In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
April 14, 1997Mr. Kenneth Lay5/25/05:
2121 Kirby Drive
Houston, Texas 77019
Dear Ken:
One of the sad things about old friends is that they seem to be getting older - just like you!
55 years old. Wow! That is really old.
Thank goodness you have such a young, beautiful wife.
Laura and I value our friendship with you. Best wishes to Linda, your family, and friends.
Your younger friend,
George W. BushHOUSTON, May 25 -- A federal jury found former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay guilty of every one of the half-dozen counts with which he was charged and convicted his protege Jeffrey K. Skilling of 19 more on Thursday, pinning them with responsibility for one of the era's biggest and most damaging business frauds.Remember that myth about Bush's true strength is his loyalty to his friends?
Once a Friend and Ally, Now a Distant MemoryHe started as "Kenny Boy." Then he was a "supporter," an acquaintance who had not talked to President Bush in "quite some time.
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In the 1980s, when Bush was working in the Texas oil industry, his firm invested in a drilling partnership with Lay's company, a predecessor to Enron. In 1992, Lay was co-chairman of the Republican National Convention in Houston that re-nominated President George H.W. Bush.
Later, Lay was a major fundraiser for George W. Bush's political career. He delivered more than $300,000 for his two gubernatorial campaigns, according to Texans for Public Justice.
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In the 2000 presidential race, Lay remained a steadfast ally. Lay was a Bush "Pioneer" who raised at least $100,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Enron also made its jet available and contributed to inaugural festivities.
- rob 4:34 PM - [PermaLink] -
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A Test of Our Character - New York TimesThe cover story in the current issue of National Review is titled "Scare of the Century." As evidence that global warming isn't really happening, it offers the fact that some Antarctic ice sheets are getting thicker — a point also emphasized in a TV ad by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is partly financed by large oil companies, whose interests it reliably represents.Why don't we look at fighting global warming as a potential dramatic boon to the economy. Money invested into new energy sources could lead to new fuels that would require a huge paradigm shift. Entire industries would appear overnight.
Curt Davis, a scientist whose work is cited both by the institute and by National Review, has already protested. "These television ads," he declared in a press release, "are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate." He points out that an initial increase in the thickness of Antarctica's interior ice sheets is a predicted consequence of a warming planet, so that his results actually support global warming rather than refuting it.
Even as the usual suspects describe well-founded concerns about global warming as hysteria, they issue hysterical warnings about the economic consequences of environmentalism. "Al Gore's global warming movie: could it destroy the economy?" Fox News asked.
Well, no, it couldn't.
Perhaps that is the true issue that big oil firms have with discussions of working to fight Global Warming - it would lead not to restrictions to their businesses but rather it would lead to competition.
Oil firms would go the way of the very dinosaurs whose remains they've been peddling for years.
- rob 4:24 PM - [PermaLink] -
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So it is now office gossip that brings security lapses to light?
VA breach discovered through office gossipIn four hours of testimony, IG George Opfer said the department failed to heed years of warnings about lax security and noted that the employee who lost the data when his house was burglarized had been improperly taking the material home for three years.From the Government itself here are the details of this fiasco:
"We were on borrowed time," Opfer told Senate and House panels investigating the breach.The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recently learned that an employee, a data analyst, took home electronic data from the VA, which he was not authorized to do. This behavior was in violation of VA policies. This data contained identifying information including names, social security numbers, and dates of birth for up to 26.5 million veterans and some spouses, as well as some disability ratings.[emphasis added]
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Today's GOP - creating a new generation of dirty campaigners.
An agruement of ideas is a laughable concept it seems.
TPMmuckraker: Phone Jammer Lends Wisdom at "GOP Campaign School"If it weren't for Chuck McGee, there never would have been a New Hampshire phone jamming. McGee, then the Executive Director of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, is a former Marine, and the idea of jamming the enemy's communications on Election Day was his inspiration.Here's some background about the phone jamming: Former Bush Campaign Official Sentenced to Prison
That's just the sort of original thinking that the next generation of conservative strategists needs. So no doubt they'll benefit when they show up for the "GOP Campaign School" put on by the Republican direct mail outfit McGee works for.CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) - A senior official in U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election campaign was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in suppressing votes in a key U.S. Senate race, a scandal that Democrats charge may involve the White House.Why would a political party pay $2.5 Million to lawyers to defend a man who threatened our political tradition of free and fair elections?
James Tobin, 45, one of three Republican campaign operatives convicted in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in a 2002 election, was convicted in December of two telephone harassment charges.
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U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe described the crime as ''extremely serious'' and a threat to the U.S. political tradition of free and fair elections.
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Democrats want an investigation into 22 telephone calls made by Tobin and New Hampshire Republican Party officials to the White House on November 5 and 6, 2002, and say they believe national Republican officials may be involved in the scheme.
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The national Republican Party, which has paid more than $2.5 million in legal fees to defend Tobin, has said the calls to the White House were routine during a tight state Senate race and had nothing to do with the phone-jamming.
No... seriously - why?
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"If we ever pass out as a great nation we ought to put on our tombstone, 'America died from a delusion that she has moral leadership."
- Will Rogers
George Bush is both simultaneously pompously promoting our moral leadership, while stripping any morality that existed in our country's leadership.
If a grave is ever dug for our great nation it is Bush administration which dug the most dirt with the most earnestness.
That, when you get to the heart of the argument that this site promotes, is our concern, that Bush through both his action and inaction is doing a devastating amount of damage to our nation. And taking away not only its greatness, but its potential to achieve far far greater things.
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AMERICAblog: Bizarre Wash Post suck-up story on Bill Frist Excerpts from an actual Washington Post article:- Thursday, May 25, 2006 -He pressed his stethoscope to the gorilla's chest and narrowed his eyes. Kuja, a silverback patriarch, was breathing isofluorine. He was the Senate majority leader of the gorillas, who negotiated disputes, back-slapped the ape boys and owned exclusive mating rights with the females.Read the commentary at Americablog. Something is very wrong over at the Washington Post.
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At 9:30 a.m., Frist opened the Senate, gripping the corners of the lectern, as he had the operating table. Across the city, rolling in a bed of hay, Kuja opened his eyes and grunted. The gorilla kept touching his tongue to his tooth. Something had changed inside of the beast while he slept. Frist smiled and spoke unremarkably from the lectern, reeking of silverback testosterone.
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Wired: What if they gave a war?- Wednesday, May 24, 2006 -
Reporter Tony Long contrasts the politically disengaged and apathetic public of today versus 1968.The world was seething, and for good reason. There was a lot to be angry about. It was a lousy year, 1968.Sad commentary on US society in this awful new century. For those of you who want to do something, here are some suggestions:
...
But as bad as things were then, they seem infinitely worse now.
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In short, where the hell is everybody?
I'll tell you where they are. They're at home, tuning in to root for the next "American idol." They're plugged into their iPods, utterly self-involved and disconnected from what lies just outside their doors. They're spending 25 hours a week playing video games in virtual worlds instead of fighting to save the only world that really matters. They're surfing porn. They're text messaging and e-mailing and scheming to close that next big deal. They're flogging their useless crap on eBay.C'mon, c'mon. Just doing something-- a fist step, regardless of how small, is better than nothing.
- Write an email or letter to your local senator or congressperson-- their contact info is available online, hello?
- Attend a peace march or political rally either locally, in a nearby city or the nation's capital
- Turn off your television and write a letter to your local paper
- seek out grass-roots organizations or join up with like-minded people, such as Drinking Liberally
- Edoc 10:14 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Excellent Post on The Huffington Post
Again and again the excuse used to one by one strip away at our civil liberties is that it will make us safer.
"if we had the right to do whatever we damn well wanted prior to 9/11, 9/11 wouldn't have happened."
Actually if the FBI and other governmental just accted competently 9/11 may not have happened.
Larry Beinhart: The Lie Lives On ... and On ... and OnThe Republican Senator tossed General Michael Hayden a big, fat softball of a question: "Do you think that if you had this program ...." of wiretaps without warrants, "... in place before September 11th you might have prevented it?"This reminds me of the Statement of Mindy Kleinberg to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission), just over three years ago. In her statement she quite clearly points out the many things the US had to do wrong to allow the attacks to happen. She asks why all of these things were possible. She never gets an answer.
General Hayden jumped right on it. He said that yes, if he had his secret powers then, that he has today, he could have stopped al Qaeda's plot.
Then he said, there were two guys in San Diego ...
He was referring to Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar. George Bush also talks about them when he wants to justify wiretaps without warrants.
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Both of them were in the NSA and CIA files. They'd fought in Bosnia. They'd been to Afghanistan. They had friends and relatives who were jihadists and who were in Al Qaeda and they had associations with bin Laden.
In December, 1999 the NSA picked up several names in relation to an upcoming meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. They got al Mihdhar's full name but only al Hazmi's first name, Nawaf. They could have figured out who he was if they had checked in their own data base. But they didn't.
The CIA tracked al Mihdhar when he traveled from Yemen to the meeting in Kuala Lumpur, arriving on January 5th, 2000. The CIA had the event under surveillance. Al Mihdhar was photographed there. The team noted that some of the terrorists, including al Mihdhar and al Hazmi, flew to Bangkok on January 8th, where they lost track of them. Also in January, the CIA found out that al Mihdhar had a US passport.
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The CIA did not put either al Hazmi or al Mihdhar on the State Department TIPOFF watch list. So they were not picked up when they entered the US. Al Mihdrar later left the US and went to Yemen, because he missed his family. Then returned to participate in the 9/11 attacks. He was not picked up leaving or returning.
The CIA did not give their names to the FBI. So they were not tracked when they entered the United States. They spent two months in Los Angeles. Then they went to San Diego. In both places they associated with radical Muslims and made radical mosques the center of their lives.
They also lived with an FBI informant. Al Hazmi got picked for speeding in Oklahoma. His license was in his real name. When the trooper ran it, nothing came back. Remember, that at this point, he was known as a terrorist associated with Osama bin Laden and bin Laden was known to be trying to organize an attack on America.
Al Hazmi and Al Mihdhar both bought their tickets over the internet using credit cards in their real names.With regard to the 9/11 attacks, it has been said that the intelligence agencies have to be right 100% of the time and the terrorists only have to get lucky once. This explanation for the devastating attacks of September 11th, simple on its face, is wrong in its value. Because the 9/11 terrorists were not just lucky once: they were lucky over and over again. Allow me to illustrate.By the way don't you think there should be a way to find out who bought put options. I don't know about you, but when dealing with banks and stock markets and such, they generally ask your name.
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The terrorist's lucky streak began the week before September 11th with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. The SEC, in concert with the United States intelligence agencies, has sophisticated software programs that are used in "real-time" to watch both domestic and overseas markets to seek out trends that may indicate a present or future crime. In the week prior to September 11th both the SEC and U.S. intelligence agencies ignored one major stock market indicator, one that could have yielded valuable information with regard to the September 11th attacks.
On the Chicago Board Options Exchange during the week before September 11th, put options were purchased on American and United Airlines, the two airlines involved in the attacks. The investors who placed these orders were gambling that in the short term the stock prices of both Airlines would plummet. Never before on the Chicago Exchange were such large amounts of United and American Airlines options traded. These investors netted a profit of at least $5 million after the September 11th attacks.
Interestingly, the names of the investors remain undisclosed and the $5 million remains unclaimed in the Chicago Exchange account.Prior to 9/11, our US intelligence agencies should have stopped the 19 terrorists from entering this country for intelligence reasons, alone. However, their failure to do so in 19 instances does not negate the luck involved for the terrorists when it comes to their visa applications and our Immigration and Naturalization Service, or INS.Of course we could also discuss the FBI field offices who were waving flags saying "hey suspicious guy talking flight lessons here." only to be ignored.
With regard to the INS, the terrorists got lucky 15 individual times, because 15 of the 19 hijackers' visas should have been unquestionably denied.
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On the morning of September 11th, the terrorists' luck commenced with airline and airport security. When the 19 hijackers went to purchase their tickets (with cash and/or credit cards) and to receive their boarding passes, nine were singled out and questioned through a screening process. Luckily for those nine terrorists, they passed the screening process and were allowed to continue on with their mission.
But, the terrorist's luck didn't end at the ticket counter; it also accompanied them through airport security, as well. Because how else would the hijackers get specifically contraband items such as box-cutters, pepper spray or, according to one FAA executive summary, a gun on those planes?
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Those protocols dictate that in the event of an emergency, the FAA is to notify NORAD. Once that notification takes place, it is then the responsibility of NORAD to scramble fighter-jets to intercept the errant plane(s). It is a matter of routine procedure for fighter-jets to "intercept" commercial airliners in order to regain contact with the pilot.
If that weren't protection enough, on September 11th, NEADS (or the North East Air Defense System dept of NORAD) was several days into a semiannual exercise known as "Vigilant Guardian". This meant that our North East Air Defense system was fully staffed. In short, key officers were manning the operation battle center, "fighter jets were cocked, loaded, and carrying extra gas on board."
Lucky for the terrorists none of this mattered on the morning of September 11th.
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The acting Joint Chief of staff on Sept 11th was on the morning of September 11th, he was having a routine meeting . Acting Joint Chief of staff Myers stated that he saw a TV. report about a plane hitting the WTC but thought it was a small plane or something like that. So, he went ahead with his meeting. "Meanwhile the second World Trade Center was hit by another jet. Nobody informed us of that," Myers said. By the time he came out of the meeting the Pentagon had been hit.
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Is it luck that aberrant stock trades were not monitored? Is it luck when 15 visas are awarded based on incomplete forms? Is it luck when Airline Security screenings allow hijackers to board planes with box cutters and pepper spray? Is it luck when Emergency FAA and NORAD protocols are not followed? Is it luck when a national emergency is not reported to top government officials on a timely basis?
To me luck is something that happens once. When you have this repeated pattern of broken protocols, broken laws, broken communication, one cannot still call it luck.
The Bush White House response to all these breakdowns in the way the government protects us? Tap our phones.
Where in the above list of mistakes and missed opportunites would tapping our phones have helped?
time for a repeat of an old quote:
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.- Benjamin Franklin
- rob 4:46 PM - [PermaLink] -
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In the Land of the Free and Home of the Puritanical Laws
Marry or get out, US town tells unwed parentsThe brewing controversy in Black Jack, a town of 6,800 in the central state of Missouri, began unfolding earlier this year when Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving were denied an occupancy permit after moving into a four-bedroom house they had purchased.
Local officials told the couple that the fact they were not married and had three children, one from Shelltrack's previous relationship, did not fit the town's definition of "family".
A Black Jack ordinance prohibits more than three people from living together in a single family home unless they are related by "blood, marriage or adoption".
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Shelltrack, 31, said she and Loving, her partner of 13 years, never imagined when they moved to Black Jack from Minnesota in January that a legal nightmare awaited them.
"We though the occupancy permit was a housing code issue, that an inspector would come by and check the house," Shelltrack said. "But we figured something was wrong when they asked for the children's birth certificates and a marriage certificate."
- rob 4:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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FYI:
American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU Launches Nationwide Action Against NSA Snooping on Americans' Phone Calls
- rob 4:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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They Might Be Giants is selling a new "Call Connected Thru The NSA" ringtone for your cell phone. You can also download it for free here.
(thanks to Boing Boing)
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How Often Did Abramoff Visit? The White House Won't TellYou knew this was coming.
Last week we found out why the Secret Service had turned over visitor records to Judicial Watch showing only two visits by Jack Abramoff when we knew there were more. The White House, not the Secret Service, has the more comprehensive records.
Well, now it appears doubtful that the White House will ever turn those records over. We may never know how many times Abramoff really visited the White House... or who Jeff Gannon/James Guckert, the male prostitute and White House correspondent, met with there. The White House has records that would show all that. But in a departure from the policy of the Clinton White House, the Bush administration seems determined to keep them forever out of public view.
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Let's Name that Nation
Geovernment Prosecutions of Journalists Are Possible
Is that news piece about Russia?
China?
The New Iraq?
Iran?
Nope, nope, nope, nope.
It is about America. Or the land that was America before Bush and company marketed fear to gain power and remove our civil liberties."There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," Mr. Gonzales said on the ABC News program "This Week."Wow suddenly Gonzales is all about following the law... like with extraditions and torture.
"That's a policy judgment by the Congress in passing that kind of legislation," he continued. "We have an obligation to enforce those laws. We have an obligation to ensure that our national security is protected."
Asked whether he was open to the possibility that The New York Times should be prosecuted for its disclosures in December concerning a National Security Agency surveillance program, Mr. Gonzales said his department was trying to determine "the appropriate course of action in that particular case."
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Talking Points Memo: From the annals of ironyBush said he would remind Western Hemisphere nations such as those that ''respect for property rights and human rights is essential,'' that ''meddling in other elections ... to achieve a short-term objective is not in the interests of the neighborhood,'' and that the United States expects other nations to stand against corruption and for transparent governance.
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Anthrax case update:
Real NY Post cover
Just to let you know - still nothing. But I'm sure Bush's Justice Department won't rest until this case is solved.. @#% (sorry, typing that made me spit up my tea).
- rob 3:58 PM - [PermaLink] -
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If the Net does not remain neutral the ability for small companies to invotate, new industries to be created, true political discussion to take place will all be lost.- Monday, May 22, 2006 -
AT&T will decide where you go on the web.
Web inventor warns of 'dark' netThe web should remain neutral and resist attempts to fragment it into different services, web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee has said.
Recent attempts in the US to try to charge for different levels of online access web were not "part of the internet model," he said in Edinburgh.
He warned that if the US decided to go ahead with a two-tier internet, the network would enter "a dark period".
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This is funny but is also a vivid reminder that even if peace in Iraq happens tomorrow there will be physical repercussions even decades later. Political and emotional repercussions will be felt into the 22nd Century.
And unfortunately there won't be peace tomorrow.
And sadly this war didn't even have to happen save for the whims of a spoiled brat trying to show daddy that he was a "real" man.
Here's your grenade -- you want fries with that?YORK (Reuters) - Workers at a British factory making French fries were evacuated two days running last week after bomb parts turned up in potatoes imported from France and Belgium, the site of battles in World War One and Two.
The Scarborough plant, owned by Canada's McCain Foods, the world's largest producer of frozen fries, was emptied Friday after a worker spotted a shell tip among the potatoes as they were being cleaned for slicing.
"The police were called and the bomb squad advised a 100 meter exclusion zone should be set up," said a McCain spokesman.
Saturday, an entire hand grenade was discovered in the potatoes and the plant in northern England was evacuated again.
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"Occasionally during the use of imported potatoes from Belgium and northern France, ordnance debris from the First and Second World War is found," McCain said in a statement.
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Get all of the corrupt bums out of there (and into jail).
I don't care what party they belong to.
There interests aren't for us, there interests aren't America's.
FBI Says Jefferson Was Filmed Taking CashRep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), the target of a 14-month public corruption probe, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit released yesterday.
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Good for Wired
What does it say that a tech gadget/geek mag stands up for giving American's information about what its government is doing - while "news" organisations remain mute?
Wired News: Why We Published the AT&T DocsA file detailing aspects of AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic wiretap operation is sitting in a San Francisco courthouse. But the public cannot see it because, at AT&T's insistence, it remains under seal in court records.Here's what the NSA is probably running in the "secret room":
The judge in the case has so far denied requests from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, and several news organizations to unseal the documents and make them public.
AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released.
Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.
As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF's primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein -- information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation.
The Ultimate Net Monitoring Tool"Anything that comes through (an internet protocol network), we can record," says Steve Bannerman, marketing vice president of Narus, a Mountain View, California, company. "We can reconstruct all of their e-mails along with attachments, see what web pages they clicked on, we can reconstruct their (voice over internet protocol) calls."
Narus' product, the Semantic Traffic Analyzer, is a software application that runs on standard IBM or Dell servers using the Linux operating system. It's renowned within certain circles for its ability to inspect traffic in real time on high-bandwidth pipes, identifying packets of interest as they race by at up to 10 Gbps.
- rob 5:47 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Good for Wired
What does it say that a tech gadget/geek mag stands up for giving American's information about what its government is doing - while "news" organisations remain mute?
Wired News: Why We Published the AT&T DocsA file detailing aspects of AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's warrantless domestic wiretap operation is sitting in a San Francisco courthouse. But the public cannot see it because, at AT&T's insistence, it remains under seal in court records.Here's what the NSA is probably running in the "secret room":
The judge in the case has so far denied requests from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, and several news organizations to unseal the documents and make them public.
AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released.
Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.
As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF's primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein -- information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation.
The Ultimate Net Monitoring Tool"Anything that comes through (an internet protocol network), we can record," says Steve Bannerman, marketing vice president of Narus, a Mountain View, California, company. "We can reconstruct all of their e-mails along with attachments, see what web pages they clicked on, we can reconstruct their (voice over internet protocol) calls."
Narus' product, the Semantic Traffic Analyzer, is a software application that runs on standard IBM or Dell servers using the Linux operating system. It's renowned within certain circles for its ability to inspect traffic in real time on high-bandwidth pipes, identifying packets of interest as they race by at up to 10 Gbps.
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Abortion has been a gift to the GOP. While some members honestly believe it should be illegal; I suspect a majority use it simply as a tool to get elected.
It doesn't matter how corrupt they are. It doesn't matter how much they spend. It doesn't matter if they spy on you and lead you into war for no reason.
The issue was abortion and many so fervently want to make it illegal that they will ignore all the GOP shortcomings as the believe the Republican Party will end abortion.
But the republicans really don't want that to happen. If they make abortion illegal they can no longer use it as a tool for votes. If abortion is illegal the peole who have supported the GOP for this reason will take a hard look at what the Republican Party stands for beyond their core issue, and they won't like what they see. Abortion (and now gay issues and immigration) is a curtain the wizard hides behind as he loots the treasury.
What if the GOP had to run on competence and policy?
In open split with Bush, top US conservative calls for independent movementWASHINGTON (AFP) - The patriarch of US conservatives has urged his followers to halt their financial support of the Republican Party and start an independent movement, signaling a major political shift that could result in heavy losses for the US ruling party in upcoming elections.
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"At the very least, conservatives must stop funding the Republican National Committee and other party groups," Viguerie wrote in a lengthy essay in The Washington Post Sunday.
He suggested conservatives "redirect their anger into building a third force," which he defined as a movement independent of any party, and laying the groundwork for the 2008 election campaign.
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What is this?
This is a "team" blog. We are a bunch of
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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
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