While waiting for Jeopardy after catching up on the news about tonights area hailstorm this ad played. I found it on YouTube and am sharing it with you.

A 20 year old high school dropout I know was talking to his mom the other day discussing the one class he would need to graduate. A simple credit that would allow him to attend college and somehow through education be a more productive adult citizen. A person who may make a bigger difference in the world someday. If nothing else he would have the opportunity to make more money and live a more comfortable life. His response was heartbreaking and somewhat predictable. Made me think a little. Why would a bright kid ask, “Whats The Use?”

Besides the pat answers of “lazy, unmotivated or too dumb” there are a lot of reasons I could come up with that would make the kids of today want to give up. I mean, look at the shit they are facing here. An illegal war in Iraq. Threats of more war in Iran. At least 2 of the front runners in the presidential race bowing up to the rest of the world with threats of nuking or somehow else destroying their nations. Promises from the Republicans to stay in Iraq at least 50 more years. Democratic candidates who are so sidetracked attacking each other that they can’t answer the important questions of how they would deal with the war and other problems that have been brought on by the present administration.

The fact that so far the DOD has a casualty list of at least 4058 US soldiers. The horror of knowing their peers who have lost life or limb in Iraq. The realization that the failed lying policies that our country used destroyed an entire nations infrastructure with no progress in rebuilding it. Knowing that at least a million are dead and even more millions have been displaced from their homes all in our name. The utter sense of hopelessness.

I guess that makes sense. If I were still that age I may feel the same.

George McBush and Robert Gates have put together a plan to continue their “success” in the Middle East. Georgie has nominated General Petraeus for the position of commander of the American troops in the Middle East, replacing General Fallon who resigned in disgust just last month. I guess he wanted a man who will do his bidding without question, no matter the consequences. Petraeus is just that guy.

As we were reminded a couple of weeks ago the General sees things through rose colored glasses. Harry Ried has said the General will face tiugh questioning before his appointment. The Washington Post report.

My friend Malia wrote this plea a couple of days ago. She is much younger than I am and her voice is strong. One of the many young  people so personally affected by this senseless war in Iraq. She has great passion for the reasonable end to this senseless war that has taken the lives and health of so many of her peers. Although she and I have never met face to face I consider her my little sister.

Listen to the voices of our young people and demand an end to this madness. All of our voices together can make a difference.

Thank You Malia.

CRY FOR HELP

By Malia Moriarty

A reason for glory
A reason for fame
It takes us by surprise
The rules of this game.

Cities are burning
Destruction, despair,
“We will take them down,” they say,
Without a single care.

The sun rises,
Over the cities of doubt,
All hope is lost
Of ever getting out.

The Post-Traumatic substances,
Wash away the pain,
Of the generation before,
Forced to remember it again.

The strength for defeat,
Has crashed; burned.
The feeling of relief
Is a tough lesson learned,
For it hasn’t come for them yet,
It hasn’t had a chance,
As they play around in these deserts,
The performance of deadly dance.

We await a savior,
We await a saint,
Pull these men out
Of this deadly fate.

A letter hits home,
Of his last day,
Before the games of Satan
Washed him away.

Cries are heard nationwide,
When the car arrives,
A mother’s worst nightmare
Her baby’s demise.

Fear has struck millions,
It hits you, it hits I…
It’s something you don’t see,
On the outside.

Little do they know,
The Great Flood has arrived.
Nights spent awake,
With the tears we cry.

Someone save us from this fear,
Save us there, save us here,
Save the ones that we hold dear.
Take this pain, take this fear…

Yeah, That title doesn’t make much sense now. Just read this whole post and it might. I am not sure what I am writing even makes a lot of sense to me so maybe not.

The Pope visited the White House for a bit today. Besides enduring the 9,000 or so folks singing Happy Birthday to his ancient ass he had to suffer through a sitdown with the Idiot In Chief. He urged Bush to use “…patient diplomacy to resolve conflicts”. I’m sure he was referring to the untried diplomacy with the Iraqi’s a few years ago as well as the wartalk going on now about Iran. Diplomacy first should be the way a country goes toward conflict. Rushing headlong into war without it is just stupid. Bush should heed the old farts advice. After all a guy his age has much more life wisdom than a young whippersnapper like George.

Yesterday I shaved my winter beard and got that fresh faced spring time look going. The whole process lasted about a half hour so I had some time with my thoughts. Things have been sorta weird lately with me and I started thinking of something an older wiser man once told me. Like Bush I had full intention of ignoring his advice, and did. I was headed out to march on the White House when Georgies daddy was bombing the crap out of Iraq back in the day. An old Rainbow friend asked me not to go.

He told me that giving any energy to the wars waged was detrimental to the cause. Adding energy to already evil energy only gave that energy more to work with. Even an anti war energy would fuel the war energy and so on. When I asked him if a peaceful energy was there wouldn’t it also feed from the evil, war energy he told me that unlike bad feeding from good, good could never feed from bad.

I passed his wisdom off as some kind of senility and went ahead. Marching on the White House gave me a sense of purpose, and importance. Self importance is a bad energy in the first place so maybe he was right. Maybe there was a certain weirdness and transfer of energy after all. All things I wondered about while whacking the whiskers off and cutting my face a few times.

It made me think about this blog.  How all of my anti war sentiment was possibly fueling the hate and death that our country is involved in. How while asking for peace and the return of our troops I may be adding energy to the hatred and mayhem.

Then a little while ago I realized that with my old friends advice I was again going to be just like The Evil One will be with the Popeman’s advice.

Naw!

Thats just an old guy talking spirituality. Doesn’t make much sense when we are trying to follow an agenda. Bush wants war, I want peace.

Neither of us are very good at listening.

Thats why we want to do all of the talking.

In an interview with Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News Obama promised investigation of crimes in todays White House. Citing last Fridays release of Bush saying that he knew of torture plans and approved them the reporter asked how he would work with this information if elected.

“What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can’t prejudge that because we don’t have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated.”

All weekend we heard how Barack had alienated the people of Pennsylvania. McClinton and McSame rattled on about non issues while Obama tried to touch on things that matter. We, the general newswatchers, didn’t see coverage about the crimes the administration had admitted to through their Idiot In Chief. Share this info with everyone. It is important.

Tip of the space helmet to Tamara.

As an aging pinko-hippie-peace freak who has been told “Go back to Russia” more times than I can count, I have a lot of opinions. Valid opinions as far as I can tell at least. I speak and write my opinions to anyone who wants to listen, and even to some who don’t.I am usually not afraid to let someone know what is on my mind at any given moment.I strongly disagree with the invasion, war and occupation in Iraq. But there are voices out there that come from folks even more qualified to give their opinion. See, I have never been a military member and have no first hand knowledge of things warlike. A lot of the voices speaking from the blogosphere are veterans. I think they have a bigger right to express their opinion about Iraq and the US involvement than a non-vet like me. They have all been defenders of my right to speak however and I am very proud to be associated with them however distant we are.

They all took an oath to defend the country they serve(ed) against all enemies both foreign and domestic. The domestic terrorists that are undermining our nation the most are officials in Washington. These vets who are blogging their disgust and anger are taking that oath to heart. Through the words and images posted on their blog sites they are doing their part to protect us from the administration. I personally feel they are standing up for the oath they took to make sure we all are safe at home. I want to thank each of them for the sacrifices they gave to serve the American people and the Constitution.

I started a special area of my blogroll today. It is only sites that are written by veterans who have served at any time in the United States Armed Forces. I call it “Veterans With Open Eyes”. The whole idea started when I became a daily reader of the blog Alternate Brain. I thank those folks for providing me with most of the links I have posted in this new section. I found another blog called Army Of Dude that I like and read often. This one is written by a veteran from Iraq and he brings us a pictorial dialogue of the hell he and his fellow soldiers lived through in the War On Terror. My old online buddy Buzz is a Viet Nam vet with openminded views of todays life in these United States. There are so many more that I haven’t mentioned individually in this post but whose writings are equally important.

The list of veterans who blog is much longer than the ones I have posted and I’m sure there are many more out there. I would appreciate you letting me know of others that are on your lists so I can also post their links. These voices are valuable in our fight for truth and peace so lets share them as much as possible. Thank you in advance for visiting these blogs and also for sharing more veterans links with me.

At least 20 Iraqis were killed in Sadr City alone on this the 5th anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. Many more were wounded. Violence is up despite the “successful” increase of troops and security measures.

The increase of violence started Sunday when opposition factions renewed fighting back against the occupation of their country by the Coalition of the Extremely Wicked. At least 15 US soldiers have been killed since then bringing the official total to at least 4030.

I guess I am just hung up on the reports of success we heard about yesterday.

The travesty of this war in Iraq hit the senate floor as well as the news and blog world yesterday. I stumbled with my words and gave my opinion a bit in yesterdays posts. I was just one of many bloggers who had views about this whole thing. Many are more well spoken or have a higher sense of indignity than I. Todays post here includes video of highlights of the crazy shit that was said during testimony from Petraeus and Crocker. It also includes links to other bloggers who said things in words that I could never come close to. Their posts went from the crude truths to eloquence. I think each of the links I am posting have valuable messages and highly recommend you take the time to check each out.

First this video was found along with others, on ViceZilla’s Views.

Crocker’s al Qaida fight preference.

Fixer at Alternate Brain discusses a blow against the empire.

Seen any light at the end of the tunnel General?

Ted expressed his views about the Crock of betrayal at the dance.

So…When are the troops coming home?

Jurassicpork from Pottersville tells a tale of two wars.

A Republican says “The American people have had it up to here.”

Of Course, with their big boy budget and many writers, Crooks and Liars has a lot of coverage thats worth reading.

Is America safer?

Distributorcap talks about passing the buck.

Now while I am posting this youtube seems to be overwhelmed and I cant get any more of the video’s to load. I guess it must be time for me to take a nap and the internets know this and are dictating my sleep cycle. Check this stuff out, come to your own conclusion and let us know what you think.

Like the protester in that video yelled, “BRING THEM HOME”

The warmongers are following Bush’s line and saying our troops will be needed in Iraq for years to come. Petraeus told congress today that this war is not a mathematical exercise. While touting the “success” the war has gone through recently they showed how the violence has reduced in the last few months. Not taking into account the cease fire by Iraqi rebels they gave all of the credit to the surge and presence of US troops there. Of course the reports were prepared before the cease fire started to unravel a couple of weeks ago. There was little mention of the renewed escalation of deaths and maimings in the war ravaged country.

In the past 2 days at least 12 more US soldiers have been needlessly killed. Hundreds of Iraq citizens, either armed or civilian have been killed in the past couple of weeks. Many more soldiers, who the United States have armed, defected and took their weapons with them to be used against the very people who gave them the guns and ammo. Yeah. Thats success. But for who? Nobody is winning and the United States is losing big. More every day.

From the AP;

“I do not want to keep our troops in Iraq a minute longer than necessary to secure our interests there. Our goal — my goal — is an Iraq that no longer needs American troops,” McCain said in a nine-minute statement. “And I believe we can achieve that goal, perhaps sooner than many imagine. But I also believe that to promise a withdrawal of our forces, regardless of the consequences, would constitute a failure of political and moral leadership.

————-

The FAILURE OF MORAL LEADERSHIP HAPPENED LONG AGO !!!! The liars that got us into this war failed. The ones who keep us there failed. Those like John McSameoldbushit have failed. They are continuing with the failure at a huge cost to you and me but big profits for them. I wanna tell McSame that the political and moral leadership he aspires to is already a failure and that he will just continue the failing. Not bringing the “surge” troops on schedule is another failure.

As a man who says he doesn’t know much about economic things, even McCain must see how this war is affecting our economy. The american people do. Besides all of the outsourcing of jobs to other countries, rising unemployment and more businesses failing here at home, huge foreclosures in housing, the war is costing us dearly. I shudder to think of the burden this administration, and the McSame administration if for some reason he is elected, is leaving for future generations here.

Thats enough of my anti McSame rant for now. Petraeus also said to the Armed Forces Committee, “We haven’t turned any corners, we haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel. The champagne bottle has been pushed to the back of the refrigerator. And the progress, while real, is fragile and is reversible.” 

He said an Iraqi operation earlier this month to stop Shi’ite militias in the southern city of Basra, which President George W. Bush had called a “defining moment” for Iraq, was a disappointment and not adequately planned or prepared.

More proof that the Bush plan isn’t working. How could Bush place an inadequate General in charge if his operations can’t be planned or prepared properly. Oh! I guess it’s because of the way Petraeus pukes the Cheney/Bush plans for political advancement. This war is tumbling around Bush’s feet just like every thing else he and his administration touches.

Before long the posturing was in full swing. But so was the posturing in Iraq. During the Q and A going on in Wahington, Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr threatened to unleash his Mahdi Army militia against U.S. and Iraqi forces. Threatening to lift the cease fire declared in August Sadr said, “If it is required to lift the freeze (cease-fire) in order to carry out our goals, objectives, doctrines and religious principles and patriotism, we will do that later and in a separate statement”. This all is in the aftermath of the failed attempt to disarm opposition militias in Basra 2 weeks ago.

Both Clinton and Obama were claiming to have plans to start withdrawing the troops soon after they take office. While there are naysayers that say this would be bad because the factional fighting would grow it seems that the factional wars are going on even though our soldiers are there. The withdrawal of our troop, however gradual, seems like a good idea to me. Why do we feel some need to have our kids in harms way when the wars are going to continue. The United States has no business being the worlds police.

So with the liars talking about successes and the rest of the world looking on in disbelief it looks like the war has just begun. I don’t think our soldiers have any place in this war and really am looking forward to the new presidency. There is a possibility that the disaster started by this administration could be stopped. Well, maybe not stopped but less American troops would be lost to the civil war that we have no chance of stopping or changing. Our leaders helped get this civil war started by removing the tyrant that kept it quelled without a plan to keep it down. Now that it’s un fixable by a western power it seems too late.

The troops need to come home.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus will testify in front of congress today. They are supposed to give the glowing reports of success we are supposed to be seeing in the conflict there. You know…the surge is working, we are in control of he Green Zone, we have had less casualties because of the surge. That kind of Bushieshit.

They probably wont talk about the 4023 US soldiers killed at first. I wonder if the 29,628 officially wounded soldiers will even be mentioned. Nobody there will have the balls to mention the stop-loss, flopping our troops back for another tour, travesty that is going on. I doubt the tragic loss of up to a million Iraqi lives and the displacement of over 4 million people will come up either. Just a lot of posing and puffing of the chest.

While both McCain and Clinton are on the Armed Forces Committee McCain is the one to give the opening speech. Lieberman and Graham are on that committee as well. The pundits are saying that the hearing there will just be a Bush Butt Buddy Blowout Bash. That Clinton’s late question will seem insignificant after all of the Repulicaspeak at the beginning of the session.

Then the warmongers will travel down the hall to the Foreign Relations Committee where Barack will be . I am in agreement with the news people that the questions asked there will be less party line and more about the realities of the war. Maybe the General and Ambassador will have to be more candid. Maybe they will show some truth in the testimony. I really don’t think they will be allowed to by the administration but maybe their lies will have more of a chance to be exposed. If the questions are being asked by non Bushies maybe they will slip and tell a real fact or two. I doubt that though.

I just hope it doesn’t turn into a campaigning debacle. There are so many risks to that. This question and answer period is about lives. It’s about bringing our troops home. It’s about the billions of dollars wasted. It’s about lies told and lies exposed.

It isn’t about partisan politics because when our soldiers are there all party lines go away. The men and women serving may feel their own political feelings but they are comrades and don’t need party division when their lives and safety are at stake.

Lets hope something positive comes from these meetings. Lets hope the answers they give don’t satisfy the American public and the demand for the immediate return of our men and women gets louder. Lets hope the liars are exposed and the McSame ideas get shot down.

Lets hope.

Although I have been remiss in being a proper blogger and haven’t been posting diligently, most of the others have been. Now on Saturday night I have a feeling of non-productivity so I have tried to get something done. But…(dadgum buts)…I can’t get any clear thoughts out so I am going to try to pass some other folk’s creativity along. Bear with me for a bit and I will get my wind back. For now follow these links for news and commentary of the week.

Last Sunday The Political Cat told us her opinion about the links between Cheney, Bush and Nouri al Maliki. Even though she has been changing routines with her meds she was able to point out the costs of this war in lives, money and extending tours for our troops and how the leaders are behind it.

ViceZilla brings us the stink from San Francisco, the birthplace of my favorite band the Grateful Dead, where they are considering naming a fitting monument to George W.Bush.

Stephen was drinking liberally in New Milford when he passed along rumors of Hillary suspending her campaign and added the beer back to his whiskey with a link to a funny video called Mrs. C.

Buzz gave a moving non Believers tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King over at Buzz Daly Sez.

The Grateful Dissident talked about the “Million Man March” in Iraq.

Alicia who lives somewhere near the Last Left Turn Before Hooterville, shared what they are talking about in the beauty shop.

Fade over in the House Of The Rising Sons brings us links to Montel calling for real support for our troops especially the wounded ones.

Gordon with the Alternative Brain brings us a letter from Iraq.

Dusty shows us its her right to be left of center by showing us pictures of Georgie playing by himself.

I wonder if he is shunned because of his ineptitude dealing with the dignitaries. Do you think maybe he is also alone because of the fact he supported the liars who led America and the rest of the world into this huge debacle that has cost so many lives, limbs and dollars? I think the fact the death toll is so high in Iraq because of the lies was the reason he was greeted the way he was when he threw the first pitch of the season for the Washington National’s last Sunday. I love this footage as I believe the sentiment shown will also be shown in November to Senator John McSame.

They have been turning out in droves. Registrars in Pennsylvania and Oregon have their hands full. The Republicans are flocking to change their party affiliation before the primaries. They don’t have anything to lose but freedom and security so they are abandoning the “Grand Ole Party”. They seem to be waking up.

Maybe it’s because of their discontent with the way the government has been going. Maybe it’s because they see the path we are going down isn’t leading anywhere good and they know their parties candidate is going to be more of the same. Maybe they just feel that Clinton or Obama could do better than John would and they want something better than he can offer. Maybe they are just acting smart for a change.

In Virginia and Missouri Obama won big because of the Repube vote. Texas and Ohio Repube’s gave the Clinton and Obama campaigns a huge boost. Those places have shown that no one is satisfied with the things going on in Washington and are seeking to change it. And change seems to be the common goal.

They have been running a lot of McCain for president ads on teevee here in New Mexico. We are supposedly a “swing state”. It seems that the pundits are right about him. He seems, through this ad, to be comparing America now with America of Viet Nam times. The ad they are running this week has a lot of footage of him after he was brought to some hospital after his captivity in that war. It almost seems like he wants pity for the prison time he served. The message I get from it is that he seeks revenge on his captors so much he can’t tell the difference between the Vietnamese and the Iraqi’s.

His call for occupation of Iraq for 50 years has been overshadowed by his carefree quip about 100.

“Make it 100.” he said when questioned about his support for an extended occupation.

“We’ve been in South Korea … we’ve been in Japan for 60 years,” he continued. “We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me. As long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed, that’s fine with me. I hope that would be fine with you, if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where Al Qaeda is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day.”

That is just disgusting. Americans ARE being injured, harmed or killed everyday in Iraq so there is no reasoning to this statement.

Maybe this one statement of doddering senility has gotten the Repube populace thinking. McSame is driving them away in a way Bush only dreams about. The thinking people see what disaster lies ahead with him running the great ship America. They are more interested in saving our country than some other place. They know we can’t save the world if we can’t save ourselves. They know the way things are going we are actually destroying ourselves. They want change.

In this race the Republicans can’t count on the conservative evangelical vote. This isn’t a race based on abortion or whatever one issue subject they choose to vote on. This race affects them the same way it does Democrats and “liberals”. Their kids are dying in Iraq the same way those on the left’s kids are. They are tired of being lied to by those they trusted 4 and 8 years ago. Their homes have also been foreclosed on. Their jobs have been shipped out of the country too.  Their phones and internet are at risk of being invaded just like the liberals. Their rights are being trampled along with everyone else’s. Only the hardcore are waiting for Bush and McCain to speed up their “rapture” and the end of the world.

I have become an Obama supporter over the last few weeks. I think Clinton brought some good things to the table but she also brought her bucket of mud and has been slinging it much to my dismay. Bill Richardson has endorsed Barack so there is my big turning point. Richardson is the experience and knowlege Obama needs to bring on board so thats my humble endorsement.

I won’t make this page a campaign for any candidate until after the Democratic National Convention and then I will only do what I can to defeat the Republicans and their drive to bring us back to the stone age. Until then I have to depend on the conservatives who are running frantically away from their own party. For whatever reason they are running.

The members of the Grateful Dead also endorsed him by playing a benefit for him so Thats an added bonus as far as I’m concerned.

“Success is not no violence.” George Bush once told us.

“We’re succeeding. I don’t care what anybody says. I’ve seen the facts on the ground,” John McCain said Tuesday.
That became even more evident this week as we have seen the violence in Iraq rise again. al Sadr’s followers seem to be resisting his cease fire agreements and are fighting in the southern part of Iraq. The green zone has been under attack from Sadr City, the Shi’ite controlled part of Baghdad. 4003 United States soldiers have officially been counted as dead. All apparently successes according to the right wing fools who spew the crap.

Ignorance is strength.

Freedom is slavery.

War is peace, and success is not no violence.

And all that doublespeak.

MSNBC was airing John McCain’s speech in Los Angeles yesterday. He has just returned from a tour of Iraq and the region and has been loudly proclaiming the wonderful success our presence there has made. Yet during his speech MSNBC interrupted his performance with news of even more violence in Iraq.

Robert Reid of the associated press says 4 more soldiers were killed today to bring the death toll of American soldiers in Iraq to
4000.

The reports of Shi’ite’s firing into the green zone are further indications that the surge isn’t working where the extra troops are concentrated.

I haven’t been posting much this past week. I have never written anything as draining as the post from Wednesdays blogswarm. The reports of the lost soldiers make me cry again. Damn! Bushco’s liars don’t really seem to care.

It’s time to bring our troops home. No more should have to die. Not for the reasons they are dying, thats for sure.

Remember McSame and his suggestion for 100 more years? At the rate of 4000 every five years that would average to at least 80,000 lives for a war based on lies. Such a shame.