MOTHER OF A DEAD SOLDIER

Can you believe we live in such paranoid times that we have to suspect spies and hackers! Thanks Mr. President.

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Americans need desperately to understand that 95 percent of all Muslim terrorists in the world were created in the past three years by Bush's invasion of Iraq. (Paul Craig Roberts http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts144.html)

When making such an ominous decision as whether to commit young lives to war, great men question the validity of their thoughts, do not arrogantly claim they are talking to God (as Bush did.) They do not refuse to deeply weigh the consequences, the "exit strategy", the repurcussions, the enemy's wrath, the clergy's advice, the Pandora's box. Wise men do not skew the evidence, lie to the people, rush to war and claim victory before the pullout. Who in his right mind would trust this man? And you wonder why we don't trust him when he says he's only spying on international calls to Al Queda? If we had faith in him to care about the common man, the common good, we'd be on his side. I have a feeling his team wants this information to formulate a strategy -- to find out where their base is, to ostracize certain people and find out their reading/buying/voting/ habits. To maybe prevent whole communities from voting -- or even worse.

Silence is complicity. That's the reason I have to speak out, though I know that real power is in not fearing them, but somehow forgiving their weaknesses and transforming my thought about them, so I don't help create the very situations I most fear. In Christ's time, people had the same fears about government, the Pharisees. The world always feels like it's ending; but somehow the human spirit survives. That's our job.

Nothing makes sense anymore, so I may as well offer an alternative version. Here’s how I see it: it’s normal and natural to be a left-winger or Democrat and believe in Christ. In fact, "pro-war, conservative Christian" doesn't make sense; it's an oxymoron. Again, the religious right-wing so-called "Christians" are involved in the most dangerous perversion of Christianity I've ever seen. Jesus was the Prince of Peace. His entire ministry was spent caring for the poor, the lepers (todays Aids victims), the immoral "sinners", the prisoners, the downtrodden whom the religious leaders thought were too dirty to touch. By giving them love and compassion, they became whole. Whether Christian or not, it's our job as a society to care for the poor, the "least among us." People everywhere hunger for the love that passes all understanding, that heals human suffering. Liberal is a beautiful word: it means "generous, bounteous, freedom-giving". Liberals care about the things that really matter: the poor, the middle class, education, crime-prevention, the environment, peace, harmony, prosperity, diplomacy. Liberals are not "baby-killers" or" traitors" just because Ann Coulter says so. She uses the "language of extermination" and conveniently says she's "joking". Enlighten me; I don't get the joke. I don't get what's funny about an elderly Justice dying from ingesting rat-poison, do you? Coulter makes a living selling hate.

It’s okay to be bewildered at times with the ACLU, hate abortion and still be a Democrat. No one is pro-abortion. Under Clinton, the abortion rate dropped; it rose dramatically under Bush. How can you outlaw abortion? By assigning a police-watchdog to hover over every girl or woman and test them to see if they're pregnant. Then follow them around day and night to make sure they don't grab a coat-hanger or have a "back-alley" abortion which may kill them. That's all Democrats want to prevent: more needless deaths. Because history shows that unprotected sex will happen, and some women will try to get rid of it themselves. If you want to guard against this, have a Gestapo agent hold the woman down for 9 months to force her to have a baby. The guard will also have to force her to take Folic acid and to never put a chemical in her body that could hurt the fetus (junk food, caffeine, liquor). You can't stop people from smoking or damaging their own bodies. We know smoking kills. Why do we legalize smoking?

It’s okay to be offended by porn and still be a democrat who believes in free speech. Real women don't like being objectified by men's magazines and Howard Stern, and don’t think the F-word is representative of free speech. Dumb blondes are not always dumb; they are a persecuted minority and should have minority status -- so they deserve Affirmative Action. I hope you know that’s a joke.

Did you know that we have 1 million MORE hungry, poverty-striken American children than we did six years ago? According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America including 12.9 million children. (http://www.census.gov/Press
Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/002484.html)

Did you know that Dell Computers just outsourced 5,000 new jobs to India, with 10,000 already there? Did you know that Ford just cut 30,000 jobs? The STATE OF THE UNION address, showed us a president with no vision, no specifics, and no effort to discuss how he's going to pay for the endless war -- or draft soldiers to fight it once all our men are gone; how he's going to pay for Katrina & levee rebuilding, or how he's going to help the poor, middle classes and elderly afford health care. Oh yeah, I forgot -- by making them put whatever extra money they have in "medical bank accounts" that Citibank or some other Bush friend can "borrow" from to create a portfolio that will amass over 75 billion by 2010. As if the poor or the middle classes have any extra money.
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The Democratic Party, at its best, is light years ahead of the Republican party in the things that really matter to Americans. I have great hope for the future, because we know we have good on our side. It's truth, love & kindness and you know it in your heart. It's our job as citizens of the earth to take care of "the least among us." You will know good people by what they produce. This house of cards will fall, you'll see. Benjamin Franklin said something to the effect that "you cannot trade liberty for security or you will end up with neither."

DEMOCRATS CREATE WEALTH AND JOBS

1.From Harding In 1921 to Bush in 2003

2.Democrats held White House for 40 years and Republicans for 42.5 years.

3.Democrats created 75,820,000 net new jobs -- Republicans 36,440,000.

4.Per Year Average—Democrats 1,825,200---Republicans 856,400.

5.Republicans had 9 presidents during the period and 6 had depression or recession.

6.Republicans had a recession/depression in 177 months and Democrats in 32 months. 

7.DOW—grew by 52% more under Democrats.

8.GDP—grew by 43% more under Democrats. 
Comparing Democrat’s hero-CLINTON—versus Republican’s hero--REAGAN
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1.JOBS—grew by 43% more under Clinton.

2.GDP---grew by 57% more under Clinton.

3.DOW—grew by 700% more under Clinton..

4.NASDAQ-grew by 18 times as much under Clinton.

4.SPENDING--grew by 28% under Clinton---80% under Reagan.

5.DEBT—grew by 43% under Clinton—187% under Reagan.
6. DEFICITS—Clinton got a large surplus--grew by 112% under Reagan.

7.NATIONAL INCOME—grew by100% more under Clinton.

8.PERSONAL INCOME—Grew by 110% more under Clinton.

SOURCES—Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.BLS.Gov)--Economic Policy Institute (EPI.org)—Global & World Almanacs from 1980 to 2003 (annual issues) www.the-hamster.com (chart taken from NY Times) National Archives History on Presidents. www.nara.gov Clarence Swinney-Political Historian Please submit comments to cwswinney@netzero.net or P.O. Box 3411-Burlington NC-27216

THE POWER OF PRAYER
I suddenly snapped back to reality and realized I had been spiraling down into fear by paying too much attention to all the negative news: the gossipy alarmist politics, the backstabbing and fear-mongering. Reality is the opposite of what we think it is. The true substance of life is the underlying beauty, the harmonious structure beneath the chaos. I was in my son's room doing yoga yesterday, on my back, and I looked up and saw a perfect rainbow on the ceiling. It all became clear that harmony, love and beauty are the fabric of reality just beneath the surface. Remember there was a time we thought the earth was flat because we trusted only our eyes? Our physical senses betray us. As Shakespeare and Christ and every great force ultimately came to express: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." So we better keep our thoughts on the good in life because our thoughts create our reality. What you focus on GROWS. Whatever you think about all day long, is what you create, so it's important to elevate your thoughts to gratitude, love, beauty, truth, life. What we dwell on transforms us.

"Right reaction" is the supreme art of life, and Jesus compressed the secret of that art into a sentence when he said "Resist not evil" (This means: DON'T FIGHT ANYTHING) Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Heaven, by the way, is a state of mind, not a physical place. You create your own heaven or hell depending on the thoughts you hold.

Emmet Fox put it beautifully in his famous essay on LOVE:

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
no disease that enough love will not heal;
no door that enough love will not open;
no gulf that enough love will not bridge;
no wall that enough love will not throw down;
no sin that enough love will not redeem . . .

It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble;
how hopeless the outlook;
how muddled the tangle;
how great the mistake.
A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.
If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world . . .

The art of life is to live in the present moment, and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God (Love) Itself. Emmet Fox

In answer to a commenter named "Voltaire" who argued that Bush had a right to circumvent the FISA law because times and technology have changed since cell phones and electronic devices are now in use. He does have a point here, but there is something more important. I said he was using style over substance, that "the principle that the law is based on never changes."

Voltaire then mocked me with this, juxtaposing my own answers: Lydia said: "Principle never changes"/ "Bush is proud of himself for never changing his mind..."

To which I say this: WHO SAID BUSH'S MIND IS PRINCIPLED?

And I also said this: Principle never changes. Going to war is not "a principle." Being stubborn is not a "principle", does not connote good (Godly) principes.
Dictionary definition of Principle: "A basic truth, law, or assumption: the principles of democracy. A rule or standard, especially of good behavior."

Goodness, truth and beauty are actual laws (principles) of the universe, according to Einstein - wihch is why I believe he was on the verge of proving "God" (love) through his unified field theory.

Tonight I was in the kitchen making dinner for my boys, and I turned on the radio to KABC the Al Rantell show and heard this: "Tonight I have a special surprise guest, Ann Coulter." I was thinking about Coulter's remark last week at Philander Smith College where she got paid $20,000 to say this: "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media." Suddenly I hear Al Rantell treating Coulter like royalty and laughing hysterically over "creme brulee" as some inside joke. He says to his listeners, "you have to be up on the news to know what we're laughing about." Then Al asks Coulter her expert intellectual opinion on the Cindy Sheehan debacle, and they both start putting Sheehan down like she's a criminal, rather than deeply talking about this from a new angle, trying to get inside the story. They parrot what CNN falsely claimed, assuming that Sheehan was there to make a scene. Then Coulter in her inimitable sarcasm says that this was "the President's show, his day where he gets to shine and Sheehan was obviously there just to upset him. Then I hear Al Rantell say, "Too bad liberals say such horrible, tasteless things, they say things Nazis would say... and Coulter chimes in, "and their jokes aren't even funny."

At this point my nerves are on edge and I'm so horrified (had nightmares after the State of the Union address, so didn't get much sleep) so I call Brad Friedman of BRAD BLOG who was the first of anyone in the mainstream or alternative media to break the Cindy Sheehan story last night - and Brad says, "Lydia you have to call in to Al Rantell and get on the air and challenge him!" I said okay, but meant "no way". Don't know why I was so nervous; I did 12 radio shows in one week after my Brad Blog article Death is Sexier than Sex broke but this time, I was "just a caller". So I thrashed through my fear and called. And guess who was already on the air confronting Al Rantell with all the lies he was spewing about Cindy Sheehan? Brad. He was magnificent, as usual: that guy is the most calm, rational, amazing voice of reason for our side, and he had Al agreeing with him about the treatment of Sheehan. Then they put me on the line - and I said, "How do you think the world views Bush talking about "freedom" while a mother who lost her son for the cause of freedom is handcuffed and marched out of her own Capitol building for wearing the number of our dead soldiers on her black shirt? Some freedom." After he said some things about the president visiting with Sheehan after Casey died, I finally got to what I really wanted to say, "Al, you let Ann Coulter get away with 'extermination-speak' and laughed about it. I'm writing a book on Ann Coulter with a conservative Christian, Dan Borchers, and I'm a liberal Democrat Christian..." to which Rantell acted shocked, "A liberal Democrat Christian!?" "Yes," I said (I should have said I'm a Democrat BECAUSE I'm a Christian as Rebecca Miller said, a woman from Ponca City, Oklahoma who left me the most wonderful message after Ann Coulter published my home number on her website, which is still up there, by the way after numerous requests to take it down.) Anyway, I went on, "Al, you were laughing with Coulter, does this mean you condone what she said about wanting to put rat poison in Justice Steven's creme brulee...and Rantell talked over me and said, "She said she was just joking..." "Yes', I said, "I know she said she was "joking" but what's so funny about an elderly Supreme Court Justice ingesting rat poison and dying? Where's the joke...?" Then Al went on to say, "What about that black lady, that black woman what's her name -- who advocated a senator dying of too much butter and cholesterol..: And I said, "That's appalling of course, but Coulter who wears a cross and claims to be a Christian...." CLICK. They hung up on me for the news. I wish I had said, "Did you invite that woman on your show and honor her hate-speak as an inside-joke with laughter? Wait a minute, now I realize he was talking about Julianne Malveaux and a comment she made to Clarence Thomas over 7 years ago! Is that the best he could come up with?

Letter from an Iraq War Vet to the chairman of Bucks County Young Republicans.
Don,

I called you to get some sort of understanding on the reason why you were upset that the Bucks County Democratic Headquarters has posted the death count of US Troops in Iraq outside their office. You had explained to me that you feel the local Democrats are trying to play politics on the issue of the Iraq war. They say they are just trying to honor our fallen troops.

I agree with you that Democrats voted right along side of Republicans to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq. That is an undisputed fact. But in the end it was the decision of the President to
take us to war. As a veteran of that war I don't feel that it is wrong to let the public know that troops are dying every day in Iraq. It's not politics it's just plain reality.

This morning you told me that out of your whole organization (Bucks County Young Republicans) only two or three members plan to pursue military service. And at the same time you told me that your organization supports the war in Iraq. If your organization is so supportive of the war maybe more than two or three of your members should volunteer for military service. Believe me those troops in Iraq could use a little extra help. We have soldiers right now that are on their third tour of duty.

When I got home from Iraq after a year long combat tour I attended a Kerry/Edwards rally in Kansas City. At the rally I was confronted by a group of able-bodied males carrying signs that said "Students For Bush." They called me a traitor, a disgrace, and they told me to move to France. They said this because I was going to vote for Senator Kerry. They claim to be so supportive of the troops, but they were not at all supportive of me. I guess that only applies to troops who share their political ideas. I just returned home from a war that they support, but obviously don't have the courage to fight. If they did
they would be fighting it. It is much easier to support a war from your office, classroom, or from your cozy living room than from the actual battlefield.

I served with plenty of troops who are pro-Bush and pro-Iraq war. For the most part they were the majority. I had respect for them despiteour disagreements because those troops put their money where their mouth is. They have definitely earned their right to an opinion. Just as I have earned mine.

About a year ago I contacted an old friend of mine who belongs to the Philadelphia Young Republicans. I asked him how many in his group had served. He replied that he thinks that one of them served in Kosovo back in the late 90s. It seems like there is a lot of "false patriotism" going around these days. The hefty amount of "flag waving" and "chest beating" is not balancing out the low recruitment levels.

The purpose of this email is not to be confrontational or attack the Republican Party. I don't want people to misunderstand me. My motives are to try and educate as many people as I can about the reality of the situation in Iraq.

I am a strong supporter and advocate of Congressman John Murtha's resolution. My experience in Iraq has made me a critic of the war. At this point in time I feel that the US Military has done everything that can possibly be done in Iraq. The time has come to bring our troops home. Especially now that it has been established that every reason we went there never existed. And the Bush administration has conceded that as well. So why should more troops continue to die? I can't think of
one logical answer or reason.

Respectfully, John Bruhns
Iraq War Veteran

From the Comment section: False Patriotism? Try False Everything. Republican "warriors" have always sent others to die for their causes. Their SOP is to socialize costs while privatizing benefits. In the case of war, promoters are usually the beneficiaries while others pay the true costs. I wonder how many of those Young Republicans even visit the permanently maimed soldiers that lay in beds at the VA hospitals. Very few, I expect.
(Letter and comment Reprinted from Adam McKay at HUFFPO)