Stop Stealing and torturing people.

America once looked at such behavior with righteous intignation - brutual despotic governments behaved that way.

We lectured about the world on the illegality, immorality, and ineffectiveness of such behaviour. We pointed back at our nation was a shining example.

Now - thanks to Bush and his ilk (specifically Rumsfeld, Gonzales, and Cheney who are absoultely obsessed with being able to torture), the fingers being pointed as us are accusitory. We are no longer an example of the rule of law, or a justice system that give even the most low a fair shake.

Our nation now tortures people - steals people.

U.N. Urges U.S. to Shut Guantanamo Prison

GENEVA -- The United States should close its prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and avoid using secret detention facilities in the war on terror, the U.N. panel that monitors compliance with the world's anti-torture treaty said Friday.

The Committee Against Torture also said detainees should not be returned to any country where they could face a "real risk" of being tortured.

The criticism, contained in an 11-page report, followed a hearing in Geneva this month on U.S. adherence to the 1984 U.N. Convention Against Torture.

- rob 11:14 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

Bush gave al-Qaeda exactly what they wanted.

The (Other) Story Judith Miller Didn’t Write

Now, in an exclusive interview, Miller tells the details of how the attack on the Cole spurred her reporting on Al Qaeda and led her, in July 2001, to a still-anonymous top-level White House source, who shared top-secret NSA signals intelligence (SIGINT) concerning an even bigger impending Al Qaeda attack, perhaps to be visited on the continental United States. Ultimately, however, Miller never wrote that story either. But two months later --on September 11 -- Miller and her editor at the Times, Stephen Engelberg, another Pulitzer Prize winner, both remembered and regretted the story they “didn’t do.”
...
[Miller Interview - talking about July, 2001] “The people in the counter-terrorism (CT) office were very worried about attacks here in the United States, and that was, it struck me, another debate in the intelligence community. Because a lot of intelligence people did not believe that Al Qaeda had the ability to strike within the United States. The CT people thought they were wrong. But I got the sense at that time that the counter-terrorism people in the White House were viewed as extremist on these views.

“Everyone in Washington was very spun-up in the CT world at that time. I think everybody knew that an attack was coming –- everyone who followed this. But you know you can only ‘Cry wolf’ within a newspaper or, I imagine, within an intelligence agency, so many times before people start saying there he goes -- or there she goes -- again!
...
“But I did manage to have a conversation with a source that weekend. The person told me that there was some concern about an intercept that had been picked up. The incident that had gotten everyone’s attention was a conversation between two members of Al Qaeda. And they had been talking to one another, supposedly expressing disappointment that the United States had not chosen to retaliate more seriously against what had happened to the Cole. And one Al Qaeda operative was overheard saying to the other, ‘Don’t worry; we’re planning something so big now that the US will have to respond.’

“And I was obviously floored by that information. I thought it was a very good story: (1) the source was impeccable; (2) the information was specific, tying Al Qaeda operatives to, at least, knowledge of the attack of the Cole; and (3) they were warning that something big was coming, to which the United States would have to respond.
...
”Miller was naturally excited about the scoop and wanted the Times to go with the story. Engelberg, himself a veteran intelligence reporter, wasn’t so sure. There had been a lot of chatter about potential attacks; how did they know this was anything other than big talk? Who were these guys? What country were they in? How had we gotten the intercept? Miller didn’t have any answers and Engelberg didn’t think they could publish without more context. Miller agreed to try and find out more, but in the end the story never ran.”
...
Engelberg told us the same thing. “On September 11th, I was standing on the platform at the 125th Street station,” he remembered ruefully more than four years later. “I was with a friend and we both saw the World Trade Center burning and saw the second one hit. ‘It’s Al-Qaeda!’ I yelled. ‘We had a heads up!’ So yes, I do still have regrets.”

So does Judy Miller.

“I don’t remember what I said to Steve on September 11,” she concluded in her interview with us. “I don’t think we said anything at all to each other. He just knew what I was thinking and I knew what he was thinking. We were so stunned by what was happening, and there was so much to do, and I think that was the day in which words just fail you.

“So I sometimes think back, and Steve and I have talked a few times about the fact that that story wasn’t fit and that neither one of us pursued it at that time with the kind of vigor and determination that we would have had we known what was going to happen. And I always wondered how the person who sent that [intercept] warning must have felt.

“You know sometimes in journalism you regret the stories you do; but most of the time you regret the ones that you didn’t do.”

I'm putting aside the obvious argument that this is yet more proof that some folks (but not Rice, Cheney, Ashcroft, or Bush) were concerned that - as the 8/6/01 memo bush 'read' said - "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States."

I want to point out this bit: And they had been talking to one another, supposedly expressing disappointment that the United States had not chosen to retaliate more seriously against what had happened to the Cole. And one Al Qaeda operative was overheard saying to the other, ‘Don’t worry; we’re planning something so big now that the US will have to respond.’

That is the whole point of terrorism - to incite irrational response - not measured response. Irrational response garners the terrorist more recruits, fans, sympathizers, it gives them a starring role on the world stage. Bush did exactly what they wanted - he destroyed America's standing with an unnecessary war in Iraq with 9/11 as an excuse. He incited so much fear in America with the drumming chant of "9/11 9/11 9/11" that a terrorist would be envious.

Bush was the worst President for the time - he was the perfect puppet for the neo-cons - but he was also the perfect puppet for the terrorists themselves.

Al Qaeda isn't disappointed this time. Bush made sure of that. Chaos, anarchy, and terror have been experiencing a bull market. There really is a Bush boom - it just doesn't have anything to do with the economy.

- rob 9:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Quick - go to: Attytood: What we've become - it says an awful lot in very few words.

We'll be here if you come back.

- rob 8:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

hmmm... let's see.. the 4th amendment....
It comes after the third....
Nope, got nothing - what's it say?

- rob 6:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Fox News isn't just a GOP mouthpiece - it is the "purity network" - making sure American stays white.


Gibson: "Make more babies"

Summary: On The Big Story, John Gibson urged viewers to "[d]o your duty. Make more babies," because he had found out, from a recently released report, that nearly half of all children under the age of five in the United States are minorities. Gibson added: "You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the population is Hispanic." Gibson later repeated: "To put it bluntly, we need more babies."

O'Reilly and the white Christians who hold power

Summary: Bill O'Reilly claimed that The New York Times and "many far-left thinkers believe the white power structure that controls America is bad, so a drastic change is needed." O'Reilly continued: "According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will."

And you always thought graphics like this were a joke:


They play the patriot card, the homophobia card, the "war on Christmas" card, and now the "they aren't white" card.

How can Fox News have any credibility? Why would any politician of any party want to give them legitimacy by appearing on their network. It is a network programmed to fuel hatred and xenophobic fear. Hey it may be great for ratings but it is also a great way to encourage violence and murder.

- rob 6:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Teh Stupid

Dingbat Billing Dust-up Shuts Down Security Clearances

Last month, OPM -- which currently handles background investigations and issues security clearances for the defense/intelligence community -- abruptly announced it was shutting down the clearance process for new employees.
...
What does that mean to you and me? It means our national security has been compromised for months over a $40 million billing dispute. That's about how much the Pentagon spends when Rumsfeld sneezes. The matter is easily settled: either party could fold. The two could split the difference. Or the White House could show why it's called the Executive Branch -- make an executive decision.

Instead, it's going to be dragged out for months, while seats go empty. Projects sit idle. Documents go untranslated. Terrorists go un-caught.

Money is tight don't you know - what with $200 processing costs on expense forms:

DHS Unveils the $208 Taxi Ride

The use of taxi service requires the submission and processing of a local travel voucher in order for the traveler to claim reimbursement. This 'back office' processing is conservatively estimated to cost at least $200 per voucher[.]

- rob 6:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

But I thought Bush stands by his standing (or something)

Sensenbrenner: Bush Turned Back on Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, who has pushed a tough border security bill through the House, accused President Bush on Wednesday of abandoning the legislation after asking for many of its provisions.

"He basically turned his back on provisions of the House-passed bill, a lot of which we were requested to put in the bill by the White House," Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., angrily told reporters in a conference call. "That was last fall when we were drafting the bill, and now the president appears not to be interested in it at all."

- rob 6:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

It really is a pitty Robertson never won one of his Presidential bids, because God talks to him more often then he talks to Bush.

Robertson: God Says Tsunami Possible For U.S.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Rev. Pat Robertson says God has told him that storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America's coastline this year.

The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network has told viewers of "The 700 Club" that the revelations came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January.

God is probably angry that the GOP had to back down from its arrest anyone who helps an illegal alien law. God wants people who help those in need to go to jail.

- rob 5:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Wired News: AT&T Whistle-Blower's Evidence

Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the key witness in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's class-action lawsuit against the company, which alleges that AT&T illegally cooperated in an illegal National Security Agency domestic-surveillance program.

In this recently surfaced statement, Klein details his discovery of an alleged surveillance operation in an AT&T office in San Francisco, and offers his interpretation of company documents that he believes support his case.
...
In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities.

The physical arrangement, the timing of its construction, the government-imposed secrecy surrounding it, and other factors all strongly suggest that its origins are rooted in the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program which brought forth vigorous protests from defenders of constitutionally protected civil liberties last year:

"As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information from internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions and travel documents, without a search warrant." The New York Times, 9 November 2002
...
In San Francisco the "secret room" is Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. High-speed fiber-optic circuits come in on the 8th floor and run down to the 7th floor where they connect to routers for AT&T's WorldNet service, part of the latter's vital "Common Backbone." In order to snoop on these circuits, a special cabinet was installed and cabled to the "secret room" on the 6th floor to monitor the information going through the circuits. (The location code of the cabinet is 070177.04, which denotes the 7th floor, aisle 177 and bay 04.) The "secret room" itself is roughly 24-by-48 feet, containing perhaps a dozen cabinets including such equipment as Sun servers and two Juniper routers, plus an industrial-size air conditioner.

The normal work force of unionized technicians in the office are forbidden to enter the "secret room," which has a special combination lock on the main door. The telltale sign of an illicit government spy operation is the fact that only people with security clearance from the National Security Agency can enter this room.

- rob 5:53 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

But sir I briefed the victim that I was proceeding with a theft of her belongings.

Hatch: Court Briefed on Bush Surveillance

WASHINGTON -- Two judges on the secretive court that approves warrants for intelligence surveillance were told of the broad monitoring programs that have raised recent controversy, a Republican senator said Tuesday, connecting a court to knowledge of the collecting of millions of phone records for the first time.

President Bush, meanwhile, insisted the government does not listen in on domestic telephone conversations among ordinary Americans. But he declined to specifically discuss the compiling of phone records, or whether that would amount to an invasion of privacy.
...
Asked if the judges somehow approved the operations, Hatch said, "That is not their position, but they were informed."

But wait - here's the punchline.

An aide later said Hatch's comments should in no way be considered confirmation of any efforts to collect phone records.

- rob 3:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Looks like they got the memo:

Boing Boing: Feds' citizenship flashcards omit Freedom of the Press

Question 80 asks, 'Name one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.' The answer lists freedom of speech, religion, assembly and the right to petition the government — but omits freedom of the press."

We want to make sure new citizens understand that there is no freedom of the press.

- rob 2:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Is it a lie if daddy says it was okay to lie?

If a tree falls in the woods and Negroponte says it still stands does it make a sound loud enough for the surveillance microphones to pick up?

Think Progress - New Presidential Memorandum Permits Intelligence Director To Authorize Telcos To Lie Without Violating Securities Law

- rob 2:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Time for an intervention

The House will not reform. The House will not stop spending until they grind the country into the ground and give the gravel to land developers along with another tax windfall.

They are addict to corruption, incompetence, spending, and politics for politics sake.

They need to go.

House Ignoring Pledge Over Pet Projects

WASHINGTON -- Just two weeks after the House passed a reform bill requiring lawmakers to attach their names to pet projects, GOP leaders are advancing spending bills containing billions of dollars in such parochial "earmarks" whose sponsors remain anonymous.

"But it isn't a law yet!" they cry as an excuse - I guess proving that these guys and gals would really be sleeping with dogs if it weren't against the law.

- rob 1:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Hilarious.

Just read: TPMmuckraker: Is Border Plan Solid? Just Ask The Officials

- rob 5:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

This is America in 2006 - Less free Less safe but look over there - an immigrant! (did I distract you?)

FBI Acknowledges: Journalists' Phone Records are Fair Game

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations.

"It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration," said a senior federal official.
...
Officials say the FBI makes extensive use of a new provision of the Patriot Act which allows agents to seek information with what are called National Security Letters (NSL).

The NSLs are a version of an administrative subpoena and are not signed by a judge. Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government.

- rob 5:43 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

When Bill Maher advised, years ago, to Be More Cynical, John Sullivan listened. The Sun-Times is running an interpretation of Bush's speech that shows us that Republicans are No Nearer to Together on the issue than they were before. RealClear confirms by writing that "06 Prospects took a hit" with Bush's speech last night. These are simply the politics of the speech -- a dissection of its rhetoric, an analysis of its political effect. When we get to the meat, the situation gets worse.

Policy-wise, the President's newest proposal -- to move the National Guard toward the border, six thousand of them -- isn't going to work, either, as it'll wind up overstretching the National Guard. Not only that, but it's evidence that Bush and Rumsfeld haven't learnt a darn thing from Iraq. If they had, they wouldn't believe that they'll secure the border with six thousand guardsmen.

What will they tell us next? That the guardsmen will be greeted as liberators by immigrants on the border? That six thousand are all that's needed to secure the frontier? Is Donald Rumsfeld writing our policy on the border?

Let me tell you, the current Republican Party will be lucky to be greeted as the Republican Party by Conservatives this fall, if the Conservatives greet them at all. I've got a sinking feeling that Republicans are going to immigrate in mass numbers this fall, but while Liberals flee to Canada, the Republicans are going to enter truly foreign land for them: the Desert of the Non Voter.

This whole year has been a tough one for Republicans, as they don't seem able to assimilate to the year 2006. Maybe we should deport the GOP to another era, one that they're better suited for -- the 1920s, perhaps? The Middle Ages? -- instead of reliving the 1970s, as they're so intent on doing. If Republicans found themselves in the Dark Ages, and Democrats back in the Glory Days of the New Deal, we could all be happy!

The Beatles used to say, "Money can't buy me love." Dick Cheney might disagree. But this year, Conservatives are going to say, "Lip Service Can't Buy My Vote" and Democrats will find wind beneath its Wings with the collapse of the Vulcans.

Figuratively speaking, of course.

If you enjoy my style, feel free to cross the border into the Office of the Independent Blogger.

- ThePoliticalPenguin 2:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

The CIA lie? Startling!

Fired Officer Believed CIA Lied to Congress

A senior CIA official, meeting with Senate staff in a secure room of the Capitol last June, promised repeatedly that the agency did not violate or seek to violate an international treaty that bars cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees, during interrogations it conducted in the Middle East and elsewhere.

But another CIA officer -- the agency's deputy inspector general, who for the previous year had been probing allegations of criminal mistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan -- was startled to hear what she considered an outright falsehood, according to people familiar with her account. It came during the discussion of legislation that would constrain the CIA's interrogations.

That CIA officer was Mary O. McCarthy, 61, who was fired on April 20 for allegedly sharing classified information with journalists, including Washington Post journalist Dana Priest. A CIA employee of two decades, McCarthy became convinced that "CIA people had lied" in that briefing, as one of her friends said later, not only because the agency had conducted abusive interrogations but also because its policies authorized treatment that she considered cruel, inhumane or degrading.

- rob 2:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

And now, a message from Al Gore the 43rd President of the United States.

In 2000 when you overwhelmingly made the decision to elect me as your 43rd president, I knew the road ahead would be difficult. We have accomplished so much yet challenges lie ahead.

In the last 6 years we have been able to stop global warming. No one could have predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melting are now on the attack.

As you know, these renegade glaciers have already captured parts of upper Michigan and northern Maine, but I assure you: we will not let the glaciers win.

Right now, in the 2nd week of May 2006, we are facing perhaps the worst gas crisis in history.

We have way too much gasoline. Gas is down to $0.19 a gallon and the oil companies are hurting.

I know that I am partly to blame by insisting that cars run on trash.

I am therefore proposing a federal bailout to our oil companies because - hey if it were the other way around, you know the oil companies would help us.

On a positive note, we worked hard to save Welfare, fix Social Security and of course provide the free universal health care we all enjoy today.

But all this came at a high cost. As I speak, the gigantic national budget surplus is down to a perilously low $11 trillion dollars.

But alas, though it was the real Al Gore, it was just a skit on Saturday Night Live.

- rob 2:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

It is official. Freedom of the Press is under attack. Bush is tracking the calls of reporters - this isn't about terrorism - this is about power. Intimidate repoters, stop them from telling how bad Bush's government really is - all to keep power.

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

Frank Rich over at the NY Times says it plain and simple - the traitors are in the White House.

Frank Rich in 'NYT' Defends Newspapers, Rips 'Treason' in Washington

NEW YORK In his Sunday opinion column for The New York Times, Frank Rich, who returned from book leave just last week, shook off the cobwebs to launch a vigorous defense of newspapers -- and an attack on the real "traitors," including top officials.

Rich opens by recalling charges of treason against the late New York Times editor Abe Rosenthal when he published the Pentagon Papers in 1971. "Today we know who the real traitors were: the officials who squandered American blood and treasure on an ill-considered war and then tried to cover up their lies and mistakes," Rich observes.

Now history is repeating itself, as the Bush administration and its defenders "are desperate to deflect blame" for the Iraq fiasco, "and, guess what, the traitors once again are The Times and The Post. This time the newspapers committed the crime of exposing warrantless spying on Americans by the National Security Agency (The Times) and the C.I.A.'s secret 'black site' Eastern European prisons (The Post). Aping the Nixon template, the current White House tried to stop both papers from publishing and when that failed impugned their patriotism....

- rob 2:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

CIA leak probe looks at Cheney writings

Now why would Fitzgerald be interested in Lynne Cheney's 1981 novel Sisters. Here's an excerpt (no CIA stuff going on here):

The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage -- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave.

Oh, my mistake - its something Dick wrote on his copy of the NY Times (from the original article):

"Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an Amb. to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"

The annotations support the notion that Wilson's op-ed piece drew the attention of Cheney and Libby, and "acutely focused" their attention on Wilson's assertions "and on responding to those assertions," the filing stated.

"The article, and the fact that it contained certain criticisms of the administration, including criticism regarding issues dealt with by the Office of the Vice President, serve both to explain the context of, and provide the motive for, many of the defendant's statements and actions at issue in this case," Fitzgerald's filing said.

Here's a scan of the page with Cheney's notes. (thanks to Talking Points Memo).

- rob 2:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

I am shocked - shocked I say - that John Negroponte would lie. He has such a sterling record.

Negroponte Had Denied Domestic Call Monitoring

When he was asked about the National Security Agency's controversial domestic surveillance program last Monday, U.S. intelligence chief John D. Negroponte objected to the question and said the government was "absolutely not" monitoring domestic calls without warrants.
...
Three days later, USA Today divulged details of the NSA's effort to log a majority of the telephone calls made within the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- amassing the domestic call records of tens of millions of U.S. households and businesses in an attempt to sift them for clues about terrorist threats.

Because if the NSA knows that I called my Aunt Sylvia they'll immediately be able to determine the location of Osama and notify the President. With this knowledge the President will immediately send troops to our border with Mexico. It all comes together.

This administration uses all sorts of abuses under the guise of keeping America secure. But it has been shown again and again when it comes to actually keeping America secure Bush's people really can't be bothered.

- rob 1:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Because our National Guard has nothing else to do.

Bush Set To Send Guard to Border

President Bush tried to ease the worries of his Mexican counterpart yesterday as he prepared for a nationally televised address tonight unveiling a plan to send thousands of National Guard troops to help seal the nation's southern border against illegal immigrants.

Mexican President Vicente Fox called to express concern over the prospect of militarization of the border, and Bush reassured him that it would be only a temporary measure to bolster overwhelmed Border Patrol agents, the White House said.

"The president made clear that the United States considers Mexico a friend and that what is being considered is not militarization of the border but support of Border Patrol capabilities on a temporary basis by National Guard personnel," said White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri.

I think Bush was so deeply traumatized by being kept up late occasionally while part of the Texas Air National Guard that he's seeking revenge on the innocent National Guard troops low these decades later.

We've been wondering a loud here about what dangerous and reckless thing Bush may do in a sad attempt to boost his ratings. Like a wounded animal, Bush at low approval is Bush at his most dangerous. But I admit, though here at TCS we are quite able to assume the worst we are completely surprised by the pending war with Mexico.

- rob 1:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Subscribe to the TCS Feed

Having trouble with some of the poor English on this site?
Imagine what it looks like when translated by a machine:

Search TCS

Archive

Archive Index Page

What is this?

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.

This Century Sucks Store

Buy our cool stuff.
And tell everyone what you feel.  

We have a little Store you can visit.  

Our store's selection of items is constantly growing. Come see what we have.

 

We're also Amazon Associates, so if you want to buy something from Amazon, please search for it below, and we will get a few bucks from the sale.

Search Now:

Sites we often like:

Tin Foil Caps

The Free Speech Zone

The office of the independent blogger

Buzzflash

Tom The Dancing Bug

VerifiedVoting.org

Get Your War On

This Modern World

Eschaton / Atrios

Daily Kos

Contribute to America's Future

It is now more important then ever.

Donate to the Democractic Congressional Campaign Committee

Donate to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Some More Site Mottos

"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.