Monday, February 21, 2005
Social Security: Removing the Opposition: Art Linkletter’s group rolls out the big guns ($). AARP, the precious ally when the nutty Medicare ‘reform’ was passed, is now the enemy
The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush's plan.
"They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts," said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. "We will be the dynamite that removes them." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/politics/21social.html?ex=1266642000&en=10cae866093ed1f2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
To view their ad, click the following (very Right web site) and look to the right…of course. http://www.spectator.org/
What’s Happening, Middle East: Ultra brief summary: Potent mixed bag; Israelis ending the “punitive policy of destroying Palestinian homes after a recommendation by a military panel”, [but it will not halt large-scale demolitions such as those that have taken place in Gaza.] http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31DEB982-65B7-43B1-906F-FCB0A8E5C179.htm
But, many bombings, many deaths. in Iraq. And, apparently the Iraqi resistance/insurgents have attained new levels of coordination in their sabotage campaign on Baghdad’s fuel supply and infrastructure with the intent of creating shortages…and discontent. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/international/middleeast/21sabotage.html?hp&ex=1109048400&en=42d988dc64929643&ei=5094&partner=homepage
In turn, this has led to a further slowing of reconstruction in favor of more $ (1 billion) for security. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-cuts21feb21,0,3116082.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Finally, Time claims a scoop, that the U.S. military is negotiating with the insurgency’s leaders.
The secret meeting is taking place in the bowels of a facility in Baghdad, a cavernous, heavily guarded building in the U.S.-controlled green zone. The Iraqi negotiator, a middle-aged former member of Saddam Hussein's regime and the senior representative of the self-described nationalist insurgency, sits on one side of the table. He is here to talk to two members of the U.S. military. One of them, an officer, takes notes during the meeting. The other, dressed in civilian clothes, listens as the Iraqi outlines a list of demands the U.S. must satisfy before the insurgents stop fighting. The parties trade boilerplate complaints: the U.S. officer presses the Iraqi for names of other insurgent leaders; the Iraqi says the newly elected Shi'a-dominated government is being controlled by Iran. The discussion does not go beyond generalities, but both sides know what's behind the coded language.
The Iraqi's very presence conveys a message: Members of the insurgency are open to negotiating an end to their struggle with the U.S. "We are ready," he says before leaving, "to work with you." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1029862,00.html
Ongoing torture evidence: The examples just keep on coming…
An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture — suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
The death of the prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, became known last year when the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke. The U.S. military said back then that the death had been ruled a homicide. But the exact circumstances under which the man died were not disclosed at the time.
The prisoner died in a position known as "Palestinian hanging," the documents reviewed by The AP show. It is unclear whether that position was approved by the Bush administration for use in CIA interrogations. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=19&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraqi_prisoner_s_death
But, as to the hopeful- Palestinian-Israeli progress- the Israeli cabinet voted to approve Sharon’s planned eviction of settlers in Gaza.
More good ‘news’: Sy Hersh honored (AP)
Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker won his fifth George Polk Award for his accounts of prisoner abuse in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, making him the most-honored individual in the history of the awards. Reporters from The New York Times took three of the 2004 awards, and The Associated Press was a double winner.
Scott Ritter: We’ll attack Iran; the Iraqi elections were ‘manipulated’
On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran’s alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.
The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.
Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh…
Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater conflagration. http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/2/
Alternative News? Unclear if this is real or …?
Entire US column reported wiped out in ambush near Iranian border.
A US military column was completely wiped out in fierce fighting with Resistance forces according to the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in the town of al-Mundhiriyah, near the Iranian border, east of Ba‘qubah.
The correspondent, who was at the scene of the battle, wrote that a US column made up of eight vehicles came under Iraqi Resistance attack in the Jalabiyah area, known as the at-Tilal or hilly area, at 10pm Friday night. The Resistance fighters holed up in strongholds in the hills unleashed a sweeping attack on the US column, using missiles, pipe rockets, bazookas, and land mines that they had planted in the path of the American forces before their arrival.
Four US tanks, three Humvees, and one armored vehicle were destroyed in the fighting that lasted two hours, the correspondent reported. He said that US dead were in excess of 60 men. An adjutant commander of the Iraqi border guards confirmed that the entire US column was wiped out.
The correspondent wrote that the smell of blood and burning flesh pervaded the smoldering wreckage of the US vehicles and all the other remains of the large column.
US helicopters arrived on the scene 20 minutes after the battle and began revenge attacks on the local people. The US aircraft rocketed four houses, killing 19 Iraqi civilians, including 11 women and children, according to the account of al-Mundhiriyah General Hospital. http://www.the7thfire.com/Iraq_War/resistance_report/feb_19_2005.htm
Gannongate The Right is desperately (and, as always, consistently), asserting that it’s all about liberals targeting someone’s personal life. The WaPost notes, however, that this story has ‘legs’:
The story of the phony White House reporter who called himself Jeff Gannon just gets curiouser and curiouser every day -- and shows no sign of abating.
Quite the contrary, in fact. After only occasionally burbling out of the realm of bloggers and media watchers over the past few weeks, the story exploded onto network television last night.
And after a few days in which the chatter was fixated on the salacious associations that bloggers uncovered between James D. Guckert (Gannon's real name) and gay escort Web sites, the focus is back on a serious public policy question: Why was a non-journalist asking slanted non-questions welcomed into the White House Briefing room?
Here's Brian Williams, introducing the story to about 10-million-plus people last night on the NBC Nightly News:
"It is the talk of Washington these days. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/administration/whbriefing/
Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial. Good summary, for the uninitiated
So the question becomes, just how did this character get White House press credentials, despite supposed post-Sept. 11 security requirements? Bruce Bartlett, a conservative columnist who worked in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, says that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." In other words, the White House wanted him at those briefings and wanted him to ask his softball questions, most likely to divert attention when legitimate reporters were getting too pushy.
This is part of a pattern by Bush's minions to construct a phony reality in news coverage. Consider:
• To promote Bush's Medicare prescription bill, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paid for phony "newscasts" that were distributed to television stations nationwide.
• Columnist Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
• Columnists Michael McManus and Maggie Gallagher were paid to "advise HHS on the Bush administration's marriage policies."
• Every Bush "town hall" forum during last fall's campaign was carefully limited to supporters who would ask fawning questions. No demonstrators -- indeed, no one wearing an offensive lapel pin -- were allowed in.
• The Bush Pentagon launched an Office of Strategic Influence to provide "news" to foreign media. When it became known, it was shut down in embarrassment.
The pattern is clear: This administration will do pretty much anything to shape reality to fit its agenda. http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5247250.html
Then, there’s the notion that Gannon knew of the beginning of the Iraq war before any other media folk. Questions raised include:
1. Assuming this news producer is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe they are not, how did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?
2. Even if Gannon were part of a press gaggle that was told embargoed information about the war by the White House, this producer alleges that Gannon would have broken any such embargo, which is a security risk to the operation, and more generally shows that concerns about Gannon's White House access posing a risk to national security might now be warranted.
3. How would someone on a day pass, who hadn't gotten the requisite 3-4 month FBI background check that other full-time White House employees get, get access to such highly classified information? Certainly the White House didn't include someone with simply a day pass in the highly-classified pre-briefing about details of the war (assuming such a briefing even occurred)? If the White House did a briefing and Gannon were included, this would mean ANYONE could walk in off the street, say they're a reporter, and provided by they don't have a criminal record, the White House will simply tell them at what hour we're launching a major attack? And if there was no briefing for reporters, then how did Gannon allegedly find out? http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-gannon-reportedly-knew.html
That said, it is, as Hendrik Hertzberg observes, likely to go nowhere- Gannongate is more likely to be “nothinggate”.
… because nothing is what is likely to come of it. What all the memorable scandals of the past thirty years—real and fake alike, from Watergate to the Clinton impeachment—have had in common is that the opposition party controlled at least one house of Congress, which gave it the power to hold hearings and issue subpoenas. If Bush ends up having an easier time of it in his second term than any of his two-term predecessors since F.D.R., it won’t be because the scandals aren’t there. It’ll be because the tools to excavate them are under lock and key. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/index.ssf?050228ta_talk_hertzberg
Protesting the Invasion/Occupation: New Energy?
On Feb. 15, 2003, as millions of people worldwide took to the streets to protest the imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq, Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Hoffman was in Kuwait, awaiting deployment to Baghdad.
Two years later, Hoffman, 25, is a civilian on the lecture circuit, introducing himself as an Iraq Veteran Against the War. On March 19, when war opponents plan to converge near Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., to mark the date of the invasion, Hoffman, who co-founded the Iraq veterans group, will be one of the lead speakers.
"I disagreed with the war before I went over," said Hoffman, the son of a steelworker from Allentown, Pa. "But now, I can talk about the reality of war -- what it's really like, the lack of support the troops have, the civilians being killed. The biggest problem with Iraq right now is the occupation."
Along with Gold Star Families for Peace, which is made up of people who have lost loved ones in Iraq, Iraq Veterans Against the War holds a powerful claim among peace groups as ones who can speak from experience about the consequences of the war. Together, they will be front and center among the scores of peace groups that are hoping to keep the war -- and its repercussions -- in the public consciousness.
Peace groups have been relatively quiet in recent months, especially after President Bush's reelection. But antiwar leaders say they are on the verge of reemerging. Leaders of dozens of peace groups plan to meet in St. Louis this weekend to plot strategies for a new push against the war, from ad campaigns to long-term, grass-roots organizing. They plan to use March 19 and 20, the anniversary weekend of the war's start, as the beginning of an all-out effort to convince the public that the best course for Americans and Iraqis is for the war to end and the troops to come home.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32902-2005Feb17?language=printer
Dean and the Democrats: a ‘Counterpunch’ from Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's new post has been hailed by many as a huge feat for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party (yeah, what "progressive" wing?). But it is no feat. Not only is Howard Dean a centrist in the most disgusting Clintonesque sense of the term, but his victory this past weekend to head the DNC is also a shot in the head of his passionate supporters. He has sold them out, while taking on the roll of insider, where his new symbolic post within the party will do little more to challenge Democratic policy, than, say, MoveOn's irritating phone calls to Congress.
We should have seen it coming. Right after Joe Trippi left Dean's presidential campaign last year, the good doctor moved quickly to replace him with DC insider Roy Neel. Neel, who talked Al Gore out of actively contesting the 2000 election, was a long-time telecom lobbyist who employed his status with the Clinton Administration to maneuver the atrocious Telecommunications Act through Congress in 1996 -- was perhaps the greatest corporate handout of the Clinton years. http://www.counterpunch.com/frank02172005.html
-R
The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush's plan.
"They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts," said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. "We will be the dynamite that removes them." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/politics/21social.html?ex=1266642000&en=10cae866093ed1f2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland
To view their ad, click the following (very Right web site) and look to the right…of course. http://www.spectator.org/
What’s Happening, Middle East: Ultra brief summary: Potent mixed bag; Israelis ending the “punitive policy of destroying Palestinian homes after a recommendation by a military panel”, [but it will not halt large-scale demolitions such as those that have taken place in Gaza.] http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31DEB982-65B7-43B1-906F-FCB0A8E5C179.htm
But, many bombings, many deaths. in Iraq. And, apparently the Iraqi resistance/insurgents have attained new levels of coordination in their sabotage campaign on Baghdad’s fuel supply and infrastructure with the intent of creating shortages…and discontent. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/international/middleeast/21sabotage.html?hp&ex=1109048400&en=42d988dc64929643&ei=5094&partner=homepage
In turn, this has led to a further slowing of reconstruction in favor of more $ (1 billion) for security. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-cuts21feb21,0,3116082.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Finally, Time claims a scoop, that the U.S. military is negotiating with the insurgency’s leaders.
The secret meeting is taking place in the bowels of a facility in Baghdad, a cavernous, heavily guarded building in the U.S.-controlled green zone. The Iraqi negotiator, a middle-aged former member of Saddam Hussein's regime and the senior representative of the self-described nationalist insurgency, sits on one side of the table. He is here to talk to two members of the U.S. military. One of them, an officer, takes notes during the meeting. The other, dressed in civilian clothes, listens as the Iraqi outlines a list of demands the U.S. must satisfy before the insurgents stop fighting. The parties trade boilerplate complaints: the U.S. officer presses the Iraqi for names of other insurgent leaders; the Iraqi says the newly elected Shi'a-dominated government is being controlled by Iran. The discussion does not go beyond generalities, but both sides know what's behind the coded language.
The Iraqi's very presence conveys a message: Members of the insurgency are open to negotiating an end to their struggle with the U.S. "We are ready," he says before leaving, "to work with you." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1029862,00.html
Ongoing torture evidence: The examples just keep on coming…
An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture — suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
The death of the prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, became known last year when the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke. The U.S. military said back then that the death had been ruled a homicide. But the exact circumstances under which the man died were not disclosed at the time.
The prisoner died in a position known as "Palestinian hanging," the documents reviewed by The AP show. It is unclear whether that position was approved by the Bush administration for use in CIA interrogations. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=19&u=/ap/20050218/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraqi_prisoner_s_death
But, as to the hopeful- Palestinian-Israeli progress- the Israeli cabinet voted to approve Sharon’s planned eviction of settlers in Gaza.
More good ‘news’: Sy Hersh honored (AP)
Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker won his fifth George Polk Award for his accounts of prisoner abuse in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, making him the most-honored individual in the history of the awards. Reporters from The New York Times took three of the 2004 awards, and The Associated Press was a double winner.
Scott Ritter: We’ll attack Iran; the Iraqi elections were ‘manipulated’
On Iran, Ritter said that President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran’s alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.
The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%.
Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh…
Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater conflagration. http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/2/
Alternative News? Unclear if this is real or …?
Entire US column reported wiped out in ambush near Iranian border.
A US military column was completely wiped out in fierce fighting with Resistance forces according to the Mafkarat al-Islam correspondent in the town of al-Mundhiriyah, near the Iranian border, east of Ba‘qubah.
The correspondent, who was at the scene of the battle, wrote that a US column made up of eight vehicles came under Iraqi Resistance attack in the Jalabiyah area, known as the at-Tilal or hilly area, at 10pm Friday night. The Resistance fighters holed up in strongholds in the hills unleashed a sweeping attack on the US column, using missiles, pipe rockets, bazookas, and land mines that they had planted in the path of the American forces before their arrival.
Four US tanks, three Humvees, and one armored vehicle were destroyed in the fighting that lasted two hours, the correspondent reported. He said that US dead were in excess of 60 men. An adjutant commander of the Iraqi border guards confirmed that the entire US column was wiped out.
The correspondent wrote that the smell of blood and burning flesh pervaded the smoldering wreckage of the US vehicles and all the other remains of the large column.
US helicopters arrived on the scene 20 minutes after the battle and began revenge attacks on the local people. The US aircraft rocketed four houses, killing 19 Iraqi civilians, including 11 women and children, according to the account of al-Mundhiriyah General Hospital. http://www.the7thfire.com/Iraq_War/resistance_report/feb_19_2005.htm
Gannongate The Right is desperately (and, as always, consistently), asserting that it’s all about liberals targeting someone’s personal life. The WaPost notes, however, that this story has ‘legs’:
The story of the phony White House reporter who called himself Jeff Gannon just gets curiouser and curiouser every day -- and shows no sign of abating.
Quite the contrary, in fact. After only occasionally burbling out of the realm of bloggers and media watchers over the past few weeks, the story exploded onto network television last night.
And after a few days in which the chatter was fixated on the salacious associations that bloggers uncovered between James D. Guckert (Gannon's real name) and gay escort Web sites, the focus is back on a serious public policy question: Why was a non-journalist asking slanted non-questions welcomed into the White House Briefing room?
Here's Brian Williams, introducing the story to about 10-million-plus people last night on the NBC Nightly News:
"It is the talk of Washington these days. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/administration/whbriefing/
Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial. Good summary, for the uninitiated
So the question becomes, just how did this character get White House press credentials, despite supposed post-Sept. 11 security requirements? Bruce Bartlett, a conservative columnist who worked in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, says that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." In other words, the White House wanted him at those briefings and wanted him to ask his softball questions, most likely to divert attention when legitimate reporters were getting too pushy.
This is part of a pattern by Bush's minions to construct a phony reality in news coverage. Consider:
• To promote Bush's Medicare prescription bill, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paid for phony "newscasts" that were distributed to television stations nationwide.
• Columnist Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act.
• Columnists Michael McManus and Maggie Gallagher were paid to "advise HHS on the Bush administration's marriage policies."
• Every Bush "town hall" forum during last fall's campaign was carefully limited to supporters who would ask fawning questions. No demonstrators -- indeed, no one wearing an offensive lapel pin -- were allowed in.
• The Bush Pentagon launched an Office of Strategic Influence to provide "news" to foreign media. When it became known, it was shut down in embarrassment.
The pattern is clear: This administration will do pretty much anything to shape reality to fit its agenda. http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5247250.html
Then, there’s the notion that Gannon knew of the beginning of the Iraq war before any other media folk. Questions raised include:
1. Assuming this news producer is telling the truth, and I have no reason to believe they are not, how did Gannon get access to such highly classified information as to when the US was going to bomb Iraq?
2. Even if Gannon were part of a press gaggle that was told embargoed information about the war by the White House, this producer alleges that Gannon would have broken any such embargo, which is a security risk to the operation, and more generally shows that concerns about Gannon's White House access posing a risk to national security might now be warranted.
3. How would someone on a day pass, who hadn't gotten the requisite 3-4 month FBI background check that other full-time White House employees get, get access to such highly classified information? Certainly the White House didn't include someone with simply a day pass in the highly-classified pre-briefing about details of the war (assuming such a briefing even occurred)? If the White House did a briefing and Gannon were included, this would mean ANYONE could walk in off the street, say they're a reporter, and provided by they don't have a criminal record, the White House will simply tell them at what hour we're launching a major attack? And if there was no briefing for reporters, then how did Gannon allegedly find out? http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-gannon-reportedly-knew.html
That said, it is, as Hendrik Hertzberg observes, likely to go nowhere- Gannongate is more likely to be “nothinggate”.
… because nothing is what is likely to come of it. What all the memorable scandals of the past thirty years—real and fake alike, from Watergate to the Clinton impeachment—have had in common is that the opposition party controlled at least one house of Congress, which gave it the power to hold hearings and issue subpoenas. If Bush ends up having an easier time of it in his second term than any of his two-term predecessors since F.D.R., it won’t be because the scandals aren’t there. It’ll be because the tools to excavate them are under lock and key. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/index.ssf?050228ta_talk_hertzberg
Protesting the Invasion/Occupation: New Energy?
On Feb. 15, 2003, as millions of people worldwide took to the streets to protest the imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq, Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Hoffman was in Kuwait, awaiting deployment to Baghdad.
Two years later, Hoffman, 25, is a civilian on the lecture circuit, introducing himself as an Iraq Veteran Against the War. On March 19, when war opponents plan to converge near Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., to mark the date of the invasion, Hoffman, who co-founded the Iraq veterans group, will be one of the lead speakers.
"I disagreed with the war before I went over," said Hoffman, the son of a steelworker from Allentown, Pa. "But now, I can talk about the reality of war -- what it's really like, the lack of support the troops have, the civilians being killed. The biggest problem with Iraq right now is the occupation."
Along with Gold Star Families for Peace, which is made up of people who have lost loved ones in Iraq, Iraq Veterans Against the War holds a powerful claim among peace groups as ones who can speak from experience about the consequences of the war. Together, they will be front and center among the scores of peace groups that are hoping to keep the war -- and its repercussions -- in the public consciousness.
Peace groups have been relatively quiet in recent months, especially after President Bush's reelection. But antiwar leaders say they are on the verge of reemerging. Leaders of dozens of peace groups plan to meet in St. Louis this weekend to plot strategies for a new push against the war, from ad campaigns to long-term, grass-roots organizing. They plan to use March 19 and 20, the anniversary weekend of the war's start, as the beginning of an all-out effort to convince the public that the best course for Americans and Iraqis is for the war to end and the troops to come home.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32902-2005Feb17?language=printer
Dean and the Democrats: a ‘Counterpunch’ from Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's new post has been hailed by many as a huge feat for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party (yeah, what "progressive" wing?). But it is no feat. Not only is Howard Dean a centrist in the most disgusting Clintonesque sense of the term, but his victory this past weekend to head the DNC is also a shot in the head of his passionate supporters. He has sold them out, while taking on the roll of insider, where his new symbolic post within the party will do little more to challenge Democratic policy, than, say, MoveOn's irritating phone calls to Congress.
We should have seen it coming. Right after Joe Trippi left Dean's presidential campaign last year, the good doctor moved quickly to replace him with DC insider Roy Neel. Neel, who talked Al Gore out of actively contesting the 2000 election, was a long-time telecom lobbyist who employed his status with the Clinton Administration to maneuver the atrocious Telecommunications Act through Congress in 1996 -- was perhaps the greatest corporate handout of the Clinton years. http://www.counterpunch.com/frank02172005.html
-R
