War; What Is It Good For

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WAR - What Is It Good For

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.

America is at war.  Yet, each day we, in the United States, awaken.  An alarm may cause us to arise.  Perhaps, we stir when we have had enough sleep.  A few of us chose to begin the day at the hour we do, for there is much to be done.  Rarely, does a gun shot rouse us.  Bombs and bullets do not whiz past our head throughout the night.  Nor do we worry that shrapnel may hit us during the day.  In America, for the most part, people feel safe.  Life is sane.

Granted, there is stress.  Fuel prices are high.  We must work to put food on the table.  The cost of commodities increases.  Daily doings can take a physical and emotional toll.  Nonetheless, most of us in the States are assured tomorrow will come.

Our mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters will not be lost in an exchange of gunfire just outside the door.  Military men and women will not enter our homes and strip us of our rights.  Enemies do not carry machine guns, at least not openly.  

In America, the persons in our neighborhood who we look upon as foe, may have once been our friends.  Grudges are frequently personal if you are a citizen in the  United States.  Political disputes do not draw blood.  Most who fight in this Northwestern hemisphere do not do so to the death.  People in America do not constantly consider the consequences of what they have created, war in the Middle East.
Perhaps it is time for those who reside in the United States to imagine a day in the life of an Iraqi or an Afghani.  Sleep is not serene.  There are no quiet or calm moments, at any time.  The hours spent awake are tumultuous.  

Food is not easily available.  A flick of the switch will not provide light.   Electric power is a luxury, one that cannot be bought or sold.  Oil may be abundant; however, crude is calculated as an export.

Daytime is difficult.  Loved ones may fall to their death if they travel down the street.  Even when at home a person is not safe.  In the Persian Gulf, war is the way.  What is it good for? . . . Absolutely nothing.  

Read The Full Article:
http://www.BeThink.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=899

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"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser

Playing with fireIn 1971, Edith Efron purported to expose the liberal bias ofthe news media in The News Twisters. The dubiousness ofEfron's conclusion was matched by that of her methods, and criticalreaction was harsh. But,under orders from Richard Nixon, Chuck Colson spent $8,000 buying copies of thebook in order to vault it onto the New YorkTimes best-sellerlist.Even before Efron's book was published, underminingthe news media was among Nixon's top priorities. In 1969, Nixon aide Pat Buchanan[...]

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http://feeds.mediamatters.org/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/287174030/200805090012

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Bush Judicial Nominee Gus Puryear: Just Say No

Alternet has a profile of Bush judicial nominee Gus Puryear.

From a corporate standpoint, Puryear has excelled in his job as general counsel for Corrections Corp. of America (CCA), the nation's largest and most influential private prison company. Under his direction, CCA's in-house attorneys work with a stable of contracted law firms to handle corporate legal matters of all kinds, not the least of which are the hundreds of claims and lawsuits filed against the company at any given time. A smart, enthusiastic GOP stalwart, Puryear is the kind of guy the party wants around. It doesn't hurt that he's also very, very rich: Between his bank account, assets and unexercised CCA shares, he's worth about $13 million, give or take a few thousand.

Alliance for Justice, which has a full report on Puryear, says:

Mr. Puryear's public comments indicate hostility towards civil rights lawsuits in general and to those brought by prisoners in particular.

[More...]

Scott Horton at Harper's has more, as does Time Magazine. Puryear is 39 years old. A federal judicial appointment is for life. Here is Tennesseans Against Gus Puryear. My earlier post is here.

Read the letter (pdf) from Tennessee's Chief Medical Examiner to Sen. Leahy charging that Puryear was untruthful in his confirmation hearing testimony.

Also,

He's CCA's general counsel and would hold a judgeship in the same district where CCA's corporate office is located, where numerous lawsuits against CCA are filed. He has very little experience in the federal courts; during his time at CCA he has worked to conceal damaging information about the company, and has belittled prisoner litigation. He is further a member of a blatantly discriminatory country club (against women, see here, pdf), and has made misleading statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee concerning the death of a prisoner at a CCA facility. The top lawyer for the nation's largest for-profit private prison company is particularly ill suited to serve as a federal judge.

He also seems unqualified for a lifetime appointment to the federal bench:

According to the federal court dockets, and by Mr. Puryear's own admission, he has been actively involved in only five federal cases over his entire legal career, and only two cases that went to trial -- most recently 10 years ago.

Further, in one of the only two cases he took to trial (which he lost), Mr. Puryear's client sought to have him removed from the case, twice.

....Mr. Puryear has authored only one published law journal article, in 1992. Apparently his qualifications for a federal judgeship are not based on his extensive knowledge as a trial attorney, nor on his litigation experience or academic credentials. Nor is his ABA ranking noteworthy. The ratings are available here. Thus, Mr. Puryear is ranked in the bottom 25% of his judicial nominee peers.

Puryear is an unqualified, partisan political appointment.

Puryear is a dedicated Republican supporter, having previously worked under Republican Senators Bill Frist and Fred Thompson. He was an advisor to Vice President Cheney during the 2000 debates. He has given at least $13,450 to federal and state Republican campaign committees since 2001; specific donations include $3,000 to Sen. Bob Corker from 2005-2006, $1,000 for Mitt Romney in 2007, $2,000 to President Bush for the primary in 2003, $1,000 to Lamar Alexander's Senate campaign in 2005, and $1,000 to Sen. Kit Bond in 2003. The Nashville Post referred to Mr. Puryear as a "Republican heavyweight."

Puryear's employer, CCA, has been generous to Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, too. From 2003 to 2008, CCA and the company's subsidiaries, employees and their spouses donated over $30,000 to Senator Alexander and $27,250 to Senator Corker. CCA co-founder Tom Beasley has donated over $100,000 to Senator Alexander, and CCA's extensive connections with Senator Alexander go way back. Both Senators Alexander and Corker have strongly supported Mr. Puryear's nomination; however, they have not acknowledged that Puryear and CCA have made significant donations to their political campaigns.

The National Lawyers Guild also opposes Puryear. Do does the AFSCME Union (pdf).

Gus Puryear's nomination hearing was held on Feb. 12, 2008. The Senate Judiciary Committee has not yet voted on his nomination. There is still time to oppose his confirmation.

Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Bldg.
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4242
e-mail

You can also contact other members of the committee, especially if they are from your state, as well as your state's U.S. senators. A list of the Senate Judiciary Committee's membership is available at this link:

You can find the contact information for your state's Senators here.

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McCain: Embattled U.S. attorney has done a
‘good’ job.

Today, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spoke in New Jersey, confessing to reporters who pressed him about local issues that he knows little about the state. “I’m not that familiar with the political situation on the ground here,” he said. Asked about New Jersey’s U.S. attorney, Chris Christie, McCain simply claimed Christie has been “good”:

McCain deferred when pressed on whether he was familiar with Christie — a federal prosecutor appointed by President Bush — or Christie’s work. “I know it’s been good,” he said. “I’m certainly not familiar with the political environment here.”

Christie’s work, however, has been highly controversial. Last fall, he awarded his former boss, John Ashcroft, a lucrative no-bid contract to ?monitor a large corporation willing to settle criminal charges out of court.? The contract appeared to be “political patronage,” spurring congressional hearings on contracting. Congress is still investigating the matter.

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On at least 15 occasions on May 8, Fox News
promoted notion that McCain is reluctant to discuss his POW experience

OnMay 8, Fox News anchors and reporters repeatedly promoted the notion that Sen.John McCain is reluctant to discuss his experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, makingsuch assertions at least 15 times between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET. During Special Report,while introducing chief political correspondent Carl Cameron's interviewwith retired Col. George E. "Bud" Day, guest anchor Bret Baierasserted that "McCain rarely talks about hisexperience as a prisoner of war during Vietnam." During[...]

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http://feeds.mediamatters.org/~r/mediamatters/latest/~3/287174031/200805090011

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Obama-Clinton Ticket Is Unlikely Option, Kennedy
Says

From the diaries, jeromeSenator Ted Kennedy one of Senator Obama's prominent supporter told Bloomberg TV that Barack Obama isn't likely to pick rival Hillary Clinton as a running mate. He attributed this to the "tenor of the campaign". [...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mydd/~3/287173275/76292

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Reveling In The Demise of Their Relevance

Susie Madrak on Matt Stoller:

Obama’s now vacuumed up the majority of the grassroots donors, is discouraging his donors from giving to anyone else, and there’s no point whatsoever to placating the netroots. I can’t believe Stoller doesn’t get that. They don’t need us, and we will have no influence whatsoever in an Obama administration. Those of you who dream of a new progressive netroots Utopia will have a rather rude awakening, I think. (Not that this makes some huge difference in my own life - I’ve never thought bloggers were anywhere near as influential as they like to think.)

Yep. It's not that the Netroots sold out. It's that they got nothing on issues, or anything else, in exchange for their unstinting support of Barack Obama. The whole thing has been extremely strange.

Yep, again I just speak for me.

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Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Coming Attractions

Productions with a political bent:

Now Playing: Standard Operating Procedure
Cast: The guards of Abu Ghraib
Bush, Cheney, Tenet, Ashcroft and many other former and present administration hacks should have their eyes propped open with toothpicks and be forced to watch this twenty times in a row. Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris interviews several of the Abu Ghraib prison guards, and reveals even more photos. As a nation, we're still asking ourselves how and why this could happen. This movie helps get us a little closer to the truth.
Trailer
Reviews

May 23: War, Inc.
Cast: John Cusack, Joan Cusack, Marisa Tomei, Hilary Duff, Ben Kingsley.
Co-written, co-produced and starring fellow Kossack John Cusack. A political satire set in the country of Turaqistan, which is occupied by a private American corporation run by a former U.S. vice president (Dan Aykroyd channeling Cheney). Oh, and some chick puts a scorpion down her pants. What's that all about, John?  
Official site

May 25: Recount (HBO)
Cast:  Kevin Spacey, John Hurt, Tom Wilkinson, Laura Dern, Denis Leary.

"How hard is it to punch a paper ballot?"
"It's pretty hard when you're 80-something years old, you're arthritic and you’re blind as a bat."

I can't wait for this HBO movie, directed by Jay Roach ("Austin Powers," "Meet the Parents"), about the stolen 2000 election. And here's why: Laura Dern's deliriously loopy performance as Florida Secretary of State Katherine "I cannot accept returns after the deadline unless there's a hurricane" Harris.
Trailer
Official site

August 1: Swing Vote
Cast: Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Nathan Lane, Kelsey Grammer, Chris Matthews and a bunch of other cable news pundits in cameos.
This could either be cute in the "Dave" mold...or deadly dull like "Man of the Year." Kevin Costner is in "Field of Dreams" mode as an aging loser who, because of a Diebold machine glitch, ends up with the tie-breaking vote in a presidential election. Candidates Hopper and Grammer court his vote, and I'm sure everyone learns valuable lessons about life and democracy and yadda yadda yadda.
Trailer

Now Playing on Broadway: Thurgood
Cast: Lawrence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
Variety says: "A few minutes into Thurgood and he's got the audience eating right out of his hand. While that image may serve to describe the star power of Laurence Fishburne, it applies just as well to the late Thurgood Marshall, the subject of this one-man show penned by George Stevens Jr. The first black justice of the Supreme Court was the kind of character you can really take into your heart." Four words for Stevens, Jr. and Fishburne: Make it a movie!
Full review.

Late Summer---We Were This Close
Michael Moore talks with Larry King about his upcoming doc:

Larry King: You'll be putting out a new documentary about the 2004 election---the working title is We Were This Close---around the Time of the National political conventions.

Michael Moore: A lot of people are nervous now.  Could McCain win?  Look at what's happening to Democrats. We're only one state shy...one red state shy. It's Ohio or Florida. ... I want people to remember that we had these arenas every night, 15,000 people would show up. It was incredible. You actually could see the early beginnings of this massive movement now that's behind Obama. It's only going to continue to get bigger. I think that's a very positive thing for the country.

We'll post more info as it becomes available.

2009: W Get a load of George W. Bush (Josh Brolin) in Oliver Stone's 2009 biopic of Chimpy. He looks creeoy, he looks calculating, and he looks constipated. I like where this is heading. (And I'm ROTFLMAO knowing that Rob Corddry is playing that weasel Ari Fleischer. Perfect!)
More cast info here

Oh, and don’t make any weekend plans. I need you to come in and do inventory. Deal with it. Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

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Gee, now they're pulling the woman card

This opinion piece by Ellen Malcolm, the head of EMILY's list is, well, kind of offensive. The gist of it is that Hillary should be permitted to remain in the race because she's a woman. Hmmm. That's an interesting argument. And a borderline sexist argument to boot. So you mean it would be okay to tell Hillary that the math isn't going to work out if she were a man? But because she's a woman, the math is different somehow? Because she's a woman, she's not wasting a million dollars a day that could be spent fighting McCain? Because she's a woman, she's not damaging our nominee needlessly? Because she's a woman, her racist attacks against Obama haven't split the Democratic party in two? Because she's a woman, she shouldn't be expected to do what every presidential candidate in history has been asked and expected to do - put their party before their ego and get the hell out after they lose? And because she's a woman, we're supposed to lie to her, and women who support her, and tell them that she really does have a chance, when she doesn't? That is seriously f'd up.

Give me a break. She lost. She's hurting our candidate. And EMILY's list (and the AFT and others) are now wasting money on Hillary that could be spent on actual female candidates that have a chance at winning. This is the big leagues. We don't have time for Hillary's electoral therapy. She lost, she needs to move on, and folks like EMILY's list need to stop making excuses for Hillary based on her gender. It's insulting.

PS Oh, and by the way, what about the dreams of Obama's black followers, a dream that Hillary is now trying to destroy for no reason? Doesn't that count too, Emily? Or are some dreams more equal than others?

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Open Thread and Site Update

Two quick site updates:All trusted users can now post Quick Hits on Open Left. So, if you can give[...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenLeft-FrontPage/~3/287181868/showDiary.do

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