If I could live again - I will travel light,
If I could live again - I'll try to work bare feet
at the beginning of spring till the end of autumn.
Jorge Luis Borges, Instants
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Fighting Irish
Conservative Catholics once again demonstrate their readiness to fight for their right to party like it's 1599! These soldiers of the faith believe that it's better to burn one heretic at the stake than to accept the light of knowledge.
These pro-life hypocrites are more outraged over President Obama's support for reproductive choice than over former President Bush's direct involvement in the deaths of over a half million Iraqi citizens. If these Catholics are so committed to the sanctity of human life, where was their outrage when Bush Jr. launched his bogus war on Iraq? Could it be their real fight is against the expansion of reproductive freedom?
A disclaimer on the bottom of each VFF web page states[75] "Vets for Freedom is a nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization. Contributions are not deductible for federal income tax purposes."
Originally, the organization's precise tax status (501c3, 501c4, 527 committee) was not stated and virtually no information was available on the Vets for Freedom website about the funders and organizations behind Vets for Freedom, making it difficult to evaluate the degree to which the organization might have been part of a war propaganda campaign interacting with the Bush Administration, the Pentagon, the American Legion and/or other ideologically-driven public relations and lobbying efforts that have exploited for political purposes the issues of US war veterans and their families, such as Move America Forward and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Naming this GOP front group Vets for Freedom reminds me of a phrase popular during the Vietnam era, "Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity." Veterans for Freedom attempts to make it appear that our soldiers fully support a continued military presence in Iraq. Nothing is further from the truth. If Americans want to continue the Iraq war, let them show their approval by reactivating the draft.
The next time you hear someone say that a single-payer health care plan won't work, ask them if they've ever heard of Medicare. It's the government plan that provides their elderly parents with access to medical care. Were it not for Medicare, many of us would be faced with the choice of paying for our parents health care bills or allowing them to die prematurely.