Thursday, June 23, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Your announcement last night that the U.S. has largely achieved its goals in Afghanistan sounds like an echo from the past. 1973. When we pulled out of another disastrous, unwinnable war of choice–Vietnam. What have we accomplished in Afghanistan? Or Iraq? Pakistan? Yemen? Death, destruction, chaos, corruption, injustice. Declare victory and announce a pullout of 10,000 troops by the end of the year. Mr. President, while you may think it’s a bold policy shift, it doesn’t take much analysis to realize this is just eyewash. 10,000 troops is 10% of the 100,000 troops there now. That’s $1 billion a month in savings. That means we’ll still be spending more than $12 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan. This we’re supposed to cheer? This war will continue into 2014 and beyond and the costs will continue to come due for generations. In 2008, We the People, elected a man who promised Hope and Change, and instead we got a passive president who’s more concerned with image than accomplishments. Three years on, We the People are still waiting for a leader who will change things for the better in America. A leader who will end these disastrous wars, who will end the support of brutal and corrupt dictators, who will end the persecution of American patriots who blow the whistle on corruption, lies and deceit in government, a leader who will invest $100 million in job programs for America rather than Kandahar, who will spend $10 billion a month to fix what is broken in America rather than creating mayhem and violence 10,000 miles away. Mr. President, we elected you because you promised real change. You promised single-payer healthcare, an end to the influence of lobbyists in Washington, an end to wars of choice, an end to Guantanamo, an end to injustice and inequality. You have delivered on none of it. Instead, you have given us more of the same and we do not want more of the same. We want a leader with new ideas and new policies, not someone who sifts through the failed policies of the past. What we want is our own Arab Spring. A recent poll by the Washington Post, shows you trailing Mitt Romney by 3 percentage points. I’d say if you don’t do something pretty dramatic to show real leadership and real change for America, to show you actually believe in something and are willing to fight for it with everything you’ve got, your goose is cooked in 2012. And, unfortunately, so is ours. You have a moral duty, Mr. President, and you’re running out of time.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

I no longer find deceit and outright lies from you and your administration shocking. On the contrary, I have come to expect it. The latest example of this is the number of combat missions flown by American forces in Libya, combat missions that you and your minions in the Pentagon have tried to hide, dismiss, obfuscate. But there it is in the New York Times this morning, about 60 bombing runs and 30 remotely-controlled drone strikes since April when the U.S. supposedly handed over operations to NATO. No matter that you overruled the Pentagon and Justice Department legal experts and declared we were not engaged in hostilities in Libya, the unleashing of bombs and missiles in a foreign country is a hostile act. What surprises me though, is how you can defend such evil and still live with yourself and how far you have retreated from your promise to end this insanity and bring back the rule of law and justice, restore human rights, and do away with abuses. Or have you always been this way? Were you just playing a role to gain power? Have you always hungered for power at any cost and been willing to do whatever it takes to keep it? In either case it makes me sick that I allowed myself to be conned into voting for you, the man of Hope who gave such fine speeches, a man of lofty ideals and moral integrity who then made mockery of campaign promises and quickly turned into a Republicrat, a defender of the rich and powerful against the poor and powerless, and a warmonger to boot. In pursuing war instead of peace, you abandon the best interests of America for the false glory of a war-president; you squander the nation’s treasure on unjustified wars of choice instead of using it for the good of the nation, the people, the world. At the conclusion of the Conference of Mayors yesterday a resolution was passed calling for an end to these disastrous wars, to bring the money home “to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy and reduce the federal debt.” Those of us who voted for you in 2008, thought that’s what we were voting for, but as in Libya, you lied, dissembled, presented a false face and we are all the poorer for it. Instead of Hope and Change, you have given us more of the same: inequality, injustice and war. We are a nation descending into irrelevance in every way except violence. Welcome to ObamAmerica.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Once again there’s money for war but not peace. I rarely agree with Republicans, but John Boehner is right: $10 million a day to bomb Libya and kill Qaddafi is a hostile action that has lasted more than 60 days without congressional approval, a violation of the War Powers Act. Your top legal advisors deem it a hostile action but you overrule and ignore their counsel, hell-bent to what, show your macho credentials? Are you counting coup? You got bin Laden’s scalp, now you want to add Qaddafi’s? At what cost? Add Libya’s $10 million a day to $427 million a day for Iraq and Afghanistan, $8 million a day to arm Israel and Egypt, another $8 million for Pakistan, and who knows how many million a day for covert operations and drone strikes in Yemen and other countries you don’t want us to know about and we’re talking serious money here, around $500 million a day to kill and destroy while here at home millions are unemployed and underemployed, our roads crumble, our education system continues to degrade, the quality of our healthcare is a national disgrace, no money to fix anything, and the “War on Terror” is funded on the U.S. taxpayer’s credit card, war on the kill now, pay later plan. But we’re already paying, Mr. President. We’re paying for it in broken lives and shattered dreams. And we’re paying for it in a malevolence that seeps into every aspect of American society; a mean-spiritedness that has no regard for humanity or the future or the consequences of our acts, that honors and extols violence and denigrates empathy for our fellow man, that hardens our hearts to the plight of the disenfranchised and powerless. Power corrupts, Mr. President, and you have fallen victim. War is evil, it victimizes us all. Ten years of misguided wars for what? We are no safer than we were on 9/11, and the world is not a better place; there is more misery, more hatred, more enmity now than ever, and for America, the wars have been a disaster; they have corroded our spirit, our morality, our sense of right and wrong. A trillion dollars on wars based on deception and lies. A trillion dollars that could have brought so much good has instead brought misery and hatred. You were elected in reaction to these wars, on the promise of ending them, but you have been seduced by power and become a warmonger like your predecessor. There is no honor in war and violence, Mr. President, but you persist. You continue to betray yourself and America and bring shame on us all.

Monday, June 06, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Why is it that we can find money for war but not peace? Ten years of war in Afghanistan, eight in Iraq, and no end in sight. The "War on Terror" against phantoms grinds on, expands, takes on a life of its own. Not much has changed since your pledge to end unjustified wars and abide by the rule of law. No one’s held accountable–unless you’re a low ranking scapegoat–for the lies that got us into this in the first place or the officially sanctioned torture and renditions, the disregard of human life and human rights and the Constitution. Guantanamo’s still open, the war in Afghanistan's been expanded, drone strikes increased in Pakistan, Yemen and who knows where else, 120 Tomahawk missiles, at a million bucks a pop, launched against Libya … endless war, endless fear, endless destruction. More than a trillion dollars spent on war while we’ve descended into a financial crisis of historic proportions: real unemployment over 15%, pensions, benefits and services cut, homes foreclosed, states broke, cities broke and politicians paralyzed, locked in ideological battles that benefits no one. There’s a correlation here, Mr. President, between the cost of war and the fiscal crisis at home. More than a trillion dollars spent on war in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 10 years and we’re still spending $13 billion a month to kill, maim and destroy. That’s $427,397,260 a day. $427 million a day! That’s mindboggling. That’s disgusting and I want no part of it. Not in my name, Mr. President. These wars are hideous and unjustified and they’re sapping not only our treasury, but our morality, our sense of right and wrong, our very souls. War corrupts everyone and creates hatred and enmity that will last for generations. I don’t want another one of my tax dollars spent on war. I want my tax dollars spent on schools and healthcare and infrastructure. Let’s stop the war and spend $427 million a day to fix America. Let’s stop being the world’s number one terrorist nation. Let’s find money for peace, not war.

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

I’m no economist and I don’t pretend to understand a lot about the financial crisis but I do know it’s not good news for a lot of folks. I read this morning that between 2007 and 2009 there was a net loss of 6.9 million jobs. Those jobs got sent offshore or automated and won’t come back and when people don’t have a paycheck they can’t pay bills or put gas in the car or food on the table. For years corporate tax rates have been cut to create job growth; that hasn’t worked but the tax cuts, offshoring and automation has permitted corporations to become more profitable than ever. The Reagan tax cuts began a historic transfer of wealth from the middle class to the richest Americans and that transfer of wealth accelerated in 2001 and 2003 with the Bush tax cuts. The old trickle-down theory that this would stimulate investment and create jobs didn’t work either. Instead, all that wealth is piling up in private hoards of the rich and the corporations, sort of like Scrooge McDucks in the old Donald Duck cartoons–capitalism run amok–and that’s unfair and undemocratic. All this plus deregulation coupled with old-fashioned greed and a more-for-me attitude has led to the recent financial collapse and now the chickens have come home to roost, Mr. President, and if I were you, I’d be concerned because I think this does not augur well for re-election in 2012. It doesn’t matter that the financial collapse wasn’t your fault–that the Republicans drove us into the financial ditch–but you haven’t done much to get us out. People see how you extended the Bush tax cuts for millionaires, bailed out Wall Street and big corporations and let the rest of us twist in the wind, and we see how nobody is held accountable for this disaster except a 28-year-old trader at Goldman Sachs who the Injustice Department blames for the entire mortgage scandal. A $700 billion bailout funded CEO and CFO fat cats’ million dollar bonuses and kept their multimillion dollar paychecks flowing while average Americans lost their jobs, their homes, their hopes and their dreams for a better future. A million people have lost their homes to foreclosure and 3 million more are on the verge and there’s no bailout for them. Our infrastructure is crumbling, states and counties are cutting services, schools are laying off teachers and cities are going bankrupt and Washington is paralyzed. That’s what it looks like from out here on the hustings, Mr. President. Pretty grim. More on this tomorrow.