Democratic Spin Won’t End the War in Iraq

After several months of empty posturing against the war in Iraq, politicians in Washington have made what Democratic congressman James P. Moran called a “concession to reality” by agreeing to give President Bush virtually everything he wanted in funding and unrestricted license to continue waging the increasingly detested war that has made Bush the most unpopular president since Richard Nixon.

This is the outcome that we warned against two months ago when we wrote “Why Won’t MoveOn Move Forward?” In it, we criticized MoveOn for backpedaling on its previously claimed objective of ending the war in Iraq immediately. Anti-war sentiment was the main factor behind last year’s elections that brought Democrats to power in both houses of Congress. Once in power, however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through a “compromise” bill, supported by MoveOn, that offered $124 billion in supplemental funding for the war. To make it sound like they were voting for peace, the Democrats threw in a few non-binding benchmarks asking Bush to certify progress in Iraq, coupled with language that talked about withdrawing troops next year.

Understanding how legislative processes work, we expected then that even those few nods to anti-war sentiment would be eliminated in due course. Bush had already said he would veto the Pelosi bill and pledged to hold out for funding without restrictions of any kind. Moreover, there was little doubt that the Democratic leadership would eventually cave to his demands. Notwithstanding their stage-managed photo ops and rhetorical flourishes for peace, prominent Democrats signaled early that they would give Bush the funding he wanted. Barack Obama even went so far as to state publicly that once Bush vetoed the original bill, Congress would approve the money because “nobody wants to play chicken with our troops on the ground.” (Two weeks later, MoveOn announced that it had polled its members, and Obama was their “top choice to lead the country out of Iraq.”) In effect, the confrontation between Bush and the Democrats was a high-stakes game of poker in which the Democrats went out of their way to make it clear that they would fold once Bush called their bluff.

Not everyone saw this coming, of course. Back in March, Salon.com called MoveOn’s Eli Pariser “shrewdly pragmatic” for backing Pelosi’s original supplemental war funding bill. It quoted Pariser predicting that after Bush was “forced to veto” Pelosi’s bill, “That forces the Republicans to choose between an increasingly isolated president and the majority of the Congress and the majority of the American people.”

Similar “shrewd pragmatism” came from blogger and Democratic campaign consultant Matt Stoller at MyDD.com, praising MoveOn’s “dedication to practical results” and calling the Pelosi bill “a major step forward … Moveon was true to its members in helping this happen.” Stoller criticized us by name for our naiveté in thinking otherwise:

John Stauber, who is an ardent critic of Moveon, comes from a different generation of liberal activism. …

Stauber isn’t used to a non-Southern Democratic Party. It’s nothing he’s ever known, and it’s frankly nothing that any of us have ever known. None of us know how to wield power in this new political world, where the public is liberal, the military industrial state is cannibalizing itself, and the political system is (slowly) reorienting itself around this shocking new paradigm. Stauber is also not used to the idea that activist liberals actually like the Democratic Party. He believes that Moveon members would not support Democratic leaders if presented with a different set of choices, without acknowledging that Moveon members have traditionally supported Democratic leaders when the questions are tactical in nature.

A “tactic,” as the dictionary explains, is “an expedient for achieving a goal.” If the goal is to end the war in Iraq, the Pelosi bill was never a tactic that had any chance of succeeding. Its provisions had no teeth and it was clear that too many Democrats never intended to see the fight through. As this week’s betrayal by the Democratic leadership demonstrates, ending the war is simply not their goal. Their goal is to continue the war for the time being, while giving themselves just enough distance from it that they can run as the anti-war party in next year’s presidential and congressional elections. Stoller seems to have belatedly arrived at this realization himself. Responding to this week’s news, he writes:

We’re in Iraq because the political system, the public, and all of us became unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood. We’re still in Iraq, and will be there until the public is genuinely convinced to leave. Right now, we’re not there. I know what the polls say, but I also am watching Clinton, Edwards, Obama, Giuliani, Romney, etc running for President, and not one of them is calling for a full withdrawal. Not one. Clinton, the leading nominee in a supposedly antiwar party, is a hawk and doesn’t even think that voting to authorize the war was a mistake.

Amazingly, the conclusion that Stoller draws from these facts is the following non sequitur:

So do not tell me that Pelosi, Reid, and Moveon are doing a bad job. They are not. They are persuading a country and a politics that is used to lazy bullshit that kills a lot of people to think twice about it, and resist.

Here’s the point that Stoller seems to have missed: There is a difference between what the public wants and what politicians do. Just because the high and mighty politicians don’t get it yet, don’t assume that the average American doesn’t. It is not “the public” that needs to be persuaded. The politicians, their marketing campaigns, and the bloggers who join them may be “unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood,” but the public at large fully understands that we need to get out of Iraq. The question is simply how to translate that public awareness into effective pressure that will force the politicians to change course. As we wrote in March, “When politicians and advocacy groups like MoveOn play anti-war games of political theater while effectively collaborating with the war’s continuation, they merely add one more deception to the layers of lies in which this war has been wrapped.”

Since 2003 we’ve co-authored two books on Iraq, and we have been reporting on the war for over five years now, since we began to dissect the Bush administration’s propaganda push almost immediately after 9/11. We’ve been reporting on MoveOn for almost as long. And by the way, we are not “ardent critics” of MoveOn, as Stoller claimed. We are trying to constructively criticize an organization whose leaders mean well, even though they have been selling a flawed strategy. MoveOn has emerged as a powerful political player with a massive email list of more than three million names and the ability to raise millions of dollars for Democrats while waging innovative PR campaigns around the environmental, political and social issues they promote.

The bottom line, however, is that MoveOn until now has always been a big “D” Democratic Party organization. It began as an online campaign to oppose the impeachment of President Clinton, and its tactical alliances with Democratic politicians have made it part of the party’s current power base, which melds together millionaire funders such as George Soros and the Democracy Alliance, liberal unions like SEIU, and the ballyhooed Netroots bloggers like Matt Stoller, Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of the Daily Kos. At a personal level, we presume the members of this coalition genuinely want the war to end, but their true and primary priority is winning Democratic Party control of both houses of Congress and the White House. Now that the war in Iraq hangs like a rotting albatross around the neck of the Bush administration, it has become the Democrats’ best weapon to successfully campaign against Republicans. From a “shrewdly pragmatic” point of view, therefore, they have no reason to want the war to end soon.

Some Democrats (not the top politicians, of course) are saying this openly. Here, for example, is how one blogger at the Daily Kos sees things:

I know, that means more American casualties, more Iraqi casualties, more treasure and lives wasted.

But I think you’ve got to keep in mind the big picture here. … [B]y the end of September, people will be beginning to pay real attention to the next election…

I think this does give the Democratic party a tremendous opportunity to crush the Republicans for perhaps a couple of decades to come. Iraq, and the Republican support of it, may well do for the Republicans what Vietnam did for Democrats — make the public suspicious for decades about the party’s bona fides on foreign policy.

In this analysis, “more treasure and lives wasted” are the “little picture,” while winning elections is “the big picture.” Democrats like Russ Feingold who oppose the Iraq supplemental do not share this strategy, and it is never explicitly stated even by the Democratic politicians who are signing on this week to fund the war, but it is implicit in their actions.

If you visit the MoveOn website today as we write, the top item on the page is a request for people to sign a petition against price gouging by oil companies. They’re focused on the “big picture” of using the current spike in gasoline prices as an opportunity to build their email list, while the little picture of ending the war has fallen from the top of the page. Yesterday MoveOn began a campaign calling on Democrats to vote no on the Iraq supplemental. MoveOn is also talking for the first time about supporting primary challengers to Democrats who “ran on ending the war but vote for more chaos and more troops in Iraq.” This belated spark of independence, however, is too little and too late to stop a deal that has already been struck, in which politicians that MoveOn has been supporting have just surrendered ground from a position of strength to a president and party that is weakened, on an issue of utmost importance to their country.

MoveOn is expert at marketing, PR and advertising. Their emails to members convey a friendly, informal style and a sense that “they” are just like “us.” But there are important differences between the organization and many of the people who sign their petitions and give them money. MoveOn has not been primarily a movement against the war. It has been a movement of Democrats to get the party back into power.

We do not doubt that MoveOn’s leadership sincerely believes they are pursuing the most practical and effective course to improve America’s political problems by vanquishing the Republicans and getting Democrats elected. However, when given a choice between building a powerful grassroots movement to end the war, versus exploiting the war for the benefit of getting Democrats elected, MoveOn has repeatedly chosen the latter while probably believing there is no difference.

There is an organized anti-war movement in America that is not an adjunct of the Democratic Party. Up until now, it has been weak and divided and unable to organize itself into an effective national movement in its own right. In its place, therefore, MoveOn and its Netroots allies have become identified as the leadership of the anti-war movement. It is vitally important, however, that a genuinely independent anti-war movement organize itself with the ability to speak on its own behalf.

In the 1950s and the 1960s, the civil rights movement was most definitely not an adjunct of the Democratic or Republican Parties. Far from it, it was a grassroots movement that eventually forced both parties to respond to its agenda. Likewise, the movement against the Vietnam War was not aligned with either the Democratic or Republican parties, both of which claimed to have plans for peace while actually pursuing policies that expanded the war.

That’s the sort of movement we need again, if we wish to see peace in our lifetime.

This commentary is a joint statement by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, the co-authors of books including Weapons of Mass Deception and The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq.

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26 Comments so far

bongofury May 25th, 2007 11:52 am

Ok, did anyone think that the Dems would stand up to the psycho killer in Chief? Get real the Dems are as bad as the Republicans any day. If you want to Stop the occupation of Iraq and turn out the corrupt Congress Critters in Washington repeat after me: GENERAL STRIKE! GENERAL STRIKE! GENERAL STRIKE.
Do you get the picture? It’s time to start organizing to bring this cesspool of a government down! Utill you are ready for this please, just shut up and have an other drink.

utsusemia May 25th, 2007 11:53 am

I know, that means more American casualties, more Iraqi casualties, more treasure and lives wasted.

But I think you’ve got to keep in mind the big picture here. … [B]y the end of September, people will be beginning to pay real attention to the next election…

My god. Does he even realize what he’s saying? Probably 700,000 dead in Iraq by now, a full-on civil war, more misery than we in his country can probably imagine, and the BIG PICTURE is electing the laughably useless Democratic party back into more power? The party that won’t put impeachment “on the table”, won’t take war and nuclear options with Iran “off the table” and has yet to take a stand for any of the decent, mildly politically risky measures this country so desperately needs (universal health care, major emissions caps and investments in alternative energy, let alone ending the damn war)?

If you ever wanted evidence that the Democratic party and their supporters have lost their collective soul, clearly you have to look no further. Getting Hillary Clinton into the White House is more important than at least 100,000 more Iraqi deaths (and untold destruction) by the time she gets elected? Tell me I’m dreaming.

Shane May 25th, 2007 11:56 am

I was a charter member of MoveOn, but since Eli Pariser supported the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last year, I have withdrawn all my support.

I agree with bongofury above - a general strike is the only way we can get attention in this country. Non-violent protest will not work.

simonhhh May 25th, 2007 12:44 pm

Meanwhile the REAL BIG PICTURE that no politcian notices, move-on or not, well intentioned or not, with or without the Blah Blah Blah…..

Is that AMERICA is on track to becoming the most hated nation on earth…..

Rune May 25th, 2007 1:23 pm

This is a very restrained analysis and critique of MoveOn, in my opinion. That’s a good thing, I suppose, because there are millions of “members” of MoveOn, and millions more interested citizens, who are not ready to accept that this most well known example of grassroots politics from what passes for the left in modern America may, in fact, be more of an astro-turf operation by way of consummate spin. It’s difficult to accept that you have been taken in by a giant hoax, especially when all of your peers and favorite authority figures have been reinforcing and praising the virtue and authenticity of the object of admiration. It’s like blowing the covers off the myth of Santa Claus–it’s best done gently and in small doses.

Once the doubts are digested, people can do their own digging to confirm that, far from being an effective means harnessing small bits of time and money of well meaning progressives and activists, MoveOn is actually a sophisticated means of stifling dissent and protecting the agenda chosen by Nancy Pelosi and her closest associates within the Democratic establishment. With apologies to Stephen Colbert for hijacking one of his most succinct and powerful revelations, Pelosi speaks (perhaps privately), MoveOn amplifies, and MoveOn members repeat the published talking points they are handed in e-mails. This is easy for anyone who signs up for MoveOn’s information (thus becoming a “member”) to verify once they know what to look for.

What MoveOn members won’t find are any invitations to weigh in as a group on major issues like impeachment that the Pelosi has declared to be “off the table” despite the fact that most of the country and even some leading Republicans are keen on removing Bush and Cheney from office immediately for a whole string of obvious crimes of high office that they have not only committed but are mocking the Democrats for being unable to stop despite their rousing rhetoric on special occasions. In fact, if one used MoveOn’s web based e-mail form to encourage them to push for impeachment, one will receive an automated reply that says in essence, we get a lot of e-mails about impeachment (oh, I bet they do!), we don’t have time to reply personally so don’t expect that, we do read all of our mail, however, thank you, now, move on. And that is the end of it.

Again, it’s a great way of tying up the energy and small contributions of millions of people hungry for some effective movement on the big issues that matter to them. Regardless of the intentions of the small management group that keeps a tight grip on MoveOn’s agenda, however, it is little more than that. A steady stream of “pay outs” on minor issues serves to keep the hopeful and faithful playing along like so many millions of others sucked in by the same mechanism that makes slot machines addictive, but if you are looking for a jackpot, the word to the wise is you will have to earn it the old fashioned way because playing this game is just a slow way to waste your time and lose your money.

canuckchuck May 25th, 2007 1:27 pm

“…and the TONY award for best political theater goes to the Democratic Party for their stunning impersonation of an anti-War party…I laughed, I cried, I kissed several thousand American Servicemen goodbye”

SteveB May 25th, 2007 2:35 pm

“There is an organized anti-war movement in America that is not an adjunct of the Democratic Party.”

Exactly. I hope everyone here, after giving MoveOn some much-deserved criticism, makes a generous contribution to United for Peace and Justice (www.unitedforpeace.org), or Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso.org) or Vets for Peace (www.veteransforpeace.org), three organizations that stood firmly against more war funding while MoveOn was busy colluding with the Democratic leadership.

namvet67 May 25th, 2007 2:40 pm

There is only one party in the United States of Everything. There may be some variance but dems and repubs all work for the same employer. Corporate America.
Hoa binh

Siouxrose May 25th, 2007 3:20 pm

Utsusemia: a very bad dream. Namvet: Yep. One nation under Oil. Rune: You nailed it. The psychological impact of unveiling Moveon.org is equivalent to having invested in a long journey, thinking you have nearly reached the promised land, only to find that the road is blocked for long-term “improvements.” Maybe with enough angst we’ll storm the Bastille?

ezeflyer May 25th, 2007 4:02 pm

“The United States has only one party - the property party. It’s the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican.”
Gore Vidal

fedupwithpolitics May 25th, 2007 4:23 pm

The Democrats are so transparent that it’s hard to believe they are fooling anyone but themselves, but apparently they are. Anyone who thinks the Dems are either liberal or progressive is living on another planet. The Democrats have never been far from Bush’s war policy. They gave him the power to bomb Iraq and have never revoked it; they never asserted their constitutional duty to declare war; and they aided and abetted Bush, Cheney, and Gonzalez’s war crimes. In domestic policy, they voted in right wing Supreme Court jesters who will assure that abortion rights become history. In other foreign policy issues, listen to them unabashedly support every war crime Israel commits, including passing a “support for Israel” measure when Israel was bombing Lebanon and refusing to condemn that illegal and immoral invasion; watch them suck up to AIPAC; and see how they have done nothing at all in the last 7 years to promote peace in the Mideast and stop the Israeli killing machine. There is something very rotten in the US Congress–and it ain’t just on the Republican side.

born2bwild May 25th, 2007 4:44 pm

i’m always amazed at how so many of us continue to hold out hope that a political party, ANY party, can “come to the rescue” or provide enlightened leadership. our entire system, including that most sacred document, the constitution, is obsolete. the real challenge, therefore, is how to take matters in our own hands!! to bring about the most meaningful changes, the people must lead.

cosmos May 25th, 2007 5:36 pm

I apologize to those who read all the articles on commondreams, but I want to reach as many people as I can. This information has me completely freaked out.

A Presidential Directive was signed by President Bush on May 9th giving him unconstrained powers in case of a national emergency. In the case of a national emergency (terrorist attack), I don’t want that psychopath in charge of anything. How can he get away with this? It’s terrifying!!!

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55825

President Bush has signed a directive granting extraordinary powers to the office of the president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently without congressional approval or oversight.

The “National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
” was
signed May 9, notes Jerome R. Corsi in a WND column
.

It was issued with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive.

The directive establishes under the office of the president a new national continuity coordinator whose job is to make plans for “National Essential Functions” of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments,
as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president’s directives in the event of a national emergency.

“Catastrophic emergency” is loosely defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage,
or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”

It says the president can assume the power to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.

The directive says the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, currently Frances Fragos Townsend
, would be designated as the national continuity coordinator.

Corsi says the directive makes no attempt to reconcile the powers created for the national continuity coordinator with the National Emergency Act
,
which requires that such proclamation “shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.”

A Congressional Research Service study notes the National Emergency Act sets up Congress as a balance empowered to “modify, rescind, or render dormant” such emergency authority if Congress believes the president has acted
inappropriately.

But the new directive appears to supersede the National Emergency Act by creating the new position of national continuity coordinator without any specific act of Congress authorizing the position, Corsi says.

The directive also makes no reference to Congress and its language appears to negate any requirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists.

It suggests instead that the powers of the directive can be implemented without any congressional approval or oversight.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke affirmed to Corsi the Homeland Security Department would implement the requirements of the order under
Townsend’s direction.

The White House declined to comment on the directive.

bdrube May 25th, 2007 5:45 pm

born2bewild - “The people must lead.” Which people? The millions of nitwits tuned into “American Idol” each week? Those are the people who elect your leaders, and their individual votes count the same as yours and mine.

The People are the reason we’re in this mess. They voted in Bush (or at least didn’t raise holy hell when the Supreme Court installed him) they supported the war (initially) and most of them don’t really care THAT much about the war as long as they don’t have to fight it.

Frankly, The People can kiss my ass.

born2bwild May 25th, 2007 6:09 pm

bdrube
there will be no glorious “national concensus” - indeed, it will out of necessity start out as a relatively small minority of extremely determined, educated and progressive people. which is to say, it has already started, and is genuine and growing. “the people” are at the moment only an infant. how long it will take to “grow up” is unknown. the important thing is to keep on bringin’ it - every minute of every day. never, EVER stop. are you up for it?

matt donuts May 25th, 2007 6:29 pm

I share a deep scepticism about Moveon.com. I was once a supporter, but left because the group is an appendage of U.S. imperialism because they do not admit that the Democrats are, like the Republicans, an imperalist party. While Bush is an abdominable person with incompetent advisors, and a person who is totally without normal intelligence, he is not that much different. That said, his policies are not radically different from the Democrats. His problem has been incompetency that lays bare the imperalist nature of U.S. foreign policy. Democrats havge been somewhat more competent in promoting a false claim that they are simply trying to establish in various arts of the world. What nonsense. The only way to get out of Iraq is to cut off funds and give the military 6 months to completely get out entirely. If Bush does not accept the bill, Democrats need to simply submit it over and over again with the same requirements; if Bush does not want to accept it, there will not be any money for Iraq and the war is over. Until this rather simple and effective aproach is taken, we will be in Iraq for years to come. If the Democrats do not take this step, it is my evidence that they are not dramatically different from the Republicans, and are, indeed, the imperialists I believe they are.

GARBOTOO May 25th, 2007 7:18 pm

AND SO IT GOES….

purvis ames May 25th, 2007 8:00 pm

The failure of the Democrats to confront the Repugs on Iraq will go by the stupendously obese, virtually uneducated, arrogant morons known as the sheeple of the United States like a NASCAR race. This country is beyond repair.

clyde paige May 25th, 2007 9:27 pm

I can tell you exactly why we are staying in Iraq. The ONE BILLION DOLLAR LARGEST EMBASSY IN THE WORLD IS JUST ABOUT READY TO OPEN IN BAGHDAD. The damn gutless democrat’s are giving Bush everything he wants and screwing the people who voted for them as I did.The democrat’s will never be strong until Nancy Pelosi and weekkneed Harry Reid are history.Impeachment off of the table what a stupid thing to say.

Saladin74 May 25th, 2007 10:31 pm

WHY DO THEY HATE US SO MUCH?? (the all-time most audacious question asked by supremacist xenophobic Yanks and their Fascist allies)
——————————————————————————–
Read that question w/ some whining noise added to it for fun!!!
This is a response from a world citizen to the all-time most naive question I have heard/read so much from the so-called analysts, writers, politicians, and hands of IMPERIALISM in your dishonest media.

In your undying, never-ending hatred for Iran and drowned in an ocean of narcissism, you simply have forgotten, or yet better, chosen to forget, the crimes, inhumane policies, arrogant attitudes, and pain inflicted by you “patriotic” psychos on many a nation, including Persians.

Well, the Northern Christian hypocrisy and self-love on one side; its harsh animosity and blood thirst for Iran is something else. It was evident in your clownish, arrogant President’s speeches and now it’s epitomized by the most blatantly hateful, Nazi pieces of propaganda which Goebbels himself would love you for ), there it comes, suck it and swallow it w/ AMERICAN (w/ a thick R the way you like it) pride and xenophobia.

By what I have read from the likes of you in your very “OBJECTIVE” media (no shortage in the ” objective, informed, and bright” nation of yours), you completely epitomize what the monstrous Northern Christian imperialism means to billions of impoverished, victimized, oppressed masses of the world and what it has done for the past several centuries only in order to secure its own filthy interests derived from your selfish, self-indulged, self-centered, egotistic, materialist, and Calvinist lifestyles and worldviews. If and only if you were interested in the truth and facts, you could easily find the answer by reviewing your friends’ list and also crimes’ list for decades or centuries (for those Euro liberals!!). It doesn’t take a genius, does it?

YOU are the epitome of unfairness, injustice, governmental terrorism and bigotry. These are some of the crimes against humanity committed by your patriotic asses all over the planet (the list would be only too long but I mention a few here):

U.S. sponsored coup against democracy in Guatemala in 1954 which resulted in the deaths of over 120,000 Guatemalan peasants by U.S. installed dictatorships over the course of four decades.

U.S. overthrew the governments of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and helped to murder 3,000 people.

1973, the U.S. sponsored a coup in Chile against he democratic government of Salvador Allende and helped to murder another 30,000 people.

1965 the U.S. sponsored a coup in Indonesia that resulted in the murder of over 800,000 people, and the subsequent slaughter in 1975 of over 250,000 innocent people in East Timor by the Indonesian regime with the direct complicity of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

U.S. sponsored terrorist contra war (the World Court declared the U.S. government a war criminal in 1984 for the mining of the harbours) against Nicaragua in the 1980s which resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent people (or as the U.S. government used to call them before the term “collateral damage” was invented–”soft targets”).

U.S. war against the people of El Salvador in the 1980s, which
resulted in the brutal deaths of over 80,000 people, or “soft targets”.

U.S. sponsored terror war against the peoples of southern Africa (especially Angola) that began in the 1970’s and resulted in the deaths and mutilations of over 1,000,000.

U.S. invaded Panama over the Christmas season of 1989 and killed over 5,000 in an attempt to capture George H. Bush’s CIA partner, now turned enemy, Manual Noriega.

U.S. sponsored a brutal coup that resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Iranians from 1952-1978.

This doesn’t even mention the crimes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Bay of Pigs and before that the support for and direct involvement w/ Batista’s regime in Cuba, the 8-year war against Iran -including chemical weapons usage- by (the former friend!!) Saddam, death squads in Central America, the 5 decades of Israeli crimes in Palestine and Lebanon (the veto policy), the “missing” in Argentina, and of course the “silent coup” in Algeria in 91 (w/ deceitful cooperation from the French bastards) that stopped the FIS from winning the elections thus plunging the country into a civil war for years…………….

We can never forget your crimes or undying sense of self-love and ego that make the Yankees and their NATO/G7 lovers the most detested nations on this planet, perhaps galaxy.

Now kill as many innocent people as you want. LAUNCH, LAUNCH as a bastard called JAMES WOODS declared on JAY LENO. Brag about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Beirut bombings. Brag about killing of the innocent family members of Kaddafi, all the countries’ leaders and revolutionaries who had the guts to say no to your Fascist Empire.

It matters not. The U.S. (and the British disgusting colonialism) will go where the Romans, German Nazis, Mongols, and the rest of the arrogant sorry excuses for humanity went. Now celebrate killing Moslems, Nationalists, and Leftists (not to mention nuns and priests), etc. in your never-ending fire of hatred, supremacy and ego.

Unlike many other foreigners, I am not simplistic enough to think you are just the minority and the “rest” are simply decent, nice, culture-loving individuals. The fact is it’s filth like you that votes for the criminals you call leaders (Reagan and Bushes, Blair, Merkel, Harper and Howard come to mind immediately). Also I don’t think, despite the popular belief, you are ignorant or just stupid; I think you know enough and simply choose to ignore because you are the most selfish, inhumane, robotic bastards this planet has seen for a long time. Your sense of “SELECTIVE MEMORY and JUDGMENT” is proof enough.

I think legendary Orwell got it right in this passage from Nineteen Eighty-Four, an account of the ultimate supremacist empire:
“And in the general hardening of outlook that set in . . . practices which had been long abandoned - imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions . . . and the deportation of whole populations - not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.”
As a reaction to your actions, our (the South) hatred for you could only be compared to the feelings we have against Serbs, Nazis, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Criminal.

THE NEW ROME WILL FALL…… AND ITS FOLLOWERS, FRIENDS, ALLIES AND APOLOGISTS….. WE’LL MAKE SURE OF THAT. DEATH TO THE U.S. and EU!!!

hootowl May 26th, 2007 1:29 am

Isn’t that James P. Moron who sold us out? I corrected his name, you’re welcome.

Joe Toxic May 26th, 2007 1:37 am

Thanks John Murtha, DEM PENN, you tried. The rest, Pelosi, et al, cut from the same cloth. No more money and votes from me you spineless congressional dems (Murtha being the exception). Great job, what a joke, in true “democratic fashion” they fold and only after four months. At least the GOP reps, can maintain discipline in the ranks. DEMs took control of the House using the voice and energy of the anti-war faction of the party, which they took for granted. Not any more, i’m switching to independent/Green party. END THE WAR, BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!!!!!!!!

karlof1 May 26th, 2007 2:56 am

A lot of folks don’t know what it is they have to lose until they’ve lost it. The “it” here is a political/economic/social/justice system that works to “advance the general welfare,” as stated in the rationale for the constitution that is the Preamble. It has morphed into “advance the special interest’s welfare” at the expense of the general welfare. The recent polls showing 75%+ saying the country is going in the wrong direction reflect the subconscious knowledge that the system is dysfunctional, or worse. This number can only increase after the Dems lastest sellout.

The events of this weekend should provide a good barometer of public reaction. The opportunity to launch an election challenge against one of the betrayers will be ripe for any aspiring candidate with a good anti-war spiel as “soapbox” opportunities will abound.

LauritzTheAgitator May 26th, 2007 2:49 pm

Moratorium. Spread the word.

decrepittex May 28th, 2007 4:47 pm

The Republicans are ruthless bastards and the Democrats are spineless pussies. The Dems speak the truth on rare occasions, but immediatly apologize as soon as the Reps attack. It’s no big mystery why so few Americans vote. They are just sick of the lies and Bull*&^t. I guess it all boils down to the fact that 99% of politicians are whores. They sell their souls to the highest bidder and people who vote are just pissing into the wind and it’s blowing back in our faces. I guess the only reason I vote is so I have the right to bitch afterwards. I know in my heart my vote means nothing. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb have already been selected by corporations like Exxon/Mobile, GE, Westinghouse, pharmaceutical companies and others who know whichever one “we the people” vote for is already in their pocket. As long as it takes several hundred million dollars to run, and we have two choices to pick from, it doesn’t really matter. Our health system sucks (unless you are rich)our schools are graduating seniors who cannot fill out a job application and what are we spending money on, yep, we are rebuilding (??) Iraq. With the exception of making Halliburton richer, how is that working out? What idiot Republican said “the U.S. would be greeted as liberators, that Iraqi oil money would pay for the reconstruction”? Oh, that would be Paul “I gave my girlfriend a raise” Wolfowitz. America would have saved lots of money and thousands of lives if we had just bought Iraq’s oil instead of trying to steal it.

Shenonymous May 30th, 2007 10:06 am

The viperous mindless schreeching of Saladin74 above is repugnant. He obviously hasn’t lived in a “free” society or if he has it hasn’t been long enough. And of course, we are free to speak as we want, here, unlike Hugo Chavez’s wiping out the voices of dissent in Venezuela. Fascism is a condition of life that vigilantly has to be rooted out wherever it is encountered. I had once admired Chavez, but the longer he is in office the clearer it is he is a megalomaniac. There are several of these kinds of men in the world today, on the right and the left, including here in America.

Once a MoveOn member, I too have unsubscribed for many of the reasons noted above. And as for a great many the Democrats in Washington, I too am disgusted and will not be giving a cent to the party. But there are some courageous Democrats that ought to be supported. Cream rises to the top. But crap does too, so you have to be very watchful you don’t get pulled in by any kind of fanaticism. It is a fallacy to lump things together and call them all the same. These are the kinds of fallacies that brews zealous terrorism. Democracy takes work. It is a Sisyphousian struggle against all kinds of selfish enterprises.

bongofury May 25th, 2007 11:52 am

Ok, did anyone think that the Dems would stand up to the psycho killer in Chief? Get real the Dems are as bad as the Republicans any day. If you want to Stop the occupation of Iraq and turn out the corrupt Congress Critters in Washington repeat after me: GENERAL STRIKE! GENERAL STRIKE! GENERAL STRIKE.
Do you get the picture? It’s time to start organizing to bring this cesspool of a government down! Utill you are ready for this please, just shut up and have an other drink.
utsusemia May 25th, 2007 11:53 am

I know, that means more American casualties, more Iraqi casualties, more treasure and lives wasted.

But I think you’ve got to keep in mind the big picture here. … [B]y the end of September, people will be beginning to pay real attention to the next election…

My god. Does he even realize what he’s saying? Probably 700,000 dead in Iraq by now, a full-on civil war, more misery than we in his country can probably imagine, and the BIG PICTURE is electing the laughably useless Democratic party back into more power? The party that won’t put impeachment “on the table”, won’t take war and nuclear options with Iran “off the table” and has yet to take a stand for any of the decent, mildly politically risky measures this country so desperately needs (universal health care, major emissions caps and investments in alternative energy, let alone ending the damn war)?

If you ever wanted evidence that the Democratic party and their supporters have lost their collective soul, clearly you have to look no further. Getting Hillary Clinton into the White House is more important than at least 100,000 more Iraqi deaths (and untold destruction) by the time she gets elected? Tell me I’m dreaming.
Shane May 25th, 2007 11:56 am

I was a charter member of MoveOn, but since Eli Pariser supported the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last year, I have withdrawn all my support.

I agree with bongofury above - a general strike is the only way we can get attention in this country. Non-violent protest will not work.
simonhhh May 25th, 2007 12:44 pm

Meanwhile the REAL BIG PICTURE that no politcian notices, move-on or not, well intentioned or not, with or without the Blah Blah Blah…..

Is that AMERICA is on track to becoming the most hated nation on earth…..
Rune May 25th, 2007 1:23 pm

This is a very restrained analysis and critique of MoveOn, in my opinion. That’s a good thing, I suppose, because there are millions of “members” of MoveOn, and millions more interested citizens, who are not ready to accept that this most well known example of grassroots politics from what passes for the left in modern America may, in fact, be more of an astro-turf operation by way of consummate spin. It’s difficult to accept that you have been taken in by a giant hoax, especially when all of your peers and favorite authority figures have been reinforcing and praising the virtue and authenticity of the object of admiration. It’s like blowing the covers off the myth of Santa Claus–it’s best done gently and in small doses.

Once the doubts are digested, people can do their own digging to confirm that, far from being an effective means harnessing small bits of time and money of well meaning progressives and activists, MoveOn is actually a sophisticated means of stifling dissent and protecting the agenda chosen by Nancy Pelosi and her closest associates within the Democratic establishment. With apologies to Stephen Colbert for hijacking one of his most succinct and powerful revelations, Pelosi speaks (perhaps privately), MoveOn amplifies, and MoveOn members repeat the published talking points they are handed in e-mails. This is easy for anyone who signs up for MoveOn’s information (thus becoming a “member”) to verify once they know what to look for.

What MoveOn members won’t find are any invitations to weigh in as a group on major issues like impeachment that the Pelosi has declared to be “off the table” despite the fact that most of the country and even some leading Republicans are keen on removing Bush and Cheney from office immediately for a whole string of obvious crimes of high office that they have not only committed but are mocking the Democrats for being unable to stop despite their rousing rhetoric on special occasions. In fact, if one used MoveOn’s web based e-mail form to encourage them to push for impeachment, one will receive an automated reply that says in essence, we get a lot of e-mails about impeachment (oh, I bet they do!), we don’t have time to reply personally so don’t expect that, we do read all of our mail, however, thank you, now, move on. And that is the end of it.

Again, it’s a great way of tying up the energy and small contributions of millions of people hungry for some effective movement on the big issues that matter to them. Regardless of the intentions of the small management group that keeps a tight grip on MoveOn’s agenda, however, it is little more than that. A steady stream of “pay outs” on minor issues serves to keep the hopeful and faithful playing along like so many millions of others sucked in by the same mechanism that makes slot machines addictive, but if you are looking for a jackpot, the word to the wise is you will have to earn it the old fashioned way because playing this game is just a slow way to waste your time and lose your money.
canuckchuck May 25th, 2007 1:27 pm

“…and the TONY award for best political theater goes to the Democratic Party for their stunning impersonation of an anti-War party…I laughed, I cried, I kissed several thousand American Servicemen goodbye”
SteveB May 25th, 2007 2:35 pm

“There is an organized anti-war movement in America that is not an adjunct of the Democratic Party.”

Exactly. I hope everyone here, after giving MoveOn some much-deserved criticism, makes a generous contribution to United for Peace and Justice (www.unitedforpeace.org), or Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso.org) or Vets for Peace (www.veteransforpeace.org), three organizations that stood firmly against more war funding while MoveOn was busy colluding with the Democratic leadership.
namvet67 May 25th, 2007 2:40 pm

There is only one party in the United States of Everything. There may be some variance but dems and repubs all work for the same employer. Corporate America.
Hoa binh
Siouxrose May 25th, 2007 3:20 pm

Utsusemia: a very bad dream. Namvet: Yep. One nation under Oil. Rune: You nailed it. The psychological impact of unveiling Moveon.org is equivalent to having invested in a long journey, thinking you have nearly reached the promised land, only to find that the road is blocked for long-term “improvements.” Maybe with enough angst we’ll storm the Bastille?
ezeflyer May 25th, 2007 4:02 pm

“The United States has only one party - the property party. It’s the party of big corporations, the party of money. It has two right wings; one is Democrat and the other is Republican.”
Gore Vidal
fedupwithpolitics May 25th, 2007 4:23 pm

The Democrats are so transparent that it’s hard to believe they are fooling anyone but themselves, but apparently they are. Anyone who thinks the Dems are either liberal or progressive is living on another planet. The Democrats have never been far from Bush’s war policy. They gave him the power to bomb Iraq and have never revoked it; they never asserted their constitutional duty to declare war; and they aided and abetted Bush, Cheney, and Gonzalez’s war crimes. In domestic policy, they voted in right wing Supreme Court jesters who will assure that abortion rights become history. In other foreign policy issues, listen to them unabashedly support every war crime Israel commits, including passing a “support for Israel” measure when Israel was bombing Lebanon and refusing to condemn that illegal and immoral invasion; watch them suck up to AIPAC; and see how they have done nothing at all in the last 7 years to promote peace in the Mideast and stop the Israeli killing machine. There is something very rotten in the US Congress–and it ain’t just on the Republican side.
born2bwild May 25th, 2007 4:44 pm

i’m always amazed at how so many of us continue to hold out hope that a political party, ANY party, can “come to the rescue” or provide enlightened leadership. our entire system, including that most sacred document, the constitution, is obsolete. the real challenge, therefore, is how to take matters in our own hands!! to bring about the most meaningful changes, the people must lead.
cosmos May 25th, 2007 5:36 pm

I apologize to those who read all the articles on commondreams, but I want to reach as many people as I can. This information has me completely freaked out.

A Presidential Directive was signed by President Bush on May 9th giving him unconstrained powers in case of a national emergency. In the case of a national emergency (terrorist attack), I don’t want that psychopath in charge of anything. How can he get away with this? It’s terrifying!!!

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55825

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

President Bush has signed a directive granting extraordinary powers to the office of the president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently without congressional approval or oversight.

The “National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive
” was
signed May 9, notes Jerome R. Corsi in a WND column
.

It was issued with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive.

The directive establishes under the office of the president a new national continuity coordinator whose job is to make plans for “National Essential Functions” of all federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments,
as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president’s directives in the event of a national emergency.

“Catastrophic emergency” is loosely defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage,
or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”

It says the president can assume the power to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.

The directive says the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, currently Frances Fragos Townsend
, would be designated as the national continuity coordinator.

Corsi says the directive makes no attempt to reconcile the powers created for the national continuity coordinator with the National Emergency Act
,
which requires that such proclamation “shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.”

A Congressional Research Service study notes the National Emergency Act sets up Congress as a balance empowered to “modify, rescind, or render dormant” such emergency authority if Congress believes the president has acted
inappropriately.

But the new directive appears to supersede the National Emergency Act by creating the new position of national continuity coordinator without any specific act of Congress authorizing the position, Corsi says.

The directive also makes no reference to Congress and its language appears to negate any requirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists.

It suggests instead that the powers of the directive can be implemented without any congressional approval or oversight.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke affirmed to Corsi the Homeland Security Department would implement the requirements of the order under
Townsend’s direction.

The White House declined to comment on the directive.
bdrube May 25th, 2007 5:45 pm

born2bewild - “The people must lead.” Which people? The millions of nitwits tuned into “American Idol” each week? Those are the people who elect your leaders, and their individual votes count the same as yours and mine.

The People are the reason we’re in this mess. They voted in Bush (or at least didn’t raise holy hell when the Supreme Court installed him) they supported the war (initially) and most of them don’t really care THAT much about the war as long as they don’t have to fight it.

Frankly, The People can kiss my ass.
born2bwild May 25th, 2007 6:09 pm

bdrube
there will be no glorious “national concensus” - indeed, it will out of necessity start out as a relatively small minority of extremely determined, educated and progressive people. which is to say, it has already started, and is genuine and growing. “the people” are at the moment only an infant. how long it will take to “grow up” is unknown. the important thing is to keep on bringin’ it - every minute of every day. never, EVER stop. are you up for it?
matt donuts May 25th, 2007 6:29 pm

I share a deep scepticism about Moveon.com. I was once a supporter, but left because the group is an appendage of U.S. imperialism because they do not admit that the Democrats are, like the Republicans, an imperalist party. While Bush is an abdominable person with incompetent advisors, and a person who is totally without normal intelligence, he is not that much different. That said, his policies are not radically different from the Democrats. His problem has been incompetency that lays bare the imperalist nature of U.S. foreign policy. Democrats havge been somewhat more competent in promoting a false claim that they are simply trying to establish in various arts of the world. What nonsense. The only way to get out of Iraq is to cut off funds and give the military 6 months to completely get out entirely. If Bush does not accept the bill, Democrats need to simply submit it over and over again with the same requirements; if Bush does not want to accept it, there will not be any money for Iraq and the war is over. Until this rather simple and effective aproach is taken, we will be in Iraq for years to come. If the Democrats do not take this step, it is my evidence that they are not dramatically different from the Republicans, and are, indeed, the imperialists I believe they are.
GARBOTOO May 25th, 2007 7:18 pm

AND SO IT GOES….
purvis ames May 25th, 2007 8:00 pm

The failure of the Democrats to confront the Repugs on Iraq will go by the stupendously obese, virtually uneducated, arrogant morons known as the sheeple of the United States like a NASCAR race. This country is beyond repair.
clyde paige May 25th, 2007 9:27 pm

I can tell you exactly why we are staying in Iraq. The ONE BILLION DOLLAR LARGEST EMBASSY IN THE WORLD IS JUST ABOUT READY TO OPEN IN BAGHDAD. The damn gutless democrat’s are giving Bush everything he wants and screwing the people who voted for them as I did.The democrat’s will never be strong until Nancy Pelosi and weekkneed Harry Reid are history.Impeachment off of the table what a stupid thing to say.
Saladin74 May 25th, 2007 10:31 pm

WHY DO THEY HATE US SO MUCH?? (the all-time most audacious question asked by supremacist xenophobic Yanks and their Fascist allies)
——————————————————————————–
Read that question w/ some whining noise added to it for fun!!!
This is a response from a world citizen to the all-time most naive question I have heard/read so much from the so-called analysts, writers, politicians, and hands of IMPERIALISM in your dishonest media.

In your undying, never-ending hatred for Iran and drowned in an ocean of narcissism, you simply have forgotten, or yet better, chosen to forget, the crimes, inhumane policies, arrogant attitudes, and pain inflicted by you “patriotic” psychos on many a nation, including Persians.

Well, the Northern Christian hypocrisy and self-love on one side; its harsh animosity and blood thirst for Iran is something else. It was evident in your clownish, arrogant President’s speeches and now it’s epitomized by the most blatantly hateful, Nazi pieces of propaganda which Goebbels himself would love you for ), there it comes, suck it and swallow it w/ AMERICAN (w/ a thick R the way you like it) pride and xenophobia.

By what I have read from the likes of you in your very “OBJECTIVE” media (no shortage in the ” objective, informed, and bright” nation of yours), you completely epitomize what the monstrous Northern Christian imperialism means to billions of impoverished, victimized, oppressed masses of the world and what it has done for the past several centuries only in order to secure its own filthy interests derived from your selfish, self-indulged, self-centered, egotistic, materialist, and Calvinist lifestyles and worldviews. If and only if you were interested in the truth and facts, you could easily find the answer by reviewing your friends’ list and also crimes’ list for decades or centuries (for those Euro liberals!!). It doesn’t take a genius, does it?

YOU are the epitome of unfairness, injustice, governmental terrorism and bigotry. These are some of the crimes against humanity committed by your patriotic asses all over the planet (the list would be only too long but I mention a few here):

U.S. sponsored coup against democracy in Guatemala in 1954 which resulted in the deaths of over 120,000 Guatemalan peasants by U.S. installed dictatorships over the course of four decades.

U.S. overthrew the governments of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and helped to murder 3,000 people.

1973, the U.S. sponsored a coup in Chile against he democratic government of Salvador Allende and helped to murder another 30,000 people.

1965 the U.S. sponsored a coup in Indonesia that resulted in the murder of over 800,000 people, and the subsequent slaughter in 1975 of over 250,000 innocent people in East Timor by the Indonesian regime with the direct complicity of President Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

U.S. sponsored terrorist contra war (the World Court declared the U.S. government a war criminal in 1984 for the mining of the harbours) against Nicaragua in the 1980s which resulted in the deaths of over 30,000 innocent people (or as the U.S. government used to call them before the term “collateral damage” was invented–”soft targets”).

U.S. war against the people of El Salvador in the 1980s, which
resulted in the brutal deaths of over 80,000 people, or “soft targets”.

U.S. sponsored terror war against the peoples of southern Africa (especially Angola) that began in the 1970’s and resulted in the deaths and mutilations of over 1,000,000.

U.S. invaded Panama over the Christmas season of 1989 and killed over 5,000 in an attempt to capture George H. Bush’s CIA partner, now turned enemy, Manual Noriega.

U.S. sponsored a brutal coup that resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Iranians from 1952-1978.

This doesn’t even mention the crimes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Grenada, Bay of Pigs and before that the support for and direct involvement w/ Batista’s regime in Cuba, the 8-year war against Iran -including chemical weapons usage- by (the former friend!!) Saddam, death squads in Central America, the 5 decades of Israeli crimes in Palestine and Lebanon (the veto policy), the “missing” in Argentina, and of course the “silent coup” in Algeria in 91 (w/ deceitful cooperation from the French bastards) that stopped the FIS from winning the elections thus plunging the country into a civil war for years…………….

We can never forget your crimes or undying sense of self-love and ego that make the Yankees and their NATO/G7 lovers the most detested nations on this planet, perhaps galaxy.

Now kill as many innocent people as you want. LAUNCH, LAUNCH as a bastard called JAMES WOODS declared on JAY LENO. Brag about Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Beirut bombings. Brag about killing of the innocent family members of Kaddafi, all the countries’ leaders and revolutionaries who had the guts to say no to your Fascist Empire.

It matters not. The U.S. (and the British disgusting colonialism) will go where the Romans, German Nazis, Mongols, and the rest of the arrogant sorry excuses for humanity went. Now celebrate killing Moslems, Nationalists, and Leftists (not to mention nuns and priests), etc. in your never-ending fire of hatred, supremacy and ego.

Unlike many other foreigners, I am not simplistic enough to think you are just the minority and the “rest” are simply decent, nice, culture-loving individuals. The fact is it’s filth like you that votes for the criminals you call leaders (Reagan and Bushes, Blair, Merkel, Harper and Howard come to mind immediately). Also I don’t think, despite the popular belief, you are ignorant or just stupid; I think you know enough and simply choose to ignore because you are the most selfish, inhumane, robotic bastards this planet has seen for a long time. Your sense of “SELECTIVE MEMORY and JUDGMENT” is proof enough.

I think legendary Orwell got it right in this passage from Nineteen Eighty-Four, an account of the ultimate supremacist empire:
“And in the general hardening of outlook that set in . . . practices which had been long abandoned - imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions . . . and the deportation of whole populations - not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.”
As a reaction to your actions, our (the South) hatred for you could only be compared to the feelings we have against Serbs, Nazis, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Criminal.

THE NEW ROME WILL FALL…… AND ITS FOLLOWERS, FRIENDS, ALLIES AND APOLOGISTS….. WE’LL MAKE SURE OF THAT. DEATH TO THE U.S. and EU!!!
hootowl May 26th, 2007 1:29 am

Isn’t that James P. Moron who sold us out? I corrected his name, you’re welcome.
Joe Toxic May 26th, 2007 1:37 am

Thanks John Murtha, DEM PENN, you tried. The rest, Pelosi, et al, cut from the same cloth. No more money and votes from me you spineless congressional dems (Murtha being the exception). Great job, what a joke, in true “democratic fashion” they fold and only after four months. At least the GOP reps, can maintain discipline in the ranks. DEMs took control of the House using the voice and energy of the anti-war faction of the party, which they took for granted. Not any more, i’m switching to independent/Green party. END THE WAR, BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!!!!!!!!
karlof1 May 26th, 2007 2:56 am

A lot of folks don’t know what it is they have to lose until they’ve lost it. The “it” here is a political/economic/social/justice system that works to “advance the general welfare,” as stated in the rationale for the constitution that is the Preamble. It has morphed into “advance the special interest’s welfare” at the expense of the general welfare. The recent polls showing 75%+ saying the country is going in the wrong direction reflect the subconscious knowledge that the system is dysfunctional, or worse. This number can only increase after the Dems lastest sellout.

The events of this weekend should provide a good barometer of public reaction. The opportunity to launch an election challenge against one of the betrayers will be ripe for any aspiring candidate with a good anti-war spiel as “soapbox” opportunities will abound.
LauritzTheAgitator May 26th, 2007 2:49 pm

Moratorium. Spread the word.
decrepittex May 28th, 2007 4:47 pm

The Republicans are ruthless bastards and the Democrats are spineless pussies. The Dems speak the truth on rare occasions, but immediatly apologize as soon as the Reps attack. It’s no big mystery why so few Americans vote. They are just sick of the lies and Bull*&^t. I guess it all boils down to the fact that 99% of politicians are whores. They sell their souls to the highest bidder and people who vote are just pissing into the wind and it’s blowing back in our faces. I guess the only reason I vote is so I have the right to bitch afterwards. I know in my heart my vote means nothing. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb have already been selected by corporations like Exxon/Mobile, GE, Westinghouse, pharmaceutical companies and others who know whichever one “we the people” vote for is already in their pocket. As long as it takes several hundred million dollars to run, and we have two choices to pick from, it doesn’t really matter. Our health system sucks (unless you are rich)our schools are graduating seniors who cannot fill out a job application and what are we spending money on, yep, we are rebuilding (??) Iraq. With the exception of making Halliburton richer, how is that working out? What idiot Republican said “the U.S. would be greeted as liberators, that Iraqi oil money would pay for the reconstruction”? Oh, that would be Paul “I gave my girlfriend a raise” Wolfowitz. America would have saved lots of money and thousands of lives if we had just bought Iraq’s oil instead of trying to steal it.
Shenonymous May 30th, 2007 10:06 am

The viperous mindless schreeching of Saladin74 above is repugnant. He obviously hasn’t lived in a “free” society or if he has it hasn’t been long enough. And of course, we are free to speak as we want, here, unlike Hugo Chavez’s wiping out the voices of dissent in Venezuela. Fascism is a condition of life that vigilantly has to be rooted out wherever it is encountered. I had once admired Chavez, but the longer he is in office the clearer it is he is a megalomaniac. There are several of these kinds of men in the world today, on the right and the left, including here in America.

Once a MoveOn member, I too have unsubscribed for many of the reasons noted above. And as for a great many the Democrats in Washington, I too am disgusted and will not be giving a cent to the party. But there are some courageous Democrats that ought to be supported. Cream rises to the top. But crap does too, so you have to be very watchful you don’t get pulled in by any kind of fanaticism. It is a fallacy to lump things together and call them all the same. These are the kinds of fallacies that brews zealous terrorism. Democracy takes work. It is a Sisyphousian struggle against all kinds of selfish enterprises.

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