Wow, this has been a dud. Whether it be the hushed speech of speakers, or the contstant talk of Bill Clinton, I have suffered through this. There are only a few that I wanted to hear (Gore, Reagan, Teresa, etc), and the rest of them have just disappointed me. I know Sharpton, Obama, and even Bill gave a good speech, but there is no substance, just the same old shit. POSITIVE, POSITIVE, POSITIVE.....blah. Wake up. The situation we are in is not positive. How dare they want to sugar coat this just to please the "middle of the line" crank yankers like Joe Lieberman.

ARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

:huh:
Wow admin. I am surprised, honestly.
I have been thrilled with the content AND construction of the material. I was surprised by the wide range of diversity of perspectives that are willing to get under the same umbrella. There were few speakers that I WANTED to hear before the convention, but I saw a lot more that I am glad I saw. I was introduced to Obama, and it is not every day that someone so impressive comes along. His speech was magic. I had never seen Teresa in this format before, and thought she was stunning. I have been looking foreward to hearing Gore for a long time, and was not disappointed. I think it is notable when a person like Ted Kennedy is honored, but even more so when his speech is surrounded by speeches that are equal to or better than his own. Finally, I think the question of substance on the issues they are hitting upon depends a little on whether you think that they really mean what they are saying, or if you think that it is an empty promise. I won't claim to have an expert opinion, but I guess I see these people as committed individuals. I am encouraged.

Chris? Are you ok? Was that you really writing?
Wow!
I think Sharpton did have some substance...though what can he really do to have any effect on policy now. Did you notice at the beginning of his speech, he took it out of his breast pocket? That meant to me that he was not going to be a slave to the teleprompter.

I quite agree with you in that they are making everyone toe the line and not speak out as forcefully as they need to. Don't like how they are squashing dissent either..reminiscent of those they are trying to oust.

I have to pretty much agree with Chris on this one. I think the only speaker who really expressed their true feelings was Sharpton, and he wasn't supposed to speak for as long as he did, nor was he supposed to speak as angrily as he did. I think the Dems are wimping out, once again (remember late fall 2002 when they all had jelly spines and voted for the Iraq resolution? Remember how angry we all were? Remember?). For fear of turning off some voters, they are forsaking the rest of us, they are denying our anger and outrage by sweeping it under the rug and "moving on." Well, we do need to move on, but we don't need to forget what happened. As Freebird posts at the bottom of his messages:

PATRIOTIC AMERICANS DON'T GET OVER THE THEFT OF AN ELECTION!

How about this that I just received via email!! We are not alone in our assessment.

ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
To subscribe, visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/email
============================================

UFPJ CRITICIZES KERRY'S IRAQ STANCE AT DNC RALLY TODAY
Late this afternoon, as Democratic Party delegates file into Boston's Fleet Center, United for Peace and Justice will host a rally against the ongoing military occupation of Iraq - and the support that many leading Democrats, including John Kerry, have shown for that occupation. (See http://www.unitedforpeace.org/dnc for details.)

The rally will highlight the message contained in our open letter to John Kerry, published this week as an advertisement in the Boston Phoenix newspaper. In it, we invoke Kerry's famous 1971 question to the Senate Foreign Relations committee concerning Vietnam, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

Calling the war on Iraq, "the most dangerous and immoral action taken by the U.S. government since.Vietnam," the letter urges Kerry to move beyond the "politically calibrated platitudes about staying the course" that he has uttered to date, in order denounce the ongoing U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Among the ten thousand signers of the letter are Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, and Howard Zinn. The full text of the letter is below, followed by a column in today's New York Daily News about our effort to persuade Kerry to take a stronger stance on Iraq.

You can sign the letter, and a companion letter to President Bush, by adding your name at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/UnsilentMajority

This afternoon's UFPJ rally will take place across from - and outside of - the appalling protest pit set up in Boston for the DNC. The Democrats, as much as the Republicans, have colluded in stifling dissent this year in the name of "national security." For more on the protest pit and the struggle for free expression at the Democratic Convention, visit the website of the Save Our Civil Liberties campaign: http://www.saveourcivilliberties.org

===========================================

Dear Senator Kerry,

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

This is a question you asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, testifying against the Vietnam War. If you are elected President of the United States, you will have to answer it. Surely, the war against Iraq, and the escalating disaster of our military occupation, qualify as some of the worst "mistakes" in the history of our nation.

In fact, the invasion of Iraq is the most dangerous and immoral action taken by the U.S. government since the devastation and atrocity in Vietnam. This is a subject you know more about than most, because you were there. Having served, you came home to denounce the evil of that war in language that many still admire for its unsparing honesty.

"How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" you asked in your testimony to the Senate in 1971. Representing one thousand veterans, you spoke plainly about your "determination to undertake one last mission-to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and fear that has driven this country the last ten years or more, so from when 30 years from now our brothers go down a street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say `Vietnam' and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning." Now your opponents use these words to pillory you, as they try to justify another barbaric war with more "lies and garbage," in the words of General Anthony Zinni, another Vietnam veteran.

In 1971, you showed courage. But now, in 2004, we wait, and the world waits, to see if you will denounce the grave damage that the occupation of Iraq is doing to the United States and the world: the thousands of young men and women in our Armed Forces killed and wounded, the much larger number of dead and injured Iraqis, all caught in a vicious cycle of popular resistance and intensifying repression. Just as in Vietnam, there is no way out of this swamp of violence other than to renounce it. So far, all we have heard from you are politically-calibrated platitudes about staying the course. This is caution, not courage; calculation, not leadership. To our dismay, you have even suggested sending more troops to Iraq, a policy that may require the reinstatement of the draft to sustain.

Senator Kerry, we call on you to show the same courage now that you did in 1971. Tell the people of this country the war was wrong, the occupation is disaster, and that we can have no future as a colonial power. Speak up for what's right, right now. Otherwise, if you are elected, you will have to tell some family, years from now, that their daughter or son was the last one to die defending not simply a "mistake," but a series of lies. You will be known as the president who dragged the U.S. further into a quagmire of countless needless deaths.

We urge you to speak as a winter soldier, not a summer patriot. As you know, a war begun for the wrong reasons cannot be made right. The only way forward is to end this war now.

Sincerely,


TO JOIN THE MORE THAN 10,000 SIGNERS OF THIS LETTER, VISIT
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/UnsilentMajority

===========================================
Pushing Kerry to oppose this war
by Albor Ruiz
New York Daily News
Thursday, July 29th, 2004

It is a powerful question, and it is as valid today as it was when it was first posed 33 years ago: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

The person asking it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a young decorated Vietnam vet by the name of John Kerry, and the date was April 22, 1971, the heyday of the Vietnam War.

Today, were it to be asked, the question would refer to another "mistake": the war on Iraq.

But Kerry, who this week will be crowned at the Democratic National Convention in Boston as the party's presidential candidate, is no longer asking it.

Instead, his stance on the war is a series of "politically calibrated platitudes about staying the course," reads an open letter addressed to Kerry, signed by 10,000 people and distributed to convention delegates by the antiwar coalition United for Peace and Justice.

"This is caution, not courage; calculation not leadership," continued the letter. "To our dismay, you have even suggested sending more troops to Iraq, a policy that may require the reinstatement of the draft to sustain."

The signers, including Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover, urge Kerry to denounce the military occupation of Iraq.

"In 1971, you showed courage," the letter reads. "But now, in 2004, we wait and the world waits to see if you will denounce the grave damage the occupation of Iraq is doing to the United States and the world."

"Far too many Democrats, including John Kerry, have gone along with Bush's policies on everything from funding the war, to the Patriot Act," said Leslie Cagan, the coalition's national coordinator. "We need an opposition party in this country."

Which is why the coalition will hold a march today outside the Democratic convention in Boston to highlight the role of prominent Democrats in supporting the Iraq war. And to urge them to denounce the military occupation.

Fernando Suárez del Solar is not a prominent Democrat. He is just a hardworking naturalized Mexican immigrant from Toluca who became a tireless anti-war activist. His stance is crystal clear: "The invasion was illegal, and the occupation is illegal."

Suárez del Solar turned into a vocal opponent of Bush's war after his 21-year-old son, a U.S. Marine, became not the last man to die in Iraq, but actually one of the first.

Jesús Alberto Suárez del Solar was killed on March 27, 2003, by a U.S. cluster bomb, and since then the number of killed and wounded Americans - and Iraqis - has been rapidly rising.

"We need to get out now," said Suárez del Solar, echoing the spirit of the coalition's letter.

Tonight will be Kerry's biggest day ever. That is when he will give his speech accepting the candidacy for the country's highest office. The whole world will be watching. And that makes the coalition's plea much more mportant.

"Speak up for what's right," the letter's signers ask Kerry. "Otherwise, if you are elected, you will have to tell some family, years from now, that their daughter or son was the last to die defending not simply a 'mistake,' but a series of lies."

Indeed a sad duty for the young, principled Vietnam vet who bravely posed the famous question for the first time.

============================================
AUGUST 29, THE WORLD SAYS NO TO THE BUSH AGENDA!
March and Rally at the Republican National Convention, New York City
* Assemble at 10:00AM
* March steps off at noon

I do grasp the idea that we must not forget, and I sincerely doubt that Al Gore will either. I haven't said so, but there has been a lot of talk about 2008, and how we will be placed strategically to endorse our favorite candidate in the next election. I Hope Gore runs, and gives me a chance to vote for him again, no matter who wins this time. If his name is on a ballot, that is the name I will pick.
As to the boring suggestion, fair. I just disagree. I would add, however, that I do not think there have been many conventions capable of drawing the picture this one did. Think of the last time when you have seen Gore speak with this many high placed Democrats around him... And he was largely responsible for setting the tone of the entire event. Like you both, I wanted more fire from Gore. Even so, I must admit, he could hardly have lost my support. I noticed that there were alot of people coming by on the night of his speech to say good things about Mr. Gore... People who haven't always noticed his absence, and some who were shaken by his powerful speeches of the past. I think he did his job, and that is why I feel encouraged by those who followed him to the podium.
In one convention, I have rarely ever seen such great diversity, and I must stress this. Perhaps there is no substance in appearance, but while the Repulican party must stand by a few high posts awarded by the magic nod, I am proud to see that minorities get ELECTED in the Democratic Party. There is a monumental message in that. Everyone knows that there is a long way to go, but it is nice to see that the ball is rolling in our Party.
I hope that Gore can structure a piece that is more convincing in the near future. I do not doubt that he will continue to bring us all along.

I haven't watched since Monday. It's too much all at one time for me.

It is now just too scrpited. Nothing unexpected. I just don't get excited when I know what is being said and I know it is not what I want to hear. They have not once mentioned the Patriot Act, Abu Gharib, barley the Iraq war, etc.

If you like stage play, I guess you have like this.

With regard to the Susan Sarandon/Danny Glover letter . . .

First of all, is Sarandon voting for Nader this time around? I wonder.

But more than that: In recent months, I came to the conclusion that we had to just get out of Iraq. Now, I'm not so sure. It's the simplistic view, the immoral view. For one thing, you don't just destroy a country (whether for valid or invalid reasons) and then go, oops! We made a mistake, and leave it to them to put their country back together. We owe it to the Iraqi people, as a matter of p.r., and as a matter of conscience, to put back together what we have destroyed. Beyond that, we can't now allow factions even more dangerous than Saddam to take over that country. That would be devastating to Iraq, devastating to the Middle East, and devastating to us and the rest of the world. I haven't heard what Gore says we should do in Iraq now, and I wonder . . . does he support staying until we've made this mess right, or does he support leaving before the job is done? I'd be curious, and I'd tend to trust his judgment.

So, as much as I want peace, I won't be signing Sarandon's letter to Bush. I also think Kerry was skating on thin ice tonight when he made the comments about not being a president who would mislead us into war. I believe it's true that he wouldn't send troops into battle unless it was necessary. But he's accusing Bush of using faulty intelligence to send us to war, and Kerry himself has said that he, too, believed that intelligence. He has yet to address this issue in a satisfactory way, IMO. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

The convention did get boring at times. The speakers (minus Kerry/Edwards) that truly had something to say (Gore, Clinton, Biden, Kennedy, Carter,Obama) did a decent job. Most of the other people in between just blabbed on using the same campaign rhetoric.