Posted on 02/28/2003 4:11:51 PM PST by LaBelleDameSansMerci
"....We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution for the United Sates of America............
[Oedipus to Creon:]
...When the sphinx...kept her deathwatch here,
why silent then, not a word to set our people free?
Not a word...
There was a riddle, not for some passer-by to solve,
It cried for a prophet! Where were you?
Did you rise to the crisis? Not a word.
You and your birds, your gods---nothing.
No, but I came by, Oedipus the ignorant.
I stopped the sphinx with no help from the birds.
The flight of my own intelligence hit the mark....
....We meet here during a crucial period in the history of our nation, and of the civilized world. Part of that history was written by others; the rest will be written by us. (Applause.)
Oedipus: "Ah woe! ah woe! ah woe! Woe for my misery! Where am I wondering in my utter woe? Where floats my voice in air? Dread power, where leadest Thou?
...On a September morning, threats that had gathered for years, in secret and far away, led to murder in our country on a massive scale. As a result, we must look at security in a new way, because our country is a battlefield in the first war of the 21st century. We learned a lesson..... (Applause.)
....Then among them, the father of gods and men began to
speak..."Lo, you now, How vainly mortal men do blame the gods. For of
us they say comes evil, Whereas they even of themselves
through the blindness of their own hearts, have sorrows
beyond that which is ordained....
...Our coalition of more than 90 countries is pursuing the networks of terror with every tool of law enforcement and with military power. We have arrested, or otherwise dealt with, many key commanders of al Qaeda. (Applause.) Across the world, we are hunting down the killers one by one. We are winning. And we're showing them the definition of American justice. (Applause.)
I think they are discussing something that started back with FDR.
"....Observe good faith and justice towards all Nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great Nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence......
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests. The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim. ......"
..The dangers of our time must be confronted actively and forcefully, before we see them again in our skies and in our cities. And we set a goal: we will not allow the triumph of hatred and violence in the affairs of men. (Applause.)
...we are opposing the greatest danger in the war on terror: outlaw regimes arming with weapons of mass destruction.
In Iraq, a dictator is building and hiding weapons that could enable him to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilized world -- and we will not allow it. (Applause.) This same tyrant has close ties to terrorist organizations, and could supply them with the terrible means to strike this country -- and America will not permit it. The danger posed by Saddam Hussein and his weapons cannot be ignored or wished away. The danger must be confronted. We hope that the Iraqi regime will meet the demands of the United Nations and disarm, fully and peacefully. If it does not, we are prepared to disarm Iraq by force. Either way, this danger will be removed. (Applause.)......
"....So likewise, a passionate attachment of one Nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite Nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite Nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the Nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained; and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens, (who devote themselves to the favorite nation,) facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
..... As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent Patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the Public Councils! Such an attachment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter...."
... In confronting Iraq, the United States is also showing our commitment to effective international institutions. We are a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. We helped to create the Security Council. We believe in the Security Council -- so much that we want its words to have meaning. (Applause.) ........
".... Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connexion as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop......"
... Success in Iraq could also begin a new stage for Middle Eastern peace, and set in motion progress towards a truly democratic Palestinian state. (Applause.)...Palestinians who are working for reform and long for democracy will be in a better position to choose new leaders. (Applause.) True leaders who strive for peace; true leaders who faithfully serve the people. A Palestinian state must be a reformed and peaceful state that abandons forever the use of terror. (Applause.)
For its part, the new government of Israel -- as the terror threat is removed and security improves -- will be expected to support the creation of a viable Palestinian state -- (applause) -- and to work as quickly as possible toward a final status agreement. As progress is made toward peace, settlement activity in the occupied territories must end. (Applause.) And the Arab states will be expected to meet their responsibilities to oppose terrorism, to support the emergence of a peaceful and democratic Palestine, and state clearly they will live in peace with Israel. (Applause.)
The United States and other nations are working on a road map for peace. We are setting out the necessary conditions for progress toward the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. It is the commitment of our government -- and my personal commitment -- to implement the road map and to reach that goal. Old patterns of conflict in the Middle East can be broken, if all concerned will let go of bitterness, hatred, and violence, and get on with the serious work of economic development, and political reform, and reconciliation. America will seize every opportunity in pursuit of peace. And the end of the present regime in Iraq would create such an opportunity. (Applause.)
The Democrats' Case Against Saddam Hussein (Dems nailed, yet again)
Headline Rundown and links on Iraq - Things the democrats have conviently forgot...
Saddam Abused His Last Chance, Clinton -clear and present danger to safety of people everywhere 1998
Gore repeats that Saddam MUST GO - June 2000
What the democrats want you to forget
Iraq is a Regional Threat, capable of as much as 200 tons of VX nerve agent (1999 Clinton report)
Czech military reports say iraq has smallpox virus in weapons stockpile (and camelpox)
Iraqi chemical weapons buildup reported (Sept 2001 Report)
Clinton, Gore rally domestic support for strike at Iraq, "unholy axis" (1998 Must read)
statement President Clinton from 1998 on the air strikes
Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 - Full Text, Sense of Congress - Remove Saddam
."....Wilson's famous message to Benedict XV...breathed more or less the same spirit. The German People might be fine, the letter said, but its government had to go. And indeed after the war Germany and Austria were saddled with regimes whose character was dictated by the Allies---the alternative being the hunger blockade. Any historian could have told the victors that political forms imposed by a triumphant enemy neverlast....
Needless to say Wilson suffered from the Great American Malady, the belief that people the world over are "more alike than unalike"..."
... It is presumptuous and insulting to suggest that a whole region of the world -- or the one-fifth of humanity that is Muslim -- is somehow untouched by the most basic aspirations of life. Human cultures can be vastly different. Yet the human heart desires the same good things, everywhere on Earth. In our desire to be safe from brutal and bullying oppression, human beings are the same. In our desire to care for our children and give them a better life, we are the same. For these fundamental reasons, freedom and democracy will always and everywhere have greater appeal than the slogans of hatred and the tactics of terror. (Applause.)...
"...in other words, that non-Americans are nothing more than inhibited, underdeveloped could-be Americans with the misfortune of speaking a different language..... "
...Some say the same of Iraq today. They are mistaken. (Applause.) The nation of Iraq -- with its proud heritage, abundant resources and skilled and educated people -- is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom. (Applause.)
The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better life. And there are hopeful signs of a desire for freedom in the Middle East....
"...When it came to the showdown at the conference table in Paris, Lloyd George himself a Methodist Machiavelli, said that he was wedged in between a man who thought he was Napoleon (Clemenceau) and another who thought he was Jesus Christ (Wilson)...."
...The United States and other nations are working on a road map for peace. We are setting out the necessary conditions for progress toward the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. It is the commitment of our government -- and my personal commitment -- to implement the road map and to reach that goal. Old patterns of conflict in the Middle East can be broken, if all concerned will let go of bitterness, hatred, and violence, and get on with the serious work of economic development, and political reform, and reconciliation. America will seize every opportunity in pursuit of peace. And the end of the present regime in Iraq would create such an opportunity. (Applause.)
"...The ignorance of the former president of Princeton in matters of history and geography was simply prodigious.....Woodrow Wilson's greatest guilt, nevertheless, lay in his attitude during the war, in his flat refusal to cooperate in any peace efforts and in his determination to carry the war to the bitter end, thus laying the foundations for the next one...."
...I've listened carefully, as people and leaders around the world have made known their desire for peace. All of us want peace. The threat to peace does not come from those who seek to enforce the just demands of the civilized world; the threat to peace comes from those who flout those demands. If we have to act, we will act to restrain the violent, and defend the cause of peace. And by acting, we will signal to outlaw regimes that in this new century, the boundaries of civilized behavior will be respected. (Applause.) Protecting those boundaries carries a cost....
"...World War I, surely, is a far more crucial historic event than most Americans credit. Modern Man is over occupied with stems and leaves; he willfully disregards the roots...."
....In his endeavors to foist on Europe a form of government bound to fail (as a semihieratic, semi-aristocratic Catholic monarchy would have in, say, Vermont), Wilson was...just a "plain American". He was convinced that the formula to his success in the United States---fostering American popular notions--could be repeated as successfully in the rest of the world. He once said that "the best leaders are those with ordinary opinions and extraordinary abilities, those who uphold the opinions of the generation in which they live, and hold it with such vitality, perceive it with such excessive insight, that they can walk at the front and show the paths by which the things generally purposed can be accomplished." This is nothing more than the despicable principle of that great demagogue, Ledru-Rollin: "I am their leader so I have to follow them!"...."
... Much is asked of America in this year 2003. The work ahead is demanding. It will be difficult to help freedom take hold in a country that has known three decades of dictatorship, secret police, internal divisions, and war. It will be difficult to cultivate liberty and peace in the Middle East, after so many generations of strife. Yet, the security of our nation and the hope of millions depend on us, and Americans do not turn away from duties because they are hard. We have met great tests in other times, and we will meet the tests of our time. (Applause.)
We go forward with confidence, because we trust in the power of human freedom to change lives and nations. By the resolve and purpose of America, and of our friends and allies, we will make this an age of progress and liberty. Free people will set the course of history, and free people will keep the peace of the world....
After 220 years, y'all should come up with some new rants to keep us interested.
I'm no more impressed by these claims than our Founders were.
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience... To be 'cured' against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason... You start being 'kind' to people before you have considered their rights, and then force upon them supposed kindnesses which they in fact had a right to refuse, and finally kindnesses which no one but you will recognize as kindnesses and which the recipient will feel as abominable cruelties."
.....The first to benefit from a free Iraq would be the Iraqi people, themselves. Today they live in scarcity and fear, under a dictator who has brought them nothing but war, and misery, and torture. Their lives and their freedom matter little to Saddam Hussein -- but Iraqi lives and freedom matter greatly to us. (Applause.)
Bringing stability and unity to a free Iraq will not be easy. Yet that is no excuse to leave the Iraqi regime's torture chambers and poison labs in operation. Any future the Iraqi people choose for themselves will be better than the nightmare world that Saddam Hussein has chosen for them. (Applause.)
"...A barbaric civilization, built on blind impulse and ambition, should fear to awaken a deeper destestation than could ever be aroused by those more beautiful tyrannies, chivalrous or religious, against which past revolutions have been directed...."
If we must use force, the United States and our coalition stand ready to help the citizens of a liberated Iraq. We will deliver medicine to the sick, and we are now moving into place nearly 3 million emergency rations to feed the hungry.
We'll make sure that Iraq's 55,000 food distribution sites, operating under the Oil For Food program, are stocked and open as soon as possible. The United States and Great Britain are providing tens of millions of dollars to the U.N. High Commission on Refugees, and to such groups as the World Food Program and UNICEF, to provide emergency aid to the Iraqi people. and not a day more. America has made and kept this kind of commitment before -- in the peace that followed a world war. After defeating enemies, we did not leave behind occupying armies, we left constitutions and parliaments. We established an atmosphere of safety, in which responsible, reform-minded local leaders could build lasting institutions of freedom. In societies that once bred fascism and militarism, liberty found a permanent home.
.. The nation of Iraq -- with its proud heritage, abundant resources and skilled and educated people -- is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom. (Applause.)
NY Supreme Court Decision-Denial of Benefits For Refusal To Participate in biometric fingerprinting
".....I couldn't forgive him or like him, but I saw that what he had done was, to him, entirely justified. It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or ther vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made
I shook hands with him; it seemed silly not to, for I felt suddenly as though I were talking to a child. Then he went into the jewelry store to buy a pearl necklace--or perhaps only a pair of cuff buttons---rid of my provincial squeamishness forever....."
.....Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
Brzezinski: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -----The United States has designated three Chechen rebel groups "terrorist organizations," a step Moscow has been pressing Washington to take for more than a year.
U.S. officials said the three Chechen groups took part in the mass hostage-taking at the Dubrovka theater in Moscow last October, when 129 people were killed, mostly by gas injected by the Russian forces who ended the siege.
The officials said Russia had been pressing for the United States to designate Chechen groups as "terrorist organizations" but denied the timing was linked to U.S. attempts to win Russian support for its plans to invade Iraq.
They also alleged extensive contacts and mutual support between the Chechen groups, the deposed Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and bin Laden's al Qaeda organization in the 1990s.
They are the first Chechen groups added to the list, illustrating the harder line Washington has started to take against the Chechen movement.
But the officials said that the crackdown did not mean the United States considered all Chechen fighters as "terrorists" or that it was changing its support for a political solution in the mainly Muslim territory. ...The level of U.S. interest in Chechen events has fluctuated according to the state of relations with Moscow. ...
CITY 'ALIEN' POLICY ON TRIAL IN RAPE
NY Post
By PHILIP MESSING
February 27, 2003 -- EXCLUSIVE
A congressional committee wants to know whether city policy kept the suspects in a brutal Queens rape - illegal aliens with prior criminal records - from being deported before they committed the heinous attack. ...
Federal law recommends - but does not require - that local police report crimes committed by illegal aliens to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, sources said.
Hostettler is trying to determine whether a Koch-era executive order that affords illegal aliens emergency health care and other city services bars or discourages the NYPD from reporting such crimes.
The suspects attacked a woman and her boyfriend as they walked on a deserted bridge over Long Island railroad tracks not far from Shea Stadium, police said.
With the boyfriend incapacitated, the attackers gang-raped her. When the boyfriend came to, he used a cell phone to call cops.
Three of the suspects - José Hernandez-De Los Santos, Carlos Mora-Sabino and Juvenal Aurelio Zhinin-Quisphe - are illegal aliens with extensive records, police said.
But they were never deported. "And nobody seems to know why," a Capitol Hill source said.....
The Washington Times
Paul Craig Roberts
Do you remember those Information Technology (IT) jobs that were going to take the place in the "new economy" of those outsourced manufacturing jobs? Don't bother to retrain. The IT jobs are leaving, too.
Knowledge work can be done anywhere there are educated people. These days that's just about everywhere: the Philippines, India, China, Russia, Eastern Europe, Costa Rica, and South Africa. Outsourcing of "new economy" jobs is exploding.
A recent article in the Feb. 3 Business Week describes "dazzling new technology parks" on the outskirts of India's major cities where U.S. companies such as Bank of America, Texas Instruments, pharmaceutical companies, Intel, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Hewlet Packard, American Express, Dell Computer, Eastman Kodak, IBM, GE, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Fluor Corp, Electronic Data Services, Citibank, Boeing, mortgage lenders, Massachusetts General Hospital, and even architectural firms hire Indians to do knowledge jobs that Americans did three years ago.
In Bangalore, Indian radiologists interpret CT scans for Massachusetts General Hospital, and Indian engineers design third-generation mobile-phone chips for Texas Instruments. Other Indians process claims for major U.S. insurance companies and home loans for U.S. mortgage companies. Indian molecular biologists conduct research for pharmaceutical companies. Indians analyze financial data for Wall Street, conduct R&D for U.S. high-tech companies, and design software for Microsoft.
The competition for U.S. knowledge workers is tough. India has 520,000 IT engineers, and starting salaries are $5,000. Five years from now, Indian service exports will add $57 billion annually to the U.S. and European trade deficits, and 4 million IT jobs will have been moved to India.
The same thing is happening in China, a country with which the U.S. is expected to have a $125 billion trade deficit this year due largely to outsourcing. Microsoft alone is spending $1.15 billion for R&D and outsourcing in India and China over the next three years. In Microsoft's Beijing research facility, one-third of the Chinese programmers have Ph.D.s from U.S. universities at U.S. taxpayers' expense.
Filipinos prepare Procter & Gamble's tax returns and crunch numbers for audits conducted by U.S. accounting firms. Architectural work ranging from home design to multibillion-dollar petrochemical plants is outsourced to Hungary, India, and the Philippines.
The U.S. gave away its agricultural knowledge, its education, its technology, its manufacturing jobs and is now giving away its IT jobs. The displaced manufacturing workers did not move to the promised greener pastures. What reason is there to believe that the displaced engineers, Wall Street analysts, accountants, scientists, and other knowledge workers will do any better when their careers are outsourced?
Business Week asked Harvard University globalist advocate Robert Lawrence what happens if America loses its knowledge jobs on top of its manufacturing jobs. His answer was not reassuring. He has no evidence — just faith — that globalization will make us better off.
What is going on when American policymakers and elites gamble with the livelihoods of tens of millions of Americans on faith? Business Week is correct when it says "economists haven't begun to fathom the implications" for America of globalization. But it is already obvious who the winners and losers are.
The winners are the foreigners with IT educations who live in countries where both the standard and cost of living are very low. The losers are IT employees in the U.S. where both the standard and cost of living is very high. Filipino engineers working for American firms at salaries of $3,000 annually, and Chinese and Indians working for $5,000 to $10,000 annually are unbeatable competition. For American university students struggling to prepare for high-tech careers, the good times are over before they begin.
While jobs leave America and incomes fall, the eligibility of illegal aliens for U.S. Social Security and Medicaid benefits is a powerful magnet pulling in poor foreigners by the droves. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act did not end benefits for PRUCOL aliens, those who entered illegally and "permanently reside under color of law." People collect benefits who have never paid in. And it is American citizens, downsized and outsourced, who are saddled with the burden.
As most everyone knows, Social Security is in dire straits. But its funding problem has not deterred the Bush administration from drafting a treaty with Mexico that will give the Mexican government $345 billion in Social Security payments for Mexicans who have worked legally and illegally in the U.S.
Let's hope the Bush administration is correct and that we are not starting a 30-year war in the Middle East by invading Iraq. Otherwise, the combination of war, job and income loss, unprecedented trade deficits, and the creation of Social Security entitlements for foreign nationals will break the U.S. long before another generation passes.
Before the U.S. can reconstruct the world, it must cease deconstructing itself. For that task, the country will need a champion.
Which brings up an interesting question really, why did we need all of this? We kicked out the Brits, why did we need to formalize a government? The very act limited a person's freedoms. What was the whole idea behind it? A way to create security by pulling together as one?
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