Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Only Gore Can Stop a Meltdown ...by Charles Hurt
New York Post
IF AL GORE can pull himself away from saving the planet long enough, he might want to consider rescuing the Demo cratic Party from the clutches of utter self-destruction.
Campaigning against an unpopular war in Iraq, a sputtering economy and a disappearing dollar, Democrats cannot lose in November.
But wait! They're Democrats!
"The only reason we ever lose is when we beat ourselves," one nervous Democrat grumbled yesterday as the primary dogfight dragged on.
Hillary Rodham Clinton has made it clear she won't quit and no one expects Barack Obama to exit - and so on to the Denver party convention they go, viciously attacking one another all the way.
Forget the red phone for a national-security crisis. Where is the red phone for a political party trying to destroy itself?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=980
"I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. Sen. John McCain has a lifetime of experience that he'd bring to the White House. And Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002." -- Hillary Rodham Clinton
March 4th, 2008 12:54 pm
Hillary Clinton's anti-Obama zinger of the day
By Andrew Malcolm / Los Angeles Times
It's a theme she's been driving home for days now, a variant on the "experience" argument she's flogged with mixed success.
Sen. Hillary Clinton was up very early this morning -- before dawn, in fact -- to shake hands at a factory gate in economically-troubled Toledo before heading off for Texas, as some last-minute polls sensed a whiff of a shift in her direction for tomorrow's voting in both places.
But before leaving, to insert herself into the day's news coverage, she held a quick media availability at the Hilton and provided this unusually concise capsule comment for reporters, including The Times' Louise Roug:
"I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. Sen. John McCain has a lifetime of experience that he'd bring to the White House. And Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11019
March 2nd, 2008 12:43 am
Vets Break Silence on War Crimes
By Aaron Glantz / IPS
U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are planning to descend on Washington from Mar. 13-16 to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in those countries.
"The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like."
Iraq Veterans Against the War argues that well-publicised incidents of U.S. brutality like the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family of Iraqis in the town of Haditha are not the isolated incidents perpetrated by "a few bad apples", as many politicians and military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the group says, of "an increasingly bloody occupation".
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11010
March 2nd, 2008 12:46 am
Vermont Vets Share Stories of Iraq
By Bianca Slota / WCAX News
More than 150 people packed the seats of a ballroom a the University of Vermont's Davis Center on Thursday night to hear the stories of four people who served as part of the global war on terror. The group is part of a growing movement of veterans calling for an end to the Iraq war.
Their testimony at UVM is a precursor to the Winter Soldier - Iraq and Afghanistan hearings to be held in Washington, D.C., next month.
Winter Soldier hearings first happened in 1971, when Vietnam War veterans spoke about the atrocities they saw and were a part of. These newest vets are following in their footsteps.
"Disposal of munitions happened in close proximity to agricultural fields, small villages, as well as the primary living base for U.S. soldiers," former U.S. Army Sergeant Drew Cameron told the crowd.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11011
March 2nd, 2008 12:48 am
Veterans speak out against Iraq War
By James Hawver / Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
Like many of his fellow Americans who enlisted in the military after Sept. 11, 2001, Mike Totten was compelled to serve by a heightened sense of patriotism. The promise of money for college helped to seal the deal.
In April 2003, Totten, who graduated from Livonia High School in 2000, was deployed to Iraq as part of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne unit and assigned to a security detail for high-ranking commanders.
As he traveled across the country, Totten said he didn't see any improvement in the lives of the Iraqis — and there were no weapons of mass destruction, contrary to what the Bush administration had claimed.
"It kind of got me thinking: 'What the hell am I doing here?'"
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11012
March 2nd, 2008 12:29 pm
Patriot missiles: Iraq Veterans Against the War
After Vietnam, American veterans testified to the atrocities they witnessed. Now soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are about to do the same
By Ariel Leve / London Times
Some of them will be okay. They will live with the secrets. They can dissociate from what happened in combat because it was part of the job. It was what they signed up for. They will keep the secrets out of duty – the silence is part of a code, and they honour that code above all else.
But for others, the secrets they keep are like a poison, slowly releasing toxins of shame and remorse. Who can they tell anyway? They talk to each other – other veterans who have seen what they’ve seen, done what they’ve done, and who can relate to the burden of carrying these secrets for the rest of their lives.
In 1971, the protest group Vietnam Veterans Against the War gathered at a hotel in Detroit. More than 100 veterans talked about the atrocities they had witnessed in southeast Asia.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11016
March 2nd, 2008 11:46 am
Indictment proposal gets hearing
By Susan Smallheer / Rutland Herald
BRATTLEBORO, VT – Vermonters have long taken stands on the big issues of the day at town meeting.
Back in 1854, the issue was slavery. Several towns passed resolutions condemning the pending federal Kansas-Nebraska legislation that would have allowed the new states to sanction slavery, according to State Archivist Gregory Sanford.
In 1974, the town of Thetford voted to impeach then-President Richard Nixon, who went on to resign later that year.
Eight years later, 150 Vermont towns adopted a nuclear weapons freeze resolution.
This town meeting Brattleboro voters will decide whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted for violating their oath of office and failing to follow the Constitution for a variety of actions stemming from the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11015
Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq
October 2, 2002
Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don't oppose all wars.
http://www.barackobama.com/2002/10/02/remarks_of_illinois_state_sen.php
October 10, 2002
Floor Speech of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
on S.J. Res. 45, A Resolution to Authorize the Use of
United States Armed Forces Against Iraq
As Delivered
Today we are asked whether to give the President of the United States authority to use force in Iraq should diplomatic efforts fail to dismantle Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons and his nuclear program.
I am honored to represent nearly 19 million New Yorkers, a thoughtful democracy of voices and opinions who make themselves heard on the great issues of our day especially this one. Many have contacted my office about this resolution, both in support of and in opposition to it, and I am grateful to all who have expressed an opinion.
I also greatly respect the differing opinions within this body. The debate they engender will aid our search for a wise, effective policy. Therefore, on no account should dissent be discouraged or disparaged. It is central to our freedom and to our progress, for on more than one occasion, history has proven our great dissenters to be right.
http://clinton.senate.gov/speeches/iraq_101002.html
March 5th, 2008 3:24 pm
Bush endorses John McCain for president
By Liz Sidoti / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush endorsed Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain on Wednesday, two bitter rivals from the 2000 presidential race joining together now in hopes of preventing Democrats from winning the White House this fall.
"John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment and that's exactly what we need in a president — somebody who can handle the tough decisions, somebody who won't flinch in the face of danger," Bush said, appearing with McCain in the Rose Garden.
Bush's embrace of the Arizona senator as the party's next standard-bearer comes a day after McCain clinched the GOP nomination by getting the requisite 1,191 convention delegates. Republicans won't officially nominate McCain until early September at the GOP's national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11035
George Bush Dances at White House
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NOf2rsLkI4
Rep. Pete Stark signs onto Cheney impeachment resolution, is allowed to run unopposed
March 6th, 2008 8:58 pm
Activist drops bid for seat
Stark changes stance on measure to impeach Vice President Cheney
By Matthew Artz / The Argus
FREMONT, CA — Berkeley resident Cynthia Papermaster on Wednesday abruptly ended her campaign to unseat Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont, in the June primary election.
Papermaster had entered the race to protest Stark's unwillingness to pursue impeachment charges against Vice President Dick Cheney.
However, she said she was withdrawing from the 13th Congressional District contest after Stark released a statement Wednesday saying that he would co-sponsor House Resolution 333 to impeach Cheney.
Stark wrote that he decided to back the impeachment resolution after tabulating the results of a recent constituent survey, in which 64 percent of participants favored impeaching President Bush.
Impeaching Cheney, Stark wrote, "is necessary before we can impeach President Bush."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11047
H.RES.333
Title: Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Sponsor: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] (introduced 4/24/2007) Cosponsors (26)
Related Bills: H.RES.799
Latest Major Action: 5/4/2007 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HE00333:@@@N
Make Sure Your Rep. Supports H.R. 676
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/what-can-i-do/boxscore/index.php?action=print
ACTION PAGE:
Tell Congress To Pass H.R. 676 Now
43,227 Submissions so far
Under H.R. 676 [Text of Bill], Medicare would be extended and improved so that all individuals residing in the United States would receive high quality and affordable health care services. They would receive all medically necessary services by the physicians of their choice, with no restrictions on what providers they could visit. If implemented, the United States National Health Insurance Act would cover primary care, dental, mental health, prescription drugs, and long term care.
The one click form below will send your personal message to all your government representatives selected below, with the subject "Pass H.R. 676." At the same time you can send your personal comments only as a letter to the editor of your nearest local daily newspaper if you like.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/what-can-i-do/petitions/pnum649.php
GO SEE SiCKO by MC ARTIFICIAL -- ABBREVIATED VERSION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZSPSRcX3Qw
March 7th, 2008 2:53 am
Highway blogger exonerated
Judge rules man with anti-Bush signs not a danger
By Clarke Morrison / Asheville Citizen-Times
ASHEVILLE, NC – A judge found highway blogger Jonas Phillips not guilty Thursday of breaking a city law when he hung a sign from an overpass urging the impeachment of President Bush.
Phillips, 36, of West Asheville, had been charged by police with blocking a city sidewalk on the Haywood Road bridge over Interstate 240.
The defendant testified during his trial in Buncombe County District Court that he didn’t impede traffic on the sidewalk or the roadway when the dangled the sign reading “Impeach Bush, Cheney” for several minutes shortly before 8 a.m. Aug. 15.
His attorney, Bill Auman, told Judge James Calvin Hill that Phillips was selectively prosecuted because of the content of the sign. Others who have displayed signs over roadways have not been charged, he said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11048http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11048
March 7th, 2008 5:03 pm
MCCAIN GETS TESTY WITH THE PRESS
From NBC's Bethany Thomas
What began as a typical chat session with traveling reporters on the plane from Atlanta to New Orleans quickly became a testy exchange with McCain. The senator was questioned on the details of a conversation with former presidential nominee John Kerry in 2004 about being his potential running mate.
The topic came up earlier this morning during a town hall at the headquarters of Chic-Fil-A, where an employee asked if McCain would consider John Kerry as a running mate for this election cycle.
McCain answered in Atlanta that his and Kerry’s political views are too different. “I just totally disagree with them,” McCain said. “He is a liberal Democrat... I am a conservative Republican. When we had that conversation in 2004, that’s why I never even considered such a thing.”
Pressed further aboard the plane by a reporter as to whether he did in fact have a conversation with Kerry, McCain showed his infamous temper.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11051
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Hillary Clinton, Fratricidal Maniac ...by Jonathan Chait
The New Republic
The morning after Tuesday's primaries, Hillary Clinton's campaign released a memo titled "The Path to the Presidency." I eagerly dug into the paper, figuring it would explain how Clinton would obtain the Democratic nomination despite an enormous deficit in delegates. Instead, the memo offered a series of arguments as to why Clinton should run against John McCain - i.e., "Hillary is seen as the one who can get the job done" - but nothing about how she actually could. Is she planning a third-party run? Does she think Obama is going to die? The memo does not say.
The reason it doesn't say is that Clinton's path to the nomination is pretty repulsive. She isn't going to win at the polls. Barack Obama has a lead of 144 pledged delegates. That may not sound like a lot in a 4,000-delegate race, but it is. Clinton's Ohio win reduced that total by only nine. She would need 15 more Ohios to pull even with Obama. She isn't going to do much to dent, let alone eliminate, his lead.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=979
March 7th, 2008 8:56 pm
For soldiers' loved ones, violence can change everything
By Kimberly Hefling / Associated Press
Laura Youngblood clutched her husband's photo as she drove alone to the hospital. She'd become pregnant nearly nine months earlier, the day he'd left for training for Iraq.
Hours later, after the baby was born, she placed the photo in the bassinet next to the infant he'd named Emma in his last letter home. He would never hold her.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Travis L. Youngblood, 26, had died two months earlier, killed by an improvised explosive device.
Laura Youngblood is just 29 years old, but she insists she will not remarry. Her life is her children, now ages 2 and 7. One day, she says, she'll be buried in the plot with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.
"I tell people I'm a happily married woman," she says, crying.
Five years after U.S. troops invaded Iraq, there are many tears - though not everyone is crying. For the great majority of Americans, this is a war seen from afar. They turn off the news and forget about what is happening a world away.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11055
March 7th, 2008 6:47 pm
Senate candidate asks board to indict Bush, Cheney
By Laura Dolce / Seacoast Online
KENNEBUNKPORT, ME — Calling President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "notorious, alleged war criminals," Independent U.S. Senate candidate Laurie Dobson called upon the Board of Selectmen last week to adopt an indictment ordinance allowing town leaders to arrest war criminals.
"Five years ago, I wrote the local paper and said that 'G.W. Bush is driving the world under the intoxicated influence of his power-mad buddies and their dreams of world empire,'" she told the assembled crowd. "Nothing has changed since then, except that we are now paying the price for his failures and we will be paying for a long time to come.
Noting that "alleged war criminals occasionally exist in our town," Dobson said she wanted the town to take steps to bring them to justice since federal officials, including members of Congress, have failed to do so thus far.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11052
March 6th, 2008 8:31 pm
Military mother opposes Iraq war
By Margie Boulé / The Oregonian
Since the war in Iraq began, I've written many columns in support of people serving in the military. They are patriots. They make tremendous sacrifices in service to our country.
Most often, my stories have come from the parents of soldiers. I've quoted parents who strongly support the war in Iraq.
I've interviewed more parents whose children have served, been injured or been killed -- and most of those parents are against the war. But they never wanted to say so in the newspaper.
Suzi Sutherland-Martin is the first person who has contacted me and been willing to say, in print, that her son is serving in Iraq and she is opposed to the war.
Suzi's son is an officer in the Marines. She loves him very much; she worries about him constantly. She writes him letters and sends e-mails. She telephones and ships packages….
...Then she heard about the Oregon chapter of Military Families Speak Out (www.mfso-oregon.org). She attended a monthly support group in Wilsonville and "was thrilled beyond belief to feel I was not the only person in this situation."...
...She's dismayed that in an election season there's not more discussion about ending the war. She thinks she knows why.
"This is a terrible thing to say, but I think we should have a draft," she says. "I don't like the draft, I don't like war. But I can't think of anything else that would cause people to pay attention" to a war she believes we should not be fighting.
"I think if we had a draft, we would not have had this war." The general population would not have wanted to put its children at risk. College students would have protested more.
But since we are at war, Suzi figured this was a good time, "right before the fifth anniversary, for want of a better word, of the start of the Iraq war" to tell the other side of the story: "The one about parents of soldiers sitting at a table in the airport, trying to remind people there is still a war going on."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11046
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
My Son's Grave ...by Celeste Zappala
Beliefnet
The sorrowful convergence of the fifth anniversary of the war and the observation of the 4000th fallen U.S. soldier in Iraq looms sadly ahead. Soon candles will be lit and vigils held, arguments will ensue as to who was right, and the meaning and value of sacrifice and the chorus of whispers, wails, and anger will be carried on wind sweeping across this country and all the gravestones of war.
The stones are silent witnesses to the failure of humans to follow the commands of the Lord of Love. The stones are places where U.S. families gather, as far as can be from the bombs and desert fears.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=975
March 7th, 2008 9:26 pm
Blackwater pulls application for Potrero training center
By Anne Krueger / San Diego Union-Tribune
Blackwater Worldwide officials have announced they are pulling their application to build a training center on an 824-acre site in the East County community of Potrero.
The North Carolina-based company dropped off a letter to the county planning department today notifying officials of their decision not to pursue plans for the project on a former chicken and cattle ranch.
“Although our project would have brought a great benefit to San Diego County, – providing local, state, and federal law enforcement with access to low-cost superior training facilities while bringing much-needed jobs to the area – the proposed site does not meet our business objectives at this time,” states the letter from Blackwater vice president Brian Bonfiglio.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11056
March 7th, 2008 9:30 pm
Security contractor Blackwater ends bid for Calif. training site
By Allison Hoffman / Associated Press
SAN DIEGO, CA -- Military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide has pulled its plans to build a training facility in a remote area about 45 miles east of San Diego.
Company project manager Brian Bonfiglio said in a letter submitted Friday to the San Diego County planning department that the site near the small community of Potrero no longer meets Blackwater's business needs.
"After examining the capacity of our existing facilities and our business development goals, we have decided not to pursue plans for a training campus in Potrero," Bonfiglio wrote.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11057
March 7th, 2008 8:16 pm
Soldiers seek Ft. Carson deployment probe
The Army will be asked to investigate generals for deploying ailing GIs.
By Erin Emery / Denver Post
Secretary of the Army Pete Geren will be asked today to convene a panel of officers to investigate "Army policies and practices which permit the deployment of medically unfit soldiers."
Spec. Bryan Currie, 21, of Charleston, S.C., will ask Geren to convene a Court of Inquiry — a rarely used administrative fact-finding process — to investigate top generals at Fort Carson; Fort Drum, N.Y.; and Fort Hood, Texas.
A Court of Inquiry is composed of at least three high-ranking military officers and can subpoena civilians. Geren can refuse the request.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11054
March 7th, 2008 4:50 pm
Authorities: Times Square Bomb, Congressional Mailings Not Linked
By Dan Eggen and Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post
Federal authorities said today there is no apparent link between the bombing of a Manhattan military recruiting station and a man who mailed rambling letters to Congress that featured the building.
The timing amounts to "an amazing coincidence," one law enforcement official said.
About 100 congressional Democrats received identical antiwar letters in recent days that declared: "We did it," and included photos of a man standing in front of the U.S. military's iconic recruiting center in the middle of New York's Times Square, officials said. That same center was the target of a crude bomb that authorities believe was placed by a person riding a bicycle early yesterday morning.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=11050
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
The Casey Sheehan Doctrine ...by Cindy Sheehan
One early morning, exactly five weeks after Casey was killed, I was awakened by a disturbing dream. Casey's father, Patrick and I had traveled to Santa Barbara for Mother's Day that year to visit the Arlington West exhibit sponsored by the Santa Barbara chapter of Veteran's for Peace. This was when we still believed that that our marriage was not going to be a casualty of the illegal and immoral travesty of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
After the initial shock of having a cherished part of me violently torn away, the story that the Army told us about Casey's death did not ring true. When a former-Lieutenant of Casey's called a few days after his death to express his condolences, Patrick asked him the question that had been on all of our minds: "Casey was a mechanic, what was he doing in combat?" The Lt. replied: "Didn't you know, Casey volunteered." That story about Casey "volunteering" never set right with me. It did not resonate with Casey's Chaplain's heart or his reluctance to go to Iraq in the first place and his vow before he left that he would not "kill anyone," because he could not. Then to put the icing on the cake baked with lies, when the Lt. and one of Casey's Sergeants came to his funeral, they told us what a great mechanic Casey was.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=977
Register to Vote
http://www.credomobile.com/registertovote/?source=govote
State Presidential Primary and Caucus Dates
http://www.votesmart.org/election_president_state_primary_dates.php
Stop Loss Congress
http://www.stop-losscongress.org/
Things You Can Do Now to Make Winter Soldier Successful
Stand with Us!
Sign the Statement of Support and encourage your friends, family, coworkers and members of your group to sign on as well. All signers will receive a weekly update on Winter Soldier through the event.
Donate Now!
Besides the logistical costs of Winter Soldier such as site rental and equipment, the majority of Winter Soldier’s budget is dedicated to covering the travel and lodging costs for all testifiers. Help us make sure their voices are heard. Donate now and ask others to donate too.
Hold a fundraiser to support Winter Soldier. You can use IVAW’s Winter Soldier House Party guide for instructions on how to hold a fundraiser.
Stay Informed!
Updates on the panels, testimonies and activities of Winter Soldier will be posted on the Winter Soldier website. Please check back for updated information and join our email list.
http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier/support/now
Five Years Too Many
http://www.5yearstoomany.org/
Events Planned for March 10-19, 2008, to Resist the U.S. Occupation of Iraq, Oppose New Wars, Demand Impeachment
http://resistinmarch.org/
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006
Be It Resolved: You Can Impeach the President
Official State Impeachment Text
Impeachment Text for Cities & Towns
Impeachment Text for County Democratic Committees
Impeachment Text for State Assemblies and/or Legislatures
Jefferson's Manual, Section LIII, 603
You Can Impeach the President
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622
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