Monday, January 02, 2006

two articles on bush

the online l.a. times had two articles of note today on president bush. the first article compared his presidency to that of james polk. don't know much about that era? well, the article gives a good picture. and, it may even be a fair comparison. i don't know, i think it's easy to point out some events, say, "doesn't that remind you of someone" and not really be making an accurate point. but, the article does create an interesting comparison. lincoln followed polk. who will follow bush?

the second article was about the whole terrorism and spying issue. now the gov't is admitting that it involves u.s. citizens, but if a member of al queda is calling you they want to know why. okay, that's fair. the article also talks about how the acting attorney general @ the time wouldn't sign the change in tactic. of course, he hasn't said why yet.

also in this article was a quote from bush, "There's an enemy out there. They read newspapers, they listen to what you write, they listen to what you put on the air, and they react." that sounds a lot like we're being told to keep quite because our speach may help the enemy. gee, i thought we had a guaranteed freedom to speach. that if we didn't agree with a law, stamp tax, our representatives, that we had a right to voice that opinion. are we only allowed to say affirming things about the government?

4 comments:

Paul in Brentwood said...

Ed,
We truly need to fear our "democratic" leaders when they constantly tell us to stifle our opinions in the name of freedom and democracy. Keep up the questioning and "antagonistic" threads. This coming from the guy whom you all probably didn't miss pontificating on New Year's Eve by the edge of Steve's pool...
Happy new year!

Paul

Unknown said...

"Loose lips sink ships" -- You ever see those dubya dubya two posters?

Also, "When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler!"

I'm going to try to find those posters somewhere.

edluv said...

but those lines are ultimately b.s. they're propaganda, fear tactic. they lead to tihngs like mennonites getting the crap kicked out of them in the midwest during ww2 because they weren't enlisting enough. or because they had german names. or the japenese internment camps in the western states.

i just don't buy the line that if you speak against the govt you're aiding the enemy. that line of thought goes against everything that this country allegedly represents.

Unknown said...

Yeah, the world is too complicated to be reduced to sound bytes. We elected a president who speaks in sound bytes, albeit convoluted and often incoherent ones.