Where are our armbands?

Turn up your volume. It'll make you feel more patriotic.

http://www.unsubscribe-me.org/waitingfortheguards.php?

How is this worth it?

Tens of thousands of US troops killed or wounded. Millions of Iraqis displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed or wounded.

And now we conclude it is costing us $12 billion a month.

Can anyone please explain to me why you think this is worth it? How is this benefiting me and you?

Trade

Hey everyone,

So I'm new to posting, although I've tried to keep up with what you all have written since Rachel invited me contribute. Here's an opinion article I just read called "The Pain of Globalisation."

http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_viewpoints_pain_of_globalisation

It talks about the negative impact of trade on American worker's wages and why that's happening. Globalization is inevitable, and potentially also beneficial, but there are certain considerations that have to be made. Like demanding that the people who contribute the labor used to produce the goods we ultimately buy here are ensured basic rights. I also think government supported (at least partially) training for people who find their jobs shipped oversees so they can become employed again is a good idea.

Any thoughts?

The Prez: Torture and Tapping, Power and Privilege

Power and the Presidency: A PBS interview with Charles Fried and Frederick Schwarz.

Intro
Part 1 of the interview
Part 2 of the interview

Charles Fried served as Solicitor General of the United States under President Reagan from 1985-1988. After Reagan left office, Fried returned to Harvard Law School as a distinguished lecturer. From 1995 until 1999, while teaching constitutional law at Harvard, Charles Fried was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, "the oldest appellate court in continuous existence in the Western Hemisphere."

Frederick (Fritz) A. O. Schwarz, Jr. is the senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. He had been a partner with the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore since 1969. Schwarz was the lead counsel for the Church Committee, a Senate committee formed in 1975 in reaction to the Watergate scandal that investigated executive overreach stretching back to the FDR administration, eventually issuing 14 reports over three years.

Everyone should definitely check this interview out when you get a spare moment. It's so nice to hear reasonable people (both conservative and liberal) who have the experience and knowledge to speak intelligently about these issues. And you can read the transcript if you miss something. 

Disclaimer: I do realize it's Bill Moyers, guys (F and T, you know who you are), but Fried was Reagan's boyeeeee! And get this-- I learned so much about secret wire-tapping from him that I have had a total turnaround and am all for it, with the proper Congressional oversight. To deter 'Mission creep.' I love that phrase. That's right. Secret wiretapping: FOR. 

Iraqi Army

Here is a nice view of the Iraqi Army in training. I know I feel good about 'em.



Yes, that's real.

my friend steve is an iraq vet, so when he sends something i look at it. more of what you've seen, but interesting to see it spliced together this way.

3 Quotes

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

"It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

- James Madison