Peace -- Million Doors, a Festival, and Rest-In

This weekend I got to meet and re-meet some of my neighbors as I knocked on doors for the multi-group sponsored non-partisan Million Doors for Peace campaign. While anyone can sign the petition (do so at the website), it is aimed at getting more people a little more invested in the waging of peace. The petition scheduled to be given to senators and representatives on Thursday is a request for a date-certain to leave Iraq within a year. We're wasting 3 trillion dollars for an unnecessary war (While thanks to Fox, about half of America still believes Iraq had something to to with 9-11, it didn't, so why are we there?), killed or maimed 35,000 American troops and well over a hundred thousand, perhaps two hundred thousand, Iraqis have died as a result of the war and occupation. And we've lost our standing in the world, thanks to this illegal war and occupation. Oh, peace, please, now, or soon....

Meanwhile, Johnny Sonneborn and I joined Sarah Schindler and her husband in trekking to Shadowcliff in Nyack for national Fellowship of Reconciliation's Fourth Annual Peace Festival last weekend. There were booths, music, food, and awards -- but my favorite was Peace Troubadour Celia St. King whose new CD Your Word Is Magic I just had to purchase and whose shirt I wore while taking part in the Million Doors for Peace campaign: Inspiring songs and great peace logo -- modified musically. (Pictures will be posted on Flickr.com soon!)

As for Peace, Rest-In....we've got Wall Street doing strange stuff. It is pretty dire, or not-so-pretty dire. As for corporate bailouts -- they must not be allowed to come without strings. Please read Senator Bernie Sanders' press release and David Sirota's article in In These Times. 

Jon Stewart on John McSame, err John McCain

You must see how Jon Stewart compares John McSame a/k/a John McCain to George W. Bush using videos of the two: sweet!



Enjoy -- and remind folks who haven't been listening to the facts.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Associated Press refutes some GOP lies - FINALLY!

It is nice to see that the press (in the form of the AP) is finally doing some some fact-checking on the Republicans stretching the truth (Democrats read: Republican LIES). This item is actually posted in a number of places but it still needs to get wider play so I am posting it here through a link not as likely to disappear, from Huffington Post:

AP: Attacks, Praise Stretch Truth at GOP Convention
by Jim Kuhnhenn

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation. MORE

Please do read the rest of the article, and share the link with others. The earth you safe is your own....

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Hartmann: Where's the News?

While the net bloggers are digging deep into her history, Sarah Palin needs to be vetted (and reported on) by the corporate media that she's decrying. Air America Radio's Thom Hartmann posted on his web site some of the items they should be considering. I've printed it here in its entirety because of its importance.

Where’s the News?

As I could have predicted, the corporate mainstream media is falling all over themselves to congratulate Sarah Palin on her speech. The well known truth is that Palin's speech has galvanized the conservative base. The media is not and most likely will not ask the tough questions like…

--Why does Sarah Palin continue to lie unchallenged by the media about her support of the “Bridge to Nowhere?”

--Why did Wasilla rarely received few any earmarks before Palin became mayor? She actively sought federal funds and hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark.

--Why did Sarah Palin not walk out of her church when just two weeks ago, she sat there while her pastor gave a anti-Jewish sermon?

--While the McCain campaign has stressed her command of the National Guard – Why has Sarah Palin has never issued a single order to them?

--How do the American people sit with Palin’s claims that American soldiers have been sent to Iraq "on a task that is from God?"

--Why is Sarah Palin involved with AIP? Several days ago the chair of the AIP, a secessionist party, said that Palin attending the 1994 convention. “she was there.”

From www.mediamatters.org:

Neither ABC nor CBS aired analysis from Democrats, Democratic strategists, or progressive media figures during their live coverage of the second day of the Republican National Convention on September 2 (the first day of the networks' live coverage of the convention). By contrast, both networks aired analysis from Republicans and conservatives, as well as from Democrats and progressives, during coverage of the second day of the Democratic National Convention on August 26.

Let the media know we’re sick and tired of the corporate and “conservative” bias that doesn’t serve, “We the People.”

Thom Hartmann

Hey, Corporate Media, surprise Thom and me and do your job! And let us Democrats and rational independents follow Thom's advice and tell the corporate media that we are sick of their bias toward the Republicans. (Would that we find out that Sarah Palin successfully shot herself in the foot last night and that the press are on it! A few of them maybe??)

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne