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Senator Carl Levin Fiddling With War While Detroit Burns
General Petreaus is being confirmed today as the new commander of the war in Afghanistan. His confirmation hearing in Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, chaired by Senator Carl Levin, was noteworthy only because of the Senators' refusal to ask critical questions about the 9-year-old war that has claimed the lives of over 1,000 soldiers and countless Afghans. The only debate in the hearing centered on whether there should be a timeline of July 2011 to begin the drawdown of US forces, or whether our commitment should be open-ended. Questioning the war itself, as the majority of Americans now do, was only done by the CODEPINK activist in the audience, who were constantly threatened with arrest as they held up signs saying "New General, Old Graveyard", "Obama's Vietnam" or simply "No More War!"
There was, however, one heated exchange the media missed because it happened just after the hearing ended. As Senator Levin was leaving the room, CODEPINK members, just back from the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, confronted the Senator from Michigan. "Senator, how can you spend $33 billion more for an unwinnable war when your hometown of Detroit is falling apart?" said CODEPINKer Tighe Barry, who is from Detroit. "Shame on you, Senator. We need jobs in Detroit, not more bombs in Afghanistan," said Joan Stallard.
It was the only time the Senator lost his cool. Shaking his finger at the protesters, he yelled, "I live in Detroit. You don't know what you're talking about. Detroit's problems have nothing to do with the war."
But wasting billions of dollars on more killing in Afghanistan means starving our cities of financial resources, and Detroit is a tragic example of this trade-off. With the tanking of the auto industry and government neglect, Detroit now looks and feels like a war zone. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses have been abandoned and are left crumbling. Unemployment is higher than any major U.S. city, crime and drugs are rampant, and the dilapidated high schools have a shocking dropout rate of 38%.
With all its factories and skilled labor, Detroit could have become the epicenter of good, green jobs for a 21stcentury economy. With the help of government investment and incentives, Detroit could be churning out electric vehicles and cars that get 100 miles per gallon. It could be building the components for high-speed rail, wind turbines and solar panels. The Motor City could have been in the driver's seat, steering the country out of its economic depression.
Instead, Detroit is careening off the cliff and elected official like Senator Levin are throwing trillions of dollars into a bloated military budget and unwinnable wars. Detroit's own citizens -- the ones who have not yet abandoned the city -- have been forced to pay for their own demise. In the past decade, residents of Detroit have paid $1.8 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Taxpayers in Senator Levin's home state of Michigan have been forced to pay $27.8 billion in war spending since 2001.
That same money could have retrained tens of thousands of workers for green jobs and retooled dying factories. It could have paid for 390,000 teachers and librarians or provided 5,000,000 Pell grants so students could get the new skills they need for the new economy. It could have alleviated Detroit's devastating 40% poverty rate by providing healthcare for 4 million low-income people or meals to 27 million poor seniors. Instead, our "leaders" have chosen to feed the war machine.
So the next time Senator Levin, or any elected officials, tells us there is no connection between our economic crisis and the war, give ‘em a piece of your mind. Better yet, call your rep today (212-225-3121), as they are poised to steal another $33 billion from our cities and send it off to Afghanistan. Tell them to stop destroying our country-and Afghanistan. Tell them that from Detroit to Kabul, we need jobs, not bombs.
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Show AllGet the lying US war criminals out of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, the CIA, the Pentagon and the White House.
It was the only time the Senator lost his cool. Shaking his finger at the protesters, he yelled, "I live in Detroit. You don't know what you're talking about. Detroit's problems have nothing to do with the war."
Want a nice little vignette on why the United States is dying? There it is!
Levin is my senator. I live in Southeastern Michigan, and am familiar with the politics here that gets him elected. I have been writing to him with increasing outrage. There are some things this article misses.
First is the two meanings of "Detroit."
The city proper by that name is a third world no-go zone, hopeless. If you drive down a major street, as I did just exploring, you come away shell shocked. Six Mile Road is a miles long double row of burned out buildings with people under tarps selling stolen goods as a huge long second hand flea market. You could not find anything worse in any third world country anywhere. "Candle Town" is the part of Detroit that has no electricity, and houses are fortified against the police. Nobody has done anything for this Detroit for a very long time, nobody proposes to do anything for it, and it is as close to abandoned as anyplace in America. Levin has never even hinted at the existence of this monstrous abomination or suggested the country do anything about it.
Southeast Michigan is the other common meaning for "Detroit." It is the region of dead industry, unemployment, and homes taken by banks. It is what Levin is neglecting.
Levin gets his votes and his money from two groups. One is our very large and concentrated Jewish community. He is the single biggest recipient of AIPAC donations in the Senate. This explains his real interests in our wars. He is Israel first and always, in the most hard line way.
His other base is the moderate interests in Middle Michigan whose interests are in local business and government and much of the liberal universities community that is not really as liberal as Ann Arbor. Michigan has a long tradition of moderates. This explains and frames his "antiwar" behavior which is not so much antiwar as anti warmongering and anti big defense industry, always with an eye to Israel. Since the alternative is Republicans, the old Detroit and liberals of Ann Arbor have no place else to go, and are neglected accordingly.
Scum always rises to the top...
According to Levin's records, the Senator is strongly anti-Environment, pro Big Auto, pro Big Oil, and pro-war.
As for calling our senators and telling them to listen, I am sorry Medea but this isn't Europe or even Russia where pols would at least listen. You need to stop supporting either the Republican or Democrat party. Not even Paul or Kucinich is listening when it counts. Remember what Kucinich did on health care back in March when he caved in and put covering for Obama over providing affordable health care for the public? I am donating to Midge Potts, a strong pro-peace Green Party candidate for US Senator, but you are welcome to campaign for party hack Carnahan and give another lame excuse such as "a vote for Midge is a vote for Blunt". In a democracy, until people get pols who will actually listen to them, no amount of contacting or "pressuring" them will make any difference. It's like trying to make a puppet think.
Good points JB:
It seems at this point the only way to make the patrician plutocrats listen to us plebes is collective action on a mass scale. When economic activity is disrupted and their interests are threatened, only then will they listen. It does not have to be violent only mass civil disobedience from the ground up.
The Green Party's platform in Missouri is pro abortion. In Missouri that is a political death sentence. People in Missouri are pro life. Midge Potts has no chance in Missouri.
Death is not green! Life is green!
Oh for pity's sake, please stop it with this "pro abortion" crap. This "abortion" scare mongering is what gave this state bad pols and ruined everything. Midge doesn't have to care about what chances she has in MO. No chance "my ass" ! If voters want to continue being lame brains and elect Blunt or at best Carnahan who is relatively unknown but likely to cave in like her mother used to do when she was senator, fine ! As far as people in MO being pro life, that depends on what issue we are talking about. Guns? Wars? Health care? Public safety? Environment? Agriculture? Take those 6 issues and stack them against the supposedly "pro life" people and let's see how many of them remain truly pro-life once they tell us who they side with. Just saying that one is against abortion does not make him or her pro-life. Even on abortion, not caring for the mother's life that could be in danger make them less pro-life. Now let's see how many of them remain truly pro-life after running those tough litmus tests against them.
Levin is a tool, not quite sure how he keeps getting reelected... but I couldn't go green either with my vote, because of the pro-abortion platform as well. Not many people realize that abortion wiped out 1/3 of my generation and is the leading cause of death in the US. 1.5 million people destroyed annually, 97% because of convience. 1% because of rape, 2% because of life of the mother.
This is the #1 issue for my family and friends when voting. Anyone who fails to protect women and children from the violence of abortion disqualifies themself from public office... just as someone who supported slavery would.
To put this atrocity in easier terms to understand, add every casualty from every war through out US history together and the numbers do not even come close to what we've destroyed in just the past 37 years since Roe v Wade.
We want peace in the world, but if we pit our mothers against their own children... How is peace possible? Enemies fighting in the Middle East do not even destroy their own children.
Abortion is the reason we don't have enough young adults to properly care for the babyboomers. In order for Social Security to work, there has to be a certain # of people to pay into it.
And I haven't even touched on the devistation it brings to women emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I've seen the damage my own friends have endured after their abortions.No amount of regret or tears will ever bring back a child.
I've read the politically supressed medical evidence that abortion triples a woman's risk of breast cancer if she aborts before the 32 week of pregnancy (abortionbreastcancer.com), causes infertility in 20% of women, and often causes premature labor, eptopic pregnancy, and other life threatening conditions for women during their subsequent "wanted" pregnancies. Women who die from legal abortion and abortion-related conditions are added to the numbers of the maternal death rate.
The doctor near me has already killed four women via abortion. I encourage everyone to do their own research on this topic and keep an open mind.
Abortion almost claimed my own daughter's life. I'm vow to put an end to this violence. Peace.
Enslaving women to biology is no better than any other type of slavery. If biology is to rule, stop taking antibiotics & having surgery. You are interfering with God's clear intent that you suffer.
At least be consistent.
Right on, Medea.
About time somebody comments on the fate of the rust belt. One can only parallel the destruction of the middle class with the decline of the wealth generating manufacturing base.
As far as the conversion of the old industries to modern ones, this has a time componet. The skilled workers, engineering and labor required are dwindling due to inactivity and new development of required skills. The service industry has little use for journeyman machinists, millwrights, engineers and so on....
The financial sector has given up on investment in the U.S. Wonder why banks don't even invest in small businesses here? China and the developing nations are their main concerns. The only way that these technologies will be developed here is though government action.
As far as governmental action, I wouldn't hold my breath. If Wall Street and the big money from the transnationals don't want it, it will not happen. Money is the blood U.S. electorial democracy, and Citizens United was the clincher.
The right fears the UN. I fear the G8/G20. They make the decisions.
Dark Days are here, possibly to stay.
The time is not yet right for change in congress. Congress does not fear the people, and until it does, nothing will change. For all their abuse and corruption, I have yet to see even a pie thrown in the face of a congressman. They are laughing at us.
More and More of the AIPAC crowd is being elected to Congress.
We need a movement to expose and deny this ethnic group.
Gee Freddie, what ethnic group do you want to keep out of politics?
Excellent points. It isn't just Michigan though, it is becoming a common feature across the land. Neighborhoods with empty houses, abandoned animals, closed business' people living in parks and going to the library to use the bathroom. The local business all lock up thier toilets and if you don't pay you find some accomodation in the taller bushes or alley. The homeless just seem to disappear after awhile but there are new homeless to take thier place. Everyday.
I live in Michigan and you'd be hard pressed to find one person who can name one thing Levin has done for this state. He's a complete fraud, the republicans don't even challenge him because its all part of the game. Give his kind a few seats, let them rant on Sunday morning talk shows to build up their name recognition, as long as they don't actually do anything. He's a neuter and a simpleton.
Press Release - Immigration Reform
June 29, 2010
The Honorable Barack Obama The President of the United States The White House Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
It is with deep regret that we write you today. On Tuesday, June 22, 2010, the first Asian carp was captured in the Chicago area waterway system above the electric barriers. Unfortunately, the physical confirmation of Asian carp beyond the barriers comes as little surprise as we have long been asking for more aggressive action to stop the carp. In light of this discovery, it is our hope that the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee will take more urgent steps to protect the Great Lakes from this serious threat.
Although this fish could theoretically have been released into the waterway system above the barrier on the Lake Michigan side, we should err on the side of caution and assume the carp was able to bypass the barrier. This is especially prudent in light of the months of positive environmental DNA tests. In addition to increasing efforts to find and remove existing carp, we urge you to speed up efforts to immediately strengthen the barrier and implement all other measures necessary to stop the carp from migrating into the Great Lakes, including pursuing an aggressive strategy for permanent hydrologic separation.
We cannot afford to allow Asian carp to enter the Great Lakes. We look forward to working with you to combat this potentially devastating invasion.
Sincerely,
Carl Levin, United States Senator
The last time Carl Levin was up for reelection, I voted for the Green candidate. Too bad there were only about a thousand of us!
Carl Levin- he's the Paris Hilton of politics, famous for being famous.
For Carl Levin to make a statement about the Afghan war having no relation to the problems is unreal. He needs to watch and listen to that talk by Martin Luther King Jr on the impact of the Vietnam War on the social programs as well as the rest of his indictment of US foreign policy in his day which is even worse today. As Dr King said in his day human problems have "an interlocking nature" and are "interrelated." The military and imperialist polices of the US Government of today are acting "like a giant suction tube" taking away jobs and so much else from those in this country as well as defending a corrupt, oppressive regime abroad and injuring and killing innocent people there. We are as Dr King said back then still "on the wrong side of history." This Dr King said had been the case since the Second World War, as he cited an informed observer of US foreign policy in making this very point. This has for too long been the case, it must change if we are to get on the right side of history and actually to survive by adapting to the world we live. We must learn as Dr King pointed out "to live together as brothers or perish like fools." We
must as Dr King said "stop now." "Somehow" as he put it "This madness must cease."
That money going for this war in Afghanistan "belongs in the streets of New York" and our other cities and all the rest of our country as John V Lindsay the New York Mayor back in the 1969 Vietnam Moratorium made the point then about the Vietnam War and the social needs of the USA of that time.
AD
The people of Michigan deserve Leven. Despite being a phony they have elected him time and again.
why was my comment taken off this site? who is the censor who will not let me post that levin is a misplaced zionist who sees no evil in anything that israel does. a yankee version of boss hogg, levin sits, yawns , and pontificates, never really saying anything of substance so as not to disturb his opulent slumber, for which a.i.p.a.c. and neo-liberals pay him well to maintain. is the use of the word zionist to describe levin wrong? then prove it to me. else, stop your stupid censorship!
Perhaps it was your "son of zion" comment.