Why the American People Need to Know the Truth & Nothing but the Truth, So Help Us..Congress with Subpoena Power

Some Lies Can Kill People!

Isn't interesting to see politicians fight? Many Americans don't like politics but they love watching a fight. The country was mesmerized with the Clinton sex & lying scandal. That was also very easy to understand, wasn't it? So, yes, that Congress was investigating the President for all sorts of things. That Republican Congress held 7 or 10 days worth of hearings regarding the use of the White House xmas list by the Clintons. It was a big concern whether the presidential couple had abused their privileges and used our House for political gain, or, worse, to their financial benefit! OK, nothing was found there, but the principle of checks & balances was preserved with a fig leaf.

With the war and all other catastrophes, you'd think that Congress would also have done some other serious digging. Nope, it didn't. Only the silence of the crickets was heard when it became known that some $ 9 billion dollars [today we know it was much higher than that, close to $12 b] was lost during Bremer's provisional government in Iraq. Lost, as in, we don't have a freakin clue where those "footballs" of bundled cash [in $100 bills] went! At least, those who took the money aren't talking.

Let's not give comfort to the enemy by criticizing our leaders and their policies, we're told with a scolding attitude. We have to show resolve, like good knuckle-heads and simpletons, yeah, like those who are fighting us. But, should we bow our heads as we obey an almighty deity? What, are we that immature? Shouldn't we ask tough questions--heck, even get really mad when we see such a level of gross incompetence and possibly a criminal behavior?

Some serious violations cannot be washed off with an apology, or with a pompous but empty statement, "I take full responsibility," when such an admission is not followed by any consequences! Has anyone, anyone in this BushCo, been held accountable for their miserable failures? No! As long as they are loyal to El Presidente and his cabal, they get promoted and get medals--not to mention a plush job in the corporate world.

Why should we care? Oh, I don't know, maybe because it's our money, our country, and our lives at stake! If we are patriots, we have to care. We have to be smart too, because often the worst treatments come from within our country not from our enemies. Where was the government with the most powerful military, a huge intelligence network, etc, on 9-11? We know the President was paralyzed with indecision--he stayed in that Florida classroom reading My Pet Goat after the second airplane hit the second tower in NYC. Who ignored the warnings by Richard Clarke and other counter-terrorism experts when they told Bush and his government that al Qaeda was determined to strike in the US by using airplanes? Condie--another utterly incompetent person--was to give a speech on 9-11 on security threats and her transcript had no reference to al Qaeda but to some "star wars" defense system the administration wanted to deploy!

Who were those who falsified documents, suppressed evidence, lied to the American people and the Congress, in order to attack Iraq? Who were those who revealed the identity of a CIA secret agent for political revenge? Are those people stupid, criminals, or both? We must find out. As we must find out and punish those who were put in charge of FEMA and those who failed to react to save Americans dying in the Gulf states after Katrina because of neglect and bad policies. [watch Valerie Plame's Congressional testimony; it's an eye opener; more highlights here] Did I mention that Condie went shoe shopping in Manhattan while people were dying in New Orleans? Oh, sorry, this wasn't a national security issue, and, therefore, her concern. We may have started a war and an invasion on made-up evidence, but it's OK when Americans die needlessly because of their government's neglect.

American soldiers are kept in horrible and often abusing conditions, not in a prison cell in a hostile country, but here in the US. These are the same people who volunteered to fight for America and were sent to battle without the proper body armor and equipment. Not to mention the stupendous lack of planning for the occupation, and all the other ill-conceived plans that have resulted in thousands of deaths and tens of thousands seriously injured troops. And, the chicken hawks want more bloodshed. Haven't you heard, already, the cries of those who could never face reality that say, "only if we had more time," "only if we had more troops," "only if we had spent more money," and whatever else...

It's time we take our country back. Except the 30% of the population that, no matter what, will stick behind Bush and any other authoritarian figure who professes conservative social values, most Americans couldn't possibly like what's happening to our country. Corruption is bad regardless of who's doing it. US Attorneys--like the Attorney General (that scum, Alberto Gonzales)--supposedly act on our behalf; to protect the public's interests, not being servants to the Republican establishment. And, yet, they were told to go after Democrats or face dismissal. Paul Krugman of the NY Times quoting the late Moly Ivins said that this was classic Rovian strategy to investigate Democrats [or announce (leak) a case against a Democrat] before the election only to have the case dismissed after the election. Is Carl Rove behind the treasonous Plame leak?

Can you imagine the noise and the indignation by the conservatives had the roles been reversed? They'd be asking for public hangings! I'm keeping tabs on who's putting their petty party politics above the national interest. I would never defend anyone who intentionally harms my country, and it doesn't matter if he's a liberal or a conservative. We know that despite all the Bush rhetoric about punishing the Plame identity leaker, these people don't really care. Bush would not promote and give medals to people whose main qualification was to kiss his ass. We heard today that no internal investigation was launched in the White House, not about Plame, not about anything else as long as it didn't challenge the orthodoxy. This is not surprising though.

We're coming up on the 4th anniversary of the Iraq war(3/19). I don't know how you feel about it, but remember that a war is paid for with human suffering; we deal with human beings who either don't get to live a full life, or will be forever scared.... and, their families suffer too. The cost is immense. The ultimate support for the troops is to protect them as much as we can before we send them to die to protect us when it's absolutely necessary.

"This was a child that every parent would be very, very proud of. Every parent should have the relationship that I have with my son. He was my right hand. He was my friend, my son, my confidant. And to lose somebody such as Seth is a tremendous lost to me as a mother. I've lost what I felt was going to be a young man with a phenomenal future that would have everything that he needed or wanted …" – Sue Niederer talking about her son Army 2nd Lt. Seth J. Dvorin of East Brunswick NJ, killed in Iskandariyah, Iraq at age 24

There's a very well made documentary that I think you should watch. If you can't bear watching it, at least pay a visit to the Iraq Memorial site. We cannot afford to look the other way; I know it's horrific, but we, the whole nation, must be exposed to this painful reality. And, then demand answers, demand an end to this war. Unless we're willing to face the harsh truth, we won't learn anything from this experience, and we'll keep repeating the same mistakes. We've got to be smarter than that, for our children's sake, and for a better world.