Last night Congress took the first step towards getting us out of Iraq. It may have been a resounding no, but actually it shows progress. That progress is getting on the agenda.

More and more Americans now believe that George Bush is dishonest and lied about the reasons that took us to war. More and more Americans think the war is a mistake. Gradually this will come to a head.

Getting on the agenda is just the first step. Write your Congressperson now and demand an investigation into the lies that Bush told to get us into war. Even if you support the war you should demand a debate on the subject, which should have been done when it was imminent. To contact your Congressperson go to: http://www.house.gov/writerep/.

Before going into any kind of combat, where US soldiers lives and the lives of civilians are on the line, there must be a public debate. Going to war is the foreign policy version of a guilty verdict. Iraq was never guilty of having weapons of mass destruction by the time that Bush gave him the ultimatum. Nor was there any connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Nor was there a connection to the events of 9/11. This war was instigated purely for the pleasure of George Bush.

Back before it started, Bush didn’t want much public debate on the issue. He just wanted us to swallow his lies and be gung ho for the war. And that’s what he got. But not anymore. It may be over two years late but we are finally going to have that public debate. Hopefully it won’t take that many more lives to be lost before the people demand that Congress take action against the president and reign in his fascist regime. Contact your Congressperson now and help get the debate rolling.

The new prescription "benifits" program for Medicare is set to kick in soon. This is the Congress' fix for seniors so they don't have to pay so much for their prescription drugs. Unfortunately is turns out to be a bigger boon for private insurrance companies than for seniors. Already there are problems cropping up.

Seniors are being told that they have to sign up for a particular plan, insurance company really, that operates in their state. These vary from state to state. Then they get told that the plan that they sign up for may not cover all their prescriptions. The companies will only allow certain drugs in their plan. Then there is the co-pay. The fees range from a few bucks to about $70. So how is this a benefit?

It turns out to be more of a windfall for the insurance companies than a benefit for consumers. AARP has on their website a calculator for how much your prescriptions will cost out of your own pocket. If your prescriptions cost $1000 then you have to pay $857.50. Well any savings at all helps, I guess. At $10,000 The plan covers over half but one still pays a hefty amount, over $4000. Better than nothing, I guess.

Speaking of nothing, millions of Americans have no health insurance what so ever. The cost of going to the hospital has skyrocketted over the last several years. This forces people to make painful choices. Many put off their problems until they actually become emergancies. They have to make a choice between the high cost of healthcare or food or rent...

The US is the only industrialized nation where a baby cannot go into any hospital for free treatment. Other nations, such as Canada have nationalized their healthcare industry. It is time that the US get on the wagon and start offering its citizens free healthcare including prescription drugs. But Congress won't go that far because that means the HMO's and the pharmaceutical industry will see their profits go down. The healthcare industry pumps millions into the private coffers of Congress and other elected officials. And of course they aren't worried because they already have full heathcare coverage. It's time they extended the same benefits to their real constituency.

What is the goal of terrorism today? In Israel and Palestine the terrorists continue to bomb, shell and generally create havoc. It doesn’t make much sense.

In Iraq, most of the victims lately are fellow Iraqis. Why? What are they trying to prove?

It seems that the goals of the terrorists have taken a backseat to the mission to create terror. In Israel and Palestine, the Palestinians are getting what they want: a pullout by Israel. Yet they continue to kill people. Israel, rather than taking the chance to ratchet down the level of violence, instead continues to target Palestinians with their military.

In Iraq the goal was at first to drive the US out of their land. So why do they continue to kill their own people? What’s the purpose in that? Personally, I am tired of all the killing. It seems to be the only thing on the news at times.

Terrorists seem to be unable to stop their own actions. If in Israel and Palestine, the Israelis are moving out, why take the chance of bringing them back in? Are they just so used to killing each other that it seems to be all that they can do now?

Personally I am a pacifist. I think that killing is wrong, no matter what the situation or conditions are. I can’t see the point in the terrorists continuing to kill their own people or their enemies when they start to get what they want.

Then it begs the question, where are the terrorists getting their supplies and funding from? Perhaps someone who is making a tremendous profit from the sales of weapons and munitions. In the US I would point the finger at the CIA, but of course I can’t prove anything. But in the past the CIA has made its business to destabilize regions. Perhaps they are back to their old tricks, if they ever stopped them, that is. If they are, how does that make the US safe?

In the middle East, the terrorists have said that they want the US out of the region. If the US were to give them what they want, would they stop? Or are they now killing just to be killing? As I said, I just want them to stop.

With all the propaganda put out by the far right surrounding us one might be tempted to throw in the towel. Yes, they have been successful in sowing lie after lie about just anything under the sun. Yes, they have managed to get millions to buy into their lies. As a result they now control all three branches of government, the President, the Congress (both houses) and the Supreme Court. Things look pretty grim.

It is tempting to extrapolate into the future and imagine their extremist ideologies being carried out and the inevitable fallout that would occur. It paints a pretty scary picture. One sees the environment polluted and exploited to the fullest. Social programs are nonexistent or so heavily privatized that the only ones that get to benefit from them are the wealthy elite, who need those programs the least. It is even easy to imagine seeing most people dieing of thirst and hunger because the pollution has contaminated the food supply.

But there are signs of hope in this blighted landscape. It isn’t just that the neocons can’t hold onto power forever. Nor is it the possibility that they will eventually get so caught up in their lies that they will crash into the ground and obliterate themselves. There is a bigger sign of hope out there.

Progress. This alone fills this writer with hope. Since before recorded history, man has been steadily progressing toward a better and better world. Sure there have been some stumbling blocks along the way. Countless wars. Massive poverty. The Dark Ages. But the common people have managed to overcome them all. And now we enter a new age.

Today the power of the common people is approaching new heights. Never before in history have people been able to look around themselves and see so many likeminded others. When one thinks about it, it is truly impressive.

We can make decisions en mass. Those decisions are where progress happens. We demand a solution for a problem and eventually someone will come up with or invent that solution. Is the water too polluted? Then we demand that it be cleaned up. Tired of war? We can demand an end to it. Eventually our cries will be heard. They have to be. Progress depends on us.

Even the big national and multinational corporations depend on the masses. They depend on us as customers and as innovators. But there remains the question, are they simply manufacturing our thoughts for us? For their own profit and gain?

Eventually doing such things will backfire on those in power. We can’t come up with the new ideas that they demand if we are constantly stifled. They can’t come up with ideas all by themselves.

It seems pretty bleak at times. I find myself occasionally downhearted at the way things seem to be going. But it can’t last forever. Eventually the masses will be heard. Count on it. It’s not hopeless.

This is a reply to Molly Ivins, a great writer from Texas. Her article is at http://www.alternet.org/story/27674/.

I envision an America with no secrets. For starters, we should get rid of the CIA. One of the biggest gripes people in other countries have about the US is that the CIA funds right wing dictators and causes, both of which are generally unpopular with the masses. Getting rid of the CIA means also getting rid of covert ops.

As for the no secrets part, how about when ever we learns something about a conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, for example, we blab it to the whole world. When we learn about the whereabouts of a wanted terrorist, we tell the whole world instead of keeping it to ourselves (meaning only the intelligence community) and running a covert operation in a foreign country.

Next get rid of the department of defense and replace it with a department of peace, whose main tenet is that war is wrong. Instead of picking fights, prevent them. That alone should save the US government a ton of money.

Instead of dropping the number of nuclear warheads to a thousand, how about getting rid of all of them? Think about this for a second, besides the former Soviet Union, which no longer exists, what country do we face that could start a nuclear war with the US? Getting rid of all the nuclear weapons would save the US a lot of money and set an example to the rest of the world.