Duty to Warn
As President Bush gave the second inaugural address of his career, you could see something besides mourning in the eyes of Democrats everywhere. Confusion is what it looked like, and rightly so. The question echoes from blue coast to bluer coast: What has reduced post-election Democrats to such ineffectual pussyfooters?
True, there have been muffled objections -- to the certification of Bush's reelection, and to the impending confirmations of cabinet hopefuls Alberto Gonzales and Condoleeza Rice. Sen. Barbara Boxer, along with a few Congressional Democrats, challenged the Ohio election results earlier this month. And during Gonzales' hearings, Sen. Patrick Leahy described administration policies as "tantamount to torture." Later, Sen. John Kerry and Boxer both voted against Rice's confirmation, while Sen. Joe Biden gave her an impressive dressing down.
But these Democrats weren't making history. They were making footnotes to it.
True, there have been muffled objections -- to the certification of Bush's reelection, and to the impending confirmations of cabinet hopefuls Alberto Gonzales and Condoleeza Rice. Sen. Barbara Boxer, along with a few Congressional Democrats, challenged the Ohio election results earlier this month. And during Gonzales' hearings, Sen. Patrick Leahy described administration policies as "tantamount to torture." Later, Sen. John Kerry and Boxer both voted against Rice's confirmation, while Sen. Joe Biden gave her an impressive dressing down.
But these Democrats weren't making history. They were making footnotes to it.
Conservative Christian organizations have accused a children’s cartoon character, SpongeBob SquarePants, of being part of a secret agenda to promote homosexuality. The character appears in a music video, produced by the non-profit We Are Family Foundation, which was established following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to promote greater cultural understanding. The video, which is being distributed to 61,000 elementary schools, features SpongeBob, Winnie the Pooh, and other popular children’s characters. Although the video does not mention sexuality, the website of the foundation asks people to take a tolerance pledge by respecting those of different abilities, beliefs, culture, sexual identity, and race.
If you live outside the DC metropolitan area, you likely heard little about a man who parked his van in front of the White House this past Tuesday, threatening to blow it up if his political demands were not met.
There was never any need to worry. The FBI quickly assured the media, and therefore the public, that this is not an act of terrorism. After all, how could it be? The man in the van was white.
But wait. White males can be terrorists, too. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols became terrorists when they blew up a moving van full of explosives outside a federal building.
Perhaps there were other criteria that led the FBI to quickly discount a man parking his van claiming to be full of explosives outside the White House and threatening to blow it up if his demands were not met as not an act of terrorism. Reviewing what the government considers terrorism should bring some light on this subject.
Over 1500 men, all Muslim, were rounded up after 9/11 under the guise of fighting terrorism - making all 1500 suspected terrorists. How many were charged or convicted? None.
There was never any need to worry. The FBI quickly assured the media, and therefore the public, that this is not an act of terrorism. After all, how could it be? The man in the van was white.
But wait. White males can be terrorists, too. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols became terrorists when they blew up a moving van full of explosives outside a federal building.
Perhaps there were other criteria that led the FBI to quickly discount a man parking his van claiming to be full of explosives outside the White House and threatening to blow it up if his demands were not met as not an act of terrorism. Reviewing what the government considers terrorism should bring some light on this subject.
Over 1500 men, all Muslim, were rounded up after 9/11 under the guise of fighting terrorism - making all 1500 suspected terrorists. How many were charged or convicted? None.
It seems that the Bush White House and the Bush Republicans have conjured up a mythical mandate for their most unpopular and controversial policies out of the highly flawed 2004 Presidential Election. In the public statements of Bush and other Republican leaders, the widely disputed results of the election has made the White House immune from criticism for their failures in Iraq and Social Security ripe for plunder by Wall Street, despite public opinion polls to the contrary.
It was the Democratic Party and the labor union movement that created Social Security starting under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Democrats and labor unions have always been the true defenders and supporters of the Social Security program.
It was the Democratic Party and the labor union movement that created Social Security starting under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Democrats and labor unions have always been the true defenders and supporters of the Social Security program.
No, this is not a military-oriented guide to keeping fit. Yet it has made some people uncomfortable if not downright sore.
It’s about the peace movement and how a U.S. Marine company using downtown Toledo for “urban warfare” training January 7-8, provided an opportunity for activists to think and act beyond normal limits.
With barely a week’s notice, an article in the local paper announced that a weapons company of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Reserves would spend a weekend running around our downtown, honing combat skills by firing blanks at imaginary enemies. The North West Ohio Peace Coalition (NWOPC) and local Veterans for Peace (VFP) designed a response, different from what many in the peace movement had seen or that some were even comfortable with.
That response was:
It’s about the peace movement and how a U.S. Marine company using downtown Toledo for “urban warfare” training January 7-8, provided an opportunity for activists to think and act beyond normal limits.
With barely a week’s notice, an article in the local paper announced that a weapons company of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Reserves would spend a weekend running around our downtown, honing combat skills by firing blanks at imaginary enemies. The North West Ohio Peace Coalition (NWOPC) and local Veterans for Peace (VFP) designed a response, different from what many in the peace movement had seen or that some were even comfortable with.
That response was:
In the bizarro world that President Bush lives in, it pays—literally—to be a
miserable failure, a criminal and a corporate con man. Those are just some
of the characteristics of the dastardly men and women who were tapped
recently to fill the vacancies in Bush’s second-term cabinet.
But one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.
But one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.
You never lost faith. You believed that it was possible for all of us to live in a world of peace and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in God. I had enormous respect for MLK despite that fact. For at that time, I didn't believe in God, I only believed in miracles. I thought a miracle was about to happen and that I would live in a world of peace and justice in my lifetime. It was 1967.
And for every 1967 there will be a 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated one year to the day of his speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break Silence." He gave that speech in New York City at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. In that remarkable address MLK single-handedly united the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his impassioned speech he explained how the Vietnam War was immoral and how it was impossible for us to not try to end it. In other words, MLK had white people and black people working together for both peace and justice. No one has to wonder why he was murdered at the age of 39.
And for every 1967 there will be a 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated one year to the day of his speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break Silence." He gave that speech in New York City at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. In that remarkable address MLK single-handedly united the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his impassioned speech he explained how the Vietnam War was immoral and how it was impossible for us to not try to end it. In other words, MLK had white people and black people working together for both peace and justice. No one has to wonder why he was murdered at the age of 39.
Much has been heard about Social Security being “in crisis.” It isn’t. Very long term, there’s a potential problem if current longevity trends continue. We are living a lot longer, and sometime around 2040 there might be more people collecting than paying in. We shouldn’t ignore it altogether. But the so-called crisis isn’t why George W. Bush wants to gradually substitute private investment accounts for part of the trust fund. Like everything else in the Karl Rove White House, it’s a smokescreen.
Bush isn’t the sharpest tack on the bulletin board, needless to say, but his Wall Street friends have surely reminded him of what is bound to happen if a flood of new money pours into mutual funds and stocks all at once. That’s right…a bull market that will make the 1990s look tame. A new generation of Gordon Gekkos will proclaim that greed is good, indeed.
Bush isn’t the sharpest tack on the bulletin board, needless to say, but his Wall Street friends have surely reminded him of what is bound to happen if a flood of new money pours into mutual funds and stocks all at once. That’s right…a bull market that will make the 1990s look tame. A new generation of Gordon Gekkos will proclaim that greed is good, indeed.
USA Today founder Al Neuharth's New Year's Resolution that we should support the troops in Iraq by bringing them home has stirred up a hornet's nest, according to Editor & Publisher Magazine which, after describing Neuharth's Dec. 22 Christmas column, was inundated with hate mail.
The E&P staff wrote that Neuharth said if he were eligible to serve in Iraq, "I would do all I could to avoid it." Neuharth also wrote in his weekly column for the paper that America's New Year's Resolution should be to bring the troops home "sooner rather than later."
Neuharth, who is 80, recalled his duty as an infantryman in France, Germany and the Phillipines during World War II as "highly moral." But he said that troops floundering around in the bloody Iraqi mess today were, like those in Vietnam, thrust into an "ill-advised adventure by an unwise commander-in-chief," and should be brought home post-haste.
The vitriolic response was immediate, and got the attention of editor Greg Mitchell, who said E&P's little four-paragraph article "drew more letters than virtually any story we have ever posted."
The E&P staff wrote that Neuharth said if he were eligible to serve in Iraq, "I would do all I could to avoid it." Neuharth also wrote in his weekly column for the paper that America's New Year's Resolution should be to bring the troops home "sooner rather than later."
Neuharth, who is 80, recalled his duty as an infantryman in France, Germany and the Phillipines during World War II as "highly moral." But he said that troops floundering around in the bloody Iraqi mess today were, like those in Vietnam, thrust into an "ill-advised adventure by an unwise commander-in-chief," and should be brought home post-haste.
The vitriolic response was immediate, and got the attention of editor Greg Mitchell, who said E&P's little four-paragraph article "drew more letters than virtually any story we have ever posted."
This is a Christmas and New Year's Eve communication to friends who have helped us to confront Alice's difficult challenge over the past nine (almost ten) months.
First, we wish to express thanks to each and all of you. We have no way adequately to express how important your support has been to us.
Second, on December 21 the Fourth District Court of Appeals entered the following in its docket: "Given that it appears Appellant has made a good faith claim of confidentiality her motion to stay the Trial Court's judgment finding her in contempt and ordering her incarcerated is granted pending appeal."
This Court decision means that, at least until the Court of Appeals renders a judgment on the merits, Alice is not faced with going to jail if she does not testify. Her attorney will now pursue the appeal on the merits.
First, we wish to express thanks to each and all of you. We have no way adequately to express how important your support has been to us.
Second, on December 21 the Fourth District Court of Appeals entered the following in its docket: "Given that it appears Appellant has made a good faith claim of confidentiality her motion to stay the Trial Court's judgment finding her in contempt and ordering her incarcerated is granted pending appeal."
This Court decision means that, at least until the Court of Appeals renders a judgment on the merits, Alice is not faced with going to jail if she does not testify. Her attorney will now pursue the appeal on the merits.