So, I just watched funeral procession for a kid killed in Iraq go by...

[PlanetBev]

First kid from my community, Thousand Oaks, California, to be killed in the war. His name was Anthony Melia and I think he was 21. He was killed January 27th.

People lined the streets to pay their respects, which was great, but I couldn't fight down the feeling that the ones waving American flags were the same die-hard Bush-loving 30 percent. Thousand Oaks is just south of Simi Valley, knuckle-drag capital of the world.

Anyway, I just started crying and felt like shouting out to the flag-wavers, "why don't you just drag your sorry chicken-ass to Iraq to fight if you believe in it so much?"

[stanwyck]

1. Here in Georgia, the new rightwing talking points

on our casualties in Iraq is that more people die each year in car accidents. Really. That's the hate-radio "it's war, people die" rhetoric we're hearing daily. More young men die from car wrecks, so what's the big deal? And don't assume that those waving flags and lining the streets are all Bushies. My son is a Marine on his third tour to the Mideast and my liberal friends have been there for him with letters and packages. Plus, in the mid-terms, the areas around our military bases had greatly reduced their support for the Republicans.
Apparently, supporting the troops, if you're Republican, means not showing their faces or names on Fox News, acting as if their sacrifice is no big deal, and ignoring them completely except for a yellow decal on your SUV.
Remember, they're "fighting the war over here". Which means, spending too much, swallowing whatever Bush feeds them, and calling anyone who questions this government a traitor.

[LibDemAlways]

2. There was an audible gasp in church last

week when it was announced that a local Marine, Anthony Melia, had been killed in Iraq. I translated the sentiment in the congregation as "Wait a minute. This is an affluent area. We send our kids to college, not off to the military to come home in a box." Then I read a newspaper account in which a friend of Anthony's family was quoted as saying that after graduating from T.O. High in 2005 Anthony enlisted in the marines because he wanted to help fight the "war on terror" and go after "those responsible for 9/11."

If the media had been doing its job and if the Democrats in Congress had been doing their job, Anthony and his parents might have known that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 or the "war on terror," but was instead a war of choice fought for oil, corporate greed, and American imperialism.
Perhaps Anthony would have made a different choice and would be sitting in a classroom right now or learning a trade, with his whole future ahead of him. What a horrible, horrible shame.

Bush, Cheney, all the members of the BFEE, the entire corporate media, the Democratic enablers in Congress, the ignorant knuckledraggers out there who blindly support the policies of a criminal administration - all have Anthony's blood - and the blood of all the victims of the Iraq war - on their hands.

So very sad.


And, on a personal note, good to see you around here, Bev!:hi:

[PlanetBev]

4. Likewise, LibDem

Can you believe it's been over four years since we had that DU party at Doug's house the Valley?

Hope all is well! :)

[Lerkfish]

3. I have my doubts those were the bush loving 30% you saw

I don't think they'd bother attending a funeral,

but if they were, then more power to them. Its only a good thing for them to see the cost of their vote. I wouldn't attack them for doing something responsible, honoring the fallen.