Reminders Of Liberty... From An Ultra-Conservative Rag No Less

"[W]e don't have deficits because people are taxed too little. We have deficits because big government spends too much." —Ronald Reagan

Perhaps we need to have every conservative, neo-conservative and ultra-conservative send this quote to President Bush to remind him that he has failed to follow the Republican Party standard regarding the size of government and how it spends our tax dollars. In this case, $60,000 per temporary trailer sent down to those areas hit hardest by Katrina and Rita was a bit much... and now most of those trailers are sitting in the mud doing no good for anyone.

We have seen wasteful spending in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel, India, Pakistan and elsewhere while we ignore places like Darfur and Somalia where we have a true moral call to duty to save lives, preserve liberty and restore order.

We have spent millions on defending indefensible and unexcusable actions against detainees that, for the most part, have little-to-no relationship to Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group... and in the process we have damaged--perhaps beyond repair--our reputation as a free and justice-loving nation.

We have spent almost $300 billion dollars on the invasion and occupation of Iraq--and if our government reporting is true to form, that is only the tip of that iceberg--but have seen no bid multi-million dollar contracts, foreign contractors that have failed to meet fair standards of performance (they have met MINIMUM standards, but not fair standards), and subsidiary corporations have been awarded additional no-bid subcontracts... and our government has invested millions in public relations spin, buying positive media reports, and contracted interrogators and intelligence operatives. Meanwhile, our ports remain unsecured and for sale or rent... our levees remain a major risk to those living near them... our highways suffer from disrepair and deterioration and are being rented to foreign corporations in much the same manner as our ports (Chicago Skyway and I-80/I-90 Indiana Toll Road)... our chemical and fuel depots, manufacturing/processing plants and distribution systems--over 800 across the nation--remain largely unsecured and unguarded... our nuclear power plants are patrolled by security forces that are largely inadequately trained and understaffed... and our EMS, hospital and civil defense readiness is at an all-time low.

We are not even getting our money's worth in the process of being taken to the cleaners by a Republican dominated--and ultra-conservative Christian right controlled--government that is working against our own best interests.

"After order and liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government." —Calvin Coolidge

Coolidge was not an exciting president, but he was a banker and economist. He recognized that "order" (aka security, infrastructure and proper law enforcement) and "liberty" (c.f. US Constitution and the Bill of Rights) have a PRIORITY to economics... but our current government places the economy as its first priority, giving in to big business at the executive, legislative and judicial level at every turn (see some of today's other posts). The prioritizing of big business over liberty and security is ludicrous and asinine. It is a selling out of our ideals, first principles, our own liberty and status as a super power and world leader. Yet, even FOX News and its commentators have tied the economy, stock performance and the well-being of major US and multi-national corporations to the events in Iraq and Afghanistan... so much so that Stephen Colbert made fun of it on the Colbert Report.

"I believe it is fair to say most Republicans did not think George W. Bush was motivated to run for the presidency for the primary reason of cutting or controlling spending. But it is also fair to say that they did not think he was Lyndon B. Johnson. And that's what he's turned into." —Peggy Noonan

Coming from an editor of the Wall Street Journal, that's a pretty harsh assessment... but fair and accurate.

"The Senate vote increased the debt ceiling for the fourth time in five years. The statutory debt limit has now risen by more than $3 trillion since President Bush took office. That any Republican majority could preside over such fiscally irresponsible spending ought to be grounds for revoking their party membership." —Cal Thomas

"Our government today is larger than it ever has been in history. Spending has grown more in the past five years than any time since Franklin Roosevelt was in the White House. And our leaders in Washington have created new entitlements for the first time in decades. Lyndon Johnson would be proud." —Steve Forbes

Coming from a staunch ultraconservative Fox News entertainers, er, I mean commentator and the foremost pro-business proponent in the world, those are condemning statements regarding how our government is spending wastefully. It does appear that even the stalwart planks of the Republican promise are popping loose and no longer support the Republican ideology. It's not just liberals, moderates or constitutionalists that are jumping ship, it's the Republican bulkheads.

"[L]obbyists are not the main problem. After all, they don't get to vote on the legislation. The main problem is lawmakers passing bills they haven't read, and pretending they don't know about the pork that gets slipped in when they pretend they're not looking." —Paul Jacob

I love it when an umpire calls it the way we see them.

"You know there are all these conspiracy theories that Dick [Cheney] runs the country...or Karl [Rove] runs the country. Why aren't there any conspiracy theories that I run the country? Really ticks me off." —President George W. Bush

Well, George, when you have these loose thoughts and associations, it does explain a few things. The reason we think Cheney and Rove are in charge is because they present a coherent and cohesive front while you represent a whiney, whimpering and complaining little sh... never mind.

"Nowhere else [besides education] do people think that it is OK to engage in politics instead of doing the job for which they are being paid. When you hire a plumber to fix a leak, you don't want to find your home being flooded while he whiles away the hours talking about Congressional elections or foreign policy." —Thomas Sowell

Perhaps Mr. Sowell was absent when they taught that some of our greatest thinkers and historical figures--Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Adam Smith, Kant, Descartes, Rousseau, J.S. Mill, Jefferson, Hobbes, DeTocqueville, Madison, Marx, Dewey, Horace Mann, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and so many others saw civics, political involvement and polity as a major arena for educators to explore with their students. Given that the political participation of our citizenry in this country is insufficient, one would think that every effort to educate our children regarding how politics plays out in terms of science, law, business, math, engineering, education, economics, welfare, social security, investment and retirement, as well as health care, energy and just about everything else there is in our society... Well, let's just say that Old Tom Sowell missed the mark here.

"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to state this or that or the other, but it is 'not done'... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness." —George Orwell

It would seem that George W. Bush and his gang read this author but failed to read the US Constitution... While both represent important ideas, a gold star goes to anyone that can tell me which one is the most important as a guide for our government and which one is a warning about the ideas embodied in the Bush Doctrine and all ideologies that abandon the first principles embodied in the Constitution... ooops, I gave away the answer... Want to bet George W. won;t be able to get it right?

"Money is power, more money for the government is more power for the government. More power for the government will allow it to, among many other things, amuse itself by putting its fingers in a million pies, and stop performing its essential functions well, and get dizzily distracted by nonessentials, and muck up everything. Which is more or less where we are." —Peggy Noonan

Sounds like a description of our current government... escpecially when you consider it is trying to determine our descisions about reproductive health, sexual habits between consenting adults, family values and the very structure of our families.

"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes." —Andrew Jackson

It is also to be regretted that our political leaders don't have the insight to recognize this type of manipulation, the courage to resist such tempations, or the will to forego avarice in favor of duty, honor and genuine service to our nation.

"A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason. Let us...always reveal with utmost honesty our real reasons for all that we do." —J.P. Morgan

What are the real reasons for the wire taps? What are the real reasons for detaining people at Gitmo? What are the real reasons for invading and occupying Iraq? What are the real reasons for extending nuclear power to India? What are the real reasons that the Christian Right controls our current electoral process? What are the real reasons for a federal bench that is loaded down with a ultra-conservative ideology?

SOMEBODY PLEASE ANSWER ME!

"What was true for the Cold War is no less true today. It's not enough to say that we fight tyranny. It is essential to say that we fight for what is right, and what is by any measure better than the enemy will ever deliver to even its most loyal followers." —Jed Babbin

But what is right is embodied in the US Constitution... let us return to those first principles because they are universal.

Ain't it funny how words get twisted... and priniples are abandoned.