First off, I didn't support the position of anyone--Republican or Democrat--who supported the war. I knew the war was wrong. It's been proven wrong. That some Democrats fell prey and voted for a preemptive strike shows us, if anything, that Democrats will never trust this Bush Administration again. Not a nice way to govern! So why elect Bush again? There's no trust.
Secondly, regarding your quotations of war supportive Democrats? They were wrong. But any one of those Democrats would have done things differently had the Democratic Administration been in power. Neither would have created such a massive number of Gold Star Mothers and communities sympathetic to those who returned, and are returning home with lost limbs and dazzled brains.
On the quick, here's some neat quotes for you to entertain--[NOTE: You may fault the reference, but you've still gotta deal with the quotes]:
>>>Dump the Scientists
Ideology trumps science yet again. The White House has consistently placed a conservative agenda above scientific fact. In yet another example, President Bush "dismissed two members of his handpicked Council on Bioethics -- a scientist and a moral philosopher who had been among the more outspoken advocates for research on human embryo cells." In their places, he "appointed three new members, including a doctor who has called for more religion in public life, a political scientist who has spoken out precisely against the research that the dismissed members supported, and another who has written about the immorality of abortion and the 'threats of biotechnology.'" The two scientists Bush removed "were often in the minority on the council as they provided dissenting views." Said Elizabeth Marincola, executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology, "It does seem alarming. It concerns me profoundly…The president is trying to ensure the advice he receives is the advice he wants to hear." (here)
Union of Concerned Scientists' Report on Bush's bending of science to policy
Dick Cheney Consorts With Terrorists
Vice President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, recently chastised those "who intimidate opposition, tolerate and profit from corruption and maintain ties to terrorist groups." Yet Halliburton, who has plenty of government contracts these days, maintains a mail box in the Cayman Islands in order to do business with Iran, one member of the famous "Axis of Evil" and a presumed exporter of terrorism. Cheney maintains that Halliburton has been "unfairly maligned" by "desperate" political opponents. Does anyone else think it's completely appropriate to malign a company that maintains an offshore shell company in order to evade U.S. sanctions on doing business with terrorist regimes? Does anyone wonder why many of us out here in the heartland of America find it increasingly impossible to trust anything this administration says?
Cheney's quote is here. The "60 Minutes" investigation is here.
An account of Dick Cheney's canned bird shoot is here.
Chickenhawk of the Week (or month...)
Tom Delay's words on why he missed Vietnam: "So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like me in Vietnam." (here)
Hai! Rumsfeld Mystic Fighting Techniques!
Dick Cheney managed to snag five deferments during the Vietnam war. “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service,” Cheney told a reporter in 1989, according to the Washington Post. (here)
"It has always seemed to me that the leaders who are the quickest to send our boys and our young to war are those who have never known war themselves." George McGovern (a decorated WWII veteran who actually saw combat). (here)
(Can you say, "Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities?" No? Check this parody out: here)
"The Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities." - President Bush, 1/20/04 (here)
but:
"We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook steps to build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material." There has been no evidence of "mobile biological production efforts." Iraq "did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991." - The Kay Report, 10/2/03 (here)
Foot in Mouth Disease: Nice Republican Quotes
Space is the Place!
Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) said on the 1/9/04 edition of "Scarborough Country": "Somebody is going to dominate space. When they do, just like when the British dominated the naval part of our globe, established their empire, just like the United States has dominated the air superiority, ultimately, whoever is able to dominate space will be able to control the destiny of the entire Earth. And I think America is the only country with the moral capability and authority to." (here)
In March, Bill O'Reilly, shouting head for Fox News, demonstrated his absolute certainty that Americans would find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq by declaring on "Good Morning America," "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." (With no evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the nation is still waiting for O'Reilly's apology.) (here)
"I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman." Arnold Schwarzenegger (here)
"Facts are stupid things." Ronald Reagan (here)
"Africa is a nation with a lot of diseases." --George W. Bush (more here)
Billy Graham, speaking about Jews in America: "This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain." Richard Nixon: "You believe that?" Graham: "Yes sir." Nixon: "Oh boy, so do I. I can't ever say that, but I believe it. --From Nixon's secret White House Tapes (here)
"God told me to strike at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." George W. Bush (here)
"It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incumbency. It wasn't exactly a landslide, you know?" George W. Bush, speaking to Swedish Prime Minister Goran Perrson, unaware that a live television camera was still rolling. (here)
Does Ann Coulter have a head injury?
"This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." --Right-wing columnist Ann Coulter (here)
"...and of course there are the 39 million greedy geezers collecting Social Security. The greatest generation rewarded itself with a pretty big meal. --Right-wing columnist Ann Coulter (here)
"Even Hillary Clinton claimed to have unearthed some evidence that she was a Jew. And that, boys and girls, is how the Jews survived thousands of years of persecution: by being susceptible to pandering." Ann Coulter (here)
Tom Delay Gets His Own Section!
"I have seen these liberal psychologists and sociologists talk about there is no need for the man in the family. 'The woman can take care of it. A woman can take care of the family.' It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. " – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), in an interview, on the role of women in the home. (Christine DeLay "quickly realized that her hubby was treading on dangerous territory," admonishing, "Let's edit this out," she said. "This is not a good thing for you to be saying.") (here)
"The EPA is the Gestapo of government, purely and simply." (here)
To fix fish kills caused by acid rain: "Just sprinkle a little lime to neutralize the acid." (here)
Tom Delay's shouted reply when he was told it was a federal law that he couldn't smoke his cigar in a no-smoking area: "I AM the federal law!" (here)
(Also see Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd bellowing "I AM the law!")(here)
"Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes." --Tom Delay (here)
(More on Evil Tom Delay's Evilness (here) and (here)
"How dare Senator Daschle criticize president Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field!" Trent Lott, 2/28/02, after spending the last half of the '90s criticizing Clinton's use of troops around the world. (here)
"If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections. Males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes." Newt Gingrich (here)
"Women are best suited for secretarial work, decorating cakes, and counter sales, like selling lingerie. --South Carolina Republican Representative Larry Koon (here)
Clayton Williams, the Republican nominee for Texas governor when running against Ann Richards compared bad weather to rape saying, "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it." (here)
I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. --James G. Watt, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior describing an advisory panel. (here)
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment, it is the impurities in our air and water that are doing it." --Former Vice President Dan Quayle (here)
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." --Dan Quayle (here)
Republican Governor of Alabama, Bob Riley has presented a plan to raise taxes to change what he considers a regressive tax structure that favors the wealthy and brings hardship to the poor. Marty Connors, the Alabama Republican chairman asked, "How far do you go in making a regressive tax structure progressive before it ceases to be a "moral" act and becomes a "liberal" or "Democratic" one? " (here)
THE NIGHTTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME : Republicans frequently get what they want by slim margins in the middle of the night – and often in the wee hours of a Friday so that the stories get buried in the low-circulation Saturday papers. On Friday, March 21 at 2:54 AM , the House voted to cut veterans benefits by 3 votes. (here) On Friday, April 11 at 2:39 AM , the House voted to slash education and health care funding by 5 votes. (here) On Friday, May 23 at 1:56 AM , the House passed a tax cut for millionaires by 31 votes. (here)
(William Safire on secretive Republicans here )
U.S. Fights Verdict Backing Ex-P.O. W.'s
When 21 freed American P.O.'s returned home from the Persian Gulf war in March 1991, Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, welcomed them at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
"Every man and woman who cares for freedom," Mr. Cheney said, "owes you a very special measure of gratitude."
Of those 21 former prisoners of war, 17, who had been tortured by their Iraqi captors, would like something more tangible. This month they won a court award of almost $1 billion against Iraq, and a federal law says they may be paid from frozen Iraqi funds.
The Bush administration has expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs over what they endured but is fighting them about the money, saying it is needed to rebuild Iraq.
One plaintiff, Lt. Col. Richard Dale Storr, now with the Washington Air National Guard, said the administration's position troubled him. Colonel Storr endured beatings in Iraq that broke his nose, dislocated his shoulder and burst his left eardrum.
"It's sending a conflicting message to our troops," he said of the administration's recent court filings. "Congress and the judicial branch say, `Let's protect our guys to the maximum extent possible,' " while the executive branch is "saying the opposite."
"Disappointing," he added, "would be a good way to put it."
(full story here)
Voting For Civic Reasons Only
In April, when the Republicans on the New York City Board of Elections killed a plan to repair voting machines that had under-recorded votes in the 2000 election (with most of the unlucky voters being Democrats), Republican Commissioner Stephen Weiner denied that his party's disinterest in properly functioning machines showed bias against Democrats: "There are some people who don't want (their vote) register(ed), but who report to the polls for civic reasons." [Newsday, 4-16-03] (here)
Women With Briefcases
Several controversial bills backed by the Texas GOP are rolling through the Legislature. One gives social conservatives on the state Board of Education -- the same activists who once protested a photo of a woman with a briefcase because it undermined family values -- the ability to reject new school textbooks. (here)
Relentless Moral Crusader Is Relentless Gambler
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
WASHINGTON— William J. Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues" and one of the nation's most relentless moral crusaders, is a high-rolling gambler who has lost more than $8 million at casinos in the last decade, according to online reports from two magazines.
The Washington Monthly said on its Web site that "over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a `preferred customer' at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8 million."
The Monthly said that in one two-month period, Mr. Bennett wired one casino more than $1.4 million to cover his losses.
The magazine says he earns $50,000 for each appearance in speaking fees on the lecture circuit, where he inveighs against various sins, weaknesses and vices of modern culture.
But Mr. Bennett exempts gambling from this list.(more here)
Shoot The Queers! Shoot the Liberals! No Dog Food!
California Republicans introduced a bill cutting off food for seeing-eye dogs as a cost-saving measure. (PDF file here)
"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors." Right Wing commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at the 2002 Conservative Political Action Conference (more here)(and here)
Louie Welch, Republican of Texas, ran for Houston mayor on a "Return to Morality" platform. Once, unaware a microphone in front of him was still on, he outlined his four point plan to combat AIDS, saying, "One of them is to shoot the queers."
Todd Tiahrt, Republican from Kansas: "What is the best way for the Christian to win the race with the Muslim? The Muslim has too many babies, while Americans kill too many of theirs." (More here)
Freedom of Speech! Except When I'm Talking
CLEVELAND (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia banned broadcast media from an appearance Wednesday where he will receive an award for supporting free speech. The City Club usually tapes speakers for later broadcast on public television, but Scalia insisted on banning television and radio coverage, the club said. Scalia is being given the organization's Citadel of Free Speech Award. "I might wish it were otherwise, but that was one of the criteria that he had for acceptance," said James Foster, the club's executive director.
The ban on broadcast media "begs disbelief and seems to be in conflict with the award itself," C-SPAN vice president and executive producer Terry Murphy wrote in a letter last week to the City Club. "How free is speech if there are limits to its distribution?"(here)
Congress's War on France Is Just Starting
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG New York Times
French fries and toast are not the only casualties of the escalating war of words between France and the United States. Add French wine, the French flag, French vanilla yogurt, French dressing, French air shows and, now, American soldiers' remains buried in France.
Angry over the French government's disagreement with President Bush's policy on Iraq, Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the House Administration Committee, last week ordered the word "French" removed from the menus in all House cafeterias.
In Pennsylvania, a Republican state representative has proposed that state liquor stores divest themselves of Beaujolais. In New York, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco, the French-owned Hotel Sofitel is no longer flying the French flag — "a precautionary measure," said a spokesman, Paul Charoy.
The managers of the House cafeterias, perhaps fearing Mr. Ney's wrath, have extended the French ban by placing red, white and blue "freedom" stickers over the word French on the yogurt machine and on dozens of individual packets of french dressing.
Meantime, Representative H. James Saxton, Republican of New Jersey, has proposed a ban on Pentagon participation in this year's Paris Air Show, and Representative Ginny Brown-Waite, Republican of Florida, has introduced legislation that would allow the remains of World War II veterans buried in France to be brought home.
"The remains of our brave servicemen should be buried in patriotic soil, not in a country that has turned its back on the United States and on the memory of Americans who fought and died there," Ms. Brown-Waite said. "It's almost as if the French have forgotten what those thousands of white crosses at Normandy represent."
But we'll always have Paris. (here)
Sacre bleu! French Fries Renamed in House Restaurants
Jim Abrams, Associated Press March 12, 2003
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Show the flag and pass the ketchup was the order of the day in House cafeterias Tuesday. Lawmakers struck a lunchtime blow against the French and put "freedom fries" on the menu.
And for breakfast they'll now have "freedom toast."
The name changes follow similar actions in restaurants around the country protesting French opposition to the administration's Iraq war plans.
"Update. Now Serving in All House Office Buildings, 'Freedom Fries,' " read a sign that Republican Reps. Bob Ney of Ohio and Walter Jones of North Carolina placed at the register in the Longworth Office Building food court.
"This action today is a small but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France," said Ney, chairman of the House Administration Committee.
Ney, who said he is of French descent, ordered the menu changes.
The French Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment, except to say that french fries actually come from Belgium.(here)<<< |
