Gold Star Mom Wants Answers from Laura Bush

CONTACT: Gilda Carbonaro 301-792-8854 Gold Star Families Speak Out
Mike Ferner 240-274-9785 DemocracyRising.US

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


LAURA AND JENNA BUSH PROMOTE “READ ALL ABOUT IT,” A GOLD STAR MOTHER ASKS THEM TO READ HER LETTER

Mother of Marine killed in Iraq delivers letter to Bushes at book signing event at D.C. Borders


On Friday, April 25, at 7:00pm, at the Borders bookstore at 14th and F Streets, NW, the mother of a Marine Corps Sergeant killed in Iraq will deliver a letter to Mrs. Bush and her daughter, Jenna, who will be at the store promoting their children’s book, “Read All About It.”


THE LETTER:

Gilda Carbonaro
Bethesda, Maryland





Laura and Jenna Bush
c/o Borders Books
14th and F Streets NW
Washington, D.C.


April 25, 2008


Dear Laura and Jenna Bush,

As you promote your new children’s book, “Read All About It,” and advocate for literacy tonight I hope you will take but a few moments to read these heartfelt lines.

I write to you as one of thousands of parents and family members whose loved ones have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan; whose child, parent or spouse has returned blinded or deaf, armless or legless, or unable to ever move their limbs again; or perhaps have returned apparently unharmed, but with nightmares and a ticking timebomb in their minds.

You may think this a grim postscript to an evening’s chat about a book for children, but when someone you love has been taken from you forever, or returned so terribly damaged you barely know them, it becomes foremost in your thoughts every waking moment. You then begin to understand what is truly grim. And, I must add, there are those among us who still carry such unspeakable pain and anger they’ve become all but exhausted.

But many of us have felt exhaustion be replaced by an energy and a clarity of purpose we have never experienced before. One thing that has become clear to us is an answer to the question, “How could anyone send the youth of its nation to invade Iraq?” We see now how differently someone would answer that question if they suffered the anguish of a family member being killed as the result.

Your children, Mrs. Bush, are safe and I am glad for you. But I wonder, have you ever urged them to enlist in this heroic adventure? Your husband has told us many times how important this cause is. Your children appear well qualified, and as part of the First Family you’ve no doubt taught them the value of demonstrating leadership for the nation.

Why, then, has the price for this war been paid only by people like my son, Marine Corps Sgt. Alesandro Carbonaro, who died May 10, 2006, eight days after being horrifically burned in an IED blast in Al Anbar Province, Iraq?


Can you not see the simple, basic unfairness of asking others to do what you yourself are unwilling to do? Have you drifted so far from an understanding of fundamental justice that you cannot see the contradictions apparent to so many of us?

These are not rhetorical questions. They are as real as the knot in our stomachs and the ache in our hearts. It is time – and past time – that you face these questions without blinking or dodging and give us a satisfactory answer.


Most sincerely,



Gilda Carbonaro
Bethesda, Maryland

Goddess speed, Mrs. C. Never back down!

Do I even have to say it?!

from Alternet.org

The picture you see there is the aerial view of the giant Swastika-shaped building cluster at the US Navy's Coronado, California Naval Amphibious Base.

Tell me again why we aren't supposed to call them Nazis? You do realize that we imported a lot of Nazi scientists during and after WWII, right? And W.'s grandfather Prescott Bush was sanctioned for doing business with the Nazis? That our military has recently been infiltrated by white supremecists and fascist Christians? That Karl Rove has followed the Nazi playbook step by step since the attacks on 9/11 - the one's they could have prevented? There are detention camps in Texas right now? American gulags spread about the globe? Do I have to list all the war crimes and human rights violations of the Bush crew?

Just because I'm paranoid, it doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Impeach07 Campaign Launched

via David Swanson.
(Goddess bless him, he has been a tireless warrior in the fight against this criminal administration.)

The impeachment movement is uniting and expanding. We're joining with many other organizations to launch Impeach07, a coordinated series of actions aimed at impeaching Bush and Cheney through widespread public protest, creative dissent, media activism, education, and lobbying:
http://www.impeach07.org

Bush and Cheney have misled this nation into an aggressive war, spied in open violation of the law, and sanctioned the use of torture -- among numerous other offenses. Newsweek reported in October that a majority of Americans favor impeachment, and in January that 58% said they wished the Bush administration were over. "Only a great popular upheaval," Howard Zinn said recently, "can push both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will."

We need to end one war and prevent another, and impeachment is the way we will do it.

On March 17, the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, Impeach07 will mobilize for a
March on the Pentagon to demand peace and impeachment. Go here to get involved:
http://www.marchonpentagon.org

On March 18-20, Impeach07 will organize local events for peace and impeachment around the country:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/event

Impeach07 is also planning:

A "Make Hip Hop, Not War" bus tour promoting peace and impeachment on March 19 - April 21:
http://www.hiphopcaucus.org

A boycott of major corporations that are profiting from the Bush administration's policies, making a killing off of killing, on April 15- 22:
http://www.wearenotbuyingit.org

And a nationwide day of protest:
Impeachment Day, April 28, 2007:http://www.a28.org

Initial participating organizations represent hundreds of thousands of antiwar, military family, peace, youth and women activists and lawyers. They include: After Downing Street, Backbone Campaign, Center for Constitutional Rights, Citizens Impeachment Commission, CODE PINK Women for Peace, Constitution Summer, Consumers for Peace, Democrats.com, Democracy Rising, Gold Star Families for Peace, Green Party of the United States, Hip Hop Caucus, Impeach the President, ImpeachBush.org, Military Free Zone, National Lawyers Guild, Patriotic Response to Renegade Government, Progressive Democrats of America, Independent Progressive Politics Network, Velvet Revolution, and World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime.

Organizations that want to join should write to jacob@a28.org

Nathan Gardels: Davos Forum Confirms Powershift Away from US

The Huffington Post

This year's theme of a powershift completes a cycle that began in 2000 at the high moment of American triumphalism, before the dot.com bust and 9/11. For the first time in its history, an American president, Bill Clinton, addressed the WEF, descending on Davos, helicopters arroar and loudly echoing across the pristine ski valley, with practically the entire American cabinet in tow. I wrote then that "paradoxically, Clinton's presence codified the triumph of the American challenge the WEF was founded to resist." It was paradoxical because this annual gathering two hours up the mountain from Zurich had first been organized 30 years earlier under the name "European Management Seminar" as a way for Europe's business leaders to come together and figure out how to respond to what French author Jean -Jacques Servan Schreiber had called "the American challenge."

I wrote then, not wrongly but now far less true, that "clearly, globalization is an American-led phenomenon. Those gathered in Davos were in awe of a US economy in the midst of its longest expansion in history with full employment and low inflation thanks in good part to freer trade and advances in information technology.

"Industrial titans from Europe and Asia sat gaping as Microsoft's Bill Gates, AOL's Steve Case and Viacom's Sumner Redstone offered their version of how to make billions in the new economy. Sessions on the other great revolution underway in genetics were also dominated by Americans, from the scientists to the regulators.

"From so high up in the Alps you can see clearly all the way to the future. And the future, if this year's Davos meeting was any indication, will be undeniably American."

In the intervening years, Bush's unilateralism, the war in Iraq, the torture at Abu Ghraib, the warrantless wiretaps, the revelation of racism and inequality after Katrina and the aggressive religious right have all tarnished America's luster.

Bush wanted America to rule the world, but was too unaware of international relations to know that we already did. Then he went in a screwed it up to the point that it will take generations for America to recover, if we ever do.

Way to go, George.

Ted Kennedy | Escalation - It's Not His Decision

Now that's the kind of response I want to see from this Congress. You can sign the Petition to support Senator Kennedy's bill by clicking that link.

Escalation is immanent - let your voices be heard now!

Peace.