Welcome to tomchambless.com
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Meet John McCain!
- John McCain Votes to Filibuster Minimum Wage Hike
- McCain housing policy shaped by lobbyist
- Bush, McCain plug Social Security
- McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion
- McCain Defends Bush's Iraq Strategy
- McCain in NH: Would Be "Fine" To Keep Troops in Iraq for "A Hundred Years"
|
|
|
Watch this new YouTube video of John McCain!
"Weather Vane" McCain is being hammered on YouTube, the most popular video sharing service on the Internet.
This is the latest video by Brave New Worlds. It depicts McCain's numerous flip-flops, stone-walls, and stumblings over foreign policy.
The video lasts just more than three minutes. But that's long enough to raise some nasty doubts about John McCain's reputation as a straight talker.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Visit Get Active. This new page is designed to put progressives in touch with varying grassroots campaigns.
|
|
Cost of the War in Iraq (JavaScript Error)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Support the Troops, NOT THE OCCUPATION !
|
|
|
|
When Bush presses Congress to fully fund the troops without strings attached, he means that Congress should fully fund the occupation of Iraq without strings attached.
Tell Congress to fund only the necessary functions to maintain peace while the troops redeploy to the U.S. You can use this site to find your Representative: http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_keyvote_recent.php
|
|
|
|
Fourteen reasons to withdraw from Iraq (and growing!)
1. The "surge" was advertised and sold to the public on the premise that it would buy time for the factions in Iraq to reconcile. Now we have what is advertised as "progress" in Iraq, but still no reconciliation. The central government is neither strong enough, nor does it have the political will to gather its own country together.
It seems now that this lack of political will was set by design. Things were put into motion at the beginning of our occupation to facilitate a free market economy. Formally state owned business were sold off to foreign investors amid much protests from Iraqi labor unions and workers. Some workers threatened to blow up the factories rather than let them go. It is a fact that a strong central government that actually performs oversight, along with a democratically elected parliament cannot function with a free market economy. The executive branch must completely control the legislative and judicial to pass laws that protect corporations over the people, stifle dissent, and force the people to obey. An extremely incompetent and weak government will achieve the same thing. The corporations can then operate unencumbered by oversight. (Sound familiar?)
The truth is that the escalation is not solely responsible for the lull in fighting around Baghdad. What has happened is the Sunni and Shiites have campaigned to ethnically cleanse their neighborhoods and it has been a success. Also, there has been a much touted cooperation between Sunni leaders and the U.S. Military to rid the tribal lands of Al-Qaeda. There is evidence that these tribal leaders have been bribed by the United States. They have been paid off.
Along with that, Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the largest radical Shiite organisation, the Mahdi Army, has ordered his followers to stand down, temporarily.
2. The Iraqi people want us to go. All the polls agree. How would you feel if your state was occupied by a foreign army? They can kill each other without our help.
3. We cannot spill one more drop of blood for oil deals! The Iraqi citizens and our Soldiers are being killed and wounded for a huge give-away to Exxon-Mobile and BP. It is estimated that Iraqi oil may surpass that of Saudi Arabia. This resource is being stolen by American-based oil giants with the help of our President and Congress. The proposed Iraqi Oil Law was written by American lobbyists pushing Production Sharing Agreements. Oil is why we invaded in the first place. Do you think that we would have invaded Iraq if their major export was aria rugs?
4. Democratic principles demand it. Launching a war of aggression against a country that posed no threat is not the America I grew up in. Lying to America and to congress and falsifying evidence to justify the war is not the America I grew up in. This administration that supports this occupation has thrown our national values in the garbage.
5. Corruption and cronyism demands it. We have failed to provide the infrastructure repairs that were promised, and while doing so, illegally enriched hand picked corporations allowing huge profits by granting “cost plus” contracts. The projects completed to date are being turned down by the Iraqi government for shoddy construction due to unqualified laborers.
6. Competition has been stifled. The infrastructure contracts were issued on a questionable no-bid basis and were supposed to be temporary. The Bush administration has illegally allowed these contracts to renew. Along with this, the contractors have hired a private army to protect them. Blackwater USA is getting rich on the government and corporate payroll. They shouldn't be allowed to exist. This is an attempt to privatise our army.
7. The foreign contractors have used unfair hiring practices. These contractors have supplied their own labor, refusing to hire Iraqi citizens. The Iraqi people have the ability and should have the contracts to fix their own infrastructure. This will provide much needed jobs. The war will dissipate if the angry insurgents have jobs.
8. Where is the dialogue for peace? The Iraqi citizens will fight among themselves, like they are doing now, whether we are in the middle of it or not. The civil war will go on without us, just like it is going on with us. They will settle their difference much sooner and with less bloodshed with us gone. The U.S. Armed Forces has not stopped or even slowed the genocide being carried out by the Shiite against the Sunni. We cannot protect the innocent because we cannot provide the 600,000+ troops that mission would take. It is foolish to think that our army can fix their society for them. The only reason our army continues to occupy Iraq is for the protection of the oil deals.
9. The size and scope of the al-Qaeda threat is a lie. Al-Qaeda is neither centralized in command structure, nor united in purpose. It comprises only 5-7% of the insurgency. Bush wants you to think that al-Qaeda will take over and that every Iraqi citizen with a gun is a member. This false perception is to make you afraid. If you fear a bogyman, then you will support the ones fighting the bogyman. They have invented an enemy, and then claimed that they are the only ones with a solution to dispose of the enemy. This is called a “straw-man” argument. It is another lie.
10. The United States must restore world trust. Most nations think that the United States is the most imperialistic, aggressive, and dangerous country in the world. Right now, I agree.
11. Americans must regain honor. We have lost our moral high ground because of this president's war. We are in no position to accuse any nation of anything, especially Iran. It is a bully that is aggressive and beats up weak, defenseless nations. It is a bully that tortures and performs extraordinary rendition. We are embarrassed.
12. Our national treasure is being depleted while our Army is being broken. The occupation of Iraq has already cost over $500 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office. Even if there was a substantial withdrawal immediately, the total cost of the occupation will soar over $1 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office's calculations include the estimated cost to leave some US forces behind for at least several years to support the Iraqi government, but they also predict other long-term costs, such as extended medical care and disability compensation for wounded soldiers and survivor's benefits for the families of the thousands of combat-zone fatalities.
Those costs both to sustain the current mission in Iraq and to pay longer-term "hidden" expenses like troop health care and replacement equipment are far more than US officials advertised when Congress gave President Bush the authority to launch the invasion in March 2003.
At the time, the White House and then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld predicted a quick, decisive victory and counted on Iraqi oil revenues to pay for the war. And when Lawrence Lindsey, one of Bush's top budget advisers, estimated in 2003 that the entire undertaking could cost as much as $200 billion, he was fired. If the occupation were ended today, the total cost of the occupation will be $1 trillion.
The national debt is now at $8.9 trillion and the interest on that debt is over $300 billion annually. It is the third largest expenditure in the federal budget and by 2040 will be the only thing that the government can pay. The occupation of Iraq operates on a second set of books, hidden from those calculations, but it is debt nevertheless. The cost of the occupation of Iraq, if continued, will push this nation into bankruptcy much faster.
13. The "war" is the single greatest threat to the freedom of the people of the United States. It is an excuse for the president to gather power to himself and strip our civil liberties from us. He thinks he has an excuse to batter the Constitution. We must not allow this to happen.
14. Withdrawal is the right thing to do. Invading Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction was the wrong thing to do because the intelligence was changed to fit Bush's policy. It was a lie. Invading because Saddam caused 9/11 was also a lie. Whatever the current excuse for staying is also a lie. Since the invasion was based on lies, and since the reasons for staying are lies, then the right thing to do is to leave. Two wrongs don't make a right. This occupation has embarrassed and outraged the American people, and the entire world.
|
|
|
|
13 reasons to impeach Bush and Cheney!
1. Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal war of aggression against Iraq without cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public, and misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional authorization.
2. Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
3. Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel.
4. Violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm.
5. Violating U.S. law and the Constitution through widespread wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant.
6. Violating the Constitution by using signing statements to defy hundreds of laws passed by Congress.
7. Violating U.S. and state law by obstructing honest elections in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.
8. Violating U.S. law by using paid propaganda and disinformation, selectively and misleadingly leaking classified information, and exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution.
9. Subverting the Constitution and abusing Presidential power by asserting a "Unitary Executive Theory" giving unlimited powers to the President, by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.
10. Gross negligence in failing to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air pollution causing global warming.
11. The chances are next to nil that a withdrawal from Iraq will happen before January 2009 unless Bush and Cheney are impeached.
12. Cheney knew in 1994 that we would end up absolutely alone in the occupation, that no countries in the region would join us, that it would lead to the certain break up of Iraq into a sectarian mess and a military quagmire, and that taking out Saddam was NOT worth sacrificing American lives.
13. It is the right thing to do. America needs to know that there is still a rule of law in the United States - that due process is the manner of operation.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|