FEATURED ARTICLES
- Concern Grows over Democratic House Leader Pelosi’s Support for Iraq
War, Common Dreams (CD)
- Rhetoric of Bush's Inaugural Address versus the Reality, CD
- Support our
troops: Bring them home, BY HOWARD ZINN, Miami Herald
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable,
to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and
lived well."
- - Ralph Waldo Emerson
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - January 26th
1907 -- US Congress passes an act forbidding corporations
from contributing to election campaigns for national office. What happened???
1970 -- Philippines:
20,000 riot in Manila to protest the
regime of U.S.-backed Dictators & Shoe-Hoarders Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos, following Ferdinand's State of the Nation address. Over 2000 attempt
to storm the presidential palace on the 30th & riots continue throughout
the year. Eventually & much
to the chagrin of the CIA, the Marcos' rule tumbled.
1995 -- A little more than three weeks after Republicans took
control of Congress, the House endorsed a balanced-budget amendment to the
Constitution designed to eliminate chronic federal deficits. Again, what happened???
RHINO SEZ:
The Rhino can not be prouder of his Senator, Barbara Boxer,
whose steadfastness in confronting the oil tanker princess, Condi Rice, not
only made her look like a real national representative of the people, but also
made many of her peers, like Diane "kiss ass" Feinstein, look like
the campaign fundraising mealy mouthed compromisers that they are. I've called
both of my lady Senators several times in the last couple weeks and told them
what I think of them. Whether you're from California or not, I urge you to
contact Boxer's office and let her know that you support her courageous stances.
You can find all her contact info at:
http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
Meanwhile over in the house, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is showing
no signs of the kind of courage & leadership that Ms. Boxer is displaying.
For an in depth story on her failure to oppose the war on Iraq both before
it started & right now, check out the article below by Stephen Zunes, professor
of Politics and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University
of San Francisco.
Zunes is also author of a piece linked below, comparing the shrub's inaugural rhetoric with the truth of his actions. Suffice it to say, dubya don't talk
his walk. FYI, Zunes also serves as Middle East editor for the Foreign Policy
in Focus Project and is the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and
the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003)
Always last but never least is Rhino's
Bottom Line which today is written
by the US progressive movement's most beloved historian, Howard Zinn, and is
entitled, "Support our troops: Bring Them Home." A bit of trivia
on Mr. Zinn is that actor Matt Damon grew up next door to the Zinn Family Home & later
ended up reading Zinn's classic book, A People's History of the U.S. in it's
audio book format.
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Concern Grows over Democratic House Leader Pelosi’s
Support for Iraq War
by Stephen Zunes, CommonDreams.Org, January 22, 2005
On January 4, Congressional Democrats re-elected California Congresswoman
Nancy
Pelosi as minority leader in the House of Representatives. This comes despite
that, since assuming her current leadership position two years ago, Pelosi
has not only disappointed her liberal San Francisco constituency, but the majority
of Democrats nationally as well, through her support for President George W.
Bush’s policies toward Iraq. Back in December of 2002, as independent
strategic analysts were arguing that the evidence strongly suggested that Iraq
had rid itself of its chemical and biological weapons some years earlier, Pelosi
categorically declared on NBC’s Meet the Press that “Saddam Hussein
certainly has chemical and biological weapons. There’s no question about
that.” Had she simply said that the Iraqi dictator had, at that time, “may” or
even “probably” possessed such weapons, it could be assumed that
she was simply being naïve or foolish for failing to recognize the transparently
false and inflated intelligence then being put forward by the Bush administration
regarding Iraq’s weapons capability. However, in expressing such certitude,
she not only seriously compromised her integrity, but she seriously undercut
the then-growing anti-war movement...
...Historically, opposition leaders in Congress have helped expose the lies
and counter-productive policies of the incumbent administration. Pelosi, however,
to her party’s detriment, has decided instead to defend them. On January
12, Bay Area Congressional Representatives Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Pete
Stark, and Sam Farr joined Democratic colleagues from across the country in
signing a letter to President Bush calling for the withdrawal of American troops
from Iraq; Congresswoman Pelosi was notably absent from the list of signatories.
Indeed, to this day, Pelosi continues to support the U.S. occupation of Iraq,
rejecting calls -- in the face of a growing death toll of American soldiers
and Iraqi civilians -- to end the fighting and bring American troops home.
This comes despite the fact that even many prominent Republicans, such as James
Baker and General Brent Scowcroft, are now calling for the withdrawal of American
forces...
READ IT ALL AT: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0122-08.htm
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The Rhetoric of Bush's Inaugural Address versus the Reality of Bush Policy
by Stephen Zunes, CommonDreams.org, January 21, 2005
President Bush’s second inaugural address has received widespread praise
for its recognition of the imperative of advancing human freedom worldwide,
not just for its own sake, but for America’s own national interest. Unfortunately,
this ignores the fact that the United States has long been the number one military,
diplomatic, and economic backer of the world’s most repressive regimes,
a pattern that has only been strengthened under the Bush administration.
Correctly recognizing the roots of terrorism, President Bush noted that “as
long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny prone to
ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder violence will gather, and multiply
in destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal
threat.” For much of the second half of his first term, he has emphasized
that as a necessary means of curbing the threat of terrorism the United States
must push for reform and democratization of the autocratic governments of Afghanistan,
Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, and the Palestine Authority. It is important to note,
however, that none of the 9/11 hijackers came from those countries. Instead,
they came from U.S.-backed dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the
United Arab Emirates, which continue to receive billions of dollars worth of
U.S. military equipment annually...
MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0121-22.htm
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