General Wesley Clark on The Colbert Report

General Wesley Clark states President Bush's bad leadership inspired him to write his new book.

Keith Olbermann calls out the Bush Administration re: 9/11

The Promotion of Failure in the Bush Administration.

Iran invasion in the near future

In a speech by President Bush on August 28, 2007, the president clues us in on his plans to invade Iran:

We meet today at a critical time for our country. America is engaged in a great
ideological struggle — fighting Islamic extremists across the globe. Today I
want to talk to you and to the American people about a key aspect of the
struggle: the fight for the future of the Middle East. I’m going to explain why
defeating the extremists in this troubled region is essential to our nation’s
security….

The other strain of radicalism in the Middle East is Shia extremism, supported and embodied by the regime that sits in Tehran. Iran has long been a source of trouble in the region. It is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Iran backs Hezbollah who are trying to undermine the democratic government of Lebanon. Iran funds terrorist groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which murder the innocent, and target Israel, and destabilize the Palestinian territories.

Iran is sending arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan, which could be used to attack American and NATO troops. Iran has arrested visiting American scholars who have committed no crimes and pose no threat to their regime. And Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.

Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. And that is why the United States is rallying friends and allies around the world to isolate the regime, to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late.

Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our
forces and the Iraqi people. Members of the Qods Force of Iran’s Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps are supplying extremist groups with funding and
weapons, including sophisticated IEDs. And with the assistance of Hezbollah,
they’ve provided training for these violent forces inside of Iraq. Recently,
coalition forces seized 240-millimeter rockets that had been manufactured in
Iran this year and that had been provided to Iraqi extremist groups by Iranian
agents. The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions
have increased in the last few months — despite pledges by Iran to help
stabilize the security situation in Iraq.

Some say Iran’s leaders are not aware of what members of their own regime are doing. Others say Iran’s leaders are actively seeking to provoke the West. Either way, they cannot escape responsibility for aiding attacks against coalition forces and the murder of innocent Iraqis. The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops. I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.

Cheney vs. Cheney

So, what happened between 1994 and 2003 that made invading Iraq a good idea, Mr. Cheney? It seems all of the negative outcomes of invading Iraq in 1994 are exactly what happened when your administration invaded Iraq in 2003. Did your interest in oil increase?

No End in Sight

Check out this clip from the movie "No End in Sight" a well-made film chronicling the current administrations policies in Iraq.

Go to the movie's website here.

The Dick

The Washington Post has created a four-part must-read series on Vice President (and President of the Senate) Dick Cheney.

Part One (6/24/07): Working in the Background

• "Cheney flunked out of Yale but became a highly regarded PhD candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin -- avoiding the Vietnam War draft with five deferments along the way -- before abandoning the doctoral program and heading to Washington as a junior congressional aide."

• "While lawyers fought over the 2000 Florida ballot recount, with the presidential election in the balance, Cheney was already populating a prospective Bush administration. Brian V. McCormack, then his 26-year-old personal aide, said Cheney worked three cellphones from the round kitchen table of his townhouse in McLean, "making up lists" of nominees beginning with the secretaries of state, defense and the Treasury." Anyone else think Cheney knew something about the election that we didn't?

• "Cheney declines to disclose the names or even the size of his staff, generally releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy his visitor logs."

Part Two (6/25/07): Wars and Interrogations

Part Three (6/26/07): Dominating Budget Decisions

Part Four (6/27/07): Environmental Policy

• Article not yet released... but we can pretty much fill in the blanks on this one. Can you say Exxon?
  

Link to the Main Page of this four-parter here.

This is an AMAZING set of articles that EVERY AMERICAN MUST READ.

McGovern Amendment

On May 10, 2007, the McGovern amendment was voted on by the House of Representatives. This topic of this amendment was to redeploy U.S. troops and contractors OUT of Iraq. Unfortunately, this bill failed; 171 were in favor and 255 opposed.

How could this happen with a Democratic majority in the House? 59 Democrats voted against pulling the troops out of Iraq. Why?

There one question I can answer is Who. Here is a listing of the 59 Democratic Representatives that voted against pulling out the troops. (article here) Our friends at Democrats.com are calling for these incumbents to be challenged in the 2008 primaries.

Read the list of who voted against pulling out the troops in Iraq, and take a look at the candidates Democrats.com are endorsing in the 2008 primaries.

Remember, if 43 of these 59 Democrats had voted to pass the McGovern Amendment, the troops could be coming home.

Miss'n a Conscience

"Mission Accomplished."

Who could forget May 1, 2003 when Bush appeared in a green flight suit on the USS Abraham Lincoln with that "Mission Accomplished" banner above him and stated the Iraqi war was coming to an end? (article here)

Today marks the 1,500th day since that photo opportunity. To honor that great day in American history, I would like to share a video from our friends at Robert Greenwald's website Tell Us the Mission.

The video is a poem called "King George (Mission Accomplished.)" (video here) (words to poem here)

On the bottom of Tell Us the Mission's homepage, there is also a petition to the US Congress asking that the US Flag Code be amended to fly flags at half-staff for one day whenever an American service member dies at war. This idea came from an op-ed piece of an American soldier serving in Afghanistan. Take a minute to think about how often the US flag would have been flying at half-staff for the past 1,500 days.

Makes me want to ask "WHAT mission was accomplished?"

6/8/07 - The week in review

Gay Rights:

• Isaiah Washington's contract isn't renewed by Grey's Anatomy. I guess homophobia isn't as popular as it once was... Bye, Bye, Burke! (article here)

• Domestic Partner Tax Reform was introduced to the Senate this week to provide the same tax treatment to Domestic Partnership Insurance as is given to Spouse insurance. (article here)

• Maine passed legislation changing the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow gay and lesbian workers to take time off to care for a sick child or partner. Go, Maine! (article here)

• A Nashville, TN teacher gets suspended for equating calling something "gay" to using the N word. (article here)

• HRC, Truth Wins Out, Soulforce, and gay medical groups call for the rejection of Bush's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. James Holsinger. Could it be because Holsinger thinks gays can be "cured" with religion? (article here)

• Gen. Peter Pace, the man who called homosexuals "immoral," will be replaced as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (article here)

Politics & Activism:

• Democrats want a law against voter deception. It seems organizations have been telling people the wrong day or place to vote, saying voting if you have outstanding traffic tickets could get you arrested, etc. Most of these deceptive practices were targeted to minorities and lower income persons, people who typically don't vote Republican. (article here)

• A British arms company secretly payed in excess of $1.5 billion over a decade to Saudi Prince Bander bin Sultan in connection with a defense contract. (article here)

• It is suspected that the U.S. imprisoned and interrogated some of its top terrorism suspects in jails in Poland and Romania between 2003 and 2005. Both countries are dependent on U.S. support for their strategic development. (article here)

• Wal-mart admits to selling counterfeit products. (article here)