Four true patriots died this holiday weekend. You wouldn't know it if you read Fox news on the Internet. A top story at the moment it was first checked was how Donald Trump is fighting with his neighborhood over flying the flag. As I've always maintained here on this blog and in my writing, those who talk the talk invariably do not walk the walk when they are conservatives talking about war, (or practically anything else). How many members of the current administration or the current Conservative pundits out there, have we pointed out avoided military service when they were called by their country to fight in Vietnam? But this shameful display of hiding the bad news is so unfair to the men and women who laid down their lives, as well as to their families and friends. It's nothing less than disgusting. To say nothing of not fair and unbalanced. Should Fox point out that at some time it was on their news service, it was clearly only their for a few moments at most. I have followed this story of the death toll in Iraq on the Yahoo! News AP service, as well as having it pointed out to me by someone who reads the CBS news website. It's been there all weekend; (and even on Fox's AP section it is not there) such a big and important story as well as so tragic that it should occur at this special time of year. For Fox news not to make it a headline story and leave it up throughout the holiday weekend is a travesty and only serves to point out that for Conservatives to give their point of view in the news, they have to lie and distort. The truth rarely supports their assertions or points of view. You can see that in everything from the Iraq war to the way Medicare part D was handled. I just don't get why they haven't a clue. And for five years they were able to convince many people in this country, by lying to them, and painting a rosy picture, that it really was that way. The country finally couldn't take it anymore, stood up and took notice, and voted for change this past Election Day. Nevertheless, if you read the conservative statements leading right up to the election, they didn't believe they were going to have any trouble with the election, because they still refused to accept all the problems they had created, all the burdens they'd enhanced and all the solutions they failed to grasp.
Despite all this, clearly the country has embarked on a new path. So while I started on a sad note, let me end on a better one. Let me wish you all happy and healthy holidays and a happy healthy and prosperous new year 2007. May God bless you all and may God continue to bless this great nation of ours. And may God grant us the wisdom and foresight to bring our young men and women home from war as quickly as we possibly can.
Thank you.
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12 comments:
And may G*d bless the bloggers of all stripes, conservative and liberal.
May G*d bless Fox News [i couldn't resist] for their clear support for little Israel...may G*d bless CNN so they can see the justness of the Zionist cause...and yes [hold onto your seat Larry], may G*d bless our President, George Bush.
While he may, or may not, read the newspapers [i hardly have time, i can not imagine how any president could, while running the country], while we may agree or differ with him on issues, he is an elected official of the finest country on earth.
We owe him that.
So who are you supporting of the Presidential hopefuls?
I wouldn't be so quick to bless Fox News or their "clear support". The neo conservative movement in this country has proven itself to be without a moral core. And its issues blow with the wind. It is why they can be anti-choice, but have no problem with our young dying in poorly conceived wars, limiting healthcare spending for the poor, or gutting environmental regulations. It used to be anti-deficit spending, until it firmly had its grasp over the electorate (with Reagan) or with both houses (W. Bush). Governing only on the limited and biased views of your select cadre, instead of seeing for yourself what is going on in the world, is a dangerously provincial mindset that leaves you open to terribly misguided visions, as has been borne out no better in history than with this President. As for wishing that G*d would bless Presidnet Bush; I do indeed wish G*d will grant him the insight to see the terrible wrongs he has committed and find a way to repay society. He is indeed an elected official of the greatest country on the face of the earth. He is also a cowardly (Vietnam), amoral (wire-tapping, no due-process, torturing), liar (energy policy, CIA leaks, Iraq, his own drunk driving conviction, 9/11, etc., etc., etc.) that has done far more damage to this country than he could ever repay, if G*d did grant him the wisdom to finally understand what he has done. What this country and its citizens owe President Bush is an impeachment. Who we really owe prayers and effort to, are the young men and women that are laying down their security, and many, their lives, fighting for this great country. As for the Presidential hopefuls, not ready to declare support for any, yet.
By the way, as important as Israel is, FOX's dissing of our fallen servicepeople in the name of maintaining the rose-colored lies of this administration, is nothing short of contemptable
Also, I can't speak for G*d, but i don't believe he blesses war criminals. Or do you not consider them war crimes when you are not personally sympathetic to the group doing the suffering? I'm willing to stick my neck out on this one though and say the entire administration will be in deep trouble come the after-life, if there is justice in the hereafter.
Can you bless Fox News which chooses to ignore the deaths of our heroes in Iraq while headlining Donald Trump's fight over city ordinances? Unlike you and I (and I do read the papers as well as conservative and liberal newsites) George W. Bush was ELECTED (well, not really, but that's another story)to get up in the morning, completely educate himself, and make the best possible decisions about our world. Sorry if you think that he's too busy to do that. I do that just so I'll know who to vote for, for God's sake! He recently told a reporter he sleeps well at night. While the parents of the almost three thousand dead soldiers lie in bed in agony at night he's sleeping well. How sweet. And by the way, I don't think God blesses war criminals.
Don't fall into the trap of believing that G*d is a card carrying Democrat who watches CNN regularly.
One can only judge properly with a G*d's eye view, which none of us can behold.
We can learn to withhold judgement till time passes. Ford, of blessed memory, was universally condemed when he pardoned Nixon...in the light of time passing it was seen as it really was: a noble act which spared the country more divisiveness.
Bush's Iraq policies were clearly flawed. But declaring them a failure can is premature...only with the passage of time will we see how they play out over time.
To call him a war criminal is a bit over the top. Even Pelosi didn't go there.
I disagree on many points. First off, I do not think G*d is a card carrying Democrat. I believe there were many Republicans that G*d would have been comfortable with. The Reagan revolution changed all that and created a neo-conservative movement that was out for itself and its interests and not for the good of the nation. As evidenced by the oil price and supply manipulation behind the Iraq war, for it has been shown time and time again, until the only ones who claim, if not believe other wise, are Bush, Cheney, and perhaps one or two bloggers, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, nor was working with Al Qaeda. Certain public officials may not yet feel comfortable branding Bush a war criminal until after the impeachment begins. However, you can bet all the Iraqis that were tortured, and the many that died from that torture, have no such qualms. If Bush were running a 3rd world nation the UN would already be sanctioning him and preparing the war crimes tribunal. Innocent American citizens and visitors have been caught up in wiretapping and the loss of due-process, merely for the websites they view, or that they look vaguely "middle-eastern". I have a friend or two that used to look that way until they shaved their mustaches and I can only now wonder if they had self-preserrvation in mind in W. Bush's America. I do not claim to speak for G*d. I believe enough has been written supposedly on G*d's behalf to say G*d would not countenance torture, murder, vast casualties for invading another nation because, essentially and ultimately, our President didn't like them, or wanted to control their resources. W. has lied during his two Presidential elections. He's lied to the country time and time again. He sent our young innocents off to war, with no clue as to how he would bring them back, especially if the reasons behind the war turned out to be unfounded. And again, as we have gone over before, I most certainly state that W's policies were most assuredly a failure. Regardless, if eventually enough Iraqis die, that the only ones left choose to attempt to coexist, everything from the reasons behind the war, to our perceptions of the Iraqi people, to what nation we believed we would help create there...have all been proven bogus, misguided...just plain ignorant and useless as a Texas drunk. Iraq is no safer for Americans. The world is no safer. Our botched middle east course has allowed Iran to ascend and become what will someday, I fear, be a much bigger threat to Israel as well as the US. We didn;t't even expend the resources properly to finish Afghanistan, because of Iraq. Our entire direction under W. Bush, from his stealing the election with the help of the conservative supreme court, to his ignoring evidence of Osama bin Laden's intent. (By the way, he has said he would;ve moved heaven and earth to have avoided 9/11. He did not, and could not, have done that, of course. But had he read the intelligence, and listened to Richard Clarke, what he could have done was ordered all the cockpit doors on commercial airliners---sealed. Just like we have done ever since 9/11.) He, his administration and his policies, have been losing propositions that have cost and will continue to cost, this country dearly. From ignoring the warnings on the impending 9/11 to sending our young to die for nothing in Iraq, to the many innocents, and maybe even "some possibly guilty" detainees tortured and killed, W. Bush has as much blood on his hands as many a vilified dictator. If there is any justice, he will be impeached. But if he is really as religious as he claims, and if there is an afterlife where your deeds on earth are weighed and considered; then W. Bush and Dick Cheney better take good care of their health, because, without speaking for G*d, I believe they are in for one hell, so to speak, of a time when their time on this earth is finally done.
When one takes an argument to it's extreme (God as a "card carrying Democrat") and then ridicules that previously unstated point of view, one creates a false dichotomy.
Gerald Ford was, in retrospect, a good and wise man. However, he made one terrible mistake. By pardoning the President of the United States he set a precedent that one man is above the law. The "imperial presidency" we have now is, I believe, borne of this unwise pardon. As far as who is a war criminal (and Nancy Pelosi is a politician who must remain diplomatic) answer this: What leader has chosen to force his ideology on others, states publicly that he is doing God's work, loses no sleep over sending the finest young people who are his followers to fight his battles while he stays holed up in a cave/big white house, and loses no sleep over the death of innocents? I can only think of two people. One is clean shaven and one isn't. As far as what God thinks: since we can't know what he thinks we should always live by one abiding principle, when in doubt of what to do there is nothing more sacred than life.
I just had an epiphany. Everytime I hear someone say that they don't know what God thinks I wonder how so many people can spend their lives in churches, synagogues and mosques and still feel so lost because they don't even know what God thinks. And then I came to a great realization! Of course they know what God thinks! I know what God thinks! Small children know what God thinks! Would you like to read all about it? It's called the "ten commandments." Try looking it up on the internet or at your local library. It's exactly what God thinks. He even put in writing! I read that in his book about Bill Clinton, Dick Morris mocked Clinton. He said Clinton was always reluctant to go to war because he knew he'd have to answer to the mother's of dead soldiers. What a wonderful standard to decide if a war is worth it. Our president says he sleeps remarkably well at night. Obviously the ten commandments are no bother to him. Of course Clinton may have violated a commandment - but the only one who cried about it was Hillary. If you could add up all the tears of the parents of dead soldiers and dead Iraqi children well - W. still wouldn't lose a minute of sleep. So here's the other part of my epiphany. Those who say they don't know what God thinks, who have actually read the ten commandments, are simply avoiding a moral struggle. It's quite easy to kill innocents, or support their murder, if you shrug your shoulders and say, "I don't know if it's OK with God, but I know he wants us to spread democracy." I don't buy it for a second. The argument is morally bankrupt.
Ah, the Ten Commandments. You must be talking about:
"Thou shall not kill"...pacifists have been overly excited about this one for years. I should know, as I am a former card carrying pacifist.
Subsequently, I've learned that the commandment does not read "thou shall not kill." The proper translation is "thou shall not MURDER." The distinction is exceedingly important, and not an unimportant theological detail.
It allows for just war making.
Ah, there's the rub..."JUST war making." The downfall of demagogues like Hussein and Bush, alike.
Thou shalt not murder. How infinitely wise. This must explain why, to their eternal credit, the Israeli's never pick a fight. They only defend themselves. They've never said, "Those people who hate us have weapons. Therefore we must destroy their land, disregard their innocent lives, allow their children to be killed. . . because it might make us safer." No, the Israeli's attack when attacked. There is the time they blew up the Iranians nuclear reactor with a pinpoint precision hit. Yes, even in war one can show a holy regard for life. Contrast this with the comments of this administration; "Democracy is a messy business" (Donald Rumsfeld), "These are democracy's growing pains"(Condoleeza Rice), "I sleep better than people think"(George Bush). This weekend the 3000th soldier was killed in Iraq. This, of course, is more than was killed on 9/11. They were killed in a country that was ruled by an impotent madman who was being contained by peaceful measures. They've stopped counting how many Iraqi's are dead. We've freed them from Saddam Hussain. We've also freed them from life on this earth, seeing their grandchildren, or any hope of peace in this generation. On this New Year's eve 3000 American families go to bed numb with grief. The only thing they have to look forward to is the agony they'll feel when the numbness wears off. And George Bush? Sleeping like a baby.
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