Political Theatre

The Democrats, who just got control of congress with a clear mandate to end the war have passed a bill to give the president the money to continue the war for more than another year. It has about 20% vote buying gravy built in and has some restrictions that might just end the war in time for the 2008 presidential election. I wonder if that timing is an accident.

Of course, the president is unhappy about it and threatens to veto. There will be pious talk about the need to support the troops, that if we do not give the president the money he is asking for we will be leaving the troops in Iraq without food or bullets. All the while, the administration will be demonizing Iran, setting us up for another disastrous misadventure.

We need to cut to the chase! Congress can say no more money for fighting. There is only money for leaving. If the president vetoes that, he is the one leaving the troops without food or bullets.
No compromise that continues the war for any amount of time is acceptable.

If Congress compromises away their anti-war mandate, it will be time for massive civil disobedience. Either they cut off the money to the war or we cut off the money to them.

As a child growing up in New York City in the 1950s I was surrounded by Holocaust survivors (with tattooed numbers on their arms) and constant discussion about how it happened. How did the German citizens let it happen? Didn't they know it was happening? Didn't they notice all the people disapearing from their midst? Did they let their civil liberties melt away before they realized what was happening and then it was too dangerous to speak out? Of course, we thought that it could not happen here! Not in America with our free speech, free elections and the constitution!

But it is happening here. Our civil liberties are melting away and it will soon be too dangerous to speak out. Of course we are not there yet. We can still stop it. We just have to wake up and understand what is happening. We must see that the two party system is a race to the bottom. Each party wants total control and that is the first value. It doesn't bother them that the price of their total control is your future, your live and your weatlh.

The government is using our money to commit heinous war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are kidnapping and torturing prisoners at GITMO, and other prisons around the world. Does Congress become accomplices by funding this activity? Are we not accomplices by continuing to support the government?