uPpY
10-20-2005, 03:59 PM
http://demandbushresign.com/wp-content/themes/bionicjive/images/bionic7.gif (http://demandbushresign.com/) The War at Home Moved Up a Notch (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=18)
Posted on 09.10.05 by Tom Kertes @ 10:01 am George W. Bush has brought me to tears like no other politician. He has brought me to rage, to depression. I try to keep him out of my life, to stay out of depression and rage. But just when I think that I have turned my rage into something positive, into energy and effort to do what it takes to get our government back on track, George W. Bush does something so awful that I am once again sent into a tailspin of rage and despair.
These weeks have been a steady decline into disbelief. I knew that there was no compassion in George W. Bush. I knew this, and yet I expected that this hurricane would go as normal, as a response to a hurricane should go. How could I think this? How could I be naive enough to believe that with him in the White House things would not go terribly, terribly wrong? (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=18#more-18)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: 3 Comments (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=18#comments)
Crisis of Poverty & Moral Indifference (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=17)
Posted on 09.10.05 by Tom Kertes @ 9:58 am If you want to know what the state of the nation’s poor is, look to New Orleans now. I work with the poor people’s movement to end poverty. I am not poor. But the leaders of this movement are. That makes my leaders the nation’s poor. And they know that what is going on in New Orleans is not some extraordinary situation. It’s business as usual. The only difference is that the clock of active neglect and despair has been speeded up. Wake up America. This is how we treat the poorest amongst us. (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=17#more-17)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=17#comments)
Dick Morris on Katrina’s Gift (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=16)
Posted on 09.08.05 by Tom Kertes @ 2:02 pm I didn’t like Dick Morris when he was pals with Clinton. And I don’t like him now that he’s a Republican strategist. But at least now he’s working on the side that makes sense, given how disgusting a person he is. Here’s what Morris said about Katrina’s affect on Bush:
“A disaster like Katrina is just what a president needs to anchor his second term and give him relevance and popularity far into his tenure,” he argued.
“Not that he wanted it. Not that he handled it well to begin with. Not that he didn’t mess it up at the start. But this story will have a happy ending for Bush.” source (http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1565022,00.html)
Dick, you are wrong. Bush would benefit from a natural disaster, but he cannot recover from his disaster of neglect and indifference. Until Bush accepts his own accountability, apologizes for not taking charge while on vacation, and fires his FEMA head, he can only be remembered by what he didn’t do when Katrina hit.
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: 1 Comment (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=16#comments)
Sidney Blumenthal: “What didn’t go right?” (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=15)
Posted on 09.08.05 by Tom Kertes @ 9:04 am The Bush administration’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina stands as the pluperfect case study of the Republican Party’s theory and practice of government. For decades conservatives have funded think tanks, filled libraries and conducted political campaigns to promote the idea of limited government. Now, in New Orleans, the theory has been tested. The floodwaters have rolled over the rhetoric.
Under Bush, government has been “limited” only in certain weak spots, like levees, while in other spots it has vastly expanded into a behemoth subsisting on the greatest deficit spending in our history. State and local governments have not been empowered, but rendered impotent, in the face of circumstances beyond their means in which they have desperately requested federal intervention. Experienced professionals in government have been forced out, tried-and-true policies discarded, expert research ignored, and cronies elevated to senior management.
Before Katrina, the Republican theory received its most apposite formulation by a prominent lobbyist and close advisor to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, who said about government that he wanted to “drown it in the bathtub.” In relation to the waters that surround it, New Orleans has been described as a bathtub, and it has served as the bathtub for Norquist’s wish. more at Salon (free “day pass” registration required) (http://salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/09/08/limited_government/index.html)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=15#comments)
Reason to Resign: Bush makes US poverty worse (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=14)
Posted on 09.08.05 by Tom Kertes @ 8:53 am According to the UK Independent (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article311066.ece), a UN report released yesterday goes after the US’s poverty policies - both domestic and international. Here’s how the article starts:
Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality.
As an organizer with the poor people’s movement to end poverty I already knew this. But I am not the United Nations, so when I say things like this, few listen. That the UN came out with a report, during the Kartina crisis, is big news. The world is not happy with the current direction of the United States. And with good reason.
(more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=14#more-14)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=14#comments)
Norman Solomon: Firing Michael Brown Is Not Enough. How About Bush and Cheney? (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=12)
Posted on 09.07.05 by Tom Kertes @ 8:28 am Calls for firing Michael Brown are understandable. Aptly described as “the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA” by columnist Maureen Dowd a few days ago, he’s an easy and appropriate target.
President Bush met with Brown last Friday and publicly told him: “You’re doing a heck of a job.”
In the grisly wake of the hurricane, Brown’s job performance cannot be separated from Bush’s job performance. To similar deadly effect, the president has brought to bear on people in New Orleans the same qualities that he has inflicted on people in Iraq — refusal to acknowledge basic realities, lethally misplaced priorities, lack of compassion (cue the guitar), and overarching arrogance.
The Bush administration is guilty of criminal negligence that killed thousands of people last week. (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=12#more-12)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=12#comments)
Why don’t Americans protest? (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=11)
Posted on 09.06.05 by Tom Kertes @ 9:41 pm America is a democratic republic. That means that we elect the people who form the branches of government. We elect the lawmakers, the executive officer and the judicial officers who in turn form our federal government. We hand over to these few hundred men and women all the power that is our government. A government funded by the work and wealth of nearly 300 million citizens, in one of the richest economies of human history, has tremendous power. We give over our wealth and the power it represents, along with our consent to the laws and powers of government, to these men and women. In perspective, this is an awesome level of trust. It is an awesome level of responsibility.
We are not only a democratic republic. We are also a liberal constitutional democracy. While the majority rules, it must also respect the rights of the minority. Our constitution limits the power of the government, of the majority, to protect these rights. It also limits government power to protect all the rights and interests of all the citizens – majority included. Not even the government can violate the laws set forth in the constitution, and any government that violates such law is not legitimate and must be overthrown. (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=11#more-11)
Posted on 09.10.05 by Tom Kertes @ 10:01 am George W. Bush has brought me to tears like no other politician. He has brought me to rage, to depression. I try to keep him out of my life, to stay out of depression and rage. But just when I think that I have turned my rage into something positive, into energy and effort to do what it takes to get our government back on track, George W. Bush does something so awful that I am once again sent into a tailspin of rage and despair.
These weeks have been a steady decline into disbelief. I knew that there was no compassion in George W. Bush. I knew this, and yet I expected that this hurricane would go as normal, as a response to a hurricane should go. How could I think this? How could I be naive enough to believe that with him in the White House things would not go terribly, terribly wrong? (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=18#more-18)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: 3 Comments (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=18#comments)
Crisis of Poverty & Moral Indifference (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=17)
Posted on 09.10.05 by Tom Kertes @ 9:58 am If you want to know what the state of the nation’s poor is, look to New Orleans now. I work with the poor people’s movement to end poverty. I am not poor. But the leaders of this movement are. That makes my leaders the nation’s poor. And they know that what is going on in New Orleans is not some extraordinary situation. It’s business as usual. The only difference is that the clock of active neglect and despair has been speeded up. Wake up America. This is how we treat the poorest amongst us. (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=17#more-17)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=17#comments)
Dick Morris on Katrina’s Gift (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=16)
Posted on 09.08.05 by Tom Kertes @ 2:02 pm I didn’t like Dick Morris when he was pals with Clinton. And I don’t like him now that he’s a Republican strategist. But at least now he’s working on the side that makes sense, given how disgusting a person he is. Here’s what Morris said about Katrina’s affect on Bush:
“A disaster like Katrina is just what a president needs to anchor his second term and give him relevance and popularity far into his tenure,” he argued.
“Not that he wanted it. Not that he handled it well to begin with. Not that he didn’t mess it up at the start. But this story will have a happy ending for Bush.” source (http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1565022,00.html)
Dick, you are wrong. Bush would benefit from a natural disaster, but he cannot recover from his disaster of neglect and indifference. Until Bush accepts his own accountability, apologizes for not taking charge while on vacation, and fires his FEMA head, he can only be remembered by what he didn’t do when Katrina hit.
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: 1 Comment (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=16#comments)
Sidney Blumenthal: “What didn’t go right?” (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=15)
Posted on 09.08.05 by Tom Kertes @ 9:04 am The Bush administration’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina stands as the pluperfect case study of the Republican Party’s theory and practice of government. For decades conservatives have funded think tanks, filled libraries and conducted political campaigns to promote the idea of limited government. Now, in New Orleans, the theory has been tested. The floodwaters have rolled over the rhetoric.
Under Bush, government has been “limited” only in certain weak spots, like levees, while in other spots it has vastly expanded into a behemoth subsisting on the greatest deficit spending in our history. State and local governments have not been empowered, but rendered impotent, in the face of circumstances beyond their means in which they have desperately requested federal intervention. Experienced professionals in government have been forced out, tried-and-true policies discarded, expert research ignored, and cronies elevated to senior management.
Before Katrina, the Republican theory received its most apposite formulation by a prominent lobbyist and close advisor to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, who said about government that he wanted to “drown it in the bathtub.” In relation to the waters that surround it, New Orleans has been described as a bathtub, and it has served as the bathtub for Norquist’s wish. more at Salon (free “day pass” registration required) (http://salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/09/08/limited_government/index.html)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=15#comments)
Reason to Resign: Bush makes US poverty worse (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=14)
Posted on 09.08.05 by Tom Kertes @ 8:53 am According to the UK Independent (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article311066.ece), a UN report released yesterday goes after the US’s poverty policies - both domestic and international. Here’s how the article starts:
Parts of the United States are as poor as the Third World, according to a shocking United Nations report on global inequality.
As an organizer with the poor people’s movement to end poverty I already knew this. But I am not the United Nations, so when I say things like this, few listen. That the UN came out with a report, during the Kartina crisis, is big news. The world is not happy with the current direction of the United States. And with good reason.
(more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=14#more-14)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=14#comments)
Norman Solomon: Firing Michael Brown Is Not Enough. How About Bush and Cheney? (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=12)
Posted on 09.07.05 by Tom Kertes @ 8:28 am Calls for firing Michael Brown are understandable. Aptly described as “the blithering idiot in charge of FEMA” by columnist Maureen Dowd a few days ago, he’s an easy and appropriate target.
President Bush met with Brown last Friday and publicly told him: “You’re doing a heck of a job.”
In the grisly wake of the hurricane, Brown’s job performance cannot be separated from Bush’s job performance. To similar deadly effect, the president has brought to bear on people in New Orleans the same qualities that he has inflicted on people in Iraq — refusal to acknowledge basic realities, lethally misplaced priorities, lack of compassion (cue the guitar), and overarching arrogance.
The Bush administration is guilty of criminal negligence that killed thousands of people last week. (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=12#more-12)
Filed under: Demand Bush Resign (http://demandbushresign.com/?cat=1)
Comments: None (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=12#comments)
Why don’t Americans protest? (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=11)
Posted on 09.06.05 by Tom Kertes @ 9:41 pm America is a democratic republic. That means that we elect the people who form the branches of government. We elect the lawmakers, the executive officer and the judicial officers who in turn form our federal government. We hand over to these few hundred men and women all the power that is our government. A government funded by the work and wealth of nearly 300 million citizens, in one of the richest economies of human history, has tremendous power. We give over our wealth and the power it represents, along with our consent to the laws and powers of government, to these men and women. In perspective, this is an awesome level of trust. It is an awesome level of responsibility.
We are not only a democratic republic. We are also a liberal constitutional democracy. While the majority rules, it must also respect the rights of the minority. Our constitution limits the power of the government, of the majority, to protect these rights. It also limits government power to protect all the rights and interests of all the citizens – majority included. Not even the government can violate the laws set forth in the constitution, and any government that violates such law is not legitimate and must be overthrown. (more…) (http://demandbushresign.com/?p=11#more-11)