On ongoing concern of this site, is that even if their was no Bush or Ashcroft, our democracy would still be in danger. Electronic voting, without a paper trail is a real threat, a real danger. Here's another take on it. Extreme? I think the Bush administration has taught us over the past two years, that paranoia ain't what it used to be.
Not that I don't enjoy government wasting our tax dollars on useless legislation as much as the next person. But I'd rather leave that kind of waste to state governments, because they do it so much better.
Some people say "why investigate 9/11 we know what happened?" That isn't the point. Very Scary (but important) questions aside, there are many reasons to investigate. Namely discover where we failed, and fix it. The truth is that given the legal means of investigation 9/11 need not have happened. Yet instead of fixing that we have decided, via the Patriot Act, and Homeland Security, to give Ashcroft free reign and our rights be damned. So the investigation of what happened is left hungry for funding. The Bush administration honestly doesn't seem that interested in what happened. Though Bush sure did find that story about the goat interesting.
I find Michael Moore as entertaining (sometimes) as the next guy, but I'd really rather find out what happened from someone else besides just him. Though I am interest in watching his upcoming film.
As you've noticed, I've decided it is time to catch up with some postings. Are we at War with Iraq? Are we still doing the War on terror? I think we're still doing the War on drugs. But I know we've decided to give up on the War against poverty. In fact, why not start a War against the 40 hour work week?
What does post war Iraq look like. We can all assume (well, hope) it won't be ingnored and left to itself like Afganistan. It looks like the neocons already have their men ready.
The Question: What is the most important thing to do in the face of war?
A: Increase spending on home defences
B: Investigate goverrnmental lapses that perhaps allowed 9/11 to happen so as to learn from the mistakes and make sure it doesn't happen again.
C: Cut Taxes
The Answer: C "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes," the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, told CongressDaily.
The Budget Fight Is Now
Government No Longer Even Bothering To Hide Halliburton Favors WASHINGTON, DC—With last week's announcement that it will award Halliburton a lucrative contract to put out Iraqi oil-well fires after the war, the U.S. government has officially stopped trying to hide its favoritism toward the Houston-based company. "When we first started cutting Halliburton sweetheart deals, we'd worry about how it would look, with Dick Cheney being their former CEO and all," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. "Somewhere along the line, though, we just kind of said, 'Ah, fuck it.'" Fleischer added that Halliburton has something "real juicy" coming its way when the U.S. invades Iran in July 2004.
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
"Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star", 149
May 7, 1918
Ah yes today's Republican controlled Congress: We are at war, so though we are giving out tax cuts for Americas wealthy and cutting verteran benefits, we still think the working class Americans should do their patriotic duty and work for free.
Bush believes he was called by God to lead the nation at this time, says Commerce Secretary Don Evans, a close friend who talks with Bush every day.
Wow. I don’t find that reassuring. I find that scary. Doesn’t that sound delusional? And if you believe in God, and if Bush is accurate, doesn't that then mean that God is either a trickster like Loki, or, um, capable of some pretty serious errors.
Anyway that is from a PR fluff piece by USA Today, that drones on endlessly about how seriously Bush is taking this war, how his humor has faded, and how he quizes general's on their back-up plans. A very involved, in the know, detail oriented kind of guy
Another interesting take on how Bush is handling this war can be found over here. It seems Europe has been troubled by a man who makes faces right before declaring war. You can see some of the video clip he is talking about here in MPEG format. Beware… it is a very very slow download.
Folks, both takes are exaggerated, but I have the feeling the European take is a little more accurate.
Updated the template last night to show off the additional items now available at out store. Added a nice Teddy Roosevelt quote to the template too (its off there to the lower right). He was a Republican. What is happening to that party?? What happened to the Democratic party??
A friend pointed me to a very interesting interview on Salon, with the great title: Bush is an idiot, but he was right about Saddam. Though I disagree with his (just barely) pro-war sentiment, it is still a fascinating read. I especially like his discussion of Sayyid Qutb, whose writings are the real root of 9/11. It isn't our support of Israel, it isn't our troops in Saudi Arabia, it is, quite frankly, us that Islamic Fundamentalists hate. Why I haven't heard more about this man is frustrating to me. Heck, it wasn't even a news article that first introduced me to him, but rather a joke in The Onion. Further proving that intelligent journalism has disappeared.
Andrew Sullivan and others feel that somehow the idiotic statements of some in the far left must be consistently denounced by all those in the left or somehow the left will lose all relevance in America. What a ridiculous statement to say. I feel the president must personally discuss how appalling the behavior of this man is, or I’ll announce that the right has lost all relevance to America. Please. Every side of every argument has idiots. Let’s keep the discussion to whether this is a just war or not. An idiotic professor giving an inflammatory speech to people already agreeing with him is as stupid as a radio station asking people to go out and harass protesters. What I want to know is if some many radio stations are pro-Bush and the television media is just repeating what they are told (or spinning like a top at Fair and Balanced Fox News), how come Americans still have doubts about Bush. Perhaps, shock, Americans are actually smart?
The first casualty of war is Truth. Yes we’ve heard that a lot these days. But for a few years truth has been the casualty of laziness and greed. The media has been printing press releases as news, it is a lot cheaper than actually reporting. But we are now seeing the end result of this laziness. The majority of Americans believe Saddam was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11. Is most of Bush’s support based on misinformation? Well between that and the American tradition of believing (or wanting to believe) in its President, I’d say yes. Here’s a good list of 15 inaccuracies printed as truth by our pathetic media.
Does God play Golf? Bush has stated how happy he is that people pray for him, and given that he likes golf, he must be really proud that The Presdential Prayer Team is setting up a Golfing Tour to support our troops. But I do know that our troops are just waiting for a golf game, they're under instructions to start praying now.
All right. I'm really beginning to realize there is a part of American I don't understand. I do understand people praying for our soldiers. I do understand that some people like cute little knick-knacks. But still, I don't understand this.
I know. I'm still behind, but I wanted to post this, because in the last NYC election I didn't really like Mark Green (not that I liked Bloomberg either), but now I like him better. Here's an excerpt from an interview in New York Magazine. Taken from Joe Conason's Salon column (recommended). Yes that is Ed (Koch) and Al (D'Amato) talking. Though I liked Al's brief appearence in Godfather III, as a politician I've always found him a force for not good (evil losing its meaning these days).
In this exchange, former Public Advocate Mark Green appears as sane interlocutor:
Koch: I sent a letter to Rumsfeld saying he should advise the Iraqi government that if it wants to declare Baghdad an open city, there are ways to do it under the Geneva Conventions -- removing all soldiers, removing all artillery. And if they don't want to do that, then we ought not to fall into their trap. We should say to the Iraqi people living in Baghdad, "You have 48 hours to evacuate. After that, we're flattening the city with bombs."
Green: But how do we "liberate" a city we've flattened? And why inflame a billion Muslims worldwide who already see us as the devil?
D'Amato: I say it's a lot of bullshit to worry about their public opinion. That doesn't mean that you just go out and kill civilians. But there comes a time when if they refuse, and if it looks like we're going to get bogged down, better that we say, "Clear out, folks! Because we're gonna start bombing street by street!"
Green: I think you two are, in effect, recruiting agents for Al-Qaeda.
Well, I've now got quite a stockpile of links that I want to share, but don't really have the time to do so now. Just thought I'd quickly share a Momma comics strip that really isn't that funny, but does show that if Momma thinks this color coding is stupid, than everyone must. Maybe Momma should get a shirt so she knows that we were elevated above elevated and now we're High. Hey whose snickering?
This is a "team" blog. We are a bunch of
Americans, whose rising distress
in our leader's decisions brought us together to make this site.
As Bush said, he's a "uniter." Many of us have never even met.
That's the internet for you.
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the
president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt
"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of
its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work
for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering
hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the
Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make
fitting response."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain
degree."
- James Madison
"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves." - John F. Kennedy
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
More Sites we often
like:
more coming...
"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.
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