by Cappy Rudyard

Ah was reading the good R. Ailes’s description of the possible third party candidate Mayor Bloomberg:

Yes, what this country needs in a time of recession is the leadership of an equity trader and head of a financial services software company, one who spent close to $75 million of his own money to become a friggin' mayor. Only Rich Uncle Pennybags can save us now. Perhaps he can sell us to the Tata Group.

Bloomberg is said to be worth some 20 billion dollars, and it put me in mind of the third party candidate a century ago. . .

Eugene Debs, the Socialist candidate, won 2.8 percent of the popular vote. Debs was a fireman turned union organizer and was one of the founders of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Then I thought of a couple of other sharp contrasts:

Who won the Michigan Republican primary?

Mitt Romney headed the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee, but is worth 200 million dollars because he founded a private equity investment firm that specialized in leveraged buyouts.

versus

William Howard Taft served as the Solicitor General of the United States, a federal judge, Governor-General of the Philippines, and Secretary of War before being nominated for President. He is remembered as a “a pioneer in international arbitration and staunch advocate of world peace.”

Who governs California?

Arnold Schwarzenegger, steroid-fueled bodybuilder and action movie actor, who is worth over some 800 million dollars.

versus

George Pardee, native Californian medical doctor and Mayor of Oakland. Promoted conservation and education, successfully rebuilt San Francisco after the earthquake and bucked the influence of the Southern Pacific Railroad on state politics.

I'm just an old sea salt, but it doesn't seem like things have gotten better in politics over the last century!

As power shifts from government to corporate hands, elections will increasingly become the domain of the vain rich and celebrities. Save us all, we're being sucked into Waveland.

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 14, 2008

Religious Freedom Day, 2008
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America



Thomas Jefferson counted the freedom of worship as one of America's greatest blessings. He said it was "a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government, and yet proved by our experience to be its best support." On Religious Freedom Day, we celebrate the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.

The freedom to worship according to one's conscience is one of our Nation's most cherished values. It is the first protection offered in the Bill of Rights: that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." In America, people of different faiths can live together united in peace, tolerance, and humility. We are committed to the proposition that as equal citizens of the United States of America, all are free to worship as they choose.

In an era during which an unprecedented number of nations have embraced individual freedom, we have also witnessed the stubborn endurance of religious repression. Religious freedom belongs not to any one nation, but to the world, and my Administration continues to support freedom of worship at home and abroad. On Religious Freedom Day and throughout the year, we recognize the importance of religious freedom and the vital role it plays in spreading liberty and ensuring human dignity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 16, 2008, as Religious Freedom Day. I call on all Americans to reflect on the great blessing of religious liberty, endeavor to preserve this freedom for future generations, and commemorate this day with appropriate events and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.

GEORGE W. BUSH


http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080114-5.html


Poor Tom. You'd think by now he would have gotten used to supporting God's Law. But this is a new millenium, the opposite-millenium, where everything is upside-down, backwards and contrary.
"On Religious Freedom Day and throughout the year, we recognize the importance of religious freedom and the vital role it plays in spreading liberty and ensuring human dignity."

BBC.com

[Jan 13, 2008] US President George W Bush has warned of the dangers he says are posed by Iran, in a speech in its Gulf neighbour, the United Arab Emirates. . .Mr Bush said Iran threatened the security of all nations and should be confronted "before it's too late".

Because, of course, Iran attacked us on 9/11! Oh, wait, that was Iran, wasn't it?

Salon.Com

The Emirates' ruling families formerly maintained close relationships with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, whose hunting camps in Afghanistan they frequented; two of the 20 hijackers in the 9/11 plot were UAE nationals who used safe houses and banks in Dubai; and the A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network also used facilities there to mask its operations.

Well, the President is aware of those connections and chose to downplay them. He is aware that the UAE is not yet a fully open and democratic society. But they are making progress and so he wants to encourage them!

Bush's UAE speech:

Beginning with the revered father of this country -- Sheikh Zayed -- you have succeeded in building a prosperous society out of the desert. . . You have encouraged women to contribute to the development of your nation -- and they have occupied some of your highest ministerial posts.

See?

Commondreams.org:

“Dubai. . . is the "Bangkok of the Middle East," populated with thousands of Russian, Armenian, Indian, and Iranian prostitutes controlled by various transnational gangs and mafias.”

There! They are certainly contributing to the development of the nation!

Wikipedia:

UAE does not have democratically elected institutions (citizens do not have the right to change their government) or political parties; free assembly and association are restricted; and the rights of workers are limited.

Oh, dear. Perhaps, in their culture, it is polite for guests to act like they are ignoramuses. Yeah, that’s the ticket. He's just being culturally sensitive.

Bush's UAE speech:

And finally, [Iran] defies the United Nations and destabilizes the region by refusing to be open and transparent about its nuclear programs and ambitions. Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. So the United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments with our friends in the Gulf -- and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late.

Well, sensitive to some cultures, and belligerent to others. At least you can’t say Mr. Bush is not being transparent about his ambitions, can you? The president is sincere about building a consensus! This time! He certainly wouldn't approve of the false-flag type operation that rogue elements in the Navy tried when they falsely claimed Iranian boats were verbally threatening US ships. He wouldn't start a war under false pretenses! This time!

BBC.com

Earlier on Sunday, during a visit to Bahrain, President Bush met some of the sailors whose ships the US says were confronted by Iranian speedboats last weekend.

Oops. Well, it must simply be a bad reaction to all that hummus.