Duty to Warn
"Sir . . . sir."
Need has a tone of voice that's hard to ignore, as badly as I might want to. It pierced my purposeful hurry this night. I had stopped at the store after work and was carrying two plastic bags of groceries - milk, OJ, cottage cheese - which were cutting into my hands. My briefcase was slung awkwardly over my shoulder and I felt tired, stressed, put upon.
Words can hardly convey how little I wanted to turn around just then and find out who was summoning me.
I live in Chicago, a city with lots of dark corners, a city of want spilling up from the margins. The want is perpetual, as much a part of the cityscape as Lake Michigan - always there, sometimes roiled up, sometimes dangerous. I resist it with a weary heart, having no clue what my relationship to it ought to be.
I turned around. A woman was standing in front of an apartment building about half a block behind me. I walked back to her, lugging my groceries and briefcase. She was skinny, scrawny, with a scraped-raw look to her face and terror in her eyes, which instantly made me forget about the weight of my own life.
Need has a tone of voice that's hard to ignore, as badly as I might want to. It pierced my purposeful hurry this night. I had stopped at the store after work and was carrying two plastic bags of groceries - milk, OJ, cottage cheese - which were cutting into my hands. My briefcase was slung awkwardly over my shoulder and I felt tired, stressed, put upon.
Words can hardly convey how little I wanted to turn around just then and find out who was summoning me.
I live in Chicago, a city with lots of dark corners, a city of want spilling up from the margins. The want is perpetual, as much a part of the cityscape as Lake Michigan - always there, sometimes roiled up, sometimes dangerous. I resist it with a weary heart, having no clue what my relationship to it ought to be.
I turned around. A woman was standing in front of an apartment building about half a block behind me. I walked back to her, lugging my groceries and briefcase. She was skinny, scrawny, with a scraped-raw look to her face and terror in her eyes, which instantly made me forget about the weight of my own life.
"There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity."~~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If it weren't so dangerously sad, the media gyrations to deflect attention from the sordid mess defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made in Iraq would be amusing. But efforts to hide the truth are futile because Rumsfeld is literally surrounded by "stars" -- retired general officers speaking publicly about the fatal mistakes Rumsfeld made in his mad dash to "sweep everything up" and dash blindly off to war.
CNN and the Boston Globe say there are six officers, Fox News says "a handful," the New York Times says seven, the Christian Science Monitor plays it safe with "several," and Rumsfeld himself laughs it off with "two or three out of thousands."
There seems to be eight so far -- Gen. Eric Shinseki, former Army Chief of Staff, was cut off at the knees a year before his retirement for testifying under oath during a Senate hearing a month before the assault on Iraq that it would take "several hundred thousand" troops to quell ethnic tensions that could lead to an insurgency.
If it weren't so dangerously sad, the media gyrations to deflect attention from the sordid mess defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made in Iraq would be amusing. But efforts to hide the truth are futile because Rumsfeld is literally surrounded by "stars" -- retired general officers speaking publicly about the fatal mistakes Rumsfeld made in his mad dash to "sweep everything up" and dash blindly off to war.
CNN and the Boston Globe say there are six officers, Fox News says "a handful," the New York Times says seven, the Christian Science Monitor plays it safe with "several," and Rumsfeld himself laughs it off with "two or three out of thousands."
There seems to be eight so far -- Gen. Eric Shinseki, former Army Chief of Staff, was cut off at the knees a year before his retirement for testifying under oath during a Senate hearing a month before the assault on Iraq that it would take "several hundred thousand" troops to quell ethnic tensions that could lead to an insurgency.
George W. Bush is at it again. This time, reports Sy Hersh in The New Yorker, it'll be Iran. (Those of us who guessed it would have been Syria first apparently underestimated his hubris.) And this time he wants to be able to use nukes.
In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the way a seemingly democratic president kept his nation in a continual state of repression was by keeping the nation in a constant state of war. Cynics suggest the lesson wasn’t lost on Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon, who both, they say, extended the Vietnam war so it coincidentally ran over election cycles, knowing that a wartime President’s party is more likely to be reelected and has more power than a President in peacetime.
This wasn’t a new lesson, however, and Orwell was not the first to note that a democracy at war was weakened and at risk.
On April 20, 1795, James Madison, who had just helped shepherd through the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and would become President of the United States in the following decade, wrote, “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”
In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the way a seemingly democratic president kept his nation in a continual state of repression was by keeping the nation in a constant state of war. Cynics suggest the lesson wasn’t lost on Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon, who both, they say, extended the Vietnam war so it coincidentally ran over election cycles, knowing that a wartime President’s party is more likely to be reelected and has more power than a President in peacetime.
This wasn’t a new lesson, however, and Orwell was not the first to note that a democracy at war was weakened and at risk.
On April 20, 1795, James Madison, who had just helped shepherd through the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and would become President of the United States in the following decade, wrote, “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”
Dear friend,
The Democratic Party is struggling to rediscover its soul. Leading Congressional Democrats still support the war; still support corporate-run health care, still support trade without protections for workers' rights, human rights or the environment. Predictably, the corporate media which fueled our march to folly in Iraq still sides with the corporate wing of our party.
Some in our party suggest that since the President and Republicans are sinking in the polls, Democrats should remain quiet. They forget the words of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. that "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Issuing tepid statements that "we can do better" hardly inspires those who worry each day about their children and spouses. American families facing a harsh struggle to survive deserve action - not silence. Wages are down and savings the lowest since the Great Depression while job insecurity, education and health care costs are soaring. Social Security and pensions are at risk.
Andy Jacobs, Jr. was born in Indianapolis in 1932, served in the House of Representatives for 15 terms, and as a result knows how Washington, DC operate. Mr. Jacobs served in Congress with President Bush I. He is a former Marine and saw heavy combat in Korea. He has written three books, “The 1600 Killers: A Wake-up Call for Congress,” “The Powell Affair, Freedom Minus One” and “Slander and Sweet Judgment - The Memoir of an Indiana Congressman.”
Kevin Zeese: Does the decision making process, particularly the decision to go to war, adhere to the requirements of the U.S. Constitution? Is Congress fulfilling its Constitutional duties - standing up for the Constitution and in the Congressional responsibility of providing a check and balance to the president?
Kevin Zeese: Does the decision making process, particularly the decision to go to war, adhere to the requirements of the U.S. Constitution? Is Congress fulfilling its Constitutional duties - standing up for the Constitution and in the Congressional responsibility of providing a check and balance to the president?
April 11, 2006 1000 PST (FTW) - ASHLAND -Cynthia McKinney is a friend of mine. Until the day I die she will be a friend of mine. More than that, she will be a role model and an inspiration that I don't ever expect to be equaled, let alone surpassed. Full disclosure.
Out of several dozen Op-Eds, news reports and commentaries on the now-infamous so-called "cop-slapping" event of March 29th, I haven't seen a single one that, from my perspective, got it right.
So right up front, let me say that if I am forced to look at this one snapshot incident, divorced from context and history, then yes, my very good friend messed up. It shouldn't have become as big a deal as it has and she bears some responsibility for that. But if I look at the event as part of a continuum of the life of congress, or the life of this nation, and (no less importantly) of the life of this woman, things look and feel a whole lot different.
Out of several dozen Op-Eds, news reports and commentaries on the now-infamous so-called "cop-slapping" event of March 29th, I haven't seen a single one that, from my perspective, got it right.
So right up front, let me say that if I am forced to look at this one snapshot incident, divorced from context and history, then yes, my very good friend messed up. It shouldn't have become as big a deal as it has and she bears some responsibility for that. But if I look at the event as part of a continuum of the life of congress, or the life of this nation, and (no less importantly) of the life of this woman, things look and feel a whole lot different.
The media has largely been ignoring the fact that the Feingold Resolution to censure George W. Bush has been gaining support among leading Democrats. The Corporate Mainstream Media made it a huge story that the Feingold Censure Resolution did not immediately gain massive public support from other Democratic Senators. Senate Democrats are starting to rally behind the resolution after exploring the issue and examining public opinion on the issue.
Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa are now co-sponsors of the Feingold Censure Resolution. Senator Harkin has written an excellent article on the subject titled “Why I Fully Support Bush Censure”. This article can be read at Tom Harkin.com http://www.tomharkin.com . Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina recently declared his support of the resolution.
Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa are now co-sponsors of the Feingold Censure Resolution. Senator Harkin has written an excellent article on the subject titled “Why I Fully Support Bush Censure”. This article can be read at Tom Harkin.com http://www.tomharkin.com . Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina recently declared his support of the resolution.
“Our empire in general makes us less secure since it consumes moral and material resources better used for domestic reconstruction. . .”
Norman Birnbaum served as an adviser to the Kennedy Presidential Campaign, a consultant to the National Security Council, an adviser to the United Automobile Workers, the chair of the Policy Advisory Council of the New Democratic Coalition, and as a member of the editorial board of Partisan Review. His writings include The Crisis of Industrial Society, Toward A Critical Sociology,The Radical Renewal, The Politics of Ideas in Modern America, and After Progress: A Century of American Social Reform and European Socialism. He is a member of the editorial board of The Nation, founding editor of the New Left Review and publishes frequently in the American and European press. He has a distinguished academic career including as a Professor Emeritus of Georgetown University Law Center, and teaching at Amherst College, the London School of Economics, Oxford University, the University of Strasbourg among others. He is a founding committee member of the Campaign for America's Future and advisor to members of the Congress and Senate.
Norman Birnbaum served as an adviser to the Kennedy Presidential Campaign, a consultant to the National Security Council, an adviser to the United Automobile Workers, the chair of the Policy Advisory Council of the New Democratic Coalition, and as a member of the editorial board of Partisan Review. His writings include The Crisis of Industrial Society, Toward A Critical Sociology,The Radical Renewal, The Politics of Ideas in Modern America, and After Progress: A Century of American Social Reform and European Socialism. He is a member of the editorial board of The Nation, founding editor of the New Left Review and publishes frequently in the American and European press. He has a distinguished academic career including as a Professor Emeritus of Georgetown University Law Center, and teaching at Amherst College, the London School of Economics, Oxford University, the University of Strasbourg among others. He is a founding committee member of the Campaign for America's Future and advisor to members of the Congress and Senate.
It may seem as though it's been moving along at a snail's pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials.
These sources work or worked at the State Department, the CIA and the National Security Council. Some of these sources are attorneys close to the case. They requested anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the details of the investigation.
In lengthy interviews over the weekend and on Monday, they said that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has started to prepare the paperwork to present to the grand jury seeking an indictment against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
These sources work or worked at the State Department, the CIA and the National Security Council. Some of these sources are attorneys close to the case. They requested anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the details of the investigation.
In lengthy interviews over the weekend and on Monday, they said that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has started to prepare the paperwork to present to the grand jury seeking an indictment against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
On March 26, a television station interviewed me right after I heard the debate at the Riffe Center in downtown Columbus between Christian-right Blackwell supporter, Rev. Russell Johnson of the Ohio Restoration Project and pastor of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, Ohio, and Washington, DC based Left-wing Christian author and editor of Sojourner’s magazine, Rev. Jim Wallis. When pressed Wallis said he thinks Barack Obama exemplifies the progressive views he espouses, and he supports John Edwards for President in ’08. I truly hope I did not appear on TV and that they destroyed the tape. I think I was under the influence of euphoria of walking around in the enemy’s camp, being fed with tasty snacks from the Lancaster Church, and remaining alive. As proof that I was under some kind of “mushy let’s all just love each other” spell, as soon as I got to my truck, I snapped out of it, and thought. “Whoa! There is something more than meets the eye going on here!”