Mothers

Imagineone posted this recognition, "Our Children", of this web site for Marine Parents. Here’s the last paragraph quoted from Imagineone.

Why is it that we, as a civilization, still seek resolution to international differences by dressing our children in uniform and sending them off to destroy the enemy in face-to-face battle? Aren’t we sophisticated enough to raise the level of conflict above mass destruction? And what constitutes a win when the repercussions are intangible? The impact on these families is astounding, overwhelming, and on so many levels incomprehensible to those of us who haven’t endured their experience. As a good number of us continue to live untouched by the turbulence in Iraq--thank you, Cynthia and Tracy for a brief, yet sobering glimpse of the personal side of war

Five Marines died in Iraq today.

My Lai

Here is a detailed recount of the My Lai massacre posted by Steve Gilliard on his blog to underline the importance of leadership.

Go to The News Blog

This article and the blog for, that matter, really deserve a look.

Krugman

In "Losing Our Country" (today's New York Times editorial page) Krugman today tells us again what we already know. The ultra rich are getting richer. The middle class is disappearing.

The fact is that working families aren't sharing in the economy's growth, and face growing economic insecurity.

and

It's not a pretty picture - which is why right-wing partisans try so hard to discredit anyone who tries to explain to the public what's going on.

Passing the hat

Howard Dean has been getting a lot of shit from centrist Democrats for being so blunt in his attacks on Republicans. To support Dean Atrios launched a fund raiser, the only support that means anything anymore. He started at 9 PM. Wednesday.

I've been resisting the idea of encouraging people to donate to party orgs for various reasons. But, the Democrat insider attacks on Howard Dean are, frankly, an attack on all of us.

As Bobbi Flekman told us, "money talks and bullshit walks." So, if you're a wee bit unhappy with the way the spoiled brat Dem insiders are behaving, go give Howard Dean a few bucks.
-Atrios 9:00 PM

link

By 6 PM this evening he posted 769 donations for $33633.76. Not bad. And genuine grass roots.

Light

A pinpoint of light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel

In a hypothetical race against the better known of at least two Democratic Senate hopefuls, the poll showed Santorum apparently trailing state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., 37 percent to 44 percent. Nineteen percent were undecided.

AP, via Pocono Record, near the bottom of a long article on the woes of Act 72, a bill that would pass gambling revenues to participating school districts to help ease property taxes. Few school districts opted in, mainly because the Act also would require large school tax increases to be put to the voters for approval. Approval would not come easily.

Ted Kennedy knows

The Raw Story says Kennedy released this (and more) today.

“The contents of the Downing Street Minutes confirm that the Bush Administration was determined to go to war in Iraq, regardless of whether there was any credible justification for doing so. The Administration distorted and misrepresented the intelligence in its attempt to link Saddam Hussein with the terrorists of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, and with weapons of mass destruction that Iraq did not have.

"In addition, the Downing Street Minutes also confirm what has long been obvious – that the timing of the war was linked to the 2002 Congressional elections, and that the Administration’s planning for post-war Iraq was incompetent in all its aspects. The current continuing crisis is a direct result of that incompetence.

Everybody knows they lied

Everybody knows they lied us into war but nobody is being held responsible. It is amazing.

Below is a quote from the Mineapolis St Paul StarTribune.

In exchange for our uniformed young people's willingness to offer the gift of their lives, civilian Americans owe them something important: It is our duty to ensure that they never are called to make that sacrifice unless it is truly necessary for the security of the country. In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed them; we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the rest of us let them. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes. Perhaps it happened because Americans, understandably, don't expect untruths from those in power. But that works better as an explanation than as an excuse.

This is from the Minneapolis Star-St.Paul Tribune's Memorial Day editorial.

I found it at American Sedition

Silence encouraged

This is weird.

A Los Alamos lab whistleblower scheduled to testify before Congress was lured to a bar and then badly beaten in an attack his wife and lawyer believe was designed to keep him quiet.

Tommy Hook was treated for a fractured jaw and other injuries, according to his wife, Susan Hook. She said the assailants told him during the attack early Sunday that "if you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut."

Tommy Hook has a pending lawsuit against the University of California alleging whistleblower retaliation. He had been scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee later this month about alleged financial irregularities at the nuclear weapons lab....

Link

Tax cuts for the rich

Editorial, today's NYT

The Bush Economy
Published: June 7, 2005

With all of the debate about taxes, the economy and domestic spending, it is hard to imagine anyone supporting the notion of taking money from programs like Medicaid and college-tuition assistance, increasing the tax burden of the vast majority of working Americans, sending the country into crushing debt - and giving the proceeds to people who are so fantastically rich that they don't know what to do with the money they already have. Yet that is just what is happening under the Bush administration. Forget the middle class and the upper-middle class. Even the merely wealthy are being left behind in the dust by the small slice of super-rich Americans.

It's here, though I think it's too little and too late. The Times gave Bush a pass before the elections.

Pays better than the army

A CIA scheme to sponsor trainee spies secretly through US university courses has caused anger among UK academics.

The Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program pays anthropology students, whose names are not disclosed, up to $50,000 (£27,500) a year.

They are expected to use the techniques of "fieldwork" to gather political and cultural details on other countries.

Britain's Association of Social Anthropologists called the scholarships ethically "dangerous" and divisive.

From the BBC

You also get to go to summer camp.