Text of Byrd's brilliant blast

[Armstead]

Byrd's remarks on teh Senate floor in which he lays it all out. He and Kennedy deserve medals for their defense of Democracy,

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1018-01.htm

The Emporer has no clothes

Excerpt:

I began my remarks with a fairy tale. I shall close my remarks with a horror story, in the form of a quote from the book Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews Hermann Goering.

"We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

". . . But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

[Brucey]

1. A genius speech that all Americans should read or hear.

Byrd is my new hero.

[Spazito]

2. I listened to him speak and he was incredible!

It gave me shivers, so many truths put into one man's plea to a country's citizens.

[LittleApple81]

13. My feelings exactly! n/t

[RichM]

3. It was magnificent. It was also a full confirmation of the 'Left' analysis

of the war. That Goering quote, for example, has been all over the "Left" side of the Internet for a year already. As were many of the points the senator touched on.

Byrd called a spade a spade, and a Lie a Lie. It was the candor with which he did this, that made the speech the magnificent thing it was.

[Tatiana]

4. Byrd and Kennedy are true American patriots.

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Chilling. And the sheeple don't even realize the manipulation.

[HootieMcBoob]

5. Beautiful

He has been, throughout this, the most articulate critic of this administration.

[sattahipdeep]

6. Byrd Warns

Ambassador Bremer went so far as to refuse to return to the Appropriations Committee
to answer additional questions because, and I quote: "I don't have time. I'm completely
booked, and I have to get back to Baghdad to my duties."
______________________________________________________________________

Right now we've got Paul Bremer heading up Iraq.
Not one media outlet has reported WHO the guy is.
He is (was) the head of Marsh Crisis Consulting which
is a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan.
The President of the real estate division was Craig Stapleton
who is now the Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Craig Stapleton is the husband of Dorothy, George Bush's cousin.
http://www.the-catbird-seat.net/MarshBirds.htm

From 1989 to 2000, he was Managing Director of
Kissinger Associates, a strategic consulting firm
headed by former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0212/S00018.htm

[Minstrel Boy]

7. audio of the speech can be downloaded from Byrd's website:

http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_newsroom/byrd_audio/byrd_audio.html

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Thank You for posting this!

I missed it the other day and can't wait to read it. Does C-SPAN 2 have a video archive of it? I couldn't find one on their web site. :(

[Armstead]

9. Kick

When a Democrat speaks the Truth it needs to be heard

[NY Yankee Fan]

15. That is why no one is listening.

THERE IS NO DAMN TRUTH. All Spin all the time!

[newyawker99]

16. Hi NY Yankee Fan!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[proud patriot]

10. Yay Byrd !

:bounce:

[LittleApple81]

11. I am posting this because it relates to what he says:

It comes from a book review by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

The preventive war against Iraq was a war of President Bush's choice. It was not, as World War II was, forced upon the United States. It was not, like the Korean War, the first Gulf War, and the war against the Taliban, a response to overt acts of aggression. Nor did the US drag itself incrementally into full-scale war, as in Vietnam. The professional military kept its enthusiasm for a war on Iraq well under control. There was no popular clamor for the war. If the US had never gone to war against Iraq, most Americans would hardly have cared, or even noticed. It took one man to decide for war and promote it, sending many thousands of troops there while most other nations doubted that a war was justified.


snip...

The triple role also resurrects the imperial presidency. Again there are warnings from the American past. On February 15, 1848, during the war with Mexico, a young Illinois congressman sent a letter to his law partner pointing out the constitutional and practical flaws in what we now call the Bush Doctrine. "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion," Abraham Lincoln wrote William H. Herndon,

and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure.... If today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't."

The Philadelphia convention, Lincoln said, had "resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us."

more...

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16677

[proud patriot]

14. Thanks for posting that

:hi:

[DeathvadeR]

12. The Byrd man Continues to Soar!!!!!!! N/T

[0007]

17. It was great and I heard it first hand

which is no big deal, but much better than hanging out at FOX News and the other two whore networks.