Protesting Bush in Collinsville

On Wednesday, January 5, President Bush came to Collinsville Illinois to promote his plan for Insurance Company Profits Protection, aka Patient Rights Reduction, aka medical malpractice reform.

Instead of War activists in Metro East could not bear the prospect of Bush arriving unchallenged, and overnight organized a spirited protest of about 15, wearing white ribbons to "Mourn the dead. Support the troops. Bring them home now." This IOW contingent was joined by another 15 or so enthusiastic anti-Bush demonstrators, and by about 15 pallid Bush supporters who seemed to have been summoned unwillingly into the cold rain to try to counter the presence of the protesters.

Also, on Tuesday, groups including the Center for Justice and Democracy held a powerful press conference in Collinsville, challenging Bush on his proposals. See article in the Edwardsville Intelligencer.

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Bush is a war criminal?

Why are you folks so opposed to Iraqi's being free?

Hi Andrew,
I don’t think you understand what IOW is all about, or the motivation behind this Iraq war or warfare in general. Freedom and liberty, nouns referring to the power to act, speak, or think without externally imposed restraints. In reality, No man is completely "free", as your wants and desires ie to carry a firearm, impeach on others freedoms ie feel threatened by others carrying firearms. Once any government and legislature rules are in place, your freedoms are reduced.
But, This war is not related to enabling a more free society within Iraq but to enable a regime change that favors America economic and foreign policy agenda at the cost of Iraqi lives. This is outlined by the New American Century group(http://www.newamericancentury.org/) which is the bases for foreign policy followed by Bush, Chaney, Rumsfield , wolfowits etc (loving called the chicken hawk army). This think tank group believes it is America’s god given duty and right to ‘reshape’ the world for the benefit of America elite ruling class and corporate interests. The use of America’s military to achieve this goal can and should be used according to them. They don’t hide there interest in global domination which to me shows the height of their arrogance. So my friend, don’t think this war is about giving freedom to Iraqis, as with most wars fought since WW2 its about power, control, influence, oil and money. And with bush back for 4 more years, the good ship America is set for more wars to come to feather the pocket of its elite.

Peter.

so how do you explain Clinton's war in Bosnia to free the perople from Milosovich?

"There is no way to understand what happened in Serbia and Bosnia [in the 90s] without going back to the extraordinary events on the 28th of June, 1914 when the heir apparent to the throne [Austria-Hungary], the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated.

A series of violent events followed that marked the civil war within the Balkan States becoming even more violent in the Second World War. And in turn, when the communist state of Yugoslavia unraveled in the 1990's, some cynical politicians like Milosovich tried to go right back to 1914. ... So the sequence of violent events in the 20th Century is like a fugue, with one instrument following another. And in the Serbian case, each one is worse than the one before." NPR clip

Bosnia's role in the Balkan Wars of the 1990s is rooted in the breakup of Yugoslavia following the death of Communist dictator Josip Broz Tito in 1980. Under Tito, the nationalistic movements of the three ethnic groups that comprise Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Serbs, Muslims, and Croats - had been suppressed. After Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence from the Serb-dominated Yugoslav Federation, Bosnian Croats and Muslims overwhelmingly voted in a referendum to do the same in February of 1992. Bosnian Serbs boycotted the election and declared their own independent state

Ok.. that the history.. how which people did Clinton free? Milosovich was well on his way out the door way before he dropped a bunch of bombs on bridges etc.. It was the people of bosnia that booted him, just as it was people of russia that booted communism.. Not the USA.

fools rush in.

I love revisionist historians like yourself. you just proved my point about this site and the people associated with it......bombs dropped by democrats are good but bombs dropped by republicans are bad.

"revisionist historians..", what part of my response do you dispute?. You can have your own opinions Andrew, but you can’t have your own facts. I do not and did not agree with the bombing of Bosnia, it achieved nothing in and of itself. The tide had already turned against Milosovich by this point, and most analysts concur that it was actually a very risky thing to do on the part of Bill. Why? Well, it has a tendency to increase patriotism and nationalism, where countrymen forgive horrific actions of their leaders because of fear of invasion etc. (o the irony of it all). As the new opposition party in Bosnia(currently in power) was protesting in the streets for removal of Milosovich this bombing didn’t help them one bit, but luckily the timing was such that the impact of the bombing was minimal. Check out current Bosnia reports and people who where there at the time.. DO NOT EXCEPT TRASH NEWS OR HISTORY OF EVENTS FROM THE LIKE OF FOX NEWS – ITS GARBAGE, if this is your news source then the us found WMDs in Iraq, bin laden was captured and iraq was involved in 9-11. (this is from a poll of Fox viewers last year – ask for source if you want)
I don’t put myself in either camp of Republican or Democrat, as i'm not American Andrew but another Irishman only working and paying taxes(which I’ll never see again) in America for last 5 years. Anyway, I have issues with both camps, but its true that the GOP ideology from the last 15 years has progressively gotten worse in my opinion and the democrats are lost trying to figure out if they should give chase. Its not me against you Andrew, or us against them, As you can always find a new them, enemies are easy to find or create, but friendship is gold. As much of America is now in its 4 year of hate and never ending warfare, rumblings of frustration are growing. But this tide will take a long time to turn, probably another 8 years before the blinkers are removed and the neo cons and their ilk are booted from power.

Da Celt

"revisionist historians..", what part of my response do you dispute?. You can have your own opinions Andrew, but you can’t have your own facts. I do not and did not agree with the bombing of Bosnia, it achieved nothing in and of itself. The tide had already turned against Milosovich by this point, and most analysts concur that it was actually a very risky thing to do on the part of Bill. Why? Well, it has a tendency to increase patriotism and nationalism, where countrymen forgive horrific actions of their leaders because of fear of invasion etc. (o the irony of it all). As the new opposition party in Bosnia(currently in power) was protesting in the streets for removal of Milosovich this bombing didn’t help them one bit, but luckily the timing was such that the impact of the bombing was minimal. Check out current Bosnia reports and people who where there at the time.. DO NOT EXCEPT TRASH NEWS OR HISTORY OF EVENTS FROM THE LIKE OF FOX NEWS – ITS GARBAGE, if this is your news source then the us found WMDs in Iraq, bin laden was captured and iraq was involved in 9-11. (this is from a poll of Fox viewers last year – ask for source if you want)
I don’t put myself in either camp of Republican or Democrat, as i'm not American Andrew but another Irishman only working and paying taxes(which I’ll never see again) in America for last 5 years. Anyway, I have issues with both camps, but its true that the GOP ideology from the last 15 years has progressively gotten worse in my opinion and the democrats are lost trying to figure out if they should give chase. Its not me against you Andrew, or us against them, As you can always find a new them, enemies are easy to find or create, but friendship is gold. As much of America is now in its 4 year of hate and never ending warfare, rumblings of frustration are growing. But this tide will take a long time to turn, probably another 8 years before the blinkers are removed and the neo cons and their ilk are booted from power.

Da Celt

I always find it amusing that if one is not in agreement with the progressive or "enlightened" anti-war group they must be FOX NEWS WATCHERS. I actually enjoyed your post and admire your candor. We all know that finding WMD was not the sole reason for going to war in Iraq. It was one reason among many and I fault Bush for placing way too much emphasis on this particular reason. An intellectually honest person looking objectively at the situation (and putting aside partisanship) should conclude that Iraq had no chance of freedom or democracy under Saddam (and eventually Uday.Kusay). Twelve years passed and 17 UN resolutions were ignored and the world believed Saddam had WMD. No one doubts he used WMD in the past, had the capability and desire to inflict harm on his own population, his Arab neighbors, and most of all Israel. In a POST 9-11 environment Bush did the prudent thing. You all accuse Bush of not acting aggressively PRIOR to 9-11 and then bash him for his actions POST 9-11. Can you imagine your reaction if, shortly after Bush was inaugurated in 2001 he launched a full scale military offensive on Afghanistan? Why you would be screaming for his immediate impeachment.

PS- I find it amusing that folks are going to protest Bush's inauguration because it is going to cist $40 million. Clinton spent somewhere between $26 million and $41.5 million depending on which source you read. Gov. Holden spent $1 million on his bash. Where was the outrage then???????