LET'S 'MOVE ON' TO A NEW SENATE
With Michigan plagued by joblessness, mortgage foreclosures, lack of funding, with citizens struggling with financial ruin, somehow the Senate has found the time to vote on a censure for an advertisement run by a Liberal organization called Move On that stated that General Petraous betrayed the American people by his portrait of a rosy future for Iraq and his claim that "The Surge is Working."
Somehow the optimism of that report came as no surprise to most Americans. We expected no less. Nor were we surprised when the President took to the airwaves to say that, in Baghdad, the Iraqi could now lead ordinary lives.
The fact that Blackwater security forces could shoot a man in a car for failing to halt quickly enough at some point, then follow it up by shooting a woman passenger holding a baby quite aptly describes the "ordinary lives" of the Iraqi people. I do not know what provoked this attack, nor do I know where to place the blame. The Blackwater forces have given one side of the story, the Iraqi people another. The investigations are not complete. But, investigations aside, there is nothing ordinary about a woman carrying a child ending up dead in her car, the driver beside her bleeding from a gunshot wound.
Did General Petraous betray the American people with his report on "Progress" in Iraq? He is a military man, wearing enough medals to clank when he walks. However, it isn't General Petraous, his honor or integrity that this advertisement points out. It is a well-known fact that President Bush does not tolerate disagreement with his policies. The last bunch of generals were taken from their jobs because their viewpoint did not agree with that of our president. He does not admit mistakes. He does not admit lies. He considers himself the "Decider" and, right or wrong, sticks by his decisions....frequently at the expense of the American people.
After the advertisement condemning the Petraous report ran in a full-page spread, the President came on the airways to accuse Move On of criticizing the military. He did not do that when those horrible Swift Boat Ads, running over and over and over, called John Kerry a coward and a liar. Where was President Bush then? Where was the Senate Censure?
Nor did anyone complain of the miserable treatment the Republicans gave the Dixie Chicks, who had done nothing more than declare their dislike of Bush and his War to a British audience. Their tapes were stomped on by mobs of angry Bush supporters. Radio stations were called by avid listeners, threatening boycotts if Dixie Chick tapes were played on air. It was a feverish, hysterical attempt to ruin a group of talented singers.....and President Bush simply said, "Well, folks have a right not to buy their music!" And there was no Senate censure!
There is hardly a Liberal who has not been subjected to nasty name-calling and ridicule by the Conservative crowd. I have been told I am a "Friend of Osama," "treasonous," and "an unpatriotic basher of our brave boys who are protecting us by placing themselves in harm's way." They have always topped this off by saying "Better There Than Here!"
What a cowardly way to look at things! Better there than here! Better your sons dying than mine! Better they sacrifice their lives than me!
It seems that this country is filled with people afraid to speak the truth, lest the horde of angry locusts descend upon them and ruin their reputations with Karl Rovian venom! When Alan Greenspan plainly states that the War in Iraq is about Oil, where is the anger of the American people who were told by the President that the War was necessary because of eminent danger? Oil was never mentioned by President Bush on his tour of the country to persuade American citizens to go to War. Yet the former Chairman of our financial empire clearly stated that Oil was the reason for it, Oil is the reason our soldiers died, Oil is the motivation behind the conflict, Oil is the goal! Oil, also, is undoubtedly the reason George Bush so stubbornly hangs onto his War and refuses to contemplate failure, even though failure is what is staring him in the face.
We have Freedom of Speech in this country and Move On, as the voice of its members, has every right to voice its opinion of the General's Iraq Report. Perhaps, in a better world, all anger could be set aside, all bitter words toned down to more complimentary platitudes.
However, it is strange that after enduring five or six years of Liberal Bashing, not even counting that ridiculous witchhunt against President Clinton, with its Impeachment and its nosing into every aspect of a Middle-Aged attraction to a not-so-unwilling young woman, five or six years of "He should be tied to a bomb and dropped over Baghdad!", which was the concensus of many rightwing citizens when speaking of Sean Penn, the flag-waving, psuedo-patriotic, Scripture-spouting bands of NeoCon Hysterics standing staunchly behind their lying hero....after all this, it is strange that they object so loudly to a Liberal Ad that accuses on of their own of duplicity. It seems they can dish it out, but have a little trouble taking it!
I don't know what will happen to this country with its bitter divisions and ideological arguments. But I do know that, if we do not protect the right to speak out, we are in dire straits. Nor should the government try to control what is said or placed in a political ad, unless they fairly censure the drivel on both sides of the spectrum. To allow this President to claim to be the leader of ALL Americans, then demand an Oath of Allegiance signed before allowing anyone to listen to his speeches, to arrest anyone wearing a t-shirt that proclaims loyalty to anyone other than himself......all of this is an attempt to destroy Freedom of Speech, just one more freedom tottering on the edge of extinction.
Like the polar bear, Americans are floundering in ice-cold water, trying to hang on to the icefloe, trying to find some solid ground. While we are bickering and fighting and arguing, our civil freedoms are disappearing, one by one, in a Corporate takeover of the world we used to know. So, be wary, friends. Americans are fighting and dying for the right for International Oil Companies to get their greedy hands on Middle Eastern oil....and "Better There than Here" seems to me to be a strange slogan.
How about...."Better Not at All!" And how about getting rid of these cowardly Senators who censure a Liberal belief, but say nothing about the scores of muck peddled for years by the Republicans! Let's Move On!
Somehow the optimism of that report came as no surprise to most Americans. We expected no less. Nor were we surprised when the President took to the airwaves to say that, in Baghdad, the Iraqi could now lead ordinary lives.
The fact that Blackwater security forces could shoot a man in a car for failing to halt quickly enough at some point, then follow it up by shooting a woman passenger holding a baby quite aptly describes the "ordinary lives" of the Iraqi people. I do not know what provoked this attack, nor do I know where to place the blame. The Blackwater forces have given one side of the story, the Iraqi people another. The investigations are not complete. But, investigations aside, there is nothing ordinary about a woman carrying a child ending up dead in her car, the driver beside her bleeding from a gunshot wound.
Did General Petraous betray the American people with his report on "Progress" in Iraq? He is a military man, wearing enough medals to clank when he walks. However, it isn't General Petraous, his honor or integrity that this advertisement points out. It is a well-known fact that President Bush does not tolerate disagreement with his policies. The last bunch of generals were taken from their jobs because their viewpoint did not agree with that of our president. He does not admit mistakes. He does not admit lies. He considers himself the "Decider" and, right or wrong, sticks by his decisions....frequently at the expense of the American people.
After the advertisement condemning the Petraous report ran in a full-page spread, the President came on the airways to accuse Move On of criticizing the military. He did not do that when those horrible Swift Boat Ads, running over and over and over, called John Kerry a coward and a liar. Where was President Bush then? Where was the Senate Censure?
Nor did anyone complain of the miserable treatment the Republicans gave the Dixie Chicks, who had done nothing more than declare their dislike of Bush and his War to a British audience. Their tapes were stomped on by mobs of angry Bush supporters. Radio stations were called by avid listeners, threatening boycotts if Dixie Chick tapes were played on air. It was a feverish, hysterical attempt to ruin a group of talented singers.....and President Bush simply said, "Well, folks have a right not to buy their music!" And there was no Senate censure!
There is hardly a Liberal who has not been subjected to nasty name-calling and ridicule by the Conservative crowd. I have been told I am a "Friend of Osama," "treasonous," and "an unpatriotic basher of our brave boys who are protecting us by placing themselves in harm's way." They have always topped this off by saying "Better There Than Here!"
What a cowardly way to look at things! Better there than here! Better your sons dying than mine! Better they sacrifice their lives than me!
It seems that this country is filled with people afraid to speak the truth, lest the horde of angry locusts descend upon them and ruin their reputations with Karl Rovian venom! When Alan Greenspan plainly states that the War in Iraq is about Oil, where is the anger of the American people who were told by the President that the War was necessary because of eminent danger? Oil was never mentioned by President Bush on his tour of the country to persuade American citizens to go to War. Yet the former Chairman of our financial empire clearly stated that Oil was the reason for it, Oil is the reason our soldiers died, Oil is the motivation behind the conflict, Oil is the goal! Oil, also, is undoubtedly the reason George Bush so stubbornly hangs onto his War and refuses to contemplate failure, even though failure is what is staring him in the face.
We have Freedom of Speech in this country and Move On, as the voice of its members, has every right to voice its opinion of the General's Iraq Report. Perhaps, in a better world, all anger could be set aside, all bitter words toned down to more complimentary platitudes.
However, it is strange that after enduring five or six years of Liberal Bashing, not even counting that ridiculous witchhunt against President Clinton, with its Impeachment and its nosing into every aspect of a Middle-Aged attraction to a not-so-unwilling young woman, five or six years of "He should be tied to a bomb and dropped over Baghdad!", which was the concensus of many rightwing citizens when speaking of Sean Penn, the flag-waving, psuedo-patriotic, Scripture-spouting bands of NeoCon Hysterics standing staunchly behind their lying hero....after all this, it is strange that they object so loudly to a Liberal Ad that accuses on of their own of duplicity. It seems they can dish it out, but have a little trouble taking it!
I don't know what will happen to this country with its bitter divisions and ideological arguments. But I do know that, if we do not protect the right to speak out, we are in dire straits. Nor should the government try to control what is said or placed in a political ad, unless they fairly censure the drivel on both sides of the spectrum. To allow this President to claim to be the leader of ALL Americans, then demand an Oath of Allegiance signed before allowing anyone to listen to his speeches, to arrest anyone wearing a t-shirt that proclaims loyalty to anyone other than himself......all of this is an attempt to destroy Freedom of Speech, just one more freedom tottering on the edge of extinction.
Like the polar bear, Americans are floundering in ice-cold water, trying to hang on to the icefloe, trying to find some solid ground. While we are bickering and fighting and arguing, our civil freedoms are disappearing, one by one, in a Corporate takeover of the world we used to know. So, be wary, friends. Americans are fighting and dying for the right for International Oil Companies to get their greedy hands on Middle Eastern oil....and "Better There than Here" seems to me to be a strange slogan.
How about...."Better Not at All!" And how about getting rid of these cowardly Senators who censure a Liberal belief, but say nothing about the scores of muck peddled for years by the Republicans! Let's Move On!
posted by Herma Snider at 9/21/2007 07:30:00 AM
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