I would like to see the DFA Film Club continue to be about showing films to local in-person groups. I recently moved to a new town and have had 2 movie parties. It's a great draw to meet local liberals, and a good excuse to have a meeting/party.

However, I would like to see a move away from Ironweed Films. Not that I have anything against them, but I never joined because of the monthly fee, and therefor never participated in the DFA Film Club actions. I would rather have the option of getting the movie from the library, local rental store, etc.

Congrats on becoming a Dad!!

I have lots of ideas..too numerous to list. I will email you directly...
Ironwood...while I like the concept, I don't think it works well for us.I like the idea of finding movies and film makers thats have something to say and screening them. As far as I can see the "models" for payment and distribution are in process. Look at the Writers strike...I just saw a you tube video of a writer saying that in 5 years movies and tv will be streamed...I vote for developing our own model...

Do we have an idea the kinds of movies that didn't fly well? That could help shape decisions too...


Movies have worked well for us especially when you promote.For a while we actually looked at finding a good space ( room, good seats, parking) to have regular political films. While we had some
choices ( 2 independent movie houses) they were way too expensive
so we settled on a library for "irregular" showings

Congrats on becoming a Dad!!

I have lots of ideas..too numerous to list. I will email you directly...
Ironwood...while I like the concept, I don't think it works well for us.I like the idea of finding movies and film makers thats have something to say and screening them. As far as I can see the "models" for payment and distribution are in process. Look at the Writers strike...I just saw a you tube video of a writer saying that in 5 years movies and tv will be streamed...I vote for developing our own model...

Do we have an idea the kinds of movies that didn't fly well? That could help shape decisions too...


Movies have worked well for us especially when you promote.For a while we actually looked at finding a good space ( room, good seats, parking) to have regular political films. While we had some
choices ( 2 independent movie houses) they were way too expensive
so we settled on a library for "irregular" showings

Lee (not sure why Kevin is showing)

I live in NYC, so we get a lot of political films shown on the big screen. What I might like is the equivalent of a meetup group, were we could all go to a movie and then have dinner/coffee after and discuss it. I saw Sicko here; I also saw the Iraq movie, No Exit . . We have tons of independent film venues, especially in the Village, so it's not a problem finding a movie.

Paranthetically, Dean is first.

Sonce Edwards is already in full desperate attack dog mode against Hillary, Obama should play it cool tonight and score points as the alternative to both.

It's getting to be a mud slide.....

In a surprise announcement before an audience of elected Repub. officials on Thurs. the Ft. Bend Cty. Texas GOP Chair said he and a slate of top Party officers have quit.

Citing untennable political differences with what he termed a number of "fringe elements" in the Party.

Tom Delay fatigue?

Rahm apparently pushing Dems in caucus to move right on immigration.  

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1646

In one of the comments, more details about when he was pushing this message...

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2007/11/rahm-emanuel-il-05-accountability.html

"A few weeks ago Democratic Party insiders under the aegis of the DCCC held a training session in Chicago for a couple dozen of their favored candidates. Afterwards several of the participants, disgusted, let Blue America know that Rahm Emanuel delivered an ominous message demanding that they "move to the right" on immigration. Some of the Democratic candidates, like Emanuel puppets Bill Foster (IL-14) and Joan Fitz-Gerald (CO-02), have already started sounding very Republican on the issue, breaking Democratic solidarity and threatening unity by seeking short term advantage based on demagoguery against a vulnerable part of our coalition."

More:

http://www.theseminal.com/2007/11/14/raising-the-political-cost

""What Rahm of course fails to realize, or chooses to ignore, is the fact that immigration isn’t necessarily a problem, and most of the issues surrounding immigrants that anti-immigrant voters find so angering are in fact symptoms of our problematic trade deals and backwards immigration policy. Immigration is not a bad thing, and denying the American dream to those who would pursue it is wrong, just like discriminating against German, Irish, and Jewish immigrants at the turn of the century was wrong."

Pelosi says she didn't say she would put impeachment on the table if she received 10,000 hand written letters. Rumor or not, Conyers suggested something similar in a speech. The truth, I guess, is that they are not going to do anything even if we stand on our heads on the WH lawn.

I think the time is past for begging them to protect our Constitution. The thing cosest to their hearts is their job. so, let's start hitting them where they'll notice it.

Does anyone know if Sheehan has made any substantive moves toward opposing Pelosi, or is it just talk at this point. I sure would like to see Nancy dumped on her Royal derriere.

Dems Set To Kill Feinstein Censure Resolution
by Max Follmer
The Huffington Post

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the state's Democratic Party pushed back Wednesday against a proposal by a coalition of progressives to censure the four-term senator for her recent votes siding with the Bush Administration, dismissing the proposal as a distraction put forth by activists who did not speak for the majority of Democrats in the Golden State. ...

...On Monday, a coalition of progressive Democrats said they would ask the California Democratic Party to censure Feinstein at its executive board meeting this weekend, citing her recent votes in favor of confirming Attorney General Michael Mukasey and controversial appeals court judge Leslie Southwick.

They argued that in backing the Bush Administration's nominees, Feinstein had lost touch with the core principles of her party's base.

State party insiders Wednesday predicted the censure resolution would almost certainly be swiftly defeated when the party gathers in Anaheim, outside Los Angeles.

They said its supporters made up a small minority of Democrats with a big bullhorn, and dismissed the censure as a mere distraction for party members focusing on recapturing the White House in 2008.

"It is going to be thrown out and rejected," said Bob Mulholland, a veteran party strategist in Sacramento. "Sometimes people can't anticipate or can't understand the big picture."

State Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres did not return messages seeking comment. But his spokesman Roger Salazar told the Sacramento Bee, "this party supports our Democratic senator and will continue to do so...Period." ...

...Another group, Democracy For America, invoked California's "Three-Strikes" criminal sentencing law, and called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to remove Feinstein from the Judiciary Committee. ... full article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/11/14...

OK Tom, maybe you missed these.  You, of course, will find them bad news:

NY Times:

Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says

By DAMIEN CAVEPublished: November 8, 2007

BAGHDAD, Nov. 7 — American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the “surge” to depart as planned.

NY Times: 

October 31, 2007,  5:07 pm

Seizing the Slide in Iraq Violence

By Mike Nizza

 Back in September, General David Petraeus reported a slide in violence that had some impressed and others saying that it might be a fluke. About two months later, many more are acknowledging progress, and Osama bin Laden sounds like one of them.

Adding to the optimism are news stories anticipating the lowest American death toll since early 2006. If the toll remains at 23 — and that won’t be a sure thing until several days after the month is over and the military finishes its October announcements — that would be a drop of 97 U.S. deaths from the month of May.

Even an alarming Pentagon estimate on a quadrupling of sniper attacks turned out to be very wrong. Indeed, sniper attacks have dropped.

 NY Times:

By ALISSA J. RUBIN; MUDHAFER AL-HUSAINI CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FROM BAGHDAD, and AN IRAQI EMPLOYEE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES FROM DIYALA.

Although violence persisted outside Baghdad, civilian casualties appeared to decline sharply recently, with 317 civilians killed in October.

November 2, 2007

NY Times: 

Tallies Indicate Big Decline in Iraqi Civilian Death TollBy PAUL VON ZIELBAUER

The number of violent civilian deaths in Iraq dropped precipitously in September compared with the previous month.

October 2, 2007

 NY Times:

US General: Iran Sticking by Pledge

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSPublished: November 15, 2007

Filed at 4:13 p.m. ET

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Iran seems to be honoring a commitment to stem the flow of deadly weapons into Iraq, contributing to a more than 50 percent drop in the number of roadside bombs that kill and maim American troops, a U.S. general said Thursday.

The comments by Maj. Gen. James Simmons marked rare U.S. praise for Iranian cooperation in efforts to stabilize Iraq. Washington has repeatedly accused the Islamic Republic of aiding Shiite militias and trying to foil U.S. goals in Iraq and the region.

 Friday, November 09, 2007

ARMY COMMANDER SEE PROGRESS IN IRAQI TOWN

By Sgt. Jason Stadel, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service

Nov. 9, 2007 - Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of 3rd Infantry Division, walked the streets of Hawr Rajab on Nov. 7 to see progress achieved in the city's security climate. Four months ago, any U.S. or Iraqi soldier walking the streets here would have likely sparked a battle, as the city was under the control of al Qaeda, and the streets were lined with improvised explosive devices.

Now, with the concerned local citizens fighting back and helping U.S. soldiers secure the city, the threat of al Qaeda has dropped considerably. An Iraqi army mechanized company also is in place, helping to secure the community.

Iraqis setting aside their secular differences also have helped secure the area. Sunnis and Shiites are working together to fight a greater enemy -- al Qaeda. This hasn't gone unnoticed by U.S. forces.

It has gone unnoticed by Keith Olbermann and apparently Tom Bearse.  You need to get out more often.  So, is this good news or bad?  Does it make you glad and thankfull or angry? 

Who is the enemy  - in Iraq?  Al Quaeda?  Nope  The Sunni's ?  Nope, The Shi'ites?  Nope    Iranian backed militias? Nope  Terrorists!   NOPE

According to our military - it's the Iraqi Government that WE INSTALLED.  

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq - Senior military commanders here now portray the intransigence of Iraq's Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaeda terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias. In more than a dozen interviews, U.S. military officials expressed growing concern over the Iraqi government's failure "It is painful, very painful," dealing with the obstructionism of Iraqi officials, said Army Lt. Col. Mark Fetter.. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21781092/

36.
"Tom Bearse
Thu, 11/15/07
2:49 pm

Fox wrote "now that good news appears on the horizon, not a mention of Iraq for the past 30 days, just more Paris and Brit."

When you say that "good news appears on the horizon," to what are you referring?  I'm assuming you're not reporting from overseas.  Do you have some inside source because, as you yourself suggest, there has not been any worthwhile coverage of events in Iraq for the past 30 days, on Keith Olbermann's show or anywhere else.  "

"THERE HAS NOT BEEN ANY WORTHWHILE COVERAGE OF EVENTS IN IRAQ FOR THE PAST 30 DAYS"

Is good news not worthwhile Tom?  The above was only a hand full, I could have gone on and on.  The surge is working, you predicted utter failure, and now you and Olbermann have your hands over your ears and eyes so you can claim nothing worthwhile is coming out of Iraq.   

AP:

updated 2:59 p.m. CT, Sun., Oct. 28, 2007

RAMADI, Iraq - For veterans of Ramadi, it seems like a different place and a different war.

Just last year, soldiers were breaking down doors, hunting insurgents and struggling to secure the city block by block. U.S. troops now are invited into the homes of sheiks for lunch.

Life is not all good in this former Sunni extremist fiefdom about 70 miles west of Baghdad, but it's better. Today's worries aren't car bombs or shelling in the streets. There's peace enough to complain about the crippled electricity grid, dirty water, broken sewers

Marines and soldiers also have adopted different roles: urban planners, community relations managers and political operatives.

"We're knee-deep in counterinsurgency here," said Marine Capt. Brian Cillessen, who's in charge of a group of about 150 Marines living and working in a house they rent in southern Ramadi.

"We came here with a very conventional mind-set. We weren't expecting this. ... I joined the Marine Corps to be a point man on a patrol," chuckled the San Juan, N.M., native.

Instead, Cillessen and his troops are conducting a census and registering weapons, repairing sewer systems, ensuring fuel for cooking and heat is sold for fair prices, approving contracts to build new schools, parks and playgrounds, and perhaps most important, cultivating relationships with Iraqi police and citizens.

The violence in Anbar province is by no means over. So far this year 135 troops have died here — 16 percent of all military deaths in Iraq, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

But from 2004 through 2006, an average of 345 members of coalition forces died each year in Anbar province or about 41 percent of all military deaths.

The decline of violence rests on a widening basis of trust. It's cultivated in handshakes, platters heaped with rice, chicken and lamb, cup after cup of sweet tea and clouds of cigarette smoke.

Anbar is a sprawling western province that includes Ramadi and stretches through mainly desert from near Baghdad to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Hope once lost
Last year, U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officials declared Anbar lost. "The social and political situation has deteriorated to a point" where U.S. and Iraqi troops "are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency," according to a five-page report written in August 2006 by Col. Peter Devlin, a military intelligence officer with the Marine Expeditionary Force.

The Sunni insurgency had sunk roots so deep in Anbar that the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, declared Ramadi its capital.

"These guys were ruthless," said Col. John W. Charlton of Spokane, Wash., the American commander responsible for Ramadi. "They would come in and cut young men's heads off and drag their bodies through the streets."

An important turning point was the founding late last year of the Anbar Awakening Council by the charismatic Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha. He united dozens of Sunni tribes against al-Qaida

Fed up with the violence and eager for revenge against al-Qaida members who killed 10 family members, including his father, Abu Risha persuaded citizens to join the police force. They did — in droves — despite past attacks against recruits.

"Sheiks see themselves as prominent leaders of the community. They recognize you have to have good, intelligent people running things," Charlton said. "(Abu Risha) wasn't saying, 'Do this for me.' He was saying, 'Do this for your family, for your country.'"

There are now 8,000 police officers and 14 police stations in Ramadi, according to the U.S. military. That's compares with fewer than 200 officers in spring 2006.

"Al-Qaida was just reeling," Charlton said. "They lost their capital. They lost all their good areas around there. ... We essentially made a gated community out of a city of 300,000 people."

Is this good news Tom?

The Surge failed - too many of our soldiers were dying.  Pressure on - Bush stopped them from being sitting ducks in Baghdad and just had them order in air support and BOMBED whole buildings - including civilians.    There is no SURGE.   The Surge failed - because Bush said it was to give 'security' so the IRAQ GOVERNMENT would have 'time' and could settle their disagreements - towards PEACE.   They have not.  The Iraq government is now being called  the biggest enemy to U.S. efforts.

The GOOD news in Iraq is - the armed and crazy Mercenaries are on the carpet and on their way out!  Blackwater.   The good news is the Iraqi's have given up on us and are taking control of the country.  Sunni's wanted arms so they could fight Al Quaeda (and stop the Shi'ites from arbitrarily killing them)  They got them and told us - to get out.   We did. The GOOD news is Sadr has control of his group and had them all go under cover until we LEAVE.    The Good news is - we've redeployed out of the West, the South and the North of Iraq --- and so OF COURSE THINGS ARE GETTNG BETTER.  Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are no longer being killed.  The GOOD news is - BUSH will not get the oil, it will be eventully, divided in the country to rebuild the mess we've made. 

The Realignment of Iraq
We're winning because the Iraqis want us to--Moqtada al-Sadr included.

BY BARTLE BULL
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

The war in Iraq was always going to be won by the Iraqis, and so it has proven. But the Iraqis who have won it are on our side.

It was in the spring of 2004--a month or so before I first arrived in Baghdad in a taxi to stay in a small hotel--that the Sunnis launched their disastrous insurgency. Its defeat is becoming ever more clear this autumn as new reports reach us of the patriotic stand of the Anbar tribes, the pacification and nascent prosperity of Fallujah and Ramadi, the isolation of al Qaeda, and the peace overtures of defeated Baathists.

That first season of serious fighting also included the time of the original uprising by the poor Shiites of Iraq, led by Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army. Six times during that fighting I drove with Iraqis through the so-called Death Triangle of Sunni towns south of Baghdad to cover the events in Najaf. Surrounded on the highway by pickup trucks carrying chanting Mahdi Army fighters and caskets bearing the dead from the Sadr City fighting, one would see the green and black flags of the Shiite saints atop houses and feel safe.

Why did it feel so good to see those Shiite flags? Why was the Death Triangle so lethal? What on earth were the Mahdi fighters doing trying to fight the U.S. Marines and Cavalry head-on in pitched battles?

The last three years in Iraq have evolved as the answers to those questions suggested they would. The leaning, rag-like Shiite flags were good news because it was Sunnis, not Shiites, who beheaded people. Islamic violence in Iraq was then as now a phenomenon of the Wahhabis--Sunni fundamentalists. The Sunnis also did the kidnapping, and were the ones behind the car bombs that targeted random civilians.

The Death Triangle was so bad because the Baathists who lived there, angry to have lost their apartheid privileges, desperate for the chaos that might derail the new project, would sell you to the Wahhabis, who would cut your head off to make good TV to erode the will to fight the chaos. The Mahdi fighters were dying not because their leaders thought they could beat the Americans in battle, for their leaders were too clever to think that, but to earn Mr. Sadr his nationalist credentials as the only important Iraqi--Shiite or otherwise--to stand up and fight the Americans.

Mr. Sadr's eyes, we learned at Najaf, were on domestic politics. It was clear then that his skinny men with their pickup trucks and light arms, men who on that road down from Baghdad were as scared as I was of the Sunni minorities, lacked the muscle to take over the country. Domestic politics for Mr. Sadr could never mean the whole cake, but only as much of it as he could grab. If he was as rational as his success in pushing the Americans to the very brink of his destruction--but never beyond it--in both of his two rebellions indicated he was, the ballot box, promised for 2005, would be where he fought his next battles.

These outlines of Iraqi politics duly asserted themselves over the last three years, providing the basis for the victory that is happening today. The Baathist Sunnis continued to kill to get back what they used to have, until accepting this past summer that they had suffered an historic defeat in a Battle of Baghdad of their own calamitous making. Shiite Iraq has arrived to stay, and today the drawing rooms of Baghdad's dealmakers are full of Baathists, cap in hand, terrified of the Shiite death squads they inspired and hungry for their slice of the coming oil pie. Meanwhile the Wahhabis, mostly foreigners, answering to a higher power and blind to selfish thoughts of wealth and survival, continue to kill but find themselves increasingly unwanted.

A third element of the Sunni violence was tribal. This was particularly prevalent in Anbar province in western Iraq, where Sunni tribes have traditionally prospered from banditry on the Damascus road. Fighting outsiders is an old habit in Iraq's Sunni bandit country. So is making money, and Anbar today, as Iraqis prepare to gorge themselves at the oil trough, is one of the safer places in Iraq.

It was always clear that Iraq's Sunni tribes would eventually take up arms against the Saudis, Jordanians and Syrians in their midst who were banning smoking, killing whisky vendors, blowing up their utilities and oil infrastructure, executing sheikhs of ancient tribes, and forcibly marrying local girls to "emirs" of the absurd Islamic State of Iraq. Anbar's tribal leaders and Baathists were going to be bought off eventually, either directly or by the indirect promise of owning a chunk of what will be a very rich country.

At least 14,000 Anbari young men have joined the state security services since the surge began in February and Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, started reaching out to the chiefs. Now the insurgency has decamped to other provinces, where it does not want to be. Beating them there will be even easier, as is proving to be the case in Diyala.

As for Mr. Sadr, I reported the first hints of his democratic conversion in 2004 when a member of his top political committee told me Mr. Sadr was going to start a political party and contest the elections when they came. He still has not formed such a party, but as I saw up close when I later spent five weeks of the December 2005 election period embedded in Sadr City with his Mahdi Army, he embraced electoral politics with subtlety and enthusiasm.

Of course he did: He is the leader of the country's biggest popular movement. Today, controlling five major ministries and about 30 members of Parliament (one of the two largest blocs in the government) he underwrites the pluralist project in Iraq as he has done since late 2004.

So--with the Sunni insurgency defeated, the Shiite nationalists inside the government, breakup and true civil war avoided, Iran a pest at worst, regional sectarian disruption a fantasy and a White House that will not be forced into declarations of defeat by three IEDs a day--the main questions of Iraqi politics have been resolved. Despite the huge prices paid for these victories, the resolutions have mostly been for the best.

Violence continues in Iraq, but it is mostly local: revenge cycles, factionalism, crime, brutal neighborhood power plays. And it is declining. Iraqi civilian deaths in September, like U.S. military deaths, had halved since their highs earlier this year. By December they will be much lower.

Meanwhile reconciliation, which will never be complete, is happening. We saw, with the huge success of the two 2005 elections and the week-long nationwide celebrations attending the soccer victory this July, that deep unities have survived the 35-year Baath nightmare. The Kurds and Shiites can be forgiven for not wanting to reward the Sunnis immediately for the destructive insurgency that followed those 35 years of apartheid and genocide.

But from the local level to the national, the huge majority of Iraqis are showing enormous tolerance. Federal money is being pumped into Anbar, and in Baghdad this year over 30 Sunni mosques have been reopened by the government, mostly in the mainly Shiite east of the city. Today the Mahdi Army and the Sunni tribes in the Death Triangle are negotiating a modus vivendi. Sheikh Fawaz al Gerba, a Sunni sheikh and former general, is doing the same around Mosul. And Shiekh Harith al Dari, as head of the Association of Islamic Scholars, the leading Sunni group, which many Iraqis used to call the Association of Islamic Kidnappers, is doing it with Shiites in various parts of the country.

The biggest unifier of all currently might be the most predictable one. Help from foreigners is welcome in Iraq. The country's elected prime minister, possessing after Iraq's heroic elections more popular legitimacy than almost any leader in the world, often points out that the Coalition is there as invited guests. When the U.S. Senate passed its disingenuous "plan" for extreme federalism in Iraq last week, the uproar in the country crossed the sectarian divide. Iraq already has a constitution. It was written by freely elected Iraqis and ratified overwhelmingly by the public in a brave vote two years ago.

Thousands of Americans and their allies have died helping to give Iraqis this opportunity. We have shown enormous skill and bravery in helping them fight their enemies, and immeasurable goodwill in sending our young men to protect Iraqi schools, mosques and polling booths. The reason we and Iraqis are winning this war together is that its purpose is to give Iraqis what they want.

Mr. Bull is the foreign editor of Prospect magazine and editor of Middle East Monitor

Give em Hell – Democrats!

...Democrats  also threatened Republicans with a rare weekend vote, after the start of the scheduled break for the Thanksgiving holiday, on a bill including troop withdrawal dates which cleared the House of Representatives Wednesday.     The emergency budget provides only four months of funding for the war, and only a 50 billion dollar chunk of the 196 billion dollars requested by Bush.  ...... Republicans in the Senate have vowed to STOP IT.  Bush has vowed to VETO IT. (If the Republicans can keep the war going - they can still say - they never lost the war = at the cost of our finests' lives! - LOSERS!)

.....Should the bill, as expected, fail to pass, Democrats say they will not give Bush any more money this year for the war. That would force the Pentagon to dip into its regular budget to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Republicans will say we are starving the troops).  NOT"The days are over when the money is sent no questions asked,, when the money is sent without a price," Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said.http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071115/pl_afp/usiraqpolitics

Rahm apparently pushing Dems in caucus to move right on immigration.

His DLC scheme to lose the last election failed because of Dean's efforts and those of other liberals. Rahm means to correct that failure in 2008 by the proven method of going against majority opinion, which happens to be liberal on this and most other issues.

The war in Iraq was always going to be won by the Iraqis, and so it has proven. But the Iraqis who have won it are on our side.

Good grief. Who left the asylum unlocked? 

Give em Hell – Democrats!

It's all just a pathetic kabuki play for your entertainment, Sam. DCDems will go through their exaggerated ritual of opposition and then give Bush what he demands in the end.

So the Betrayus plan is yielding results.  Any one care to be the first to apologize ? 

So--with the Sunni insurgency defeated...

NO, we armed the Sunni  and they told us to GET OUT and we did.    

the Shiite nationalists inside the government, -

HAND PICKED SHI'ITES by the U.S. most of whom were in hiding in other countires for years  - have NO IDEA about their fellow countrymen and could care less about PEACE - doing absolutely nothing..

 breakup and true civil war avoided, Iran a pest at worst, - 

it's NICE to see someone facing the truth about Iran.   

regional sectarian disruption a fantasy -

4 MILLION Iraqis have moved OUT of the country or to another part of the country - or are BURIED IN THE COUNTRY.   'sectarian disruption'

 and a White House that will not be forced into declarations of defeat by three IEDs a day--  -

WHILE THE WHITEHOUSE did not give our guys the best body armor - sent them in in unarmored vehiclees - had them WALK the streets in guerilla warefare and had NO WINNING PLAN --- and KNEW it was for NOTHING, because their set up Iraq government was not going to fix their problems!....  and WHILE Bush and Cheney ate steak and safely watched it go down on CNN!   

the main questions of Iraqi politics have been resolved.

NOT ONE IRAQI POLITICAL PROBLEM HAS BEEN RESOLVED> NOT ONE!   

Despite the huge prices paid for these victories,

Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians killed, the entire country destroyed - thousands of our military killed and tens of thousands maimed and crippled for life and MORE. NOTE:  another 21,000 send home diseases that NOBODY COUNTS;  thousands with PTSD and worse! and our VETERANS being treated like HELL when they get back.     

the resolutions have mostly been for the best.  IN YOUR DREAMS! 

 IN OUR WORST NIGHTMARES!

Re: DFA Film Club

Our local DFA/Democratic Club offers a free movie night to our community every month. Free film showings bring in new members. I get a new Ironweed film sent to me every month. Sometimes they will use it and sometimes they don't. We also get information from Brave New Films. They like them too. The DFA Film Club link group is a lot of fun. Please keep it around.

Any one care to be the first to apologize ?

Bush should be the first to apologize for lying us into Iraq in the first place -- with a special apology for the maimed and the families of those killed needlessly.

After that he should apologize for funneling hundreds of billions of no-bid taxpayers dollars into the pockets of corrupt corporate cronies.

Then he should apologize to Iraq for all the Iraqis he murdered as well as those he caused to be murdered in the civil war.

Then he should apologize to the UN for sending Powell there to lie to the Security Council and then using their resolution to committ aggression.

Then he should feel such remorse for what he's done that he hangs himself. 

21.

Sam Ross
Thu, 11/15/07
5:45 pm

I knew that listing story after story of progress in Iraq would do nothing other than make you angry.  It is Pavlovian.  Why ? Do you enjoy your own rage.

23.
Sitka
Thu, 11/15/07
5:52 pm

Then will you finally apologize to Betrayus?  He was right and you were wrong, and he was savaged on this blog for months, for doing his job and trying to win the peace you all gave up on two years ago for purely political reasons.

Potential for a good educational funding bill in Vermont.

Education income tax still under review

MONTPELIER -- The House tax-writing committee voted 9-2 Monday to continue to study a proposal to replace the residential property tax for schools with an income tax. ...full article: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/...

Then will you finally apologize to Betrayus?

When Bush finally apologozes for his crimes, I will apologize to his petty minion. 

What has Betrayus accomplished?

 

Howard was just on Blitzie and said we should all rally around behind the nominee since any of them would be far better than any repug.  He's right but it'll be impossible for me to rally around Clinton.
Also, CNN reporting that polls show the both dems and repugs are looking for someone electable.  We tried that.  It doesn't work.  So we'll try it again.  Said Clinton is leading in NH by 12 points. 
Is anyone reading the matchup polls between Clinton and Guiliani?**************************Gates is threatening and saying he has to have money immediately or the money can't be found.  What about that one trillion that it lost?  Jeez.

It's becoming more and more obvious that Bill and Hillary are running as a team.  I wonder how many years this was in the planning.......

Howard was just on Blitzie and said we should all rally around behind the nominee

If he didn't say that he'd have to give back his paycheck. You can't go wrong voting your own conscience over somebody else's. 

 

It's becoming more and more obvious that Bill and Hillary are running as a team.  I wonder how many years this was in the planning.......

What year did they meet each other? 

Blitzer, not as bad as we thought. After the inerview with Howard he remarked, "a very nice man indeed!"

Yes, indeed.

Representatives of Iraqi parties and blocs held discussions in Finland from August 31 through September 3, 2007 and agreed to consult further on the following recommendations to start negotiations to reach national reconciliation:

1.To resolve all political issues through non-violence and democracy.
2.To prohibit the use of arms for all armed groups during the process of negotiations.
3.To form an independent commission approved by all parties, its task being to supervise the process of disarmament of non-governmental armed groups in a verifiable manner.
4.All parties will commit to accept the results of the negotiations and no party can be subject to a threat of force form any groups that reject all or part of any agreement reached.
5.To work to end international and regional interference in internal Iraqi affairs.
6.To commit to protect human rights.
7.To assure the independence and efficiency of the legal and justice systems, especially the constitutional court.
8.To ensure the full participation of all Iraqi parties and blocs in the political process and agreed governance arrangements.
9.To take all necessary steps to end all violence, killings, forced displacement and any further damage to infrastructure.
10.To establish an independent consultive body to explore ways to deal with the legacy of the past in a way that will unite the nation.
11.All Iraqi parties and blocs have to build Iraq and contribute efficiently to support all the efforts that would make the political process and Iraqi unity successful and to preserve its sovereignty.
12.All participating groups must commit to all of the principles listed here as a complete system of rules.

Political Objectives:

1- To be rational in political speeches, for the national interest, and to move away from sectarian and ethnic dispute.

2- To bring an end to the displacement of Iraqi people and work to take care of those displaced, and secure their safe return, with guarantees of their safety by the national forces in co-operation with political parties and tribal leaders.

3- To deal with the subject of militias under the following procedures:

A- Arming, supplying, training and making sure that the security forces (army/police) are capable of undertaking their duties efficiently. Make sure that the security forces are equipped to adequate levels to achieve an effective national force.

B- Activation of economic development across the country, to contain youth unemployment and use the effors of young people to rebuild in order to improve the quality of life for all citizens.

C- Those working outside the law and using military resources inappropriately shall be brought to justice, with no differentiation.

4- The emphasis on the common vision for all Iraqi political entities on the importance of termination of the presence of foreign troops in Iraq through the completion of national sovereignty and rebuilding a national army and security apparatus according to a national vision within a realistic timetable.

5- An emphasis on the continuation of constructive dialogue between different political groups aiming to fulfill national goals.

6- To convince political groups that are currently outside the political process to initiate and activate a constructive dialogue to reach common understandings.

7- To deal with armed groups which are not classified as terrorist, encouraging them to use peaceful political means to address the conflict and to provide their members with jobs and opportunities within state administrations.

8- Working towards correcting the misunderstanding that accompanied the political process and encourage all Iraqi political parties to participate in building Iraq in all aspects.

9- The cessation of the violation of the human rights of Iraqi citizens and their properties by continuous bombardment and military actions by foreign forces. The Iraqi government must take responsibility to protect innocent civilians.

END

Gates is threatening and saying he has to have money immediately or the money can't be found.

What Gates is saying is that he'll lay off 100,000 civilian workers at bases around the US if Congress doesn't give Bush another mortgage for Iraq on his terms.

Holding the troops hostage has been used so much that they now have to hold hostage workers in the critters' home states and districts.

Cheney visited Saudi Arabia and his bosses told him to lay off their Sunni brothers.

we stopped kicking in Sunni doors they stopped shooting us, fair enough

Blitzer, not as bad as we thought. After the inerview with Howard he remarked, "a very nice man indeed!"

Only bears should be lured with honey. 

BTW, Al Qaeda in iraq was always like that dog that ate my homework.

 

 

Repugs, the party of threats and following thru on them.

 

36. Air Force, Navy downsizing troops to pay for hardware
By SCOTT CANON
The Kansas City Star

Getting in the Army is getting easier, with recruitment of more who are high school dropouts, who scored lower on aptitude tests or who have minor criminal records.

Those staying in uniform now qualify for record bonuses.

Yet while the Army hunts for more soldiers, the Air Force and the Navy are telling 50,000 that their time in uniform has come to a premature end.

“It’s like I’ve been shot right in the heart,” said one Air Force major, afraid that talking publicly about his impending layoff would complicate the waning months of his military career or jeopardize prospects in the civilian job market. “Here you’ve got somebody who wants to serve their country, and I’m being told that I’m fired.”

Air Force generals wagered that cuts in manpower would free up money to buy more planes. As the costs of producing new F-22 Raptor fighter jets climbed, the service banked on cutting personnel costs to make more room in its budget for the ever-pricier planes.

Instead, the White House and Congress took the savings — although some were wiped out by rising fuel costs and escalating costs for new ships and planes — without agreeing to buy more of the jets.

“The Air Force said, ‘We’ve got to protect the F-22.’ So they cut every cost they could,” said Cindy Williams, a defense analyst at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editor of Filling the Ranks. “That’s why these jobs are going away.”

Brass in the Air Force and the Navy have essentially decided to spend more on hardware and less on troops.

The Navy is counting on technology to float more lethal ships manned by smaller crews. A World War II cruiser, for instance, needed more than 1,100 sailors. A comparable ship built in the 1990s gets by with fewer than 400 aboard. The cruiser of the near future — with the effective firepower of what once required a fleet of ships — is imagined with a crew of just 150.

Repugs, the party of threats and following thru on them.

I wonder if Gates plans to fire base workers only in Dem districts and states with two Dem senators? Punishing Republics hardly seems like a brilliant political strategy.

Soon we'll have an all electronic military and like your toaster oven it will have to be scrapped whenever the wires get crossed.

Blitzer, not as bad as we thought. After the inerview with Howard he remarked, "a very nice man indeed!"
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Yeah, its easy to be nice about someone after you(the meida) diced, chopped, minced, chatised, castigated and beheaded Dean in 2004..........................

Air Force, Navy downsizing troops to pay for hardware

People have long been the most long term expensive part of the War Dept. budget.

Sitka, I believe the majority of the citizens are against amnesty and in favor of better border security and stiff fines on those who hire them.

The dems would be wise to listen to the people and side with the repubs so it doesn't become a huge issue.  The dems won't lose on this issue alone.  

Agree with thine adversary! 

Howard was just on Blitzie and said we should all rally around behind the nominee since any of them would be far better than any repug. 

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In response to this i would say, "Im sorry Howard............I did what you asked in 2004......not anymore though"

Michael.....

I didn't say it made Blitzer nice, it was nice just seeing Howard being spoken to with respect.