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Politics : WHO IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2004 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (6314)	11/9/2003 9:20:18 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 10965

Let the General Lead Democrats' Charge workingforchange.com Here are some passages written by The Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer... <<...But in the very least it is enormously clarifying to have a battle-scarred former general front and center to explain why the president's reckless policies are weakening the nation's security. As Clark put it last week, Bush's "headlong rush to war" resulted in "dire consequences for our security." And I don't care if Clark is a "pure" Democrat, a question that seems to trouble some of his Democratic opponents. Pure Democrats like Lyndon Johnson have also ensnared us in disastrous wars. On domestic issues, Clark demonstrated a commitment to the party's progressive wing Friday, telling the Democratic National Committee, "I want to make one thing clear: I'm pro-choice, I'm pro-affirmative action, I'm pro-environment, pro-education, pro-health care and pro-labor. And if that ain't a Democrat, then I must be at the wrong meeting." But clearly Clark's main strength is in challenging the neoconservative clique that has brainwashed our naive president into a hare-brained scheme of remaking the world into an American empire. In the process, they have declared war, as Clark noted, "against anyone who expresses dissent, questions their facts or challenges their logic." And just as with Vietnam, where Clark was wounded, Iraq is proving to be a quagmire sucking up massive U.S. resources that prevents us from addressing pressing domestic problems: Social Security, health care, education, jobs, violence. Last week, in calling for an "independent, comprehensive investigation into the administration's handling of the intelligence leading to war in Iraq," Clark raised the key issue facing this president. "Nothing could be a more serious violation of public trust than to consciously make a case for war based on false claims," he said. And there you have it -- the basic issue that the Democrats must address in the next election, or it isn't worth having one...>> ______________________________________ Robert Scheer is a national syndicated columnist. He teaches courses on media and politics at USC's Annenberg School for Communication.

To: American Spirit who wrote (6314)	11/9/2003 9:28:35 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 10965

Iraq Spins Out of Control: Where are the Democrats and the Peace Movement? __________________________________ by Marc Cooper Published by the November 7, 2003 issue of LA Weekly commondreams.org <<...It’s the Islamic world that celebrates the just-initiated holy month of Ramadan — but it’s George W. Bush who better start praying. Maybe we all should. The conservative spin machine and its White House engineers can whine and sputter all they want about the supposed lack of good news from Iraq to be found in the media, but the simple fact is that there just isn’t any to be reported. Consider the toll of the past two weeks: 15 Americans killed in one missile attack, an average of 25 attacks a day against U.S. troops, a tightly coordinated string of car bombings, the shelling of the Al Rashid Hotel housing none other than Paul Wolfowitz, an assault that basically chased the Red Cross out of Iraq, escalated targeting of the newly trained police force and a rumor campaign that forced the shutdown of Baghdad’s public schools. The casualty toll reached more than four dozen dead and 200 wounded. Bush responds that the wholesale spilling of blood should be read as none other than a sign of our “success,” that the murder campaign in Iraq is but a sign of desperation. Sure. We’ve heard this kind of reasoning before. War Is Peace, Hate Is Love, Slavery Is Freedom. And that old standard: Arbeit Macht Frei. This official sense of denial is the scariest part of the whole Iraqi debacle. At least Richard Nixon came into office recognizing that somehow or other, the U.S. had to figure a way out of Vietnam. As wars go, Iraq’s still pretty small potatoes. But the unreality and rank politicization of the Bush policy, its drift and deception, and its mounting human and economic cost spell only continuing disaster Not that Congress, or the Democrats for that matter, plan to get in Bush’s way. The staggering $87 billion supplemental plan (read partial cost) passed along by the White House for the splendid little adventure was formally approved this past week without so much as a debate, let alone any sort of meaningful protest. Even some centrist Democrats, like syndicated columnist Matt Miller, were outraged at the obsequious rollover by their own party Here was a golden opportunity for some brave Democrat to revitalize the entire national debate, Miller wrote last week, by staging a filibuster. Not to deny the payment but to hold it hostage to a reversal of the Bush tax cuts...>>