Hall and Cornyn desert the troops

The new GI Bill that has been advocated by the IAVA and VFW passed the House last week, despite Ralph Hall's opposition. Today it passed the Senate (with a Yea vote from Kay Bailey H) despite a Nay vote from Bush's bitch Johnny Cornseed. Honestly, how can Cornyn and Hall look themselves in the face each day? They have both wrapped themselves in the American flag so many times that they have stripes on their chests and stars on their asses. You would think that given their eagerness to send our troops on such a hopeless, grinding and terrifying mission they would want only the best for them when they returned home. You would be wrong. Sure they approved every Iraq spending bill they ever saw like it was a blue light special at Wallyworld. And who could stop Corny from shrieking hysterically about the lack of patriotism of anyone who had the temerity to question his master's wisdom for the past 5 years?

But he and Hall don't care how hypocritical they look or how contradictory their positions are. Like Bush they reside in an unaccountable place in their own minds where not planning a war means it was wise, where not giving the troops armor is the troops problem, where failure is success and the hard work of active diplomacy is referred to as a refuge for cowards. Welcome to the Ministry of Peace and the rest of George Orwell's prediction of the future in 1984. Already, Rovian thought-bots of the administration, like Douglas Feith are drenching the airwaves with Newspeak lies aimed at making our whole society recall their failvictories. I say let's all join the revolution and remember what these unhonorable men actually did do, especially on election day this November. And let's make damn sure the Democratic Party doesn't forget these crimes once they have control of the reigns of power.

From Wikipedia:

"The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that white is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."

– Part II, chapter IX - chapter I of Goldstein's book

How to fight the power in Rockwall

My Friends,
We all know how crazy the last 7 years have been for our nation and the nations we have afflicted with Bush's despicable policies and his administration's bizarre incompetence in carrying them out. We can have control of our country again but we have to wrest it away from the leadership of the republican party. That means we must stand up for our country. Standing up means doing what is inconvenient, like giving our attention to the issues enough to penetrate the MMM (the mainstream media machine) to find out the truth. Then we have to share that truth with each other to build back the connections between us that time and busy lives have destroyed. We also have to make sacrifices of our time, our energy and our money to support the Democratic Party and it's candidates. We don't live in a true democracy any longer we live in a corporatocracy. The thieves on wall street have used and abused us horribly for the past seven years and because of that our economy is failing. These companies make enough money that they owe this country, but they will only pay if we out them from their hiding place behind our government's skirts. Those skirts are made of tax loopholes, laws written to their specifications (like the bankruptcy bill written by MBNA), lying cheating lawyers and lobbyists by the truck load and media empires owned by unscrupulous and short-sighted moguls. Bush and Cheney have made sure that the regulating agencies have been neutered by their inside cronies. He and his cohorts have played the "Great and powerful Oz" for too long, we need to jerk the curtain open and expose the fraudulence of our leaders to find our way back to Kansas. Unfortunately we can't just click our heels to make it happen. It is going to be a long fight and by now we all realize this fight is going to take many exhausting rounds. But we have a foothold now. Here in Rockwall we have a chance now that seemed impossible 6 months ago. I had a leader in this community tell me the other day that no one can get elected in this county who is not "old Rockwall". That is what all the fossils of Rockwall think. They think you all will fade like yesterday's newspaper when this presidential election finishes. Let's teach them about the changing demographics of Rockwall County. Let us demonstrate to them the depth and breath of our concerns and let's shown them our strength and endurance. Divided we fall, together we are unstoppable tsunami, the old establishment's worse nightmare.

Hall, Cornyn and Hutchison Send Our Troops to War but Don’t Want to Take Care Of Them When They Get Home

Note: A week ago I took down this post because Kyle Oliver, Ralph Hall’s legislative director, told me personally that Hall had decided to become a co-sponsor of the new GI Bill. Well guess what, HE LIED! I’ve heard this is regular behavior from Hall and his staff but stupid old me actually believed the guy. So here is my original post which describes why the Texas delegation from our area is a bunch of double dealing, lying hypocrites who love war but turn their backs on the warriors they send off to do their dirty work for them. They didn’t give our troops body armor, vehicle armor, enough weapons or ammunition or a plan that would work and they made them stay many times longer than they should have but when they came home our Congressman and both of our Senators turned their backs on the men and women that they sent in harm’s way.

Do you know what jingoism means? From Wikipedia – “Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy".^[1] In practice today, it refers to “ intensely advocating a military answer to every foreign or domestic challenge along with excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others.” In our country it also has taken on the meaning of using so-called patriotism to distract Americans from the lying, cheating and stealing of our CC’s (criminal corporations) and the military-industrial complex. You do understand that in the latter part of the 20^th Century and on up to this moment that one of the main assignments of the CIA and the military is to support the growth in foreign countries of our CC’s don’t you? If not see the following list of resources:

1. John Perkins.org the author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

2. CounterPunch.org

3. Dissent Magazine

4. Columbian Trade Unionists Assassinated by Paramilitaries Paid by American Companies, Congress Told.

5. Chiquita Banana Company is Fined $25 million for Paying Off Columbian Paramilitary Groups

But let me back to my original thought, jingoism. This is the specialty of the Republicans. They have zealously fed and watered the War Machine in this country. Specifically, they wave the Red White and Blue to frame our country’s imperialism as “defending our freedom and restoring democracy” in whatever place we are creating a war. That gives them the cover to justify whatever atrocities we carry out. But when it comes to supporting our troops, in their perilous return to society, it’s a different story. If you look at the Disabled American Veterans site you can see a list of the specific votes on key Veteran’s bills by Ralph Hall, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey from the perspective of the DAV’s legislative agenda. At least Kay Bailey voted for improving the health care of women Veterans but none of them is helping to sponsor the New GI Bill which the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) and the VFW advocates. Can you say cold-blooded hypocrites? In Ralph Hall’s case this is simply astounding. Didn’t he go to college on the GI Bill after WW II? Obviously he doesn’t think the veteran’s returning from Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the same benefits that he received. I understand that Hall came from very humble beginnings and worked damn hard for what he has, to bad he has forgotten where he came from. Glen Melancon is going to make a great replacement for this dried up old hypocrite. Speaking of replacements, Rick Noriega is within 4-5 points of Johnny Corny-on.

Winter Legend

We will say to the children-

Once there was a winter

They will blink their eyes
and stare at us.
They will wonder
what wool was for.
And the meaning of hearth.

To teach them
we will take them
to the top of the world
and let them, with great care,
touch the snow.

They will ask-

What happened to the winter?

We will life up our eyes
to the dusky blue and say-

Forgive us. We burned the sky.

Margie McCreless Roe
Texas Observer May 2, 2008 pg 19