Still Fighting

Activism

Read the Constitution. So when was the last time you actually read it? I know; it was written by dead white guys, and later amended by other white guys, some now dead, who eventually let some non-white non-guys have a say too. I know it lacks the gripping drama of a John Grisham novel or, really, any other kind of novel. And that most of us would sooner read the entire nutritional information block on a box of Cocoa Puffs than pay attention long enough to read all the way from Article I to Amendment XXVII. But the Constitution defines the battleground on which many of our legal and political skirmishes take place. It's customary to counter an opponent's argument with the fact that it's unconstitutional ... but when was the last time you checked? Brush up on the lay of the constitutional land, and next time you whip out that offhand retort you'll be able to back it up with why.

News

Attacks Put New Pressure on Bush. It's a bit like a tide, isn't it? Every two years, politicians become a lot more interested in how they look compared to other politicians, specifically whichever ones end up running against them. Seems like these days it's every week that more of our troops fighting Bush's war struggle war end up killed or maimed. Republicans, notorious for closing ranks on pretty much every issue from taxes to Terry Schiavo, are being gently tugged out of formation by the looming start of the next election cycle. Bad numbers in Iraq equals unhappy constituents and, quite possibly, also equals Senators and Congressmen preparing transition documentation for their replacements. Senators and Congressmen tend not to care for that very much, and some of them are eyeing polls that show Bush's numbers continuing to sink in the wake of ongoing bad news from Iraq. We all know Dubya doesn't pay attention to polls, but he might want to start paying attention to how they're affecting his foot soldiers in the crusade struggle for conservative American sovreignty victory.

NY Police Sued Over Bag Search Policy. In a shocking turn of events, the New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge to the random search of NY subway travellers' bags. Calling the program unconstitutional, the NYCLU filed suit against the city's Police Department yesterday, saying searches that are not based on cause for suspicion don't really help solve the problem. Other critics of the program are with the NYCLU on that one, but their solution is just a bit different: They want police to start using racial profiling, emphasizing searches of young men of Middle Eastern or Asian descent. What these people really don't seem to get, here, is that assuming suspicion based solely on someone's appearance is, well, unconstitutional. There's a little hurdle they need get past first, called probable cause, and it's written right into the Constitution they say they want to protect. We know, because we looked it up; maybe they should do more of the same?

Court Nominee Advised Group on Gay Rights. This one may actually help Bush with the liberals: Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts has a bit of a skeleton in his closet. Ten years ago, Judge Roberts provided key legal advice to gay rights advocates, helping them win a landmark 1996 ruling protecting gay men and lesbians from state-sanctioned discrimination. The news comes as a surprise to many on both left and right; Roberts neglected to mention his involvement in the case when discussing his pro bono work in response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire. Conservatives have reacted extremely poorly to the news, which prompted the White House to immediately reassure them on Roberts' conservative street cred. While that's all well and good, the more important question is whether he'll interpret the law or legislate from the bench; an issue on which Bush has made his opinions quite clear.

Editorials

Ignorance Is Bliss; Sometimes it's Policy. No news is good news? Maybe on a case-by-case basis. In general, though, we like to keep up to date with what's going on in the world; take stem cell research, for example. Recent advances in technology have advanced the state of the art around the world ... except for right here in the good ol' US. American conservatives place a lot of stock in America's inherent superiority in, well, just about everything, but many don't seem to realize that once upon a time we earned whatever honor we had in claiming first place. There's a famous quote by a George W. Bush aide that those outside the GOP tent were "in what we call the reality-based community," defined as "believ[ing] that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I guess if you're impressed enough with your own divine infallibility, there just isn't any need to assess a situation before grandstanding your way into it. This bias against learning is leaving America's children behind as the rest of the world catches up and, at some point, pulls ahead.

Nothing Is Ever the President's Fault. Poor, poor President Bush. Assailed from all sides (well, mostly the left) for lots of things he just shouldn't be blamed for! After all, it isn't his fault being President is so dang hard. You have to spend so much time signing all that legislation, and then all of that having to ignore everybody who doesn't agree with you. It's no wonder Dubya spends twenty percent of his time on vacation. Much of it is spent at his "ranch." Clearing "brush." Oh, and working, because we all know that he is thinking about Iraq every single day. It's not his fault people have to do mean things like request information on his nominees, or ask him questions about stuff he doesn't want to talk about, or disagree with everything he says when, plainly, he has the right as President to enforce his opinions with legislation. There's a war going on! Why can't the Democrats just agree to do everything Bush wants? After all, if this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier ... just as long as Bush is the dictator.

Blogger Commentary

The Premature End of That Global Struggle Thingie. Don't you hate it when a PR campaign goes bad on you? Rises from the table like an animated corpse in an experiment gone horribly wrong and starts smashing up your lab? That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it does seem that Bushco is having trouble coordinating its anti-terrorism message. First it's a War, then a Struggle, then Bush evidently didn't get the memo and without much in the way of fanfare it's a War again. Because, well, it's just not as sexy being a Struggle President. And what of those who've written recently that the change from War to Struggle also "reflects the evolution in Bush's own thinking"? Well, let's just say they might want to pick a little more discreetly next time from the Sources Close to the White House pool. Or, possibly, verify a little more closely whatever info they get from someone who won't comment on the record.

John Bolton: Nobody Likes a Bully. President Bush says UN Ambassador John Bolton has his complete confidence. Of course, so do Karl Rove, central figure in many stories of "dirty pool" politics, and Rafael Palmeiro, who just recently tested positive for steroid use. Bush also has complete confidence in Donald Rumsfeld (for doing a bang-up job on the War in Iraq), his own Social Security Plan, and Intelligent Design. So forgive us if we're a little skeptical of Bolton, who's been noted for his "kiss up and kick down" management style. He's on record as saying the US is the "only real power left in the world," and directs the UN in support of its own global objectives, period. Conservatives applaud John Bolton for being a tough talker who will "get things done," but there is an art to diplomacy. It is understanding all points of view and working out solutions everybody can live with. Otherwise, you're just a bully making other people do what you want because they have no other choice. We seem to recall that's exactly what the early American colonies rebelled against.

Activism

Liberal Blog Advertising Network. Ever wanted to advertise on the web? Not sure how to do it? Why not start with the Liberal Blog Advertising Network? Especially if you want your message to reach progressives (say, you're running for office, or you're soliciting for a charity), the LBAN is a fantastic place to start. The rates are very reasonable, and your ad will reach thousands and thousands of progressives. Furthermore, all of the money goes to fund liberal blogs. Sounds like a win for everyone!

News

Iraq Bombing Kills 14 U.S. Marines and Interpreter. 14 Marines, 1 Interpreter and 1 Journalist were killed yesterday in Iraq. For those of you keeping track, that brings the total number of American deaths in Iraq to 1,821, since March 19, 2003. That number includes the 377 Americans that have not been killed in combat. And we still don't know what we're doing over there. Hell, we're still finding evidence of American torture techniques and prisoner deaths. Only now, we're using sleeping bags. Is it the fault of the military servicemen and women for being overzealous, or the fault of the administration, for demanding answers to intelligence questions "by any means necessary." We're inclined to think the latter, particularly given how much the White House is pushing to keep torture techniques alive and well (see Editorial #2).

President Makes It Clear: Phrase Is 'War on Terror'. This is news? This is what makes it to the front page of the New York Times's politics section? Sure, we talked last week that the White House wanted to change the name of the War to the "global struggle against violent extremism," and now the White House looks like a bunch of idiots. But really, is this important? With all the unanswered questions surrounding the Downing Street Memo, the WMDs and the intelligence that led to them, the insurgency and over 1,800 dead Americans in Iraq, not counting the lack of support we're giving Niger and the Sudan, and this is what the New York Times decides to lead with? Every time we think that the MSM is making steps forward, something ridiculous like this makes us realize that the MSM is still entirely too scared of the Bush administration to really criticize them. Instead, we're stuck with fluff pieces like this.

Minority Retort. Who is Harry Reid? Well, we all know that he's the minority leader of the Senate, and he's been approximately seventeen billion times as effective as Tom Daschle. But what are his stances on the issues? What drives him? Elsa Walsh of the New Yorker provides a long, but well-written piece that gives us some insight into one of the men who is going to be behind the Democratic resurgence. He's not a pushover. In fact, one of his main motivating factors is revenge. That might not be too healthy for his psyche, but it's nice to have some Democratic leadership who's not going to forget the GOP treachery of the past few years.

Editorials

Share the Facts on The War. If you'll recall, there was an important, but somewhat under-the-radar clause put into the most recent defense spending bill that required Rumsfeld to finally give some measure of status report to Congress by July 11th. Well, the report was recently delivered, a bit late, but better late then never, right? Not so fast. The report's public part is only 23 pages long - given that the government routinely issues reports totalling hundreds and hundreds of pages, how can the progress of the Iraq war be adequately described in just 23 pages? Maybe the real "meat" is in the classified part, but somehow we doubt it. Broder describes the pathetic contents of the report: "The Pentagon has not stonewalled the request, but the quality of the information it has given lawmakers and the public is disappointing." Read the article and you'll see that Broder lets Rumsfeld off quite lightly.

Who We Are. You would think that Senators John McCain, John Warner and Lindsey Graham were Democrats, speaking out against torture the way they have. But no, it's something simpler. They are Americans. Any regular Still Fighting readers know the contempt that we have for torture. The idea that we can hold our values and morals close, unless they get in the way of national security, sickens us. So we're pleasantly surprised to see three high-ranking Republican Senators demanding an end to "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment" of U.S. detainees. But, as Bob Herbert writes, what is even more shocking are the comments by one Jeff Sessions, Republican Senator from Alabama. Sessions is in favor of torture, because, after all, the detainees aren't prisoners of war. They are terrorists. McCain shot right back with, "It's not about who they are. It's about who we are." Obviously, the White House isn't pleased with these developments. Screw them. This is about what we, as Americans, hold dear; The values that we instill in our children and our culture. If removing these torture techniques makes it harder (which it doesn't by the way - we know that torture isn't effective), then so be it. If we compromise our ideals, we lose our national identity, and that would be the biggest degredation of them all.

Blogger Commentary

Lame Bob Novak. We're tired of Robert Novak. Tired of his lies. Tired of his righetous indignation. Tired of his concern for his "integrity." Tired of the fact that Judith Miller sits is a jail cell while Novak is free to write his worthless columns and appear on CNN. So is Larry Johnson, who, like us, read Novak's most recent column and got angry. Novak is not the victim here. He won't talk about his testimony. He won't talk about what he wrote. In short, Novak is a coward, and is being protected by government officials and his employers, and it makes us sick to our collective stomachs. (Additional note: Novak actually was just suspended, but not for the reason he should have been. Leave it to CNN to take the easy way out.)

At the Cross-Roves. Stirling Newberry takes a larger look at Rovegate. Why will Bush not get away with this one? Even though this commentary was written two weeks ago, Newberry outlines exactly what the Democrats have been doing right. Even the press won't cooperate with Bush on this one (well, the non-Fox News press). The new Democratic message is "Abuse of Power," which will ring true come 2006. How many examples have we seen in the last week alone? Rove, Bolton, Flory, Intelligent Design, the Energy Bill and Stem Cell Research. And that's not even mentioning atrocities like the Iraq War. Rovegate has brought Bush's lies to a place they haven't really been before: On the front page. The average American is sick of being lied to, sick of partisan politics, sick of Republicans doing what they want, and screwing the rest of the country. We're done sending messages. In 2006, we need to start to take our government back.

Activism

Tired of the Iraq war? We sure are. So are the folks at CodePink, who have launched One Millions Reasons to Stop the Iraq War. Compare the budget for the War in Iraq to the budget for Cancer research, and you'll see exactly how screwed up the priorities of the Bush agenda are. Go the the website, and give your message to Bush on why the War should end.

News

DeLay to Be on Christian Telecast on Courts. When will this madness stop? There is no war against Christianity. It's just not there. Clearly, that's what politicians on the far right have to tell their followers in order to get them fired up, but what's somewhat ironic is that the only anger that exists is what they're fostering with their heavy-handed attempts to destroy one of the tenets this country was founded upon. Of course, DeLay is the poster child for undermining democracy, but Harry Reid is right: "It is certainly not going to help the White House build support for Judge Roberts on Capitol Hill." And it shouldn't. To give you an example of how out-of-touch these people are, here was Pat Robertson's prayer: "Take control, Lord! We ask for additional vacancies on the court." Pathetic. But very, very dangerous.

Peace Corps Option for Military Recruits Sparks Concerns. And how. Three years ago, Congress authorized a new military recruitment program. Among other things, that program allowed for recruits to meet part of their military obligation by serving in the Peace Corps. There wasn't really anything made about it then, but now the Army has started openly telling recruits that they have this option; promoting it, if you will. This, understandably, has the Peace Corps a little peeved. You see, the Peace Corps has avoided any association with the military for 44 years, since its inception. Now, the Peace Corps is worried, and rightfully so. The potential for violence against Peace Corps workers will increase if this association is promoted. How telling is it that the military has to resort to what amounts to bribery to get recruits? Did Clinton have these kinds of problems? We think not. Hell, even before Bush took us into this War we didn't have these kinds of problems. Take a look.

Spy's Notes on Iraqi Aims Were Shelved, Suit Says. Remember when George Tenet got that Medal of Freedom for "His tireless efforts [that] have brought justice to America's enemies and greater security to the American people."? Well, funny thing. It turns out that in 2001, under Tenet's CIA, a field operative was told by an Iraqi informant that Iraq was shelving most of their nuclear program. This operative (who will remain nameless until Karl Rove or Robert Novak decide otherwise) then told his bosses at the CIA. The CIA patted him on the hand, said "Good job," and then filed his report away, never to be seen again. That agent was then fired in 2004 for being "contrary" to CIA's ultimate assesment on Iraq's WMDs. So, that agent is now suing the CIA. Just think; Bush's whole justification for the Iraq War could have been voided simply if Tenet's CIA we run with any conviction. Who's safer now?

Editorials

Triumph of the Machine. Krugman weights in with a column summarizing the so-called "achievements" of Bush in recent weeks. We use quotes here because, as Krugman says, "These bills don't have anything to do with governing, if governing means trying to achieve actual policy goals like energy independence or expanded trade." He runs down the litany of embarrassments, from the energy bill, to CAFTA, to the highway bill, to the failed Social Security campaign, to the ongoing disaster in Iraq. What do they all have in common? They're clear evidence of the administration's only real agenda: "consolidating one-party rule, and rewarding its friends." Quite a governing party we've got there, eh?

Republican Wilding. To continue on a theme from Krugman's article above...Robert Borsage asks the question we've wondered about for two days now: What exactly are Republicans so excited about getting done, now that Congress is in recess? Every Republican "win" has been a loss for John Q. American: Tax breaks to oil companies, legislature for one citizen and CAFTA (raising our trade deficit), just to highlight a few. How, exactly, have the ruling parties in the Executive and Legislative branches helped Americans? Borosage ends his column with what could be the next DNC slogan: "The country will continue to pay the cost of this folly until voters decide that they have had enough."

Roberts Threatens “The Life And Health Of The Mother”. Just because Congress is in recess doesn't mean we've forgotten about the pending confirmation of one Judge John Roberts. No sirree. And while the media is doing its best to just frame this is a petty, partisan, political battle, the fact remains that if Roberts is confirmed, he will affect millions and millions of people in this country with his decisions for decades. And most likely, Roe v. Wade won't be overturned in one fell swoop. Rather, it'll continue to be chipped away, bit by bit. The Partial Birth Abortion Ban of 2003 doesn't allow for the "life and health of the mother", and will likely be challenged in the Supreme Court. How's Roberts going to rule on it? We have no way of knowing for sure, but given his pedigree, we're not too optimistic.

Activism

Maneuver Warfare. Today is the special election in Ohio 2nd District for the vacated Congressional seat. Daily Kos is trying an experiment to help get Paul Hackett elected. Check out the site, and send the email. There's still plenty of time today, and your efforts could make all the difference, especially if you know someone in OH-2, or know someone who knows someone, or know someone who knows someone who knows someone...

News

Bush Appoints Bolton as U.N. Envoy, Bypassing Senate. "Abusing power" and "Undermining the credibility of the United States" are just some of the things we could say about Bush. By bypassing the Senate, Bush has thumbed his nose at the Senate. By blaming "partisan politics," Bush ignores the fact that his White House refused to give background information on Bolton to the Senate. Perhaps the most cheesed Republican in this affair is Senator Greg Voinovich (R-OH), who promised to send Bolton a copy of "The Heart and Soul of Effective Management" by James F. Hind. Where are all the conservatives who claimed that the Democrats' use of the filibuster was an "abuse of power?"

Young Democrats To Hit Streets of San Francisco. We don't get the chance to write a lot of good things about the Democratic Party, because there just isn't a whole lot to celebrate these days. But the re-emergence of the Young Democrats gives us hope. For years, YD have been seen as a bunch of preppy kids that many young liberals didn't want to be a part of. But with this week's YD national convention, changes abound. For the first time, there will be contested elections for the leadership positions. Grassroots activists are becoming more involved. Youth have traditionally been disenfranchised with the Republican party - here's hoping that YD can become a more organized and attractive group for young liberals. It's either that, or attend the League of Pissed Off Voters' national convention.

Paying for Sunday School. Taxpayers in Odessa, Texas will now have to pay for bible study in their public schools. Among the topics that will be discussed are the idea that the Constitution is based on the Scriptures and that, based on the urban legend that NASA found that "the earth stopped twice in its orbit, in support of the literal truth of the biblical text that the sun stood still in Joshua and II Kings." This is ridiculous. Unless Odessa Public Schools are prepared to offer seperate classes in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Shintoism, Buddhism, Wiccan and every other religion on the planet, the gall is simply amazing. Maybe John Roberts should be asked if he thinks this is Constitutional.

Editorials

Rhett Butler Appoints Flavor Flav. The news was above, but the important commentary's right here. Why is Bush's recess appointment of Bolton so idiotic? Well, TCR explains: "Bush has violated the spirit of the president's right to make a recess appointment---and in doing so, he's shown partisanship, cynicism and cowardice." Sounds about right to us. Let's keep in mind that there's a decent Republican majority in the Senate, who haven't shown much reluctance to defy their dear leader, but even they seem unwilling to put their necks on the line for this tool Bolton. What does that say about Bolton's qualifications? TCR suspects that Bush's agenda is even more sinister than just "reforming" the U.N., which is why he's willing to go so far to get Bolton in office.

Gotta Get A Subscription. We at Still Fighting hate to sound like conspiracy theorists, because we're really interested in more practical matters than flights of fancy. But sometimes, because the Administration has proven that it really has no depths to which it won't sink, the most absurd scenarios seem plausible. In light of TCR's suspicions about Bolton (see the article immediately above), and given the article we linked to a while ago about the coming invasion of Iran, doesn't it seem plausible that we're closer to an attack on Iran than anyone imagines? And given the article that Yglesias indirectly quotes here, maybe we should all be paying just a little more attention. You can bet an attack on Iran would be sudden, covert, and violent. It also likely wouldn't involve ground troops, partly because we're pretty much out of 'em, and partly because it's tougher to hide that way. We're all hoping it won't happen, but we want everyone to be ready to shout from the hills if it does.

The Old Media is Dead, Long Live the New Media. Cenk Uygur talks about the death of traditional news. While we're not exactly ready to put the coffin in the ground, Uygur does have a point. The ideas of debate and fact are dead, and pundits have taken over. Between Roberts and Rove alone, Uygur's examples make us sick. We enjoy reading pundits in op-ed pieces. We don't care to have our news dished out to us by pundits with an agenda. Let's all move over to blogs and take them over, as the old media's clearly been corrupted.

Activism

The Open Voting Consortium. A political office is a public trust. Our elected officials are entrusted by those who elect them to use the levers of power in defense of our society and its basic principles. It all starts in the one place we are all theoretically equal: the ballot box. What makes our society great is the chance for every single one of us to have a voice, a say in what goes on between elections. If that process cannot be above even the appearance of reproach, then the results will always be the subject of contention. This is hurting us, because it's a distraction from the larger problems of what some of our politicians are doing after they're handed the keys. With open source voting, everyone can see how it works, and the chances of somebody tampering with it are greatly reduced. The head of Diebold, a major corporate provider of electronic voting machines and software, was quoted in 2003 as saying he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." Any guesses on which state decided last year's election?

News

Further US-N Korea Private Talks. If you'd pulled George Bush's string around the time of his debates last year with John Kerry, he'd have said: "It is naive and dangerous to take a policy that [Kerry] suggested the other day, which is to have bilateral relations with North Korea." I guess he's changed his mind, because in recent talks with North Korea, the other four countries have been slowly pushed to the sidelines as the US intensifies its own negotiations to disarm North Korea. Pyongyang wants security guarantees, a peace agreement, economic help, and diplomatic relations with the US. Washington wants concessions on North Korea's ballistic missile programs and its human rights record. With the US tied down battling insurgents in Iraq, North Korea may feel its own position is stronger and therefore be less willing to back down. The current, nearly three-year-old, crisis has stalled diplomatic progress, and it seems both sides are waiting for the other to blink first.

What the Federalist Society Stands For. Much has been made of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' former membership in the Federalist Society. The White House originally claimed that Roberts had never been a member, a claim that was later disproved when Roberts was found to have served as a member of the Washington chapter's steering committee. Many conservatives seem baffled by the administration's disavowal of the organization, which has played a key role over the last couple of decades in the legal forefront of advancing a conservative agenda. Although the Federalist Society has been closely identified with conservative politics, its supporters point out that the organization neither lobbies government nor litigates cases. It's interesting that Bush would want to downplay his nominee's association with a group that has ties to many conservative (and even a few liberal) attorneys, clerks and judges.

Bush Plans to Bypass Senate, Appoint Bolton. Controversy has swirled around John Bolton, even before Bush nominated him as UN Ambassador. Rumors of Bolton's abrasive leadership have resulted in an unbreakable filibuster in the Senate, especially in light of the White House's refusal to release documents that Senate Democrats say are critical in determining his eligibility for the post. It's long been expected that Bush might install Bolton by way of a recess appointment, and now that Congress is officially out of session White House insiders are saying (off the record, naturally) that appointment is all but guaranteed. On Friday, thirty-six Senators (all Democrats and one independent) sent a letter to President Bush, urging that he not bypass their concerns over Bolton's record by making the recess appointment. Although no Republicans signed the letter, even the staunchly conservative Senator Trent Lott said it would be a bad idea for Bush to make the sixteen-month recess appointment. Given this President's history of "steadfast" and "resolute" leadership, it will surprise no-one if he ignores all advice and appoints Bolton anyway.

Editorials

Judy Miller: How Deep Do Her Connections Run? Much has been made of why, exactly, reporter Judith Miller continues to protect her sources in the Rove/Plame case. Sentenced to jail for civil contempt in refusing to reveal those sources, Miller's role in the case has been the subject of much speculation. Time magazine chose to protect its reporter, Matt Cooper, and in the time since they turned over their files to the investigation a lot of info has come out about who other reporters had talked to and what was said. Arianna Huffington pieces together a scenario in which Miller, who was among those beating the drum for war in Iraq, sits plays a key role in the plot to punish Joseph Wilson by blowing his wife's CIA cover. Miller has friends in very high places, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Ahmed Chalabi, former leader of the Iraqi National Congress and a figure many now blame for feeding the US bad intelligence to strengthen the case for war in Iraq.

You Can't Fight Terrorism With Racism. Paul Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow, is among those endorsing the use of factors such as ethnicity, national origin and religion in determining whom police should regard as possible terrorists. This practice is called racial profiling, and essentially assumes guilt until innocence is proven. Here in America, we pride ourselves on exactly the opposite process - or do we? The Post's Charles Krauthammer wrote that London police did the right thing when, without giving warning or asking any questions, they killed a Brazilian electrician who was later found to have been an innocent bystander. Krauthammer also writes that security officers should focus on "young Muslim men of North African, Middle Eastern and South Asian origin" in their search for terrorists. According to this way of thinking, which is popular among conservative proponents of Bush's War on Terror Struggle Against Violent Extremism, fear of attack should supersede the rights that we in the US take for granted. No word yet on how to reliably identify Violent Extremists merely by sight; I guess if you get enough of the bad guys, it makes it okay to trample the rights of a few everyday citizens.

Bush's Jane Fonda-esque Mistake. "Hanoi Jane's at it again!" Conservatives are gleefully eyeing Jane Fonda these days, after her declaration she's touring Iraq in an anti-war bus running on vegetable oil. During the Vietnam War, Fonda became America's most despised anti-war activist due to her staunch anti-war stance which included statements that soldiers were guilty of war crimes; she's still an object of conservative disgust. Rosa Brooks argues that the Bush administration's actions in prosecuting the war in Iraq are undermining the troops, and the public's trust in this military action, in much the same way others say Jane Fonda's actions did thirty years ago. Disregarding law (both your own and international) in pursuing your goals weakens allies' support and provides a bounty of propaganda to your enemies. Jane Fonda has apologized for being photographed sitting on an enemy anti-aircraft gun in Vietnam; is there any chance Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and Rice might someday feel bad for the mistakes they're making today?