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Welcome to tomchambless.com
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Cost of the War in Iraq (JavaScript Error)
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Visit Get Active. This new page
is designed to put progressives in
touch with varying grassroots
campaigns.
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Meet John McCain!
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(Scroll Down for McCain's 27 Flip-flops)
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- 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"
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Scroll down for the 14 reasons to leave Iraq
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Watch this new ad from
Barack Obama!
"Weather Vane" McCain is
being hammered. This is a
refreshing, new, and much
tougher approach. Using
humor to humiliate McCain
is very smart.
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McCain's 27 FLIP-FLOPS
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John McCain
1) Was against the Bush tax cuts voting against tax cuts in 2001, 2003,
2004 and 2005; now is for making them permanent and even bigger.
2) Was against the GI Bill, on May 28 of this year, defending his opposition
to a Democratic bill that would expand education benefits for veterans,
saying it would hurt the military; now is for the GI Bill.
3) Was for immigration reform; now is against immigration reform - and
repudiated his prior position on immigration reform. This is a flip-flop-flip.
4) Opposed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill - which had
his name on it.
5) Was for gay marriage, and then opposed gay marriage.
6) Was for Roe v. Wade, then was against Roe v. Wade; then for it, sort
of; then against it, sort of.
7) Was for storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain; then was against it.
8) In 2000 was for military action against rogue states; now is against it,
EXCEPT for Iran….which he sings about bombing and says it's good to
sell them cigarettes so we can kill them.
9) Negotiating with North Korea; was against it; then for it, especially when
Bush did it.
10) Negotiating with Castro's Cuba - in 2000 was for it, now against it.
11) No negotiating with terrorists except when Colin Powell went to Syria
in 2002 and when, in 2006, said we'd eventually have to deal with Hamas.
12) Unilateral military action against terrorists in Pakistan - against it when
Obama said it was good; for it when Bush did it in the spring of 2008.
13) Warrantless wiretaps - against them 6 months ago; for them now.
14) Torturing detainees - always against it; since he was tortured he
should know; now in favor of torturing detainees.
15) Perpetual detention of detainees - bad a few years ago, good now.
16) Iraq - the right course in 2004; stay the course in 2005 and now he
was always against the flawed strategy - especially when Rumsfeld was
there.
17) Estate tax - for it in 2006; against it now.
18) 2004 - for privatizing Social Security; 2008 against privatizing Social
Security.
19) February 2008 promised a balanced budget in 4 years. April 2008 said
it will take 8 years. June 2008…..back to 4 years. [And, since he is now for
the Bush tax cuts, balancing the budget EVER will be impossible.]
20) In 2008 - first glad to look at oil windfall profits tax; then it's a bad idea -
Jimmy Carter's bad idea.
21) In 2000 - no new offshore oil drilling; now, just very recently, it's a great
idea.
22) In 2000 - attacked Bush fundraising leaders; in 2006 had some of the
same people co-chair his own fundraisers.
23) In 2000 - Jerry Falwell was an "agent of intolerance"; in 2006 McCain
delivered the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University and in
2008 McCain was big buddies with Rev. Hagee and Pastor Parsley.
24) Opposed and voted against the Martin Luther King holiday; now says
he was for it.
25) 1986 - opposed South African divestment to attack apartheid; June
2008, praised it.
26) In 2000 - defended South Carolina's Confederate flag as a symbol of
heritage; in 2002 said it should come down and it was an "act of political
cowardice to not take it down."
27) 2000 - against teaching creationism in schools; 2005 - alternatives to
evolution should be taught.
AND HE'S ATTACKING OBAMA AS A FLIP-FLOPPER??!!?? Those living
in glass houses……
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Support the Troops, NOT THE OCCUPATION !
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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
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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.
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