South Chicagoland Young Democrats: The Blog

Two days ago at work I was talking to one of my bosses about the people that he knows who are currently or who have fought in Iraq. He knows several. He is seven years older than I am. Most of the people the he knows in the military are almost done with their tours. He is twenty-five years old.

I am eighteen years old. I know many people that are planning to join the military and many that already have. All of these people will most likely be shipped to Iraq.

It is difficult for me to write how wierd and scary it is to think that people who are seven years older than I am started fighting this war and people my own age will soon be carrying on the fight. Why are we still fighting? Why can we not get out of this war?

It may not be a new generation but it seems close, at least to me. This war has been going on far too long and it had better end soon, before people seven years younger than those me have to fight the war too.

From the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms.

The month of May, which will end today, is being reported as the third deadliest month of the war. As of yesterday, 123 American soldiers have died in Iraq this month, a number that could increase if any of the 8 soldiers wounded yesterday in a roadside bombing die today.

This is the fifth year of this war. People including President Bush keep claiming that the American people need to give more time for the new strategy for fighting this war to succeed. If this new strategy is such a good one, why have so many soldiers died in this month. The only logical answer is that no strategy will work and that American forces should be withdrawn from Iraq.

Just as important is the tendency of the Iraqi government to distance itself from the actions of the Amerian military. If the Iraqis want us there, why would their government want nothing to do with us. If the Iraqis do not want us there then why are we there.

I cannot say anymore. It is obvious that we should no longer be in Iraq. It is truly painful to think that so many Americans have died and keep dying for something so vain and unnecessary.

From the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms.

Today, Congress passed a bill that allocates billions of dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To most, this is really no surprise because several of these bills have been passed in the last few weeks. This one is unique, however, because it does not contain any timelines for the withdrawal of troops. This may seem surprising because of the adamant stance that the Democrats in Congress took on the issue, namely Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, but it was truly inevitable.

Since President Bush requested more funds for the two wars several months ago, Congress passed a bill that supplied the money that he asked for. The only stipulation this bill was that it included a timeline for the withdrawal of combat forces from Iraq. Our beloved president refused to accept this bill, vetoing seemingly without any thought. This led to a standoff between Congress and the White House, namely because, pardon my French, President Bush is the world’s largest ASS****. Throughout the debate, Bush refused to compromise; he would not accept any form of timeline for the end of the war. I honestly think that he must be forgetting that Congress represents the American people. What Congress says is what the people of this country want. How dare he veto a bill simply because he does not like it or it does not fit his plan for the war. The American people are sick of this “Global war on terror” and he refuses to accept this fact.

Congress passed a bill that gave the president everything that he asked for, money to continue a war that we should not be fighting without any stipulations for the end of the war. The Democrats in the Senate and the House were forced to stand down simply because the troops on the ground needed the funds for supplies. President Bush should know, however, that the days of him getting whatever he wants from Congress are over. It was wrong of him to force this bill to be passed by putting the lives of American troops on the line. He played politics. If the troops ran out of supplies he could simply say that Congress refused to give him the money needed to keep them supplied. He risked the lives of American troops playing politics and as disappointing as it is that he received all that he wanted, it was responsible of the Democrats to support our troops. They displayed some things that President Bush will never possess: intelligence, responsibility, and a conscience.

From the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms.

If you’re reading this, then you know the obvious:? the blog has been restored!

Turns out a bad plugin was the culprit.? We are back up and running!? I look forward to reading all of your posts.

Today, President Bush vetoed a proposed Iraq spending bill, calling the bill’s timetable for withdrawal of American troops an admission of defeat. The bill, which allotted funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, called for the withdrawal of American troops ending in March of 2008 with all combat forces out of Iraq. The president stated that signing the bill would be equal to admitting defeat to the terrorists and insurgents fighting in Iraq, therefore, refusing to sign the bill.

It is my opinion that defeat and victory are no longer what this country should be thinking about. We have had to come to this conclusion in Korea, again in Vietnam, and now in Iraq. What difference does it make if we win this war? More importantly, what constitutes a victory? If we “win” this war, will that bring the 3000 plus American soldiers back to life, or will end the suffering of those soldiers’ parents? No, it will not. It is time for us to end this war, victory or no, mission accomplished or not. Those things are not important. What is important are the lives of those soldiers still fighting the war and those who will be sent there in the near future (or if Bush has his way the distant future). To those who say that withdrawing without a definite victory would disgrace the memories of those soldiers who have already died in the war, I say that allowing any more soldiers to die is even more disgraceful.

The real issue here is President Bush’s ego. To withdraw the troops would be to admit that he was wrong, a thing that he refuses to do. It is time for him to rise above his own ego and do what is good for this country for a change. Congress should not relent in their work to end this war. Rather, Bush should give up on a futile endeavor and bring our troops home before more young lives are cut short and before more mothers lose their sons and daughters. Congress should pass another bill with the same timetable. If Bush vetoes that one, they should do it again and again and again until he gets the point that we, the American people do not support this war. If he claims that we are denying the soldiers the money that they need to fight the war then we should simply state the truth. It is not we who are denying the soldiers their funds, it is President Bush. His stubbornness has cost the lives of 3000 plus soldiers and anymore that die because of a lack of funding will be on his conscious as well. It is time for him to do the honorable thing, the responsible thing, and sign a bill that withdraws American troops. Our job is not over until he does.

From the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms

Every day it seems, a new investigation is announced on TV related to a Bush appointee. Every one of them has been highly publicized most notably Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Paul Wolfowitz. Each of these men appear, atleast to me, to be guilty of the charges brought against them. Overwhelming evidence exists showing that Gonzalez fired 8 States Attorneys for strictly political reasons and Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, promoted his girlfriend to a high paying job when she was not as qualified as other possible applicants.

These investigations seem well warranted but I have to say that if we are going to go through all the trouble of indicting everyone that Bush has appointed, why do we not just do the obvious and impeach Bush. In the history of the US two presidents have been impeached. The most recent was Bill Clinton and I think we all know what he was impeached over (a highly publicized affair with Monica Lewinski). While I think it would damage the popularity of the newly elected Democratic majority in Congress, President Bush makes it clearer every day that he has broken more laws than any other president in our history. The Republican Congress of 9 years ago impeached Bill Clinton over a blow job, but we do not have the balls the impeach George Bush for causing the deaths of more than 3,000 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

What I am trying to say is that it is time to stop attacking the at the bottom and go straight for the proverbial jugular. If we are going to be taking the time to bring charges against political allies of Bush let’s grow some balls and go after the big man. Every day I sit and read the newspaper and think to myself that this is the first time where all of the work has been done already and the only thing that Congress needs to do is officially raise the charges. We already know that he is guilty, how about we make it official. In the end, the thing that we need to think about is precident. Even though it may meen the sacrifice of the Congressional majority in the next election, although I am not certain that it would, we have to show the country and the world that even the President of the most powerful country in the world is held accoutable for his actions.

Let’s do it. Impeach the worst president of American history.

From the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms

(Please read. I promise there is a point)
I am a teenager. I am extremely interested in politics and I like to think active as well. It is my opinion that it is my duty as an American citizen to pay attention to how this country is run. With that said, I do not blame the people my age that do not care about politics and have absolutely no interest in voting. For that, I blame the politicians in this country.

In my life, I can remember many elections. I say that very loosely because I do not remember what position most of the candidates took on important issues but rather, I remember what bad things the politicians did in their lives. In the politics of today, it does not seem that we elect people based on the legitimacy of their positions but instead on how good of a person they have always been and that is shameful. How can anyone expect my generation to vote when the only information that we have to go on is whether a candidate tried cocaine at one point in his or her lives or if the other has a gay daughter. Let us think back to the presidential election of 2004. I guarantee you that if anyone were to ask someone my age what they remember about John Kerry they would say one of two things, swift boat or flip-flopper.

Today as I watched the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, the only good source for political information because they seem to be the only ones that recognize how low politics have gone in this country; I saw news clips from the days surrounding the Virginia Tech shootings. These clips were filled with politicians and reporters alike attacking each other for trying to politicize that tragedy. Each side wanted to use it in the debate over gun control. I feel that this is a legitimate example in that debate but instead of talking about gun control, both sides fought about how disrespectful it is to use such a tragedy to push an agenda. The attacks flew back and forth over the tactfulness of using the event rather than an actual debate over gun control. This is a perfect example of how low attack politics have gone.

I am not going to blame this decent from responsible politics on either political party or on the media. Instead, I blame the country as a whole. We cannot allow this to happen anymore. I call my generation, the young Democrats and Republicans alike, to make politics right again. Make it about the issues again and not about slander. If you are against war, vote for the person that runs on an antiwar platform. If you are against the waste of federal funds, vote for the person that is running on a platform of reduced spending. Vote for who you support, not for the person that did the fewest stupid things throughout his or her life. Most importantly vote, because we can make a difference and anyone that tells you we can’t is wrong.

From the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms.

An Iranian diplomat that was recently freed from captivity in Iraq has alleged that he was interrogated and tortured by the CIA. The diplomat was taken captive by an unknown group of armed men several months ago while working in Iraq. The US army denied any involvent and continues to deny involvement. Despite this denial, the diplomat appeared an Iranian TV yesterday claiming that he was taken prisoner by Iraqi troops under the command of Americans. While the White House and the Pentagon are both claiming that there was no such involvement and that this man was never a prisoner of the CIA, we must ask if we really believe them.

Ever since President Bush made it clear that he believes in the use of forms of torture and that we discovered that there were secret prison camps around the world containing detainees in the war against terrorism, we cannot ever truly know whether or not this man is telling the truth. As an American citizen, I cannot help but think that if I do not know whether or not to believe our government, what must the rest of the world think. What is worse is that this claims are coming from Iran, a nation that is currently under scrutiny because of its nuclear program and because of the recent fiasco with the captive British sailors and marines. One would think that the US would be more credible it does not appear as such.

While this is all merely speculation on my part, I cannot help but think that if I feel this way, more people, notably the rest of the world, must feel similarly. This is the curse of President Bush’s abysmal foreign policy, or rather, lack there of. His public feelings on torture and the treatment of prisoners at camps like Guantanamo Bay have damned our country to forever be questioned by the global community. How will we ever be able to achieve success in this “war on terror” if in the eyes of the rest of the world we are no better than the terrorists that we are fighting?

Some food for thought from the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms.

Anyone reading this blog is probably already well aware of the Republican Party’s ability to openly contradict themselves. Usually, it takes some period of time for them to forget about what it is that they have said and then they say something that is the exact opposite. This week, however, Congressional Republicans set a new record in their ability for double talk by contradicting statements that they are currently making.

Both houses of Congress are currently working on a budget for next year, 2008. The Democratic majority is working to eliminate many of the tax cuts that President Bush passed during his first term in office. On the cutting block are primarily the tax cuts that favor the wealthy and those that are left are aimed more toward the middle class. Because of the elimination of these tax cuts, an estimated (and badly needed) surplus of $158 billion would be available to the treasury in the next five years.

This is where the Republicans opened their mouths and shoved their feet right in. When the Democrats proposed their new budget, Republican leaders countered “The best way to balance the budget is to control spending, not raise taxes.” The spending that is referred to here is the planned funding for defense contracts, veteran affairs, and schools. I now ask you how Republicans can complain about a proposed increase in spending (one that is not even set to happen until next year) on measures that are necessary for the protection and betterment of America while simultaneously begging for more money to continue the war in Iraq, an ever downward spiraling hell hole that has done little more than drain our economy and kill thousands of our soldiers.

When I first read the story I had to stop and laugh. Reading the news today I saw this article about the proposed budget for next year printed directly beside the article that has Tony Snow and Defense Secretary Robert Gates pleading for Congress to pass the emergency funding bill that would allocate $128 billion to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They complain about us wanting to spend roughly $150 billion for internal use while simultaneously asking for roughly $150 billion for use in a foreign and unjust war. Something seems very wrong in this situation.

From the brilliant mind of Mike Kean, your friendly Sergeant at Arms.

I have great news for you guys Thursday night.? Get lots of people to the meeting.

GK