17 November 2007

My suggestion for a Clinton ad for general election against Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani endorses George W. Bush’s foreign policy. He has chosen as one of his main advisers Norman Podhoretz, one of the architects of the failed war in Iraq a man who in the 1980s criticized Ronald Reagan for even talking to Russian leader Gorbachev.


The American people do not want more of the same. We want a new direction, that puts America’s interests first.


Ask yourself, are you safer today than you were the day after America was attacked on September 11?


George Bush, at the urging of Donald Rumsfeld, dropped the ball when America’s military forces had Osama Bin Laden on the run at Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001, and let him get away-- so that Al Qaida could regroup; so that now Intelligence Estimates say these enemies are as strong as they were before 9/11. Thanks to George Bush.


George Bush, at the urging of Dick Cheney, misled Americans, saying Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when he didn’t; and saying there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida, when there wasn’t, in order to launch an invasion of Iraq, that was supposed to be over in a month and cost no more than $50 billion dollars. Now, after over 3000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have lost their lives, at a cost already approaching $1 trillion, what has been accomplished? How have we been made better off by George Bush’s foolish war in Iraq?

  • Oil prices are $100 a barrel, mainly due to insecurity in the Middle East
  • Thousands of lives lost
  • Iraq in turmoil
  • Sabre rattling for and even more calamitous war against Iran, if they can get away with it
  • U.S. prestige at its lowest point in modern times
  • The dollar at its lowest value in decades
  • American moral example tarnished by an administration that can’t even understand that torture is un-American?
  • And nothing has been done about Al Qaida and Osama bin Laden

Rudy Giuliani represents more of the same.

Vote for real change, for a new direction in the world. The Republicans have no strategy, and have failed to make Americans safer or advance our interests in the World. They’ve slashed taxes for the rich and run up huge deficits, but instead of advancing our interests, they have made matters worse.


Senator Clinton understands that unilateralism isn’t the solution, and knows how to talk turkey to foreign leaders, how to achieve America’s interests in the world by being smart, strong, and determined. She knows how to restore America’s leadership and moral example.

Vote Clinton/[Veep] in 2008.

Paid for by Clinton for President.
Hillary Clinton: “I approved this message.”

12 November 2007

Feinstein is no longer a Democrat in any meaningful sense of the word

See Greenwald on Dianne Feinstein's latest capitulation to Bush Administration interests. I wrote recently to Sen. Feinstein deploring the fact that she is no longer a Democrat in any meaningful sense of the word. Some of her positions are actually worse than those of Joseph Lieberman. It's really unfortunate that she's Class I, meaning she's in through 2012. She's probably the ripest for a primary challenge on ideological grounds of any Democratic senator in California in a long, long time. I hope and pray when that time comes, she retires (she's 75 now), making room for a real Democrat.

05 November 2007

US drops to 53rd rank on press freedom

I imagine the same folks who smugly don't care that U.S. access to health care is ranked just above Slovenia, i.e. about 40th in the world, aren't troubled by this either:


"...the U.S. has tumbled progressively downward in the worldwide press freedom rankings maintained by the widely respected journalist group, Reporters Without Borders. While oppressive countries such as North Korea, Cuba, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran occupy their rightful place at the bottom of the list, the U.S. -- historically at or near the top -- has fallen drastically over the last several years to 53rd place. The U.S. is thus now tied with Botswana and Tonga and well behind El Salvador, Mozambique, Panama, Namibia, Jamaica, Israel and Lithuania. Its practice of arresting journalists [in Iraq] and holding them for years with no charges is obviously a significant factor."
(From Greenwald on salon.com).

You could make an argument that our founders invented press freedom. But if you don't get that this is a shameful --and frightening-- state to have fallen to, you just aren't paying attention. Because, if you don't think it affects you, you are wrong. Already the lack of access to truthful information has poisoned our political system. And it can only get worse without a concerted effort... i.e., political action... to correct these positively unAmerican developments.