Video Vets on Youtube

A very good friend of mine recently took part in the YouTube experiment called Video Vets.


VideoVets: Susan Sykes Berry

God bless you, Sue. And my prayers are with you, and every other mother, son, daugher, father, and family member who has a loved one out there in uniform serving their country even though their government has failed them so badly for so long.

Sue's video is one of many produced and directed by karinmoveon. Please take a little time to watch some of these videos...this war needs some human faces. The administration has done everything in its power to keep this war from feeling real to the American public...part of the "fight them over there" strategy.

You can find out a lot more about the Video Vets project by going to the Video Vets page at Moveon.org.

From their website:

"The administration tries to call anyone who criticizes their policy in Iraq 'anti-troop,' but the interviews below show that 'supporting the troops' does NOT mean supporting an endless war. The voices of these veterans and military families are missing from the debate in Washington. Together we can make sure they become a vital part of the national dialogue around ending the war.

You watch the videos and tell us what you think. Then, Academy Award winning director Oliver Stone will turn it into a TV ad-spreading this message even further. (Note: The views expressed in these interviews do not necessarily reflect the views of VoteVets or MoveOn.org Political Action, they are the views of interview subjects only.)"

They Put Torture Boy on CSPAN 3????

I am rug biting mad today, boy! What is arguably the most important testimony of the entire Bush administration so far, is broadcast live on CSPAN 3 today. I got 30 minutes of the opening on tape before they pre-empted it to give us live coverage of the House debate on Iraq War Spending, saying you can continue to follow this hearing on CSPAN 3.

Who even gets CSPAN 3? It isn't even an option in my region and I'm only 3 hours outside of Washington DC!!!!

Fer freak's sake!

Score another point for that damned Liberal Media Bias that is doing everything it can to bring down the Bush admistration. God, can you even imagine what a wonderful world it would be if there actually were a liberal bias to our media?

Or conservatives who are smart enough to realize that news agencies beholding to and dependent on advertising paid for by corporations who are agressively conservative can't possibly be liberal in their bias?

Or a public that admires people who question authority rather than believe their leaders because their leaders are infallible simply because they are leaders?

Where do we live, anyway? It certainly doesn't feel like the world's greatest representative democracy which depends on an informed public willing to take responsibility for governing themselves.

Bastards.

Here, be subversive--get informed: Google News Right Now!

Virginia Tech Shooting

The VT campus is only a 40 minute drive south from me on Insterstate 81. The past few days have been filled with anguish, empathy, sympathy, and deep sorrow. First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this senseless act.

The media, however, have been horrible. We'd like you to go home, please, instead of rushing to shove a microphone into the faces of any group of two or more people you find dealing with their shock and grief.

If, however, you would like to do your actual job, rather than that of being vampires, perhaps you could pose a few questions beyond "How do you feel?"

I think it is pretty clear how most of us feel.

Perhaps you could ask if this shooter was using extended magazines rather than stock magazines...the difference being that extended mags would allow more than double the shots fed into the semi-automatic pistols before a new clip needed to be inserted. The standard mag holds 10 shots, extended mags can hold up to 33. Extended mags would still be illegal if George Bush had not broken his campaign promise and allowed the assault weapons ban to expire.

Perhaps you could ask why it is more worrisome to so many that this shooter wrote a frightening play than that he was able to so easily buy such deadly weapons legally.

Perhaps you could ask why so many Virginians would rather limit the constitutional right to freedom of speech than the constitutional right to bear arms.

Perhaps you could ask why so many of the people saying his odd behavior and mental illness should have gotten him removed from the campus are the same people fanatically opposed to background checks before the purchase of a firearm.

This is a tragedy of nearly incomprehensible proportions...but it is one for which we as a society must accept a portion of the responsibility.

It is not exploiting the tragedy to feel moved to prevent future tragedies by advocating for sensible, rational, gun control legislation. So, please don't make that idiotic accusation.

We have to accept that the possibility of this shooting is part of the price paid for being able to walk in and buy a gun so easily. I don't happen to think its worth the price paid.

If you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding everything?

What is it going to take for the American People to rise up and overthrow this obviously criminal regime that has taken over our government? Nobody is allowed privacy in this country except the President and his corrupt administration.

As if you needed any further evidence that it has been the intention of this administration to break the law at every turn, how do you feel about the news that the White House has actively sought to circumvent the Presidential Records Act?

Compared to this, Libby's obstruction of justice is like comparing a kid shoplifting some bubblegum in a candy store to Ken Lay's activities at Enron.

It is increasingly clear that the intention of the Republican Party is to create its own shadow government, answerable to no one (except perhaps the corporations which fund it). The RNC claims it provided a seperate and email system and laptops to the White House to help it avoid violations of the Hatch Act, a law that prevents using official White House systems for partisan political communnications...but since everything this White House does is solely for partisan political purposes, is it any wonder that people like Rove, Cheney, and the rest of the inner circle rely primarily on the RNC computers and systems which are designed to erase emails after 30 days?

Obviously, an administration whose primary concern is secrecy, is going to find the RNC solution to questionably legal communcations very desireable.

America, enough is enough. These people are criminals. Our governemnt is being run by a new kind of organized crime. For the love of God and country, do something about it!

Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!

How can you be proud of ignoring the crimes of a President who has brought you multiple wars, loss of international prestige, and crippling debt when you couldn't ignore consensual extramarital sexual relations by a President who brought you the greatest period of peace and prosperity this nation has ever known?

And please, stop trying to frame my anger and dismay as irrational hatred of George W. Bush. I am not blinded by hate. I see very clearly the harm done by this administration and hate the damage being done to my country. Devotion to this administration is evidence of blindness and irrationality.

And to support this President, his policies, his crimes, and his secrecy is to share in the guilt. But don't worry, you've got Imus and Anna Nicole's baby to distract you from any self-examination.

Read more (and weep):

• White House Admits Misuse of Republican Party-Sponsored E-Mail Accounts
  
• Countless White House E-Mails Deleted, By Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com, Thursday, April 12, 2007
  
• The Next Bush Scandal?, By Dan Froomkin, Special to washingtonpost.com, Tuesday, April 10, 2007
  
• Leahy: Bush Aides Lying About E-Mails
  
• Academia opposes Bush
  
• Official E-mail: The public record, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
  
• The New Watergate
  
• The E-mail Trail
  
• And so on....
  

Isn't the Commander-in-Chief a War Czar?

In the most telling proof to date that the President is an incompetent boob who'd rather be on vaction than do the job he was placed in office to do...The administraion is attempting to create a new position...that of War Czar.

Just the proposal to create this position means a couple of things:

1) We will never, ever, not be at war from this point forward.

2) This "War President" loves the war powers afforded him by declaring his wars of choice, but does not want any of the responsibility the granting of those powers imply.

I, personally don't know which is more frightening...that they want to create this position or that they can't find anyone to take the job. The first three generals they asked have turned it down. Would this position essentially be Deputy Commander in Chief? Or is the President outsourcing his own responsibilities?

Or is this a glimmer of hope that the people at the highest levels are finally coming to grips with the fact that they don't know what the hell they're doing?

If that is the case...please, for the love of God and country, resign and let the competent people start running this country. Give them the titles that goe with the jobs you are asking them to do for you.

Maybe nobody with two brain cells to rub together wants to be the War Czar, but I'd like to hope that someone competent to do the job still wants to be the President. We could do a lot worse than having Dub and Dick resign and let Pelosi try to fix this mess. Actually, unless they resign, or are impeached for the impeachable offenses they publicly admit to having committed, we will continue to do a lot worse.