The Times They Are A-Flaking.

Following another boisterous protest of the House Appropriations Committee, The Encampment sits just across the reflecting pool overlooking the Capitol. There, several anti-war groups including Code Pink have erected a stage, meeting tents and work tables for a week-long series of events, leading up to a March and gathering on the National Mall Saturday, September 29th.
Just as the timing of General David Petraeus' and Ambassador Ryan Crocker's testimony before the Armed Services Committee coincided with the anniversary of 9/11, the anti-war movement has stepped up its efforts to complement these events by holding protests on the Mall simultaneously. With another Defense Department request nearing $200 billion for 2008, Code Pink members attended the Hearings, heckling and chanting in an attempt to echo the indignation of the Committee. Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D. W.VA) was in quite the indignant mood, directing most of his wrath at Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with great alarm at the price tag, most of which is to fund the production of the latest Armored Humvees. After several declarations by Byrd were echoed by the women in pink, the Chairman had enough, evicting the group from the premises, declaring that "he should have evicted them before they'd ever been born".

Verne Huffman and Code Pink member Liz Hourican
"When somebody goes to your house and doesn't want to leave, then you understand what occupation is, then you understand the urgency that we feel" said Liz Hourican , a member of Code Pink from Phoenix. When asked about the viability of the protests of her group in contrast with lobbying she added "Protests are important, it's a great outreach but I feel that lobbying at this point and being in the halls of where the decisions and where the power structure happens to be really comfortable is the answer." She also maintains that her group of Women Against the War were founded out of love for our country, utilization of "Visually bright, savvy and creative methods" and "fun is a big part of it".
Vernon Huffman was also present on Wednesday Evening in front of the capitol. His organization emphasizes bicycling as a necessary tool to decrease America's reliance on the oil resources of foreign governments, often seen as the precursor to war. His outlook on the passing of the next supplemental was grim. "There's no doubt that the machinery of war profiteering is time-tested, it's been around for a long, long time, and it's going to take a lot of us throwing sand in the gears to make it stop. But we are closer now than we have ever been"
The presidential candidate currently held in highest regard by the small crowd was Dennis Kucinich. Citing his trip to Lebanon last year during the conflict with Israel, Hourican proclaimed "Kucinich has a plan. He's speaking my language he's a man of character and integrity."
Overall, the sparsely attended event at The Encampment resembled a much smaller version of protests held on the National Mall in the 1960s and 70s during the Vietnam War. President Bush has been consistently in the negative when asked about the similarities between the two conflicts. But to the anti-war movement they are inseparable. Currently, other events such as the Katrina disaster, the Jena 6, the Scooter Libby trial, warrantless wiretapping and the Alberto Gonzales investigation have been added to the cauldron of misdeeds invoked by the protest movement, cited as cause to call for Bush's impeachment. But regarding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's efforts to end the war or Bush's presidency, Huffman was resigned to to despair "She can take war funding off the table and put impeachment back on, certainly the people of her district would support her, I can't tell you what her point of reality is, it's clear to me what her constituents want ."
For the rest of the evening, singers recycled 60s songs by Dylan, Van Morrison & Buffalo Springfield, with updated lyrics ironically linked to Bush. Tie-dyed war veterans recounted their experience in detail. Strings of logic stretched far into the possibilites of improvement the protesters envisioned. For some it seemed just like the 60s. The same place, the same cause, only on a much smaller scale, but no less important.


Singer:Ron Malero

Endless Summer

Our duty as American's is to serve our country. If we are not in a position to serve as tradition dictates, the tradition now is to blog. If we must blog, let it be of substance, not to wax giggly over our last haul at Target, which perhaps I'm guilty of, but that's another story for another day.

I watch the news in all it's formats. I know about Britney as well as I know Iraq, and even an amateur news source should give equal time to the banal and the grotesque. How can we not admit, both subjects and their abjective planes have been on our mind. Heck for the last two years it seems like I hear of nothing else.

Following a previous post I lambasted the Congress for their douchebaggedry of persistent hastily-prepared bills calling for withdrawal from Iraq. My feeling was, great guys, but you missed the boat a couple of months back, by passing the supplemental, backing the surge. Apparently this only further alienated the Republicans in Congress who took this simpering defeat as an alignment with the common enemy-Bush. Sheesh! Anything to get elected in '08!

With the approval ratings as low as they are it's hard to imagine that the motivations of these politicians are rooted in the present, or to solidify positioning in next years campaign. Apparently John McCain is stuck in a nether region of both and has Gulagged himself out of contention practically.

Less than a month ago the consensus was that there was progress in Iraq. It could not be projected if the calm-by-Iraq standards would continue through the summer. Bush would cite this progress at every chance, with the proviso that Petraeus would most likely affirm this military progress.

A comparison of our Congress and the Iraqi parliament: pre-vacation.
Our Congress is unable to pass legislation, grounded by party-line votes and veto threats. Also sidelined by oversight investigations, gaining little new intel, but setting new standards for baffling non-answers, 5th amendment invocation and blame passing.
The Iraqi parliment is run by a Shiite tribesman, who was once sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein in 1980. He fled to Syria and plotted assassination attempts on Saddam from abroad. Now does he seem like the kind of guy willing to split power of the country with the Sunni? Apparently the Sunni think not. After boycotting Parliament for a month, the Sunni came back, apparently forgetting their gum .

Our main area of progress in Iraq is Anbar Province. This is a Sunni area, which was cleared of Al Quaida insurgents by Sunni insurgents, armed by the US. This has alienated Al-Maliki's government, but all they can do is ask the US to kindly withdraw, which is not going to happen.

Are we the problem? We didn't start the shitstorm, but we sure as shit stirred it up and it's costing us a whole lotta shit. So Bush better get his shit together and come up with some other shit, because this shit we're working ain't it.

The scary process of democracy

You only have to live in DC and read the papers everyday to be truly consumed by the perplexing process of our democracy. How the hell do things get done when you have two parties doing their cleverest jobs getting in each other's way and stymie a bill solely on the grounds that it came from the OTHER guys. On top of that you have a president with a 30% approval rating complaining that there's too much "politics" going on! (!!!)
Pot-meet kettle.
We in DC. approximately 500,000 citizens have no voice in the House because we are not a state. And we won't be because it's 90& democratic. Yep, George hates us. The whole freakin' place makes him sick. Why the fuck did he become president?
Oh, daddy, is it my turn yet? Oh daddy I'll get that bad Saddam for you, he tried to kill you!
We cut and run in 1991 and let Saddams helicopters fly over Bagdad and wipe out thousands of Shiites. That was Dick Cheney's call! Oh an invasion wouldn't do there, huh? That's because #41 was soooo smart. What a cheap victory that was.
Sorry, ranting...ancient history.

So we have Pelosi and Murtha floating up another vote with all kinds of conditions and a timetable to end the war. Is this the best they could do. Well, the politics dictate that they want a pull out date, but no immediate cut in spending. This is all elementary because it will be vetoed. Back to square one. And to the next arena, give Bush's advisors Rove and AG A.G. a whole lotta shit, so much that at least one of them will be out of a job mmmm, probably two weeks from now.
We are not moving forward people. We are stuck in bureacratic mud and dusty sandy IED laden mud in Iraq.
A fine example of democracy we set, and are selling to the people of Iraq, what's left of them.
It's only fitting, and historically consistent that Iraq is in a civil war with meddlesome outsiders involved with their own interests in the region. It has been this way for centuries, but never before has so much been at stake. There are some things in this world you dont' want to fuck with. Bush is doing it and doing it and doing it all wrong.