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POPSIraq War Memorial Planners Forced To Revise Length Again "The goal is to come up with cost-effective, creative solutions to respectfully eulogize our fallen heroes," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who cited a recent decision to construct a part of the monument out of papier-mâché, and another proposal to type the names of newly fallen soldiers on sturdy index cards, which would be kept in a box near the memorial. "So we urge the president to sign our bill to allow the ABMC to strip marble slabs from the steps of the seldom-visited Jefferson Memorial in order to help complete this timeless monument." "Because our grandchildren should be honored just as much for their service in Iraq," she added.
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POPSA tiny bit of justice for victims of "Dirty War" How horrible for this woman, all the other kidnapped "adoptees", and, of course, their real parents! "After being taken by the authorities, Ms Sampallo lived with her adoptive parents, suspecting nothing, until 2001, when a group formed by grandmothers of the stolen babies, tracked her down and revealed her true identity." "It is believed some 500 children were given to families sympathetic to the military government. Eighty-eight have since been tracked down and those behind this case are hoping the publicity will provoke more questions"
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POPSPoets of the Great War Anthem for Doomed Youth What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? -- Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -- The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires. What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall; Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds. September-October 1917 Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
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POPSRomney's: 5 Strapping Sons - None in Iraq! Hypocrisy More: Of more interest to his combat readiness, David was arrested in April of 2007 for trying to board a plane in Little Rock with a loaded Glock pistol in his carry on bag. So we know that the boy can shoot. Why isn't he on the front lines of the war his father so ardently supports in the name of Christ? (By the way, the reaction of Dad Huckabee to David's gun arrest is notable. "It's one of those stupid things," Mike Huckabee said. "He knows better." Ah, yes, nothing like a forgiving preacher. Do you feel safer now knowing that a gun toting animal abuser's father might be president? Clear the squirrels from the White House lawn now.) Huckabee says the war in Iraq is part of a "World War III' against Islamic fascism
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POPSMyths about Multilingual Societies Myth: If everyone agreed to speak only one language, we wouldn't have so much war and interethnic conflict. Reality: Of course people need a common language to understand one another. But that doesn't require eliminating minority languages; it only requires bilingualism. Switzerland has four official languages and has never had a war. Finland has three (Finnish, Swedish, and Lapp). Hawai'i has had two co-official state languages since 1978 -- English and Hawaiian -- and no civil strife has resulted. On the other hand, much of the conflict in the world has erupted in places where there is only one language. For example, in the U.S.'s own Civil War, both sides spoke English. Khmer-speaking Cambodians under Pol Pot killed millions of other Khmer-speaking Cambodians. Thus language is not the "glue" that binds us together. What really binds us as a nation is a common belief in freedom, including the freedom to speak any language we please.
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POPSGOP Illegal Immigrant Hypocrite/Chickenhawk, Tom Tancredo (also Pres. Candidate barf) More: During the renovation process, two illegal workers hired by Tancredo were alerted to his reputation for immigrant bashing. They went straight to the Denver Post to complain. Tancredo "doesn't want us here, but he'll take advantage of our sweat and our labor," one of the workers complained to the Post on September 19, 2002. "It's just not right." Only days before the Post's story appeared, Tancredo had personally reported an honor student profiled in the Denver Post to the INS because the 14-year-old was not a legal resident of the United States. What kind of people actually vote for subhumans like Tancredo?
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POPSAre These Neocons crazy or what? This story removes all doubt It is absolutely amazing how myopic these neocons actually are. I sat at my TV watching as Bolton, the president, Dana Perrino, etc, etc, etc, kept spinning the meaning of the NIE with all kinds of reasons as to why it is wrong. Some of them have the temerity to declare that the Intelligence agencies are twisting their findings in order to make Bush look bad. I have come to the conclusion that the neocons and far right Republicans have finally lost it completely. I sincerely believe that the public is fed up with the lies, and manipulations as well as the overt fear-mongering. Bush and his henchmen are bald face liars, and they should be thrown out of office and tried as the war criminals they are.
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POPSIn the Hands of the Military
There is a petition circulating. The petition is addressed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. military personnel. It urges them to defy orders to attack Iran. It points out that a pre-emptive war with Iran is a war crime under international law. It reminds military personnel of the statute in the Army Field Manual 27-10, Section 609, and Uniform Code of Military Justice, Article 92, that states: “A general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the law of the United States. ...”The petition notes that any provision of an international treaty ratified by the United States becomes the law of the United States. The United States is a party and signatory to the United Nations Charter, of which Article II, Section 4, states, “All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. ...” Iran has not attacked the United States.
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POPSThe belly of the beast. . . I have spent a lot of my life burying the dead. I have seen the horrific wounds on what had been vital youngsters from Nam to Iraq. My point here is that there is this surreal-if that's the term- vision of war in the minds of those who rightly despair at the daily reports from far away and get on with ordinary life. We are numbed by the numbers and the sanitized and somber images of funeral honors. What more can we do? Unpleasant as this film is, it shows what I -and my father before me -have seen . How many of those who shake the saber have seen these statistics of war? It might be useful for them to look, to touch, to smell the reality. This film comes close.
2
POPSPayback is Hell A life of hiding and lies catches up with oldster. Some transgressions are too monstrous to ever forget or forgive. I don't suppose his life in Germany is going to be any easier. And don't weep for his wife. She abetted this criminal for decades.
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POPS Why military might does not always win: Star "You can use brute force to kill terrorists or insurgents, but at some time you need acquiescence and compliance from the population, or every time you kill an insurgent or terrorist, he will be replaced." The study's war model claims to be accurate in 80 per cent of the conflicts. Ominously, and despite some gains in Anbar province, the current U.S. mission in Iraq has a probability of success of just 20 per cent. (Vietnam, by comparison, had a 22 per cent chance of success.) There are obvious similarities between Iraq and Afghanistan – an enduring insurgency, an unstable "democratic" government.
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POPSPowell spills it about Bush / Iraq Al-Qaeda, Powell asserted, was only 10% of the problem in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, its prime minister, lacked the political will to establish an effective government. After a promising start to the surge at the beginning of the year, 453 unidentified corpses were found on the streets of Baghdad last month, 41% more than the 321 bodies found in January, according to unofficial Iraqi health ministry statistics.
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POPSStanding Up to Conservative Bullying
Here's a bit more to explain the brinkmanship and absolutism: "Brinkmanship is being used to force the federal government to write a blank cheque for the pipeline, and indemnify Exxon against ecological disasters and further cost increases..." "Absolutism (Bush-style "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists" framing) is being used to bully Canada into committing to keep our troops in the midst of the anarchy and civil war in Afghanistan. The PR from the military is increasingly using the term 'enemy' to describe anyone in Afghanistan who opposes the continued presence of foreign troops in their country. The ideologically rabid Harper Conservative minority government routinely uses the "if you don't support our war, you don't support our troops" line to disparage anti-war groups. And today a military spokesman lambasted the Canadian media for daring to publicize opinion polls showing Canadians' strong opposition to the war, saying it was "demoralizing our troops".
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POPSA Tragic Legacy And the president who vowed to lead the war for freedom and democracy has made torture, rendition, abductions, lawless detentions of even our own citizens, secret "black site" prisons, Abu Ghraib dog leashes, and orange Guantánamo jumpsuits the strange, new symbols of America around the world. New essay by Glenn Greenwald on the future legacy of America's reaction to 9/11.
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POPSWar's sacred toll A brief history of wartime destruction of sacred buildings from 587BC through present day. The author recounts his pride in the American military bombers having spared the Cologne cathedral , whose spires were the tallest structures in Europe until the Eiffel tower, during WWII, until an Air Force veteran told him the truth--the Cologne cathedral was not bombed because it was sacred, but because its spires were an essential navigational aid. Why are sacred buildings targets of wartime attack? The author relates the attacks to attacks on religious meaning: "intimate connection between the divine and its expression, including the architecture and design of sacred buildings, enables believers to experience the touch of God on earth. However much religious impulses can be complicit in violence, that ineffable and precious touch is the absolute opposite of war. Human beings can never kill each other without killing God."
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POPSTurkey warned Not to invade Iraq ...HUH? We know Iraq is a powder keg but did we know just how much. Bush keeps muttering the word WIN... I can't imagine what the hell he hopes to win... is it OIL, PRESTIGE, POWER or all of the above? Now Turkey is getting effected by the Iraq lawlessness this war has caused. Regional warfare was the cautionary counsel put to the Bush/Neocons about a preemptive war in Iraq which, of course, they turned a deaf ear to... Well, it looks as though we are looking at far more than a Bush WIN in Iraq. While Bush has his wet dreams of becoming the planet's most beloved leader, we just might be looking down the barrel of some indisputable WMD's that are not hidden away in some Bush/Neocon pipedream.
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POPSThe Military is sending some amputees back into combat I do not doubt the courage of these heroic soldiers who are asking to be sent back into active duty, and sometimes combat after losing a limb(s) in the Iraq war. But isn't it kinda interesting how the military says ALL of our soldiers have talents and abilities that are needed and if an amputee wants to remain on active duty, or combat, and they are able to do so, they will be sent back, and yet at the same time, they see fit to discharge interpreters, translators, combat personnel etc, simply for being gay?
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POPSMark Twain's "The War Prayer" In 1904, disgusted by the aftermath of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine-American War, Mark Twain wrote a short anti-war prose poem called "The War Prayer." His family begged him not to publish it, his friends advised him to bury it, and his publisher rejected it, thinking it too inflammatory for the times. Twain agreed, but instructed that it be published after his death, saying famously: None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth. "The War Prayer" was eventually published after World War I, when its message was more in tune with the times. Now, Washington Monthly's publisher, Markos Kounalakis, who was affected by Twain's words when he covered the war in Yugoslavia in the early 90s, has made "The War Prayer" into a short video for release this Memorial Day weekend. It features stunning illustrations by Akis Dimitrakopoulos and is narrated by Peter Coyote, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Erik Bauersfeld. *
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POPS$100 billion more for an unwinnable war: Congress caves to GWB Sanchez says that IF America commits AT LEAST 100,000 troops for 6 or 7 years and IF there is dramatically improved US and Iraqi leadership we may be able to salvage a stalemate. WTF. "A Congressional study has found that despite billions spent on training, Iraq has just 6,000 troops willing to operate independently from the coalition forces - with the rest refusing to fight unless backed by US firepower. The study indicates it will be years before Iraq has an army capable of battling the rebels." Hilary, Obama and 12 other senators voted against the $100billion bill, but were outnumbered by the hawks and the spineless. It's so, so frustrating and depressing to watch America go down the tubes this way.
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POPSBETRAYED I am sickened by those elected officials who ignore their constituents. Especially Clinton & Obama who cast their "nay" votes by the time it made no difference.
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POPSWhy the Democrats can't stop the Iraq war To finish the point: "If they are able to meet these benchmarks, the Democrats (and Bush, for that matter) could declare victory. If they don't meet these benchmarks, then the Democrats could claim that we helped the Iraqis enough that they should have been able to meet these guidelines. This would warrant the claim that the Iraqis lack the will to engage in useful nation building and thus the failure is theirs not ours.Bush cannot accept this proposal because Bush knows that the Democrats will claim forever that he and the party that supported him got us into an unwinnable war." Interesting points made re: US not being accustomed to defeat; too long to clip, go to the source "
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POPSResponse to the type of propaganda that allows Bush to get away with murder This morning my brother forwarded me a piece of shameless propaganda, purportedly created by a fifteen-year-old girl. Here is the message being disseminated: "Lizzie Palmer who put this YouTube program together is only 15 years old." "There have been over 3,000,000 hits as of this morning." "In case you missed it, here it is." "The link below is the hottest thing on the internet and on Fox News today ." http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1 Quite a "Foxy" fifteen-year-old, no doubt. Damn that Faux News! Above is my heartfelt reply to my brother and to all the other people to whom he had forwarded the video when he sent it to me--and to you.
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POPSThe American Public is Sick of Bush's False Bravado The public wants Bush to be accountable and to hold the Iraqi government accountable. They are tired of having the president permit more of our brave service people killed or maimed, and our treasury being depleted indefinitely while the Iraqi government does nothing to reach any benchmarks, and actually plan to go on vacation for two months as our soldiers continue to bleed and die in the stinking heat of Baghdad and the rest of Iraq, I really hope the public stands firm and strong, and insists that the congress force a meaningful set of benchmarks with real consequences for the Iraqi government failing to meet them. They should also tell them that if the Iraqi government takes the summer off, so are our troops. They need the rest far more than the politicians do.
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POPSMothers' Day: Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe sought an annual Mothers' Day in the USA as early as 1870, shortly after the Civil War. Her plea is far different from the ooey-gooey of the modern observance!
2
POPSSauce for the Goose?
George W. Bush wants to hold every school child in the United States accountable for learning and every teacher in the public sector accountable for teaching what must be taught. Yet in his own behavior as President, accountability seems not to be an issue. After vetoing the Democratic Iraq war funding bill, the Democrats in the House of Representatives are working on a new bill that would fund the war effort fully through July. At that time the Bush administration must account to the people's representatives and demonstrate real progress or changed strategy that will lead to real progress in Iraq or face the reality of not having any more money to fund this disastrous war. The administration's response is to insist that Bush will veto this bill as well. Let's hold little children to the fire by making them accountable to some misguided set of standards, but when it comes to the lives of American soldiers fighting on a battlefield created by the policies of this administrati
3
POPSRemember Protest Songs? The Best One You Never Heard! The protest song has played an important role in American history. Anyone old enough to remember Woodstock surely remembers the "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag", and the Fish Cheer that started it off. What ever became of protest songs? Where are they now? There is enough anti-war sentiment to produce some good ones, but the corporations, it seems to me, have choked them off. I know there are some I've missed, but they used to be like flowers in a field... everywhere, and impossible to overlook. The above is, in my opinion, the best post-Viet Nam outright anti-war song I've ever heard, and at 22 years old it is as relevant today as the day it was released. "And the throne, the pulpit, and the politician Create a thirst for power in the common man It's a taste for blood passed off as bravery Or just patriotism hiding bigotry" Where are Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger when we need them?
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POPSThe Face of War Lindsay Beyerstein (aka Majikthise) interviews Nina Berman, who took prize-winning photographs of an injured marine who returned back to his small home-town in Illinois to marry his girlfriend. At the very bottom of my clip is a link to an online gallery of her photos, but I am not clipping them here to avoid sensationalism.
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POPSWhat if they gave a war & nobody came? This reminds me of a Vietnam era slogan: "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Soon there may be no one left to invite. Full article at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070310/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_troops
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