I don’t think our efforts and blogging and protests do shorten the war by even a day or a week, and so I raise the question whether we are not basically completely deluded and in failing to take more drastic action, complicit in the very things we denounce.

Hell I still pay my taxes. Don’t you? What kind of war opponent does that? No, I and most of us are completely compromised.

What I dislike about the left wing blogosphere is that all of our talk (mine too) adds up to a simple conclusion… violent revolution.

Well, there is a place for violence in opposing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and that place is Iraq. I, for one, think an occupied people have a legitimate right to use violence against an occupying army (a position, I readily admit, that will keep me from ever winning a seat in Congress).
Many American peace activists seem to have a hard time understanding that we’re the supporting actors in this drama. In the end, it is the resistance (both violent and nonviolent) of the people of Iraq that will end the occupation, not our protests here at home.
Which is not to say that protest is useless. If our efforts hasten the end of the war by a day, or a week, or a month, then we should do all we can. But let’s not act under the mistaken notion that it’s all on our shoulders, and so we’re justified in doing anything, including violence, to end the war.

I am deeply sorry for his loss!
I so appreciate his willingness to speak truth to the Bush administrations unchecked power. Thank you Prof Bacevich. I will light a candle for your son every morning as I do for all of those both Iraqi and Americans who have lost their lives in this criminal, illegal and unnecessary war.

Sometimes things just ain’t teh funny.

For some reason, reading the words of this Crittendon fellow talking about the value of sacrifice, I was suddenly appalled at the bloodthirsty self righteousness. Sacrifice HELL, these people are dead now and for something even more insubstantial than the Domino theory of Viet Nam.

What does “died in Vain” really mean? I think that part of the definition would include dying in a war instigated to satisfy the ego of a corrupt leader. I think this war would fit that definition.

If this sacrifice is so valuable, why not formalize it a little more? Build a huge monument inside a massive new GWB/Halliburton Stadium select a volunteer in some fashion and march them to the top of the monument, then kill them in some spectacular fashion.

You could sell tickets and fill the house. The better seats down in front could really get pricey. The concession contracts would be reserved for qualified cronies, try the haliburton hot dogs, the blackwater beer, or maybe the carlysle popcorn. And to top off the spectacle, everyone that attends will get on the list for a year to be the next sacrificee. This would blow American Idol off the stage. Like a band I knew used to say at the end of their set, “follow that” as they walked off stage.

Our Mr. Crittendon could have the tremendous honor of being the first to make that incredibly valuable sacrifice.

Each country could have their own program and each event would be judged to pick a winner of the war.

Apologies if anyone feels I got too graphic and I mean no disrespect to the fallen soldiers and their families but there’s got to be a better way.

Richardson now sayin that we need to withdraw completely from Iraq by the end of this year and leave NO residual troops.

Here we go. It isn’t clear that Richardson has a lot of credibility on the issue cause he’s flip flopped on it- but this is the first candidate that I am aware of who has brought up the zero residual troops issue. Everyone else more or less assumes that we will leave SOME troops for SOME issue. If Richardson starts a debate about the pluses and minuses of the residual troop issue- he will have done a great service- can ya spell “guard OUR oil?”

With presidential candidates it’s hard to say whether this is true Leadership or desperation. In his case I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it’s Leadership. More power to him.

I’ll also add that he appears to be a real fighter. He’s not bowing out of this race and he’s getting his face on t.v. to be seen and heard and that’s half the battle of a political race on the national playing field.

He might eventually lose, but he’s gonna slug it out one way or the other. That’s character and tenacity.

Even in the Democratic Party one must follow the money trail to understand what has happened to the Democratic Party in the past twenty years.

When I read awhile back that one of the DLC leaders was a Christian Coalition Republican, I intuitively realized that the DLC was being used as a Republican wedge to undermine and sabotage the Democratic Party.

And when I learned that the DLC leadership tried to block Howard Dean from becoming head of the Democratic National Committee, this just buttressed this feeling that the DLC leadership are traitors to everything Democratic.

So, to now hear that the DLC feted Joe Lieberman at a gala fat-cat event, with a whole lot of corporate fat-cat moolah flowing into the DLC leadership’s pockets, well, this completes the picture.

Question: were any American Worker Labor Unions represented at this DLC/Lieberman bash?

Were the only labor union workers present the ones that were there serving the meal, filling the glasses and cleaning up afterward…if any?

Anyway, the DLC, in my view, is just a wing of the Republican Party that someone about two decades ago decided to use to subvert the Democratic Party, selling out to multinational corporate interests, in an attempt to undermine the Democratic Party’s traditional role as a defender of American workers and their families, as well as Democratic support of small businesses.

So, whenever I hear that the “Democratic Party” has failed to stop, or even slowdown, the Republican Party’s juggernaut of death and greed, like in the initial case of the Democratic Party not being able to get the minimum wage increase bill passed earlier this year, I know that the DLC members are running interference for the Republican Party and their nefarious, anti-American worker schemes.

In other words, the DLC are rubber-stamp Republicans just like the regular rubber-stamp Republicans.

So, for the real Democratic Party to return to it’s progressive, liberal roots, all the DLC “moles” must be exposed and told to take a hike…and go join the Republican Party, which they are de facto members of already, to all intents and purposes.

Enough is enough. Enough of the Republican lies. Enough of the DLC lies and liars…and Lie-bermans.

Richardson now sayin that we need to withdraw completely from Iraq by the end of this year and leave NO residual troops.

Here we go. It isn’t clear that Richardson has a lot of credibility on the issue cause he’s flip flopped on it- but this is the first candidate that I am aware of who has brought up the zero residual troops issue. Everyone else more or less assumes that we will leave SOME troops for SOME issue. If Richardson starts a debate about the pluses and minuses of the residual troop issue- he will have done a great service- can ya spell “guard OUR oil?”

I don’t like or dislike Richardson. He has an impressive resume. But, he has said some reckless things and gotten caught with multiple inaccuracies. He exaggerates and seems to be impulsive. All these qualities are death to a political campaign. He did not do well on MTP this morning. I think he might be able to offer up some good conversation in the debate, but is not suited for the ticket if the DEMs really want to win. Of course, another week like this one, and the DEMs won’t have to worry about that.

But of course no one ever talks about it. I’ll probably get my IP address tracked down just for mentioning it.

But the fact is, if you really believe that this government is fascist, and that the alternative party is just fascism light, and if you are really appalled by the ongoing war, why are you not organizing in cells to sabotage local military installations?

Are you preparing to storm the capital, and oppose the deep structural violence of American corporate fascism with counter violence?

Oh.

I didn’t think so.

Neither am I.

What that does to me, and to you, is to make us all marginalized little whiners, who fully understand the absolute evil represented by the current economic/political/ecological reality, but who in the end are hardly willing to do more than rant on blogs and mutter to our friends about the depth of our anger and alienation.

No, I don’t believe that peaceful demonstrations and blog comments and street demonstrations will make a difference.

No, I’m not planning to take up a gun against this government or its representatives (although if a recruiter ever tried to recruit my child, I might consider that armed robbery and consider all necessary means of self defense…)

No, I don’t believe that anything less than counter-violence would be effective in changing the course of this regime… and probably not even that.

Yes, I am a politically marginal human being, with my nose to the grindstone, feeding my children, and perhaps hoping that a combination of foreign governments and our own leadership’s stupidity will deliver the blow against the Bush led Republican/Democratic corporate power structure that I, from my suburban existence and comfortable job, am unwilling or too cowardly to deliver.

Oh, and to those of you who support your soldiers… sorry. Whatever their good motives, they made a terrible mistake in volunteering for this imperial army, and, although I hesitate to judge another parent, you made a mistake in educating them in a way that allowed them to consider service in an imperial army. They are not defending MY interests. I wish them speedy and safe return home, but I do not support them (they are after all morally responsible adults who have made a terrible choice) or their mission and neither should you. They’ve made their own deal with the devil. I hope he lets them off easy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After years of high-stakes legal wrangling, a lawsuit stemming from the gruesome deaths of four U.S. contractors in Iraq is moving behind closed doors in an action seen as an important precedent for the booming private security industry.

The suit, for wrongful death and fraud, was filed in January 2005 against Blackwater Security Consulting, one of scores of companies now fielding close to 130,000 civilians who work alongside the U.S. military in Iraq. Generally their contracts stipulate the contractors assume all risks — injury, death, disability — and waive their right to sue.

http://www.reuters.com/article…..geNumber=1