Everything I wrote I believe quite strongly in.
Remember one of the very first acts that President Bush did upon taking office was to sign an executive order sealing the records of his administration from public scrutiny until after most of us are long gone. That act in itself is displays the true spirit of accountability practised by this administration. President Bush operates in secret, not in the open and not subject to the will of the people.
There are too many episodes in the recent global history where world leaders have lead countries astray, often resulting in tremendous loss of life, liberty, and resulting in extreme suffering. Every citizen has a duty to hold their leaders accountable. The minute we become suspicious, we have a duty to try to prevent these sorts of horrors from happening here. The instant it became indisputable the administration fabricated the reasoning that got us into war in Iraq, after they purposely confused the 9/11 hysteria with the threat posed by Iraq, they lost all credibility.
What has happened in this administration is far more serious than a blowjob in the Oval Office. And Clinton never got caught with a gay escort using an assumed name running around the White House- a prostitute that don't forget enjoyed unlimited access to the White House Press Corp, Presidential Press Conferences, and other officials. Tell me who has brought more shame on the "People's House"?
Until recently our national press has not been doing its job. So intimidated are they by this administration-one that operates in secret, classifying a huge new percentage of government reports, and taking revenge against those who do not cooperate, that the press no longer seems to hold our officials responsible for these breaches of the public trust.
Do not believe for an instance that we in the US are above experiencing the horrors of Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Germany, Rwanda, or what is currently happening in the Sudan. We share the same human traits. All of these sad chapters in our joint human history were committed by civilized, educated leaders who used tactics that turned one segment of the population against another. All of these efforts started in small, calculated ways and continued unchecked, denied by the population at large while they occurred. These events can and will happen again. Especially when fear is deployed, dissent is rebuked, and citizens stand distracted.
When President Bush does not demonstrate consistent integrity by keeping his word or when he intentionally misleads the nation and retaliates against those who try to keep him honest, everything he says is suspect.
Many evangelicals are forever saying, "Well we don't like some of the things Bush does but he's better than the alternative. And at least he's a born again Christian. "
Let's see-Hitler was a Christian. Look what happened there. Germany was a Christian country. Yet an entire population of God fearing people somehow allowed millions of people to be slaughtered.
Many evangelicals continue to side with a less than forthcoming President. They pardon Bush in a strange, the ends justifies the means approach. They align with a man who manipulates people's faith over politicians who might not have conservative Christian theology but who have consistent integrity. Evangelicals need to ask hard questions of this leader and not give him a pass simply because he can repeat faith based rhetoric.
No leader is perfect or 100% consistent. But for a leader to so manipulate an entire population, and jeopardize so many American lives is not a small matter. Bush knew that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. There are volumes of reports that confirm this. Yet he diverted our resources off of Bin Ladden's front doorstep and sent our troops and our treasury to fight a war that was entirely unrelated to 9/11. How bad does it have to get before everything- our constitution, the safeguards set in place by our founding fathers, and the principles this nation was built upon become irrelevant?
Karl Rove is not only the right hand man of President Bush but he is a brilliant, if not cynical political operative. He increasingly appears to be a man without conscience. He betrays the very faith of the millions of Christians he claims to represent. He jeopardized the integrity of our defenses and took a political potshot at officials who dared disagree with the administration. Because of that one act who knows how many lives in the intelligence community were comprimised.
The administration's well documented arrogance, often disregarding Pentagon officials while forcing on the military brass horrible military planning, defines outright incompetence. Iraq has become the exact mess Pentagon officials who disagreed with the administration predicted it would become.
We are not safer. As Britain recently learned, terror can come from within just as easily as it comes from distant lands. Our nation has squandered an important and crucial chance to improve our security. During a time when we could have truly rallied the world, utilizing all the resources our treasury, those assets were diverted into Iraq. We could have pumped those resources into our own efforts to protect us here at home. Instead we've gone on a wildly misdirected and poorly excuted rampage financed with lies.
The Bush often repeated mantra to fight Islamic Militants in the middle east so we don't have to fight them here was blown to pieces by 9/11. Now with subsequent events in Britain and Spain, any time the President mutters this rhetoric he should be booed off the stage. As Europe is perched on the edge of a terrorism induced reckoning, does anyone wonder how much longer our shores will continue to know peace?
The truest test of loyalty are not officials who blindly agree with each pronouncement or position held by a leader but by those whose loyalty extends to the nation as a whole by voicing objective opinion and sometimes even dissent. If the administration's position is so weak that it does not tolerate dissent from within its own ranks, alarm bells should sound. This is the truest signal that our current direction is unsustainable.
Let's just hope that this position is recoverable.
Bead Lake Photos...
The photographs accompanying today's blog were shot at Bead Lake, in Pend Oreille County. Bead Lake is partially accessible by trail, but be warned, there is a fairly steep pass a mile into the hike. This lake has excellent swimming, some of the largest fish in the NW and untouched, ancient old growth forests with trees dating to near the time of Christ. Bead lake boasts nearly twenty miles of shoreline, and anyone hiking in should be prepared for a variety of unexpected changing weather and a variety of climates.
For trail conditions, make sure you check in at the Newport Ranger Station.
Prayers
For Stacy, Chris, and Russ
For a neighbor's son in law who was just blown to bits in Iraq. He survived, but he is not out of the woods...
For all those traveling to Pow Wow this summer...
For the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, that the good Lord will continue to bless these wonderful people...
That Lori and John's House will sell...
Links, links, links...
...Thoughts on Presidential honesty...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/opinion/13vowell.html?th&emc=th
...What some conservative Christian Groups would like to see happen in the US...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200507/s1410598.htm
...the "down low" on the down low novelist...
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050711/LIVING/507110303/1007
...A new take on domestic partnership...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10002633-strange_bedfellows/about.php
...My friend Paul W. Flanary Jr's Art...
http://icehouse.net/opticnerveart/gallery.htm...
Some friends in California document the construction of their new home. I especially find the Evita balcony the stuff of true inspiration...
http://www.mikeandjeffsnewhouse.blogspot.com/...
State considers larger ferries...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002377355_ferries13m.html
...Heads of state, heads of nothing...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002376940_rams13.html
...Blair expresses shock that bombers were British...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/13/london.blair/index.html
...More on Karl Rove...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/opinion/13wed1.html?th&emc=th
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/07/13/cia.leaks.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/07/06/reporters.contempt/index.html
No comments:
Post a Comment