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The Presidential Oath:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (1); or abridging the freedom of speech
(2) , or of the press (3) ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble (4) , and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
(2) As citizens of the United States you and I have the right to free speech, and I resent the lie of the current administration that it's unpatriotic to criticize George Bush and his administration. That is asinine. A true patriot keeps himself abreast of what’s going on in Washington and speaks out when necessary.
(3) The press was prohibited from showing pictures of flag-draped coffins of men in our armed forces killed in Iraq. Who knows what else the press cannot tell or show? Radio KPFT, an affiliate of NPR, in Houston reports that any injured service man who dies after being airlifted out of Iraq, is not added to the official count of fatalities.
(4) When more than a million people assemble to protest at the Republican National Convention in New York this year, we will see how they honor this part of the Oath. In 1991 during the Republican National Convention in Houston where George Bush senior was nominated, protesters were allowed in only a certain area far removed from the convention. The demonstrators were met by the Houston police in riot gear and some on horseback. When the crowd complained, the police charged without warning, clubbing and riding over them. There were no videos or news reports of this incident allowed on TV or in the newspaper. Not long ago a couple wearing Anti-Bush T-shirts were arrested, finger printed and had mug shots taken. See http://www.wvgazettemail.com/static/stories/2004071346.html
*instituted a plan so ineffective to deal with the faltering economy and job losses?
*started an unprovoked war, recklessly disregarding the United Nations and any other opposition, a war that was under-manned, ill planned and has resulted in such dire consequences?
*allowed our nation to be dishonored for prisoner-of-war abuse and not ask his Secretary of Defense to resign?
*overlooked one mistake after another on the part of his Cabinet members, the CIA, the FBI and the Pentagon without holding anyone responsible for anything?
*begun reactivation of the Selective Service System with an impressive budget increase, directing them to revise the program by March 15, 2005 and bring draft boards across the nation to functional levels?
*recommended lowering pollution standards for industry, allowing fines for noncompliance to be much less expensive than correcting the problems?
*disregarded the problem of global warming?
*allowed the timber industry to cut down trees at will on millions of acres of public forestland?
*favored opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development?
*appointed advisers as incompetent and as biased as Rice, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft?
*proposed a plan to cut income taxes destroying the surplus, increasing the national debt to more than seven trillion dollars and at the same time save the rich millions, shifting the expense of funding the government onto citizens of lesser incomes?
*allowed Enron officials to bankrupt the company, stealing millions from their own employees without charging Jeff Skilling (ex-CEO) with anything and belatedly charging Ken Lay after nearly three years. With Ken Lay's connections with Bush and Cheney, what are the chances he will spend any time in jail? I strongly suspect he has too much on Bush and Cheney for them to let him be found guilty.
*approved a plan devised by his Vice President and unidentified electric company executives in secret to set energy practices, prices and standards which are tantamount to stealing?
*spent more time vacationing, fund-raising and electioneering than any other president in history and at government expense?
*told veterans that he was going to provide for their care and then under-fund the budget for VA hospitals and clinics, reducing the number of vets who will be eligible to receive treatment?
*promised that he would support improved health care for children (We will leave no child behind?) and then fail to fund it adequately?
Bush has willfully done these things and if you decide to vote for him or Nader, do you really want four more years of injury to our troops, our environment and the good name of our Nation? Should you doubt these accusations use the links below to check it out for yourself.
(6/28/04) Again, Bush and Cheney have now reverted to the old broken record technique repeating over and over,"Saddam Husane does have weapons of mass destruction and there are links between him and al-Qaida!" These have been proven to be untrue, but Bush and Cheney think they are so all-powerful they can speak them into being. That or either they think the American public is so stupid they'll believe it. Any thinking person should be insulted.
Here are two articles from MSNBC about Cheney that are truly disturbing!
Check out these two articles from CBS News, 60 Minutes. One is about Paul O'Neil, former Secretary of the Treasury and the other concerns Richard A.Clarke, former White House Anti-terrorism Czar:
Click on the title of each article above to read.
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As military operations continue in Iraq and forces are stretched thinner, President Bush and his Democratic challenger are getting more questions about the revival of a military draft. The Selective Service Commission has recommended to the Pentagon that the draft be increased from ages 18-25 upward to 18-34.
A series of headlines detailing new military service extensions in Iraq and the deployment of reservists have done little to quell suspicions. Recently, the Army announced an expansion of its so-called stop-loss policy that would require soldiers who are being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan to extend their active duty at least until their unit’s terms of deployment are over. In addition Pentagon officials announced June 29, that 5,600 former soldiers were going to be called up for yearlong tours, mostly assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. These men had already been discharged from the service. That means that thousands more troops could be forced to stay in the service months longer than they’d anticipated. In a speech the next day, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry called the extension a “backdoor draft” and said our forces are being stretched too thin.
Kerry acknowledged that the military’s stop-loss methods—which include delaying retirement and preventing enlisted personnel from leaving the service, as well as extending tours abroad, have increased forces by an estimated 30,000 troops. But he vowed that should he become president, he would add 40,000 more troops who "will not be soldiers who’ve already been on the front lines but new volunteers trained and ready to defend their country."
Below are a few of the many links on the Internet discussing the possibility that Bush will be forced to reintroduce the draft. There was a draft in the Civil War, WWI, WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam. What are the odds the Iraq War will be the exception? Of course this won't be done until after the election in November. The military is so strapped for troops that tours of duty in Iraq have been extended more than once, and the number of troops in South Korea is being reduced by one-third to shore up the forces in Iraq. Should Bush with the help of the U.N get the situation in Iraq stabilized, we still have a massive job controlling terrorist throughout the world and al-Qaida in particular.
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