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POPSSedition Act of 1918 U.S. citizens, including members of the Industrial Workers of the World union, were also imprisoned during World War I for their anti-war dissent under the provisions of the Sedition Act. Anti-war protesters were arrested by the hundreds as speaking out against the draft and the war became illegal under this law.
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POPSWant 7 More Years of War in Afghanistan? Maybe it's the wrong question. How about this one? Will Pakistan be comfortable with a strongly independent and united Afghanistan without a guarantee that it would not threaten their northern border? Is there such a promise on the table? Nope. What about the other neighbors of Afghanistan? Don't they have the same concerns? Yes. What's on the table for them? Nada. If you agree that the Afghanistan problem needs new thinking, then maybe you ought to say so before we have something noone wants or will support. October 17, 2009 Afghanistan action day.
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POPS Obamlet What any prosecutor or defense attorney will tell you about jury deliberations … how long they’re out doesn’t necessarily tell you anything. It could mean they are trying really hard to convince themselves that abandonment will work … and to find a way to convince America and the world that an easy out is the considered, sensible thing to do. Or it could be that they know what they need to do, they are just afraid to do it. Afraid of the consequences of angering their anti-war lefty base, afraid of remaining committed to a war with a horizon past 2010 and 2012. But that’s about as charitable and optimistic a view as is possible, and assumes they actually want to find a way to do the right thing. Unfortunately, there has been little to indicate that is what they are interested in doing. What makes this less like jury deliberations and more like a Shakespearean tragedy, though, is that every now and then, a major player sticks his head out to shout something.
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POPSThe United States’ Place in The World … and he needs to grow a set via Weekly Standard, Lieberman, Kyl and Bayh, “Whatever it takes … crippling sanctions.” I dunno, I can think of other measures that might be more effectively crippling. Whatever … Also at WS, Steven Hayes, hurtfully, “Speak timidly and don’t carry a stick.” Ralph Peters, NYPost, cruelly: “Appease-y does it for weak Prez on the road to a Mideast apocalypse.” Greenwald, Should any Iraq lessons be applied to Iran? I can think of a few quick applicable Iraq lessons off the top of my head. Whack one tyrant, the rest notice. Also, whacking tyrants effectively neutralizes their ability to cause trouble. Also, follow-on is important, don’t let the Euros weasel out of it, and ignore the Dems and the anti-war American left. They are loud, but harmless.
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POPSIs America Hooked on War?
When it comes to war (and peace), we live in a world of American Newspeak in which alternatives to a state of war are not only ever more unacceptable, but ever harder to imagine. War is now our permanent situation. It lacks, for instance, "victory." But achieving victory no longer seems to matter. War American-style is now conceptually unending, as are preparations for it. In a sense, the ongoing war system can't absorb victory. Any such endpoint might indeed prove to be a kind of defeat. Similarly drained of its traditional meaning has been the word "security". If we ever decided we were either secure enough, or more willing to live without the unreachable idea of total security, the American way of war and the national security state would lose much of their meaning. In other words, in our world, security is insecurity. And peace itself? Simply put, there's no money in it. America's true religion and addiction, is force. Americans are --always--marching as to war.
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POPS The Biden Plan
Among the alternatives being presented to Mr. Obama is Mr. Biden’s suggestion to revamp the strategy altogether. Instead of increasing troops, officials said, Mr. Biden proposed scaling back the overall American military presence. Rather than trying to protect the Afghan population from the Taliban, American forces would concentrate on strikes against Qaeda cells, primarily in Pakistan, using special forces, Predator missile attacks and other surgical tactics. The Americans would accelerate training of Afghan forces and provide support as they took the lead against the Taliban. But the emphasis would shift to Pakistan. Mr. Biden has often said that the United States spends something like $30 in Afghanistan for every $1 in Pakistan, even though in his view the main threat to American national security interests is in Pakistan. Mr. Obama rejected Mr. Biden’s approach in March, and it is not clear that it has more traction this time. But the fact that it is on the table again . . .
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POPSBelieve it Lying about a blowjob is an impeachable offense -- lying about a war is no big deal, really. Investigating a shady land deal involving the First Lady is a matter of National Identity -- investigating the use of torture at the direction of the Executive Branch is a partisan witch hunt. Executing Japanese officers for waterboarding prisoners during WWII shows that we have the moral high-ground on human rights -- waterboarding prisoners of our shows that we have the moral high-ground on human rights. Sitting two rows in front of Jane Fonda in a 1970 anti-war rally is an OUTRAGE! Shaking Saddam's hand in 1983...meh, not so much. Anyone who questions the president during a time of war is giving aide and comfort to the enemy and should be deported...unless the president in question has a (D) next to their name in which case you should undermine them at every turn even if you have to routinely make shit up to do it. Socialism, Marxism, Communism and Fascism are all interchangea
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POPSGlenn Beck's '9-12' Logo based on Communist and Socialist designs More: Turnout for the 9-12 Project's Saturday march on Washington was a bust; 30,000 protesters signed up in advance (MSNBC reporter David Shuster tweeted that D.C. park police called that figure "generous"). But even if three times that many actually showed up, the number would fall far short of the hundreds of thousands (and even millions) claimed to be planning to attend. Even in that reduced crowd, however, surely someone recognized how odd the right-wing gathering's left-wing logo was. Maybe Beck will explain. Sort of.
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POPSPelosi Sees Support Ebbing for Afghan War Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D., Calif.), co-chair of the 82-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, said her group is unified in wanting to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. "The Progressive Caucus is pretty much together on what is going on in Afghanistan, in being against escalating and in favor of bringing the troops home," Ms. Woolsey said in a recent interview. "We will have to stand up to our own president."
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POPSJust Call Him the Green Pitchfork Czar by Andy McCarthy (I'd wager, the very top) overrode any objections. The issue here isn't process. It's that Obama picked Van Jones because Obama adheres to Jones's Alinskyite views and tactics, and is entirely comfortable with what most of the public would see as the horrifying specter of Jones managing how billions of public dollars are spent. Mr. Jones’s involvement in the 1990s with a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement prompted recent accusations by conservative critics that he associated with Communists. The group, according to a post-mortem written by some of its founders, was an anti-capitalist, antiwar organization committed to achieving “solidarity among all oppressed peoples” with “direct militant action.” Hold on there. Direct-action? The use of intimidation and extortion tactics, including law-breaking, to achieve political results? Where have we heard that before?
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POPSPinups for Peace - Reclaiming the Bombshell “Since the dawn of time, the promise of our charms has been used to urge our men into battle. We are called up to rally behind our troops, and to give the boys something to take their minds off their job: WAR. Those times are over.” ~Pinups for Peace
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POPSCheney Attacks Obama, Torture Investigations
A whole generation grew up thinking the principle repeated over and over again at the war crime trials after WWII were true: That saying you "were only obeying orders," was not a defense. But former VP Cheney says it is, that "legal memos," given to the CIA said it was okay. Cheney also says torture is okay because "it helped save American lives." Obama is doing great damage to our country, making us less safe, Cheney contends, because 1) These methods are needed to keep us safe and 2) He is sapping the morale of our CIA by allowing the newly announced investigations of the torture program by the Dept. of Justice. Besides being "offended," Cheney also announced that he hasn't decided if he will cooperate with the DOJ investigation. Of course there are lots of holes in the argument. If Hitler had his Justice Dept. write him a memo saying it was okay to murder 6 million Poles and 5.5 million Jews and millions of union organizers and anti-war activist, would that make it o
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POPSGOP Must Embrace 'The Vocal Majority' A populist movement is any that champions the rights and power of the people over elites. The Left has often embraced populism when it has suited them. President Obama got elected in part by adopting a soft economic populism. He made the implausible promise to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans. And he campaigned with populist red meat like: “Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it…” And the Left has often framed their fight for universal healthcare in populist terms, as a campaign for everyday Americans against elite politicians in bed with evil insurance companies.
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