Now that it has been reported that you have quit as the visible face of the peace movement, I would like to thank you for who you are and all you have done.

You have put an intelligent, human face on the war and its costs for the American people, though many have objected to it. You have put integrity above party, and courageously told truth to power.

Your actions have helped to shift the nation's opinions against the war. You have accomplished so much, with such grace and dignity.

You have truly honored the memory of your son. Every genuine patriot has nothing but respect and admiration for you.

This quote was from one of the interviews that the New York Times did for its article, "Doubts Grow as G.I.’s in Iraq Find Allies in Enemy Ranks.” One question immediately came to my mind when I read this quote:

Only half?

So many in our media and our political elite act as if it is so shocking that so many of the Iraqis our troops are being forced to train in Iraq are fighting against the occupation. Yet, if you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

Just imagine that some foreign government toppled the Bush regime, and then occupied our country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans and stealing our resources. You can bet there would be a huge American insurgency, regardless of how unpopular Bush is. If that foreign power was idiotic enough to train Americans to act as a puppet “American Security Force,” you bet most of those Americans being trained would be using their training to fight off the foreign invaders.

One of the biggest flaws in the mentality of the pro-war ideologues is the inability to put themselves in the place of Iraqis. The refusal of war supporters to acknowledge the humanity of Iraqis because they are (overwhelmingly) Muslims and (mostly) Arabs is not only immoral, it makes them incapable of analyzing the military situation effectively.

Senator Charles Schumer is an absolute disgrace to New York.

I am disgusted that Schumer was too cowardly to vote on the latest effort to flush more than $100 BILLION in taxpayer money down the toilet in Iraq. Our troops are dying because of an illegal and unAmerican war, and Schumer couldn't even be bothered to vote on it.

The war in Iraq is unconstitutional, since no war was ever declared on that country. By refusing to lead a filibuster against the funding, Schumer deliberately violated his oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Schumer loves headline grabbing on minor issues, but when it comes to his basic responsibilities of office, Schumer is as AWOL as Bush was from the National Guard during Vietnam.

I just got a fundraising letter from the local Democratic party. Here is my response.

Please take me off of your mailing list.

I am shocked and horrified that the Democratic Party leadership and so many House and Senate Democrats have joined Bush and the Republicans in killing our troops by funding the illegal and unAmerican war in Iraq.

Instead of giving money to the Democratic Party, I will be making donations to Democratic primary challengers and Green Party general election candidates.

Enough is enough!

It is absolutely unacceptable for even one more dime to go for this evil and senseless war.

Best of all, they are paying the postage.

Democrats.com has put together the Iraq Vote Pledge, whose text follows:

I pledge to vote against every Senator and Representative who approves funding to continue the disastrous Iraq War.

We have already given far too much of our blood and treasure - and killed far too many Iraqis - for a war based on lies. We are now occupying a hostile nation divided by civil war for the benefit of military contractors and Big Oil.

The only way to support our troops is to bring them home NOW, and no funds should be used for any other purpose. If Congress fails to bring our troops home, I will do everything I can - and urge everyone I know - to defeat pro-war Senators and Representatives, both in my party's primary elections and in the November general election.

Sign on to the Pledge Now!

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been playing a sick game with the anti-war movement, with the lives of US troops, and with the lives of Iraqis for some time now. They pretend that they oppose the war, yet they have made clear from the beginning that they were determined to continue the war by continuing the funding.

At a certain point, war opponents have to realize that we are being betrayed by politicians who take our votes for granted while continuing to have our young people fight and die for Halliburton, Big Oil, the Christian Right, and other corrupt Bush regime cronies.

If these pro-war Democrats cared about fighting terrorism, they would not join Bush and Cheney in aiding and abetting Al Qaeda's terrorist training and recruiting efforts by supporting the war in Iraq. Sadly, Reid, Pelosi, and most other congressional Democrats just don't care, an attitude they share with the worst of Republicans.

The Democratic Party leadership has just agreed to legislation with no enforceable conditions for Iraq war funding, much less a timetable for withdrawal. (Bush can waive “conditions” on reconstruction funding, and there are no limits on the military spending.)

Of course, the Democratic Congress has done little or nothing worthwhile on a lot of other important issues as well. According to Nancy Pelosi, impeachment of Bush and Cheney is “off the table,” just like stopping war funding. So much for the rule of law.

The “Democratic” leadership is pushing another job-destroying trade deal instead of working to repeal NAFTA and withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization. Congress has yet to take any steps to restrict handguns, much less ban them like they should. Congress has yet to even try to revoke Most Favored Trade status for China, despite their economic exploitation of the US and their economic support of genocide in Sudan. Aside from holding hearings, Congress has done nothing on Global Warming either. Dealing with climate change needs action, not hot air.

On other issues like banning Halliburton from all government contracts, increasing fuel efficiency standards, windfall enacting profits taxes for oil companies, cutting government subsidies for corporations, taxing SUVs to pay for more public transportation, and increasing OSHA safety inspectors, the proverbial crickets are chirping.

Even on hate crimes legislation for the queer community, the only action taken so far is a House vote passing a heavily watered down piece of legislation. This is similar to the distressingly low increase in the minimum wage passed by congressional Democrats. Pelosi and Reid have nibbled on the edges of a few important issues, while carrying the water for corporate interests the vast majority of the time.

Now that we know that most congressional Democrats will support the war and most other corporate interests when it really counts, there are two choices for progressives. One would be to give up on the Democratic Party and vote Green. The other alternative is for progressives to run primary challenges against war mongering corporatists to replace them with Real Democrats.

If that does not work, it is important to remember that voting for Real Greens is better than voting for fake “Democrats.”

It is odd that most people have yet to discover the link between climate change and future illegal immigration.

Here is a list of some of the consequences of Global Warming from the National Resources Defense Council and StopGlobalWarming.org.

• increased droughts


• more wildfires and more devastating wildfires


• more intense rainstorms leading to increased flooding


• more deadly heat waves


• more powerful hurricanes


• a rising sea level, flooding away many coastal and island areas


• now primarily tropical diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and encephalitis will become far more common farther north

StopGlobalWarming.org also points out that the majority of the world's population lives on or near the coasts, magnifying the human impacts of global warming.

It should not require much consideration to see that even if only some of these things happen, many people outside of the US will lose their livelihoods and even their homes. Global economic pressures dictate that many of them will come to America out of necessity, not desire.

The underlying substance on the debate on immigration is whether the US has levels that are low enough for us to benefit or if our economy has reached a saturation point which would require reducing the level of immigration. Most people who think that we have yet to reach that saturation point would be concerned by the potential of tens or perhaps hundreds of millions of desperate Global Warming refuges arriving here, especially if our economy suffers anywhere near as much as expected from climate change.

Even people who disagree with the premise of a saturated economy would generally prefer that people come to the US out of a desire to live here, not an unwanted necessity based on economic deprivation caused by Global Warming.

I find it sadly ironic that some anti-immigration activists are obsessed with punitive measures, walls, fences, etc.,. These will have a minor effect in comparison with what climate change can do to the level of illegal immigration to the United States, unless serious efforts are made to decrease CO2 emissions. Some of the anti-immigrant folks even mock the science of global warming in much the same way that the far right mocks evolution.

They will be sorry.

There has been a serious problem with the homophobia of Mayor Bloomberg's and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's NYPD for years. Unless the victims of queer bashings are famous or dead, the NYPD is notorious for its slow responses and lack of action on the cases.

On April 27, Bloomberg and Kelly have gotten the mayor's Community Assistance Unit to deny a permit to move the annual queer pride festival to a different day and location, even though the CAU originally said that they would approve the permit.

They are using an unconstitutional 2003 moritorium on new street festivals as the excuse, even though this was not a new street festival. They violated their own illegal policy in order to discriminate against queers.

The old location was difficult to access during the day of the parade, and that resulted in a disturbingly low turnout for the festival. In most cities, pride festivals play a critical role in community building, something that homophobic bigots like Bloomberg and Kelly would like to avoid.

Annual Pridefest Likely to Be Nixed (Gay City News)

Information from Heritage of Pride

Some of the many reasons why Dick Cheney should be impeached follow.

• Defrauding Congress and the public about “WMDs” in Iraq and on non-existent Al Qaeda/Baath Party links in Iraq in order to get our country into war.



• Working to get our country into a war of aggression against Iraq, which violates international law.



• Participating in the illegal wiretapping program on Americans.



• Illegally occupying the office of Vice President as the result of two stolen elections.



• Assault with a deadly weapon (the time he shot his “friend” in the face).



• Holding illegal, secret meetings with energy company donors on energy policy.

Pride at Work, the queer constituency group of the AFL-CIO, is asking people to send messages to their representatives in support of ENDA, which would outlaw most discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

www.unionvoice.org/campaign/pawenda

Pride at Work is not alone in the labor movement. The following is the statement of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Executive Vice President Mary Kay Henry on the Introduction of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

When members of the GLBT community are denied job opportunities, fired, or passed over for promotion because of their sexual orientation or identity, everybody loses. Employers lose out on workers that would contribute invaluably to a product or trade. Employees are denied the opportunity to work in an open and diverse environment that prioritizes the free flow of ideas over fear. Society is manipulated by the hands of a powerful few, denied the chance to decide for itself the worth of an individual person.

The Service Employees International Union represents more than 1.8 million working people united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide. We are dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society.

The American Dream celebrates the promise of mobility rooted in hard work and competence, not in an identity litmus test. When all people can go to work confident that their performance will be evaluated on its merits and not through the fog of fear-based discrimination, everybody wins.

www.unionvoice.org/campaign/pawenda

Apologists for the Roman Catholic Church have tried to make the problem of child molesting priests look like an American one, but those sicko priests are hardly limited to the US.

The Archdiocese of Dublin just has admitted that 145 of its priests are subjects to a child abuse investigation. Their report also admitted that the Catholic Church used the practice of transferring molesting priests from parish to parish, suggesting that the policy was coordinated from Rome.

An elderly Italian priest was accused of sex abuse this month.

The Pulitzer Board's web site has a 2003 Boston Globe award winning article which provides information about the global problem of pedophile priests.

Adults can be victims of priests too. An ex-nun discussed her rape by a priest in Africa a few years ago in the National Catholic Reporter. The nun's comments were very disturbing.

“I was in a diocesan congregation in Africa and I am a victim of this abuse,” she wrote. “I saw many young nuns who are victims. I have left my community now, because I became very sick as a result of my inability to get help to handle the issues. I had nobody to talk to because, as mentioned in the article, you are made to believe that you have to obey the authority figure. Everything that was said in that article is very true.

Now that Bush has vetoed a war funding bill that would extend the Iraq carnage into 2008, Congress should stop trying to fund this war at all. Bush had his chance to further enrich his cronies, and he blew it. There is no reason to let Bush continue the war indefinitely.

Congress has wasted far too much time on trying to fund a war that was based on lies and is helping Al Qaeda recruit and train terrorists. The solution to the Iraq war is to cut off funding.

There are far too many other important issues, including impeachment, for our elected representatives to so much devote time and energy on pandering to Bush, Big Oil, Halliburton, the Christian Right, and other GOP cronies.