BOSTON – Senator Kerry today issued the following statement on Senator Kennedy’s illness.
“Ted Kennedy and the Kennedy family have faced adversity more times, in more instances, with more courage and more determination and more grace than any family should ever have to face even just once.
“He’s helped millions and millions of people, in so many ways, at so many different times, from countless big pieces of legislation in Washington to the most personal of issues.
“Now, everybody needs to pull together on behalf of Ted. We must pull for him and his family and remember that Teddy is one unbelievable fighter.
“Over the weekend, I saw him and he’s in a fighting mood, and I’m confident that he will continue to draw strength from his tower of strength in Vicki, from each of his children and grandchildren, and from his unbelievably loving and caring family, both in Boston and from his extended family of Americans and people all over the world.
“I know that Ted is determined to fight this because he wants to continue his fight for the people of Massachusetts and he wants to continue to fight for everything that he believes in here in the United States Senate and throughout our country.
“Teresa’s and my prayers – and the prayers of a nation – are with my good friend and his family in these most trying of times.”
The New York Times has an excellent blog called Dot Earth that is dedicated to discussing issues related to the environment, energy policy, endangered species and habitats, and global warming. The blog, written by Andrew C. Revkin, reported on the decision yesterday by the Interior Department, under Secretary Dick Kempthorne, to place the polar bears on this list of threatened species:
Three years after environmental groups sued to force the Interior Department to consider protecting polar bears under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration today listed the species as threatened — on track to be endangered by midcentury because of shrinking summer sea ice in a warming Arctic.
But the administration shaped its decision in a way that does not force restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, even though scientists have said the building greenhouse effect is the main influence driving up global temperatures. Administration officials added that existing protections of the bear, under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, were stringent and sufficient. And they also made clear that oil and gas exploration and extraction showed no evidence of harming the bears and would not be hindered by the decision.
Senator Kerry has been a long-time advocate in the Senate on this issue . He advocated for adding the polar bears to the list of threatened species, wrote a letter that was signed by ten other US Senators to delay a 30 million-acre oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, and wrote to Secretary Kempthorne to urge action to add the polar bears to the list of threatened species before the deadline for doing so expired.
Today’s announcement was one big step towards confronting the reality of what climate change is doing to some of the world’s most endangered creatures living in some of our most fragile ecosystems. The polar bear has become the mascot of all we could lose to climate change and it is critical that we fight to save this species even as we wage a larger battle against global warming. Between one-sixth and one-fifth of the world’s polar bears live on the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Last summer, government scientists predicted that, as a result of climate change, polar bears may disappear from the U.S. and its waters entirely by 2050 – and that estimate doesn’t even take into account potential effects from new oil and gas activities.
So the question is – where do we go next? The clock is ticking. The next step is to secure the long-term survival of the species by ensuring that the polar bear habitat in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas is protected from the threat of oil and gas drilling. Here’s where the rubber hits the road: even while the Interior Department was slowly taking steps to give these bears ESA protection, the Bush Administration opened almost 30 million acres of polar bear habitat to oil and gas exploration, a move that by their own admission threaten polar bears. Again, don’t take my word for it: MMS itself acknowledged in its Final Environmental Impact Statement on Lease Sale 193 that oil and gas development will harass and ultimately even kill polar bears. Already, massive amounts of seismic activity are being planned for this summer in both the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.
Yes, today was a victory – but it’s up to all of us and some good old fashioned activism to make sure it’s not a pyrrhic one. I will fight hard to pass legislation I introduced early earlier this year in the Senate, which would halt all exploration activity in the Beaufort and Chukcki Seas at least until we better understand the full impact of drilling on the polar bear and other imperiled species.
American families are struggling in the Bush economy. Many American workers are finding it harder and harder to get the family budget to stretch far enough to cover monthly costs in housing, student loans, food and energy prices. Energy costs, especially the price of a tank of gasoline, is difficult for working families to budget around. The soaring price of gas is squeezing up the price of nearly everything else.
The Republicans are trotting out their old standby that somehow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will magically ease the energy problems America is facing. An amendment to open ANWR to drilling is once again on the floor of the US Senate. Recently USA Today wrote about the claims by the Bush Administrators that if ANWR had been opened to drilling in 2002 that the price of oil would somehow be far less today.
“Even if oil was flowing, it would be too small amount to reduce the price” of crude or gasoline, said Daniel Weiss, energy expert at the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington.
“President Bush’s claim ignores the primary causes behind record high oil prices: a cheap dollar, high demand from China and India, and speculators driving the price up. Drilling and sullying the Arctic would not address any of these causes of high oil prices,” said Weiss.
Pretending that ANWR is some sort of magical solution to high gas prices is misleading at best. America needs a consistent and practical energy policy that invests in real and sustainable solutions. Sen. Kerry wrote about the ANWR debate in 2005 and his answer is as relevant to today’s debate as it was when ANWR came up for a vote then.
This fight is as critical as it is symbolic. Roads, pipelines, and other developments would irreversibly damage this national treasure. President Bush and pro-drilling forces cite special-interest junk science to argue that they can limit the damage by drilling in only 2,000 acres. But oil is scattered throughout the refuge, so drilling in 2,000 acres could mean 40 separate 50-acre footprints. Even they know the line they’re selling is bunk.
We can counter this by telling the truth about our energy future. We import 2.5 million barrels of oil from the politically toxic Middle East every day, and our consumption of foreign oil has risen to 55 percent. I don’t want fragile and often unfriendly regimes to hold America’s energy security in their hands, but we need to remind a country weary of conflict in the Middle East that drilling in the Arctic won’t make a dent in our oil dependence. The U.S. Geological Survey has concluded that there are only 3.2 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil in ANWR. That amounts to just a six-month supply for the U.S. Irreversibly damaging a truly wild place is an unacceptable price to pay for such a small payoff.
We can’t drill our way to energy independence. We have to invent our way there, by harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit that made our country great. We can conserve energy and make our cars run farther on a gallon of gas. We can increase our investment in clean-energy products and create hundreds of thousands of jobs along the way. What we can’t do is buy into the myth that America’s energy future lies under the snow of ANWR.
UPDATE: The US Senate voted NOT to pass an amendment put up by Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow drilling in ANWR. The May 13, 2008 vote against the amendment was 42-56.
Teresa Heinz Kerry posted a special Mother's Day message this morning as a Daily Kos diary that included this YouTube video. The DKos diary comments thread that follows is rich and evocative, and she encourages all of us to participate and contribute our ideas, as noted in this transcript of her video message there:
Hello, I am Teresa Heinz, I’m married to John Kerry, and I want to wish you a very happy Mothers Day.
I want to share with you a concern and a hope which I share with my husband John Kerry, which is the economic wellbeing of women and their retirement. It’s not a sexy issue, when you think of it, but it is a very basic issue.
Now, there are a lot of statistics about women in quote the Golden Years. Having two-thirds of the face of poverty, be a poverty of women in the Golden Years. They’re not so Golden!
Women, because they are caregivers, have babies, take care of sick parents, etc., have a cumulative loss of about $650,000 in their lifetimes. Young people have an awful lot of expenses. And no one ever talks to them or emphasizes the value of savings.
Now we’re focusing a lot also on young women, and young men for that matter, anybody, this works for anybody, to make them understand the value of savings, and that if you save $10 a month, or $20 a month, or whatever it is you can save, it really matters. Compound interest does work.
And savings aren’t there, so you have all these people living just on Social Security, it’s not enough, $11,000, $12,000, that’s crazy. And then you hear about people eating catfood.
So the campaign really showed me that what we were dealing with was life in America as it is today for the reasons that it is. And so what you and I have to do, is to figure out, send me at teresa@heinzoffice.org., send me any ideas or any questions that you have that you think might be valuable to share with others, to put in our e-book.
I invite you to think of your contribution to Mothers Day as truly thoughtful, beyond the pretty, which unfortunately like everything else, gets very commercialized. But think about this, share maybe the little booklet or the e-book with your mother or with your sisters, with your co-workers, with your women workers, with your daughters.
Being thoughtful.
Preparing.
I mean that’s what women do best so I think we have to help them do that well.
Now we have Mothers Day coming up on Sunday. I might see my husband for part of the day because he’s got to campaign, he’s up for re-election in Massachusetts. What is it that I would like to be able to have and to have other women have which is, calmness, a feeling of security, that they’re not going to have to eat catfood, that they’re going to be able to take preventative medicine for heart disease.
Just normal life quality, humanity, that’s all we want.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this chat, and I’ll be back to talk about other issues that affect women primarily.
This guest blog is from Karen van Hoek about the book signing event Senator Kerry did in New York city on Monday, April 21st, 2008. The wonderful pictures in this post are from Bethanne Frazer.
The first impressive thing about the John Kerry book signing event in New York City this evening was simply that the Senator was able to get down here in time, after the day he had had: He fired a starting pistol at the Boston Marathon, presented a Purple Heart medal to a veteran in a ceremony at Fenway Park, and made blog posts on the issue of net neutrality, among other things. The second impressive thing was that he was so energetic, engaging and passionate about his subject matter, despite the fact that he’s talked about it at many such events before. It was very clear that the book and his efforts to address these issues are, as he put it, “a labor of love. “
The audience of nearly 300 greeted Senator Kerry with a standing ovation and calls of “You should have been president!” The announcement that Teresa couldn’t make it elicited a loud collective sigh of disappointment (to which the Senator feigned hurt feelings and turned as if to leave, grinning all the while). Senator Kerry spoke for nearly 40 minutes, recounting stories from the book, emphasizing their common theme: though good governmental policy is essential to solving the environmental crises we’re facing, the solutions don’t originate with politicians – they come from regular people who take action and demand that the government and the legal system do what’s right. The message was one of hope, not doom and gloom – as he put it, “This is a hopeful book,” not the kind of book that makes you say, “Oh my god, I’ve got to go home and down that bottle of wine I bought the other day.”
On the most urgent issue, global warming, Senator Kerry presented some sobering statistics, followed by an assurance that we can, if we choose to take action, make a significant difference. Scientists now tell us that the earth can tolerate only about 450 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere. We’re currently at 370 parts per million – about 100 of that having been added since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. If our current and projected patterns of energy consumption don’t change, we’ll hit over 700 parts per million within 50 years.
The Senator stressed the point that we’re not at all helpless: We can have a significant impact on consumption simply by taking advantage of technology that is available right now to improve energy efficiency and make use of alternative energy sources. He gave the example of a Texas Instruments plant that underwent a complete re-design, becoming so energy efficient – and thus economically competitive—that the company canceled its plan to move the plant to China to save money. He talked about how Europe is far ahead of the U.S. in setting up public buildings to save energy. In Europe, “you come out of your hotel room and it’s dark in the hall, and you shut the door and the lights come on. As you walk down the hall, the lights are going on in front of you and going off behind you. You get to the escalator and you think, Oh my god, I’ve got to call the management, it’s broken. You get near it and it starts. You get off it, and if no one else is coming, it stops.” Here in New York, he pointed out, the lights stay on and the escalators keep running non-stop. The fact that the technologies already exist to do things more efficiently, he said, should make us ask why we aren’t already doing these things. “It’s not that hard. We can do this. The McKinsey Institute has done a study that shows that we can get 40% to 70% of all the greenhouse gas emissions that we need just through energy efficiency… If we had a government that was responsible, we would be putting major tax incentives in place…and creating a marketplace where the market takes over and solves these problems.”
The message was clear: we can solve these problems if we choose to, and if we demand that the government take action to set rational policy. “The bottom line that we want to convey is that it’s really up to us,” he said with a clear note of urgency. “There are solutions to every one of these problems. You name it, we can do it. But we have to create the political movement to make it happen.”
After the talk, Q&A had to be skipped so that Senator Kerry would have enough time to sign books before hurrying back to Washington to prepare for a meeting early the next day. He didn’t mention what the meeting was about, but in light of this post, one may wonder whether it had to do with the upcoming battle over net neutrality. Despite the time pressure, the Senator was friendly and gracious to all the people who came up to him, and stayed til the last book was signed. All in all, the Senator’s presentation was upbeat and inspiring, and it was clear from the response of the crowd that his message was well received.
One of my oldest friends in the progressive movement always had a saying to describe how he took stock of people: he said it wasn't whether you were liberal or conservative, it's whether you were a "stand-up person." He meant that it mattered what you did when the chips were down, the positions you took not when it was easy, but when it was really hard.
Now, a true stand-up guy -- my colleague Senator Frank Lautenberg -- is facing a primary challenge for re-election. Let me tell you -- I'll do everything in my power to help re-elect Frank Lautenberg because he's a true progressive who has been with us when the chips were down.
Frank Lautenberg always shows up for the fight and he speaks his mind. In 2004, when a lot of people were having a hard time separating fact from fiction about the military service of politicians, Frank stood on the floor of the Senate and said, "We know who the chicken hawks are. They talk tough on national defense and military issues and cast aspersions on others. When it was their turn to serve where were they? AWOL, that's where they were."
Well, when it's been Frank's turn to show up and fight, he's always been there -- and I mean he's been there in difficult times. Back in June of 2006, it seemed like no one wanted to come within a mile of legislation Russ Feingold and I introduced to set a deadline to bring our combat troops home from Iraq. Only eleven brave Democrats stood with us and voted for an end to the Bush Iraq policy.
Frank Lautenberg was one of them.
It's not the only time. When I led that filibuster against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Frank signed on -- and spoke out on the Senate floor.
When Ted Kennedy and I filibustered Judge Alito's nomination for the Supreme Court, Frank didn't take a pass just because Alito was from New Jersey -- he stood up to that pressure to stick with a home state nominee -- and he did what was right -- filibustering Alito.
Frank Lautenberg is, in short, one of the very best progressive Senators we have. And he needs our help. Frank is locked in a primary battle and he's fighting his heart out -- fighting the only way he knows how.
Born in Paterson, NJ to parents who immigrated through Ellis Island, Frank has had to fight every step of the way -- working nights and weekends in high school to help his family make ends meet, serving our country in World War II, building a business, and coming to the Senate to be a voice for people, not the big powerful interests that already have plenty of "representation."
The Senate needs progressive warriors like Frank Lautenberg. People who show up when it counts and fight 'til the bell rings.
So please do what you can to keep him in the Senate:
If we work hard, we can build a real working progressive majority in the Senate for 2009. But we need to keep our great progressive Senators in there in order to bring the real change we need to our country.
Over a week ago, the New York Times published a major investigative article detailing a secret Pentagon program the Times said was designed to recruit and cultivate the "military analysts" you see on the major news networks in an attempt to create coverage favorable to the Bush Administration’s policy in Iraq.
The Times described an extensive program, with dozens of television analysts involved, some of whom had extensive business ties to the Defense Department -- in fact they called it "an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks."
Since that story ran, there's been a virtual news blackout, and we haven't gotten any closer to finding out the real story.
You can change that. I sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting an investigation, and I'd like you to show your support by virtually “co-signing” the letter with me. Only with an overwhelming display of grassroots energy can we put this story in the spotlight and press for answers.
The Pentagon quickly issued a statement that they’ve ended the program, but I still believe that we need to have a complete accounting of exactly what was happening, who was involved, and what it accomplished. I don’t think that’s too much to ask -- do you?
If you believe, as I do, that we as citizens have a right to know the real story, please co-sign the letter demanding answers:
We know the life-or-death consequences of policy decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and we know that these policies should be debated and defended without secret programs designed to tailor the news for the Administration's goals. This is too important to brush aside.
We must demand answers.
Thank you,
John Kerry
P.S. -- If you'd like to read the original New York Times article for more information on the Pentagon pundits program, click here.
Slowly but surely, Republican presidential candidate John McCain is putting some distance between himself and unpopular President Bush.
This week it was the ill-timed “Mission Accomplished” banner that the White House hung behind Bush five years ago when Bush declared major combat operations over in Iraq.
“I thought it was wrong at the time,” McCain said in Cleveland Thursday.
Hmmm … here’s John McCain just a short month after that Mission Accomplished Day:
Senator Kerry sent this message to the Massachusetts members of the johnkerry.com community this morning, and we wanted to post it here as well for the benefit of those readers both inside and outside the state who aren't currently subscribed to receive his emails. Team Hoyt is an outstanding effort, and we're glad to help spread the word about this extraordinary father-and-son team.
I'm going to ask you to do something in this email that's really important to me because I care about an incredible young man and his father and what they're trying to achieve.
This isn't another political appeal -- though campaigns are as important as ever -- but it's an appeal that's much more simply from the heart. Please keep reading.
Yesterday I was very fortunate to be able to fire the starting gun for the wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon. The competitive fire and strength of these amazing athletes is just incredible.
I don't do this all that often -- but there's one particular athletic team I saw yesterday that I want to mention and ask you to help today. Dick Hoyt and his son Rick form Team Hoyt, a team that has competed in marathons and triathlons around the world. Rick is in a wheelchair without use of his arms, and Dick pushes him through the course.
Rick was born in 1961 with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, and ever since, Rick and his family have pushed the boundaries on what people thought possible. From pushing for Rick to be able to attend public schools to building a special computer to show people that Rick can communicate and think just as well as any other young person, Team Hoyt has worked hard on the front-lines of the battle to tear down the roadblocks faced by people with disabilities.
They began to compete athletically when Rick wanted to run in a charity event in the late 70s, and they began running the Boston Marathon in 1981. Since then, they've competed across the world, raising awareness about human potential and raising money for charities that work with people with disabilities.
As Rick puts it: "The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life."
They've formed the Hoyt Foundation with the goal of integrating people with disabilities into everyday life. This is a fantastic charity, and the Hoyts are absolutely inspiring. If you can, please give to the Hoyt Foundation by clicking here:
The wheelchair division of the marathon is testament to the success of people like the Hoyts in expanding opportunities across our society, but we still need to do more. I hope you will do what you can to help this amazing team and their important work.
I understand you all are pretty interested in a vote happening in Pennsylvania tomorrow. Not surprisingly, I'm focused on that, too -- I spent Saturday in Pennsylvania for Barack -- but there's a very important event happening tomorrow which we can't afford to have lost in the shuffle.
The Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on the future of the Internet, and a big part of that equation is net neutrality. I know net neutrality is important to a lot of you here, but Senators haven't heard from you in a while on the issue, and I want to make sure we keep this front and center -- it's that important.
Last Friday, I did a liveblog at Firedoglake, and I talked about how some of the big network providers have run into some problems trying to manage traffic using their own rules. The one you've probably heard the most about is the dispute over Comcast and BitTorrent, but this is hardly the only incident to occur since we last took a look at this issue in the Senate.
These actions by the big providers are a cautionary tale. We can't allow companies to pick and choose what companies they allow to access their networks, and we certainly can't depend on overwhelming political pressure on every decision to keep the networks open. This is not good for the future of the Internet and, frankly, it's not good for anyone who uses it either.
I realize there’s a certain primary in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that a lot of people are thinking about -- myself included (in fact, I’ll be on the ground there again tomorrow) -- but one of the things I think those of us in the Senate need to do is try to keep some focus on another big event that day which we can’t afford to get lost in the shuffle because it affects net neutrality.
The Senate Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on Tuesday to look at the future of the Internet, and a big part of that equation is net neutrality.
Obviously -- and I know you don’t need to hear it from me -- we need to keep up the pressure on this issue. The uncertainty isn’t helpful, and we have to set the rules of the road and protect the innovative world of a free and open Internet.
Americans everywhere are feeling the squeeze of rising energy prices, from the low-income family that endured a tough winter without heat to the truck driver who takes a blow to the wallet at every stop along the highway. Farmers are watching profits dwindle, and consumers are seeing food prices climb week after week.
In the campaign to take America from oil dependence to renewable energy, John Kerry has been an innovator. He charted a clear course forward by proposing his “three bold new ideas” for energy independence. He stressed that the government has to be proactive in urging American businesses to build more cars that can run on ethanol, and to sell ethanol fuel at more gas stations around the country. He proposed tax credits to pioneering automakers and a boost in federal funding for energy research. And with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, Senator Kerry wrote and published This Moment on Earth, a book that shed light on the ingenuity of everyday Americans as they work to solve local environmental challenges.
But John Kerry has also been a man of action. Last month he secured $1.5 million for M.I.T. to develop cost-effective solar energy technology. Just this week, he brought half a million dollars to Boston to fund the installation of solar panels on city buildings and schools. These victories are just the latest part of the Senator’s consistent record of environmental advocacy in Congress. That’s why the League of Conservation Voters awarded Senator Kerry one of the highest scores in the Senate on its 2007 National Environmental Scorecard.
This entry is cross-posted by kind permission from the good folks at www.KerryVision.net, an independent text & multimedia blog created by some of the Senator’s most loyal long-term supporters within the johnkerry.com community. One of the best ways to keep up with Senator Kerry’s daily doings is to stop by the KerryVision website, especially on Monday mornings when they post a video newsreel of his activities from the previous week.
Last Saturday, the city of Newburyport held its Third Annual Three Towns and Two Cities Breakfast with the participating Democratic committees of Amesbury, Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury and West Newbury. I had planned on attending the event and while I was there, gather signatures for Senator Kerry.
In terms of the economy, these are uncertain times for just about everybody. Hardworking Americans everywhere are feeling the pinch of the mortgage crisis and rising prices. Small businesses are facing a frightening climate of volatile markets and tight credit. The government has a responsibility to protect citizens from insecurity – but in order to do that, the government has to know where the problems are, and how to fix them.
As we’ve seen before, the President isn’t in the loop when it comes to the everyday struggles of the American people. The same man who was surprised to learn the price of gas is running an administration that thinks it can solve local issues without the input of local authorities.
We’re seeing it play out right now in Gloucester, Mass., where Washington’s fishery policies are gutting local industry and pushing fishermen out of work. After the Bush administration rebuffed Governor Patrick’s attempt to secure emergency funds, Senators Kerry and Kennedy won a $13.4 million line item in the federal budget to bolster the state’s fishermen.
While John Kerry’s been busy working for the people of Massachusetts, the MA GOP seems to have whiled away the hours attending Karl Rove seminars and cozying up to the usual pack of attack chihuahuas in the Republican Party in DC. Unfortunately, they didn’t spend that time actually doing any research about John Kerry’s record. Or they’re just lying now. Hard to tell.
I won’t link to it, but the National Republican Senatorial Campaign committee (NRSC) has decided that this YouTube thing may actually have a future (maybe George Allen told them) and decided to “get down with the kids” and put up an attack video on John Kerry with some lame pop culture references. Of course, it wouldn’t be a GOP attack without the standard mix of painfully transparent attempts to be “cool” and a pack of basic untruths. The fun thing about this one: it’s all one big lie!
The point (to save you having to Google it) is that they claim John Kerry hasn’t passed any legislation in 9 years. Of course, the discriminating viewer would probably think, “Well, most of that time was with a GOP Congress and a GOP President, so the opportunities would be limited for a Democratic Senator.” Problem is, the discriminating viewer would be giving the GOP too much credit by believing their central premise. It’s just not true at all. Kerry was recently named the “12th Most Powerful Senator” by Knowlegis because of his record as an effective advocate for Massachusetts. But, when your party has put the economy in the tank, driven gas prices toward $4 a gallon, and has a nominee that’s calling for 100 more years in Iraq … what’s a Republican to do?
VA Secretary says registering voters in VA facilities is a “partisan” distraction.
Senators John Kerry and Dianne Feinstein wrote to the VA last year and again earlier this year to ask that the VA enable voter registration for injured veterans at their facilities. The VA claims that registering voters would “divert substantial resources from our primary mission.”
The VA said no. They don’t want to do this and called the effort “partisan.” Instead of trying to figure out ways to help register this very special group of citizens to vote, they decided that they didn’t want to get involved in “partisan” activities, like voter registration, and decided to throw up some bureaucratic roadblocks to this common sense request instead.
Senator Kerry reacted to the news that the VA had turned down the request to aid in registering veterans in no uncertain terms:
“You’d think that when so many people give speeches about keeping faith with our veterans, the least the government would do is protect their right to vote, after they volunteered to go thousands of miles from home to fight and give that right to others. And yet we’ve seen the government itself block veterans from registering to vote in VA facilities, without any legal basis or rational explanation. I will keep fighting with Senator Feinstein to ensure that veterans aren’t facing unnecessary hurdles just to exercise their voting rights.”
The Lowell Sun newspaper is running a four-part series this week on the many difficulties that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are encountering upon coming back home after their service. The April 6th article in that series, which ran this past Sunday, was a wrenching account of a soldier who was wounded while on duty in Iraq with the US Marines.
Chuck Millard, a rifleman to the Third Battalion, Second Marines, Kilo Co, suffered a back injury while on a night mission with the Marines in Iraq. He didn’t report the injury right away because he thought he could tough it out. Later tests revealed that he had injured his back and would require a series of surgeries in order to relieve some of the pain and damage in that area.
The Lowell Sun article told how the injured Marine tried to get a disability ruling from a Physical Evaluation Board:
Last fall, a Physical Evaluation Board found Millard “unfit” for service. He leaves this month with a single severance check. It’s a far cry from the monthly payments and lifetime health care of full medical disability.
Medical records say he qualifies for a medical disability retirement. But Millard has been rebuffed twice by Naval boards, without explanation. Millard says he is owed more, based on the military’s own injury ratings system.
Fearful of losing what he’d already been promised, Millard gave up on a third, “formal” hearing in Washington D.C., on March 20. He would have been represented by a Naval Judge Advocate General (JAG) lawyer to plead his case before three high-ranking officers.
A war in Iraq was enough. Why fight one in Washington, too?
Yesterday, Senator Kerry appeared on Fox News Sunday where he was interviewed by host Chris Wallace. Much of the questioning revolved around the inconsistent views that Senator John McCain has been making about the long term prospects of American troops in Iraq. Senator Kerry pointed out that John McCain had said one thing in August of 2007 on the Charlie Rose Show, a nationally syndicated PBS TV interview show, and another thing on that same show in November of 2007.
Chris Wallace questioned Senator Kerry about his views on comments that Senator McCain had made about staying in Iraq for 100 years. Wallace contended that the comments were meant in support of a position that would leave troops in Iraq in non-combat roles and would be similar to the US presence for several decades in places like Japan, Germany and South Korea. Yet, as Senator Kerry pointed out, John McCain has been very inconsistent in his views on that. In the first interview with Charlie Rose in August, 2007, McCain had argued in favor of the presence on US troops in Iraq in a Korea model.
Chris Wallace disagreed yesterday with Senator Kerry and tried to establish that Senator McCain had been consistent in his view that Iraq could be stabilized and a US force could be there for an indefinite period of time. Senator Kerry asked that Wallace review the transcript and see that Senator McCain had changed his mind on Iraq, bouncing from a pro Korea model to a view against it and now back to a pro-Korea model.
He arrived at the location to find a large crowd of African-American residents who were in an upbeat mood, anticipating the excitement of a Kennedy campaign appearance. Kennedy realized they had not yet heard of the death of Martin Luther King. In one of the more extraordinary moments in American political history, Robert F. Kennedy broke the news to them in an extemporaneous, unscripted speech of the kind that few politicians can ever hope to emulate. This is the text of his remarks that day; full audio of the speech, with its rhetorical rhythms and the reactions of the audience in the hall, is available here as well.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some -- some very sad news for all of you -- Could you lower those signs, please? -- I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee met Wednesday afternoon to hear testimony from three expert witnesses on the current political state of Iraq. The Committee members sought to answer some questions about the status of the reconciliation process and about the the causes of the recent flair-up of the violence in Basra and Baghdad. An archived webcast of this hearing is available at the SFRC website.
The testimony was very upsetting. Iraq has a central government in name only. Most of Iraq is “governed” from the bottom-up by warlords who are in charge of their own mini-regions in various parts of the country. It was these warlords who are responsible for handling government functions in their mini-states. The United States is currently sending out payments to a number of these local rulers to ensure peace in their regions.
This leads to a very precarious and fragile peace. The various clans involved are interested in preserving their own power in their region, not in joining together to form an overall security strategy for the nation of Iraq. The government of Nouri Al-Maliki is really one large faction and is only a regional player; the Iraqi Security Forces are only nominally a national force.
The first impressive thing about the John Kerry book signing event in New York City this evening was simply that the Senator was able to get down here in time, after the day he had had: He fired a starting pistol at the Boston Marathon, 
The audience of nearly 300 greeted Senator Kerry with a standing ovation and calls of “You should have been president!” The announcement that Teresa couldn’t make it elicited a loud collective sigh of disappointment (to which the Senator feigned hurt feelings and turned as if to leave, grinning all the while). Senator Kerry spoke for nearly 40 minutes, recounting stories from the book, emphasizing their common theme: though good governmental policy is essential to solving the environmental crises we’re facing, the solutions don’t originate with politicians – they come from regular people who take action and demand that the government and the legal system do what’s right. The message was one of hope, not doom and gloom – as he put it, “This is a hopeful book,” not the kind of book that makes you say, “Oh my god, I’ve got to go home and down that bottle of wine I bought the other day.”
The Senator stressed the point that we’re not at all helpless: We can have a significant impact on consumption simply by taking advantage of technology that is available right now to improve energy efficiency and make use of alternative energy sources. He gave the example of a Texas Instruments plant that underwent a complete re-design, becoming so energy efficient – and thus economically competitive—that the company canceled its plan to move the plant to China to save money. He talked about how Europe is far ahead of the U.S. in setting up public buildings to save energy. In Europe, “you come out of your hotel room and it’s dark in the hall, and you shut the door and the lights come on. As you walk down the hall, the lights are going on in front of you and going off behind you. You get to the escalator and you think, Oh my god, I’ve got to call the management, it’s broken. You get near it and it starts. You get off it, and if no one else is coming, it stops.” Here in New York, he pointed out, the lights stay on and the escalators keep running non-stop. The fact that the technologies already exist to do things more efficiently, he said, should make us ask why we aren’t already doing these things. “It’s not that hard. We can do this. The McKinsey Institute has done a study that shows that we can get 40% to 70% of all the greenhouse gas emissions that we need just through energy efficiency… If we had a government that was responsible, we would be putting major tax incentives in place…and creating a marketplace where the market takes over and solves these problems.”
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