I think we are at a turning point. Yesterday was Howard Dean Day. Today is John Conyers Day.
Ginny in Portland wrote on June 16, 2005 12:46 AM:
Consider this exchange re the recent Dean Backbiting:
Curt: I SENT $25 AS SOON AS THE CONTROVERSARY STARTED. IT'S THE FIRST MONEY I HAVE GIVEN THE PARTY SINCE DEAN TOOK OVER. I INTEND TO CONTINUE TO CONTRIBUTE.
Me: Way to go Curt --- and it means extra considering the circumstances you're in. I want to thank you so much for engaging in do-it-yourself campaign finance reform!
Curt: I ALSO EMAILED SEN BIDEN AND EXPRESSED MY FEELINGS THAT THE OLD GUARD DEMOS ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM AND CERTAINLY NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION!
Me: Excellent. I want to tell you a funny thing I did. You know the website "Truthout"? Well they have been doing a fundraiser and they deserve the funds so much I decided to become a monthly contributor. I clicked through the contribution screens and there was a question "Is your contribution in honor of someone special?" I clicked "yes" and said "Howard Dean". When I finished giving my Visa info it took me to a screen where I was told that a "special tribute letter" in honor of the person I named will be sent to the person I want to notify. So naturally I entered Sen. Joseph Biden at the Russell Senate Office Building. On the spare Address2 line I wrote DEAN SPEAKS FOR ME just for a little extra emphasis. I will love it that Senator Biden will be informed, by letter to his office, that a monthly subscription to Truthout has been purchased by me in honor of Howard Dean ... and the good people at Truthout just wanted him to know. :-)
Curt: ARRIANNA HUFFINGTON HAD IT RIGHT -- ANYONE
ADVOCATING A MOVE 'TO THE MIDDLE' SHOULD BE SWALLOWED UP BY A CRACK IN THE EARTH.
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JudyforDean wrote on June 16, 2005 01:14 AM:
Good post! In 1978, when I was in grad school on scholarship and where I was very lucky to be receiving funds from a teaching sabbatical (1/2 my regular salary which equalled about $11,000 for a family of three), I remember reading an article written by President Carter's daughter-in-law who had spent a month (or two? really can't remember) trying to make ends meet on food stamps, which are somewhat akin to minimum wage.
Her conclusion: it could be done, but only if one watched one's pennies very carefully and was able to get to the larger outlets (underlining the need for good public transportation) and/or was able to grow vegetables in a small garden, rather than be at the mercy of local business pricing. She also came to the conclusion that the whole experience was soul-destroying in so many ways.
The article resonated with me that year especially and one thing that she mentioned was how little "frills" like condiments were unaffordable. She sais that she grew to understand how sometimes people just wanted to blow everything on something totally inappropriate, if for nothing else than to break the relentless daily cycle.
Soul-destroying indeed!
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HEPhysics wrote on June 16, 2005 02:59 AM:
It has been a while since I visited, but some things never seem to change.
Once upon a time there was a presidential candidate that had an agenda that presented solutions to the most pressing problems our country faces that were economical, feasable and believe it or not workable IF, and only IF people could think beyond their own self interests.
He garnered a completely overlooked section of the Democratic Party, and began a revolution in how politics can actually be done on a semi-individual plane between the candidate and the supporters.
He had one problem.
He wasn't in it for the money. He just wanted to do something to make our country more what we think it is.
His name was Howard Dean. I still wear my Howard Dean t-shirts. I have a brand new Dean For America bumper sticker on my car. (I saved a bunch of them for replacement after the old ones wore out.)
No candidate, at least on the Presidential scale, will win an election unless and until the money is taken out of the equation. The American people are to a large extent complacent cows. They only vote if they see a reward for doing so. We have elections at the 50 percent turnout level, and discussion of 'moderate' or 'centrist' candidates seems to be a hot topic.
No wonder our great country is held in such low regard from the remaining 90 percent of people living on this planet.
You want to keep this record up? Elect a p.o.s. candidate like Kerry or Bush.
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Sophie Amrain wrote on June 16, 2005 05:02 AM:
The story below is told by Sgt. Zachary Scott-Singley, 24, who grew up in Washington state and is an Arabic language translator serving in Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division.
The sergeant has been in the Army for five years. He fought in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
.....
The targets were three houses where RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) attacks had come from a few days before.
..........
After the briefing we convoyed to the raid site. I was to go in directly after the military police who would clear the buildings. The raid began without a hitch. I was inside the courtyard of a house questioning a woman when I heard gunfire.
................
I ran up and overheard the captain asking what had happened and why this soldier had opened fire. The soldier answered that he had seen a man holding an AK-47 in the back of the black truck.
...................
There were four Iraqis walking towards us from the black truck. They were carrying a body, a small boy no more than 3 years old. His head was cocked at the wrong angle and there was blood. So much blood. The Iraqi men were crying and asking me WHY?
"Someone behind me started screaming for a medic. It was the young soldier who had fired. He screamed for a medic until he was hoarse. A medic came just to tell us what we already knew: The boy was dead.
............
"I can still see it all to this day. There were no weapons found and we accomplished nothing besides killing a child. I stayed as long as I could, talking to the man holding the child. I couldn't leave because I needed to know who they were. I wanted to remember. The man was the child's uncle, minding him for his father who had gone to the market. They were carpenters and what the soldier who had fired on the truck had seen was one of the Iraqi men standing in the truck bed, holding a piece of wood.
"Before I left I saw the young soldier who had killed the boy. His eyes were unfocused and he was just standing there, staring off into the distance.
.......................
To this day I still think about that raid, that family, that boy. I wonder if they are attacking us now. I would be. If someone took the life of my son or my daughter nothing other than my own death would stop me from killing them. I still cry when the memory hits me.
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An eyewitness account from Iraq. IMO remarkable for its honesty and ability to appreciate the value of an Iraqi human life.
Such things do happen in a war. And they are on the conscience of those that started the war. It does not matter that Bush did not contemplate killing particularly this Iraqi child. It does not matter that he presumably does not enjoy killing kids. The individual cases are unforseen and unintended, but the general pattern is foreseeable and foreseen AND THEREFORE the consequences are accepted (in German we call it 'billigend in Kauf nehmen', not sure about the translation of the term). So the Bushis do not escape their moral responsability for the death of this boy and many others (they may be able to wiggle out of it in a legal sense, because our law puts [IMHO too] much emphasis on intentional misdeeds).
Posted by Hannah at June 16, 2005 06:28 AM