Dubya is no FDR

Gia recently posted about The New 20 Commandments; that reminded me of FDR's Second Bill of Rights.

Second Bill of Rights
Every American is entitled to:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the nation;


• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;


• The right of farmers to raise and sell their products at a return which will give them and their families a decent living;


• The right of every business man, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
  
• The right of every family to a decent home;


• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;


• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, and sickness, and accident and unemployment;


• The right to a good education.

George W. Bush doesn't even deserve to be metioned in the same sentence as FDR, but look at the difference in the two. FDR spoke about protecting the rights of people. Bush does everything in his power to protect corporations.

I was just listening to FDR's 1936 acceptance speech at the DNC in which he said this:

Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales.

On which scale will Mr. Bush's sins be weighed?

After the United States was attacked in 1941 FDR addressed the American people and said:

On the road ahead there lies hard work -- gruelling work -- day and night, every hour and every minute.

I was about to add that ahead there lies sacrifice for all of us.

But it is not correct to use that word. The United States does not consider it a sacrifice to do all one can, to give one's best to our nation, when the nation is fighting for its existence and its future life.

It is not a sacrifice for any man, old or young, to be in the Army or the Navy of the United States. Rather it is a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice for the industrialist or the wage earner, the farmer or the shopkeeper, the trainmen or the doctor, to pay more taxes, to buy more bonds, to forego extra profits, to work longer or harder at the task for which he is best fitted. Rather it is a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice to do without many things to which we are accustomed if the national defense calls for doing without it.

After the United States was attacked in 2001 George Bush told the American people to go shopping. We must keep corporate revenue flowing.

Dubya Quote of the Day

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
-- Governor George "Dubya" Bush to Doug Wead in 1998 or 1999

Random thoughts on a Sunday

• More people voted against George "Dubya" Bush in 2004 (57,695,898) and in 2000 (54,916,568) than voted for Reagan in 1984 (54,451,521).


• 51% is not a Decisive Victory or a Mandate!


• Bill Clinton has been out of office for more than four years yet Republicans are still bashing him.


• Some people claim to "follow the evidence", but even after almost two years of US occupation and NO evidence of WMD (the reason Dubya gave to the American people for starting a war) they still support the war and the man who has sent more than 1,500 American servicemen and women to their deaths.


• There is no Social Security Crisis.


• Why has Bush not been impeached for lying to Congress?


• Dubya does not care about the Iraqi people, all he cares about are US economic and strategic interests in the region.


• Congratulations to Dubya and Rummy on their recent awards.

Bush quote of the day

"[I]n America or anywhere else, the sign of a healthy and vibrant society is one in where there's an active press corps. Obviously, there has got to be constraints."
-- George "Dubya" Bush, 24 February 2005

Constraints? What kind of constraints?

Whoever, when the United States is at war,...shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States...shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both.
from US Sedition Act

Moving up the charts

I am number 281 on the

^{...and I'm not even christian}

Oh, Irony...

"We must always remind Russia, however, that our alliance stands for a free press, a vital opposition, the sharing of power and the rule of law."
-- George "Dubya" Bush, 21 Februaray 2005

Does anyone else see any irony in that statement? The Bush Administration has been trying to be more like the Putin Government yet Bush went before the world and admonished him. Does Bush support a free press at home? Vital opposition? Sharing of power? Ha. And the rule of law has been flaunted by this administration over and over.

Talk amongst yourselves

I'll be gone for a few days. The baby is going in the hospital for surgery so I'll be there until Wednesday or Thursday. His aunt is still there recovering from her stroke so we will get to spend some time with her as well.

Idlers, gossips, & busybodies

Is it Christian to make fun of someone for the way they look?

The gang of happy housewives on another blog is discussing an email allegedly received by one of them. The email apparently came from one 'k.d. van der bosch' who claimed to be a Bush supporter but it is fairly obvious that she is not.

I have my own theory about the email, but let's explore the response by the Christian women. First is by the resident Catholic fundamentalist:

It's odd that this anon poster would choose the initials "K.D." rather like, K.D. Lang? I have come to believe that certain female pursuers of Donna's (& mine) are perhaps lesbian or are at least exploring their lesbian tendancies. This would explain the inordinate amount of time they spend pursuing other women and reviling their Christianity, which is opposed to homosexual "activities", shall we say. Perhaps desire for Donna and frustration at the futility of that pursuit is driving them nuts?

Just a theory.

Posted by: Amy *******

Just as one would expect she is focused on the person's sexuality. A lifetime of sexual repression leads her to speculate that they have a lesbian stalker/sexual predator that they are dealing with. She immediately associates the 'k.d.' part with a celebrity who happens to be a lesbian. It's funny that she did not connect the 'van der Bosch' to the Jesuit hagiographer.

Then they go on to discuss a certain person's appearance. They emailed each other a picture of the alleged lesbian stalker of the middle aged-mother of three and even more middle-aged mother of four. The mother of three suggested that if a person is ugly on the inside she is probably ugly on the outside.

Then another of the mothers chimed in with this:

How ugly is that photo? Good grief, I mean at least fix yourself up a bit before plastering it all over the net. Some people have no self respect. Someone needs to introduce the subject of that photo to Max....Max Factor! Use a bit of makeup.

Posted by: Alice

These women are supposedly Christian mothers in their mid-30s but they behave like middle school girls with a secret. Do THEY have a secret crush on someone? Or maybe they are jealous of the popular girl. Whatever the case, I don't think that behavior is very Christlike.

Someone passed along photo ** edit** (due to a harassment complaint to flickr by D***a I have had to make the photo 'friends only', if you really want to see it...) that one of these women posted of herself. I guess she was too embarrassed to show her face on this one, but we've seen her face many times.

More torture, more lying

By naming John Negroponte as his nominee for the position Director of National Intelligence, Bush continued his practice of promoting torturers and war criminals. As ambassador to Hondurus (de facto pro-consul) during the Reagan Administration Negroponte, at the very least, knew about the death squads, known as Battalion 3-16, and lied to Congress about it. He also oversaw the construction of the torture facility known as the El Aguacate air base. In 2001 a mass grave containing 185 corpses was unearthed at the air base.


In other torture news...

Iraqi prison death linked to torture

Friday, February 18, 2005
By Seth Hettena, The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO -- An Iraqi whose corpse was photographed with grinning U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib died under CIA interrogation while in a position condemned by human rights groups as torture -- suspended by his wrists, with his hands cuffed behind his back, according to reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
[more]

I really am a cry baby

I'm not a big fan of Broadway musicals, I can sit through them and there are a few that I actually enjoyed. But today I was working on putting a DVD together for a friend's wedding and I did a slideshow to Jill Sobule's version of Sunrise, Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof). I was weeping. Literally. I've heard other versions like the hideous Robert Goulet rendition and of course the high school spring musical versions and they had no effect. I even played this thing several times and cried every time. Am I a big cry baby? Is it because I have a child now? Or is it just the way that Sobule sings the song?

Is it spring yet?

It was a beautiful day today--for February 15th, that is. As I write this it is 54°F outside. It was even warm enough to take the baby for a walk. We walked around the neighborhood and he seemed to enjoy the new smells and bright sunshine while I tried to navigate around the sidewalks where tree roots have pushed through.

Also on a day like today I start to think about baseball. Spring traing is beginning in a few days and the Phillies home opener is on April 4 against the Washington Nationals. I don't know if I will get to a Phillies game this year but there is a Class A Short Season team nearby and it is fun to go to those games. My son will be six or seven months old by the time that their season starts so we may take him to a game or two. I took my nephew to a AAA game when he was about four years old. He sat there and ate a soft pretzel and some chicken fingers and he watched the birds but I don't think that he knew there was a game going on. After the game they let the kids run the bases so I took him down onto the field to see if he wanted to do that. He made about three trips around before he wore himself out.

My dad and I went to opening day in Philly last year. It was cold and wet and the Phillies lost, but we had a good time. This year the Phils have a new manager and sa few new players; it could be their year. I think that every year.

Dean and the DNC

Standing up for our beliefs, organizing, and transforming our party into a grassroots organization that can win in all 50 states: That's how we will rebuild the Democratic Party.
-- Governor Howard Dean, DNC Chairman

This week as it became apparent that Governor Howard Dean would head the Democratic National Committee the talking heads went on the morning shows and the cable news shows trying to play down Dean's apparent progressiveness. They explained that in Vermont he governed as a moderate. Why? Democrats need to stop apologizing and start organizing.

We need an alternative to the GOP. We need a party that stands for something. We need to stop apologizing for being progressives and liberals. Liberal is not a dirty word. I think that Dean knows this. As he likes to say, he represents the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.

So, it appears that we have taken control of the party back from the conservatives. No more GOP-lite. I hope.

Dean chosen to lead U.S. Democratic Party
Sat Feb 12, 2005 02:49 PM ET

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Howard Dean, whose high-flying presidential bid collapsed in disarray one year ago, won the post of Democratic chairman on Saturday and promised an aggressive drive to mobilize voters and rebuild the party "from the grass roots up."

"Today will be the beginning of the re-emergence of the Democratic Party," the former Vermont governor told Democratic National Committee members after he was elected party chairman by acclamation.

"We are going to recognize that our strength lies at the grass roots," Dean said. "Democrats will have to match or exceed the Republicans' ability to motivate voters."

Dean promised to plunge immediately into the effort to broaden the party's appeal in all 50 states and lead Democrats back from a bruising election in November, when they lost the White House and more seats in both houses of Congress.
[more]

More propaganda and hypocrisy

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Return to politics

Below are a couple of today's news stories that I found interesting.

Rove finally given title in US government
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

09 February 2005

George Bush yesterday made official what has been long been an acknowledged fact of Washington life - the involvement of his top strategist Karl Rove not just in politics but in almost every aspect of administration strategy.

Henceforth the senior adviser often referred to as "Bush's Brain" will have the formal title of deputy chief of staff, a post that will involve him in policymaking across the board, from domestic issues to foreign affairs.
[more]

---

Ex-GOP adviser sentenced in phone jamming

By ANDREW WOLFE, Telegraph Staff
Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005

CONCORD (NH) - A Republican telemarketer will serve five months in federal prison for arranging to sandbag Democratic voter drives in Nashua and several other New Hampshire cities on Election Day in 2002, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Three Republicans have been charged in the scheme with conspiring to make harassing phone calls. Allen Raymond, 37, was the first to plead guilty and be sentenced.

Raymond?s lawyer, John Durkin of Dover, said the former head of the state Republican Party, Chuck McGee, concocted the phone-jam scheme along with James Tobin, the former New England campaign director for President Bush.
[more]

It is kind of scary to know that Rove will have official policymaking status now. Does that mean that there is some kind of accountability that goes along with his new title? No? I didn't think so. So basically he will be doing the same thing--devising schemes to sell the neo-con agenda to the public--only now he's a government employee.

The second story is just another example of GOP hypocrisy. They are the party of family values, morality, the party of Jesus, but they have to resort to illegal means of trying to "win" elections.

I've also started my anti-U.S. indoctrination of my son. This morning the baby and I enjoyed a speech by Noam Chomsky that he gave at the Lannan Foundation a couple of weeks ago. The baby listened intently to the whole speech. The audio of Chomsky's speech is here (Real Audio - Chomsky's speech begins at 18:20)

Life, death and baseball

The baby is two months old now and today was shot day. He was very happy through the whole appointment. Then the doctor left and sent the nurse in. The baby was on the exam table smiling at the nurse as she readied the syringes. She gave him the first shot and it took a second to register but then he screamed. By the third shot he was bright red and screaming and shaking. Within a minute he was calm again and he even smiled and cooed on the way home. We'll see how the next few days go.

I can't complain, he is a very content baby. He is now sleeping through the night (9:30pm until 6:30am) so I've been getting some rest lately. He has to have an operation in a couple weeks so I'm a bit worried about that. I know that doctors are doing these operations on kids every day but it is a little scary to think of him going under the knife.

My sister-in-law who has a week old baby and a two year old had a stroke and is in intensive care. They were not sure if she was going to make it but she seems to have stabilized and is now showing signs of improvement. I kept thinking of her kids. How terrible it would be to grow up without a mother.

We also had sort of a family reunion. Not under the best circumstances but it was nice to see everyone. My father's brother died so my aunts and uncles and some cousins were all in town for the funeral. I had not seen my one cousin since she spent the summer with us in 1976. My uncle from New Jersey was there, I hadn't seen him since I ran into him on campus during my junior year of college.

It was nice to hear some of the same old stories from a different perspective. My dad always tells us the story about how he was so poor growing up that the family dog hung himself. Well, my uncle told the same story. He said that they kept the dog on a long rope attached to the clothesline and one day the dog got into a tree and the rope got wrapped around a branch and then it jumped to its death.

Then there were the baseball stories. My uncle who died was a very good ball player for the local team in the 1940s and 50s. In fact, three of the four brothers played baseball and my grandfather was a local celebrity in the 1920s and 30s because of his baseball talents. My dad was the only brother who did not play organized baseball. He was sick for most of his childhood so he did not play but he always loved the game. My grandfather and my uncle were both catchers and my brother played catcher on the high school team.

My playing days ended after Little League. I could hit but my eyesight was already at 20/800 by then and there were no plastic or lightweight lenses back then. After Little League my playing was limited to games with the neighborhood kids. One game I was pitching and I caught a line drive in the sternum from about 40 feet. I had purple stitch marks on my chest for a week.

Anyhow, that's what has been going on in my life. Political ranting will resume with my next post.

Cry Babies

from Mary

State of the Union

Members of Congress saluting Bush





Members of the Reichstag saluting Hitler

Key points from the SOTU speech

1. Cut Social Security benefits


2. Protect corporations from lawsuits


3. Put Lady Bush in charge of The War on Gangs


4. Freedom

The Arcade Fire

I was up feeding the baby the other night and turned on the television. I flipped over to NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien just in time for the musical act. I am so happy that I did. The act was The Arcade Fire. This was my favorite group since the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, and like the Tractenburgs they need to be seen to be appreciated.

You've gotta love any band that has a girl out front playing an accordian. This is the best use of an accordion since Nirvana showed up at their Unplugged gig with one. They also had two violins and a percussion section. It was really quite a show visually as well as musically.

There are three streaming audio files here. They played the first one (Neighborhood #2) on Late Night.

I have to get the CD now.

This is madness

From the very beginning of this country's history we have used a technique to marginalize foreign (and some not so foreign) leaders with whom we disagree. From King George III to Napoleon to Saddam Husssein, all have been deemed mad.

I watched a rerun of a television program called No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed. I believe the episode was titled "The Tyranny of Reason". In it they discussed the (at the time) imminent US invasion of Iraq and the idea that Saddam was mad or pre-modern therefore we could not use diplomacy to deal with him so we were left with no option except force.

Below is a list of some of the leaders whom we have deemed "mad":

• Muammar al-Qaddafi
• Fidel Castro
• Manuel Noriega
• Ayatollah Khomeini
• Saddam Hussein
• Kim Jong-il
• Nikita Khrushchev
• Slobodan Milosevic
• Mao Tse-tung
• Hugo Chavez
• ...and many more

This isn't really unique to the United States, many European monarchs were rumored to be mad, even back to Roman times there were "mad" rulers--Caligula, Claudius, Nero, etc. And in America, even Lincoln's opponents called him mad.

This would be an interesting dissertation topic.

The funny thing is that it works every time. Americans are willing to believe that an unstable madman has taken over some country and is a threat to the world and we must act to stop him.

"But," you say, "Fidel Castro has ruled Cuba for 45 years. Why haven't we overthrown him?" Well, we tried. This version of the bearded madman is 90 miles away from us and has klled tens of thousands of his own people, yet we go half way around the world to "bring democracy" and "liberate" the people of Iraq.

If George W. Bush were leader of some distant country what would we say about him?

Alberto Gonzales is Not Fit to be Attorney General

STOP

TERROR

STOP

TORTURE

STOP

GONZALES

 

 

Call your Senators NOW!

Freedom goes too far

...according to high schoolers.

A third of American high school students think that the First Amendment goes "too far" and over half think that newspapers should get government approval to print stories.

From BBC:

US teens 'reject' key freedoms

Two-thirds believed it was illegal to burn the flag
A significant number of US high-school students regard their constitutional right to freedom of speech as excessive, according to a new survey.

Over a third of the 100,000 students questioned felt the First Amendment went "too far" in guaranteeing freedom of speech, press, worship and assembly.

Only half felt newspapers should be allowed to publish stories that did not have the government's approval.

The US government has committed itself to spreading "freedom" abroad.
[read more]

God bless America!

Response to comments

I had to respond here in a new post because of the limited space in the comments.

In my comments to a previous post I stated:

I also have a problem with a policy that encourages soldiers to not follow the rules of war. A policy that encourages them to torture prisoners and that looks the other way when they murder civilians

Mr Glacked is referring to that when he asks:

Glacked () @ 02/01/2005 09:52:
Rob, just what 'policy' are you talking about? One of my closest friends is at Abu Grab right now working on prosecuting the soldiers who did this. He hasn't mentioned anything about a policy... or are you just making that up? Don't let the illegal actions of the few overshadow the honorable actions of the many. Then again, I guess soldiers doing the right thing doesn't help your cause...

Policy is defined as "a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc." or "a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, political party, etc." If it is US policy to look the other way when soldiers commit acts of torture it does not need to be prionted in a handbook or printed on a poster next to the "Employees must wash hands after using restroom" sign.

All well-trained soldiers are taught to follow the orders of superiors. If their orders are simply to "soften up" the prisoners for interrogation and they do that by going beyond what is internationally accepted as legal treatment of prisoners yet they get an attaboy, well, I would argue that that is policy. And those "attaboys" work their way up the chain of command with nobody stepping in and questioning the torture.

Of course your friend is prosecuting soldiers at the lowest level and the government's official stand is that they are "a few bad apples." When this is all over we will see Rumsfeld and the military commanders facing charges of war crimes. I have no doubt about that.

Then there is the case of two American soldiers who were convicted of murdering an Iraqi woman who was working for the Americans. They shot her in the head. One soldier was sentenced to 3 years in prison and the other 18 months. Is that justice? A child will grow up without a mother and these guys will be safe behind bars for a few years and then go home to their families.

Glacked () @ 02/01/2005 09:58:
Rob, just who do you think you are? I've never done one thing in your name - has anyone? We serve(d) our country - if you'd be kind enough to give me YOUR percent of the county's population, I'd be happy to give you your due. Should take less than one second of my day...

Everything that you do as a member of the United States military is done in my name--and Gia's name and your mother's name and the name of every other American citizen. It is the American people who pay you and decide to send you to war through their representatives in Congress. Although in this war Congress told the president that he could do it if the evidence (of WMD) was there--only later did they find out that the president lied to them. Every time that you put on the uniform of the US military you represent the the people of the United States (including me). When uniformed American soldiers killed an innocent civilian they did that in the name of the American people and in my name. When the US military supposedly "liberates" a country they do that in my name.

You military types are always telling us how you are out there defending our freedom. You tell us that we are only free because of you. You took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution"; it is the Constituion which protects us. As the Declaration of Independence states: all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". That means that we are born with such rights. They are not granted to us by the government or by the almighty US military.

As much as I disagree with the current war of agression in Iraq, I recognize that a military is necessary. I respect any person who willingly puts on a uniform and goes in harm's way to defend his country. That does not mean that I agree with how the governmant uses the military on every occasion.