first off, apologies if you've written, baby trauma today. teething. 1st tooth.
lot of crying. lot of unhappy.
and then there's the baby!
i'm joking. i wasn't crying. or unhappy. but it was a cranky day and that's to be understood because teeth cutting through gums hurt. and imagine if it's your 1st 1? you're thinking, 'what is this pain? what is going on? it's never going to end!'
so if you e-mailed, i didn't see it yet. that was the bulk of my day. taking care of a teething baby.
kat's writing about the nonsense from the bambi camp over geraldine ferraro stating what every 1's been saying for over a year now. so i'll instead go to a real scandal, not a faux 1.
did you hear about bambi's latest adviser to resign? this is from nick curran's 'Another Yalie Embarrasses Obama' (radar):
Maxim Thorne, formerly a chief at the Human Rights Campaign and, until today, a member of Obama's Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/ Transgender Leadership Council, recently e-mailed a lengthy anti-Clinton screed that began by declaring Clinton "a disaster for the Democratic Party" and went on to question Hillary's whereabouts "when Monica was having sex with Bill" and assert that "when Bin Laden was building Al Qaeda, Bill and she were fighting impeachment, fighting Paula Jones, fighting Katherine Wiley." Thorne resigned almost immediately after the e-mail surfaced.
where was hillary during monica and bill's transgression? i don't know but where was maxim thorne when brains were being handed out? poor maxim, he was so worked up he forgot to try to work in the 'they murdered vince foster!' lie. crazy psychopaths, those are the bambi supporters working the campaign. they're like jerry falwell and pat roberston combined.
look at crazy david corn-nuts over at mother jones:
What was revealed by Power's statement was that Obama's true position is essentially the same as Clinton's (withdrawal designed through consultation with experts once in office) instead of Obama's stated position on the stump (withdrawal withdrawal withdrawal).
no link to trash. he thinks that's a minor thing? quoting corn-nuts: "obama's true position is essentially the same as clinton's.' that's not minor. listen to bambi's speeches, watch his commercials. that's NOT what he's telling the voters.
corn is such a moron. with a chin that could open a can of beans.
maybe that lantern jaw drags down his brain? that would explain why he could write that all power's did was reveal bambi and hillary have the same position. but that's not what bambi's been saying. not in the debates, not at his website, not in his commericals, not in his speeches. only some 1 in the tank for bambi could think this was a minor thing.
poor corn-nuts.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Tuesday, March 11, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, a commander steps down, the Senate explores where the money goes in Iraq and more.
Starting with war resistance. In June 2006, Ehren Watada, became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to the Iraq War. He has stated it is an illegal war. He finished his service contract in December of 2006; however, the US military refuses to discharge him hoping that they can circumvent the US Constitution's ban on double-jeopardy and court-martial him again (the first court-martial ended in a mistrial -- over defense objections). UCLA's Asian American Studies Center Press's Amerasia Journal has a special edition entitled "World, War, Watada." From the AASC's press release:
"Amerasia Journal is the first and only national scholarly journal to gather, interpret, and present, from varying perspectives, the ideas and voices of Asian Americans themselves on the case of Lt. Ehren Watada and the war," writes editor and UCLA professor Russell C. Leong. In this issue, Asian Americans and South Asian Americans take stands against racial, ethnic, and religious profiling and the curtailment of their civil, cultural, and political rights. Scholars and researchers also contribute pieces that bridge the "ivory tower" of the university with the realities of war, globalization, and national identity in the twenty-first century.
This volume examines the multiple dimensions of the Lieutenant Watada case, connecting Watada to the history of Asian American resistance to injustice. From a legal perspective, Prof. Eric K. Yamamoto and Ashley Kaho'omino'aka Kaiao Obrey of the University of Hawai'i law school view Lieutenant Watada's stand as part of a "long line of resistance" within the broader context of World War II Japanese American internee draft resistance and executive branch abuses of American civil liberties in the name of national security. They also discuss the applications of the Nuremberg Principles to the Watada case.
This issue also includes letters by Mits Koshiyama, Paul Tsuneishi, and testimony prepared for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in July 30, 1981 by his father, Satoru Tsuneishi. Koshiyama, a Heart Mountain World War II draft resister, ends his personal letter to Lt. Ehren Watada, as follows: "Do what your conscience tells you what to do. We got punished by a prejudiced court but in the end, we prevailed."
Other contributors include writer Frank Chin, constitutional lawyer Mari Matsuda, and the Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress September 11 Committee.
You can order it online by clicking here.
And turning to Canada, you can help US war resisters in that country -- help online as well. They were dealt a serious set-back when the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey. Today, Canada's Parliament remaining the best hope for safe harbor war resisters have, you can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. That is the sort of thing that should receive attention but instead it's ignored.There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).Meanwhile IVAW has a DC action this month:In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & AfghanistanMarch 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." IVAW's co-chair Adam Kokesh will, of course, be participating and he explains why at his site, "But out of a strong sense of duty, some of us are trying to put our experiences to use for a good cause. Some of us couldn't live with ourselves if weren't doing everything we could to bring our brothers and sisters home as soon as possible. The environment may be unking, but that is why I will be testifying to shooting at civilians as a result of changing Rules of Engagement, abuse of detainees, and desecration of Iraqi bodies. It won't be easy but it must be done. Some of the stories are things that are difficult to admit that I was a part of, but if one more veteran realizes that they are not alone because of my testimony it will be worth it." The hearings will be broadcast throughout at the Iraq Veterans Against the War home page an on KPFA March 14th and 16th with Aimee Allison (co-host of the station's The Morning Show and co-author with David Solnit of Army Of None) and Aaron Glantz hosting and the KPFA live stream will also be available at Glantz' War Comes Home.
The message has been sent in Iraq, US Senator Patrick Leahy explained, that "anything goes -- just put it on the American tax payers' credit card." Leahy was speaking this morning at the Senate Appropriations Committee in their hearing to "Examine Waste, Fraud, and Abuse of American Tax Dollars in Iraq" -- a hearing that Senator Byron Dorgan declared was "the tip of the iceberg" and "ought to be the first of a dozen or two dozen hearings."
Appearing before the committee were David Walker (Comptroller General of the US), Claude Kicklighter (Defense Department Inspector General) and Stuart Bowen (Special Inspector General for Iraq reconstruction).
Citing the US infrastructure that needs rebuilding, repair, etc., Leahy stated that $44 billion had been spent in the "five years after we invaded Iraq" and he wanted to know of the witnesses whether they believed "there are effective" tools "in place today to prevent the loss and theft of American funds and Iraqi funds?" David Walker declared "no" and immediately moved the conversation to the topic of "we have a deficit" but Iraq is making money from their oil revenues. Leahy stated that $50 billion is what Iraq is expected to take in this year in oil revenues. Walker didn't dispute the estimate but instead explained that money the puppet government in Iraq budgets for reconstruction is not spend (Walker cited only 10% of it had been spent in the most recent examination) and that "it's not being spent for various reasons." Leahy asked Kicklighter, "Could they be doing more?" Kicklighter replied, "I think they are beginning to do more." Stuart Bowen's opinion was that the means to prevent the loss and theft of monies has gotten better but his "biggest concern on the control front is the issue of direct contracting with Iraqi firms. Those are Iraqi firms executing projects involving US funds so I continue to raise questions on that."
Bowen feels its gotten better "My biggest concern on the control front is the issue of direct contracting" with Iraqis. "Those are Iraqi firms executing projects involving US funds so I continue to raise questions on that." His concerns on that, he'd explain under later questioning from Senator Dianne Feinstein, is that the the money goes to Iraqi companies: "These are US dollars and they're paying a company that we have limited input into and oversight of" and, as Feinstein noted, there are rumors that a healthy chunk of the money is paid to militias. With both Leahy and Feinstein, Bowen felt more was happening. Feinstein wanted something more concrete and asked, "Is is sufficient today? You're sort of skirting around my question. So is the answer you don't know? Is it no? What is the answer?" He didn't know but promised "our reviews that will be out this spring will provide specific details."
Has anyone been accountable for the theft or loss of US funds, Lehy wanted to know? Bowen answered, "There haven't been any to speak of." Leahy pinned him down that this was about prosecution, not incidents and Bowen clarified he was speaking of "no prosecutions" and went on to explain a case that was dismissed last week because witnesses did not show up leading Leahy to state that "they won't police their own corruption."
After a brief discussion of the Iraqi oil revenue (which Bowen placed at "closer to sixty" billion dollars for this year), Senator Patty Murray yieled her time to Senator Byron Dorgan who promised that when the officials were done answering the Senate, the second panel would have a great deal to say. It didn't really work out that way, but we'll get back to it.
Senator Dianne Feinstein mentioned the reports that US troops in Iraq have become ill from unsafe water supplied by KBR and that KBR was offshroing to avoid paying taxes, into Medicaid and into the Social Security trust. Feinstein wanted to know, "Is that true or false? Whoever wants to answer it."
Kicklighter grabbed "the water question" and stated that issue had been "brought to our attention by Senator Dorgan" but that he didn't "know the answer to the other question." Bowen offered words but no answer. Feinstein noted that is what was reported and that the "true or false is the answer". Bowen stated he didn't know. Feinstein responded, "Well it seems to me that is something you ought to look at. . . . It seems to me the very least they can do is pay taxes. . . . It's believed that the Pentagon knew KBR has exploited this loophole since at least 2004 -- is this true or false?"
No one knew the answer. There were promises of getting back later with the information. Bowen returned to the oil program (which wasn't any part of Feinstein's question) and stayed with that, "The fact is corruption has afflicted the oil program. It continues to be a problem."
David Walker wanted to add that there were "two posts of money -- there's US tax payer money and there's Iraqi money." He stated that Iraqi money had disappeared, "That was Iraqi money. Those funds were the responsibility of US citizens and so, even though they were Iraqi funds," the US should have had the responsibility of protecting the money, "we were responsible" for that duty.
What about right now, Feinstein wanted to know, what about today? No answer was supplied to her as to whether the protections are there. "Is it sufficient today? You're sort of skirting around my question. So is the answer you don't know? Is it 'no'? What is the answer?" Bowen stated that they didn't know but that "our reviews that will be out this wpring will provide specific details."
That was the first half of the hearing (Bowen agreed with Leahy that a law against War profiteering was needed). The second half was supposed to be mind blowing.
Indeed, it started strongly. "Corruption in Iraq today is rampant," Judge Radhi Hamza al-Radhi (former member of the Iraqi commission on public integrity) in his opening statement. He went on to explain that while he was in Iraq investigating corruption "my staff and their relatives have been kidnapped" and worse. He gave an example of how one of his staffers lost their eighty-year-old father who was kidnapped and his corpse discovered after a power drill had been used on him "to drill" holes. Flashing a photo of another victim of violence at the committee, al-Radhi declared of it, "Justice loses and corruption wins!"
Dorgan had explained to the first panel that al-Rahdi would be detailing how corruption was allowing US tax dollars to pay for the killing of US soldiers by being channeled to resistance fighters.
That would have been interesting. al-Radhi offered nothing on that. With the build up Dorgan gave him and al-Radhi's outrage during the opening statements, it seemed like there was promise but there wasn't and as soon as Leahy grasped that, he quickly bailed on the hearing turning it over to Dorgan.
What was the problem? There are several. First, al-Radhi cannot return to Iraq and is attempting to be granted status by the US State Department so how much he was ever going to testify to in an open hearing was always in question. Second, he delivered his own opening statement but then hid behind a translator for questions. It was hiding. Third, lousy translator.
Slumped over, looking bored, the translator wasn't 'visually exciting' so rule out the TV industry having any interest in what was said regardless. In terms of print media? The woman's skills were bad. They were really, really bad.
She will interject that she mistranslated at one point and state al-Radhi was referring to "the Ministry of Defense in Iraq actually." Was he? Defense Department would be the source of US funds. Substituting "Ministry of Defense" changes the answer (and Dorgan's question was if it was true that this was $18 billion of US monies). The woman seemed to have a problem with Arabic. Dorgan's talk about the revelations that would be forthcoming when al-Radhi testified went up in smoke the moment al-Radhi stopped speaking in English and everyone became dependent upon this really bad translator. In the midst of a line of questioning (by Dorgan) about US officials' knowledge of the corruption, al-Radhi's translation will go off into how he received a check (a story he'd already testified to) that had nothing to do with US officials or US knowledge.
As the hearing wound down, Dorgan would note two things. First, that he "hopes that one day the US State Dept will do what it should do for a man of your integrity" and grant asylum. However, I do believe Dorgan could sponsor an amendment just on al-Radhi if he was concerned about this issue. Second, he noted, "This committee room is full when apportion money but there seems to be less concern for oversight on how it is spent."
The House Armed Service's Air and Land Forces subcommittee also met today and they were discussing money as well this morning and their first panel included the Defense Department's John Young (Under Secretary of Defense fo Acquistion, Technology and Logistics) and the US Government Accountability Office's Michael Sullivan (Director for Acquisition and Sourcing Management). Sullivan declared that "the F22 is too expensive and the joint strike fighter is struggling through development . . . struggling with the design of that aircraft" due to the decision to prioritize to one thing and letting everything else fall by the wayside. Young disagreed and stated, "I believe these were valid and pragmiatic choices. People criticize it, but it's a more balanced program." Sullivan disagreed and noted a recent meeting he had with Lockhead Martin, a briefing on the issue of risk reduction. He noted Lockheed believed they had a plan but "we've seen this movie before."
US House Rep Neil Abercrombie, chairing the hearing, asked, "What about the idea that you stop where you are? . . . What if the laws of physics aren't working the way you'd like it to? We've already had two tests where it didn't work. I'm told you're goign to add covering or something, but what if it isn't working?" Young disagreed, insisting "the aircraft will eventually be able to perform." Sullivan stated that there were 5,000 test flight performances as part of the program but that 800 was taken out and "as I've said, we've seen this movie before." So why is money being wasted on a plane that cannot perform? (Because the biggest consumer of the national budget is always the pork to the war industries.)
Another comittee that kind of met today was the US House's Foreign Affair's subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia with the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight. Kind-of? They took a break early on and are still on it as I dictate this. In his opening remarks Rep Gary Ackerman would note, "Almost a year ago, the Middle East and South Asia subcommittee held a hearing on the Iraqi refugee crisis and we learned several disturbing things. We learned that the administration was doing next to nothing to assist those Iraqis who put their lives in jeopardy in order to assist the United States in our efforts in Iraq. Not only wasn't the administration helping them, they didn't even know how many Iraqis actually worked for us, so they naturally had no idea how many people needed our help. We learned that the administration was woefully unprepared to process refugees referred to us by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We learned that it took up to five months to process a refugee referral. We learned that the United States had the capacity to process merely a few hundred refugees a month but wasn't working anywhere near even that limited community. We learned that we were telling Iraqis seeking our assitance and protection to fleee to a safe place -- like Syria -- because we weren't processing at risk populations in Iraq."
In prepared remarks Gregory Gottlieb of the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance explained the situation for the 2.5 million internally displaced Iraqis noting that access to food had dramatically throughout the continued Iraq War with "nearly 96% of all Iraqis" obtaining their food via Iraq's public distribution system but that figure declined to 22 percent for Iraq's internal refugees in 2007 with 60% of Iraqis stating they were.
Of external Iraqi refugees, Rep Bill Delahunt observed that "they cannot return" because "the conditions do not exist for their return" -- "the conditions of the secetarian cleaning" throughout five year of war are "why they can't go home." Delahunt spoke of the ill will this is creating for the longterm and how the US State Department has admitted ("this is their language") that "hostility towards the United States makes achieving our policy goals far more difficult." Along with holding the State Dept accountable, Delahunt wanted to know, "Where's the Iraqi government on this issue? They've agreed to contribute $25 million to the budget. That's embarrassing. That's embarrassing." He further noted that this minor sum only was offered after extreme pressure was put on the Iraiq (puppet) government "and we're talking about reconcilation? Movement? And a nation?"
Before the break, Jeff Fortenberry spoke to the issue of Iraq's religious minorities and noted that there were a number of Yazidis in his home state (Nebraska) which is one of the reasons he's been following the issue closely. At his website, Fortenberry is quoted stating, "I was very pleased that the Committee held this hearing, as it gave me an opportunity to address the plight of Iraq's religious minorities, including the Yezidis, as well as Baha'is, Christians and Jews. These communities appear to be disproportionaly vulnerable to persecution by terrorist organizations and criminal elements in Iraq. They are struggling to survive and retain cherished traditions that have long enriched the historical tapestry of Iraq." Fortenberry noted the "violence against innocent civilians" and included the kidnapping of Archbishop Faraj Rahho. The Archbishop was kidnapped February 29th in Mosul. Monday, John Pontifex (Aid to the Church in Need) explained that fears were growing over the kidnapping as the kidnappers continue to state their monetary demands but refuse to allow the Archbishop to speak to the Church and that they have raised their ransom demands from $2 million to $3 million.
Staying with violence, as noted in yesterday's snapshot, 8 US service members died in Iraq yesterday. Joshua Partlow (Washington Post) explains that 5 died in Baghdad and 3 in Diyala Province -- all from bombings. [Also see Alexandra Zavis' report for the Los Angeles Times).] The deaths brought the total number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 3983.
Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .
Bombings?
CNN reports 16 dead from a roadside bombing as a "bus traveled between Najaf and Basra". Deborah Haynes (Times of London) states they were "mourners travelling to Basra" and that "Eighteen people were also injured, including women and children. . . . The passengers had been returning from mourning rites for a dead relative in Najaf". Paul Tait (Reuters) quotes survivor Rahman Shaker explaining, "I saw my wife covered in blood and took her out fo the bus. There were bodies covered in bloody blankets and people screaming."
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad bombing that wounded an Iraqi soldier, a Yousifiyah bombing that claimed 1 life ("Awakening" council member) and wounded eight more people, a Kirkuk bombing that wounded a police officer (and on Monday night four police officers were wounded in two Kirkuk bombings), an "Awakening" council member was targeted by a bombing but escaped harm however another attack (car bombing) on "Awakening" council members outside Tikrit reulted in 3 of their deaths with eight people injured.
Shootings?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports an armed Baghdad attack (on a "uveniles prison") that left three police officers and three prisoners wounded and that allowed five prisoners to escape, an armed clash in Mosul that claimed the lives of 4 police officers, 4 battling the police officers and 2 civilian bystanders and an armed clash in Wasit that claimed 8 lives. Meanwhile Paul Tait (Reuters) reports there are two competing stories about what happened in armed clash in Kut -- the US military version and the Iraqi military version (the truth having lost out long ago) -- with the US military claiming they stumbled upon an attack in progress and aided Iraqi forces while the Iraqi military states they were attempting to arrest someone and that led to a battle at which point the US military assisted. Of interest is who they were trying to arrest "a Medhi Army leader" -- Moqtada al-Sadr renewed his cease-fire/truce over the objections of many of his followers and one reason they were objecting to a renewal was that they felt they were under attack and targeted.
Corpses?
Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses discovered in Baghdad and 20 corpses were discovered outside Samarra.
Meanwhile, Nancy A. Youssef (McClatchy Newspapers) reports CENTCOM commander Admiral William Fallon "stepped down Tuesday, weeks after telling a magazine reporter that he was the key person stopping an overzelaous Bush administration from going to war." Reuters quotes from a resignation letter: "The current embarrassing situation and public perception of differences between my views and administration policy and the distraction this causes from the mission make this the right thing to do." Andrew Gray and David Morgan (Reuters) cite the Esquire article, state that "Fallon cooperated with the author during the article's preparation but strongly criticized the story after it appeared" and that US Secretary of Defense Robert "Gates said the perception that Fallon was at odds with the administration was not linked just to the article."
Finally in US political campaign news, Peter Canellos (Boston Globe) notes that Samantha Power's recent revelation (to the BBC and while she was still US Senator Barack Obama's senior foreign policy advisor) that Obama's pledge to pull US combat troops out of Iraq -- if elected president -- within 16 months of being sworn in as president wasn't really a pledge raises questions:
The first is the obvious one: whether he truly intends to follow through on what he's been saying. For most of the campaign, Obama has gotten good mileage out of the idea that he says what he believes while Clinton's plans are hedged to allow for extra maneuverability. But in Obama's effort to stay to Clinton's left on Iraq and NAFTA, he may have gone further than he wanted, or could deliver.When Clinton, during the Ohio debate, promised to opt out of the trade deal if Canada and Mexico didn't agree to changes, Obama quickly agreed. He later referred to using "the hammer of potential opt-out" to enhance environmental and labor requirements in NAFTA.Obama may well believe that, and he may intend to stick with his timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq no matter what happens. But if so, he needs to make sure that all his advisers remain with the program.
3/11/2008
3/10/2008
hillary, medium, etc.
'MEMO: Obama's Iraq Plan: Just Words'
To: Interested Parties
From: The Clinton Campaign
Date: March 8, 2008
RE: Obama's Iraq Plan: Just Words
Once again, it looks like Senator Obama is telling voters one thing while his campaign says those words should not to be mistaken for serious action.
After months of speeches from Senator Obama promising a hard end date to the Iraq war, his top foreign policy adviser that counseled his campaign during that period is on the record saying that Senator Obama will "not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator."
Voters already have serious questions about whether Senator Obama is ready to be Commander-in-Chief. Now there are questions about whether he's serious about the Iraq plan he's discussed for the last year on the campaign trail.
Senator Obama has made hard end dates about Iraq a centerpiece of his campaign and has repeatedly attacked Senator Clinton for not being clear about her intentions with regard to troop withdrawal.
It turns out those attacks and speeches were just words. And if you can't trust Senator Obama's words, what's left?
This latest incident is part of a larger pattern where Senator Obama doesn't deliver on the promises he makes on the campaign trail -- whether it's his 2004 Senate race or his 2008 White House campaign.
In 2003, Senator Obama said he was for a single payer health system, but now opposes plans that cover every American. He promised to repeal the Patriot Act, but then voted to extend it. He promised to normalize relations with Cuba, but flip-flopped when he started running for president.
In 2008, Senator Obama rails against NAFTA in Ohio while his top economic advisor assures the Canadians his rhetoric is just "political positioning." He promises to opt in to public financing if the GOP nominee does, but then breaks that pledge in real time. He promises to withdraw from Iraq within 16 months, and now his top foreign policy adviser says that he's not relying on the plan.
With a short record to run on, Senator Obama's entire campaign is based on the speeches he makes on the campaign trail. So when he and his advisers dismiss the plans he touts on the stump, it undermines his entire candidacy.
Americans have heard plenty of speeches. It's time they got serious solutions and that's what Hillary is going to deliver when she is President.
please make sure you are talking to friends, family and on campus about the above. barack obama's getting his usual pass from the press. they're ignoring it or making excuses. he has repeatedly lied to the american people and he's not even in the white house! do you get that we've got another bully boy on our hands? people need to realize if he's lying this easy now, it's only going to get worse. sammy power outed bambi on the bbc and that's the topic of Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Kamikaze Sammy":
Kat's "Kat's Korner: Jack's not snoozing" went up last night and it's jack johnson's new cd that she's reviewing. and she just called to say carly simon's new cd comes out april 29th.
i'm copy and pasting this linke from 3rd. Medium (NBC). i've become completely caught up with & love with that show. so is flyboy.
patricia arquette is so good in this role.
tonight was a 2-parter. if you missed it, the episode that aired tonight will be available for streaming this week at the site. (i believe starting tomorrow.) anjelica huston is guest-starring on the series so that's another reason to watch.
i could give you a summary but i'm more interested in seeing if i have the next part figured out.
allison (patricia's character) is a psychic. her daughter had a dream about a woman burning herself alive. (she's a psychic too.) the woman is the mother of a guy in the daughter's class. allison's been given files by anjelica to try to find some leads on young women who went missing.
she sees 1 woman in her dreams. the young woman is turning tricks and a dentist picks her up and takes her back to his office where he drugs her. in another dream, allison sees the dentist doing surgery on the mouth and he may have taken her teeth out (i couldn't figure out what he was doing but when allison tells anjelica about the dream, anjelica says that).
allison's old boss has the husband of the woman who burned herself alive as a client. the police think the woman was murdered.
so that's your summary.
here's my prediction.
1) the 2 cases are related.
2) the woman isn't dead.
3) i mean the mother of the son who burned herself alive.
4) she was crying when she set herself on fire.
5) there's a corpse, we know she's dead.
6) i'm saying a woman is dead, but not the mother.
7) the mother faked her own death.
8) the dentist picked up the hooker and removed her teeth so she could be the corpse.
9) the woman crying as she set herself on fire wasn't the mother and was setting herself on fire because she was being forced to.
those are my predictions on what we'll find out next week.
again, use the link and you can watch the 1st show online. on tv, it airs on monday's during the last hour of prime time.
if you've never checked it out, you really need to. patricia arquette really is amazing and this show will grab you if you give it a chance.
by the way, flyboy thinks all my predictions are wrong.
i think i'm right.
if i post it here and they turn out to be right, flyboy can't say 'i think i said that ...' because it's here. and he said, 'there's no way that's the story.' that's there now too!
the show is like in it's 4th or 5th year. i wish i'd listened to c.i. and watched all along. i didn't really pay attention to it until near the end of last year. it's really a great show. (there were 2 or 3 episodes i watched before at c.i.'s insistence. they were good but i really didn't get the show then.)
i think it's 1 of the best things on television.
i say give the emmy's to patricia and anjelica this year. they've earned them. and then some.
my favorite movie with anjelica is hard to pick. it's either the grifters (she's amazing in that) or it's the aquatic life of steve [whatever] which is very funny. (i love her in everything including the adams family films and the royal tennanbaums.) my favorite movie with patricia arquette is 2 as well. 1st, holy matrimony which probably no 1 else in the world would pick. it's a sweet movie and it's very funny. and then, on a more adult level, flirting with disaster.
that may be my favorite comedy of the 90s, flirting with disaster. i love patricia in that ('they bump you and then they kill you --') and the entire cast is top-notch. mary tyler moore, lily tomlin, george segal and alan alda are so funny. i can watch flirting with disaster over and over and i always enjoyed patricia's performance to the max but her character in the film is a new mother and i love her performance even more now that i am a new mother. i love mary tyler moore's smoking bit (they won't let her smoke around the baby) and lily as a guide when an f.b.i. agend gets doped with l.s.d. is hilarious. tea leoni is also very great in it. she has a funny line where she tries to light up in lily and alan's home (they're hippies who make money by manufacturing illegal drugs) and she says something like, 'i guess it's your basic, pro-acid, ex-felon, anti-smoking house.' ben stiller's patricia's husband. there are about 7 other characters in the film. it's really a great movie. if you've never seen it, rent it.
ben's adopted. mary tyler moore and george segal are his adoptive parents. now that he's a father, he wants to find his biological parents. there are some mis-steps along the way because tea twice matches him with the wrong parents. it's very funny.
a chinese zodiac and a post office get destroyed.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Monday, March 10, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Barack Obama's 'pledge' wasn't a pledge but watch Panhandle Media play dumb, the US military announces the deaths of US service members today, reconstruction and more.
Starting with war resistance. "The most common hostility that I faced was the ostracism of many of my peers: the young soldiers of the same rank as I," Aidan Delgado explained to Dewey Hammond last August in an interview timed for the release of his book d The Sutras Of Abu Ghraib: Notes From A Conscientious Objector In Iraq. As the book title notes, Delgado is a CO and Hammond asks him, "At what pointfor you did it become clear that being a soldier could not coexist with being Buddhist?"
Aidan Delgado: After enlistment, during Basic and Advanced training, I began to study and became far more serious about Buddhism but I still felt that there was some way to allow the ideals of being a soldier and the ideals of being a Buddhist to coexist. When I deployed to Iraq and had all the abstractions peeled away, saw what it truly meant to be a soldier, was when I finally decided that Buddhism and militarism were incompatible. That is not to imply that it was a sudden "revelation" on my part; to the contrary, it was the final stage of a long process of questioning and maturation on my part. I didn't suddenly decide that war was wrong when I deployed to Iraq, I knew it already intellectually, but it took the direct experience of war to make it real for me and give me the courage to oppose it.
.
All war resisters show courage by resisting and war resisters in Canada could use some people backing them up. They were dealt a serious set-back when the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey. Today, Canada's Parliament remaining the best hope for safe harbor war resisters have, you can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. That is the sort of thing that should receive attention but instead it's ignored.There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).Meanwhile IVAW has a DC action this month:In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & AfghanistanMarch 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." IVAW's co-chair Adam Kokesh will, of course, be participating and he explains why at his site, "But out of a strong sense of duty, some of us are trying to put our experiences to use for a good cause. Some of us couldn't live with ourselves if weren't doing everything we could to bring our brothers and sisters home as soon as possible. The environment may be unking, but that is why I will be testifying to shooting at civilians as a result of changing Rules of Engagement, abuse of detainees, and desecration of Iraqi bodies. It won't be easy but it must be done. Some of the stories are things that are difficult to admit that I was a part of, but if one more veteran realizes that they are not alone because of my testimony it will be worth it." The hearings will be broadcast throughout at the Iraq Veterans Against the War home page an on KPFA March 14th and 16th with Aimee Allison (co-host of the station's The Morning Show and co-author with David Solnit of Army Of None) and Aaron Glantz hosting and the KPFA live stream will also be available at Glantz' War Comes Home.
Over the weekend, Michael McGuire (The Evening Sun) reports, that IVAW's Daniel Black "spoke about his military experiences to a small group in the community room at the Guernsey Memorial Library in Norwich. Thursday, he gave a talk to students at Hartwick College sponsored by the Iraq-Iran Group of the Coalition for Democracy of Central New York." Mason Kerns (Des Moines Register) reports that IVAW was among those protesting Karl Rove at the Univeristy of Iowa (Rove gave a speech there over the weekend) while April West (The Lawrentian) reports that IVAW's John Knox spoke on the Lawrence University campus at the invitation of the Multicultural Affairs Committee and he "discussed the demographics of those in the Army as well as recruiters' tactics. The bulk of new army recruits' parents make a combined $30,000 - 50,000 a year and are from Texas, he said. Knox described an exponential correlation in which the more money a family makes the less likely they are to have children in the Army." Justin Hughes (Golden Gate [X]Press) reports that IVAW's Michael Blake joined with Iraqi journalist Salam Talib to speak at San Francisco State University with Blake explaining, "We are using Iraq to project power throughout the Middle East. . . . These guys are getting filthy stinking rich off this war while everyone else is suffering. From their perspective, the war is going very well."
From whose perspective is it okay to tell the voters a known lie?
Stephen Sackur: You said that he'll revisit it [the decision to pull troops] when he goes to the White House. So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out within sixteen months, isn't a commitment is it?
Samantha Power: You can't make a commitment in whatever month we're in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are going to be like in January 2009. We can'te ven tell what Bush is up to in terms of troops pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US Senator.
We noted the above on Friday. The then foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama, Samantha Power, speaking to the BCC. Most haven't noted the story (the list includes The Nation, Common Dreams, The Progressive among others, see The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Editorial: The Whores of Indymedia" ). AP noted it. Gideon Rachman (Financial Times of London) lies but notes not only did Power say it on the BBC, Power also stated similar things to Rachman last week. Rachman's lie is that Samantha Power was against the illegal war before it started. As John R. MacArthur (Common Deams) noted in 2005 -- before so many War Hawks started going in for Extreme Makeovers -- the "humanists such as [George] Packer, [Samantha] Power, and Michael Ignatieff signed on with the neo-conservative crowd for a 'democracy-building' project in Iraq". David Corn (Mother Jones) embarrasses himself (but give him credit, like Rachman, for not pretending the BBC interview never took place -- many others pretended it didn't take place). Corn excuses Power's remarks but they don't need any excuse. She spoke the truth, it's Corn who's spinning claiming that all it means is "a campaign proposal is just that: a proposal." Since Corny's among the crowd 'jazzed' by the 'youth' for Bambi, Corny should be aware that what his 'seasoned' and non-reasoned (remember his attacks on Gary Webb?) 'insider' status allows him to 'know' is not a known to people turning out at Obama's rallies and hearing him pledge to pull all combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months. What it is, and Corn knows this, is a lie -- a big fat lie. Samantha Power revealed it as such in her interview with the BBC and Corn quotes from it selectively. He really needs to be ashamed of himself. It's the sort of crap that makes Mother Jones just another whore in Panhandle Media and they really ought to be ashamed because more than any other outlet, they used to march to their own drum. Now they've got their hands out begging like every other cheap hustler. Barack Obama has declared in ads and speeches that he will withdraw troops 16 months from being sworn in.
Kristen Senz (The Union Leader) reported that in November, "If elected, Obama vowed to end the war in Iraq within 16 months". Does David Corn think Senz misunderstood? Use the link, it goes to Barack Obama's site which reposted that article under the heading "Change We Can Believe In." "Believe in me" says Bambi. He's got no record to run on, so he's run on personality and told everyone he has 'judgement' and can be 'trusted.' But he's lying. Need more from "Change We Can Believe In"? Barack's campaign has posted Peter Hecht (Sacramento Bee) reporting Bambi declared, "As president I will end the war in Iraq. I will bring the troops home. They will be home in 16 months. . . . America, San Francisco. Our moment is now. You can't wait any longer. Our moment to bring about change is now." Sounds like a promise because that's what he wants people to hear it as. On October 2nd (again, link goes to Bambi's campaign site) his campaign posted his speech that day which included Barack declaring, "The first thing we ahve to do is end this war. . . . I will remove one or two brigades a month, and get all of our combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months." That's pretty damn clear unless your name is David Corn. December 18th, campaigning in Iowa, he declared that if he was "the Democratic nominee, I will offer a clear choice. My opponent won't be able to say that I ever supported the war in Iraq, or that I don't support a clear timetable to bring out troops home." He also stated in that speech, "So when you consider who to caucus for, I ask you to consider myjudgement and vision for new American leadership. Leadership that brings our combat brigades out of Iraq in 16 months, renews American diplomacy, finishes . . ." Get the point?
He's campaigned on this over and over in speeches and commercials. Tom Hayden has assumed it was a real pledge. He's written column after column praising Bambi. You better believe others have taken Bambi at his word. At the Barack Obama campaign website it reads here that "In September 2007, he laid out a detailed plan for how he will end the war as president. Bring Our Troops Home Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat briages out of Iraq within 16 months." Will is the verb in the final sentence (written by Bambi's campaign and posted on his website). While David Corn embarrasses himself, NBC' Domenico Montanaro (reporting on the same press call Corn did) explains that "when (now former) top Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power told BBC that Obama 'will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator,' the Clinton campaign found something tangible to seize on."
And the Hillary Clinton campaign released "MEMO: Obama's Iraq Plan: Just Words" which opens with, "Once again, it looks like Senator Obama is telling voters one thing while his campaign says those words should not be mistaken for serious action. After months of speeches from Senator Obama promising a hard end date to the Iraq war, his top foreign policy adviser that counseled his campaign during that period is on the record saying that Senator Obama will 'not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. Voters already have serious questions about whether Senator Obama is ready to be Commander-in-Chief. Now there are questions about whether he's seriou about the Iraq plan he's discussed for the last year on the campaign trail. . . . It turns out those attacks and speeched were just words. And if you can't trust Senator Obama's words, what's left?" Nothing. And certainly nothing that indicates the illegal war's ending.
While Bambi tries to figure out what he thinks today, people are dying. In fact, 8 US service members appear to have died today. Nancy A. Youssef and Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) report that at a time when most outlets are aware of 5 dead. Deborah Haynes (Times of London) reports, "Five American soldiers were killed and three wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a foot patrol in Baghdad today, in the deadliest strike against the US military in the city since last June." And that was when it was five (the other three dead are not the three wounded in the bombing we're focusing on right now.) CBS and AP note that an Iraqi interpreter was also injured in the bombing. CNN offers, "The explosion marks the deadliest attack against the US military since five soldiers were killed January 28 in a roadside bombing in Mosul." Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) explains, "Iraqi police said a man with explosives strapped to his waist walked up to the soldiers during a foot patrol int he upscale Mansour meighborhood and blew him self up. The blast also killed an Iraqi civilian and injured 11 other Iraqis, police and hospital officials said." That brings the total number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 3980. But, as noted before, Youssef and Allam write that 8 died today and they report 3 more "died while on a patrol in Diyala province, the official said. He asked not to be identified as he isn't an official spokesman." Now might be a good time to note that Rear Admr. Gregory Smith declared yesterday in his Iraq press conference, "I would not look at the last few weeks as an increase or a trend of an increase."
In other reported violence today . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad truck bombing that claimed the life of 1 person and left five more wounded, a Baghdad mortar attack wounded two people, a Baghdad roadside bombing wounded two people, a Baghdad car bombing claimed 1 life and left four people wounded a Diyala Province bombing that claimed the lives of 2 police officers and left twenty people wounded, a Diyala Province roadside bombing that claimed the life of an Iraqi soldier and wounded two others in the Iraqi military and a bombing targeting the Sulaimaniyah Palace Hotel which claimed the life of 1 guard and left thirty-four people injured. Reuters reports a Diyala Province bombing today credited to "female suicide bomber" which has claimed the life of Thaer Saggban al-Karkhi who had been a US collaborator in an "Awakening" Council (and whom Reuters describes as "a prominent Sunni Arab tribal chief") as well as three people with him. Al Arabiya News Channel notes the dead includes two bodyguards and one of the chief's niece and that another bombing in the same province took place at a police station and resulted in 2 deaths and twenty-two people being injured.
Shootings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 police officer shot dead in Salahuddin Province. Reuters notes an armed clash in Mosul left 2 dead and two more wounded.
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad while Dr. Khalid Nasir's corpse was discovered in Basra. In the continuing targeting of educators, doctors and officials, Dr. Nasir was kidnapped on Sunday. CBS and AP note, "According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry released earlier this year, 618 medical employees, including 132 doctors, as well as medics and other health care workers, have been killed nationwide since 2003."
Yesterday, James Glanz (New York Times) reported that senators Carl Levin and John Warner's plan to use their positions on the Senate Armed Service Committee in order to determine "how Iraq is spending its soaring oil revenue" two months after the 'accountability' office in Iraq "reported that Iraq had spent a meager 4.4 percent of its 2007 reconstruction budget by August of that year, the most recent figures available at the time." CNN adds: "Iraq's ability to spend its $10.1 billion capital projects budget in 2007 was one of the 18 benchmarks used to assess U.S. progress in stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq, according to the GAO. The United States has spent more than $47 billion on Iraqi reconstruction efforts since 2003, according to the 2008 quarterly audit by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction."
To: Interested Parties
From: The Clinton Campaign
Date: March 8, 2008
RE: Obama's Iraq Plan: Just Words
Once again, it looks like Senator Obama is telling voters one thing while his campaign says those words should not to be mistaken for serious action.
After months of speeches from Senator Obama promising a hard end date to the Iraq war, his top foreign policy adviser that counseled his campaign during that period is on the record saying that Senator Obama will "not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator."
Voters already have serious questions about whether Senator Obama is ready to be Commander-in-Chief. Now there are questions about whether he's serious about the Iraq plan he's discussed for the last year on the campaign trail.
Senator Obama has made hard end dates about Iraq a centerpiece of his campaign and has repeatedly attacked Senator Clinton for not being clear about her intentions with regard to troop withdrawal.
It turns out those attacks and speeches were just words. And if you can't trust Senator Obama's words, what's left?
This latest incident is part of a larger pattern where Senator Obama doesn't deliver on the promises he makes on the campaign trail -- whether it's his 2004 Senate race or his 2008 White House campaign.
In 2003, Senator Obama said he was for a single payer health system, but now opposes plans that cover every American. He promised to repeal the Patriot Act, but then voted to extend it. He promised to normalize relations with Cuba, but flip-flopped when he started running for president.
In 2008, Senator Obama rails against NAFTA in Ohio while his top economic advisor assures the Canadians his rhetoric is just "political positioning." He promises to opt in to public financing if the GOP nominee does, but then breaks that pledge in real time. He promises to withdraw from Iraq within 16 months, and now his top foreign policy adviser says that he's not relying on the plan.
With a short record to run on, Senator Obama's entire campaign is based on the speeches he makes on the campaign trail. So when he and his advisers dismiss the plans he touts on the stump, it undermines his entire candidacy.
Americans have heard plenty of speeches. It's time they got serious solutions and that's what Hillary is going to deliver when she is President.
please make sure you are talking to friends, family and on campus about the above. barack obama's getting his usual pass from the press. they're ignoring it or making excuses. he has repeatedly lied to the american people and he's not even in the white house! do you get that we've got another bully boy on our hands? people need to realize if he's lying this easy now, it's only going to get worse. sammy power outed bambi on the bbc and that's the topic of Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Kamikaze Sammy":
Kat's "Kat's Korner: Jack's not snoozing" went up last night and it's jack johnson's new cd that she's reviewing. and she just called to say carly simon's new cd comes out april 29th.
i'm copy and pasting this linke from 3rd. Medium (NBC). i've become completely caught up with & love with that show. so is flyboy.
patricia arquette is so good in this role.
tonight was a 2-parter. if you missed it, the episode that aired tonight will be available for streaming this week at the site. (i believe starting tomorrow.) anjelica huston is guest-starring on the series so that's another reason to watch.
i could give you a summary but i'm more interested in seeing if i have the next part figured out.
allison (patricia's character) is a psychic. her daughter had a dream about a woman burning herself alive. (she's a psychic too.) the woman is the mother of a guy in the daughter's class. allison's been given files by anjelica to try to find some leads on young women who went missing.
she sees 1 woman in her dreams. the young woman is turning tricks and a dentist picks her up and takes her back to his office where he drugs her. in another dream, allison sees the dentist doing surgery on the mouth and he may have taken her teeth out (i couldn't figure out what he was doing but when allison tells anjelica about the dream, anjelica says that).
allison's old boss has the husband of the woman who burned herself alive as a client. the police think the woman was murdered.
so that's your summary.
here's my prediction.
1) the 2 cases are related.
2) the woman isn't dead.
3) i mean the mother of the son who burned herself alive.
4) she was crying when she set herself on fire.
5) there's a corpse, we know she's dead.
6) i'm saying a woman is dead, but not the mother.
7) the mother faked her own death.
8) the dentist picked up the hooker and removed her teeth so she could be the corpse.
9) the woman crying as she set herself on fire wasn't the mother and was setting herself on fire because she was being forced to.
those are my predictions on what we'll find out next week.
again, use the link and you can watch the 1st show online. on tv, it airs on monday's during the last hour of prime time.
if you've never checked it out, you really need to. patricia arquette really is amazing and this show will grab you if you give it a chance.
by the way, flyboy thinks all my predictions are wrong.
i think i'm right.
if i post it here and they turn out to be right, flyboy can't say 'i think i said that ...' because it's here. and he said, 'there's no way that's the story.' that's there now too!
the show is like in it's 4th or 5th year. i wish i'd listened to c.i. and watched all along. i didn't really pay attention to it until near the end of last year. it's really a great show. (there were 2 or 3 episodes i watched before at c.i.'s insistence. they were good but i really didn't get the show then.)
i think it's 1 of the best things on television.
i say give the emmy's to patricia and anjelica this year. they've earned them. and then some.
my favorite movie with anjelica is hard to pick. it's either the grifters (she's amazing in that) or it's the aquatic life of steve [whatever] which is very funny. (i love her in everything including the adams family films and the royal tennanbaums.) my favorite movie with patricia arquette is 2 as well. 1st, holy matrimony which probably no 1 else in the world would pick. it's a sweet movie and it's very funny. and then, on a more adult level, flirting with disaster.
that may be my favorite comedy of the 90s, flirting with disaster. i love patricia in that ('they bump you and then they kill you --') and the entire cast is top-notch. mary tyler moore, lily tomlin, george segal and alan alda are so funny. i can watch flirting with disaster over and over and i always enjoyed patricia's performance to the max but her character in the film is a new mother and i love her performance even more now that i am a new mother. i love mary tyler moore's smoking bit (they won't let her smoke around the baby) and lily as a guide when an f.b.i. agend gets doped with l.s.d. is hilarious. tea leoni is also very great in it. she has a funny line where she tries to light up in lily and alan's home (they're hippies who make money by manufacturing illegal drugs) and she says something like, 'i guess it's your basic, pro-acid, ex-felon, anti-smoking house.' ben stiller's patricia's husband. there are about 7 other characters in the film. it's really a great movie. if you've never seen it, rent it.
ben's adopted. mary tyler moore and george segal are his adoptive parents. now that he's a father, he wants to find his biological parents. there are some mis-steps along the way because tea twice matches him with the wrong parents. it's very funny.
a chinese zodiac and a post office get destroyed.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Monday, March 10, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, Barack Obama's 'pledge' wasn't a pledge but watch Panhandle Media play dumb, the US military announces the deaths of US service members today, reconstruction and more.
Starting with war resistance. "The most common hostility that I faced was the ostracism of many of my peers: the young soldiers of the same rank as I," Aidan Delgado explained to Dewey Hammond last August in an interview timed for the release of his book d The Sutras Of Abu Ghraib: Notes From A Conscientious Objector In Iraq. As the book title notes, Delgado is a CO and Hammond asks him, "At what pointfor you did it become clear that being a soldier could not coexist with being Buddhist?"
Aidan Delgado: After enlistment, during Basic and Advanced training, I began to study and became far more serious about Buddhism but I still felt that there was some way to allow the ideals of being a soldier and the ideals of being a Buddhist to coexist. When I deployed to Iraq and had all the abstractions peeled away, saw what it truly meant to be a soldier, was when I finally decided that Buddhism and militarism were incompatible. That is not to imply that it was a sudden "revelation" on my part; to the contrary, it was the final stage of a long process of questioning and maturation on my part. I didn't suddenly decide that war was wrong when I deployed to Iraq, I knew it already intellectually, but it took the direct experience of war to make it real for me and give me the courage to oppose it.
.
All war resisters show courage by resisting and war resisters in Canada could use some people backing them up. They were dealt a serious set-back when the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey. Today, Canada's Parliament remaining the best hope for safe harbor war resisters have, you can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. That is the sort of thing that should receive attention but instead it's ignored.There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).Meanwhile IVAW has a DC action this month:In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & AfghanistanMarch 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." IVAW's co-chair Adam Kokesh will, of course, be participating and he explains why at his site, "But out of a strong sense of duty, some of us are trying to put our experiences to use for a good cause. Some of us couldn't live with ourselves if weren't doing everything we could to bring our brothers and sisters home as soon as possible. The environment may be unking, but that is why I will be testifying to shooting at civilians as a result of changing Rules of Engagement, abuse of detainees, and desecration of Iraqi bodies. It won't be easy but it must be done. Some of the stories are things that are difficult to admit that I was a part of, but if one more veteran realizes that they are not alone because of my testimony it will be worth it." The hearings will be broadcast throughout at the Iraq Veterans Against the War home page an on KPFA March 14th and 16th with Aimee Allison (co-host of the station's The Morning Show and co-author with David Solnit of Army Of None) and Aaron Glantz hosting and the KPFA live stream will also be available at Glantz' War Comes Home.
Over the weekend, Michael McGuire (The Evening Sun) reports, that IVAW's Daniel Black "spoke about his military experiences to a small group in the community room at the Guernsey Memorial Library in Norwich. Thursday, he gave a talk to students at Hartwick College sponsored by the Iraq-Iran Group of the Coalition for Democracy of Central New York." Mason Kerns (Des Moines Register) reports that IVAW was among those protesting Karl Rove at the Univeristy of Iowa (Rove gave a speech there over the weekend) while April West (The Lawrentian) reports that IVAW's John Knox spoke on the Lawrence University campus at the invitation of the Multicultural Affairs Committee and he "discussed the demographics of those in the Army as well as recruiters' tactics. The bulk of new army recruits' parents make a combined $30,000 - 50,000 a year and are from Texas, he said. Knox described an exponential correlation in which the more money a family makes the less likely they are to have children in the Army." Justin Hughes (Golden Gate [X]Press) reports that IVAW's Michael Blake joined with Iraqi journalist Salam Talib to speak at San Francisco State University with Blake explaining, "We are using Iraq to project power throughout the Middle East. . . . These guys are getting filthy stinking rich off this war while everyone else is suffering. From their perspective, the war is going very well."
From whose perspective is it okay to tell the voters a known lie?
Stephen Sackur: You said that he'll revisit it [the decision to pull troops] when he goes to the White House. So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out within sixteen months, isn't a commitment is it?
Samantha Power: You can't make a commitment in whatever month we're in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are going to be like in January 2009. We can'te ven tell what Bush is up to in terms of troops pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US Senator.
We noted the above on Friday. The then foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama, Samantha Power, speaking to the BCC. Most haven't noted the story (the list includes The Nation, Common Dreams, The Progressive among others, see The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Editorial: The Whores of Indymedia" ). AP noted it. Gideon Rachman (Financial Times of London) lies but notes not only did Power say it on the BBC, Power also stated similar things to Rachman last week. Rachman's lie is that Samantha Power was against the illegal war before it started. As John R. MacArthur (Common Deams) noted in 2005 -- before so many War Hawks started going in for Extreme Makeovers -- the "humanists such as [George] Packer, [Samantha] Power, and Michael Ignatieff signed on with the neo-conservative crowd for a 'democracy-building' project in Iraq". David Corn (Mother Jones) embarrasses himself (but give him credit, like Rachman, for not pretending the BBC interview never took place -- many others pretended it didn't take place). Corn excuses Power's remarks but they don't need any excuse. She spoke the truth, it's Corn who's spinning claiming that all it means is "a campaign proposal is just that: a proposal." Since Corny's among the crowd 'jazzed' by the 'youth' for Bambi, Corny should be aware that what his 'seasoned' and non-reasoned (remember his attacks on Gary Webb?) 'insider' status allows him to 'know' is not a known to people turning out at Obama's rallies and hearing him pledge to pull all combat troops out of Iraq in 16 months. What it is, and Corn knows this, is a lie -- a big fat lie. Samantha Power revealed it as such in her interview with the BBC and Corn quotes from it selectively. He really needs to be ashamed of himself. It's the sort of crap that makes Mother Jones just another whore in Panhandle Media and they really ought to be ashamed because more than any other outlet, they used to march to their own drum. Now they've got their hands out begging like every other cheap hustler. Barack Obama has declared in ads and speeches that he will withdraw troops 16 months from being sworn in.
Kristen Senz (The Union Leader) reported that in November, "If elected, Obama vowed to end the war in Iraq within 16 months". Does David Corn think Senz misunderstood? Use the link, it goes to Barack Obama's site which reposted that article under the heading "Change We Can Believe In." "Believe in me" says Bambi. He's got no record to run on, so he's run on personality and told everyone he has 'judgement' and can be 'trusted.' But he's lying. Need more from "Change We Can Believe In"? Barack's campaign has posted Peter Hecht (Sacramento Bee) reporting Bambi declared, "As president I will end the war in Iraq. I will bring the troops home. They will be home in 16 months. . . . America, San Francisco. Our moment is now. You can't wait any longer. Our moment to bring about change is now." Sounds like a promise because that's what he wants people to hear it as. On October 2nd (again, link goes to Bambi's campaign site) his campaign posted his speech that day which included Barack declaring, "The first thing we ahve to do is end this war. . . . I will remove one or two brigades a month, and get all of our combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months." That's pretty damn clear unless your name is David Corn. December 18th, campaigning in Iowa, he declared that if he was "the Democratic nominee, I will offer a clear choice. My opponent won't be able to say that I ever supported the war in Iraq, or that I don't support a clear timetable to bring out troops home." He also stated in that speech, "So when you consider who to caucus for, I ask you to consider myjudgement and vision for new American leadership. Leadership that brings our combat brigades out of Iraq in 16 months, renews American diplomacy, finishes . . ." Get the point?
He's campaigned on this over and over in speeches and commercials. Tom Hayden has assumed it was a real pledge. He's written column after column praising Bambi. You better believe others have taken Bambi at his word. At the Barack Obama campaign website it reads here that "In September 2007, he laid out a detailed plan for how he will end the war as president. Bring Our Troops Home Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat briages out of Iraq within 16 months." Will is the verb in the final sentence (written by Bambi's campaign and posted on his website). While David Corn embarrasses himself, NBC' Domenico Montanaro (reporting on the same press call Corn did) explains that "when (now former) top Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power told BBC that Obama 'will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator,' the Clinton campaign found something tangible to seize on."
And the Hillary Clinton campaign released "MEMO: Obama's Iraq Plan: Just Words" which opens with, "Once again, it looks like Senator Obama is telling voters one thing while his campaign says those words should not be mistaken for serious action. After months of speeches from Senator Obama promising a hard end date to the Iraq war, his top foreign policy adviser that counseled his campaign during that period is on the record saying that Senator Obama will 'not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. Senator. Voters already have serious questions about whether Senator Obama is ready to be Commander-in-Chief. Now there are questions about whether he's seriou about the Iraq plan he's discussed for the last year on the campaign trail. . . . It turns out those attacks and speeched were just words. And if you can't trust Senator Obama's words, what's left?" Nothing. And certainly nothing that indicates the illegal war's ending.
While Bambi tries to figure out what he thinks today, people are dying. In fact, 8 US service members appear to have died today. Nancy A. Youssef and Hannah Allam (McClatchy Newspapers) report that at a time when most outlets are aware of 5 dead. Deborah Haynes (Times of London) reports, "Five American soldiers were killed and three wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a foot patrol in Baghdad today, in the deadliest strike against the US military in the city since last June." And that was when it was five (the other three dead are not the three wounded in the bombing we're focusing on right now.) CBS and AP note that an Iraqi interpreter was also injured in the bombing. CNN offers, "The explosion marks the deadliest attack against the US military since five soldiers were killed January 28 in a roadside bombing in Mosul." Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) explains, "Iraqi police said a man with explosives strapped to his waist walked up to the soldiers during a foot patrol int he upscale Mansour meighborhood and blew him self up. The blast also killed an Iraqi civilian and injured 11 other Iraqis, police and hospital officials said." That brings the total number of US service members killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war to 3980. But, as noted before, Youssef and Allam write that 8 died today and they report 3 more "died while on a patrol in Diyala province, the official said. He asked not to be identified as he isn't an official spokesman." Now might be a good time to note that Rear Admr. Gregory Smith declared yesterday in his Iraq press conference, "I would not look at the last few weeks as an increase or a trend of an increase."
In other reported violence today . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Baghdad truck bombing that claimed the life of 1 person and left five more wounded, a Baghdad mortar attack wounded two people, a Baghdad roadside bombing wounded two people, a Baghdad car bombing claimed 1 life and left four people wounded a Diyala Province bombing that claimed the lives of 2 police officers and left twenty people wounded, a Diyala Province roadside bombing that claimed the life of an Iraqi soldier and wounded two others in the Iraqi military and a bombing targeting the Sulaimaniyah Palace Hotel which claimed the life of 1 guard and left thirty-four people injured. Reuters reports a Diyala Province bombing today credited to "female suicide bomber" which has claimed the life of Thaer Saggban al-Karkhi who had been a US collaborator in an "Awakening" Council (and whom Reuters describes as "a prominent Sunni Arab tribal chief") as well as three people with him. Al Arabiya News Channel notes the dead includes two bodyguards and one of the chief's niece and that another bombing in the same province took place at a police station and resulted in 2 deaths and twenty-two people being injured.
Shootings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 1 police officer shot dead in Salahuddin Province. Reuters notes an armed clash in Mosul left 2 dead and two more wounded.
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad while Dr. Khalid Nasir's corpse was discovered in Basra. In the continuing targeting of educators, doctors and officials, Dr. Nasir was kidnapped on Sunday. CBS and AP note, "According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry released earlier this year, 618 medical employees, including 132 doctors, as well as medics and other health care workers, have been killed nationwide since 2003."
Yesterday, James Glanz (New York Times) reported that senators Carl Levin and John Warner's plan to use their positions on the Senate Armed Service Committee in order to determine "how Iraq is spending its soaring oil revenue" two months after the 'accountability' office in Iraq "reported that Iraq had spent a meager 4.4 percent of its 2007 reconstruction budget by August of that year, the most recent figures available at the time." CNN adds: "Iraq's ability to spend its $10.1 billion capital projects budget in 2007 was one of the 18 benchmarks used to assess U.S. progress in stabilizing and rebuilding Iraq, according to the GAO. The United States has spent more than $47 billion on Iraqi reconstruction efforts since 2003, according to the 2008 quarterly audit by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction."
3/07/2008
sammy power gone, bambi scrambles
Barack Obama's foreign policy adviser resigned yesterday after describing Hillary Clinton as a "monster" who would do anything to win.
The departure of Samantha Power for insulting remarks made to The Scotsman newspaper during a visit to London reflects how the Democratic presidential race has been transformed in the past five days.
After weeks in which Mr Obama had shrugged off Mrs Clinton’s flailing attacks, he is now the candidate who appears most rattled with his campaign promising to go negative itself -- and making mistakes.
Earlier this week Mr Obama fled a press conference asking him awkward questions about his relationship with former fundraiser, Tony Rezko.
David Axelrod, Mr Obama's strategist, later responded by threatening to dredge up material about Mrs Clinton's past -- including the Whitewater scandal -- but her campaign was swift to compare him to Ken Starr, the notorious investigator who hounded the White House in the 1990s.
that's from tom baldwin and tim reid's 'Obama aide Samantha Power quits over Hillary 'monster' gibe' (times of london). little sammy power quit her job. the menance to the globe has left her shoe-in position as secretary of state in an obama administration. of course, there may not be much chance that bambi will end up getting the nomination. before she quit, sammy revealed that bambi's pretty-words at rallies about how he would end the illegal war were nothing but talk.
trina and i are both highlighting this from hillary's campaign, 'Hillary Clinton: Protecting Those Who Protect Us:'
Today in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Lt. General Joe Ballard and Brigadier General John M. Watkins, Jr. joined Hillary Clinton as she spoke about her plans to ensure that we take care of our brave young men and women in uniform. She outlined her plans to provide health care for all veterans, make sure that all veterans and families receive the benefits they are entitled to, and to ease their transition to life back home.
A RECORD OF DELIVERING FOR MISSISSIPPI’S VETERANS AND SERVICE MEMBERS
Hillary Clinton has a long history of fighting for our veterans and, as President, will work to ensure our country fulfills its obligations to those who have served and sacrificed for the nation. Hillary has the record and experience to deliver that change.
That's why she has always fought for veterans in the Senate. From tokens of respect, like free postage when you write to a service member in Iraq or Afghanistan. To practical help, like providing expanded access to temporary housing when you move so you don’t have to pay out of your own pocket. To the critical work of helping care for our wounded warriors by expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act and by passing elements of the Heroes at Home Act to help family members care for those with Traumatic Brain Injury. And she will always fight for you as President.
Expanding TRICARE Access. Hillary Clinton crossed the aisle to work with Senator Lindsey Graham to get access to TRICARE, the military health insurance program, for all National Guard members and Reservists, even when they are not deployed. As a result of Hillary's work with Senator Graham, the more than 12,000 members of Mississippi's National Guard have access to TRICARE.
Supporting Service Members with TBI. Senator Clinton authored the Heroes at Home Act, which would establish a program to help families learn how to care for returning veterans with TBI, as well as require DoD to do pre- and post-deployment screenings.
Increasing Survivor Benefit. She worked with others in the Senate to pass legislation to increase the military survivor benefit from $12,000 to $100,000.
Extending FMLA Benefits. She helped pass the Support for Injured Servicemembers Act, which extends the benefits provided under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by allowing the families of wounded military personnel to take up to six months of unpaid leave to care for their loved ones during the often lengthy rehabilitation process.
Improving TBI Screening and Care. She successfully included a provision in the recently enacted Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act to mandate that the Department of Defense implement a screening protocol for Traumatic Brain Injury within 180 days. In addition, in 2006, Senator Clinton authored provisions in the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 that increased research into ways to improve TBI care for veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A CHAMPION FOR VETERANS
When Hillary is President, she will make sure that every member of our armed forces will receive a fair shot at the American Dream when their service is over. She will ensure that every veteran in America will have health care. She will work so that every veteran receives the benefits they have earned and the assistance they need - right from the start. And she will make sure no soldier ever loses a bonus because he or she has been injured in service. As President, Hillary will:
Enact a GI Bill of Rights for the Twenty-first Century. Hillary will enact a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century that will resurrect the spirit of the original 1944 GI Bill and offer service members, veterans and their families with expanded education, housing and entrepreneurial benefits. Her plan will guarantee equal access for all components of the Armed Forces -- Active, Guard and Reserve -- that have deployed overseas in support of a combat operation since September 11 or served two years of active duty since September 11. She will fund undergraduate education for service members, as well as education for specialized trade or technical training, and certification and licensing programs. She will make GI educational benefits transferable within families. She will expand the VA Home Loan Guaranty program to allow veterans to use low-interest, no-fee loans to purchase, build or improve a home valued up to $625,000. She will establish a Veterans Microloan Program to provide veterans with no-collateral, low-interest microloans of up to $100,000 for entrepreneurial ventures.
Fully Fund the VA. Senator Clinton believes there is no more important way of honoring veterans than ensuring they can receive quality care through the VA. As President, she will push to have guaranteed funding for the VA. She does not believe the VA should be fighting every year to get money for the people who take care of us.
Provide Affordable and Quality Health Care for All Veterans. As President, Hillary will ensure that all of the 1.8 million uninsured veterans in this country have access to quality, affordable health care. She will restore the Clinton-era policy that opened the VA's excellent and cost-effective health care system to all veterans who seek to enroll. She will make a long-term commitment to the VA system to ensure it is adequately funded and has the capacity to avoid backlogs and to handle greater enrollments. And she will provide coverage through the American Health Choices Plan to all veterans who choose not to use the VA system.
Ensure All Veterans Receive the Benefits They Have Earned and the Assistance They Need -- Right from the Start. As President, Hillary will commit to getting a fair, accurate, and timely decision for every veteran filing a disability claim. She will increase the number of qualified VA evaluators to reduce the backlog of claims. She will provide fast-track training for new claims specialists and expand the Benefits Delivery at Discharge Program to smooth the transition from service to discharge for all those who serve our country.
Extend Hiring Preferences to Veterans-friendly Contractors. Today, there are between 7.2 and 7.6 million federal contractors, 2 million more than there were five years ago. The privatization of government by the Bush administration has meant veterans are losing job opportunities, because contractors do not necessarily have the same hiring policies as the federal government. Hillary will cut the number of contractors working for the federal government by 500,000 over the next 10 years, saving $10 to $18 billion a year. And she will restore and expand job opportunities for veterans by working to establish a system through which federal contractors afford veterans hiring preference comparable to the federal government’s.
Give Veterans Additional Opportunities to Serve. Hillary will make vouchers worth up to $10,000 available to returning veterans who want to serve in AmeriCorps and select not-for-profit organizations. These organizations would provide at least $5,000 to supplement the voucher. This system will help veterans create normal routines and reenter their communities while doing meaningful work serving their country. Hillary will make this subsidy available to as many as 20,000 veterans a year.
Reduce Homelessness among Veterans. In 2006, nearly 200,000 veterans were homeless on any given night. Hillary will establish a pilot program on homelessness prevention for veterans that will provide subsidies, eviction prevention, and one-time assistance for veterans who fall behind on their rent. She will also expand rental assistance for veterans by calling on Congress to fund an additional 20,000 housing choice vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans.
Expand the Helmets to Hardhats Program. Hillary will increase funding for the Helmets to Hardhats program. This program links veterans with local job opportunities in the construction and trade industries by offering apprenticeship programs that teach veterans through on-the-job training supplemented by classroom instruction.
Expand Veterans Homeownership. Hillary will make homeownership more affordable for veterans. Veterans will receive a 50% discount on foreclosed properties in the government’s inventory, which currently stands at 35,000 homes. And she will eliminate the upfront fees on VA mortgages for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who take out VA loans within two years of leaving active duty.
if you're against the war or for it, you better be concerned about what happens when service members come home. we do not need to create more homeless in a country where it's already an epidemic no 1 talks about. we do not need to have people returning to this country with injuries - received due to the white house - that they do not get medical treatment (or sufficient medical treatment) for. the war is illegal. every 1 serving should rebel. but every 1 won't and whether it's some 1 who was opposed to the illegal war or for it, they were sent there by the white house. it is the government's job to ensure that they are provided for.
so that's hillary's plan. now let me highlight barack obama's plan.
[crickets chirp.]
oh, sorry, bambi has no plan. but, you know what, he's promised that if elected, he will put an inspiring speech on a disc and send it to each returning service member. he says his words are more valuable than gold and have been known to heal.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Friday, March 7, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, War Hawk Sammy Power Down and taking the Obama campaign with her, International Women's Day, Bambi's not so 'anti-war' and more.
Starting with war resistance. Julie Muhlstein (HeraldNet) reports that Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimber's documentary Soldiers of Conscience will be shown at 10:30 Saturday morning in the Historic Everett Theatre as part of the Everett Women's Film Festival. "Their country asked them to kill, their hearts told them to stop" is the tagline in some promotional materials for the film that won Best Documentary at both the Rhode Island International Film Festival and Ireland's Foyle Film Festival. Ryan (co-director and co-producer) will be present Saturday as part of the filmmaker forum. Among those featured in the documentary is war resister Aidan Delgado who told his story of serving in Iraq and rejecting the illegal war in The Sutras Of Abu Ghraib: Notes From A Conscientious Objector In Iraq. In the book, Delgado explains how he knew the whispers of abuse at Abu Ghraib weren't false speculation -- they're all called in for a speech by a commander:
There's no doubt now that everything we've heard about is true, and it must be even worse than we thought, for the commander himself to get on our backs about it. All a family? I laugh. We're only a family when the captain wants us to do his bidding or conceal some wrongdoing. The Army has tried that rhetoric before, talking about family and Army pride and everything else to try to get you to buy into what they do. When the Army talks about "handling something internally," it's only because they've done something so obviously wrong, they can't allow the rest of the country to see it. This doesn't surprise me. After all, if Americans back home saw Iraqi prisoners shot dead for throwing stones, saw the wretched conditions inside Abu, or saw the way the MPs dealt with the prisoners, what would they think of our glorious and righteous invasion? The truth about Abu Ghraib has to be concealed, has to be "kept in the family," because if the average citizen saw what we're doing to the people here, they would know in their guts that it's un-American.
Delgado's journey doesn't begin in the excerpt (read the book) and every war resister has a moment where they realize they can't take part in the illegal war. For some, it may be after they serve in Iraq and see it with their own eyes, for others it may come as they begin exploring the 'reasons' given for the Iraq War, some have a religous awakening . . . Every individual has their own story and these are the stories that are not being told.
Among the stories that need to be told due to a window of time are the stories of war resisters who went to Canada. They were dealt a serious set-back when the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey. Today, Canada's Parliament remaining the best hope for safe harbor war resisters have, you can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. That is the sort of thing that should receive attention but instead it's ignored.There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).Meanwhile IVAW has a DC action this month:In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & AfghanistanMarch 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." IVAW's co-chair Adam Kokesh will, of course, be participating and he explains why at his site, "But out of a strong sense of duty, some of us are trying to put our experiences to use for a good cause. Some of us couldn't live with ourselves if weren't doing everything we could to bring our brothers and sisters home as soon as possible. The environment may be unking, but that is why I will be testifying to shooting at civilians as a result of changing Rules of Engagement, abuse of detainees, and desecration of Iraqi bodies. It won't be easy but it must be done. Some of the stories are things that are difficult to admit that I was a part of, but if one more veteran realizes that they are not alone because of my testimony it will be worth it." The hearings will be broadcast throughout at the Iraq Veterans Against the War home page an on KPFA March 14th and 16th with Aimee Allison (co-host of the station's The Morning Show and co-author with David Solnit of Army Of None) and Aaron Glantz hosting and the KPFA live stream will also be available at Glantz' War Comes Home.
Today, at Foreign Policy in Focus, Aaron Glantz reports more on the upcoming action:
"We have given a blanket invitation to Congress," said Camilo Mejia, the Chair of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War. "We hope the Congress will give these hearings the same attention they did during the Vietnam era."
But action from politicians is only one possible outcome. Mejia says IVAW also hopes Winter Soldier will increase the size and strength of GI Resistance against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The event is going to empower soldiers to follow their conscience whatever that means for them," said Mejia . . . "The kinds of things we're talking about are non-partisan. They're non-political. They have to do with human being trapped in this atrocity producing situation."
Meanwhile, it was not a good day to be Our Modern Day Carrie Nations or, as Samantha Power prefers to be called, "the humanitarian War Hawk." Last night, The Scotsman was making news with Power's insults of US Senator Hillary Clinton and "the poor" in America and, generally, just flashing that foul mouth everyone knows about but generally ignroes. The morning started with Sammy Power expressing 'sorrow.' She wasn't sorry and we're not going to play around with this story. Here's reality, the press was lining up this morning the stories on this and talking to one another (as they are prone to do) for background examples of other times Sammy Power has personally (and destructively) insulted Hillary Clinton. When it was obvious that those stories would come out if she stayed with the campaign she 'resigned.' At The New Statesman, she was flaunting her War Hawk nature in an interview (as well as that foul mouth). [Personal note: I'm sure I could match Sammy swear word for swear word, but I wasn't planning on becoming Secretary of State.] Lynn Sweet (Chicago Sun-Times) was one of the first out of the gate noting that Sammy Power "resigned as a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Barack Obama" this afternoon. Her calling Hillary a "monster" did matter, it was off sides -- both for a future Secretary of State as well as for a professor at Harvard. It's a shame Obama still lacks the leadership to take control of his campaign -- that would have required firing Power. Instead she resigned indicating that he's unable to run a campaign as well as unable to tell the truth. Power -- who also went to work for Obama in 2005 when he was first elected to the US Senate (November 2004) -- also had to deal with the BBC interview she'd given. Barack Obama has not promised to pull ALL troops out of Iraq in 16 months. He has promised the American people that "combat" troops would be removed. But promises, promises (as Dionne Warwick once sang) . . .
Stephen Sackur: You said that he'll revisit it [the decision to pull troops] when he goes to the White House. So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out within sixteen months, isn't a commitment is it?
Samantha Power: You can't make a commitment in whatever month we're in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are going to be like in January 2009. We can'te ven tell what Bush is up to in terms of troops pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US Senator.
Which would mean Mr. Pretty Speeches has been lying to the American people. (Add the "AGAIN!")
Her rise was swift, her fall even faster. Our Modern Day Carrie Nations took part in the "Bring the troops home and send them to Darfur" nonsense. [For more on that nutso crowd, see Julie Hollar's "The Humanitarian Tempatation" (Extra!).] Despite presenting herself recently as against the Iraq War from the start, the public record has never backed that up. But it is true that she wanted wars in Africa and was selling them under "humanitarian" guise. "Stop the killing!" she cried but if she really wanted to stop the killing, she might have tried to speak out against the ongoing genocie in Iraq (which has also produced the largest refugee crisis in the world). She didn't care about that. Probably because it demonstrates that sending armed forces in is not an answer. Again, if Barack Obama had any leadership abilities, he would have announced today that he fired his longterm advisor. He did not, she resigned. (She foolishly doesn't grasp that this is her Alexander Haig moment and there is no comeback.) Power was not a campaigner, she was a high level, longterm foreign policy advisor being groomed to be the next Secretary of State. As Krissah Williams (Washington Post) notes, Senator Clinton's response to Power's BBC interview was to note Power's agreement that Obama's pledge to have "combat" troops out in 16 months was never more than a "best-case scenario". Hillary Clinton: "Senator Obama has made his speech opposing Iraq in 2002 and the war in Iraq the core of his campaign, which makes these comments especially troubling. While Senator Obama campaigns on his [pledge] to end the war, his top advisers tell people abroad that he will not rely on his own plan should he become president. This is the latest example of promising the American people one thing on the campaign trail and telling people in other countries another. You saw this with NAFTA as well."
Meanwhile Tom Hayden again offers Barack advice from the heart, from love. At Common Dreams, Hayden feels that, "The only policy difference favoring Obama that goes straight to the issue of 'experience' is Iraq. It no longer is enough that Obama opposed the war five years ago, especially if it appears that there are no differences between the candidates now. For whatever reason, Obama has allowed Clinton to appear to take an identical stand on the war. Is that true? Or is it time for Obama to issue a further clarification of his position separating him from both Clinton and McCain? The peace movement and media can play a role here." Tom then asks, "Does Clinton propose a timetable for withdrawing combat troops, like Obama does?" Apparently Tom missed Sammy's interview -- Obama has no proposal. As Sammy notes, things change, who can say? Should we expect Hayden's endorsement of Hillary anytime soon? Or will he again plan to 'represent' the peace movement by covering for the 'anti-war' candidate -- one whose own foreign policy advisor (she was that when she gave the interview) informs is saying words he'd not planning to live up to?
Meanwhile violence continues in Iraq . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports two Mosul roadside bombings that wounded fourteen people and claimed the life of 1 police officer and a Mosul car bombing that claimed the lives of 4 police officers and left thirty-three people wounded.
Shootings?
Reuters notes US forces in Samarra "killed eight suspected al Qaeda fighters" (and they note the death toll from yesterday's Baghdad bombings rose to 68).
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani is in Turkey for day one of a two-day visit. Zerin Elci (Reuters) reports that he has "pledged Iraq's backing for Turkey in its fight against Kurdish PKK rebels on Friday, just one week after Ankara ended a major army ground offensive against the guerrillas in northern Iraq." That's where Talabani is, where's Moqtada al-Sadr? Earlier today, Khaled Farhan (Reuters) reported:Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has not been seen in public for months, issued an unusual statement on Friday explaining his absence to his followers and admitting splits in his movement."I swear that I live with you and among you. I am a part of you. I will not change this unless death separates us," he said in a two-page statement bearing his personal stamp.The statement was issued two weeks after Sadr extended a ceasefire by his Mehdi Army for another six months. He first called on the militia, blamed by the U.S. military and Sunni Arabs for fuelling sectarian violence, to halt its activities in August so that he could reorganise it.
BBC notes, "May of his followers had split from him 'for materalistic reasons or because they wanted to be independent,' he said" in the statement. While Sadr City residents feel targeted, al-Sadr's not there. He's renewed a cease-fire/truce that the residents didn't favor and the attitude then (which is only growing) is, "Why should we listen to someone who's not even here standing with us?" (He's rumored to be in Najaf, working as a hotel clerk.) A "leader" has to be seen as standing with (and suffering with) the people. al-Sadr is not seen as such currently and his little 'gift' of a message won't have much impact. Already the rumbles have moved on to wonder if he is collaborating with the US and every day he is out of Sadr City, he is futher weakened. That isn't at all surprising and any student of history could have seen it coming. In his absence, the rumors circulate and issuing 'press releases' to the residents of Sadr City will not raise his standing.
And we'll close with one topic. Saturday is International Women's Day. Feminist Wire Daily explains, "International Women's Day (IWD) will be celebrated this Saturday across the world. According to the IWD website, this year marks the 97th annual celebration. Counties including Armenia, Russia, and Vietnam recognize IWD as an official holiday, but hundreds of celebrations happen all over the world on March 8th." and arrives as Women for Women International has released a new study on Iraqi women. Zainab Salbi writes in the introduction to [PDF format warning] "Stronger Women, Stronger Nations: 2008 Iraq Report:"
In Iraq, violence against women increased within months of March 2003 U.S. invasion. There were assassinations and abductions of Iraqi professional women, in the country and abroad. Hair salons were bombed, and there were threats to women who drove or didn't cover their hair. Soon every politician, businessperson, professional Iraqi and foreigner became vulnerable to kidnapping and attack and remains so today. This issue has become menacing enough to impede development efforts in the country. But the increasingly precarious status of women was and continues to be seen as a secondary issue, a distraction from the bigger political debates.
Since 2003, the discussion of women's role in Iraqi society and their earnest participation in reconstruction has shrunk from one of legitimate substance to obligatory quantity. In 2004, as plans for Iraq's new constitution were underway and "women's issues" were designated as a priority, the initial request of setting aside 40 percent of the seats in parliament for women was negotiated down to 25 percent.
[. . .]
Once the fighting ends, it is women who pick up the pieces of their families and mend the social fabric of their communities. Yet this crucial role is rarely acknowledged. Sustainable peace, democracy and economic development depend on women's social, political and economic participation. Unless there is a clear understanding of the obstacles and avenues to women's access to development resources and the political will to enact gender equitable policies, any blueprint for sustainable peace risks being place perilously out of reach. Thus, the incorporation of women's views into traditionally male-dominated political processes is vital to achieving sustainable peace, democracy, and prosperity.
Of course, to believe that, you'd have to believe that women matter, you'd have to accept the realities of the gender barriers worldwide and you'd have to grasp how under attack all women are, every day, around the globe. If you're a woman, you'd also have to have at least a little self-respect. As evidenced by the non-stop attacks on Hillary Clinton coming from so many and the refusal of women in the United States who do not support Hillary to call these attacks out, women still don't matter in the United States and Bash the Bitch remains the national pasttime.
The report informs that in 2004, 90.6 percent of Iraqi women surveyed were "optimistic about the future" and that, in 2007, the number stating they were optimistic fell to 26.9 percent. 88 percent of respondents "expressed a great deal of concern that they or someone living in their households would become a victim of violence." In addition, the number stating that the presence of US forces and British forces were making things worse was 65.3 percent and 67.9 percent "stated that their ability to walk down the street as they please has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion." As the illegal war hits the fifth year mark this year, things are not improving, they are only getting worse. The report details the hazards of just conducting the survey with details such as "For security reasons, women in Al-Sadr City, Al-Kamalyah, and Al-Ubadi gathered in groups of five in a woman's home and met with a staff member to complete the questionnaire." The respondents repeatedly cited the following as "the biggest problems facing Iraq as a whole":
* High/rising prices
* Housing availability/prices
* Lack of security
* US occupation/presence
On basic issues of mobility, the illegal war has had a huge impace: "86.0% of respondents said they are not able to walk down the street as they please; 67.9% of respondents stated that their ability to walkd won the street as they please has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion; 68.3% of women are not able to drive a car; 53.7% of respondents say that their ability to drive a car has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion; 48.6% of respondents said that they are not able to work outside the home; and 56.7% of respondents said that their ability to work outside the home has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion." As a result, 74.5 percent of Iraqi women now avoid leaving the home, 63.2 percent are not allowing their children to go to school ("most commonly in parts of Baghdad"), 38.5 percent say rape is increasing, 30.4 percent see an increase in the trafficking of women, 29.6 percent see an increase in prostitution. Why is that? The three most repeated answers were:
* There is less respect for women's rights than before
* Women are thought of as possessions
* The economy has gotten worse
Asked to rank "the biggest threat to national security," the women chose US and British soldiers (43.9 percent) followed closely by the Iraqi militias (32.6 percent). From the report:
A group of women in Karbala was asked what they would do if they were in charge of the country. They said, "We would first ask the Americans to leave immediately. Second, we will address the poverty situation in Iraq which is impacting us the most." One woman added, "If I was the president of the country, I would make filling the stomach of the old people as my utmost priority." When asked what was neeeded, 70.0% of respondents said that rebuilding infrastructure such as roads, wells, drains and public buildings was necessary for the welfare of their communities. Other priorities included programs designed to help communities take care of their own needs and emergency relief such as food, shelter and emergency medical services.
The report concludes with "Action Agenda for Women" which argues for proving "that freedom is not inconsistent with safety"; restoring infrastructure throughout the country, addressing the economic needs of women, supporting "women's organizations and umbrella groups" and strengthening "democracy through education." Again the thirty-four page report is in PDF format and entitled "Stronger Women, Stronger Nations: 2008 Iraq Report." In non-PDF form, an overview is provided here. The founder of Women for Women, Zainab Salbi, remembers (at Womens Media Center) her own last visit to Iraq (in 2004), "My colleague who picked me up turned to me in the car and said: 'Zainab, remember the basketball hoop your family put in the cul-de-sac in front your home? Al-Mahdi militia has been using the basketball pole to execute Sunnis.' I couldn't believe what he was telling me. 'Zainab,' he continued, 'every day I saw tens of bodies lying in front of your house after being executed. Every day there was a body hanging from the basketball pole. Your home has turned into an execution center'." She remembers traveling Iraq that year and encountering many women including Shatha who told her, "If I was the president of the country, the first thing I would do is ask the Americans to leave. I then would make filling the stomachs of the people my utmost priority, by ending poverty and creating jobs. And thirdly I will focus on education. We can't have a real democracy if we don't have educated people pushing for a real democracy." Zainab Salbi asks that everyone "remember the women who struggle in Iraq and around the world to create peace." AFP notes the report and speaks with two Iraqi women: Asma Kadhim and Eman Ahmad. The latter states, "Before the war in 2003, I used to work in complete freedom. I had my shop and my own car. I was threatened a year back and since then I have stopped working and stopped driving." She had operated a clothing store while Asma Kadhim had operated a hair salon but one day, "There was a stranger at the door. He gave me an envelope which had two bullets and a letter that said 'if you do not close your beauty parlour, we will kill you. Your work is haram (forbidden)'."
January 29th, Deborah Amos (NPR's Day to Day) reported how 'democracy' played out for Iraqi women:
Deborah Amos: Rima, a 48-year-old mother of four, escaped to Syria a year ago. She doesn't want her family name broadcast because of relatives back home. In the kitchen, Rima seems a traditional Iraqi mother preparing food for her son and three daughters but when it came to education, her daughters have advanced college degrees just like her son. In Baghdad, Rima worked for a western aid organization helping improve the lives of poor Iraqi women until militants threatened to kill her.
Rima: So many times I went to places that poor women are living. They knew me. They knew my face.
Deborah Amos: Rima acknowledges that from a distance Baghdad seems safer now but she says she needs guarantees that go beyond safety to take her daughters back there.
Rima: There is no freedom. Can any girl, woman, dressing as she likes, going to jobs, going to colleges as before?
Deborah Amos: There are women in college, there are some.
Rima: But all of them are frightened.
Deborah Amos: Historically Iraqi women had more rights and freedom than many in the Middle East. That status declined in the last years of Saddam's rule, deteriorated further still after the US invastion. Religious conservatives swept to office in Iraq's elections, the new constitution reduced women's rights and religious radicals directly threatened women -- a story told be refugees across the Middle East. In Lebanon, 53-year-old Bosaf and her brother Feraz, live in a low rent neighborhood outside the capital. They fled Iraq's northern city of Mosul in June. Bosaf -- the head librarian at Mosul University -- was threatened she says because of her head scarf. Her university i.d. shows her blond hair covered by a flowered scarf -- a hijab. But that wasn't good enough for Islamist militants in Mosul. Basama -- a dignified, middle-aged woman -- displays a wicked sense of humor when it comes to the young men who dictated her head gear. She drapes a long, black garmet over her head, rolls her eyes in a can-you-believe-they-made-me-wear-this expression and twirls across the living room.
Unidentified woman: They killed many Christians, that's why she had to wear it.
Deborah Amos: But even a proper headscarf was no protection in Basra. Just ask 35-year-old Ala, the name she agrees to use for her family's safety. She worked as a translator for a western aid organization delivering food and school supplies -- a job she knew came with risks. But Ala says the bigger danger is the well armed and powerful in Basra imposing an extreme form of Islam.
Ala: What's happened, the whole change, attract every wrong value -- this is the religion: "God say that!"
Deborah Amos: Do you think it's more dangerous because you're a woman or because you were a translator?
Ala: Woman. Woman, yeah.
Deborah Amos: Ala now expresses her opinions in the relative saftey of exile. She fled to neighboring Jordan last year. But as a refugee there are other dangers for women. Many have been trapped into prostitution, she says.
Ala: Let me show you something.
Deborah Amos: Ala takes a folded piece of paper from her wallet. She says a Jordanian man -- old enough to be her father -- handed it to her when she first arrived.
Ala: Okay. And then he said, just in case my dear daughter -- you need anything, anybody bother you in this country call me any time. And you'll never believe what he gave me. Oh my God.
Deborah Amos: She smooths out the paper, points to a phone number and one Arabic word underlined. A code she understood.
Ala: Marriage. (Ala laughs.)
Deborah Amos: So he was actually proposing marriage to you?
Ala: If that was his proposal. This is what they're using women here unfortunately. Marriage is the gate or the knock for the door.
Deborah Amos: This is how the prostituion happens? You get a note like this?
Ala: How many women actually show the note to the police?
Deborah Amos: Ala has finally left Jordan accepted for resettlement in the United States. Basama in Lebanon and Rima in Syria hope for resettlement too because they believe they have no future in Iraq.
And it's not just Iraqi women who are targeted in Iraq. Jamie Leigh Jones went to Iraq to work for Halliburton's KBR and was drugged, gang-raped and imprisoned . . . by her co-workers. As the Associated Press notes, she currently engaged in a battle to have her case heard in a court while KBR claims an employment contract should cover 'grievances.'
The departure of Samantha Power for insulting remarks made to The Scotsman newspaper during a visit to London reflects how the Democratic presidential race has been transformed in the past five days.
After weeks in which Mr Obama had shrugged off Mrs Clinton’s flailing attacks, he is now the candidate who appears most rattled with his campaign promising to go negative itself -- and making mistakes.
Earlier this week Mr Obama fled a press conference asking him awkward questions about his relationship with former fundraiser, Tony Rezko.
David Axelrod, Mr Obama's strategist, later responded by threatening to dredge up material about Mrs Clinton's past -- including the Whitewater scandal -- but her campaign was swift to compare him to Ken Starr, the notorious investigator who hounded the White House in the 1990s.
that's from tom baldwin and tim reid's 'Obama aide Samantha Power quits over Hillary 'monster' gibe' (times of london). little sammy power quit her job. the menance to the globe has left her shoe-in position as secretary of state in an obama administration. of course, there may not be much chance that bambi will end up getting the nomination. before she quit, sammy revealed that bambi's pretty-words at rallies about how he would end the illegal war were nothing but talk.
trina and i are both highlighting this from hillary's campaign, 'Hillary Clinton: Protecting Those Who Protect Us:'
Today in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Lt. General Joe Ballard and Brigadier General John M. Watkins, Jr. joined Hillary Clinton as she spoke about her plans to ensure that we take care of our brave young men and women in uniform. She outlined her plans to provide health care for all veterans, make sure that all veterans and families receive the benefits they are entitled to, and to ease their transition to life back home.
A RECORD OF DELIVERING FOR MISSISSIPPI’S VETERANS AND SERVICE MEMBERS
Hillary Clinton has a long history of fighting for our veterans and, as President, will work to ensure our country fulfills its obligations to those who have served and sacrificed for the nation. Hillary has the record and experience to deliver that change.
That's why she has always fought for veterans in the Senate. From tokens of respect, like free postage when you write to a service member in Iraq or Afghanistan. To practical help, like providing expanded access to temporary housing when you move so you don’t have to pay out of your own pocket. To the critical work of helping care for our wounded warriors by expanding the Family and Medical Leave Act and by passing elements of the Heroes at Home Act to help family members care for those with Traumatic Brain Injury. And she will always fight for you as President.
Expanding TRICARE Access. Hillary Clinton crossed the aisle to work with Senator Lindsey Graham to get access to TRICARE, the military health insurance program, for all National Guard members and Reservists, even when they are not deployed. As a result of Hillary's work with Senator Graham, the more than 12,000 members of Mississippi's National Guard have access to TRICARE.
Supporting Service Members with TBI. Senator Clinton authored the Heroes at Home Act, which would establish a program to help families learn how to care for returning veterans with TBI, as well as require DoD to do pre- and post-deployment screenings.
Increasing Survivor Benefit. She worked with others in the Senate to pass legislation to increase the military survivor benefit from $12,000 to $100,000.
Extending FMLA Benefits. She helped pass the Support for Injured Servicemembers Act, which extends the benefits provided under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by allowing the families of wounded military personnel to take up to six months of unpaid leave to care for their loved ones during the often lengthy rehabilitation process.
Improving TBI Screening and Care. She successfully included a provision in the recently enacted Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act to mandate that the Department of Defense implement a screening protocol for Traumatic Brain Injury within 180 days. In addition, in 2006, Senator Clinton authored provisions in the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 that increased research into ways to improve TBI care for veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A CHAMPION FOR VETERANS
When Hillary is President, she will make sure that every member of our armed forces will receive a fair shot at the American Dream when their service is over. She will ensure that every veteran in America will have health care. She will work so that every veteran receives the benefits they have earned and the assistance they need - right from the start. And she will make sure no soldier ever loses a bonus because he or she has been injured in service. As President, Hillary will:
Enact a GI Bill of Rights for the Twenty-first Century. Hillary will enact a GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century that will resurrect the spirit of the original 1944 GI Bill and offer service members, veterans and their families with expanded education, housing and entrepreneurial benefits. Her plan will guarantee equal access for all components of the Armed Forces -- Active, Guard and Reserve -- that have deployed overseas in support of a combat operation since September 11 or served two years of active duty since September 11. She will fund undergraduate education for service members, as well as education for specialized trade or technical training, and certification and licensing programs. She will make GI educational benefits transferable within families. She will expand the VA Home Loan Guaranty program to allow veterans to use low-interest, no-fee loans to purchase, build or improve a home valued up to $625,000. She will establish a Veterans Microloan Program to provide veterans with no-collateral, low-interest microloans of up to $100,000 for entrepreneurial ventures.
Fully Fund the VA. Senator Clinton believes there is no more important way of honoring veterans than ensuring they can receive quality care through the VA. As President, she will push to have guaranteed funding for the VA. She does not believe the VA should be fighting every year to get money for the people who take care of us.
Provide Affordable and Quality Health Care for All Veterans. As President, Hillary will ensure that all of the 1.8 million uninsured veterans in this country have access to quality, affordable health care. She will restore the Clinton-era policy that opened the VA's excellent and cost-effective health care system to all veterans who seek to enroll. She will make a long-term commitment to the VA system to ensure it is adequately funded and has the capacity to avoid backlogs and to handle greater enrollments. And she will provide coverage through the American Health Choices Plan to all veterans who choose not to use the VA system.
Ensure All Veterans Receive the Benefits They Have Earned and the Assistance They Need -- Right from the Start. As President, Hillary will commit to getting a fair, accurate, and timely decision for every veteran filing a disability claim. She will increase the number of qualified VA evaluators to reduce the backlog of claims. She will provide fast-track training for new claims specialists and expand the Benefits Delivery at Discharge Program to smooth the transition from service to discharge for all those who serve our country.
Extend Hiring Preferences to Veterans-friendly Contractors. Today, there are between 7.2 and 7.6 million federal contractors, 2 million more than there were five years ago. The privatization of government by the Bush administration has meant veterans are losing job opportunities, because contractors do not necessarily have the same hiring policies as the federal government. Hillary will cut the number of contractors working for the federal government by 500,000 over the next 10 years, saving $10 to $18 billion a year. And she will restore and expand job opportunities for veterans by working to establish a system through which federal contractors afford veterans hiring preference comparable to the federal government’s.
Give Veterans Additional Opportunities to Serve. Hillary will make vouchers worth up to $10,000 available to returning veterans who want to serve in AmeriCorps and select not-for-profit organizations. These organizations would provide at least $5,000 to supplement the voucher. This system will help veterans create normal routines and reenter their communities while doing meaningful work serving their country. Hillary will make this subsidy available to as many as 20,000 veterans a year.
Reduce Homelessness among Veterans. In 2006, nearly 200,000 veterans were homeless on any given night. Hillary will establish a pilot program on homelessness prevention for veterans that will provide subsidies, eviction prevention, and one-time assistance for veterans who fall behind on their rent. She will also expand rental assistance for veterans by calling on Congress to fund an additional 20,000 housing choice vouchers exclusively for homeless veterans.
Expand the Helmets to Hardhats Program. Hillary will increase funding for the Helmets to Hardhats program. This program links veterans with local job opportunities in the construction and trade industries by offering apprenticeship programs that teach veterans through on-the-job training supplemented by classroom instruction.
Expand Veterans Homeownership. Hillary will make homeownership more affordable for veterans. Veterans will receive a 50% discount on foreclosed properties in the government’s inventory, which currently stands at 35,000 homes. And she will eliminate the upfront fees on VA mortgages for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who take out VA loans within two years of leaving active duty.
if you're against the war or for it, you better be concerned about what happens when service members come home. we do not need to create more homeless in a country where it's already an epidemic no 1 talks about. we do not need to have people returning to this country with injuries - received due to the white house - that they do not get medical treatment (or sufficient medical treatment) for. the war is illegal. every 1 serving should rebel. but every 1 won't and whether it's some 1 who was opposed to the illegal war or for it, they were sent there by the white house. it is the government's job to ensure that they are provided for.
so that's hillary's plan. now let me highlight barack obama's plan.
[crickets chirp.]
oh, sorry, bambi has no plan. but, you know what, he's promised that if elected, he will put an inspiring speech on a disc and send it to each returning service member. he says his words are more valuable than gold and have been known to heal.
let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'
Friday, March 7, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, War Hawk Sammy Power Down and taking the Obama campaign with her, International Women's Day, Bambi's not so 'anti-war' and more.
Starting with war resistance. Julie Muhlstein (HeraldNet) reports that Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimber's documentary Soldiers of Conscience will be shown at 10:30 Saturday morning in the Historic Everett Theatre as part of the Everett Women's Film Festival. "Their country asked them to kill, their hearts told them to stop" is the tagline in some promotional materials for the film that won Best Documentary at both the Rhode Island International Film Festival and Ireland's Foyle Film Festival. Ryan (co-director and co-producer) will be present Saturday as part of the filmmaker forum. Among those featured in the documentary is war resister Aidan Delgado who told his story of serving in Iraq and rejecting the illegal war in The Sutras Of Abu Ghraib: Notes From A Conscientious Objector In Iraq. In the book, Delgado explains how he knew the whispers of abuse at Abu Ghraib weren't false speculation -- they're all called in for a speech by a commander:
There's no doubt now that everything we've heard about is true, and it must be even worse than we thought, for the commander himself to get on our backs about it. All a family? I laugh. We're only a family when the captain wants us to do his bidding or conceal some wrongdoing. The Army has tried that rhetoric before, talking about family and Army pride and everything else to try to get you to buy into what they do. When the Army talks about "handling something internally," it's only because they've done something so obviously wrong, they can't allow the rest of the country to see it. This doesn't surprise me. After all, if Americans back home saw Iraqi prisoners shot dead for throwing stones, saw the wretched conditions inside Abu, or saw the way the MPs dealt with the prisoners, what would they think of our glorious and righteous invasion? The truth about Abu Ghraib has to be concealed, has to be "kept in the family," because if the average citizen saw what we're doing to the people here, they would know in their guts that it's un-American.
Delgado's journey doesn't begin in the excerpt (read the book) and every war resister has a moment where they realize they can't take part in the illegal war. For some, it may be after they serve in Iraq and see it with their own eyes, for others it may come as they begin exploring the 'reasons' given for the Iraq War, some have a religous awakening . . . Every individual has their own story and these are the stories that are not being told.
Among the stories that need to be told due to a window of time are the stories of war resisters who went to Canada. They were dealt a serious set-back when the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear the appeals of Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey. Today, Canada's Parliament remaining the best hope for safe harbor war resisters have, you can make your voice heard by the Canadian parliament which has the ability to pass legislation to grant war resisters the right to remain in Canada. Three e-mails addresses to focus on are: Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca -- that's pm at gc.ca) who is with the Conservative party and these two Liberals, Stephane Dion (Dion.S@parl.gc.ca -- that's Dion.S at parl.gc.ca) who is the leader of the Liberal Party and Maurizio Bevilacqua (Bevilacqua.M@parl.gc.ca -- that's Bevilacqua.M at parl.gc.ca) who is the Liberal Party's Critic for Citizenship and Immigration. A few more can be found here at War Resisters Support Campaign. For those in the US, Courage to Resist has an online form that's very easy to use. That is the sort of thing that should receive attention but instead it's ignored.There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters. In addition, VETWOW is an organization that assists those suffering from MST (Military Sexual Trauma).Meanwhile IVAW has a DC action this month:In 1971, over one hundred members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered in Detroit to share their stories with America. Atrocities like the My Lai massacre had ignited popular opposition to the war, but political and military leaders insisted that such crimes were isolated exceptions. The members of VVAW knew differently.Over three days in January, these soldiers testified on the systematic brutality they had seen visited upon the people of Vietnam. They called it the Winter Soldier investigation, after Thomas Paine's famous admonishing of the "summer soldier" who shirks his duty during difficult times. In a time of war and lies, the veterans who gathered in Detroit knew it was their duty to tell the truth.Over thirty years later, we find ourselves faced with a new war. But the lies are the same. Once again, American troops are sinking into increasingly bloody occupations. Once again, war crimes in places like Haditha, Fallujah, and Abu Ghraib have turned the public against the war. Once again, politicians and generals are blaming "a few bad apples" instead of examining the military policies that have destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan.Once again, our country needs Winter Soldiers.In March of 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will gather in our nation's capital to break the silence and hold our leaders accountable for these wars. We hope you'll join us, because yours is a story that every American needs to hear.Click here to sign a statement of support for Winter Soldier: Iraq & AfghanistanMarch 13th through 16th are the dates for the Winter Soldier Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation. Dee Knight (Workers World) notes, "IVAW wants as many people as possible to attend the event. It is planning to provide live broadcasting of the sessions for those who cannot hear the testimony firsthand. 'We have been inspired by the tremendous support the movement has shown us,' IVAW says. 'We believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members'." IVAW's co-chair Adam Kokesh will, of course, be participating and he explains why at his site, "But out of a strong sense of duty, some of us are trying to put our experiences to use for a good cause. Some of us couldn't live with ourselves if weren't doing everything we could to bring our brothers and sisters home as soon as possible. The environment may be unking, but that is why I will be testifying to shooting at civilians as a result of changing Rules of Engagement, abuse of detainees, and desecration of Iraqi bodies. It won't be easy but it must be done. Some of the stories are things that are difficult to admit that I was a part of, but if one more veteran realizes that they are not alone because of my testimony it will be worth it." The hearings will be broadcast throughout at the Iraq Veterans Against the War home page an on KPFA March 14th and 16th with Aimee Allison (co-host of the station's The Morning Show and co-author with David Solnit of Army Of None) and Aaron Glantz hosting and the KPFA live stream will also be available at Glantz' War Comes Home.
Today, at Foreign Policy in Focus, Aaron Glantz reports more on the upcoming action:
"We have given a blanket invitation to Congress," said Camilo Mejia, the Chair of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War. "We hope the Congress will give these hearings the same attention they did during the Vietnam era."
But action from politicians is only one possible outcome. Mejia says IVAW also hopes Winter Soldier will increase the size and strength of GI Resistance against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The event is going to empower soldiers to follow their conscience whatever that means for them," said Mejia . . . "The kinds of things we're talking about are non-partisan. They're non-political. They have to do with human being trapped in this atrocity producing situation."
Meanwhile, it was not a good day to be Our Modern Day Carrie Nations or, as Samantha Power prefers to be called, "the humanitarian War Hawk." Last night, The Scotsman was making news with Power's insults of US Senator Hillary Clinton and "the poor" in America and, generally, just flashing that foul mouth everyone knows about but generally ignroes. The morning started with Sammy Power expressing 'sorrow.' She wasn't sorry and we're not going to play around with this story. Here's reality, the press was lining up this morning the stories on this and talking to one another (as they are prone to do) for background examples of other times Sammy Power has personally (and destructively) insulted Hillary Clinton. When it was obvious that those stories would come out if she stayed with the campaign she 'resigned.' At The New Statesman, she was flaunting her War Hawk nature in an interview (as well as that foul mouth). [Personal note: I'm sure I could match Sammy swear word for swear word, but I wasn't planning on becoming Secretary of State.] Lynn Sweet (Chicago Sun-Times) was one of the first out of the gate noting that Sammy Power "resigned as a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Barack Obama" this afternoon. Her calling Hillary a "monster" did matter, it was off sides -- both for a future Secretary of State as well as for a professor at Harvard. It's a shame Obama still lacks the leadership to take control of his campaign -- that would have required firing Power. Instead she resigned indicating that he's unable to run a campaign as well as unable to tell the truth. Power -- who also went to work for Obama in 2005 when he was first elected to the US Senate (November 2004) -- also had to deal with the BBC interview she'd given. Barack Obama has not promised to pull ALL troops out of Iraq in 16 months. He has promised the American people that "combat" troops would be removed. But promises, promises (as Dionne Warwick once sang) . . .
Stephen Sackur: You said that he'll revisit it [the decision to pull troops] when he goes to the White House. So what the American public thinks is a commitment to get combat forces out within sixteen months, isn't a commitment is it?
Samantha Power: You can't make a commitment in whatever month we're in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are going to be like in January 2009. We can'te ven tell what Bush is up to in terms of troops pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US Senator.
Which would mean Mr. Pretty Speeches has been lying to the American people. (Add the "AGAIN!")
Her rise was swift, her fall even faster. Our Modern Day Carrie Nations took part in the "Bring the troops home and send them to Darfur" nonsense. [For more on that nutso crowd, see Julie Hollar's "The Humanitarian Tempatation" (Extra!).] Despite presenting herself recently as against the Iraq War from the start, the public record has never backed that up. But it is true that she wanted wars in Africa and was selling them under "humanitarian" guise. "Stop the killing!" she cried but if she really wanted to stop the killing, she might have tried to speak out against the ongoing genocie in Iraq (which has also produced the largest refugee crisis in the world). She didn't care about that. Probably because it demonstrates that sending armed forces in is not an answer. Again, if Barack Obama had any leadership abilities, he would have announced today that he fired his longterm advisor. He did not, she resigned. (She foolishly doesn't grasp that this is her Alexander Haig moment and there is no comeback.) Power was not a campaigner, she was a high level, longterm foreign policy advisor being groomed to be the next Secretary of State. As Krissah Williams (Washington Post) notes, Senator Clinton's response to Power's BBC interview was to note Power's agreement that Obama's pledge to have "combat" troops out in 16 months was never more than a "best-case scenario". Hillary Clinton: "Senator Obama has made his speech opposing Iraq in 2002 and the war in Iraq the core of his campaign, which makes these comments especially troubling. While Senator Obama campaigns on his [pledge] to end the war, his top advisers tell people abroad that he will not rely on his own plan should he become president. This is the latest example of promising the American people one thing on the campaign trail and telling people in other countries another. You saw this with NAFTA as well."
Meanwhile Tom Hayden again offers Barack advice from the heart, from love. At Common Dreams, Hayden feels that, "The only policy difference favoring Obama that goes straight to the issue of 'experience' is Iraq. It no longer is enough that Obama opposed the war five years ago, especially if it appears that there are no differences between the candidates now. For whatever reason, Obama has allowed Clinton to appear to take an identical stand on the war. Is that true? Or is it time for Obama to issue a further clarification of his position separating him from both Clinton and McCain? The peace movement and media can play a role here." Tom then asks, "Does Clinton propose a timetable for withdrawing combat troops, like Obama does?" Apparently Tom missed Sammy's interview -- Obama has no proposal. As Sammy notes, things change, who can say? Should we expect Hayden's endorsement of Hillary anytime soon? Or will he again plan to 'represent' the peace movement by covering for the 'anti-war' candidate -- one whose own foreign policy advisor (she was that when she gave the interview) informs is saying words he'd not planning to live up to?
Meanwhile violence continues in Iraq . . .
Bombings?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports two Mosul roadside bombings that wounded fourteen people and claimed the life of 1 police officer and a Mosul car bombing that claimed the lives of 4 police officers and left thirty-three people wounded.
Shootings?
Reuters notes US forces in Samarra "killed eight suspected al Qaeda fighters" (and they note the death toll from yesterday's Baghdad bombings rose to 68).
Corpses?
Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 3 corpses discovered in Baghdad.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani is in Turkey for day one of a two-day visit. Zerin Elci (Reuters) reports that he has "pledged Iraq's backing for Turkey in its fight against Kurdish PKK rebels on Friday, just one week after Ankara ended a major army ground offensive against the guerrillas in northern Iraq." That's where Talabani is, where's Moqtada al-Sadr? Earlier today, Khaled Farhan (Reuters) reported:Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has not been seen in public for months, issued an unusual statement on Friday explaining his absence to his followers and admitting splits in his movement."I swear that I live with you and among you. I am a part of you. I will not change this unless death separates us," he said in a two-page statement bearing his personal stamp.The statement was issued two weeks after Sadr extended a ceasefire by his Mehdi Army for another six months. He first called on the militia, blamed by the U.S. military and Sunni Arabs for fuelling sectarian violence, to halt its activities in August so that he could reorganise it.
BBC notes, "May of his followers had split from him 'for materalistic reasons or because they wanted to be independent,' he said" in the statement. While Sadr City residents feel targeted, al-Sadr's not there. He's renewed a cease-fire/truce that the residents didn't favor and the attitude then (which is only growing) is, "Why should we listen to someone who's not even here standing with us?" (He's rumored to be in Najaf, working as a hotel clerk.) A "leader" has to be seen as standing with (and suffering with) the people. al-Sadr is not seen as such currently and his little 'gift' of a message won't have much impact. Already the rumbles have moved on to wonder if he is collaborating with the US and every day he is out of Sadr City, he is futher weakened. That isn't at all surprising and any student of history could have seen it coming. In his absence, the rumors circulate and issuing 'press releases' to the residents of Sadr City will not raise his standing.
And we'll close with one topic. Saturday is International Women's Day. Feminist Wire Daily explains, "International Women's Day (IWD) will be celebrated this Saturday across the world. According to the IWD website, this year marks the 97th annual celebration. Counties including Armenia, Russia, and Vietnam recognize IWD as an official holiday, but hundreds of celebrations happen all over the world on March 8th." and arrives as Women for Women International has released a new study on Iraqi women. Zainab Salbi writes in the introduction to [PDF format warning] "Stronger Women, Stronger Nations: 2008 Iraq Report:"
In Iraq, violence against women increased within months of March 2003 U.S. invasion. There were assassinations and abductions of Iraqi professional women, in the country and abroad. Hair salons were bombed, and there were threats to women who drove or didn't cover their hair. Soon every politician, businessperson, professional Iraqi and foreigner became vulnerable to kidnapping and attack and remains so today. This issue has become menacing enough to impede development efforts in the country. But the increasingly precarious status of women was and continues to be seen as a secondary issue, a distraction from the bigger political debates.
Since 2003, the discussion of women's role in Iraqi society and their earnest participation in reconstruction has shrunk from one of legitimate substance to obligatory quantity. In 2004, as plans for Iraq's new constitution were underway and "women's issues" were designated as a priority, the initial request of setting aside 40 percent of the seats in parliament for women was negotiated down to 25 percent.
[. . .]
Once the fighting ends, it is women who pick up the pieces of their families and mend the social fabric of their communities. Yet this crucial role is rarely acknowledged. Sustainable peace, democracy and economic development depend on women's social, political and economic participation. Unless there is a clear understanding of the obstacles and avenues to women's access to development resources and the political will to enact gender equitable policies, any blueprint for sustainable peace risks being place perilously out of reach. Thus, the incorporation of women's views into traditionally male-dominated political processes is vital to achieving sustainable peace, democracy, and prosperity.
Of course, to believe that, you'd have to believe that women matter, you'd have to accept the realities of the gender barriers worldwide and you'd have to grasp how under attack all women are, every day, around the globe. If you're a woman, you'd also have to have at least a little self-respect. As evidenced by the non-stop attacks on Hillary Clinton coming from so many and the refusal of women in the United States who do not support Hillary to call these attacks out, women still don't matter in the United States and Bash the Bitch remains the national pasttime.
The report informs that in 2004, 90.6 percent of Iraqi women surveyed were "optimistic about the future" and that, in 2007, the number stating they were optimistic fell to 26.9 percent. 88 percent of respondents "expressed a great deal of concern that they or someone living in their households would become a victim of violence." In addition, the number stating that the presence of US forces and British forces were making things worse was 65.3 percent and 67.9 percent "stated that their ability to walk down the street as they please has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion." As the illegal war hits the fifth year mark this year, things are not improving, they are only getting worse. The report details the hazards of just conducting the survey with details such as "For security reasons, women in Al-Sadr City, Al-Kamalyah, and Al-Ubadi gathered in groups of five in a woman's home and met with a staff member to complete the questionnaire." The respondents repeatedly cited the following as "the biggest problems facing Iraq as a whole":
* High/rising prices
* Housing availability/prices
* Lack of security
* US occupation/presence
On basic issues of mobility, the illegal war has had a huge impace: "86.0% of respondents said they are not able to walk down the street as they please; 67.9% of respondents stated that their ability to walkd won the street as they please has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion; 68.3% of women are not able to drive a car; 53.7% of respondents say that their ability to drive a car has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion; 48.6% of respondents said that they are not able to work outside the home; and 56.7% of respondents said that their ability to work outside the home has gotten worse since the U.S. invasion." As a result, 74.5 percent of Iraqi women now avoid leaving the home, 63.2 percent are not allowing their children to go to school ("most commonly in parts of Baghdad"), 38.5 percent say rape is increasing, 30.4 percent see an increase in the trafficking of women, 29.6 percent see an increase in prostitution. Why is that? The three most repeated answers were:
* There is less respect for women's rights than before
* Women are thought of as possessions
* The economy has gotten worse
Asked to rank "the biggest threat to national security," the women chose US and British soldiers (43.9 percent) followed closely by the Iraqi militias (32.6 percent). From the report:
A group of women in Karbala was asked what they would do if they were in charge of the country. They said, "We would first ask the Americans to leave immediately. Second, we will address the poverty situation in Iraq which is impacting us the most." One woman added, "If I was the president of the country, I would make filling the stomach of the old people as my utmost priority." When asked what was neeeded, 70.0% of respondents said that rebuilding infrastructure such as roads, wells, drains and public buildings was necessary for the welfare of their communities. Other priorities included programs designed to help communities take care of their own needs and emergency relief such as food, shelter and emergency medical services.
The report concludes with "Action Agenda for Women" which argues for proving "that freedom is not inconsistent with safety"; restoring infrastructure throughout the country, addressing the economic needs of women, supporting "women's organizations and umbrella groups" and strengthening "democracy through education." Again the thirty-four page report is in PDF format and entitled "Stronger Women, Stronger Nations: 2008 Iraq Report." In non-PDF form, an overview is provided here. The founder of Women for Women, Zainab Salbi, remembers (at Womens Media Center) her own last visit to Iraq (in 2004), "My colleague who picked me up turned to me in the car and said: 'Zainab, remember the basketball hoop your family put in the cul-de-sac in front your home? Al-Mahdi militia has been using the basketball pole to execute Sunnis.' I couldn't believe what he was telling me. 'Zainab,' he continued, 'every day I saw tens of bodies lying in front of your house after being executed. Every day there was a body hanging from the basketball pole. Your home has turned into an execution center'." She remembers traveling Iraq that year and encountering many women including Shatha who told her, "If I was the president of the country, the first thing I would do is ask the Americans to leave. I then would make filling the stomachs of the people my utmost priority, by ending poverty and creating jobs. And thirdly I will focus on education. We can't have a real democracy if we don't have educated people pushing for a real democracy." Zainab Salbi asks that everyone "remember the women who struggle in Iraq and around the world to create peace." AFP notes the report and speaks with two Iraqi women: Asma Kadhim and Eman Ahmad. The latter states, "Before the war in 2003, I used to work in complete freedom. I had my shop and my own car. I was threatened a year back and since then I have stopped working and stopped driving." She had operated a clothing store while Asma Kadhim had operated a hair salon but one day, "There was a stranger at the door. He gave me an envelope which had two bullets and a letter that said 'if you do not close your beauty parlour, we will kill you. Your work is haram (forbidden)'."
January 29th, Deborah Amos (NPR's Day to Day) reported how 'democracy' played out for Iraqi women:
Deborah Amos: Rima, a 48-year-old mother of four, escaped to Syria a year ago. She doesn't want her family name broadcast because of relatives back home. In the kitchen, Rima seems a traditional Iraqi mother preparing food for her son and three daughters but when it came to education, her daughters have advanced college degrees just like her son. In Baghdad, Rima worked for a western aid organization helping improve the lives of poor Iraqi women until militants threatened to kill her.
Rima: So many times I went to places that poor women are living. They knew me. They knew my face.
Deborah Amos: Rima acknowledges that from a distance Baghdad seems safer now but she says she needs guarantees that go beyond safety to take her daughters back there.
Rima: There is no freedom. Can any girl, woman, dressing as she likes, going to jobs, going to colleges as before?
Deborah Amos: There are women in college, there are some.
Rima: But all of them are frightened.
Deborah Amos: Historically Iraqi women had more rights and freedom than many in the Middle East. That status declined in the last years of Saddam's rule, deteriorated further still after the US invastion. Religious conservatives swept to office in Iraq's elections, the new constitution reduced women's rights and religious radicals directly threatened women -- a story told be refugees across the Middle East. In Lebanon, 53-year-old Bosaf and her brother Feraz, live in a low rent neighborhood outside the capital. They fled Iraq's northern city of Mosul in June. Bosaf -- the head librarian at Mosul University -- was threatened she says because of her head scarf. Her university i.d. shows her blond hair covered by a flowered scarf -- a hijab. But that wasn't good enough for Islamist militants in Mosul. Basama -- a dignified, middle-aged woman -- displays a wicked sense of humor when it comes to the young men who dictated her head gear. She drapes a long, black garmet over her head, rolls her eyes in a can-you-believe-they-made-me-wear-this expression and twirls across the living room.
Unidentified woman: They killed many Christians, that's why she had to wear it.
Deborah Amos: But even a proper headscarf was no protection in Basra. Just ask 35-year-old Ala, the name she agrees to use for her family's safety. She worked as a translator for a western aid organization delivering food and school supplies -- a job she knew came with risks. But Ala says the bigger danger is the well armed and powerful in Basra imposing an extreme form of Islam.
Ala: What's happened, the whole change, attract every wrong value -- this is the religion: "God say that!"
Deborah Amos: Do you think it's more dangerous because you're a woman or because you were a translator?
Ala: Woman. Woman, yeah.
Deborah Amos: Ala now expresses her opinions in the relative saftey of exile. She fled to neighboring Jordan last year. But as a refugee there are other dangers for women. Many have been trapped into prostitution, she says.
Ala: Let me show you something.
Deborah Amos: Ala takes a folded piece of paper from her wallet. She says a Jordanian man -- old enough to be her father -- handed it to her when she first arrived.
Ala: Okay. And then he said, just in case my dear daughter -- you need anything, anybody bother you in this country call me any time. And you'll never believe what he gave me. Oh my God.
Deborah Amos: She smooths out the paper, points to a phone number and one Arabic word underlined. A code she understood.
Ala: Marriage. (Ala laughs.)
Deborah Amos: So he was actually proposing marriage to you?
Ala: If that was his proposal. This is what they're using women here unfortunately. Marriage is the gate or the knock for the door.
Deborah Amos: This is how the prostituion happens? You get a note like this?
Ala: How many women actually show the note to the police?
Deborah Amos: Ala has finally left Jordan accepted for resettlement in the United States. Basama in Lebanon and Rima in Syria hope for resettlement too because they believe they have no future in Iraq.
And it's not just Iraqi women who are targeted in Iraq. Jamie Leigh Jones went to Iraq to work for Halliburton's KBR and was drugged, gang-raped and imprisoned . . . by her co-workers. As the Associated Press notes, she currently engaged in a battle to have her case heard in a court while KBR claims an employment contract should cover 'grievances.'
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