Challenging political welfare
NY Daily Sun
by staff

"James Lesczynski entered the state Supreme Court recently ands told Judge Paul Feinman, "I don't want to pay for speech I object to." The chair of Manhattan's Libertarian Party was objecting to the city's campaign finance rules that subsidize political campaigns with taxpayers' dollars. This constitutes "coercive speech" he told the New York Sun, and violates the free-speech clauses of the state and federal constitutions." (08/10/05)

http://tinyurl.com/b9gth

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Bush is no Nixon
Truthout
William Rivers Pitt

"There will be a large anti-war protest in Washington DC on September 24th. Is it even conceivable that George W. Bush might remove himself from the White House that day to speak with the people who disagree with his leadership? The idea is laughable on its face. Cindy Sheehan is not in a large crowd in Washington DC. She is not camped on the Lincoln Memorial. She waits for Mr. Bush in a ditch by the side of the road in Crawford, arguably the safest and most comfortable spot in America for this self-styled cowboy. Yet he does not emerge to speak to this woman who lost her son to his war. Somehow, it seems a safe bet that not even Richard Nixon would keep this woman waiting." (08/10/05)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/081005I.shtml

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Homegrown resistance
CounterPunch
by Stan Goff

"Soldiers and soldier's families are constantly instructed on something called courage. People can only hear that word so many times before they begin to actually reflect on what it means; and the briefest reflection reveals something much deeper than the pumped-up physical bravado required to engage in gunfights with strangers. This administration knows now that the very training and indoctrination that prepares troops for battle can slip the leash and provide the will to face first the truth, and then themselves, and then even prison. That really sucks for them, for Bush and Rumsfeld, who can never understand anything but the bravado of the rich bully. Because history will be far kinder to Kevin and Monica Benderman than it will be to George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld." (08/10/05)

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff08102005.html

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Americans join mom in waiting for Iraq answers
Chicago Sun Times
by Carol Marin

" I keep thinking about that mother who is camped out somewhere near the end of President Bush's driveway in Crawford, Texas. Her name is Cindy Sheehan, and her 24-year-old son, Casey, is dead. He was a soldier, killed last year in the Iraq war. Sheehan wants a face-to-face meeting with the president to tell him to stop saying that our continued commitment to this awful war "honors" the sacrifice of those who gave their lives for their country. Sheehan doesn't believe we honor anyone by putting new lives on the line. Not more of our own soldiers. Not those of the so-called "coalition forces." And not innocent Iraqi men, women and children for that matter either. So Sheehan is parked in a ditch, living in a tent, some distance from the president's ranch and refusing to pack up and go back home to California. I wondered when Bush left Crawford this morning to come here to Illinois if he left his ranch by car and therefore traveled down his driveway in the vicinity of Sheehan? Or was he lifted out by helicopter, flying up and out over her head? Either way, she is down there in Texas today and Bush is here." (08/10/05)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/marin/cst-edt-carol10.html

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Turning points?
Baltimore Sun
by Jules Witcover

"Belatedly but inexorably, the rash of American deaths this month - more than 30 so far, bringing the total to 1,823 - has hit the home front as seldom before in this war of President Bush's choice. The concentration of most of the victims in one Marine Reserve unit in Ohio has generated stories and interviews on television and in newspapers that further remind Americans of the price being paid. Likewise featured on the network news shows and front pages is the protest outside the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, of Cindy Sheehan, whose 24-year-old soldier son, Casey, died in the Sadr City section of Baghdad 16 months ago. Unable to speak with Mr. Bush directly, she told reporters: "He said my son died in a noble cause, and I want to ask him what that noble cause is." A 45-minute meeting with Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, did not assuage her." (08/10/05)


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.witcover10aug10,1,7961242.column?coll=bal-oped-headlines