Beware! Do not look upon the Gorgon!
Posted on 10/29/2004 3:17:02 PM PDT by O.C. - Old Cracker
Beware! Do not look upon the Gorgon!
The presidential election on Tuesday is one of the most crucial in American history.
There are many reasons -- in foreign policy and on the domestic front -- why President George W. Bush should not be reelected.
Among them is the dominance of the radical right in his advisory councils, who are taking the United States down the wrong road at the start of the 21st century.
The road could lead to more mindless wars abroad and a widening gap between the rich and the poor in this country.
There will be only one way to read the election results if Bush wins: The world will see his victory as an affirmation by the American people of his disastrous preemptive war policy, which led the United States to invade Iraq without provocation.
The U.S. attack on Iraq is a clear violation of international law and has made us helpless to condemn others for similar acts.
If he wins reelection, Bush may see his victory as a signal to follow the neo-conservative dream of a political transformation of the Middle East through military force.
The president also would likely continue his new-style isolationism by giving short shrift to post-World War II treaties, such as those banning biological and chemical weapons. There is nothing to indicate Bush is willing to stop the gross violations of the Geneva Conventions on the humane treatment of prisoners of war.
Dark reports of the shameful treatment and secret transfers of detainees still emanate from Iraq and the U.S. brig at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba.
Despite his vehement denials, Bush may be compelled to call for another military draft if he persists in making war.
He is scraping by now with his all-volunteer military, along with reservists and National Guard members, keeping them on duty longer than planned with a so-called a back-door draft. If he wins a second term, he wouldn't have to worry about running again and would have a free hand to undo his read-my-lips campaign promises.
On the homefront, the rich will be sitting pretty again with big tax cuts while the budget deficit and national debt zoom sky high.
Bush donors from the military-industrial complex are being well rewarded, especially Halliburton, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, which already has reaped no-bid contracts to the tune of billions of dollars.
Organized labor will still be behind the eight ball under a new Bush administration. Workers will be pressured to accept "comp time" in place of overtime pay, and the lowered safety standards imposed by Bush's Labor Department will lead to more industrial accidents.
Don't expect Bush to lift a finger to stem the tide of outsourcing of the nation's biggest companies to China, India and other points East, where they can find cheaper labor.
The president is expected to keep trying to weaken public education with voucher programs to aid private schools, many of them religious. He is certain to follow through on his pet project to privatize part of the Social Security system with voluntary private investment accounts, driving a big hole in the program's trust fund. We should all hope that Congress won't go along with such a dangerous idea.
Social Security was the 1936 Depression-era program to support the elderly, the disabled and deprived dependent children.
Senior citizens, meantime, are staying away in droves from Bush's highly touted prescription drug program, which the administration publicly underpriced by $1 billion. Furthermore, the resident's compassionate conservative legislation banned importation of cheaper drugs from Canada. That is not expected to change in a new Bush term.
Bush also wants to cater to corporate interests by capping damages in medical malpractice suits at $250,000.
If reelected, Bush -- who has injected religion into public affairs more than any president has in modern times -- is expected to continue his messianic mission in the White House. He will blur even more the separation of church and state.
For women and minorities who support abortion rights and affirmative action, there is the scary prospect that the candidate who wins Tuesday may be able to appoint three, perhaps even four Supreme Court justices.
Bush undoubtedly will see his reelection as a mandate to push the country further to the right. And if he elected, he will be answerable to no one.
(Helen Thomas can be reached at the e-mail address hthomas@hearstdc.com).
Discuss Helen Thomas' Opinion
Can she be more wrong? Irag was repeatedly in violation of UN resolutions and the cease-fire agreement. They fired on our aircraft in the no-fly zones almost weekly. That alone gave us the right to kick their butt. What an absolute idiot.
aged 28.....LMAO
reason and truth have no home in the lobes of a liberal
My husband said she could walk right onto a horror show set and not even have to stop for makeup. I just love that man. :)
She was nobody's pretty anything....except pretty ugly....
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
I thought they sent her to Paris for some kind of treatment.
They did, but it didn't work. Ugly, sour and un-american just isn't curable. I'll bet she looks forward to Halloween every year though. She could scare the kids parents.
Argh! Please post a warning next time there's a picture of Helen Thomas--I just ate and my stomach's churning now. . .
Was she an extra in the Battle at Helm's Deep?
I watched this tape last night. It is outstanding. Just wish more people would take the time to view it, but they won't since it's almost 1/2 hour long, but well worth the time.
... an interchange between White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and journalist Helen Thomas on January 6 ... Read The Marxist- Leninist Daily. Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml ...
www.cpcml.ca/tmld/D33014.htm - 54k - Cached - More pages from this site
The Marxist-Leninist Daily
Bush Deplores the Killing of [Certain] Innocents
— White House Press Briefing —
The following is the script of an interchange between White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer and journalist Helen Thomas on January 6.
Mr. Fleischer: Good afternoon and happy New Year to everybody. ...The President will discuss with members of his Cabinet his agenda for the year. [The President is going to focus on economic growth, making America a more compassionate country, and providing for the security of our nation abroad and on the home front.]
And with that, I'm more than happy to take your questions. Helen.
Q: At the earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the President deplored the taking of innocent lives. Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world? And I have a follow-up.
Mr. Fleischer: I refer specifically to a horrible terrorist attack on Tel Aviv that killed scores and wounded hundreds. And the President, as he said in his statement yesterday, deplores in the strongest terms the taking of those lives and the wounding of those people, innocents in Israel.
Q: My follow-up is, why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?
Mr. Fleischer: Helen, the question is how to protect Americans, and our allies and friends —
Q: They're not attacking you.
Mr. Fleischer: — from a country —
Q: Have they laid the glove on you or on the United States, the Iraqis, in 11 years?
Mr. Fleischer: I guess you have forgotten about the Americans who were killed in the first Gulf War as a result of Saddam Hussein's aggression then.
Q: Is this revenge, 11 years of revenge?
Mr. Fleischer: Helen, I think you know very well that the President's position is that he wants to avert war, and that the President has asked the United Nations to go into Iraq to help with the purpose of averting war.
Q: Would the President attack innocent Iraqi lives?
Mr. Fleischer: The President wants to make certain that he can defend our country, defend our interests, defend the region, and make certain that American lives are not lost.
Q: And he thinks they are a threat to us?
Mr. Fleischer: There is no question that the President thinks that Iraq is a threat to the United States.
Q: The Iraqi people?
Mr. Fleischer: The Iraqi people are represented by their government. If there was regime change, the Iraqi —
Q: So they will be vulnerable?
Mr. Fleischer: Actually, the President has made it very clear that he has no dispute with the people of Iraq. That's why the American policy remains a policy of regime change. There is no question the people of Iraq —
Q: That's a decision for them to make, isn't it? It's their country.
Mr. Fleischer: Helen, if you think that the people of Iraq are in a position to dictate who their dictator is, I don't think that has been what history has shown.
Q: I think many countries don't have — people don't have the decision — including us.
[Return]
This is what happens when your mama props you up in the
corner and feeds you with a sling shot when your a baby.
I wasn't aware she was a real person, is she? I always thought she was a bag lady they invited to White House press conferences as a joke.
I would bet anything she would qualify for a disability pension from Social Security based only upon her looks even if you didn't consider her mental diability.
The article is full of DESPERATION!! Helen and the rest of her lefty friends know Kerry's in deep trouble, and they're trying their last ditch attempts to rouse an unenthused Democratic base to turn out and vote. These old lefties just never go away, do they?
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