That Dick Cheney

Dear Vice President Cheney:

Please speak more truthfully. As you know, there is no candidate in American politics who seeks to "give up the fight against the terrorists."

Aren't you ashamed of yourself for lying to the American people in an effort to scare them like that for partisan gain?

If you were a credible authority on fighting terrorism, you would have convened your White House antiterrorism committee long before September 11, 2001 caught you in a goof-up that even you couldn't lie and threaten your way out of.



If your leadership were safeguarding our preeminence as peaceful, even-handed, justice serving people, we would not be threatened by militant reactionaries who see us as threats to their homeland security, rights, and natural resources.

Your willingness to politicize the terrorist threat, instead of blunting it, has jeopardized the effectiveness of our covert anti-terror operations by inciting everybody with a gripe into becoming our attacker. This is because you fail to impress anyone as a leader they can trust or as a man of integrity.

Instead, you imply by attacking Howard Dean, Ned Lamont and the people of the United States who oppose widening the armed conflict, that you represent corporate and military interests only, and that you would rather spread conflict than the rule of law under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Do you really believe that terror and money are more potent than God? I suggest you recant and step down before you are impeached, because you are imperiling the rule of law with your delusional belligerence.

Everybody who sends weapons around the world to blow up cities, towns, infrastructure and civilians is a terrorist. The reason you are so unfit for fighting terrorism is summed up by Jesus in the Gospel of Mark 3:23,

"How can Satan cast out Satan? And if a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is finished! But no one can enter the strong man's house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house."

We seem vulnerable because instead of leading us in the fight against evil, you have secretly delivered us over to be bound by the unrighteous chords of corruption, cruelty and faithlessness.

Waste and devastation are the signifiers of your character. Your profit's qualities are poverty and misery for the world's people, and for the future.

Get out.

Sincerely, Florindo Troncelliti

Here now

If I were in heaven, would I know it? How? Are we abiding in the realm our senses reveal to us?

What we perceive is only a reflection of what we behold within ourselves: our hearts, our consciences, our beliefs.

If the God of Moses has made us holy and Jesus Christ has sanctified us by his blood, what more is to be done?

My 9th grade math teacher had a sign on the wall of his room:

"Wise men still seek him."

As Whitman says, "There has never been any more life than there is now." And there is all truth now and all love and hope.

All is now.

Muffler

When the announcement of Judge Taylor's ruling on the unconstitutionality of the NSA wiretapping program was issued yesterday, it had to wait behind the week's big story, Jon Benet Ramsay's "killer's" arrest.

Nevermind that

Mr Karr's ex-wife has since insisted he was with her during the period that the murder happened.

Of course, the judge's ruling, unlike the story involving Mr. Karr, is now out of the headlines.

The judge on Thursday ordered an immediate halt to the program, but the government said it would request a stay during the appeals process, arguing that the secret surveillance program is crucial to stopping terrorists.

"We have confidence in the lawfulness of this program," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in Washington. "We're going to do everything we can do in the courts to allow this program to continue."

So shut up about it. We have an election in November.

Bombing For Peace

As the saying goes, We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

“It’s an adrenaline rush,” said Oropeza. “You get excited when a jet you loaded comes back empty.” -- Senior Airman Jose Oropeza, 40th EMXS weapons loader

You know, as long as we keep bombing, it's going to be hard for people who hate us to muster a big effective counterattack. Of course, the $64,000 question is, Why do they hate us?

Fortunately, most members of the rank and file in the US military don't have to ask--or answer--such open-ended questions.

They're too busy doing their job.

“We build them (the bombs) on a munitions assembly conveyor,” said Yale. “With a good crew, we can build one bomb in about six to eight minutes.” ...

Yale said when building the bombs, he works with parts like fins, fuzzies, strakes, lanyards and fuses.

“It feels pretty good,” said Yale about putting together weapons that are used in real combat situations. “There’s some extra pride involved. We put the ‘power’ in air power.”

This air warfare has really been used intensively since WWII, when we moved from a policy of bombing only military targets to targeting civilian population centers in order to "demoralize" the enemy out of their will to carry on the war.

We had to stymie the Japanese government's attempts to negotiate a surrender after the firebombing of Tokyo and Osaka incinerated hundreds of thousands of old men, women and children.

They couldn't accept "unconditional surrender" because they couldn't risk anything happening to the Emperor.

The Emperor himself and some high ranking officers were trying to extend the olive branch through the Soviet Union, but Truman cut off their overtures.

The Congress had spent over $2 billion on research and development of the A-bomb. If we didn't use it with demonstrable success, and deter the Soviet Union from military conquest, Congress would be unlikely to approve large defense appropriations in the future.

Well, we didn't deter the Soviet Union, but we did incinerate more Japanese cities, force their surrender (even though they were already willing to surrender), and ensure approval of giant defense budgets for the indefinite future.

In fact, our military now has so much money that we not only have expert bomb-makers like Mr. Yale, above, waging our war, but we have glitzy websites to glorify it.

Help!

Damnit Janet has a good post on the commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The hollow transparency of the rhetoric gets worse and worse as the years go by.

Talk about "unsustainable" lifestyles!

The post also has some good info about going after Bechtel. It's time for all of these weapons makers/bomb makers and war profiteers to start to worry about the children of their workers and how they can convert to some useful product to make a living.

It's time for us to fund social programs and retirement with DoD budget. That's REALLY national security.

It's time we all stop what we're doing and straighten things out once and for all--beginning with our government, our media, and our Pentagon.

Let's have a government of, for, and by the people.
Let's have media that serve the public interest.
Let's have a national defense that doesn't CREATE threats to progress and peace.

At the NY War Resisters vigil last Saturday, some actors performed a skit about a dream they all shared, a dream that the plants, and all the life on earth, was urging them to ban nuclear weapons.

At first everyone was excited they all had the same dream. They were inspired. But gradually, one by one, they lost the focus, lost the faith in their peace mission, their mutual "dream."

Finally the last person gives up fighting for the dream of nuclear disarmament and just decides to settle back in and get comfortable in the old lifestyle again, like everybody else.

It was a very disturbing piece.

I fear that if I'm not actively protesting and fighting for peace, then I'm slipping back into the comfortable lifestyle of the blind and brainwashed, comfortable conformist war enabler.

Help.

The Constitution In Crisis (Part II)

The Conyers Report: Read it online!

Tasini, Clinton and Time Warner cable

Call or e-mail: Robert Hardt – Director of Politics, NY1, 212-379-3330 or Robert.Hardt@ny1news.com. Tell them everyone on the ballot is entitled to participate in the debate.

We busted our behinds in heat, rain, and gloom of night to get 40,000 signatures and put Jonathan Tasini on the ballot.

Now NY1 is telling him that he's not eligible to participate in their televised debate.

When did NY1 become the arbiter of whether or not voters can be informed about candidates?

Is this a move on the part of Clinton's media team to keep Tasini out of the public eye?

"What is Clinton so afraid of?" That's the question I would routinely ask her supporters who politely refused to sign the petition to get Jonathan Tasini's name on the ballot for the NY Democratic party's US Senate election this fall. Isn't debate good for democracy? Shouldn't the people have more choice? If you're sure Clinton is the best candidate, why not let her demonstrate it in an informative debate?

But with the desperate Joe Lieberman next door, Clinton apparently isn't taking any chances.

NY1 has insisted that candidates can't be in their debate unless they have spent $500,000 dollars and polled at least 5% of the electorate. Of course, NY 1 is property of Time Warner Cable. Guess who they donated $5000 to last year? You got it: Tasini's opponent.

It's great to have friends in the media business, BIG friends. Then if you run for office they can guarantee that your opponent -- even if his positions are popular and reasonable -- can get shut out of the pre primary coverage and debates.

I wonder how much Hillary Clinton is going to owe Time Warner for this favor if she gets to the Senate? Unfortunately, when I called her Washington offices today, none of her aids were able to tell me her position on the recent FCC opening for public comment of the rules of media ownership.

Maybe Senator Clinton herself would be able to help Jonathan Tasini get into the debates. She's a firm believer in fair elections.

Last spring, India had an election and 550 million or so people voted from the dot-com billionaire to the poor, illiterate peasant. They all voted. Mr. President, they voted on electronic voting machines. They voted in a way that guaranteed the safety and security and accuracy of their vote. They had uniform standards. They had a nonpartisan board that oversaw that election. The result was shocking-they threw out the existing government. Nobody predicted that. Yet they did it with integrity. Surely, we should be setting the standards. I would hope that this body, and thanks to the objection of my friend from California, this debate which has started today will continue.

In any case, maybe she could use her clout with Time Warner on our behalf--the little people--so that we could at least hear what one of the candidates we put on the ballot for the United States Senate election has to say.

On the other hand, maybe we should just cancel the election and ask Time Warner to just go ahead and appoint our Senators for us.

How to Create Lasting Peace

Our Commander in Chief has clarified the situation for us now, so we don't have to weary ourselves with any strenuous cogitating.

The current crisis is part of a larger struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces of terror in the Middle East,” Mr. Bush said in a speech at the Coast Guard command center in Miami.

“For decades [sic?], the status quo in the Middle East permitted tyranny and terror to thrive,” the president said. “And as we saw on Sept. 11, the status quo in the Middle East led to death and destruction in the United States, and it had to change.”

The way he puts it for us sounds so simple. So now, we've changed the status quo, and "freedom" will solve all the problems in the Middle East (in spite of the wreckage of Lebanon's infrastructure). And, as "freedom" solves those problems, it's going to take care of us, too, just like it always has.

“When democracy spreads in the Middle East, the people of that troubled region will have a better future, the terrorists will lose their safe havens and their recruits, and the United States of America will be more secure,” Mr. Bush said. “The hard work of helping people realize the benefits of liberty is laying the foundation of peace for generations to come.”

Mr. Bush was in Florida for a political fund-raising event. He delivered his speech as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was flying home from the Middle East after declaring that there was an “emerging consensus” for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah that could be reached this week.

Our nation – this generation – will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”

hey, we got proof!

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, the United States has waged two of the swiftest and most humane wars in history (in Afghanistan and Iraq). Fifty million people have been liberated from two of the world’s most brutal and aggressive regimes

First,

In Operation Enduring Freedom, the United States built a worldwide coalition of 70 countries that destroyed terrorist training camps, dismantled the brutal Taliban regime, denied al Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan, and saved a people from starvation.
Today, Afghanistan has a new president, Hamid Karzai, and a new constitution that gives unprecedented rights and freedoms to all Afghans.

More good news:

The international community has pledged at least $32 billion to rebuild and improve schools, health care, roads, water, agriculture, electricity, and other elements of Iraq’s infrastructure.
Schools and clinics have been renovated and reopened, and power plants, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, and bridges and roads are being rehabilitated. Since the liberation of Iraq, food and electricity are now distributed more equally across the country.
Iraq’s oil infrastructure is being rebuilt, with production capacity reaching between 2.3 and 2.5 million barrels of oil per day.

Last, but not least,

Iraqis now have an ever-growing free press, including newspapers, internet, radio stations, and satellite television networks.
Small businesses are opening in Iraq, creating new jobs for Iraqis.
A year and a half ago, Iraq was an enemy of America and the civilized world; today it is an ally of both.

Mr. Bush said that for any peace to be lasting, the Lebanese government must have sole control over its own territory, and that a multinational force must be sent to Lebanon at once to help deliver humanitarian aid. Hezbollah now has both a political presence in the Lebanese government and a military presence in southern Lebanon, which it uses as a base to stage raids on neighboring Israel and rain rockets on its villages.

The president said that a lasting peace also depended on Iran’s ending its financial and military support for terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, and that Syria must end its support for terrorism and “respect the sovereignty of Lebanon.” Syria has long exercised influence in Lebanese affairs and had troops in Lebanon for many years.