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| June 21, 2006 |
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The BuzzFlash Mailbag The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. More reader opinion is at "Contributors." You can write to Mailbag at http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contact/mail.html. Guidelines for submissions are at BuzzFlash FAQ #18. Subject: Iraq A couple of comments that are succinct. From a Vietnam Vet, in a story about PTSD [post traumatic stress syndrome] in the Washington Post: Iraq is Vietnam without water. We conquered Iraq on the cheap. We didn't secure the country. We have not secured the country and we cannot secure the country. Also, it is not a war. It is a peacekeeping mission, and we are failing. Scot Spitzner Subject: Invasion I try to call it just what it is. The invasion of Iraq...that is what we did...and no one knows for sure...why. I can guess it is Power, Oil, Control...etc. All the bad things that any criminal mind would choose...and folks, these are criminal minds! It makes me sick...I sometimes just sit and watch...peacetakescourage.com...it makes me cry...but, I expend a little hate with it, too. I always thought I would never really hate anyone...but, when you see the little ones, bloody, crying, sick...and our young service men and women...crying...sad...you just cannot help but hate...to a degree that I do not like! But, then I have never before known of anyone like Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Rove. Surely, there will not be a real hereafter for them...can anyone think of what they should be. If they go to Heaven...then it is not what we were taught! Shirley ... St. Louis Subject: Dan Rather Buzzers, Isn't it somewhat strange that Dan Rather's supposed downfall was orchestrated by Karl Rove with fake documents, knowing the real ones would never come out? I applaud Mr. Rather for trying to tell the truth. The story wasn't about fake documents at any time, but rather the Fraud In Chief who saw better to desert his obligation to serve with his unit and get away with it. Reality Bob Subject: Your Beautiful Posts Come visit me at WORDSFROMTHESLOWLANE. You will like my work. I've been published in Thomas Paine's Corner. Skeptical Inquirer. Love Jason Miller. Gene Lyons. Please read GEORGE, THE OILIGARCHS, THE HAWKS AND RELIGIOUS FANATICS. More books: read Kevin Phillips' AMERICAN THEOCRACY. Madeleine Albright's THE MIGHTY AND THE ALMIGHTY. Heard and saw Nir Rosen speak on Fareed Zakaria's PBS show foreignexchange.tv ... Anything you need or like or want feel free to use. Let me hear. Mahalo for being there. Don't lose me. Peace and Love Bettejo Dux Subject: Shooting at the N. Korean Missile So, they're going to shoot down the N. Korean missile, huh? If they try, they're liable to embarrass themselves and make the U.S. look even more inept in the world's eyes than the Iraq war has already done. This could be Soooooo embarrassing if they miss! They don't have a good track record of being able to hit flying missiles. I'm sure you remember that they even resorted to putting transponders on their test target missiles during the anti-missile missile tests because they couldn't hit them otherwise. They rigged the test. Even then, they were missing! A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: FIFA Football Fans in Underwear It was of course DUTCH fans, wearing a dutch beer logo on their shorts who chose to attend the Netherlands-Ivory Coast match in their skivvies because they would have been barred otherwise. It is guaranteed that ANY dutch beer they were advertising would have to be a better brew than Bud. World-Dutch fans watch match in their underwear (Reuters) A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Amnesty I read the BuzzFlash headline "19 US Senators, All Republicans, Just Voted In Favor of Giving Amnesty to the Murderers of US Soldiers in Iraq," and I must say I'm more than disappointed. It is in this light I present the following: Does nonviolence work? The short answer is yes, and we have four recent events that support this contention: the liberation of India from British rule, the end of the Cambodian and Lebanese civil wars and the beginning of a non apartheid South Africa. Despite being enveloped by a world of violence, in each of these instances people put aside the use of physical coercion to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Mahatma Ghandi led tens of millions of Indian folks during the first half of the twentieth century in what has come to epitomize the refusal to use violence to achieve an end. Ghandi's anti-colonial Quit India Movement was the farewell card to Britain, ending with full national independence in 1947. Throughout it all Ghandi turned his back on physical force, and instead relied upon a practical application of "Ahimsa" (or non injury) and mass disobedience to reject tyranny. South Africa endured more than a century of unofficial and official apartheid that relegated the blacks to being slaves and servants of the white man. When that cruel policy collapsed, instead of a bloodbath of revenge and counter revenge we saw a realization that bygones must be left to being just that. The Reconciliation Commissions that crisscrossed South Africa allowed the guilty of all races a chance to come forward, confess and be publicly forgiven. Lebanon sank into violent revolution for 15 years that saw fighting between Lebanese Muslims and Christians and Palestinians and even an Israeli invasion along with a short dose of U.S. military intervention. Today pictures of Beirut show a still recovering but vibrant city despite the recent violence. The Lebanese people have put an official policy of bombings, murder and mayhem behind them in favor of a decent future. In 1979 Vietnam invaded Cambodia (now Kampuchea) and drove the murderous Khmer Rouge out of power resulting in another multi party civil war that continued throughout the 1980s. In 1991 the various Cambodian factions, 18 outside nations and the United Nations signed on to an agreement that ended this internal warfare, and like South Africa revenge was essentially put aside in preference of a peaceful future for all the people. And now in 2006, we can look back on these events in evaluation. I say they've all been massive successes ... not perfect ... but many times better than the alternatives. If, on the other hand, we're not willing to discuss amnesty we will never achieve anything but more wars. Rama Schneider Subject: Pentagon Designates Homosexuality a Disorder Say what? The Corporate/Gangster Proxy known as the Pentagon that implants reporters to disguise the reality of its operations; actively forbids publication of photos of dead Americans; actively sets up an office of disinformation and propaganda; has no war plans to protect either troops or civilian contractors in harm's way; has no peace plans to transfer military responsibility to local control and withdraw -- designates homosexuals as disordered, contrary to a 30-year old American Psychiatric Association finding? If I were gay, I sure wouldn't be waving any flags. This is worse than the inverted logic of the Defense of Marriage Act. Buzz, it's time for another hypocrite of the week award! Will Wyche Subject: Let's Just Get This Straight 19 US Senators, All Hardcore Republicans, Just Voted In Favor of Giving Amnesty to the Murderers of US Soldiers in Iraq -- that's the headline at BuzzFlash.com this morning. While BuzzFlash seems to be upset about the 19 senators' votes, I am not because it makes a few things perfectly clear. 1. If you sign up for the military, you are getting the straight scoop from these senators -- there is no cost to be paid by anyone who kills you in Iraq. You are expendable, cannon fodder, chumps. Got that? 2. These senators, by agreeing to the other part of the deal -- no amnesty for those who kill Iraqis in Iraq -- are admitting that the U.S. is an illegally invading occupying army and as such is legitimately targeted by the occupied. 3. These senators are simply acknowledging the "shoe on the other foot" rule stating that whatever one side gets to do the other side gets to do as well. In this case, U.S. soldiers get to kill Iraqis with virtual amnesty (what? 3 U.S. soldiers charged with murder, you say?), so it should be the other way around as well. 4. The Republican senators are admitting to a dose of realism that the Democrats are refusing, namely that a deal with the insurgents is probably the only way out of this mess. Bargaining about amnesty is a classic sign of a deal with an insurgency (unless it's a trick to lure them in so you can smash them more easily). Barry Mauer Subject: Senate Do-Nothings Ride Again The Senate voted to reject an amendment that would have created a Senate committee to investigate the awarding of contracts to conduct activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fight the war on terrorism. The vote was 52-44 along strict party lines. Once again the Republicans in the Senate absolutely refuse to do their job. Oversight is your job, Senators. Checks and balances are your job. Republicans talk the talk but show no interest in walking the walk. There may be a certain segment of the population who will think this is just dandy. That’s the same bunch of fools who get screwed by conmen in their never ending search to get something for nothing. Fools not only part easily with their money, they part easily with their vote. They agree that the Congress and Senate are full of crooks and liars. Just not the Congress Critters or Senators from their state. That kind of thinking is what makes incumbents not have to worry about ethics or other silly little things like that. Thanks to the current bunch in the House and the Senate, the tax money being collected is being misused, abused and tossed around like so many losing lottery tickets. After all, they can just borrow more money from Communist China. They’ve already put our kids in debt, now they are working on the grandkids. Our government is rotten from top to bottom and we all know it. Most people just shrug their shoulders and mumble something about there being nothing they can do. Maybe not. But if no one tries then that is an absolute certainty. Much of private business these days is awarding outrageous contracts to CEOs that reward them whether they are effective or not. Now we, as members of the board of directors, i.e. voters, are treating our elected officials the same way. We reward them with jobs where they do little, vote in their own pay raises and work for the corporations that have long since bought whatever honesty or integrity they might have had. If on November 3rd the same bunch of Senators return to the Senate chamber, then we have abdicated our role and checks and balances on those who are supposed to provide checks and balances. And we will reap what we sow. Roll call: Senators reject investigation of war contract waste (Raw Story) Marjorie Swanson Subject: Transparency? Crap! Our glorious leader mouths the self-serving lie "our transparent democracy" at every opportunity. Never has secrecy and subterfuge been more pervasive in a presidency. What is transparent is the man himself: our emperor not only has no clothes, anyone who really looks can see through him as well. He's an empty suit minus the suit. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Gore Coming to His Senses I am not surprised that Gore finally came to his senses.....how could anyone endorse Lieberman? Political stuff first! Embarrassing stuff second! Is there anyone in Chicago who thinks that the Cardinals would have been better off going down on Rush street and getting s+++faced? I do!!! White Sox Club the Cardinals, 20-6 Shirley ... St. Louis Subject: The GWB Myth BuzzFlash! Many Americans believe that GWB (theguywhocallshimselfpresident) was born in Texas. HE wants people to think he is a real Texas tuffguy! He is a "G-D Connecticut Yankee!" I know people from Connecticut....they WANT you to think he's from TEXAS....but they still cash those BIG checks he keeps writing for them! ... George in PA Subject: Thank You, John Murtha I can't say it often enough. Way to go John Murtha! THANKS. Thanks for saying what I wish others had the courage to say. Thanks for telling the truth about this horrible misadventure in Iraq. Thanks for thinking more about the lives of the soldiers than your own political future. Thanks for being the kind of Democrat we desperately need. Fred Subject: You've Seen This Episode of "I, Claudius" Last night, Frontline promised to shed light on "The Dark Side" of Cheney. There were some good moments in it, true; but also so many missed moments: Colin Powell with the plagiarized thesis, the arm twisting at the UN to go along with the invasion, the attempt to excuse torture (well, you know those crazy Egyptians and their drills ... but if you want a confession, names, get an Inquisitor). What we did get was the official story: the faulty Intelligence. You know, they got things wrong in Gulf 1 ... hence the UN inspectors (who really proved to be the answer to old friends like Saddam who go wrong), hence the Intelligence Overlordom of Negroponte. Let's leave intelligence to Rummy and Cheney, who, after all, know what it's for. And there sits Tenet, the lone holdover from the Clinton days, the one Democrat. See him smile? See his happiness as he stands in the aura of Bush? He's there as insurance, someone to hold the bag. See him get the Medal of Freedom, the Emperor whispering in his ear. Yes, it all comes back. "You've seen this episode of 'I, Claudius'" -- the best line in the whole documentary. We also hear from Joe Wilson, and Frontline is good enough to make clear that the CIA sent him on his yellow cake mission, and yes, his wife was outed by the Dark Forces. But no word on the consequences of that outing, who and what else it may have destroyed, or that Plame was part of an "operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran." (Goodness. Is Cheney setting things up in Iran, dark side style, again?) Most important of all, Frontline did imply that Plame's identity as a covert intelligence operative was divulged (which, under Title 50, Chapter 15, section 421, is a felony) as an act of political revenge, and that this does appear to have been done to send a message: agents and whistleblowers, beware. And such a message to send … What about The War on Terror, Bush's slogan, his permanent "war"? Keeping agents from stepping forward can only harm us. Wasn't that a lesson of 9/11? Which brings us back to the beginning, that golden opportunity that Frontline missed -- those three little words that make it all so very clear that cooking the intelligence -- the cherry-picking and all the mafia-style blackmail that must go along with deceptions -- was always the plan, the map, the MO. Three little words: Downing Street Memo. The Dark Side (Frontline/PBS) Deborah Conner Subject: Net Neutrality Ads I see Josh Marshall is running those anti-Net Neutrality ads again. You know the ones - do you want a smart network or a dumb pipe? I ask, what's so dumb about a microphone? What's so smart about a microphone with a volume control set by a money meter and a political agenda? But hey, if that's how Josh wants to make his money, I say go for it. But let's suppose for a moment that you have an important issue. On one side, you have a well-funded astroturf organization supporting a position that is contrary to democratic, progressive, and liberal ideals. On the other side, you have a underfunded group or individual who is just trying to raise awareness of the truth about the issue. Progressive organizations are traditionally underfunded, and premium ad space on Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and many others costs a bundle. Wouldn't it be great if Josh Marshall, Raw Story, and the others would balance their paid ad space for anti-progressive organizations with free ad space and better placement for progressive organizations trying to counter the lies? I'm not saying they should take down the anti-progressive ads. But they should research the issues and provide free ad space to the organization that best represents the truth, to counter the effect of the misleading ads they run for profit. Or would that be unfair? And who would it be unfair to? A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: How the Godfather of the Republican Party dealt with KNOWN terrorists … Lest we forget.
SW Subject: Democrats Backing the Wrong Horse? What do democrats believe in? Can you tell me? I look back a Presidents Roosevelt (both of them) and Eisenhower and I see very admirable qualities in all three, and two were Republicans. Does anyone besides John Edwards advocate on behalf of the disadvantaged and left behind Americans whose productivity gains in these past two decades have not been matched by wage increases? The issues I hear loud and clear from many Democratic politicians are things FDR never had to deal with or confront; that would be abortion and homosexuality. Not that those were not evident in the 1930s, but he did not champion them like representatives do today. As Warren Buffet said there is a class war going on but it has been won by my class, the wealthy. If democrats cannot stand against a phony war (occupation really) or stand up for poor people and be for the things that made them worth voting for in the first place like voting rights, then what good are they? They will never win back power again as long as republican voting machines tabulate the results. Dave Milam Subject: Dumbya's Ratings Up? WTF? Prove It! CNN's reporting that dumbya's approval ratings are up 5 points, but they don't bother to show any polls. I have been watching for some time now for a poll on this, and as of several months have not seen any. I find this odd. It seemed when dumbya was in full overdrive cultivating fear and hatred and successfully getting the Nascar fans fully behind him, there was a poll every freekin' day. Now, since dumbya is in the toilet and the American people are slowly waking from the coma, we don't ever see any polls. But magically FAUX and CNN have some super top secret polls that they quote but won't show. If there is a poll I can look at, please tell me. Also, I saw a letter from a Canadian asking if dumbya could run for a third term. First, when we were a Democratic society the President could only serve 2 terms. Term limits for President were changed in the 1940's or 1950's to only two terms. But, since dumbya never got elected legally even once, I am sure they could use that to run again. Or since he enjoys ignoring inconvenient laws, he may just decide to run or stay in office permanently. It is difficult to say just what a sociopath will do. Bottom line on dumbya, the longer he is allowed to stay in office with his evil helpers, the worse off the world is. He and his like are evil immoral, anti-Christian. The world is a more unstable place because of them. They simply must go, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 billion dollars. KJ Lovell Subject: Bush's War I cannot understand why the American people are letting this corrupt administration stay in the white house. From Bush on down they are a bunch of thieves, killers, and liars. If I had a son or daughter in Iraq I would be camped on the white house lawn and get myself arrested before allowing them to send any more of our guys to their deaths. 13,000 more were deployed today, God Bless Them! If they made Bush and Cheney, Rumsfeld, Hastert and Frist plus many more who never were in the Service enlist, and put them in Iraq for as long as it takes, you can bet your butt things would change. Wake up America before we're totally ruined!!!! Betty Subject: Sometimes It Just Gets To You Dear Buzz: Sometimes, even in the midst of fun, this war intervenes. Even if you're a kazillion miles away, and in a state of euphoria over some other thing, you get reminded, abruptly, brutally, of it. This was one of those moments. This Iraq war sucks. This was the only way I could express it. One Day in June Reflections while watching a 2006 World Cup Soccer game after hearing news reports of the discovery of the tortured, decapitated bodies of two missing US servicemen in Iraq. They sprint across the soccer field, Meanwhile, in Iraq, Annie Wyndham |
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