An old friend paid 44K to publish this open letter in USA TODAY re: Iraq War.

[progressivebydesign]

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/15918081.htm

<<Central Coast developer Cliff Branch has found himself at the center of an Internet storm, because he paid $44,000 to USA Today to publish a letter opposing the Iraq war and the leadership of the Bush administration.

The letter ran in a large advertisement in the E section of USA Today on Oct. 27. Branch said he chose a Friday because the circulation of the national newspaper is the highest and reaches "every train, every plane and every hotel room in the country.">>

I haven't seen him in years, but I'm so proud of him!! There's a link to his letter in the article. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is..

[Richardo]

1. What a great piece.

Thanks for the link. :patriot:

[OzarkDem]

2. A passionate letter, very good

Thank him for all of us, he did a wonderful thing.

[quiet.american]

3. You should be proud of your friend. Well done. n/t

[mnhtnbb]

4. Quite a surprise from a developer in SLO.

[Robbien]

5. I am glad his letter got some attention

He has a powerful message and great writing skills. It would have been a great shame if the letter was ignored.

It would be an even larger shame if his advice to get out and vote is ignored.

[ThomWV]

6. Those Are The First Words From A Developer I Have Ever Appreciated

The man is to be commended. You can not believe how much I dispise developers so this really is a sea-change for me.

[bigtree]

7. sweet!

[BootinUp]

8. He is a patriotic countryman.

Great letter.

[Straight Shooter]

9. I empathize with that pain in his gut.

He also made a very telling point in his letter: "The White House state of denial now includes political advertisements featuring Osama bin Laden, to create even more fear so Bush can retain control of Congress. How ironic, since it was Bush who promised America, some five years ago, that he would bring bin Laden to justice."

Ironic, yes. And tragic.

Please give your friend my regards. :patriot:

[rateyes]

10. That speech wasn't free....

it cost him $44K....but, it was GREAT!!

[brook]

11. I was astonished

to read this in today's Tribune. We're not awash in 'thinkers' around here...much less a developer who has both soul and brain - and the 3rd necessary element - a heart. Bless him!

[blm]

12. A patriot in every sense of the word.

Tell him many of us salute him.

[earth mom]

13. Link to the letter

http://iraqletter.org/

How many more must die before we change course?

It’s 5am in the morning. I can’t sleep and suddenly I find myself in front of my computer, writing. There’s been this pain in my gut. It’s the war. 20,000 of America’s finest young men and women have died or have been severely wounded. There are more than 50,000 Iraqi dead and 900,000 refugees. There is no end in sight.

America has now lost its good standing in the world because our President proclaimed that we needed to invade Iraq following 9-11 because we were in danger from their weapons of mass destruction. This was not true. Iraq’s oil was supposed to pay for the war but it was not to be. The war was to cost seventy billion dollars, but now it’s five hundred billion and growing. Now we are told that the war in Iraq is about "protecting us from terrorists" yet our borders are not secure and American ports remain vulnerable.

It’s increasingly clear that the three-hundred-million dollars we now spend every day in Iraq means that our country does not have enough money for our schools, health care, border security, or even to adequately help our citizens who were devastated by hurricane Katrina. By all traditional measurements, Bush’s war has been a monumental disaster that will haunt our nation for decades; long after this current batch of congressional scandals fade away.

Now it’s election time. Once again, the White House is turning up the rhetoric, endlessly repeating: "we’re fighting terrorism in Iraq." There is an array of mean-spirited pundits who are quick to brand people who question this war as unpatriotic losers. Yet most Americans can see that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have made monumental mistakes over the past several years. The White House state of denial now includes political advertisements featuring Osama bin Laden, to create even more fear so Bush can retain control of Congress. How ironic, since it was Bush who promised America, some five years ago, that he would bring bin Laden to justice.

<snip>

p.s. NOTE THE RECOMMENDED READING:

Related reading

State of Denial
By Bob Woodward, (Bush at War & Plan of Attack)

The Greatest Story Ever Sold
The decline and fall of truth from 9/11 to Katrina
By Frank Rich (Writer for the New York Times)

Worse than Watergate
By John W. Dean (Counsel to the President during Watergate)

Faith and Politics
By Senator John Danforth (Three-term US senator and ordained priest)

War on the Middle Class
By Lou Dobbs (CNN Anchor and managing editor of Lou Dobbs Tonight)

Tempting Faith
By David Kuo (special assistant to George Bush, 2001 - 2003)

[yellowdogmi]

14. I think that Cliff should be nominated

For all of those person of the year awards. Talk about putting his money where his mouth is. What a patriotic individual. Please pass along my sincere gratitude to your friend.

[OneBlueSky]

15. "Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld have made monumental mistakes" . . .

the mis-steps of these cretins were not "mistakes" . . . they were deliberate deceptions and calculated adventurism designed to advance their self-serving PNAC agenda . . .

dismissing their actions as merely mistakes is letting them off a huge stainless steel hook that should, by all that's right and holy, be impaling them from asshole to elbow and back again . . .

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. Good on him!

I wish I had a budget for this sort of thing.