I’m guessing we’re not winning…
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 14:40 - Category: Unfiled ;
Archive for March 31st, 2004
Liberal Talk Radio available live…
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 12:06 - Category: Unfiled ;
Liberal Talk Radio available live on the Net
Right here, via Real Player.
Great line, as I listen live, “It’s The Godfather. The Bush family is the Corleone family, and George Bush is Fredo”.
Kerry and the Vietnam war
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 00:08 - Category: Unfiled ;
Kerry and the Vietnam war
I was of age during the Vietnam war, and opposed it (big surprise, huh?). I remember the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). I remember Ron Kovic, one of the co-founders of VVAW, the many demonstrations they played important roles in, and how they most definitely helped sway public opinion against the war.
However, I do not remember John Kerry. He may have been a player in VVAW (lots of people were), but as far as I can recall, he wasn’t a major player. In fact, I have no recollection of him at all from those years. So, the “antiwar leader John Kerry” rhetoric we’re hearing now seems overblown to me.
Kerry quit VVAW because of their stand that US soldiers had committed war crimes in ‘Nam. Kerry said oh golly that couldn’t possibly be true, because no US soldier would do that, so he quit VVAW. Well, as we all know now, war crimes did occur, just google “My Lai”.
Updates: After reading the comments here and researching more, I’ve learned Kerry was, for a time, a major figure in VVAW (Hey, “If you can remember what happened in the 60’s, you weren’t there”). And in the Winter Soldier testimony, he did mention war crimes. I’m looking for the cite, which I read a while back and recall being from a reliable source, that Kerry did resign over the war crimes issue. He was, by all accounts a politically ambitious moderate, and some thought he was using VVAW to advance his career. Here’s some other cites.
After Kerry became the national spokesman of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in 1971, he came under continued surveillance by the FBI.
By all accounts, Kerry was a moderate voice in the group, who took a grim view of even civil disobedience. Many fellow antiwar vets felt he was too traditional.
The anti-war group that John Kerry was the principal spokesman for debated and voted on a plot to assassinate politicians who supported the Vietnam War.
Mr. Kerry denies being present at the November 12-15, 1971, meeting in Kansas City of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and says he quit the group before the meeting. But according to the current head of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, Randy Barnes, Mr. Kerry,who was then 27,was at the meeting, voted against the plot, and then orally resigned from the organization.
Here’s two quotes, both quite illustrative I think, from a Boston.com article.
1)
President Richard M. Nixon takes a call from his counsel, Charles Colson.
“This fellow Kerry that they had on last week,” Colson tells the president, referring to a television appearance by John F. Kerry, a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
“Yeah,” Nixon responds.
“He turns out to be really quite a phony,” Colson says.
“Well, he is sort of a phony, isn’t he?” Nixon says.
Yes, Colson says in a gossiping vein, telling the president that Kerry stayed at the home of a Georgetown socialite while other protesters slept on the mall.
“He was in Vietnam a total of four months,” Colson scoffs, without mentioning that Kerry earned three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star, and a Bronze Star, and had also been on an earlier tour. “He’s politically ambitious and just looking for an issue.”
“Yeah.”
“He came back a hawk and became a dove when he saw the political opportunities,” Colson says.
“Sure,” Nixon responds. “Well, anyway, keep the faith.”
2)
Some Vietnam Veterans Against the War leaders also viewed Kerry as a power-grabbing elitist, a source of internal friction within the antiwar movement. “There was no question but that the rift existed,” said Butler, who was with Kerry at the time and remains a close friend.
Kerry left the organization after about a year of participation and about five months after assuming a leadership role. Kerry says he quit partly to focus on a new organization that emphasized veterans’ benefits; others say Kerry was forced out.
August 29, 2004. New York…
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
August 29, 2004. New York City.
That’s the date for the protests at the Republican Convention in NYC. The buzz on this is big, and building. Dozens, no, make that hundreds of groups are already mobilizing to be there.
I think it’s gonna be huge. Several hundred thousand people is my guess. It might even be historic.
Liberal talk radio starts today
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
Liberal talk radio starts today
Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, Chuck D., and Janeane Garofalo are among the hosts with daily shows.
Some of the stations
New York, WLIB 1190 AM
Los Angeles, KBLA 1580 AM
Chicago, WNTD 950 AM
Portland, KPOJ 620 AM
Inland Empire CA, KCAA 1050 AM
XM Satellite Radio, Channel 167
UN ’stopping food aid to…
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 00:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
UN ’stopping food aid to Gaza ‘
Food deliveries to the Gaza Strip will be halted this week because of Israeli restrictions, the United Nations said. Peter Hansen, the UN chief responsible for Palestinian refugees, said his agency was no longer allowed to take empty food containers out of Gaza.
An Israeli spokesman told BBC News Online suicide bombers had used the containers for hiding in.
What, Israel can’t inspect the containers when they’re being shipped back? Oh heck, let Palestinians starve instead.
Playing Shell games with the…
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 00:04 - Category: Unfiled ;
Playing Shell games with the wealth of nations
From a CPA website
Royal Dutch/Shell’s troubling restatements of oil reserves around the world transcend business.
The case shows how accounting affects the lives of nations and people.
Take the case of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the global oil and gas company. Back in January the company rocked the world markets in oil, currency, and securities when it disclosed that it had overstated its oil and gas reserves by 20 percent, or about 4 billion barrels of crude. The news threw into doubt the accounting methods and integrity used by every other oil and gas company, the world over. The markets are still reeling.
But now it appears that Shell may have been intentionally overstating its reserves for fear of its relationship with, and the stability of, the government of Nigeria, according to the New York Times.
Shell handles about half of Nigeria’s supply. Company officials were reportedly acutely aware that if they sharply lowered their estimates for Nigeria’s reserves, the country could suffer, and, of course, so would Shell’s relationship with the government. Shell is now cutting its payroll in Nigeria by a third, something that may spark protests in the streets.
It’s not just Bush. Clinton…
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2004 00:03 - Category: Unfiled ;
It’s not just Bush. Clinton deliberately ignored Rwandan genocide
President Bill Clinton’s administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the infomation to justify its inaction, according to classified documents made available for the first time.
Senior officials privately used the word genocide within 16 days of the start of the killings, but chose not to do so publicly because the president had already decided not to intervene.
Is there oil in Rwanda? Didn’t think so.
