Posts Tagged ‘president’

I read Bob Burnett’s excellent and timely post yesterday over at HuffPo, entitled "Bush’s Day of Reckoning."  I recommend reading it in its entirety.  The topic is whether or not to proceed with criminal investigations of Bush, Cheney & their ilk over torture and any other violations of the Constitution.  Bob does point out that incompetence is not a crime and focuses on things like ordering torture or illegal spying on Americans, which are crimes.

Every morning on my walk to the bus, I pass the windows of a shop called Bazar.  They sell imports, womens’ clothing, shoes, etc.  I often look at the dresses on display with an eye for something my wife would like me to surprise her with.  They often have some posters for bands or performances that I assume the owner fancies. 

However, in addition to their normal offerings for eye-candy, they offered something to reflect Barack Obama’s election.  Entitled "a historic night"; it was several large swaths of white paper hanging in the windows.  The hangings, read from left to right were one-line capsules of events, ideas, statements and thoughts from the beginning of the campaign up to election night. 

“The true strength of rulers and empires lies not in armies or emotions, but in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open and truthful and legal. As soon as a government departs from that standard, it ceases to be anything more than “the gang in possession,” and its days are numbered.” (H. G. Wells, as quoted in the Gravel Edition of the Pentagon Papers.)

The enemies of democracy are the enemies of the rule of law.

“enemies both foreign & domestic…”

Our Presidents and our armed forces swear to protect the Constitution from this threat – with good reason. The Constitution is the rule of law and it is the one thing that can prevent tyrants, thieves and murderers from the ruinous world of their unchecked greed and brutality.

con⋅serv⋅a⋅tive
/kənˈsɜrvətɪv/ [kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv]
–adjective
1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
2. cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.
3. traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.
–noun
1. a person who is conservative in principles, actions, habits, etc.
2. a supporter of conservative political policies.
3. a preservative.

The dictionary definition above does not make it sound so bad. I mean, it sounds like part of a spreadsheet on a CPA’s laptop or maybe something out of home economics class. How can anyone have any objection to conservative thinking if it’s this benign? Well the problem for me has always been the wide chasm of disparity between their simple sounding identity and the racism, corruption, bloodlust and tyranny that they promote.

That giant sucking sound that you hear, is the hole in the ground where the GOP used to be. The Christian Reich Right (CR) took them over and instead of spreading out to envelop the entire country, the greedy, intolerant, deceitful hypocrites have killed the GOP. Moderate and independent citizens have spoken with their votes. It turns out that Americans really do want equality for all.

My country just announced that we are migrating to a new platform to manage our domain, United.States.of.America.gov. It’s called Camelot v. 2.0. It is going to really change how we do things around here. It is about time.

I am pretty excited because frankly, since Camelot v. 1.0 was removed, we have changed platforms every few years with sometimes awful results.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="226" caption="Image courtesy of Wikipedia"][/caption]

On a January morning at 6am, I left my parents house to enlist in the United States Army Special Forces. It was 1981. I drove down to a building on Michigan Avenue to be processed into the service of my country. I remember filling out paperwork, seeing physicians, answering questions, waiting in line and moving from one room to another for hours. Sometime in the middle of the afternoon, I was taken into a room with several young men like myself. Some I had seen on my rounds that morning and some were strangers. I was excited and eager to begin my tour of duty in service to my country. We looked around the room at each other as we filed in and were asked to stand in a straight line.

The topic of voter suppression comes up at election time and is largely regarded as tricks to keep votes from being counted on election day or stopping voters at the polling place doors. We hear about them all and will hear about some today. These attempts are both obvious and trivial compared to the greater, large scale voter suppression that has been going on for decades.

This is extremely difficult for me to accept, but I have become a Democrat. I am a white male, age 48, ex-military and (for years) I was a dyed-in-the-wool Independent. I was practically a poster boy for the white male independent voter demographic. I reserved the right to dislike any candidate based on the deficiencies and faults of that candidate as an individual. I would not be tied down to voting for any candidate because of some obligation to a political party.

Things have changed so dramatically, that I am going to vote Straight-Ticket Democratic on November 4! That’s unbelievable to me. I cannot even believe that I am writing this down and admitting it. So, how on earth did it happen to me?