A Tale of Two Telethons (MDA vs. Iraq War funding)

[-V-]

Before each election I like to put out some persuasive materials. It would be terrific to have POL members participate in these kinds of projects in the future. It is not enough to publicly spank the occasional regressive who posts here.

Ideally, I should have distributed this right after Labor Day but I got sidetracked. As is, I still believe it is effective because it puts our spending in perspective and focuses on an aspect of the Iraq war that doesn't get as much attention as the violence. It appeals to the all important "what's in it for me" crowd which is often at the forefront of the "undecided" voter's mind.

This is the link to the full page which includes a running Cost of Iraq War toteboard:
http://progressivesonline.com/electi...ar-funding.htm

(Please email this to your FRIENDS but do not engage in spamming)

A Tale of Two Telethons

Every Labor Day, for the past 40 years, America has watched bad comics, aging vocalists, and Ed McMahon on air for 21 hours straight in pursuit of a cure for Muscular Dystrophy. We felt the pain of each poster child and shared their hopes with every drum roll that heralded new numbers on the telethon tote board. For 40 years, celebrities begged us to keep the phones ringing and we did -- to the tune of $1.4 billion in donations.

Today the phone is ringing back. Pick it up America. It's your wake up call!

For the past 4 years, cable news has pre-empted your local programming to broadcast a new kind of corporate telethon, complete with theme music and logo, live from Baghdad. And though you never signed the donation checks, your state representatives called in $330 billion of your money to invade and occupy a country who's people never asked for our intervention and who resent us more every day. Their poster child is now any one of a hundred thousand missing a parent or limb in exchange for a small measure of democracy that came packaged with a long future of sectarian violence.

Every WEEK that we stay in their country costs more than was donated to "Jerry's Kids" in 40 years! That's $11 million per HOUR payed mostly to no-bid contractors like Halliburton (our Vice-President's former corporation) to rebuild cities we destroyed with million dollar bombs. Today, billions of those dollars are unaccounted for due to alleged "waste, fraud and war profiteering".

The Labor Day telethon has passed, but you can still be a hero to thousands of G.I.'s who have earned a ticket home in a first class seat rather than a cargo body bag. All it takes is your vote for CHANGE this November. Kick the bums out who misled us into Iraq and send the message to every candidate of either party who wants to "stay the course" at $11 million per hour that "your fired!"

Let's set a new course out of Iraq and hire leaders who can work cooporatively to get more U.N. and less U.S. in the middle of international affairs. Then, hopefully, by next Labor Day, America can redirect a portion of the savings to fixing the holes in our homeland security, education, healthcare & social security and you can donate a part of your tax debt reduction to "Jerry's Kids". Or to Katrina relief, or cancer research, or the Humane Society... anything besides risking American lives on unilateral crusades that require us to DESTROY and REBUILD FOREIGN CITIES!

-ProgressivesOnline.com

P.S.
Want cheaper fuel & electricity? With 4 days of Iraq funds we could double this year's Renewable Energy research budget aimed at ending our dependance on foreign oil and the greedy corporations that exploit it. Do the math!

Worried about Iraqi citizens? A poll conducted by the University of Maryland this month found 71% of Iraqis want us out within 1 year, 78% feel our presence is provoking more conflict than it is preventing, and 61% endorse attacks against our troops.

Worried about YOUR safety? The consensus of 16 US intelligence agencies is that our Iraq occupation is spawning a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the invasion.

[Jane of Arc]

Excellent-V-~ simply excellent!