But in order to get that commodity out to market – so that you can profit from harvesting it – you need a major highway or two to the nearest seaport where you can load it on big boats and ship it off to world markets.

Problem is: those aforementioned surrounding countries. Those highways will have to traverse their land and they’re not going to just let you do it.

What’s a Western capitalist to do!

In this case, the commodities in question are known as hydrocarbons, or as you and I know them; oil and natural gas.

Those highways you’ll need to transport it to seaport and waiting supertankers are called pipelines.

And the area on earth which has long been well known to industry experts to harbor these last vast and mostly untapped quantities of hydrocarbons is known as the Caspian Basin.

In the late 1990’s now Vice President Dick Cheney famously stated to a meeting of oil industrialists: “I can’t think of a time when we’ve had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian.”

So lets review so far. The Caspian Basin harbors what is largely considered to be one of the most significant as-yet-untapped resources of oil and natural gas on the planet, and so Western oil industry giants want their hands on it.

Problem: it resides in a landlocked region, far from seaports and their waiting supertankers. Pipelines will be needed to get it there, but those pipelines will have to cross bordering countries that are quite hostile to the Western capitalist interests.

Pumping the hydrocarbons out of the ground won’t be a problem, thanks to the cooperation of the actual land-owners beneath which these reserves are found, and who are more than willing to partner with you in the great wealth that is to be made.

So it’s the pipelines that are the problem, or more specifically those who own the land over which those pipelines will simply have to travel.

A quick look at a map shows you that the two most practical seaport destinations for your great hydrocarbon harvest are in the Persian Gulf or the Mediterranean. So you’re going to have run pipelines from the lower Caspian Sea Basin to one of both of these seas.

A closer look at the map reveals which countries lay in those more-or-less direct paths.

To get to the Persian Gulf you have to cross through Iran (the most direct route), or a longer way around through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

To get to the Mediterranean you also have to go through Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Do any of the countries ring a familiar bell since 9/11?

This isn’t rocket science. It’s oil industry science. You have to get the stuff out to market, and you can’t do that if the countries that surround your oil platforms are hostile to your interests.

Let’s review. In order to harvest and then get the vast oil and natural gas to market, you’re going to need pipelines through the aforementioned countries, several of which, namely Iran, Iraq and Syria do not like you.

So what do you do, forget about all that oil and natural gas? Well, no. You’re going to harvest it, and make gazillions on it, one way or another.

There’s only one real practical solution: Conquer those countries which stand in your way, using the U.S. Government’s world military superiority to do so. And that’s exactly what they decided to do, long before 9/11 provided them with the “publicly acceptable rationale for doing so”.

Long before the events of 9/11 oil industry giants have been laying the framework for harvesting and profiting from the Caspian Basin resources. In that, the record is clear.

They even have managed to get some of their best representatives into power. Dick Cheney – who then convenes a secret cabal of energy industry leaders to craft a U.S. Energy Policy that will help them achieve these goals. And, of course the Bush family, a long time oil industry player. Talk about conflict of interest!

With Pakistan and Turkmenistan already somewhat friendly to Western Capitalist Interests, Afghanistan was in the near-term sights. (You’ve no doubt heard of the Afghanistan pipeline? Michael Moore touched on it briefly in his post 9/11 documentary.)

Along comes 9/11, giving these people just what they need to act militarily in their quest for Caspian Basin hydrocarbons, and a war is launched.

Iraq, of course, is also in the long term plans because of their related geography and a leader who is hostile to the U.S. He’ll simply have to go so we’ll work on him next. Ah yes…”a mushroom cloud” is just around the corner if we don’t.

With Pakistan and Afghanistan already in the bag, Iraq is the next logical step, and for a whole host of reasons. Not only do they need the land for pipelines, but there’s a pretty nice pool of oil under that ground as well. Not to mention that Saddam, a member of OPEC, was being defiant to the oil cabal by randomly increasing his oil output way above OPEC levels, sending oil markets into a roller-coaster ride that was reducing oil industry profits and really pissing off both the Saudis and Americans in the process. This was his only leverage in retaliation for decades of U.S. led sanctions which were devastating to his country.

Iraq would also hold special opportunities for Western Capitalist interests by completely restructuring the economy in favor of them. A new constitution which allowed foreign business interests to literally rape the country economically with no risk, rules or retribution.

Well, there are just so many profitable elements for Western Capitalist interests in conquering Iraq that you could write an entire book about it.

Of course, once you control the Iraq oil fields, you can turn off (yes, I said TURN OFF) the oil spigots, reducing OPEC oil output to a desired minimum and driving oil prices through the roof. Notice what’s happened to the price of oil since we gained control of Iraq’s oil? The primary goal with Iraq’s oil was not simply to steal it, but clearly to control it’s flow in the short term to make more money for Western Oil interests.

So who’s next on the list?

Even from the beginning you’re heard the U.S. Government talking trash about Iran and Syria, once again that time-tested and proven chant about “a mushroom cloud”. Works every time!

There’s been no doubt even before we invaded Iraq that Iran and Syria would follow next. It’s only been the matter of time it takes to develop the political clout to make it happen, and sell the American people on the supposed reason why. The very same reason the worked for Iraq.

Make no mistake, we’re in the Middle East because of oil. If it wasn’t there – and nobody disputes this – we wouldn’t be either. But it goes so much further than what oil lies beneath Iraq or Iran. Those are just icing on the cake, along with the trillions of dollars of taxpayer money funneled through crony capitalism to private and corporate interests.

You know, that old “military-industrial complex” thing, now revised as the “military-industrial-media complex”. CNN, of course, became a household name thanks to the first Iraq war. War means huge profits for the big media companies as much as it does for the immense defense industry, etc. Not to mention that both are often now owned by the same interests.

The real golden egg here is what’s laying in the Caspian to be harvested by Western Capitalist interests. And that’s not trivial thing. We’re talking tens of trillions of dollars by conservative estimates alone.

And the only way that can happen is by constructing pipelines through countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria etc. And the only way that can happen is by literally invading and conquering those countries so that we control the land that’s needed for pipelines.

This isn’t rocket science. It’s oil industry science.

This also isn’t news. It’s been out there openly for decades. But nobody wants to believe that the U.S. Government has become so corrupted by the private quest for wealth and power, so cynical that they would actually use our military might, and sacrifice thousands if not millions of innocent lives in the process, to achieve those goals of wealth for those who elite upper class interests which have the power to shape, if not utterly control, U.S. foreign policy for personal greed.

If you’re one who can’t bring yourself to acknowledge, let alone believe, that this could happen, then keep your head in the sand where it is.

But if you only use your head to look at the simple facts, and remember that governments through the ages have all done this very same thing, then it becomes all too clear what’s happening in our name.

I’m no world expert, I’m just a guy in Fresno, CA. But I’m not stupid either. I can read, I can hear, and I can objectively see what goes on in the world. There is no doubt that the quest for greater wealth and power drives the human existence, and ultimately corrupts people, organizations, and governments. This isn’t rocket science. This is obvious.

It’s about oil all right. It’s about how much of it is sitting under the Caspian Basin, and more than anything it’s about what it will take to get the oil out to necessary seaports in the Persian and the Mediterranean. Afghanistan, Iraq, and soon to include the governments of Iran and Syria are all in the way of these pipelines, and they’re being systematically conquered for this purpose. Not to mention all the extra money-making goodies that come along with it.

Iran and Syria will be next, under the same lying threat of a “mushroom cloud”. They’ve been on the list from the very start.

This is all part of a decades-long plan to both secure drilling rights in the Caspian, and then build the pipelines to get it to the supertankers.

And you know what, this all makes more sense, is more logical, than any other explanation for what’s going on. Ideology inevitably takes back seat to the quest for wealth and power, or is used to justify its means. It’s become a tool by those who want to get something, in order to sell it to the emotions of others who’s support is needed in order to effect it.

We went into Afghanistan, Iraq, and shortly will Iran and Syria because of oil all right. But not in the sense that most people think. Until, that is, you learn the greater picture here. At its roots, it’s the Caspian Basin resources, and a way to get them out to market.

It’s the pipelines, stupid!

About the author

The author Cufford is a diarist at the Daily Kos web site. He resides in Fresno, California.

* Editor’s Note: Images and maps added by Clarksville Online

Last August, President Bush attended an exclusive, high-priced fundraiser for New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici.  Local activists opposed to the president’s policies were, of course, not invited.  To let the president know that not everyone agreed with him, they planned to stand along his motorcade route holding up signs expressing their views, especially their opposition to the war in Iraq.

The peaceful demonstrators’ attempt at free speech was quickly squashed when police officers forced them to stay at least 150 yards away from the motorcade route, walling them off by placing numerous police cars and officers on horseback between the protesters and the president.  Meanwhile, a group of Bush supporters was allowed to stand right along the motorcade route, where their “God Bless George Bush!  We pray for you!” sign was in plain view of both Bush and the journalists accompanying him.

This isn’t the first time law enforcement officers have tried to squelch dissenters in President Bush’s presence. In 2004, Jeffrey and Nicole Rank were arrested for peacefully attending one of the president’s speeches while wearing t-shirts bearing the international “no” symbol superimposed over the word “Bush.”  The Ranks sued and ultimately received an $80,000 settlement from the White House—a win for free speech after a fight that should never have been necessary in a free society.

And in 2005, Leslie Weise and Alex Young were ejected from another of the president’s speeches because of a bumper sticker on their car that read “No More Blood for Oil.”  Their lawsuit is still pending.  

Now, the ACLU has filed a complaint in federal court on behalf of six of the peaceful protesters in New Mexico who were banned from the view of the president.  It is our hope that the lawsuit will prove once and for all that incidents such as these are unconstitutional.

These incidents of censorship appear to be dictated by White House policy.  The official Presidential Advance Manual recommends that someone working on the ground where the president is to make an appearance “ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.”  It advocates the formation of “rally squads” of sign-wielding supporters that can “use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform.”  It also suggests that the rally squads “lead supportive chants to drown out the protesters (USA!  USA!  USA!).”  

Lest it be thought that only Republican administrations engage in this type of behavior, it is worth pointing out that the Clinton administration’s Advance Manual also suggested that supporters could “be encouraged to wave supporting placards in front of opposing ones.”  In fact, the ACLU supported a lawsuit against a government policy that prohibited people from demonstrating along the route of Clinton’s presidential inauguration parade.

It’s easy to see why presidents would want to be pictured surrounded by adoring supporters. After all, the true audience for a presidential appearance is usually not those who attend in person, but the potential millions who will catch a glimpse on the evening news.  Few may hear the words the president speaks, but many will see the images filmed that day.

But the desire to look good does not justify treating members of the public like extras in a campaign commercial rather than citizens with a protected constitutional right to engage in speech of their own.  Shielding the president from all criticism is an unsound and undemocratic policy that violates the Constitution.  The First Amendment prohibits the government from “abridging the freedom of speech.”  This guarantee is grounded in the idea that, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes explained almost 90 years ago, “the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.”  

The right to free speech is meaningless when the government is permitted to do an end run around the First Amendment by relegating those who want to exercise it to remote locations where no one will hear them.  Communication requires both a speaker and a listener.  Just as it is censorship to prohibit speech entirely, it is censorship to place individuals where they can speak all they want with no chance of being heard.

Take Action

You should consider joining the ACLU, or at least donating to help them with the good works they are doing to protect all of our civil liberties.

About the author

Catherine Crump works at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), to safeguard the right to engage in political dissent. Catherine’s project seeks to protect the First Amendment rights of government whistle blowers and political protesters. She counsels and supports government employees who wish to come forward with information about shortcomings in the government’s national security strategy. She also works with political protesters who are critical of government and have been forced to protest in relatively remote locations because of their viewpoint.
 

Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted at The Huffington Post, and The Daily Kos. Her bio is from Equal Justice Works

My first memorable stop on this On The Road In America sojourn was Brattleboro, a quick pause at the roadside trailer that serves as the Vermont Trailways bus terminal, and the first bit of local news: a story about the upcoming town meeting and a petition to charge President Bush and Vice-President Cheney with war crimes. That was followed by a jumble of news stories about the inroads John McCain is making in his New Hampshire presidential primary bid. I felt right at home. Snow on the ground and political discourse hot enough to melt it.

In the valley that cradles the Connecticut River, the haze of wood smoke hung low, wispy strands of thread connecting chimney after chimney to the sky. It costs money to heat with wood — and it’s labor intensive. But for hardy Vermonters, there’s enough deadfall in the forests and enough people to harvest it. Wood stoves in these country homes are often built for function as much as form; sturdy cast iron stoves with flat tops for cooking, for steeping water for tea, for simmering soups and stews throughout the day.

I hoped off the bus (well, crawled off the bus) after a two day trek, ready for a wintry stay at my best friend’s home, a mountain hideaway with, yes, a wood stove. With the heat it generates, and the carefully placed ceiling grates (heat rises), that one stove heats six rooms. Three up, three down. Toasty.

Last winter was fairly snowless; what a difference a year makes. THIS was the Vermont I know and love: snow. Measured by the foot. Soon to be measured by the yard. Huge sheets if it slipping slowly to the edge of the roof, finally reaching that delicate point at which tons of snow — the stuff we haven’t yet raked off the second story roof — tumble to the deck with a thunderous crash. No one, not even the new dog, blinks. We just head out and shovel the icy packed snow from the doorway and the deck, craving yet another path to the driveway.

Snow has already piled up half the height of the bird feeders, and another 8-14 inches is due on New Year’s Day. We may lose power; we will likely be snowed in. We’ll manage.

Many of my friends are aghast (perpetually) over my love of this part of the country and this season of the year in this part of the country. I don’t ski, but then, I don’t have to. I walk in the snow, or sit in a lawn chair on a snow-covered deck, and watch the red squirrels raid the bird feeders while hoping for a sighting of the local Moose population (they move through this back yard and the marsh below).

I smile when a neighbor/grandchildren, all of six years old, knocks on the door after dark, asking to borrow an egg. His snow pants are crisp with frosty snow, his cheeks reddened. He walked up the rocky trail that connects his house to grandma’s (over the river – almost- and through the woods…). He wouldn’t linger for a quick hot chocolate because he hadn’t had supper yet.

I linger over a discussion of how high gas prices have sent people scurrying to the local food shelf to bridge their budget gap between food and fuel costs. There are no short roads to work in Vermont; every worker’s commute involves long drives in the only kinds of vehicles that a shot at making it through the snow: four wheel drives. With gas hovering at $3.00 a gallon, the food shelf (i.e. food pantry) lines have grown 400% and the little volunteer-run food program in Woodbury is scrambling to meet a rapidly escalating need. With a recent broadcast suggesting gas will hit $3.75 a gallon by spring, these creative and dedicated volunteers see no end to the hunger crisis in sight.

We spend part of the day driving around taking pictures (South Woodbury Church at left); it was the perfect snow — the wet, heavy kind that coats every branches, that wraps pines with a crystalline shawl. It shimmers.

As I download the days photographs into the computer, I thought about the ease with which I returned to this space, this place, this lifestyle, then realized it is part of me. Always has been. Will forever be.

None of us are waiting up for the new year; we know it’s coming — with more snow. So at 8 p.m., or maybe 9 p.m., we are heading for our rooms, our overstuffed quilts, and quiet sleep in a place where the city bright does not intrude.

Tomorrow we will watch the snow fly, and listen to the wind howl. We will melt marshmallows in hot chocolate, eat leftovers and the turkey soup we simmered yesterday on the wood stove. And we will keep that wood stove well-stoked.

From northern Vermont: Happy New Year.

American’s are highly skeptical about the notion of progress in Iraq, with only 11% polling responding that they are “pleased” with the results of the war. Yet Americans seem resigned to the fact that US troops are going to remain in Iraq. The simple fact is that the United States cannot afford to continue this war. In addition to the complete lack of international support for Bush’s folly, the middle class can no longer afford to pay for the war. The national debt is at an all time high of $9.1 trillion dollars and Congress has appropriated another $580 billion dollars in military spending, far in excess of the actual amount of appropriations needed to defend the national security .

The United States Senate has sent a message to the American people, that they do not care about them or about their future. By voting in line with the President the Senate has showed that what it cares about most are defense appropriations and handing out thousands of spending contracts. This makes sense in light of the fact that the Senate is composed mostly of millionaires, as almost 50% of the Senate is in this category, while in the US population as whole only about 1% are millionaires. The investment interest of the current class of Senators is heavily weighted towards money and much less toward people or the American interest.

Then there is the military . . .

According to a recent poll from the Center for American Progress, the Bush administration is doing a remarkably poor job of helping out veterans and their families. Military families have turned sharply against the Bush administration, with only 35% responding favorably when asked if their needs were being met. The Senate does not have a clear direction for the war in Iraq and it is relying on the Bush administration for leadership on this war that the President has unilaterally led us into. What the Senate should be doing is exercising leadership of its own, by rejecting the Omnibus Spending Bill, reducing federal spending for the war in Iraq, and bringing our troops home.

By spending another $70 billion dollars on a failed war, we are only prolonging the inevitable withdrawal. Although Americans feel ambiguous about their responsibilities to the Iraqi people, the Iraqi people do not feel nearly so ambiguous. They want the troops out and they want their country returned. We have bombed their country, killed their people, created two million refugees and polluted their country with depleted uranium, and still the Senate thinks we should stay the course and that we are making progress.

It is time to end the war and bring the troops home. Tennessee deserves progressive leadership and deserves a candidate who will stand up for common sense and not for private contractors and military appropriations. We have lost to many good men and women, created too much devastation and human misery because of our narrow sighted actions in the middle east. It is time for us to face up to our mistakes and begin to reconcile ourselves with the international community. It is time to begin reducing our national debt, reducing our military spending and stepping out of the post cold-war mentality of the neo-cons. It is time to bring the troops home now!

Bush was acquitted on the other charges though the presidential signings would have been a guilty verdict if not for a prosecutorial procedural error in not providing verification of a signing statement entered as evidence.

The Prosecutors, from left: Michael Price, Michael Hughey and helper Karl Lukis

The trial took place over two days, in two-hour sessions, not a lot of time to present evidence. Time constraints limited the number of witnesses and the presentation of evidence for both prosecutors and defense teams, and resulted in the guilty finding on one of the four counts. Given the apparent ease with which, in just four hours, this student panel managed to convict the President on one of four counts, it would be interesting to see what a week’s worth of trial would produce. As it stands, the APSU prosecution team scored a major victory for civil liberties. This trial was staged at Austin Peay State University as part of a Constitutional Law I class taught by Professor Greg Rabidoux, Ph.D., J.D., and included a panel of Judges, Defense Counsel and Prosecutors, and witnesses.

Standing from left: Lead Defense, Jessica Lance, Frankie A. DeJesus and Matt Harris, APSU Professor Dr. Rabidoux,; Lead Prosecutors Michael Hughey, Mike Price and Liz Borsavage. The Judges, seated from left, Kasey Henricks, Emery Walters, Enderson Miranda, Ryan Knight and Zach Suggs

1. Disparate Treatment of US Citizens during Hurricane Katrina Response in violation of 14th Amendment. The Federal response to Hurricane Katrina provided unequal protection under the law by unqualified director Michael Brown who was picked by Bush as he passed over others more qualified.
2. Violation of Separation of Powers within Articles I-III of US Constitution. Bush is not just interpreting to clarify laws through signing statements, but actually and intentionally changing the actual law, attempting to assert power as a lawmaker and not just through his Article II [“He shall faithfully execute the law”] powers from the Constitution. A President is not a lawmaker. He has altered 750 laws. [Reference the following website: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20060109_bergen.html].
3. Violation of Amendments I & IV, Freedom of Speech and Illegal Search and Seizure. Concerning wire tapping and eavesdropping on the American people: What is legal under the 4th Amendment and FISA, versus what has been made legal under the USA Patriot Act, and if in conflict, which one should prevail. There was deception on the part of the President in order to get the Patriot Act passed. Had Congress had the facts, they would not have signed the Patriot Act to begin with, considering the clear violations of privileges and due process rights offered by the Constitution under the Bill of Rights. The Prosecution presented FBI witness who testified she obtained no search warrants because of the President’s direct order to eavesdrop/wiretap.
4. Violation of the Geneva Convention Articles: Iraqis, specifically those in militias, were taken prisoner by the United States military when the U.S. military acted as an invading force. Prosecutors presented CIA witness who testified that most Iraqis captured and held had no ties with insurgents and were released. When Iraq was invaded, the Iraqi soldiers were of course supposed to defend their country. They were found by the CIA to be law abiding citizens, not terrorists. The definition of terrorist per G.W. Bush is “a suspected member of Al Quaeda or the Taliban”. For taking prisoners of war on Iraqi soil, the U.S. and military must adhere to Geneva Convention Articles.

Read the original article at: http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2007/11/28/apsu-mock-trial-united-states-vs-bush

We cannot approve the spot with it being Danny Glover’s opinion that the Bush Administration is destroying the Constitution. If you have documentation that it is indeed being destroyed, we can look at that. Sorry about that,

Click here to view the embedded video.

The media watchdog web site Media Matters points out that this isn’t the first time Fox News has declined to run ads on the basis of the content presented. In 2005 they also refused to run ad critical of then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.

* Fox News, the Fox News logo, and the Fox News Channel logo are trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and are used here without permission

With the help of grassroots supporters, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America Action fund is running this ad to break through the clutter. If you’re interested in getting involved, whether you’re a veteran or a concerned civilian visit their web site.

As a recent report from the Government Accountability Office reveals, seven months have passed since the Walter Reed crisis and serious problems in veterans’ care remain.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As of October 1, the veterans’ budget is late. Until it is approved, the VA will be forced to ration care.

Now, it’s up to the President and Congress to approve the budget. Add your name to the statement, and demand they take action.

The VA Budget

Last year, the VA provided benefits to 3.5 million veterans and their families and health care for 5.5 million patients.

Unlike programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, which require mandatory funding, allocations for the VA are discretionary. Only once in the past 13 years has the veterans’ budget been passed on time.

As a result of the stalled VA budget, the VA is forced to operate at last year’s funding levels. Hospitals must ration care and postpone new programs and construction and repair projects.

This year, Congress authorized the highest increase in the veterans’ budget in over 77 years, for a total of approximately $88 billion. This is significant progress, but unfortunately, while the funding waits in conference, wounded veterans are again kept in waiting.

Care and Benefits for Wounded Veterans

Since 2001, more than 26,000 troops have been wounded in action, and almost 45,000 veterans have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Many of these servicemembers face delays when they seek treatment from the VA.

A significant cause of the delays is the maze of paperwork troops and veterans must navigate to get care or benefits. The VA disability benefits system is so severely backlogged that there are over 378,000 pending disability claims, including 83,000 that have been waiting an average of 177 days or more, according to a recent GAO report.

Some veterans with serious mental health problems have committed suicide while waiting for emergency counseling, and others have fallen into debt awaiting government compensation for their injuries.

Also according to the GAO report, there are plans to train case managers and psychiatric nurses about PTSD and traumatic brain injury (TBI) but only 6 of the 32 Warrior Transition Units have completed training for all staff.

About Annette L. McLeod

Annette L. McLeod is the wife of Army Specialist Wendell W. McLeod, Jr. On July 6, 2005, at the end of a ten-month deployment, Spc. McLeod sustained multiple injuries while serving near the Iraqi border in Kuwait.

On August 8, 2005, Wendell arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. During his stay, Spc. McLeod experienced sporadic appointments, was often denied the necessary tests and treatment, and had his identity stolen. Furthermore, though Wendell suffered from traumatic brain injury, the doctors concluded that his cognitive impairments were the result of a pre-existing learning disability.

In hopes of sparing other military families from having to go through a similar ordeal, Mrs. McLeod testified before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee on March 5, 2007. In her testimony, Mrs. McLeod called attention to the bureaucratic hurdles and poor care that her husband and other soldiers faced at Walter Reed. Her full testimony can be found here.

Today, Wendell continues to suffer from migraines, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and chronic pain. He also has behavioral and short-term memory problems. As a result, Annette has assumed the role of almost full-time caretaker for her husband.

About Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon

Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon was wounded in Iraq on Nov. 13, 2004, during a gunfight in the town of Habaniya. He suffered a gunshot wound to the head that resulted in the loss of his left eye and a traumatic brain injury.

At Walter Reed Army Medical Center, SSG Shannon endured bureaucratic neglect and was continually denied proper benefits. Largely as a result of lost paperwork and delayed treatment, it took Shannon over two years to secure medical retirement through the Medical Evaluation Board and Physical Evaluation Board.

On March 5, 2007, SSG Shannon spoke out about the problems at Walter Reed during his testimony before the Government Reform and Oversight Committee. His testimony revealed that injured troops encountering obstacles to receiving their proper treatment often give up their benefits in order to move on with their lives. His full testimony can be found here.

About IAVA

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) is the nation’s first and largest group for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  A non-profit and nonpartisan organization, IAVA represents more than 60,000 veteran members and civilian supporters in all 50 states.

With a majority vote censuring Freedom of Speech, Congress today smacked down the voices of hundreds of thousands of Americans who are simply saying “we want a drawdown; we want our troops home.” In other words, Americans who want to bring an end to the Iraq War.

Congress did it in the guise of patriotism, but this smackdown was also a blow to the very soldiers who are, according to these same officials, fighting for Democratic/Bill of Rights issues — such as free speech — in Iraq. In the U.S. Senate, a majority of our duly elected Senators, apparently with no more pressing issues to debate, voted on a Republican-sponsored symbolic resolution against MoveOn.org and their widely circulated anti-Petraeus ad that was printed as the general was testifying before Congress about the status of the Iraq War on the anniversary of Sept. 11.

The Senators, with Hilary Clinton and Christopher Dodd among the 25 refusing to join the censure, passed a resolution stating that Petraeus “deserves the full support of the Senate” and the Senate “strongly condemn(s) personal attacks on the honor and integrity of General Petraeus and all members of the United States Armed Forces.”

“Yesterday, they couldn’t even pass a bill to give soldiers adequate leave with their families before redeploying. But they’re spending time cracking down on a newspaper ad?” – MoveOn.org

Questioning Petraeus and the Bush war machine, as MoveOn.org had the guts and the tactical brilliance to do, is not slamming our troops. It slammed Bush domination of everything related to Iraq. Unfortunately, when it comes to Iraq, Petraeus is the man in the driver’s seat, pushing that machine through the Iraq landscape.

But this isn’t just about MoveOn.org’s New York Times ad. It’s not about peace activists not supporting the troops either. Because that in itself is a lie. We [anti-war activists and peace mongers] love our troops. We are just fed up with administrative mechanizations that are keeping them mired in an increasingly untenable, endless war that will result in years of occupation.

In case you don’t get it, they are talking about us. Not just the big guys like MoveOn.org. And no, not just the smaller sites such as Clarksville Online that include both voices of dissent and opposing responses to those dissenting voices, or groups like Veterans for Peace or United for Peace and Justice or FreeThinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties. They are talking about shutting up ordinary Americans, turning off our voices, intimidating us into silence. They just happened to fall on a really big target in the form of MoveOn.org.

The reality is that they are talking about citizens like you and me, everyday people who live in small cities like Clarksville, and communities like Oak Grove, Kentucky, or Ashland City, or Paris, Tennessee. And if you think that this action doesn’t affect you because you aren’t a voice of opposition, or are simply ambivalent on this issue, or don’t want to be involved, think again.

Sooner or later it will be your turn. Because once the precedents are set, once the censures are in place and deemed an acceptable response to what people don’t want to hear, once the Bill of Rights has been set upon and trod down into the dirt (it’s more than halfway there now) with a bi-partisan Congress jumping up and down on it to snap its neck and paralyze its intent, it will be too late. Barring another American Revolution, we will have to live with such follies foisted upon us by the men and women we elected (or didn’t elect) to represent us — and that includes the President.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It started on September 11 with the Senate hearings, testimony by General David Petraeus, and a controversial ad by MoveOn.org that referred to him as General Betray Us; the controversy over the ad content made all the major papers worldwide and garnered a lot of instant replay. And while I think that underneath that cultivated appearance of truth and some token gestures that mean “let’s revisit this in ‘08″ or better yet, leave it to the next president to clean up, I’m not sure I would have slapped Petraeus down that hard. I might have saved my smack-down KO punch, prioritized it for the top dogs in the White House I didn’t vote for and the candidates I did vote for who are not living up to my expectations and their campaign rhetoric.

The Senate testimony with Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker was scheduled for maximum effect, overlapping the 9-11 memorial services — an American tragedy revisited, a tragedy orchestrated by Bin Laden (not Saddam) and including quite a few Saudis — but wait, they have oil and are friends of the White House; can’t alienate them. If they got mad and shut off our oil supplies we might have to ride bikes more often, walk a bit farther, get healthier, build a few more sidewalks, use expanded public transit systems, nurture alternative fuels and — oh yes — make a dent in oil profits.

But I digress.

MoveOn.org made the front page with that Betray-Us ad; it made front pages world wide. So did today’s resolution on censure, but I don’t think it’s going quite the way Congress hoped it would.

At a very small meeting in my town tonight, a meeting with scarcely a dozen people, a meeting that had nothing to do with politics, two individuals commented on the congressional slapdown. One was familiar with MoveOn but had, because of the Congressional smackdown, decided it was time to not just read their platform but support them financially; the other was unfamiliar with MoveOn until this flap and has now decided to join it and lend his fiscal support to them. Not because of the ad, but because of the visceral Congressional response to MoveOn’s act of free speech.

“[It is] a sad day in the Senate when we spend hours debating an ad while our young people are dying in Iraq. Now that the Senate has twice voted on this ad, it is time to move on and vote to end the war.” – Christopher Dodd

MoveOn.org today circulated a defiant e-mail vowing to keep up the fight and said of the Senate:

“Every day, our brave men and women are dying in a bloody civil war this Senate has done nothing to stop. Yesterday, they couldn’t even pass a bill to give soldiers adequate leave with their families before redeploying. But they’re spending time cracking down on a newspaper ad?

“So, we’re making clear where America stands. We’re releasing a statement from MoveOn members—and anyone else who feels the same way—saying, ‘We will not be quiet, we will fight back. We will keep speaking out until Congress forces an exit plan for this awful war.’”  – Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org

MoveOn.org has an e-mail list of 3.2 million, with numbers booming in the aftermath of the ad. It reminded me a of a scene in the A&E film The Magnificent Ambersons, where young George tries to defend his mother against potentially malicious chatter. His fiery protest and demands for retractions only gave the gossip greater credence and blew it up into the talk of the town; left alone it might have lingered but would have drifted into nothing on its own. There’s a message in there, and if you really read the ad — it questions the validity, the honesty of the general’s White House white-washed testimony but never once questions his patriotism.

Like the soldiers who serve under him, Petraeus is doing his duty. I watched his testimony, and found him to be refreshingly less rah-rah-sis-boom-bah than the President about the purported successes in Iraq and quite willing to admit that deployments cannot be infinite and there the possibility of failure looms. He admitted we might lose. Or at least, not win. Wow.

So what do I want to see and hear?

I’d like to see my elected Representatives and Senators respond to a reality check. Election 2008 is around the corner. America is divided and at the public level, party lines are beginning to blur. I am not happy with them.

A lot of Americans feel the same way. If they aren’t registered to vote, I’m encouraging them to register. And to get ready to vote. It’s never too soon for that. Despite questions about the validity of voting machines and the balloting process, if enough ticked off Americans show up at the polls, it will make a difference.

Americans, many, many Americans, are fed up with the status quo of the war and the economy and a Congress (House and Senate) that can’t seem to get anything done (not counting the military aspects of increased war debt, longer deployments, shorter stateside duty).

Maybe, though, they won’t have to do much more, because We the People of America can opt out of the mayhem on Capitol Hill by choosing to not vote for incumbents who do not reflect or respond to our views. We can choose to put our campaign dollars and our votes where our conscience stands.

We the People of America will not be silenced at the whim of an wimpy, impotent, lackluster Congress, nor will those of us who oppose the War in Iraq back down from our beliefs or the exercise of our basic right to dissent. It’s all there, in the Bill of Rights. Overshadowed by the Congress and the Patriot Act. Read the fine print, people. Before your congress steps on it again.

When Democrats from five Tennessee counties gather at the Charles Hand farm, Ben Johnson is sure to be there with his campaign buttons, lapel pins, and bumper stickers. Johnson, who lives in Lebanon, Tennessee, was quick to point out that he makes his wares “for democrats only,” and will use only Union vendors to print his products.

In fact, the theme of the day was a strong support of Unions throughout the area. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents Trane workers locally, was a major sponsor of today’s event.  The strong Union presence was in honor of the Labor Day event.

According to the Department of Labor, Labor Day was first celebrated in New York City on Tuesday, September 5, 1882. By 1894, the US Congress had passed its recognition of Labor Day as a national holiday to be celebrated on the first Monday of September of every year.

The Ballistic Pintos of Old Hickory, TN performs at the Charles Hand Farm. Photo by David W. Shelton

The strong Union presence was matched by a sincere excitement of area Democrats who had a single mission in mind for next November’s election, as voiced by Kim McMillan, senior advisor to Governor Phil Bredesen: “Tennessee is and will be a blue state.” This was a message that was voiced by nearly everyone who spoke at the event.

Speakers were quick to point out that their mission wasn’t to put an end to the Bush regime, but rather send home those who they say “empowered” him. One target is the US Senate seat currently occupied by former governor Lamar Alexander. McMillan introduced Mike McWhorter, the son of another former governor—Ned McWhorter—as a possible candidate. His mission, McMillan said, would be to “send Lamar and that plaid shirt back home.”

McWhorter has not officially announced his candidacy, but said that he was seriously considering the option. He pointed out several issues that he would address, including the war in Iraq, which came up often throughout the night. Republican policies in Iraq, he said, “are wrong.” He also said that the current administration is “mortgaging our country’s future” with an “out-of-control” national debt.

Tennessee’s Democratic party president Gray Sasser addressed a general excitement for the future for the party in the state, and said that the party’s primary goal is “to make darn sure that no red pickup truck will ever get anywhere near the White House next November.” The reference was to the popular “red pickup truck” senatorial campaign led by former Republican US Senator Fred Thompson, who announced his candidacy for the Presidency this week.

Other speakers for the event were 5th District Congressman Jim Cooper, TN AFL/CIO president Jerry Lee, and the keynote address was provided by the R. Thomas Buffenbarger, International President of the IAM union. Buffenbarger has served as president of that union since 1997.

The day wasn’t all speeches and rhetoric, though. Music was provided by the Ballistic Pintos, a country group out of Old Hickory, Tennessee. The group featured drummer Richie Albright who often played with Waylon Jennings, and vocals by Bobby Keel.

State Senator Rosalind Kurita talks with attendees at the Labor Day Celebration. Photo by David W. Shelton

There was a dart competition between unions, for which a trophy was awarded to the United Auto Workers, who apparently “played only slightly less badly that everyone else.”

Attendees had an opportunity to vote for their nominee for the President of the United States of America. In an informal (and unofficial) straw poll, Hillary Clinton was the clear favorite, with John Edwards coming in second.

The day wasn’t without its lighter moments, which featured “the world’s smallest horse,” as described by his owner, local attorney Kevin Kennedy. He said that the miniature dwarf horse, “Twinkie the Wonder Horse,” is only 46 pounds and 16 1/2” tall. The equine miniature was a star attraction, drawing children from all over to pet a horse that was far smaller than they were.

Clarksville electrician Bill Edmonson provided democratic spirit by donning a donkey mask, which he kept on throughout the speeches. Edmonson offered plenty of applause and “thumbs ups” for the speakers.

The British are acknowledging this fact by pulling out their troops from Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, handing over the city to the control of Shia militias. For all intents and purposes, the “Coalition of the willing” is now dead. America is now going it alone.

Bush is not acknowledging defeat, but has indirectly admitted it by saying that some troops can start being brought home soon, even though clearly nothing has been accomplished with the addition of 30,000 troops for the last six months.

He acknowledged defeat too, by flying into Iraq stealthily in the dead of night this week, landing at a remote desert outpost in western Iraq, instead of going to Baghdad, and meeting with American military officials, instead of with the Iraqi government. (So much for Iraq’s being a “sovereign nation”! Can you imaging a head of state of some foreign government, together with his war secretary and his secretary of state, flying in unannounced to some remote American state, and not even meeting with American government officials?) Clearly the US military could not guarantee the president’s safety in Baghdad and the Green Zone, so he had to go to a remote outpost where he was safe behind razor wire, mines and an obscene arsenal of soldiers, tanks and gunships.

With the British giving up on their quadrant of Iraq—a strategically crucial location at the northern tip of the Persian Gulf, where the bulk of supplies for the US military in Iraq are offloaded, and from which the vast majority of Iraq’s dismal oil experts are exported—American troops are stranded, and dependent upon air drops for their secure delivery of supplies.

Reports say that the real reason Bush is talking about troops coming home is because the military in Iraq is broken, and can no longer sustain a commitment of 160,000 soldiers and marines in the country.

There is no choice; they have to start coming home.

As in Vietnam, where open mutiny and sullen disobedience became the norm after 1968, in Iraq, the military is finally cracking. Seven enlisted soldiers even dared to write an open and scathing critique of the war in an opinion piece in the New York Times, saying that the US was widely viewed as an occupation force in Iraq, and that Iraqis wanted us out—the sooner the better.  The organization Iraq Veterans Against the War is growing rapidly in membership. The military has resorted to offering potential enlistees a whopping $20,000 bonus to go to boot camp immediately, because recruitment and reenlistment numbers for this year are so dismally low. Junior officer resignations are at a record high.

As military family members are pointing out, the American military is no longer a volunteer force. In name it may appear to be, but once stop-loss orders start routinely preventing troops from quitting the service, it is no longer volunteer, whatever it may be called. People are being coerced into fighting. And once you have a coerced army loyalty goes out the window.

While there is nothing to be done about the disaster in Iraq, which will go down in military history as one of the great defeats of all time—the most powerful military the world has ever known beaten by a disorganized assortment of ill-trained and ill-equipped guerrilla fighters—this is nonetheless a dangerous moment.

Wounded animals are dangerous animals, and President Bush and his gang of Neocon wackoes, badly wounded by defeat in Iraq, are not anxious to slither off the political stage as losers. Hence the plans in the works to go double or nothing with an all-out aerial assault on Iran.

Numerous reports, including most credibly one in The Times in London (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.), suggest that a plan has already been laid out for a three-day massive bombardment on over 1200 targets in Iran, which would attempt to destroy not just that country’s nascent nuclear processing capability, but also its government, communications, and military facilities, essentially leaving the country of 70 million a smoking ruin.

Such an attack, with no international support, no UN sanction, no threat, imminent or otherwise, and no provocation, would be, pure and simple, a war crime of the first order. It would also put the US at war, not just with Iran, but also with virtually the entire Islamic world.

The Neocon fantasy is that after such a blitzkrieg, Iranians would rise up and overthrow their leaders—those leaders who survived—but history has shown that in such times of national disaster, people don’t turn on their leaders, but rather rally to them, however unpopular they may have been.  This is likely to be all the more true in the case of Iran, a country with a history going back as long as China’s with a strong sense of national identity, and a long recent history of feeling put upon by the U.S. (America, after all, overthrew Iran’s first democratic government in the 1950 in a CIA-inspired coup which set up the regime of the hated Shah Reza Palevi).

An Iran at war would be free to set its agents loose to attack American targets around the world, and inside the U.S., and under the doctrine of reciprocity, would be justified in attacking anything in America that came under attack in Iran. If we attacked Iranian nuclear facilities, they could attack American nuclear facilities, with all the concomitant resulting spread of radioactive materials. If we attacked power plants or oil refineries, they would be free to do the same. If we attacked radio and television stations, so could they. To be sure, Iran would have to use guerrilla tactics in its attacks, where America would be using B-1 and B-2 bombers and ship-launched cruise missiles, but as has been observed, a terrorist or guerrilla is just a bomber without a fancy plane.

As I’ve noted before, war with Iran would mean oil prices zooming to levels never before seen—perhaps as high as $200/barrel or 150% above the all time record of $80/barrel set a year ago. Such prices would bring America’s and the world’s economies to a screeching halt. Islamic governments allied with the US, most notably the one in Pakistan, already shaky, could fall to radical backers of Iran (and Pakistan has the Bomb).

The shocking thing is that even though all the signs of a Bush attack on Iran are there, including the build-up of an unprecedented Naval armada, armed to the teeth, in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, nobody in Congress or the American media is talking about this looming crime and imminent disaster. Most Americans are blissfully unaware, even though people in the military are watching it all unfold in horror.

In 2002, Bush illegally diverted billions of dollars Congress appropriated for the war in Afghanistan to a covert build-up of troops and weapons in the Middle East for an attack on Iraq. Now the president is asking Congress for another $50 billion for the War in Iraq, which he will almost certainly be diverting to the attack on Iran.

The pathetic Democrats in Congress, who already handed Bush $120 billion a few months ago for continuing and escalating his epic disaster in Iraq, are likely to grant him this new king’s ransom to finance an even worse disaster in Iran. If they do, the blood of Iranians and Americans will be equally on all their hands.

The clock is ticking. The only thing that could prevent this Crime Against Peace by the president would be for Congress, as one, to vote to rescind the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which Bush has claimed authorized an unending “war on terror,” and which will be his justification for attacking Iran, and to begin impeachment proceedings against the president and vice president for conspiring to violate the Nuremberg Charter by attacking a nation that poses no immediate threat.

Do Something!

Every American should contact their representatives to demand action! To reach your Congressional delegation, call the Capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121.

About Dave Lindorff

DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based investigative reporter and columnist. His most recent book, co-authored by Barbara Olshansky, is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006, and now available in a paperback edition). His work is available at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/

The Leaf Chronicle statements demonstrate that they are sadly ignorant of the true situation on the ground in Iraq.

President Bush frequently defers questions about the surge by explaining that we must wait for that progress report from Petraeus.

Many Senate Republicans also have said they are waiting on the report before making any decisions regarding withdrawals..

…Such a strategy would make sense. The United States cannot simply pull up and leave Iraq overnight. Anyone who thinks that is hopelessly naive. – The Leaf Chronicle, Don’t reverse Iraq surge too quickly

Embarrassing things like this can happen when you drink the kool-aid served to you by the Bush administration and their lackeys in the corporate media. Lets take this editorial and break it down piece by piece and see what the facts really show.

The 30,000 U.S. troops deployed earlier in this year eventually will be drawn down. But if the troop surge is reversed too quickly, it also could reverse all of the progress that has been made this year.

The first step is that we must come up with a generally understood and accepted definition of what constitutes progress. The media has frenquently repeated grand statements like “victory” and now “progress” without understanding what do they really mean, thus the public is left confused, a state that the spinmeisters prefer. It’s fine for politicians to make vague statements, but the real world works on specifics.

Indeed, how can we have a meaningful gauge of the situation in Iraq, without everyone being on the same page, reading from the same book. Lets see a checklist, one which can not be changed or even tossed out depending on which way the political winds are currently blowing. That my friends would be real progress!

The administration’s initial definition of progress was, training the troops. Indeed we spent over 19.2 billion dollars training the Iraqi police and army units since 2003. Let’s take a look at where that has gotten us.

A Government Accounting Office report that came out last month found that since 2003, the U.S. gave $19.2 billion to train Iraqi forces. This was accomplished through emergency funding and a shoddy record keeping plan that is now coming back to haunt us. It seems there are serious discrepancies between what the U.S. commanders in Iraq said was issued and what was written in the property books.

As the fog of war has lifted, it shows hundreds of thousands of weapons given to the train-and-equip program are nowhere to be found. Missing are 110,000 AK-47 rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armor, and 115,000 helmets. – U.S. is still ’sugar daddy’ to the world by Chantal Escoto

Most of these missing tools of war have likely gone to equip the insurgent forces fighting our troops in Iraq. Indeed the Iraqi police and soldiers we have spent so much taxpayer money training, have often actively been assisting the insurgent forces in killing our brave troops. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne laid it out for us in a recent New York Times op-ed:

…This situation is made more complex by the questionable loyalties and Janus-faced role of the Iraqi police and Iraqi Army, which have been trained and armed at United States taxpayers’ expense.

A few nights ago, for example, we witnessed the death of one American soldier and the critical wounding of two when a lethal armor-piercing explosive was detonated between an Iraqi Army checkpoint and a police one. Local Iraqis readily testified to American investigators that Iraqi police and Army officers escorted the triggermen and helped plant the bomb. These civilians highlighted their own predicament: had they informed the Americans of the bomb before the incident, the Iraqi Army, the police or the local Shiite militia would have killed their families.

As many grunts will tell you, this is a near-routine event. Reports that a majority of Iraqi Army commanders are now reliable partners can be considered only misleading rhetoric. – The War as We Saw It By SPC. Buddhika Jayamaha, SGT. Wesley D. Smith, SGT. Jeremy Roebuck, SGT. Omar Mora, SGT. Edward Sandmeier, SSGT. Yance T. Gray and SSGT. Jeremy A. Murphy of the 82nd Airborne in the NYTimes

Indeed their view of the situation in Iraq is downright pessimistic. Yep, I guess the Conservative Republicans were right in the end, the media hasn’t been telling us the truth about what’s going on in Iraq; they have been sugar coating it…

To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day. (Obviously, these are our personal views and should not be seen as official within our chain of command.) – The War as We Saw It By SPC. Buddhika Jayamaha, SGT. Wesley D. Smith, SGT. Jeremy Roebuck, SGT. Omar Mora, SGT. Edward Sandmeier, SSGT. Yance T. Gray and SSGT. Jeremy A. Murphy of the 82nd Airborne in the NYTimes

Now, this administration and their enablers are down to grasping at the straws of progress at the local level, while still ignoring the major problems affecting the lives of the average Iraqi. Things like power, security considerations, running water, sewer service, access to gasoline in one of the most oil rich nations in the world.

At the same time, the most important front in the counterinsurgency, improving basic social and economic conditions, is the one on which we have failed most miserably. Two million Iraqis are in refugee camps in bordering countries. Close to two million more are internally displaced and now fill many urban slums. Cities lack regular electricity, telephone services and sanitation. “Lucky” Iraqis live in gated communities barricaded with concrete blast walls that provide them with a sense of communal claustrophobia rather than any sense of security we would consider normal.

In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, “We need security, not free food.” – The War as We Saw It By SPC. Buddhika Jayamaha, SGT. Wesley D. Smith, SGT. Jeremy Roebuck, SGT. Omar Mora, SGT. Edward Sandmeier, SSGT. Yance T. Gray and SSGT. Jeremy A. Murphy of the 82nd Airborne in the NYTimes

It’s backed up by the Wall Street Journal as they reported in their story “Bush Focuses on Local Successes in Iraq”…

And even at the local level, progress is slow. In his report to Congress earlier this month, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction said rebuilding is being crippled by power plant problems, mismanagement, corruption and weak spending on capital projects by Iraq’s central government ministries and its provinces.

Let’s conclude our dissection of the Leaf Chronicle Editorial with this:

There’s a tremendous amount of pressure resting on the shoulders of the former Fort Campbell commander. Not only is Petraeus the top U.S. commander in Iraq, but the eyes of the world will be on him and the report he presents to Congress next month on the war’s progress.

But that’s not really correct either, is it? You see, General Petraeus will not be writing the report that he will be presenting to Congress. Instead, he will be presenting a report which he had input on, but that was authored and compiled by the same political hacks in the White House who have been lying to the American people, Congress, and the world since this war began.

Those positions only hardened yesterday with reports that the document would not be written by the Army general but instead would come from the White House, with input from Petraeus, Crocker and other administration officials.

“Americans deserve an even-handed assessment of conditions in Iraq. Sadly, we will only receive a snapshot from the same people who told us the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last throes,” warned House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.). – An Early Clash Over Iraq Report: Specifics at Issue as September Nears By Jonathan Weisman and Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post

Rahm Emanuel is right: we do deserve, and our soldiers should be able to expect, a neutral presentation of the facts, letting us make up our own mind on the information presented. But I do not think we will get that from our infamous “I do not recall, Senator” Administration.

Our troops can’t and shouldn’t be expected to police a civil war in a foreign land. They are setup in a situation where they are friendless, bound to fail, and targeted by all sides. Our troops are being injured and killed  in order to protect politicians and the politiically connected groups and organizations which benefit from this war being continued. There is only one way left to truly support the troops: bring them home now!

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Leaf Chronicle Editorial board should spend some time, and do more research, before penning future op-eds. If they do so, then perhaps they won’t be wrong on the facts, and they will appear to be better educated, when they discuss situations like these with the residents of our city.

We imagine that this will be a media event with lots of press — a golden opportunity for progressives to get our unified message out about CUTTING THE MILITARY BUDGET and SPENDING ON EDUCATION, JOBS, etc. FOR OUR FUTURE.  Please join us in protest of Bush and his war agenda at 10:30 a.m. at the Nashville Bun Company.  We will convene as close to the entrance as possible (looks for our signs). 

After that, Bush will head to the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.  He’s expected to arrive at around 11:45 a.m.  We’ll be there!  Join us on the sidewalks and parking lots on the north side of McGavock Pike, across the street from the main entrance to the hotel.

Bring signs!

Questions? Contact Eric Schecter – (615) 414-4572

About The Nashville Peace and Justice Center (NPJC)

The Nashville Peace and Justice Center (NPJC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting equity and creating a peaceful, just and sustainable society through reflection, education and non-violent action. SPREAD THE WORD! Change is possible, and it happens everyday! Forward this message to everyone you know, and encourage them to join our mailing list. To subscribe to our weekly E-blast, send an e-mail with “subscribe to E-blast” in the subject line to . To receive our bi-monthly newsletter, Alternatives, and other mailings, include your name and contact info in the body of the email (along with issues and/or organizations that interest you).

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s not about Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal, any longer, it’s about what’s right and wrong. Our nation stands on the edge of a cliff! Do the people of the United States passively stand by and allow this administration to continue to undermining the very foundations of this nation and the the liberties that we hold so dear, as they have for the last 7 years. Or do we stand up, say no more, and insist that the threat of impeachment be put back on the table and that it be used if this administration doesn’t immediately change their course.

The voters gave their elected representatives their marching orders in the last election. If they continue to ignore the will of the people, they will pay a very dear price for that choice in the upcoming election in 2008. It’s way past time for them to grow a spine and do what’s right for the United States, for the world.

Transcript

Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on what is, in everything but name, George Bush’s pardon of Scooter Libby.

“I didn’t vote for him,” an American once said, “But he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

That — on this eve of the 4th of July — is the essence of this democracy, in seventeen words.

And that is what President Bush threw away yesterday in commuting the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

The man who said those seventeen words — improbably enough — was the actor John Wayne.

And Wayne, an ultra-conservative, said them, when he learned of the hair’s-breadth election of John F. Kennedy instead of his personal favorite, Richard Nixon in 1960.

“I didn’t vote for him but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

The sentiment was doubtlessly expressed earlier. But there is something especially appropriate about hearing it, now, in Wayne’s voice.

The crisp matter-of-fact acknowledgement that we have survived, even though for nearly two centuries now, our Commander-in-Chief has also served, simultaneously, as the head of one political party and often the scourge of all others.

We as citizens must, at some point, ignore a president’s partisanship. Not that we may “prosper” as a nation, not that we may “achieve”, not that we may “lead the world” — but merely that we may “function.”

But just as essential to the seventeen words of John Wayne is an implicit trust — a sacred trust:That the president for whom so many did not vote, can in turn suspend his political self long enough, and for matters imperative enough, to conduct himself solely for the benefit of the entire Republic.

Our generation’s willingness to state “we didn’t vote for him, but he’s our president, and we hope he does a good job,” was tested in the crucible of history, and far earlier than most. And in circumstances more tragic and threatening.

And we did that with which history tasked us.

We enveloped “our” President in 2001.

And those who did not believe he should have been elected — indeed, those who did not believe he had been elected — willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.

And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and sharpened it to a razor-sharp point, and stabbed this nation in the back with it.

Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.

Did so even before the appeals process was complete…

Did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice…

Did so despite what James Madison –at the Constitutional Convention — said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes “advised by” that president…

Did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder:

To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish — the President will keep you out of prison?

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental compact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens — the ones who did not cast votes for you.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President… of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party.

And this is too important a time, sir, to have a Commander-in-Chief who puts party over nation.

This has been, of course, the gathering legacy of this Administration. Few of its decisions have escaped the stain of politics.

The extraordinary Karl Rove has spoken of “a permanent Republican majority,” as if such a thing — or a permanent Democratic majority — is not antithetical to that upon which rests: our country, our history, our revolution, our freedoms.

Yet our democracy has survived shrewder men than Karl Rove.

And it has survived the frequent stain of politics upon the fabric of government.

But this administration, with ever-increasing insistence and almost theocratic zealotry, has turned that stain… into a massive oil spill.

The protection of the environment is turned over to those of one political party, who will financially benefit from the rape of the environment.

The protections of the Constitution are turned over to those of one political party, who believe those protections unnecessary and extravagant and “quaint.”

The enforcement of the laws is turned over to those of one political party, who will swear beforehand that they will not enforce those laws.

The choice between war and peace is turned over to those of one political party, who stand to gain vast wealth by ensuring that there is never peace, but only war.

And now, when just one cooked book gets corrected by an honest auditor…

When just one trampling of the inherent and inviolable “fairness” of government is rejected by an impartial judge…

When just one wild-eyed partisan is stopped by the figure of blind justice…

This President decides that he, and not the law, must prevail.

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but instead to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of you becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

When President Nixon ordered the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” on October 20th, 1973, Mr. Cox initially responded tersely, and ominously:

“Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men, is now for Congress, and ultimately, the American people.”

President Nixon did not understand how he had crystallized the issue of Watergate for the American people.

It had been about the obscure meaning behind an attempt to break in to a rival party’s headquarters; and the labyrinthine effort to cover-up that break-in and the related crimes.

But in one night, Nixon transformed it.

Watergate — instantaneously — became a simpler issue: a President overruling the inexorable march of the law. Of insisting — in a way that resonated viscerally with millions who had not previously understood — that he was the law.

Not the Constitution.

Not the Congress.

Not the Courts.

Just him.

Just – Mr. Bush – as you did, yesterday.

The twists and turns of Plame-Gate, your precise and intricate lies that sent us into this bottomless pit of Iraq; your lies upon the lies to discredit Joe Wilson; your lies upon the lies upon the lies to throw the sand at the “referee” of Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s analogy… these are complex and often painful to follow, and too much, perhaps, for the average citizen.

But when other citizens render a verdict against your man, Mr. Bush — and then you spit in the faces of those jurors and that judge and the judges who were yet to hear the appeal — the average citizen understands that, sir.

It’s the fixed ballgame and the rigged casino and the pre-arranged lottery all rolled into one — and it stinks. And they know it.

Nixon’s mistake, the last and most fatal of them, the firing of Archibald Cox, was enough to cost him the presidency.

And in the end, even Richard Nixon could say he could not put this nation through an impeachment.

It was far too late for it to matter then, but as the decades unfold, that single final gesture of non-partisanship, of acknowledged responsibility not to self, not to party, not to “base,” but to country, echoes loudly into history.

Even Richard Nixon knew it was time to resign

Would that you could say that, Mr. Bush.

And that you could say it for Mr. Cheney.

You both crossed the Rubicon yesterday.

Which one of you chose the route, no longer matters.

Which is the ventriloquist, and which the dummy, is irrelevant.

But that you have twisted the machinery of government into nothing more than a tawdry machine of politics, is the only fact that remains relevant.

It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them — or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them — we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time — and our leaders in Congress, of both parties — must now live up to those standards which echo through our history:

Pressure, negotiate, impeach — get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.

And for you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task.

You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed.

Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.

Resign.

And give us someone — anyone – about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

Good night, and good luck. – MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann

Do something!

Contact your elected representatives, and Nancy Pelosi the speaker of the house, and insist that impeachment be put back on the table.

Lamar Alexander

455 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4944
Fax: (202) 228-3398

Bob Corker

Dirksen Senate Building SD-185
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3344
Fax: (202) 228-0566

David Davis, 1st District

514 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
phone: (202) 225-6356
fax: (202) 225-5714

John Duncan, 2nd District

2207 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-5435

Zach Wamp, 3rd District

1436 of the Longworth Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3271
(202) 225-3494 (fax)

Lincoln Davis, 4th District

1004 Longworth HOB
Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3265
Fax: (202)-225-5663

Jim Cooper, 5th District

1536 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4311
Fax: (202) 226-1035

Bart Gordon, 6th District

2310 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4231
Fax: (202) 225-6887

Marsha Blackburn, 7th District

509 Cannon Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-2811
(202) 225-3004 fax

John Tanner, 8th District

1226 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4714
Fax: (202) 225-1765

Steve Cohen, 9th District

1004 Longworth HOB
Washington DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3265
Fax: (202)-225-5663

Nancy Pelosi, The Speaker of the House

235 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4965

Click here to view the embedded video.

BREAKING: Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced April 23rd, that he will file articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney. Further details will be released at a press conference on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 5 p.m. on the Cannon Terrace, intersection of Independence and New Jersey Avenue.

George Bush and Dick Cheney have lied the nation into a war of aggression, are spying in open violation of the law, and have sanctioned the use of torture. These are high crimes and misdemeanors that demand accountability. Since Congress doesn’t seem to get it, on April 28 Americans from Miami, Florida to North Pole, Alaska are going to spell it out for them: IMPEACH! It’s time to say NO to impunity for lying, spying, and torture.

About the Hip Hop Caucus

The Hip Hop Caucus (H2C) is a nonprofit, non-partisan membership association created to establish a national and international coalition of pop-culture, social and political organizations, community based organizations, and individuals who believe in the collective powers of persons born after 1964.

The Hip Hop Caucus was established to provide a comprehensive agenda for the Progressive and Hip-Hop community both domesticlly and abroad. The Caucus’ programs promote social and political equality in the area of Economics, Education, Health Care, Housing, and Justice.

About the Hip Hop Caucus Institute

The Hip-Hop Caucus Institute (HHCi) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that strengthens social movements with independent research, visionary thinking, and links to the grassroots, the hip-hop community, scholars, and elected officials. The Hip-Hop Caucus Institute was established to provide a comprehensive agenda for the progressive and hip-hop community both domestically and abroad. The Institute’s programs promote social and political equality in the areas of economics, education, healthcare, housing, and justice.

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.: President and CEO

Dr. Roger Mitchell: Chairman of the Board, Hip Hop Caucus

Bill Fletcher, Jr.: Chairman of the Board, Hip Hop Caucus Institute

Congresswoman Barbara Lee: Chairwoman of the Hip Hop Caucus Advisory Board

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video is by Roy J. Eidelson Ph.D who is a psychologist who studies, writes about, and consults on the role of psychological issues in political, organizational, and group conflict settings. He is also an Executive Director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania.

The five core conerns are according to his blog, Dangerous Ideas are:

1. Vulnerability. There are few things more important to us than the safety and well-being of those we care about.

2. Injustice. When we witness wrongdoing, we are often quick to anger and eager to see justice restored.

3. Distrust. We make many important decisions based upon who we think can be trusted and who we think cannot; significant betrayals of trust therefore shatter key foundations in our lives.

4. Superiority. Individually and collectively, we take pride in what makes us feel special and we strive to defend these badges of honor from assault.

5. and Helplessness. Finally, we strongly resist the idea that we have no control over what happens to us; helplessness is a plight we desperately wish to avoid.

This goes along with another video he did, How Conservatives Exploit Our Five Core Concerns.

Click here to view the embedded video.