I was listening to Robert Reich, once the left end of the spectrum
in the Clinton cabinet, talking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer a few days ago,
and Reich, who has in the past sometimes made sense, was talking about
how Americans’ incomes had fallen over the last eight years of the
Bush/Cheney administration and that it was necessary to get their
incomes back on an upward trend, so that they could “start shopping
again.”
Now I understand Reich was trying to make the case that the bailout
so far has been focused on the banks and the insurance industry, and
that none of this will help unless ordinary people start getting some
relief, but still, there’s something completely twisted and out of
whack when the best we can come up with is that we need to get
Americans back into the malls.
Q: If you were to go back and change anything from your political career, what would it be?
A: Well, of course, the biggest disappointment for me is that we are still in this war in Iraq, and, ah, I had always thought at the time that, that, ah, people knew the truth they would not vote for this war and, I don't know what else, er, not have been supportive of this, I don't know what else we could have done, ah, but this has been the most damaging to us:
We Americans got a graphic illustration of the demise of any
independent American corporate news media these past few days as the
coverage on TV and in print was saturated with reports about John
Edwards’ infidelity and, equally important, Russia’s invasion of
Georgia.
Celeste Zappala, the Gold Star mother of an early casualty in
America's invasion of Iraq who lost her son when he was doing guard
duty during a fraudulent "search" for alleged WMDs in Iraq, was
speaking from the heart when she told a group of antiwar demonstrators
at Philadelphia's Independence Mall Saturday that she was grateful no
American troops had been killed during the past week in Iraq.
Her concern for the troops' well-being is understandable.
But left unsaid is that the lower US casualty figures in Iraq are
coming at the expense of much higher civilian casualties. This is even
more true in Afghanistan, where the war is heating up.
In an email letter dated June 16, 2008, Rep. Scott wrote, "I am an avid supporter of FUNDING our troops AS LONG AS THERE IS A DEFINED TIMELINE FOR WITHDRAWAL." In a letter dated July 20, 2007 to the President, Rep. Scott, joined 68 other members of Confress in writint, "Mr. President...We are writing to inform you that we will ONLY SUPPORT APPROPRIATING ADDITIONAL FUNDS for U.S. military operations in Iraq during fiscal year 2008 and beyond FOR THE PROTECTION AND SAFE RE-DEPLOYMENT OF ALL OUR TROOPS OUT OF IRAQ before you leave office." (Emphasis added).
I called Congressman Dogget's (TX-25) office this morning (Thursday, June19, 2008), gave my name and address, and urge the Congressman to vote against the open-ended $165B for the continued occupation and destruction of Iraq. I was assured that as a constituent, Rep. Doggett would be informed of my strong opinion on this topic.
Just called DC offices of Rep King, identified myself as a constituent to a staffer who said she would relay my message to vote NO for the Steny Hoyer deal to provide further funding for Iraq and to separately authorize funds for GI Bill, flood relief and unemployment benefits.
On 06/12/2008, the Florida Sun-Sentinel ridiculed impeachment efforts, advising that "if Congress needs more things than impeachment to keep lawmakers busy, it has myriad options."
Is their sarcasm justified? Let's look at the options. The last time the nation replaced the "bad cop" with the "good cop" (1992), we spent eight years watching a president peeled layer by layer until the bad cops managed to return to the scene of their crimes and plunder the treasury AGAIN. All of this was easily predictable politically or even just by our mothers' teaching, "if you don't hold people accountable for their crimes....."
Cleaning up others' messes and moving on without accountability has worked out wonderfully, hasn't it? We went from billions lost in false S&L profits (which we're still paying off) and over 100,000 killed in a manipulated war... to trillions plundered in "myriad" ways, nearly a million dead, and four million refugees.... with no end in sight.
The last couple of weeks have brought confirmation—as if it were needed—even in the corporate media, that President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and the gang of thugs and sycophants around them in the White House, engaged in a massive conspiracy to lie the country into a war in Iraq.
