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Martin 48, Male
United States

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Writers Wanted!
6 Replies

Started this discussion. Last reply by Reverend Jesse Ranee Apr. 22, 2007.

San Diegans, wanna do something fun?
1 Reply

Started this discussion. Last reply by sweeet pea Apr. 12, 2007.

 

Profile Information

Location
San Diego
Relationship status
Single
About me
Principal, Thrive | Action -- advertising, campaign and web design for progressive politicals, PACs, advocacy groups and non-profits. Thrive | Action is a discipline of Thrive Mediarts Incorporated, a socially conscious design, advertising and marketing firm based in San Diego, California
Interests
Design, politics, activism, drawing, painting, cooking, ephemera, old books, movies good and bad, walking, hiking, camping, travelling, robots, burlesque, lucha libre, advertising posters of the 1890s, arts and crafts pottery, and an obsession with the illustrated works of Edward Penfield and Will H. Bradley. Pretty old-school, huh?
Organizations I belong to
AIGA, Graphic Artists Guild, The Graphic Alliance, Designers Against Monoculture, BBB, ACLU
My website
http://thr5.com/
Other profile
http://myspace.com/thr5
Another website I think is cool
http://www.BloodForOil.org
Books
Krishnamurti, Hesse, Euripides, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Faust, anything by Edward R. Tufte, Ray Bradbury, William Burroughs, or the late Hunter S. Thompson, Schroedinger's Cat, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Dracula, Brideshead Revisited, DaVinci Code, Holy Blood, Messianic Legacy, Beyond Belief, The Gnostic Gospels, and the list goes on...
Music
Keltik Kharma, Brigid Boden, Ashley MacIsaac, Martini Kings, Mark O'Connor, Enya, Nickel Creek, Eurythmics, A Perfect Circle, Muse, Franz Ferninand, Gogol Bordello, Yello, Kraftwerk, Devo, Tomita, Tan Dun, George Gao, Phillip Glass, Mozart, Scarlatti, Paganini, Prokofiev, Roy Orbison, K.D. Lang, B-52s, Talking Heads, Louis Prima, Screamin Jay Hawkins, Dean and Denny Martin, Gene Krupa, Sam Butera, little bit of Elvis, T-Rex, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Proclaimers, Sex Pistols, Social Distortion, The Clash, Ramones, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, The Hives, She Wants Revenge
Movies
Die Nibelungen, The Gold Rush, Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, The General, Metropolis, M, Frankenstein, Freaks, Bride of Frankenstein, Fury, Maltese Falcon, Citizen Kane, Notorious, The Third Man, Sunset Boulevard, High Noon, Seven Samurai, Vertigo, Bridge on the River Kwai, Dr Stangelove, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Wild Bunch, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cabaret, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Slap Shot, Rollerball, Kansas City Bomber, Animal House, Apocalypse Now, Amadeus, Blood Simple, Buckaroo Bonzai, Alien, Brazil, Tremors, Shakes the Clown, Raising Arizona, Blue Velvet, Tombstone, Nikita, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill (pt 1), O Brother Where Art Thou?, Run Lola Run, The Professional, Amelie, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mousehunt, Heat, The Fifth Element, Office Space, Haute Tension, Fight Club, A Very Long Engagement, Romeo + Juliet, The Ring, Old School, Moulin Rouge, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Zoolander, Dodgeball, Napoleon Dynamite, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Producers (2005), Kung Foo Hustle, Nacho Libre, Little Miss Sunshine, and many more...

Thrive | Action

Doing what we can for the common good. Graphic design for web (this site) and print (see below), advertising, and marketing services. One of our ongoing projects is BloodForOil.org, an anti-war artwork collective of more than 300 different designs from artists around the world. People like YOU have downloaded our art more than one million times! Thanks!


Thrive | Action is a discipline of Thrive Mediarts Incorporated, a socially conscious graphic design, advertising and marketing firm based in San Diego, California.

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Martin's Blog

Martin

Okay. That's it! I've had it. How bout you?

If this is not enough to get America riled up, then it's just time to pack it in... Call the White House and tell 'em how pissed you are. Then have some of your friends do it too. You know what I'm doin tomorrow... In a statement issued today, Senator Joe Biden decried the commuted sentence for Libby. “It is time for the American people to be heard,” said Biden. “I call for all Americans to flood the White House with phone calls tomorrow expressing their outrage over this blatant disregard for… Continue

Posted on July 3, 2007 at 1:56am —

Martin

Impeach Bush Cheney bumpersticker art

Here's some new Impeach Bush-Cheney bumper sticker art we just created. Available in JPEG, PDF,

Continue

Posted on April 24, 2007 at 3:37am — 4 Comments

Martin

San Diegans: Wanna do something fun?

I'm thinkin throwies near the CA Democratic Convention (at night). Message me back if interested... Also guerilla postering downtown and around the country one week prior. And, of course, posting flyers around town, in coffeehouses, on campus, and at the Earth Day Earthfair. Whaddya all say? Who's with me?

Posted on April 11, 2007 at 12:37am — 1 Comment

Martin

Add a Banner!

WWW.A28.ORG

Put this banner on your Myspace profile, blog or website and help spread the word!

Copy and Paste the HTML below into any section of your Myspace profile, blog or website.

<a href="http://www.a28.org/"><img src="http://a28.org/images/a28.gif" width="200" height="113" alt="WWW.A28.OR… Continue

Posted on April 3, 2007 at 3:42am — 1 Comment

Martin

Numbers that don't lie

Who says the call for impeachment isn't popular? At MeetUp.com, there are over 1,170 impeachment meetups nationwide! See the map: http://impeachbush.meetup.com/about/ Do a google search for "Impeach Bush" and whaddya get? About 1, 170,000 hits. And for the more impatient of you out there, a search for "Impeach Bush Now" returns about 345,000 hits... I say, "Let's get the A28 word out to them all!" Martin ;)

Posted on March 31, 2007 at 2:36pm — 2 Comments

Comment Wall (21 comments)

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At 3:08pm on August 19, 2007, Truthseeker22 said…
Martin,

Please see my post “Let’s Get Organized!”

Thank you, Steve
At 2:22pm on July 3, 2007, Aus911Truth said…
Hi Martin, thanks for making me your friend!
I believe your(and your friends') work is fantastic!! but could you please, not only forcus on Dubya and those in his administration but the big bosses behind the scene somehow? Cause, even though they are definitely responsible to what they've been doing and we need them in jail forever, they are puppets. And that's what that fantastic movie "V for Vendetta" didn't depict either.
At 6:02am on June 25, 2007, Kim said…
Martin,
Unbelievably, a second letter from a desperate soldier came to me today, from the nephew of my best friend:

Written today, this desperate letter is from Sargent Jason Walker, the nephew of some of our best friends, on his second tour in Iraq. PLEASE READ, and help get this letter out there, as he requested. Thanks if so. SEE THE LETTER BELOW.

PLEASE help publicize this letter!

Call me with any questions or for verification at (866) 569-7353..



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


From:
Subject: FW: Update 24 june 07
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:59:29 -0400


Kim, Please read what my nephew Jason just sent and do your best. Deb
_______________________________
>
>From: Jason Walker [mailto:jbw1416@yahoo.com]
>Sent: Sun 6/24/2007 3:24 AM

>Subject: Update 24 june 07

>Hello everyone!!!

> Well its been a couple of weeks since my last
>letter to the group. I just want to start off by
>saying that it has been one of the toughest times of
>my life and without your prayers I don't think I wold
>have made it this far. If it hadn't been for the Lord
>that's for sure.


> Keep your prayers up my friends. The Army is in
>a reaaly bad spot right now. What we hear our
>leadership telling the American people isn't the case
>at all really. The common line soldier is not being
>heard. I want you to know the truth. The truth from a
>soldier from the gound in the middle of Bagdad.
> We are not making progress. I can tell you from
>the last time I was here in 05 that we are fighting a
>whole new beast. Instead of a few individuals from a
>different land we are now fighting the whole country.
>The streets are empty. The people that supported
>liberty and freedom have long been killed or have
>moved. I cleared a group of houses the other day that
>was at least 50% abandoned. The only people that seem
>to want us here are the people we put in power.


> How is this a Godly war? How is forcing our way
>on another country that doesn't want us here the right
>answer. Sure the government we put in place needs our
>help, yet we gave them power for which they aren't
>inclined to give up too easily.
> This county is in the middle of a civil war.
>They tell us we are on Iraq's side. Well Iraq wants to
>be free to fight thier own battles, Sunni and Shiite
>alike.


> Alll this being said it's not the fight for
>freedom that upsets me. If I saw citizens dragging
>terrorists in the streets and wanting Liberty I would
>gladly give my life for that cause. That is not the
>case at all. The people keep thier mouth's shut and
>therefore the Terrorists leave them alone. Thats all
>they want anyway.


> Well an Army is held together by a "cause" . A
>cause to hold the soldiers together, a cause to give
>them some cause for sacrifice. Four of my close
>friends gave that sacrifice the other day. Death is
>part of a soldiers life. It is the accepted risk. The
>price for Liberty. The hardest part has been
>justifying thier sacrifice. Is so many good many lost
>worth the freedom of a country who doesn't really want
>us here. I say no.


> When is this going to stop? When is enough,
>enough? Please we need your help. The common soldier
>needs your help. The soldier that signed up to serve
>and protect his country with no political gain needs
>your help. The command is not representig the truth.
>They are representing thier careers. It is costing you
>your son's and daughter's lives. Please stand up and
>help us. Bring us home!! Bring your sons and daughters
>home.....it's time.


> I am a believer in my Christ Jesus. I pray
>everyday that the Lord will bring His wisdom down on
>the leadership of our country. I believe that these
>people have seen nothing but violence their entire
>life. How are we bringing them any difference. Christ
>looked at the individual. We need to help this country
>one person at a time with the love of Christ. The Lord
>will bring His Judgement when the time is right. There
>are good people here, yet they are ruled by fear. They
>need Christ's love.


> I dont think they have the burdon of liberty on
>their hearts yet. You have to want, desire, and yearn
>for Liberty and be willing and ready to sacrifice
>everythig for that cause. That is what I don't see. It
>has a heavy cost and it cannot be bought by anyone but
>yourself.
> Please send this to whomever you please, The
>county need to know the truth. In fact, please send
>this out to as many people as you want.

>In Him

>SGT Walker, Jason

>B CO 1-64 AR BN Delete Comment
At 11:34am on June 9, 2007, Kim said…
How 3 Activists, 1 Minister, & 1 Program Director Helped a House Rep. Sign H. Res. 333 to Impeach Cheney

I want y'all to know it's possible. You may find your own ways to do it. Just don't give up. In the 4 DAYS since we met with Rep. Yvette Clarke in DC on Tues. June 5, SHE signed on, REP. WOOLSEY signed on, and REP. LEE signed on! Probably we can't take credit for the whole thing but every effort counts and adds up!

Here is the process that culminated in our Rep. making the call to cosponsor the bill to impeach Cheney:

1 - I went to DC to see my new Rep.Yvette Clarke, sworn in the first week of 2007. Had never met her, but I hung out in her office and met her supporters, staff, campaign advisors. Went into the celebration room in the Capitol where we saw her cermonial swearing-in. I introduced myself as a constituent interested in participatory democracy. Networked. Met her scheduler.

2 - Back home, I called her scheduler, trying to set up a meeting. In late Feb. the scheduler agreed, and asked if the Rep. could come to MY home. I set up a meeting with 35 people, including 3 Christian ministers I know (I work part-time in a church and have met some liberal clergy), a couple of people who have run for local office, a couple business owners and just neighborhood folks.

3 - With just 2 other activists in my neighborhood, we had multiple weekly lobbying contacts with her office focused on the Lee bill, all the Iraq Supplemental votes, and Impeachment, esp. after H. Res. 333 came up (in the form of emails and calls).

4 - Meanwhile we periodically emailed all who had attended the Feb. meeting, apprised of our contacts with her and encouraged them to lobby her during crucial vote times. Some did.

5 - One of the ministers we kept in the loop turned out to know the Congresswoman, and was also quite concerned about the Iraq moral crisis, the constitutional crisis, and the gathering of political power almost exclusively in the Unitary Executive branch. We spoke at some length, and we set up a meeting in Washington to meet with her and her Chief of Staff.

6 - We prepared a 45-page packet for Clarke including our agenda for the meeting, letters from 5 other clergy, urging her to take the lead on peace and accountability issues, plus extensive documentation on our issues; i.e., Supplementals, Oil Benchmarks, Unitary Executive powers, and H.Res. 333 for Impeaching Cheney. (Three of us local grassroots activists had researched and prepared this packet over several months.)

7 - During the course of the meeting, Rep. Clarke authorized her Chief of Staff to notify Kucinich's office that she wanted to cosponsor H. Res. 333. The phone call was made and it was done. She listened to us and she did it!

We have plans to continue our in-district netorking with other faith-based groups and keep building on this relationship with our Representative, continuing to advocate for peace and accountability and impeachment.

We also will talk and network with folks (from liberal groups, faith-based groups or wherever we find them) in nearby districts, recruit them to do their version what we've done with their Reps, and plan to go to Washington en masse to go visit each Brooklyn Rep's office in a round-robin set of meetings in one day, advocating for peace and impeachment!

Anyone from Brooklyn who is called to get in on this kind of advocacy, please contact us. Anyone from anywhere who wants to talk to us about having already done similar actions, or wants to ask us any questions or get encouragement, please get in touch with us! We are serious about this but also have some laughs, and it is satisfying to get some results once in awhile!
At 2:46am on June 6, 2007, Kim said…
GREAT IMPEACHMENT NEWS! Three fellow constituents and I met with Representative Yvette Clarke today in Washington, and at the end of the meeting she had her Chief of Staff have a staffer call Kucinich's office and sign on to H. Res. 333! This can happen MANY ways.
Happy Impeaching this summer!
At 5:40pm on May 21, 2007, Jessica said…
THANK YOU! For all
you do to make this world a
better place PTTP!

Deliver Peace AND IMPEACH! YES,we can.

DELIVER PEACE!
TO THE WHITE HOUSE!
(The NEW plan of ACTION!)



LET'S do IT!
IMPEACHMENT IS,ON THE TABLE!

you can contact these members of the Judiciary here:

Hon. Jerrold Nadler
202-225-5635
-----------
Hon. Howard L. Berman
(202) 225-4695
-----------
Hon. Zoe Lofgren
(202) 225-3072
------------
A HUGE-THANK YOU!
TO: all of you that have
added or allowed us to
put a DELIVER PEACE
link on your page,
Waitman has added a
"LOVE page"
see if you’re there.
Click that crazy little
Thank you Pic. below

In peace, Jess

At 11:18pm on May 20, 2007, monacong said…
Hawai'ian Independence Movement NYC forum
May 21, 2007 Monday 6:30PM doors open 7PM program
at the SOLIDARITY CENTER 55 West 17th Street 5th Floor (btwn 5th & 6th Av)
Manhattan/NYC
donations accepted/No One Turned Away

w/Speakers
Kai'opua Fyfe & 'Ehu Kekahu Cardwell of FreeHawaii.info

& Film
WE ARE WHO WE WERE: FROM RESISTANCE TO AFFIRMATION
On August 12, 1898, the US flag was raised over 'Iolani Palace in Honolulu, But was there really a treaty of annexation? And did Hawai'i really become a territory of the United States? Using archival photos and film, this program presents the legal and historic background to the annexation

www.FreeHawaii. info
www.Hawaii-Nation. org
co-sponsored by the Hawai'i Solidarity Committee & the IAC


http://hawaii.indymedia.org/
At 2:22pm on May 12, 2007, Kim said…
WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE from everybody else about the recent House vote approving the "Oil Theft" Supplemental Funding bill which didn't do a damn thing to stop the war? Where is Progressive Dems of America, for example?

When will we stop buying this "it's the best we can get right now" gradualism CRAP and get on board with "THE WHOLE IRAQ OCCUPATION AND OUR US 'SELECTED' ADMINISTRATION IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR ANOTHER MINUTE."

Anyone seen as supporting the goals of BushCo, including so called liberal and progressive orgs, needs to get slammed with a dose of reality. (I've quit supporting MoveOn, for example, and People for the American Way, other than to write them to get their act together.)

YO! Peace Radicals! Keep your eyes on the prizes! PEACE AND IMPEACHMENT.

YOUR OUTRAGE IS CRUCIAL TO WAKING UP THIS COUNTRY'S PEOPLE TO THE LIES!

MORE OUTRAGE, PLEASE!! As in Mike Taibbi, below:

Pelosi's New Iraq Supplemental Is Outright Colonial Robbery - By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com
Posted on May 9, 2007, Printed on May 11, 2007
There is a growing number of people out there who believe the Reid-Pelosi Iraq war supplemental is a gigantic crock of shit, and who think the Democratic Party leadership should now officially be labeled conspirators in the war effort. I've even seen it suggested that Reid and Pelosi should now be sent official "certificates of war ownership," to formally put them in a club with Bush, Cheney, Richard Perle and the rest of the actual war authors....

The growing tension between the real antiwar movement and the Democratic Party was reflected in a long article over the weekend in the New York Times. "Antiwar Groups Use New Clout to Influence Democrats." The piece that described how an umbrella group of antiwar activists called Americans Against the Escalation in Iraq was ready to drop the public relations hammer on the Dems, should they cave too easily in their negotiations with the president.

The thinking goes something like this: the Democrats, who are mostly the same people who voted for the war in the first place, don't really want to end it. They do, however, want to take political advantage of antiwar sentiment. So they will appear to be against the conflict but set things up in such a way that their "efforts" to end the war will fall just slightly short, like a fourth-quarter pass thrown by a point-shaving quarterback.

I was squarely in that camp until recently, when it occurred to me to wonder; if Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were to wake up one morning with innocent, uncorrupted brains and decide, really decide, to end the war in Iraq, how exactly would they do it? And the answer, I think we all have to admit, is: they would do it exactly the way they're doing it now.

Neither of these Democratic leaders, after all, are Huey Newton, or even Benjamin Spock. They are not going to get up on a table, shake a shoe in the direction of the White House, shout "Fuck you, pig!" and just turn off the money, consequences be damned. No, these are career bureaucrats, political herd animals who survive year after year by clinging for dear life to the concept of safety in numbers. They will watch the bushes with great big eyes to see what is rustling back there, and when exactly two-thirds of the herd decides to bolt, they all will -- not just the Democrats, but the Boehners and McConnells too, leaping over logs, tearing off big chunks of fur against the bark of trees, etc.

I can certainly see a scenario in which people like Reid and Pelosi would make a secret deal to compromise now and give Bush his money, in exchange for another bite at the apple later this year -- by which time a veto-overriding coalition of Democrats and "moderate" Republicans will have magically coalesced. The Republicans crossing the picket line later this summer will inevitably claim to have done so with heavy heart, out of principle and "concern for the safety of the troops," and yet at the same time there will mysteriously appear a new raft of appropriations calling for expensive dam and highway projects in certain districts. That tends to be the blueprint for how 67% of congress will catch up to 67% of the population on major issues like these.

So maybe Reid and Pelosi really are working the phones on this one, who knows. What I do know is this; there are elements of the Democratic-crafted Iraq supplemental that are not only severely regressive but would actually tend to encourage the continuation of the insurgency. Anyone who wants an example of why the areas in which the Democrats and Republicans are in agreement are more significant than the ones in which they differ need only look at the two parties nearly unanimous endorsement of the "Benchmarks" the Iraqi government must meet, according to the supplemental. The key passage reads as follows:

(2) whether the Government of Iraq is making substantial progress in meeting its commitment to pursue reconciliation initiatives, including a hydro-carbon law...

It is notable that the hydrocarbon law comes in first place in this clause, ahead of "legislation necessary for the conduct of provincial and local elections," reform of de-Baathification laws, amendments to the constitution and allocation of revenues for reconstruction projects. For whether or not it really was "all about oil" at the beginning of the war, the fate of the occupation really does hinge almost entirely upon oil initiatives now, as the continued presence of U.S. troops in the region may depend on whether or not the Iraqi government bites the bullet and decides to eat the proposed hydrocarbon law in question.

The law, endorsed here by the Democrats, is an unusually vicious piece of legislation, an open blueprint for colonial robbery of the Iraqi nation. It is worth pointing out that if you go back far enough in the history of this business, the law actually makes the U.S. an accomplice in the repression of Saddam Hussein, the very thing we claim to be rescuing the country from.

This has all been described at length by better reporters than myself, people like Michael Schwartz and Tom Engelhardt, but the genesis of the proposed law goes something like this:

During the Saddam years, the Iraqi government racked up massive debts as Hussein stole outright much of the country's oil revenues and built himself elaborate palaces packed with gold leafing and Balinese whores and whatever else assholes of that ilk use to furnish their garish pink mansions. Upon occupying the country, the United States agreed to forgive some of that debt in exchange for its acceptance of a "standard International Monetary Fund program," which among other things included an end to consumer price controls on food and fuel -- a move that, whatever one's feelings about government price controls may be, inarguably made it more difficult for a newly-impoverished, war-torn population to afford to eat.

Another condition was the liberalization of the economy, and the opening up of the oil industry to foreign interests. To recap: Saddam Hussein rips off Iraqi people, America "liberates" said people from Saddam, then bludgeons them with Saddam's debts until they hand over the keys to the oil industry. Nice deal, yes?

The proposed Hydrocarbon Law is a result of pressure from the American government on the Iraqis to draft an oil policy that would adhere to the IMF guidelines. It allows foreign companies to take advantage of Iraqi oil fields by allowing regions to pair up with foreigners using what are known as "production-sharing agreements" or PSAs, which guarantee investing companies large shares of the profits for decades into the future. The law also makes it impossible for the Iraqi state to regulate levels of oil production (seriously undermining OPEC), allows oil companies to repatriate profits, and would also allow companies to hire foreign workers to man facilities. Add all the measures up and the Hydrocarbon law not only takes control of the oil industry away from the Iraqi state, but virtually guarantees that the state will profit very little from future oil exploitation.

Now, I live in America and have been known to drive a car occasionally and I also understand something else -- when mighty industrial countries need oil or anything else, they're going to take it. They're also unlikely to acquiesce forever to the whims of an organization like OPEC out of mere morality and decency, when military power can change the equation. Anyone who's going to be shocked, shocked by this kind of shit had better be prepared to live in a tent and eat twigs and berries instead of African cocoa or Central American sugar or any of the millions of other products we basically steal from hungry, dark-skinned people around the world on a daily basis.

But I'll tell you what I can do without. I can do without having to listen to American journalists, as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle, bitch and moan about how the Iraqi government better start "shaping up" and "taking responsibility" and "showing progress" if they want the continued blessing of American military power. Virtually every major newspaper in the country and every hack in Washington has lumped all the "benchmarks" together, painting them as concrete signs that, if met, would mean the Iraqi government is showing "progress" or "good faith."

"President Bush will not support a war spending bill that punishes the Iraqi government for failing to meet benchmarks for progress," was how the AP put it.

"Among the mile markers that should be used to measure Iraqi progress is a finalized revenue-sharing agreement on current and future oil reserves," was the formulation of the Savannah Daily News.

Still other papers, like the Baltimore Sun, cast the supplemental as a means of exercising "tough love" with the lazy and ungrateful Iraqis, who to date have failed to show interest in governing their own country. "The talk around Congress," wrote the Sun, "was of putting together a bill with (probably nonbinding) benchmarks, designed to hold the feet of the Iraqi government to the fire -- or at least near the fire."

The title of the Sun editorial, humorously, was "Small steps" -- as if such a radical decision about what may turn out to be a fourth of the world's oil reserves is a "small step."

Of course, among politicians, it was the same bullshit. "And we now have to see... a good-faith effort on the part of the Iraqi government," said Maine's Olympia Snowe, "that they're prepared to do what it's going to require to achieve a political consensus." The recently "antiwar" Chuck Hagel concurred: "We're seen the Iraqi government miss benchmark after benchmark," he said. "You have to connect consequences to those in some way."

Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, described the benchmarks as a means to "hold the Iraqi government accountable." As if their failure to pass the Oil law would make them "not accountable."

Moreover, let's just say this about the Democratic Party. They can wash their hands of this war as much as they want publicly, but their endorsement of this crude neocolonial exploitation plan makes them accomplices in the occupation, and further legitimizes the insurgency. It is hard to argue with the logic of armed resistance to U.S. forces in Iraq when both American parties, representing the vast majority of the American voting public, endorse the same draconian plan to rob the country's riches. This isn't a situation in which there's going to be a better deal down the road, after Bush gets thrown out of office. Looking at it from that point of view, peaceful cooperation with the Americans is therefore probably impossible for any patriotic Iraqi; the economic consequences are too severe.

(A side note: there's also an argument to be made that the smart play for the Iraqis is to cooperate now, and then tear up any agreement made with the Americans once they get their troops out. The instant our army leaves, any "laws" passed now under American pressure will be meaningless anyway. Yeah, sure, take all the oil you want... hey, do you want these bath towels, too? Oh, wait, you're leaving? You sure you can't stay? Etc.)

Moreover, this endorsement of these neoliberal "benchmarks" by the Democrats makes me believe a lot less in their "gradualist" approach to ending the war. If they viewed the war as much of the world did, as a murderous and profoundly immoral criminal enterprise, they would understand that morally, they really have no choice now but to refuse to send Bush even a dime more for this war. After all, it's impossible to justify on any level voting to give George Bush more money for more troops "in the short run" if you believe that the occupation is fundamentally evil and exploitative. But the Democrats clearly do not believe it is wrong. They don't even mind having a big hand in it. They just don't think it's going very well, and understand that in the long run, it's a non-starter politically.

And that, in the end, is about the best thing you can say about Democrats -- they are just barely smart enough to step out of a burning house. Well, maybe they are. Tune in next fall, for the next supplemental...

Matt Taibbi is a writer for Rolling Stone.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.


Speaking of certificates of ownership...


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At 7:22am on May 8, 2007, GDAEman said…
Good job on the graphics. I might just have to swipe it an put it on my blog... I'll give you credit.

Thanks for sharing your creativity and skill.

Oh, remember to tell the media what you think:
Do you want them to cover HR333 to impeach Cheney? Contact the Media
At 4:33pm on May 6, 2007, Chod Lang said…
Hi Martin,
Thanks for inviting me in. It's great to find kindred spirits when none exist in your immediate vicinity. Or at least none that are open about it.
I do get tired of the crazy looks now and then.
 
 

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