BUSH administration announced with
pride today the results of its program to
produce skyrocketing gas prices at every
gas pump across the land."

"Unlike the principals and teachers of this nation
who have been unable to lift the scores of all
children so that all read above average, we have
had 100 per cent success."

"According to our data, every American family
can now count on paying inflated gas prices no
matter what station they visit and no matter what
pump they select."

"Several years ago folks doubted that we could
achieve such sweeping change in the life of
citizens, but we have proven them wrong."

Recent studies have challenged whether the
educational program has delivered on its promises,
but no one has expressed any doubts regarding
the gas price elevation strategies of this administration.

The President was a bit smug when asked
about his gasoline price achievements. It
became clear that the country could trust
him to maintain the policies that had led
to such high prices.

Jamie McKenzie

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

As I'm posting this I am watching an interview
with Ted Kopel and the head of FEMA,Mike
Brown,who says that he just found out about
the 5 thousand people in the New Orleans
convention center.The mayor and the press
say that the number is 15 to 25 thousand.Five
days after the storm Bush says that help is on
the way.Meanwhile people are dying.
MUTTBOB

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion:
"THE STORY OF THE HURRICANE
COWBOY WHO FIDDLED WHILE
NEW ORLEANS DROWNED
How Bush Spent His Summer Vacation"

by Amanda Lang, PhD
http://www.opednews.com/
Why did Bush vacation – cut wood, clear brush,
bike, and read -- for days while the world watched
Katrina develop then slam as a category 4
hurricane into the Gulf Coast? Just as he did
on September 11, 2001, he froze. They don’t
have cable or telephones in Crawford? The
unfolding catastrophe has Bush leadership
skills, or lack thereof, written all over it. He
treats his own citizens with the same contempt
and callousness as he does the Iraqi civilians –
as “collateral damage.” If a category 4 hurricane
is not a “bomb” dropping on American soil, what
is? Bush remained on vacation one whole day
after Katrina hit, WAITING FOR WHAT? The
federal government was ‘missing in action’ and
has failed its citizens abysmally. And Congress...
where the hell are they? They rushed back to
Washington over night for one woman’s feeding
tube, but can’t seem to find the way back for a
destructive hurricane that most likely killed
thousands. Are these citizens too poor or not
expounding the right religion to garner the
attention the Trade Tower victims received?
They all sat and watched this train wreck, now
they are screwing up the rescue and salvage,
probably busy searching for the ‘scapegoat’
du jour. Do the Bush administration and
Congress want to create a situation where
they could declare martial law? Looks like it.
New Orleans has become a war zone. Martial
law declared. Since when is a policy of "you loot,
we shoot" appropriate for people just trying to
survive until help arrives? THEY ARE DYING.
So are they ‘looters’ or ‘survivors’ (like the TV
show “Survivor” Americans loves to love)? So
what if in addition to food, water, diapers, and
medical supplies, they take some jeans? They’ve
been wearing oil, chemical and sewer-soaked
clothes for days. They’re wading through floating,
decaying dead bodies. New Orleans is and will
be uninhabitable for three to six months at least,
so the merchandise is already a write-off. Think
about it? Would you want this merchandise?
Let good come from it while it can.
The ‘survivors’ have obtained weapons and are
using them. Escaped prisoners riot and hold
hostages. People go ‘feral’ displaying ‘pack’
and/or ‘mob’ behaviors when threatened and
their lives are in 'great peril.' Unfortunately, in
America you can find a gun anywhere in virtually
any caliber, so chaos reigns. A "loot-shoot"
policy only exacerbates the problem. Relief
workers received orders to divert efforts from
‘saving people’ to ‘crime fighting’. Why choose
‘property’ over ‘life’? The policy lacks common
sense, compassion, or understanding of the
survival instinct. CNN has images of people
dead and dying on camera. Their reporters are
watching people – children and elderly – die
before their eyes. The sick, injured, dehydrated,
starving, and scared feel abandoned. In the hot,
stinking Superdome, where 25,000 refugees
await evacuation, fires and fighting are breaking
out. Fear, anger, and hopelessness will push
conditions to a boil, and more people than
necessary will die – mostly the innocent
victims of this horrible disaster.
Do we need to request U.N Aid and Peace
Keeping Forces? It appears we lack the
expertise and leadership to prevent or deal
with a major national crisis. Why aren't these
convoys and helicopters dropping in water,
food, and medicine to these trapped individuals?
Yes, conditions are deteriorating, but our
National Guard soldiers fly helicopters through
Iraq every day taking gunfire for a far less
legitimate cause. Is the relief necessary beyond
the Bush administration's capabilities? We do
not posses the numbers of National Guard
soldiers and relief workers necessary to get
this situation under control. Just like Iraq –
not enough bodies on the ground to do the job.
Bush cut funding to New Orleans hurricane
preparations by $72.1 million and gave eight
jets to Pakistan – FREE – valued at $36 million
each = $288 million. Get the picture. ‘Survivors’
of this crisis sure could use that $288 million
and the $5.6 billion per month [this breaks down
to almost $186 million a day] or $672 BILLION
PER YEAR the Neocons are throwing at Iraq,
plus the billions in pork given to corporations
this year alone.
Even worse, image you’re a National Guard
soldier in Iraq that has family, friends, and
property in ‘harm’s way, but are stuck policing
the streets of Iraq. The irony of the situation is
macabre. You were sent to fight an urban guerilla
war based on a 'buffet' of evolving lies and
rationales -- perhaps on your second or third
tour -- and your family is back home dealing
with this mess alone -- homeless, injured,
starving, drowning, or dying -- and you are not
there and you don't have a clue what their
condition is because no one else does. Tragic
irony. They face an uncertain future and still
may die themselves on a street or road in Iraq.
In the news, they hear of over-the-top CEO
salaries, while Florida hotels evict refugee
families so fans can attend a football game.
How would you feel to discover your loved
ones where not evacuated, even though it was
known a category 4 or 5 hurricane was
approaching? Or even worse, they still stuck
in the disaster area because at your pay scale,
they just couldn’t afford to leave.
A reckoning time is here. The ‘Hurricane Cowboy’
has a lot to answer for, as do the ‘knuckled-headed’
Neocons and the ‘do-nothing’ Congress. This
tragedy should have been prevented. Hundreds
of thousands of Americans lives completely
destroyed and while Bush fiddled with a guitar,
went on a two-day speaking jaunt/fund-raiser to
California and Arizona, and ‘read’ a speech,
ironically to a group of sailors and WWII veterans:
"This morning, our hearts and prayers are with
our fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast," Bush
said. "We know that many are anxious to return
to their homes. It's not possible at this moment."
His heart and prayers may have been there,
but his ass sure wasn’t.

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion:
"President Bush Knows the True
Reasons He Started A War in Iraq,
But He's Not Going to Tell"
by Jason Leopold
http://www.opednews.com
Every year, right around the anniversary of 9/11
the Bush administration spins the public about the
reasons 1,864 American soldiers have died
fighting for a lie in Iraq. And every year, it’s just
as crucial that the media tell the public the truth
about the reasons the war was started. So here
goes. The disinformation campaign the White
House launched last weekend should leave no
doubt that the war in Iraq was hatched well
before 9/11 and is part of a broader strategy
to remake the entire Middle East into a so-called
Pax Americana, a blueprint drafted by hardcore
neoconservatives years ago that called for
overthrowing Middle East dictators and installing
U.S. approved governments in the region. It’s
entirely likely that the administration will attempt
to sell Congress and the public another war in the
near future, the next likely target being Iran. How
else should we interpret the following statement
Bush made in Utah Monday, during a speech
he made to Veterans of Foreign Wars?“The third
part of our strategy in the war on terror is to
spread the hope of freedom across the broader
Middle East,” Bush said. As public support for
the Iraq war erodes, President Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney have taken their propaganda
campaign on the road, once again linking the war
in Iraq to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, in hopes that
the administration can dramatically change
perception of the military conflict in Iraq, even
though a half-dozen federal investigations have
concluded that Iraq played no role in 9/11.In
the book “The Price of Loyalty,” Bush’s former
Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill said that the
Iraq war was planned just days after the president
was sworn into office. “From the very beginning,
there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was
a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill
said, adding that going after Saddam Hussein was
a priority 10 days after the Bush’s inauguration
and eight months before Sept. 11.

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

http://www.internetweekly.org/iwr/parody_bush_antichrist.html

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion:
The RightWing Cesspool Overflows.
A Pattern Begins to Emerge:
The Dark Innards of The Political &
Religous Right
It's Ugly, almost Demonic, and people are talking about the
AntiChrist- a deceiver who preys upon the faithful- as do Bush
and other leaders of the Christian Far Right
by Rob Kall
http://www.opednews.com

Like the green vomit and rotating head of demonically
possessed Linda Blair, in The Exorcist, the disgusting
demons of the far right are finally showing their true selves.

It seems that wherever you look, you can see the ugly
demons that truly drive and lead George Bush's right
wing administration and followers. The Cesspool is
overflowing, and the ugly creatures that truly drive the
right wing's policy are showing their horrific faces on
talk radio, in response to Mother Cindy Sheehan, in
response to the real democracy that is emerging in
South American politics, in torture policies at Abu Ghraib,
in the compromises for the Iraqi constitution.

There's a new batch of Abu Ghraib pictures so bad,
so shameful they will justifiably inflame the fury of the
Arab and Islamic world. The pictures have been
shown to members of congress and they were
shocked. Truthout.org reports the following comments.

"It was disgusting," said Texas Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchinson. 'There were new ones that we hadn't
seen before, and they're bad. I mean there's no
doubt about that.' Bad enough to show to Congress
apparently, but not the American people.
The NewsHour's Ray Suarez said the images
reportedly depict 'assault, coerced sexual activity,
rape, even dead bodies.' Some may have originated
outside of Abu Ghraib. Rep. Jane Harman said she
saw videos of a prisoner banging his head against a
wall and a group of men masturbating. "Some of the
videos are more disturbing than the still photos that
you've seen," added Sen. Bill Nelson.

Just as Pat Robertson has recently shown himself
to be a totally out of control psycho,
calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez,
these banned images show how out of control,
how disgustingly perverted and sick the leadership
chain has allowed itself to become. There is plenty
of proof that these horrifically sadistic, pathetic acts
of torture and degradation have occurred not only
under the watch of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Gonzalez and
Bush, but with their awareness and intentional support.
We know that the republican led congress has made
efforts to protect the perpetrators, perhaps even to
enable them to continue their unconscionable acts.

Capitol Hill Blue reported, in a recent article,
Is Bush Out of Control?

“Buy beleaguered, overworked
White House aides enough drinks and they tell a sordid
tale of an administration under siege, beset by bitter
staff infighting and led by a man whose mood swings
suggest paranoia bordering on schizophrenia

.”We have news commentators sliming, Plaming, and brutally,
cruelly attacking Mother Cindy Sheehan, whose son
was killed in a war started based on lies.

National Biodiesel Board - www.biodiesel.org - www.nbb.org

National Biodiesel Board - www.biodiesel.org - www.nbb.org: "5/16/05
We don't need Bush and his buddies sticking their greedy fingers into
anything else!
President Bush Makes Historic Visit to Biodiesel Plant
Visiting a biodiesel plant near Richmond, Virginia, President Bush called biodiesel "one of our nation's most promising alternative fuel sources" and discussed the importance of a comprehensive energy plan to wean the United States from foreign petroleum.
-Click here for video, photos and transcript
http://www.biodiesel.org/news/events/presidential_visit/default.shtm
-Click here to watch speech
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050516.v.smil
-Click here for Virginia Biodiesel profile"
http://www.biodiesel.org/news/events/presidential_visit/Virginia%20Biodiesel%20Refinery%20background%20_3_.pdf

CYBERBUSS Buss Station

CYBERBUSS Buss Station: "Meet the current Republican leaders of
our country and what they are all about
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ehouval/gopconstrm.mov
Voter Fraud?
How else do you explain Bush's increased popularity? Do you really
think that he is more popular than he was in 2000?
See here http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won_.php
or here http://uscountvotes.org/
(where many counties in Florida show that up 70% of registered
repuplidemocrats voted can) or here http://hartfordadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:91472
or here http://www.votergate.tv/
and here http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/BOE/results/currentresults1.htm
(where some counties in Ohio had more votes than registered voters)
decide fer yerself what that smell is coming from Florida & Ohio. "

frontline: son of al qaeda: interviews: maha & zaynab khadr | PBS

frontline: son of al qaeda: interviews: maha & zaynab khadr | PBS: "Maha, when Osama bin Laden turned his attention away from the Russians and he declared war against the Americans, who he called the crusaders, and went to war against the crusaders and the Jews, what was your reaction to that?
MAHA: To be honest with you, for us it doesn't matter the name of our enemy. For me, I'm originally Palestinian, from Palestine. For me, Israel is an enemy, although I never had any contact because I was not even born in Palestine. But because of what I hear they are doing, it hurts me everyday, everyday seeing people being killed, or being arrested or their homes being demolished. So it hurts me.
So for him to change his [rhetoric] against America , it's because of what the Americans have done in the Gulf. They have really abused Muslims too much, I mean 50 years ago, still they were helping Israel. Israel is number one to receive assistance from the States. Nobody ever noticed that the Americans are assisting the Israeli people, but when the Americans declared war against the Muslims and they came to Saudi Arabia because you see we believe Saudi Arabia is the holy land that no non-Muslims should rule in it.
ZAYNAB: No non-Muslim is allowed to enter it.
MAHA: Not even to enter it, and now the Americans are even running their own military camps in it, it became very annoying to any Muslim.
ZAYNAB: By the way, you know, he never, never, changed his angle. He did not declare war on the Russians and eventually declare war on the Americans. We fought the Russians because they invaded Muslim land, and when they were kicked out, we had nothing to fight them for. So they were finished.
And then the Americans started entering Muslim land, so it was just their turn. We are not fighting them because we like war. Us Muslims, we are not war people, but we do not like our rights to be taken. And he started it being very nicely, we really ask the Americans very politely to leave our country. You say you came for the Gulf War, the Gulf War is finished. Why are you staying? It is our right, this is our country to tell you that you were welcome then, you are not welcome now. We would like you to pack and leave. And the Americans won't leave.

So if you go back to how it all started, he did ask very nicely, and the people with him did ask, they said we are not enemies of the kingdom, we are not enemies of the army, we are not enemies of the government. All we are asking is that this is our land, and we would like these people to be out.

IWOJIMA
muttbob

A Tale of Six Boys: By Joe

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI. where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan! , during WW II.
Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys from?"
I told him that we were from Wisconsin. "Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."
(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night).
When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. Here are his words that night.
"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our Fathers" which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.
"Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called "War." But it didn't turn out to be a game.
Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are generals who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old.
(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph. ...a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.
"The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'
"The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32. ...ten years after this picture was taken.
"The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19 When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.
"The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.
"You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.
"When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'
"So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time."
Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.
We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice. Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom. Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world. STOP and THANK GOD for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.
REMINDER: Everyday you wake up free, IS a great day

Do You Trust "THEM"

I'm not sure who wrote this or when it was but it sounds like them.

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 >>> employees and has the following statistics: >>> >>> >>>
*29 have been accused of spousal abuse >>> *7 have been arrested for fraud >>> *19 have been accused of writing bad checks >>> *117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses >>> *3 have done time for assault >>> *71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit >>> *14 have been arrested on drug-related charges >>> *8 have been arrested for shoplifting >>> *21 are currently defendants in lawsuits >>> *84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year >>> >>>
Can you guess which organization this is? >>> >>> >>> >>>
Give up yet? >>> >>> >>>
It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. >>> The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year >>> designed to keep the rest of us in line

Stop the Military Recruiters! Leaflet, Jun 03

Stop the Military Recruiters! Leaflet, Jun 03: "The Pentagon spent $2.4 billion on recruiting in 2002. Annually 200,000 young people are recruited into the military. Why are they really trying to get us to join the army? Millions of people around the globe have flooded the streets against the war and occupation of Iraq. Why? They know that this war has nothing to do with safety, security, or stopping terrorism. People are figuring out that the US government is on a global rampage to dominate the oil resources of the world and institute regime change whenever and wherever they want.
Let's be clear - their wars are for profit and empire and they need millions of kids to go off and do their dirty work for them.("Did you know that we were paid for the gulf war by Saudi Arabia and made a profit.Cash that is!Our kids still lost their lives!) Will you and your friends get suckered into doing it or will you join the movement to stop the madness?
Many soldiers on the front lines are Black, Latino, and/or poor. Most of the kids who join the army and get sent to fight and die will come from schools full of Black, Latino, Asian, American Indian, and poor kids. People of color represent 1/3 of all enlisted personnel, but only 1/8 of all officers. The American Council has attributed a drop in Black college enrollment to military recruiting. Only 35% of recruits receive any education benefits from the military. Only 12% of male and 6% of female veterans surveyed have made any use of skills they learned in the military for regular jobs. Immigrants who enlist are given citizenship only after they have been killed during service. "

World War III - Axis of Evil - Bush, Blair and Sharon, attempt to take over the world

World War III - Axis of Evil - Bush, Blair and Sharon, attempt to take over the world: "The full scale of the human cost already paid for the war on Iraq is only now becoming clear. Last week's estimate by investigators, using credible methodology, that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians - most of them women and children - have died since the US-led invasion is a profound moral indictment of our countries. The US and British governments quickly moved to cast doubt on the Lancet medical journal findings, citing other studies. These mainly media-based reports put the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at about 15,000 - although the basis for such an endorsement is unclear, since neither the US nor the UK admits to collecting data on Iraqi civilian casualties.
Civilian deaths have always been a tragic reality of modern war. But the conflict in Iraq was supposed to be different - US and British forces were dispatched to liberate the Iraqi people, not impose their own tyranny of violence.
Reading accounts of the US-led invasion, one is struck by the constant, almost casual, reference to civilian deaths. Soldiers and marines speak of destroying hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicles that turned out to be crammed with civilians. US marines acknowledged in the aftermath of the early, bloody battle for Nassiriya that their artillery and air power had pounded civilian areas in a blind effort to suppress insurgents thought to be holed up in the city. The infamous 'shock and awe' bombing of Baghdad produced hundreds of deaths, as did the 3rd Infantry Division's 'Thunder Run', an armoured thrust in Baghdad that slaughtered everyone in its path.

"Of course, the US and Britain have a history of turning a blind eye to Iraqi suffering when it suits their political purposes. During the 1990s, hundreds of thousands are estimated by the UN to have died as a result of sanctions. Throughout that time, the US and the UK maintained the fiction that this was the fault of Saddam Hussein, who refused to give up his WMD. We now know that Saddam had disarmed and those deaths were the responsibility of the US and Britain, which refused to lift sanctions.

"They’re asking our kids to fight and die"

This pretty much sums up my thoughts on this subject and I didn't have to write it all down. !COOL! BS
I SERVED MY COUNTRY PROUDLY AND OUR KIDS ARE SERVING PROUDLY NOW!
IT'S NOT THEIR FAULT THAT THEY DON'T REALLY KNOW WHY THEIR THERE!
IT'S OURS!

LOU PLUMMER served in the North Carolina National Guard for six years. Today, he is an antiwar activist and member of Military Families Speak Out. His son Drew has served in the Navy since June 2001 and is currently stationed aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. In March, Drew spoke out against the war on Iraq at a peace vigil in Fayetteville, N.C.--and was charged by the Navy for making "disloyal statements." After an Associated Press reporter threatened to write a story about the incident, Drew was let off with a slap on the wrist. Lou Plummer spoke with Socialist Worker’s JULIE SOUTHERLAND and CATHERINE GEARY.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
YOU COME from a military background. How did you become an antiwar activist?

I’M NOT a pacifist. For example, the American Civil War was a war that couldn't be avoided, and had I placed myself in that historical situation, then I would have been willing to fight to end slavery.
I joined the military as a 17-year-old whose dad and grandfather had done the same thing and felt the family pressure. Plus, coming from a working-class family, this was my opportunity to make money and go to college, so that's what I did.
During the entire time that I was in the military, I didn’t really disagree with its mission. After I left the military, I went to work at a correctional office. Working in the prison system, I became politically awake and realized that the government does lie, the government enforces racist policies, and that woke me up to activism.
My son joined the military when he was 17, which meant that I had to sign the papers for him to actually be able to enlist. That was his decision--he did it with an informed mind, so I let him do it.
On the other hand, there’s a place in the military for people to speak out, and my son has done that since he’s been in the service. He’s gotten in trouble for doing it. I'm proud of him for doing that. It’s not like my son is "defending our country." My son is organizing GIs.

WHY DID you get involved with Military Families Speak Out and the Bring Them Home Now Campaign?

I was a peace activist before I heard of Military Families Speak Out. This organization appealed to me right off the bat because I'm a veteran, my dad’s a vet, my grandfather’s a vet. Plus my son is on active duty. So I felt I had a voice that mattered.
I was in Chicago for the United For Peace and Justice conference, representing the community of Fayetteville, and met up with Charlie Richardson and Nancy Lessin, who founded the organization.

WHAT ARE the conditions like for U.S. soldiers in Iraq today?

THERE ARE people there who have spent 140-150 days with no hot food, the temperature there is 120 degrees, and they’re getting three liters of rationed water a day. The tools of war making are flowing in, but the basic needs of the soldiers are not. The guys are writing home saying, "Please send me toothpaste," "Please send me toilet paper." And yet, when you go to the military to ask them to comment on this, you're talking to career soldiers who say everything's fine, we’re gonna kick some Iraqi ass. And it’s just bullshit.
The majority of the troops in Iraq are reserve component soldiers. They don't have the same built-in support structure that active duty units have. Here you are, serving the richest country in the world, and you haven’t had a hot meal in four-and-a-half months.
And people say, "You don't want to talk about that--it’s going to undermine morale." How’s that going to undermine morale? It’s ludicrous. The people who are serving know what their situation is, and if they speak out, we can put pressure on the government to improve those conditions.

WE’RE TOLD we need to "Support Our Troops"?

THAT’S SOMETHING we hear a lot around here. When you guys leave here, drive to the end of the street, turn right, and there’s a big pizza sign that says, "Papa Johns: We Support Our Troops." Go in and say, "My husband’s in Afghanistan or Iraq, can I have a discount?" And they’ll say "No."
Supporting our troops mean trying to protect their lives. It means trying to support their families. It doesn't mean tying yellow ribbons.
Do I support our troops? You betcha. My son's on active duty, my brother got pulled out of medical school to go on active duty, my uncle's on active duty, I’m a vet. As a peace activist, I believe I do more to support American soldiers than any right-wing, war-loving Republican ever thought about doing.

WHAT ARE the real reasons for this war and occupation?

MOST OF us knew a long time ago that we were being lied to. Now the world knows that we were lied to. The war was pitched to us as a war that would keep Americans safe by capturing these weapons of mass destruction. And it was also to break the ties that the administration claimed existed between al-Qaeda and the nation of Iraq.
There wasn't a whole lot said in the beginning about liberating the Iraqi people, but as the war took place, and the weapons of mass destruction didn’t materialize, and we didn’t find any al-Qaeda training camps in Iraq, then it became this "war of liberation." And that worked for about two or three days until the people that we had just "liberated" started killing our kids.
I say kids because the majority of them are 18, 19, 20 years old. Last year, they were worrying about football practice and algebra tests and going to the prom, and now they’re dead, lying in a box. When you hear on the news that two American soldiers were killed by rocket fire in Afghanistan today, those are people like my kid.
And what you’re talking about is not 142 people dying. We’re talking about one person dying 142 times. That’s 142 families whose child is dead. I don't know about you, but I don’t feel one bit safer. And I think that’s a crime.
If there's one thing about this movement that’s important, it’s the fact that what we do can save somebody’s life. The people who are benefiting from this war are huge companies like Halliburton and McDonnell Douglas. The United States is the world’s richest country and spends more on the military than the next 20 countries in the world combined. The fact that we’re spending a billion dollars a week in Iraq is mind-boggling.
Then you have the "support our troops" government wanting to cut the pay of combat soldiers. They want to reduce imminent danger pay. And they wanted to start a futures market on terrorist attacks, so if you could bet that 15 American soldiers will be killed in April of 2004, you could make money on it. That’s a crime against humanity.

SOME ACTIVISTS in the antiwar movement consider this just a "Bush thing."

I LIKE to quote Michael Moore: "Bill Clinton was one of the best Republican presidents we ever had." He fought wars and called them "humanitarian wars." Unfortunately, we live in a society where the two major political parties cater to the 10 percent of people in this country who control the money. And those people by and large have investments in the defense industry.
What Bill Clinton did and what George Bush does and what whoever succeeds George Bush will do is cater to the people who have the money. I got into a debate recently with one of the pilots who was shot down in Mogadishu in 1993.
He claimed that had George W. Bush been president when he was shot down, then there would be nothing where Mogadishu is except for a big black hole. But the truth of the matter is that his entire mission was planned in the older Bush administration. Bill Clinton took over, and he had the plans approved by--guess who?--Colin Powell.

SOME PEOPLE say that soldiers volunteer for the military, so they pretty much know what they're getting into when they sign up. What do you think about this attitude?

WE HAVE a heavier operational tempo now than we did 25 years ago, when the military had double the number of active-duty troops. So we’re relying on reserve component people--folks like me who enlisted to get some college money. And we’re totally disrupting their lives. I know people in the reserve component who were farmers. Well, when you’re a farmer, and you get called to go to Bosnia for 10 months, you don't get to have a crop that year. If you have livestock, you have to sell them.
There is an economic draft in the U.S. In the entire U.S. Senate, in the entire U.S. House of Representatives, from all those parents there, they’ve managed to produce exactly one member of the armed services. I'm talking about over 500 people. But if you live in Harlem, and you want to get a job where you can make $20,000 a year and have health insurance and educational benefits and get the hell out of Harlem, your choices are pretty much to join the military, and nothing else.
That’s what’s there for you. So, they did have a choice. They had a choice to stay at home where the average life expectancy for a male person of color is about 35, where half the people of color staying in that environment end up being convicted of a felony--or joining the military.
And on the other side, you have people who say, "Okay, my dad's rich, and I’m going to decide whether I want to go to Yale, or whether I'm going to join the Marine Corps." So there's freedom of choice out there, if that's what you want to call it, but anyone can tell you that this country’s wars have always been fought by the poor. We’re asking the poor kids to fight and die so that the rich kids can have an easier life.

WHAT CAN we do to end the occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home?

THE BIGGEST thing that we can do is to speak out every day. When you wake up in the morning, if you realize that your mission that day is to save a human being’s life, then it’s a good day to write a letter, it’s a good day to get somebody else to write a letter, it’s a good day to make a phone call, it’s a good day to get in your car and drive from Greensboro to Fayetteville to talk to somebody.
We have to know the facts, and we have to keep throwing them out to people--know what’s going on, talk about it every day, and make that your mission on a daily basis, to help save these people’s lives. What we’re going to do is what happened 30-35 years ago. We’re going to make enough parents, enough wives, enough citizens angry enough to take to the streets and take to the press, and we’re going to make a difference.

The Roots of the Bush-Cheney's Oil Government

The Roots of the Bush-Cheney's Oil Government: " Most frightening to me -
as it should be to all Americans - is that
our country is now RUN by oil executives
- men from the very same club to which the
ExxonMobil's Indonesian robber barons belong.Men with, it is becoming obvious,
the very same attitude. In a reined-in repeat of the Suharno Coup and post-coup
corporate feeding frenzy in which Suharto richly rewarded all those who aided
him, the Bush-Cheney consortium has lost no time handing out the prizes, seeking
to reduce regulations, promoting wholesale drilling, creating a phoney energy
crisis and driving up fuel prices, stalking unspoiled wildlands and even trying
to push for legislation to allow the fed to seize private land for energy
interests. The series of coincidental fires at oil refineries and the rolling
blackouts aren't so different from mysteriously lobbed hand-grenades.
And lest we overlook it, the basic Bush energy plan appears to have been
taken almost it for tat from the Baker Institute's 'Strategic Energy Policy
Changes for the 21st Century' report - a report created by a task force that
includes two dozen major oil/energy moguls and also Kissinger Associates. (now
McCarty Kissinger)
How can the behemoths (as one Indonesian writer described the American
corporate-fueled government) be stopped? The question that screams to be asked
is: Why are the stockholders silent on the crimes of the company in which they
hold a material interest? For that matter, why are there still any stockholders
in Exxon at all, in the face of such crimes? Is money so important that nothing
- however evil - matters any more?"

Bush & Environment

Bush & Environment: " Excerpts of statements made by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on the Tavis Smiley show, Tuesday September 28th 2004, relating to his latest book, Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering The Country and Hijacking Our Democracy.
Kennedy:
'I've been bipartisan for 20 years as an environmental advocate, 'cause I don't think there's any such thing as Republican children or Democratic children. I don't want the environment to become the province of a single political party. But you can't talk honestly about the environment today in any context without speaking critically of this president. This is the worst environmental president we've had in American history without any rival. If you look at The National Resources Defence Council's web site , you'll see over 400 major environmental rollbacks that have been promoted by the White House over the last 3 1/2 years as part of a deliberate, concerted attempt to eviscerate 30 years of environmental law.'
They don't want the public to know about this, because even the Republicans would turn against them, and this is what their own polling shows, and I show this in the book. And so they conceal their agenda, this radical agenda behind an Orwellian rhetoric. When they want to destroy the forest, they call it the Healthy Forest Act. When they want to destroy the air, they call it the Clear Skies Bill.
But they've -- most insidiously, they've put polluters in charge of the agencies that are supposed to protect Americans from pollution. The head of Public Lands in this country is a mining industry lobbyist who believes that public lands are unconstitutional. The head of the Forest Service is probably the most rapacious timber industry lobbyist in history, Mark Ray. The head of the air division of EPA is a utility lobbyist who spent his whole life representing the worst air polluters in America. The head of Superfund is a woman whose last job was teaching corporations how to evade Superfund. The second in command of EPA is a Monsanto lobbyist.

Crimes Against Nature

Crimes Against Nature: "'You simply can't talk honestly about the environment today without criticizing this president. George W. Bush will go down as the worst environmental president in our nation's history.'
So writes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his new book 'Crimes Against Nature,' which details how President Bush has rewritten the nation's environmental laws in favor of industry and filled his administration with former lobbyists and corporate executives who now oversee the regulation of their former industries.
A senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and president of the grassroots Waterkeeper Alliance, Kennedy argues that the Bush administration consistently favored corporate interests over the environment and public health, assaulting the very idea of a common good. He recently spoke with MotherJones.com George W. Bush's many crimes against nature.

MotherJones.com: How has the U.S. government historically changed its approach to public 'commons' such as the air and water?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: One of the successes of the right-wing propaganda campaign has been to convince the American people that the environmental laws were new innovations passed after Earth Day. But in fact, it's always been illegal to pollute. The pollution was restricted by two ancient doctrines. One's called the Public Trust Doctrine, which says that those assets that are by their nature shared assets -- the commonwealth, the air and water, the wildlife, public lands -- are owned by the public. Everybody has a right to use them, and nobody has a right to treat them in a way that will diminish their use and enjoyment by others. The other law is Nuisance Law, which protects private property from intrusion by polluters. Nuisance law has been turned on its head by the right wing, who claim to be on the side of property rights, but"

Kyoto?Guess Bush does'nt speek that language!

One Small Step

Yesterday, the world took a small step toward combating climate change. The Kyoto Protocol entered into force with the largest emitter of greenhouse gases -- the United States -- refusing to participate. The BUSH Administration pulled out of the Kyoto process shortly after entering office, saying that it would hurt the economy. According to that logic, climate change's impacts on public health and agriculture -- not to mention coastal areas being hit by rising seas and more frequent powerful storms -- will help the economy. We don't think so. And neither does the insurance industry, who expects losses tied to climate change in the hundreds of billions in the next decade alone. The "hurting the economy" statement also is a disservice to the know-how, innovative spirit, and expertise of the American people to confront the climate change challenge.
For those looking for a silver bullet to the problem, Kyoto certainly isn't it -- but it is a first step in the right direction. Never before have 141 nations came together, pledging to reduce emissions that contribute to global warming. Kyoto provides a framework of international action to address the problem. Back home, the White House defends their inaction by saying "We are still learning about the science of climate change." Unfortunately, while the Bush Administration is still learning, the rest of the world is forging ahead.