Author: Joh Padgett

Cross posted from Barry’s Blog

Barry Welsh, Democratic candidate for US House in the Indiana 6th Congressional District, released the following statement in response to a speech made by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN06) from the floor of the House of Representatives yesterday in Washington, DC. Rep. Pence’s office released a statement yesterday which is referred to below in Welsh’s response.

Alan Greenspan squeezed and the toothpaste is out of the tube, and it cannot be put back inside.  Iraq has been, and continues to be, about oil, not freedom as Congressman Pence pontificated from the floor of the House yesterday. Congressman Pence is once again trying to mislead people, just as he did with his comments comparing Indiana to Iraq.

Mr. Pence advocates blindly following the failed Neo Conservative Bush policies that include the permanent occupation of Iraq as he calls for “tuning out Washington D.C” and thus tuning out the facts.

“Despite the lack of political progress at the national level in Iraq, the military surge is working.  Because the surge is working, our troops can start coming home.  I urge every American to tune out the rhetoric in Washington, DC, and read the report.

“But don’t just read the testimony of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, read the recent report issued by the more liberal-leaning Brookings Institution.  In each case, our men and that liberal think tank found civilian deaths are down, Sunni leaders are cooperating with US forces and al-Qaeda is on the run in Baghdad and al Anbar Province.

“These independent assessments should be read by every American, and every American should be encouraged.  For even to a war-weary nation I say, if we do not grow weary in doing good, freedom will prevail in Iraq.”

Congressman Pence needs to answer one simple question. How can a country claim to be bringing freedom during an occupation?

From the floor of Congress Mr. Pence tried to convince America that the war was about freedom in Iraq, of course from that same floor he also bellowed a personal guarantee that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.  He wasn’t honest then either. Citizens of this district deserve better representation that aligns with their own common sense values, and that is what I will bring to the district as its next Representative in Congress.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to John Good as the official campaign blogger for the Barry Welsh For Congress campaign. John is best known for his work at his own blog, Left In Aboite, as well as at Fort Wayne Left  and Blue Indiana. John has agreed to join the campaign as lead blogger and blog team coordinator, or "coach" as we are calling him.

John is a great fit for our team ideologically and is a fantastic writer whose style is both thought provoking and entertaining to read. He lives with his family in the Ft. Wayne suburb of Aboite where he operates a small business logistics operation. He has worked on several Democratic campaigns as a volunteer and recently worked on the Tom Hayhurst for Congress campaign, so he does bring Congressional campaign experience to the table as well.

I look forward to his postings which will appear on our main blog at http://blog.barrywelsh.org, but he will also be posting to other group blogs such as Blue Indiana, DailyKos, MyDD, Open Left  and Booman Tribune  regularly as well. Be sure to check out his first post  on the official campaign blog, and please take time to leave a comment to welcome John to the Barry Welsh For Congress campaign!

The Barry A. Welsh For Congress  campaign today unveiled the new official blog on their website, located at http://blog.barrywelsh.org. The new blog will feature posts from the candidate himself as well as blog team members, communications staff and the occasional guest post from friends and allies of the campaign. The blog will be used to make regular posts with items of interest relating to the campaign, recent podcasts, interviews online and more.
The blog also has links to our various social network profiles, enhanced communications for the public to contact the campaign and constantly updated news from the LeftyBlogs Indiana Blogwire featuring the latest posts from the Bloosiersphere, a term used to describe the blue Hoosier blogosphere. We hope that readers find the blog user-friendly and informative.

The blog currently has entries posted from Barry Welsh and myself, but will soon feature posts from members of the blog team that includes:

   
• Bob Hertzog, a blogger for the Richmond Palladium-Item newspaper and Democratic party activist from Richmond, IN. Bob will be blogging about Richmond area matters, as well as issues of state and national interest.

   

• Matthew Neville, a student at the University of Evansville who hails from Columbus, IN, one of the cities in the district. Matthew will be blogging about Columbus area matters, as well as education, student and youth issues.

Sam Hasler, an attorney and blogger from Anderson, IN where he works in a private practice. He also writes the Trifles In Anderson, IN blog at http://eclecticdem.blogspot.com and will be covering legal, state and national issues.

• Sherri Welsh is an analyst with a software company in Cinncinnatti, OH and is the wife of Barry Welsh. Sherri has been blogging at DailyKos regularly under the name Congressional Candidates Wife for a couple of years now and has agreed to post on Barry's Blog as well with her unique inside the campaign perspective.

More team members will be joining us soon and you all are invited to join us as well. We are putting together a team of Barry's Bloggers who will help us spread the message of hope that Barry brings to the 6th District of Indiana. If you would like to become one of Barry's Bloggers send me an email expressing your interest to press@barrywelsh.org and I will add you to the roster.

For more information please contact Joh Padgett via email at press@barrywelsh.org, by phone at (317) 352-5066 or by instant message on AIM at barrywelsh08, on Yahoo Messenger at barrywelsh_08 and on Google Talk by adding finifinito@gmail.com to your Gmail contacts.

Join us for another edition of Meet the Bloggers as we discuss the 2008 Presidential candidates, their views on the war and other current topics. I’ll be interviewing Robert Rouse, an antiwar activist member of Camp Casey and blogger from Left of Centrist about the war policies of the various Democratic and Republican candidates for President. We’ll also be joined by Melissa Ryan of the Connecticut Local Politics and MyDD blogs as well as David “thereisnospoon” from Political Nexus.

We'll also have the 50 State Blog Roundup segment, anchored by Texas Kaos blogger Boadicea. Sponsored by Blue Indiana and Texas Kaos, the 50 State Blog Roundup is a podcast version of the news shared from the members of the 50 State Blog Project every week on participating blogs.

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