Montgomery County Democratic Party

Montgomery County Republican Party

The Joe Biden/Sarah Palin debate is over and history. The verdict: Biden held his own, scored particularly well in areas of foreign policy, and, I believe, won the debate. Palin, after a spate of blundered interviews and disingenuous flubbed questions from “Katie” (Couric) and “Charlie” (Gibson), did better than expected but still managed at best a break even score, up from her previous level — which was sounding ridiculous.

Watching the man/woman voter scrolling scoreboard at the bottom of the TV screen, a tally of sorts based on Ohio voters, both candidates managed to find sharp and prolonged spikes of interest, catching the attention of listeners not by political affiliation but rather by the issues that were being discussed. What were those topics: the economy, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy, the economy and the economy. The Economy encompassed middle class tax relief, health care/insurance, jobs, gas prices, and the high cost of higher education.

Sen. Joe Biden

BIDEN: Yes, well, you know, until two weeks ago — it was two Mondays ago John McCain said at 9 o’clock in the morning that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Two weeks before that, he said George — we’ve made great economic progress under George Bush’s policies.

Nine o’clock, the economy was strong. Eleven o’clock that same day, two Mondays ago, John McCain said that we have an economic crisis.

That doesn’t make John McCain a bad guy, but it does point out he’s out of touch. Those folks on the sidelines knew that two months ago.

Palin did her “I am one of you sitting around the kitchen table” complete with incorrect grammar, slang (”betcha” was the most irritating by far), and mispronounced words (can any Republican say “nuclear” instead of “nucular”? Please? Most notable, though, was Palin’s inability to stay on course and simply answer the darned question. All domestic roads, or in her case, questions, led back to taxes. Many of her foreign policy responses led back to taxes.The problem is, while I want a United States President and Vice President to have a real sense of what the average American wants and needs, I want that leader to sound, well, intelligent and functioning at a level commensurate with interaction on a global scale. “Betcha” doesn’t quite do it. By the time she spurt out the “six pack American” cliche she was, in my book, more than done. Nothing has offended me more in this campaign than that reference. Except the sappy “Charlie’s” and “Katie’s” in those CBS and ABC interviews. Maybe “six pack American” or “Joe six pack” was just my tipping point. Just how condescending can she get, I wonder.

Gov. Sarah Palin

PALIN: My experience as an executive will be put to good use as a mayor and business owner and oil and gas regulator and then as governor of a huge state, a huge energy producing state that is accounting for much progress towards getting our nation energy independence and that’s extremely important.

But it wasn’t just that experience tapped into, it was my connection to the heartland of America. Being a mom, one very concerned about a son in the war, about a special needs child, about kids heading off to college, how are we going to pay those tuition bills? About times and Todd and our marriage in our past where we didn’t have health insurance and we know what other Americans are going through as they sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care? We’ve been there also so that connection was important.

But even more important is that world view that I share with John McCain. That world view that says that America is a nation of exceptionalism. And we are to be that shining city on a hill, as President Reagan so beautifully said, that we are a beacon of hope and that we are unapologetic here. We are not perfect as a nation. But together, we represent a perfect ideal. And that is democracy and tolerance and freedom and equal rights. Those things that we stand for that can be put to good use as a force for good in this world. (Palin’s tolerance and freedom and equal rights did not extend to gay marriag or the choice issue).

Biden stumbled on words and names from time to time, and it seemed as if his mind had more to present but not enough time to dish it out. At times he almost seemed to be playing a game for which Palin remained ignorant of the rules, the first and most important being “Answer the question”. Biden zero’d in on detail and stayed on task; Palin, well, didn’t. Palin frequently responded with statements that became lost in a maze of topics, ending nowhere near an actual answer to the original question.

BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

As the debate drew to a close, Biden summed up the state of the nation under President Bush:

BIDEN: I’ll be very brief. Can I respond to that?

Look, the maverick — let’s talk about the maverick John McCain is. And, again, I love him. He’s been a maverick on some issues, but he has been no maverick on the things that matter to people’s lives.

He voted four out of five times for George Bush’s budget, which put us a half a trillion dollars in debt this year and over $3 trillion in debt since he’s got there.

He has not been a maverick in providing health care for people. He has voted against — he voted including another 3.6 million children in coverage of the existing health care plan, when he voted in the United States Senate.

He’s not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college.

He’s not been a maverick on the war. He’s not been a maverick on virtually anything that genuinely affects the things that people really talk about around their kitchen table.

Can we send — can we get Mom’s MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester? We can’t — we can’t make it. How are we going to heat the — heat the house this winter?

He voted against even providing for what they call LIHEAP, for assistance to people, with oil prices going through the roof in the winter.

So maverick he is not on the important, critical issues that affect people at that kitchen table.

While both candidates were speaking into a dais-mounted microphone, at times it looked as if Palin was wearing a wire, possibly with an earpiece tucked beneath her hair (hair that, I might add, is a messy semi-upswept style fit for a bad prom night circa 1968 — sorry, Sarah); at the end of the debate as she walked across the stage, she pulled a device out from the hem of her suitcoat. We might almost suspect she was being prompted as each question arose.

The vice-presidential debate only served to affirm my choices in leadership for the next four years.

What she really meant was that God “has a plan” and that this “Plan” includes rightness, goodness, and “certain inalienable rights” including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.

I wonder if the missionaries took it that way?

I also wondered, immediately, how Palin could possibly expect anyone with three live brain cells to believe that “God has a Plan and it includes a war in Iraq” … means anything other than, “God has a Plan and it includes a war in Iraq.”

Palin repeated the “inalienable rights” comment at least three times during phase one of her interview with noted softball pitcher, Charlie Gibson. Interestingly enough, Johnny McSame used the exact language on several occasions during the course of his “prepared remarks” to what at least the freshmen in the audience at Columbia University thought were cold questions, during the course of his portion of a Forum on Public Service, where McScripted appeared in advance of Barack Obama.

Viewing the Palin love fest with Gibson, where virtually every answer to each puff question included the tossing of hair, the wringing of hands, and the recitation of the name “Charlie” no less than six times … and the McOscar performance of Johnny War Hero at the Columbia Forum … it is abundantly clear that neither Candidate will answer any question, on any topic, which has not been fully and completely drill, drill, drilled into them by their collective gaggle of professional handlers.

With the ten pound tomato questions that Gibson lobbed at Palin, we still don’t know anything other than that she doesn’t blink, she is sure she is ready to be President, and she is more than willing to go to war with Russia to defend Georgia.

Sarah Palin hadn’t even gotten out of the chair of her first campaign “interview” before the crack staff of the Johnny McOops Campaign had surrounded Charlie Gibson and was eyeing him up as though he was the Dingo who had just eaten their baby.

Gibson had asked Palin a question about whether she was in agreement with the so-called Bush Doctrine involving the use of pre-emptive strikes against nations who make us really nervous.

Actually “Charlie” didn’t take the time to explain the Bush Doctrine in the body of his question. He correctly assumed that the Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee should have at least some idea of the specific foreign policy directives which she might have to interpret, or God forbid employ one day, in the event that Johnny McAlzheimers starts pissing himself and forgets where he lives.

Unfortunately, Gibson had given Governor experience a little too much credit for doing her homework.

Palin was thoroughly confused and gave an answer which bore little if any resemblance to the original question. Being a tough interviewer (cough), Gibson made an effort to re-phrase the question in such a way as to permit Palin to properly redeem herself. Either that, or he just wanted to hear Sarah call out his name another six times.

Either way … Palin still had no idea what Gibson was talking about, and gave an equally irrelevant and borderline nonsensical response.

Not even the third time being a charm in this instance, Gibson finally gave up on getting an intelligent response to his question. He moved on … and the bodyguards of all things policy, moved in for the post-interview kill.

Apparently, Palin was “confused” because Gibson had phrased his question in the form of a “hypothetical”. Either that … or the Republican Vice-Presidential Nominee was simply clueless on Foreign Policy? Hypothetically speaking…of course.

~~ You can view this commentary and more great new postings at www.theprogressivepolitico.com.

About the author: Lionus, in his ownh words, is a “Multi-degreed professional with an extraordinarily broad-base of worldly experience. Member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Lawyer, Published Author, Screenwriter, former Working Professional Standup Comedian, All-Around Bon Vivant AND “Man About Town.” You can hear Lionus Unleashed on Blog Talk Radio or visit Lionus at  http://www.myspace.com/lionusunleashed

The Nashville Peace Coalition has issued the call for a demonstration in Nashville on Saturday, August 2nd to call for international diplomacy and peaceful dialogue instead of blockades and threats of bombing Iran. The demonstration is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and to last one and a half hours. It will take place at the intersection of 5th & Broadway in downtown Nashville.

The Peace Coalition is taking part in a national day of action to stop the potential war on Iran, which includes a massive demonstration in New York City and dozens of similar actions across the country on that day.

Statement from the Nashville Peace Coalition on why we are demonstrating:

It is with grave concern that we observe the growing threat of a new U.S. war–this time against the people of Iran. The media is filled with reports of an alleged nuclear threat posed by Iran and the assumed need for the U.S. to take military action. These reports recall the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” stories issued in the months leading up to the war on Iraq.

In the lead up to the illegal invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration asserted that Iraq possessed massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and that it was capable of launching an attack – nuclear, chemical and biological – on the U.S. within 45 minutes.

President Bush said that the U.S. had to attack immediately, and could not “wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” We all know now that this propaganda campaign was a complet fabrication created to justify a war of aggression.

Now we see reports that are all too similar being made to justify military action against the people of Iran. Taking Iran to the UN Security Council is a prelude for unilateral action. Just as in the case of Iraq, none of the claims made by the U.S. government stand up to unbiased scrutiny. Iran has submitted to the most intrusive and humiliating inspections, above and beyond what is required by Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). None of the inspections have found any evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program.

There is only one government that has used nuclear weapons against civilian populations, and that same nation has the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction on the planet. Most dangerous and incredible it is at this very moment developing a new generation of tactical nuclear weapons that it intends to use, not merely to threaten. That country is, of course, the United States. Shouldn’t any real discussion of the dangers of nuclear weapons include the weapons stockpiled by the Pentagon and the history of U.S. aggression and interventions?

Iran has suffered greatly at the hands of the U.S. We recall the U.S. overthrew the democratically elected government of Dr. M. Mossadegh and returned the Shah to the Peacock Throne – ‘the proudest achievement of the CIA’. For 25 years the Shah ruled Iran with an iron fist for the benefit of U.S. oil corporations before the people of Iran, in the millions, overthrew his tyranny at a terrible cost in lives. For the past 27 years U.S. sanctions have impeded Iran’s right to development and brought great suffering to the people.

It is essential that all voices opposed to the devastation of a new war in the Middle East speak out now. We urge an immediate end to Washington’s campaign of sanctions, hostility, and falsehood against the people of Iran. We oppose any new U.S. aggression against Iran. We need funds for human needs, not endless war for empire.

In an interview with Amy Goodman on April 28, Ritter stated:

“There is no doubt in my mind that the US is planning right now, as we speak, a military strike against Iran.” Ritter warns that such an attack is unnecessary, and if launched, could provoke a massive response with catastrophic consequences to millions of people, including Americans.

“The most important thing to know about Scott Ritter is that he was right.” — Seymour Hersh

Ritter famously and accurately argued in 2002 that Iraq no longer had WMD when he spoke in Louisville that year. He now recommends diplomatic engagement with Iran, and supports local and national efforts to pass resolutions urging President Bush to refrain from ordering any military attack against Iran without explicit Congressional authorization.

Ritter, the author Target Iran, Waging Peace and Iraq Confidential, was one of UNSCOM’s most senior weapons inspectors in Iraq between 1991 and 1998, after having served for eight years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. As a Marine, he conducted arms inspections in the former Soviet Union, and provided analysis of Iraq’s missile capacity to General Schwarzkopf in the 1991 Gulf War.

Lizzie West & Baba Buffalo, whose “19 Miles to Baghdad” is played frequently on Democracy Now!, will be performing songs from their upcoming album, The Tumbleweed Cabaret (Dream #1), slated for August 2008 release. They are co-founders of Holy Road Tours Union (HRTU), a progressive arts cooperative.

Tickets are $10 in advance, and $15 at the door. For tickets & more info, go to http:www.realintelligence.org or call 310-842-8794.This event is sponsored by The Louisville Peace Action Community (LPAC) of Louisville, Kentucky.

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

But the right response now is to engage Iran diplomatically. Use sanctions against their terrorist elements as a way of underscoring our purpose, but talk, and talk without pre-conditions to explore their interests, understand their motives, and seek some common interests.

Right now the angry rhetoric and saber-rattling is a boon to the most hard-line, anti-American elements in their government. It strengthens their grip, intimidates moderates, and confuses our allies around the world, who want to see Iran’s hegemonic aspirations contained without the use of force.

We should send a top level mission into the region, just as Bill Clinton did in the Balkans, and talk to all parties, both inside and outside Iraq. Armed with a statement of principles, some inducements, and a sharp explanation of the consequences of failure, we might well craft some understandings that could help pave a successful US exit from Iraq, check Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, and reassure anxious neighbors.

I reject the use of force at this time. While all agree that Iran should not be permitted to acquire nuclear weaponry, the intelligence that has been shared with me suggests there is still time for a diplomatic initiative, not only to head off their nuclear plans but also to persuade Iran to end its military assistance to militia inside Iraq. Surely the United States will have the wisdom and courage to try diplomacy first, and save the use of force for a last, last, last resort.

Visit StopIranWar.com to find out what else you can do to help stop this war before it starts!

About Gen Wesley K. Clark Ret.

During thirty-four years of service in the United States Army Wesley K. Clark rose to the rank of four-star general as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. In 2004 Wesley Clark was a Democratic candidate for President of the United States.

Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says in her August newsletter that “the liberal majority of Congress will not deliver these promised goals: curb government spending, secure our nation’s borders, and institute the most ethical Congress in U.S. history.”

Congresswoman Blackburn is right to blow the whistle on these urgent matters!

We desperately need to curb government spending.  Our government charges the taxpaying citizens of the United States a daily fee of $200 million dollars to support the invasion and occupation of Iraq, while corporations such as Halliburton are getting rich off both the war, oil production and the average American.

We need to secure our nation’s borders!  It’s not just a matter of illegal immigration, or the threat that can sail through porous ports and land in our airports nationwide.

We need to stop corporations from outsourcing their work to sweat shops in other countries. Wal-Mart alone is putting all of its potential competitors and smaller local companies out of business by offering the lowest prices while paying its employees poverty level wages with no benefits.

We need to elect and install the most ethical Congress in U.S. history.  All those elected and appointed folks who do not follow, uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America need to go. It’s our job to vote them out of office.

We cannot stand for or afford any more gross violations of our civil liberties. Illegal war, illegal wiretapping, illegal seizure without representation, torture, lying to and using the American people to attain personal war profit — all need to be dealt with severely, with imprisonment and heavy financial penalties as part of that package.

Representatives who would dehumanize, demean and discriminate against citizens of the United States by labeling them and using that label to ignore them need to go. What we need are people who have good judgment and look beneath the surface for the truth.

We need to get on the same page in history. As a country we are in crisis situations that cannot be ignored:

1. Our soldiers are facing a third deployment when they are already psychologically damaged and receiving no treatment. The loss in Iraq is beyond belief. Other countries are completely sour with us and we are not being the humanitarians that we preach. It is such a an overwhelming atrocity that we casued and continue to fuel.
2. We are in a global crisis. Global warming is gradual and the evidence of it is all too clear. There isn’t that much time to reverse the effects of it. It is a serious crisis to know that we continue to use the same sources of energy at great risk to our entire planet. It’s a crisis to think about changing those sources and getting people to go along with it.
3. Our country is in a civil liberties crisis. Our freedom of speech, privacy, right to representation, right to jury, has been pulled out from under us in the name of war. Our ability to trust the government to help us in any crisis is not believable anymore. In the name of the United States of America, we carry out illegal invasions, illegal torture, illegal seizures, killing, rape, looting and unethical lack of concern for other nations, our nation and mankind.
4. The mandated “No Child Left Behind Act” is teaching children to the tests, frustrating them and teachers, creating a crisis in education. Our children, and even our adults spoon fed lies and half-truths by a biased corporately-managed media must learn to ask questions and think for themselves; both skills are quickly becoming lost arts in our society. When children become increasingly restless and unhappy in school, we resort to controlling them with drugs and punishment. Teachers who love to teach are frustrated. Desperate for funds, schools who receive money from the No Child Left Behind Program are obligated to hand over to military recruiters all the information in the files of our children. It’s a positive formula for future armies, but not for us as freethinking American citizens with dissenting opinions. Our right to chose is being revoked.
5. Threat from terror is only stifled as long as Iraq is in a quagmire within itself. I do believe they will hate us forever and we will always need to fear them.
6. Fox news promotes distrust of and intentions to attack Iran. Fox news conditions us. It is not news but propaganda; its proclaimed “no spin zone” is itself perpetual “spin.”
7. Mainstream media has been silent to the atrocities going on in Iraq and in our government. It is only by reading alternative media sites, and browsing international sites such as the BBC, Canadian broadcasting, international newspapers and radio broadcasts do we get alternative points of view and a clear perception of where America stands in the eyes of other nations around the world. It’s not a very pretty picture, and the very charges we level at people like Saddam Hussein, and officials in North Korea and Iran are no different than the perspective other nations have of our leaders. We are not always viewed as saviors or rescuers but as power hungry, money hungry war mongerers. Our status in the world view has fallen into disfavor, particularly in terms of the Iraq War.
8. Health care, the holes in health care services, and in many cases the complete lack of health care, is a crisis eroding the heart and soul of everyday American citizens. What is so difficult about a wealthy industrialized nation offering health care to all? Oh yes, insurance companies, HMO’s, those corporate lobbyists and that wealthy top five percent…
9. America’s voiting machines are not verifiable. Our most important voice is not trustworthy. We cannot guarantee the votes are counted correctly, or that the machines are not tampered with; nor are we being allowed a paper trail of truth.

I believe Marsha Blackburn is saying to us “How can smart people not face glaring truths that are staring them in the face?”

WAKE UP

These are serious times that require urgent action. We are in this together and there is no time for name calling.

More than ever we need representatives, regardless of party affiliation, who will, like Marsha Blackburn says, have the guts to stand up to the bullies in government, speak up for the people, and not bleat out the same rhetoric that is used to distract everyone and keep them from looking too closely at the facts.

Contact Representative Blackburn

I encourage everyone to let Representative Blackburn know how you feel about what is important.

You can contact Ms. Blackburn at the following offices:

Washington DC

Clarksville

Memphis

Franklin

Marsha Blackburn’s Voting Record

For information on Rep. Blackburn’s voting record, visit http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/b001243/

This is as Independent’s author Patrick Cockburn aptly describes it “…as if Iran had tried to kidnap the heads of the CIA and MI6 while they were on an official visit to a country neighboring Iran, such as Pakistan or Afghanistan.”

The attempted provocation of the Iranian government did not stop with that attack. On the fourth of February, Iraqi commandos likely under U.S. Command seized an Iranian diplomat Jalal Sharafi, who was the second secretary of the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad.

Iraqi officials earlier said the gunmen were wearing uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion – a special Iraqi unit under US direction

The U.S. subsequently denied that either US troops or Iraqi soldiers were involved.

We’ve checked with our units and it was not a [multinational forces - Iraq] unit that participated in that event

Lt Col Christopher Garver,
US military spokesman

The seizing of the 15 British sailors is likely a retaliation by Iran with the aim of forcing the U.S. military to release the illegally detained consular officials who haven’t been seen since the raids.

This pattern of attempted provocations mirror what we saw in the run up to the invasion of Iraq.

It quotes British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon as saying that “the US had already begun ’spikes of activity’ to put pressure on the regime.” This we now realize was Plan B [and apparently confirmed by Gen. Moseley's comments mentioned above]. Put simply, US aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone were dropping a lot more bombs in the hope of provoking a reaction that would give the allies an excuse to carry out a full-scale bombing campaign, an air war, the first stage of the conflict. – The Christian Science Monitor via Globalsecurity.org

I also fear that the holding of the 15 British sailors will be the excuse that President Bush uses for launching and justifying his long planned attack against this leg of his axis of evil. Only time will tell for sure.

View at least a few of the shots and see if you still have the same mental picture of Tehran that you might have had before you watched. They certainly blew me away. Kind of like people in other countries thinking we’re all cowboys, eh? – Sarah Good

* The above video is  courtesy of Lucas Gray

It would be beyond foolish for us to even consider going into Iran as the President and his administration are currently setting us up for. Their play book is same one they used to trick the public into supporting a war in Iraq, but we can put a stop to this one before it even gets started. Say no more to the lies, half truths, and distortions! Oppose further conflicts which are intended to enrich the military industrial corporate complex at the cost of American soldier’s lives. The drum beat to war is sounding again and we havn’t been able to win any of the other wars President Bush has foolishly gotten our nation into yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

William E. Odom
Senior Fellow
Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. Headquarters

Areas of Expertise

• Military and strategic issues
• Intelligence issues
• Asian economic and security issues
• Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian studies
• European politics and military issues

Biographical Highlights
Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a Senior Fellow with Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University. As Director of the National Security Agency from 1985 to 1988, he was responsible for the nation’s signals intelligence and communications security. From 1981 to 1985, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army’s senior intelligence officer.

From 1977 to 1981, General Odom was Military Assistant to the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs, Zbigniew Brzezinski. As a member of the National Security Council staff, he worked upon strategic planning, Soviet affairs, nuclear weapons policy, telecommunications policy, and Persian Gulf security issues. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1954, and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1970.

The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.

Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.

The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.

The bare outlines of that order may have appeared in President Bush’s Address to the Nation last night outlining his new course on Iraq:

Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We’ll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq. We’re also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region. We will expand intelligence-sharing and deploy Patriot air defense systems to reassure our friends and allies. We will work with the governments of Turkey and Iraq to help them resolve problems along their border. And we will work with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region.

Adding fuel to the speculation is that U.S. forces today raided an Iranian Consulate in Arbil, Iraq and detained five Iranian staff members. Given that Iran showed little deference to the political sanctity of the US Embassy in Tehran 29 years ago, it would be ironic for Iran to hyperventilate much about the raid.

But what is disconcerting is that some are speculating that Bush has decided to heat up military engagement with Iran and Syria — taking possible action within their borders, not just within Iraq.

Some are suggesting that the Consulate raid may have been designed to try and prompt a military response from Iran — to generate a casus belli for further American action.

If this is the case, the debate about adding four brigades to Iraq is pathetic. The situation will get even hotter than it now is, worsening the American position and exposing the fact that to fight Iran both within the borders of Iraq and into Iranian territory, there are not enough troops in the theatre.

Bush may really have pushed the escalation pedal more than any of us realize.
– Steve Clemons

UPDATE: This exchange today in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee between Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden and Senator Chuck Hagel with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is full of non-denial denials and evasive answers to Biden’s query about the President’s ability to authorize military operations against forces within Iran and Syria:

SEN. BIDEN: Last night, the president said, and I quote, “Succeeding in Iraq requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges, and that begins with addressing Iran and Syria.” He went on to say, “We will interrupt the flow of support for Iran and Syria, and we will seek out and destroy networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”Does that mean the president has plans to cross the Syrian and/or Iranian border to pursue those persons or individuals or governments providing that help?

SEC. RICE: Mr. Chairman, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs was just asked this question, and I think he perhaps said it best. He talked about what we’re really trying to do here which is to protect our forces and that we are doing that by seeking out these networks that we know are operating in Iraq. We are doing it through intelligence. We are then able, as we did on the 21st of December, to go after these groups where we find them. In that case, we then asked the Iraqi government to declare them persona non grata and expel them from the country because they were holding diplomatic passports.

But the — what is really being contemplated here in terms of these networks is that we believe we can do what we need to do inside Iraq. Obviously, the president isn’t going to rule anything out to protect our troops, but the plan is to take down these networks in Iraq.

The broader point is that we do have and we have always had as a country very strong interests and allies in the Gulf Region, and we do need to work with our allies to make certain that they have the defense capacity that they need against growing Iranian military build-up, that they fell that we are going to be a presence in the Persian Gulf Region as we have been, and that we establish confidence with the states with which we have long alliances, that we will help defend their interests. And that’s what the president had in mind.

SEN. BIDEN: Secretary Rice, do you believe the president has the constitutional authority to pursue across the border into Iraq (sic/Iran) or Syria, the networks in those countries?

SEC. RICE: Well, Mr. Chairman, I think I would not like to speculate on the president’s constitutional authority or to try and say anything that certainly would abridge his constitutional authority, which is broad as commander in chief.

I do think that everyone will understand that — the American people and I assume the Congress expect the president to do what is necessary to protect our forces.

SEN. BIDEN: Madame Secretary, I just want to make it clear, speaking for myself, that if the president concluded he had to invade Iran or Iraq in pursuit of these — or Syria — in pursuit of these networks, I believe the present authorization granted the president to use force in Iraq does not cover that, and he does need congressional authority to do that. I just want to set that marker.

SEN. HAGEL: I want to comment briefly on the president’s speech last night, as he presented to America and the world his new strategy for Iraq, and then I want to ask you a couple of questions.

I’m going to note one of the points that the president made last night at the conclusion of his speech. When he said, quote, “We mourn the loss of every fallen American, and we owe it to them to build a future worthy of their sacrifice” — and I don’t think there is a question that we all in this country agree with that — but I would even begin with this evaluation; that we owe the military and their families a policy, a policy worthy of their sacrifices, and I don’t believe, Dr. Rice, we have that policy today.

I think what the president said last night — and I listened carefully and read through it again this morning — is all about a broadened American involvement, escalation in Iraq and the Middle East. I do not agree with that escalation, and I would further note that when you say, as you have here this morning, that we need to address and help the Iraqis and pay attention to the fact that Iraqis are being killed, Madame Secretary, Iraqis are killing Iraqis. We are in a civil war. This is sectarian violence out of control — Iraqi on Iraqi. Worse, it is inter-sectarian violence — Shi’a killing Shi’a.

To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives, to be put in the middle of a civil war is wrong.

It’s, first of all, in my opinion, morally wrong. It’s tactically, strategically, militarily wrong. We will not win a war of attrition in the Middle East.

And I further note that you talk about skepticism and pessimism of the American people and some in Congress. That is not some kind of a subjective analysis, that is because, Madame Secretary, we’ve been there almost four years, and there’s a reason for that skepticism and pessimism, and that is based on the facts on the ground, the reality of the dynamics.

And so I have been one, as you know, who have believed that the appropriate focus is not to escalate, but to try to find a broader incorporation of a framework. And it will have to be, certainly, regional, as many of us have been saying for a long time. That should not be new to anyone. But it has to be more than regional, it is going to have to be internally sponsored, and that’s going to include Iran and Syria.

When you were engaging Chairman Biden on this issue, on the specific question — will our troops go into Iran or Syria in pursuit, based on what the president said last night — you cannot sit here today — not because you’re dishonest or you don’t understand, but no one in our government can sit here today and tell Americans that we won’t engage the Iranians and the Syrians cross-border.

Some of us remember 1970, Madame Secretary, and that was Cambodia, and when our government lied to the American people and said we didn’t cross the border going into Cambodia. In fact we did. I happen to know something about that, as do some on this committee.

So, Madame Secretary, when you set in motion the kind of policy that the president is talking about here, it’s very, very dangerous. Matter of fact, I have to say, Madame Secretary, that I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it’s carried out. I will resist it — (interrupted by applause.)

Worrisome.
– Steve Clemons