Flip-flop…

John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can’t, “then I lose. I lose,” the Republican said.
He quickly backed off that remark.
“Let me not put it that stark,” the likely GOP nominee told reporters on his campaign bus. “Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the country both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security.”
“If I may, I’d like to retract ‘I’ll lose.’ But I don’t think there’s any doubt that how they judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge,” McCain added. “Clearly, I am tied to it to a large degree.”

Reported by Liz Sidoti AP Writer Rocky River, Ohio Feb. 25, 2008 speaking with reporters after a town hall meeting in Cleveland, Ohio

Flip-flop…

Yet earlier in that town hall-style meeting in Cleveland, in this same report, McCain accused Democrats of distorting his earlier comment when he said that he supported the U.S. staying in Iraq militarily for 100 years (this was after he was asked from a member of the audience if the U.S. might be staying in Iraq for 50 years.)

This time, he said “The war will be over soon, the war for all intents and purposes, although the insurgency will go on for years and years and years. But it will be handled by the Iraqis, not by us.”

Does any of that sound familiar? … perhaps an echo of comments made by Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and others in the Bush Administration?

“Mission Accomplished”, “The war will be over in weeks, not months”, “The insurgency is in its last throes”, “The war will cost less than $50 Billion and most of it will be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues.” “We’re only going to stay as long as it takes to train the Iraqi troops to take over.”

We’ve heard this fiction before.

These are the same lies that are being repackaged for a hopeful but naïve public who believe that because John McCain has a war record (having been shot down and held in a Vietnamese prison camp, and tortured for years until he signed statements repudiating the U.S. for our involvement in the war.)

Flip-flop…

This is the same John McCain who spoke out against water boarding as real torture, until he wanted to get Mitt Romney’s endorsement, and then changed his position on it, claiming it really wasn’t torture anymore. Now, I don’t blame McCain for giving in to the Vietnamese torture, it was understandable that he would finally break, but he broke on the issue of water boarding as torture far faster and easier in order to get Mitt Romney’s endorsement. There’s nothing showing him standing up for any principles here.

Flip-flop…

This is the same John McCain, who has repeatedly spoken out against the Bush Administration policies and tactics in the war in Iraq, but in March 2006, retooled his campaign, building it out with members of the Bush circle, (and in exchange, McCain has thrown his support behind Bush’s policies). In addition, this retooling is basing McCain’s pitch on the notion that he is the only sensible, elect-able and competent commander who can take control of the war on terror. (This is the same argument that Hillary is trying to make – that she is the only one with the experience, is elect-able and can be commander in chief on day one. Obama says that he was the only one among them with the judgment to say that we shouldn’t go into Iraq and that we were going into Iraq for all the wrong reasons. You can decide who is leading us in the right direction.)

But how is supporting and continuing a war which is fast approaching
• 4,000 dead U.S. Servicemen and women, along with
• almost 30,000 wounded U.S. Servicemen and women, and 600,000 dead Iraqis,
• with a price tag to the American Taxpayer fast approaching $1Trillion dollars,
• with about one and a half times that amount in costs for continued medical care for our wounded veterans in the years to come, and the cost to rebuild our army and National Guard, as well as to replace all of the equipment that was destroyed in Iraq….

….How does that qualify McCain to be commander in chief?

With all of the economic problems that we are having here at home, with an economic outlook that even Fed Chief Ben Bernanke calls “grim”. (Bush still doesn’t have a clue, and hadn’t even heard analyst predictions of $4.00 a gallon gasoline by this spring. And, Friday March 1st, the stock market took another dump, dropping 315 points, the second time this year that the stock market took such a large hit.)

With the stock market continuing to tank; and with a home mortgage crisis causing millions of families to lose their homes; with all the jobs that are continuing to be shipped overseas; and corporations going offshore so that they don’t have to pay any U.S. taxes…

….and with John McCain himself admitting that he doesn’t know anything about economics…..

….how does John McCain, as the self-proclaimed, “best candidate to be commander in chief”, propose to pay for all of his continued war time spending over the next 100 years, when the current commander in chief has not paid for any of his $750 Billion from the past five years? Yes, that’s right, while it has been budgeted for and approved by Congress, (not in the actual annual federal budget, but as separate appropriations, so that it doesn’t show you what we are really racking up in Federal DEBT), it has not been paid for. According to George W. Bush, that is for future presidents and future generations to figure out and pay for. And that is what John McCain is proposing. Just MORE OF THE SAME.

Yes – John McCain – More of the Same; Just Like Bush, Only Older.

Our government just racks up more debt and prints out more worthless greenbacks to pay for things they don’t have any assets to pay for, so the value of the dollar continues to drop and consumer prices continue to increase.

To get a better idea of how the Iraq War is actually being fought and how it puts hundreds of billions of dollars of profits from no-bid contracts into Bush and Republican Party donors’ pockets, voters need to see the evidence of rigged war profiteering scams.

They need to see that, rather than there being any real effort to actually win this war, the collusion between corrupt politicians and greedy CEOs have turned the Iraq War into a feeding trough for them to drain the U.S. Treasury and keep U.S. Taxpayers in debt for the next several generations.

There is a documentary by Robert Greenwald, titled, “Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers”, which documents with interviews of former employees of Halliburton, KBR, Titan, CACI, Blackwater, and other right wing businesses who have profited by their sweetheart, no-bid contracts with the Bush Administration. These were people who were staunch Republicans, who supported the war and supported Republicans, until they saw what was really going on in Iraq. It also interviews soldiers who have witnessed fraudulent billing going on by companies who are ripping off U.S. taxpayers, and putting the lives of civilian contractors and our U.S. military at risk all in the name of the almighty dollar.

http://gobnf.org/i/ifs/ifs_quotes.jpg (Poster from Iraq for Sale with comments from movie reviewers.)

Not only does it document how a contractor billed the U.S. government for cleaning water to make it potable for use by our servicemen and women, but didn’t treat the water AT ALL, but it also showed how the rank and file servicemen and civilian contractors were repeatedly told to keep their mouths shut about it.

It also shows votes in the U.S. Congress where Democrats repeatedly attempted to hold military contractors accountable for their malfeasance, and fraudulent billing for services that they did not provide, but which Republicans in Congress REPEATEDLY BLOCKED. Even when Democrats reduced their demands to only prevent companies from being awarded contracts when they had been shown to over bill the U.S. Taxpayers by MORE THAN $100 Million Dollars, the Republican side VOTED AGAINST IT.

The war has been going on now for five years longer than what the Bush Administration told us it would take to “win” the war, and has cost 15 times more than what they told us it would cost, yet Republicans in Congress and even Bush supporters across the country refuse to question why?! They refuse to allow an investigation into the conduct of the war. They refuse to allow a proper investigation into the budget overages and the continued escalation in costs. They refuse to allow proper investigations into rampant fraud on the part of contractors and Pentagon officials and they refuse to allow proper investigations into whether or not contractors are actually supplying what they claim they are supplying.

If YOU were charged 15 times more than you were quoted, for a job that you asked to be done, and it took 5 years longer than what you were told it would take, wouldn’t you want to know why? Wouldn’t you want to know if there was a better way to do the job, so that it wouldn’t take so long, or cost so much? And wouldn’t you want to fire those responsible for their incompetence?

Obviously, the Republican members of Congress don’t want you to know, and are refusing to ask the questions.

Several of the Congressmen and Senators who were shown in the documentary, supporting the award of contracts to companies who massively over billed the U.S. Taxpayers, have since decided not to run for re-election.

You can see trailers from the film or buy the film online from:
store.bravenewfilms.org/ifsdvd06.php

I would encourage anyone who hasn’t see the film, particularly if you are a Republican who actually believes what the Bush Administration and McCain campaign are telling you, to see the film for yourself and then make up your own mind about what is happening.

Forget for once the differences between Democrats and Republicans. If you see this evidence – and it is damning, you should be furious as an AMERICAN.

Corporate lobbyists who control the quality and flow of goods and services which are vitally needed by our fighting men and women, are putting our military behind their profits, and clearly Republicans in Congress and in the Bush Administration are supporting the War Profiteers, not the troops.

Flip-flop…

Yet John McCain, this self-proclaimed “maverick”, who claims to be different and unaffected by lobbyists, has forty or fifty campaign staffers who are….lobbyists!

McCain has promised that he will continue this war in Iraq, and you can bet that with his new found appreciation for the Bush circle of friends who are supporting his campaign, that he and his lobbyist staffers will continue to show their appreciation, the way they always have, to their donors.

More information on the 5th CD DPW fundraiser and DVD distribution follows:

I would encourage activists to get as many copies of this film as possible into the hands of as many people as possible so that they can see for themselves what is happening.
Share this with your friends, neighbors and relatives. Organize large viewings and discussions of the film so that people can start to understand what is at stake and what they can do to take action.

The 5th Congressional District Democratic Party of Wisconsin Executive Committee is organizing a fundraising campaign, to purchase these DVDs in bulk lots and distribute them to anyone who wants them.

We will give them out to anyone for a minimum $12.00 donation or more, (plus shipping and handling if we have to mail it to you), and will have them available at:

the 5th Congressional District DPW Convention on April 13, (open only to delegates and alternates who have been elected at their County Delegate level to go on to the DPW State Convention.)

or 5th Congressional District DPW Delegate Caucuses on May 4, (open only to delegates and alternates who have been elected at their County Delegate Caucuses).

(If anyone is not going to attend either of these events, but knows someone who will and wants a copy, please tell them in advance, and have them contact us and send in checks or money orders with the number of DVDs requested, in advance so that we know how many units we’ll have to have available. If anyone is anticipating that they would like to order larger quantities please contact us and let us know in advance and we will provide you with directions on where to send checks or money orders to, and how you can get the DVDs if you won’t be able to attend either of the above events. For those who send checks, there will be a ten day wait for the check to clear before we can ship the DVD.

Or, if people won’t be able to attend these events but would still like to help in the fundraiser, or order copies of the DVDs:

Send inquiries to chair5thcddpw@gmail.com

You can also order them online directly from the link provided, or ask your County DPW Chair to organize bulk ordering so you can have them available for distribution and fundraising for your local events. Other organizations are welcome to do the same thing.)

Les Nakamoto

Chair 5th Congressional District Democratic Party of Wisconsin