Obama should not compromise on Social Security

By Steve Frank

ED Show

updated 4/5/2013 7:20:22 PM ET

There are plenty of ways to reduce the deficit without hurting veterans, the disabled, and the poor.

President Barack Obama’s upcoming budget plan will reportedly include cuts in Social Security benefits by lowering the cost of living adjustments known as “chained CPI.”

That would lower income for seniors, disabled veterans and reduce help to the poor. It would be bad for the American people, and liberals in this country should be outraged.

“In 2008, candidate Barack Obama told the American people that he would not cut Social Security,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday. “Having him go back on his word will only add to the rampant political cynicism that our country is experiencing today.”

The president claims these cuts are all in the name of reaching a deal with Republicans on deficit reduction. But unfortunately, these changes would reduce federal spending by only $130 billion over ten years. With our current national debt sitting at roughly $16 trillion, the ten-year estimate would reduce our current debt by about a whopping 1%.

Ten years from now, the number will be even lower, and as you can tell by that ratio, the big three are not the cause of our deficit.

We’ve shown you this chart more than once because it’s hugely important. Republicans are directly responsible for the main drivers of our deficit. The Bush tax cuts, along with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will account for nearly half our debt by 2019.

Social Security is completely solvent. It has not added one penny to the deficit, and it should be left alone.

Americans know this, and they don’t want their earned benefits cut. A recent survey shows eight in ten Americans would rather pay more taxes, than have Social Security cut.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of ways to cut the deficit without hurting the poorest among us. A new study reveals America’s largest corporations stash roughly $1.5 trillion in offshore tax havens each year by using these loopholes; they avoid paying about $150 billion in annual taxes. If just these loopholes were closed, it would cover the cost of living adjustments for Social Security and more.

President Obama needs to keep up the fight on this. He needs to put the same effort into protecting the big three as he is with gun control and immigration.

If he chooses to go forward with these cuts as expected on Wednesday, it will show a clear disconnect between the American people and the president they chose to protect their social safety net. He would be the first Democratic president in history to cave on the big three and chip away at Social Security.

Did Mitch McConnell successfully bully Ashley Judd into dropping her Senate challenge?

Cenk Uygur talks to Jonathan Miller, former Kentucky state treasurer, TheRecoveringPolitician.com founder and political adviser to Ashley Judd, about Judd’s decision not to challenge Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky Senate seat. Cenk speculates that a smear campaign headed up by McConnell and Karl Rove may have been the reason for Judd’s withdrawal.

“Ashley had felt empowered by the McConnell and Rove ads early on,” Miller says. “They made her feel like, if they’re attacking her this early, that’s she’s really onto something, she really does pose a threat.”

But even though Miller doesn’t believe the attacks are the main reason Judd is no longer running, Cenk is less than convinced. “They must have been [the reason she dropped out]. She was considering it, she got attacked and then she left.”

Sequester Slashes Unemployment Benefits, But Not Corporate Welfare

By Elisabeth Parker

”Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein

What’s worse than Congress obsessively focusing on slashing government spending instead of creating jobs? Screwing over all the people who haven’t been able to land non-existent jobs even more by cutting their skimpy unemployment benefits. Who cares that it’s the GOP’s fault that so many folks are unemployed? A bleak January Jobs report proves that their austerity has slowed down our economic recovery, plus their decades of deregulation allowed the banks to wreck our economy in the first place. Let’s keep implementing their sucky policies and see what happens.

Travis Waldron from Think Progress warns that soon the skeletal hand of sequestration will extend its bony fingers to snatch away the long-term jobless’ last lifeline. Thanks to the sequester — which went into effect on March 1st — the federal government’s Emergency Unemployment Compensation will be cut. This program provides extended unemployment benefits for people who’ve been unemployed for longer than six months, after they’ve used up their state benefits. According to Paul Davidson from USA Today, unemployment checks currently average a stingy $300 per week — which MSN Money‘s Life Coach flat-out declares is “nearly impossible” for Americans to get by on for very long. Nonetheless, it’s better than nothing.

Unfortunately, nothing is what many Americans will soon get. Nancy Cook from the National Journal writes that roughly two million people stand to lose their benefits:

Moreover, they are people whom the political establishment has largely forgotten. There are no new stimulus programs on the horizon for the long-term unemployed, nor is there anything new to help train them or connect them to jobs. Those still receiving benefit checks will see them whacked by as much as $450 in total between now and the end of the fiscal year in September, according to Labor Department estimates—all due to spending cuts that both parties consider ill-advised and indiscriminate.

Even more alarmingly, Waldron also reports that eight states have already brutally slashed their unemployment programs, with an estimated loss of $582-$4,161 per unemployed person, depending on their state. And … big surprise! Five out of eight of these states are in the South (more on that shortly).

Weeks of unemployment benefits lost, due to state cuts. Chart from Think Progress.

According to Waldron, cutting unemployment benefits will further slow the economy:

America’s unemployment program, stingy as it is, also has benefits for the economy: the Congressional Budget Office estimated that failure to extend the federal program at the beginning of the year would have cost the country 300,000 jobs.

This would force even more desperate people to take sub-living wage jobs with crappy employers like Walmart — if they’re even still hiring — and force American tax payers to cover food stamps, housing subsidies, and other necessities that these jobs don’t pay enough for workers to afford. Well, at least until the Republicans cut those programs as well. Walmart IS the original corporate welfare queen, after all.

Furthermore, IF you agree that (a) Forcing people to work for less than a living wage is a form of slavery; (b) Republican policies are dominated by southerners; and (c) The South’s lack of economic development model has always heavily relied on slave labor (though the skin color of their slaves has changed over the years); THEN it grows increasingly obvious that cutting benefits for unemployed people is just the latest step along the GOP’s primrose path to economic slavery (as brilliantly argued in an article by my AI colleague, Sanghoee, and by Imara Jones in ColorLines).

After forty years of imposing disastrous policies, conservatives have succeeded in wrecking the economy and destroying the middle class job base. Now all they need to do is shred our already-frayed social safety net, and the American people will be primed to do our corporate masters’ bidding.

SPECIAL NOTE TO OUR UNEMPLOYED READERS: If you’re unemployed and worry that you might lose your benefits, my AI colleague Tiffany Willis compiled an extensive list to help you find the resources you need. She knows what’s talking about, because she worked in workforce development for the State of Texas for over a decade. She also invites you to post questions to her on Twitter (@tiffany_willis). She’s only one person and doesn’t have a team of operators standing by, but she loves helping people and will do her best.

---

Elisabeth Parker is a writer, Web designer, mom, political junkie, and dilettante. Come visit her at ElisabethParker.Com, “like” her on facebook, “friend” her on facebook, follow her on Twitter, or check out her Pinterest boards. For more Addicting Info articles by Elisabeth, click here.

GOP outreach to African-American voters: ‘It’s going to take more’ than talk

By Morgan Whitaker, @morganwinn

10:35 PM on 04/02/2013

 

The Republican party loves to remind voters that it is “the party of Lincoln”–but in the most recent election, only 6% of African-American voters cast their ballots for the GOP’s Mitt Romney.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus, determined to overcome that deficit, has launched a $10 million minority outreach campaign, including a tour of urban centers that brought him to the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn last month.

“Today is about listening, today is a start. I’m not coming here with all the answers, but I am coming here with an open heart, an open mind,” Priebus said. “Only time will tell if this is just talk, but all I can tell you is what’s in my heart and what our desire is as a party.”

Fellow Republican and leader of that church Reverend A.R. Bernard, who joined Priebus there, believes Priebus’ desire to bridge the gap is genuine. ”Having met and spoken with Reince Priebus that he’s sincere,” he said on Tuesday’s PoliticsNation. “But… it’s going to take time.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

“I think the Republican party has to think more than just re-branding, it has to rethink its message and its policies,” he said, pointing out that government services are important to people in urban and suburban “concentrated areas.” Rev. Bernard thinks a message of lower taxes, rather than one of cutting programs, could help the GOP more.

As Buzzfeed chronicled, people outside Rev. Bernard’s Christian Cultural Center knew Mitt Romney, and his “47%” legacy, far better than they knew Reince Priebus. “Each of the half-dozen people interviewed said they voted for Obama in November. They all complained, unprompted, that Republicans only cared about rich people.”

Rev. Bernard doesn’t expect overnight change from the Republican party. “I think [Priebus] is sincere in listening but I don’t know if that’s going to translate into the kind of action that can be measurable immediately,” he said. “When you’re talking about spending $10 million, that’s not a lot of money when you’re considering the need for a long term strategy to deal with the issue of the relationship between African-Americans and the Republican party. It’s going to take more than that.”

Stupid Right-Wing Tweets: Michelle Malkin Edition

 

By Blue Texan

I wasn't sure what the Anchor Baby (who's been on an anti-SHAMNESTY! tear lately) was babbling about here, so I looked up HER plan.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

So, providing undocumented immigrants a path to legal citizenship is tantamount to the federal government not defending California and Texas from a Mexican invasion. Awesome.

Any Republican that signs on to Marco Rubio's reform efforts will be targeted for primaries by Malkin and her fellow travelers. And yes, if he succeeds in the Senate, he can forget about the nomination in 2016, too.

Ed Rendell's Plea for Fracking Fails to Disclose Industry Ties

By Justin Elliott
ProPublica, March 28, 2013, 11:29 A.M.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell took to the New York Daily News op-ed page Wednesday with a message to local officials: stop worrying and learn to love fracking.

As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo agonizes over whether to allow the controversial natural gas drilling technique, Rendell invoked his own experience as a Democratic governor who presided over a fracking boom. New York state, Rendell argued, has a major part to play in the nation’s fracking “revolution” — and it can do so safely. He rejected what he called the “false choice” of “natural gas versus the environment.”

What Rendell’s passionate plea failed to note was this: since stepping down as Governor in 2011, he has worked as a paid consultant to a private equity firm with investments in the natural gas industry.

The op-ed piece was widely noted in other media outlets, and Cuomo wound up being asked about it during a radio appearance on Wednesday. The New York State Petroleum Council promptly issued a press release hailing Rendell’s “strong and confident argument.”

Reached Wednesday, Rendell told ProPublica that he should have disclosed to the Daily News his work at the private equity firm, Element Partners, and that the newspaper “should have included it.”

Rendell said the Pennsylvania-based firm pays him about $30,000 per year. Still, he insisted he is not conflicted on the issue of fracking, in which water and chemicals are injected deep into the ground to extract previously unreachable natural gas from rock. He said he does not own equity in Element Partners or any fracking companies.

"The only conflict would be if I had a pecuniary interest in the natural gas industry doing well, and I certainly don’t," he said.

Element Partners’ website lists several investments by the firm in natural gas companies, including a company called 212 Resources that specializes in “fluid management systems” for fracking.

Rendell is also a senior adviser at the investment bank Greenhill, which has worked on several large transactions involving natural gas companies. A Greenhill spokesman said Rendell has not been involved in the firm’s work in the energy sector.

"I have no brief for industry," Rendell told ProPublica. He said he supports fracking because of the potential for American energy independence and jobs.

“If we choose to embrace natural gas, it will help us get past a number of significant economic and environmental challenges,” Rendell argued in the Daily News op-ed. “On the other hand, if we let fear carry the day, we will squander another key moment to move forward together.”

Daily News opinion editor Josh Greenman said in an email to ProPublica that he was unaware of Rendell’s relationship with Element, and indeed had been assured by Rendell’s representative that there was no conflict.

“Had I known, I certainly would have disclosed that and conceivably would have made a different judgment on the piece," Greenman said.

The Daily News has now added a disclosure line to the online version of the op-ed.

This isn’t the first time Rendell has popped up in New York advocating for fracking. The New York Post ran an interview with Rendell in November in which he said Cuomo would be “crazy” not to lift the fracking ban. That piece didn’t mention Rendell’s ties to the industry either.

Update 4:15 pm:

It’s worth noting that since leaving office, Rendell has been a vocal supporter of fracking around the country. He’s weighed in in support of a regulated fracking industry in venues including Huffington Post; the Nightly Business Report; a Manhattan Institute forum; the Austin, Texas, PBS affiliate; and a Wall Street Journal conference with businessman T. Boone Pickens.

Here is a clip from the Journal’s 2012 ECO:nomics conference, in which Rendell says the burgeoning gas industry is “great for America in so many ways.”

The McLaughlin Group 3/29/13

This week on Inside Washington

This week on Inside Washington: Gay marriage, public opinion and the Supreme Court.

North Dakota comes down hard on abortion.

The President prods Congress on gun control.

The financial meltdown on Cyprus means hard times for money launderers.

As North Korea rattles sabres, the U.S. rattles back with B-2 bombers.

The Right-Wing Hucksters Who Dare Not Be Named

By Conor Friedersdorf

John Podhoretz and Jonah Goldberg believe disingenuous conservative pundits are doing irreparable harm to their movement. So who are they?

President Obama's critics "seem eager to believe he is a lightweight," John Podhoretz writes in Commentary, "and he is not." Conservatives underestimate him to their own detriment, he argues, utterly failing to know their adversary, for when they're not calling him "a golf-mad dilettante," they're indulging in the polar-opposite delusion that he's a power-mad Kenyan Marxist.
The unintended result:

The notion that Obama is a dangerous extremist helps him, because it makes him seem reasonable and his critics foolish. It also helps those who peddle it, because it makes them notorious and helps them sell their wares. But it has done perhaps irreparable harm to the central conservative cause of the present moment -- making the case that Obama's social-democratic statism is setting the United States on a course for disaster and that his anti-exceptionalist foreign policy is setting the world on a course for nihilistic chaos. Those are serious arguments, befitting a serious antagonist. They may not sell gold coins as quickly and as well as excessive alarmism, but they have the inestimable advantage of being true.

As you can see, I've boldfaced the part of that critique that focuses on conservative movement hucksters*. After calling them out for so many years, it was nice to see Jonah Goldberg acknowledge back in January that the right has an "unhealthy share" of hucksters whose rhetoric is driven by lucre rather than conviction, and it's nice to see Podhoretz echo the criticism, because it's absolutely true.

So long as conservative hucksters thrive, movement conservatism cannot.

They do "irreparable harm."

There's just one thing. In the same way that Goldberg believes there are movement-conservative hucksters "eager to make money from stirring rage, paranoia, and an ill-defined sense of betrayal," but never actually says who these hucksters are, Podhoretz disdainfully reiterates that right-wing personalities are making their profits at the expense of the ideology they purport to be advancing, but he doesn't actually identify the individuals who are perpetrating that fraud.

An honest question, guys:

How do you expect to stop these people who you identify as scheming hucksters doing irreparable harm to your cause if no one with intramovement credibility ever directly critiques their bad work? It seems like you've both spent a lot more time feuding with people who call out the hucksters than with the hucksters themselves. I know the names atop my list. Rush Limbaugh. Mark Levin. Sean Hannity. Glenn Beck. That isn't to say that a worthwhile list couldn't be made up without those names on it. There are so many to choose from. All I can say for sure is that you've got individuals in mind who, by your own admission, are doing damage to the movement you're both invested in far more earnestly than they are ... and you'll only criticize them obliquely. As best I can tell from regularly seeing your work, they're the only sort you disdain but won't name.

Perhaps it isn't fair to pick on you for holding back. Lots of elites in the conservative movement totally agree with you, but haven't even had the courage to make the vague critique you've articulated.

You guys aren't going nearly as far as I'd like, but at least you're naming the problem. Yet conservatives must name names if the hucksters are to be defeated. Outsiders like me aren't enough.

Dissidents at The American Conservative aren't enough. Insiders-turned-"apostates" like David Frum aren't enough.

I don't know if Podhoretz and Goldberg would be enough either.

But if even guys like them don't go farther than they have, given what we know of their beliefs, the cause is doomed, and folks making bank off dumb alarmism will keep flourishing. The talking points that prevail on the right will continue to badly miss the mark, the critique of the Democrats in power will continue to be weaker than it really ought to be, and the GOP will continue to lose. Am I missing a more actionable critique? If not, isn't it long passed time to make one?
__
*Daniel Larison points out the problems with Podhoretz's warnings about Obama's foreign policy.

Interactive Four Billion Pixel 360 Degree View Of Mars

Interactive Four Billion Pixel 360 Degree View Of Mars

Alaska Republican uses racial slur to describe Latinos

As his party is in the midst of a on-going minority outreach campaign, Alaska Republican Congressman Don Young gave an interview Thursday to local radio station KRBD in which he referred to Latino farm workers as “wetbacks.”

Asked about bringing jobs back to America, Young recalled the workers on his father’s farm in California, where he grew up.

“My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

Young issued a response to the remarks late Thursday evening. ”During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California. I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.”

He continued, “Migrant workers play an important role in America’s workforce, and earlier in the said interview, I discussed the compassion and understanding I have for these workers and the hurdles they face in obtaining citizenship. America must once and for all tackle the issue of immigration reform.”

Young, the second most senior Republican serving in the House, has represented Alaska’s only congressional district for four decades. He won reelection in 2012 with 63% of the vote. While the remarks may be politically perilous for the rest of his party, the impact in his own district might not be as severe. According to the most recent census, less than 6% of the Alaska population self-identified as Hispanic.

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tommy Chong knows how to fix America’s gun control problems

Cenk Uygur and actor Tommy Chong talk about the best way to get better gun control in the U.S. “I came up with a solution to the gun control problem,” Chong says, “all because of pot. The solution is insurance. You can own a gun, but it has to be insured. And if that gun creates any havoc, the insurance company has to pay.” Cenk says, “That’s really smart because what it does is get capitalism behind the solution.”

Palin out of hibernation, ready to take on 2014

It’s been years since she held elected office, but former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has released a new web video proving she’s far from ready to relinquish her star role in Republican politics.

Palin brings the mama grizzlies out of hibernation, complete with a growling bear, in the new video released by her political action committee, SarahPAC and delivered to her loyal followers in a fundraising email.

The video, “Loaded for Bear,” features clips of Palin’s speech at at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, although no footage of Tina Fey’s recent impression managed to make the final cut.

And while it doesn’t reveal whether Palin plans to run for office in 2014, the video does indicate she plans to play a role in the midterm election, perhaps as a kingmaker. The ad touts her support of a number of recently elected tea party senators, including Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio (who’ve recently teamed up in opposition to gun control).

Whatever her plans may be, it’s safe to say Karl Rove won’t be happy, especially the recent rekindling of their long-running feud.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Republican rep loses his cool over parking ticket

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Metal Gear Solid V Revealed

Official Site - http:/www.konami.jp/mgs5/

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/two-phantoms-the-metal-gear-solid-v-reveal/

Ea Unveils Battlefield 4

http://www.battlefield.com

Battlefield 4 will release Fall 2013. The "Fishing in Baku" video is shot entirely in-game and is the first glimpse of the human, dramatic, and believable single player campaign in Battlefield 4.

Available for pre-order now.

Ashley Judd: ‘Regretfully,’ I will not be a Senate candidate

By Cathy Finkler

The Last Word

After weeks of speculation, actress and activist Ashley Judd put an end to speculation that she might challenge Mitch McConnell in the 2014 midterm elections.

Update: at 5:00 p.m. EST, Ashley Judd tweeted: After serious and thorough contemplation, I realize that my responsibilities & energy at this time need to be focused on my family. Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate. I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months who expressed their desire for a fighter for the people & new leader. While that won’t be me at this time, I  will continue to work as hard as I can to ensure the needs of Kentucky families are met by returning this Senate seat to whom it rightfully belongs: the people & their needs, dreams and great potential. Thanks for even considering me as that person & know how much I love our Commonwealth. Thank you.

While speaking to the American Counseling Association,  liberal actress and activist Ashley Judd coyfully hinted that she may indeed make a run for the Senate.  Judd joked that her mother, country music legend Naomi Judd, can’t wait to turn her garage into a campaign headquarters.

Her comments have only fueled speculation that she has taken interest in challenging conservative incumbent and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the 2014 midterm elections.

If elected, Judd would join a growing list of Hollywood transplants who made the jump into politics. Other notables include: Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarznegger, Jesse Ventura, Clint Eastwood, Fred Thompson, Shirley Temple Black and Sony Bono.

But is D.C. ready for a yet another dose of Hollywood? And more importantly, what would even qualify the Kiss the Girls star for public office?

Over 20 years ago, as a senior at the University of Kentucky, Ashley Judd was accepted into the Peace Corps. She chose to forgo both an official degree and the volunteer program to move to Hollywood and pursue a career in acting. It took 17 years until Judd finally obtained that Bachelor’s Degree in French. In 2010, she received a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Harvard (she graduated with a near-straight-A average), and revived her passion for social and economic issues in the world.

Judd has been in the spotlight for the people and causes she has supported throughout the years. In both 2008 and 2012, she supported Barack Obama for president, campaigning for him in various swing states and serving as a member of the Tennessee delegation in this past election. However, if Judd was to run against McConnell, she would have to reestablish residency in Kentucky.

Judd has been the global ambassador for YouthAIDS, a program under Population Services International, since 2002 and two years later became one of its Board of Directors. She has visited countries such as the Congo and Thailand to share knowledge about the deadly virus and bring attention to issues of poverty and illness in those countries. According to the organization’s website, her work as ambassador has been the subject of three award-winning documentaries, shown in over 150 countries.  Along with YouthAIDS, Judd has become vocal with its sister initiative “Five & Alive,” which reaches out to children under five to offer prevention and treatment for pneumonia, malaria and water-borne illness.

The actress’ resume just doesn’t stop there, her list of charities are wide-ranging including the Listening Campaign, Creative Coalition and Women for Women International. In her memoir All That Is Bitter, Judd chronicles how service and activism has helped her heal from depression.

Judd even lent her support to endorsing the Violence Against Women’s Act, lobbying its necessity to lawmakers. McConnell previously voted against this act, which could hurt him with female voters in the midterm cycle.  Her work with PSI also has given her experience meeting with world leaders, lawmakers and other influential people throughout the country. Her Hollywood connections could boost her favorability among progressives, as it could bring money and notable support to the campaign.

Her official website include blog posts, where she offers her opinion about hot topics like equal pay. Making her stance clear, Judd wrote, “the president and this administration take a back seat to no one on promoting women in the workforce.” Most recently, Judd talked about sexual assault in the military, another  issue that has the potential to surface in an election year. Both the Huffington Post and CNN have featured opinion pieces she’s written.

And while Judd might have a unique set of qualifications, she still hasn’t formally declared her political intentions. This hasn’t stopped Republicans from proactively targeting the actress. Karl Rove’s super PAC, American Crossroads, released an Web ad which attacked Judd’s support for Obama and brought attention to her Tennessee residency.  Team McConnell also seems to consider Judd a threat, releasing a three-minute ad targeting Judd and labeling her “Obama’s Kentucky Candidate.”

A recent poll shows Judd trailing McConnell by nine points, but 2014 is still a long way off. Public Policy Polling called McConnell the most “unpopular senator in the country,” with a 55% disapproval rating.

Jon Stewart To GOP – Good Luck in 2020

By Egberto Willies

It is hard to believe that the GOP is taken seriously as a legitimate party. The party can be broken down into four distinct factions, the racist faction, the ‘alternate state of reality’ faction, the evangelical fanatical faction, and the impotent faction. At any given time most Republicans tend to play a part in two or more of these factions.

The impotent faction of the GOP is generally characterized by those that are fairly conservative but understand that governing requires compromise. These are the guys that could return the GOP to the party that was a participant in many policies that moved the country forward (civil rights, etc.). Many times in negotiating with President Obama, John Boehner exhibited this attribute when he was willing to execute the “Grand Bargain” until his caucus balked.

The racist faction of the party is characterized by Donald Trump, Jason Rapert, and Tom Tancredo.

This wing was called out by both General Colin Powell and Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson.

The evangelical fanatical faction is characterized by Todd Akin, Mike Huckabee, and Pat Robertson.

This faction has a stranglehold on the Party as their churches skirt the laws and provide direction for their indoctrinated to vote as a block that is generally consequential.

Lastly, there is the alternate state of reality faction that is characterized by Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Glenn Beck. This faction was used to basically to rile up their low information followers.

The Republican Party knows it has a problem. As the electorate becomes more educated, more diverse, and more beaten down by the GOP policies that are mostly still in effect because of the undemocratic nature of our system (a gerrymandered House where the GOP received less votes but yet maintains control, and the 60 vote supermajority Senate requirement for the passage of most laws), the GOP will remain an ever sliding minority party. The Republican autopsy corroborates this.

Yet the Republican policy seems to be of the belief that rebranding the message is all that is necessary.

Jon Stewart in the four minute snippet below illustrates the dilemma. He uses Trump to show the racist inclination that is readily accepted. He uses Bachmann and Palin to show the alternate state of reality many GOP principals put out at prominent events. He then uses the Conservatives’ latest savior, renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson who turned out to be just another very intelligent person but a member of the evangelical Right Wing faction described above.

You may watch the show clip here:



A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece titled “Blacks Voted For Obama Because He Is Black’ To Be Dispelled By A Ben Carson Run”. The piece explains that the GOP problem is policy. In the one snippet where Ben Carson is featured in the Stewart video, it is proven that ridiculous statements and policies repackaged remain ridiculous.

What's Bringing Out Racism in Gaming?

Posted by

Tom Meltzer

Friday 22 March 2013 11.23 EDT The Guardian  

Is racism in online gaming the fault of the games – or the players?

A new study reports that non-white gamers suffer racial abuse on a daily basis on Xbox Live

Is the world of online gaming racist? Thursday was the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination or, if you prefer, Don't Be Racist Day. But for many black gamers there is unlikely to have been much respite.

According to a study in the latest issue of the New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, Microsoft's online gaming platform Xbox Live has become a new home for "the overt racism that used to permeate our society". The study followed a group of African American gamers whose voices and use of language identified them as black to other players. It found they suffered racial abuse "on a daily basis".

This is unlikely to be news to most online gamers. Many, regardless of their own racial backgrounds, will have encountered it themselves. I know I have. In a game of FIFA 13 last night my opponent got in touch to let me know I'd been scoring "JEW GOALS". I am, as it happens, of Jewish descent, but I doubt it was apparent from the way I made some little men kick a virtual ball into a net. (They didn't, for example, whip out a little dreidel as a celebration, or line up around a taller player in the shape of a menorah.)

The study blames the racist abuse suffered daily by many gamers on the white male hegemony of the gaming industry. It argues that black gamers, as well as gay, female or older gamers, are seen as "deviant" because games – and the white, male-dominated elite who make them – perpetuate a myth of white male uniformity.

That seems unfair. Major games such as Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II have enabled players to choose black or female avatars and pursue homosexual relationships, and even the much-maligned Grand Theft Auto series has had, at one time or another, an African American protagonist and gay major characters.

Most culpable, of course, are the gamers hurling this abuse. Yet, as the study notes, most of them would not act the same way in the real world and "view their behavior as annoying – not racist". One abusive player, when confronted about using the n-word, explained: "It's just a stupid word. I just say it to fuck with people."

It is too simplistic to lay the charge of enabling racist language at the door of Microsoft's Xbox Live, PlayStation's PSN and other games platforms. It is the people sending messages, not the medium, that are at fault.

Or, put another way: don't hate the game, hate – and censor and ban – the player.

A Steelworker’s Personal Fight To Beat John Boehner In 2014

John Boehner's opponent in 2014 is an Army Veteran, steelworker, husband, father of triplets and a native son of Ohio - and aims to give the 8th District the representation it deserves.

 By Nathaniel Downes

While the President is elected every 4 years, and a Senator every 6, members of the House of Representatives are up for elections every two years. Which means every two years, every member of Congress must face off against whatever challenger happens to be running against them. John Boehner has been safe in his seat for many years, without a strong challenger running against him, and always enjoyed double-digit leads over any challenger, never getting under 60% of the vote.

Many times, the Democratic Party did not even bother running a candidate against Congressman Boehner.

However, in 2014, times are changing.

Meet Andrew Hounshell, an Army Veteran, steelworker, father, husband. Here he is with Ohio Senator, Sherrod Brown:


He is still getting organized, but so far has been pounding the pavement, engaging in the old fashioned method of campaigning. Instead of fancy ad blitz campaigns paid for with big corporate money, he’s out there meeting people, taking his message to them. His donation page is set up for the small time donor. He has 20 months in which to get his message to the people of the 8th District of Ohio. And he is wasting no time in doing it.

But, as to why he is running, I will leave explaining that up to his own words:

Why I’m A Democrat
By Andrew Hounshell

I was 5 years old when I heard the dreadful news that our President had been shot in a failed assassination attempt. Even at that young age, I felt the impact the event had on the grown-ups around me. On the way to the grocery store, I asked my mother if we could get a get well card and send it to President Reagan. Together, we picked out one and mailed it to the White House. A few weeks later we received an official letter on White House Stationary from the President, thanking me for the well wishes. Our local newspaper ran a story, “Middletown Boy Gets White House Response,” and I was the talk of the town. From that moment on, this 5 year old from southwest Ohio loved President Reagan and thought he could do no wrong.

Fast forward 10 or 12 years, my brother was stationed in Germany while serving in the Army and was being transferred to Ft. Lewis, Washington unable to take any leave to visit his family due to his orders. His wife had given birth to our parent’s first grandchild and they had yet been able to see him. As legend goes (time clouds the memories in my family), someone made a call to our Congressman’s office (then a fairly new John Boehner) and my brother was able to get his orders changed so he could take leave and visit with his family before reporting to Ft. Lewis. In my young impressionable eyes, John Boehner was personally responsible for me getting to see my nephew for the first time, and getting to spend some precious time with my oldest brother after not seeing him for years. Once again, a young Andrew Hounshell was quite impressed by yet another Republican politician showing how much they cared about my family. These guys were great!

What I didn’t know was what was happening to other families around me. If I had been older than 5 years old when I bought that Get Well card, I might have known that it was only five months later, when our President fired over 11,000 PATCO striking Union workers; a move which has been described as starting “America’s downward spiral;” that our nation’s wages would stagnant for the rest of my life. That decision didn’t affect me as a kid, but nearly 30 years later, it is an event that persuaded me to take a deeper look into policy decisions that our elected officials make and ask myself a deeper question. Could it be the dear Republicans I grew up admiring, were not as supportive of the very middle class that I now spend my adult life fighting for?

Memories like mine can mold and shape a person’s voting patterns for a lifetime.

Luckily for me, my thirties brought on a time of clarity. There wasn’t one particular event that turned on a light bulb, but rather a combination of many: college, union work, community work, my father relying on the VA for health care, my mother relying on her Social Security to survive, in-laws going without health insurance because they can’t afford it after my father in-law was laid-off from Delphi, having 3 children at one time (the list goes on and on). I realized that through policy, our elected officials do have a huge impact on our livelihood. Through cuts in Social Security, appointments to the NLRB, cuts to the VA, immigration reform (or lack thereof), tax loopholes for corporations, subsidies to oil companies, etc., our middle class has been eroded and we are not taking care of those who can no longer take care of themselves.

The Republicans I loved as a child, and I thought loved me back, were the very ones who were supporting this erosion. How could this be?

The five year old in me feels so betrayed. It turns out, I’ve been caught up in a very real version of the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. At first glance, Grandma looked sweet and innocent, with her thank you card from the White House and an a few weeks of leave for a soldier to visit his family. Now that I am all grown up and have a family of my own to support, I see what big teeth you have, and how you have used them to take a huge bite out of the Middle Class. Like many voters in Ohio’s 8^th District and in this country, I see the GOP for what it really is. No disguise is good enough to hide the Big Bad Wolf these days.

Now I dedicate my time to trying to make this world a better place for my children and that includes supporting those who actually support the working class in this country. In 2012, when I looked for that person in the 8th District of Ohio, the ballot was blank. It was then that I decided in 2014 there was going to be a Democratic option for my family, neighbors, coworkers, and community; an option that leads to re-building our Middle Class and a stronger America.

No More Boehner. Our Time is Now.

We could not say it any better ourselves.

If you want to support Andrew Hounshell in his fight to remove John Boehner from congress, feel free to donate to his campaign, or at least drop him a note on his Facebook page. And we wish him the best of luck?

---

Nathaniel Downes is the son of a former state representative of New Hampshire, now living in Seattle Washington.

Feel free to follow Nathaniel Downes on Facebook.

Dream team crushed?

On Friday, we learned that Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum discussed joining forces to keep Mitt Romney from winning the GOP nomination. Ed Show viewers share their thoughts about the “unity ticket.”

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Paralyzed Iraq Vet Tomas Young Discusses His 'Last Letter' to Bush & Cheney, His Decision to Die

 Tells 'Democracy Now!' his decision to end life comes after years of being 'sick and tired of being sick and tired'...

 

By Brad Friedman on 3/21/2013, 4:05pm PT  

Yesterday we published Tomas Young's "Last Letter: A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney from a Dying Veteran", in which the 33-year old U.S. Army veteran, paralyzed from the chest down during an ambush on a rescue mission in Iraq in 2004, announces his plan to soon allow himself to die, as his physical condition has intolerably deteriorated.

We included a link to our own interview with Tomas in 2005 when he first came down from Kansas City to "Camp Casey" in Crawford, TX, on his honeymoon, in support of Cindy Sheehan whose son Casey was killed on the same day, in the same city --- 4/4/04 in Sadr City --- where Tomas was shot twice and gravely injured in the unarmored truck his platoon had been sent out in.

Tomas has been a tremendously heroic and outspoken anti-war voice over the years, as we were reminded once again today during this morning's heart-wrenching episode of Democracy Now! devoted to his story.

Phil Donahue, co-director of the 2007 documentary film about Tomas, Body of War, (in which our '05 interview with Tomas is briefly seen) is on hand as well for the discussion. The hour included a live satellite interview with Tomas, who now struggles to speak. His thoughts seem very coherent, but what is left of his body and its functions are clearly breaking down. He is joined by his wife Claudia.

It is all worth watching, if you can spare the time. The clips from Body of War, especially the one in which Tomas speaks with the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-VA) as they read off the names together of the "Immortal 23" who voted against the Iraq War in the U.S. Senate, are particularly moving.

This is the story of the Iraq War ten years later --- and how it broke this nation just as surely as it broke Tomas Young's body and eventually his spirit and will to live...



After the lengthy segment above, Donahue is asked about his plight at MSNBC where he was fired just before the war began, as we would later find out from an internal executive memo, because his show included too many anti-war voices.

He says the episode reveals "how corporate media shapes our opinions and our coverage."

"They were terrified of the anti-war voice. And that is not an overstatement," Donahue says. "If you're General Electric, you certainly don't want an anti-war voice on a cable channel that you own. Donald Rumsfeld's your biggest customer!"

He explains again how he was required to have two pro-war voices for every anti-war voice he had on his show. "I could have [Bush Admin Iraq war hawk and architect] Richard Perle on alone, but I couldn't have Dennis Kucinich," he explains. "I was considered 'two liberals'." That segment can be watched here.

Finally, in the last moments of the show, Tomas reads his "Last Letter" to Bush and Cheney aloud and answers Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman's question as to whether there is anything that might lead him to change his mind about his decision to soon stop using his feeding tube in order to allow his life to end.

That video segment, including Tomas' answer to Goodman's question, follows below...

98 arrested as union protest blocks Las Vegas Strip for an hour

By Hannah Dreier of The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Throngs of workers blocked traffic on the Las Vegas Strip in a demonstration Wednesday against the Cosmopolitan casino that ended with the arrest of nearly 100 protesters.

Tourists watched from an overpass across Las Vegas Boulevard as police led workers wearing red union shirts one by one into a white police bus.

Police arrested 98 protesters, according to Metro Police Capt. Todd Fasulo. The workers chanted, "If we don't get no contract, you don't get no peace," as they waited to be taken away.

Las Vegas' largest and most powerful union has been in contract talks with Cosmopolitan Las Vegas owner Deutsche Bank for two years.

Earlier this year, the 54,000-member union held two one-day pickets outside the casino, which sits on a bustling corner in the heart of the tourist corridor. They marked Culinary Workers Local 226's first pickets on the Strip since 2003.

Wednesday's action was the first time union members deployed civil disobedience, the tactical use of nonviolent law breaking, outside a unionized casino in more than two decades, according to union spokeswoman Yvanna Cancela.

 

Cosmopolitan spokeswoman Amy Rossetti said management is continuing to negotiate with labor to "find a fair agreement." She added that the union was negotiating with casino management, not with Deutsche Bank directly.

Protesters shut down rush-hour traffic for more than an hour in both directions on the block that is also home to the Bellagio, Aria and Planet Hollywood casinos. Cancela estimated the crowd at about 1,500 people.

Moments before her hands were bound with a zip-tie, Janet Hill said she decided to get arrested to send management a message.

"They need to give workers here a contract; it affects us all," said Hill, a porter at the Flamingo casino down the Strip.

Contract negotiations will open for most other Strip casinos in April.

Talks with the Cosmopolitan have stalled on a range of issues, including wages, health care and job security, Cancela said.

The 2-year-old Cosmopolitan was built by the German investment bank after its original developer defaulted. It is one of just a handful of non-unionized casinos on the Strip, along with the Venetian, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and the Palms.

Culinary Union members receive free health care and are paid above-average wages. Housekeepers in most Strip hotels start at $16 an hour and receive a pension.

A majority of Cosmopolitan service workers signed cards in 2010 saying they wanted representation.

On Wednesday, protesters said they were worried that Deutsche Bank was stalling because it intends to sell the casino and doesn't want to be burdened by a union contract.

Most tourists walked by the demonstration without breaking their stride. One couple turned around in surprise when a protester booed them for crossing the picket line.

Several visitors said they were annoyed at the inconvenience. But a few cheered on the workers as they marched in their navy, emerald and black casino uniforms. A few even joined in.

James Lewis, of Australia, took a photo of himself holding a sign reading, "No Justice, No Peace."

"I was surprised because I didn't know this was an issue here," said Lewis, who was in town for a friend's 40th birthday party. "I come from a place where health care is free, so this is something completely foreign."

Paulina Corona came to the protest in the brown uniform she wears as a housekeeper at the Mirage hotel-casino. She said the demonstration was important because mutual support creates strength.

"This is a union, and everybody is in it together. When there are problems at the Mirage, everyone goes there," she said.

Corona, 58, said that as a cancer survivor she worries that management could make workers shoulder more of their health care costs.

"Every day, they try to ask for more things," she said.

Obama’s visit to Israel more ‘awkward’ for Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave Republican candidate Mitt Romney a hero's welcome in Israel during the height of the 2012 presidential campaign, but today he rolled out the red carpet for the newly re-elected President Obama. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell discusses with P.J. Crowley, the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, and Richard Wolffe, the executive editor of MSNBC.com.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Anonymous Veteran Leaves Stunning Note On Stranger’s Car, Story Goes Viral

By Lorraine Devon Wilke

Surprising gift from a passing vet; @Facebook

It was just another morning for Samantha Ford. She’d been with her two kids at at neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts outside Boston and as she gazed out the window toward the parking lot, she noticed what looked to be a ticket stuck onto her windshield. The morning just got worse. As the kids clamored back in the car minutes later, she reached over to grab the unwelcome ‘gift’ tucked into the window and that’s when she noticed it wasn’t a ticket after all. It was a note written on the back of an envelope… accompanied by two $20 bills.

Shocked, she looked around to see who might have left it but no one obvious appeared to be in the area. With money in hand, she read the note and was stunned to tears:

“I noticed the sticker on the back of your car. Take your hero out to dinner when he comes home. Thank you both for service. Him deployed and you for waiting. — United States Veteran, God Bless”

The car sticker the veteran referenced reads, “Half my heart is in Afghanistan,” where Ford’s boyfriend is currently deployed. She was so moved by the anonymous vet’s random act of kindness that she took a picture of the note and money and posted it on the “Our Deployment: 101 ” Facebook page (which describes itself as a collection of “military affiliate people just looking for kindness and inspiration”), adding this note of her own:

Samantha Ford > Our Deployment: 101
“I just thought I would share with you all what happened to me today! Came out of Dunkin Donuts and found this under my windshield wiper. There are no words to describe how I’m feeling right now. Tears in my eyes. I just wish I could thank whoever did this! God bless our troops and all of those who stand behind them. ♥”

As amazing stories like this are wont to do, the post went viral. As of this writing it has 1,691,239 “likes” and countless comments from people, some touched by the veteran’s act, others sharing their own stories of deployment.

The Today Show found the story moving, as well, and got in touch with Samantha. In an email correspondence, Samantha shared some of her thoughts. From TodayNewsToday:

“It was crazy!!” Ford told TODAY.com via email. “He was so touched and he said it’s people like this that make him proud to be an American Soldier. We are forever grateful and we will DEFINITELY be paying it forward! God bless our troops!”

Ford said she hopes the photograph will draw attention and recognition to the nation’s service members.

“They are all heroes. I just happen to be in love with one,” she said.

Her deployed boyfriend, Albert DeSimone, is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armor Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, Ga.

Both Ford and DeSimone look forward to that dinner together when he gets home, courtesy of the “amazingly kind and heartwarming gift” from an anonymous vet, but mostly they want to convey how truly moved they are by the thoughtfulness and generosity of a stranger.

“We are forever grateful and will DEFINITELY be paying it forward… it’s amazing to know that there are still people in this world as beautiful as this individual,” she said. [Source]

Indeed, it is.

---

Follow Lorraine Devon Wilke on Twitter, Facebook and Rock+Paper+Music; for her archive at Addicting info click here; details and links to her other work: www.lorrainedevonwilke.com.

Pat Robertson: If You’re Bankrupt, Just Give Me $20 A Month

By Alan Colmes

Televangelist Pat Robertson will go easy in you if you’re broke.

He encouraged families who could not pay their bills to become “partners” of his ministry because “it’s just $20 a month.”

At the end of Monday’s 700 Club broadcast, Robertson told the story of D.L and Deborah Hobby, who “lived large” in a 4,600-square-foot home until the housing market crashed and their real estate business dried up.

After selling their home at a “huge loss,” the Hobbys declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy in 2010. The “defeated” family of four was forced to move into a 1,000-square-foot home.

“That is when we really started to focus on God,” D.L. Hobby recalled…

“Our finances have been restored because of him,” Deborah Hobby observed. “And I believe it was because of us continuing to tithe, and us putting God first in our lives.”

“They were faithful,” Robertson opined at the conclusion of the report. “Listen, there is no way you can out give God. You can’t do it. And that which is given to him will come back 30, 60 and 100 fold.”

“We encourage you to join the 700 Club,” the TV preacher added. “It’s just $20 a month. And if all of us do it together, it gets to be millions and millions and millions of dollars!”

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

Dig last updated on Mar. 18, 2013

http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/