In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
USA to Canada: We own your air.
PM draws fire over missilesOttawa — Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday that Canada has to be involved in any U.S. decision to shoot down an enemy missile in Canadian airspace, but the American ambassador said the country had given up its right to be involved in any such decision.Oh, Canada has given up its sovereignty? Does that mean its drugs will now get more expensive?
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“We will deploy,” Mr. Cellucci [U.S. ambassador] said. “We will defend North America.
“We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty, its seat at the table, to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming towards Canada.”
- rob 5:04 PM - [PermaLink] -
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"Where Are Those Cattle Cars Going?"
a friend just asked me. Answer: Syria. For real. I grew up with Barbara Olshansky. We were little kids in a tiny public school, with a class size of about 50, and spent hours of every day around one another. She was and is head and shoulders above us all. Definitely the smartest person I ever met. She is a great human being, and I knew it when I was ten. I just read her bio, and it's having a moral effect on me.
- Michael 4:14 PM - [PermaLink] -
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It sounds far fetched at first... but then just becomes troubling
Daily Kos :: Ann Coulter was born in Rwanda or Why Gannon mattersHate is hate in any languageSound extreme? America isn't immune from such hatred. In Tulsa, OK potentially thousands of blacks were killed in a 1921 "race riot" which basically destroyed an entire neighborhood. Planes even flew over the city to help bomb houses and churches.
Ann Coulter on tour: "I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days" to talk to liberals (1)
Rwanda: In the cover of the December 1993 issue of a very popular Hutu magazine A machete is displayed under the question about "what weapon to use to defeat the [Tutsi cockroaches]" (2)
A chilling coincidence ?
Both propaganda machines are using many of the same tactics, namely:
Staged events:
creating events to lend credence to propaganda
Accusations in a Mirror:
projecting into their opponents exactly what they and their own party are planning to do.
Hate Radio:
Pundits like Rush Limbaugh
And even today the hate heard daily in radio and TV only serves to embolden the purveyors of hate to actively recruit:ST. LOUIS - White supremacist groups around the country are moving aggressively to recruit new members by promoting their violent, racist ideologies on billboards, in radio commercials and in leaflets tossed on suburban driveways."Conservative" personalities like Coulter are given an aura of respectability by appearances on news shows despite writing a book with a title: Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.
The argument is no longer about what ideas better help America, but the fact that any idea from a liberal is simply treasonous. I exaggerate? Coulter said ('it was only a joke'): My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building. Of course she apologized with Of course I regret it. I should have added, "after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters." Ha Ha! Gosh that is hilarious... so was the bit about Tutsi cockroaches and Machetes. (read this interview... she's a laugh riot.
The host of one of Fox News popular shows is also the writer of a book called: Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism. Are you liberal? (like the founding fathers) Then you are no different then a terrorist. And if you forgot it is legal to arrest and torture terrorists without trial in America these days.
Does the Bush administration want the hate to lead to violence. I am pretty sure they don't, but many of their followers do. And hate is such an effective way to motivate people... much better than Love. All is fair in War and Politics - But Hate can spiral out of control.
The Kos Diary works Gannon into this post about hate because of his role as a propagandist. Actual news from Washington and propaganda from the White House are interchangeable in most major media. A step towards making such scenarios of hate moving from words to action all the more possible.
And the media is silent about their obsolescence:
See no Gannon, hear no Gannon, speak no Gannon
Why has the mainstream media ignored the White House media access scandal?Feb. 25, 2005 | On Feb. 17, "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams introduced a report on controversial White House correspondent James Guckert by informing viewers that the saga was "the talk of Washington." Nine days later the mysterious tale of an amateur, partisan journalist who slipped into the White House under false pretenses remains the buzz of the Beltway. Yet most mainstream reporters have opted not to cover the story. Two of the television networks, as well as scores of major metropolitan newspapers around the country, have completely ignored it.
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Ordinarily, revelations that a former male prostitute, using an alias (Jeff Gannon) and working for a phony news organization, was ushered into the White House -- without undergoing a full-blown security background check -- in order to pose softball questions to administration officials would qualify as news by any recent Beltway standard. Yet as of Thursday, ABC News, which produces "Good Morning America," "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings," "Nightline," "This Week," "20/20" and "Primetime Live," has not reported one word about the three-week-running scandal. Neither has CBS News ("The Early Show," "The CBS Evening News," "60 Minutes," "60 Minutes Wednesday" and "Face the Nation"). NBC and its entire family of morning, evening and weekend news programs have addressed the story only three times. Asked about the lack of coverage, a spokesperson for ABC did not return calls seeking comment, while a CBS spokeswoman said executives were unavailable to discuss the network's coverage.
Meanwhile, look who has his own website (and this time no Porn!): http://www.jeffgannon.com/
- rob 2:08 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Continuing the Bush policy of having the foxes guard the hen house
Adware maker joins federal privacy boardupdate The Department of Homeland Security has named Claria, an adware maker that online publishers once dubbed a "parasite," to a federal privacy advisory board.A parasite? Wow, he was a shoe-in.
An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday.
"This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department's mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States," Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the department's chief privacy officer, said in a statement.
- rob 1:19 PM - [PermaLink] -
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From the paper noted for its inside scoops: Weekly World News
BUSH ORDERS CAPE & CROWNPrez calls for amendment to allow royal titlesWith his controversial $500 million inaugural ball behind him, President George W. Bush has dropped another financial bombshell -- he's shelling out $82.5 million for a jewel-studded crown and sabletrimmed cape to wear during his second term in office.Ouch. And the dialog sure does sound authentic - don't it?
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Insiders add that the Commander in Chief bristles at the suggestion that the traditional trappings of European monarchs send the wrong message to the American people, 40 million of whom live in grinding poverty.
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I earned political capital in my landslide election victory last November and I'm going to spend it any way I like."
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I'll use my mandate the way I always have -- to make rich Americans richer by reuniting them with all the tax money we've been throwing away on poor people who claim they need 'food for their babies' and 'a place to live.'
"If you don't like it, Condi, why don't you move to Sri Lanka and see if you like it any better in tsunamiland? Don't forget your water wings."
The 24-karat gold crown Bush found in a London, England, "monarchy supply house" catalog is studded with over 200 diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires that spell out the President's nickname, "DUBYA," in large letters on the front, and in smaller letters on the back, "FOREVER."
The headpiece retails for a staggering $95 million, but it was on sale for $82.5 million -- a sum the Republican-controlled Congress quietly tacked on to a bill authorizing the expenditure of $1,247 to buy a flak jacket for a platoon of unprotected Marines to share in Iraq.
- rob 12:29 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Unfortunately the world today is full of Ashcrofts
Ashcroft's name substitutes for obscenity in movieWASHINGTON - You're an Ashcroft! No, you're the Ashcroft!
Imagine hearing that exchange in a movie - you'd think that Hollywood had come up with a crazy new insult. Well, it turns out that some airline passengers watching the Oscar-nominated film "Sideways" on foreign flights are, in fact, hearing "Ashcroft" as a substitute for a certain seven-letter epithet commonly used to denote a human orifice.
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The movie was shown in English and the dubbing was done "in the actual voices of the actors," Reel reports. Star Thomas Haden Church utters the A-word.
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Ashcroft did not return our phone message, but we're certain he was busy and not just being an...
- rob 12:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Sword of Damocles- Thursday, February 24, 2005 -
I'm not a big fan of Thomas Friedman but here's something worth thinking about:Why is that sword getting closer? Because global markets are realizing that we have two major vulnerabilities that this administration doesn't want to address: We are importing too much oil, so the dollar's strength is being sapped as oil prices continue to rise. And we are importing too much capital, because we are saving too little and spending too much, as both a society and a government.
It's that simple.
- Michael 12:35 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Breast Milk of Women in 18 States
Well that's okay, the GOP thinks it'd be better if the breasts were always covered anyways... no reason to expose a baby to such a dirty sight.
- rob 4:30 PM - [PermaLink] -
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What's more important: Hate for Gays or America's Security.
Well unfortunately you probably know what are government's priority was.
Gays' ouster seen leaving gap in militaryWASHINGTON -- More than 300 foreign language specialists considered critical in the war on terrorism have been forced out of the military in the past decade because of their sexual orientation, according to the first government study to assess both the warfighting and financial impact of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits openly gay servicemen.Okay, here's the irony. If you want to GUARANTEE your counterintelligence specialist has NO connections and alliances to Extremist Islamic organisations... make sure he or she is happily, openly GAY and presently is in, or is actively searching for, a relationship.
These soldiers had "some skills in an important foreign language such as Arabic, Farsi, and Korean," according to a report by the Government Accountability Office to be published next month. At least 54 of the 322 language specialists spoke Arabic -- more than twice as many as previous estimates. At the same time, more than 400 additional soldiers discharged under the policy had what the Pentagon considers "critical occupations," including Navy code-breakers, Army intelligence specialists and interrogators, Air Force air traffic controllers, and Marine Corps counterintelligence specialists.
- rob 4:28 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Police State in a Red State
Kansas attorney general seeking records of women who had late-term abortionsWICHITA, Kan. The attorney general of Kansas wants to know the detailed history of the sex lives of nearly 90 women who received late-term abortions.
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Under the order signed by a judge, the attorney general would get records that would include each patient's name, medical history, details of her sex life, birth control practices and psychological profile.
- rob 4:21 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Please let Sibel Edmonds get her whole story out.
FBI abandons whistleblower secrets claimWashington, DC, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The Department of Justice has abandoned its claim that allegations made by a fired FBI translator are secret, paving the way for a court case that will air embarrassing allegations about incompetence, poor security and possible espionage in the translation unit of the Bureau's Washington Field Office.Bush's Presidency also seems to be a training issue.
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Edmonds is suing the FBI, claiming she was fired for bringing to light these problems -- which have been identified by several inquiries as significant contributing factors to the success of the Sept. 11 plot.
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In two unclassified briefings for congressional staff in June and July 2002 senior FBI officials acknowledged the truth of a number of Edmonds' allegations, including those against a co-worker, Melek Can Dickerson, who had worked for an organization that was the target of surveillance in a counter-intelligence probe until she joined the bureau in October 2001 -- and did not disclose the work on her application.
According to congressional staffers, bureau officials also said that Dickerson had a continuing relationship with at least two individuals who were surveillance targets in the probe. They acknowledged that Dickerson had either mistranslated or incorrectly marked "not pertinent" hundreds of telephone conversations recorded as part of the investigation and had tried to ensure that she was given responsibility for translating all the "take" from surveillance of that group of targets.
They said the FBI saw these as training issues.
- rob 4:17 PM - [PermaLink] -
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I enjoyed this post because it delves deeper into something I've mentioned here: The Texas Air National Guard Forgeries that will forever stain Dan "what's the frequency Kenneth?" Rather's reputation (I personally feel it should have been stained by him saying "courage" at the end of his early broadcasts), were forged and planted by Rove's lackeys.
If the facts are bad, have the facts revealed by a tainted source. The source will become the focus of media attention - not the facts.
Rove destroyed the life of Hatfield (for more on him read here) by giving him the story that a cocaine arrest led to Bush's "volunteer" service at Operation PUSH (Helen Thomas tried to steer the TANG grounding conversations in that direction in some press conferences, but it didn't take). This nasty bit of Bush's past was revealed by a severely tainted source. The story (fact?) of Bush's cocaine arrest is forever off limits by the press.
So read the post, and note the skill of the poster in getting the forgery story linked to the propaGannon (Jeff Gannon) scandal. If the stories on Jeff Gannon continue, and these links are made by the mainstream media... could Rove's house of cards finally collapse?
READ: Daily Kos :: Rep. Hinchey really gave it to Hannity on TANG Forgeries being Rove
- rob 3:53 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Envy of the world?
Number one?
If we live in fantasy, we can't improve reality.No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide.unfortunately the list goes on....
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Yet...
- The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
- Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. Seventeen percent believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
- "The European Union leads the U.S. in ... the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
- "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
- Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
- The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was] ... 37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
- "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80).
- The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
- Women are 70% more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
- The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
(thanks to E for the link)
- rob 3:34 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Copy Away!
FCC 'crosses the line' with broadcast flag - courtThe US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) overstepped its authority by requiring devices capable of receiving digital TV broadcasts to recognize data called a 'broadcast flag' that can prevent copying, a federal judge has said.blah blah blah... I'm posting this because of this line.
US Circuit Judge Harry Edwards told the FCC that it had "crossed the line" when it required DRM technology to be included in all DTV devices on sale in the USA from 1 July. This would include TVs, set top boxes, PC tuner cards, VCRs, DVD players, and similar devices.The FCC argued that its ancillary powers authorize it to regulate the reception of broadcasts, not just their transmission. While Congress did not authorize the Commission to regulate the proper designs of the devices, it also didn't expressly forbid it, which FCC takes as a license to issue specifications.Emphasis mine. Judge Edwards rocks. Now if he could get a case about how Rummy's Defense department is pushing the bounds of what it is allowed to do.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world," judge Edwards observed.
Judge David Sentelle wondered if FCC thought it could regulate washing machines, since Congress didn't expressly forbid that, either.
- rob 12:25 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Goebbels Invented This
Anybody unfamiliar with the propaganda machine pioneered by Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Karl Rove, should read Maureen Dowd today. It probably seems far removed from the concerns of anybody reading this, but it's your future.The Washington Monthly called USA Next's United Seniors Association, a self-styled AARP rival, "a soft-money slush fund for a single G.O.P.-friendly industry: pharmaceuticals."
But AARP doesn't deserve this treatment from the "Swift Boat" political demolition team. As Glen Justice reported in The Times, USA Next, which has spent millions on Republican policy fights, has pledged to spend as much as $10 million on ads and other tactics to "dynamite" AARP and get Americans to rip up Social Security. It's hiring some of the same consultants who helped the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who dynamited John Kerry, a war hero, by sliming him as a war criminal.
Once again, just as W. runs into political trouble, he floats above the fray while the help takes out his opponents. Just as John McCain was smeared by Bush supporters in 2000, Swift Boat assassins can rid the president of any meddlesome adversaries now.
The USA Next group intends to combine the two ruthless success stories of the Bush re-election: the Swiftian tactic of amplifying its vicious and dishonest attacks through the media, and the Rovian tactic of hanging gay marriage like an anvil around the neck of a foe.
Mr. Jarvis defended his ad by saying that he was simply trying to provoke liberal bloggers, and that he succeeded. In fact, part of the sinister beauty of the Swift Boat method is its viral quality: it slips into a host body - "Inside Politics," say - and hijacks it. An ad it showed briefly on the Internet has now been replicated free, all over the world, and, yes, it is now being transmitted through the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.
But, of course, President Bush has nothing whatsoever to do with any of this. Right?
Right. You won't even know what hit you. Even if you see it coming.
- Michael 7:33 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Straight from my blog I've got a killer piece dissecting a right-wing fraud. Right here kiddies.- Wednesday, February 23, 2005 -
I guarentee you'll love it.
- ThePoliticalPenguin 12:28 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Intervention Mag is one of the best news sites online.
Excerpt: President Bush has re-nominated seven candidates for the federal appeals courts. Each was blocked by Senate Democrats during Bush’s first term. He also sent back to the Senate five other nominees for the federal appeals courts whose confirmations were slowed because of Democratic concerns regarding their legal backgrounds. Bush has accused Democrats of blocking votes on so many of his nominations that they have created "judicial emergencies."
In reality, Bush has had more judicial nominees approved than in the first terms of Presidents Clinton and Reagan, and the administration of his father. Of the 214 nominees sent to the Senate for a vote during Bush’s first term, 95 percent were approved. Democrats blocked only ten, using the filibuster. By contrast, from 1995 to 2000, while Republican Senator Orrin Hatch was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate blocked 35 percent of Clinton’s appeals court nominees.
Bush has repeatedly said that all of his nominees are well qualified to serve on the nation’s courts. He said, "They are of the highest caliber. These are superb nominees." And he has stressed that "they represent mainstream values." However, a review of his nominees indicates that most of them could hardly be construed as holding mainstream legal and public policy ideas. Many, in fact, have extremely conservative views.
Uh oh, the author's throwing down the gauntlet.
Perhaps the most conservative nominee is California Justice Janice R. Brown. She opposes Social Security, calling it part of the government’s "socialist revolution." She is a strong opponent of state and local authority, and has characterized a city ordinance requiring some housing to be made available to the poor, elderly, and disabled as the theft of private property. She also indicated that racially discriminatory speech in the workplace is protected under the First Amendment right to free speech, even when it meets the legal definition of harassment. In a case involving far-reaching drug testing, she ruled for the employer, despite California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court precedent rejected the testing as unconstitutional. She also argued that the First Amendment should permit corporations to make false or misleading representations without legal ramifications.
This is "the mainstream" to President Bush. Now allow me to make a bold prediction. George W. Bush will send the Supreme Court Justices who ruled Gore in Bush v. Gore to Camp Gitmo. Watch for David Souter's transfer sometime in the spring, and the rest later this year.
- ThePoliticalPenguin 9:51 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result. The Pentagon, by constantly trying to create their silly Star Wars fantasy, is insane.
Excerpt: So far, the U.S. military's long-range missile-defense system has all the reliability of a coin flip. A failed test last week was the fifth in 10 attempts, despite carefully controlled conditions.
Undeterred, President Bush's administration is still rushing to roll out the $25.3 billion system. For the sake of national security and fiscal responsibility, Congress needs to demand that the administration first address the system's serious shortcomings.
Last year, a six-month Orlando Sentinel investigation found that the Pentagon's missile-defense system was hindered by inadequate testing, engineering problems and a lack of independent oversight.
And, on that very note, I think we might be going to war with someone new. Not Iran. Not Syria. But with the Canadians. Why?
Excerpt: Prime Minister Paul Martin will deliver a firm No to Canadian participation in the U.S. missile defence plan and break a lengthy silence that fomented confusion on both sides of the border.
The announcement, first reported by a radio station and confirmed by federal officials Tuesday night, will come Thursday and end a streak of obfuscation where Martin refused to state Canada's position.
News of the announcement follows a day of confusion on Parliament Hill after Frank McKenna, Martin's choice to be the next ambassador to the U.S., sparked a political firestorm by saying participation in the controversial continental missile defence system is a done deal.
The end of Martin's silence will come as an about-face for a prime minister who had repeatedly stated his support for missile defence when he was a Liberal leadership candidate barely a year ago.
Yeah, it's good when the world shows spine.
- ThePoliticalPenguin 6:40 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Today's Republicans: "We love our party... not our country"
WHICH GEORGE W. WOULD AMERICANS ELECT?
NATION’S FIRST PRESIDENT WINS BY 20 POINTS IN NEW NATIONAL SURVEYIf George Washington returned from the dead and attempted to recapture the presidency of the United States, he would beat an incumbent President George W. Bush by nearly 20 percentage points, according to a new national poll conducted for Washington College by the public affairs research firm of Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas, Inc. Asked to choose between George Washington and George W. Bush, Republicans in the survey supported Bush by a margin of more than 2 to 1, while Democrats and independents overwhelmingly favored Washington.Emphasis mine. A man who fought, won, and created a free nation vs. a man who... um... hell if I know... and they go for Chimp? Well from what I hear, the original George wasn't someone you'd like to have a beer with.
- rob 4:16 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Your taxdollars at work:
CREW Files Complaint Against Social Security Administration -- SSA Paid Fleischman-Hillard $1.8 millionCREW filed a FOIA with SSA on January 11, 2005 after learning that the Department of Education had paid pundit Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act. The Freedom of Information Act requires federal agencies to respond to FOIA requests within 20 days, but in violation of the law, SSA failed to respond to CREW’s request.
The SSA has been promoting the idea that Social Security is facing a crisis. Callers to the SSA listen to a taped message highlighting the crisis and notices of benefits now include the following language:
“....the Social Security system is facing serious future financial problems, and action is needed soon to make sure that the system is sound when today’s younger workers are ready for retirement...Unless action is taken soon to strengthen Social Security, in just 14 years we will begin paying more benefits than we collect in taxes...We need to resolve these issues soon to make sure Social Security continues to provide a foundation of protections for future generations as it has done in the past.”
Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said “although we know that the Social Security Administration has been actively promoting the idea that Social Security is facing a crisis and we know that SSA has paid Fleischman-Hillard nearly $1.8 million since September 2003, we don’t know what role, if any, Fleischman-Hillard has played in manufacturing that crisis. This is what we first tried to learn by filing the FOIA request and what we are now trying to learn by filing a lawsuit.”
- rob 4:08 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Please Read: Daily Kos :: Sith Lords of the Ultra-RightEver wonder how the right always seems so coordinated in the strategy. How all the multitude of organizations they've created all seem to use the same playbook? How they all manage to focus on the same talking points each day, day after day, year after year. Well it's no accident."There is so much there I just don't know what to copy and paste.
But I'll try just a little:In addition to obsessing over communist threats and buttressing white supremacist ideology, the CNP has included many members bent on replacing American democracy with theocracy.The CNP? Its the Council for National Policy. Many senators and representatives are members. Again, go read the article. Quite frankly, many members of the GOP don't want America to be America.
LaHaye, like the whole of the nation's Religious Right leaders, nurtures a strong contempt for the First Amendment principle of church-state separation, because it seriously complicates their goal of installing fundamentalist Christianity as the nation's officially recognized religion. LaHaye has worked within the CNP and other groups to replace American law with "biblical law."
* * *
For many years, the late leader of the Christian Reconstructionist movement, Rousas J. Rushdoony, was a member. Reconstructionists espouse a radical theology that calls for trashing the U.S. Constitution and replacing it with the harsh legal code of the Old Testament. They advocate the death penalty for adulterers, blasphemers, incorrigible teenagers, gay people, "witches" and those who worship "false gods."
Let me quote our founding fathers:As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
I repeat: the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion! That isn't some liberal opinion (well actually they were liberals...). That is a quote, a direct quote, from a treaty ratified by the Senate and signed by President John Adams. That proclamation was the law of the land!
Go to this post for more about the treaty.
- rob 3:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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While the Pope says gay marriage part of 'ideology of evil', lets look at some acts of evil that happened in our lifetimes.What it so horrible about the story of the French Catholic Church is the attempt to "profit" (more souls in their seat means they win?) from a horrible crime, a systematic destruction of a people because those in power have declared them evil. And now, the church itself declares that a type of people, a people born different, are pushing an evil agenda.
- ADL hopes Vatican can reveal roots of 'Hidden Children'
During the Holocaust, untold numbers of Jewish children were hidden from the Nazis by Christians whose rescue efforts often put their own lives in peril.Incredible acts of charity. Indivduals risking their lives for others. But these are individuals acting on their own understanding of their faith and what it means to be human. Their church had a different understanding.Sciolino revealed that a directive dated Oct. 23, 1946, containing "a list of instructions for French authorities on how to deal with demands from Jewish officials who want to reclaim Jewish children," was recently discovered in the archives of a French Catholic church. The directive said Jewish children who had been baptized Catholic should not be allowed to go home to their own parents. It warned that Jewish orphans could "not be entrusted to institutions that would not be in a position to guarantee their Christian upbringing."Well, isn't it nice to see that the French Catholic church is all behind kidnapping. The French Catholic church wasn't the only one big on kidnapping. But the Irish church one upped them: slavery.- We've mentioned it a couple of times before, but here we go again: From a review of The Magdalene Sisters by Roger Ebert:
Here is a movie about barbaric practices against women, who were locked up without trial and sentenced to forced, unpaid labor for such crimes as flirting with boys, becoming pregnant out of wedlock, or being raped. These inhuman punishments did not take place in Afghanistan under the Taliban, but in Ireland under the Sisters of Mercy. And they are not ancient history. The Magdalene Laundries flourished through the 1970s and processed some 30,000 victims; the last were closed in 1996.
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the closing credits remind us once again that the Magdalene Laundries existed and did their evil work in God's name. The Church in Ireland has changed almost beyond recognition in recent years, and is now, like the American church, making amends for the behavior of some clergy. And the Irish Times articles report that some Protestant denominations had (and have) similar punishments for sexuality, real or suspected. The movie is not so much an attack on the Catholic Church as on the universal mind-set that allows transgressions beyond all decency, if they are justified by religious hysteria. Even today there are women walled up in solitary confinement in closed rooms in their own homes in the Middle East, punished for crimes no more serious, or trivial, that those of the Magdalene laundresses.
Are we again going to see transgressions beyond all deceny because of religious hysteria? Reruns suck.
- rob 3:23 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The revenge of the artsy fartsy - Right Brain makes lefties (politically speaking that is... as a huge generalization of course)- Tuesday, February 22, 2005 -
Revenge of the Right BrainThe future no longer belongs to people who can reason with computer-like logic, speed, and precision. It belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind. Today - amid the uncertainties of an economy that has gone from boom to bust to blah - there's a metaphor that explains what's going on. And it's right inside our heads.With all these people seeing big picture and empathizing... the age of the neocons will end.
Scientists have long known that a neurological Mason-Dixon line cleaves our brains into two regions - the left and right hemispheres. But in the last 10 years, thanks in part to advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have begun to identify more precisely how the two sides divide responsibilities. The left hemisphere handles sequence, literalness, and analysis. The right hemisphere, meanwhile, takes care of context, emotional expression, and synthesis. Of course, the human brain, with its 100 billion cells forging 1 quadrillion connections, is breathtakingly complex. The two hemispheres work in concert, and we enlist both sides for nearly everything we do. But the structure of our brains can help explain the contours of our times.
Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they're no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent.
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The Information Age we all prepared for is ending. Rising in its place is what I call the Conceptual Age, an era in which mastery of abilities that we've often overlooked and undervalued marks the fault line between who gets ahead and who falls behind.
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If number crunching, chart reading, and code writing can be done for a lot less overseas and delivered to clients instantly via fiber-optic cable, that's where the work will go.
But these gusts of comparative advantage are blowing away only certain kinds of white-collar jobs - those that can be reduced to a set of rules, routines, and instructions. That's why narrow left-brain work such as basic computer coding, accounting, legal research, and financial analysis is migrating across the oceans. But that's also why plenty of opportunities remain for people and companies doing less routine work - programmers who can design entire systems, accountants who serve as life planners, and bankers expert less in the intricacies of Excel than in the art of the deal. Now that foreigners can do left-brain work cheaper, we in the US must do right-brain work better.
Last century, machines proved they could replace human muscle. This century, technologies are proving they can outperform human left brains - they can execute sequential, reductive, computational work better, faster, and more accurately than even those with the highest IQs. (Just ask chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.)
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Want to get ahead today? Forget what your parents told you. Instead, do something foreigners can't do cheaper. Something computers can't do faster. And something that fills one of the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of an abundant age. In other words, go right, young man and woman, go right.
- rob 3:02 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Remember when Clinton was President, and he retaliated for the bombing of our embassies in Africa, so the Republicans accused him of trying to "wag the dog" to avoid criticism of his evil blow job? And blow job-related lies?
Well, here's Paul Krugman weighing in on the next round of political warfare, and he's advising us to be ready for it - and I agree with him.
Excerpt: The political landscape today reminds me of the spring of 2002, after the big revelations of corporate fraud. Then, as now, the administration was on the defensive, and Democrats expected to do well in midterm elections.
Then, suddenly, it was all Iraq, all the time, and Harken Energy and Halliburton vanished from the headlines.
I don't know which foreign threat the administration will start playing up this time, but Bush critics should be prepared for the shift. They must curb their natural inclination to focus almost exclusively on domestic issues, and challenge the administration on national security policy, too.
Yeah!
You guys know how George Bush often says, "I won't negotiate with myself!" and "Stick to principal! Stick to the core!"? Well, apparently he'd rather negotiate with insurgents than himself. Weird logic, no? I thought these guys were terrorists?
Excerpt: The secret meeting is taking place in the bowels of a facility in Baghdad, a cavernous, heavily guarded building in the U.S.-controlled green zone. The Iraqi negotiator, a middle-aged former member of Saddam Hussein's regime and the senior representative of the self-described nationalist insurgency, sits on one side of the table.
He is here to talk to two members of the U.S. military. One of them, an officer, takes notes during the meeting. The other, dressed in civilian clothes, listens as the Iraqi outlines a list of demands the U.S. must satisfy before the insurgents stop fighting. The parties trade boilerplate complaints: the U.S. officer presses the Iraqi for names of other insurgent leaders; the Iraqi says the newly elected Shi'a-dominated government is being controlled by Iran. The discussion does not go beyond generalities, but both sides know what's behind the coded language.
Finally, this is just a sad note about Baghdad's hospitals.
Excerpt: Overwhelmed by a daily influx of trauma cases from insurgent bombings and ambushes, Baghdad's antiquated and ill-equipped hospitals are nearing breaking point.
I wonder what's more important than making sure hospitals in Baghdad are fine? Oh, right.
- ThePoliticalPenguin 6:14 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Sign the petition: Stop the PropagandaThe independence of the free press from interference and manipulation on behalf of the government is a sacred check & balance, enshrined in the Constitution to ensure that democracy continues to serve the free people of the United States.
In light of recent revelations about White House "reporter" James Guckert, a.k.a. Jeff Gannon, and a series of Administration policies to promote Republican policies, and numerous instances of what the General Accounting Office has described as "illegal covert propaganda," it appears that this important Constitutional principle is under siege.
We the undersigned request that the White House reveal all details surrounding Mr. Guckert's admission to the White House press gallery and an immediate halt to this troubling pattern of propaganda.
- rob 4:15 PM - [PermaLink] -
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This is a real Ad:
Daily Kos :: The anti-AARP campaign beginsYup, they hate our troops and love gays. This is how they plan on attacking the AARP in their efforts to dismantle social security.So for the Ruling Party Gays have become the commies of the 21st Century.
Self-parody at its finest.
Funny thing is, you click on the ad, and it just goes to the USA Next homepage. No effort to even argue the case that the AARP is anti-troop and pro-gay marriage.
"Are you now? Or have you every been? ... A Gay"
Where does the hate come from?
Repression. Repression leads to self-loathing. Self-Loathing leads to hate.
Jeff Gannon is more than just a propaganda story, it is more than a security breach story. It is the story of a gay man who might not consider himself gay. His belief system has taught him to view his own natural urges as evil. So after years of repression, the guilt turns to self hatred. Gannon had no problem writing homophobic articles for Talon News... perhaps because he is homophobic himself.
In efforts to bring "morality" to the world the right wing has damaged the health, psyche, and spirit of hundreds of thousands of people. Take the former governor of New Jersey. He fought with who he was. Society and the church taught him that who he was was wrong and a choice. To prove to himself he did not want to make such a "choice" he, like many others, visited the strip clubs, had many a female partner, and, eventually, a wife. How could he be gay, he thought. But he was, and it brought down his career and his marriage. The Church which supposedly represents a philosopher who preached love and understanding had force a man to deny his natural state and in so doing damaged not only this man, but so many others in his life.
Repression leads to the hatred. Men so insecure in their own selves they perceive "attacks." If you are born straight you made a "choice" to be straight... bully for you. It is yet another way for a shallow and empty soul to feel better about themselves. If you weren't born straight and are taught it is your choice, it is because you are being attacked by "homosexual" messages, images... the "gay" agenda. This is the hate. Insecurity and repression. In fear and revulsion you run further to the right. Twisted morality creates future twisted followers.
People living in the closet, making the jokes about gays, participating in taunts or even attacks against gays, and then running out to a male prostitute is what the "moral" right wants. Think of the lives lost. Think how each paid "exchange" chips away at the spirits of both men. Now picture a place where what you are is accepted. You never hide. You don't turn to violence and self-loathing. Stable relationships are easier to maintain. Depression, suicide, and substance abuse from the fear and confusion fade away. I guess such a scenario is just not "moral."
How many families have been destroyed because a farther and mother rejects a son or daughter for their strength at being able to live as who they are. A society that hates you, a family that rejects you. No wonder many gays are depressed. To be who you are in that scenario shows incredible strength. So many have that strength, have found happiness, and seeing that strength probably just feeds the anger of the homophobes all the more... because they perceive themselves as so very weak.
And to leave you with a light conclusion: Ashcroft's covering of a statue's breast creates porn.
- rob 4:14 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Krugman: Wag-the-Dog ProtectionThe campaign against Social Security is going so badly that longtime critics of President Bush, accustomed to seeing their efforts to point out flaws in administration initiatives brushed aside, are pinching themselves. But they shouldn't relax: if the past is any guide, the Bush administration will soon change the subject back to national security.
The political landscape today reminds me of the spring of 2002, after the big revelations of corporate fraud. Then, as now, the administration was on the defensive, and Democrats expected to do well in midterm elections.
Then, suddenly, it was all Iraq, all the time, and Harken Energy and Halliburton vanished from the headlines.
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But a president can always change the subject to national security if he wants to - and Mr. Bush has repeatedly shown himself willing to play the terrorism card when he is losing the debate on other issues. So it's important to point out that Mr. Bush, for all his posturing, has done a very bad job of protecting the nation - and to make that point now, rather than in the heat of the next foreign crisis.
The fact is that Mr. Bush, while willing to go to war on weak evidence, hasn't taken the task of protecting America from terrorists at all seriously
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Remember the "first responders" program that ended up spending seven times as much protecting each resident of Wyoming as it spent protecting each resident of New York?
Well, it's still happening. An audit of the Homeland Security Department's (greatly inadequate) program to protect ports found that much of the money went to unlikely locations, including six sites in landlocked Arkansas, where the department's recently resigned chief of border and transportation security is reported to be considering a run for governor.
- rob 2:46 PM - [PermaLink] -
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To continue with the depressing string of posts today:
Daily Kos :: The Rise of Rove's RepublicMost people in the outside world do not explicitly believe we are passing through a period of constitutional crisis. That an impeachment was run over a blow job didn't clue them in. That a president was installed by judicial fiat did not clue them in. That a war was launched which is, and was, essentially a giant looting expedition on the Treasury has not clued them in.Read on
So what is going on? What is the thread that unifies Iraq and Social Security, the election crisis of 2000?
The process of American Constitutional change, and according to that process, the greatest dangers lie ahead, not behind us.
- rob 2:19 PM - [PermaLink] -
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A Different F-word you'll never hear on American TV
Checks and Balances and the "F-Word"Is there enough going on to make you nervous yet? The Vice President of the United States was the keynote speaker at a conference where other speakers called for "a new McCarthyism" to bring "terror" to intellectuals, saying "let's oppress them [liberals]," and "the entire Harvard faculty" are "traitors." A Congressman said, "America's Operation Iraqi Freedom is still producing shock and awe, this time among the blame-America-first crowd," ? Then he said, "We continue to discover biological and chemical weapons and facilities to make them inside Iraq."Again: Happy Birthday George!
Meanwhile, right-wing commentators talk about killing American journalists, their premier blogs talk about former president Carter as being on the side of the enemy and leftists have "seamlessly taken up the cause of Islamic fascism". I have provided only a few examples.
When you hear threatening talk like this, in the company of the country's leadership, you know that whatever comes next isn't going to be pleasant.
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American democracy was built on a system of checks and balances, and mechanisms of oversight and accountability. But the checks and balances and oversight and accountability are being removed. There is no Congressional oversight of this administration, the Justice Department does not investigate its crimes, the Federalist Society judges block all attempts to enforce the laws and the new media is no longer functional. The military acts as an arm of The Party and The Party is firmly in control of the State. The system of controls and protections that was carefully built over the last two centuries was put in place for reasons, by people who learned the lessons of history. I can not think of a time in history when a society left itself so wide open to tyranny from its leadership without it occurring.
- rob 2:13 PM - [PermaLink] -
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An article to really get Michael going.
It seems Washington's dream of a free America is becoming a bit nightmarish:
Injustice, in SecretATTORNEYS FOR the Justice Department appeared before a federal judge in Washington this month and asked him to dismiss a lawsuit over the detention of a U.S. citizen, basing their request not merely on secret evidence but also on secret legal arguments. The government contends that the legal theory by which it would defend its behavior should be immune from debate in court. This position is alien to the history and premise of Anglo-American jurisprudence, which assumes that opposing lawyers will challenge one another's arguments.Bush's Justice Department has said: We are the law, the lawyers, the jury, and the executioners.
New Justice Department mascot:
"I'm not above the law. I AM the Law!"
- rob 1:52 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Let the Rioting Begin
This is what happens when you stand between pigs and their trough:WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail. ... “They grabbed us and started kicking and punching. Then when we were on the floor they tried to push huge filing cabinets on top of us to crush us.” . . . By making so much noise, the protesters hoped to paralyse trading.
But they were set upon by traders, most of whom were under the age of 25. “They were kicking and punching men and women indiscriminately,” a photographer said. “It was really ugly, but Greenpeace did not fight back.”
Mr Beresford said: “They followed the guys into the lobby and kept kicking and punching them there. They literally kicked them on to the pavement.”
Last night Greenpeace said two protesters were in hospital, one with a suspected broken jaw, the other with concussion.
Eighteen police vans and six police cars surrounded the exchange and at least 27 protesters were arrested.
Notice how the people being brutally attacked are the ones who get arrested. We call it democracy.
- Michael 1:18 PM - [PermaLink] -
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I'm getting my breast implants right now!
For more information you must note that yesterday was Monday: The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 187 - Democratic Underground6. Tom CoburnWith that truck and my new silicon breasts I'll live forever.
Okay, this one's a couple of weeks old but I really have to mention it. New senator Dr. Tom Coburn (R-Obviously) showed off his vast medical knowledge recently at a meeting on a bill which would restrict class-action lawsuits. "I immediately thought about silicone breast implants and the legal wrangling and the class-action suits off that," he mused. "And I thought I would just share with you what science says today about silicone breast implants." Okay Tom - hit us with it! What does science say about silicone breast implants? "If you have them, you're healthier than if you don't. That is what the ultimate science shows... In fact, there's no science that shows that silicone breast implants are detrimental and in fact, they make you healthier." Really? Well, silicone breast implants have been banned in the United States since 1992 because they have a tendency to rupture and leak toxic silicone into the body. So... I'd be interested to know where Dr. Tom's "ultimate science" comes from. Perhaps he should get together with Dr. Bill "I Don't Know If HIV Can Be Transmitted Through Sweat" Frist and start up a practice. Coburn & Frist's Medicinal Wonders by Gaslight - We Cure Everything From Dropsy to Scrofula! Step Right Up!
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8. Homeland Defense Vehicles
Move over Navistar! (See Idiots 171). There's a new truck in town competing for the King of the Tiny Penises title, and it's gonna blow you away! Meet the Bad Boy Heavy Muscle Truck - a 3.5 ton military vehicle soon to be on sale to the American public. For just $225,000 you can get a truck which, according to the Associated Press, will "drive through five feet of water, climb a 60-degree grade, tow six tons and keep rolling even with a quarter-sized hole in the tire's sidewall." Just the ticket for dropping the kids off at soccer practice and picking up some groceries on the way home. But the fun doesn't stop there! For $750,000 you can pick up the fully loaded "NBC" version, which - as well as providing an extra fifteen square feet of space for your Bush/Cheney bumper stickers - can apparently "detect and block out fallout from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons by over-pressurizing the cab with filtered, clean air much like an aircraft." Because as we all know, if there's one thing that'll stop nuclear radiation dead in its tracks, it's, um... air. Still, it should come in handy for when Iraq attacks us with all those weapons of mass destruction Bush told us about.
- rob 1:02 PM - [PermaLink] -
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- Monday, February 21, 2005 -
Happy Birthday Mr. President!
Born: February 22, 1732Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.
- Letter to Edward Newenham (October 20, 1792)
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest.
- The Farewell Address (September 17, 1796)
As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.
(attributed to George W. Washington)
Yep, the original President George W: A stinking Liberul.
Source: George Washington - Wikiquote
- rob 12:49 PM - [PermaLink] -
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What Do These Three Things Have in Common?
T shirts
Hunter Thompson
Hunting Mexicans
Answer: America. Mission Accomplished.
Thompson finally shot himself in the head yesterday. We killed the sixties at last. With a bullet to our brain.
- Michael 3:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of
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- 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."
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"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."
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