The following words of Ray McGovern are those of a TRUE patriot. It was David Hume (I believe) who spoke of the moral responsibility to be intelligent (to the extent that our native abilities allow us, of course).What is most alarming recently is the DELIBERATE and willful ignorance found in the Bush administration and throughout out nation's right wing ---ignorance of our heritage, our common values, our Democratic traditions, our Constitution. And not just ignorance which may be forgiven and corrected but worse ---disdain, hate, and the utter lack of humanity.The words of the Constitution are sacred to me. They express a 'secular' faith --faith that as mere human beings we may with intelligence, good will and design create JUST and FREE societies. Bush insults me personally when he makes irrational and evil exceptions to the rule of law!Bush presumes to invade the land of Jefferson. I share McGovern's outrage at this effrontery.
Sacrilege at MonticelloA Letter to the Charlottesville Daily ProgressBy Ray McGovern, http://afterdowningstreet.orgI write as a Virginian, the father of four graduates of Mr. Jefferson's university and of another who is an alumnus of the university Mr. Jefferson himself attended.I have just spoken with Emily of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation to register our family's dismay that President George W. Bush has been invited to speak at Monticello on July 4th. I cannot imagine a greater insult to Mr. Jefferson, who played such a huge role in securing for us the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of this great Commonwealth and country. George W. Bush at Monticello? Desecration of what until now has been hallowed ground.Emily explained that the Foundation had decided that it could invite the office of the president, without appearing to invite the present incumbent. That distinction is one worthy of the lawyers whom the Bush administration hired to justify torture, ignoring the dictum of another Virginian, Patrick Henry, that practices like the rack and screw must be left behind in the Old World.Those who invited the president to Charlottesville to help celebrate the Declaration of Independence, which asserted basic freedoms that Mr. Bush has now curtailed, dishonor Mr. Jefferson in a most offensive way, scandalize our children and grandchildren, and desecrate Monticello itself.A shameful day for the Commonwealth.Raymond L. McGovern
Arlington, Virginia
17 comments:
Bush is a disdainful, petty individual, who lacks knowledge and vision of any sort. He is also the kind of man that damages much of what he comes in contact with, unfortunately this time it was our nation. I agree with McGovern, Bush has no place at Jefferson's table...
benmerc
Bush is dirty enough to desecrate an outhouse in my opinion.
Off-topic, I've been seeing a lot of this cartoon by Mike Luckovich which bears an uncanny resemblance to something Sebastian did over a year ago. Only I think Sebastian's execution was a lot better. It was and is a brilliant cartoon and frames the Iraq war issue perfectly.
Yeah...I saw that one in the st pete times the other day...a rather close resemblance to a prior Dante Lee...which I had forgotten about, S.P. was ahead of the curb...also like the derrick effect, drives the point home.
benmerc
SadButTrue said...
Bush is dirty enough to desecrate an outhouse in my opinion.
Good one! And I agree completely.
Off-topic, I've been seeing a lot of this cartoon by Mike Luckovich which bears an uncanny resemblance to something Sebastian did over a year ago.
Sebastien aka Dante Lee had been blatantly ripped off a couple of time. It's pretty pathetic that 'well known' pros would stoop to that. I have maintained contact. 'Dante' sends his regards to the 'regulars'. He is not only a 'cartoonist' but a brilliant mathematician pursuing advance studies in mathematics and physics.
If I see an article whose author is listed Ray McGovern, Chris Floyd, Ritter, or Greenwald, I read it. I avidly followed Molly Ivins from 1991, (I lived in Ft Worth at that time), until her death.
If more people had followed HER articles on dubya as Governor of Texas, the dumb ass would not have gotten near the White House. A position, where the President not leads, but SERVES the American people. Dubya, and the criminal GOP, believe that position is to be served by the American people.
You mention using your intelligence in today’s post and I want comment on that. My dad had a 6th grade education from a one room school up on the ridge in this part of the Ozarks, but that is really meaningless. He had the curiosity of cat and above all, common sense, the ability to use the knowledge he did have.
Dubya, or dumb ass, has never had to use any common sense. He has had every thing handed to him.
I wish to repost a comment I made two days after your post of; Mr. Bush Goes to GITMO: How the Patriot Act Makes Bush a ‘Terrorist’!
A post from ‘at-largely’ web site had a curious link in it and I followed it. The post was about the raid on Blackwater’s armory in North Carolina.
Following the link, I come to an article on Spartacus;
Barry Seal, the son of a candy wholesaler, was born in Baton Rouge on 16th July, 1939. Seal's father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
….
Tosh Plumlee claims that Barry Seal began working for the Central Intelligence Agency in the mid 1950s: "Barry Seal was involved with military intelligence in the early days... Military intelligence was the real game, with the CIA just acting as logistical people. Barry was a peripheral player back then, but he was a CIA 'contract' pilot all the way back to 1956 or 1957."
….
On 1st July, 1972, Barry Seal was arrested in New Orleans and accused of sending C4 explosives to anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico. A DC-4 was seized at the Shreveport Regional Airport loaded with almost seven tons of plastic C-4 explosives, 7,000 feet of explosive primer cord and 2,600 electric blasting caps. James Miller, Richmond Harper, Marlon Hagler and Murray Kessler were also arrested with Seal. Kessler's partner, Manny Gambino, was kidnapped around the same time the others were arrested. His corpse was later found in a New Jersey garbage dump.
The DC-4 was owned by James Boy, a known associate of the CIA. Boy's aircraft were later used to fly Oliver North's mercenaries in and out of Honduras. The man who organized the entrapment of Seal and his friends was Cesario Diosdado, an official with the United States Customs.
…….
By 1982 Barry Seal was bringing in drugs to the United States on behalf of the Medellin Cartel. Seal moved his base of operations from Louisiana to Mena, an obscure airport in the secluded mountains of western Arkansas. Seal told friends that he once made $1.5 million on a single cocaine flight. Seal worked directly for Sonia Atala, the CIA protected drug baron (Michael Levine, The Big White Lie: The CIA and the Cocaine/Crack Epidemic). It is also claimed that Seal's fleet of planes to ferry supplies to Contra camps in Honduras and Costa Rica. His planes also made return trips to airstrips in the mountains of Colombia and Venezuela. According to Roger Morris (Partners in Power): "His well-connected and officially-protected smuggling operation based in Mena accounted for billions in drugs and arms".
Seal also obtained two new multi-million dollar Beech Craft King Air 200s. According to Daniel Hopsicker, these aircraft were purchased by a Phoenix-based corporation that acted as a "front" for John Singlaub. This company also owned Southern Air, a CIA proprietary connected to William Casey, Richard Secord, Felix I. Rodriguez and George H. W. Bush.
…..
In December 1984, Seal was arrested in Louisiana after flying in a cargo of marijuana. After paying a $250,000 bond, Seal was released and returned to drug smuggling. In return Seal provided information that resulted in the US government obtaining 17 criminal convictions. According to Daniel Hopsicker: "Seal told investigators that between March 1984, and August 1985, he made a quarter-million dollars smuggling up to 15,000 kilos of cocaine while working for the DEA, and another $575,000 when the DEA let him keep the money from one shipment."
Barry Seal appeared before Judge Frank Polozola in Baton Rouge on 20th December, 1985. Found guilty of two drug felony convictions, Seal was sentenced to six months supervised probation. A condition of the sentence was that he had to spend every night, from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m., at the Salvation Army halfway house on Baton Rouge's Airline Highway strip. Judge Polozola barred him from carrying a gun or hiring armed guards. Barry Seal told his friends "they made me a clay pigeon".
Barry Seal was asked by his close friend, Rene Martin, if he feared being killed by the Ochoa family. Barry Seal replied that he was not afraid of the Colombians because he had not implicated senior members of the organization. Seal was more worried about his contacts within the US government. This view is supported by Lewis Unglesby, Seal’s lawyer. He confirmed that the man Seal was willing to testify against was George H. W. Bush.
On 19th February, 1986, Barry Seal returned to his Salvation Army hostel at 6.00 p.m. As he parked his white Cadillac he was approached by a man carrying a machine-gun. Two quick bursts hit Seal's head and body. . . . .
Miguel Velez, Luis Quintero-Cruz and Bernardo Vasquez were found guilty of Barry Seal's murder and sentenced to life terms without parole. The official story was that Jorge Ochoa had murdered Seal in order to stop him testifying at his U.S. trial. Yet Ochoa never stood trial in the U.S. Nor did Seal appear to be afraid of Ochoa. His concern was with George H. W. Bush and the CIA. For example, Barry Seal's secretary, Dandra Seale (no relation) does not believe the Medellin Cartel carried out the assassination. "The CIA people here allowed it to happen. He had a chart, he had dirt on anybody and everybody."
Further evidence comes from Dee Ferdinand. She told Daniel Hopsicker that her father, Al Carone, was a CIA paymaster and a Colonel in Army Intelligence, had been sent to Dallas to pay off Jack Ruby before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. She also claimed that 33 years later Carone performed the same function for the killing of Barry Seal. According to FAA investigator, Rodney Stich, Carone was Oliver North's bagman.
Richard Sharpstein, defense attorney for one of Seal's assassins, Miguel Velez, says: "All three Colombians who went on trial always said they were being directed, after they got into this country, on what to do and where to go by an ‘anonymous gringo,' a US military officer, who they very quickly figured out was Oliver North,"
There was apparently another reason why George Bush wanted Seal dead. According to friends, Seal had a copy of a videotape of a 1985 DEA cocaine sting which had netted George Bush's two sons, George and Jeb, picking up kilos of cocaine at a Florida airport.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKseal.htm
The article is worth a read in it’s entirety.
If this article be true, I think we can see how Dumbya supported his drug addiction and add another crime to his credit.
I think you can also add George H W Bush and Ollie North to your collection. Murder, or accessory to murder has no statute of limitations. In fact, Ray Guns whole murderous crew probably belongs on death row.
Damien writes of Atta attending flight school in Florida before 9/11. This has always struck me as not irrelevant. My uncle made a great deal of money working for the FAA, tax free, training and licensing pilots for commercial air liners in Saudi Arabia. There was no reason for the highjackers to come to America to learn how to fly Cessnas.
tiago sez...
My dad had a 6th grade education from a one room school up on the ridge in this part of the Ozarks, but that is really meaningless. He had the curiosity of cat and above all, common sense, the ability to use the knowledge he did have.
Dubya, or dumb ass, has never had to use any common sense.
Excellent point! It was college graduates (presumably) who came up with 'supply side economics' --the stupidest excuse for economics I've ever encountered. Anyone who's every worked for a living knows it's bullshit! Even R. Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman, called it a 'Trojan Horse' and blamed a 'noisy faction of Republicans'. It was, indeed, a 'Trojan Horse' --claptrap dressed up like bona fide economic theory. The GOP wanted a tax cut which benefited only them;'supply side' or 'trickle down' theory gave them the cover they needed. That's how the GOP works. They put lipstick on a pig and expect you to have sex with it.
In fact, Ray Guns whole murderous crew probably belongs on death row.
The government has simply become a 'mob'. They just shake us down.
"Bush is dirty enough to desecrate an outhouse in my opinion." - SBT
i ain't in disagreement...
benmerc
"...Disdain, hate, and the utter lack of humanity." Added to the list (which could on for hundreds of related/connected expressions): No Shame. No Remorse.
tiago said...
Damien writes of Atta attending flight school in Florida before 9/11. This has always struck me as not irrelevant. My uncle made a great deal of money working for the FAA, tax free, training and licensing pilots for commercial air liners in Saudi Arabia. There was no reason for the highjackers to come to America to learn how to fly Cessnas.
And, in any case, Hani Hanjour could not have flown a 757 at all. And he most certainly COULD NOT have made the 'maneuver'! In fact, not even experienced pilots could have pulled that off.
Basically --the 'official conspiracy theory' is what the CIA used to call 'cover stories'. It's bullshit from start to finish.
I'll have more on Hanjour and Flight 77 in a future article. For now, I will just say that there is IRREFUTABLE proof that Flight 77 did not strike the Pentagon and even experienced pilots could have done what Bushies want you to believe was done.
The function of a cover story is to 'cover' up someone's guilt. Guess who is up to his neck in a crime that will put that neck in a noose!
I suspect Bush will go ahead and be allowed to speak at this event. The GOP usually gets its way in these sorts of matters (and the weak, spineless Dems always roll over on this sort of thing).
It's quite a different story, though, when the shoe is on the other foot.
Recall in 2003, when the GOP was throwing a hissy fit over the TV mini-series, "The Reagans" (which they believed was less-than sufficiently reverential toward their hero).
The GOP was successful in getting CBS to cancel its airing of this series.
(By contrast, in 2006, just before the mid-term election, ABC went ahead and aired "The Path to 9/11," ignoring the protests of the Dems. This TV movie basically claimed that Clinton was entirely responsible for 9/11. It was reportedly scripted by a close personal friend of Rush Limbaugh).
Like I said, the GOP always gets its way in these sorts of things. The Dems are a bunch of wussies who can always be counted to roll over.
I meant to write: "even experienced pilots could NOT have done what Bushies want you to believe was done."
I left out the most important word in that sentence: 'not'.
Recall in 2003, when the GOP was throwing a hissy fit over the TV mini-series, "The Reagans" (which they believed was less-than sufficiently reverential toward their hero). The GOP was successful in getting CBS to cancel its airing of this series.
Before the advent of the internet, I was writing about how Reagan has enriched a tiny elite with unfair tax cuts, how his 'adventure' against Grenada was stupid and imperialistic, how he committed high treason in connection with Iran/Contra. There were a few other voices, but all were drowned out by the MSM and the psychotic 'cult of Reagan' --until Bush the WORST President in American history.
This TV movie basically claimed that Clinton was entirely responsible for 9/11. It was reportedly scripted by a close personal friend of Rush Limbaugh).
A movie which ignores the fact: Terrorism is Always Worse Under GOP Regimes.
I wouldn't accuse Luckovich of ripping off Sebastien's idea, at least not consciously. As I intimated, I think Dante/Sebastian's substitution of an oil derrick for the flagpole made his execution of the idea far superior to Luckovich's. Not to mention he has a superior gift with pen and ink.
This could be one of those things like the time that George Harrison's My Sweet Lord was deemed to have been a plagiarism of the Chiffon's He's So Fine. I doubt it was deliberate.
SadButTrue said...
I wouldn't accuse Luckovich of ripping off Sebastien's idea, at least not consciously.
Good point, Sad! Indeed, much of Shakespeare could be called 'rip offs'.
There was one particularly egregious example of an obvious ripoff that Dante complained about. He called it Gardening. I can't recall the name of the offending cartoonist.
Dante's most stunning and tragic image is the last one he posted:
The End
Fuzz sez...
Yeah, Len, Dante's "The End" is a little RIPper. Hope he's going well in Japan. Please convey my very best to the young genius next time you're in touch.
And as far as "George Bush is NO Thomas Jefferson" is concerned, The Imbecile would not have been a fit and proper person to function as Tommy's toe rag.
Fuzz sez...
Yeah, Len, Dante's "The End" is a little RIPper. Hope he's going well in Japan. Please convey my very best to the young genius next time you're in touch.
Indeed, he does check in from time to time and I will certainly pass on your 'best'. We still have plans to one day meet up in Ferney (or Paris) to drink a toast to Voltaire. You are, of course, welcome to join us, my friend. Dante, had always wanted to sabre the champagne when Bush is thrown out of office. When he is arrested will be another occasion worthy of the finest champagne.
And as far as "George Bush is NO Thomas Jefferson" is concerned, The Imbecile would not have been a fit and proper person to function as Tommy's toe rag.
Indeed! One day, I will write my own history of the South. Jefferson's various conundrums have and continue to shape that history. Great men, like Jefferson, are flawed, redeemed by intellect and humanity. Bush, by contrast, is not merely flawed. He is a walking waste of human protoplasm, beyond redemption, a blight!
"We still have plans to one day meet up in Ferney (or Paris) to drink a toast to Voltaire. You are, of course, welcome to join us, my friend."
Merci, monsieur, wouldn't miss it fer quids. Shall prepare a toast to Balzac for the splendid occasion in the meantime.
Shall prepare a toast to Balzac for the splendid occasion in the meantime.
D'accord : )
See ya then.
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