A Conservative Liberal

I intend to write here what I think and what I learn. Most of what I write here will be about politics.

Friday, November 18, 2005

video of GOP calling 37 year Marine vet a coward for speaking his mind

http://streaming.americanprogress.org/ThinkProgress/2005/schmidt.320.240.mov.html

The Iraq dilemma

If we leave Iraq now:
1) We may encourage terrorist activity against America(ns).
2) We may turn Iraq into a second Somalia.
3) We will have wasted money and people.

If we don't leave Iraq now:
1) We may encourage terrorist activity against America(ns).
2) We may turn Iraq into a Arabian version of Chile under Pinochet.
3) We will have wasted more people and money.

The dilemma we now face is that of a man who has a tiger by the tail.

You can't hold on forever, but you can't afford to let go either.

Thanks Bush.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Interesting

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html

Who should be believed?

2 Nov 2002 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia, President George W Bush describes Saddam as being: "(A) man who has said he wouldn't have weapons of mass destruction, but he's got them...."

25 Apr 2003 ABC News journalist John Cochran reports: "Officials now say they may not find hundreds of tons of mustard and nerve agents and maybe not thousands of liters of anthrax and other toxins. But U.S. forces will find some, they say."

6 Jul 2004 British Prime Minister Tony Blair on WMD in Iraq: "I have to accept we haven't found them."

Zell Miller is a hero to these guys.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1523852/posts http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1523986/posts

GAO confirms 2004 Ohio vote fraud claims

http://www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=viewstory&cat=2&id=11529

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf

Republicans attack pornography as evil

http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0038523.cfm

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Isn't a bounce house for kids? why is the military recruiting with them?

http://www.newsreview.com/issues/chico/2005-05-26/news.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_house

Sad

http://forum.protestwarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=115746

NEW GOP LEADER'S PAC SUBPOENAED

Prosecutor in case of former House leader DeLay has subpoenaed documents said to show communications between Delay's PAC and the PAC of Rep. Roy Blunt, who took over after DeLay indicted.

lol

CIA says Castro has Parkinson's disease

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051116/ts_nm/cuba_usa_castro_dc

On the one hand I love seeing dictators suffer.

On the other hand I feel sorry for the old man.

I just hope his replacement is better than him.

A new leak in the White House!

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley was the senior administration official who told Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA officer.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Guess it doesn't matter if you're a Republican

According to these people if you live in SF you deserve to die because of the way the majority there voted.

http://forum.protestwarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=115582&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

good or bad?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/01/AR2005080101310.html

You're novelty wore thin and then...

Monday, November 14, 2005

An idiot vs a spokesman for reality.

http://forum.protestwarrior.com/viewtopic.php?t=96256&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

new link

http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000195.htm http://www.perrspectives.com/blog/archives/000267.htm

Bill O’Reilly would like to see Republicans die

"if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows (San Francisco) up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco."

However small they are in numbers Conservative Rightwing Christian Republicans do live in San Francisco.

O’Reilly has now wished death on them.

The man has proven himself at best to be little more than a schoolyard bully.



I wonder who's side is right?

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Veterans Lash Out at Loss of Voice on Capitol Hill

News Release

A proposal to end the long-standing practice of veterans groups addressing a joint session of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees is an insult to all who have fought, sacrificed and died to defend the Constitution, according to the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). And in a strongly worded letter to House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), the DAV has urged him to continue the joint hearings as an invaluable tool in formulating public policy toward America’s veterans.

Chairman Buyer recently announced that veterans service organizations will no longer have the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.

“The tradition of legislative presentations by veterans service organizations dates back to at least the 1950s. And the timing of this announcement -- just before Veterans Day -- could not have been worse,” said DAV National Commander Paul W. Jackson.

For several decades now, these joint hearings have been held each year to allow the elected leaders of veterans groups to discuss their organization’s legislative agenda and foremost concerns with the lawmakers who have jurisdiction over federal veterans programs. Senators and Representatives who serve on those committees also get the rare opportunity to address the hundreds of constituent members from these organizations’ who make the annual pilgrimage to Capitol Hill.

“The right to fully participate in the democratic process is a cornerstone of our nation,” said Commander Jackson. “Eliminating these joint hearings is an insult to the men and women who have fought, sacrificed and died to protect our Constitutional rights, including the right to petition the government.”

This important dialog between veterans and their elected representatives is crucial to the democratic process and a unique opportunity for the men and women who’ve put their lives on the line for America. Many of the veterans who take part in the hearings view it as their patriotic duty, as well as a fundamental right.

The 1.3 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932, represents this nation’s disabled veterans. It is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation’s disabled veterans and their families. For more information, visit the organization’s Web site www.dav.org.

http://www.dav.org/news/news_20051110.html

Real Vets get a Parade while Chickenhawks hope for Massive Death in America

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/11/opinion/11trussoni.html?ex=1289365200&en=42bd833c850e07b9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/11/MNGFMFMNV41.DTL&feed=rss.news

drama!



Needless to say the Newspaper published photos of the theatrical people* at the protest instead of the equal number of war veterans or the dozens of other people who were there.







* Their hearts are in the right place.

run away! run away!


Guess who ran away when offered a chance to get on stage and speak his mind?

here's a hint; he's a chickenhawk.

two kinds of protesters


protesters and cops respect each other & a Vet for peace speaks his mind


When asked for a statement from one of the four Iraq war protesters pictured above one of them told me simply "I love America"

The police pictured above seemed annoyed over having been preped to deal with a rioting mob which never showed up.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Jim R. has been on the front lines in Iraq and in the peace marches of California. He has believed in both–the need to derail the presidency of Saddam Hussein, the need to stop U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.

He is not, in his own opinion, a man of contradictions, but rather an Army veteran who has traveled a common and yet complicated path. As a combat engineer with the U.S. Army's 24th infantry division, he helped blow up civilian infrastructure in Iraq during Desert Storm.

Now, at 35, he protests the war in Iraq. He spoke at last week's anti-war rally on campus. He heads up a local chapter of the national organization Veterans for Peace, which is comprised of like-minded people who have made the same extraordinary journey from war zones to peace marches.

Jim enlisted in May 1990, drawn by the U.S. Army's college fund and his own family's legacy. On his mother's side, almost all the men have done military service.

Then, in August, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the administration of former President George Bush Sr. intervened to push out Hussein's military. Jim recalls that his unit was encouraged to destroy not only Iraq's military bases but Iraqi infrastructure as well. U.S. military leaders reasoned that it would force Hussein to later spend large sums on re-building, he says. "We blew up freeway overpasses and power lines and ammunition supply bases, and it got to where we were shooting at buildings we passed," Jim recalls.