"THE BUSH FINGER REVISITED!"

You are listening to Hymn To Hope by Secret Garden.

 

 

Empty Rhetoric from a Vacuous Presidency by Anthony Wade http://www.opednews.com

January 31, 2006

It is not that the emperor has no clothes; just that he has no credibility left. It often gets so disheartening to cut through the plethora of misdirection and subterfuge in the speeches of George W. Bush. This State of the Union contained more of the same from Bush that we have heard over the past years. Unfortunately, most of his rhetoric does not match his record. You must understand as citizens that it is time to hold this president to his record, not his word.

The Rule of Law – President Bush tonight looked America in the eye, and lied. There is not other way to state his ridiculous position on the NSA spying scandal. Bush stated that previous presidents had used this power but this is patently false. In the past, president’s have used the authority to wiretap FOREIGN individuals, NOT Americans. He further stated that he had the statutory authority to engage in the wiretapping but this is also untrue. He appears to be basing his authority on the Congressional mandate to have him pursue the war on terror. Congresspersons from both sides of the aisle have denounced this notion is absurd. The fact is that Bush was not given any such mandate to bypass congressional oversight and violate the federal law. Lastly, to further justify this illegal activity, the president made the erroneous claim that if this wiretapping had existed prior to 9-11, we would have been able to prevent two of the hijackers and possibly thwarted that horrible day. Playing upon the fear and sadness of a nation, Bush grossly misrepresented the truth on this matter. We knew about these two terrorists prior to 9-11 and it has already been confirmed that it was bureaucratic problems that prevented their detention. Bush himself was also briefed on the al Qaeda’s plans, but went on vacation. The larger issue though on this point as well as all of Bush’s rhetoric in regards to the NSA spy scandal, is that no one is suggesting al Qaeda spying should be shut down, just that Bush should follow the law. Prior to the Bush administration, there were over 19,000 requests to the secret FISA court for wiretaps and only FIVE were denied. This court also allows a president to start a wiretap and seek court approval within 36 hours. No, there is no excuse for why this president chose to violate the federal law and then brag about it to the nation. Faced with the mounting criticism Bush is left with no choice but to wrap up his illegal spying in 9-11 and pray that America falls for it again.

The Economy – Never one to be bothered with facts, the president proceeded to parrot the right-wing talking points about the economy being somehow “robust”. Nonsense. Job growth under Bush remains the lowest since World War II. Bush likes to talk about the tax cuts as being helpful, without addressing the fact that the deficits they create negate any potential gains. Further, they are grossly skewed to the richest Americans, a revival of the failed Reagonomics, or “trickle-down” economics, which Bush’s father once correctly referred to as “voodoo economics.” The fact is that rich people do not become rich by giving their money to the poor. Bush insisted again tonight to make these irresponsible tax cuts permanent, but did not mention that would cost this country 3.4 trillion more dollars over the next ten years. The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center has summed up the effect of making these unfair cuts permanent as such, “If Bush’s tax cuts are made permanent, the top one percent of households will gain an average of $71,420 a year when the tax cuts are fully in effect. By contrast, people in the middle of the income spectrum would secure average tax cuts of just $870.” The Bush folks will scream class warfare when presented with these facts. Nonsense again. These are the numbers period, they do not lie. Real people know this economy is not growing. The jobs touted by the president tonight still are not enough stem the tide of a collapsing economy. The jobs created today are not comparable to those created in administration’s past and the cost of healthcare has risen to unaffordable rates. Faced with these sobering facts, the president chose to face America tonight and tell you that you are mistaken; the economy is doing just fine. This despite the poverty rate increasing each year under Bush with 12.7% of the population living in poverty today.

Corruption – The president tonight spoke tough on corruption. Nice sound bites to placate a public he thinks will continue to buy the snake oil he sells. The facts are that his administration has repeatedly stalled investigations into the Katrina aftermath, has not cooperated with the Plamegate CIA leak scandal, and not been forthcoming about his own involvement with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. There is a culture of corruption in the Republican Party and Bush is the leader of that culture. His regime has seen cronyism at nauseating levels, which directly resulted in the Katrina aftermath and the loss of life that ensued. Again, it is about saying the right things for the camera, and then having Scott McClellan say “no comment” the next day. America is weary of this nonsense.

Education – Only this president would have the hubris to trumpet his commitment to education only three weeks after he sliced 14 billion from Pell Grants and has devastated the federal student loan program. You must realize that when President Bush brags about cutting programs, these are often vital services that the neediest in this country need. There are real people behind the cuts. His No Child Left Behind initiative has been massively under-funded, leading most localities to speak out against it. This president remains a massive failure on education. His fiscal year 2006 budget called for the first reduction in education spending in a decade.

There were so many other issues tonight the president was misleading on. As well as issues not even addressed like the environment and the growing problems with his failed Medicare prescription drug catastrophe. The numbers however, bear out what this president stands for. In dealing with his war and national security President Bush used the word “terror” nineteen times and “democracy” only three times. A telling statistic for the president who sells himself as a champion of democracy, but only sells us fear. What I am left with however to truly capture this administration is what happened before the president walked into the room. Cindy Sheehan was arrested and removed from the gallery in handcuffs. Cindy Sheehan, who gave the life of her son to this country and was an invited guest of her local Congresswoman, was dragged out of the people’s house in chains. Why? Because she had the temerity to wear a tee shirt that read, “2245, How Many More?” The shirt referenced the amount of dead American soldiers in Iraq. When smiling pretty for the cameras, Bush can’t allow the truth to interfere with the rhetoric of a vacuous presidency that no longer has the credibility to sell us the snake oil we are no longer buying. Don’t hold him to his word America, hold him to his actions.

Anthony Wade, a contributing writer to opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies and excess. Anthony Wade’s Archive: http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm Email Anthony: takebacktheus@gmail.com

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Thursday, February 2:

Is Fascism Unstoppable? by David Weiner -- Should the public perceive the thugs in control to lack competence to prevail, perceive them merely to insure through their actions a rain of chaos upon this land, things could change quickly. Fema, the army as police force, all existing and projected Patriot devices combined could not not save the wealthy from sharing the fate of all of us. Only the military could insulate itself completely. Before this fate befell the nation, the government would fall -- I predict. Hopefully, long before.
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Tomgram: Michael Klare, Just How Addicted to Oil Are We?

On a recent sunny San Francisco Bay Area Saturday, having walked the beach at Limantour Spit and seen nature red in tooth and claw -- actually, an Osprey flying overhead, a large fish in its talons -- I paid the price for visiting the wilds. It turned out to be $2.53 a gallon for unleaded regular on my trip back to reality -- and that was by no means the worst price I saw that day.

For anyone who slips into the driver's seat of a car -- and except for those who live in cities like New York with full-scale public transport systems, that's most of America most of the time -- life is already a permanent energy crisis. No wonder the President stumbled across reality this year and declared before the nation that we were all oil addicts in a hooked homeland and it was time to rid ourselves of our "dependence" on Middle Eastern oil (a region where, as it turns out, oil use is surging). You know -- that horribly "unstable" part of the world the President personally destabilized with his invasion of choice.

The Saudis were mildly insulted by the presidential speech (especially since they sell us their oil at relatively cut-rate prices while energy-hungry Asian powers pay top Euro for it); the big oil execs, knowing the truth of the situation, were unflustered ("No combination of conservation measures, alternative energy sources and technological advances could realistically and economically provide a way to completely replace those imports in the short or medium term," said Exxon Mobil senior vice president Stuart McGill); and the President, it turned out, had his facts upside down. It's true that we now import 60% of our oil from elsewhere, but because it's cheaper to transport energy from relatively close at hand, our one-two punch in imported oil turns out to be neighbors Canada and Mexico. (The Saudis only place, and right behind the top three comes not, say, Kuwait, but... gulp... Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.) To add insult to injury, just this week, the government's Energy! Information Administration announced that "U.S. and world oil demand growth in the second quarter [of 2006] is expected to be stronger than previously forecast."

From the beginning, the Bush administration has been an all-oil-all-the-time regime. Chevron even dubbed one of its double-hulled tankers the Condoleezza Rice because she was on the company board. (The name was changed when she became Bush's national security adviser.) Our President and Vice President were, of course, in the business and the government has since been Halliburtonized; Zalmay Khalilzad, our ambassador first to Afghanistan and now to Iraq, was once an advisor to Unocal, the energy company that tried to negotiate the running of a natural-gas pipeline through the Taliban's Afghanistan... and so on.

Though various neocons and top administration officials dreamed of a Pax Americana in the Middle East, they certainly never meant to take those heartland energy reserves for the United States. Settling permanently into bases in Iraq was to be the royal way to global dominance over other energy-desperate powers. (Imagine the frustration, then, that Iraq can now hardly get its oil out of the ground!)

Still, the President had a point. We do have a problem. Of course, problem number one was how little lay behind Bush's words. As Valerie Marcel, energy expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London commented, "Bush was playing to a very, very domestic agenda. It's just rhetoric."

What's the point, after all, in announcing that we're a nation of addicts, if you're not only not planning to put money into treatment centers, but cutting funds for them? As Michael Klare so vividly points out below, we are entering what is, in essence, a permanent global state of energy crisis without significant thought or planning.

Click here to read more of this dispatch.

 

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Dear Friends,
As most of you have probably heard, I was arrested before the State of the Union Address tonight.
I am speechless with fury at what happened and with grief over what we have lost in our country.
There have been lies from the police and distortions by the press. (Shocker) So this is what really happened:
This afternoon at the People's State of the Union Address in DC where I was joined by Congresspersons Lynn Woolsey and John Conyers, Ann Wright, Malik Rahim and John Cavanagh. Lynn brought me a ticket to the State of the Union Address. At that time, I was wearing the shirt that said: 2,245 Dead. How many more?
After the PSOTU press conference, I was having second thoughts about going to the SOTU at the Capitol. I didn't feel comfortable going. I knew George Bush would say things that would hurt me and anger me and I knew that I couldn't disrupt the address because Lynn had given me the ticket and I didn't want to be disruptive out of respect for her. I, in fact, had given the ticket to John Bruhns who is in Iraq Veterans Against the War. However, Lynn's office had already called the media and everyone knew I was going to be there so I sucked it up and went.
I got the ticket back from John, and I met one of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's staffers in the Longworth Congressional Office building and we went to the Capitol via the underground tunnel. I went through security once, then had to use the rest room and went through security again.
My ticket was in the 5th gallery, front row, fourth seat in. The person who in a few minutes was to arrest me, helped me to my seat.
I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled, "Protester." He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like, "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight.
The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, "That's Cindy Sheehan." At which point the officer who arrested me said, "Take these steps slowly." I said, "You didn't care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps." He said, "That's because you were protesting." Wow, I get hauled out of the People's House because I was, "Protesting."
I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things...I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later. I was immediately, and roughly (I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it) hauled off and arrested for "unlawful conduct."
After I had my personal items inventoried and my fingers printed, a nice Sgt. came in and looked at my shirt and said, "2,245, huh? I just got back from there."
I told him that my son died there. That's when the enormity of my loss hit me. I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain.
What did Casey die for? What did the 2,244 other brave young Americans die for? What are tens of thousands of them over there in harm's way for still? For this? I can't even wear a shirt that has the number of troops on it that George Bush and his arrogant and ignorant policies are responsible for killing.
I wore the shirt to make a statement. The press knew I was going to be there and I thought every once in awhile they would show me and I would have the shirt on. I did not wear it to be disruptive, or I would have unzipped my jacket during George's speech. If I had any idea what happens to people who wear shirts that make the neocons uncomfortable...that I would be arrested...maybe I would have, but I didn't.
There have already been many wild stories out there.
I have some lawyers looking into filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the government for what happened tonight. I will file it. It is time to take our freedoms and our country back.
I don't want to live in a country that prohibits any person, whether he/she has paid the ultimate price for that country, from wearing, saying, writing, or telephoning any negative statements about the government. That's why I am going to take my freedoms and liberties back. That's why I am not going to let Bushco take anything else away from me...or you.
I am so appreciative of the couple of hundred protesters who came to the jail while I was locked up to show their support....we have so much potential for good...there is so much good in so many people.
Four hours and 2 jails after I was arrested, I was let out. Again, I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight.
Keep up the struggle...I promise you I will too.
Love and peace soon, Cindy
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Dear thinkingblue,

Tuesday night, President Bush told America that the "State of the Union is strong" and said we will "renew the defining moral commitments of this land."

But the President's brazenness cannot change what Americans have seen with their own eyes. President Bush and his Congressional allies have fought hard for the power to torture detainees, to spy illegally on American citizens, to pass a budget that cuts working families off from needed health and educational services, and to roll back 70 years of social progress by installing right-wing Supreme Court justices.

Since the President's last State of the Union address, People For activists have fought the Bush agenda on almost every front. Although the Senate yesterday confirmed Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, your work inspired progressive senators to mount a filibuster in defiance of pundits and defeatists in an attempt to avert this constitutional catastrophe. For months, we have helped hold off Republican efforts to cut 40 billion dollars in health care, education, and food assistance. And we successfully fought for a filibuster of the PATRIOT Act reauthorization that left some of its worst provisions unchanged.

Especially after Tuesday's confirmation of Samuel Alito, the real signs of hope may not provide much comfort. While the progressive movement is reviving, it is clear that the most important way to protect America's future is to change Washington. The 2006 election cycle is already in full swing.

As PFAW continues to fight for our values in Washington's hostile environment, our affiliated political action committee, the PFAW Voters Alliance, will be redoubling its efforts in preparation for November's elections. One-third of senators will face voters, and all members of the House are up for reelection.

2006 is expected to bring the most earth-shaking midterm elections since the "Republican Revolution" of 1994, and we want you to be a full part of PFAW Voters Alliance efforts. Federal election law only allows us to fully inform individuals who have made certain kinds of donations to People For the American Way in the past two years about the Voters Alliance's activities. Become a contributing member with a donation of as little as $25 today.

http://www.pfaw.org/go/SOTU2006

We must have you with us to win this fight.

Ralph G. Neas
President
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