"Straight-Speak": "Monday, May 16, 2005
The 'Illusion' of Two 'Parties'
The “Illusion” of Two “Parties”
By: Jack Dalton
Thanks to the recently released “memos” between the BushCo camp and the Blair “brigade” there is no longer any doubt they “cooked the books” on the intelligence to fit their already in place plans to invade Iraq. For some of us, this is just icing on the cake as there was already a wide body of evidence in the public domain articulating how “intelligence”--and I use that term loosely-- was being deliberately distorted and made to fit pre-determined plans to invade Iraq. Former Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O’Neill, in “The Price of Loyalty” shows as early as February, 2002, a deliberate, concerted effort was being put forth to “justify”—also used loosely—invading Iraq.
On March 20, 2003, as you know, Iraq was invaded and is now occupied. Since then, tens upon tens of thousands of Iraqi’s have been killed, with an untold number wounded; with the number of Americans killed moving toward 1,700; and the actual number of total medical evacuations for all reasons, closer to 30,000 (that number includes the 17,000 that the Pentagon said were evacuated but not “wounded”—a great number of which were for psychological reasons). That is for another discussion, so on to the “illusion.”
The “smoking gun” memos were made public on March 5th, less than two weeks ago. 88 members of the House of Representatives signed a joint letter demanding the White House explain them. After all, everyone around Bush, and Bush included, stated over and over again that there were no plans in place to invade Iraq; and that they would make all decisions based on the “best available intelligence.”
If the members of the House were aware of the memos, it stands to reason the members of the Senate would also have been aware of the memos. I clearly remember, and not in the distant past, many voices of outrage coming from Senate Democrats over the manner in which this nation was lead into this BushCo war of choice.
A few days ago, these Democratic Party voices of opposition had the chance to, in part, show “what they are made of” and take a stand against the $82 billion supplemental earmarked for Iraq, and everything it represents. Not only would passage of the supplemental throw additional huge sums of “good money after bad,” but tucked away inside it is an amendment that will allow the Department of Homeland security the power to waive laws with no oversight what-so-ever.
“A stroke of the pen makes it final: President Bush signed into law the Iraq war supplemental, which includes a controversial provision giving the secretary of homeland security the power to waive all law when securing U.S. borders.” Now here’s the kicker—when the Senate votes were tallied up, the supplemental and all the tucked away provisions like the one above, the vote was unanimous--100 to 0.
If ever there existed a time the mandated a strong, determined and uncompromising voice of reason in our congress, especially the Senate, it is now—but they were nowhere to be found.
At the same time the Senate Democrats, in total, were joining their Republican comrades in passing this piece of “legislation”—again a term used loosely—it was simultaneously announced by the Pentagon they would be back in August for more.
I’ve said it many times and repeat it again, we only have one political party in this nation with two ends of the very same pole—the one that we, the people of this nation keep getting in the back. The silence of broadcast and print media on and about all of this especially the memos makes them, by the failure to bring this to the publics’ attention, guilty of deception by omission. The “media” has failed itself and has betrayed the people of this nation by its silence.
For those that find this unacceptable and would like to join me in letting the people in congress know just exactly how you feel and what you think of what they are doing in your name, here is the link to Congress.org. If you follow the link you will see how easy it is to contact those in congress. They need to hear from us and the more of us the better.
A few letters to editors of local as well as national newspapers wouldn’t hurt either.
posted by Jack Dalton at 9:43 PM
There is a blog that deserves to be cut and pasted... Or better yet! Follow Jack's advice and let your Senators, political parties, and the MSM, know that the government is one big corporate mess that deserves to be flushed.
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