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"Ad Watch: Anti-War Ads Target College Students
"An anti-war campaign funded in part by MoveOn.org, labor unions and other liberal groups is set to begin running TV ads on Monday in four areas of the country. The ads criticize GOP members of Congress for supporting the Iraq war.
"Americans Against Escalation in Iraq (AAEI) will run the ads in the districts of Reps. Thelma Drake (Va.), Phil English (Pa.) and Fred Upton (Mich.), as well as Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), the Senate Minority Leader.
"Set to ominous music, the ads begin with black-and-white images of each member and an announcer describing their support for the war. The ads then reference comments by Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and Lt. Gen. Doug Lute, assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan. Lute told NPR this week he thinks a new military draft should be one of many options on the table to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"AAEI is betting that Lute's comments won't go over well with college kids returning to classes this month, so the campaign will air during local ad segments on MTV, ESPN and the broadcast networks -- channels that are popular with co-eds.
"This is definitely an issue that's on the minds of many young people, so we're going to continue to work with young people on this issue as they head back to school in the fall," said Moira Mack of AAEI. "We decided to run ads on these four member of Congress, because they have a lot of students in their districts," Mack added.
***
AAEI has targeted Sen. McConnell before, as we reported last month. In response, McConnell's office referenced the senator's comments on July 17, when he said, "I think we need to give General Petraeus an opportunity to give his report in September, as others have indicated, and make a judgment at that time." His office also referenced the ad below, produced by Vets for Freedom that began airing last Sunday. It thanks Sen. McConnell for his support of the war:"
To see the TV ad targetting McConnell for his support of the continued U.S. military occupation and war in Iraq, click:
McConnell:
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Are you still for "staying the course in Iraq"?
What about Patrick Tillman? Do you care about the untimely death of the former professional football star Patrick Tillman who left professional football to wear the U.S. military uniform in Afghanistan where he was shot to death apparently by a three blast burst of fire into the center of his forehead by "friendly fire"? Are you still for "staying the course in Iraq?" I offer this free song & video with this chorus:
"So remember Patrick Tillman when those flags are all displayed
"How the Empire stole "Old Glory" for a fear and hate parade
"Yes, remember Patrick Tillman, the many like him lies have made
"And Hell has no fury like a patriot betrayed!"
Free mp3 of The Ballad of Pat Tillman on Last FM Internet Radiohttp://www.last.fm/music/Vic+Sadot/_/The+Ballad+of+Pat+Tillman Watch a video of The Ballad of Pat Tillman at YouTube.com Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFB6r5SVpP4 Vic Sadot Homepage 07.28.07 - 6:23 am #
"So remember Patrick Tillman when those flags are all displayed
"How the Empire stole "Old Glory" for a fear and hate parade
"Yes, remember Patrick Tillman, the many like him lies have made
"And Hell has no fury like a patriot betrayed!"
Free mp3 of The Ballad of Pat Tillman on Last FM Internet Radiohttp://www.last.fm/music/Vic+Sadot/_/The+Ballad+of+Pat+Tillman Watch a video of The Ballad of Pat Tillman at YouTube.com Click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFB6r5SVpP4 Vic Sadot Homepage 07.28.07 - 6:23 am #
Saturday, August 04, 2007
What do you think about assassination squads?
I received a communication stating that we should pull out of the Iraqi war, but that the U.S. government (the gummit) should have assassination squads, prepared to go at short notice, anywhere in the world, to kill a terrorist or a group of terrorists. How do you feel about assassination squads sent out by the U.S. government? To me, if we did that, we would need to change the spelling of the name of our country from America to Amerika, because we would have turned our back on civil liberties and Constitutional government. I oppose undeclared war. I believe in grand jury indictments for all felonies--state or federal. I believe that the right to a jury trial means the right to a twelve-person jury. I am proud that ninety per cent of jury trials done in the world are done in the U.S. of A. America is a lighthouse. America is a beacon. America is the beacon of liberty and of Constitutional government. We should lead by example. We should show the peoples of the world how a free people can govern themselves. It weakens and hurts America for us to try to intervene everywhere in the world, whenever two religious sects oppose each other in civil war. Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover had it right when they said that it is time to keep American troops out of the Old World. We should quit having American troops in 130 countries. Don't get me wrong, I believe in NATO. But it is time to bring them home. It is time to bring the American troops home. They are heroes. They should spend this Christmas at home, by their firesides with their spouses and children--and not out in some desert fighting some undeclared war or some military misadventure. Bring 'em home! It's too late for Pat Tillman. It's too late for the 3,600 American troops that have died in Iraq. But it is not too late for the 600 American troops that will die in Iraq over the next eight months if the present U.S. intervention in Iraq continues. Bring them home. Bring them home. Bring them home.
America's right wing blasts the stupidity of "staying the course" in Iraq.
America's Right Wing, in a leading publication, blasts the stupidity of "staying the course" by keeping American troops fighting in Iraq. Now Hal Rogers and Mitch McConnell will vote for keeping American troops fighting in Iraq and "staying the course" in Iraq as long as you keep them in office. Do you agree with John F. McManus that "staying the course" of keeping U.S. troops fighting in Iraq is an idiotic policy? Or are you going to keep voting for Mitch McConnell and Hal Rogers while they get another 700 American troops killed in Iraq over the next eight months? Consider the following editorial from "The New American":
"The Continuing Iraq War
"By John F. McManus
"Published: 2007-07-09 05:00
"Email this page printer friendly version
"Even after deploying 25,000 more troops as part of President Bush’s “surge,” the news out of Iraq doesn’t get any better. Staff Sergeant David Safstrom, on his third tour of duty in the area, recently searched the body of a man killed by his unit in the process of setting a roadside bomb. He discovered that the man was a sergeant in the Iraqi Army. Similarly, Captain Douglas Rogers noted that the Iraqis he and his men had trained were firing at them in a recent battle. And Sergeant Kevin O’Flarity told a reporter, “Half of the Iraqi security forces are insurgents.”
When Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Frank met with Iraqi police officials in late May, police Captain Adel Fakry complained that some American soldiers had expressed “distrust” of his personnel. Colonel Frank explained: “The reason there is distrust is because I have a video of six Iraqi officers placing a bomb against my soldiers, and they came from your station.” Add to this the grim statistic showing that April and May 2007 produced the highest two-month total of U.S. fatalities during the entire four-year struggle.
President Bush told the nation his purpose in increasing troop levels was to stabilize the situation so that the Iraqi government would have time to persuade the competing Islamic sects to cease shooting at each other. But, so far, no progress has been made toward ending the escalating civil war that sees our forces being targeted by both sides. And even Mr. Bush has predicted that this summer will be rough with many American casualties.
Yet, despite the continual claims that the troops will be withdrawn as soon as their mission has been completed, a gargantuan embassy complex the United States is now building in Baghdad makes it painfully obvious that our government intends to keep an American presence deeply mired in Iraq for a long time, and that there must be more to our intervention in Iraq than our government has shared with the American people.
The new U.S. embassy, scheduled to open in September, has been aptly described by the Associated Press’s Anne Gearan as a “city-within-a-city.” Gearan noted that it will be “the world’s largest and most expensive foreign mission,” occupying 104 acres, containing 21 buildings, providing desk space for a thousand bureaucrats, hiding behind high, blast-proof walls intended to protect the occupants from the chaos outside — all for an estimated cost of $592 million.
State Department official David Satterfield can hardly be accused of misrepresenting the administration’s true intent when he acknowledged: “We assume there will be a significant, enduring U.S. presence in Iraq.” But there is more to it than that. As Gearan pointed out in her AP column, the embassy will also serve “as a headquarters for the democratic expansion in the Middle East that President Bush identified as the organizing principle for foreign policy” during the remaining months of his presidency. That is, the new embassy will serve as a hub not only for our activities in Iraq but for our involvement with other Middle East nations targeted for “democratic expansion.”
The administration does not view this expansion in solely military terms. The “democratic expansion” envisioned also includes grouping supposedly liberated Middle Eastern nations in a Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA). This proposed pact will parallel other already-established “free trade” blocs, including the European Union. Each has much more to do with compromising a nation’s sovereignty than with facilitating trade.
In our own hemisphere, Mr. Bush’s plan to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas met with enough resistance to have it put on a back burner. So he expended maximum pressure on Congress to gain congressional passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Now, he and his team led by Vice President Cheney are working to expand NAFTA into an independence-cancelling North American Union that will integrate Canada, the United States, and Mexico more completely than was accomplished by 1994’s NAFTA.
The ultimate goal, expressed by many including former Mexican leader Vicente Fox and the Wall Street Journal, is to gather all 34 nations in the Western hemisphere into a duplicate of the European Union. On the other side of the Atlantic, Europeans in the EU’s 27 member states have begun to realize that their parliaments are little more than rubber stamps for the Eurocrats in Brussels. National sovereignty in all 27 has been ceded to the EU superstate.
The MEFTA initiative — proposed in May 2003 by Mr. Bush — is designed to accomplish the same goal in the Middle East, where our new embassy in Baghdad will presumably become a hub for a new regional government intended for that part of the world. To enact yet another regional government, MEFTA, on the path to bringing about global governance, American forces are being killed and wounded in a war that our nation should never have started."
"The Continuing Iraq War
"By John F. McManus
"Published: 2007-07-09 05:00
"Email this page printer friendly version
"Even after deploying 25,000 more troops as part of President Bush’s “surge,” the news out of Iraq doesn’t get any better. Staff Sergeant David Safstrom, on his third tour of duty in the area, recently searched the body of a man killed by his unit in the process of setting a roadside bomb. He discovered that the man was a sergeant in the Iraqi Army. Similarly, Captain Douglas Rogers noted that the Iraqis he and his men had trained were firing at them in a recent battle. And Sergeant Kevin O’Flarity told a reporter, “Half of the Iraqi security forces are insurgents.”
When Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Frank met with Iraqi police officials in late May, police Captain Adel Fakry complained that some American soldiers had expressed “distrust” of his personnel. Colonel Frank explained: “The reason there is distrust is because I have a video of six Iraqi officers placing a bomb against my soldiers, and they came from your station.” Add to this the grim statistic showing that April and May 2007 produced the highest two-month total of U.S. fatalities during the entire four-year struggle.
President Bush told the nation his purpose in increasing troop levels was to stabilize the situation so that the Iraqi government would have time to persuade the competing Islamic sects to cease shooting at each other. But, so far, no progress has been made toward ending the escalating civil war that sees our forces being targeted by both sides. And even Mr. Bush has predicted that this summer will be rough with many American casualties.
Yet, despite the continual claims that the troops will be withdrawn as soon as their mission has been completed, a gargantuan embassy complex the United States is now building in Baghdad makes it painfully obvious that our government intends to keep an American presence deeply mired in Iraq for a long time, and that there must be more to our intervention in Iraq than our government has shared with the American people.
The new U.S. embassy, scheduled to open in September, has been aptly described by the Associated Press’s Anne Gearan as a “city-within-a-city.” Gearan noted that it will be “the world’s largest and most expensive foreign mission,” occupying 104 acres, containing 21 buildings, providing desk space for a thousand bureaucrats, hiding behind high, blast-proof walls intended to protect the occupants from the chaos outside — all for an estimated cost of $592 million.
State Department official David Satterfield can hardly be accused of misrepresenting the administration’s true intent when he acknowledged: “We assume there will be a significant, enduring U.S. presence in Iraq.” But there is more to it than that. As Gearan pointed out in her AP column, the embassy will also serve “as a headquarters for the democratic expansion in the Middle East that President Bush identified as the organizing principle for foreign policy” during the remaining months of his presidency. That is, the new embassy will serve as a hub not only for our activities in Iraq but for our involvement with other Middle East nations targeted for “democratic expansion.”
The administration does not view this expansion in solely military terms. The “democratic expansion” envisioned also includes grouping supposedly liberated Middle Eastern nations in a Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA). This proposed pact will parallel other already-established “free trade” blocs, including the European Union. Each has much more to do with compromising a nation’s sovereignty than with facilitating trade.
In our own hemisphere, Mr. Bush’s plan to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas met with enough resistance to have it put on a back burner. So he expended maximum pressure on Congress to gain congressional passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Now, he and his team led by Vice President Cheney are working to expand NAFTA into an independence-cancelling North American Union that will integrate Canada, the United States, and Mexico more completely than was accomplished by 1994’s NAFTA.
The ultimate goal, expressed by many including former Mexican leader Vicente Fox and the Wall Street Journal, is to gather all 34 nations in the Western hemisphere into a duplicate of the European Union. On the other side of the Atlantic, Europeans in the EU’s 27 member states have begun to realize that their parliaments are little more than rubber stamps for the Eurocrats in Brussels. National sovereignty in all 27 has been ceded to the EU superstate.
The MEFTA initiative — proposed in May 2003 by Mr. Bush — is designed to accomplish the same goal in the Middle East, where our new embassy in Baghdad will presumably become a hub for a new regional government intended for that part of the world. To enact yet another regional government, MEFTA, on the path to bringing about global governance, American forces are being killed and wounded in a war that our nation should never have started."
"Staying the Course" means coverups. Do you support coverups?
"Staying the course" in Iraq requires U.S. government coverups when the facts stand in the way of "staying the course". Are you, like Mitch McConnell and Hal Rogers, still in favor of "staying the course"? Consider the following news article:
"U.S. Army censures general over Tillman death
"By Neil A. Lewis
"Published: August 1, 2007
"WASHINGTON: Trying to stanch the furor over the mishandling of the death of Corporal Pat Tillman, a former football star killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has censured a retired three-star general for errors and deceptions and apologized to the Tillman family and the public for "mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership."
Tillman became a storybook figure when he decided to forsake a multimillion-dollar career in the National Football League, where he had been a defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, to enlist after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
After his death in a remote canyon, the army announced that he had been killed in combat by Afghan militants, although many officers knew that he had been a casualty of U.S. fire. The military waited nearly five weeks before telling Tillman's family that enemy fire did not kill him.
On Tuesday, Pete Geren, the army secretary, outlined the results and recommendations of the seventh and what he said he expected would be the army's final investigation of the death and its aftermath.
The latest report asserted that there was no cover-up of the manner of Tillman's death, which officials decided was a battlefield accident and not a murder even though a medical examiner's report suggested that the bullet wounds might have been inflicted at close range. Investigators questioned members of Tillman's unit as to whether he might have been resented enough for someone to try to kill him.
The new report, by General William Wallace, said Lieutenant General Philip Kensinger Jr. had failed to follow procedures requiring him to notify the Tillman family and top officials about the investigation into the possibility of friendly fire and then lied to two sets of investigators about when he knew that Tillman's death was caused by shots fired by fellow Army Rangers.
Although Geren said he hoped the latest actions would put to rest the suspicions and resentment surrounding the case, that is not likely.
Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, who is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called several top military officials as witnesses to a hearing on Tillman's death, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Tillman's family has been withering in its criticism of the military. His mother, Mary Tillman, offered a pre-emptive dismissal of the disciplinary actions even before they were formally announced, telling a columnist for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix that they would be "a complete donkey show."
Geren agreed with the report's recommendation that Kensinger be censured and that a review board consider reducing him in rank to a two-star general. Geren said that Kensinger, who was head of special operations for the army in 2004, provided a report to the acting secretary of the army "that he knew to be false, which was his own sworn testimony," and that he failed to show leadership.
"General Kensinger was the captain of that ship, and his ship ran aground," Geren said.
In addition to the actions against Kensinger, the army issued "memorandums of concern" to two brigadier generals, one retired and one active, and to three lower-ranking officers.
Another such memorandum was sent to a third brigadier general who was not directly involved in the reporting chain about Tillman's death but who failed to forward the medical examiner's concerns about the bullet wounds.
Geren expressed direct contrition over how the episode was handled. He said there were "errors and failures of leadership that confused and misinformed the American people and compounded the grief suffered by the Tillman family."
He said the mistakes "also created in the mind of many a perception that the army intended to deceive the public and the Tillman family about the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death," adding, "Many have come to believe that the army manipulated that tragedy to serve ends other than the pursuit of truth."
That appeared to be a reference to the fact that Tillman was awarded the Silver Star, which is the fourth highest military decoration and is awarded for gallantry in action, before it was widely known that his death was a result of U.S. fire. The Wallace report recommended that the citation for the Silver Star be modified to reflect that it was awarded for his actions "of gallantry up to the point he died by friendly fire."
Geren said Tillman's actions before his death in going to the aid of other Rangers "saved the life of the man next to him and possibly others."
"The army did not make Pat Tillman a hero," he said. "His actions made Pat Tillman a hero."
1 2 Next Page
"U.S. Army censures general over Tillman death
"By Neil A. Lewis
"Published: August 1, 2007
"WASHINGTON: Trying to stanch the furor over the mishandling of the death of Corporal Pat Tillman, a former football star killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, the U.S. Army has censured a retired three-star general for errors and deceptions and apologized to the Tillman family and the public for "mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership."
Tillman became a storybook figure when he decided to forsake a multimillion-dollar career in the National Football League, where he had been a defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, to enlist after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
After his death in a remote canyon, the army announced that he had been killed in combat by Afghan militants, although many officers knew that he had been a casualty of U.S. fire. The military waited nearly five weeks before telling Tillman's family that enemy fire did not kill him.
On Tuesday, Pete Geren, the army secretary, outlined the results and recommendations of the seventh and what he said he expected would be the army's final investigation of the death and its aftermath.
The latest report asserted that there was no cover-up of the manner of Tillman's death, which officials decided was a battlefield accident and not a murder even though a medical examiner's report suggested that the bullet wounds might have been inflicted at close range. Investigators questioned members of Tillman's unit as to whether he might have been resented enough for someone to try to kill him.
The new report, by General William Wallace, said Lieutenant General Philip Kensinger Jr. had failed to follow procedures requiring him to notify the Tillman family and top officials about the investigation into the possibility of friendly fire and then lied to two sets of investigators about when he knew that Tillman's death was caused by shots fired by fellow Army Rangers.
Although Geren said he hoped the latest actions would put to rest the suspicions and resentment surrounding the case, that is not likely.
Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, who is chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called several top military officials as witnesses to a hearing on Tillman's death, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Tillman's family has been withering in its criticism of the military. His mother, Mary Tillman, offered a pre-emptive dismissal of the disciplinary actions even before they were formally announced, telling a columnist for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix that they would be "a complete donkey show."
Geren agreed with the report's recommendation that Kensinger be censured and that a review board consider reducing him in rank to a two-star general. Geren said that Kensinger, who was head of special operations for the army in 2004, provided a report to the acting secretary of the army "that he knew to be false, which was his own sworn testimony," and that he failed to show leadership.
"General Kensinger was the captain of that ship, and his ship ran aground," Geren said.
In addition to the actions against Kensinger, the army issued "memorandums of concern" to two brigadier generals, one retired and one active, and to three lower-ranking officers.
Another such memorandum was sent to a third brigadier general who was not directly involved in the reporting chain about Tillman's death but who failed to forward the medical examiner's concerns about the bullet wounds.
Geren expressed direct contrition over how the episode was handled. He said there were "errors and failures of leadership that confused and misinformed the American people and compounded the grief suffered by the Tillman family."
He said the mistakes "also created in the mind of many a perception that the army intended to deceive the public and the Tillman family about the circumstances of Corporal Tillman's death," adding, "Many have come to believe that the army manipulated that tragedy to serve ends other than the pursuit of truth."
That appeared to be a reference to the fact that Tillman was awarded the Silver Star, which is the fourth highest military decoration and is awarded for gallantry in action, before it was widely known that his death was a result of U.S. fire. The Wallace report recommended that the citation for the Silver Star be modified to reflect that it was awarded for his actions "of gallantry up to the point he died by friendly fire."
Geren said Tillman's actions before his death in going to the aid of other Rangers "saved the life of the man next to him and possibly others."
"The army did not make Pat Tillman a hero," he said. "His actions made Pat Tillman a hero."
1 2 Next Page
Secret Court Slaps Bush's Hand.
According to the recent news article, the secret U.S. Intelligence Court slapped President Bush's hand when it ruled some of his domestic spying was UnConstitutional. Of course we expect Mitch McConnell, Hal Rogers, and cooperative Democrats to amend the U.S. Code to allow such domestic warantless spying on American citizens to continue.
"Report: Court Secretly Struck Down Bush Spying
"ReutersFriday, August 3, 2007
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence court earlier this year secretly struck down a key element of President George W. Bush's warrantless spying program, The Washington Post reported in its Friday edition.
The decision is one reason Congress is trying to give legal authorization to the spying program in fevered negotiations with the Bush administration this week, the Post reported.
The intelligence-court judge, who remains anonymous, concluded that the government had overstepped its authority by monitoring overseas communications that pass through the United States, the Post said, citing anonymous government and congressional sources.
The Bush administration expanded its surveillance efforts after the September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks, without court oversight. The court was allowed to review the program in January.
The surveillance court judge's ruling has prevented the National Security Agency from monitoring foreign telephone calls and e-mails that travel through the United States, the Post reported.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, mentioned the court setback on Fox News on Tuesday, drawing a rebuke from House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emmanuel.
A Boehner spokesman said he did not reveal classified information.
The Democratic-led Congress hopes to reach a deal with the White House in the next few days that would expand the government's power to eavesdrop on telephone calls and e-mail from abroad.
The effort would modernize the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court approval to monitor communications with people inside the United States.
The White House wants to bypass the court when spying on overseas foreigners, whether they are communicating with a U.S. citizen or not. Democrats object. "
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"Report: Court Secretly Struck Down Bush Spying
"ReutersFriday, August 3, 2007
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence court earlier this year secretly struck down a key element of President George W. Bush's warrantless spying program, The Washington Post reported in its Friday edition.
The decision is one reason Congress is trying to give legal authorization to the spying program in fevered negotiations with the Bush administration this week, the Post reported.
The intelligence-court judge, who remains anonymous, concluded that the government had overstepped its authority by monitoring overseas communications that pass through the United States, the Post said, citing anonymous government and congressional sources.
The Bush administration expanded its surveillance efforts after the September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks, without court oversight. The court was allowed to review the program in January.
The surveillance court judge's ruling has prevented the National Security Agency from monitoring foreign telephone calls and e-mails that travel through the United States, the Post reported.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, mentioned the court setback on Fox News on Tuesday, drawing a rebuke from House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emmanuel.
A Boehner spokesman said he did not reveal classified information.
The Democratic-led Congress hopes to reach a deal with the White House in the next few days that would expand the government's power to eavesdrop on telephone calls and e-mail from abroad.
The effort would modernize the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court approval to monitor communications with people inside the United States.
The White House wants to bypass the court when spying on overseas foreigners, whether they are communicating with a U.S. citizen or not. Democrats object. "
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