As we are now entrenched in the caucuses and primaries of the 2008 election campaign, there is much talk of change that will be brought about by the Democratic nominee for President.  Whomever that is, I think everyone agrees this person and their running mate will be an enormous improvement over the current occupants of Pennsylvania Avenue.  The past eight years of criminality, genocide, and corruption will be the current administration’s legacy regardless of their actions this final year.

More after the fold.

Legendary singer and songwriter, Dan Fogelberg, passed away in his Maine home today at the age of 56 following his heroic battle against prostate cancer. Dan is survived by his wife, Jean..  Anna Loynes of the Solters & Digney public relations agency announced Dan’s passing today and it was posted on his website.

http://www.danfogelberg.com/...

"Sunday, December 16
Dear friends,

Dan left us this morning at 6:00am . He fought a brave battle with cancer and died peacefully at home in Maine with his wife Jean at his side. His strength, dignity, and grace in the face of the daunting challenges of this disease were an inspiration to all who knew him."

More after the fold.

In his response today to my email encouraging the impeachment of Bush and Cheney and the support of Kucinich's HR333-Bill now before the HJC, Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) invoked a response reminiscent of capitulating Hillary at the last debate.  It seems that the Democratic members of Congress have adopted doubletalk as their universal language whereby they say one thing but do another and even freely capitulate on issues within the same letter or speech.  A look at Salazar's position(s) on the issues with commentary after the break.

It turns out that the seventy percent are uninformed and wrong in our assessment of the situation in Iraq.  It turns out that the Iraq Study Group and Middle East Experts Panel are flawed in their thinking as well.  It turns out that all polls of the Iraqi citizenry suggesting that they unanimously want American troops out of Iraq are fabricated.  It turns out that fifteen-hundred to two thousand Iraqi citizen deaths per month this summer signifies that the surge is succeeding.  It turns out that American troops have unanimously informed Rep. Lamborn that "We can win this if you let us."  Isn’t that what we have been letting the military do for the past five years?  Anyway, I had it all spelled out for me in Congressman Lamborn’s legislative update today.  

Congressman Lamborn’s report, comments, and poll after the fold.

It's time for Congress to demand the full deployment home this year of all military personnel serving in Iraq.  It is time for Congress to reconcile themselves to the American people and for the American people to reconcile themselves to God and the World.

$8 billion out of $30 billion approved by Congress for Iraq reconstruction projects cannot be accounted for.  Halliburton stole $2 billion from American taxpayers and then relocated their top executives to Dubai to avoid extradition.  $12 billion in medical supplies and aid has been stolen from the ravaged Iraqi citizenry by corrupt Iraqi Ministry officials.

I just received a letter from Iowa Democratic Senator, Tom Harkin, who reintroduced this bill in the Senate earlier this year.  The proposed legislation is named after a soldier from Grundy Center, Iowa who committed suicide shortly after returning from Iraq.  The bill mandates that the Department of Veterans Affairs commence screening soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan for signs of mental illness.  Said bill also directs the VA to improve and increase counseling and other mental health services for returning war veterans.  

There has been a lot of debate on Dkos lately regarding religion and what role, if any, it should have in politics or government.  Most seemingly agreed that religion and politics are a dangerous mix, as many genocidal wars have been launched in the name of religion, and that there should be a separation of religion and state.  Another conclusion that could be drawn by many is that religious discussions always seem to evoke tremendous emotional comments and responses.

A recent religious debate touched on many things, such as what is the definition of a Christian, and ultimately raised an important question.  What is moral and who gets to decide what that means?   Discussion, including poll follows after the break.  

In a new video entitled "Fox Attacks Iran", Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films.org reveal how Fox News is repeating the same rhetoric used in supporting the invasion of Iraq to now support a war against Iran.  CNN's Christiane Amanpour recalls how other networks were intimidated by Fox into chearleading for the Iraq War without any investigative journalism.  It seems that history is likely to repeat itself again here.

Not only will the Bush Administration refuse redeployment of our troops from Iraq during their second term, they fully intend to escalate our military involvement in the Middle East.  Nothing short of impeachment and prosecution will stop President Bush and VP Cheney from their course of agression and genocide in this Region.

http://foxattacks.com/...

(This is an edited reprint of a diary from another web-site months ago.  In a returning soldier's angry words, the despair of this War. It has haunted me for several months and I wanted to repost it for Daily Kos here.)

"This pregnant female Marine widow is speaking to all you flag wavers secure in your homes tonight.   Right now I hate you.  Sorry, just my emotions writing this. Having the worst damn week of my whole damn life so I'm going to write this while I'm pissed off enough to do it right.

According to CNN, the Pentagon will release disturbing information tomorrow regarding a surge in suicide rates among American soldiers.  These desperate acts may reflect fatigue caused by extended tours and/or the futility of opposing endless sectarian violence in Iraq.

Year     Troops Suicides

2003          79
2004          67
2005          88
2006         101

No figure has been released for the current year.  

we're still better than Alberto Gonzales, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the immoral hedonists of this Administration.  We can look in the mirror each morning and, aside from the usual disgust about receding hairlines and aging, do not try to pretend we're something that we're not.  We acknowledge that our looks are largely the result of our environment and the stressful life most Americans are forced to endure in this Country.  We don't have health insurance, job security, a 401k or retirement pension, and try to live within our ever shrinking means.  

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the DOJ have enabled the Bush Administration to perpetrate illegal surveillance upon American citizens without retribution and have conducted illegal and covert political sabotage aimed at stealing elections while refusing to enforce Congressional contempt charges against Administration officials.  Gonzales and the DOJ have shown a total lack of respect for the highest law of the land, our U.S. Constitution.  By example the DOJ has shown the American people and in particular attorneys, magistrates, and judges that nothing is illegal if you’re not prosecuted and that we are no longer a nation unilaterally ruled by law.  Individuals in power are somehow exempt from the law of the land and think that they are above it.

Last night on Larry King, Vice President Cheney continued his pro-war rhetoric despite admitting that there were serious problems with the pre-war intelligence regarding Iraq.  Cheney said he would go to war in Iraq all over again and that he and other Administration officials have great confidence in General Patreas and was confident that success in Iraq would be achieved by the end of the Bush Administration.

According to a recent NBC News story, a new U.S. government report has identified corruption in at least 12 Iraqi ministries.  Medical supplies and equipment designated for Iraqi hospitals are being stolen by corrupt officials in the Iraq Ministry of Health and sold on the black market while senior government officials sanction their activities. The report also states that the Ministry of Health is under the control of the Mahdi Army, an anti-American militia run by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The report also suggests that the corruption goes all the way to the top as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki often intervenes to thwart investigations.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20043428/

A sobering reality is that this Administration has already succeeded in achieving it's personal benchmarks much due to the continued failure of Congress to launch impeachment proceedings against Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales and the failure of the American people to voice strong opposition until now.  It is already too late for anyone to keep this Administration from achieving it's intended objective of perpetuating the Iraqi War until probably 2009.

The zealots of Jesus' time thought that the answer to Roman occupation, immorality, greed, and tyranny was war.  Jesus taught that true change, however, must come from within each of us.  There are many parallels between our Nation today and the Roman Empire of his time such as: the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, decaying morality, invasion of foreign lands for plunder, great injustice, genocide, and the complacency of the citizenry.  

Is nothing sacred anymore, even our great national past-time baseball?  I personally find it difficult to get excited as Barroid Bonds stands on the verge of tying and beating Henry Louis Hank Aaron's homerun record.  So what, it just proves that the ends justify the means (cheating) in professional baseball, football, basketball, wrestling, etc.

Manipulation and distortion of intelligence information.  Perjury before Congress and the American people.  Secret CIA prisons.  Torture.  Contempt for habeas corpus and due process.  Contempt for the Geneva Convention.  Contempt for The Constitution.  Manipulation of the Justice Department.  Illegal surveillance of American citizens.  Illegal and covert political sabotage.  Contempt for Congress and the American people. Invasion of foreign countries under an immoral and hedonistic foreign policy.  The spoils of war include the privatization of Iraqi oil by American oil companies and multi-million dollar non-bid defense contracts.  

With so much at stake, do you really think that this Administration is beyond perpetrating a fraudulent terrorist attack in the homeland against it’s own citizens to further it's objective?  With an estimated one million Iraqi citizens dead, nearly four thousand American troops dead and over twenty thousand injured, what are a few thousand more innocent civilian lives?  Condor is on the run again.  After all, he has already been warned!