Feinstein fled Iraq oil theft law question VIDEO

[yurbud]

On one aspect of the Iraq War, Democrats & Republicans are in eerie unison: they won't talk about how the Iraq War and the http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/03/juhasz-whose-oil-is-it-anyway.html">Hydrocarbon Law Bush is forcing on the Iraqis benefits Big Oil.

The question on the Hydrocarbon Law is in the last fourth of the video, so you can pull the slider to there if you want. Transcript is with video.

http://www.washingtonstakeout.com/index.php/2007/03/19/feinstein-on-clusterbombs-iraqoil/#more-28">CLICK PIC TO SEE FLICK

http://www.washingtonstakeout.com/index.php/2007/03/19/feinstein-on-clusterbombs-iraqoil/#more-28">

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/03/juhasz-whose-oil-is-it-anyway.html">BACKGROUND ON HYDROCARBON LAW

Contrast her evasion and that of other Democratic "leaders" caught on video with the statements of http://campaignsandelections.com/oh/releases/index.cfm?ID=483">Dennis Kucinich and http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/52388/">Jim McDermott in the House. You can disagree with these guys, but at least they are letting us in on the real debate, not talking to us in childish platitudes.

Feinstein's evasion which tacitly lends support to the war might be because http://www.cnsnews.com/Politics/archive/200704/POL20070402a.html">her husband has gotten hundreds of millions worth of contracts in Iraq which led to her being forced to step down from a military appropriations subcommittee due to the obvious conflict of interests.

As the father of a dead soldier said in the Washington Post today:

To whom do Kennedy, Kerry and Lynch listen? We know the answer: to the same people who have the ear of George W. Bush and Karl Rove -- namely, wealthy individuals and institutions.

Money buys access and influence. Money greases the process that will yield us a new president in 2008. When it comes to Iraq, money ensures that the concerns of big business, big oil, bellicose evangelicals and Middle East allies gain a hearing. By comparison, the lives of U.S. soldiers figure as an afterthought.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/25/AR2007052502032_pf.html">FULL TEXT

I hope the Democrats in Congress will prove me and this father wrong. They haven't yet.


http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2006/09/iraq-oil-war-resources.html">OIL motive for IRAQ WAR resources

[Wilms]

1. I don't like Feinstein, and I don't hate Code Pink.

But all I can determine from twice watching that video is that the chants started before she could respond to the reporter.

If nothing else, those chanters gave Feinstein an exit strategy. Had they kept quiet, we might have had a better picture of DiFi squirming.

I'll probably remember this video next time anti-war activists suggest that certain other activists should STFU.

[yurbud]

2. that was incredibly bad timing, but DiFi and others in Senate need their feet to the fire on this

[Wilms]

4. Are you excusing them by using the word "but"?

Would you agree with the following statement?

"That was incredibly bad timing, because DiFi and others in Senate need their feet to the fire on this."

I want to avoid the whole Code-Pink debate I've noticed roiling through DU in the past. But if what I heard on that video is what people complain about CP's techniques (sic), then I'll have to be honest and agree. The level of sophistication displayed was not up to the task.

The reporter was holding Feinstein's feet to the fire. CP threw water on it.

[acmavm]

3. This war has been very, very good to Diane and her hubby.

[Wilms]

5. As anyone paying attention knows.

Do you think the chanter's helped the reporter to his job?

[acmavm]

6. Let me ask you this, do you believe old Diane would have given a

straight answer to an honest question?

[Wilms]

9. No I don't. And I indicated as much in reply #1

"If nothing else, those chanters gave Feinstein an exit strategy. Had they kept quiet, we might have had a better picture of DiFi squirming."

[acmavm]

23. My question was directed at this remark. I wasn't trying to be snarfy...

<snip>

But all I can determine from twice watching that video is that the chants started before she could respond to the reporter.

<snip>

See, I don't think she'd have given a straight answer even with the opportunity to do so.

[Wilms]

33. Yes. Yes. Which is what I am saying.

While it isn't nice to be presumptious, I fully expected her to be squirming rather than directly responding to the reporter.

[EFerrari]

7. You know, I didn't participate in the CP action at Nancy's house

because that felt wrong to me. And sometimes CP seems over the top to me. But, they have consistently challenged this occupation. And that's not an easy thing to do in this climate. I admire Code Pink for the dedication of their resources and for their willingness to go out on limbs when most people are cowering in closets.

[Wilms]

11. Beth, here it was the reporter going out on a limb.

CP sawed it off.

[EFerrari]

13. You've never stepped on your partner's toes?

Sure, it was unfortunate. Things happen.

[Wilms]

15. Then I hope they'll have the good fortune to realize that. n/t

[EFerrari]

19. In the meetings I've attended, there is always an effort to fine tune.

And that is balanced against the pressure to shut up that comes in from so many directions.

It's a messy process.

/oops

[yurbud]

22. in fairness, what percentage of the time in the last six years have reporters asked good questions?

Not that they should be walked on willy nilly, and they weren't so loud that Feinstein couldn't have answered and continued the discussion without raising her voice.

[Wilms]

37. Is it that you don't want to get it?

It would have been revealing to see her (non-)response to the reporter. What we saw can reasonably be assumed to be someone walking away from CP entertaining themselves.

CP destroyed the opportunity. You don't see that way. That's OK. It's a big country.

[yurbud]

52. No, I totally see the point. Code Pink walking on a good question was accidental

not an intentional attempt to stymie a good question.

[Wilms]

53. Surely I didn't think they purposely blew it.

I thought the did so recklessly. Like a bunch of whiners that are fodder for the right-wing talk show whiners. In a way they're all meant for each other. (And the war and the killing go on.)

I wish I didn't see the video and hear their grade school rant. Given that and thoughts this days discussion has prompted, I'm totally turned off.

Granted, I'm in an especially foul mood because it's "Happy (NOT!) Memorial Day!" in 'Murka. I ain't barbecuing or getting "cash back" on a SUV. I'm grieving.

I realize, though, Code Pink must be no less upset and meant well.

Peace

[yurbud]

54. I cut them slack on this because they were loud when others were cowed

back a few years ago when the "reality based community" was the minority.

[EFerrari]

8. Do you remember the thread about Dick Durbin saying that

he was under oath not to disclose that the pre-war intelligence was bs (okay, I'm paraphrasing)?

Well, Diane was on the same committee. And even though she had the exact same info that Durbin did before the invasion, she sent us all a letter claiming that she had special knowledge of the threat Saddam posed. That she knew best, that diplomacy had "failed".

What a POS warprofiteer she was and is.

[yurbud]

10. the special information was in her stock portfolio.

[Wilms]

12. Agreed. n/t

[IChing]

17. Agreed...n/t

[leftchick]

18. war profiteers lie

she should be voted out. Any real progressives in her district?

[IChing]

20. She is a senator and doesn't have a district.

California can do better, but we had in 2006 other races that took away candidates that could have taken her on.

[EFerrari]

24. It's a Senate seat. And she has a lot of money. n/t

[leftchick]

26. I thought of that after I typed

who can compete with her war profits? And yes I realize she is a senator.

[EFerrari]

29. I only hope she will decide to retire next time around.

:(

[yurbud]

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DIGG
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BUZZFLASH.NET
http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=14177

[ProSense]

16. What does Bacevich's quote in grief about Kerry and Kennedy have to do with Feinstein?

Bacevich is angry, but highlighting that quote, which makes no sense in the context of Kerry and Kennedy's record, is ridiculous.

Bacevich has criticized the war and Bush's handling of it for years:

Call It a Day

We've Done All We Can Do in Iraq

By Andrew J. Bacevich

Sunday, August 21, 2005; Page B01

The banner decorating the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, when President Bush announced an end to "major combat operations" in Iraq, turns out to have been accurate after all. If only the president himself had taken to heart the banner's proclamation of "Mission Accomplished." For by that date, having deposed Saddam Hussein, the United States had achieved in Iraq just about all that it has the capacity to achieve. The time has come for Bush to dig the banner out of the closet, drape it across the front of the White House and make it the basis for policy instead of continuing under the inglorious banner of "Mission Impossible."

Ironically, ever since the presidential victory lap of two years ago, the Bush administration has been in the forefront of those insisting that the U.S. mission in Iraq is not accomplished -- that there is ever so much more that the United States can and must do on behalf of the Iraqi people. Hence the grandiose U.S. promises of reconstruction, economic and political reform, and nation-building.

<...>

Getting out now makes sense not just to avoid further running up our bill, but because doing so holds out the prospect of a more favorable result. Granted, constructing a positive case for withdrawal requires a redefinition of purpose. From the outset, the Bush administration has focused on the wrong political objective. Rather than attempting to democratize Iraq as a first step toward "transforming" the Middle East, our proper aim should be to stabilize the country so that we can concentrate our energies on containing and eventually reducing the threat posed by violent Islamic radicals.

more

A year earlier in a speech at NYU, Sen. Kerry laid out a plan for iraq and withdrawing troop:

Now, this is not going to be easy. I understand that.

Again, I repeat, every month that's gone by, every offer of help spurned, every alternative not taken for these past months has made this more difficult and those were this president's choices. But even countries that refused to put boots on the ground in Iraq ought to still be prepared to help the United Nations hold an election.

We should also intensify the training of Iraqis to manage and guard the polling places that need to be opened. Otherwise, U.S. forces will end up bearing that burden alone.

If the president would move in this direction, if he would bring in more help from other countries to provide resources and to train the Iraqis to provide their own security and to develop a reconstruction plan that brings real benefits to the Iraqi people, and take the steps necessary to hold elections next year, if all of that happened, we could begin to withdraw U.S. forces starting next summer and realistically aim to bring our troops home within the next four years.

That can achieved.

link

In June 2005, Kerry wrote:

He also needs to put the training of Iraqi troops on a true six-month wartime footing and ensure that the Iraqi government has the budget needed to deploy them. The administration and the Iraqi government must stop using the requirement that troops be trained in-country as an excuse for refusing offers made by Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany to do more.

The administration must immediately draw up a detailed plan with clear milestones and deadlines for the transfer of military and police responsibilities to Iraqis after the December elections. The plan should be shared with Congress. The guideposts should take into account political and security needs and objectives and be linked to specific tasks and accomplishments. If Iraqis adopt a constitution and hold elections as planned, support for the insurgency should fall and Iraqi security forces should be able to take on more responsibility. It will also set the stage for American forces to begin to come home.

more

Of course everything done in Iraq, from the government to the constitution to the elections, and now the oil law, has been orchestrated by the Bush admin via a puppet government.

In October 2005, Kerry shaped the plan for a deadline in his Path Forward speech:

This difficult road traveled demands the unvarnished truth about the road ahead.

To those who suggest we should withdraw all troops immediately -- I say No. A precipitous withdrawal would invite civil and regional chaos and endanger our own security. But to those who rely on the overly simplistic phrase "we will stay as long as it takes," who pretend this is primarily a war against Al Qaeda, and who offer halting, sporadic, diplomatic engagement, I also say -- No, that will only lead us into a quagmire.

The way forward in Iraq is not to pull out precipitously or merely promise to stay "as long as it takes." To undermine the insurgency, we must instead simultaneously pursue both a political settlement and the withdrawal of American combat forces linked to specific, responsible benchmarks. At the first benchmark, the completion of the December elections, we can start the process of reducing our forces by withdrawing 20,000 troops over the course of the holidays.

The Administration must immediately give Congress and the American people a detailed plan for the transfer of military and police responsibilities on a sector by sector basis to Iraqis so the majority of our combat forces can be withdrawn. No more shell games, no more false reports of progress, but specific and measurable goals.

It is true that our soldiers increasingly fight side by side with Iraqis willing to put their lives on the line for a better future. But history shows that guns alone do not end an insurgency. The real struggle in Iraq -- Sunni versus Shiia -- will only be settled by a political solution, and no political solution can be achieved when the antagonists can rely on the indefinite large scale presence of occupying American combat troops.

In fact, because we failed to take advantage of the momentum of our military victory, because we failed to deliver services and let Iraqis choose their leaders early on, our military presence in vast and visible numbers has become part of the problem, not the solution.

more

Kerry introduced his deadline in binding legislations in April 2006, which led to http://www.johnkerry.com/initiatives/kerry_feingold">Kerry-Feingold.

Congress went backward, unnecessarily, with this recent vote, and they need to be criticized. Bacevich lost his son and is understandably upset.

[yurbud]

48. CONNECTION: money talks to more than Feinstein

Kennedy was asked directly about Hydrocarbon Law and sidestepped it on VIDEO.
http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2007/01/sen-reid-dodges-iraq-oil-privatization.html

If Kerry addressed how the Hydrocarbon Law screws Iraqis, I haven't seen it, and if he really wanted to get us out of Iraq, he would be mentioning it at every opportunity like Dennis Kucinich is doing.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

21. Ah, Democratic Underground

My one and only source for the latest right-wing talking points.

[EFerrari]

25. You're not in California, are you? n/t

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

27. Not at the moment, but I did live there for eight years.

I only left recently. I'm not a huge fan of Feinstein, but I can't abide this bullshit.

[EFerrari]

28. What bullshit would that be?

Google is your friend.

Go look for and find the profits Diane and hubby have made off of this illegal war. And do it now, before you make the mistake of maligning more DUers, especially those of us who have been subjected to Diane's mendacity for so many years and who have had to suffer the human loss.

[Neecy]

30. amen

[EFerrari]

31. 357 DEAD: 2,672 WOUNDED. N/T

[Neecy]

32. ssshhhh...Dianne has opera tix for tonight

[Rex]

35. Careful, he might decide you deserve his big bowl of nuts pic.

That's how he deals with the truth, when it is inconvenient for him.

[EFerrari]

43. I could use a high protein snack right about now.

That woman has been terrible for California and for our country. I don't care what she calls herself. She is digusting.

[Rex]

45. The truth is the truth, if it falls on the side you or I like then we are lucky.

Her husband is a warmonger - doh, did I say that? Must be too many sodas! :rofl:

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

36. Yup.

I know that people here have a tendency to view anyone with a stake in defense contractors as warmongers. Pardon me for not jumping on the Limbaugh bandwagon, thank you very much.

[EFerrari]

40. Are you search impaired?

http://www.gnn.tv/articles/2477/The_Democrats_Daddy_War_Bucks

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-frank010306.htm

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/lt_code_pink_feinstein_070409.shtml

http://www.thetip.org/art_Feinstein_Joins_Hawks_in_War_Profiteering_333_icle.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_profiteer

http://www.metroactive.com/feinstein/

http://www.feinsteinwatch.com/

[ProSense]

34. You know who is even more disappointing than Feinstein?

Webb (and Tester). All that talk in 2006, vote out the war supporters. He gets elected then vote for the funding bill and refuse to support a binding timetable.

[IChing]

38. For the conservative states they come from I am glad they won.

I didn't expect too much how of them from their positions and past histories don't forget
Webb was a republican once. I am very glad they won considering the alternative.

Feinstein, however is in California and we can do better,
you need to try to talk to her office some time.

It stinks with the smell of dealing with an oligarchy of rudeness, power and elitism

[ProSense]

39. I agree with that, but

you somehow wound up with Governor Ahnuld. Also, some were hailing Webb as a candidate for president. No thanks! Still Webb is infinitely better than Allen.

[EFerrari]

44. Calling her office is like trying to reach the Queen of England.

It's not a democratic experience, to put it mildly.

And f#ck these people who are so sure they have bought their seats and that's a done deal.

[EFerrari]

41. Except Diane has seniority and she could afford to take more risks

than Webb.

[ProSense]

46. That's no excuse for his vote.

He was elected in his state based on opposition to the war. With nearly 70% of American opposed to this war, the opposition is coming from red-state voters too.

[EFerrari]

47. I agree. He is responsible. n/t

[saras]

42. War profiteering law needed.

This is something that the Democratic party, and constituency, ought to be able to get behind. A tough, no-exemptions law outlawing United States citizens from profiting from the war.

Preferably felonies, with jail time after forcible divesture of assets.

NO profiteering, period.

With the fringe benefit that the country can get back a bunch of the money that the Bush administraitorship has given away to war profiteers.

[yurbud]

49. problem: why do you think most Democrats & nearly all Republicans are in Congress?

It aint because the Peace Corps wasn't taking applications.

Politics is the pursuit of business by other means.

[ProSense]

51. Here:

Iraq's Not For Sale

[shance]

50. Her response shows her to be the coward and fake she is. The fact is, Diane ran.

When the most important question was posed to her, and it wasn't that direct or confrontational, Mrs. Feinstein hightailed it out of there like the sidestepping governor in "The Best lil Whorehouse in Texas".

Ewww.....I love to dance a little sidestep

Now you see me now you don't, Ive come and gone.......


ewwww.....I love to sweep around the widestead,

and lead the people on.....