Anderson@Large

Veterans Day Weekend

American opposition to the Iraq war is at an all-time high -- 68 percent.

As the nation pauses to celebrate Veterans Day, which is dedicated to living veterans, we can show our support for the troops by bringing them back alive.

Countdown to Election Day 2008

Our long national nightmare, the Bush Administration, is in its last days.

A year from today, voters will head to the polls and cast their ballots for the person who will have to clean up Bush's sh mess. From Baghdad to Bywater to the border, he will leave behind missions unaccomplished. But enough about Bush.

I want to give a shoutout to Catherine Morgan, publisher of Informed Voters. I'm the first guest blogger on her site, The Political Voices of Women. The blog was inspired by New York Times journalist Katharine Seelye's column purporting to shed light on why there are few women political bloggers.

While a journalist with access to the resources of the Times couldn't find women political bloggers, Catherine put together a list of 200+ women political bloggers in, well, a New York minute.

Perhaps Seelye was blinded by the monochromatic glare from the male-dominated YearlyKos and didn't see the political bloggers who attended BlogHer '07, the largest ever conference of women bloggers. The program included a session on how to write great political coverage (I was one of the presenters). Um, Ms. Seelye, ain't I a woman.

The MSM's marginalization of minorities and women means we must tell our own stories. Indeed, I'm reminded of the African proverb: "Until the lion writes his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."

Trick or Treat

 

Using smoke and mirrors, President Bush, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and the entire Bush regime tricked the nation into war in Iraq. With nearly 3,900 American deaths, they all have blood on their hands.

Power of the People

We are the ones we have been waiting for.
-- June Jordan

All the rhetoric about "hope," "security, prosperity, and unity," and "change" aside, when the people get engaged, things happen.

After more than five years of GOP hegemony in Washington, DC, voters had enough so they dumped Republicans and Democrats gained control of Congress.

When the "grand-bargainers" were poised to give away American sovereignty, the people pushed back and scuttled so-called comprehensive immigration reform.

Last week, Americans contacted their senators and voiced their outrage that Mexican trucks were allowed to haul cargo on U.S. highways. Their voices were heard. By a 74-to-24 vote, the Senate approved an amendment introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan that cut funding for the pilot program that gave Mexican trucks unfettered access to our roads.

Poll after poll shows the American people want an end to the Iraq war but congressional Republicans are  marching in lockstep with Bush. So the American people must give Republicans – and wavering Democrats – the shove they need to end the madness.

John Edwards is spot on when he says:

Our troops are stuck between a president without a plan to succeed and a Congress without the courage to bring them home. But Congress must answer to the American people. Tell Congress you know the truth. They have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it.

Call your representative and senators and tell them Bush's "return on success" (read: "protracted" war) is failing our troops and the American people.

To speak truth to power, click here and here.

Bush Down Under

President Bush isn't getting much love in Australia, where he's hiding out (here and here) attending the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

While Bush embraces his "mate of steel" and predicts he will win reelection, Prime Minister John Howard shouldn't count his votes before they're cast. The last "man of Steele" Bush endorsed lost and is now soliciting donations to retire his campaign debt.

My Facebook NBF, Greg Putland, who lives in Brisbane, sent me his take on what's happening in Sydney:

Basically the media here at the moment only real interest in APEC seems to be with the massive security not just provided for Bush but for all the world leaders attending and the possibility of riots.

The state government of NSW along with the federal government have been planning the security for quite some time now. The centre of Sydney is in what you could best describe as a lock down with huge disruptions to the lives of people who work or live in or around the city of Sydney. The police are out in huge numbers and are prepared for the worse in the way of protests and riots. Most of these protests seem to be aimed at Presidents Bush and the USA's indefinite occupation of Iraq.

I think the press coverage here so far regarding President Bush's visit has more to do with his huge entourage then anything else. China's leader came into Australia very quietly compared to circus Bush. I still cannot understand why the summit has not been held in Canberra where it is set up so well to do things like that. The amount of security that has been placed in Sydney at the moment is simply unbelievable.

It's also unbelievable that as U.S. deaths approach 4000, including 18 killed so far this month, Bush has the audacity to say "we're kicking ass" in Iraq. And, BTW, where's Osama?

As Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five raged:

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under
It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Back to the Future in Iraq

In case you missed it, I want to share a video featuring Dick Cheney, circa 1994:

While traditional journalists debate a "pro-am construct," a citizen journalist, a supposed "amateur,"€ uncovered these nuggets of truth from Cheney:

Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because if we'€™d gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn'™t have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it -- eastern Iraq -- the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you've got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.

It'€™s a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq (emphasis added).

Cheney asked, "œhow many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?"€ Apparently 3,699 and counting.

Never Make Your Move Too Soon

In a move designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials, Sen. Barack Obama has pledged to get out of Iraq and “on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. Unlike Iraq, Pakistan has weapons of mass destruction.

Though I’m no expert on foreign policy or military strategy (an understatement), I know a little bit about politics. And it’s, well, frankly naïve to think Democratic primary voters will be fired up by a candidate who vows to unilaterally invade a sovereign nation.

Obama dismisses Sen. Hillary Clinton as “Bush-Cheney lite,” but his supersized war on terror will likely be too much for Democrats to swallow.

While U.S. troops are stuck in Iraq, Obama remains stuck in second place and losing ground to Clinton.

The Pew Research Center poll found:

Hillary Clinton now holds a nearly two-to-one lead over Barack Obama. The current survey finds 40% of registered Democrats and independents who lean Democratic say they would most like to see her nominated as their party's presidential candidate. Obama is the choice of 21% while Al Gore is favored by 12% and John Edwards by 11%. Pew's April survey had found Clinton with a more modest 34% to 24% lead over the Illinois senator. Over this period, support for the former first lady has increased most among independent Democrats, liberals and moderates, college graduates, middle-aged and older voters.

Similarly, the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll gives Clinton a 21-point lead over Obama, up five points since April.

Obama may have made his foreign policy move too soon. It’ll be interesting to see how the Netroots respond to his tough talk when he appears before the YearlyKos Convention presidential forum and breakout session on Saturday.