Sara Palin, Tina Fey Body Double Extraordinaire

It's Not Easy Being Green

I am puzzled as to whom I should support for president. The Republicans are out for me. They just argue over who supports the war more. As for the Democrats?......Clinton is owned by the corporate machine....Obama does not have enough experience. Besides, they just argue over who wants the troops home quicker which is contrary to what they said a few months ago about keeping forces there past 2012.
As I write this, I am listening to Democracy Now! and she is speaking with Cynthia McKinney. She is running to be the Green party candidate. Check out the movie American Blackout. She is a very inspirational speaker and would bring the needed change to our country.
But in the United States of America we only have a choice between a Republican or a Democrat, that's vanilla or vanilla bean. I like cookie dough. I want a choice. A REAL choice. Will they just "count" the votes in their favor anyway? As we have already seen in New Hampshire this year, the hand counted votes were for Obama and the computer counted ballots favored Clinton, so Clinton won.
It has come to a time in America when our votes do not truly count. It only matters what the corporate entities want. Their vote is the vote the candidates work for. The debated prove it.

I think I'm going to turn Green. Kermit was right, it's not easy being green.

Congress and the Drums of War in Iran

We have traitors on both side of the isle in Washington. They voted yesterday "to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies". Additionally, they officially called the Islamic Revolutionary Guards as "TERRORISTS". Those signing on were Clinton, Feinstein, Reed, Reid, Levin, and Durbin among the many Democrats and all the Republicans with the exception of Hagel and Lugar. McCain, although he was a cosponser, did not vote. Neither did Obama. Some of the text follows:

SA 2948. Mr. KYL (for himself, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Mr. COLEMAN, and Mr. GRAHAM) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 2011 proposed by Mr. NELSON of Nebraska (for Mr. LEVIN) to the bill H.R. 1585, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of subtitle C of title XV, add the following:

SEC. 1535. SENSE OF SENATE ON IRAN.

(a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following findings:

(1) General David Petraeus, commander of the Multi-National Force Iraq, stated in testimony before a joint session of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives on September 10, 2007, that ``[i]t is increasingly apparent to both coalition and Iraqi leaders that Iran, through the use of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps Qods Force, seeks to turn the Shi'a militia extremists into a Hezbollah-like force to serve its interests and fight a proxy war against the Iraqi state and coalition forces in Iraq''.

(2) Ambassador Ryan Crocker, United States Ambassador to Iraq, stated in testimony before a joint session of the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives on September 10, 2007, that ``Iran plays a harmful role in Iraq. While claiming to support Iraq in its transition, Iran has actively undermined it by providing lethal capabilities to the enemies of the Iraqi state''.

(3) The most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, published in August 2007, states that ``Iran has been intensifying aspects of its lethal support for select groups of Iraqi Shia militants, particularly the JAM [Jaysh al-Mahdi], since at least the beginning of 2006. Explosively formed penetrator (EFP) attacks have risen dramatically''.

(4) The Report of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, released on September 6, 2007, states that ``[t]he Commission concludes that the evidence of Iran's increasing activism in the southeastern part of the country, including Basra and Diyala provinces, is compelling ..... It is an accepted fact that most of the sophisticated weapons being used to `defeat' our armor protection comes across the border from Iran with relative impunity''.

(5) General (Ret.) James Jones, chairman of the Independent Commission on the Security Forces of Iraq, stated in testimony before the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate on September 6, 2007, that ``[w]e judge that the goings-on across the Iranian border in particular are of extreme severity and have the potential of at least delaying our efforts inside the country. Many of the arms and weapons that kill and maim our soldiers are coming from across the Iranian border''.

(6) General Petraeus said of Iranian support for extremist activity in Iraq on April 26, 2007, that ``[w]e know that it goes as high as [Brig. Gen. Qassem] Suleimani, who is the head of the Qods Force ..... We believe that he works directly for the supreme leader of the country''.

(7) Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the president of Iran, stated on August 28, 2007, with respect to the United States presence in Iraq, that ``[t]he political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly. Soon we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course we are prepared to fill the gap''.

(8) Ambassador Crocker testified to Congress, with respect to President Ahmedinejad's statement, on September 11, 2007, that ``[t]he Iranian involvement in Iraq--its support for extremist militias, training, connections to Lebanese Hezbollah, provision of munitions that are used against our force as well as the Iraqis--are all, in my view, a pretty clear demonstration that Ahmedinejad means what he says, and is already trying to implement it to the best of his ability''.

(9) General Petraeus stated on September 12, 2007, with respect to evidence of the complicity of Iran in the murder of members of the Armed Forces of the United States in Iraq, that ``[t]e evidence is very, very clear. We captured it when we captured Qais Khazali, the Lebanese Hezbollah deputy commander, and others, and it's in black and white ..... We interrogated these individuals. We have on tape ..... Qais Khazali himself. When asked, could you have done what you have done without Iranian support, he literally throws up his hands and laughs and says, of course not ..... So they told us about the amounts of money that they have received. They told us about the training that they received. They told us about the ammunition and sophisticated weaponry and all of that that they received''.

(10) General Petraeus further stated on September 14, 2007, that ``[w]hat we have got is evidence. This is not intelligence. This is evidence, off computers that we captured, documents and so forth ..... In one case, a 22-page document that lays out the planning, reconnaissance, rehearsal, conduct, and aftermath of the operation conducted that resulted in the death of five of our soldiers in Karbala back in January''.

(11) The Department of Defense report to Congress entitled ``Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq'' and released on September 18, 2007, consistent with section 9010 of Public Law 109-289, states that ``[t]here has been no decrease in Iranian training and funding of illegal Shi'a militias in Iraq that attack Iraqi and Coalition forces and civilians ..... Tehran's support for these groups is one of the greatest impediments to progress on reconciliation''.

(12) The Department of Defense report further states, with respect to Iranian support for Shi'a extremist groups in Iraq, that ``[m]ost of the explosives and ammunition used by these groups are provided by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force ..... For the period of June through the end of August, [explosively formed penetrator] events are projected to rise by 39 percent over the period of March through May''.

(13) Since May 2007, Ambassador Crocker has held three rounds of talks in Baghdad on Iraq security with representatives of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

(14) Ambassador Crocker testified before Congress on September 10, 2007, with respect to these talks, stating that ``I laid out the concerns we had over Iranian activity that was damaging to Iraq's security, but found no readiness on Iranians' side at all to engage seriously on these issues. The impression I came with after a couple rounds is that the Iranians were interested simply in the appearance of discussions, of being seen to be at the table with the U.S. as an arbiter of Iraq's present and future, rather than actually doing serious business ..... Right now, I haven't seen any sign of earnest or seriousness on the Iranian side''.

(15) Ambassador Crocker testified before Congress on September 11, 2007, stating that ``[w]e have seen nothing on the ground that would suggest that the Iranians are altering what they're doing in support of extremist elements that are going after our forces as well as the Iraqis''.

(b) Sense of Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate--

(1) that the manner in which the United States transitions and structures its military presence in Iraq will have critical long-term consequences for the future of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East, in particular with regard to the capability of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to pose a threat to the security of the region, the prospects for democracy for the people of the region, and the health of the global economy;

(2) that it is a vital national interest of the United States to prevent the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran from turning Shi'a militia extremists in Iraq into a Hezbollah-like force that could serve its interests inside Iraq, including by overwhelming, subverting, or co-opting institutions of the legitimate Government of Iraq;

(3) that it should be the policy of the United States to combat, contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;

(4) to support the prudent and calibrated use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy described in

[Page: S11866] GPO's PDF

paragraph (3) with respect to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its proxies;

(5) that the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists, as established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and initiated under Executive Order 13224; and

(6) that the Department of the Treasury should act with all possible expediency to complete the listing of those entities targeted under United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1737 and 1747 adopted unanimously on December 23, 2006 and March 24, 2007, respectively.

Additionally, they slipped this in too:

SA 2951. Mrs. DOLE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 2011 proposed by Mr. NELSON of Nebraska (for Mr. LEVIN) to the bill H.R. 1585, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of title X, add the following:

SEC. 1070. NOTIFICATION OF CERTAIN RESIDENTS AND CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES AT CAMP LEJEUNE, NORTH CAROLINA, OF EXPOSURE TO DRINKING WATER CONTAMINATION.

(a) Notification of Individuals Served by Tarawa Terrace Water Distribution System, Including Knox Trailer Park.--Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Navy shall make reasonable efforts to identify and notify directly individuals who were served by the Tarawa Terrace Water Distribution System, including Knox Trailer Park, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, during the years 1958 through 1987 that they may have been exposed to drinking water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene (PCE).

Apparently, while condemning Iran and voting to use whatever means necessary to bend them to our will, they wanted to mention, "Oh, by the way, the water at Camp Lejune is contaminated and sometime in the next year we will find out who was living there thirty years ago and let them know that they might want to go see a doctor if they are still alive".

Who are these crazy people in Washington representing? They do NOT represent me. Do they represent you?

My family and I were planning to go to Washington this weekend to attend the march on Saturday. We have changed our plans at the last minute. Although we would love to be a part of the activities, we will wait and go to Washington when we can visit Congress. But we have to catch them before they leave on vacation. I wish I could have that many vacation days. I will end this post with a bumper sticker quote:

"If progress means to move forward, what does Congress mean?"

Let's Get Rid of this Lame Duck

I would first like to say that I think this 2008 election campaign started WAAAY too early, but I guess we are ALL tired of this administration and cannot wait for it to be over. Why the Congress did not impeach them both, is beyond me. If only some intern had taken one for the team and given him a blow job...
Concerning the presidential election, I am leaning towards Kucinich. Mike Gravel is the most experienced but the corporate monster has shut him out totally. Most of the debates favor the "front runners" Clinton, Obama and Edwards, very blatantly. There is a terrific website that lists the hot issues and lets you pick a side and choose whether the issue is important to you or is a key issue. Then it compares them to the Republican and Democratic candidates and their issues. It was designed by 2decide.net and can be accessed here. According to this quiz, I did not disagree with Gravel on a single issue. Kucinich made the top of my list, point wise, but I disagree with him on the 'No Child Left Behind Act'. This is 'Leave many children out and feed the rest to the military industrial complex Act' is not worth the paper it was written on. Schools actually lose funding if they do bad on the mandatory tests. Wouldn't they require more teachers and help if they have kids struggling? Just one more thing this administration has done to screw up this country.
Getting back to the election, I want to address this Ron Paul phenomenon. Why is every Paul supporter fanatical about it? They are like Jehovah's Witnesses...'let me tell you about Ron Paul'. Does his voting record not speak for itself? NO on a woman's right to choose, NO on stem cell research, NO on background checks for guns, NO on assault weapons ban, NO on universal health care, NO on Kyoto, YES on drilling in ANWR. What is there to like about this guy? He is for pulling out the troops and dislikes big government and wants to leave issues in the hands of the states. If he wins (that will be a cold day in Darfur) I guess I will have to move to a blue state like Vermont.

Gravel's recent Q&A session.


Gravel in 1971 - Not a flip-flopper.


Kucinich speaking recently at a Lebanese/American festival.


Ron Paul speaking on Google