Is Bob Barr a "Looney Tune"? I don't think so. He may be a nasty attack dog for the manner in which he went after the Clintons, but that's personal ugliness, which is matched by other ugly aspects of his personal life. (You could look it up.) However, in terms of policies, I perceive some good stuff in his very brief issues statements. Some of it sounds more progressive than what Obama has proposed.

My main problem with the Libertarians is that I think they completely misunderstand the nature of our corporate-based economic and political system. Therefore they buy into the notion that we have a "free market". They assume that this hypothetical free market will always work its magic. Always for the good. Just get Big Government out of the way.

Nevertheless, despite seeming to be oblivious to the problem of corporatism, Barr and the Libertarians aren't conscious corporatists. They hate taxes so much that they want to end "corporate welfare". However, they're corporate-enablers in that they want government to get out of the way and let the high rollers play.

The part of the "Cut Big Spending" section of Barr's platform that refers to the military reads like this:

* The federal government must take the lead in making significant cuts in spending.
Focusing on earmarks risks distracting attention from the broader problem of a

Our top Iraq War general is testifying to Congress again today, but you already know the storyline, right?

General Petraeus: "We still need to keep soldiers in Iraq, no telling when they can leave."

Democrats: "It seems like we should think about leaving sometime?"

Republicans: "Withdrawal is surrender!"

Coming up next: Both sides agree to pour billions more dollars into a war Americans don't want.

Well there IS another way. A group of Congressional candidates have come up with a responsible plan to get our nation out of this nightmare, and scores of them have already agreed that if elected they will actually carry out the plan, not just keep holding hearings while continuing the war.1 Some sitting representatives are beginning to come along, too, and it's been endorsed by military leaders.

Sign on to the Responsible Plan today:
http://www.truemajority.org/IraqPlan

We know that most of our fellow citizens want this -- a clear, ethical path out of Iraq.2 But our anti-war champions in Congress are frankly still outnumbered, so the political games continue.

Sign on to the plan, and in the weeks ahead we will together recruit more candidates and elected officials to join us. Let the people lead the leaders.

The "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq" includes clear steps to:

1. End U.S. Military Action in Iraq
2. Use U.S. diplomatic power

==========
Dead:
4,000 Americans;
Only God knows
how many Iraqis
===========

The Shalom Center encourages you to take two actions:

(1) Whatever your religious or spiritual community, to use this prayer for life and peace in the face of death and violence (based on the Jewish Mourners Kaddish) in concert with all who mourn this senseless bloodshed;

(2) To write the three candidates for President, demanding they themselves take swift action in the Senate to end this war. To do this, click to –-

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/4180/campaign.jsp?campaign_KE...

MOURNERS' KADDISH
IN TIME OF WAR & VIOLENCE

May Your Great Name, bearing all the names of all the beings in the universe, through our deeper awareness and our fuller action, lift Your Own Self to become still higher and more holy --

--- Throughout the world that You have offered us, a world of majestic peaceful order that gives life through time and through eternity ---- And let's say, Amein

So may the Great Name be blessed, through every Mystery and Mastery of every universe.

May Your Name be blessed and celebrated, Its beauty honored and raised high, may It be lifted and carried, may Its radiance be praised in all Its Holiness –-- Blessed be!

March 19 is the 5th anniversary of the tragic invasion and occupation of Iraq. And after 5 long years, the war is now creating two tragedies: Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have been killed—along with many more Iraqis. And the economy is sinking, but the resources we need to turn it around are being squandered in Iraq.

So this year, we're marking the anniversary by gathering at hundreds of "New Priorities" Vigils. We'll honor the fallen, and call for an end to the war. But we'll also send a new message to the politicians in Washington: to heal our ailing economy, we need to end the occupation in Iraq.

It's a powerful message—if we can make it heard throughout the country, we'll force our leaders to start bringing our troops home and start investing resources here instead.

Click here to sign up to host your March 19 New Priorities Vigil on the 5th anniversary of the war:

My church always has a stack of voter’s guides from the California Pro-Life Council. The guides are based only on whether a candidate is anti-abortion or not. However, being a pro-life candidate means supporting legislation that helps people in all stages of their lives. A true pro-life candidate should want to end the occupation of Iraq and provide healthcare for all Americans.

Ending the occupation of Iraq

The online publication, Just Foreign Policy estimates that over a million Iraqi civilians have been killed by U.S. troops since the beginning of the war in 2003. Last month, on January 16, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008 which continues to fund the occupation of Iraq.

Only forty-six representatives voted against the Act, including former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

Providing healthcare for all Americans

“Every other industrialized nation in the world provides universal health care to its citizens” Rep. Jim McDermott (D) of Washington says on his website. The U.S. is in fact the only industrialized country which does not provide a form of universal health coverage.

Yesterday, February 5th, was, of course, Super Tuesday.

But, as the historian Howard Zinn has pointed out, elections have the habit of distracting us from larger issues.

Yesterday was also the aniversary of the following speech:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-C3svWjJUY

That would be correct, Dear Reader.
Yesterday was the anniversary of Colin Powell's speech before the United Nations, in which he laid out the case for war with Iraq.
Mr. Powell, of course, has since criticized this administration's disastrous policies. It seems that he, like the rest of this nation, was mislead by guys he thought he could trust.
In related news, this is an exchange between Press secretary Dana Perino and a reporter:

Q Dana, today is the fifth anniversary of Colin Powell's U.N. presentation on Iraq. I'm wondering whether you think the intel reforms that we've seen since then make a repeat of that kind of blunder impossible.

Hillary and the War
By late 2003 I knew whom I wanted as the Democratic challenger to President Bush’s reelection bid. My choice was Senator Bob Graham of Florida.

Graham, a mainstream liberal, was a perfect fit for me. On numerous issues, such as economics, he followed the legacy of the New Deal. He believed in a strong military that would be used with great discretion. On medical research he was a champion, being one of the first Senators to embrace federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. But more importantly, he voted against the 2002 legislation authorizing President Bush to use force against Saddam Hussein. Then serving on the Senate’s Intelligence Committee he studied the National Intelligence Estimate on the potential Iraqi threat. He concluded none existed.

When Graham’s candidacy evaporated, I gravitated towards Wesley Clark, a man who had command and diplomatic experience in the military. Like Graham, he opposed the Iraq War from the outset. After Clark withdrew I wound up voting for John Edwards in the New York Primary and then had to settle for John Kerry.

Sightings 1/21/08

Unjust War

-- Martin E. Marty

A Stupid, Unjust, and Criminal War: Iraq 2001-2007 by priest, sociologist, novelist, and columnist Andrew Greeley is a collection of 121 columns dating back to 2001, in their original form. As the title suggests, the columns are not long on nuance. They have going for them guts, consistency, a readiness to use the language of the prophets and the Church, prescience, and not a little hold on truth in reporting. Columnists who once supported the war and others who were critical all along can profitably compare notes with Greeley.

Newsletter
Jan 19, 2008

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

We invite you, your family, church and neighbors to come to Washington, D.C. March 6-10 or to create a CPWI Peace Witness in your own community.

Join us to fill houses of worship, pray for peace and hear anew God's call to us. Grounded in Christian worship, those in Washington will process to the Capital and be joined by brothers and sisters of other faiths for an Interfaith Peace Witness. Our website www.ChristianPeaceWitness.org is constantly being updated.