Reality Check!
As our next Presidential election approaches, I am encouraged and excited about the possibilities of positive change in our country. I am adding new links and bits of information to the top of this page. As you read down, you will come to older entries -- some humorous, and some intended as a wake-up call about the Bush administration.
May we turn our country in a new and honorable direction SOON~!
February 4, 2008:
We can make a BIG change in this country.
YES WE CAN!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY&3
"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come." ~Carl Sandburg
I think we've reached that day!
6/6/2007: My current relationship with politics is to stay away from it as much as possible - at least from the TV "news fear" - and to view what I do see of it with as much hopefulness and humor as I can maintain. Here, to help with the humorous p.o.v. is something I received in an e-mail from my friend Kathleen. Thanks! I needed that!
So much wit, such little bumper space....
1) (On an infant's shirt):
Already smarter than Bush
2) 1/20/09: End of an Error
3) That's OK, I Wasn't
Using My Civil Liberties Anyway
4) Let's Fix Democracy in
THIS Country First
5) If You Want a Nation
Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran
6) Bush. Like a Rock. Only
Dumber.
7) You Can't Be Pro-War And
Pro-Life At The Same Time
8) If You Can Read This,
You're Not Our President
9) Of Course It Hurts:
You're Getting Screwed by an Elephant
10) Hey, Bush Supporters:
Embarrassed Yet?
11) George Bush: Creating
the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight
12) Impeachment: It's Not
Just for Blowjobs Anymore
14) America : One Nation,
Under Surveillance
15) They Call Him
"W" So He Can Spell It
16) Which God Do You Kill
For?
17) Cheney/Satan '08
18) Jail to the Chief
19) Who Would Jesus
Torture?
20) No, Seriously, Why Did
We Invade
21) Bush: God's Way of
Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap
23) Bad president! No
Banana.
24) We Need a President
Who's Fluent In At Least One Language
25) We're Making Enemies
Faster Than We Can Kill Them
27) Rich Man's War, Poor
Man's Blood
28) Is It Vietnam Yet?
29) Bush Doesn't Care About
White People, Either
30) Where Are We Going? And
Why Are We In This Handbasket?
31) You Elected Him. You
Deserve Him.
32) Frodo Failed. Bush Has
the Ring.
33) Impeach Cheney First
34) Dubya, Your Dad Shoulda
Pulled Out, Too
35) When Bush Took Office,
Gas Was $1.46
36) The Republican Party:
Our Bridge to the 11th Century
And from other e-mails:
37) We need a New Decider, and a New Vice Decider, too.
38) 2004: Embarrassed, 2005: Horrified, 2006: Terrified (exactly where they want us.)
39) Four Moron Years
"I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it." ~Frank A. Clark
November 7, 2004: Shortly before the election I saw a speech by Bill Clinton on TV, and he said something that I thought was quite profound:
"If one candidate is trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to make you think, if one candidate's appealing to your fears, and the other one's appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope." ~Bill Clinton
I'm in mourning with the realization that I am living in a nation STILL driven more by fear than motivated by love, and surrounded by people who seem to be incapable of independent thought and unable to discern the truth.
I'm told the majority of people who voted for Bush did so because of "moral values."
Excuse me?? What's moral about killing thousands and thousands of civilian men, women and children in a country which made no aggressive moves against us? Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. They did not bomb us. They did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up, Americans, before we become so hated around the world that other countries DO take it upon themselves to come over here and bomb us and kill our civilian men, women and children for no apparent reason; before we loose ALL of our constitutional freedoms; before our environment becomes so impoverished that we will have a near-dead world to leave to our descendants.
"The Truth will set you Free. But first, it will piss you off ~Gloria Steinem
An essay by E. L. Doctorow
I fault this president (George W. Bush) for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our twenty-one year olds who wanted to be what they could be.
On the eve of D-day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.
But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the WMDs he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man. He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the thousand dead young men and women who wanted be what they could be.
They come to his desk not as youngsters with mothers and fathers or wives and children who will suffer to the end of their days a terribly torn fabric of familial relationships and the inconsolable remembrance of aborted life.... They come to his desk as a political liability which is why the press is not permitted to photograph the arrival of their coffins from Iraq.
How then can he mourn? To mourn is to express regret and he regrets nothing. He does not regret that his reason for going to war was, as he knew, unsubstantiated by the facts. He does not regret that his bungled plan for the war's aftermath has made of his mission-accomplished a disaster. He does not regret that rather than controlling terrorism his war in Iraq has licensed it.
So he never mourns for the dead and crippled youngsters who have fought this war of his choice. He wanted to go to war and he did. He had not the mind to perceive the costs of war, or to listen to those who knew those costs. He did not understand that you do not go to war when it is one of the options, but when it is the only option; you go not because you want to but because you have to.
This president knew it would be difficult for Americans not to cheer the overthrow of a foreign dictator. He knew that much. This president and his supporters would seem to have a mind for only one thing --- to take power, to remain in power, and to use that power for the sake of themselves and their friends. A war will do that as well as anything. You become a wartime leader. The country gets behind you. Dissent becomes inappropriate. And so he does not drop to his knees, he is not contrite, he does not sit in the church with the grieving parents and wives and children.
He is the President who does not feel. He does not feel for the families of the dead; he does not feel for the thirty five million of us who live in poverty; he does not feel for the forty percent who cannot afford health insurance; he does not feel for the miners whose lungs are turning black or for the working people he has deprived of the chance to work overtime at time-and-a-half to pay their bills --- it is amazing for how many people in this country this President does not feel.
But he will dissemble feeling. He will say in all sincerity he is relieving the wealthiest one percent of the population of their tax burden for the sake of the rest of us, and that he is polluting the air we breathe for the sake of our economy, and that he is decreasing the safety regulations for coal mines to save the coal miners' jobs, and that he is depriving workers of their time-and-a- half benefits for overtime because this is actually a way to honor them by raising them into the professional class.
And this litany of lies he will versify with reverences for God and the flag and democracy, when just what he and his party are doing to our democracy is choking the life out of it.
But there is one more terribly sad thing about all of this. I remember the millions of people here and around the world who marched against the war. It was extraordinary, that spontaneously aroused oversoul of alarm and protest that transcended national borders. Why did it happen? After all, this was not the only war anyone had ever seen coming. There are little wars all over the world most of the time.
But the cry of protest was the appalled understanding of millions of people that America was ceding its role as the last best hope of mankind. It was their perception that the classic archetype of democracy was morphing into a rogue nation. The greatest democratic republic in history was turning its back on the future, using its extraordinary power and standing not to advance the ideal of a concordance of civilizations but to endorse the kind of tribal combat that originated with the Neanderthals, a people, now extinct, who could imagine ensuring their survival by no other means than pre-emptive war.
The president we get is the country we get. With each president the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into and get us into, is his characteristic trouble.
Finally the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail: How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.
E. L. Doctorow
***********************
Edgar Lawrence Doctorow occupies a central position in the history of American literature. He is generally considered to be among the most talented, ambitious, and admired novelists of the second half of the twentieth century. Doctorow has received the National Book Award, two National Book Critics Circle Awards, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, the William Dean Howell Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the residentially conferred National Humanities Medal.
FAHRENHEIT 9/11~ SEE THIS MOVIE!
Beware the leader who
bangs the drums of war, in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic
fervor, for patriotism is, indeed, a double-edged sword. It both emboldens
the blood, just as it narrows the mind . . .
and when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils
with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing
the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and
blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader
- and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
~William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
"Fascism
Anyone? - The 14 Characteristics of Fascism"
Dr. Lawrence Britt, Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, p.20
http://www.secularhumanism.org/fi/
Dr.
Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, studied the fascist regimes of
Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto
(Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). He found the regimes shared 14
identifying characteristics:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans,
symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen
everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain
for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies
and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded
that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of
"need." The people tend to look the other way or even
approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long
incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a
Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic
frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe:
racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists;
socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when
there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a
disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda
is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of
fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under
fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition
to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and
national policy.
6. Controlled
Mass Media - Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the
government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by
government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives.
Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession
with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by
the government over the masses.
8. Religion and
Government are Intertwined
- Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in
the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious
rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when
the major tenets of the religion are
diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The
industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the
ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually
beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the
organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist
government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely
suppressed.
11. Disdain
for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote
and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It
is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or
even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and
governments often refuse to fund the arts.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to
enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police
abuses, and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism.
There is often a national police force with virtually
unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant
Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are
governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to
government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect
their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist
regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or
even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes
elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections
are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of
opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or
political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist
nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control
elections.
QUOTES
ABOUT POLITICS
"Bad
officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." ~George Jean
Nathan
"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government
and business." ~Tom Robbins
"Evil acts of the
past are never rectified by evil acts of the present." ~Lyndon B.
Johnson, July 21, 1964
"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while
bad people will find a way around the laws." ~Plato (427-347 B.C.)
"I define politics as "the desire to preside over property and
make other peoples decisions for them." ~Tom Robbins
"I don't make jokes, I just watch the government and report the
facts." ~Will Rogers
"If pro is opposite of con, then what is the opposite of
progress? Congress!" ~Graffiti in Men's restroom, House of
Representatives, Washington, DC
"If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the
world, it is the United States of America." ~Nelson Mandela
" If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the
world safe for diversity. " ~John F. Kennedy
"If you want to Rock the Vote you have to Rock the Boat!" ~Dennis
Kucinich
"In this world
of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I
rejoice that I am not a Republican." ~H. L. Mencken
"It's useless to hold a person to anything he says while he's in love,
drunk or running for office." ~Shirley McLaine
"No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is
entirely fat. Without a brain you might look good, but all you could do is
run for office." ~Covert Bailey
"Political activism is seductive because it seems to offer the
possibility that one can improve society, make things better, without going
through the personal ordeal of rearranging one's perceptions and
transforming one's self." ~Tom Robbins
"Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I've come to
realize it bears a very close resemblance to the first." ~Author
Unknown
"The body politic has been inundated with so much toxic BS, our skeptic
system has overflowed and we've ended up swallowing toxic ironies whole.
This is called "irony deficiency." Seeing a doctor won't help, but
seeing a paradox will." ~Swami Beyondananda
"With good motivation
-- sincerity and honesty -- politics becomes an instrument in the service
of society." ~Dalai Lama
CONSIDER THIS:
"Our
first priority must always be the security of our nation… We will win this
war; we'll protect our homeland." ~George Bush, 1/29/2002
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MORE BUSHSPEAK
(And my personal favorite:)
"People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history." ~George W. Bush
Bill Moyer, 73, wears a "Bullshit Protector" flap over his ear while President George W. Bush addresses the Veterans of Foreign Wars. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
_______________________________________
"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it." ~Clarence Darrow
YIKES !!!
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Here's a favorite link -- be sure to visit the Gallery!
You can find my entry here: http://www.sorryeverybody.com/gallery/single/se30703.jpeg/
And here is another one.
