Saturday, August 02, 2008
WOW
I just reread the previous post for the first time since I posted it. Tim Kaine for President? Oh man. I guess I was off by a really long shot. harumph.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Comments on Feb. 1 post.
I wold just like to make a couple of comments. First, TCR, thank you for your years of dedicated and honest commentary. I have always found your Blog a refreshing break from partisan blogs who are often too biased or blinded to be able to look at facts and reason to make well reasoned arguments about how terrible this president has been to the nation's morale and moral compass. I believe we have yet to see the full impact of this administration's neo-con, big-government-for-bigger businesses approach. And it is possible that we will not fully realize the truth until the American people are, themselves, victims of corporate America's nation building policies.
Anyhow, to counter GW from last night:
1. Second-guessing is not a strategy: Well, actually it is. Without second-guessing, the United States might have spent another 20 years in Vietnam. Without second-guessing, Lincoln might have never opposed the South's attempts a secession. With second guessing we might have prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center. With second-guessing, we might have directed our efforts more successfully in Afghanistan which is absolutely suffering at the moment. With second-guessing, we would not have wound up in Iraq killing far more civilians than terrorists. (A side note: did anyone else notice that GW attributed the US entry into WWII on an American desire to end Nazi facism in Europe as our single reason for entering the war?? How wrong could he have been? We were bombed by the Japanese. That is documented as the ONLY reason we entered the war. Tsk tsk, Mr. Bush. Rewriting history is dangerous, especially for you. Especially when you are referencing the EXACT WAR whose peace treaty uprooted THE VERY PEOPLE we are fighting against from their homes and moving a different population into that space. Isreal did not exist before WWII).
2. Mr. Bush made note of some "positive" developments that have occured in our "Hopeful Society" over the past few years, primarily with his "Culture of Life" programs, which I found ill-informed and amazingly inaccurate. (First, and I'm rewatching the address to make sure I'm getting everything right, he just stated that the terrorists want to take over Iraq and make it a safe-haven of fear and terror. Interestingly, this phenomenon would have NEVER happened without the US invasion. Boo Mr. President. Boo to you for blaming others for your own indiscretion). Secondly, "...allowing the violent to inherit the Earth...we will fight to keep it." I seem to remember that the Bible reference he just made, "the meak will inherit the Earth" was meant to subdue the violent, not to invoke violent response to violent action, in the name of freedom...blasphemy Mr. President! OH, and then the video feed cuts to a Middle Eastern man (not knowing who he is, I can only assume he is someone important in the Middle East) and he did not look happy (as in, "you will NOT liberate my people! They are MINE.") I wonder what the administration paid him to do that. Bush now mentions how we should not short change efforts to fight AIDS worldwide, educate girls and minorities, and to end poverty. Mr. Bush, what have you done? Any of those efforts for which you are taking credit have been led by HOLLYWOOD, not Washington! How dare you take credit where credit is NOT due, and how dare you for blaming me for not making a greater effort, when I oppose all of your efforts to put the money in the hands of the wealthy, to strike down AIDS funding when programs do not comply with Christian "values", and when your idea of "creativity" is in the hands of the mathematicians. Math and science only parts of creativity. Fund the arts, Mr. President. Creativity will abound. Math, however, on its own does not inspire creativity.
"Welfare cases have dropped by more than half..." Sure. If you kick everyone off of welfare, whether they can afford to sustain themselves or not, welfare cases will stop being counted in the statistics books. What that does not signify is those people are any more "hopeful" or any more prosperous. Rather, it means that the government has turned its back on those people. Boo, Mr. President. Poverty is not going away by forgetting to count the poor.
Equal justice under the law? Um, GW, have you looked at the statistics recently? Over 75% of black youth will be enticed into crime because of the poverty in which they are raised! Kicking their moms off welfare was not a good idea, buddy. A black youth is twice as likely to be convicted of a violent crime than equally guilty white youth! Come now. What do you and your neo-cons really know about equal protection under the law???
Legislate from the bench? The courts have never legistlated. They cannot. They interpret the laws of this nation and decide whether to uphold or squash them. If new ideas arise like that pesky freedom of privacy (which is inherent and necessary in both freedom from unlawful search and seizure and in freedom of speech, to name a few constitutionally protected rights) are "legislation" then law enforcement is supposed to abide by that law of privacy, not spy on us without our knowledge or consent. If we don't have a right to privacy, and you have already said we don't, then the courts never did legislate any such thing...and your statement is just utter nonesense. Either way, you speak nonesense when it comes to courts. You simply wish to rule with a dictator's power and good old fashioned American public relations.
3. "Protectinists believe that we can keep our high standard of living while walling off our economy." Yet at the same time, Bush's people, the conservatives, scream "BUY AMERICAN!!" That, in itself is economic isolationism. "All these are forms of economic retreat..." huh.
4. Gov. Tim Kaine talked about Bush's accusations that the war protestors are "isolationists" or are demanding "retreat". He echoed my thoughts: NObody advocates the wholesale evacuation of Iraq. We know someone made a mess, and Americans are dedicated to cleaning it up. What I am most upset about is that my generation is going to be stuck cleaning up an ungodly huge mess in the economy, industry, environment and politics because of the mess created by his generation and the generations before him. I resent that. A wise man I once knew said, "We inherit the Earth from our children. Not they from us."
4. Just one final thought from a former haberdasher, Mr. Bush is the only president I have ever seen whose tie, during the SOTU, is tied so poorly. The knot is all wrong for the forward-poing collar shirt he was wearing. Come on, Mr. President. The least you could do is let someone make your tie look stately!
5. And absolutely finally: I will be voting for Gov. Tim Kaine for President in 2008!
Anyhow, to counter GW from last night:
1. Second-guessing is not a strategy: Well, actually it is. Without second-guessing, the United States might have spent another 20 years in Vietnam. Without second-guessing, Lincoln might have never opposed the South's attempts a secession. With second guessing we might have prevented the attacks on the World Trade Center. With second-guessing, we might have directed our efforts more successfully in Afghanistan which is absolutely suffering at the moment. With second-guessing, we would not have wound up in Iraq killing far more civilians than terrorists. (A side note: did anyone else notice that GW attributed the US entry into WWII on an American desire to end Nazi facism in Europe as our single reason for entering the war?? How wrong could he have been? We were bombed by the Japanese. That is documented as the ONLY reason we entered the war. Tsk tsk, Mr. Bush. Rewriting history is dangerous, especially for you. Especially when you are referencing the EXACT WAR whose peace treaty uprooted THE VERY PEOPLE we are fighting against from their homes and moving a different population into that space. Isreal did not exist before WWII).
2. Mr. Bush made note of some "positive" developments that have occured in our "Hopeful Society" over the past few years, primarily with his "Culture of Life" programs, which I found ill-informed and amazingly inaccurate. (First, and I'm rewatching the address to make sure I'm getting everything right, he just stated that the terrorists want to take over Iraq and make it a safe-haven of fear and terror. Interestingly, this phenomenon would have NEVER happened without the US invasion. Boo Mr. President. Boo to you for blaming others for your own indiscretion). Secondly, "...allowing the violent to inherit the Earth...we will fight to keep it." I seem to remember that the Bible reference he just made, "the meak will inherit the Earth" was meant to subdue the violent, not to invoke violent response to violent action, in the name of freedom...blasphemy Mr. President! OH, and then the video feed cuts to a Middle Eastern man (not knowing who he is, I can only assume he is someone important in the Middle East) and he did not look happy (as in, "you will NOT liberate my people! They are MINE.") I wonder what the administration paid him to do that. Bush now mentions how we should not short change efforts to fight AIDS worldwide, educate girls and minorities, and to end poverty. Mr. Bush, what have you done? Any of those efforts for which you are taking credit have been led by HOLLYWOOD, not Washington! How dare you take credit where credit is NOT due, and how dare you for blaming me for not making a greater effort, when I oppose all of your efforts to put the money in the hands of the wealthy, to strike down AIDS funding when programs do not comply with Christian "values", and when your idea of "creativity" is in the hands of the mathematicians. Math and science only parts of creativity. Fund the arts, Mr. President. Creativity will abound. Math, however, on its own does not inspire creativity.
"Welfare cases have dropped by more than half..." Sure. If you kick everyone off of welfare, whether they can afford to sustain themselves or not, welfare cases will stop being counted in the statistics books. What that does not signify is those people are any more "hopeful" or any more prosperous. Rather, it means that the government has turned its back on those people. Boo, Mr. President. Poverty is not going away by forgetting to count the poor.
Equal justice under the law? Um, GW, have you looked at the statistics recently? Over 75% of black youth will be enticed into crime because of the poverty in which they are raised! Kicking their moms off welfare was not a good idea, buddy. A black youth is twice as likely to be convicted of a violent crime than equally guilty white youth! Come now. What do you and your neo-cons really know about equal protection under the law???
Legislate from the bench? The courts have never legistlated. They cannot. They interpret the laws of this nation and decide whether to uphold or squash them. If new ideas arise like that pesky freedom of privacy (which is inherent and necessary in both freedom from unlawful search and seizure and in freedom of speech, to name a few constitutionally protected rights) are "legislation" then law enforcement is supposed to abide by that law of privacy, not spy on us without our knowledge or consent. If we don't have a right to privacy, and you have already said we don't, then the courts never did legislate any such thing...and your statement is just utter nonesense. Either way, you speak nonesense when it comes to courts. You simply wish to rule with a dictator's power and good old fashioned American public relations.
3. "Protectinists believe that we can keep our high standard of living while walling off our economy." Yet at the same time, Bush's people, the conservatives, scream "BUY AMERICAN!!" That, in itself is economic isolationism. "All these are forms of economic retreat..." huh.
4. Gov. Tim Kaine talked about Bush's accusations that the war protestors are "isolationists" or are demanding "retreat". He echoed my thoughts: NObody advocates the wholesale evacuation of Iraq. We know someone made a mess, and Americans are dedicated to cleaning it up. What I am most upset about is that my generation is going to be stuck cleaning up an ungodly huge mess in the economy, industry, environment and politics because of the mess created by his generation and the generations before him. I resent that. A wise man I once knew said, "We inherit the Earth from our children. Not they from us."
4. Just one final thought from a former haberdasher, Mr. Bush is the only president I have ever seen whose tie, during the SOTU, is tied so poorly. The knot is all wrong for the forward-poing collar shirt he was wearing. Come on, Mr. President. The least you could do is let someone make your tie look stately!
5. And absolutely finally: I will be voting for Gov. Tim Kaine for President in 2008!
