Uppity Wisconsin

and we're not any safer.

From Rethink Afghanistan:

Report the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as an example of waste, fraud and abuse on Recovery.gov today. Simply scroll down to the field marked “What” and paste this message into the text box:

"I'd like to report the waste of trillions of dollars of our national wealth on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that don't make us safe. It's fraud to portray these as wars that increase our security, and it's abusive of U.S. troops and local civilians to drag these wars out any longer. End the wars so we can have real economic recovery."

Rally and march to end the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and fund human needs, sponsored by Milwaukee Coalition for a Just Peace. Speakers include Rep. Gwen Moore. Info at Peace Action, 414-964-5158. Rally at south side of Milwaukee County Court House, known as Civic Square/Clas Park. Saturday, March 21 from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

This is pretty stunning to think about in full:

However well-intentioned it was, the catastrophic and unpopular intervention in Iraq has served in some parts of the world to discredit the very idea of western democracy.

The recent collapse of the banking system, and the humiliating resort to semi-socialist solutions, has done a great deal to discredit - in some people's eyes - the idea of free-market capitalism.

Democracy and capitalism are the two great pillars of the American idea.

To have rocked one of those pillars may be regarded as a misfortune.

To have damaged the reputation of both, at home and abroad, is a pretty stunning achievement for an American president.

- Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

 

Why does President Bush want war in Iraq. Is it because he feels Iraq will cause harm to our country. I think it's more l;ike our forces are over there causing harm to the families of Iraq . Iraq is not here causing  harm to our country. Our country is killing all kinds of innocent  people in Iraq including innocent beautiful little children are being murdered in cold blood.;  We are tearing a lot of innocent families in Iraq  lifes apart while here at home the families of the good also are having big problems  with there lifes also are being torn apart. We need to  form large groups of people  through the people in our churches to stop the violence and bring peace to the world. We need to get a good Democratic President in office that will bring peace to Iraq and bring help to the people in our country that need the soldiers here at home to be true heroes and protect the people in our country. To stop the bad things that are going on with the good families of the United States of America. We do not need a Republican President that messes up our country and puts us in war. So pray for peace everyone we need the Lord on our side to bring love to our world and stop the hatred and murdering.

Good news for the male cousins in my family who have graduated recently, or will do so shortly ... the government may give you a big assist in deciding how a large portion of your life will be spent.<snark>

AUDIENCE MEMBER: If we don't reenact the draft I don't think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

JOHN MCCAIN: Ma'am let me say that I don't disagree with anything you said.

Hat tip to the Jed Report. (with video)

Despite the fact that U.S. citizens are now overwhelmingly against the Iraq War, the Bush Administration is pushing through plans to develop 50 military bases and occupy Iraq indefinitely.

They want permanent war, regardless of the November presidential election in the U.S. And they want to control Iraqi airspace, arrest Iraqi citizens, and have immunity from prosecution for all military contractors.

Hey, somebody's gotta provide security for people standing in line to ride a roller-coaster in a war zone and enjoy golfing!

Get Uppity! Contact people who represent you and tell them what you think about this.  Maybe something will change. 

Scott McClellan.

This loyal, early supporter of Bush has flip flopped and now pretty much calls the president a treasonous liar.

Too bad he didn't feel compelled to tell the truth before he relied on selling books for an income.

Most of us in Wisconsin will spend this weekend with friends and family, grilling out, and probably not thinking too much about why we have Monday off. But if you like to rattle the cage of certain family members the way I do, ask them a question that’s not asked often enough:

What does war mean to you?

Here’s an answer from an infantryman:

1. defecating in my pants because i couldn’t sit, stand or crouch, without being killed, for 14 hours;

2. then when i could move, dragging a dying, fellow soldier and his intestines strung out 5 feet or so behind him 50 meters to a medic who told me he was dead;

3. not sleeping more than 3 hours at a time for 3 months;

4. not taking a shower or bath for 40 days;

5. giving a 4 or 5 year old child an opened can of fruit cocktail, and watch her walk 30 meters and step on a small mine;

6. then trying to stop the spurting blood pulsing from wherever her leg and groin used to be while i screamed for help while she turned a gray-blue and died;

The U.S. Army has developed architectural drawings for a "Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club Resort" for a planned "zone of influence" in Baghdad, and the Boston Herald is reporting that the plans have the support of the Pentagon.

There are also plans for an amusement park.

There are many appaling questions that deserve answers about this given the lack of electricity, running water, civil war atmosphere, much less who will maintain security for people standing in line to ride a rollercoaster in a war zone.

"Contractors hired to rebuild the country’s infrastructure or provide security have overcharged the U.S. for everything from soft drinks—$45 a can—to gasoline. Millions of dollars in no-bid reconstruction contracts were diverted to things such as Super Bowl tickets, prostitutes, watches, and jewelry. And much of the reconstruction work has been substandard. The U.S., for example, paid $72 million to Parsons, a U.S. contractor, to build a police academy in Baghdad. But the building was so badly put together that raw sewage seeps from its walls and ceilings. “This became the lens through which Iraqis now see America—incompetence, profiteering, arrogance,” said House Democrat Henry Waxman of California, a vocal critic of the war."

There's more at The Week Magazine. 

Bottoms up!

It looks like Hillary Rodham Clinton agrees with McCain when it comes to visualizing 50+ years in Iraq ... as long as they can keep the public satisfied with low U.S. soldier death counts.

Said HRC:

"Senator McCain made the point earlier today, which I agree with, and that is, it's not so much a question of time when it comes to American military presence for the average American; I include myself in this. But it is a question of casualties," said Clinton. "We don't want to see our young men and women dying and suffering these grievous injuries that so many of them have. We've been in South Korea for 50-plus years. We've been in Europe for 50-plus. We're still in Okinawa with respect to protection there coming out of World War II."

Can someone in the MSM ask her if she still agrees with this b.s? Iraq is NOT Europe, m'kay?

- 2005 CBS "Face the Nation" interview  (see attachment with transcript below)

You're paying taxes that support this war, whether you like it or not.

Vice President Dick Cheney's defense company KBR, with $16 billion in no-bid contracts - 8x the work of its nearest competitor - doesn't.

From the Boston Globe:

"Over the course of the five-year war, their tax bill would have been more than $500 million."

Here's how they do it.

Get UPPITY! Let your Wisconsin Senators know what you think about this.

Shoddy work by Vice President Cheney's (former?) private defense companies in Iraq and Afghanistan is resulting in U.S. soldier deaths by electrocution.

Halliburton and KBR whistleblowers and U.S. military personnel brought the problems to light as early as 2004.

And they were mocked for their concerns and lied to.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth - a highly-skilled Green Beret - was electrocuted in the shower in a Baghdad military compound three months ago, and the Army told his mom that he died because he brought an electrical appliance into the shower with him ... like the woman just fell off an applecart or something.

These are the same people who wanted us to believe a public relations fairy tale about Pat Tilman and Jessica Lynch.

I may never stop puking.