Tag: Dick Durbin

Oct 31 2009

Costs Of War Not Seen In Dover Repatriation Photos; and Bill Moyers Closing Comments

Cross-posted at DKos, Open Left, and Firedoglake

Hat tip to Henry Porter and the other diarists who posted on the videos and photos yesterday of the repatriation of service members slain in Afghanistan.

Henry wrote of how enraged he is that war criminals of the previous administration are walking free, of the pain he felt when he encountered a young disabled veteran, and that he finds “a measure of comfort in the hope that unlike his predecessor, this president has the courage, the character , the compassion and the judgment to make his decisions based on the best possible information and advice available to him.”

It is not often that we are able to see photos depicting the cost of war to our troops and their families.  Few people encounter our disabled veterans.  The face of war is rarely seen.

During the war in Vietnam, Walter Cronkite made sure that Mr. and Mrs. America saw plenty of the reality, during the dinner hour.

Sensitivity to the wishes of our soldiers and their families must prevail over other considerations.

And, there are some soldiers and families who have been willing to share images of their sacrifice with us.

Oct 28 2009

Matthew Hoh, Bless You for Setting The Pace

Cross-posted at Daily Kos, Prarie State Blue, MyDD, Open Left, Firedoglake.

From WaPo, October 27, 2009:

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.”

Sep 18 2009

Arlen Specter Questions Afghan War Necessity

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Cross-posted at Daily Kos and MyDD.

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Senator Specter addressed the floor yesterday about his letters to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  (This is what I get for flipping on C-SPAN late at night!  ; – )

U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding his concerns about sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan without greater clarification and assurances that an increase in force is “indispensable” to the defeat of al Qaida and homeland security

Sep 15 2009

McCain-Lieberman-Graham urge Obama for more war in Afghan

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Cross-Posted at Dkos http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Also cross-posted at MyDD and Openleft.

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In the Wall Street Journal on September 13, the two Repubs and one former Democrat wholeheartedly endorsed sending more of our troops to eat $#!t sandwiches in Afghanistan.

We are confident that not only is it winnable, but that we have no choice. We must prevail in Afghanistan.

snip

However, we need more than the right team and the right strategy. This team must also have the resources it needs to succeed-including a significant increase in U.S. forces.

Sep 02 2009

Former CIA Station Chiefs Agree On Afghanistan

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This is a live blog from the front porch at Sen. Dick Durbin’s office in Springfield, Illinois. See the last paragraph for details about the location.    

Posted at Daily Kos, Docudharma, MyDD, and OpenLeft.

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It doesn’t matter whether you like or dislike the CIA.  (Personally, I view the professional gathering and analysis of information about military adversaries as a crucial, non-debatable function.)  But a person doesn’t become a CIA station chief by some kind of dumb accident.  You have to be smart, and very capable.

And here’s three former station chiefs who served in Afghanistan and Pakistan who explain why our large scale military occupation in Afghan is dead wrong.

Aug 25 2009

It’s not just me, Senator Durbin.

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This is a live blog from the front porch at Sen. Dick Durbin’s office in Springfield, Illinois. See the last paragraph for details about the location.

Cross-posted at DailyKos.  http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

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It’s not just me.  Lots of people are questioning the premises for expending our troops’ lives, plus hundreds of billion of dollars, in Afghanistan.

The Washington Post and ABC News released results of a poll of Americans last week.  

To question #26,  All in all, considering the costs to the United States versus the benefits to the United States, do you think the war in Afghanistan was worth fighting, or not?   51%  responded that it was not worth fighting.

Aug 10 2009

How Many Times?

Robin Wells . . .

Are we having fun yet?  Birthers, Limbaugh’s diatribe equating Obama to Hitler, fistfights at town halls, an enormous increase in death threats against the president.  And now our diva moment, with Sarah Palin–in full victimhood throttle–charging on Friday that an “Obama death panel” could deny health care and pass a death sentence on her Down syndrome child.

In an unbroken line from Goldwater to Limbaugh and Palin, the Republican Party has committed itself to scorched-earth tactics that have shredded the economic, political, and moral fabric of this country.

New millennium.  Same RePug tactics.    

blueintheface . . .

Rahm Emanuel, the man who dismissed the 50-state strategy that led to the political revolution that the 1994 Republicans could only dream about, the Democratic leader who made it his priority to nurse a petty grudge against the man who pioneered the grassroots internet campaign instrumental in Democrats gaining control of the House, Senate and Presidency, recently held a meeting to slam Democratic activists for pressuring the legislators who are holding up healthcare reform, calling their ads “fucking stupid”.

New millennium.  Same Democratic tactics.

The Health Insurers Have Already Won . . .

The insurance industry has succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable.

New millennium.  Same corporate fascism.

Jul 29 2009

Live from Sen. Durbin’s front porch re Afghan

Note from the essayist:  Cross-posted at Daily Kos.  YELL LOUDER!  and  Stand. The. F. Up!  at your Congress Critters’ offices this August!

The live on-porch blogging was done from approximately 1:30 pm to 4 pm CDT.

As I wrote in a diary last week, Sen. Dick Durbin has an office in Springfield, Illinois, in the Lincoln Home National Historic Site.  It’s a beautiful little park full of historic Lincoln-era homes, owned by the Dept. of the Interior, and managed by the National Park Service.  Sen. Durbin has rented office space in the George Shutt House since Sen. Durbin was a member of the House of Representatives.  As is shown on the bottom of his Senate web site home page, the address is 525 S. 8th St, Springfield IL 62703.

I’m blogging away, right now, on the right side of the porch as you face it.

Jul 23 2009

Live re: Afghan from Sen. Durbin’s porch

Note from the essayist:  Please forgive me if I’ve deviated too much from protocol, but I’m posting only the lead-in of this essay/diary here.  The complete diary is at dkos.  Buhdy, I’m not yet up to speed with your dazzling blog creation skills, though I’m getting better.  ; – )   Doing a complete cross-post is beyond me today, and I apologize for any inconvenience.  

Bottom line:  this diary at dkos is how I go about Standing. The. F. Up.  and Yelling Louder!!!

Thanks, good people!

Hound Dog

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S-a-a-a-y WHAT?

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Yep, it’s true.  Sen. Dick Durbin has an office in Springfield, Illinois, right in the Lincoln Home National Historic Site.  It’s a beautiful, peaceful little park, with historic Lincoln-era homes.  Durbin’s office is in the George W. Shutt House, and Mr. Shutt was a neighbor of the Lincolns. The house is owned by the National Park Service, and Sen. Durbin has rented office space here since he was a member of the House of Representatives.

I’m blogging away, right now, on the far right side of the porch.

And, it’s no secret he has an office here.  Take a look at his Senate home page. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the address: 525 South 8th St, Springfield IL 62703.

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Why here?

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Well, here’s one reason which is totally enough, all by itself —– because I can.

Sep 08 2007

Durbin Takes The Iraq Pledge: No Funding Without End Date For the Debacle

AP:

The No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. Senate said on Friday he could no longer vote for funding the war in Iraq unless restrictions were attached that would begin winding down American involvement there.
 

“This Congress can't give President (George W.) Bush another blank check for Iraq,” said Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, who has always opposed the war but until now voted to fund it.

“I can't support an open-ended appropriation which allows this president to continue this failed policy,” he said in a speech at the left-leaning Center for National Policy.

Where's Obama?

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