Newsstand Greg with Dave on KVEC 920AM

From time to time, Dave Congalton invites me to be a guest on his afternoon talk show on AM 920, KVEC. He invited me this week to provide counterpoint to the volatile town hall meetings across the country this month.

The topic: how does using inappropriate language in a public forum affect the discussion of how to reform our current expensive health care system?

This also gives me the moment to introduce replays of my radio call-in comments and later, my own produced podcast episodes, right here!

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"Foreign-Born" Would Be The Phrase You're Thinking Of?

Since when does a news-talk station give two hours to a candidate running for Congress...and allow him to say whatever he wants? Free? I'm talking about two free hours disguised as a talk show.

Since today's Dave Congalton show on 920AM KVEC, when Matt Kokkonen discussed his chosen political issues. He had the microphone for two full propagandistic hours. Could not believe it!

One topic that prompted me to call in and disagree with Matt was the so-called "illegal immigrant" issue and its related one, that of granting benefits, including US citizenship to those born while on US soil.

Matt took some time to question the application of the 14th amendment, which states, in part: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside..."

He points out the line, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof..." and says it means if an alien resident crossed the US border (in an unlawful manner) with an intent to apply for social benefits, then that alien and any of its children born in the US should be ineligible for any social safety net dollars. No school lunch programs. No public health services. Nothing.

I told him that it is pointless to use a phrase such as "illegal immigrants." Kokkonen responded that he prefers the term, "unauthorized aliens." Same difference, eh?

Whatever term of residency status you want to apply, have we forgotten a person (in the US) is "innocent until proven guilty?" Until a legal judgement has been rendered otherwise in some court of law, any person as far as I know, is here lawfully.

And these foreign born deserve to be treated as I'd like to be treated, in fact, enjoying the same equal protections of the law as anyone else. Betcha the spirits of my immigrant forbears are smiling.

So, out with the name-calling phrases that imply something not proven!
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The Power Of One MoveOn Ad

Today, the Dave Congalton program (920 AM) is scheduled to interview me about MoveOn. I will freely say that I'm a member of this 3+ million member, grassroots group. I'll tell Dave what I know of the organization and how it operates. Guess it's time the so-called Main Stream Media (tm) deal with actual facts for a change.

Here is the text of the MoveOn newspaper advertisement as published in the New York Times, September 10th.

General Petraeus or General Betray Us?

Cooking the Books for the White House

General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts. In 2004, just before the election, he said there was "tangible progress" in Iraq and that "Iraqi leaders are stepping forward." And last week Petraeus, the architect of the escalation of troops in Iraq, said, "We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress."

Every independent report on the ground situation in Iraq shows that the surge strategy has failed. Yet the General claims a reduction in violence. That's because, according to the New York Times, the Pentagon has adopted a bizarre formula for keeping tabs on violence. For example, deaths by car bombs don't count. The Washington Post reported that assassinations only count if you're shot in the back of the head--not the front. According to the Associated Press, there have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths in the past three months than in any other summer we've been there. We'll hear of neighborhoods where violence has decreased. But we won't hear that those neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed.

Most importantly, General Petraeus will not admit what everyone knows: Iraq is mired in an unwinnable religious civil war. We may hear of a plan to withdraw a few thousand American troops. But we won't hear what Americans are desperate to hear: a timetable for withdrawing all our troops. General Petraeus has actually said American troops will need to stay in Iraq for as long as ten years.

Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.

Amazing how one newspaper ad can cause the US Senate to spring into action. Did they set a troop withdrawal date? Oh no. Our own California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, plus Senator Hillary Clinton and others voted to condemn the ad from the grass-roots organization, MoveOn. Time spent to memorialize their opinion instead of doing something substantial about the Iraq mess.

Telling the truth hurts. In a newspaper ad, in a Senate roll call vote and when that dark telegram arrives with the news of another young soldier killed in action.

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Net sources for the facts:
MoveOn history and activities (Wikipedia.org)
MoveOn's Comment on Petraeus Ad
News reports citing facts stated in the Ad

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