American Values Alliance | Practical voice for progressive valuesAmerican Values Alliance | Practical voice for progressive values“Only one of the candidates is a real man, and in wartime, we can't afford anything less as commander in chief.”
This morning I watched a newsclip of President Bush’s Tuesday press conference (the one that bumped Bad-News Bernanke off the air). At one point, as he defensively answered reporters’ questions about the economy, he made a disdainful remark about MoveOn.org.
I don’t even remember exactly what he said—what struck me and has stayed with me all day was his disdain. Has he ever, do you suppose, considered that the people who make up MoveOn.org are also American citizens, and that he is also answerable to them? I can’t remember a president in my entire lifetime who publicly exhibited such hostility toward people who disagreed with him. His entire demeanor seemed to say, “you don’t like me, fuck you.”
That would be fine if he wasn’t the leader of our country, which implies he should have a few leadership skills. He simply does not. He doesn’t even have enough basic poise to hide his contempt for ordinary Americans who disagree with his policies.
Why are the Democrats, with their majority, giving George Bush what he wants in terms of federal wiretapping? (See today’s NY Times.) And why are they letting off the hook the telecommunication companies who participated?
Apparently, a circuit court has agreed with the Bush administration’s claim that the White House Office of Administration is not a federal agency and therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Here's a question: if the White House Office of Administration is not a federal agency, does that mean it is not supported by federal tax dollars?
I can’t take it. A pro-Bush conservative pundit trying to take down Obama over what he calls Obama’s “lack of intellectual curiosity”?
Well, I have been put in my place. Here I thought we had a complete asshole for president, insensitive to the welfare of the troops he has needlessly put in harm’s way in Iraq. Silly me.
Some of you may have known this, but I just found out that George W. Bush has given up GOLF as a sign of solidarity with the soldiers and their families. He hasn’t played since 2003.
What a guy. What a man. What sacrifice!
You can read all about it here.
Wednesday, while campaigning in poverty-ridden towns in Kentucky, John McCain voiced his opposition to a Senate bill that would have made it easier for working women to sue for pay discrimination.
Said he, "I am all in favor of pay equity for women, but this kind of legislation, as is typical of what's being proposed by my friends on the other side of the aisle, opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems. This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system."
Well, gee. We certainly wouldn’t want government to play a greater role in protecting the American people, would we? After all, government's job is to play a greater role in protecting big business. (Note that in recent weeks McCain has proposed new tax breaks for corporations.)
A brief but thoughtful discussion of the unfortunate events surrounding the FLDS church in Texas appears in this “Sightings” piece (Note from BlogMistress: link fixed).
Have you heard the news? Viagra is 10 years old today, there are 30 million men taking it, and Pfizer has made 1.5 billion dollars selling it. Wow.
Now Pfizer announces it is developing pink Viagra for women. Isn’t that cute. (Boy Viagra is, of course, blue. Let no one ever accuse Pfizer of not planning ahead.)
Inhale deeply. Amidst all the 24-7 news network yammering, a very thoughtful piece by E.J. Dionne appears in The New Republic today about Obama particularly and religion and politics in America more generally.
Apparently, Bill Kristol thinks the thousands of young people who support Barack Obama are “narcissists" who "think they’re the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a fund-raising event at which former Texas governor, the late Ann Richards, spoke. Most of what she had to say about Bush, who at that time had just defeated her in her second run for governor, was pretty funny, but in a more serious moment she predicted that he would one day make a run for the White House. Pay attention and you will see, she said, that if he’s good at anything, he’s good at saying the same things over and over and over, and his ability to do so is very effective. (I paraphrase loosely from memory here.)
We’ve seen plenty of examples of that in the past six years, but last Thursday’s address was certainly a prime one. Bush’s persistence in trotting out the threat of Al Queda terrorism to justify the war in Iraq may be the worst case in modern American history of the tail wagging the dog, but that’s his story and he’s sticking to it.
I don’t know whether any of you made it to the vigil on Monument Circle last night. I’d guess maybe 60 or 70 people showed up, and figure that’s not bad for a weeknight in 90-degree heat. People of just about all ages were there, but most of the crowd looked to be middle-aged or older. What they had in common, of course, was a passionate dislike of George Bush and a fervent wish to see the war in Iraq brought to an end.
Iraq war vigil on Monument Circle next Tuesday, August 28, @ 8 p.m. Sign up here.
I wrote a few weeks ago about an article I read in The Nation that describes a series of stories by Iraq war veterans that are to be the basis of a book called Collateral Damage.
I was unaware until last week that another series has appeared in the New Republic, written by an infantryman by the name of Beauchamp who is still serving in Iraq.
I was also unaware until last week that Beauchamp’s veracity has been challenged by Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, and that Kristol has charged both the New Republic and The Nation with “betraying the troops” by printing these soldiers’ stories.
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