By tradition, the proper gift for a fifth anniversary is something made of wood. Jack Murtha must know this, for in observing the fifth anniversary yesterday of President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech, he gave the president a rhetorical two-by-four to the head.
"Five years ago today, President Bush addressed our nation and the world from the USS Abraham Lincoln only 42 days after he ordered the invasion of Iraq; he declared 'Mission Accomplished,' " the Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania declared at the liberal Center for American Progress. "One thousand, eight hundred and twenty-seven days later, the U.S. occupation of Iraq continues and our mission remains undefined."
Murtha -- ticking off statistics about doom and misery in Iraq -- couldn't help adding in a sly reference to the flight suit Bush wore that day for his aircraft-carrier- landing stunt. "I was going to wear my field uniform today, but I decided it didn't fit," the bulky Vietnam veteran said. "It shrunk."
The above, noted by Sean, is from Dana Milbank's "Five Years, Two Words, No Letup" (Washington Post). While Bully Boy ordered and organized international violence, Olympia, Washington saw a smattering of violence (vandalism -- broken windows) yesterday. Jeremy Pawloski, Christian Hill and Adam Wilson (The Olympian) report on it in "A rally, then violence in Olympia:"
The vandalism, which occurred while the banks were open with customers and employees inside, led to a violent confrontation between police and some demonstrators. In a separate incident Thursday, participants in May Day activities defaced the inside of the Capitol with anarchist symbols.
About 10 police officers moved in after the bank windows were shattered about 4 p.m., Olympia police Cmdr. Tor Bjornstad said. Protesters grabbed, punched and otherwise impeded the officers who were trying to arrest suspects thought to have thrown rocks at windows, he said.
Bjornstad said that as of Thursday night, six people had been arrested in connection with the vandalism at the banks.
The May Day event was intended as a way to promote social justice and bring attention to a proposal scheduled to be brought before the Olympia City Council on Tuesday to designate Olympia as a "sanctuary city" for war resisters. Sanctuary cities bar the use of local resources to enforce federal immigration laws and, in this case, to locate and arrest service members opposed to the war who desert their units.
Before the bank windows were broken, a separate group of protesters at the Capitol entered the building as a mass, said State Patrol Sgt. Ted DeHart. Members of that group then tried to enter the governor's office and clog a hallway. Representatives from the office spoke to them, and when they left, anarchist symbols were found scribbled on the walls and outside of the building.
As noted in yesterday's snapshot, labor went on strike to end the illegal war. Ronald W. Powell's "Stoppage anticipated, so few major disruptions reported" (San Diego Union-Tribune):
Dole Fresh Fruit Co.'s San Diego operation reported a loss of $316,000 because of a work stoppage yesterday by West Coast dockworkers protesting the Iraq war.
Dole's report of losses, mostly in bananas, was the only one disclosed by local companies in the daylong protest, which involved thousands of workers at 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle.
The work stoppage had a larger effect on ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle, which are the primary gateways for container shipments from the Far East and other foreign ports.
That's an article worth reading. By contrast, the garbage in the New York Times this morning can be skipped. It's a cobble together of wire reports and local TV stations that offers no credit to those outlets. (It's not the writer credited in the snapshot yesterday, FYI. A glory hog wanted to grab that story and demonstrate how he could fleece the work of others and claim it as his own. Point demonstrated.)
Reed Fujii's "Iraq war protest draws 70 to port" (Stockton Record) takes a look at the workers rally in Stockton:
While most were dock workers, the event drew representatives from other unions in the San Joaquin and Calaveras Counties Central Labor Council, as well as area activists, retirees and others.
"We stand together with you to speak up against the obscenity of this war," said Marti Smith of the California Nurses Association.
Stockton City Councilwoman Susan Eggman also spoke against the war.
"No one I know supports what's going on in Iraq right now," she said.
Many speakers attacked the war in terms of costs - both human and monetary - to the American middle class.
While fighting in Iraq may seem far away, said ILWU member David Griffin, "It's really all around us."
He deplored the homes vacant in his neighborhood due to the foreclosure and credit crisis and described seeing a clerk suffering behind the counter at Hollywood Video because she couldn't afford to see a dentist to relieve an impacted molar
"We don't have health care in this country because of this damn war," Griffin said. "We've got to end this war, bring the troops home and take care of people like my neighbor and the girl at Hollywood."
The war costs also detract from the U.S. education system, argued Anne McCaughey, president of the Stockton Teachers Association.
There's no real benefit from the Bush administration's centerpiece, No Child Left Behind, "because it's an unfunded mandate," she said.
Instead, the federal government is active in recruiting her former students to join the military, whom then "are being sent overseas and are being brought back in boxes."
President Bush, and other Republicans in general, were taken to task by rally speakers.
Lucio Reyes, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 601, said Bush is personally responsible for thousands of American deaths and the "hundreds of thousands of innocent people killed in Iraq."
He called for the president to be tried for "crimes against humanity."
"I want to see Bush put in jail for the rest of his life," he said.
The CBS Evening News notes that the primary race in Indiana "intensifies"
