Once again we witness the sad spectacle of rogue Democrats, led by erstwhile (a while ago indeed) peace pol Elizabeth Furse, supporting hawk-in-dove's-feathers Republican Gordon Smith over the perfectly capable Democrat candidate, Jeff Merkley (if you believe that perfectly capable Democrat isn't a virtual oxymoron). If Smith can benefit from this, surely he can see the consistency in supporting Barak Obama over John McCain. After all, McCain is the most hawkish presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater.
Obama is going to win if he is perceived as the peace candidate (he isn't really, except in contrast to McCain, which is the ultimate low benchmark). Peace-imaged candidates usually do win, even if they take us to war after they're elected (think LBJ, Nixon, even Woodrow Wilson).
If Smith wants to try to convince voters that he really is for peace, then, he can most effectively do so in two ways.
One, pledge to vote against any bill with Iraq occupation or warfighting funds in it.
Two, endorse Obama.
Without both these crucial credibility markers, Smith is just another dissembling opportunistic politician.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Lies must die
It was 40 years ago that I began to awaken, politically, in 1968, the year I graduated from my Minnesota high school. The war in Vietnam was a truly stupid, destructive background to my life from when I was in eighth grade and reading in the newspaper about the domino effect, and why the US needed to stop communism from spreading in Asia any worse than it already had. Some had seen the disaster waiting to happen--certainly John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby were two in American national politics, along with Mark Hatfield from a state that, in those days, I only heard about as spectacularly beautiful--Oregon.
So John Kennedy was assassinated 45 years ago and Bobby was taken out 40 years ago this week. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian, was Bobby's killer, and the motivation was ultimately attributed to his fixation on Kennedy's vote for some arms sale to Israel. Sirhan Sirhan's journals were found with obsessively repetitive mantra: "RFK must die. RFK must die. RFK must die."
Sirhan Sirhan may have killed a US politician who voted for a military sale to Israel, but he also contributed to a general US citizenry distrust, dislike and disgust for Palestinians who support their armed struggle. Geez, by their standards, Obama should be shot too. Violence can "win" in the short run and lose big overall.
Bobby Kennedy was a good man who was flawed. He worked to elevate the lives of regular folks, he would have ended the Vietnam debacle, he would have worked to more effectively raise economic levels in black communities (which is where I was as a 17-year-old volunteer in Chicago when Kennedy was killed), he was liked and trusted in Native American communities, and he fasted with Cesar Chavez to help strengthen the United Farmworkers Union.
So this year, like every year, is a good year to work to expose the lies and unelect the politicians whose patterns of voting support US wars. This is why I personally am determined to do what tiny bit I can to work against Gordon Smith, who would have been against the war in Vietnam ONLY after the regular citizenry finally rejected the lies of the Lyndon Johnson regime and only symbolically. Smith would have been the antithesis of Bobby Kennedy and Mark Hatfield; he plays at his image of compassionate conservative but the compassionate part is reserved for self-aggrandizing acts of cheap and cynical political theater, such as calling the parents of Oregonians killed as they illegally occupy another country--in a war that Gordon Smith has voted for on virtually every occasion where his vote meant anything.
I guess I'm like a nonviolent Sirhan Sirhan: The lies must die. The lies must die. The lies must die.
So John Kennedy was assassinated 45 years ago and Bobby was taken out 40 years ago this week. Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian, was Bobby's killer, and the motivation was ultimately attributed to his fixation on Kennedy's vote for some arms sale to Israel. Sirhan Sirhan's journals were found with obsessively repetitive mantra: "RFK must die. RFK must die. RFK must die."
Sirhan Sirhan may have killed a US politician who voted for a military sale to Israel, but he also contributed to a general US citizenry distrust, dislike and disgust for Palestinians who support their armed struggle. Geez, by their standards, Obama should be shot too. Violence can "win" in the short run and lose big overall.
Bobby Kennedy was a good man who was flawed. He worked to elevate the lives of regular folks, he would have ended the Vietnam debacle, he would have worked to more effectively raise economic levels in black communities (which is where I was as a 17-year-old volunteer in Chicago when Kennedy was killed), he was liked and trusted in Native American communities, and he fasted with Cesar Chavez to help strengthen the United Farmworkers Union.
So this year, like every year, is a good year to work to expose the lies and unelect the politicians whose patterns of voting support US wars. This is why I personally am determined to do what tiny bit I can to work against Gordon Smith, who would have been against the war in Vietnam ONLY after the regular citizenry finally rejected the lies of the Lyndon Johnson regime and only symbolically. Smith would have been the antithesis of Bobby Kennedy and Mark Hatfield; he plays at his image of compassionate conservative but the compassionate part is reserved for self-aggrandizing acts of cheap and cynical political theater, such as calling the parents of Oregonians killed as they illegally occupy another country--in a war that Gordon Smith has voted for on virtually every occasion where his vote meant anything.
I guess I'm like a nonviolent Sirhan Sirhan: The lies must die. The lies must die. The lies must die.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Smith cheerleaders and critical thinking
There was a column in the New York Times one year ago, in June 2007, by a fellow named Timothy Egan. This guest commentary was a paean to US Senator Gordon Smith and Smith has gotten Frequent Flyer miles out of that column, rest assured. Egan fawned all over himself to extol the myriad virtues of our Senator—though it’s not clear where Egan is actually personally from. I strongly suspect he wrote the piece on the payroll of Smith, of the Republicans, or that he is willfully ignoring logic. Indeed, Egan seemed aware of the great numbers who have viewed Smith’s “change of heart” on
“Some people question the timing of the senator’s change of heart. Smith is vulnerable in this blue state, they say, and his conversion is just a ploy to save his seat. But there is something else at work here. Smith has the seat once held by Senator Mark Hatfield, another Republican who defied his party on matters of war and peace. Hatfield was a Navy man, a veteran of Iwo Jima and one of the first Americans to see
Smith was never in the armed forces. His biggest regret in life, he says, is that he never wore his country’s uniform. But unlike some chicken-hawks who did not serve — chief among them, Vice President Cheney, with his numerous draft deferments — he is not trying to make up for lost courage.”
Wait a minute. “There is something else at work here.” Like what? What does Hatfield’s strong position on pulling out of
Monday, June 2, 2008
Letter to the editor of the Hood River News
For the past five and one-half years, Gordon Smith has been the only Senator from Oregon to vote in favor of war at every opportunity. He voted in favor of launching an unprovoked attack against Iraq and rose to denounce those who were in favor of peace many times. He is a typical chickenhawk--he avoided military service during his generation's war in Vietnam and spoke loudly and often and with a powerful vote to send the younger generation to kill and die in the next stupid, illegal war.
Now he claims to be opposed to this ongoing war and occupation, but he only cast one possibly meaningful vote against it. Gordon Smith's actions have been so negative and immoral that I've joined ministers, legal secretaries, professional ecologists and others in taking the drastic step of getting arrested just trying to visit his office. We didn't yell, nor did we interrupt or anything threatening or violent, but his office will not even make an appointment to talk about peace. In short, he is making false claims about his stance on this war and I hope we Oregonians will hold him accountable in November.
Yours truly, Tom H. Hastings, Portland
If anyone else wishes to offer an opinion to the Hood River News, the link to send a letter to the editor (which must be sent in via their website):
http://www.hoodrivernews.com/HRNToEditor.shtml
If we can reach beyond Portland and let other Oregonians know that Smith has dissembled and obfuscated on his war votes at every turn, perhaps his voters will want to see change enough to vote him out. If we want peace, we cannot stand another six years of Gordon Smith in such a powerful political position. Letters to editors are a way to reach his people to let them know how he has betrayed them.
Now he claims to be opposed to this ongoing war and occupation, but he only cast one possibly meaningful vote against it. Gordon Smith's actions have been so negative and immoral that I've joined ministers, legal secretaries, professional ecologists and others in taking the drastic step of getting arrested just trying to visit his office. We didn't yell, nor did we interrupt or anything threatening or violent, but his office will not even make an appointment to talk about peace. In short, he is making false claims about his stance on this war and I hope we Oregonians will hold him accountable in November.
Yours truly, Tom H. Hastings, Portland
If anyone else wishes to offer an opinion to the Hood River News, the link to send a letter to the editor (which must be sent in via their website):
http://www.hoodrivernews.com/HRNToEditor.shtml
If we can reach beyond Portland and let other Oregonians know that Smith has dissembled and obfuscated on his war votes at every turn, perhaps his voters will want to see change enough to vote him out. If we want peace, we cannot stand another six years of Gordon Smith in such a powerful political position. Letters to editors are a way to reach his people to let them know how he has betrayed them.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Nonviolent victory: Keep up the pressure
When Gordon Smith voted against more war funding last Thursday, he did so in the face of a two-year-long campaign marked by thousands of petition signatures, thousands of signed postcards from Oregon voters, numerous arrests of nonviolent lobbyists who merely showed up at his Portland office and were summarily arrested, and a grassroots media outreach campaign of letters to editors and guest editorials submitted to newspapers out beyond the liberal reach of Portland, out into Smith Country.
In other words, we forced him to act as if he has grown a conscience. This is a testament to the power of nonviolence, of approaching the adversarial system of representative democracy with some non-negotiables but in a respectful manner. We never raised our voices, we didn't interrupt anyone, we didn't vilify police or PGE security or even Smith. We won.
But this is a minor, reversible victory. Smith's vote stood out but it was cast knowing that it meant little, since the Senate voted to spend the $165.5 billion on the war on Iraq and Smith's vote was not needed. He took the opportunity to vote against the war funding for the very first time. It is during an election season and he is a vulnerable Republican in a Democratic state. If he doesn't come up with one or two of these he's going to lose.
Now the vote goes back to the House, who rejected it last week and will vote again. We will see. Gordon Smith is malleable for the next few months and then, if he's reelected, he will be invincible and unreachable by our puny grassroots efforts for another six years, during which he can continue to do serious damage to our economy, our ecology, our ethical foundations and our very spirit as Oregonians and as Americans. It is good to know we can push him to act like a spineless politician instead of a rabid ideologue, but wouldn't replacing him be best?
In other words, we forced him to act as if he has grown a conscience. This is a testament to the power of nonviolence, of approaching the adversarial system of representative democracy with some non-negotiables but in a respectful manner. We never raised our voices, we didn't interrupt anyone, we didn't vilify police or PGE security or even Smith. We won.
But this is a minor, reversible victory. Smith's vote stood out but it was cast knowing that it meant little, since the Senate voted to spend the $165.5 billion on the war on Iraq and Smith's vote was not needed. He took the opportunity to vote against the war funding for the very first time. It is during an election season and he is a vulnerable Republican in a Democratic state. If he doesn't come up with one or two of these he's going to lose.
Now the vote goes back to the House, who rejected it last week and will vote again. We will see. Gordon Smith is malleable for the next few months and then, if he's reelected, he will be invincible and unreachable by our puny grassroots efforts for another six years, during which he can continue to do serious damage to our economy, our ecology, our ethical foundations and our very spirit as Oregonians and as Americans. It is good to know we can push him to act like a spineless politician instead of a rabid ideologue, but wouldn't replacing him be best?
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Senate and Smith cave to war spending
The US Senate, excluding Senator Gordon Smith, has nominally "stood up" to Bush by approving another $165.5 billion to occupy another country in another part of the world. The mainstream media are shamelessly portraying this obscene vote as some sort of profile in courage because they "joined" the Democrats who wanted to add a bit for veterans' benefits and they tossed in a bit for Katrina victims. From an Associated Press report:
"Senators voted 70-26 to approve $165 billion to fulfill Bush's request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring, when Bush's successor will set war policy."
In other words, nothing changed. This argument ("I've gotta vote for war or Katrina victims won't get help") has been used since the earliest funding of this immoral, illegal war and occupation. Gordon Smith is somehow credited with having peaceloving values. His values are his own business, but his voting record is clear; he is remarkably inconsistent in his rhetoric but rock solid in his war spending when it really matters. The weaponeers, the big war profiteers, and Big Oil all love Gordon Smith.
If you love war, vote for Smith. If you love peace, choose another candidate. His talk and his walk are vastly different and he can vote to spend far more than the government has and hope to make more friends (just look at the Elizabeth Furse-led Democrats for Smith, who seem to benefit from Smith votes), but his war support is unwavering. Vote your conscience.
"Senators voted 70-26 to approve $165 billion to fulfill Bush's request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring, when Bush's successor will set war policy."
In other words, nothing changed. This argument ("I've gotta vote for war or Katrina victims won't get help") has been used since the earliest funding of this immoral, illegal war and occupation. Gordon Smith is somehow credited with having peaceloving values. His values are his own business, but his voting record is clear; he is remarkably inconsistent in his rhetoric but rock solid in his war spending when it really matters. The weaponeers, the big war profiteers, and Big Oil all love Gordon Smith.
If you love war, vote for Smith. If you love peace, choose another candidate. His talk and his walk are vastly different and he can vote to spend far more than the government has and hope to make more friends (just look at the Elizabeth Furse-led Democrats for Smith, who seem to benefit from Smith votes), but his war support is unwavering. Vote your conscience.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Hope against Smith and McCain
Yesterday, 18 May 2008, Oregonians showed up in record numbers to stand for Barak Obama. What were we there for?
We want someone who will stop and reverse the kinds of policies that George Bush and Gordon Smith have promulgated on our lives and on this world. We are looking for hope and strength, not the ravages of war that Bush and Smith have brought to us. Finally, we want to hear someone speak in real words that have real meaning. George Bush proclaims that he is a man of peace. Gordon Smith wrings his hands and says he is against some parts of some wars. Neither one are credible; their words are Orwellian, Goebbellian.
Is Obama perfect? Nope--we want him to be much stronger and more specific about getting out of Iraq once he's elected. But all the alternatives to Bush-McCain lies are preferable and we stood to hear the most hopeful.
All the announced alternatives to Gordon Smith are vastly preferable. We are sick of being lied to. We want hope and we will have it, finally.
We want someone who will stop and reverse the kinds of policies that George Bush and Gordon Smith have promulgated on our lives and on this world. We are looking for hope and strength, not the ravages of war that Bush and Smith have brought to us. Finally, we want to hear someone speak in real words that have real meaning. George Bush proclaims that he is a man of peace. Gordon Smith wrings his hands and says he is against some parts of some wars. Neither one are credible; their words are Orwellian, Goebbellian.
Is Obama perfect? Nope--we want him to be much stronger and more specific about getting out of Iraq once he's elected. But all the alternatives to Bush-McCain lies are preferable and we stood to hear the most hopeful.
All the announced alternatives to Gordon Smith are vastly preferable. We are sick of being lied to. We want hope and we will have it, finally.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Senator Smith vote for peace
The US House has cast the first actual vote against the Bush-Cheney-Smith war, voting against further funding at long last.
Now the vote goes to the Senate. Since the vote in the House was close, was historic, and really meant something, only two Republicans joined the peace vote. This will be Smith's chance to prove he is really on the path to peace, since the Republican warmakers will be pressuring every Senator to vote more money for this unjust and lethal occupation.
We will be at Smith's office at 11 a.m. today, insisting that he promise to join in this vote.
We expect to be arrested.
Come offer your thoughts. And contact the Smith office sometime today, expressing them. His office at 121 W. Salmon: Voice: 503-326-3386 FAX: 503-326-2900
Now the vote goes to the Senate. Since the vote in the House was close, was historic, and really meant something, only two Republicans joined the peace vote. This will be Smith's chance to prove he is really on the path to peace, since the Republican warmakers will be pressuring every Senator to vote more money for this unjust and lethal occupation.
We will be at Smith's office at 11 a.m. today, insisting that he promise to join in this vote.
We expect to be arrested.
Come offer your thoughts. And contact the Smith office sometime today, expressing them. His office at 121 W. Salmon: Voice: 503-326-3386 FAX: 503-326-2900
Thursday, May 15, 2008
War waste: No more, Senator Smith!
We go tomorrow, May 16, 11 a.m., to Senator Smith's office to tell him that his war is immoral, criminal, and that the only acceptable course of action is to promise to never vote another nickel for this bloody occupation.
More than one million Iraqis have died as a result of our invasion and occupation.
More than 4,100 American troops have been killed in Iraq since Senator Smith voted to approve Shock and Awe.
We've wasted $562 billion on this criminal adventure. The final price tag, once we've paid for the long-term care of the tens of thousands of Americans wounded physically and psychologically, will be at least $3 trillion. We will never pay it in full.
The price of gasoline has tripled and oil companies have achieved more net profits than any corporations ever in human history.
Now Congress is contemplating another $163 billion. This comes from your wages. Your salary. Your taxes.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Catonsville Commemoration Witness at War Senator's on Friday, May 16
Please join our little group of witnesses to the fires of war as we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bold action of nine nonviolent resisters at the Catonsville, Maryland Selective Service office, May 17, 1968. The nine were aghast at the ongoing carnage in Vietnam and acted with decisive creativity, taking hundreds of files of young men who would be drafted and sent to Vietnam and lighting those files on fire with homemade napalm in the parking lot outside.
Though our little action is not as bold, and not as creative, we offer our nonviolent resistance to Gordon Smith out of the same agony over the lies and greed that produce our current bloody and illegal occupation of someone else's land--in this case, Iraq.
We will meet at the World Trade Center in Portland, 121 SW Salmon Street, Suite 1250, at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 16 (we choose to go on a business day when we can legitimately expect a response from the Senator or his staff, even though the 40th Catonsville anniversary is actually the following day). If we cannot reach his office--and that is standard nowadays at this guarded private building that merely looks public--we will offer nonviolent resistance at whatever point we are stopped.
This war is unacceptable. We cannot avoid our consciences. We are grateful for those exemplars who came before and showed us how to stand up for the truth of peace and nonviolence.
Though our little action is not as bold, and not as creative, we offer our nonviolent resistance to Gordon Smith out of the same agony over the lies and greed that produce our current bloody and illegal occupation of someone else's land--in this case, Iraq.
We will meet at the World Trade Center in Portland, 121 SW Salmon Street, Suite 1250, at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 16 (we choose to go on a business day when we can legitimately expect a response from the Senator or his staff, even though the 40th Catonsville anniversary is actually the following day). If we cannot reach his office--and that is standard nowadays at this guarded private building that merely looks public--we will offer nonviolent resistance at whatever point we are stopped.
This war is unacceptable. We cannot avoid our consciences. We are grateful for those exemplars who came before and showed us how to stand up for the truth of peace and nonviolence.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Running on the record
Gordon Smith is credited by himself and by mainstream media with being an antiwar Republican. This is because he says he is. But what is his record?
When his vote matters, he votes more money for the occupation of Iraq.
Last October (Senate version) and December (final vote), voting for funds for this year, Gordon Smith approved $190 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan. This is his pattern.
How is this a vote to end the war? Smith didn't even vote for the Feingold Amendment calling for the beginning of troop withdrawal.
If Smith runs on his words, let's all vote for him. His empty rhetoric will make us all feel better as our economy and ecology head over the cliff. His heartfelt speeches just might bring back the dead in Iraq.
But if we vote based on a Senator's record, based on reality, and we want peace, any of the other candidates will be a great improvement.
When his vote matters, he votes more money for the occupation of Iraq.
Last October (Senate version) and December (final vote), voting for funds for this year, Gordon Smith approved $190 billion more for Iraq and Afghanistan. This is his pattern.
How is this a vote to end the war? Smith didn't even vote for the Feingold Amendment calling for the beginning of troop withdrawal.
If Smith runs on his words, let's all vote for him. His empty rhetoric will make us all feel better as our economy and ecology head over the cliff. His heartfelt speeches just might bring back the dead in Iraq.
But if we vote based on a Senator's record, based on reality, and we want peace, any of the other candidates will be a great improvement.
Monday, May 12, 2008
A politician, not a representative
Gordon Smith voted for Bush's war when Bush asked him to in October 2002. He voted for funding each time his leadership asked. When the Rs were handed their midterm setback in November 2006, Smith saw the writing on the wall, since he was one of the Republican senators up for reelection in 2008. So, a month after the voters made it clear that they were opposed enough to this Iraquagmire to actually replace war supporting politicians, Smith made his very first public utterance of opposition to the war, in a speech in the Senate:
SMITH: I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that any more. I believe we need to figure out not just how to leave Iraq but how to fight the War on Terror and to do it right.
Just a few days after that noble-sounding speech, four of us stood in his Portland office asking that he promise to vote against further funding for the occupation of Iraq, to give truth to his fancy words. We never raised our voices, interrupted, blocked constituents or went further than his small foyer. His staff had us arrested. He voted for more funding for the bloody, illegal occupation, directly against his speech.
We'll be back this Friday, May 16, to see if he wants to make that promise. Will we be arrested? Stay tuned.
SMITH: I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that any more. I believe we need to figure out not just how to leave Iraq but how to fight the War on Terror and to do it right.
Just a few days after that noble-sounding speech, four of us stood in his Portland office asking that he promise to vote against further funding for the occupation of Iraq, to give truth to his fancy words. We never raised our voices, interrupted, blocked constituents or went further than his small foyer. His staff had us arrested. He voted for more funding for the bloody, illegal occupation, directly against his speech.
We'll be back this Friday, May 16, to see if he wants to make that promise. Will we be arrested? Stay tuned.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich
Gordon Smith, wealthy owner of Smith Frozen Foods and a privileged member of the ruling class with several relatives who have been senators and governors, is spending money like water to produce and air negative campaign ads about his Democratic opponents. Why would this incumbent Republican, who has been in the US Senate 11 years, need to go negative on expensive TV ads this early in a campaign in Oregon when he doesn't yet know who his actual D opponent will be for another week and a half?
Two reasons: 1. He's vulnerable on his abysmal record of supporting the Bush invasion of Iraq and voting consistently to fund it.
2. He's personally wealthy and a recipient of corporate largess, so he can. His campaign has raised $8.5 million, several times the combined campaign funds of all his opponents, with $4.8 million on hand. On May 9 the Associated Press reported that Democrats Steve Novick and Jeff Merkely had raised $1 million and $1.8 million respectively, with no figures given for John Frohnmayer, the Independent candidate who will presumably be on the final ballot from that party in November.
Smith is wealthy with at least two expensive mortgage-free homes in Bethesda, Maryland and Pendleton. His wealth has grown enormously during his time in "public service" as he votes for lower taxes for himself and his fellow elites. One might hope the intelligent yet economically suffering voters of Oregon will remember this when they vote in November.
Two reasons: 1. He's vulnerable on his abysmal record of supporting the Bush invasion of Iraq and voting consistently to fund it.
2. He's personally wealthy and a recipient of corporate largess, so he can. His campaign has raised $8.5 million, several times the combined campaign funds of all his opponents, with $4.8 million on hand. On May 9 the Associated Press reported that Democrats Steve Novick and Jeff Merkely had raised $1 million and $1.8 million respectively, with no figures given for John Frohnmayer, the Independent candidate who will presumably be on the final ballot from that party in November.
Smith is wealthy with at least two expensive mortgage-free homes in Bethesda, Maryland and Pendleton. His wealth has grown enormously during his time in "public service" as he votes for lower taxes for himself and his fellow elites. One might hope the intelligent yet economically suffering voters of Oregon will remember this when they vote in November.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Smith and Salmon: two failures this season
The U.S. Department of Commerce has declared the 2008 salmon season a failure. Gordon Smith boldly responded:
“A season without work is devastating for families who are struggling to pay bills and put food on the table,” Smith said. “Given skyrocketing gas and food prices, getting aid to these fishing communities quickly is critical. It’s a matter of survival."
Maybe Gordon Smith ought to have thought about the effects of skyrocketing gas prices when he voted in favor of policies that would ensure exactly that result. The Shock and Awe that Gordon Smith voted to support and fund continuously ever since has certainly redounded to shock at the gas pump and awe at the chutzpah it takes to avoid taking any responsibility for his part in causing this problem.
Senator Smith, you cannot shed more crocodile tears for all the victims of your policies even as you expect us to vote for you based on those fake demonstrations of caring. At some point, Senator, just own up to your mistakes. Be a man, rise to the occasion, and do the right thing. Drop out of the Senate race and make way for someone better, someone who will vote against funding this disastrous occupation of Iraq and free up $billions for the care of our people and environment.
“A season without work is devastating for families who are struggling to pay bills and put food on the table,” Smith said. “Given skyrocketing gas and food prices, getting aid to these fishing communities quickly is critical. It’s a matter of survival."
Maybe Gordon Smith ought to have thought about the effects of skyrocketing gas prices when he voted in favor of policies that would ensure exactly that result. The Shock and Awe that Gordon Smith voted to support and fund continuously ever since has certainly redounded to shock at the gas pump and awe at the chutzpah it takes to avoid taking any responsibility for his part in causing this problem.
Senator Smith, you cannot shed more crocodile tears for all the victims of your policies even as you expect us to vote for you based on those fake demonstrations of caring. At some point, Senator, just own up to your mistakes. Be a man, rise to the occasion, and do the right thing. Drop out of the Senate race and make way for someone better, someone who will vote against funding this disastrous occupation of Iraq and free up $billions for the care of our people and environment.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Found 0 items: De-Cipher Smith
Tell us, Senator Smith, why a voter who is determined to vote on the record rather than rhetoric finds your website such a cipher? When we go your official website we enter "voting record" in the search function and it thinks for a few nanoseconds about your entire content available to voters and comes up with:
Found 0 items with the term "voting record":
So we look further and find that you always vote for more money for war. Yes, you are in a blue state and you are a red senator, so you have to craft a voting record that you can sell to us. You are a part of the war system in peaceloving state. How do you deal with that?
You create a voting record that agrees with the other party and disagrees with yours often enough so that everyone calls you a "moderate" Republican (Full Oxymoron Alert!). In reality, according to the voting record kept by the Washington Post, you cast most of your renegade votes on matters of little real import, such as the "Vote 97: S 2739: Coburn Amdt. No. 4522; To require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to determine on an annual basis the quantity of land that is owned by the Federal Government and the cost to taxpayers of the ownership of the land." Democrats actually voted against that for reasons too obtuse to explore, and you voted oh-so-courageously with those virtuous Ds.
So when we read that you voted against Bush and the Republican leadership 27 percent of the time, we can contextualize that to mean that you've determined that 27 percent of the votes were so meaningless that you used them to create a false record as bravely opposing Bush.
Senator Smith, you use fraudulent methods and you should not be reelected on your bogus record.
Found 0 items with the term "voting record":
So we look further and find that you always vote for more money for war. Yes, you are in a blue state and you are a red senator, so you have to craft a voting record that you can sell to us. You are a part of the war system in peaceloving state. How do you deal with that?
You create a voting record that agrees with the other party and disagrees with yours often enough so that everyone calls you a "moderate" Republican (Full Oxymoron Alert!). In reality, according to the voting record kept by the Washington Post, you cast most of your renegade votes on matters of little real import, such as the "Vote 97: S 2739: Coburn Amdt. No. 4522; To require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to determine on an annual basis the quantity of land that is owned by the Federal Government and the cost to taxpayers of the ownership of the land." Democrats actually voted against that for reasons too obtuse to explore, and you voted oh-so-courageously with those virtuous Ds.
So when we read that you voted against Bush and the Republican leadership 27 percent of the time, we can contextualize that to mean that you've determined that 27 percent of the votes were so meaningless that you used them to create a false record as bravely opposing Bush.
Senator Smith, you use fraudulent methods and you should not be reelected on your bogus record.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Rich fox wants guard our henhouse
Gordon Smith is a tax-and-spend Republican who has helped lay waste to American standing in the world, has helped wreck our economy, voted to send Oregonians to kill and die in an illegal war, and has committed impeachable offenses as a member of the loyal Bush regime.
Today we learned in a Nick Turse investigative report of Tomdispatch.com that our military--funded extravagantly by Gordon Smith at every opportunity--is porking out on our dime. The Pentagon's officers are eating out at restaurants all over the country and the world, funded by you. Deep in the receipt pile are notes such as $310,776 spent in 2006 at an eatery in Singapore. Nice to know our troops are not having to be on base or spend their own money to eat fancy. The people whose job it is to illegally invade other people's lands eat the finest and most pricey food, paid for by you and me and with Gordon Smith's approving, enabling votes to fund fund fund the death machine.
Since Gordon Smith is wealthy, it is understandable that he has so little sympathy for the common person's wish to simply choose where to spend the fruits of her or his labor. What is so ultimately unacceptable is that he pretends to know and care. He doesn't. He needs to be replaced by someone who can actually rein in the military for once.
Today we learned in a Nick Turse investigative report of Tomdispatch.com that our military--funded extravagantly by Gordon Smith at every opportunity--is porking out on our dime. The Pentagon's officers are eating out at restaurants all over the country and the world, funded by you. Deep in the receipt pile are notes such as $310,776 spent in 2006 at an eatery in Singapore. Nice to know our troops are not having to be on base or spend their own money to eat fancy. The people whose job it is to illegally invade other people's lands eat the finest and most pricey food, paid for by you and me and with Gordon Smith's approving, enabling votes to fund fund fund the death machine.
Since Gordon Smith is wealthy, it is understandable that he has so little sympathy for the common person's wish to simply choose where to spend the fruits of her or his labor. What is so ultimately unacceptable is that he pretends to know and care. He doesn't. He needs to be replaced by someone who can actually rein in the military for once.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Senator "Stealthmode" Smith
Gordon Smith tries very hard to be known as the antiwar senator in the mode of Mark Hatfield, who actually voted against the Vietnam War when it was not popular or politically "wise" to do so. Smith continues this charade with comments like this, on Patraeus's surge report:
“The sad truth is that the surge cannot win the peace; only Iraqi leaders are capable of stopping the bloodshed. The United States should not hand over the keys of American military and foreign policy to an Iraqi government that will not govern. The stakes are too high. America’s mission is the war on terror. Our troops should be fighting Al Qaeda not another country’s civil war.”
What a noble statement. Why, then, Senator Smith, do you vote the Bush line when it really matters, when the question arises about funding the surge? It gives the ignoble lie to your false statements. You cannot claim to be for peace while you eviscerate our Oregon economy with votes for $3 trillion for this godawful war. What crocodile tears.
The total doesn't add up. You cannot be a self-promoting peace candidate, conveniently now that most Oregonians are against the occupation, while slipping into stealth mode every time your Cheney-Bush leaders tell you to vote for more massive money bills for war.
“The sad truth is that the surge cannot win the peace; only Iraqi leaders are capable of stopping the bloodshed. The United States should not hand over the keys of American military and foreign policy to an Iraqi government that will not govern. The stakes are too high. America’s mission is the war on terror. Our troops should be fighting Al Qaeda not another country’s civil war.”
What a noble statement. Why, then, Senator Smith, do you vote the Bush line when it really matters, when the question arises about funding the surge? It gives the ignoble lie to your false statements. You cannot claim to be for peace while you eviscerate our Oregon economy with votes for $3 trillion for this godawful war. What crocodile tears.
The total doesn't add up. You cannot be a self-promoting peace candidate, conveniently now that most Oregonians are against the occupation, while slipping into stealth mode every time your Cheney-Bush leaders tell you to vote for more massive money bills for war.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Letters to Editors Exposing Smith
Gordon Smith has managed to convince newspaper editors that one antiwar speech should qualify him as an antiwar candidate. If we are to help voters make informed choices we need to take personal responsibility and write letters to editors across our wonderful state, explaining that Smith has lied about his stance. He has voted again and again for more and more taxpayer money for this invasion and long occupation of Iraq. He votes for all the bills that benefit the rich--his people--and send the poor to die in Iraq.
If you want to write a letter to the editor, here are some of the emails of Oregon newspaper editors:
If you want to write a letter to the editor, here are some of the emails of Oregon newspaper editors:
| aherriges | aherriges@eaglenewspapers.com | ||
| amy | amy@cgsentinel.com | ||
| bulletin | bulletin@bendbulletin.com | ||
| cgnews | cgnews@cgsentinel.com | ||
| Deborah | Deborah@jewishreview.org | ||
| devlin | devlin@thenewsguard.com | ||
| draney | draney@burnstimesherald.info | ||
| dwightjaynes | dwightjaynes@portlandtribune.com | ||
| editor | editor@argusobserver.com | ||
| editor | editor@bluemountaineagle.com | ||
| editor | editor@jewishreview.org | ||
| editor | editor@keizertimes.com | ||
| editor | editor@midcountymemo.com | ||
| editor | editor@newportnewstimes.com | ||
| editor | editor@nuggetnews.com | ||
| editor | editor@wallowa.com | ||
| ehamner | ehamner@theworldlink.com | ||
| erikah | erikah@commnewspapers.com | ||
| eshein | eshein@capitalpress.com | ||
| gallen | gallen@eaglenewspapers.com | ||
| gmurdock | gmurdock@eastoregonian.com | ||
| gnelson | gnelson@mailtribune.com | ||
| Hasso.Hering | Hasso.Hering@lee.net | ||
| hstern | hstern@wweek.com | ||
| info | info@thenewsguard.com | ||
| info | info@theskanner.com | ||
| JulieE | JulieE@argusobserver.com | ||
| kborgen | kborgen@bakercityherald.com | ||
| kerickson | kerickson@theworldlink.com | ||
| kneumann-rea | kneumann-rea@eaglenewspapers.com | ||
| Lebanon.express | Lebanon.express@lee.net | ||
| letters | letters@mailtribune.com | ||
| mail@currypilot.com | |||
| mjkane | mjkane@hermistonherald.com | ||
| molly | molly@currycountyreporter.com | ||
| mzusman | mzusman@wweek.com | ||
| news | news@asianreporter.com | ||
| news | news@bakercityherald.com | ||
| news | news@lagrandeobserver.com | ||
| news | news@lakecountyexam.com | ||
| news | news@portlandobserver.com | ||
| newsspot | newsspot@opusnet.com | ||
| oped | oped@news.oregonian.com | ||
| PatC | PatC@argusobserver.com | ||
| pbushey | pbushey@heraldandnews.com | ||
| portorfordnews | portorfordnews@hughes.net | ||
| publisher | publisher@seasidesignal.com | ||
| rgletters | rgletters@guardnet.com | ||
| rivref | rivref@aol.com | ||
| rmeeker | rmeeker@wweek.com | ||
| Salemed | Salemed@StatesmanJournal.com. | ||
| sbagwell | sbagwell@newsregister.com | ||
| seattle | seattle@theskanner.com | ||
| sforrester | sforrester@dailyastorian.com | ||
| signaleditor | signaleditor@seasidesignal.com | ||
| smiller | smiller@heraldandnews.com | ||
| tdchron | tdchron@eaglenewspapers.com | ||
| tidingsopinion | tidingsopinion@dailytidings.com | ||
| tkramer | tkramer@lagrandeobserver.com | ||
| todell | todell@theoutlookonline.com | ||
| tomcat | tomcat@pacifier.com | ||
| valerie | valerie@mydfz.com | ||
| Bart Smith | bsmith@newsreview.info | ||
| Peter Bergel | pbergel@igc.org | ||
| Susan Gordanier | NewsClerk@hillsboroargus.com | ||
| Ted Taylor | editor@eugeneweekly.com |
Monday, May 5, 2008
Gordon Smith Two-Faced
Gordon Smith is a US Senator from Oregon. He is a Republican and he has supported George Bush and Bush's invasion of Iraq since the beginning. Once public opinion changed against the war, Smith publicly spoke of his reservations about it, even delivering a noble-sounding speech on the Senate floor in December 2006 expressing his lack of support for the war.
But Gordon Smith voted for all the money that Bush ever asked for to invade and occupy another country, Iraq, that had not fired a single bullet at the US. He did so before his apparently heartfelt speech and he continues to do so now.
Gordon Smith is up for reelection in November 2008 and we hope to help end his tenure in the Senate. We hope this little blog will contribute to Gordon Smith's defeat and we hope that you will post here when you have verifiable information that sheds light on this question. We hope you will take the information we gather and produce and we hope you help spread it to voters. With an informed electorate we can do much better than we have with the warmongering votes of Gordon Smith.
But Gordon Smith voted for all the money that Bush ever asked for to invade and occupy another country, Iraq, that had not fired a single bullet at the US. He did so before his apparently heartfelt speech and he continues to do so now.
Gordon Smith is up for reelection in November 2008 and we hope to help end his tenure in the Senate. We hope this little blog will contribute to Gordon Smith's defeat and we hope that you will post here when you have verifiable information that sheds light on this question. We hope you will take the information we gather and produce and we hope you help spread it to voters. With an informed electorate we can do much better than we have with the warmongering votes of Gordon Smith.
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