CAN AMERICA STOP BUSH FROM DRAGGING US INTO ENDLESS CATASTROPHE?

Hopefully you've already seen this quote from the keynote address by Bill Moyers at the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis: "The Declaration of Independence has been trampled under foot by White House sloganeers… They have even managed to turn the escalation of a failed war into a ‘surge’ as if it were a current of electricity through a wire instead of blood spurting from the ruptured vein of a soldier." The America people, much more so than the thoroughly compromised media, have to face this and deal with how to put an end to it. Media-wise, at least Keith Olbermann tries... passionately and eloquently. It is absolutely crucial essential to watch this. John Amato has the video on Crooks & Liars.

Republican legislators are calling Bush's speech and approach "a blunder," according to the right-wing Moonie Times. "Support among the party's rank and file," they point out, "may be crumbling." They talk to heretofore robotic rubberstamp Rep. Ric Keller, from a safely gerrymandered red district in Florida. "At this late stage, interjecting more young American troops into the crossfire of an Iraqi civil war is simply not the right approach," he exclaimed on the House floor yesterday. "We are not going to solve an Iraqi political problem with an American military solution."

After digesting his shockingly unsatisfactory and bumbling speech Wednesday the American people oppose his plans-- by a two to one margin. Even the military no longer believes in him. And I meant the American military. The Iraqi military, on whom this whole idiotic escalation depends is viewed, at best, as unreliable. In fact even Bush's Iraqi puppets could only manage the most tepid semblence of support for his announcement and for his policies. Only power-crazed and somewhat senile politicos John McCain and Joe Lieberman seem impressed-- and the folks on Bush's payroll.

Today Ari Berman reports in The Nation about Jack Murtha's talk to the Congressional Progressive Caucus about the nuts and bolts of reigning in Bush's escalation plans, plans Murtha and Speaker Pelosi have worked out very carefully.

Murtha announced his intention to use the power of the purse try and close US prisons at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, eliminate the signing statements President Bush uses to secretly expand executive power and restrict the building of permanent bases in Iraq.

And starting February 17, Murtha will begin holding "extensive hearings" to block an escalation of the war in Iraq and ultimately redeploy US troops out of the conflict. Murtha predicts that a non-binding
resolution criticizing Bush's expansion of the war would pass the Congress by a two to one vote. But
he believes that only money, not words, will get the President's attention.

When he receives the Bush Administration's $100 billion supplemental spending request for Iraq on February 5, Murtha says "they'll have to justify every cent they want." He'll insist that no money be allocated for an escalation unless the military can meet normal readiness levels. "We should not spend money to send people overseas unless they replenish the strategic reserve," Murtha says. He expects to have one hundred and twenty days to act before the Administration deploys the second phase of additional troops to Iraq. "If he wants to veto the bill," Murtha says of Bush, "he won't have any money."

Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) is willing to go a step further. Yesterday he introduced a bill that would repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution 2002. "The longer this war drags on, the clearer it becomes that it is the wrong war at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Trying to make up for the fact that the administration insisted on going into Iraq with too few troops more than three years ago by escalating our involvement now is not a 'new strategy.' There is a way forward, but that way is through withdrawing, not sending more troops," explained Congressman Farr.

It is more likely that Ted Kennedy's bill (and the companion bill proposed by Ed Markey in the House) will eventually pass. Skittish Democratic pols, of course, are afraid and prefer a non-binding resolution and a symbolic gesture. This isn't what the American people want or will tolerate. I'd like to mention that so far the only cosponsors I've found for Markey's bill in the House, the one that isn't non-binding and isn't symbolic, are:


Neil Abercrombie (D-HI)
Pete DeFazio (D-OR)
Bill Delahunt (D-MA)
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Maurice Hinchley (D-NY)
Jim McDermott (D-WA)
Jim McGovern (D-MA)
Martin Meehan (D-MA)

If your congressmember isn't on that little list, you should let him or her know that you'd like to see their name on there... fast. People like Barbara Lee, John Lewis, Jan Schakowsky, Lynn Woolsey, John Tierney, Linda Sanchez, Tammy Baldwin, Jerry Nadler, Jesse Jackson, Jr, Hilda Solis, John Olver, Don Payne, Mike Honda, Bob Filner, Nydia Velazquez, John Conyers, George Miller, Maxine Waters, Pete Stark, Xavier Becerra, Diane Watson, Henry Waxman are our progressive leaders. They should be leading... now.