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The Liberal Patriot Liberalism is Patriotism |
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A patriot must be prepared to defend his country against his government. Edward P. Abbey (1927-1989) Has there ever been a society which has died of dissent? Several have died of conformity in our lifetime. Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) Don't expect politicians, even the good ones, to do your job for you. Politicians are like weather vanes. Our job is to make the wind blow. David R. Brower (1912-2000) |
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Essential Blogs
Citizens For
Legitimate Government Favorite Liberal Gear & Anti-Bush Stuff Coal Cash-J.G. Schwam The Myth of Cheap Coal Energy, A Paradigm Of Greed September 20, 2004 Almost Heaven –Destroyed J.G. Schwam The Myth of Cheap Coal Energy - A Paradigm Of Greed - July 31, 2004 Loyalty Above Skill, Avarice Above Honor-J.G. Schwam December 3, 2004 Getting It and Getting It Right - J.G. Schwam - November 26, 2004 I Cannot Ever Forget - J.G.Schwam - April 11, 2004 So You Still Think Bush’s GOP is Conservative? Sucker…..-J.G. Schwam -December 6, 2003 These Are The Times- J.G. Schwam - November 23, 2003 Running Scared J.G. Schwam - November 13, 2003 The Mac Letter - November 10, 2003 Freedom From Food Mary MacElveen November 1, 2003 Codifying Riches Above Honor- J.G. Schwam November 1, 2003 America is More Secure Think Again- J.G Schwam- October 28, 2003 It's Beat Bush Stupid-J.G. Schwam- December 24, 2003 Where’s Who? J.G. Schwam-December 14, 2003 No Enemy, No Profit J.G. Schwam - November 17, 2003
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Criminal Indifference, Big Coal Versus Children J.G. Schwam - March 26, 2007 The parents of Sundial West Virginia are fighting for their children. They are fighting for a safe school for their children. In New York, Los Angeles or many other major cities parents fight this battle too. They battle drugs, crumbling buildings, violence a struggle to retain good teachers. In Sundial these common issues are not the problem. They fight a corporate machine, backed a government that cares not for the safety of their children or anyone else in Sundial. Their children go to school next door to Massey Energy’s Goals Coal Company’s processing plant. Less than 300 feet from the school sits a massive coal silo, filed constantly day and night by a mile long conveyer belt that hauls thousands of tons of coal a day, as the strip mine above blasts away mountains above the school. The mine and the plant rein rock, coal dust and the untold chemical residue upon the Marsh Fork Elementary School just next door. Click Here to Read The Complete Article Suffer the Little Children at Marsh Fork Elementary school Mary MacElveen - March 21, 2007 It is becoming clearer as each day goes on that the only time these elected officials wish to hear from us is when it comes to getting them re-elected in which they will ask all of us for donations to their campaigns and that is directed to both sides of the political aisle. If they succeed in their re-election bid, they will turn a deaf ear to our redresses and do the bidding of special interest groups. We are nothing. Click Here to Read The Complete Article Does AIPAC unduly influence the United States Congress? Mary MacElveen - March 13, 2007 In reading this piece, AIPAC conference opens to controversy starting with John Hagee the quote that I zeroed in on was one made by Senator Barack Obama who is a Democratic presidential candidate when he said, “We should take no option, including military action, off the table, and show strong support for Israel’s actions in last summer’s war against Hezbollah,” The option he speaks of is a possible attack upon Iran by the United States. I would like to ask Senator Obama is any attack on Iran by the United States in our best interest or Israel ’s? Click Here to Read The Complete Article There Comes a Point J.G. Schwam - March 6, 2007 They stand up at ten thousand dollar a plate dinners and tell us how much they honor the sacrifice of our brave men and women under arms. While outside the world of that rarified air hundreds of thousands of veterans of six wars aged 18 to 80 languish in a tangled bureaucratic morass of neglect and indifferent, inadequate care. They tell us they are heartsick that families are forced into ruin and impossible debt for lack of health insurance when a parent or child falls ill from disease they cannot afford to treat. Yet they cut the taxes of CEO’s that earn enough in an hour to pay the annual health insurance cost of well more than 100 families who struggle to make ends meet, without healthcare they can afford and still put food on the table. Click Here to Read The Complete Article Two Sided Rhetoric and the Obvious Solution J.G. Schwam - January 15, 2007 Dick Cheney and Steven Hadley are talking out one side of their mouths and George W. Bush is talking out of the other. Whose rhetoric is the policy? Some elementary questions remain unanswered. If Iran and Syria are funding or sending Jihadists into Iraq then how is the war going to end if our forces don’t concentrate on securing the borders? "We do not want them doing what they can to destabilize the situation inside Iraq," Cheney said. Bush's revised war strategy seeks to isolate Iran and Syria, which the U.S. has accused of fueling attacks in Iraq. The president also says Iran and Syria have not done enough to block terrorists from entering Iraq over their borders.-CNN The concentration of troops into Baghdad makes little sense if the flow of new fighters in from the borders is not stemmed. Is it not basic logic to cut off the enemies supply lines and flow of fresh fighters? Isolating the enemy politically is hollow ineffectual rhetoric. What is the matter with Bush? Click Here to Read The Complete Article Holy Cow, They’re not Kidding J.G. Schwam - February 22, 2006 The inner circle at the White House, Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez, Conde, Rumsfeld and a host of other political lapdogs that make up their inner circle are no more patriotic Americans than Al-Queda’s inner circle. This is not a purely rhetorical analogy because the actions of both groups indicate that they are bent on destroying America. So absurd is the White Houses assertion that it is OK to sell strategic assets to a foreign government designated officially as a state sponsor of terrorism that it is virtually impossible to find a single right wing pundit, even the thickest headed variety that will defend this action. One among that group Cal Thomas reminds us of the following regarding another of Bush’s anti-patriotic sell off America deals; Click Here to Read The Complete Article Message to the Bush and GOP Regime: You Cannot Have Our Sons and Daughters Mary MacElveen - February 7, 2006 In reading Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s remarks just the other day where he stated we can be at war for the next 20 years to fight this war on terrorism, which in my book cannot be won: My message to Bush and the GOP is that you cannot have our sons and daughters. I say daughters as well, because I put nothing past the GOP. With the volunteer force of the United States Military already over-extended around the world and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do fear that the draft will come back. While a part of me wishes for the draft to come back so that the elitist’s sons and daughter are also called up to suffer the horrors of war, they will find anyway to save their sons and daughters and who will be left? It will fall on the sons and daughters of the blue-collar worker and others who have no power within this country. Click Here to Read The Complete Article Fear Them Not, For They Fear You J.G. Schwam - February 2, 2006 Fear not your masters for be you organized, they have reason to have greater fear of you. This did not come from the bible but perhaps it should have. Had there been unions in Egypt and a rule of law that would prevent the Pharaohs from slaughtering those they had enslaved if they fled their bonds. I think God would have certainly echoed such a phrase. So remember this, fear not the oppressor for they must fear the oppressed more than the oppressed fear them. For without perpetuating their fear of those they oppress they will loose their power over them. Click Here to Read The Complete Article Cindy Sheehan went too Far in Comparing Clinton to Bush Mary MacElveen-January 27, 2006 Cindy Sheehan: 'And about Bill Clinton ....His policies are responsible for killing more Iraqis that George Bush. I don't understand why to rise to the level of being president of my country one has to be a monster. I used to say that George Bush was defiling the Oval Office, but it's been held by a long line of monsters" But this person did not state where she found this quote. Click Here to Read The Complete Article THE MAC LETTER January 24, 2006 To President Bush I find it very interesting that whenever you need a distraction such as the illegal eaves-dropping issue, up pops Osama bin Laden. While you once said of him that you would capture him “dead or alive” which turned into, “I do not know where he is, he is not important and is not our priority” he has become your ally,......In my opinion the ultimate terrorist is one that destroys their country from within and treats our Constitution like a “god damn piece of paper” You do remember saying that, don’t you? More people have died due to your incompetence than on September 11th, 2001. How many have died due to lack of medical insurance? Click Here to Read The Complete Letter The Failure of Compromise-The Anathema of Our Democracy J.G. Schwam - January 23, 2006 The late great civil war historian Shelby Foote said in the first episode of Ken Burns documentary on the US Civil War regarding the basest cause of the war that: “we failed to do the thing we have a true genius for, compromise. Americans like to think of themselves as uncompromising but it’s the basis of our democracy, our government is founded on it; it failed.” Enter the Corporato-cratic economic ideology of the GOP of today. Their political goals appear to be based in the same belief that a change away from inefficient unsustainable business models is too painful. Their actions in favor of the stripping away of regulations and taxation on industries too inefficient or economically unsustainable to operate within in a structure of morality that is socially acceptable to the majority. An economic structure must be preserved by political means, despite the un-tenability of the social and moral methodologies under which it operates. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Google Defies the Morality Police Mary MacElveen-January 22, 2006 Once again in our government’s infamous stupidity and arrogance wants Google to hand over their records to show who has been logging onto various pornography sites. I first want to clarify, if you are a consenting adult above the age of 18 and are engaging in these activities with others who are also of the age of consent; the government has no right to invade your privacy. Hey, for some that is the only way to get their rocks off and we should just leave those people alone. If people logging onto these sites is abhorrent to you, what is far more abhorrent is the war in Iraq. I would say the taking of lives trumps one’s desire to log onto these sites. You want to play the morality police? Which is more immoral? Then again, the religious right wing is more concerned with sex on TV then it is with violence. Click Here to Read the Complete Article We Deserve More Than the Lesser of Who Cares Mary MacElveen-January 20, 2006 As each year goes by, I think of the body politic and throw up my hands since I no longer see any candidate worth fighting for. As we go on, I am reminded of a short speech given by the fictional Chief of Staff on the West Wing, Leo McGary where he said: “Because I’m tired of it year after year after year after year having to chose between the lesser of who cares? Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low, I can hardly look at it. They say a good man can’t get elected President. I don’t believe that, do you?” Click Here to Read the Complete Article Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), Stupid Like a Fox, Huh? J.G. Schwam - January 18, 2006 The title phrase stupid like a fox came out of recent private conversation in which a supporter of his attempted to justify Brownback’s logic behind his statement after the second day of the Alito hearings; the constitution does not say abortion should be legal so it should not be. The Constitution does not say anything about bestiality, sodomy, rape, pedophilia, larceny or burglary either. Does this mean that since the onstitution does not prohibit or condone these acts that we should say they should not be illegal? Click Here to Read the Complete Commentary Ruminations- September 04, 2008 Looking Back to Hill/Thomas and Bush v. Gore and Why Confirmation Hearings Don’t Work Click Here to Read the Complete Commentary It’s Not Just About Iraq – Stupid J. G. Schwam - January 15, 2006 Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran who retired as a colonel after 37 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, told the CBS ``60 Minutes'' show. ``I think the vast majority [of US troops in Iraq] will be out by the end of the year and I'm hopeful it will be sooner than that,'' No Congressman Murtha, it will be not be the Iraq war alone and whether or not we stay there that may likely displace the GOP majority hold on Capitol Hill this fall. It will be the age old stain of too many lies, too much money and corruption and tangled web they weave that may very well take down the GOP’s political hegemony this November. Click Here to Read the Complete Commentary The Reagan Syndrome J.G. Schwam - January 12, 2006 Either Judge Alito has a serious long term memory problem, is ashamed of his prior affiliations or afraid that if he tells the truth about his past work and affiliations he’ll be exposed for what he is, the new N word, Neo-Con. Like Alito the now US Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. also seems to have memory problems. The Washington Post reported in July of 2005 that Roberts, the then Supreme Court nominee repeatedly said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the controversial conservative organization's 1997-1998 leadership directory. There are two plain facts here; one could draw either one of two conclusions from Alito’s statements surrounding his membership in CAP and Robert's disavowal of his Federalist Society affiliation. Either, like Regan they may expect us to believe that their inability to remember can be attributed to slowly advancing Alzheimer’s, as we would later learn Reagan actually did have. Or they are simply lying. Click Here to Read the Complete Commentary Greed, Lobbyists, Death and Coal -The Myth of Cheap Coal Energy - A Paradigm Of Greed J.G. Schwam – January 8, 2006 The Sago mine disaster in Tallmansville, WV that took the lives of 12 men is not the result of a single tragic anomaly as the CEO of the Sago Mines International Coal Group Bennet Hatfield would like us to believe. It serves as an opportunity to expose a pattern of safety violations by one of many coal companies operating in West Virginia that view safety and life itself as secondary to profit. In fact despite Hatfield’s statements his companies actions in ICG’s, Kentucky mines in Breathitt and Knott counties were cited for 282 violations last year resulting in $21,343 in fines, according to U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration records. Sago was not an anomaly. It was the nearly inevitable result of a company and industry that is with the help of the Whitehouse and its appointees gradually undermining decades of hard won safety improvements in a dangerous industry. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Damn the America Worker and Making it Law J. G. Schwam -December 18, 2005 Back in the day, not to long ago the members of the House of Representatives on both sides of the aisle were presumed at least for the most part to represent the interests of the people that elected them. They at least cared to listen to their constituents. It is no longer necessary for them to do so. So they don’t. Not at least on the GOP side of the aisle. While there are to be fair Democrats as well that have given up representing the real interests of their home district as well. They can do this because the corporate interest lobbies have become so huge and so extraordinarily well funded that the numerous small donations from their constituents are no longer important or significant when tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars flow into their offices daily from industry group bag men and lobbyists. Many, especially Republicans can and do turn their backs on the folks at home because they can. No doubt many Representatives will dispute this claim. But their actions consistently tell another story. Take note of the recently introduced and still in rancorous and well deserved debate, the Pension Preservation and Portability Act of 2005, House Resolution 2380 introduced in closed session as an amendment to Senate bill 1783, the Pension Security and Transparency Act of 2005. Click Here to Read the Complete ArticleA Letter I'd Never Thought I'd Bother To Write Wednesday, December 14, 2005 Click Here to Read the Entire Letter On Tookie and Execution J.G. Schwam - December 14, 2005 Tookie Williams was one powerful and scary dude. Mentioning his name in the wrong place or to the wrong guy could get a blade clicked open or a gun drawn on you. The gang wars and the struggle for power, turf and drug dealing territory between gangs in those days was no joke. Lots of guys died or got cut up trying to take their piece or just for being in the wrong place and the wrong time. When you are trying to survive on the streets, hold on to your corner or just trying to stay alive in bad times you don’t have time to think about carving up or taking someone out, just to live until tomorrow. Tookie had the time to think. He had time look out from behind his bars, watch the news from LA and hear and read about his friends dying to keep his legacy of violence, anger and hatred alive. He had time to feel the shame his angry, youthful exuberance created. As many men who made mistakes in their youth age they look back on their wasted youth and wish they could change them. Unlike most of these men Tookie had the chance to do it. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Learning to Loose J.G. Schwam - December 1, 2005 Americans are born to win. Our kids are taught kids play football, baseball, basketball and soccer from an early age. They are taught to compete in school and at play. We are taught that winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing. For two hundred years we were good at it. So good at in fact that some Americans began to think that no matter what action they took, we would never loose hold of the brass ring. One of the first things Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins or any other motivational guru will tell you is never think you can never loose. Click Here to Read the Complete Article The St. Patrick's Four Return to Trial- Will the First Amendment Survive?
Leigh Saavedra - September 20, 2005
On Monday, September 19, the rights of all peace
activists went on trial. Representing us are four
Catholic anti-war activists who have already stood
trial for their stand against the invasion of Iraq.
Now, more than two years later, cleared of the
original charge of criminal mischief, they are being
charged with conspiracy and will be tried again.
THE ACCUSED: Four Catholic Workers from Ithaca, NY.
Daniel Burns works in the film industry and traveled
to Iraq in 2003 to promote peace and reconciliation.
Click Here to Read the Complete Article Bushites are plumbing the bottomless bottom of human behavior L.B Madison - September 5, 2005 It is beyond belief that last night, (Friday September 2) four days after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Republican politicians -- summoned to the Capitol to deal with the emergency caused by Hurricane Katrina -- wasted no time in demanding an end to the estate tax. Slowly, painfully slowly, and too late to help many victims who have already died from the after effects of the storm, our president is "responding" to the catastrophe; he tells us the relief efforts were "not acceptable," "Not acceptable"? How about "outrageous"? Click Here to Read the Complete Article Ed: 09/04/2008 12:07:10 EDT All content restored Are We Now Third World? J.G. Schwam - August 31, 2005 What has happened to our government? This time nearly on the scale of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, famine and civil wars in Africa, genocide and war in Yugoslavia, floods in the Pakistan has happened to Americans. Each time the US Army and aid organizations shipped millions of pounds of relief supplies abroad. We launched the Berlin Airlift and deployed the Navy in Indonesia, airlifted tens of thousands of tons of food and medial supplies to Ethiopia. Where for the love of god are they now? Now that has happened on our shores. They say it takes time but FEMA has dragged their feet and our utterly cold hearted disgraceful excuse for a president has ignored a gross amount of actions available to them to still the suffering and hunger and restore in our own country. This is not the third world; we are America, the world’s only super power, the richest, largest economy the world has ever known. I cannot believe that no one in Washington or not to mention any of the governors of Mississippi or Louisiana have not thought of the following options that could be happening now. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Who Killed Steven Vincent?
Leigh Saavedra - August 21, 2005
Another journalist in Iraq is dead, this one an American and this one targeted.
While most of the 40 journalists killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion are
categorized as what the White House began to call "collateral damage" during
Gulf War I, Steven Vincent's murder was obviously planned and deliberate.
Eyewitnesses in Basra described a kidnapping of the 49-year old American journalist
and his translator not long after they left their hotel on Tuesday evening
July 2, 2005). Hours later, his body was found, shot several times in the chest
and head. Reuters News Agency photographs taken in the morgue show a red cloth around his
neck and handcuffed wrists.
Click Here to Read the Complete Article Where Is Laura Bush? Mary MacElveen - August 16, 2004 With President Bush’s approval ratings in the dumpster the polling numbers reflect his ineffectiveness to lead this country in the right direction. You would think he would do something to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of Americans to gain back their trust. But this corrupt Polly Anna president of ours goes on day to day as if nothing is wrong. As it stands there is another mom who is just up the road from where Cindy Sheehan is camped out and her name is Laura Bush, our First Lady. Mrs. Bush is blessed to have her twin daughters Barbara and Jenna still with her. You would think out of compassion and to show America that this administration does care, she would walk down that road to meet with Ms. Sheehan. You would think President Bush would at least send his wife down that road to rehabilitate his image to the American people. Since, it was his actions that caused Cindy Sheehan to lose her son Casey in this heinous war. But, that has not happened. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Bush’s Worst Nightmare J.G. Schwam - August 14, 2005 The deteriorating support for the Iraq war is now George W. Bush’s worst nightmare. Bush’s only opportunity to improve the situation in Iraq is as politically unpalatable to Bush as arsenic. Neither was Bush willing to consider it from the start. That is increase the troop strength, secure the borders and impose an effective security regime that has the strength to carry out this mission. But the opportunity to do has passed. Just as in Vietnam, the failure to initially and accurately assess the situation before it escalated out of control has created an uncontrollable insurgency. Even if there was political support in the GOP to do so, increasing the in-country troop strength at this point would be insufficient to mitigate the now escalated and entrenched insurgency. Just as similar mistakes in Vietnam proved true; it is now too late get the situation under control. The middle-eastern equivalent of the Pathet Lao and Chi-Com forces have streamed in and set up camp. It is now crystal clear that George W. Bush has created another Vietnam in Iraq. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Privacy, Executive Privilege and Green Plaid Pants L.B. Madison - August 9, 2005 Some Americans who ought to know better persist in telling us there is no mention of a privacy right in our Constitution. It is true the word "privacy" does not occur in the text of the Constitution, but then neither does the phrase "executive privilege," and yet we regularly hear presidents claiming an "executive privilege" to keep documents and meetings secret from the American public. There is also no mention in the Constitution of a right to wear green plaid pants; yet I would assure you there is no court in the land that would deny you have a right to wear green plaid pants. And there is a reason for that; it's in the Bill of Rights, in the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Yes, "...other [right]s retained by the people" -- that's the key. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Some Reasons Why I Do Not Trust the DLC -The Mac Letter To My Fellow Democrats, In the piece below "Hillary Clinton: Democratic mediator?" which appeared in yesterday's Newsday, bothered me for many reasons. Some points brought out within this piece add to my total distrust for the Democratic Leadership Council. Last week, I wrote an editorial for the called, "How Can There Be Unity in the Democratic Party When Liberals are Shunned?" This editorial states, "From the start, the DLC has reveled in intra-party combat. It always has believed that, to claim the center, Democrats must confront the left." Why are liberals or as this editorial states "the left" seen as the enemy? What did we do that was so horribly wrong to this party of OURS where we are targeted? We did throughout the years support many candidates even if we did not fully believe in their message for party unity. This is the thanks we get? Click Here to Read the Complete Letter Another Skunk at the Garden Party: Britain's RIIA Report on Iraq
Leigh Saavedra - July 26, 2005
It's almost tempting to breathe a sigh of relief.
Raw, heads-in-the-sand stupidity is not limited to
those who prop up the Bush agenda here in the land of
polarized red and blue.
Last week the RIIA (Royal Institute of International
Affairs) issued a report suggesting that Britain's
backing for the war in Iraq had raised the dangers of
a terrorist attack. The RIIA is a respected
organization, but its conclusion that the UK's
involvement in Iraq has resulted in boosting
recruitment and fund-raising for al Qaeda was received
angrily.
Click Here to Read the Complete Article How Can There Be Unity in the Democratic Party When Liberals are Shunned? Mary MacElveen - July 26, 2005 Why is it that time and time again liberals are asked to come to the center for party unity? I state this question as I read an outrageous headline, “Sen. Clinton works to shed liberal image, calls for party unity” As of now, she is seen as the front runner for a possible presidential run in 2008. Is she listening to folks like Karl Rove who openly is hostile to liberals? Within this article Senator Clinton calls for a “truce between the liberal and centrist wings of her Democratic Party and a platform that bridges differences as she positions herself for a possible bid for the presidency.” I am sorry but as a liberal and seeing too many of my beliefs not represented in Washington, D.C., I do not feel like partaking in any truce. My beliefs have been steam rolled over time and time again. Click Here to Read the Complete Article
John Roberts: Part of the Downward Spiral
Leigh Saavedra - July 23, 2005
Bush's tap of John Roberts to replace Sandra Day
O'Connor on the Supreme Court may be the most
dangerous nomination or appointment he has made yet.
Despite the rather watery response of most of the
Democrats and the fear that they will lose the
filibuster completely if they oppose him, this may
well be the time to use all available options to stop
this nomination. The danger here is not just the
reactionary votes we can expect from Mr. Roberts but
the continuing decline of respect for the United
States as it moves ever further from the values that
once made us a beacon for honor, integrity, and
compassion.
Click Here to Read the Complete Article The Buck Stops Somewhere J.G. Schwam - July 20, 2005 The always buck stops somewhere, but not on this presidents desk. Despite Scott McClellan's best efforts to give the White House press corps some other direction for their questions, they had none of it. In McClellan's 20 minute Monday briefing every reporter asked the same question in a different way, that is will the president stick to his word and fire Karl Rove or Lewis Scooter Libby for their involvement in the Valerie Plame disclosure. McClellan has perfected two new tricks in the last few weeks. The first, don't clarify or elaborate in any way on the presidents statements. Take them at face value and that is all. He didn't even bother to say that at the conclusion of the investigation someone will be fired, as the president said. The second is his favorite, I believe I've already addressed that. He must be getting a lot of "snausages" for being such a good doggie and performing his tricks so well. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Journalistic Pusillanimity J.G. Schwam - July 10, 2005 As might be predicted the New York Times buried an immensely important article, a harbinger or the further demise of journalistic fortitude and integrity on page 10 of Saturday’s National section. Perhaps they saw some of themselves in the article. Doug Clifton, editor of the Cleveland, Ohio newspaper The Plain Dealer announced Friday that on the advice of its lawyers that is was withholding two major investigative articles because they were based on illegally leaked documents. The paper feared legal penalties and the jailing of reporters. The PD is guilty of the abdication of the responsibility the Fourth Estate holds in a democratic society. Click Here to Read the Complete Article The Hemorrhagic Presidency Mary MacElveen - July 9, 2005 Since yesterday, I have been trying to come up with a term to describe how I view this presidency since George W. Bush took power and the only term that I could come up with is hemorrhagic. To me since he seized power and became the president of the United States of America the world came down with Ebola. Since he took office in 2001, the entire world is bleeding out. But what I find to be maddening is that no one is calling the world wide C.D.C. to isolate this virus and eradicate it. Click Here to Read the Complete Article A Church-State 'Solution' That is Anything But L.B. Madison - July 8. 2004 Talk about throwing gasoline on the fires of the church-state wars! A recent article in The New York Times Magazine section, "A Church-State Solution," Noah Feldman, proposes a "solution" for the church-state battles that is anything but a solution. Mr. Feldman's "solution" would only stimulate increased antagonism between those who agree with Christ that we should, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" -- and those who don't. Feldman further starts off well enough as he explains the troubled history of church and state struggles for primacy and supremacy. But, then the "wheels go off the track" when he proposes a solution that turns over decades of Supreme Court decisions. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Bush’s Actions are an Affront to Real Christian Values J.G. Schwam - July 4th, 2005 Actions speak louder than words. In terms of the words that George W. Bush uses to express his so called faith his words are exasperatingly hollow. In terms of true Christian values his actions are duplicitous to the point of obloquy. "We are called by our Creator to use this gift of freedom to build a more compassionate society -- where families are strong, life is valued and the poor and the sick can count on the love and help of their neighbors," Bush said in a satellite address in June to the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the most influential conservative evangelical groups. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Righting the Fight Bridget Gibson - July 4, 2005 A bit more than 18 million viewers (compared to the 30 million that watched the last episode of American Idol) watched George Bush on Tuesday, June 28, 2005. Perhaps this was because most people knew that what he would say was not new, they had heard it before in every speech from every corner almost daily since September 11, 2001. We are learning that believing the lies that fall from George Bush’s lips (Iraq/9-11) is a very dangerous proposition. As his newly appointed military Chief of Staff told the mothers and fathers not to dissuade their children from signing up to go to Iraq and be maimed and die, Mr. Bush stood before our honorable soldiers and dishonored them by lying to them and everyone else. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Global Warming and Energy, It's Not the Means.... J.G. Schwam - July 4, 2005 The wingnuts like to turn to every position they disagree with into communist or anti-American, this strategy or debate cop out is at the root of their dissent squelching methodology. I hear it all the time in trying to talk some sense into the vast sea of the sadly uninformed. On global warming however the reality is that nearly no population, not China's, not the USA's nor even Europe's is likely to vastly decrease fossil fuel usage in the near future. The effort to reduce green house gasses and slow their increase, if it as all possible to do so, global warming must come from the mitigation of increases in the amount of green house gasses emitted. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Lessons From the Struggle – Quoting Freedom J. G. Schwam - June 30, 2005 Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when wrong to be put right. Carl Schurz The Constitution is the sole source and guaranty of national freedom. Calvin Coolidge Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery. Lawana Blackwell What you have inherited from your fathers, earn over again for yourselves or it will not be yours.” We inherited freedom. We seem unaware that freedom has to be remade and re-earned in each generation of man. Adlai E. Stevneson & Goethe Fight Back Against Karl Rove’s Maelstrom of Feculence J.G. Schwam – June 25, 2005 Since the earliest days of the ascension of the neo-cons insurgency on Washington D.C., they have relied heavily on divisive rhetoric to create a sense of superiority over the opposition. It started with Newt Gingrich attacking the Democrats as anti-free enterprise, bleeding heart, wealth re-distributionists. Since then the level of discord in our government, at their direction has steadily deteriorated into the fulsome morass of dysfunction in which we are mired today. Each week, it seems, new lows are reached. Thursday Karl Rove himself lowered the bar in his denigrate the opposition game by pouring salt on the unhealed wound shared by all Americans, the 9-11 attacks. Let it be said as loudly as this liberal’s pen can scream, Osama Bin-Laden’s therapy should be life breaking rocks in dank ancient bowels of Leavenworth Federal Prison for life. Click Here to Read the Complete Article The Point is, It Is What It Is…. J.G. Schwam - June 20, 2005 A Deputy Associate Attorney General named Michael J. Wiggins said in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee referring to the detainees at Guantanamo “it is our position that they can be held in perpetuity”. Guantanamo while not designed to be corrective in nature nor actually a labor camp shares by the nature of the sentiment of the Bush administration and echoed in Deputy Associate Attorney General Michael J. Wiggins’ own words…a place where few if any ever may return. Hence the connotation is the same. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Congressman Puerile…. J.G. Schwam - June 15, 2005 I find myself growing weary of simply calling Congressmen like Sensenbrenner arrogant. In the face of his utterly contemptuous conduct and disdain for the rule of law, to simply call him arrogant seems weak. Sensenbrenner’s goal seems to be little short of complete extirpation of the rules of the institution that pays his salary provides and him with the opportunity to self exceed his already over inflated ego with his impertinent self exaltations at the expense of decency, not to mention the rules under which he swore to conduct himself when he took the office he shamefully still holds. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Pure Disgust over the Michael Jackson Verdict Mary MacElveen - June 14, 2005 It is not so much the verdict that I am disgusted with since I have not been following his trial. I know that is a shocker because it seems that most Americans do follow circuses such as this and everyone has an opinion. Then again, you know that age old saying about opinions? Hey, the (Jackson) guy can be the most angelic person to have walked this Earth or a monster, I just have not formulated an opinion, nor do I care to. You would have thought I would have formed an opinion given that this one case was given front page status above all others in many newspapers or spoken about endlessly on the broadcast media. I am sorry to say this was case was of no importance to me. Do not get me wrong, since I feel that there were innocent victims in this case, but I would rather sit down and watch George Galloway testify in front of a senate subcommittee looking into the oil for food scandal. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Despots used religion too L.B. Madison - June 10, 2005 Despotic rulers, throughout the ages, have invoked Divine Authority to assert their "divine right" to wield power over others. Their claims that they were directed by a Supreme Being to rid the world of "evil" enabled those same despots to murder, pillage, torture and rape with impunity. Rulers have, since time immemorial, humbled and terrified the masses into believing they actually had God (or the Gods) whispering in their ears -- and that anyone who opposed them was opposing God's will. Click Here to Read the Complete Article So Why Do They Hate Us? Our Own History May Tell Us.... Mary MacElveen - June 2, 2005 President George W. Bush's consistent theme in this war on terror has been, "they hate us for our freedoms" but I would have to say it goes far deeper than that. I think that our own American history may give us the answers to the present day strife that takes place daily place on the global stage. Senator Hillary R. Clinton (D-NY) recently commented in an address before AIPAC referring to US Israeli relations she said, “These are more than shared interests. They are bonds forged in a common struggle for human rights and freedom, bonds that predate the creation of the state of Israel, and even the creation of the U.S.” In debates such as this, what is often left out is that our land was already inhabited by a group of people that we call today, Native Americans. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Where Is the Pro Life Movement When It Counts? Mary MacElveen - May 2, 2005 I was horrified by an article in a South Carolina news paper called the State in which a migrant worker from Mexico is being prosecuted for performing a self abortion. Gabriela Flores is a woman of little means and has struggled to support her three young children. When she became pregnant last year, the father refused to help her. I want to know-- Where is the pro life movement in protecting women like this? Where is Randall Terry now? Click Here to Read the Complete Article When a Memo Becomes the Last Straw Mary MacElveen - April 13, 2005 I used to think that those militia types who lived on their compounds separating themselves from the rest of society were a bunch of nut jobs, but after seeing so many invasions into our privacy perhaps they are sending us all a message. Perhaps living away from such intrusions is truly a utopia on Earth, more importantly in this country today. We shall never be a free people unless we stand up to our government namely our politicians and say we have had enough of them barging into our most private family matters. There is no freedom if private matters are used for their selfish political ball game. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Is Thinking for Yourself Not Allowed in American Politics? Mary MacElveen - April 3, 2005 I think I have come to finally understand why most politicians base their decisions on what the polls say instead of thinking for themselves. Going with the polls does not lead to one running for their Tylenol bottle. One can sit very easily back and say, “Well the polls told me to vote that way” But, leading with one’s own convictions based upon life experience seems to be the tougher road to go in our modern day political system. Heaven forbid a politician receives a stack of angry letters, tons of emails, faxes and calls screaming at them instead of making a case why they decided to take a certain position. It is then they find that the Tylenol is not working as well as when they first started to take it. Perhaps Advil works better. If a special interest group puts pressure on them to vote counter to the way their gut tells them to go—Is Aleve better than Advil? Click Here to Read the Complete Article Who Really Supports Communists? J.G. Schwam - March 29, 2004 The favorite epithet of hard line Bush supporters for those that publicly oppose Bush’s policies is “communist” or Marxist. The fact is that we are deep into bed with the largest communist power on earth, China. How is it that that those that fear and loathe communism with venom support a president that has made a crusade of facilitating the export of millions of American jobs to a communist nation? How can Republican voters support Republican legislators that support a policy disenfranchises small business across the nation form the ability to operate in a fair trade environment in their own country. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Ruminations J.G. Schwam - March 13, 2005 Fake News and Propaganda, Bush's New Art of Lies as Journalism - Hitler did it, the Soviets made an art of it and now our own government under the Bush cabal of neo-fascists is spending more of our money to put a positive spin on bad programs, flat out lies and bogus news than either could have ever imagined. Turns out Guckert-Gannon is just the tip of the iceberg..... a compendium of this unfolding scandal When Bad Gun Legislation Punishes the Wrong People Mary MacElveen - March 11, 2005 As a Democrat, you may think that I am anti gun as well as for the banning of guns in this country. But, that is simply not the case. I am an American first and believe in the protection of all of the amendments to our United States Constitution. If those within my party can stand firm in their defense of a woman’s right to choose, then they must equally defend the second amendment and not seek to punish legal gun owners. The same can be said for Republicans who are against a woman’s right to choose yet are for the second amendment. Click Here to Read the Complete Article The Land of P.T. Barnum Mary MacElveen - March 2, 2005 As I read everyday of the struggles many Americans that voted for and continue to support President Bush are facing I often think of P.T. Barnum. These struggling Americans have been taken by the two best con artists since Barnum, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney yet they do not care. Life to them is good. I want to know how working three jobs and having faith in President Bush is good? While Mary Mornin works her three jobs, I would like to remind her and those like her that this president has taken more vacations than any other and did so right before September 11th. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Making a Living, Just Barely- G.W. Bush’s Real Jobs of the 21st Century J.G. Schwam - March 1, 2005 Recently an article in the Palm Beach Sun-Sentinel highlighted a 57% jump in food stamp recipients from December 2000 to December 2004. The cold of heart and the parrots of the right will dismiss this huge increase in aid outlays as laziness and shiftless immigrants milking the system. The numbers underlying this fallacy and the real facts of poverty in America, do not lie. They tell clear hard truths about our nation’s direction and the service based, profit over living wage, Wal-Mart economy of the 21st Century. Click Here to Read the Complete Article This Political Snob’s View on President’s Day Mary MacElveen - February 22, 2005 In all my years of writing political editorials, letters to the editor of newspapers such as the New York Times, Newsday as well as prolifically writing for various Internet political lists, I have been called many names as well as things. Some were down right vulgar and others were quite amusing. But, today it is official; I have joined the elite squad known as the snobs. How was I awarded this illustrious honor? Simply by expressing my views today that people in this country must be dumb if a poll taken has President George Washington trailing President George W. Bush in popularity. With that said, I am honored to have been awarded this title of snob. Click Here to Read the Complete Article News Flash Dean Push to Lead Dems Takes a Detour - January 30, 2005 11:30 PM EST WASHINGTON - Howard Dean's campaign to become Democratic Party chairman took a detour Sunday when a group of state party leaders backed rival candidate Donnie Fowler. J. G. Schwam - January 31, 2005 I think these guys fear Dean. He will unify the party by force of unifying the voters. They feel they can determine voter will not to mention the agenda by virtue of their power. They do not realize the mistake they are making. Democrats out number Repug's on the registration rolls nearly everywhere. If they are not invigorated by a candidate they, like any voter will not come out in droves. The GOP won not because they out number Dem's by the numbers, they don't, but when Dem turnout is is less that 50% and Repug turnout is over that the margins win. Click Here to Read the Complete Commentary Rhetorical Freedom J.G. Schwam - January 27, 2005 Bush's inaugural rhetoric touting freedom and liberty do not mesh. Within the practice of his policies they are not on in the same. The freedom to consent or dissent, anywhere US policies impact the citizenry is not the same as the liberty to demonstrate against or espouse to opposition these polices. Liberty, namely the right to peaceable assembly and access by the dissenting to public forums such as the public media is either severely curtailed or discouraged by backroom political promises to de-legitimize or under report opposition to Bush administration policies. Click Here to Read the Complete Article Link corrected 12-31-05 The Mac Letter December 14, 2004
Letter Faxed to Governor Dean and Shared With the DNC and the DLC
Dear Governor Dean,
There are very few in public life whose words I drink in to gain sustenance,
to feel a sense of purpose and feel that anything is possible. Gov. Dean,
you are one of those few.
Click Here to Read the Complete Letter
The Mac Letter 11/25/04 Dear Folks, Mary MacElveen Do Sensenbrenner and Hunter get what Pelosi Does Not? J,G. Schwam - November 22, 2004 Perhaps the opposition of some powerful GOP congressmen’s unwillingness to cede control of the sweeping budgetary power Bush wants to give to a new intelligence Czar is purely self motivated. Perhaps it is more than just holding their budgetary power base for themselves. While the house would still maintain its appropriations oversight Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) may reluctant to see yet another bureaucrat have more power, more power than himself that is. Is this a sign that Bush and House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s iron White House led grip over the house is weakening? Maybe… Click Here to Read the Complete Article Laughing at the Law J.G Schwam - November 19, 2004 Here we go, round two of the neo con conspiracy to pack the justice department not to mention the judiciary with extremist ideologues gears up again. Just when we think we can sing ding dong for a millisecond at the laughable statements in Ashcroft’s resignation letter, such we are safer and his work is done on the war on terror, they give us Alberto Gonzales to deal with. Yes I know he’s a likely choice since he’s the upstanding barrister that advised W to simply “leave blank”; the “have you ever been convicted of a crime” section in a 1990’s jury duty response form he received. The crime of concern to Bush is his Maine 1976 DUI conviction. As if advising the future president way back then, to effectively lie when he affixed his signature to the “are all of the statements true and correct” section on the response form is not enough, Gonzalez’s high moral fiber is further illustrated by his now well know legal brief on the justification of torture. The problem with these people is their morals are all based on political values. Click Here to Read the Complete Article - link corrected 11/19/04 19:10:10 Values of Shame J. Schwam - November 16, 2004 With so many irregularities in the election process in Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico and again in Florida I again find myself ashamed, ashamed of for us as a nation that is again unable to hold elections that are decent and fair for all Americans. Elections that are without shamelessly partisan efforts at disenfranchisement and unabashed violations of the voting rights act by officials sworn to uphold these laws. Yet is it only us so called Godless liberals that care to see and are outraged by these acts and feel the sting of this shame? Click Here to Read the Complete Article Ruminations 11-16-04 - With Fallujah still taking a toll (38 in the last 13 days) and Mosul next this month (73 since 11-1) could be the deadliest yet for our troops - Iraq Coalition Casualties by Lunaville The Mac Letter 11/02/04 Dear Folks, If any of you tend to pray, please keep those prayers
coming for our victory. Me, these last few days, I have been saying a
prayer to God Click here to read the complete letter A Letter to American Conservatives J. G. Schwam - October 25, 2004 The question no republican has yet been able to answer is why is Bush conservative? He has not limited spending. He has not reduced the size of government. He has not strengthened the military. He has not increased exports or increased international trade to the benefit of the US Treasury or economy. He claims he is a conservative of on the basis of one issue. Click here to read the complete article Without a Doubt Bridget
Gibson - October 25, 2004 Click Here to read the complete article To Those Who Back Bush: Restore America’s Pride in November
Mary MacElveen - September 26, 2004
Yes, I am a Democrat I and have worked on many of my party’s campaigns to elect
Democrats. But my identity is not only that of a Democrat, I am an American first
and foremost. That is why I am reaching out to all of you who support Bush or
the Republican Party to be Americans first.
What I want for OUR country is pride in her, the moral high ground, integrity and
her self respect back, something that is so sadly lacking under the present
administration.
After September 11th, as we all stood in fear and terror, one of my first thoughts
was, “How can I place my trust in a man who did not even know the locations of many
foreign countries during the 2000 campaign?
Read the complete article The Mac Letter Dear Pro Bush and Leaning Bush Folks, Below are twenty easy to understand reasons why you should not even think of casting your vote for George W. Bush. Rail against me if you will, these are facts and ones that are provable. Is this what you really want for America’s future? Do you really want your children having to live with this kind of legacy should this man get back in OUR White House? You love your children as I love mine. Do you want them being drafted with a bill that is presently in congress for many more invasions upon sovereign nations that did nothing to you or to me? Read the complete letter Coal Cash A Special Series- The Myth of Cheap Coal Energy, A Paradigm Of Greed J.G. Schwam - September 20, 2004 Corporate interest is an insufficient reason for a modern nation to abdicate its responsibility to promote environmental and fiscal policies that protect the interests of its citizenry at large. Today, these interests are served by a broader set of priorities than what can be defined solely as perpetually rising stock prices and mutual fund values. The Bush administration takes pride in its rollback of decades of progress toward corporate responsibility in disposal of waste and the utilization of natural resources. It is not enough to point out the rollbacks. This administration has created an environment that encourages and enables the EPA, DOI and US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) to both ignore and prevent the enforcement existing laws. In the same effort these agencies abdicate their responsibility to investigate, sanction and prevent the violation of laws written to prevent the destruction of resources that benefit both industry and individual. The purpose of environmental law is to ensure that the use of all resources and those uses ancillary to their utilization remain viable and are well managed and safe for use by parties both corporate and public. Click here to read the complete article Rumors ‘O’Bound Mary MacElveen - September 13, 2004 There have been rumors lately that we are very close to capturing Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks that befell our nation. I would be one of the first to say that justice has prevailed, but also I would say, “What took you so long?” That question, directed to Pres. George W. Bush seems circumspect given that only weeks before this election he would present Osama bin Laden to the American people on a silver platter thereby showing he kept his promise of “dead or alive”. Click here to read the complete article Ruminations -New Pentagon 9/11 videomercial This raises some interesting questions.... How does a 225 ton aircraft '44 6" tall at the tail with a wing span 124' 10" neatly pack itself into a hole 20' high and 65' across and leave no debris outside hole? Where is the debris? Could it be? Nawww.... watch and think for yourself. Just a conspiracy theory run amok? Could be but here's a few interesting questions. George W. Bush Was Correct-
This Is "Not The America I Know"
Mary MacElveen - September 4, 2004
With the Republican National Convention now over,
it is time to address the real issues or as Senator Kerry
did at a midnight rally in Ohio when he rightfully faulted the
Republicans and George W. Bush himself for their failure
in discussing the "real issues". Those issues are ones
that affect each and every one of us. Senator Kerry cited these
as an example, creating jobs, improving the economy, expanding
access to health care and reducing gasoline prices. He later
went on to say, "They did everything except talk about that at the
four day convention”
Since Bush himself fails to speak on these very important
issues, let us use his own words from the past in order to make
our case that it is George W. Bush who is "unfit to lead this
nation" as Senator Kerry remarked just yesterday.
Click here to read the complete article Dusting off the fallacy - Compassionate Conservatism J.G. Schwam - September 2, 2004 The GOP convention is dusting of the compassionate conservative line and trying to sell it again. In his last three years Bush has proven his compassion for no one, save short term profits and his rangers and pioneers. Click here to read the complete article Ruminations - Reporters Subpoenaed in Valerie Plame - The Missing Question? Virtually every major media outlet including CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and pundits among them Tim Russert have been or had staff subpoenaed or held in contempt in the Plame case. But no "high White House official" has been, the alleged source of the leak of Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent. Why? Call the Office of Attorney General John Ashcroft at 202-514-2001 or 202-353-1555 and ask him. Hard Facts- One Choice J.G. Schwam - August 8, 2004 The Bush administration has set many records, all ignominious. Travel to Europe and everyone asks the same question; “what’s the deal with this Bush guy”? Who could answer that question? The facts speak for themselves. The economic standing of the USA in the world is at historical lows. If there is any doubt that the US economy is in a precarious position hard facts assuage all doubt. Between 2001 and 2003 investment of foreign capital in the USA has dropped from $144 billion to $72 billion. The result has moved the US from a net inflow of $40 billion in direct foreign capital investment in 2001 to a net investment deficit of $64 billion in 2003. This is a direct indication that foreign confidence in the US economy is waning. Click here to read the complete article The Pickpocket Bridget
Gibson - August 3, 2004 Click here to read the complete article Almost Heaven – Destroyed A Special Series: The Myth of Cheap Energy - A Paradigm Of Greed J.G. Schwam - July 31, 2004 Mountaintop removal coal mining is for the culture and forests of southwestern West Virginia an unfolding social and environmental holocaust on an epic scale. But the impact does not stop there. These mountains feed the three of the most important watersheds in eastern North America the Ohio, Mississippi and Potomac. Tens of millions of Americans draw drinking water from these rivers and their tributaries daily. Thousands of farms water their cattle and irrigate their fields with water that rolls forward from the West Virginia hills now laden with, mercury, nickel oxides, sulfuric acid and harsh chemicals used to treat the coal before shipment. Some of these chemicals in concentrate are so caustic they will turn granite into sludge and liquefy asphalt on contact. If you live south of the Delaware or east of the Mississippi rivers you are directly or indirectly drinking these poisons. We are all downstream. Click here to read the complete article Tonight, We Became One Voice Mary MacElveen - July 29, 2004 Out of this convention came a unified party. Where liberals, moderates and conservative Democrats marched out as Americans who want nothing more than to gain the respect back for this nation that has been sullied under George W. Bush. Out of this convention and across the land, all of us have the right to claim the American flag as being representative in what is the very best of us. No one, as General Clark and Senator Kerry said, has the right to claim ownership of our flag. Click here to read the complete article Five Minutes til' Midnight Bridget Gibson - July 14, 2005 We, the People, have the opportunity to
cast our votes and have our voices heard around the World because of the
humanity and integrity of Our Forefathers, who wrote the Constitution. We, the
People, shall proclaim America to either be “Tighter, Righter, Whiter and
Elitist” (GHW Bush/New World Order) or The Land of the Free and that the Bush
Doctrine is dead. Click here to read the complete article ed: Bridget Gibson is a contributing writer for liberalslant.com. The Liberal Patriot is pleased to welcome her contribution. Accidental Speech J.G. Schwam - June 23, 2004 Rep. Walter B. Jones R-NC wants you know he thinks that if you only break the law two or three times year it is ok because it is an accident. Jones wants preachers to be able to tell their congregants that God wants them to vote for George W. Bush. Currently church pastors that call on their congregants to vote for or endorse a political candidate or promote partisan political action from the pulpit can lose their tax exempt status. This rule has been part of the US tax code for so long it is difficult to determine exactly when it became law. It is a basic tenet of the separation of church and state in the US tax code. Click here to read the complete article And We’re Worried About Box Cutters? Mary MacElveen - June 14, 2004 Having just watched a riveting movie called Meltdown on the FX channel, it struck a chord of fear within me that we are not a secure nation. We are not secure because we have just wasted billions of dollars on an invasion into a country that did nothing to us that money could have gone to shore up our defenses here at home. We are not secure, because this administration chose to give tax cuts to the wealthy and send out those paltry checks to millions of taxpayers. That money too could have gone to secure this nation in so many ways. Click here to read the complete article Scared and Getting Scared-er J.G. Schwam - June 6, 2004 Tony Blankley proved that Bush’s 2004 campaign is petrified of the smart guys on the right side of the 2004 presidential campaign, the Democrats. The GOP’s response to its brightest critics is to trot out one of their dimmest to launch what is surely seen by many as a racist attack. It is academic to ask why not attack on principle instead of vitriol. The answer is also academic; they have no principle to cite. Click here to read the complete article Dissecting McClellan Speak – Press Conference May 26, 2004 J.G. Schwam - May 30, 2004 In the absence of honesty and when protection of the guilty is all that is left to retain power there is always Scott MClellen, on the front lines, to defend the Bush administration’s circular obfuscatory rhetoric. Click here to read the complete article Here’s the Outrage J.G. Schwam - May 29, 2004 It has been a month since the stories of torture at Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons came to light. To date, only six enlisted personnel have been brought before courts-martial to bear accountability for these crimes. In any military scenario it is naïve to hold them alone accountable for these crimes. Rumsfeld’s Pentagon would like us to believe these young soldiers devised and carried out these acts depravity of their own volition. The sophistication, pervasiveness, organization and open environment in which they were carried out renders the likeliness of this near nil. Even if this were so, where was their supervision, where were the officers? Does Rumsfeld expect us to exonerate them because of their lack of supervision? Click here to read the complete article Indefensible – Donald Rumsfeld and the Geneva Conventions J.G. Schwam - May 16, 2004 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is stepping all over himself trying to hide his lies and deny his black budget Special Access Programs. He’s all over the place. It’s getting so bad that if you ask him Tuesday if it’s Wednesday he’ll probably answer, I’ll have to get back to you on that. It’s been said that if you tell a lie you have to remember what you said for your whole life. If you tell them daily you are in deep trouble. This is our SecDef, too many lies, way too many balls to keep in the air. Click here to read the complete article The Face of Bush’s Pentagon - Why Rumsfeld Won't Resign J.G. Schwam - May 16, 2004 To dismiss Rumsfeld Bush would have to trot out some yet unknown military industrial complex executive. It would not be easy to find someone. Executives do not like to step into positions doomed to fail before they succeed. The only possible pre-election course to “succeed” in Iraq would be a massive escalation of hostilities. Which is most likely planned. Karl Rove however would probably hold off on plans that would result in massive Iraqi and increased collation casualties before the election and just ride it out and attempt to mitigate the current torture and insurgency problems until the election. Rumsfeld is the face of Bush’s military. He is the face of Bush’s Pentagon or at least the only one still standing. Rumsfeld will stay or Bush will loose face. They think they can ride it until November, they have to. Rumsfeld will stay. Click here to read the complete article Ruminations - May 14, 2004 There is indeed a strange lack of blood in the Nick Berg beheading Video. The screams begin begin while Berg is sitting down in front of his chanting slightly portly, western garbed seemingly well nourished captors. Are they really Islamic Fundamentalist's. The whole event is bizarre. For what purpose would the CIA concoct such thing? The concept is sickening, yes. It just doesn't seem to all add up. This forensic report raises some obvious questions. Link from: http://www.nobloodforoil.org/berg.htm The Day America Unleashed a Monster Mary MacElveen - May, 13 2004 On December 12, 2000, America stood by and did nothing to protect herself and her reputation around the globe and systematically released a monster from the bowels of Hell. That day is when the Supreme Court of the United States stopped the counting of votes in Florida, reprehensible in itself, yet American stood by and let this rape of democracy happen. Unless America has the guts to cleanse itself of him, he will continue to besmirch her very dignity. Click here to read the complete article Clear and Present Dereliction of Duty – A Summary of the Taguba Report J.G. Schwam - May, 9 2004 Recently the purpose of Pentagon funded “security contactors” operating in the Iraq and Afghanistan theatres was hotly debated. One of the posed justifications was that they could do what US military troops cannot. Many dismissed this gray veiled statement with unknowing trust of what some civilian Defense Department official somewhere had in mind. Violation of the Geneva Conventions was one the considerations on our minds. Let there be no mistake. Willful command decisions were made to assume that non-combatant civilians could operate with impunity, without respect to the Geneva Conventions. Were decisions to allow contractors to conduct or encourage prisoner abuse not willful, then the officers involved in these decisions are derelict in their supervisory duties for allowing them; or being so substantially disengaged as to not beware of the egregious conditions under their command. This makes them for either reason derelict in the performance of their duty. The situation however is worse than that. Click here to read the entire article Mr. Bush, We Pray, While You Prey Mary MacElveen - May 5, 2004 George W. Bush has called for a national day of prayer on May 6, 2004.I would like to answer him back and state that not a day goes by that I am not praying for his defeat come November and for the world madness he created to stop. I do not see him as a man who prays, but a man who preys. He has brought about so much misery to this planet that at times words fail me at expressing my true feeling concerning him. I do not see him as being a man of peace but a man who wants a piece of the pie for his own selfish gains. Click here to read the complete article Bush’s Christian Nation, More Than Just Diatribe J.G. Schwam - May, 4 2004 George W. Bush’s definition of the USA as a Christian nation is more than just a narrow diatribe of his personal belief. It is a grab to consolidate power. It is the planned inflection of the well-defined agenda of narrow but highly vocal minority into government. It is sometimes even silly sounding in it’s interpretation as Bush furthers his un-constitutional plans to bring his loyal fundamentalist supporters beliefs into governmental policy. His statement that "freedom is a gift from God" is just another not so veiled attempt to de-secularize a government that has done well to remain secular for more than two hundred years. Bush is quietly funding his faith based initiatives plan out the excessive discretionary funds allotted to the White House for purposes clearly intended for purposes other vote gathering projects that benefit groups such Bush’s fundamentalist campaign financiers and supporters such as son Reverend Billy Graham, Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse. To date, George W. Bush faith based initiatives organization has not funded a single non-Christian group. Click here to read the complete article Ruminations-May 3, 2004-Sticking it to America's Workers The GOP is trying again to end overtime for non-union workers. This time Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is drinking the Kool-Aid. Of course the GOP makes this latest treat for big business to screw more workers sound all nice a cozy, they call it the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Society of Human Resource Managers has a great fact and action site on this issue. We Must All Be Town Criers Mary MacElveen - May 2, 2004 I have not written for a while since other patriots for our cause have already written what needs to be said. But, today is different, my fellow Americans since today, ten soldiers died in what they perceived in defending God and country. They were just following orders as only a soldier does, and I anger when those of us in the peace movement target their actions and condemn them as well. Yes, war is hell and we who sit here safely at home have no idea what it is like over there in Iraq. Simply put, we are sitting in our own foxholes, while they shed their blood. Do not be angry with them for following orders, because soldiers follow orders. Be angry with those giving the orders and this is where every one of us must join like a Band of Brothers and Sisters to change this nation for good and for the better. Click here to read the complete article The Myth of the Paper Trail J.G. Schwam - April 30, 2004 There is an old saying in information technology, garbage in garbage out. Simplified it means bad programs produce bad results. It if the alleged flaws in the electronic voting machines made by Diebold subsidiary Diebold Election Systems however could simply be dismissed by proving they were based on bad code, doing so would be easy. The problem is one thing that everyone person who has written computer code knows. It is that code can be written to apply different algorithms written within a program to apply different outcomes to different processes within the system. Explained this means that a voting machines code can be written to for instance, tally every third vote for candidate A as a vote for candidate B while printing out a record showing the users actual choice. Click here to read the complete article Patriots My……….Part I It’s about time we take back patriotism
from the Neo Cons. Bush, Cheney and Rove have made a hollow joke of the pride we
associate with patriotism. These cynical cowards are not far from reducing the
word with which we associate, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere to some sort of
American “arbeit mach frei”. Click here to read the complete article All Rights Reserved, Liberal Patriot Operating Company 2005
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