Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Clearification on being Athiest

This article puts the argument into thought in these words, a very thinkable thought with ease. Something I have struggled to do many times over and over again.

November 20, 2005

Being atheist in America means having fewer rights

By Raymond Melnik

I know it must be hard for a person of faith to understand what is like to be an atheist in America today. In my view, a constitution originally designed to protect the rights of all has been re-interpreted with "In God we trust" added to our money and "under God" squeezed into an originally all-inclusive pledge.

Our forefathers never meant for our democracy to be as distorted or for the religious right to influence much of the current national policy. Our president slipped once and said that we are in a holy war, a crusade, and my local congresswoman co-sponsored a bill aimed to stop people
from challenging "under God" in the pledge.

When I wrote to explain my view, my congresswoman's letter back to me was a stern reply that
stated that it does no harm. Shouldn't our pledge stand for all and not just eight out of 10? We are told we can choose not to say the pledge, but why should that be the choice? Why shouldn't I be included in showing love for country?

Removing god from the pledge and money does nothing to hurt those of faith. Removing god from public places does nothing to hurt those of faith. They are free to celebrate their faith in their churches, mosques and synagogues. The faithful can carve the Ten Commandments the size of a building on religious property. They can teach all the religion they want at home, place of worship and religious community events. They even have the benefit in that they pay no tax.

The simple fact is that sense of community and love of family are the very reasons we survived to evolve into the humans we are today. It is inherent in each of us and exists in the very core of what makes us human. I personally need no god to tell me that it is right to be kind to others or to love my children. I don't need to fear a hell to be convinced that it's right to be good.

I admit that I no longer believe in anything supernatural. As Carl Sagan said, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence so for now I must conclude that we are on our own. I will not exist far longer than my brief time here and will not waste my brief existence dogmatically preparing for an eternity I'm convinced I will never see. That would surely be the greatest waste of my precious short gift of life."

What I find hardest of all is the balance between tolerance for the ideas of the fervent faithful and the rights of my own. I cannot remain neutral when something professed jeopardizes the very health of the planet or stands in the way of real compassion for those less fortunate. To an atheist we all have an equal right to exist. No god kills my fellow citizens in a natural disaster because of the sins of the group.

Think about how great it could really be if we valued every living person and insisted from our government that they work to raise all of us up and not just the privileged few. Think about how great it would be if instead of praying for those less fortunate we actually fought for the ability for everyone to earn a living wage, educate their children and be able to afford even the most modest
of homes of which they could be proud? What a better country it could be if we only realized that we the people create our own destiny.

Raymond Melnik lives in Salisbury Mills.

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Saturday, November 19, 2005

War and Death Hit Home

Yesterday the news announced there are two heroes from our area that died in Iraq, for the past two days everyone that seen the news got to know them, and feel the lose of our communities.

We are harmonizing, in unison and beginning to echo in the halls of government. Uproar in House as Parties Clash on Iraq Pullout our voices are being heard, and echoed in the halls and chambers of rule and law. We are finding our morals, our ethics, our power as a people. Do not be afraid to voice your opinion call your representatives, your senators, your president 202-456-1111. Bipartisanship worked to hand over the power to decide if we go to war in Iraq or not, with trust and even some weary they voted yes. Confusing the issue is where the vote to shift the power to decide, and revised recollections reported on our squawk boxes as a pure vote 'for war' is false stated. Without much time to listen to their constituents congress gave the ultimate vote singularly to Bush himself. He took us to war without even approval of the UN. Without full approval of the American public, and with lies to congress and the world to justify the illegality of the invasion. Do not be falsely fooled, you are patriotic to hope our soldiers come home, if you cheer for war, death and slaughter you are only benefiting the profits of the truly evil ones. Some thoughts:


One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976), Autobiography (1977)

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), (attributed)

War is not nice.
Barbara Bush (1925 - ) what simple words from such a beautiful mind

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.
Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), The People, Yes (1936)

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.
George Orwell (1903 - 1950), Polemic, May 1946, "Second Thoughts on James Burnham"

War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.
Georges Clemenceau (1841 - 1929)

War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military.
Georges Clemenceau (1841 - 1929)

The outcome of the war is in our hands; the outcome of words is in the council.
Homer (800 BC - 700 BC), The Iliad

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
Jeannette Rankin (1880 - 1973)

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
Jimmy Carter (1924 - )

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

War is not its own end, except in some catastrophic slide into absolute damnation. It's peace that's wanted. Some better peace than the one you started with.
Lois McMaster Bujold, "The Vor Game", 1990

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), "Non-Violence in Peace and War"

Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.
Mao Tse-Tung (1893 - 1976)

The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.
Omar Bradley (1893 - 1981), Speech to Boston Chamber of Commerce, 1948

Either war is obsolete or men are.
R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983), New Yorker, Jan. 8, 1966

It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.
Robert E. Lee (1807 - 1870)

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.
Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), Second World War (1948)

The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky
Solomon Short

The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving.
Ulysses S. Grant (1822 - 1885)

Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies.
W. L. George

The idea of all-out nuclear war is unsettling.
Walter Goodman

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

You can't say that civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.
Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), New York Times, Dec. 23, 1929

I think Plato said "The only ones to know the end of war are the dead."

Wonder Why John Murtha Is Right! and why you should make it your war to make peace


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Friday, November 11, 2005

The Bush Family and Riches of Veterans Day

Today I had a wonderful dinner with some family living in Florida here to introduce a new found love of their life, and was really pleased for them. Kelly will be married to Jamie in May, wanting June but Jamie's sister in Denver is expecting a baby near the same time. A small wedding with a big reception, seems perfect to me for such nice people as they are. Just happy for them, they are happy and I am sure meant for each other, congrats Kelly and Jamie.
Lynn is doing really well out of hospital but often trips from her mountain home in North Carolina to big O Johnson City will be tiresome I am sure, hope things continue to go well for her and she heals.
These small things are huge in life's riches, love and health. That word riches has been on my mind for what reason I wondered, like a song you can't get rid of, again and again over and over. Some feel material things reflect whether you hold riches, some property you hold deed to becomes your riches all at some cost to continually call it your own riches. What the American Dream means to most, a career, a home and a nice car but those depend on your career. When the American Dream has been taken from so many, diminished so small that it takes most of their life to acquire and double incomes to maintain. The American Dream and its value is smashed to an illusion or night mare to some, out of reach despite their work ethic, their craft or trade or even education. The value of labor diminished, our manufacturing structure dismantled packed up and shipped out to cheaper nations and countries. Shipped back again in products of convenient desposability, litter our earth, poison our bodies. All for profit, for gain, for a mere increase in stock value we sold our souls.
Today I received an invitation to 'thinkbible.net' and not sure how to take it, not sure even Iven Mathew Simon has read through most of my blog and knows I am atheist, without belief, or just poking around for a fight. Da bible type I am not, but I do read it, so I know what 'they' are talking about. I read it to check their word, as I have posted places that un-bias and show more acceptance and tolerance as the Jesus did I read of in the bible, I do promote. Not everyone reads the bible and hears gods voice, not everyone reads the bible and reads gods laws, but there are people who tell other people that the bible is the word of God written by none other than himself. I feel that is so far from the facts of the truth, it is laughable. The bible to me is no more than a history book of peoples, societies struggles throughout time to reach a just and civil society that is fair to all. Laws are rules to live within our societies, and if this were in fact 'heaven' then our rules that keep us in line would in fact be a Gods word. This is not heaven, this is a planet we inhabit in a huge infinite universe. We as humans, people citizens of this rock must take responsibility for ourselves and do not worry at all that God will destroy Dover Pennsylvania like he did the evil and sinful New Orleans, as Jay Leno says remember Al and Mo! Thank you Mr Simon for the invitation, if I have time and interest to post to your site, keep in mind I just might :)
Riches, what a word that kings fight over, for thousands of years warriors devoted to a cause gave with their own lives, riches, families riches and future riches for our kings Riches. Happy Veterans Day .... we should know that vet begging knows. The drunk one, with tattered clothes, he knows. The one carrying the bottle saluting the flag on the moon, while he staggers home to a crawlspace in hidden in the woods, he knows. The vet without legs, in a wheel chair living at a VA Hospital his spirit and heart knows. They all know what riches they gave for their king, a king who takes their freedoms, patriots he names the laws after him, they all know. The king needs no cloths, the king needs their humility, their sacrifice he needs to give back their riches with the truth.

The eugenics movement did not end with the program in Winston Salem. In 1950 and 1951, John Foster Dulles led John D. Rockefeller III on a world tour, focusing on the need to stop the expansion of the non-white populations. In the fall of 1952, Rockefeller and Dulles established the Population Council with money from the Rockefeller fortune.

The American Eugenics Society soon moved its Yale University headquarters into the offices of the Population Council. The two groups then merged. Dr. Herndon became president of the American Eugenic Society in 1953, and its work continued to expand with money from the Rockefellers.

In the early 1950s, Gordon Gray, a close friend and frequent golfing partner of Prescott Bush was appointed as the first director of the Psychological Strategy Board under Eisenhower. Later in 1958, Gray became National Security Advisor to Eisenhower. Gray's son, C. Bowden served as George Bush's (Prescott's son) legal counsel throughout the evolving Iran-Contra scandal.

In 1958, William Draper was appointed to chair a committee which was advising President Dwight Eisenhower on the use of military aid to other countries. The appointment was made possible by
Prescott Bush and Gordon Gray, both whom were frequent golfing partners of Eisenhower. Dillon and Reed employed Draper during the 1930s. It was with Draper's help that Prescott Bush was able to float the largest bond issue for Nazi Germany. Draper later served in post war Germany as the head of the economic unit in charge of dismantling the cartel system.

Draper was a racist and major funder of the eugenic movement. Draper used his position as committee chairman to direct the focus of the committee away from military aid to the danger of over population in third world countries. His racist views were dismissed by the Eisenhower administration. Draper went on to fund the Population Crisis Committee with money from the Rockefellers and du Ponts. In the 1960s, Draper served as an advisor to LBJ. He was instrumental in getting the Johnson administration to use the overseas aid program to fund birth control in non-white countries.

The Bush Rockefeller connection goes back to pre-WWI and Samuel Bush, president of Buckeye Casting. Samuel Bush was also director of several Ohio and Pennsylvania railroads. The railroads worked closely with the Ohio bred Standard Oil. Standard held a minority interest in Buckeye Castings. In turn, railroads transporting Rockefeller oil were required to purchase all of
their couplings and related railroad equipment from Buckeye.

George Bush, Prescott's son, was a vocal supporter of Draper's policies. In 1964, he
campaigned in Texas against the Civil Rights Act. In 1969, as congressman, Bush arranged hearings on the dangers posed by the birth of too many black babies.

In 1972, as ambassador to the United Nations, George Bush arranged the first official contract between the American government and the Sterilization League of America, which had, by then, changed its name, yet again, to the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception. Under this contract, the United States taxpayer was burdened with the cost of sterilization programs in the non white third world.

In the 1980s, as vice president, George Bush urged Reagan to appoint Draper's son as administrator of the United Nations Development Program, an organization connected with the World Bank and charged with supervising population control. Bush was also instrumental in the appointment of Draper's son to the Export-Import bank. During the 1980s the Export-Import Bank with the urging of the Reagan administration served as a funnel for funds to provide Saddam Hussein with funds and credits during the Iran-Iraq war.111

The Bush and Draper families have shared close relationships since the 1920s. In 1980,
Draper's son was co-chairman for finance and head of fundraising for the George Bush for President campaign in 1980.

Dr. Clarence Gamble later established the Pathfinder Fund. The prime objective of the Pathfinder fund is to break down the resistance to sterilization in third world countries.

The racist policies of the Bush family extends into the administration of George W. Bush. Charles Murray, the Pioneer Fund's best known expert, has served as advisor to many of George W's top advisors and is often quoted by them. (The Pioneer Fund was established by Wickliffe Draper, not to be confused with William Draper) Both Tommy Thompson's and NYC Mayor Giuliani's welfare programs are directly influenced by Murray. Murray was a consultant on the Wisconsin plan when Thompson changed the Wisconsin welfare system. Murray's books The Bell Curve and Losing Ground, both about the inferiority of Blacks, serve as bibles for the school privatization and anti-welfare movements in the U.S.

There are a several things to note in the last few paragraphs. The first notable aspect in post-war period is how small and tight this group of eugenics was. Throughout this book, this is a
reoccurring theme. American fascism is not broadly based; it is concentrated into a few wealthy families. When it does extend to larger number of families, those families are linked together by inner marriages. American fascism, like the Nazis in Germany is a product of a few elite families. Another circumstance worth noting is the concentration of these people in the Eisenhower
administration. Eisenhower was certainly no supporter of Nazi Germany. In fact, he expressed his hatred of the Nazis and Germans in general countless times in letters to his wife. However, his administration was littered with Nazi supporters. In essence, he was duped. However, the old general was not the complete fool. In his farewell address he forewarned us about the military-industrial complex, a polite description for post-war fascism.

It is undeniable that the tentacles of eugenics extend into such noble causes as birth control, population control and Planed Parenthood. When such organizations and policies are under democratic control they can do much to alleviate poverty, human misery and famine. It is only when such policies and organizations slip under the control of such families as the Bush and Rockefellers that they become modern day weapons of genocide.

Although it has been over seventy years, the legacy of the 1920's is not one of flappers and speakeasies. Its true legacy is one of brutal repression. The leaders of corporate America were successful in purging socialists and union organizers through a network of hard right "patriotic" groups. The seeds of fascism had been successfully sowed in the 1920s, and grew into full-blown fascist groups during the economic turmoil of the 1930s. Before the end of the 1920's, the economy would sink into a deep depression; a fitting tribute to the failed laissez-faire economic policies of
the decade's three Republican administrations. The decade would end much the same as it began. In one of the most shameful acts of all time, a hate-filled President Hoover ordered the army to remove Bonus Marchers from Washington, DC.

In May, 1932, WWI veterans came to Washington DC, demanding payment of their deferred bonuses to help them survive the depression. On May 24, General Alfred Smith, chief of G2 (army intelligence), and General Douglas MacArthur met to consider implementing Emergency Plan White, a plan designed to suppress domestic unrest. Charged with preparation was General George Van Horn Moseley. Moseley and MacArthur were convinced that the Bonus Marchers had fallen under communist control. Moseley was insistent upon removing the marchers by force. Late in July, the army attacked the marchers using tear gas, cavalry, sabers and bayonets. Two officers involved in the attacks were George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower. Moseley held extreme views on eugenics and immigration, and following his retirement became a pro-Nazi figure.18

The Nazi's plan for world domination involved several facets, like a many-headed hydra. The cartel agreements went far beyond the establishment of monopolies, and, in fact, were a major part of the Nazi war plan, and were readily entered into by the leaders of corporate America. Along with fascism support for big business came extreme antiunionism.

Cartel agreements had two effects on W.W.II. First, they hindered production of munitions. Second, they shifted the geopolitical balance in South America to the Nazis. American companies were excluded by these agreements from expanding into South America, while German firms were free to do so. Once the war started, these German firms in South America were used to circumvent the British blockade, prolonging the war.

Nazi influence in South America continued after the war, and the continent became a haven for Nazi war criminals. Once safely in South America, Nazi war criminals became military advisors, and trained their host country's security forces. The end result has been a series of coups overthrowing reformist governments, and the installation of brutal dictatorships with their accompanying death squads. The Nazi influence in Argentina was apparent as recently as the Falkland Islands War, in which the Argentine air force achieved some success. The Argentine aircraft industry is the direct product of ex-Nazi engineers.

Now you know the current Bush administration are not cronies, bubbling fools, but geniuses 'Great white men', going the Great White Way. You know the truth of their riches, they were yours.

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Thursday, November 10, 2005

Tempers temper

For a few days I have not had access to the internet, now with this tenny tinny keyboard and monitor and (has to be the very first one made) I post. This time away may be longer than it takes to fix my computer, as I fix everything myself just that way, every day. Will accept any advise thou, but will not try to talk again with 'so called' 'tech help'. They know their script well, they do know that. I might crush my broken system in some fit soon, will post pics of parts and pieces. A humorous hammer would be fit, sledge heavy and very dirty preferred. I just wonder what the hell could change your windows settings and not allow your changes to be saved, my problem at hand. Whatever, time is no issue, polls show things are flowing with Bush et al :aka: the Haliban. My heart is broken, on top of broken but beats right along into this Indian summer so colorful, so wonderful, if my other computer was working I would post pictures of the trees but the leafs are getting all blown down tonight, with winds of change, seasons progress and life goes on.
Pride hardens our soul for winters coldness, fall triggers changes in all of us. Indian summer provides the backdrops of beauty remembered, love forgotten to awake again green and blooming pink in spring. Time is the thief, he was never caught or apprehended, cuffed or wrangled, corrected or respected, therefore the crime is open. Winter cold preserves, fall leaves covers, the snow blankets, the doors are closed and shades drawn to keep out the cold harsh winter. Those without shelter or home, wander and wonder how they will make it from maybe just a tent. Love isn't as important, but it is love that provides.

Wonder

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Saturday, November 05, 2005

What The Bible Says

Add this link in, just cause I like making the 'Great White Way' steam. You know who you are, your predominately white, Christian, kick there ass still their gas, ego maniacs, godwhacked types who tow the line hook and sinker for the Haliban. As much as I hate steer-io-types, but it sounds so good.

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Friday, November 04, 2005

From Where I Stand by Joan Chittister and Others

Through her voice there sings reason, a wisdom that echoes the mountains thru the paltoes across the great plains an energy lifting it over the great Rocky Mountians and back again to reach this small hollor catching the sound of equality, a resounding song sung world wide.

In some parts of the world, they can't own property. In many parts of the world, they are property.
....

With a sex ratio of 933 women per thousand men, the social landscape of the future portends, as it has for the Chinese, an increase in sex slavery, prostitution, AIDS, gang warfare, violence against women and a general decline in the status of women as well as a breakdown of family ties among men. In one north Indian agrarian state, Haryana, the sex ratio is now 640 women per 1,000 men in many areas. Polygamy is on the rise. Teenage suicide among young girls is on the increase. (One World South Asia, 09 September, 2005)

....

Enter the Swami. Just where you might not expect a swami to be.

Swami, a title of respect for Hindu religious teachers, is not a synonym for feminist. It may, however, judging from this particular swami's relentless witness to social issues, be a synonym for "conscience."

Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu monk, president of the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement and chair of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, knows as far too few women do, perhaps, that feminism is anything but unessential, uncalled-for or achieved. On the contrary.

This month Agnivesh himself is launching "The March of a Million" in India around the feast of Diwali, the festival meant to celebrate the birth of a girl child. His purpose, he says, is to "raise consciousness and create an environment against female feticide." Religion, he explains, has discriminated against women and denied them their rightful status in society. Religion must, therefore, do something to right it. "We must revive the respect for women," he says, which the celebration of Diwali is meant to mark.

The "March of A Million," a 15-day trek across India from November 1-15, will be a march against infanticide, yes, but against all forms of discrimination against women in India.

"Come and join me," he said to us at the meeting of the International Committee of the Peace Council. "Come and join me," he says to every one in is open letter to the public (See www.swamiagnivesh.com.) "Be proud to be Human," he goes on. "Do what you can for Peace and Justice. Speak up for the right to life for the unborn girl child in India and elsewhere ... before the knife falls on her."

read more from
Sr. Joan Chittister's 'From Where I Stand'



reconcile with a progressive Christain movement

Religious Right and Democrats Stand at the Crossroads
Spiritual Progressives Cross the Line
Jesus Politics "Is Bush an Atheist"?
Call for Justice in CA special election: Religious Leaders Urge No Vote on Props. 74-78; Yes on 79 & 80


REID: NATIONAL SECURITY MUST COME BEFORE POLITICS
New Orleans Opportunity for Action: Christian Solidarity with the 9th Ward
Progressive Christians and the Minutemen: What Would Jesus Do?
Lesbian Christian Persecuted at Christian College
Where's the Christian Church on Healthcare?
Would Jesus Be a Neocon?

Argintina an't waiting either

Wonder

Open Members of Congress mind and heart

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Thursday, November 03, 2005

Ecstatic News Annoucement

It is with profound gratitude, delight, and my pleasure to announce to you and all my email contacts and those of you who send me newsletter, that on November 3, 2005 that my daughter, Teresa Lynn Tester, age 43, with Diabetes Mellitus (Juvenile diabetes) taking as many as four insulin shots a day since age 11, having kidney failure at age 38 resulting in her being on peritoneal dialysis four times daily for almost five years, today received a new kidney and pancreas, and removal of the dialysis and insulin pump tubes from her body. Tonight she lies in bed in ICU at Johnson City Medical Center with that beautiful healthy pink kidney and pancreas working very well - perfect blood sugar 98 vs 350, perfect urine output, a condition her body has not experienced for 31 years.

This has caused me to rethink my thoughts of being an organ donor and there will be no hesitation about being one now, for knowing of the thousands of patients waiting hopefully for a new chance at a normal life and knowing what happiness Teresa Lynn and all her family are feeling, I can do no less for the hopes of someone else. Today made me realize the overwhelming need to share whatever we can with our fellowmen.
Possibly you will also consider signing a donor card.

If you would like to write Lynn, I am certain she will be delighted. Just address it to the JC Medical Center. My joy overflows tonight knowing Teresa will be around with the great good changes coming to us and I just wanted to share it with you. Thank you.

Carolyn Tester


Afirmed and delivered

A huge thanks goes out to the donor, a huge hug grasping air capturing the energy of love it took for such a gift as this.

Wonder not that love provides

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Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Let's Try Democracy :: David Swanson Dot Org

I Can't Wait
By David Swanson

Remarks for World Can't Wait Rally at White House, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005:

I don't know about the world, but certainly I can't wait any longer to end this war or to impeach this president. One more death, American or Iraqi, is too many.

Actually, what I said is not true. We do know something about the world. We know that polls that were done last year were unable to find another country on the planet that would have elected Bush or even made it close enough for him to steal.

Even in this country, we know that African Americans and Latino Americans and Jewish Americans and Female Americans and Unionized Americans and Urban Americans and Non-Military Americans and Non-Religious Americans voted against him. And we know that the Christian white guys, not to mention vets and military families, are coming around. Just look at how Harry Reid stood up yesterday and announced the birth of an opposition party in the United States Senate. George W. Bush is becoming a uniter, not a divider, after all. It's just that he's uniting the country against himself.

What else do we know about the world? We know that Argentina is planning a major protest for Bush's visit. We know that the Prime Minister of Italy is having to oppose the war in hopes of getting reelected, even though he owns 80 percent of his country's media. We know that the British Ministry of Defense recently found that 82 percent of Iraqis want U.S. troops to stop liberating them right away.

The Pew Research Center released data in June on attitudes around the world toward Bush and the United States. The findings were not pretty.

In every nation surveyed, more disapproved than approved of Bush's so-called re-election. In most countries 60 or 70 percent or more disapproved.

When asked whether U.S. foreign policy considers others' interests, 67 percent of U.S. citizens said yes, but in most countries only around 20 percent or less said yes.

Asked which nations they think of favorably, most Europeans ranked China above the United States.

During the course of Bush's occupation of the White House, the percentage of Brits who approve of the U.S. government's actions has dropped from 83 percent to 55. Among Canadians, approval has dropped from 71 to 59, among Germans from 78 to 41, Indonesians 75 to 38, Turks 52 to 23.

What is the world so upset about?

Well, it's hard to speak for the world, but we do know that most of the world never believed the lies that launched the war and never supported the war. It's not that the world is heartless. Other nations expressed great sympathy on September 11, 2001 and thereafter. It's more that the world is not stupid. People just never believed the hype.

If anyone did believe the hype, it was a group of Americans that included the U.S. Congress. Certainly Bush and his cronies did not themselves believe the lies they were peddling. Their own top experts told them that various claims were not credible, and they went on national television and stated them as fact again and again.

The International Atomic Energy Agency had told them there was no indication Iraq had the ability to develop nuclear weapons. The CIA had told them the forged documents re alleged attempts to purchase uranium were obvious forgeries. The Energy Department had told them the aluminum tubes were not of a type that could be used to develop nuclear weapons. Hussein Kamel, whom they repeatedly cited as a source, had told them that all WMDs had been destroyed. The inspections verified this. The Germans told them that their source, named "Curveball", was "out of control" and "a waste of time." The Czechs had told them there was no Iraq-Al Qaeda meeting.

They knew they were lying. The world told them. We told them. Courageous members of the U.S. Congress told them.

One of the Congress Members who shouted it the loudest was Dennis Kucinich. He has now introduced a Resolution of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group. This was the group, led by Rove and Libby, that was tasked with selling the public the war. The Resolution is H Res 505, and it will come to a vote in committee in about 10 days. The time to ask your Representative to Co-Sponsor it is now.

You know, back when talk of impeaching Clinton was the only story on the news, week after week, 36 percent of Americans favored impeachment proceedings, and 26 percent favored actual impeachment. A few weeks ago, before the Libby indictment, a poll commissioned by After Downing Street and conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs found that 50 percent of Americans want Bush impeached if he lied about the war. If we shout that loudly enough, it will climb even higher.

We owe it to the world to do so.

David Swanson Org






Good things happen all around us, good news today, a kidney is available for a dear friend whom deserves life.

Brings my thoughts back the last two weeks, of lose and regrets. We sacrafice our lives, our loves but must not deny the joy we have shared, that is ours to keep, forever. Love provides, courage it requires and truth prevails.

Wonder

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