Are they still talking about going back into Iraq? Are the Bush Mobb-types finally ashamed enough to shut their yaps about it? Just kidding; I know Bush Mobb-types are utterly incapable of shame. Yet President Obama has announced he'll send 300 "advisors" to Iraq, and other Obama Administration figures have said these "advisors" will mainly collect intelligence, possibly for further military strikes; I guess if he were in politics the first time around -- oh, wait, he was in politics the first time around, and made his name in 2004 largely from his opposition to the Iraq war. Also, Rep. Schiff (D-CA) apparently got cold feet about offering an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would have repealed the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (or AUMF). But once more: it doesn't matter what they want; it matters what we want, and most of us would rather not risk more of our soldiers' lives in Iraq, or risk more Iraqi civilians' lives just to send, well, someone, anyway a message. So both the Friends Committee for National Legislation and the Center for Constitutional Rights help you tell our government to reject further military action in Iraq. You may want to mention, wherever you can, that "no military action" includes drones.
Speaking of the war in Iraq, and the folks who caused it, and might get their jollies from trying to start another one: CNN's Situation Room featured 30 guests talking about Iraq from June 12 to June 19, and of those 30, we can count eight former U.S. military officers, five former Bush Mobb officials and/or pro-war politicians, five 2003-era pro-war punditoids, one State Department spokeshack, and one ex-CIA analyst. CNN also brought in nine journalists (eight of its own) and Iraq's Ambassador to the U.S., which, not incidentally, makes one Iraqi out of 30 for a sparkling .033 batting average. Anyone else missing? Well, there are no journalists from McClatchy, which news organization did pretty outstanding reporting on Iraq in 2002; no Senator Bob Graham, who called Tha Bush Mobb's case for war the worst he'd ever seen; no Patrick Cockburn, no Robert Scheer, no Glenn Greenwald, no Juan Cole. And I know Scott Ritter's in jail, but if Lindsey Graham were in jail, the networks would be setting up cameras in his cell as we speak. So FAIR helps you tell CNN to be a bit more balanced in its Iraq war coverage. After all, can't the "liberal" media talk to people who get things right?
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to oppose H.R. 4432, the so-called Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2014, then Just Label It provides another one. Why do we oppose something calling itself "safe" and "accurate"? Clearly it's neither -- the bill would "allow" corporations to voluntarily disclose whether or not its foods have genetically-modified organisms in them. But we've been using a voluntary reporting system for almost a decade, and who tells us whether their foods are Frankenfoods? No one, that's who. Why, it's almost like they know no one will buy their foods if they tell us they've tinkered with it so -- which must be why big grocers pumped $100 million opposing mandatory-labeling ballot initiatives in California and Washington state, and why Monsanto has sued the state of Vermont for passing its own GMO-labeling bill. H.R. 4432 would, incidentally, pre-empt such laws passed by states and localities, presumably because its authors only find "states' rights" a valid doctrine when someone gets hurt. At the risk of piling on, H.R. 4432 also exempts what feed animals eat, meaning you could be eating meat from an animal that ate GMO food and not know it.
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