On A Clear Monday, You Can See the Humanitarian Crisis

Posted by Liberadio(!) on September 17, 2007 under Uncategorized |

Links from this morning’s show:

Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Rep. Mike Turner, the Fightin’ 51st!

“Will the Democrats Betray Us?,” By Frank Rich (The New York Times)

Mr. Bush, confident that he got away with repackaging the same bankrupt policies with a nonsensical new slogan (”Return on Success”) Thursday night, is counting on the public’s continued apathy as he kicks the can down the road and bides his time until Jan. 20, 2009; he, after all, has nothing more to lose. The job for real leaders is to wake up America to the urgent reality. We can’t afford to punt until Inauguration Day in a war that each day drains America of resources and will. Our national security can’t be held hostage indefinitely to a president’s narcissistic need to compound his errors rather than admit them.

“The Spoils of War: Billions Over Baghdad,” By Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele (Vanity Fair)

Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in US currency - much of it belonging to the Iraqi people - was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam’s palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.

“It Only Takes 51 Senators to End This War,” By Robert Naiman (CommonDreams.org)

With less than 60 votes, the Senate attached a timetable for withdrawal. The President, as expected, vetoed the legislation. Then the Senate backed down.

“Fed’s Ex-Chief Attacks Bush on Fiscal Role,” By Edmund Andrews and David E. Sanger (NY Times)
And on his politics, and his war, and his abandonment of “conservative” principles…but it’s ok, he’s just trying to sell books.