Gregg's Soap Box
Monday, September 12, 2011
Must be time for an update!
So many roads! Where do ya start! Well... lets start with The Ranch, The Cosmic Cowboy Ranch on eBay... My budding retirement plan! LOL, who wants to retire! Do somethin' ya love and never work a day in your life!
Good advice, never given to those entering the construction business...
And of course a few things have happened since... 2006? Oh, lordy...
So I do promise to update a little more often!
Saturday, May 07, 2005
NEWS!
THE RV!
Yeah he went off the deep end...cut his hair, turned 49 and bought a Winnebago?
Not! The hair stays until the Bush goes...
Check it out!
All the bells and whistles
$5,400.00....stole it!
Johnny and I have bought an RV, it is in Dallas, Tx and John
will be bringing it out this Summer with the kids, we are off to
DISNEYLAND to celebrate Chris's GRADUATION!
Check out the pics!
THE RV!
Yeah he went off the deep end...cut his hair, turned 49 and bought a Winnebago?
Not! The hair stays until the Bush goes...
Check it out!
All the bells and whistles
$5,400.00....stole it!
Johnny and I have bought an RV, it is in Dallas, Tx and John
will be bringing it out this Summer with the kids, we are off to
DISNEYLAND to celebrate Chris's GRADUATION!
Check out the pics!
Sunday, September 19, 2004
Best of the Soap Box:
From May 2003
Our Constitution, in Amendment, IV states:"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Provisions of the new Patriot Act are, by definition, unconstitutional in that they allow the Government to conduct searches of library, bank, ISP, credit card, indeed any record or database on the mere suspicion of terrorist involvement or conspiracy. They merely write in a little book that so and so is a terrorist suspect and we are going to do whatever it is we are going to do. And they do it...no judge, no court, no Fourth Amendment. And if you are the keeper of any records, and they ask you for them, you cannot refuse, no warrant is needed to search your records and you are legally prevented from saying anything to anybody about the search, or you will go to jail.
This is what is known as a "fishing expedition", and we now have an army of newly licensed anglers, without a limit on the catch and no rules on the method of taking. Moreover these fishermen can fish in secret and at night using whatever bait and lighting they chose, most of the time they will prefer the dark, of course. And they can fish in your backyard and if noticed by the neighbors they will swear them to secrecy under penalty of law, you won’t even know they were poaching.
These guys can also ignore the Game Warden because he and the others, like the lawyers and the judges, have no authority here, this is "Fishing for Terrorists", this is War!
Why can’t people just see that?
Well I do see it, we are at War...with the American People and the Constitution. And the People are losing.
RG Johnson
San Jose. CA
From May 2003
Our Constitution, in Amendment, IV states:"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Provisions of the new Patriot Act are, by definition, unconstitutional in that they allow the Government to conduct searches of library, bank, ISP, credit card, indeed any record or database on the mere suspicion of terrorist involvement or conspiracy. They merely write in a little book that so and so is a terrorist suspect and we are going to do whatever it is we are going to do. And they do it...no judge, no court, no Fourth Amendment. And if you are the keeper of any records, and they ask you for them, you cannot refuse, no warrant is needed to search your records and you are legally prevented from saying anything to anybody about the search, or you will go to jail.
This is what is known as a "fishing expedition", and we now have an army of newly licensed anglers, without a limit on the catch and no rules on the method of taking. Moreover these fishermen can fish in secret and at night using whatever bait and lighting they chose, most of the time they will prefer the dark, of course. And they can fish in your backyard and if noticed by the neighbors they will swear them to secrecy under penalty of law, you won’t even know they were poaching.
These guys can also ignore the Game Warden because he and the others, like the lawyers and the judges, have no authority here, this is "Fishing for Terrorists", this is War!
Why can’t people just see that?
Well I do see it, we are at War...with the American People and the Constitution. And the People are losing.
RG Johnson
San Jose. CA
I know...Blogs are supposed to be timely.
But hey...
It is September 19th...
Zero Hour is 11/2/04...
Only a Nation to save!
Kerry-Edwards!
But hey...
It is September 19th...
Zero Hour is 11/2/04...
Only a Nation to save!
Kerry-Edwards!
Friday, January 30, 2004
An Important Announcement
I seek to be your Delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention
Pledged to Howard Dean for President
16th Congressional District
Delegate Selection Caucus
Sunday February 8, 2004 @ 2:30PM to 5PM
(Doors close at 3PM)
San Jose High Academy Gymnasium
275 N. 24th Street, San Jose, CA 95116
I ask you all to lend me your support by joining me at the Caucus for an exercise in direct democracy. Our system for choosing the next President begins with this basic meeting of registered Democrats from our Congressional District, the 16th District, represented in Congress by the Hon. Zoe Lofgren, who will convene this caucus. Even in this great metropolis the process starts with neighbors meeting in gymnasiums and homes to choose their delegates.
Now believe me the process may begin simply, but it rapidly becomes an quick lesson in higher math as delegates are awarded to the candidates based on the percentage of votes that each candidate receives in our March 2nd Democratic Primary. But I am eager to make the commitment and to faithfully carry to our National Convention the choice of the voters of this District.
The year 2004 is barely one month old, but the most important Election in this Nation since 1932 is well under way, right now.
I have been actively supporting Gov. Howard Dean in his campaign to become the next President of the United States and return our government to fiscal responsibility and end this detour into irrationality abroad. I joined with other local Democrats at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sv4dean/ in April 2003, because I want my Country back!
Now, I am not a lawyer or a politician (Teresa might argue that last one...) but the study of our Nation's history and politics has been a lifelong passion, ignited by the 1968 Presidential Campaign. As a precocious 12 year old I volunteered in local Democratic campaigns in my native Shawnee, Oklahoma. I worked precincts and did straw polls on street corners all Summer, staffing the local HQ on weekends. I attended the Oklahoma State Democratic Convention that year with our local State Senator and his wife and this inspired me to work that much harder and to attempt to attend the National Convention in Chicago as a page. After a long letter writing and fundraising campaign I did indeed find myself on the train to Chicago in late August 1968, paying my own way as you had to be 14 to be an "official" page. And so began a life long obsession with the public affairs of this great Republic.
And so when I tell you that I have never been as concerned about our Nation's course and it's future as I am right now, well, then you know that includes Viet Nam, Dick Nixon, Watergate and the election of Ronald Reagan, twice! All of these pale in comparison to where this Nation is now and where it is headed. We have turned truth on it's head. Our President calls for a Clear Skies Initiative that rolls back air quality standards and rewards polluters who refuse to modernize. A Healthy Forest Act that will prevent wildfire by cutting more trees and building more wilderness roads. We went to War, risking the blood of our children and the treasure of our nation's labor to remove an imminent threat, one with biological weapons, nuclear intentions and capabilities. We found a tenacious foe and were welcomed with bombs and shattered limbs and lives, rather than the promised smiles and flowers, with only the Weapons of Mass Distraction emanating from Washington and the Media, to justify any of it.
With Howard Dean we can change that, and we will!
Our fiscal house is in great disorder, we face deficits at record levels as far as the eye can see. The playing field of our national economy is no longer level as unbalanced tax cuts and a corrupt "good 'ol boy" backscratching style of corporate governance has taken hold. This same opportunism now threatens our freedoms as the Right, using the vehicle of the Republican Party, seeks to implement it's social agenda by using our fears to manipulate the political atmosphere. This misuse of legitimate fears on the part of Americans has been the most egregious offense of this Administration, and that is saying something.
But with Howard Dean we can change that, and we will!
Masters of the "Friday Announcement" this Misadministration has gutted years of institutional memory from our government as well as tailoring regulations at all levels to move their agenda and reward their friends. We have former chemical industry lobbyists running EPA Departments and current industry lobbyists writing the regulations!
With Howard Dean we can change that, and we will!
So please join me and your fellow Democrats and neighbors on Sunday, February 8th and we will begin this process, we will nominate and elect Howard Dean the next President of the United States.
I ask you for your vote, I won't waste it.
R. Gregg Johnson
emailto jsnjroofing@pacbell.net
I seek to be your Delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention
Pledged to Howard Dean for President
16th Congressional District
Delegate Selection Caucus
Sunday February 8, 2004 @ 2:30PM to 5PM
(Doors close at 3PM)
San Jose High Academy Gymnasium
275 N. 24th Street, San Jose, CA 95116
I ask you all to lend me your support by joining me at the Caucus for an exercise in direct democracy. Our system for choosing the next President begins with this basic meeting of registered Democrats from our Congressional District, the 16th District, represented in Congress by the Hon. Zoe Lofgren, who will convene this caucus. Even in this great metropolis the process starts with neighbors meeting in gymnasiums and homes to choose their delegates.
Now believe me the process may begin simply, but it rapidly becomes an quick lesson in higher math as delegates are awarded to the candidates based on the percentage of votes that each candidate receives in our March 2nd Democratic Primary. But I am eager to make the commitment and to faithfully carry to our National Convention the choice of the voters of this District.
The year 2004 is barely one month old, but the most important Election in this Nation since 1932 is well under way, right now.
I have been actively supporting Gov. Howard Dean in his campaign to become the next President of the United States and return our government to fiscal responsibility and end this detour into irrationality abroad. I joined with other local Democrats at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sv4dean/ in April 2003, because I want my Country back!
Now, I am not a lawyer or a politician (Teresa might argue that last one...) but the study of our Nation's history and politics has been a lifelong passion, ignited by the 1968 Presidential Campaign. As a precocious 12 year old I volunteered in local Democratic campaigns in my native Shawnee, Oklahoma. I worked precincts and did straw polls on street corners all Summer, staffing the local HQ on weekends. I attended the Oklahoma State Democratic Convention that year with our local State Senator and his wife and this inspired me to work that much harder and to attempt to attend the National Convention in Chicago as a page. After a long letter writing and fundraising campaign I did indeed find myself on the train to Chicago in late August 1968, paying my own way as you had to be 14 to be an "official" page. And so began a life long obsession with the public affairs of this great Republic.
And so when I tell you that I have never been as concerned about our Nation's course and it's future as I am right now, well, then you know that includes Viet Nam, Dick Nixon, Watergate and the election of Ronald Reagan, twice! All of these pale in comparison to where this Nation is now and where it is headed. We have turned truth on it's head. Our President calls for a Clear Skies Initiative that rolls back air quality standards and rewards polluters who refuse to modernize. A Healthy Forest Act that will prevent wildfire by cutting more trees and building more wilderness roads. We went to War, risking the blood of our children and the treasure of our nation's labor to remove an imminent threat, one with biological weapons, nuclear intentions and capabilities. We found a tenacious foe and were welcomed with bombs and shattered limbs and lives, rather than the promised smiles and flowers, with only the Weapons of Mass Distraction emanating from Washington and the Media, to justify any of it.
With Howard Dean we can change that, and we will!
Our fiscal house is in great disorder, we face deficits at record levels as far as the eye can see. The playing field of our national economy is no longer level as unbalanced tax cuts and a corrupt "good 'ol boy" backscratching style of corporate governance has taken hold. This same opportunism now threatens our freedoms as the Right, using the vehicle of the Republican Party, seeks to implement it's social agenda by using our fears to manipulate the political atmosphere. This misuse of legitimate fears on the part of Americans has been the most egregious offense of this Administration, and that is saying something.
But with Howard Dean we can change that, and we will!
Masters of the "Friday Announcement" this Misadministration has gutted years of institutional memory from our government as well as tailoring regulations at all levels to move their agenda and reward their friends. We have former chemical industry lobbyists running EPA Departments and current industry lobbyists writing the regulations!
With Howard Dean we can change that, and we will!
So please join me and your fellow Democrats and neighbors on Sunday, February 8th and we will begin this process, we will nominate and elect Howard Dean the next President of the United States.
I ask you for your vote, I won't waste it.
R. Gregg Johnson
emailto jsnjroofing@pacbell.net
Sunday, November 30, 2003
Robert Fisk is great...
Thursday, November 27, 2003
Telling the truth won't set you free
By ROBERT FISK
BRITISH COLUMNIST
In Iraq, they are just numbers, bloodstains on a road. But in the little town of Madison, Wis., last week, they were all too real on the front page of the local paper, the Capital Times. Sgt. Warren Hansen, Spc. Eugene Uhl and 2nd Lt. Jeremy Wolfe of the 101st Airborne Division were all on their way home for the last time.
Hansen's father had died in the military. Uhl would have been 22 at Thanksgiving but had written home to say he had a "bad feeling." His father had fought in Vietnam, his grandfather in World War II and Korea. Two of the three men were killed in the Black Hawk helicopter crash over Tikrit.
But of course, President Bush, our hero in the "war on terror," won't be attending their funerals. The man who declined to serve his nation in Vietnam but has sent 146,000 young Americans into the biggest rat's nest in the Middle East doesn't do funerals.
Nor do journalists, of course. The U.S. television networks have feebly accepted the new Pentagon ruling that they can't show the coffins of America's young men returning from Iraq. The dead may come home, but they do so in virtual secrecy.
Things are changing. At a lecture I gave in Madison last week, there was a roar of applause from the more than 1,000-strong audience when I suggested that the Iraq war could yet doom George W. Bush's election chances next year. A young man in the audience stood up to say that his brother was in the military in Iraq, that he had written home to say that the war was a mess, that Americans shouldn't be dying in Iraq.
After the lecture, he showed me his brother's picture -- a tall 82nd Airborne officer in shades and holding an M-16 -- and passed on a message that the soldier wanted to meet me in Baghdad next month.
But I'd better make sure I don't reveal his name because those in the United States who want to keep the people in the dark are still at work.
Take the case of Drew Plummer from North Carolina who enlisted during his last year in high school, just three months before 9/11.
Home on leave, he joined his father, Lou, at a "bring our troops home" vigil. Lou Plummer is a former member of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division whose father, unlike Bush, served his country in Vietnam. Asked for his opinion on Iraq by an Associated Press reporter, Drew Plummer replied, "I just don't agree with what we're doing right now. I don't think our guys should be dying in Iraq. But I'm not a pacifist. I'll do my part."
But free speech has a price for the military in the United States these days. The U.S. Navy charged Drew Plummer with violating Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: disloyal statements. At his official hearing, he was asked if he "sympathizes" with the enemy or was considering "acts of sabotage." He was convicted and demoted.
Yet still the U.S. media turn their backs on this. How revealing, for example, to find that the number of seriously wounded U.S. soldiers brought home from Iraq is approaching 2,200, many of whom have lost limbs or suffered facial wounds. In all, there have been nearly 7,000 medical evacuations of soldiers from Iraq, many with psychological problems.
All this was disclosed by the Pentagon to a group of French diplomats in Washington. The French press carried the story. Not so the papers of small-town America, where anyone trying to tell the truth about Iraq will be attacked.
And while the Pentagon is now planning to have 100,000 GIs in Iraq until 2006, the journalistic heavyweights are stoking the fires of patriotism with a new and even more chilling propaganda line. One of the most vicious has just been published in The New York Times. Claiming that Saddam's torturers are attacking U.S. troops -- some of his intelligence men are working for the occupying army, but that's another matter -- columnist David Brooks writes that "history shows that Americans are willing to make sacrifices. The real doubts come when we see ourselves inflicting them. What will happen to the national mood when the news programs start broadcasting images of the brutal measures our own troops will have to adopt?
"Inevitably there will be atrocities that will cause many good-hearted people to defect from the cause ... somehow ... the Bush administration is going to have to remind us again and again that Iraq is the Battle of Midway in the war on terror ..."
What is one to make of this vile nonsense? Why is The New York Times providing space for the advocacy of war crimes by U.S. soldiers? I doubt the U.S. channels will broadcast any images of "brutal measures" -- they've already had the chance to do so and have declined. But atrocities?
Are we now to support atrocities against the "scum of the Earth" -- Brooks' word for the insurgents -- in our moral campaign against evil?
Amid such filth, we should perhaps remember the simple courage of Drew Plummer. And remember, too, the following names: Army Prv. First Class Rachel Bosveld, 19; Army Spc. Paul Sturino, 21; Army Reservist Dan Gabrielson, 40; Army Maj. Mathew Shram, 36; Marine Sgt. Kirk Strasekie, 23. They, too, came from Wisconsin. And they, too, died in Iraq.
Robert Fisk writes for The Independent in Great Britain.
Thursday, November 27, 2003
Telling the truth won't set you free
By ROBERT FISK
BRITISH COLUMNIST
In Iraq, they are just numbers, bloodstains on a road. But in the little town of Madison, Wis., last week, they were all too real on the front page of the local paper, the Capital Times. Sgt. Warren Hansen, Spc. Eugene Uhl and 2nd Lt. Jeremy Wolfe of the 101st Airborne Division were all on their way home for the last time.
Hansen's father had died in the military. Uhl would have been 22 at Thanksgiving but had written home to say he had a "bad feeling." His father had fought in Vietnam, his grandfather in World War II and Korea. Two of the three men were killed in the Black Hawk helicopter crash over Tikrit.
But of course, President Bush, our hero in the "war on terror," won't be attending their funerals. The man who declined to serve his nation in Vietnam but has sent 146,000 young Americans into the biggest rat's nest in the Middle East doesn't do funerals.
Nor do journalists, of course. The U.S. television networks have feebly accepted the new Pentagon ruling that they can't show the coffins of America's young men returning from Iraq. The dead may come home, but they do so in virtual secrecy.
Things are changing. At a lecture I gave in Madison last week, there was a roar of applause from the more than 1,000-strong audience when I suggested that the Iraq war could yet doom George W. Bush's election chances next year. A young man in the audience stood up to say that his brother was in the military in Iraq, that he had written home to say that the war was a mess, that Americans shouldn't be dying in Iraq.
After the lecture, he showed me his brother's picture -- a tall 82nd Airborne officer in shades and holding an M-16 -- and passed on a message that the soldier wanted to meet me in Baghdad next month.
But I'd better make sure I don't reveal his name because those in the United States who want to keep the people in the dark are still at work.
Take the case of Drew Plummer from North Carolina who enlisted during his last year in high school, just three months before 9/11.
Home on leave, he joined his father, Lou, at a "bring our troops home" vigil. Lou Plummer is a former member of the U.S. 2nd Armored Division whose father, unlike Bush, served his country in Vietnam. Asked for his opinion on Iraq by an Associated Press reporter, Drew Plummer replied, "I just don't agree with what we're doing right now. I don't think our guys should be dying in Iraq. But I'm not a pacifist. I'll do my part."
But free speech has a price for the military in the United States these days. The U.S. Navy charged Drew Plummer with violating Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: disloyal statements. At his official hearing, he was asked if he "sympathizes" with the enemy or was considering "acts of sabotage." He was convicted and demoted.
Yet still the U.S. media turn their backs on this. How revealing, for example, to find that the number of seriously wounded U.S. soldiers brought home from Iraq is approaching 2,200, many of whom have lost limbs or suffered facial wounds. In all, there have been nearly 7,000 medical evacuations of soldiers from Iraq, many with psychological problems.
All this was disclosed by the Pentagon to a group of French diplomats in Washington. The French press carried the story. Not so the papers of small-town America, where anyone trying to tell the truth about Iraq will be attacked.
And while the Pentagon is now planning to have 100,000 GIs in Iraq until 2006, the journalistic heavyweights are stoking the fires of patriotism with a new and even more chilling propaganda line. One of the most vicious has just been published in The New York Times. Claiming that Saddam's torturers are attacking U.S. troops -- some of his intelligence men are working for the occupying army, but that's another matter -- columnist David Brooks writes that "history shows that Americans are willing to make sacrifices. The real doubts come when we see ourselves inflicting them. What will happen to the national mood when the news programs start broadcasting images of the brutal measures our own troops will have to adopt?
"Inevitably there will be atrocities that will cause many good-hearted people to defect from the cause ... somehow ... the Bush administration is going to have to remind us again and again that Iraq is the Battle of Midway in the war on terror ..."
What is one to make of this vile nonsense? Why is The New York Times providing space for the advocacy of war crimes by U.S. soldiers? I doubt the U.S. channels will broadcast any images of "brutal measures" -- they've already had the chance to do so and have declined. But atrocities?
Are we now to support atrocities against the "scum of the Earth" -- Brooks' word for the insurgents -- in our moral campaign against evil?
Amid such filth, we should perhaps remember the simple courage of Drew Plummer. And remember, too, the following names: Army Prv. First Class Rachel Bosveld, 19; Army Spc. Paul Sturino, 21; Army Reservist Dan Gabrielson, 40; Army Maj. Mathew Shram, 36; Marine Sgt. Kirk Strasekie, 23. They, too, came from Wisconsin. And they, too, died in Iraq.
Robert Fisk writes for The Independent in Great Britain.
Monday, November 24, 2003
Ah, Walter...
Too bad Bush doesn't read newspapers. He has the "newsmakers" at the White House fill him in on what he needs to know. Which is obviously very little.
He may the most uncurious autocrat since Czar Nicholas II, and he is weaker for it for the same reason as the last Czar was weakened, the narrow focus of his vision and experience.
The Unilateral President
By Walter Cronkite
Special to the Denver Post
Thank you Mr. Cronkite...Good night David...Good night Chet and goodnight from the Free Media, it was nice while it lasted, stay tuned for the Faux News Channel.
And will somebody get the lights on the way out...
Too bad Bush doesn't read newspapers. He has the "newsmakers" at the White House fill him in on what he needs to know. Which is obviously very little.
He may the most uncurious autocrat since Czar Nicholas II, and he is weaker for it for the same reason as the last Czar was weakened, the narrow focus of his vision and experience.
The Unilateral President
By Walter Cronkite
Special to the Denver Post
Thank you Mr. Cronkite...Good night David...Good night Chet and goodnight from the Free Media, it was nice while it lasted, stay tuned for the Faux News Channel.
And will somebody get the lights on the way out...
Weird World
Thanksgiving 2003. One more year to go, till liberation or...Dictatorship
Ran across this list of "beliefs you must hold to be a Republican",,,,
o Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you are a conservative radio host. Then it is an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
o The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
o Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.
o "Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
o A woman cannot be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
o Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
o The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans benefits and combat pay.
o Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.
o If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
o A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
o HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.
o Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
o Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
o Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush?’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
o A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
o Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
o The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
o You support states rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.
o What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the 1980s is irrelevant.
o Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
Hmmm......
Thanksgiving 2003. One more year to go, till liberation or...Dictatorship
Ran across this list of "beliefs you must hold to be a Republican",,,,
o Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you are a conservative radio host. Then it is an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
o The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
o Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.
o "Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
o A woman cannot be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
o Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
o The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans benefits and combat pay.
o Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.
o If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
o A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
o HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.
o Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
o Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
o Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush?’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
o A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
o Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
o The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
o You support states rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.
o What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the 1980s is irrelevant.
o Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
Hmmm......
Friday, October 10, 2003
That we should live in Interesting Times...
I have often thought of how it would have been to live in a different historical era, one with more clearly drawn lines between right and wrong, such as our grandparent's Great Depression-WWII generation, or that of our great-great grandfathers, forced to chose between region and Union. But as you study history, while maintaining an avid interest in it's "first draft"; today's Murky News, you discover that those crystal clear definitions of right and wrong were not any more obvious to most contemporary observers of past events than they are to us today.
Just as Rosa Parks was unaware of the seminal importance of her actions in not giving up her seat on the bus to a white man, California may have done something last Tuesday and be unaware of its true significance for many years.
When I observed the victory celebration for the Governor formerly known as "Arnold!", I was shocked to watch as the Kennedy family took over the California Republican Party. The Demo nominee for Vice President in 1972, George McGovern's running mate Sargent Shriver and his spouse, JFK's sister Eunice, were front and center with George Shultz, Tricky Dick's Treasury Sec'y and some guy doing a pretty good Pete Wilson impression, all backed up by a phalanx of Democratic little Shrivers...
And today I watched as the biggest gasbag in American History was struck dumb. But unfortunately not speechless...His Pomposity has done a Betty Ford, revealing a human side which is oddly appealing. I know we a being "spun", the heroic Rush will emerge from the hell of withdrawal, indicted, but a stronger man. After all, we are all only human...Yada, yada...
I refer Mr. Limbaugh and anyone else who is tempted to climb up on a Soapbox and profess to ultimate knowledge and pure thought, to the lessons of history, starting with the Greek Myths, with a special look at those great figures of our fairly recent past, Father Coughlin, Aimee Semple McPherson and A.A. Allen. For you see Jimmy and Tammie, William "The Slot Machine" Bennett and Mr. Limbaugh are the heirs of a great tradition of hubris, for pride cometh....
I see in the confluence of these two events an opportunity to truly change the tone of political discourse, for I truly wish both of these gentlemen well and am hopeful that they both grow and change as they move into new roles. A chastened and humbled Rush Limbaugh might not be so quick to harshly judge his ideological opposites, he might become an instrument of reconciliation and real political progress if he was inclined to move the debate forward, rather than forever fan the prejudices of his base audience for his advertisers and political masters.
And I see in Arnold Schwartshisegger a new political animal, at least one of a variety not seen in high office since 1984 or so, a Liberal Republican. Not as polished as Nelson Rockefeller or as rich, he doesn't have the resume of an Earl Warren or even of a Pete McCloskey, but if RFK was alive today, he might have very well been up there on that stage last Tuesday with his sister Eunice and Sargent Shriver.
Read your history, the Kennedy brothers were hardly Socialists, not even "Liberal" as defined today. Devout Irish Catholics rarely are...even those with long Democratic traditions. I may be proved wrong but I don't see this guy being lumped with Tom Delay or even the Rovian Dynasty. If he puts up a large enough tent, we may all be better served than we would have been if Gov. Bland had triangulated his way through the next 3 years. That we need fiscal reform and a more balanced system of taxation is obvious, only the political will has been lacking, the willingness to take a risk for what is right, rather than what is expedient.
Are you listening Mr. President?
R.G. Johnson
San Jose CA
10/10/03
I have often thought of how it would have been to live in a different historical era, one with more clearly drawn lines between right and wrong, such as our grandparent's Great Depression-WWII generation, or that of our great-great grandfathers, forced to chose between region and Union. But as you study history, while maintaining an avid interest in it's "first draft"; today's Murky News, you discover that those crystal clear definitions of right and wrong were not any more obvious to most contemporary observers of past events than they are to us today.
Just as Rosa Parks was unaware of the seminal importance of her actions in not giving up her seat on the bus to a white man, California may have done something last Tuesday and be unaware of its true significance for many years.
When I observed the victory celebration for the Governor formerly known as "Arnold!", I was shocked to watch as the Kennedy family took over the California Republican Party. The Demo nominee for Vice President in 1972, George McGovern's running mate Sargent Shriver and his spouse, JFK's sister Eunice, were front and center with George Shultz, Tricky Dick's Treasury Sec'y and some guy doing a pretty good Pete Wilson impression, all backed up by a phalanx of Democratic little Shrivers...
And today I watched as the biggest gasbag in American History was struck dumb. But unfortunately not speechless...His Pomposity has done a Betty Ford, revealing a human side which is oddly appealing. I know we a being "spun", the heroic Rush will emerge from the hell of withdrawal, indicted, but a stronger man. After all, we are all only human...Yada, yada...
I refer Mr. Limbaugh and anyone else who is tempted to climb up on a Soapbox and profess to ultimate knowledge and pure thought, to the lessons of history, starting with the Greek Myths, with a special look at those great figures of our fairly recent past, Father Coughlin, Aimee Semple McPherson and A.A. Allen. For you see Jimmy and Tammie, William "The Slot Machine" Bennett and Mr. Limbaugh are the heirs of a great tradition of hubris, for pride cometh....
I see in the confluence of these two events an opportunity to truly change the tone of political discourse, for I truly wish both of these gentlemen well and am hopeful that they both grow and change as they move into new roles. A chastened and humbled Rush Limbaugh might not be so quick to harshly judge his ideological opposites, he might become an instrument of reconciliation and real political progress if he was inclined to move the debate forward, rather than forever fan the prejudices of his base audience for his advertisers and political masters.
And I see in Arnold Schwartshisegger a new political animal, at least one of a variety not seen in high office since 1984 or so, a Liberal Republican. Not as polished as Nelson Rockefeller or as rich, he doesn't have the resume of an Earl Warren or even of a Pete McCloskey, but if RFK was alive today, he might have very well been up there on that stage last Tuesday with his sister Eunice and Sargent Shriver.
Read your history, the Kennedy brothers were hardly Socialists, not even "Liberal" as defined today. Devout Irish Catholics rarely are...even those with long Democratic traditions. I may be proved wrong but I don't see this guy being lumped with Tom Delay or even the Rovian Dynasty. If he puts up a large enough tent, we may all be better served than we would have been if Gov. Bland had triangulated his way through the next 3 years. That we need fiscal reform and a more balanced system of taxation is obvious, only the political will has been lacking, the willingness to take a risk for what is right, rather than what is expedient.
Are you listening Mr. President?
R.G. Johnson
San Jose CA
10/10/03
