This week, the U.S. Senate put on a clown show.
With most Americans wanting troops out of Iraq, Democratic leaders in the Senate failed to get enough Republican votes to overcome GOP filibusters for fairly tepid change-course measures. They could get only six Republican votes even for a Jim Webb proposal simply requiring that U.S. troops spend as much time at home as they spend deployed in Iraq.
But thanks to 22 Democratic clowns joining a Republican circus, the Senate was able to break the partisan impasse by overwhelmingly passing one bold measure: A defense of Gen. David Petraeus against a MoveOn.org newspaper ad. The resolution expressed “full support” for the general and condemned “personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.”
Cable news networks that cheer-led our country into invading Iraq took a break from their latest all-O.J.-all-the-time binge to make an antiwar ad more controversial than the ongoing slaughter of Iraqis and Americans that the invasion predictably unleashed. And 22 Democrats were more desperate to distance themselves from the 3-million-member MoveOn than from less than 50 Republican dead-enders bent on prolonging the killing.
The 22 Democrats can be reached by dialing the Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121. They are Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Cardin (MD), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Dorgan (ND), Feinstein (CA), Johnson (SD), Klobuchar (MN), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Leahy (VT), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Salazar (CO), Tester (MT) and Webb (VA).
MoveOn’s ad in the New York Times - headlined “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” - questioned whether the extremely political Gen. Petraeus would betray the truth and the facts about Iraq, as he had previously in echoing Team Bush. The ad didn’t question his patriotism.
Yet 22 Democrats (plus, of course, Joe Lieberman) backed the pro-Petraeus resolution after hearing its rightwing sponsor declare that the MoveOn ad had “crossed a historic line of decency.”
Are these 22 Democrats amnesiacs? Have they forgotten the Republican ads calling war-wounded Sen. Max Cleland a liar unwilling to protect us from Osama bin Laden? There was no Senate resolution defending the Vietnam Vet against those ads.
Nor were there Senate resolutions aimed at Disney, Rupert Murdoch, General Electric, Time Warner or Clear Channel for broadcasting the screeds of the O’Reillys, Hannitys, Coulters, Savages and Becks in which Iraq War critics were routinely referred to as treasonous and traitors.
Nor a resolution after Rev. Pat Robertson declared that Democratic criticism of Bush during wartime “amounts to treason.” Or one condemning Bill O’Reilly for declaring that Democratic-backer George Soros “ought to be hanged.” Or one denouncing Glenn Beck for wishing on-air for the violent deaths of war critics, including a member of Congress.
The Petraeus/MoveOn resolution had one main purpose: To get Democratic Senators to run in fear from the party’s antiwar base. President Bush basically admitted as much in rehearsed remarks at Thursday’s news conference: “I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democratic Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad. And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org - or more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military.”
And 22 Democrats fell for this Karl Rovian political ploy - a resolution that fraudulently purported to condemn “personal attacks” on “all members of the United States armed forces.”
During the run-up to the Iraq invasion, I worked in cable news when these networks relentlessly questioned the integrity and patriotism of former Marine officer and Gulf War veteran Scott Ritter. As the U.N.’s top weapons inspector, Ritter had stood up to Saddam Hussein’s government for years. But when he forcefully questioned the grounds for invading Iraq, corporate media called him an agent of Saddam. . .and worse. No Senate resolution has ever condemned the personal attacks on Ritter.
And unlike Petraeus - who penned a ridiculously over-optimistic Washington Post column (datelined Baghdad) extolling Iraq’s security forces, timed just weeks before the 2004 election - Ritter’s accurate analysis was never tailored to please any White House.
There is a struggle for power going on in our country between forces for peace and international diplomacy and open debate and civil liberties and social justice on the one hand - and the forces of intimidation and militarism and corporatism on the other. The Democratic base is firmly in the first camp. But not all Democratic leaders are.
When the forces of intimidation and their allies in corporate media cook up one of these obviously phony controversies to bully or distract the public - whether targeting a MoveOn ad or a Michael Moore movie or a liberal politician’s minor misstatement - how should we react to Democratic officeholders so quick to aid the other side? Think P.C. - primary challenge.
Jeff Cohen is a media critic, author of “Cable News Confidential” and an advisory board member of Progressive Democrats of America.
The Bush team routinely intiminates those who disagree or question their policies by branding them unpatriotic or worse. Their assaults against those who question the logic of continuing the course in Iraqis a continuation of that prctice. Now that the opposition has fired back, they cry foul.
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> No assult from the liberal wing or press can match the unprecedented character assassinations against Senator Max Cleland, a decorated triple amputee Viet Vet with an honorable senate record. These assaults were in response to Sen Cleland’s sponsorship of an investigation into the causes of 9/11, which was opposed by Bush. Among other things, they displayed his picture with Bin Laden and falsely demeaned his war record, even blaming him for stepping on the mine. With these crude tactics they succeeded in unseating Sen Cleland by one who shunned military service, & was compatible to Bush’s secretive policies.
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> Despite its degree of deception & importance, a critique of that abuse was avoided by the mainstream media. No republican has even expressed remorse for it.
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> The most alarming aspect of these horrific intimination tactics is not their methodology–but their successes.
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> Blame falls on apathetic & gullible voters who succumb to such rhetoric; and our legislators for allowing themselves to be intimidated into permitting this reckess zealot to impose such damage to our nation and the world.
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It is great to hear that MoveOn.Org is getting massive donations to expose Republicans and Democrats who support the illegal occupation! MoveOn.Org needs to completely cut ties with the Democrats and expose all of the corrupt politicians in both parties!
At what point does reality become real? Millions of US people know all this, and yet the miraculous floating clown show goes on, and on, and on, as if it had some base on which to stand.
No matter how bizarrely the truth is distorted in the funhouse mirrors of our insane political culture and prostituted media, REALITY IS STILL REAL, and will bite us ALL on our behinds.
One thing (among many) that perpetually astonishes me, is that each and every one of the persons who plays a role in this farce has to sit down with themselves at the end of the day and pretend that they are serious people. How can there be such mass self-delusion?
Regarding the GOP use of insulting and degrading smear tactics, it should also be pointed out that, while the outrageous smear of Senator Max Cleland in Georgia presumably had some effect, the actual reported vote count was at odds with exit polling, and the machines used were hackable electronic machines with no paper trail or auditable electronic records.
It’s a shame that the rest of the so called Democratic leadership doesn’t stand with the people who call themselves Democrats. Let’s vote them out of office!
I see familiar “Democratic” names e.g. Landrieu, Feinstein, Leahy, Nelson(s) et al who side with Republicans much of the time. Are they Republican plants posing as Democrats? There are so many of them, I can’t keep track anymore. Why don’t they just quit pretending they’re Democrats and do what Joe Lieberman did.
“As for political parties, I prefer the definition offered by Mike Ruppert in “America: From Freedom To Fascism” in which he explains that the two major parties are like two crime families-the Genoveses and the Gambinos. They function like players in a crap game that feign opposition to each other, but when the chips are down, they will always unite to serve their common interests. (If the Iraq occupation is not a case in point, then I don’t know what is.) When we vote in presidential elections for corporately-owned candidates or “the lesser evil”, we are merely choosing between the two crime families, and even if one candidate were not a crime family member, our votes in the past two presidential elections, as Bev Harris has so astutely demonstrated, have been hacked. In the throes of the current, and I might add, rapidly-accelerating fascist shift, what evidence do we have for assuming that if there is an election in 2008, anything will be different? Tell me again, what’s the definition of insanity?” — Carolyn Baker
Without these paid “Contractors” ole Georgie Boy would have to bring back the DRAFT. Big problems with that one.
ROBERT SETTGAST: Appreciate your informed commentary, but I must point out (shades of a former English teacher) it’s INTIMIDATE… to use scare tactics to control, okay?
JEFF COHEN says, “There is a struggle for power going on in our country between forces for peace and international diplomacy and open debate and civil liberties and social justice on the one hand - and the forces of intimidation and militarism and corporatism on the other.” This line of tension is indicative of the astrological polarity indicated by the sign of Aries (war) opposing Libra (justice). Tonight begins LIBRA at the onset of the autumn equinox and restores principles of fairness and balance, resuscitating their power into all lines of debate and would-be discussion. We have a small window of time, as once we head into late 2009, and more so into 2010, the outer planets (which remain in signs for long periods of time where I believe they are mandated to trigger specific lessons that emerge either through individuals as agents of, or directly from the ethers. These zones of meaning, or signs, are imbued with qualities that Initiates understand, although like gravity, contesting their essences does little to sway their ultimate impact) energize this same critical axis of our world: That which exists between the Aries principles of self-first, aggression, might makes right, raw brute ego AND those of Libra which constitute all attempts at negotiation, the rule of law, the capacity to find agreements among apparently irreconcilable groups. GENIUS makes use of the latter, Neanderthals of the former. The spiritual evolution of any society is witnessed in which principle it furthers and at what cost.
It is precisely this kind of jaw dropping, eye popping stupidity that brings down nations.
This is merely the same old stuff. Nothing much new has occurred and nothing much new will occur. No until’s or if’s or and’s - this is merely the way it goes with people. If reality is too painful, the mind compensates by inventing a different reality. It may be a fatal flaw in our makeup, but so it is.
I was about to embark on a new political journey to back and work for an Independant going against two entrentched pols in the US Congress. I’m backing out. Not because I think he won’t win (the odds are very long), but because I realize that I simply can’t spend any more of my prescious life energy on this farce called Washington politics.
No, it’s time for me to start living my own life in accordance with my values. I see now the universal truth that the wise ones have told us: Be the change you want to see. It is the only way to create true change. The only way.
9 months of Democratic “leadership” have left me more confused, discouraged and depressed then I was before the election (in which I voted and have always voted democratic). Is this the Matrix? I never thought the Dem’s could be totally trusted but this is bizarre beyond words. P.S. It the “Swiftboat” guys had done the ad, would a resolution be voted on?
I just want to ask One Question…
What part of the 1st Amendment to MY Constitution do you NOT understand ?!? “Congress shall make NO Law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or the Press, or the People to peaceably assemble, or the petition the Government for a redress of greviences.”
What is the problem here? Considering the hideous fact that way too many in my Congress are Lawyers - i.e. PhDs in the LAW - calling them Clowns in the Circus of the Senate is being Way Too Kind. IMHO, All those that voted for this absurdity are guilty of the High Crime of Treason, to whit, the blatantly obvious violation of their Sacred Oath to “…preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Off with their Heads !!!
“… the MoveOn ad had “crossed a historic line of decency.”
The Senate is taking time to say this in the wake of Blackwater operatives mowing down 22 people in Iraq? Do they consider that act on our behalf “decent”? I don’t see them rushing condemn that.
In the 24 hours following that Senate vote, MoveOn took in $500,000 in donations, the biggest haul in any 24 hours of their history. George Bush & the U.S. Senate did them a big favor.
It is a dog and pony show to distract us from real problems.
You’d all better check to see what Greens are running in your ridings.
“The 22 Democrats can be reached by dialing the Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121. They are Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Cardin (MD), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Dorgan (ND), Feinstein (CA), Johnson (SD), Klobuchar (MN), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Leahy (VT), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Salazar (CO), Tester (MT) and Webb (VA).”
They’re all neo-liberals, or conservatives in sheep’s clothing. Conservatives cannot govern.
The evil people behind the attacks on MoveOn were out to do more than intimidate members of Congress.
Their goal, and they probably will achieve it, is to intimidate the owners of the media into refusing to run MoveOn ads in the future that don’t pass vetting. I can hear it now, “This ad is too inflammatory, we don’t want a repeat of the Senate condemnation because of something on our air, in our paper, etc.
Say another goodbye to free speech.
Excuse me, a group of heavily armed men in black leather shouting “police!” are caving in my front door with a battering ram . . .
They must have been monitoring my keystrokes again . . .
More than in any other time in our nation’s history, I question the viability of our republican democracy. The damage being done by money/power grubbers is chronic and lethal; the majority of the public either misinformed or apathetic; and genuine revolution is DOA. Nature have mercy.
Pro-War Democrats: The 22 Democrats can be reached by dialing the Congressional switchboard: 202-224-3121. They are Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Cardin (MD), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Dorgan (ND), Feinstein (CA), Johnson (SD), Klobuchar (MN), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Leahy (VT), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Salazar (CO), Tester (MT) and Webb (VA).
These are the fixers on this vote. The next vote will have different fixers to provide cover for the other Democrats.
Remember, there are twenty-seven more to call as well.
Until real actions are taken in the Senate, we can assume that all Democrats and Republican are Pro-War. When one is without Principles, it can be assured that the mission, goals and objectives are meaningless. Thus whatever the strategies and tactics about which one may argue become moot.
There was a psychiatric study (which seems to have been disappeared from the net - I think it was done in the ’90s) originating from New York which conclusively demonstrated that corporate CEOs lost their ability to distinguish right form wrong, ethical from unethical and moral from immoral as the monetary value of the “prize” increased.
I believe the purse being held out by the Iraq war has completely destroyed decision makers’ ability to distinguish between “right for me” and “right for the nation”. Until money loses its value this situation seems likely to continue unchecked. Which suggests (to me) that until consumerism is abandoned by the majority those at the top of the pyramid will continue to rape the planet and their nations lives and livelihoods for the ever-elusive ultimate personal deal.
The opposite of progress is?
Does anyone know about the Amendment submitted by Boxer?
It condemned Move On’s Ad but also took moves to condemn the prior ads with Max Cleland morphing into OBL and the John Kerry swiftboat commercials.
Boxers did not pass.
I think that’s a clue to it all.
Next week, the Senate will vote on a resolution condemning students whose questions are personal attacks on the honor and integrity of the entire US Government; a resolution condemning all people of any race who personally attack the Justice Department by demanding justice in the Jena 6 case; and a resolution thanking OJ for doing something stupid at just the right moment. Couldn’t he at least have claimed to have killed Jon Bennet Ramsey?
What the attack dogs did to Max Cleland is unforgivable and the 22 who call themselves democrats that voted against MoveON are the traitors in the party. The only one that suprized me was Jim Webb I thought he had better sense.I have said many times that the republicans stand for NOTHING THAT IS HONORABLE,HONEST OR THE TRUTH and now we have 22 democrats that are scared s–tl–s of these crooks and liars.If you aren’t watching Keith Olbermann at 7pm EDT on MSNBC I urge you to do so especially his special comments. Olbermann is tho only one in the media that I’ve seen who has the guts to get in George Bush’s face and call him on his lies,his illegal war and using the fear factor.
This congress is a joke. It would be a funny joke, if it was not so tragic..
Are the politicians in the beltway really that disconnected from the people?
How can they possibly call themselves representatives of the people, when they so blatantly disregard their wishes.
I think it time for a change of government!
What do you think?
Amen to the above; but even worse is the fact that the mainstream media has deigned (just barely, through a glass darkly) to inform us that on September 6 — after consultation with and approval of our Government — Israel conducted a “preemptive” air strike on a “suspicious” target in northern Syria. The Washington Post story on this incident does not even hint that Israel’s (and effectively our Government’s) military attack on another sovereign nation was in response to any actual or imminently threatened attack by Syria. Thus, Israel and its criminal co-conspirator the US have, within the past two weeks, waged aggressive war against another member nation of the UN — the most grave of all offenses prohibited by the collective security provisions of the UN Charter, and a “Crime Against Peace” for which the top leaders of Nazi Germany were tried, convicted and executed at Nuremburg. Has this evoked outrage in the Senate, in Congress, in the UN “Security Council”, in the US media? No, the only questions “debated” (by the usual “anonymous government sources” cited by Post reporters) were the nature of the Syrian target and the effectiveness of the Israeli attack. Sort of like a mafia post-mortem of a bank robbery, only with a “national security” slant. No reason to ponder minor matters like law or morality, right? If you’ve got the might, you’ve got the right. And so it goes nowadays, here in our good old US of A.
I’m with you iammyself, what we resist. persists. This farce in DC is a total waste of good energy. I have to believe that all of us who want a peaceful and just world, can participate in its creation from the bottom up—the ones on top, just aren’t interested in what we want or what we have to say.
Why would I call any member of the US Senate that is so clearly out of touch with the people of this country. These cowardly Democrats make me ashamed they are a part of the Democratic(yes Mr. Bush), the DEMOCRATIC Party. No wonder they can’t push through any change in war policy. I’m surprised they have a rating of 11%. And after this shameful vote, led by those hypocrites in the Republican party and some cowardly Democrats, that rating might just be in serious danger. Look for 5% soon.
All hail the pablum eating famous 22:
Baucus (MT), Bayh (IN), Cardin (MD), Carper (DE), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Dorgan (ND), Feinstein (CA), Johnson (SD), Klobuchar (MN), Kohl (WI), Landrieu (LA), Leahy (VT), Lincoln (AR), McCaskill (MO), Mikulski (MD), Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor (AR), Salazar (CO), Tester (MT) and Webb (VA).
Aren’t you proud of them?
clyde paige,
Perhaps we all ought to get in George Bush’s face and denounce him for the feckless thug he and his minions have proven to be. Maybe we ought to get in our sentors’ faces and denounce them for being complicit in an illegal occupation and stifling free speech. Maybe we ought to get in the faces of Jim Boehner and Nancy Pelosi and to tell them they will be dragged kicking and screaming to the Hague with the rest of the criminals for being complicit in war crimes. Maybe it is time to get in the faces of members of the public who only care about their job, car, and American Idol. We need to set them straight and get them proactive in combatting the cancer that has metastacized and permeated the political pathos of this country. I am ready. Are you?
Democrats.
Prostitutes.
Is there a difference?
Sen. Boxer’s defeated amendment (50Y, 47N, 3NV) Senate Amendment 2947 to National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008:
“To reaffirm strong support for all the men and women of the United States Armed Forces and to strongly condemn attacks on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person or organization.”
I agree with ezflyer’s commentary. These 22 are clearly neoliberals in sheep’s clothing. Perhaps they are Democrats like Ronald Reagan (yes, he was a Democrat at one time, a point that I believe was entirely ignored in the 1980’s).
Bills like this are important, though, because they expose the Democrats for what they are. By “the Democrats” I’m not referring to a homogeneous party. Probably 99% of them must be pro-Israel, but it appears that 50% of them can at least be anti-torture, anti-genocide, anti-war-on-false-pretense. That’s the real kicker here — this war was based on cooked intel. and the Dims are supporting Bush’s hatchet-man over the great number of Americans who want us out of there.
The only possibility for this mess is either: (a) tremendous propaganda from the MSM, clearly they’d rather talk about kidnappings, Paris Hilton, OJ, etc. coupled with (b) probably massive voter fraud.
The Democratic party lacks a sieve of purity, a consistent platform, a clear and clean means of providing a litmus to any coherent set of planks or values (such as the Green Ten Key Values). I believe this is the single greatest reason that the Democratic Party must be dissolved. A huge number of voters get what they didn’t vote for when they vote Democrat. Minnesotans didn’t vote for Klobuchar to aid Bush on FISA, Betrayus, etc.
I coined the term “crypto-Republican” after stumbling on the Wikipedia page for so-called “Crypto-Jews”. Apparently some Jewish people, to avoid anti-semitic backlash over the centuries, have had to live outwardly as Christians, etc. to hide their genuine identities.
Well, it appears that there are Republican neo-liberals who are every bit as ruthless as Bush & Co. But they’re also expert soothsayers, actors, etc. and so they’re able to join the other side outwardly, though their voting record eventually gives them away: Crypto-Republicans in Democrat ranks.
Take responsibility for yourself and your actions, President Bush; stop looking for subordinates to defend you and your actions; take responsibility for yourself, President Bush, take responsibility for your actions.
I commend Jeff Cohen for his balanced priorities. For example, in speaking of Iraq, his focus is on the “slaughter” of Americans *and* Iraqis. This is critical for understanding the greatest crimes of the corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats in supporting Bush administration foreign and domestic crimes.
I think the criticisms of Democrats *as a party* are misplaced. I see two kinds of Democrats: corporate Democrats who support the corporate regime and its foreign policy of empire; and progressive Democrats, who are pushing for a new progressive regime. In the Senate there are very few progressive Democrats, but Bernie Sanders and Russ Feingold have pushed in a progressive direction a number of times. In the House, some of the members of the Black Caucus, Progressive Caucus and Out-of-Iraq Caucus are quite progressive. Among them are Dennis Kucinich of course, and Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Diane Watson, John Lewis, Jim McDermott, Emmanuel Cleaver and quite a few others.
Filibuster . . . . didn’t the Republicans threaten to do away with this practice in 2006? Didn’t the Dems use that threat as a reason not to push harder for benchmarks, etc. then? Why is the reverse not applicable? Why don’t the Dems threaten the Repubs with the so-called “nuclear option?” I can’t imagine the Repubs would take it lying down. Why do the Dems raise the white flag because they “don’t have the votes” when no vote has been held? Chicken s****! They need to make the Republicans vote and make their positions a matter of record.
Paul Bramscher, It’s hilarious that Ronald Reagan was a Democrat at one time..didn’t know that.
“I believe this is the single greatest reason that the Democratic Party must be dissolved. A huge number of voters get what they didn’t vote for when they vote Democrat.”
- That’s why both parties should be dissolved. They’re both traitors to the American people and they’re both beyond repair. They’re also both guilty of treason.
Earthian “progressive Democrats, who are pushing for a new progressive regime” ?
I don’t want a progressive regime. I don’t want any regime.
I just want to live my life with as little government interference as possible. I want my freedom back. I remember when we still had some. Even quite a bit back in the fifties and sixties, compared to now. I wish I could have lived in the late 19th century when there was a whole lot more freedom.
Interesting the congress can pull a stunt like this, then turn around and be amazed that their approval ratings are hovering around 22% and have been for the past several years.
And do they ever wonder why? Probably not. Our misconception is we think they care.
mastershake September 23rd, 2007 1:28 am
“Interesting the congress can pull a stunt like this, then turn around and be amazed that their approval ratings are hovering around 22% and have been for the past several years.”
You’re too kind. According to the latest poll out just a few days ago the Congressional approval rating was 11%, and it may have slipped even lower after the Move on vote.
Lobo Gris
“Why, of course, the people don’t want war; why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
Herman Goering 18 April 1946
Yeah, he’s a patriot all right, but patriot to the warmongers and corporations, not to the Constitution and the American people. And don’t mix the honorable people in the U.S. military with Petraeus who has presidential ambitions and is merely singing to the warmongers and corporation saying: I’m your next man. He has degraded himself just like Collin Powel.
The overall world opinion is that your political system sucks and needs a major overhaul. You cannot do that UNLESS:
1) You demand voting machines that leave paper trail.
2) You call in UN election monitors.
Otherwise, someone like Joe Lieberman will always creep in.
. I have repeatedly defended the dem’s efforts in congress. I’ve pointed out that the obstructionist repubs have undermined the hearings and any bills they tried to pass. i.e. they had to fund the troops etc.
This was something I can’t defend. It is disgusting to me. Why did they do it? Anyway, I wrote this letter to the 22 Democratic signees:
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But thanks to 22 Democratic clowns joining a Republican circus, the Senate was able to break the partisan impasse by overwhelmingly passing one bold measure: A defense of Gen. David Petraeus against a MoveOn.org newspaper ad.
The resolution expressed “full support” for the general and condemned “personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.”
Cable news networks that cheer-led our country into invading Iraq took a break from their latest all-O.J.-all-the-time binge to make an antiwar ad more controversial than the ongoing slaughter of Iraqis and Americans that the invasion predictably unleashed.
And 22 Democrats were more desperate to distance themselves from the 3-million-member MoveOn than from less than 50 Republican dead-enders bent on prolonging the killing.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/22/4031/
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SHAME ON YOU!!!!
I am definately not a left wing radical anti-war zealot. I am, however a Democrat that has continuously covered the behinds and defended our Dem leaders in congress in letters to congress and on many many blogs and message boards. Friday, 22 of you did the undefendable this time.
HOW COULD YOU???? Walk the repub party line???? What exactly did moveon ever do you? What questions did they ask in that ad that wasn’t on the minds of us all? How can you continue to allow the repubs to bully you?
Betrayus did exactly that. He crawled in bed with the neo-cons and lied. I have watched everyday the growing list of dead Iraqis and US troops. We have lost more than any of the previous years.
The violence is down? In Baghdad? The security has made what changes in the political climate?
No matter who is in the majority in congress it is still the same old game. I have tried to forget that we were the majority when we invaded Iraq, but the dem congress goes right back to letting the repubs run the policies no matter who is the majority.
I am ashamed to call myself a Democrat after 42 years of voting dem.
You couldn’t get a bill passed that gave health insurance, one that reinstated habeus corpus, or one that provided our troops needed home time, but you helped the repubs by signing on to a non-binding bill suppressing the help the Dem congress needs to bring out the truth, the main stream media’s blitz for continuing this war until the corporations can control ALL of Iraq.
In passing that bill you helped cover the truth and blocked exposing the bushco’s lies.
Forget the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis men women and children, the deaths of almost 3800 US troops and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, in and out of Iraq, the diseases caused by witholding purifications for their drinking water (cholera for one), 120-130 degree heat with no electricity.
Katrina and the handling of the aftermath should have given us at least a tiny fraction of understanding of what Iraqis have been going through everyday for over 4 years. 3000 dead on 9/11 should have given us a tiny understanding of what hundreds of thousand of Iraqi deaths is doing to Iraq. A people that never did anything to us.
The Democratic congress should stop listening to repubs and Lieberman and the main stream media and start using their heads and listen to their constituants….’we the people’.
I will still vote in 08, but more and more dems are saying that they will not.
Petraeus ate a booger the size of a small apple on national TV during the Senate hearings, but apparently all the networks cut away from it.
Read all about it here.
Should anyone be surprised by any of this — I mean anyone that pays attention? They are worse than “clowns,” they are criminals playing games of complicity in crimes the healthy mind can barely grasp and until this administration is removed and brought to justice, We the People will remain criminals as well. Don’t expect the partners in crime to do that.
Simply put: Republicans are babies and can’t stand to have their feelings hurt.
Or, put another way, are terrified to confront the subject of the war head on. Hence the distracting resolutsions about “protecting” Petraeus and the military. Protecting from MoveOn? These guys have sidewinder missles and laser sighted autmomatic weapons? They’ll be ok.
Again, Republicans are babies.
Repeat it.
Pointing out the truth that Petraeus is a political pawn causes an ethical uproar?
How about when Coke did their “humorous” ad trilogy during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, you know the one with the punch lines of “‘Sue them back to the stone age’, ‘Wipe them of the face of the earth’, and Humiliate them’”.
Ha ha, he he…where was the conservative outrage over these attacks on human dignity?
Of course I’m making a case for human dignity and not MoveOn. When did this new form of political opportunist return to the anti-war momentum that launched it’s organization?
Is there hope that MoveOn can move beyond political pragmatism/opportunism and join the true force of Justice and Human Dignity and the Call To Impeach?
Fron Glenn Greenwald’s article, The DC Establishment vs American Public Opinion:
“The majority of Americans have emphatically rejected the Beltway P.R. campaign of the last several months, and are as opposed more than ever before to the war. Perhaps most remarkably, in light of the bipartisan canonization rituals to which we have been subjected, a strong majority (53-39%) believes that Gen. Petreaus’ report “will try to make things look better than they really are” (rather than “honestly reflect the situation in Iraq”).”
The Senate just told us that the American people have the right to be skeptical of General Petreaus as long as they keep their big mouths shut.
..the MoveOn ad had “crossed a historic line of decency.”
Don’t miss this occasion for celebration folks.
The decent side of that line is nowadays entirely ruled by a naked emperor. He gets away with it because most are too decent to stop the parade by non-equivocally protesting his nakedness.
The illusions of decency are the only chains he has left to bind the majority of his subjects, and these chains are slowly falling off.
Nice to see Olberman follow up on the front foot. Gee, he even used the word “pissy”. The odd rough edge doesn’t always go astray.
(Stay focussed and rational now, no need to fall apart in crudity.)
MoveOn needs to send a message and work for the defeat of these 22 Democratic Senators. Or I’d go beyond that and say work for the defeat of any Senator who didn’t vote No, since you have cowards like Obama refusing to vote at all.
MoveOn needs to play political hardball. MoveOn needs to go into the next session of Congress with everyone knowing that Senators who voted against MoveOn are no longer in the Senate. MoveOn, and the whole left in general needs to learn to do that. We need to support two opponents to each of these. One in the primary, then an independent in the general election. In the general, we don’t have to win. Just take enough votes away from these worthless fools such that they are retired from the US Senate.
I can’t remember the 1984 line, but it was something like… “If the proles (masses) only realized the power they actually have.”
Your government is the way it is because most everyone, including ourselves are extremly disorganized, demoralized, timid, paranoid, and in fear of the government.
The people who claim to be against the war really don’t want to stop it because they do absolutely nothing other than complain on an internet blog. Just like the same people who claim to be for the war don’t actually fight themselves, but send their friends and family over to get killed.
It takes more than an opinion and a few keystrokes to win or to stop a war. All you need is a few million people, and you could effectively shut down this nation. You have the support of 66% of the country who are against the war. Forget how the media frames you “misfits” “anarchists” “invalents” etc etc. Do you really care what they think? They are the government/corperate propoganda machine. They’re as much of the problem as the congress/executive themselves.
Whenever Democrats thought about using the filibuster in the Senate to stop the idiotic nominations of the ruling imbecile, like the monopoly guy who wanted to dismantle the UN as UN ambassador… idiotic…
Whenever Dim’s threatened to use the filibuster the Republican leadership led by Dickless Cheney (aka spineless liar) would threaten them with what Cheney refered to as the nuclear option. The excerpt below is from the Rupert Murdoch’s Washington Post. Now when Republicans threaten and use the filibuster Dim’s are silent as usual. The American Aristocracy owns both parties folks. It is now officially over - until we remove the money from elections - there is no more Republic called America.
From the Post;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59877-2004Dec12.html
At issue is a seldom-used, complicated and highly controversial parliamentary maneuver in which Republicans could seek a ruling from the chamber’s presiding officer, presumably Vice President Cheney, that filibusters against judicial nominees are unconstitutional. Under this procedure, it would take only a simple majority or 51 votes to uphold the ruling — far easier for the 55-member GOP majority to get than the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster or the 67 votes needed to change the rules under normal procedures.
It would then take only 51 votes to confirm a nominee, ensuring approval of most if not all of Bush’s choices.
When are we all going to wake up and smell the coffee; the U.S. is run by a ONE-PARTY DICTATORSHIP posing as a two-party system. Republicans are the EXTREME right-wing part of it who are NEVER held accountable for anything, and Democrats are their enabling right-wing part.
I wouldn’t vote for either party in 2008.
How much did the lobbyists pay for these senators to vote? The dollar amount would be good to find out; and, then we can buy them back long enough for them to vote as if they were persons of good character and honest men.
Let us recall the story of Caligula’s horse in regard to Mr. Cohn’s article. By the time of Caligula’s reign, endless vast expenditures on the military for imperial expansion had inevitably shifted the power of governance from the Roman Senate to the armed forces, in the person of the Julian emperors. Of course, no one could tell the Roman citizenry that they were not as free as under the disappeared Republic, and the Senate went on observing its usual customs, debated and voted, cloaking their rubber stamp function in blather and charade, secure in their position as long as they sang the approved tune. Yet, how difficult it must have been for the Senate to accept into their midst as a Senator, Caligula’s favorite race horse, Incitatus, as he demanded and they could not refuse. Perhaps, one can only hope, the bitter taste of a similar self-mockery and self-contempt ran through the mouths of those twenty two Democratic Senators that had to bleat out an inane betrayal of that part of their party that gave them their current majority. Our political institutions and traditions become more pathetic each day. Tony Vodvarka, Hartly DE
When Billary recieved some one million dollars
from Dubai Ports as a consultant when Dubai
wanted to buy our ports, not much has been
written in our Corporate Press, and no mention
of if by our Presidential candidates. Why are we protecting this crowd of losers?
I voted for two of these losers the last time…but it will NEVER happen again! And, if you protest to these spineless bastards, all you get a a mumbo-jumbo form letter that lets you know how much they really care! What’s the difference between a ‘Blue dog Democrat and a Republican? Apparently, in name only!
CentCom Chief Fallon: Petraeus Is “An Ass-Kissing, Little Chickenshit”
“Fallon told Petraeus [in March] that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickensh*t” and added, “I hate people like that”, the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.
http://digg.com/politics/CentCom_Chief_Fallon_Petraeus_Is_An_Ass_Kissing_Little_Chickenshit
Looks like that act didn’t work with Fallon but did work for Bush.
Petraeus did indeed betray his troops and America!
The night this shameful vote occurred I sent money I was going to send to various Democrat organizations to Move-On.
Maybe everyone should do the same. Email your Senator if he was one of the shameful 22 and include a copy of your Move-On receipt. I did.
I wrote the DNC last week and told them from now on all my contributions will be made through Moveon. And all future correspondence with the DNC can be made through Moveon as well. I will be writing my Senator, Bill Nelson (DINO FL) tomorrow and ask him why he thinks the Congress is getting an 11% approval rating and if he is happy that 9 out of 10 Americans think he’s doing a terrible job? And if he has any plans to try and improve that job evaluation? They apparently have no shame!
There is no democratic party.
the democrat party is sold out on the war and many other issues.
but it makes no sense to call for dissolution of the donkey party unless you also call for simultaneous dissolution of the elephant party. doing the former without the latter would only eliminate what little opposition still exists to the neocons, leaving no organized opposition to them at all.
It will take years to build any powerful third party, even if that it the OTHER alternative.
people on this site who keep denouncing the democrats to the entire exclusion of the republicans are sounding less and less like frustrated progressives, and more and more like GOP agent provacateurs