Department of Peace?

[Tony]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,127234,00.html ...full article

Kucinich and his backers hoped that the progressive movement would devote some of its energies to pushing hard for a Department of Peace.

Under the headline "U.S. Department of Peace," a banner on the speakers' stage proclaimed: "We, the people of the United States of America, call upon our government to withdraw from the war in Iraq and begin reconstruction of what we have just destroyed."

"The smart guys in Washington think a Department of Peace is a goofy idea. They're wrong, but we have to prove it to them one district at a time," said political strategist and Kucinich ally Steve Cobble. Cobble encouraged activists to pressure their congressmen to sign onto the proposal.

Although the progressive meeting in the basement of Boston's Paulist Center (search) largely backed Kerry, Cobble told them not to give up on pushing him to the left. "On November 3, get up, pick up the street heat and begin the push on the new Kerry administration to create a Department of Peace."

When Kucinich entered the hall, the crowd erupted for their hero, who had already pledged his support for Kerry and encouraged his followers to stay within the party to turn Bush out. He gave an update on his Department of Peace measure, which he first introduced on July 11, 2001. He said 50 lawmakers have co-sponsored the bill and eight states have put it in the state Democratic platform.

The Department of Peace would be charged not only with spreading peace across the world, but also at home by educating young people to learn the benefits of nonviolent conflict resolution and teaching men about the problems of domestic violence.

"I don't want anyone to tell me we can't bring change to the Democratic Party. We can be the party of hope," Kucinich told the crowd. He concluded his speech by flashing a peace sign at his supporters.

Silly idea?

In the context of another government beaurocracy, absolutely.

I struggle to understand by what metric these people are "progressive". It seems that a lot of the things they support (higher taxes, more gun control, more government beaurocracy) would work to ultimately strengthen the government and increase the likelihood of someone like GW Bush abusing such powers in the future. Not only do they want to preserve the status quo, they want to inject it with steroids.

 

[Tmy]

You know what Id like to see. Some PEACE Memorials. ALl the memorials are for wars and other nasty events. What a downer.

Think about it.

THe England/US Peace mememorial. Nearly 200 years wh/o a war!!!

 

[Charlie Monoxide]

How about a "Ministry of Peace"?

We should also change Homeland Security to "Ministry of Love".

Charlie (with props to Orwell) Monoxide

 

[crimresearch]

You can't imagine how much it scares me to think of politicians applying the tactics from the various programs to improve poverty, railroads, education, drug abuse, postal service, and terrorism, turning their attention to peace.

 

[Tmy]

Why dont we just rename departments that already exist?

Drug Enforment Agency will now be known as "The Buzzkill Department"

 

[corplinx]

What we need is the MacGuffin Department. Everytime some borderline retarded politician proposes a new Bureacracy we tell them, "the MacGuffin Department already handles it".

 

[aerocontrols]

I thought the State Department was in charge of peace, and then they can't handle the problem they pass it over to the War Department.


Defense Department, I mean.