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| Latest Commentary by Chuck Zlatkin RIGHT IS WRONG PRESENTS THE ZLATKIN LETTER Kicking the Democratic Party Kool-Aid Once and For All February 7, 2008 · By Chuck Zlatkin I'm angry. Even though my friends know that the last two presidential elections were rigged, they are allowing themselves to believe this one is for real. They say that if the margin of victory is big enough, it will too tough to steal this one! This is worse than 2004. Then I saw all my anti-war compatriots abandon the anti-war movement to work for one Democratic candidate or another. I understood. Now they are doing it again. The illusion of the Democratic Party is a dangerous elixir. I was addicted to it for most of my life. This is worse because, in addition to the war, the facts are clear that our constitutional rights are being stolen from us right in front of our noses, and the leadership of the Democratic Party is telling us that fighting to preserve our rights is a diversion from the real work at hand. At first the "work" was passing the minimum wage but that soon morphed into electing a Democrat president of the United States. Remember in 2006 the "work at hand" was electing a Democratic Congress. That was the path for ending the war. Now the way to end the war is to elect a Democrat President. I'm angry at my friends because they are acting as if they believe this fairy tale again. I'll tell everyone that the true work at hand is impeaching Bush and Cheney We must hold all the war criminals responsible for the horrors they have created. They all must be held accountable for their actions. You can throw Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers and Jerrold Nadler into this group. They are all collaborators. Jerrold Nadler is the congressman of the 8th CD in New York. Most people have considered him a progressive, that's why he is representing a district that includes Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Clinton, and the Upper West Side, some of the most progressive neighborhoods in the whole region. People have respected him for years. He is in a safe seat. Circumstance and ambition has also put Nadler in the position of being the chair of the House judiciary committee's subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil liberties. If Nadler had any backbone he would stand up to Pelosi and Conyers and publicly declare that he was commencing impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney. But instead Nadler spends his time attacking the notion that impeachment has a place in the lives of two war criminals like Bush and Cheney. He is more interested in getting Hillary Clinton elected president. The growing number of his constituents who are seeing the light will not give up. Nadler must fact the consequences of his actions. Check out www.AskNadler2Impeach.org Giving a free pass to war criminals that have seized control of this government is an impeachable offense. Impeach Bush, Cheney and Nancy Pelosi too. Impeachment off the table---shit, looking at the State of the Union address it was as clear to me, Bush and Cheney wouldn't have been able to be standing there in Congress if it wasn't for Nancy Pelosi taking impeachment off the table. How the hell can people still be Democrats after that? I understood why my friends went to Pennsylvania for Kerry in '04; I just don't understand how they went to New Hampshire for John Edwards, Hillary Clinton of Barack Obama in'08. To save this country, to save our constitution we have to begin impeachment hearings today. Barack Obama being sworn in to office, January 20, 2009 will not be the solution. It will be too late. Your instincts are correct. Bush and Cheney are that bad. They don't deserve a free pass. They must be impeached. What is more important? The only date when it becomes too late to impeach Bush and Cheney is January 20, 2009, not one day before. I have said that the anti-war movement must have a big tent. I welcome everyone who joins the movement, no matter how long it took them to see the light. That even includes senators who voted for the authorization while we were in the streets opposing the start of the war. I will work with them; I just think that their actions have caused them to forfeit the opportunity to receive my vote for president. Yes, that not only includes those who voted for the authorization but those who voted for the funding as well. Obama, Clinton, Edwards all have blood on their hands. I'm looking for a senator who put opposition to the war ahead of his own political career. Oh, yes that was Paul Wellstone, and we can see what happened to him. The United States of America commits torture, publicly and proudly. Hold them all accountable, every one of them that has collaborated with the war profiteers and the major financial institutions. Hold every one of them accountable. And when you see who the biggest contributors are to Clinton and Obama you should be able to understand what interests they will represent. Anyone who tells you that by voting for a Democrat you are voting to end the war is lying to you again, just the way they did in 2006. They are lying to you the way they did in 1981. Are you old enough to remember when Ronald Reagan became president? When Reagan came to power there was a Democratic House of Representatives. They chose not to oppose the Reagan agenda but to facilitate it. The strategy was something like, "If we give him all that he wants, we will speed up the failure." I didn't buy it then and I certainly don't buy it now. Reagan took office on January 20, 1981, on February 5th the Democratic controlled House passed Reagan's bill to increase the debt limit, on March 10th the Democratic controlled house passed Reagan's bill to give the oil industry an antitrust exemption. On May 7th the Democratic controlled congress passed Reagan's massive tax and spending cuts. So what do I do about it? In addition to working with some of my fellow constituents in the 8th Congressional District, I also join with my neighbors every Tuesday night for one hour for Chelsea Stands Up Against The War. We have been doing it rain or shine since May 2005. This coming week will be the 143rd consecutive week. www.chelseaneighborsunited.org Find people to work with that feels right to you. haven't heard Hillary Clinton talk about restoring our constitutional rights, have you? I haven't heard Barack Obama explain to me how voting for every war funding bill, just as Hillary Clinton did makes him anti-war. And don't tell me that as a Democrat he had to do it or he wouldn't have a career anymore. We can't wait until January 20, 2009 to see if there will be constitutional rights for people like you and me. We can't wait to an Obama or Clinton administration to see if we guessed right. Torture, extraordinary rendition, pre emptive war, occupation, genocide, ending habeas corpus, illegal wire taps, war profiteering, can't continue unabated until January 20, 2009. It is time to Stand Up and call for impeachment now. And if the Democratic Party can't stop the war, and if the Democratic Party can't impeach the two war criminals that are in office today, then stand up to the Democratic Party once and for all. Join me. Join me in boycotting the Democratic Party right now. Yes, until they end the war as they promised and until they begin hearings to impeach Bush and Cheney boycott the Democratic Party. Yes, don't work for them, don't give them any money and don't vote for them. t took me until I was 28 years old to give up smoking cigarettes; it took me until I was 61 to give up my registration in the Democratic Party. Which is more addictive? In 1964 I was told that the only way to prevent war was to have Lyndon Johnson elected president over the war monger, Barry Goldwater. Every progressive, every liberal did just that they, voted for peace, they voted for Lyndon Johnson. What they got was a massive escalation of the Vietnam War. So when the Tom Hartmann's and the Hillary Clinton's of the word heap praise on Lyndon Johnson try to remember the hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people whose blood is on his hands. Impeach Cheney, Impeach Bush, and Impeach Pelosi, impeach them all. Restore the constitution of the United States and free yourself from the fairy tale. To all the people who are better educated that I am, who are more sophisticated than I am, who are more realistic than I, well I'm here to tell you that there is no way to escape the truth. It is up to us to change it. There is no magic mommy, daddy, or barack that is going to do this for us. The Republicans, the Democrats, the corporate media are all in agreement that our constitutional rights are off the table. You can't trust any of them anymore including the beloved Democrats. It is a sad truth, but it is the truth, it is up to us. Our elected officials have done nothing to end the war, that's both political parties, all they do is vote more funding for it. It is up to us to end the war. It is up to us to protect our constitutional rights. So when people ask what can we do? I think of what Naomi Wolf says in her must read, End of America ". . . most important of all, lead your friends and community to unite in a grassroots movement to restore our nation's freedom." Chuck Zlatkin is a recovering Democrat. He is a long time community activist in the Chelsea community in New York City. He is a founding member of Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War and he sits on the executive board of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, APWU, AFL-CIO. He can be reached at chuckzlatkin@gmail.com -- Cowardice asks the question:"Is it safe"? Expediency asks the question:"Is it politic"? Vanity asks the question:"Is it popular?" But conscience asks the question:"Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popularbut one must take it because one's conscience tells one what is right. - MLK See More Commentary in our Archives Now Available |
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| About Right is Wrong When Right is Wrong! began in July of 1999 it was done out of a sense of frustration. The major media, either by design or incompetence, had refused to report on the rapid rise of the right throughout the world. In addition, right wing groups were using the Internet to spread their messages. Voices presenting alternative views to this right wing barrage were few and far between. Right is Wrong! was dedicated to tracking the right in all its guises. News of the militia movement, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, anti-abortion thugs, union busters, gay bashers, misogynists, racists, anti-Semites, and fascists were featured each day both on the web site and in a daily e-mail digest. With the theft of the presidential election of 2000 and the horror of 9-11 a change of focus gradually took place. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the consolidation of ownership in all of the media were beginning to bear fruit for the forces of evil. The media was no longer asking key questions after 9-11. The Patriot Act, Homeland Security, and the rush to war in Iraq were steamrolled through with little real debate in the media. The primary threat to freedom was internal. Right Is Wrong! began to feature news and analysis from new sources. Lines seemed to become blurred. Some sources from the left were shying away from asking important questions, while sources from the right were not. It became abundantly clear that no source was "pure." Each story had to be judged on its merits regardless of its source. Information was being unearthed by both right wing and left wing sources while that very same news was being "ignored" by the mainstream. The search for the truth is a tough one. It means asking the hard questions. It means examining the words and deeds of those you have grown comfortable with over the years as well as those you have learned to despise. There are no sacred cows. Looking for connections leads us to seeing some horrific truths. We all would love to have faith in our leaders. But recent events force us to look for the big picture. And as we delve into what has really caused recent events, Right is Wrong! has developed a real problem with "coincidence" theorists. It is unknown who first coined the coincidence theorist phrase first, but whether it was Michael Parenti, John Judge or someone else, the fact remains that the search for truth brings us beyond coincidence. Right Is Wrong! is not about being a liberal or leftist alternative. Right Is Wrong! is about searching for the truth, wherever that quest may take us. | |
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