Tuesday, February 09, 2010

That hopey change on the Iraq War? Not working

Starting with a new poll on the Iraq War. Yesterday, Angus Reid Global Monitor released their latest poll which finds significant doubts as to any withdrawal. Barack Obama's pretty words aren't satisfying the masses. This is the uncertainty (for good reason) that Ava and I were writing of on Sunday:

The anger in America is very real. It's base is the continuing wars -- the wars the gas bag left wants to forget because Barack's the one running them now. The Iraq War was always going to have multiple effects. The most immediate one was going to be illustrating what an occupation was and driving up support for Palestinians. That's here at home. For the first time in many Americans lives, they had to confront what an occupation was. But that wasn't the only impact.
Whether the left gas bags care or not, millions of ten and twelve-year-olds saw mass protests against the Iraq War. They're now young adults. They saw those protests. They grew up knowing the Iraq War was wrong and needed to end. And though some adults can fool themselves, the youth is not fooled and will not self-deceive. On campuses across this country, their critique of Barack Obama always includes the Iraq War. The ongoing Iraq War that the gas bag left -- including Michael Moore -- have forgotten.

Whores like Amy Goodman couldn't tell you about that nor will they tell you about the new poll. Whores like Amy Goodman dance the dance their told to by their masters. They dance for those who paid them. So they waste your time with a bunch of garbage and pretend they informed you of a damned thing.

Repeatedly, those of against the Iraq War -- against the ongoing, illegal war -- have spoken out and repeatedly the whores who profit from lying -- Amy Goodman's a millionaire, she wasn't one before 2000, how do you think it happened -- have stayed silent and distracted you with a bunch of lies and a bunch of garbage. Or maybe you think a "war and peace report" spends weeks at a film festival interviewing celebrities and that somehow informs you of the world around you. Goody dances for the foundations that now put money in her pocket. It's how the woman who decried the Aspen Institute ends up promoting it on her program. Kat sounded the alarm, Ava and I echoed her. It's past time people stop pretending that Democracy Now! exists for any reason other than to turn a few bucks for a tired whore. There's a reason Amy Goodman will not reveal Democracy Now!'s foundation funding. And just the fact that she who rides the high horse on disclosures when it comes to others refuses to disclose about her own program was your first clue. Your second was her refusal to cover the Iraq Inquiry -- Clare Short was once welcomed on Goody's program. But Short gave strong testimony -- the only testimony to receive applause -- at the Inquiry last week and Short's not avoiding Amy Goodman, Short hasn't been invited on by Amy Goodman.

You're being manipulated and you're being lied to by the people like Amy Goodman who don't give a damn about the Iraq War. Amy's done what on Iraq this year? We heard from her about the genetic disorders as a result of the US weapons? No, she's not covered that. Free Speech Radio News has, KPFA's The Morning Show has but Amy Goodman doesn't have time because 'left' think tanks are really Democratic Party organs and they don't want her talking about the Iraq War so she doesn't.

While Goody and so many more are working for the clampdown, are attempting to Manufature Consent, yes, the American people are not stupid. The poll today only demonstrates what we see as we go around the country speaking. Here are the results on a US withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2011.

BRI

USA

Very confident

3%

6%

Moderately confident

18%

25%

Not too confident

45%

39%

Not confident at all

26%

20%

Not sure

8%

9%



71% of British citizens and 59% of Americans do not believe it's going to happen. [Margin of error is 2.2. percent for the British sample; 3.1 percent for the US sample.] Where in your Panhandle Media do you see that reflected or acknowledged? You don't. There's a Democrat in the White House and our alleged 'left' won't push back against a continued illegal war.

You cannot visit a college campus in this country and not encounter widespread disbelief in how Barack's gotten away with continuing the illegal war but try to find that reality and sentiment reflected in Panhandle Media.

Amanda Heard (Bay City Tribune) reports on an effort in Bay City, Texas to raise money for a Texas Army National Guard unit that will be deploying to Iraq -- a unit which includes the Herman Middle School in Van Vleck's nurse Shelly Park. Chie Saito (News 8 Austin) reports, "The Austin Police Department will be working with the First Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to prepare for an upcoming deployment to Iraq."

The Iraq War has not ended. Scott Barnett died serving in Iraq. KTVU reports (link has text and video) on yesterday's service at Concord's Saint Bonaventure Church for Barnett:

Barnett's friend Chris Jaurigue said Barnett enlisted for the sake of his wife and his family and for everyone he truly cared about.
"Scott was honestly one of the greatest men i have ever known in my life," said Jaurigue.
Medals were presented to Barnett's widow and mother. A general called Barnett a true hero because he enlisted knowing his country was in two wars and that his chances of deployment were high.
The two wars have hit Concord especially hard. Per capita, the East Bay community has been hit much harder than most California cities.
About 120,000 people live in Concord, but six of its residents have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Compare that to the seven war casualties in San Jose, a city where the population is over a million. Three residents have died from San Francisco (population 800,000), while none from Oakland (population 400,000) have died.

John Simerman (Contra Costa Times) adds:

Among those standing outside the Concord church, watching them leave, was Natalie Tollefson. Her husband, Pfc Benjamin Tollefson, of Concord, was killed Dec. 31, 2008 in Iraq. Like Barnett, he died three months into his deployment, with a young wife back home and a future cut short.
"I remember feeling like I couldn't relate to anybody, so I want to be there for Nikki," she said.

We'll note this from Robert L. Hanafin's "VA Underestimating Iraq and Afghanistan Casualties" (Veterans Today):

Although the somewhat finished product looks nothing like the Mandatory Funding of the VA that most Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) flaunted as a few got too distracted from the VA with the Flag Amendment, guess what we’ve settled for, advanced funding, is almost there and better than nothing considering the bulk of American tax payers refuse to serve their nation or become Veterans, including members of Congress who call the shots.
That said, how come we still hear and read about a never ending chorus that the VA is not doing enough with the increase in budget VSOs fought for?
More to the point, how come it is non-traditional, non-mainstream Veterans organizations like Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) that are singing in the Choir when the VA regardless which political party is running it, does not deliver or worse yet proves to continue being incompetent. Shredder-gate comes to mind. When you think about it, the fiasco at Walter Reed Army Hospital, and shredding of VA claims have come to light due to the energetic and passionate investigation and advocacy of non-traditional Veterans groups.

Yesterday we noted Jim Frederick's book Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death which is in book stores today. Time magazine offers a book excerpt today.

The following community websites updated last night:

We'll close with this from the Green Party of Michigan:

Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice
Grassroots Democracy * Non-Violence


Green Party of Michigan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.MIGreens.org


** News Release **
** ------------ **
February 8, 2010


For More Information, Contact:
-----------------------------
Linda Cree, North Country Greens
CreeLinda@yahoo.com
(906) 942-7076

Art Myatt, Vice-Chair / GPMI
AMyatt@buckeye-express.com

John Anthony La Pietra, Elections Co-ordinator / GPMI
jalp@triton.net
(269) 781-9478



Michigan Greens Say Granholm’s Final “State of the State”
Speech Is Disappointing, Short-Sighted, Business as Usual
=========================================================
GPMI Candidates Will Focus on Prosperity and Peace for People, Environment



Members of the Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) are disappointed, though not surprised, by the contradictions between Governor Granholm’s talk of a new direction for Michigan’s economy and her obvious support of the same old business as usual . . . and the same old businesses.

“Had Granholm stopped after saying, ‘Our world has changed, utterly; the old Michigan economy is gone,’ I would have been left with the surprising impression that I agreed with her,” says Art Myatt, a GPMI vice-chair and the head of the party’s Platform Committee. “She did not stop. She went on to outline ways to bring back whole chunks of the old economy. Her vision is simply a revived automotive economy that has less automobile manufacturing in Michigan.”

“In her final speech on the state of our state, she mentioned the waters of Michigan just once -- and then only as a ‘natural resource’ to be exploited. There was no mention of protecting those waters, or protecting Michigan’s environment at all,” Myatt continues. “Earlier this month, her Department of Environmental Quality, on the day before it was to be dissolved, ruled in favor of permitting sulfide mining in the Upper Peninsula, bypassing the legal process in place to contest this permit.

“There are too many other examples. She’s done nothing to stop confined animal feeding operations, with their lagoons of untreated sewage fouling ground and surface waters. She’s taken no action to stop planning for new coal power plants, or to clean up any of the old ones. The list goes on and on.”

“Protecting our environment must go hand in hand with any new job creation,” Linda Cree, a Green Party member in the Upper Peninsula, observes. “Job creation should be a win-win situation for our people and our environment. For example, our forests have been hard hit by over-harvesting by international corporations, and now there are efforts underway to exploit our woodlands and grasslands for biomass production.

“It makes more sense to protect our lands and at the same time give a boost to the regional recycled-paper industry by having state government mandate that all government offices use 100% post-consumer-waste, unbleached paper,” Cree says. “Let’s get behind jobs in recycling paper and wood rather than letting our lands be stripped until the soil is ruined.”

“Instead of begging foreign corporations to ‘save us’ with highly-subsidized, highly-polluting jobs, we need to relocalize our own economies and revitalize our state’s rural areas and small communities as well as our big cities,” agrees GPMI Elections Co-ordinator John Anthony La Pietra. “And we need to reverse decades of government policies that abandoned our small farmers to chase after agribusiness. We know how unsustainable corporate farming is in the long run -- and we know it’s healthier all around to have Michigan small family farms growing good food for Michigan family tables.”

For example, Michigan could end the virtual blackout its Women, Infants, & Children food program has on organic foods -- and put more WIC money into encouraging the purchase of locally-grown produce. “The state decides how these federal funds are used,” La Pietra notes. “We could be getting a double benefit from that money. We could ensure WIC recipients a secure and convenient supply of healthier food, and local and organic growers more local demand for their produce.”

Aimee Cree Dunn, also a member of the North Country Greens in the Upper Peninsula, suggests: “Rather than looking for a technological fix, we’d do better putting money into programs at the county and tribal level to recover traditional ecological knowledge. We’ve lost so much information about how to live sustainably and comfortably on the land. Why not create jobs while creating a wealth of valuable information to help people live more sustainably in their bioregions?”

“The era of cheap energy is over,” Myatt points out. “The emerging economy will be local, not global, and should be more oriented toward supplying the basics for everyone than toward endless growth. The environment -- the water we drink, the air we breathe, the soil that grows our food -- is our life-support system. If we can’t preserve our environment, then our society will collapse. It’s as fundamental as that. Granholm’s way fails on the fundamentals. Greens are calling for a genuine economic transition, not empty rhetoric.”

“Prosperity is meaningless if it doesn’t reach the people,” concludes La Pietra, an attorney in Marshall. “And prosperity can’t stay with the people long if it destroys the environment we live in -- either the natural environment or the human environment of peace and justice.

“It was a Michigan case the Supreme Court overturned when its recent _Citizens United_ opinion ironically said corporations had the ‘free speech’ right to spend money on independent campaign ads. We’ve seen in Benton Harbor what can happen when a corporation has the economic and political clout to rule a city -- raw power not balanced by duty to the people or properly checked by state agencies, much less local authorities. Michigan needs a government run as if we the people matter.”

Michigan Greens will be discussing how best to offer the people of Micigan that kind of government at a state party meeting February 27-28 in Lapeer. GPMI will nominate candidates for the November 2 ballot at a statewide convention in Lansing May 15-16. And local Greens can nominate candidates within their own counties at caucuses until August 3.

For more information on the issues, values, and candidates of the Green Party of Michigan, please visit the party's homepage:

http://www.MIGreens.org



# # #



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Green Party of Michigan
548 South Main Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
http://www.migreens.org
734-663-3555

GPMI was formed in 1987 to address environmental
issues in Michigan politics. Greens are organized
in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each
state Green Party sets its own goals and creates its
own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:

Ecological Wisdom
Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice
Non-Violence
Community Economics
Decentralization
Feminism
Respect for Diversity
Personal/Global Responsibility
Future Focus/Sustainability


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
















thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends














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