Fool the U.S. Once...

It's beginning to look a lot like 2002.

Or perhaps I should say 1998. That's when the Senate passed the Iraq Liberation Act, which officially opened the legislative floodgates for the Iraq invasion. This week, the Senate passed legislation that similarly paves the way for our third war in this young century.

This amendment, authored by Senators Lieberman (CT) and Kyl (AZ), is a "Sense of the Senate" resolution. While it has no legal power, it is another step in the wrong direction like its older brother the ILA.

I've never expected much from Lieberman, but this latest display of missing-backbone on behalf of the Democrats lowers my expectations of his former party. Hillary Clinton, who says she wouldn't have voted "that way" on the Iraq war had she known everything she knows now, voted for this. I guess she hasn't learned her lesson. For his part, Barack Obama missed the vote. (Mr. Obama, in the Senate, an abstention is not adequate protest. To register your discontent, you vote "No.")

Democratic Senator Jim Webb called the legislation "Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream." He went on to unsuccessfully rally that, "we are about to vote on something that may fundamentally change the way that the United States views the Iranian military, and we haven't had one hearing. This is not the way to make foreign policy."

Lieberman--who has conveniently pushed appropriations for Connecticut's hearty defense industry--chimed in that "there is no intention of declaring war." I'm sad to say that given this administration's track record on the Middle East, I find this line hard to swallow.

The loud and growing drum beating for an attack on Iran is based on the power of allegations rather than concrete proof.

Then again, we're coming up on an election year and no one wants to appear soft on Iran.

Yesterday, it was announced that President Bush will ask for an increase of $42 billion more to continue the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before we make plans to invade the Middle East for a third time, we should clean up our messes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

This, my fellow Americans, is insane.

Comments

[ambidextrous]

Well, it's one, two, three
What are we fighting for
Don't ask me I don't give a damn
Next stop will be Tehran...
And it's five, six, seven
open up those pearly gates
Ain't no time to wonder why
Whoppy, we're all gonna die....
Long live Country Joe!

[joebhed]

Thank you, Azadeh.
And there are many truly poignant comments here as well.
Daily, our frustartion level increases.
If I have the chance in the primary, I will vote for Mr K, maybe Gravel or the Richster.
But I may vote in the Repug primary for Ron Paul.
And in the general election, I still may write in Nader bcause I cannot vote for this low-level of lesser evils.
Yes, that would be ANOTHER vote for Nader on my part.
In the final analysis, all of the RED/BLUE electoral college votes will go the victorious PARTY in my state.
My vote will again be meaningless.
I will vote Democratic in some local elections - that got Jim Webb in last time, and he was a leader among the 22 nays on Herr Lieberman's Resolution.
But at the national level, we need serious reform.
We are powerless.
Electoral politics MUST be made meaningful by doing away with the Electoral College in favor of a one-person-vote popular election like in the rest of the free world.
And we MUST do away with the moneyed control of the parties - all campaigns should be funded by the taxpayers who make up the voting public.
The right wing knows how to move the center to their side - call them Radical Lefties, no matter what.
And each vote for the so-called centrist candidates moves the fulcrum that much further right.
There will be no more votes on my part for any of them without backbone and vision, regardless of their ability to get the nod.
They can have the nod.
I am powerless to do anything about that.
But they cannot have my vote.
It means too much to me.

[chinohillster]

Of course, this post will probably disappear, like many previous ones, but here goes:

All of you who've castigated _Nader_ voters ("self-absorbed", "a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush", "we have to choose ELECTABILITY over PRINCIPLES", etc, etc), where are you now? Voting these people in HAS NOT DONE A THING TO ALTER THE COURSE OF THIS TRAVESTY IN IRAQ!

Pelosi, et al, are too enmeshed and ensconced in their "strategy sessions", "poll analyses", etc, etc to have anything asymptotically approaching a SPINE!

The next President of the United States needs to do the following:

INFRASTRUCTURE: Revive a WPA-like program to REBUILD or CONSTRUCT EVERY bridge, sewer, road, electrical system, dam, levee, delta, etc in the United States!

DEFENSE: 1. Seek JUSTICE for the Palestinians and SECURITY for the Israelis; pick up the phone, call Israel and tell them: "NOT ONE DIME MORE UNTIL YOU WITHDRAW TO THE 1967 BORDERS". Pick up the phone again, call the Palestinians and tell them: "You know those troops in Iraq and Afganistan? Well, guess what - they're going to CAMP ON YOUR DOORSTEPS FOR A VERY LONG TIME until you agree to live in peace with Israel, in your own state

2. Withdraw US troops from MOST countries they're currently in: Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia. Work with the host country on environmental cleanup and economic remediation in the wake of U.S military departures

3. Begin MANHATTAN PROJECT II - The US to be ENERGY INDEPENDENT within 10-20 years!


CIVIL SOCIETY: Have (a). RELIGIOUS MARRIAGE, done according to the tenets of the church/syn­agogue/mos­que/ashram­/etc (b) CIVIL MARRIAGE - open to anyone over the age of 18, with all the rights and privileges according

Legalize marijuana, and tax it like alcohol, providing a fresh base of funds for public schools, mass transit and healthcare. Don't attempt to legislate morality, but champion the rights of the powerless against the powerful.

[KosmicKat]

You're right, Azadeh. The people who are supposed to be protecting us and who promised to end this criminal war -- the Democrats -- have caved in and rolled over at Bush's bark. They've thrown away every chance they've had to stop or even slow down Bush and his war profiteers. This country has gone mad.

[Independent voter]

Wake up people !

Clinton is Bush III

When are you going to get the message that this woman wants more wars and wants expand the cluster fuck in Iraq.

[altohone]

The establishment wants war.

What more needs to be said?



It would be interesting to see what the lobbying effort on this resolution was like. So many Dems wouldn't have gone along without a full court press from big money.


I wish fool us once was applicable, but their media control has been overwhelming just like the lead up to Iraq. Ignorance seems to be winning the day.

[dadw5boys]

RON PAUL is the only DECENT person running for President.

[darcy]

I've had it up to my eyeballs. I'm voting for Kucinich in the CT primary. If it's a waste of my vote, so be it.

[PADDYWHACK]

Borrowing money from China to wage another war in the Middle East and kill more women and children si immoral and bad economics.­Sadly it is only the second of these which will stop these madmen.

[jhNY]

The republican party of Lincoln fashioned itself out of the abolitionist wing of the whigs most of all because of the Whig party's intransigence on the issue of slavery. The whigs' incapacity to act meaningfully on the most pressing political issue of the day became the basis for the foundation of a new party. The democrats and republicans in congress today cannot bring themselves to do the will of the voting public because both parties are beholden to the same political donors and cowed by the same professional commentariat.

But today, there is nothing like the degree of individual participation in electoral politics that occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, and the powers arrayed against the formation of a viable third party are formidable beyond historical comparision. We live in a corporate fascist state now, wherein we are daily reminded of our powerlessness in the political process, which has been systematically bought out from under us. And so, in all likelihood, after a sufficient number of speeches have been delivered, and another dubious list of transgressions has been distributed, another population of foreigeners will be bombed and terrorised, and we who cry out against the carnage will be, as we have been to date, powerless to stop it.

[Herrington]

Many rants today about how the Democratic top tier candidates equivocated about pulling out of Iraq by 2013. See Jerry Feldman; 2013 on this post.

While I can find some understanding of hedging on the pullout question in a debate, I can't justify antagonizing a militarily sophisticated and disciplined arm of a foreign government that has foresworn attacks on the U.S.. And in this seeming war fever in which we find ourselves, the only sane voice in government I hear is Sen. Webb, characterizing our congress’ official deprecation of a foreign military organization as what it is, in fact, an act of war. Even if Webb’s characterization is leaning heavily on international military formalities, it rings through to the marrow of what is being undertaken by the president and congress. In calling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, congress hands a policy justification to Bush to attack the country that harbors them. This is the most dangerous thing that congress has done since they authorized the use of force against Saddam’s Iraq.

While no one in this country is comfortable with a nuclear Iran, we should be even less comfortable with a government that is so reckless as to expand on and make worse the single worst foreign policy decision that this country has ever undertaken. The Iranians may be crazy for all I know, but I am not, and I can see any of dozens of alternatives to military confrontation that are both less inflammatory and less expensive than posturing towards a war with Iran.

And more, that for all the inflammatory rhetoric issued from Iran, Iran has attacked no neighbor. We, on the other hand, have attacked Iran through the offices of Saddam, then overthrew Saddam, occupied his country and now threaten Iran. Who has more to fear?

[cynara]

Thank you for this blog, I couldn't agree more.

[Mutex]

Forget General 'BetrayUS' how about:

Democrats BetrayUS,

Clinton, Obama, Edwards BetrayUS,

Mainstream Media BetrayUS,

and worst of all,

Neighbors, friends, fellow memebers of the electorate BetrayUS.

We are heading off a cliff and apparently we, as a nation, are too stupid to realize it or, perhaps, too apathetic to care!

I'm just glad God isn't still alive to see this.

[dotmafia]

How about Americans are betraying MANKIND?
_

[Bobzmcishl]

Amen, I was about sick to my stomach to hear Democrats last night talking about no being willing to go on the record about getting out of Iraq by 2013. What a bunch of wimps! And then they turn around and condemn Moveon.org for the ad they ran in the N.Y. Times. The Democrats don't even know who there friends are or why they were voted into office. And Clinton is starting to come across and someone who can be fooled. She votes to give Bush the excuse to bomb Iran. What planet is she living on? It is beginning to look more and more like 2008 will again be a choice between the lesser of two evils.

[bringbackimus]

Hillary Clinton voted for the Lieberman "amendment" for the same reason she voted "yea" to give Bush a green light on Iraq. She is jockeying herself so she can appear strong on military and war issues to the white male repubicans, whose support she is counting on. She does not have the full support of Democrats, so she has to be republican lite.

[apduncan1]

She IS Republican light. So was Bill.

[mommadona]

Talk talk talk.

I say haul their asses physically out of their chairs.

I've made phone calls, I've attended "coffee talks", I've emailed, I've written, I've stood and held a sign in protest...­..I've DONE all that.

And the answers "TRUST US....LET'­S DO LUNCH...CI­AO!"

This woman is getting peeved.
This woman wants some actual one on one.

Embarrassing as it seems - we need to do what any normal banana republic public would do.

Tar/Feather/Nasty splintered rail/and a one way ticket out of DC.

"We are as mad as hell, as we are not going to take it any more."

[Podewumun]

"This party is a drag, man, I'm leaving."

[mommadona]

Meanwhile.­...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7ee_1190476904