The Old Eighteen

Why we fight

Posted below are two more videos that caught my eye recently.  The first video is from the Rick Noriega campaign.  I'm not sure if it's meant as a campaign ad, and it looks like it's only being aired on YouTube at this point.  In the video, Noriega and a few of his fellow veterans call on John Cornyn to stop filming stupid promos of himself playing dress-up and pretending to be a cowboy, and to support the New GI Bill.  After you've watched the video, you can click here to sign a petition telling Senator Box Turtle to take his head out of his shell and change his vote:

The other video is an ad from Moveon.org directed at John McCain, that's getting airplay on MSNBC (or at least, that's where I saw it - I assume it's also beng aired on the other cable news channels, at the least).  This is a pretty simple but effective ad that sneaks up on you - it's a powerful illustration of what the stakes are in this election and why we're fighting to defeat McCain.  You can click here to make a contribution so this ad gets as much airplay as possible:

Grandpa John, why do you hate the troops?

This is video from Keith Olbermann's special comment on last night's Countdown in which he annihilates McCain for saying that the timing of when American troops come home from Iraq is "not that important" to him:

Here's a link to the video and a transcript on the MSNBC web site if the embedded video above isn't working.

Remembering the fallen - Iraq (2003)

Iraq War
March 20, 2003 - present

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon

:: :: :: :: ::

Remembering the fallen - Iraq (2004)

Iraq War
March 20, 2003 - present

::

These heroes are dead. They died for liberty - they died for us. They are at rest. They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines. They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless place of rest. Earth may run red with other wars - they are at peace. In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead: cheers for the living; tears for the dead.

Robert Ingersoll

:: :: :: :: ::

Remembering the fallen - Iraq (2005)

Iraq War
March 20, 2003 - present

::

The young dead soldiers do not speak.
Nevertheless, they are heard in the still houses:
who has not heard them?
They have a silence that speaks for them at night
and when the clock counts.
They say: We were young. We have died.
Remember us.
They say: We have done what we could
but until it is finished it is not done.
They say: We have given our lives but until it is finished
no one can know what our lives gave.
They say: Our deaths are not ours: they are yours,
they will mean what you make them.
They say: Whether our lives and our deaths were for
peace and a new hope or for nothing we cannot say,
it is you who must say this.
We leave you our deaths. Give them their meaning.
We were young, they say. We have died; remember us.

Archibald MacLeish

:: :: :: :: ::

Remembering the fallen - Iraq (2006)

Iraq War
March 20, 2003 - present

::

The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish'd Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they're flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin'd,
('Tis some mother's large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

Walt Whitman, "Dirge for Two Veterans"

:: :: :: :: ::

Remembering the fallen - Iraq (2007-2008)

Iraq War
March 20, 2003 - present

::

The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo
No more on life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few;
On Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread;
But Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.

Theodore O'Hara

:: :: :: :: ::

Olbermann to Bush: "Shut the hell up!"

Keith Olbermann gives the Chimp holy hell in a special comment tonight, excoriating him for, among other things, lying about giving up golf to (get this) show solidarity with American servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq and their families [note: the video is posted in two parts]:

::

What would you do with $3 trillion?

Well, if you're Hillary Clinton, you'd probably use some of it to pay off your campaign debt.  But whatever you do, don't spend it all on a war in Iraq.  Treat yourself to a spending spree here instead.  Here's what I bought with my $3 trillion:

invasive species research
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $120,000,000.00

Fund an Endangered Species
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $500,000,000.00

Health Care and Housing for Veterans in Need
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $3,000,000,000.00

Buy “Pizza.com”
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $3,000,000.00

Fund International Research to Find an AIDS cure
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $1,000,000,000.00

New Clothing, Shoes, Coats, and School Supplies for Ten Million Children
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $10,000,000,000.00

Encyclopedias, Manuals, etc. in 1,000 timecapsules around the world to restart civilization
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $2,000,000,000.00

Gift of Sheep
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $120.00

Fight AIDS in Developing Nations
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $15,000,000,000.00

100 New Libraries
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $5,000,000,000.00

Mooning Garden Gnome
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $14.98

Secret Island Fortress
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $15,000,000.00

Clean up Pollution
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $160,000,000,000.00

Raise minimum Wage to $15
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $987,000,000.00

Legalize Weed
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $1,000,000.00

Orbital Mind Control Laser with Satellite
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $340,000,000,000.00

IMPEACH BUSH & CHENEY
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $1,000,000.00

george w. bush martian trip
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $5,000,000.00

A Vacation
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $20,000.00

Plant 1,000,000 trees
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $10,000,000.00

Sustainable Agriculture Education, Worldwide
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $200,000,000.00

End Third-World Debt
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $422,000,000,000.00

Universal Health Care for Every American (300 million of us)
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $920,100,000,000.00

finish repairing the damage done by Katrina
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $200,000,000,000.00

End hunger and poverty related diseases
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $195,000,000,000.00

Switch to Solar
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $420,000,000,000.00

Achieve Universal Literacy
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $5,000,000,000.00

Build a National High Speed Rail System
QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $300,000,000,000.00

::

(via boadicea at Texas Kaos)

John McCain on Iraq: "It's the oil, stupid!"

John McCain may have made a bit of a gaffe today during a campaign event at a Jewish community center in Colorado, when he inadvertently admitted something about the war in Iraq that a lot of people on the left have been saying since the whole thing began, and have taken a lot of verbal abuse from the right for suggesting.  He was originally asked a friendly question about his "100 years" statement, which he responded to with his usual line of defense, but then, without warning, he veered off into the ditch, effectively admitting that the war in Iraq was being fought over oil:

"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will -- that will then prevent us -- that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” McCain said.

He made matters worse later, when he made a lame attempt to backtrack on his earlier statements by saying that he was actually referencing the first Gulf War:

With no senior advisors traveling with the senator today, the campaign’s traveling press secretary Brooke Buchanan came to the back of the plane before landing to defend her boss’ remarks. The initial defense asserted that he was not referring to the current war in Iraq, but America's involvement in the first Gulf War, which was at least partially due to the country’s reliance on foreign oil.

After the plane had landed, McCain himself tried to clarify his remarks, at first agreeing with his press secretary: “I was talking about that we had fought the first Gulf War for several reasons. One of them was Saddam Hussein’s invasion and that’s just not something that’s acceptable…but also we didn’t want them to have control over the oil, and that part of the world is critical to us because of our dependency on foreign oil. And it’s more important than in any other part of the world.”

McCain then summarized his point by basically restating his remarks from earlier in the day: “We will have independency of foreign oil and we will not have to have that as a factor in any conflict that we have to engage in. …I want us to remove our dependency on foreign oil for national security reasons. That’s what I was saying. And that’s all I mean.”

But then when specifically asked by an Associated Press reporter if, when he made the statement, he was “thinking about the first Gulf War,” he said no.

“No, I was thinking about- it’s not hard to- we will not,” McCain stumbled. “By eliminating our dependency on foreign oil, we will not have to have our national security threatened by a cut off of that oil. Because we will be dependent, because we won’t be dependent, we will no longer be dependent on foreign oil. That’s what my remarks were.”

He was sure to emphasize over and over again that the reason he supported the War in Iraq was because he “believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and he was going to use them.”

McCain said “the congressional record is replete with that and for me to change my view, how many years later, I mean would, just wouldn’t be logical.”

My friends, the time for logic was when Grandpa John voted for this war.  But since doing so, he and the rest of the fools who got us into this mess have given us a litany of reasons why we invaded - weapons of mass destruction, ties between Hussein and al Qaeda, bringing democracy to an oppressed people - and all have either turned out not to be true, or rang hollow in the ears of the American people.  Now, without meaning to, McCain may have finally hit on the truth of why we really invaded.  And as voters saunter off to the cash register to pay $3.00 $3.10 $3.25 $3.40 $3.59 a gallon for the gas that they just filled their tank with, maybe it will begin to finally dawn on even the most stubborn holdouts among them that the war in Iraq, judged by the metric of our pain at the pump, has failed dismally to achieve even the one unstated goal that passes the smell test anymore - to secure American access to oil and thereby maintain low fuel prices.  It would be callous to say that 4,000+ American servicemen have died for nothing, but it would be intellectually dishonest not to view their deaths as a tragic waste of human life and potential.  Their blood, and the blood of those yet to die, is on your hands, John McCain.