NEGOTIATIONS OR ATTACK?

October 2007, ABC News reported that the Pentagon had asked Congress for $88 million in the emergency Iraq/Afghanistan war funding request to develop a gargantuan bunker-busting bomb called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It's a 30,000-pound bomb designed to hit targets buried 200 feet below ground. Back then, the Pentagon cited an "urgent operational need" for the new weapon.

Now the Pentagon is shifting spending from other programs to fast forward the development and procurement of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. The Pentagon comptroller sent a request to shift the funds to the House and Senate Appropriations and Armed Services Committees over the summer. 'Urgent Operational Need' The notification was tucked inside a 93-page "reprogramming" request that included a couple hundred other more mundane items. The notification says simply, "The Department has an Urgent Operational Need (UON) for the capability to strike hard and deeply buried targets in high threat environments. The MOP is the weapon of choice to meet the requirements of the UON." It further states that the request is endorsed by Pacific Command (which has responsibility over North Korea) and Central Command (which has responsibility over Iran).
(See http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-preparing-bomb-iran/story?id=8765343)

Couple this with latest poll from PEW which says 61% of Americans say we would favor an attack to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Each life that has been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a life loss in tribute to neocons to say nothing of the 100's of thousands that we have taken. It seems we have lost our way on how not to march to war if we ever knew. Once again the Neocon mentality marches us to the precipice. John Kenneth Galbraith before his death said be careful of waking 1.5 billion Muslims or 20% of the total world population. Well they are awake and we had better find a way to live peaceably with them. To say different shows a lack of understanding of history. We continue on our current path at our peril.

I am Agnostic but events as they are currently forming sure do seem like the end of times. Iran if attacked can strike back and inflict tremendous damage. No oil to feed our hungry mouths that we so depend on. Do not forget for a second the Muslim world thinks in terms of generations unlike our fleeting moments. Our economy will be in a shambles. Indeed the Chinese may well come to the aid of Iran and then what. Where will we find our oil and will we be forced to war over it with China or perhaps justifying an attack on a South American country that has oil. Funny the winner if there be one in all of this is Asia and possibly Russia. The very ideologies we detest.

I sure do hope Obama plays chess and not checkers for this board is so very complicated and the consequences of wrong decisions so very great.

Dan

Proud father of your friendly neighborhood commie, fascist, socialist, community organizer believing in the american way.

WHY THE PUBLIC OPTION COULD PREVAIL, BUT...

There are enough votes in the House (hell even my rep who is a blue dog has expressed his support) and don't let anyone tell you we ...need more than 51 votes in the Senate because we don't. We only need all democrats to be willing to vote to cut off debate. Tell me what Democratic Senator would be so brazen to support a filibuster? Even if this mythical creature exists we would still have resort to reconciliation. The fact is if we don't get a strong public option the fix was in from the beginning. This "Et tu, Brute?" has only one resting place and it is not the House or Senate. As my grandmother said, I will give you three guesses and the first two don't count. A friend of mine asked me a few weeks ago what did I think of the Obama Administration so far and I told him the jury was still out. I should have added that the jury sent a note to judge asking to review the evidence on health care reform, the nine trillion dollar give away to the banking industry that no one seems to know where it has gone, and the Afghanistan policy which appears to be in the making of a 50 year occupation. (so much so the judge may reopen testimony) Finally, it appears that a leak from the jury (see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-cohen/the-mystique-of-free-mark_b_298461.html) is tending towards a conviction on at least one count of Clinton light and possibly on the more serious charge political gamesmanship. As for me, I sit on the jury and I am waiting for all the evidence to be in, however, unless there is some rather dramatic new testimony I will vote for conviction on all counts. I have had ENOUGH!

Dan

As Ed Schultz said the other day "Do you think Obama needs to be more forceful? My response "DUH!" One can only HOPE that we are not beating a dead horse!

and it is not even good sausage

Good Tuesday to all:

Yes Sausage making is a messy process. Ask anyone who grew up in the Wisconsin. Fact of the matter is that we all need to demand single payor as loud and as often as we can. We don't need to negotiate against ourselves as some spineless democrats have been doing, and this includes the whitehouse, from the very beginning of this debate. I dont know where this all ends up but I do think that when the final bill is from the senate finance committee we will know the level of the betrayal. Alas, fight and win an insurance bail out and begin today the movement for single payor.

Dan

Go to www.Kucinich.us

Maximum Delay Baucus and more...

This is a bit sarcastic so tell your children to leave the room.

No one should be surprised. Health-care reform from the moment Obama was elected has been firmly in control of the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council). There is no other way to explain the lame administration response until the 11th hour and that response was a position to the center of the debate. I expect we will get reform but we may choke to death trying to swallow it. Maximum Delay Baucus was and continues to be the perfect shill for DLC politics. Disgusting, but this go around we are stuck. The fact is just as soon as Obama signs a reform bill we need to organize to change it. And then there is Afghanistan bleeding our blood and treasury for the next 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 years; you choose. And then there is cap and trade... Health-care reform will not much matter to my grand kids if the planet is not livable. (See 350.org) Progressives must understand that our movement forward NEVER! ends in the face of those who value power and profit over people. It is a historical fact that they will never relinquish this power or profit without our sacrifice.

Dan

Open letter to President Obama

President Obama:
“he came to Washington to "fight for others, not for myself,"… “We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."…(Van Jones)
Mr. President have you forgotten what you promised us during our historic campaign. This quote is not yours but I will be dammed if it was not the message of your campaign.
Are you seriously saying now we must be good soldiers and accept half a loaf that smells of the decay of political triangulating?
CNN in a survey suggests that, by 13 points, Americans think the Democrats rather than the Republicans would do a better job handling the economy and Medicare. The Democrats have a 9 point advantage on health care.
Mr. President in this historical moment you carry the heavy burden of deciding the life and death issues for people who have been ravaged too long by a health care system that says the profit in a dollar is more valuable than the natural unalienable right to health care. I could state the overwhelming statistics which you already are aware of but doing this will not bring back the countless faces no longer with us or plunged into economic despair over a failed system.
This fight is not new. It started with the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
and the Constitution:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
It continued with the fight for public education and libraries fundamental to a free society healthy in mind and spirit. It continued with the abolition of slavery. It continued with the enactment of child labor law and the right to unionize. It continued with the enactment of social security. It continued with the enactment of civil rights and medicare.
The one universal truth of all these battles is that countless individuals bled and lost their lives to secure these rights. There was always a large vocal minority opposition predicting the end of our civilization as we know it organized primarily by the corporatist who have and never will concede power and influence without extracting our blood and treasury.
I am not in Washington but I am here to fight for my rights and the rights of others. We have bled too long once again not to see this fight through. Let a cry go out across this great country ALL HANDS ON DECK TO SECURE OUR FUTURE!
ENOUGH!
Dan in Alhambra California
p.s. it goes with saying that now is the time to make your voice heard... President Obama can not lead a progressive movement if he doesn't know an army is with him.