Central Oregon

Democracy for Oregon Action is VERY interested in the 2nd Congressional District Race. We simply must remove Greg Walden from Congress this year. There is no reason in the world that our beautiful, progressive, reality based, intelligent state of Oregon should have ANY representatives of the GOP scandal & corruption team within its congressional ranks. The way the GOP has lied to America and purposely run us into economic and military quagmires, how can anyone support them anymore?

So please get out there and support the 2nd CD Democrats who have tossed their hats into the ring. You can find out more at http://www.2ndCD.org

DFO has connected with two of the candidates so far, Chuck Butcher, a great candidate who is an occassional blogger here, and also Scott Silver, who has been an environmental activist for many years. Please learn more about these candidates and especially help the primary victor, whoever that might be, as he or she confronts the big money GOP graft and noise machine that keeps representatives like Walden in office.

So far, we like the chances for Scott Silver, but we will be fighting tooth and nail to support whichever Democrat wins the primary. Click here to listen to Scott Silver's recent radio interview. Here's some information on how to contact Scott, check his website and contribute to his campaign:

Silver For Congress
248 NW Wilmington Ave.
Bend, OR 97701
phone: 541-385-5261
e-mail: scott@silverforcongress.org
internet: www.silverforcongress.org

Here's schedule for the mighty touring Democratic Primary contingent: (see http://www.2ndcd.org for details)

Please click on the full text of this blog for events this week in Medford (9/14), Eugene (9/15) and Bend (9/16).

If you live nearby, please join us at any of these events! Following the event details, you can find the latest legislative update. At these three press conferences, Oregon United to Protect Social Security will be releasing a new report produced by one of our national coalition partners, the Institute for America's Future, that shows just how costly the Republican Social Security privatization plan will be to Oregon tax payers while bloating the bureaucracy. This is in light of the continued effort by the Republican leadership to try to privatize Social Security, now even using the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina as yet another excuse to do so! (---White House Deputy Press Secretary Trent Duffy - 9/6/05)

It's been difficult to convey to my two grandchildren, who have served in this deepest of deep mistakes, how I feel about the Iraq misadventure. And why they have nothing to be ashamed of as the Nation becomes increasingly aware of what we've done.

This does an excellent job of bringing the "Support Our Troops" and "Oppose the War" concepts together.

The 'Good News' from Baghdad
by David Michael Green
Published on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Read the entire article here:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0830-21.htm

George Bush says we must honor the sacrifice of those who have given their lives in Iraq. At last we agree on something.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/opinion/28herbert.html?pagewanted=print

Iraq was supposed to be a first step. Iran was also in the neoconservatives' sights. The neocons envisaged U.S. control of the region (and its oil), to be followed inevitably by the realization of their ultimate dream, a global American empire. Of course it sounds like madness, which is why we should have been paying closer attention from the beginning.

The madness took a Dr. Strangelovian turn in the summer of 2002, before the war with Iraq was launched. As The Washington Post first reported, an influential Pentagon advisory board was given a briefing prepared by a Rand Corporation analyst who said the U.S. should consider seizing the oil fields and financial assets of Saudi Arabia if it did not stop its support of terrorism.

Mercifully the briefing went nowhere. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said it did not represent the "dominant opinion" within the administration.

The point here is that the invasion of Iraq was part of a much larger, long-term policy that had to do with the U.S. imposing its will, militarily when necessary, throughout the Middle East and beyond. The war has gone badly, and the viciousness of the Iraq insurgency has put the torch to the idea of further pre-emptive adventures by the Bush administration.

But dreams of empire die hard. American G.I.'s are dug into Iraq, and the bases have been built for a long stay. The war may be going badly, but the primary consideration is that there is still a tremendous amount of oil at stake, the second-largest reserves on the planet. And neocon fantasies aside, the global competition for the planet's finite oil reserves intensifies by the hour.