Alan Grayson powerfully channels Eisenhower's "Chance for Freedom' Speech
We have a little exclusive from the great Congressman from Florida.
Alan Grayson adapts Eisenhower's 1953 speech called: "The Chance For Peace" to make an enormous point in our country today. He's changed a few words to make it fit into our current narrative, but they are still important and explosive words that all Americans need to hear.
We waste over 600 billion dollars a year on the Military Industrial Complex and if we even cut back 20% on that monstrosity, how much good can we accomplish here? How much change and prosperity can be funneled to every day working class families that toil so hard just to make ends meet?
We have a life of perpetual fear and tension; a burden of arms draining the wealth and the labor of all peoples; a wasting of strength that defies the American system or any system to achieve true abundance and happiness for the peoples of this earth.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross, a cross of iron. These plain and cruel truths define the peril and the point of hope that come with this time. God created men to enjoy, not destroy, the fruits of the earth and of their own toil.
They aspire to this: the lifting from the backs and from the hearts of men, of their burden of arms and of fears, so that they may find before them a golden age, a golden age of freedom and of peace. Thank you.
We talk a lot about wingnut welfare and conservatives and Libertarians whine all day long about our tax dollars being used to fund programs that are used for the betterment of our society such as Social Security and Medicare.
Yet they remain quiet and mute, like scarecrows in the middle of a desert when billions upon billions are shifted out of their pockets and into the hands of companies like Blackwater aka Xe Services or some new Star Wars program that is useless unless you're the recipient of those funds -- for the sole purpose of mass destruction rather than enrichment.
Here' Alan Grayson's post called "The Longest War." In it he talks about our need to get out of Afghanistan and has introduced a new bill called The War is Making You Poor Act, HR 5353.
How strange. It turns out that America's chief military strategist for the past decade is Osama Bin Laden himself. We've been doing exactly what he has wanted us to do: spend staggering sums on the military, until the American economy is bled dry. But it doesn't have to be that way. We are a democracy. We can choose peace.
I have voted against Bin Laden's strategy to destroy America, and I will continue to do so. But I've done more than that. I have introduced a bill called The War is Making You Poor Act, HR 5353.
This bill requires that the war be funded by the Pentagon's base budget - "only" $549 billion. And it uses the resulting savings to eliminate federal income taxes on your first $35,000 of income - yours and every American's. It also reduces the deficit.
Bin Laden told us how he would destroy us. And we're following his instructions, to a "t." How absurd is that? No more. We have to make our so-called "leaders" listen to us. If we are to survive.
That's what we're going to do, together. Sign our petition, and show your support for HR 5353. Ask your friends to do the same. Let's stop the war, before it stops all of us.
Don't forget to throw Alan Grayson a few bob at our Blue America10 act blue page. If there is a politician out there who deserves our support, he certainly does.
be taken from us and do nothing, all hope is lost
prepare for this great struggle
www.defensekills.us
your name's Lebowski, Lebowski... and your wife is Bunny
It's like everyone is hype-mo-tized except Grayson.
TeeVee hype is the department of propaganda for Thuglicans, and
the bread&butter for TeeVee political theatre.
Like a dog chasing it's tail.
What a long strange trip it's been.
But now it will end.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Why are they in Washington if not to rape the American people? Because it is self evident they are not there for us.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
"Eisenhower's 1953 speech"
Now stop for a moment and think about this; that's big, that's really big: a "prayer breakfast" that has the "political clout" to compel the attendance of the most powerful politicos of the country (including EVERY president and vice president since the Eisenhower administration), many of whom don't have a "religious bone" in their bodies. That's "CLOUT."
Although the organization is secretive, it holds one regular public event each year, the National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, D.C. Every sitting United States president since President Dwight D. Eisenhower, up to President Barack Obama, has participated in at least one National Prayer Breakfast during his term.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
The words to the song "Imagine" came to my mind as I was reading this post.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
...who?
Fact check: Obama has more troops under deployment than Bush ever did. ...and he was elected by progressives! (go figure)
http://noliesradio.org/archives/8365
Libertarians against war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5_ThKD2g4U
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
How about... The Just War Theory?
Study the symptoms not the virus...
better than my video... !! (rock on)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
I thought you might like that.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Right message, wrong messenger.
Praising Ron Paul for having an idea you share is like atheists applauding Christopher Hitchens for standing up for atheism. Their personal taint does not help their cause. It may even set it back considerably.
Briefly, could you describe what that "taint" is?
Study the symptoms not the virus...
in genital region (urban dict.)
it's a joke, people...
your name's Lebowski, Lebowski... and your wife is Bunny
That's funny because Hitchens does mention being "tainted" here in this clip... at about the 15:00 min. mark, while describing a mass grave.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Taint: vb 1: corrupt, contaminate 2: to affect or become affected with something bad (as putrefaction)
Taint: n a contaminating mark or influence
Buy a Dictionary (Merriam-Webster's $5.99). It shouldn't break you.
http://fogghorn.blogspot.com/
Perfectly and elegantly put. Libertarianism is a child's game.
One of my favorite members of Congress! He must scare the Democrat establishment as much as he scares the Republican establishment.
Brilliant. This guy get a donation from me! And I signed the petition.
WE have lost our way as a country and as a people. The GOP has manipulated the electorate with the purchasing of all the meida by the corporate masters. They have spent over 30 years lying and deceiving till they have persuaded the poor republican voter not to believe their own eyes and ears.
I am not sure waht to do buy I am sure that republicans of the last 30 years do not have the morals or the intelligence to participate in government.
We need to remove republicans from our government.
...he kinda wimped out on the "audit the Fed bill" ...but he is still one of the ten politicians I like.
actually I rate him in my top 5.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
sign the petition? So far all I see is chatter.
When I signed it... I didn't notice any "chatter". ;)
Study the symptoms not the virus...
"milquetoast unincorporated"
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
When Eisenhower ran for president against Adlai Stevenson, I was in the first half of grade school and was even then a democrat.
Eisenhower was a true patriot with different political views than I had-even though I was still in the single digits as far as age.
Eisenhower was a true military man that truly abhored the act of war and the military industrial complex. He seemed to know what was coming down the road.
The zealots that are in charge today absolutely love war, murder and any other mayhem that they can rain down on peoples of the world. All in the name of the corporate dollar.
This country has gone off the rails and I don't know how to clean this train wreck and lay new tracks.
God help us all.
Re: God help us all
The chaplain said O'Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman's side, "crying out to God, 'Help us.' And Tillman says to him, 'Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ...'"
You may be interested in this... SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 145? Also discussed here as
Oil-Well. ;)Study the symptoms not the virus...
When you think in terms of the US of A being a one-industry town:
The Military Industy.
Its easy to understand all of the BS & machinations that have been going on for the last 50 yrs (at least).
Its very simple:
1. THE WAR BUSINESS.
2. THE MILTARY RUNS ON OIL.
Period. Thats all you need to know to understand whats really been going on for the last 1/2 century.
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
military industrial complex
energy industrial complex
medical/pharma industrial complex
banking industrial complex
agri industrial complex
insurance industrial complex
Walmart industrial complex...(feel free to add to the list)
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
media industrial complex
education industrial complex (standardized brainwashing)
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
..
me-oww!
Prisons are the major construction effort of this decade, comparable to dam-building in the 30's or interstate highway construction in the 50's and 60's.
Remember the "ROPE-A-DOPE" strategy made famous by Mohammad Ali? You just lean back on the ropes, cover your face with your boxing gloves, and let the stronger opponent swing away until he wears himself out. Let the stonger opponent defeat himself, while you fade into the background without taking much punishment.
That's us ... that's the United States ... swinging away with all out might until we're bankrupt and done for.
I've been saying this was Osama's strategy for 8 years now. We're getting "Rope-a-doped" ... and Bush got totally suckered into it.
And I thought the "Bush(s)" were friendly with the bin Laden family? :-/
Study the symptoms not the virus...
... have a point somewhere in there?
I was just attempting to reconcile...
..."I've been saying this was Osama's strategy for 8 years now. We're getting "Rope-a-doped" ... and Bush got totally suckered into it."
Are you saying the two families have not had relations?
Study the symptoms not the virus...
what the fuck difference does it make if Bush happened to know Osama's family.
Your "point," if you want to call it that, is absurd. And pointless. Childish. Moronic. Silly. Worse yet, it is not at all interesting. There is no there, there. It does not further the conversation. It has no value. It does not signify that you have humor or wit, but rather signifies that you are a half-wit. So why do you bother to post?
Thank you for your opinion, it means a lot to me. ;)
Study the symptoms not the virus...
There are 130,000 private contractors getting rich in Afghanistan and 95,000 troops getting blown up. Guess who benefits the most.
I thought the same thing when somebody mentioned again that it's costing us $1,000,000/GI/Year - just how much are those f*cking mercenaries costing us?
I wish whoever is inventing the librul "take-over-your-brain" machine would hurry up, so we could start sending Rep. Grayson's brainwaves into the rest of our beloved Congreff. Dog bless him.
You are so fighting the man, and speaking truth to power.
If you think about it, there are oodles of corporations funded through government contract and our tax dollars. I'd love to know what percentage of our tax dollars goes to these private corporations.
Has anyone figured that out?
privatized, besides SS and Medicare. Consider that Medicare claims are processed by a private corporation, "Government Services, Inc." They are absolutely a private corporation named to fool those who don't dig into these things. The Post Office? Try again. While not totally private, they are almost there. Try the 800 number in your local phone book for the PO. Ask them who they are and where they are. Surprise! I can't think of anything else except the IRS. I haven't inquired there, yet.
It's too bad he wasn't running in 2008 instead of Obama. I hope he considers running in 2012!
Grayson/Ventura , Alan would kick your ass with words and the other would just kick your ass .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
An interesting combination; one that I would vote for.
Grayson-Whitehouse 2012
Study the symptoms not the virus...
How about Grayson/Dean?
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
good combination.
That sounds good to me. I'm not absolutely sure about any them though, without further investigation. I just kinda had one of those Tourette moments. ;)
I suppose it's like talking in Tongues... ya mean something, but your not sure of the validity of your statement/request. ;)
Study the symptoms not the virus...
to be found in both the Republican and Democratic Parties. Those politicians that stand up for peace and against war are rarities that must be supported. The ones that are consistent in this regard are truly gems. The ones that also oppose the draconian stripping of human rights and civil rights in the name of "fighting terrorism" are even rarer -- and exclude much of the Obama administration. The similarity between major domestic and foreign policy planks between the National Republican and Democratic Parties is astounding:
[ http://www.therealdifference.org/issues.html ]
I am not so much trying to disparage the Obama administration as I am trying to raise the issue that there are many incumbent Democratic politicians that do not deserve our votes, let alone the support of these Neanderthals through cash contributions or volunteering for their campaigns. Even more so with the Republicans, since there is only one that I have any respect for, Ron Paul. The "lesser of two evils" isn't good, merely somewhat better, and hardly a proper choice (Hobson's?). I will support some Democrats, including Grayson and Kucinich and a few others, but I feel far more comfortable supporting a political party whose platform I can totally support, and the Democratic Party isn't it.
[ http://www.gp.org ]
Can Grayson, Kucinich, and a few more progressive Democrats turn the Democratic Party around? I don't know. I can hope for some change that I can believe in, but I'm not counting on it.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy
The democratic party was taken over in a DLC coup by Obama, Rahm and the other Clinton flunkies.
Howard Dean made the democrats and liberalism popular again, and these GOP-lite c**k suckers snatched it from the people.
Of all the reasons not to like Obama, this is the number one reason for me; he took a people driven anti-corporate fascism mandate, and handed us over right back into the hands of the same corporate fascists he knew we loathed - the SOB!
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
they are absolutely not GOP-lite.
They are full on Neo-cons too. Period. They have embraced with gusto and advanced the Bush doctrines - see assassinating US citizens w/o due process as a point.
Green Party blocked from Texas ballot
Study the symptoms not the virus...
..he employs a modicum of honesty in his positions on Israel. As it stands this sort of behaviour serves only to illuminate the obsene cognitive dissonance at play and makes his hypocrisy all the more intolerable.
I've been interested with regard to his "positions on Israel", could you direct me to some? Thanks for your time
Study the symptoms not the virus...
His failure to make a serious public statement regarding Israel in the course of his many anti-war speeches should be enough to set alarm bells ringing but here's a rather damning expose Max Blumenthal wrote at the end of last year.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/gutsy-progressi...
If you wont stand against the masscre of women and children unless it's politically expedient then you can essentially shove your anti-war credentials up your ass
I don't give a s**t what his position is on Isreal. He is about the only politician around pointing to the corporate fascists' behind the curtain who run this country.
Mind you, I get your stance on Isreal, because I think they are murdering innocent people, and they must be stopped - although I have no idea how.
But why trash the rare politician who stands up for working people, because he hasn't discussed Isreal? I don't see how dismissing Grayson helps "we the people" one bit.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
the corporate fascists' behind the curtain
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
1.) we should care about what his stance on israel is because he is jewish , as was Eisenhower ( who has been charged with all most a million german deaths AFTER the war was over ) .
2.) cut off all funding to israel
3.) I love me sum Alan G , so sad the 1%ers think of us as chattel and the chumps lap up the dropings
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
BushCo. Especially Cheney. How many people, not just US soldiers, have died because of their treachery and greed? Huh? Let's talk about someone we can actually force to own up to their crimes.
that gets done is look forward , and one needs to learn from mistakes .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
bullshit I have ever heard. I am hard pressed to come to any conclusion about the reason this administration is acting so cowardly about prosecuting the blatant war criminals. Something is very wrong.
imho
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
Or all their families are being held hostage. Or BushCo did something so horrible that the country would be destroyed if it got out. I have a feeling that the last one is the winner.
found the holy grail and it was dog shit , were in big do-do now .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
what is wrong is your fear to accept the obvious truth.
the criminals count on that.
obvious truth ?
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
most people will not believe that they went that far.
well in just this war(s) we've killed over 1.5 million.
1/6 of the way to the German's Nazi's and their atrocities.
a lot more because of our use of DU's the gift that give for billions of years .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
well you can add a quick 3 million from the Vietnam war that we slaughtered due to a lied-about naval battle in the Gulf of Tonkin.
respect. rare to hear spoken knowledge of Eisenhower's after-war responsibility for what happened in Germany to the surrendered/civilians.
does no one else here , know what we are talking about or is everyone else watching a shooting star in broad daylight ? .
Or what the BOSS did to the Ukraine in ww2 and who did the BOSS have as his staff by 80% that killed 15 million people in the Ukraine , ah ( not so ) forgotten facts , and why were they happy to do so , as a revenge against the cossacks from 150 ago .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
"we should care about what his stance on israel is because he is jewish"
Here are some more Perspectives, you may be interested in? I've only read Noam Chomsky's, because like you said... we should care about what his stance on israel is because he is jewish ;)
Noam Chomsky & Alan Dershowitz debate Israel and Palestine
PS. Noam Chomsky (1928– ), American linguist, MIT professor, and left-wing political activist. The most important theoretical linguist of the past century. Grew up immersed in Hebrew culture and literature. An anarcho-syndicalist from the age of 12 or 13—when most boys are still Spartacist-Trotskyist. Especially critical of U S. foreign policy.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
thats not a fair question ? , I like Alan Grayson , maybe I have not read what his stance is on the ME conflict , or it soultion is , perhaps you can enlighten me .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
See above... my response to Uinsionn.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Fri, 06/25/2010 - 16:46 — Truth_Critic
I've been interested with regard to his "positions on Israel", could you direct me to some? Thanks for your time
-------------------------------------------------------------------
But because you made the following remark:
"Fri, 06/25/2010 - 19:04 — dnyknot
1.) "we should care about what his stance on israel is because he is jewish"
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I believe your point to have merit, and from strictly a Jewish standpoint, I thought some may be interested in the link(s)... I posted above. For transparency purposes, I must admit that although I do not reside in FL, I've contributed to Mr. Grayson on two separate occasions in the past... ignorant of his stance on Israel or affiliation to AIPAC.
Study the symptoms not the virus...
please do not take my Q's as a slam , which i believe you have not , rather I do not know his stance ( Im sure its not a wide one lol ) re israel . What is going on now in the ME is huge most americans are not even aware of , this posturing against Iran is fucking crazy , it is for whos benefit ? .
Maybe the best way to end war is to put those that want it in an arean and let them fight it out with rusty swords with winners facing the lions . If only life was worth more than what death pays ! .
ps thanks for the links i have read them .
dn
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
Name em and shame em is what I always say.
Thank you... I'll check that out! From what I've seen, I really admire Max... did you see this?
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Don't want to give away my age, but it was Eisenhower and the Dixiecrats that had me confused.
.
I see 2016 in Grayson's future!
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
I see 2012 in Grayson's future. I think President Obama is going to be a one term president because he inherited such a godawful mess from chimpy and the evil that he cant clean it up fast enough for the stupid people in this country. Its not his fault, mind you, he got a shitty deal. I dont know why Mr. Obama even wanted to be the one the one try to clear up the cesspool that the usa has become. His bipartisonship stance was his downfall, IMHO, since all of the refucks want him to fail. (refucks, I invented a new word!!)
he is kickin ass, just like Barack.
really
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
'Nuff said.
those trolls don't care which administration signs their check. All part of the keyboard brigades to prop up official-dom proclamations and mytho.
I think he meant Barack is kissing ass.
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
George Carlin
it must of been a typo
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
I wonder if these un-convicted criminals and psychopaths would kill 3000 of there fellow citizens to make a few trillion in arms sales/wars/opium profits/expanded surveilliance/torture paradigm/bank profiteering.
Milgram says they would. So does Lobaczewski.
dont forget , we now look forward .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
as do cattle in a chute led by a Judas goat
We need many more like him in Congress.
How about:
Billions for Banks!
Billions for Wall Street!
Billions for Oil!
Trillions for War!
(and nothing for you...)
[I may just have stuffed cotton for a brain, but even I know this is just wrong...]
I love his weekly segment on "The Stephanie Miller Radio Show".
"The War is making us poor"
Alan Grayson
Something needs to fill the void of the cold war to justify the profligate spending on defense, and it is the morphing of the war on terrorism into a war on Islam. The supporters generally say something like "Everything I need to know about Islam, I learned on 9-11".
That's the pitch to keep Americans spending like drunken fools.
not stopping the DC pols. from spending like drunken fools.
In my neck of the woods, there is a lot of support for a war against Islam.
Mr. Amato might want to check out LewRockwell.com for some authentic Libertarian opposition to the War Machine, in fact, right there under the title are the words, "anti-war", with blog posts and articles detailing the absolute disgust with the Military Industrial Complex and all the parasites associated with it.
In addition, Mr. Amato fails to mention Ron Paul's co-sponsorship of HR5353, which puts Paul firmly in the anti-war camp. One could hardly confuse Paul with a "mute scarecrow" with his track-record of opposition to the War Machine.
Not all Conservatives and Libertarians are as Amato describes and I’m hopeful that the anti-war Left and like-minded Conservatives and Libertarians can at join forces to stop these goddamned wars and the Military Industrial Complex before this country collapses in fiscal ruin.
... are right on the spending to be the world's policeman. We can't afford it, due to the elimination of the depression era regulations which led to a new depression, along with free trade that off-shored our manufacturing and destroyed our ability to pay to be the world's policeman.
Where I have a problem is libertarian economics, which seems to me to endorse the strategies that led to the inability to continue to assume the role of "world's policeman". While I endorse the idea of eliminating the role of "world's policeman", I hardly endorse the economic reason why, namely the fore-mentioned free-trade and elimination of depression era government regulations.
Just because Libertarians are right on a couple of points, doesn't make me want to swallow the whole s#it sandwich, especially the part that the Commerce clause is limited to establishing a "free trade" zone between the states. I would rather the Commerce clause also be interpreted in allowing the Congress to establish standards in commerce that all states must abide by, starting with, first and foremost, a forbidding of racial discrimination in commerce.
http://fogghorn.blogspot.com/2010/06/ron-paul...
They are wrong on so many levels. And they are not anti-war, they are anti-everything. Nihilists with a 'mine' fixation.
The problem with libertarians at this time are all the neocons who seek cover under the mantle of libertarian principles. Call them teabaggers. And when push comes to shove, they won't give up on the War on Drugs or the eternal War on Everbody Not Like Us, because they are the love slaves of corporations.
that the faux libertarian neo con war monger teabaggers are love slaves of.
If we can get SPECIFIC, we can start kicking ass!
so that one can read the whole post.
It's been like that for two weeks. Que pasa?
margins. Pardon!
What a puss-wad...
Why does he hate 'Merica??
Ape-Man -- I could not agree more -- you da MAN - thanks
Like Grayson, completely sold out to the enemy! Dirty treasonous hippy Grayson sells out like dirty treasonous hippy Eisenpower and we're supposed to be impressed?
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