Tempting Faith

Very good book! I would recommend it to any Christian or non Christian. The point is very clear and true to my knowledge of Christianity, but why are so many ( most) Christians supporting George Bush? Who knows… anyhow here is a clip where the author hits on some key points of his book Tempting Faith
Keep in mind, David Kuo worked along Prez Bush side for many years so he might know a little more than you and I on how this administration works!

Mr Bush is this really worth it???

Here is an article from todays NY Times…. Interesting but not surprising!

Jess

BAGHDAD, June 3 — Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.

Casualties Since the Troop Increase

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American Soldiers on Patrol

Neighborhoods like Ameel, Baya, Jihad and Furat remain violent. More Photos »

The American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to “protect the population” and “maintain physical influence over” only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.
In the remaining 311 neighborhoods, troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face “resistance,” according to the one-page assessment, which was provided to The New York Times and summarized reports from brigade and battalion commanders in Baghdad.

The assessment offers the first comprehensive look at the progress of the effort to stabilize Baghdad with the heavy influx of additional troops. The last remaining American units in the troop increase are just now arriving.

Violence has diminished in many areas, but it is especially chronic in mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods in western Baghdad, several senior officers said. Over all, improvements have not yet been as widespread or lasting across Baghdad, they acknowledged.

The operation “is at a difficult point right now, to be sure,” said Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the deputy commander of the First Cavalry Division, which has responsibility for Baghdad.

In an interview, he said that while military planners had expected to make greater gains by now, that has not been possible in large part because Iraqi police and army units, which were expected to handle basic security tasks, like manning checkpoints and conducting patrols, have not provided all the forces promised, and in some cases have performed poorly.

That is forcing American commanders to conduct operations to remove insurgents from some areas multiple times. The heavily Shiite security forces have also repeatedly failed to intervene in some areas when fighters, who fled or laid low when the American troops arrived, resumed sectarian killings.

“Until you have the ability to have a presence on the street by people who are seen as honest and who are not letting things come back in,” said General Brooks, referring to the Iraqi police units, “you can’t shift into another area and expect that place to stay the way it was.”

When planners devised the Baghdad security plan late last year, they had assumed most Baghdad neighborhoods would be under control around July, according to a senior American military officer, so the emphasis could shift into restoring services and rebuilding the neighborhoods as the summer progressed.

“We were way too optimistic,” said the officer, adding that September is now the goal for establishing basic security in most neighborhoods, the same month that Bush administration officials have said they plan to review the progress of the plan.

Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the senior American ground commander in Iraq, said in a brief interview that he never believed that a midsummer timetable for establishing security in Baghdad was realistic. “This was always going to be conditions-driven,” he said, noting that he always had expected it would take until fall to establish security across much of the city.

But in order to meet that timetable, he added, the Iraqi Security Forces would have to make strides in coming months at maintaining security. “Ultimately the I.S.F., and specifically the police, are the key to holding an area,” he said. “We have to within the next four months move them more toward holding the areas we have cleared.”

The last of the five combat brigades ordered to Iraq as reinforcements as part of the security plan will increase the number of American troops in the city to around 30,000, up from 21,000 before the operation, an American officer said.

In addition, around 30,000 Iraqi Army and national police forces and another 21,000 policemen have been deployed in Baghdad. Many of the Iraqi units have turned up at less than full strength and other units have been redeployed from the capital, General Brooks said, leaving fewer than expected.

American commanders have also had to send troops outside the capital, to deal with a sharp rise in violence in Diyala Province and to search for American soldiers kidnapped south of the capital.

The Three Wise Monkeys Representin!!!

Where oh where has my country gone? Does anyone know there rights or obligations as an American anymore. I suppose now it is unpatriotic to question your government. I say (and think our founding fathers would agree) Its unpatriotic Not to hold your Gov accountable!!!

Most Americans are being lazy and letting our government take control without boundary’s!!! I have a funny picture in my head of the three wise monkeys…. Hear no Evil see no evil speak no evil! I suppose the truth to it is not very funny at all. Most Americans dont have a clue what is going on and the true issues at hand! I just picture these people as these monkeys!!! Quit covering you ears and hear what TRUE news sources have to say (so not fox, cnn, cnbc, or anything like that) BTW funny jibjab video! …. Open your eyes and look at this world around you. We have so many scary issues being ignored in our own country! Once you actually know what your talking about THEN open you mouth and say something! But it takes the first two steps before you should follow through with the last one!

Were letting our country slip through our fingers.No no Americans are handing our country over to our government on a silver platter! All of our basis of what makes our country so great is quickly turning in to a blurry vision of the past! Anyone who yells at me for not appreciating what freedom we have fought for in the past and are fighting for now, I say YOU are giving all of that freedom away!!!

Enough with the questions “Do you want to win in Iraq, yes or no!?” The point your making is absurd. Your reducing the horror of this war to a yes or no question! I know its hard to believe but more things have more depth to them. Especially this war!

Article in Peninsula Online

No more talk of not supporting the war is not supporting our troops!!! All of these obnoxious phrases seem to be most Americans only base. Dont you have any meat to your arguments?

JUST BECAUSE YOU SAY SOMETHING LOUD DOES NOT MAKE THAT SOMETHING TRUE!!!!

Anyhow my fellow monkeys…. Quit being so ignorant, while our country is being flushed down the shitter!!! If you dont want to participate in our democratic society then don’t…. But don’t open your big mouth unless you know what your talking about!

Very Informative PBS Documentary!!! Must Watch

I am just posting the link to this site… Please take the time to watch it!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/view/

Thank You! Also feel free to comment on any of my postings… I’m pretty sure I am just talking to myself here! Sad day!

State Of Iraq according to Red Cross

The following is an article I found on the state of Iraq… You can find this and many more interesting article’s at Iraq Today The link directly below! http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/index.html Ian Black, Middle East editor Wednesday April 11, 2007 Guardian Unlimited A displaced Iraqi Shia girl at a refugee camp east of Baghdad. Photograph: Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty Images Iraqi civilians are experiencing “immense suffering” because of a “disastrous” security situation, deepening poverty and a worsening humanitarian crisis, according to a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross.The ICRC also sees no sign that the US-led security “surge” in Baghdad is bringing relief to the capital, while hospitals struggle to cope with mass casualties as malnutrition as well as power and water shortages become more frequent across the country. “The suffering Iraqi men, women and children are enduring today is unbearable and unacceptable,” Pierre Kraehenbuehl, director of operations for the organisation, said at the group’s Geneva headquarters. The report, Civilians without Protection, provides a grim snapshot of the situation in Iraq but will carry special weight thanks to the ICRC’s reputation as the scrupulously neutral “silent service” of international humanitarian work. It maintains a presence in Baghdad despite the bombing of its offices in 2003, and works closely with the Iraqi Red Crescent. The report says that more than 100,000 families have been forced to leave their homes in the past year because of the shootings, bombings, abductions, murders and military operations. “Every day dozens of people are killed and many more wounded,” it says. “The plight of Iraqi civilians is a daily reminder of the fact that there has long been a failure to respect their lives and dignity.” Saad, a humanitarian worker, is quoted as recalling the scene after a bomb blast: “I saw a four-year-old boy sitting beside his mother’s body, which had been decapitated by the explosion. He was talking to her, asking her what had happened.” The report quotes a woman as saying: “If there’s anything anybody could do that would really help us, it would be to help collect the bodies that line the streets in front of our homes every morning and that we find nobody dares touch or remove.” It was “simply unbearable” to face them every morning on the way to school. Medical services are in dire straits, with many health workers fleeing the country after the deaths or abductions of colleagues. At Baghdad’s al-Kindi hospital only 40 of the 208 surgeons who used to work there are now still on duty.

NY Times Artical… Iraq’s Anti War Protest!

This was an artical in todays NY Times. Why are we ignoring the Iraqis opinion on the war? Dont they have a right to speak up? I mean if we are really at war to establish a democratic sociaty for them, or is it for terrorism, no no wait its for the wmd’s, ok its sadams links to Bin laden and his terrorist followers (have not heard Bin ladens name in a while, weird).

Well whatever it is, just because these people are not American does not mean they dont have a voice, Right? I mean we are helping to tear this country apart, as there civil war gets worse and worse. We claim that we are helping them, but have you ever wondered how they feel about Americas “HELP”?

So read on, like I said this is an artical from todays NY times. It covers details on a very large protest in Baghdad. A protest against America’s occupation in there country….

BAGHDAD, April 9 — Tens of thousands of protesters loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, took to the streets of the holy city of Najaf on Monday in an extraordinarily disciplined rally to demand an end to the American military presence in Iraq, burning American flags and chanting “Death to America!”

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Some at the rally waved small Iraqi flags; others hoisted a giant flag 10 yards long. More Photos »

Residents said that the angry, boisterous demonstration was the largest in Najaf, the heart of Shiite religious power, since the American-led invasion in 2003. It took place on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, and it was an obvious effort by Mr. Sadr to show the extent of his influence here in Iraq, even though he did not appear at the rally. Mr. Sadr went underground after the American military began a new security push in Baghdad on Feb. 14, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Mr. Sadr used the protest to try to reassert his image as a nationalist rebel who appeals to both anti-American Shiites and Sunni Arabs. He established that reputation in 2004, when he publicly supported Sunni insurgents in Falluja who were battling United States marines, and quickly gained popularity among Sunnis across Iraq and the region. But his nationalist credentials have been tarnished in the last year, as Sunni Arabs have accused Mr. Sadr’s militia, the Mahdi Army, of torturing and killing Sunnis.

Iraqi policemen and soldiers lined the path taken by the protesters, and there were no reports of violence during the day. The American military handed security oversight of the city and province of Najaf to the Iraqi government in December, and the calm atmosphere showed that the Iraqi security forces could maintain control, keeping suicide bombers away from an obvious target. In March, when millions of Shiite pilgrims flocked to the holy cities of the south, Iraqi security forces in provinces adjoining Najaf failed to stop bombers from killing scores of them.

Vehicles were not allowed near Monday’s march, and Baghdad had a daylong ban on traffic to prevent outbreaks of violence.

During the protest in Najaf, Sadr followers draped themselves in Iraqi flags and waved them to symbolize national unity, and a small number of conservative Sunni Arabs took part in the march.

“We have 30 people who came,” said Ayad Abdul Wahab, an agriculture professor in Basra and an official in the Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading fundamentalist Sunni Arab group. “We support Moktada in this demonstration, and we stress our rejection of foreign occupation.”

He and his friends together carried a 30-foot-long Iraqi flag.

In the four years of war, the only other person who has been able to call for protests of this scale has been Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most powerful Shiite cleric, who, like Mr. Sadr, has a home in Najaf.

The protest was in some ways another challenge to the Shiite clerical hierarchy, showing that in the new Iraq, a violent young upstart like Mr. Sadr can command the masses right in the backyard of venerable clerics like Ayatollah Sistani. Mr. Sadr has increasingly tapped into a powerful desire among Shiites to stand up forcefully to both the American presence and militant Sunnis, and to ignore calls for moderation from older clerics.

Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, an American military spokesman in Baghdad, said that American officers had helped officials in Najaf plan security for the event, but that the Iraqis had taken the lead.

Colonel Garver and other American officials tried to put the best possible light on the event, despite the fiery words. “We say that we’re here to support democracy,” he said. “We say that free speech and freedom of assembly are part of that. While we don’t necessarily agree with the message, we agree with their right to say it.”

The protest unfolded as heavy fighting continued in parts of Diwaniya, a southern city where American and Iraqi forces have been battling cells of the Mahdi Army since Friday. Mr. Sadr issued a statement on Sunday calling for the Mahdi militiamen and the Iraqi forces there to stop fighting each other, but those words went unheeded. Gun battles broke out on Monday, and an American officer said at a news conference that at least one American soldier had been killed and one wounded in four days of clashes.

That fighting and the protest in Najaf, as well as Mr. Sadr’s mysterious absence, raise questions about how much control he actually maintains over his militia. Mr. Sadr is obviously still able to order huge numbers of people into the streets, but there has been talk that branches of his militia have split off and now operate independently. In Baghdad, some Mahdi Army cells have refrained in the last two months from attacking Americans and carrying out killings of Sunni Arabs, supposedly on orders from Mr. Sadr, but bodies of Sunnis have begun reappearing in some neighborhoods in recent weeks.
The protest in Najaf was made up mostly of young men, many of whom drove down from the sprawling Sadr City section of Baghdad, some 100 miles north, the previous night. They gathered Monday morning in the town of Kufa, where Mr. Sadr has his main mosque, and walked a few miles to Sadrain Square in Najaf. Protesters stomped on American flags and burned them. “No, no America; leave, leave occupier,” they chanted. At Sadrain Square, the protesters listened to a statement read over loudspeakers that was attributed to Mr. Sadr.

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“Oh Iraqi people, you are aware, as 48 months have passed, that we live in a state of oppression, unjust repression and occupation,” the statement read. “Forty-eight hard months — that make four years — in which we have gotten nothing but more killing, destruction and degradation. Tens of people are being killed every day. Tens are disabled every day.”

Mr. Sadr added: “America made efforts to stoke sectarian strife, and here I would like to tell you, the sons of the two rivers, that you have proved your ability to surpass difficulties and sacrifice yourselves, despite the conspiracies of the evil powers against you.”

An Interior Ministry employee in a flowing tan robe, Haider Abdul Rahim Mustafa, 23, said that he had come from Basra “to demand the withdrawal of the occupier.”

“The occupier supported Saddam and helped him to become stronger, then removed him because his cards were burned,” he said, using an Arabic expression to note that Saddam Hussein was no longer useful to the United States. “The fall of Saddam means nothing to us as long as the alternative is the American occupation.”

Estimates of the crowd’s size varied wildly. A police commander in Najaf, Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Mayahi, said there were at least half a million people. Colonel Garver said that military reports had estimates of 5,000 to 7,000. Residents and other Iraqi officials said there were tens of thousands, and television images of the rally seemed to support their estimates.

The colonel declined to give any information on the whereabouts of Mr. Sadr, though American military officials said weeks ago that they believed he is in Iran. Mr. Sadr’s aides declined to say where he is, but previously they have said he remained in Iraq.

In Diwaniya, hospital officials said their wards were overwhelmed by casualties. There was a shortage of food and oxygen, and ambulances were being blocked from the scene of combat, said Dr. Hamid Jaati, the city’s health director. The main hospital received 13 dead Iraqis and 41 injured ones over the weekend, he added.

The fighting started Friday after the provincial council and governor called for the Iraqi Army and American forces to take on the Sadr militiamen. The governor and 28 of 40 council members belong to a powerful Shiite party called the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which is the main rival to the Sadr organization. Sadr officials have accused the party of using the military to carry out a political grudge, but the governor, Khalil Jalil Hamza, denied that on Monday.

In Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, a suicide car bomb killed three civilians and wounded four others on Sunday night, police officials said Monday. Also in Diyala, a local politician was fatally shot on Monday in Hibhib, and three bodies were found in Khalis.

Iraqis Opinion of War at this point!

Found this summery on Truth Dig

Interesting perspective… one Bush probably cares less about…. The perspective of Iraqi Citizens! 

By Robert Scheer

Yep, you did it, George—mission impossible accomplished. Unbelievably, four years of a bungled occupation have managed to make Saddam Hussein’s tyranny look good in comparison with “liberated Iraq.”

At least, that is the view of the Iraqi weightlifter made famous through a video of him taking a sledgehammer to Saddam Hussein’s statue. “I really regret bringing down the statue,” Kadhim al-Jubouri said on British television this week. “The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day.”

That’s the judgment of a man who spent nine years in Hussein’s jails, and, unfortunately, it is one shared by a majority of his countrymen, according to an authoritative poll sponsored jointly by ABC, BBC and USA Today: Only 38 percent of Iraqis believe that the country is better off today than under Hussein, while nearly four out of five oppose the presence of coalition forces in Iraq.

Even more disturbing is that 51 percent of Iraqis think it is OK to attack coalition troops—triple the number that thought that way in a 2004 survey.  Square that with our president’s assurances, offered since the first month of this unnecessary adventure, that the insurgency represents a small handful of terrorists. While most of the antipathy is registered among Sunnis, 94 percent of whom favor attacks on coalition forces, and by only 7 percent of Kurds, a surprising 35 percent of Shiites endorse that sort of violence.

Given the number of Kurds and Shiites who originally welcomed the invasion, it is also startling that 53 percent of all Iraqis polled agreed that “from today’s perspective, and all things considered,” it was “wrong that U.S.-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in spring 2003.”

The poll, part of a series conducted each of the past three years at great risk to 150 pollsters, reveals a sharp rise in anti-American feeling and disapproval of the 2003 invasion.

When Bush didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction or ties between Saddam and 9/11, the fallback justification for the taking of tens of thousands of lives and the expenditure of over $400 billion in American taxpayer money was that Iraq would become a model for the democratic, free-market way of life. Many assumed the richest, most powerful and most technologically competent country in the world could improve life for Iraqis compared with that afforded by a vicious dictator hemmed in by international boycotts. But it didn’t happen.

What Bush has managed to do is to place the United States in a no-win position as the most likely target for failed Iraqi expectations, which he did so much to raise. He is asking Iraqis to take his word for it that the invasion was not post-9/11 posturing or a grab for oil or a blow undertaken on behalf of Israel, yet he has nothing tangible to show as proof of his sincerity.

Almost four in five of those Iraqis polled called the availability of jobs “bad,” 88 percent had the same negative judgment of the supply of electricity, and 69 percent said the same about the availability of clean water and medical care. In this nation, gifted with the world’s second-largest oil reserves, 88 percent termed the availability of fuel for cooking and driving as quite bad.

Of course, the coffers of a handful of American mercenary, construction and energy corporations have swelled, despite this lack of credible achievement.  More than $20 billion in “reconstruction” contracts were given to Vice President Dick Cheney’s old company, Halliburton, alone.

The easy answer provided by Bush apologists for this dismal performance is to place blame on the insurgency. That, however, is not the verdict of the Iraqi people. Asked to judge how the United States and other coalition forces have carried out their responsibilities in Iraq, 76 percent say they have done “a bad job.” And while a modest majority don’t want the Americans to leave “immediately,” they don’t see the increase in the U.S. troop numbers, defended stoutly by Bush on Monday, as helpful. Truly, this is a lose-lose situation.

Asked the source of violence that had occurred near the polled individual’s neighborhood, the largest group, more than 44 percent, cited “unnecessary violence against citizens by U.S. or coalition forces,” while four out of 10 said they blame the coalition forces or Bush for “the most for the violence that is occurring in the country”—and only 18 percent cited “al-Qaida and foreign jihads.” So much for Bush’s claim that U.S. troops are needed in Iraq to protect its citizens from foreign terrorists.

Surprisingly, while 82 percent lacked confidence in coalition troops, two-thirds of those polled expressed confidence in their own army and police forces—yet more indication that Iraqis could do a better job of policing themselves than we can. Our continued presence there, ostensibly in the name of fixing the place, will only continue to exacerbate anti-U.S. sentiment among the people we claim to be saving.

Jesus Camp… this movie is crazy!

Don’t get me wrong I am a Christian. I am not pentecostal, I am a fairly calm Christian. I don’t understand the evangelical movement,and thats just because I have been a part of a conservative church (Church of Christ) my entire life! I feel like walking up to random people and asking them “do you know where your going when you die” makes people think us Christians are looney! Even more loony when its a 10 year old girl. Of course its just my opinion!

If you ever read my blogs you know that I have a huge problem with the way George Bush and his administration is using Christianity to win elections! I realize voting means using your morals and beliefs to make things change or to stop change… however I have such a hard time with the Idea of FORCING Americans to follow a belief that many may not hold for themselves. Part of what makes our country work is the fact that we try to keep church and state seperate. So why is it changing?

Another question I have is how are people believing that George Bush is a “holy” man. Are you guys fricking kidding me? He is a liar and a killer. How is he holy all of a sudden. He is puting our childrens lifes at risk in a war he has scared America into! He has scared most christians into believing that we are constantly at risk of a terrorist attack. In fact he has convinced most of America into believing this!

Anyhow this movie is about a evangelistic church camp and some of the things they are ingraining in these young children’s heads are absolutely insane. I mean they are talking about abortion with these elementary aged children and and they are telling a room full of kindergardenters the wage of sin is death. What is wrong with this picture you might ask? These are 6,7,8, and 9 year olds I was learning bible stories at that age. I wasnt being told that I am a hippocrit and a fony christian. These kids are saying they were saved at 5 years old because they felt like they were missing something. Why would a five year old feel that.

The beginning clip this women talks about how Muslims have there kids literally fighting in a religious war with guns and grenades dying for what they believe in. Then she proceeds to make it sound like they are winning when it comes to dedication… we need to make our children soldiers and martyrs. WTF this is kinda crazy to me. I remember in bible class singing the lords army song I think they take this way way way to literally. Creepy movie I recommend checking it out!

What comes to mind when you watch these clips? Brainwashing…. They are scaring the Hell out of these kids? Children are so inpressanable they will believe anything you say!

I say lead by example. If your a Christian parent show your child what it means to live like a Christian. Don’t threaten them and scare them into believing. Let them make there own decisions. Geeze, what a disturbing movie!

Bush to congress: Drop Dead

 I just wanted to pass this email on to all that care…..  There are some good links and ways to get involved check it out!

 

Bush to Congress: Drop Dead

After weeks of administration lies about the “Pearl Harbor Day Massacre” of eight U.S. Attorneys, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees are preparing to subpoena Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers, and Karl Rove.

But George Bush went on TV to declare he will ”oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials.” Why? Obviously because Bush, Gonzales, Miers, and Rove conspired to fire U.S. attorneys who were prosecuting Republican corruption. That’s obstruction of justice – grounds not only for impeachment but also prosecution.

Bush promised to fight any subpoenas in the courts if he has to. Of course we know the Republican-controlled Supreme Court will take Bush’s side, just as it did in 2000 when it threw out 175,000 never-counted Florida votes to steal the Presidency for him.

Ultimately Congress has just one tool to force Bush and Cheney to respect the Constitution: Impeachment and Removal.

Over 74,000 of our supporters have urged their Representatives to Impeach Bush and Cheney. Help us reach 100,000:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88?ad=d7

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Join Cindy Sheehan in Urging Dennis Kucinich to Introduce Articles of Impeachment

On Monday, Dennis Kucinich asked everyone if it’s time for impeachment, and many of you visited his website to enthusiastically say Yes.

On Tuesday, Cindy Sheehan wrote a letter to Kucinich urging him to introduce Articles of Impeachment. Ask everyone you know to sign Cindy’s letter:
http://www.democrats.com/kucinich-please-impeach

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Tell Congress to Vote NO on Supplemental Spending Bill for War

The House is scheduled to vote to give Bush another $93 billion for his disastrous Iraq War on Thursday.

Speaker Pelosi is desperate to pass the bill and is threatening political revenge against progressive Democrats who oppose it, led by Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters.

Pelosi is also trying to prevent Barbara Lee from offering her crucial amendment to restrict any new funds to a “fully-funded withdrawal.” Tragically, she even persuaded Moveon to conduct a dishonest poll of its members that deliberately excluded Lee’s amendment:
http://www.democrats.com/more-dishonesty-from-moveon

This is our last chance to ask our Representatives to support Barbara Lee’s Amendment:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/96

Here are some words of inspiration from Democrats who oppose the Supplemental:

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.): “As a nation, can we hear the words of Gandhi, so simple, so true–that it’s either non-violence or non-existence? Can we hear the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. that we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish as fools? Tonight I must make it plain and clear, that as a human being, as a citizen of the world, as a citizen of America, as a member of Congress, and as an individual committed to a world at peace with itself, I will not and cannot vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war.”

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.): “The best way to keep [the troops] safe is to bring them home. It’s difficult to oppose [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She’s a great leader and working wonders to get this passed, but some things I can’t vote for. [If the resolution fails] It won’t look good, like the Democrats can’t get their act together, but that’s OK. We can write a better bill.”

If you have a few extra moments to end Bush’s disastrous war, please call one or more undecided members of the Progressive Caucus and post the results in our comments:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/19669

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Peace and Impeachment Photos Project

Some friends of ours took anti-war signs onto public trains last weekend and asked people if they would be photographed with them. On Sunday, March 18, four teams of photographers went through the New York City subway. On five subway lines, 333 people agreed to be photographed. Looking through the collection is an eye-opening experience.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/subway

Why not try this in your city or small town? And include Bush Is Over and Cheney Is Over signs!
http://www.bushisover.org

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PDA Grassroots Leadership Conference — March 23-25, 2007

Join us in Washington, D.C., to work on these issues:
-End the Occupation/ Redirect Funding (Oversight/Accountability/Impeachment)
-Implement Universal HealthCare
-Assure Economic Justice
-Guarantee Clean, Fair Transparent Elections
-Stop Global Warming
Panelists include: Medea Benjamin, PDA Board Member/Code Pink; Marilyn Clement, PDA Universal Health Care Issue Organizing Team/Health Care Now!; Lori Wallach, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch; Bill Fletcher, Center for Labor Renewal; Steve Cobble, PDA Board Member; David Swanson, PDA Board Member; Tim Carpenter, PDA Executive Director; Bill Goold, Congressional Progressive Caucus Executive Director; Terry Lierman, PDA Board Member and Maryland Democratic Party State Chair; Greg Moore, PDA Board Member; Jeff Cohen, PDA Communications Consultant.
http://tinyurl.com/2e6odd

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Come to Crawford for Easter

The Spring holidays are a time of re-birth, and nothing could bring a re-birth of our democracy like impeachment. So, we’ll be holding an impeachment hearing outside Bush’s estate in Crawford, Texas. Please come join Cindy Sheehan, David Swanson, Ann Wright, Debra Sweet, and many others for an imPEACHment festival and impeachment hearings on the emperor’s back porch. Willie and Annie Nelson, Jodie Evans, Ann Wright, the Crawford Peace House, and Ava Lowery will receive Camp Casey Peace Awards. Emma’s Revolution and many others will perform. And the Make Hip Hop Not War Tour will roll through. Join us:
http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?id=320

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On April 28, Spell Out IMPEACH
Since Congress doesn’t seem to get it, on April 28th America will spell it out: IMPEACH! Spell it out in your own creative ways. You can use your bodies on the ground, or use chalk on the sidewalk, paint it on the side of a barn (provided it’s your barn!), tattoo it on your arm, parade down the sidewalk carrying giant letters, hire a skywriter, plant flowerbeds in the shape of the letters, etc. A military mother in Brooklyn plans to spell it out with pizza pies on the Coney Island boardwalk. Let us hear your creative ideas!

http://www.a28.org

I smell fear in the air, gorgie!

I smell fear? Does It sound to you like the republicans are a tiny bit nervous??? I think so. Lets see what will come from these subpoenas and this trial. I have a feeling lies will be exposed to those who are still supportive to this administration. I, like many other intelligent people already know there are lies and cover ups all over this President and his administration. I am guessing any people who think Bush is a truthful Christian man, will be a little shocked to watch this unfold. That is of course If they don’t choose to turn a blind eye to it, as they do with all of the other stunts pulled for the past 6 years. So read on all about the new developments, and thanks for checking out my post!

The following is an article from the Washington Post.

WASHINGTON, March 21 — A House panel authorized subpoenas Wednesday requiring Karl Rove and four other senior Bush administration officials to testify under oath in the inquiry into the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors.

Even as the White House dug in against the demand, Democrats in Congress held out hope for a compromise. Though members of a House judiciary subcommittee approved the subpoenas, they did not issue them, saying they wanted to avoid a showdown over separation of powers.

“Trust me,” said Representative John Conyers Jr., the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “We are not going to move in a reckless or angry or temperamental way at all.”

The potential for the investigation to broaden into a constitutional confrontation has created a tricky political calculus for the newly empowered Democrats. As they consider their strategy, they are acutely aware that they are already entangled in another major clash with the administration over the question of pulling American troops out of Iraq.

The White House said the offer it made Tuesday was final: to allow Mr. Rove and others to be interviewed in private without having to take oaths or having the sessions transcribed.

“If they issue subpoenas, the offer is withdrawn,” President Bush’s press secretary, Tony Snow, said Tuesday, though he quickly tried to put the onus on the Democrats by saying he hoped they would accept what he repeatedly described as an “extraordinarily generous offer.”

Republican lawmakers have lined up behind the White House for now, saying that they considered subpoenas premature given that the administration had produced thousands of pages of documents and allowed some Justice Department officials to testify publicly.

The House authority for the subpoenas was granted on a voice vote, saving lawmakers from going on the record, and some Republicans on the committee said they might support such a move later. Congressional Republicans do not want to surrender what they see as the institutional rights of Congress to seek testimony even though they are allied with the White House.

In addition, many are unhappy with the way Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his staff handled the dismissals and the resulting furor.

“The reason Republicans are not coming over the hill like the cavalry is the best defense you can give is it was poorly handled,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, a member of the Judiciary Committee. “That is as good as it gets.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday is to consider subpoenas of its own.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is the chairman of the panel, said Wednesday evening that he expected to win the authority to force the testimony. “Every day there are thousands of good, loyal Americans who stand in courtrooms, raise their right hand and swear to tell to truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and are proud to do it,” Mr. Leahy said. “It is amazing that thousands of ordinary Americans can do it, but they are kind of special and they don’t have to.”

Some Congressional Republicans said privately that the administration’s proposal might be a tough sell because many Americans would question why the officials were unwilling to talk under oath — a position the administration attributes to a desire to not set a precedent.

But others sought to make the case that those appearing would still be required to be truthful or face a charge of misleading Congress. “If we find that there’s a lie, these people can go to jail just like they were under oath,” said Representative Chris Cannon of Utah, the senior Republican on the subcommittee that approved the subpoenas.

Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee met privately Wednesday to discuss their approach, and a group of them later had lunch at the Justice Department with Mr. Gonzales, who was trying to bolster his core support before their committee’s session Thursday.

Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, whose position on the fate of Mr. Gonzales wouldprobably influence other colleagues, said the attorney general assured them that none of the prosecutors was removed to halt a criminal inquiry — an accusation that has helped fuel the furor.

“He again reiterated to us that in none of the cases of U.S. attorneys being asked to resign was it because of any ongoing investigation, let alone an investigation involving a political person,” said Mr. Kyl, who said there was no talk of Mr. Gonzales’s resignation at the meeting.

Seven of the prosecutors were forced out in December; the eighth was dismissed last summer.

Starting in the next few days, Mr. Gonzales will be meeting with most of the current United States attorneys as he makes a long-scheduled trip to several cities to promote Justice Department programs.

Mr. Kyl and other Republicans also sought to make the case that Congress could get more information from the administration if it accepted the White House offer.

“If there is a confrontation, it’s going to take two years or more to get it resolved in court,” said Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “We’ll be in the term of the next president of the United States.”

Republicans also believe that Democrats run the risk of appearing to be badgering the administration after Mr. Bush agreed to the interviews. “I think the Democrats are overplaying their hand,” said Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.

Besides Mr. Rove, the House subpoenas would compel the testimony of D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Mr. Gonzales and a central figure in the firings; Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel; William Kelley, the deputy counsel; and J. Scott Jennings, special assistant to the president in the Office of Public Affairs. The subpoenas would also call for documents they have concerning the firings.

Democrats derided the president’s offer for interviews without oaths or transcripts, with Representative Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts saying it bordered on an insult to Congress.

Mr. Conyers made light of the conditions set by Mr. Bush. “Well,” he said, “we could meet at the local pub to have that kind of gathering.”

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Eric Lipton contributed reporting.

Wow If your not a little suspicious by now your nuts!!!