Day 2 of O'Neill bomb -- Any DC Dem's Outraged? No anger ...no comments?

Where in the hell are our elected officials in a time of "democracy before our eyes"?

Where is the "outrage" for being lied to? Where are the press conferences calling for an immediate "independent investigation"?

Where is any Democrat on any "talking head" talk show?


They could be hitting the airwaves sharing how they have been deceived (like dean/clark have)....what the hell is going on?

Call and write your sen/congress rep...and demand some action. This is your opportunity to "take back America"...expose the corrupt "media" their blatant support for the "elite agenda".

prepare his anti-Dem commercials for the upcoming election:)..

I am really starting to despair when I see these things bubbling to the surface, and our people apparently could not care less.. Every one of them should have been hitting on this..This is theonly time they have gotten any media attention in the last 3 years, and they cannot seem to see their way clear to attack Bush at every opportunity.. They would rather form a circular firing squad and blast away at each other..
There have been so many scandals or "potential" scandals, if only they had reacted..

Take any of the recent ones and substitute the name Clinton for Bush, and is there any guess on how long it would have taken the repubes to get all their little pundits out there on every show?? They would have had Clinton ready for impeachment again on half of the things that came out about Bush & his gang..

Our people are asleep at the wheel again.. and the precious few radio shows we have, cannot give these stories "legs"..

Paul O'Neill (little twit that he may be) has offered up a prize, and unfortunately, he will be pilloried before any Dem steps up to the plate and uses this story.. They will wait too long and it will be "old news".. Like everything else..

The Bushistas know that if they just duck the press and wait it out, their hate radio people and their FauxFiends will make it all better and it will fade away..

I'm from the U.K and all I see in your so called leadership are a bunch of cowards who are so scared of being caught out that they won't act.

Career politicians who'd rather lose comfortably that fight uncomfortably hard and win.

system that acts on the behalf of "one agenda".

This can be a another thread and a much bigger problem.

This is the "acid test" to see IF American has a democracy itself.

It may be that we Dem knew this all along and what the Republicans do to O'Neill will be the more interesting results of this. I my self believe loyal to the voters is more important than to any President.

mentioned rebuilding the Democrat party from dog-catcher to senators.

If our party doesn't grab this chance, I predict and believe we wil never have the chance again.
We will be a one party nation and with all the things this means.

really the only one who is truely a populist?

i am pleased that most candidates are...that is NOT the point.

what about OUR elected officials...you know...the ones that represent us.

What's Dean gonna do?

Wave a magic wand and suddenly make the beltway Dems care?

They don't care and nothing will make them care.

that it would be a big risk to take too tough a stance on this until they can determine if O'Neill is legit or not. I think he's legit but then I don't have a politic future to worry about. I expect that after the dust has settle a little bit that the heat will turn up a little. But there is always the danger that waiting too long could be a disadvantage too. I think your idea of calling your reps is the best for right now so I will be writing to mine.

I mean, after all, this is the same Democratic Party that has rolled over for the Patriot Act, the Iraq War Resolution, the tax cuts for the rich, the Plame affair, Medicare "reform", and on and on ad nauseum. Why are they going to change their MO now?

Two political parties with the same corporate master, and people keep wondering why I'm working for a complete change. The Democratic Party by and large no longer has the cojones for a fight. I want a party that will stand up and fight for me, for what is right, and the Dems, with a few noted exceptions, no longer have any fight left in them.

test the water first. She was intelligent and educated--it was just her means of survival in a world in which she was dealt a few bad hands. It worked well for her survival but she was not good at making or keeping friends. People get tired of being the decision maker and then being played for a schlump one way or the other. I think that is a means of survival for the old time boys in the congress critter club, with the exception, in this case, of Senator Byrd and Dennis and I am not sure that in the past Byrd and Kucinich did not also play that game.

They hang back waiting for some poor schlump to make the bold move and that poor schlump may get Rovererd or may not. If not, they can jump on the bandwagon and claim it theirs. This is why I will not vote for Kerry, Gebhart or Lieberman. I believe they are too entrenched in that kind of frustrating dance. It is not the time for it now--but they still dance it. It does look as though they are scared of Bush--anyone not challenging this boy now, has got to either be scared , threatened in some way by Bush, or just plain stupid, deaf, blind and dumb.

Those who would comment--it could be they are checking facts--there are a lot of them and it could be they are reading the book some. I don't know why I am making excuses--nothing else to do I guess.

As current representatives, they should be taking a stand and DOING something, other than promising to fight.

On Meet the Press this Sunday, all Kerry did was talk about how he was a fighter, and he was going to fight this, and fight that, and he had fought, and blah, blah, blah. All of the candidates talk about how they will turn the direction of the country away from the Bush junta if they are elected. But talk is cheap.

So come on gentlemen, show me you can do something other than move your lips when it is expedient to do so and there is nothing on the line.

All of these people are so busy running for office, that they are totally forgetting what they were elected to do, namely, to REPRESENT THEIR CONSTITUENCY.

I saw the press release at the top of a thread.... so don't blame him. I'll have to look around on others.

and I applaud him for that.

What we need now is not more campaign rhetoric, but some action. The Democrats need to corral the current investigations into the Plame case and the investigation into the administrations use of intelligence to promote the war and frame it into an impeachment inquiry.

The Democratic leadership must get on the airwaves and make the case to the American public, and more importantly, get the ball rolling on criminal inquiry into the misdeeds of this administration.

The only Democrat I saw yesterday on CNN or MSNBC was a former speech writer for Clinton. That's Bullshit! If the Democrats are too weak and cowardly to act on the behalf of all Americans, they should recuse themselves from serving.

We are in a crises of governance, and it is high time some elected officials do what they were elected to do. Campaign utterances, especially by those such as Clark and Dean, are meaningless because they are only promises of action at some point in the future.

We have issues now that need attention. Those in a position to do something should quit promising and start delivering.

"Retired Gen. Wesley Clark said O'Neill "confirms my worst suspicions about this administration," while Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said, "Now we find from Secretary O'Neill that the president was planning on attacking Iraq before 9/11 and that the American people, in effect, have been misled by this."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040113_240.html

Kerry Responds to O'Neill Iraq Charges
Former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has charged that planning for a war against Iraq began just days after Bush took office in 2001, more than two years before the actual invasion. White House spokesman Scott McClellan would not confirm or deny O'Neill's charge.

John Kerry issued the following statement in response to Secretary O'Neill's Iraq charges:

Des Moines, Iowa -- “These are very serious charges by a former high ranking Administration official. We already knew the Administration failed to focus on the threat from Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda. We already knew the Administration broke every promise they made to work through the U.N., use the resolution to enforce inspections, build a coalition, and plan for peace. But Secretary O’Neill’s revelations would mean the Administration never intended to even try to keep those promises. It would mean they were dead-set on going to war alone since almost the day they took office and deliberately lied to the American people, Congress, and the world. It would mean that for purely ideological reasons they planned on putting American troops in a shooting gallery occupying an Arab country almost alone. The White House needs to answer these charges truthfully because they threaten to shatter their already damaged credibility as never before.”


Posted in Policy | Entry link | Comments (67)
By DickBell on January 10, 2004 at 10:11 PM

John Kerry on TV on Sunday
See why John Kerry's gaining momentum in Iowa when he joins Tim Russert this Sunday, Jan. 11th, on NBC's Meet the Press. Check local listings for the exact time.

John Kerry will participate in the Brown and Black Forum in Des Moines, IA on Sunday, January 11th. This debate is sponsored by MSNBC and the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum.



The debate will air live on MSNBC and on Telemundo International from 8-10 PM Eastern Standard Time, and will also air on Telemundo, C-SPAN, and the Major Broadcasting Corporation at a later date. The debate will be aired on Telemundo and Telemundo International in Spanish. Check local listings for the exact time.


Posted in Events | Entry link | Comments (158)
By DickBell on January 10, 2004 at 06:38 PM

Kerry: What Bush Can't See
John Kerry issued this statement in response to President Bush's rosy claims about the state of the nation's economy in Bush's weekly radio address.

Des Moines, IA – “Today, in his radio address President Bush had the audacity to tell the nation that his tax cuts for the wealthy “got this economy going again.” It’s just more proof that President Bush’s former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill was right. As this Bush-league, jobless recovery continues, George Bush looks at the economy like “a blind man in a room full of deaf people.”

“The President can’t see that on his watch 29,000 manufacturing jobs in Iowa have disappeared, while his Administration rewards Benedict Arnold corporations with billions of dollars in federal contracts and tax incentives to take jobs overseas and profits offshore. The President turns a blind eye to Iowa’s seniors who suffer with the lowest Medicare reimbursement rate in the country, while the Administration rewards $139 million in lobbying by the drug companies with $139 billion in windfall profits from a Medicare destruction bill.”

Continue reading this entry...

Posted in Policy | Entry link | Comments (15)
By DickBell on January 10, 2004 at 03:54 PM

First Two Iowa Newspaper Endorsements Go to Kerry
Iowa's newspapers are starting to weigh in, and the first two papers to endorse, the Iowa City Press-Citizen and the Quad-City Times, both chose John Kerry.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen told its readers today that " Democrats should back John Kerry." According to the editors,

"Of the nine Democrats seeking the nomination, Kerry possesses the right experiences to best serve as president, particularly with American troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and considering our nation's increasingly uneasy relationship with long-standing allies."
The editors also liked Kerry's health care plan, and praised his economy plan

"...for balancing the federal budget not by massive harsh cuts to programs or through outlandish tax hikes that hurt everyday Americans, but by developing our economy and hence increasing our tax revenues."
The Quad-City Times says this year is "A Time for John Kerry." The editors said that all the candidates spoke well, but that John Kerry was different:

"Kerry listens. He ponders questions, asks follow-ups and answers thoughtfully. He appears to be continually learning...
"That quality and an extraordinary record of public service make him the best potential president among the crop of contenders in Iowa."
Posted in Endorsements | Entry link | Comments (30)
By DickBell on January 10, 2004 at 03:07 PM

http://blog.johnkerry.com/

Kerry is not calling for any action, or even better, using his position to initiate action, he is just being a critic.

Statement from Governor Dean on Paul O'Neill
DES MOINES-Governor Howard Dean made the following statement today:

"Last week's report by the Carnegie Endowment on International Peace on weapons of mass destruction and today's coverage of Secretary O'Neill's statements about the Bush administration's march to war only reaffirm my belief in how important it was for someone to stand up last year before we went to war.

"If Paul O'Neill as a member of the National Security Council didn't see evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, if he saw a President disengaged in the policy process, if Colin Powell saw no evidence of a 'smoking gun' tie between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein - what exactly did the Democrats who supported the war see? Why didn't they ask the tough questions before the war, not six months later?

"Leadership is the courage to stand up and ask the tough questions, to stand up for what you believe -- even when the polls tell you it may not be popular."

Posted by Mathew Gross at 06:42 PM

http://blogforamerica.org/

Rep. Dick Gephardt, a Democratic presidential contender who supported the war, said at a campaign stop in Iowa: "It's a worrisome fact, and we need to look into it and find out what really went on."

http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/12/news/economy/oneill_probe/?cnn=yes

In the context, I honestly can't tell what Gephardt is saying is worrisome.

I couldn't find anything from Lieberman, Edwards, and Sharpton. Braun had clearly not updated her website in a couple of days, so something may yet be coming that hasn't been posted.

Enter Saddam Hussein

<SNIP>

A little background is necessary: In June of 1997 a group of former republican administration officials launched The Project for the New American Century, a think tank offering research and analysis on a “revolution” in modern military methods and military objectives. Like the energy task force, the passionate neo-conservative authors endowed their Principles with hard-hitting force, calling for the necessity of “preserving and extending an international order friendly” to America’s “security, prosperity and principles.” The founders wrote: “The history of the 20th Century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge and to meet threats before they become dire.” In fact, on pages 51 and 67 of the institution’s intellectual centerpiece, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, the authors lament that the process of transforming the military would most likely be a long one, “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.” (How unfortunate for Americans, they got their needed event on September 11, 2001.)

The signers to the “principles” read like a who’s who of the Bush administration plus a chorus line of supporters: Dick Cheney, I. Lewis Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliott Abrams, plus world famous: William Bennett, Jeb Bush, and Dan Quayle, among others.

The signers endorsed two other dynamic enabling policies: increased military spending, and the necessity of challenging “regimes hostile to America’s interests and values.”

The seventy-six-page Rebuilding America’s Defenses was published in 2000. With a lot of expositional swagger, the authors created not only the ideal military preparedness level for their goal of global domination, but they identified a new kind of warfare that requires far less “force” than the military was accustomed to accept. What’s more, they identified the “hostile regimes” mentioned in the “Principles” to be none other than Iraq, North Korea, Iran and Syria.



http://www.yuricareport.com/PoliticalAnalysis/FraudinWhiteHouse.htm