Talking Points on Iran, Military Spending

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Tuesday March 21, 2006 · 12:58 AM PST

2006/03/21 · 00:58

I just penned a letter to the editor and collected a bit of data in the process. This might be useful for others who want to write an LTE, or who discuss such matters with conservatives. Data on military spending is from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute at www.sipri.org. On whether Iran is a nuclear threat, I highly recommend Juan Cole's recent piece at www.truthdig.org (he has a link posted at his blog also, www.juancole.com). Read More

punk'd by Rove again

enlightenmentman

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Thursday March 16, 2006 · 8:13 PM PST

2006/03/16 · 20:13

Sorry to post another censure diary, but has anyone noticed that Karl Rove has once again punk'd the Democratic "leadership." I don't remember the setting, but when the NYT first broke the story of the massive wire-tapping program that bypassed the FISA court, Rove said to some conservative group, yeah, let the Democrats use this an issue. We'll kill 'em by saying: "Democrats oppose spying on terrorists." Read More

Where's Delaware Dem when you need him to defend the Party?

enlightenmentman

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Tuesday March 14, 2006 · 6:05 PM PST

2006/03/14 · 18:05

Watching the Democratic members of Congress rush to "distance themselves" from Feingold's censure resolution, I am just tired, tired, tired.

Does anyone want to come forward here and defend the Democratic Party again? After their failure to fight the election theft in 2000? Their failure to fight the disastrous invasion of Iraq? The failure of many to oppose the bankruptcy bill? Their failure to fight cloture of the Alito debate?

And now their failure to defend the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

Why our movement's doomed - the military-industrial complex

enlightenmentman

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Sunday March 12, 2006 · 4:33 AM PST

2006/03/12 · 04:33

I just spent some time with an acquaintance who used to be a US military officer and now works for a US weapons manufacturer selling weapons abroad. I left our conversations finally convinced that our efforts to save democratic processes in the American republic and to reduce the use of wanton violence in US foreign policy are doomed. In its present form, in the present context, progressives, liberals, whatever you want to call us, are absolutely powerless. Our bleatings are wasted Read More

Pastordan's Secret Fundraiser a LOUSY IDEA!

enlightenmentman

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Wednesday March 08, 2006 · 4:26 PM PST

2006/03/08 · 16:26

Pastordan is once again using Kos to appeal for funding for unspecified medical care for an anonymous person. Apparently this is a question of life-and-death, but this person still chooses to keep his/his wife's identity secret.
This is a lousy, lousy idea, pastordan! I said it more quietly last time you did this, but this time it has to be said LOUDLY. The possibilities for abusing this kind of no-details, just-give-me-your-money because you trust me and I know you're all generous people are myriad. IT WILL BE ABUSEd. I don't donate to charities that don't fully disclose their administrative costs, and other basic information. Now I'm going to send money to some anonymous person who says they need help. I assume that this is not a scam, pastordan, but someone soon WILL imitate it, and this time it will be a scam.

If this is a question of life or death, then these folks need to give us full information.

PLEASE, PLEASE STOP THIS

Bush Admin Rejected Iranian Negotation Offer in 2003

enlightenmentman

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Wednesday February 22, 2006 · 6:00 PM PST

2006/02/22 · 18:00

I have just run across a front page item in the "Japan Times" (Thursday, 2/23/06) headlined "US may have squandered opportunity to negotiate with Iran." Read More

Done with the Democrats /Bye spineless losers

enlightenmentman

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Tuesday January 17, 2006 · 4:49 PM PST

2006/01/17 · 16:49

I see that we have a diary here about how the winds are changing. Wake up. For me the failure to fight the Alito nomination is the final straw. There is majority support for sustaining Roe v. Wade in this country, and the Democrats won't step up to do it. If the Democratic leadership will not step up and organize the opposition on this, then somebody else will have to do it. I am currently living abroad, so I emailed both my senators and the DNC. No reply. I called the DNC directly from abroad and was shunted into a voicemail by a rude phone jockey. Folks, to this party we are nobody.

Marshall Witmann is still at the DLC, supporting an air attack on Iran, savaging peace activists and environmentalists, and generally selling RNC talking points. Ed Kilgore at New Donkey is big pals with Marshall. Read More

Letter to Senators Schumer, Clinton

enlightenmentman

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Monday January 16, 2006 · 5:20 AM PST

2006/01/16 · 05:20

Senator:
My name is (enlightenmentman!) and I am a constituent of yours. I am writing with regard to the Democratic Senatorial leadership's apparent decision not to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. This is a cowardly and foolish decision not in the longterm interests of America or the Democratic Party. It is quite clear that Alito is willing to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, from his 1980s comments on the case and his comments during confirmation hearings about stare decisis. We also know that he has lied about professional activities in the past and that as late as the 1980s he was proud of his membership in a Princeton alumni association that opposed the entrance of women and minorities to that college.

I don't care if a filibuster will fail, it is time to take a stand. When will you take a stand, if not on a centrist issue like reproductive rights (a majority of the country supports abortions rights in some form)? Read More

Stick to principles against Hillary and Wes Clark

enlightenmentman

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Tuesday December 06, 2005 · 5:44 AM PST

2005/12/06 · 05:44

For almost 15 years I've been a Tsongas Democrat who decided he was happy with Bill Clinton's success. If the DLC and the centrists could win elections, I'd bite my tongue and work for them, vote for them. I'm still upset with the Naderites in 2000.

But I'm changing my mind. And it's not because I think that by being loud and proud progressives, standing for real principles, progressives will win elections. They won't. They'll lose even more disastrously than Democrats have been losing for the last decade (except for Bill Clinton).

It's time to stand up loud and clear for reducing defense spending, for radical change in energy policy, for gay marriage, for a secular state. See my argument why below the break. I'm curious for feedback. Read More

Secrets of New Right's Success

enlightenmentman

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Tuesday November 29, 2005 · 4:59 PM PST

2005/11/29 · 16:59

According to Jean Hardisty, the secrets to the success of the New Right are not ideological discipline and top-down control, as often assumed, but listening to people's resentments and then reflecting them, building a huge grass-roots movement through work in churches, gun-clubs and other civic institutions, and tolerating diversity of opinion within the movement (i.e. social conservatives + libertarians). Hardisty also questions the current obsession with "framing," observing that presenting new ideas with CONVICTION has it's own power. She writes that, "What ultimately forces change is human beings seeing fellow human beings act from a place of deep conviction."
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Anti-Semitic Diaries Discredit Kos

enlightenmentman

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Sunday November 27, 2005 · 7:48 AM PST

2005/11/27 · 07:48

Just below another diary by an anti-Semite, ccnow, titled "Judge reserves decision on Bush torture case," has popped up. The diary looks fairly innocuous, except for one use of "Zionist." But if you follow the links to "livejournal.com" you find first of all Christian Identity (a white supremacist "Christian" group) "producerist" ideology. Here's a quote.
Read More

US Military Industry and Changes in Japanese Constitution

enlightenmentman

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Saturday November 26, 2005 · 7:26 AM PST

2005/11/26 · 07:26

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is proposing to revise the Contitution that the United States more or less wrote for the nation at the end of World War II. Article 9 of the Constitution renounces the use of war in pursuit of national policy. It's important to note that in reality Japanese spending on its military (the so-called "Self-Defense Forces) is now fourth or fifth in the world. The revision would allow Japan to deploy forces outside the home islands in cooperation with other countries' militaries in "defense" of Japan or on international peacekeeping missions. The revision will be controversial. Many elderly Japanese still remember with pain the fanatic militarism of the Imperial cult that dominated Japan from the mid-1930s through 1945, even if the government itself does not fully acknowledge Japanese war crimes. Read More

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