Global
Remarks prepared for World Can't Wait rally at White House, Feb. 4, 2006.
There are protests outside at least two houses today, the White House and Bush's luxury estate near Crawford, Texas. Bush can run, but he cannot hide.
He tries to hide behind fear, our fear. The only tool in his bag is making us afraid. We have to resist becoming afraid, but we have to be able to talk about the fact that Bush and Cheney have made us much less safe. They have turned world opinion against us. They have turned Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorists. They have turned Afghanistan into a drug production kingdom. Terrorist incidents are up so dramatically that the Bush Administration no longer publishes those statistics.
There are protests outside at least two houses today, the White House and Bush's luxury estate near Crawford, Texas. Bush can run, but he cannot hide.
He tries to hide behind fear, our fear. The only tool in his bag is making us afraid. We have to resist becoming afraid, but we have to be able to talk about the fact that Bush and Cheney have made us much less safe. They have turned world opinion against us. They have turned Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorists. They have turned Afghanistan into a drug production kingdom. Terrorist incidents are up so dramatically that the Bush Administration no longer publishes those statistics.
In another shining example of modern day corporate fascism, it was announced recently that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency.
The language of the preamble to the agreement veils the program with talk of temporary migrant holding centers, but it is made clear that the camps will also be used "as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency."
Discussions of federal concentration camps is no longer the rhetoric of paranoid Internet conspiracy theorists, it is mainstream news.
Under the enemy combatant designation anyone at the behest of the US government, even if they are a US citizen, can be kidnapped and placed in an internment facility forever without trial. Jose Padilla, an American citizen, has spent over four years in a Navy brig and is only just now getting a trial.
In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster.
The language of the preamble to the agreement veils the program with talk of temporary migrant holding centers, but it is made clear that the camps will also be used "as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency."
Discussions of federal concentration camps is no longer the rhetoric of paranoid Internet conspiracy theorists, it is mainstream news.
Under the enemy combatant designation anyone at the behest of the US government, even if they are a US citizen, can be kidnapped and placed in an internment facility forever without trial. Jose Padilla, an American citizen, has spent over four years in a Navy brig and is only just now getting a trial.
In 2002, FEMA sought bids from major real estate and engineering firms to construct giant internment facilities in the case of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack or a natural disaster.
As Siddique Abdullah Hasan prepared answers for this interview
from his supermaximum security cell block, in Youngstown, Ohio,
news broke that Philadelphia courts had agreed to hear arguments
from Mumia Abu-Jamal's legal council. Abu-Jamal's lawyers argue
that the outcome of Mumia's 1982 trial and later appeal were
tainted by constitutional violations. Few can empathize with the
former Black Panther as well as Hasan, a respected Sunni Muslim prison
Imam who has been sentenced to death for his alleged leadership in the
1993 Lucasville prison rebellion. Hasan maintains his innocence and is
appealing his case. After hearing of Mumia's good news, he wrote that
it "brought tears of joy to my heart, because I immediately recognized it
was a positive development which could ultimately lead to his long-overdue
release from captivity."
For those impervious to the suffering of others, a dollar figure sometimes helps bring it home. Two honest economists have recently put one on the Iraq war, and in so doing shown a spotlight on the black hole in the center of our future.
If $1 trillion makes you gag, try $2 trillion.
The latter number is the "moderate," as opposed to the conservative, price tag that Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes have put on the war, which they calculated by factoring in some - but by no means all - of its real costs, such as lifelong care for brain-injured U.S. troops.
The most outrageous deception in the selling of this war three years ago is not the claims that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction or had links to al-Qaida, but the blithe assertion that the war could be fought for chump change; it was supposed to be pay-as-you-go, financed by liberated oil revenue. White House economic advisor Larry Lindsey was sacked for saying the adventure could cost the country as much as $200 billion; of course, the total, even by conventional calculation, has gone well beyond that.
If $1 trillion makes you gag, try $2 trillion.
The latter number is the "moderate," as opposed to the conservative, price tag that Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes have put on the war, which they calculated by factoring in some - but by no means all - of its real costs, such as lifelong care for brain-injured U.S. troops.
The most outrageous deception in the selling of this war three years ago is not the claims that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction or had links to al-Qaida, but the blithe assertion that the war could be fought for chump change; it was supposed to be pay-as-you-go, financed by liberated oil revenue. White House economic advisor Larry Lindsey was sacked for saying the adventure could cost the country as much as $200 billion; of course, the total, even by conventional calculation, has gone well beyond that.
Except in the cynical, zealous or spiritually clouded minds of his right wing devotees, it's become a well-established (if under reported) fact that President George W. Bush is a serial liar, if not a congenital liar.1 For example, after The New York Times very belatedly leaked Mr. Bush's unconstitutional order permitting the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens without obtaining the required court-approved warrants, Bush defended his directive as a "vital tool" in the war against terrorism.
With the passage of Ohio HB 3 it is incumbent upon the Secretary of State to guarantee equal protection to all Ohio voters and all qualified Ohioans seeking to participate in our electoral process.
When elected I will act in accordance with the intent of the new voter identification requirements and immediately establish and issue the Ohio Voter Identification Card to all eligible Ohio residents. I will also use the budget and manpower of the office to conduct aggressive, continuing statewide voter registration efforts to insure that those most likely to be disenfranchised by these new provisions are in fact included in Ohio’s election process.
Special emphasis will be directed towards registering and issuing cards to the elderly, the infirm, residents of poor urban neighborhoods, citizens in impoverished and isolated rural areas, students, the homeless, and temporary residents of support shelters including special needs situations.
In the interests of guaranteeing the voting rights of those participants I will initiate procurement of video and audio equipment to document their registration and validate their efforts.
When elected I will act in accordance with the intent of the new voter identification requirements and immediately establish and issue the Ohio Voter Identification Card to all eligible Ohio residents. I will also use the budget and manpower of the office to conduct aggressive, continuing statewide voter registration efforts to insure that those most likely to be disenfranchised by these new provisions are in fact included in Ohio’s election process.
Special emphasis will be directed towards registering and issuing cards to the elderly, the infirm, residents of poor urban neighborhoods, citizens in impoverished and isolated rural areas, students, the homeless, and temporary residents of support shelters including special needs situations.
In the interests of guaranteeing the voting rights of those participants I will initiate procurement of video and audio equipment to document their registration and validate their efforts.
Ms. Ivins,
Thank you. I am so tired of hearing that the only way to get things done is to be "politic". The article about Hillary Clinton and her run for the presidency put this in sharp focus. Please allow me to congratulate you on this piece of writing and to thank you for your reference to Paul Wellstone. A great man who did the right thing no matter how much it might have hurt his career.
Thank you,
Laura M. Traff
Thank you. I am so tired of hearing that the only way to get things done is to be "politic". The article about Hillary Clinton and her run for the presidency put this in sharp focus. Please allow me to congratulate you on this piece of writing and to thank you for your reference to Paul Wellstone. A great man who did the right thing no matter how much it might have hurt his career.
Thank you,
Laura M. Traff
Diabolic… Cindy Sheehan armed with a concealed T-shirt
boldly snuck into Bush’s State of Disunion Speech.
How did she get in? In a plot to terrorize Bush, Representative Lynn Woolsey, Dem from California, nothing more need be said, but I will say more, invited, even gave Cindy Sheehan a ticket to the speech – Gallery 5, seat 7, row A, while the treacherous Sheehan attended an ‘alternative state of disunion’ by the suspected terrorist organization Code Pink.
Why haven’t these people been arrested and stored in secret jails yet? Code Pink is a group controlled by radical feminist Peace Niks. They’ve been protesting Bush’s invasion of Iraq – along with millions of little people all over the country since even before Bush started his war.
Once upon a time Code Pink almost made their protest mainstream when a Code Pink member returning after Bush’s Invasion of Iraq reported on the bloodshed on the Republican News Hour with Jimmy Lehrer. Luckily the News Hour realized their error and cut her off in mid sentence forcing Code Pink underground to work with the likes of the radical Cindy Sheehan.
How did she get in? In a plot to terrorize Bush, Representative Lynn Woolsey, Dem from California, nothing more need be said, but I will say more, invited, even gave Cindy Sheehan a ticket to the speech – Gallery 5, seat 7, row A, while the treacherous Sheehan attended an ‘alternative state of disunion’ by the suspected terrorist organization Code Pink.
Why haven’t these people been arrested and stored in secret jails yet? Code Pink is a group controlled by radical feminist Peace Niks. They’ve been protesting Bush’s invasion of Iraq – along with millions of little people all over the country since even before Bush started his war.
Once upon a time Code Pink almost made their protest mainstream when a Code Pink member returning after Bush’s Invasion of Iraq reported on the bloodshed on the Republican News Hour with Jimmy Lehrer. Luckily the News Hour realized their error and cut her off in mid sentence forcing Code Pink underground to work with the likes of the radical Cindy Sheehan.
Back at the start of the 1970s, President Nixon made a determined bid to split the antiwar movement. His strategy was to present himself as an environmentalist, a friend of Mother Earth. He celebrated Earth Day, founded the Environmental Protection Agency and, in so doing, proved himself a greener president than any since. (Watergate soon overwhelmed him, and the environmental movement displayed no appetite to defend their crusader.)
Listening to Bush on Tuesday night, I wondered whether he was trying to play the same game. How many Greens today dreamed they would hear George Bush call for more investment in "revolutionary solar and wind technologies," let alone "cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips, stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years."
Listening to Bush on Tuesday night, I wondered whether he was trying to play the same game. How many Greens today dreamed they would hear George Bush call for more investment in "revolutionary solar and wind technologies," let alone "cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips, stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years."
