Stand Up and Speak Out

Please join BlueNovember.Org

Saturday, June 2, 2007

1:00 - 3:00 PM

Pine Grove and Sanborn

Port Huron, Michigan

This is a peaceful event. Engaging negatively with passersby and interfering with traffic are prohibited.

Signs will be available, but you may bring your own messages of peace.

Memorial Day in America

Here's a popular bumper sticker we've all seen: "If you love freedom, thank a vet." Here's an iconoclastic response to it: the last time an American soldier fought to protect or advance the cause of American freedom was the Civil War. In that distant conflict some American soldiers actually put their lives on the line to win freedom for other Americans, who happened to be enslaved African-Americans. Of course, some of the Union troops in the Civil War were indifferent, even hostile, to the rights and freedoms of African-Americans, but we know for sure that there were also Union soldiers--black and white--who believed that it was their moral duty to risk their lives to extend to all Americans the freedoms so evocatively asserted in the Declaration of Independence. Consider the case of Robert Shaw of Massachusetts.

Since then, American wars have been fought to defend American interests, not American freedoms. By saying that, I do not mean to insist that these wars were all cynical exercises. The United States was attacked by Japan in 1941, and I believe a military response was justified. When Germany subsequently declared war on the U.S., it made sense to consider Germany our enemy. A world where Japan controlled the Pacific and Germany did the same in Europe would have been an inhospitable, brutal place, but it is absurd to claim that either of these countries could ever have occupied American soil and subverted American freedoms. Our armed forces in World War II were engaged in a reputable cause, but they were not defending American freedom. Nor were American military forces in Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq (in either Iraq war). They were instruments of American foreign policy.

Today is Memorial Day, and in cemeteries across the country, orators will offer up platitudes and golden phrases about the bravery and sacrifice of the American soldier. There's no doubt that sacrifice and bravery have indeed often characterized our military (as have brutality and selfishness--after all, these are human beings, just like us, no better, no worse). But if you love freedom, thank the ACLU.

Who's "Politically Correct"?

For years American conservatives have insisted that hiring practices at our colleges and universities are controlled by a rigid ideological orthodoxy, labeled by the right as "political correctness." Conservative pundits like David Horowitz publish books and fill their web sites with unsubstantiated claims about left-wing professors offering jobs only to those applicants whose views match their own. How ironic to learn (see, for example, this article in the New York Times) that the most politically correct institution in the land turns out to be the Bush Department of Justice, where Monica Goodling routinely advanced or thwarted the careers of U.S. Attorneys on the basis of their loyalty to the Republican Party.

Bush's War on the Middle Class

The Bush administration likes to say that under its care the American economy is humming along, creating jobs and wealth, and spreading prosperity throughout the land. They often point to the booming stock market to support this claim. Middle-class Americans hear these assertions, ponder their mounting debt, and wonder how they got left behind. The truth, of course, as many know, is that Bush's policies have been terrific for the rich and terrible for everyone else. The Democratic Policy Committee, a study group of Democrats in the U.S. Senate, has posted a comprehensive, accessible report on the realities of Bush economics and how this administration has mounted an unprecedented assault on the financial health of the American middle class. This report spells out in frightening detail how the ties between the Bush administration and corporate interests have led to higher costs for everything ordinary Americans depend on, including college tuition, fuel, and health care. The natonal debt has risen out of sight, and our economic future is more insecure than at any time since the presidency of Herbert Hoover.

In every respect, middle-class families are buffeted by policies that diminish their purchasing power and transfer wealth upwards. The rich get richer, corporate profits rise, and the middle class feels the squeeze.

Is Candice Miller a Racist Homophobe?

Here's an interesting bit of Michigan news: the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nationally known organization that monitors threats to civil rights, has identified the Michigan State University chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom as a "hate group." According to the MSU student newspaper, the MSU YAF is the first college organization to be thus identified. Now there's something all we Michiganders can be proud of!

Heidi Beirich, Deputy Director of the Intelligence Project of the SPLC, explains that the YAF is listed as a hate group because of a “13 point agenda” that "calls for the elimination of minority student organizations and the creation of a Caucasian caucus and promotes anti-gay beliefs and hunting down and deporting illegal immigrants."

Our own Representative Candice Miller appears in a photo with MSU YAF chair Kyle Bristow on his web site. The Michigan Democratic Party would like Representative Miller to explain just what she finds so appealing about Bristow. Is it the homophobia? The cheap shots at immigrant families working for a better life? The thinly veiled racism? Or is it all of these?

What a Mess!

For a chart that precisely, depressingly, graphically displays what a disaster the US occupation of Iraq has been, look at these figures assembled by Think Progress. In every imaginable way, this war has demonstrated monumental incompetence, a failure to plan, a criminal ignorance of political and cultural realities.

It was just four years ago that the strutting little cowboy declared, "Mission Accomplished." Why is this murderous moron still president? Is it the lock-step, mindless loyalty of the Republicans in Congress, whose leader in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, still repeats the White House talking point that American troops in Iraq are waging war against al Qaeda (as quoted here in the New York Times)? When will this lunacy end?

When Will It End?

Many Middle-East experts have made the case that the American invasion of Iraq was just what Osama bin Laden wanted. To Bin Laden, the chief threat to Islam is the United States; he claims that the US wants to occupy Muslim countries and steal their resources. He uses this claim, conveniently supported by US actions, to recruit new terrorists and build up his network of dangerous extremists. The Bush administration appears to have gone out of its way to make bin Laden look good. They fell for the bait, and he's been reeling them in ever since.

For the most comprehensive, most well-documented case yet available that this is precisely what has happened, take a look at this article in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs. The author, Bruce Riedel, is a senior scholar at the Brookings Institution, studying and writing about Middle East Policy. His expertise includes counter-terrorism, Arab-Israeli issues, Persian Gulf Security, and south Asia.

The Bush-Cheney invasion and occupation of Iraq is Osama's dream come true. It's the best thing that ever happened for radical Islam. If Osama, squatting in some Pakistani cave, could have been asked what would best advance his insane cause, he couldn't have asked for anything better than this incompetent misadventure. (The next American blunder he'd undoubtedly like to see is an American attack on Iran.)

Bush and his yes-men and -women in Congress endlessly repeat the White House propaganda line that if we leave Iraq, the terrorists will follow us home. The illogic of this nonsense is so transparent it beggars the imagination, but it's become almost the last resort of Bush and his thugs. It ignores the fact that nothing is stopping terrorists from coming here right now--certainly not our under funded, unprotected ports. It ignores the fact that what is tearing Iraq apart is a sectarian civil war, instigated by our violent intervention in a country about which our President knew, apparently, absolutely nothing. It ignores the fact that the entire reason that al Qaeda has established a presence in Iraq is the arrival of an American invasion force. It ignores the fact that al Qaeda is stronger now than it was 5 years ago because of this very invasion, which took the pressure off al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and gave bin Laden breathing room to survive another day, to recruit, to scheme, and to plan more attacks on the West and in Muslim countries (such as Algeria, Indonesia, and Morocco) that he wants to destabilize.

It's hard to imagine a foreign policy more devastatingly bad for American interests than this Bush-Cheney disaster. No one knows what will happen in that beleaguered country, but to experts like Bruce Riedel, the only sensible course is phased withdrawal. That's the plan that the majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate has proposed and that Bush refuses to implement. Meanwhile death and chaos in Iraq spread; Americans and Iraqis die; Osama plots. Whose side is Bush on?

April 21, 2007 Peace Rally

Our work to encourage our neighbors to call for an end to the U.S.
occupation of Iraq must continue. Please join BlueNovember.Org -

Saturday, April 21, 2007
1 PM to 3 PM
Pine Grove and Sanborn
Port Huron, Michigan

This is a peaceful event. Engaging negatively with
passersby and interfering with traffic are prohibited.

Signs will be available, but you may bring your own messages of peace.

Taxes, Again

Last week the Times Herald published a guest opinion piece by Craig Ellis. His argument, a monotonously familiar one, is that Michigan citizens pay too much in taxes and get little in return. BlueNovember member Jackie Jablonski knew that his claims are contradicted by the evidence and contacted Call Back. The paper--what a surprise!--declined to print what she said:

For a CPA, Craig Ellis has a funny way with numbers. My sources say that New Jersey has the third highest tax burden in the country, with Michigan way behind at 20th. It’s also relevant that a recent study shows that children are far better off in states that pay the highest taxes than are children in states that pay the lowest. Check it out at everychildmatters.org. And remember that Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.”

Taxes and Services

The City of Port Huron is facing a crisis with its sewer separation program and will probably be forced to increase, perhaps even double, what it charges for water. One reason for this that no one seems to be pointing out is that the Republicans in Lansing have gutted the state budget over the last decade. In their mindless drive to cut state taxes, they have made it nearly impossible for the state to serve its citizens in a reasonable way. When Port Huron first planned for the sewer separation project, it expected to get a million dollars per year in revenue-sharing funds from the state, as reported by Mike Connell in today's Times Herald (Mike's column is not on line).

No one enjoys paying taxes, of course, but the Republican obsession with cutting them to the point where our government simply cannot perform the functions we expect of it has contributed to the mess that Port Huron finds itself in today. The state budget has been slashed to the bone. The Republicans who control the legislature claim that tax cuts create jobs and improve the business climate. Has the economy improved? Are businesses moving to Michigan? Are there new jobs in St. Clair County? Or are the wealthy putting more cash in their stock portfolios while the rest of us pay higher water bills and wonder whether the State Police will have enough troopers to cope with the next emergency?

Step It Up 2007

If you care about the future of our planet and how it is threatened by climate change, plan to meet at the Peace Pole in Pine Grove Park in Port Huron between noon and 2:00 PM, on Saturday, April 14. This is part of a nationwide effort, Step It Up 2007, organized by Bill McKibben and many others, to raise awareness of this cataclysmic threat to environmental, social, and political stability and to send a message to Congress that we want the United States to join the worldwide effort to do something about it. Over 1300 actions and rallies are planned, with all 50 states represented.

Here's a link to a letter in Friday's Times Herald from Christine Danner, who has taken the lead in organizing Port Huron's Step It Up 2007 event.

And if you still have doubts about what the consequences of global climate change will be, take a look at the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, discussed here in today's New York Times.

Who's Bush Working For?

Here's Tony Auth's 25 March 2007 cartoon (forwarded to me by an astute citizen and member of BlueNovember):

















It illustrates with tragic conciseness one of the many horrible consequences of Bush's insane Iraq war. All around the Islamic world, it has become easier for Osama bin Laden to get young men to join his terrorist legions.

One of the chief arguments in Osama's radical rant is that the West is out to destroy Islam. When Bush and his pack of neocon loonies opted to invade and occupy an Islamic country that had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks of September 11, it gave Osama the best recruiting tool he could ever have hoped for. Add to that the unavoidable fact that the Iraq disaster means that the U.S. can't pay adequate attention to the places where al Qaida is actually active--Afghanistan and Pakistan--and you have a combination of arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence that suits Osama's needs perfectly. Osama needs Bush, just as Bush needs Osama.

Mission Accomplished?

Remember "Mission Accomplished"? That was the day President Bush (the guy who went awol during his ROTC training) staged an elaborate fly-in to a US aircraft carrier and announced the end "of all major combat operations" in Iraq. This was in May 2003. Want to see how peaceful it's been in Baghdad since that day? A member of BlueNovember sent me this link to an interactive BBC site where you can track the horrors visited upon that wretched city since the US invasion and occupation. The violence and mayhem illustrated on this site explain why a majority of Iraqis say that they want US troops out of their country, believe they will be safer and more secure once the Americans leave, and even think that attacks on coalition troops are justified (click here).

Partisan?

The news about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the desperate Republican efforts to deflect attention from his nefarious doings tells us a lot about how this White House works. As the evidence mounts that Gonzales actively participated in firing U.S. attorneys for nakedly political reasons and then lied about his involvement, President Bush, according to an AP article in Sunday's Times Herald (not available on line), is insisting that the whole affair is nothing but a Democratic, partisan attack; on Saturday, Bush declared, "We need to put partisan politics aside and come together to enact important legislation for the American people."

The idea of a Republican playing the "partisan" card is so laughable it boggles the mind. Nothing in our political history was more partisan and less justified than the Republican assault on President Clinton that culminated in impeachment proceedings. This absurd drama shut down our government for months and made us the joke of the world.

Add to this the list of Gonzales's actual exploits, concisely reviewed in Frank Rich's column (subscription required) in today's New York Times. Gonzales has advocated torture, covered up for Enron, impeded the investigation of who illegally outed CIA agent Valerie Plame, and interfered with various probes into Republican corruption.

When the President says it's all "partisan," you have to wonder what else the spotlight on Gonzales will reveal. Will this affair finally show American voters that this White House is itself brazenly partisan and dedicated to nothing other than maintaining its own power?

Informed Citizens

A comment on the last post (from "Anonymous") cited Informed Comment, where Juan Cole offers daily information on and analysis of what's happening in Iraq and its vicinity. Cole is a professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan and an internationally recognized expert on Islamic history, culture, and society. He speaks and reads Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, and thus one of the many virtues of Informed Comment is that Cole is able to tell us what the Arabic, Iranian, and Pakistani Press are writing about the debacle in Iraq.

President Bush and his henchmen like to say that Americans are pessimistic about this war, now entering its fifth year, because they don't know what's really going on in Iraq. This is one instance where I have to admit they are partly right. If you read Cole and other conscientious sources, you'll see that in fact everything in Iraq is much worse than the mainstream media are telling us. American and other western journalists are, for the most part, justifiably nervous about leaving the Green Zone and are unable to learn the on-the-ground realities in Anbar Province, the slums of Baghdad, and other places where insurgent and sectarian violence rages.

One of the responsibilities of citizens in a democracy is that they make an effort to inform themselves about current events. This is especially challenging in the modern United States where so much of the media, particularly radio and TV, is controlled by corporate interests. Fox News, for example, is little more than an outlet for White House propaganda; other media, obsessed with missing white girls and misbehaving celebrities, are little better. But the internet is full of useful information and analysis. It's our duty as citizens to find these sources, read them, and think about them. Informed Comment is a good place to start.

A Tragic Anniversary

March 19 is the 4th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war. For a reminder of what this unconstitutional, counter-productive, immoral disaster has cost in the unnecessary and indefensible loss of human life, click here. For the cost in dollars, try here. For a timeline of all the insanity, click here.

This war was conceived in ignorance and deceit. It has alienated our allies, emboldened (to use one of Dick Cheney's favorite words) our enemies, slaughtered at least tens of thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of innocent human beings, wasted our money, and diminished our Constitution. It was begun by men who had never seen combat, whose vision of the world was--and remains--a hallucinatory fantasy. The world is a much more dangerous and unstable place because of it; both Al Qaeda and Iran have been strengthened by this incompetently executed misadventure. We abandoned Afghanistan, where we had some justification for our presence, to a resurgent Taliban and sent our army to Iraq, where, notwithstanding the brutalities of Saddam, the Iraqi people are now measurably more miserable than they were before the US invasion and occupation. America is hated around the world because of the lunatic ineptitude of the neocons who continue to run our government. This war is the worst foreign-policy disaster in American history. We will be living (and dying) with its consequences for decades.

Simple pragmatism fuels Iraq War protests

4 February 2007

One argument often repeated by the defenders of the war in Iraq is that people protesting the war demoralize the American troops. But the reason that so many Americans are protesting this war is not because they are unpatriotic or indifferent to our troops' sacrifices. It is because the Bush administration cannot make a persuasive case for continuing a war that was destined to fail.

The war began with lies and ignorance--lies about weapons of mass destruction and ignorance about the realities of Iraqi culture, politics, and history. It was only a matter of time before a majority of Americans figured this out and began asking why our soldiers are dying in Iraq.

We are told that we are fighting an enemy determined to destroy our way of life. If this were the case, there would be no debate: we would of course commit all our resources to absolute victory. But Iraq was not a threat to America when this war began, and it is no threat today.

The Sunni insurgency hates the Shia majority and the occupying foreign army that set up the Shia government. Iraq has spiraled into civil war, and there is nothing that American troops can do to stop it. By their very presence, American troops provide targets for bombs and resentment.

In America, I hope, the people express their opinions and, eventually, determine what their country does. It's in totalitarian states that wars are fought and soldiers die because dictators demand it.

Philip Terrie

Rally to Demand and end to U.S. occupation of Iraq

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

4:00 to 5:00 P.M.

Sanborn and Pine Grove

Port Huron, Michigan

We have a specific objective for the rally; we will be asking passersby to call their congressional representatives and demand an end to the occupation of Iraq. In our visualization, we will include a large banner on which we have painted the phone number for Congress.

This is a peaceful event. All attendees must agree to interact positively

with passersby. No one is allowed to impede traffic in any way.

Dear Mr. President: Diplomacy, please.

Dear Mr. President,

Please don't do it. Don't send twenty thousand more Americans armed with guns to solve the problems in Iraq. The problems in Iraq can only be solved by people talking about peace, thinking about how to achieve it, and working together for a better future.

Please face facts, diplomacy is mandatory, so why wait? No matter if the war rages on for days, weeks, months, or years, lasting peace will only be achieved through the creativity of the human mind and the willingness of the human heart.

Mr. President, do something crazy. Call a cease fire. Call forth every relevant scholar and person of sound judgment and goodwill. Delegate to them the task of creating peace in Iraq through peaceful means.

But, here's the thing. You can't be the one to be in charge of implementation. No offense, but do you remember the 9/11 Commission Report or the Hamilton Baker Iraq Study Group? What about when the U.S. intelligence agencies told you the Iraq War was creating instability in the region and increasing the worldwide threat of terrorism? You didn't listen to any of them. And what about the American people and our elected representatives in Congress who told you your military strategies are a hindrance? Again, you didn't listen.

So, how about it? You said you want a fresh approach. This is the freshest yet. Provide others, today, with an opportunity to make things right for the Iraqi people, for our soldiers, our country, and the planet, through the untapped potential of dialogue, compromise, and diplomacy.

Sincerely,


Susan Alderman
BlueNovember.Org

Granholm Appoints Emergency Financial Advisory Panel

LANSING -- Governor Jennifer M. Granholm is asking a bipartisan Emergency Financial Advisory Panel to review the state’s current financial crisis and offer recommendations on how best to avoid similar crises in the years ahead.

Co-chaired by former governors William G. Milliken and James J. Blanchard, the advisory panel will report back to the Governor with its recommendations by the end of January.
“As I said in my Inaugural Address just days ago, we have an economic plan that will transform Michigan from a great 20th century state to an even greater state in the 21st century,” Granholm said. “However, full economic transformation is the most pressing problem we face, and how we solve the state’s fiscal crisis is a critical part of our ability to transform our economy. I am pleased to draw upon the expertise of Michigan’s most experienced and respected leaders to offer insight on how to solve this crisis.”
Granholm is seeking the counsel of some of Michigan’s most distinguished leaders as she prepares to deliver the 2007 State of State Address and submit her proposed 2008 state budget. Her budget recommendation will be based on revenue projections coming from the Revenue Estimating Conference scheduled for January 18. That conference is expected to identify a shortfall as high as $1 billion for the current and upcoming fiscal years. That shortfall is in addition to the loss of $2 billion in 2008 as a result of lawmakers’ decision to eliminate the Single Business Tax without replacing it.
The panel was selected based on the varied backgrounds and views of the members, along with their depth and breath of knowledge about state government.

In addition to former Governors Milliken and Blanchard, the advisory panel includes former legislative leaders, one of whom also served as state budget director. They include:
Dr. John Porter, former president of Eastern Michigan University and former state superintendent for public instruction
Paul Hillegonds, senior vice president of DTE Energy and former co-speaker of the state House of Representatives
Dan DeGrow, superintendent of St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency and former Republican state Senate majority leader
Sr. Monica Kostielney, president & CEO of the Michigan Catholic Conference
Dr. Lou Anna K. Simon, president of Michigan State University
Frank Kelley, former Michigan attorney general
S. Martin Taylor, University of Michigan regent
John “Joe” Schwarz, M.D., former U.S. Congressman and former chair of the state Senate Appropriations Committee
Don Gilmer, Kalamazoo County administrator and former state budget director
Doug Roberts, former state treasurer
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