Death Be Not Proud ... Not Now, Not When It's Our Country

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Tuesday January 25, 2005 · 12:49 PM PST

2005/01/25 · 12:49

I've spent considerable time the past few days wondering about the fight we face and how it is different from battles and wars of the past. It still has that uncompromising agony to it, it still has death and destruction, it still has mighty dissent, it still has a resolve by many to quiet the voice of the weapons being used on the battlefield and on the soil of our homeland.

There is in every turn, in every heart, in every soul, in every spirit, in every person we choose to gather with during these troubling times a sense that we will not give up for to do so is to give up on humankind, to give up on our life as we know it, but mostly it is to give up on our country, the America we have always known, the greatest nation in the history of the world, the beacon of hope and promise for those around the globe as they have said that is freedom, that is liberty, that is justice, that is democracy. We have in years past smiled proudly as we say, yes that is so.

Or is it? More below the fold. Read More

It's Our Party and We'll Cry If We Have To ... how the Democratic Party is pushing women out

caliberal

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Wednesday January 12, 2005 · 4:18 PM PST

2005/01/12 · 16:18

There have been many discussions here on Kos in the past several weeks about a woman's right to choose and the role this issue should have within the Democratic Party. There have been many differing views but there has been one element of this discussion I have found to be alarming and particularly sad and frustrating. Women have been supported but we have also been assailed for our steadfast resolve that this is a private decision that is not open for debate. We are told to fuck off, we are told we are killers, we are told we do not get to decide whether an embryo or fetus is life or viability is or if we have the right to reach that opinion alone.

It is a sad commentary that women are having the very same argument with other Democrats we have been having with the rightwingnuts for years. It is beyond the pale that we are told an issue that is so personal needs to be framed and presented in a way that does not offend when we are offended over and over. If this party wants our respect, it would behoove this party to start treating women with respect.

More below the fold. Read More

Rumsfeld's 7 Minute Gap

caliberal

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Saturday September 11, 2004 · 1:20 PM PDT

2004/09/11 · 13:20

"When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was told on the morning of September 11 that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center, he paused, than continued his morning briefing, according to the 9/11 Commission."

"It wasn't until a third plane slammed into the Pentagon that Rumsfeld jumped into action. A few hours later, he wondered aloud to his staff whether the attack would allow the United States to strike at Saddam Hussein, not just Osama bin Laden."

The rest of the article exposes how our 'leaders' immediately began focusing on the wrong threat. Why? Because they had their eyes on a different prize -- China, Russia and outer space.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/05/INGQ58FN831.DTL

BUSH AVOIDS VIETNAM WHILE KERRY SERVES

caliberal

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Sunday September 05, 2004 · 2:47 PM PDT

2004/09/05 · 14:47

The AP reports that documentation should have been done to explain Bush's gaps in his National Guard Service for our country during the Vietnam War. Not only are the records 'lost' it is reported they do not exist.

This is an ongoing story that needs to be headline news. If you rate it on Yahoo it will remain a top story. The Bush campaign has made Vietnam a top election year story so let's make them eat their words.

The AP states in the article, "For example, Air National Guard regulations at the time required commanders to write an investigative report for the Air Force when Bush missed his annual medical exam in 1972. The regulations also required commanders to confirm in writing that Bush received counseling after missing five months of drills."

Bush has stated, "I'm proud of my service." And what is he proud of specifically? Could it be ... "It's sort of a code of honor that you didn't go DNF (duty not including flying)," said retired Air Force Col. Leonard Walls, who flew 181 combat missions over Vietnam. "There was a lot of pride in keeping combat-ready status." Bush and combat ready status? Not a chance.

"A May 1973 yearly evaluation from Bush's Texas unit gives the future president no ratings and stated Bush had not been seen at the Texas base since April 1972. In a directive from June 29, 1973, an Air Force personnel official pressed Bush's unit for information about his Alabama service. This officer should have been reassigned in May 1972, wrote Master Sgt. Daniel P. Harkness, since he no longer is training in his AFSC or with his unit of assignment."

There's more that will curl your toes and make your blood boil ...

caliberal

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Sunday September 05, 2004 · 12:15 PM PDT

2004/09/05 · 12:15

Rest assured Bill Clinton will be a part of Kerry's campaign. He's already made it clear he will campaign with his whole heart to insure a victory for John Kerry.

In Boston Clinton spoke eloquently calling Kerry, "a good man, a great senator, a visionary leader."

Bob Mulholland, a long-time operative of Bill Clinton's said, "whether he is on the campaign trail or waving from a hospital window" he will be active in this campaign to put the Democratic candidate in the White House.

Here's the link to read the news:

http://www.news-leader.com/today/0904-Clintonsil-171419.html

There's more for those who have doubted Kerry's campaign or his seeming lack of fire and rage. Read More

PRISON ABUSE CONTINUES

caliberal

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Thursday September 02, 2004 · 11:19 AM PDT

2004/09/02 · 11:19

If this administration doesn't understand the rights of detainees, suspected terrorists or prisoners of war then they must surely appreciate how this continued prison abuse affects our military troops abroad. Where is the incentive to be humane? It has been well chronicled and documented just how tyrannical other countries are to their own people. Why would we assume our troops will be treated any better? It is also a known fact that many of these countries have a loathing and hatred for America that is unprecedented.

The world is watching us to see what our ideal of justice truly is. In The New Standard, http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=911&printmode=true
Lisa Ashkenaz Croke and Brian Dominick report that there continues to be new evidence of ten US-run prisons in Iraq. "The fact-finding mission uncovered dozens of cases of physical and psychological abuse, sexual humiliation, religious desecration and rape in the prisons in Iraq." Read More

BUSH -- WHO KNEW?

caliberal

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Monday August 30, 2004 · 6:37 PM PDT

2004/08/30 · 18:37

Tonight we will be told who George Walker Bush, Jr. really is ... through the mouths of babes we will be led down a garden path highlighting the extraordinary courage of the man who leads us all. Former mayor of New York City, Mr. Rudy Giuliani is the first babe who will deliver the words that will clue us in.

It seems we have misunderstood, jumped to too many conclusions, been misguided in our assessments. We have, frankly been wrong. Indeed, Bush, Jr. has been far more humble than he's been given credit for. He supposedly walks in the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan. In know, I know, I was shocked to find out also.

Get ready, we're about to see our prez in a whole new light. No matter what we think of Churchill or Reagan, I've never really thought of them as clueless or stupid. Hmmm, this gives me a bushel of things to think about. How have I erred so fully?

What, your lips need to be wetted? Here's a small sample:

"Winston Churchill saw the dangers of Hitler when his opponents and much of the press characterised him as a war-mongering gadfly. Ronald Reagan saw and described the Soviet Union as 'the evil empire'."

"George W. Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is and he will remain consistent to the purpose of defeating it while working to make us ever safer at home." This must have been before Junior stated today that, "we cannot win the war on terrorism." Oh well, a slight flaw in the ... oops, I almost said plan, oh such folly.

But don't fear ... the babe, Rudy, also said ..."No White House since Abraham Lincoln's has placed as great an emphasis on faith as the current administration." Phew, for a minute there I thought we were in trouble. Silly me, I forgot God speaks through our prez.

Here's the link to the entire article ... remember, misery loves company.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1018622004

Protesting for American Lives

caliberal

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Sunday August 29, 2004 · 11:16 PM PDT

2004/08/29 · 23:16

It's been such an incredibly emotional and inspiring day watching the hundreds of thousands of people protesting this regime. I've been going from site to site trying to understand how it all came to this. The following photographs have spoken thousands of words. I wanted to share some of them.

These pictures are from Knight Ridder. They tell the story of the Echo Company, a unit of Marines that lost 12 of their men over a week's period of time in Iraq. They show the pain of war 7,000 miles away and the anquish of families next door.

[IMG]http://img46.exs.cx/img46/1861/706495292751.jpg[/IMG]
This is a link to more pictures of Echo Company that help to tell the story of our courageous Americans.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/special_packages/echo_company/9327452.htm

CRITICAL MASS PHOTO ALERT ...

caliberal

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Saturday August 28, 2004 · 5:40 PM PDT

2004/08/28 · 17:40

I was struck by the photographs of the Critical Mass protest in NYC yesterday. These pictures made me smile and shed a tear as I looked at the faces of Americans who just want their voices to be heard. It took me back to a place in time when I still had my youth, a time when my generation protested against a government and an administration that filled us full of fear and sadness to the bone.

Perhaps remembering a time when our nation was challenged by a different war isn't what the generations born after us have longed to hear but in these faces I've realized it isn't so much different today as it was then. The frustrations are the same, the feelings of vulnerability are the same, the distrust of the government is the same, the flag-draped caskets are the same. It led me to believe that it isn't each other we should be condemning, it is those who have taken us to a place we never dared imagine we would go.

The photographs are by Pascal Wassam. Click on 'great photos' on the post by JD Lasica. I saw all of our faces before me, they are more alike than not.
http://www.newmediamusings.com/

The Irony Of It All

caliberal

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Thursday August 19, 2004 · 6:52 PM PDT

2004/08/19 · 18:52

A group of fundamentalist religious fanatics, representing millions of people of faith, have seized their country effectively holding its followers hostage. They are holed up in a sacred shrine, a symbol of the glory of their flag, the embodiment of who they are as a nation. Their leaders have a love of guns, they have been known to amass weapons of mass destruction, they are a country at war prompting protests against a regime that is not so far removed from a dictatorship.

The leaders of their country have a passion for power with a political agenda that is divisive not inclusive. The citizens must be loyal, standing by an oath of support for a leader that was not elected but appointed to the highest office in the land. The upstarts that have challenged the governing administration are labeled as insurgents, dissidents, protesters with a satanic mindset. They are not recognized as people of faith.

The picture is hazy -- wait a minute. Is this the Imam Ali Mosque? Oh no, I'm starting to see more cleary, it's the White House. Is this Najaf? This can't be, it's Washington, D.C. That's not lyad Allawi, it's our commander in chief. That's not Moqtada al-Sadr, it's John Ashcroft. That's not them, it's us.

That's not Saddam Hussein pretending to be God, it's President Bush. That's not Iraq's democracy in flux, it's our democracy being stomped on. Those are Iraqi women behind a shroud, we are American women being force- fed a shroud of silence. Those are Iraqi soldiers being killed, American soldiers are coming home in flag-draped caskets. The Iraqis are slowly being given their civil liberties, our civil liberties are systematically being taken away.

It's no small wonder the picture is hazy. Who amongst us wants to believe this is our America?

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