[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Veterans to stage protest at Tim Johnson's office this Thursday on the Eve of Veterans' Day

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

Mort seems more interested in my being "enamored" with Tim Johnson -  
whom I ran against for Congress in 2002 - than he is in David Gill's  
tergiversations on war policy. (David began by being an enthusiast for  
the war views of Rory Stewart, theorist of intervention and now  
Conservative MP, whom he heard on a Bill Moyers show.)

It seems to me that voters should be interested in the contrast  
between David's ambiguities and Tim's straightforward votes against  
the war. Don't we deplore campaigns that are run on personalities  
rather than issues? "Candidates are marketed like toothpaste," it's  
been said.

And weren't some of us recently fooled by a Democratic "peace  
candidate"? (Didn't he get a Peace Prize?)

But to dispel Mort's fantasies, here's a letter of mine about Tim's  
views that appeared in the N-G four months ago:

*	*	*
To the editor of the News-Gazette:

The two most important things the federal government does is kill  
people and transfer wealth from the majority to the rich.

The Obama administration has proved itself even more brutal and  
efficient at those tasks than its predecessor. It has expanded six  
wars in the Mideast and has conducted a good-cop/bad-cop charade on  
government spending with the Republicans to attack social supports.  
And the beneficiaries of Obama's policies are the tiny American  
economic elite, whose wealth has increased at an accelerating rate,  
even after the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

Our local member of Congress, Timothy Johnson, after voting for the  
invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, has announced publicly that he was  
wrong - and now votes consistently against any more money for war in  
the Mideast. And he has now commendably voted against Obama's  
mendacious debt deal.

Unfortunately, Johnson seems often to do the right deed for the wrong  
reason. He has for example repeated the debt and deficit malarkey  
peddled by both parties. The deficit is a chimera used to scare  
Americans into accepting the government's austerity program. Wealth is  
so concentrated in America that an emergency tax of 15% on investable  
assets over $1 million would make the deficit disappear  - and 99% of  
American would not be subject to the tax.

Nevertheless Johnson has voted correctly - against both the wars and  
the debt deal.  He should be supported for re-election against  
opponents who would not clearly do the same.

Sincerely,

C. G. Estabrook

August 8, 2011

On Nov 7, 2011, at 5:12 PM, Brussel, Morton K wrote:

> Good remarks Karen.
>
> Carl has been pursuing a vendetta against David Gill while enamored  
> with Tim Johnson for years, now, it seems, and for reasons not  
> always transparent. It seems that Carl interprets Gill's beliefs/ 
> positions in biased ways. For example, I've heard Gill  in person  
> declare that he was against our wars and foreign policies, including  
> Israel-Palestine,  and also against bloated military budgets. And,  
> of course, he has advocated a single payer health insurance system,  
> which Johnson opposes. Gill has attempted to answer Carl's attacks  
> upon him, but his answers have never been accepted as forthright  
> enough for Carl.
>
> Yes, Gill will be sorely tested if elected. Congress seems to  
> corrupt those who enter its precincts: Politicians like to retain  
> power and this too often compromises the common welfare. Would Gill  
> have the fortitude to stand against the Democratic leadership? We  
> won't know until he's there, but he's seemed to me a progressive  
> candidate.
>
> We have much more data on Tim Johnson, and as Carl says, it is not  
> all bad.
>
> My 2¢.  --mkb
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20111107/66f9f93b/attachment.html>