Finally, a voice I like to hear!

I heard that citizen George W. Bush will be touring here and there giving private speeches to selected groups of business people. First trip: Canada, and 10 trips in a row, and making mucho amount of money! Are those people nuts? or do they want to learn how to destroy their businesses, the way he destroyed our country? Yuk! just thinking of the sound of this voice make me sick!

This evening, our new President Barack Obama gave his first Address to congress. I was glued to my chair. Finally, a voice I like to hear and a President I respect and trust to do the best he can for our country! A friend of mine said that he will be a failed president - although he likes Obama- and when I hear such prediction within such short time since the inauguration, it makes me angry that some people have such negative attitude and yet nothing to back it.
Obama's speech was strong, positive and encouraging, and this is what our country needed to hear. He did not tell us anything we did not know about our economy and that it will take sacrifices from all of us until things get better. But he also followed on his promises during his campaign, from energy efficiency, health care and education reforms, ending the war on Iraq and eliminating Bush's tax-cuts.
Obama does not have a magic wand but without unity between both parties, his task won't be easy. Just watching the floor of the chamber, unity was missing although I was surprised to see McCain applaud on the subject of ending the war on Iraq. Speaking about McCain I cannot help thinking that he is a sour loser. Have you seen his face lately?

And then came the response from the republican party, delivered by Governor Bobby Jindal begging his republican friends that if the GOP lost their trust, they should NOW trust their party again! This jerk is one of the republican Governors who are rejecting help from the government although they need the money for their own people! Spending is not the answer- he said- but tax-cut is the only way to go!
Bottom line is that Republicans cannot swallow the pill of defeat and no matter what Obama says, no matter what he does or ask, the GOP (as a whole) will not work in unity with the Obama's administration. May be, sooner that later, President Obama will borrow Bush's line: My way or the highway! And I will like to hear that voice!

Banning photos is hidding the reality

When one single person owns the executive power to decide to go to war (preemptive war or not) and when by doing so, this Commander in Chief's face shows up on our television screens and makes the front pages of our national and local newspapers, banning photos of our dead coming back home in coffins is a disservice in not just honoring the sacrifices of our men and women but in bringing awareness to the heart of each of us that one man's political decision of a moment brings eternity hidden under our flag.

Just a cartoon?

As if we did not have enough of hatred and racism display during the past Presidential Elections,today the New York Post gets a star for telling us its opinion re: the stimulus bill. Responding to criticism from Al Sharpton, the editor of the paper defended the work of Sean Delonas

I do not mind caricatures, they really can be funny even if they hurt a little. But this is not a caricature that deserves to be defended neither were to be defended many others of Delonas's works. The New York Post's editor needs to apologize, but do not hold your breath. A paper editor who runs one cartoon making fun of someone for having only leg, another making fun of gay people seeking marriage license, comparing them to sheep lovers is not to be expected to apologize for another outrageous display of insensitivity.

It's happening right here, in America!

During an anti-war group meeting in Philadelphia people decided to hold a fund raising for the people of Gaza who have lost everything, no place to go, no food to eat. How much a small group can raise is questionable as much activists ( the ones I work with anyway) do not have much money for themselves. But, hey! there are many ways to raise money. I find this very commendable. But I have been thinking about the poor people in Philadelphia, the children who go to school on an empty stomach, those who barely have a pair of shoes to wear and then I ask why energy cannot be spent in helping the people of our own town. I was told that over there ( in Gaza) people are dying and suffering. There is a war. What is the difference between war on hunger and military wars? don't people die just the same?

How many people in our town have to choose between paying their water bill or the gas bill and buying food for themselves and their kids? Check some stories here
And want to feel like it is to buy food with food stamps allowance and how much you can get, what kind of food you can buy? check here

So, I am just thinking. Perhaps it is easier to do good deeds for the people we do not see, the ones living far, far away and it hurts too much to help those who are just around the corner from where we live? Could a small group of well intended people do more and be more efficient in helping those they can see?
Just my thoughts for today.

Justice is the real change we need!

I have to admit that I often think of quitting fighting for justice while at the same time I am infuriated at Obama who wants to turn the page on the Bush administration's crimes. Until someone gives me hope again as it happened yesterday when a man crossing the street passing in front of my car gave me thumb-up for my sticker "impeach Bush". If there is no doubt in my mind that a great majority of us feel that justice was not rendered yet many of us are tired to fight, want to turn the page and go forward to a better future. I am ashamed for thinking - even for a short time- of quitting, but if the voices that were not heard during the Bush administration become quiet there is no REAL future and Change for America!
Impeachment still can be done , but if the word "Impeach" a (ex) President brings back a bad memory to the citizens, how about the word INDICT?
Change in the world? Let us begin at home!

Blagojevich? Who's next?

Blagojevich Has Been Removed From Office and I do not feel an ounce of pride for our justice system. In fact I want to vomit. What kind of people are we for having let Bush finish his term yet we applaud to the Impeachment of a Governor who has not taken any lives? Surely Blagojevich deserved what he got. He abused his power many times, lied and got caught.
During the Bush administration, Democrats had no guts while to day Republicans continue their politics of hypocrisy, such as Sen. Dan Duffy who said "testimony shows that his abuse of power has been going on for years and that many people in this government and in this chamber had to have known about it."
Let me hope that same Dan Duffy and his gang will agree with me that Bush deserves to be arrested for war crimes while I applaud NOT on what happened today.

Farewell, Mr. President

Mr. President,

In 2004, I wrote an open letter "Mr. President, I want to know" (the President was you.) Today, I am somewhat revising my letter, especially after you recently expressed your disappointment for not finding any WMD in Iraq, hoping that you will get it on January 20Th.

So, Mr. President, I still want to know what is a mother to say to her child when old enough to ask why did Dad go to war, why did he have to die?
What should we read on the tombs of the brave American soldiers who lost their lives? What should we tell the orphans of Iraq?
I want to know the name of the God you pray, the one who told you that you were right to attack Iraq, how you managed to smile and lied at the same time, how you could and still can sleep at night.
I want to know how many poor families, how many people without health insurance, how many of our own we could have helped with the billions we spent in Iraq.

Mr. President I was hoping that before you leave would have been humble enough to say that you are sorry, instead of pointing fingers at those who “mislead” you. If I cannot find peace for your war that I call a massacre, it would have restored in me total faith in humanity.

Mr. President, you have not been impeached although you committed crimes against our Constitution ( authorized torture, lied about it, authorized surveillance on American citizens, went to war under false pretense and more), but impeachment would not have brought back our sisters and brothers neither the innocents civilians, women and children who lost their lives in Iraq just because they happened to be there. Your legacy will be “the war
president.” You own it.
But, because I believe in Justice, I know that one day you will be made accountable.
So, just for now I say farewell.

Monique Frugier
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" ~Martin Luther King Jr.~