Robert Byrd was one of the Senate's most outspoken critics of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

I saw the speech Senator Robert Byrd made to the Senate before the Iraq invasion. Too bad Senator Clinton wasn’t listening that day. Maybe her vote to go to war would have been different.


Senator Byrd is the longest serving U S Senator in our history. He was a member of the KKK and was one of the most prominent Dixiecrats of the 60’s.


He has changed his views of civil rights over the years. He was one of the few brave lawmakers who had the nerve to stand up to the cable of cretins led this country into the debacle in Iraq.



In a speech on March 13TH 2008 he stated:


"If the United States leads the charge to war in the Persian Gulf, we may get lucky and achieve a rapid victory. But then we will face a second war: a war to win the peace in Iraq. This war will last many years and will surely cost hundreds of billions of dollars. In light of this enormous task, it would be a great mistake to expect that this will be a replay of the 1991 war. The stakes are much higher in this conflict."


On March 19, 2003, when Bush ordered the invasion after receiving U.S. Congress approval, Byrd stated:


"Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination."

Byrd also criticized Bush for his speech declaring the "end of major combat operations" in Iraq, which Bush made on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Byrd stated on the Senate floor:


"I do question the motives of a deskbound president who assumes the garb of a warrior for the purposes of a speech."

On October 17, 2003, Byrd delivered a speech expressing his concerns about the future of the nation and his unequivocal antipathy to Bush's policies. Referencing the Hans Christian Andersen children's tale The Emperor's New Clothes, Byrd said of the president: "the emperor has no clothes." Byrd further lamented the "sheep-like" behavior of the "cowed Members of this Senate" and called on them to oppose the continuation of a "war based on falsehoods."


Byrd criticized what he saw as the stifling of dissent: "The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms. Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world's greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. This huge spending bill - $87 billion - has been rushed through this chamber in just one month. There were just three open hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87 billion - $87 for every minute since Jesus Christ was born - $87 billion without a single outside witness called to challenge the administration's line." Finally, Byrd quoted Nazi leader Hermann Göring who stated that rushing to war is easy if the proponent of war portrays opponents as unpatriotic.


In July 2004, Byrd released the book Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency about the Bush presidency and the war in Iraq. Of the more than 17,000 votes he has cast as a Senator, Byrd says he is proudest of his vote against the Iraq war resolution.


Maybe 2008 will be the year we vote in candidates that will serve our country instead of serving up our country to the war-profiteers.


Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

Anniversary of the Worst Foreign Policy Disaster In Our History

Anniversary of the Worst Foreign Policy Disaster In Our History

While the Democrats snipe at each other over similar platforms, and the Republican candidate can’t remember who the enemy is, the anniversary of America’s most disastrous foreign policy mistake fast approaches.

It was this week on March 20th 2003, when the smug and cocky George “Worst president ever” Bush and Dick “Head” Cheney decided against good military advice, to rain bombs on and destroy the infrastructure of Iraq and open a Pandora’s Box of perilous times for this Nation. This was the beginning of a preventative war that was unnecessary and what will serve as Bush’s pathetic legacy.

Saddam Hussein as we now know had no part in the September 11th 2001 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, he possessed no weapons of mass destruction, and he posed no great threat to the security of the United States.

Now what to do have in Iraq? We deposed and executed a brutal despot, but in the process destabilized Iraq. Then we opened the door for al-Qaeda terrorists to establish a foothold in a country where they could not have operated under Saddam. We destabilized the entire region by emboldening Iraq’s most dangerous enemy Iran.

We are now involved in an occupation of Iraq and the majority of the Iraqi people don’t want us there. The majority of Americans at home are calling for an end to this madness and for our troops to return home.

Levels of violence had dropped during the surging of another 30 to 50 thousand troops sent to the Iraq but now that violence is starting to spike up with more suicide bombings in Baghdad this week.

So now that we will have a new administration in less than a year how do we end this quagmire that spills American and Iraqi blood daily and bankrupts this country. So far none of the three remaining candidates has a satisfactory plan to that.

So far Clinton and Obama have spent more time on telling us who voted for the war than how they plan to end it. Ok Hillary you were spineless and rubber stamped the Bush plan, without doing the research and Obama you weren’t able to vote one way or the other because you were not in the senate yet but you did not support the war but did not have the pressure of being bullied to go along by the GOP.

McCain’s plan is more of the same war without regard to how we are going to pay for it, and how to stabilize the region. Just American troops as targets for the roadside bombs and American tax dollars to the war profiteers.

None of the candidates that I can see has a credible plan to proceed? Rigid timeline withdrawals will not help, and a blank check approach to this war is no longer an option either. The candidates need to begin talking about how America will proceed in world affairs after the Bush / Cheney regime is gone.

I want to live in a America that will:

No longer be in the business of preemptive wars and nation building.
No longer be in the business of torture.
No longer be in the business of kidnapping people and sending them to secret prisons.
No longer be in the business of propping up repressive regimes because they allow business to operate in their countries without regard for human rights.
No longer appoint incompetent yes men like FEMA’s “Heck of a job Brownie” or Secretary of Defense Donald Dumbsfield over qualified people who could do the job right.
No longer disregard the basic human rights that are in the Geneva Convention.
No longer disregard the Fourth Amendment and end unsupervised wiretapping of Americans.
No longer propose amendments to the Constitution to limit the rights of Americans on the basis of sexual orientation.
No longer allows a few giant media conglomerates to control the internet or the airwaves.
No longer depend on foreign oil.
No longer put corporate interests above American interests.
No longer run huge war deficits and cut taxes for the wealthiest individuals.

All right Mr. and Mrs. Candidate your turn to respond.
Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

Protecting those War Profiteers oops!!! I mean Patriotic Phone Companies in the Global War on Terror

President Bush says he will veto any legislation that doesn’t give the Patriotic Phone Companies immunity for illegally spying on Americans. The phone companies are begging for immunity from breaking the law because they say they were only being patriotic and trying to help keep us safe.

In the FISA debate the phone company’s main legal argument on why they spied on Americans and should be exempted from lawsuits challenging the legality of warrantless spying on phone calls and emails is that they were helping the government as a patriotic duty in a time of crisis.

Well that is a bunch of B#LL$#IT. It is reported in CNN that the phone companies have cut off wire taps because the FBI was late on paying their bill. Now that is real patriotism.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/10/fbi.unpaid.phone.bills.ap/index.html

The only thing that this so called war on terror has produced is dead and wounded Americans and super rich war profiteers. Since September 11th 2001 this country has enriched many American Corporations who milk our treasury dry.

Here is another site dedicated to exposing this.
http://www.warprofiteers.com/article.php?list=type&type=176

The head ChickenHawks in this administration have made millions from the blood of our brave troops and the misery of Iraqi civilians. Dick “Head” Cheney for instance has never completely severed his ties to Halliburton and receives millions of dollars in deferred income and stock dividends with all the no bid contracts awarded his company.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft now heads The Ashcroft Group; a consulting firm that helps companies win federal homeland security contracts. Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge runs a consulting firm and advices Lucent Inc. Joe Allburgh was the head of FEMA and now runs New Bridge Strategies a unique company that was created specifically with the aim of assisting clients to take advantage of business opportunities in Iraq.

These and many other people from the Bush inner circle are traitors and have used the blood of America’s best for mega profitable business opportunities.

Bush said go shopping.


Where is the outrage?? Has any candidate commented on war profiteering?? Where is the leader with the courage to say, as Franklin D Roosevelt did during WWII “I don’t want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States as a result of this world disaster”.

Bush said go shopping.

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

Support Dennis Kucinich’s impeachment resolution against vice president Cheney.

Support Dennis Kucinich’s impeachment resolution against vice president Cheney.

On November 6th 2007 Dennis Kucinich introduced H. Resolution 799 to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney on the floor of the House as a “question of Privilege”. The reason this is important is because the speaker of the house Ms Pelosi has said that “impeachment is off the table” and since she as Speaker set the legislative agenda it would never have come up. Now as a question of privilege it had to be referred to the judiciary Committee for consideration.

House Judiciary Chair John Conyers has himself supported impeachment of the vice president in the past but is waffling on the issue now. If he hears from a lot of Americans it is much more likely to result in impeachment hearings. It is extremely important to contact John Conyers and your representative and pressure them to begin the process of impeachment.

The need to get involved has never been so urgent. Complacency is very dangerous Bush / Cheney can still do untold damage to this country with their saber rattling at Iran and continued assaults on the Constitution it is important to keep these thugs occupied defending themselves rather than creating more mischief for future generations to pay for and repair.

My letter will read like this and feel free to use it or make one of your own.
http://www.house.gov/conyers/
http://www.house.gov/

Congressman Conyers

Vice President Cheney repeatedly lied to the nation about the potential threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, provoking the invasion and occupation of that country, with catastrophic results for our nation.

He continues to lie and distort intelligence regarding links between Iraq and al Qaeda; when such links simply did not exist before our invasion and he continues to threaten aggression against Iran, in violation of the United Nations charter and in a manner that destabilizes the region and harms our national security.

All of these actions certainly meet the constitutional test of high crimes and misdemeanors. So I ask that you begin H. Res. 799, Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Cheney.

Sincerely
Michael Chavers

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

A truly courageous soldier Lt. Ehren Watada

Lt. Ehren Watada in June 2006 denounced this illegal occupation of Iraq and refused to deploy. He was tried for 2 specifications Conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman (for statements made in speeches and interviews- Article 133) and 1 specification Missing Movement (for refusing to deploy to Iraq on June 22 2006 – Article 87). He could have been sentenced to up to 6 years in prison.

The point of this article is not the details of the trial which can be read on the following link.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehren_Watada

I am writing to say this is how Americans should stand up and be counted. Lt Watada said he is not a conscientious objector because he is not opposed to all wars as a matter of principle. He is no coward either because he offered to serve in Afghanistan. Lt. Ehren Watada is a man of principle and he indeed took an oath when he enlisted into the United States Army. This is the oath he took.

I Ehren Watada, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear the faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President to the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Lt. Watada believes as I do that the war that lead to the occupation of Iraq has violated the Constitution and War Powers Act which limits the president in his role as Commander in Chief from using the armed forces in any way he sees fit. It also violates the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and the Nuremberg Principles which bar wars of aggression. It is therefore his duty to disobey the orders to occupy Iraq.

The Congress has failed our country and should pay the price during the next election for not stopping this cabal of cretins in the executive branch for leading us into the ruination of our armed services, our reputation in world opinion and the pillaging of our treasury to the war profiteers.

Our last defense against this madness may be the military. Over 10,000 soldiers have deserted since the Iraq invasion. Now the administration rattles their sabers at Iran and it is said that before his term is over that Bush will attack Iran. Top military commanders have said that this will not happen on their watch. I hope that they stick to their word and fulfill their oath to defend the constitution and disobey any illegal acts of aggression.

I urge all the men at arms to disobey illegal and immoral orders and take the consequences do not desert but have the courage to stand up and go to trial and let this country hear why this war is illegal. You will be supported by many of us Americans.

Maybe then some more of our lawmakers would have the courage to do what is right and end the occupation and repudiate what this present administration has done to our constitution and freedom.

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.

What the hell has happened to my country??

A simple man’s view of where we are and how we got there.

It was 1999 I was minding my own business and trying to get by and then in November the country cast their ballots for a president of this great country. We had to choose between a pretty smart Guy named Gore a smarter guy named Nader and this affable fellow but not too bright compassionate conservative named Bush.

Each side had their slogans don’t get Gored by Gore, don’t get bushwhacked by Bush and I can’t remember what that smarter guys side said. I did my duty and voted and I voted for Gore because he seemed like a decent fellow, pretty smart although I didn’t care for that lip lock he laid on Tippy at the convention. I’m just glad he didn’t grab her boob.

I lived in Florida at the time and still do as a matter of fact, but those ballots had a lot of swinging chads and so that not so smart but affable fellows brother, who was the governor had that lady who wore so much make up that I thought her face would crack if she gave any other expression than that phony smile they had painted on her face, declared the not so smart affable fellow president.

Well I was a little miffed because the country had done so well with that Rhodes Scholar chap who liked to do weird things with cigars and interns but I said what the hell, how bad could the not so smart affable fellow be anyhow.

So I’m going along with my life not really all that interested in politics. I thought we had the usual amount of pilfering of the treasury by those lawbreakers up in Washington but they had left enough to kind of go around.

I got kind of nervous in December though, you know the world was about to end because of that Y2K thing was going to destroy everything electronic in the world. I survived the Y2K fiasco so I thought everything was peachy. Well now we fast forward a little. Well then one day I woke up and turned the TV on and I see the world trade center on fire and come to find out a plane had run into it then kabloom another plane hits the other one.

I was upset because I had lived about 10 blocks north of those towers until 1986 when I had moved to Florida, I had even worked there on occasion and had some friends still there. Come to find out that a bunch of fellows from Saudi Arabia had done it on purpose. Now that not to bright affable fellow that was president had a bunch of friends from Saudi Arabia so I figure that they would sort it all out.

It turns out that these Saudi Arabia fellows had been told by the tallest guy in Afghanistan that if they took flying lessons and flew into those towers that they would go straight to heaven a get to have their way with 70 virgins. I thought that was kind of silly because God won’t let you do that.

I was real mad at that tall Saudi guy in Afghanistan and turns out that that smart Rhode Scholar president had known all along that that tall rascal was up to no good and even took a couple of shots at him but missed.

Being a smart chap and knowing he was retiring in a few months, he told the not so smart affable new president about that tall fellow in Afghanistan but he got the bums rush out of the White House and they all snickered and thought they knew how to handle it. Turns out that they gave those bad boys in Afghanistan a bunch of aid money before they flew into my friends buildings.

Now after that not so smart affable new president flew all his Saudi friends out of the country because everybody got pretty mad at those guys, he decided that he was going to go and kick some ass over there in Afghanistan.

A couple of weeks after the planes knocked down the tall buildings our not so smart but affable president says that we need to start a checking all those e-mails, phone calls, bank records, medical records, and we even need to start looking at who’s reading what at the public library and who’s buying them bad guy books at the Barnes and Noble store. He says that if he has got to go before a judge a get permission that those bad guys are going to gets again.

So all them lawbreakers up in the capital jump into step and say ok Mr. President save us from them bad guys. Hmmm I still am wondering how reading the letters I write to my mama is going to keep us safe? Besides a bunch of real smart and brave men wrote this thing called the constitution which protects us from some guy like that ole King George way back when to go doing anything he wants to do to the people he governs. You know it’s kind of funny that the president and that ole king got the same name though.

Now everybody on the planet is on America’s side because they knew that all those poor folks working in them towers most of whom where just poor schmucks trying to get by on a paycheck. Even them fellows in Iran, who had made ole Jimmy Carter look dumb by making those embassy folks stay in Iran longer than they had planed, gave America permission to fly our bombers over their country so we could go get the tall fellow over in Afghanistan.

Everything went pretty good to begin with; we beat up them Taliban and al Qaedian fellows pretty good but we kind of lost track of that tall rascal in Afghanistan. Then all of a sudden something kind of weird starts to happen. That not so smart affable president starts getting real mad at that Saddam fellow and says if he don’t turn over the weapons of math instruction he was going to bomb the hell out of him.

It wasn’t weapons of math instruction but mass destruction and he knew that Saddam fellow had some because his Daddy who had been president before that smart Rhodes Scholar president had given him some to shoot at them Iranian guys who had been fighting for years and loosing millions of troops to each other kind of canceling each others threat to the rest of the region out.

Well now the rest of the world is saying hey Mr. President, we got this Saddam fellow all bottled up with you blowing up all his air planes and tanks and such and with that no fly zone thing they can’t really be much of a threat, and furthermore those smart guys from the U.N. have been looking for those mass destruction things for a few years and can’t find nary a one, but Mr. President keeps getting advice from that chubby mad looking fellow I think who’s nick name is Tator you know Dick “Tator” Cheney.

Even Mr. Presidents generals say hey wait a minute we ain’t even got that tall fellow over in Afghanistan yet and we ain’t got enough troops to occupy that Saddam fellow’s country. Well sure enough that banker fellow who advised the president said what does that smart alleck general know about warfare, when we get that Saddam fellow all those Iraqi boys and girls will shower us with flowers for getting that bad ole Saddam guy.

Well now Mr. President goes to all them lawbreakers up on the Capital and says, let me take that SOB with all them WMD’s my daddy gave him down so America will be safe, cause that Saddam fellow was in bed with that tall guy we can’t find in Afghanistan.

I don’t know why but all them guys in the CIA kind of know that the President is making up a lot of stuff that ain’t quite true, but they don’t say nothing except for that Mr. Wilson and his pretty wife, who we found out from that guy that worked for Dick “Tator” Cheney, was a spy.

I don’t know about you, but I think that we shouldn’t tell everybody who our spies are, cause nobody will trust them anymore, and I think it’s against the law and turns out it was and so Tatars buddy Scooter was supposed to go to jail but that not so bright affable Mr. President said he had suffered enough so he let him go.

Now back to that Saddam fellow, Mr. President starts to bomb, then he invades Iraq and every thing went so well Mr. President got to land on an airplane on that big ole boat and with that big budge in his flight suit all puffed up declared the mission was accomplished.

It turns out that he didn’t tell those Iraqi fellows. It seems them Sunni’s fellows and them Shiite’s just don’t see eye to eye and would rather shoot each other than spit. So instead of showering our troops with flowers they start taking all them bombs that they had left over and nobody secured and get real mad.

Then they start to take TV remotes and cell phones and make up these remote controlled bombs from all them artillery shells and every time a U.S. Hummer comes by they change the channel and blow up our soldier boys and girls. Then them al Qaedians start to wear those funny vests that blow up and go into where all the Muslims go to church and start to blowing up all those old church’s.

Now all them Sunni and Shiite people are so mad at each other that they start to kick each other out of their neighborhoods, and they aren’t being so civil about and they go to warring on each other and our soldier boys and girls are smack in the middle of it.

Ok it’s election time again and it turns out that not so smart fellow is not so affable anymore because everyone is getting pretty mad at him for not really having accomplished any of the mission he started to accomplish. In fact every time he comes on TV he’s changing the mission. I guess if I was a general I’d be pretty confused now.

So they go campaigning and running against this tall war hero guy and I say to myself well the public can’t be dumb enough to vote for that not so smart fellow and his mad fat buddy Tatar. It turns out that they got whole lots of ads claiming that war hero was a fake. Not one of them who claimed it ever got into a fight along side him but it didn’t seem to make any difference. It seems if you put a big lie on TV and that Rush O’Reilly, and that Glenn Coultergeist says so everyone starts to believe it.

I believe that a lot of people where fooled by all that TV talk and they say that the not so smart fellow won the election again. Then he starts color coding the terror and seem like every time them lawbreakers in Washington go to voting on something that takes away some rights that color code seems to light up real high.

Right in the middle of this war and terror stuff here came Katrina and it sinks the city of New Orleans. Now all these people are living in the football stadium and Mr. President is on Vacation, but not to fear the Presidents good buddy Brownie is in charge of disaster relief. Mr. President came on the TV while all these people didn’t even have nothing to drink and he told Brownie your doing a hell of a job. I bet all them folks in New Orleans thought it was just hell and not a hell of a job. It turns out Brownie had been working for some horse show association and had got the job because Mr. Presidents 2000 campaign manager knew Brownie.

Things just keep getting worse and worse in Iraq and Mr. President decides to change the mission again and says when them Iraqi’s stand up we will stand down. The Iraqi’s start standing up and raising all kinds of hell shooting and bombing the hell out of Baghdad.

Then we have another election. Too bad we can’t vote for president yet but everyone is so mad at Mr. President that they send a bunch of his lawbreaker friends from Washington packing. This leaves the Democrats in charge and the first thing that that pretty new speaker does is tell the president he don’t have to worry about his job and he can keep on breaking the law and making new laws that take away out rights.

Things are getting so bad for the President that Mr. Bush’s Daddy gets all his old buddies from his presidency together to help his not so smart sonny boy out with some good advice. Daddy’s buddies come up with some real good advice but Sonny decides he is going to send a bunch more soldiers over to Iraq to get a hold of the situation and then he says he is going to take the advice of the General Petraeus. I don’t buy it though because he hasn’t listened to any of the real smart generals yet. Every time somebody asks what’s going on, Sonny says he is standing behind the general kind of like some kind of sissy standing behind his mommy and giving the country the finger.

Now it’s as bad as ever and the country is borrowing all its money from China to pay for all these bullets and bombs and to pay all them Hessian soldiers from that army called Blackwater.

You would think that those Democrats would stand up to that mean bully of a not so smart president and take away his allowance. So far though they won’t do anything and Mr. President is getting so mean that he won’t let those little kids even go to a doctor when they get sick.

I don’t know about the rest of you but I think the country is being lead down the wrong path by a bunch of mean folks that don’t give a hoot about anything excepting what makes them richer and meaner.

These new people who want to be president are going to have a big mess to clean up when they take over next year. Good luck everyone I hope I still have a country that I want to belong to by then.

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength and integrity.