September 23, 2007 at 11:33:23

it's time to be good friends to our Senators

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By MikeHersh (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

These Democrats rejected the vast majority of Americans to embrace the tiny, dwindling pro-war base and declared passionate, principled opposition to a war based on lies and deceit out of bounds: Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Conrad (D-ND) Dorgan (D-ND) Feinstein (D-CA) Johnson (D-SD) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Leahy (D-VT) McCaskill (D-MO) Mikulski (D-MD) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Salazar (D-CO) Tester (D-MT) Webb (D-VA) Lincoln (D-AR)

If Democrats want to be the "deciders," we'd better learn to make better decisions and not obey Bush like docile lap dogs. Barking at MoveOn is not the way to "plant the seeds for a big victory." If we want to win, we have to start to stand for something. We have to stand up to an Administration that is running amok. We have to rise up against the right wing rhetoric and risk excoriation from FOX News and others. We have to show the voters that we take the name Democrat seriously. Write back when the DSCC is doing that. Until then, I'll donate my time and money with people who have the guts to fight for my values and principles.

Ann Coulter advocates executions to "intimidate liberals," writes books accusing Democrats of "Treason," and chides terrorists for not blowing up the NY Times Building. Rush Limbaugh claims liberals want people to get AIDS. Bush and Cheney warned that a vote for a Democrat would invite "mushroom clouds" over our cities. Republican TV spots morphed Democrats including then-Senator Max Cleland into bin Laden. Our Senators took no action. No resolutions condemning these attacks on our national character.

MoveOn was far more generous than Petraeus' immediate boss Admiral William Fallon who called him an "ass kissing chickens***." It's self-defeating, stupid, and downright un-American for the Senate to waste its time intimidating citizens from exercising their freedom of speech. The Americans who paid for this ad have been correct about Iraq while the Senate has repeatedly been wrong. The Senate's time would be better undoing the harm it is complicit in creating.

If the Senate is going to take offense - take offense at being lied into an illegal war and endless occupation. Take offense at being intimidated into sacrificing the civil liberties that provide the foundation of a free country and an antidote to tyranny. Take offense at the Neo-Con proto-fascist, imperialist fantasies that have set our economy back, destroyed our standing in the community of nations, and continue to take a tragic toll of human lives.

I am calling and faxing my Senators to express disgust over their votes, and demanding they vote to repeal this shameful resolution. They should condemn Bush's misuse of the military as PR stooges and the "cherry-picked" intelligence used to engineer this immoral war. Call your Senators. Faxes work. Don't send letters, they must be screened for anthrax. The sender(s) of the poison packages is still at large, so is bin Laden. Anyone for resolving to condemn someone for that?

Use the Op-Ed News Action Form to contact the Senators who caved in to the right wing by attacking MoveOn for accurate criticism of Bush and Gen. David Patraeus. Also, FAX a Spineless Citation to any Senators who voted to "censure" MoveOn.org for an ad which raised legitimate concerns about the Bush Administration's politicization of the military by sending Patraeus to Congress as a PR stooge. The Timid Twenty Two blew it. Tell them you know they screwed up.

1 | 2