fletcher's folly



January 28, 2007 I was at the march in San Francisco yesterday. Thousands of people showed up; it was a great turnout. Starting tomorrow, look for photos here from the march. ********** DC Marchers Challenge Congress to End War by John Nichols Ê Actor Sean Penn summed up the new energy -- and the new focus -- of the anti-war movement Saturday, when he turned George Bush's own words against the president. Just hours after the president had again reasserted his false claim to authority to pursue a war that is not wanted by the American people or the Congress, Penn told anti-war demonstrators gathered in Washington that Bush would be wise to review the Constitution. "In a democracy," the actor told the cheering crowd, which organizers said numbered in the hundreds of thousands, "we are the deciders." Saturday's anti-war demostrations, which filled the streets of cities from San Francisco to Washington, marked a return to form for an anti-war movement that had trouble building momentum during the three years that followed Bush's decision to launch a preemptive war against a country that posed no serious threat to the United States or its allies. During the period from 2OO3 to 2OO6, Bush's Republican Party had complete control of the machinery of government, and his allies were successful in assuring that Congress would not serve as any kind of check or balance on the presidency. Though polls showed that most Americans thought Bush had been wrong to take the country to war, and that they disapproved of his handling of the conflict, demonstrations seemed fruitless because the president held all the cards. Many opponents of the war poured their energies into electoral politics, hoping to restore at least a measure of balance to the federal government by putting opposition Democrats in charge of at least one house of Congress. On November 7, the work paid off, with the election of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. So it was that one of the most popular signs at Saturday's rally in Washington read: "I Voted for Peace." more... January 27, 2007 Bush Is About To Attack Iran Why Canât Americans See it? Ê By Paul Craig Roberts Ê ãWithin weeks from now, we will see the informational warfare machine start working. The public opinion is already under pressure. There will be a growing anti-Iranian militaristic hysteria, new information leaks, disinformation, etc. . . . The probability of a US aggression against Iran is extremely high" Ê The American public and the US Congress are getting their backs up about the Bush Regimeâs determination to escalate the war in Iraq.Ê A Massive protest demonstration is occurring in Washington DC today, and Congress is expressing its disagreement with Bushâs decision to intensify the war in Iraq. This is all to the good.Ê However, it misses the real issue--the Bush Regimeâs looming attack on Iran. Rather than winding down one war, Bush is starting another.Ê The entire world knows this and is discussing Bushâs planned attack on Iran in many forums.Ê It is only Americans who havenât caught on.Ê A few senators have said that Bush must not attack Iran without the approval of Congress, and postings on the Internet demonstrate world wide awarenessÊ that Iran is in the Bush Regimeâs cross hairs. But Congress and the Media--and the demonstration in Washington--are focused on Iraq. more... January 26, 2007 note: If you can't make it to Washington, there will be marchs and rallys in cities all over the country. The Peace Movement to Congress on Eve of Mobilization by Medea Benjamin Ê The January 27 anti-war rally in Washington DC could have become yet another symbolic peace march in the freezing cold through a city where no one was listening. But then two things happened: On November 7, the voters gave Congress an unmistakable mandate to end the war. And George Bush, ignoring the will of the voters, the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, and the advice of his own generals, announced an escalation of the war. People who had planned to watch this protest on C-Span from the comfort of their homes are now cramming onto buses, planes and trains to converge on the nationâs capitol. Thanks to George Bushâs latest blunder, weâre now expecting the biggest march in Washington DC since the war began. It was easy for politicians to ignore us when we represented a small, but all-too-prescient minority trying to stop this war before it started. Now that we represent the majority of Americans, politicians of all stripes best take heed. Hereâs our message to Congress: To the Democrats, remember who put you into office on November 7. Itâs thanks to growing anti-war sentiment among voters that you now control the House and the Senate. Weâre delighted youâre introducing resolutions to oppose President BBushâs call to send more troops to Iraq. Certainly this repudiation of the Bush administrationâs ãsurgeä will send a strong message to the administration. But those resolutions are mostly symbolic and would still leave us back at square one with 132,000 of our sons and daughters fighting a senseless war. more... January 25, 2007 Long on Rhetoric, Short on Sorrow By BOB HERBERT The State of the Union speech was boilerplate at a time when much of the country, with good reason, is boiling mad. The United States, the most powerful nation in the history of the world, seems paralyzed. It canât extricate itself from the war in Iraq, canât rebuild the lost city of New Orleans, canât provide health care for all of its citizens, canât come up with a sane energy policy in the era of global warming, canât even develop a thriving public school system. President Bush showed what he does well at the beginning of the State of the Union ceremony when he graciously acknowledged and introduced Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House of Representatives. He seemed both generous and sincere, and it was the right touch for a genuinely historic moment. At the end of his speech he introduced four Americans of whom the nation can be proud, including Wesley Autrey, a New Yorker who made like a Hollywood stunt man to save the life of a stricken passenger who had fallen onto the tracks in front of an oncoming subway train. The rest of the evening was a study in governmental dysfunction. The audience kept mindlessly applauding ÷ up and down, like marionettes ÷ when in fact there was nothing to applaud. The state of the union is wretched, which is why the presidentâs approval ratings are the worst since Nixon and Carter. more... January 24, 2007 note: If you can't make it to Washington, there will be marchs and rallys in cities all over the country. Five Reasons Why I'll March on January 27 By Saif Rahman A few times a year, thousands of people break out their tied-dyed t-shirts, collect all of their peace buttons, make snarky yet provocative posters, and hop on a bus to what has become a political and social ritual: the protest. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Not being silent has in fact become a staple of the American people's diet, and one can see that with the consistent anti-war activities that have been organized over the past four years. On January 27, United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is holding a massive protest against the Iraq War in Washington. We (I'm a member of the coalition's steering committee) will once again not be silent. Buses and vans are coming from at least 30 states and 111 cities packed with people who will bestow a historic welcome to the new Congress that we just helped elect and aim to change the trajectory of this war. more... January 23, 2007 Can Indy Media Stop the Corporate Mediaâs Hillary Bandwagon? by Jeff Cohen Ê Prominent pundits seem ecstatic over Hillary Clintonâs entry into the presidential race just days after Barack Obamaâs media-created candidacy became official. Media talking heads are having so much fun lately they donât seem to notice that our political system is failing to address ever-worsening problems: social, environmental, fiscal and imperial. Indeed, our countryâs political decline in recent decades has been abetted by the decline in mainstream media. The same media outlets that were complicit in the disastrous Iraq war are bent on turning politics into an insular celebrity club in which only they get to anoint frontrunners. If the torch of leadership passes from Bush I to Clinton I to Bush II to Clinton II, it will be a loss for our country Ð but a victory for a corrupt Beltway press corps that abhors fresh ideas, especially those that challenge its power and privilege. It was a frightened national press corps that vilified the netroots supporters of Democratic outsider Ned Lamont in defense of pro-war warhorse Joe Lieberman. For the coming election season to be fact-based and reality-based instead of just power-based, independent media (online and off) will have to play a bigger role in shaping the debate and correcting the record. more... January 22, 2007 Sleeping With the Enemy Partnering with the private insurance industry is not the way to achieve a decent universal healthcare system. By Robert Kuttner Last year, Massachusetts enacted a fill-in-the-gaps approach to expanded health coverage. There was great self-congratulation by the Democratic legislature and the then-Republican governor, Mitt Romney. The press was mostly favorable. The hope was that by using existing subsidy dollars more efficiently and levying a token penalty on employers ($295 per employee) who failed to provide coverage, Massachusetts could get most people insured. On January 8, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger launched a more robust version of the Massachusetts plan. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is promoting something similar. And last Thursday a coalition of business, medical, insurance, and some consumer groups proposed a national version of a similar formula. If this general strategy of incremental reform building on private insurance seems too good to be true, that's because it is. The cheering is premature, and the buyer should beware. more...	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