I rarely post on my political views in this blog because I get yelled at for criticizing the Usurper — I mean President when I do. (These are some of my more popular posts as well.) However, there are two events in today’s news that I feel deserve some commentary.
Oh yes… for those who complain that I whine too much about the government and Bush, let me ask you this: When was the last time you emailed your Congressperson about an issue? Do you write to your Congressperson at least once a week or even once a month on issues that are important. I do. I petition on behalf of Million4Roe.Com (because I am not deluded enough to believe that abortion will disappear if we make it illegal– you can’t legislate stuff like that because you have to change attitudes and hearts); National Parks Conservation Association (because I believe that the stewardship of God’s creation has been entrusted to us and that the oil-hungry person appointed to the presidency by the Supreme Court shouldn’t tear up the Alaskan wilderness to satisfy his lust for fossil fuels); Virtual March on Washington (because our president is also a war monger — more on this later); and Bread for the World (because hunger issues and legislation need to be addressed, especially in our depressed economy). Do you know the voting records of your Congressperson and your Senators? I do. (My Congressman is fairly good. One senator is OK and the other is abysmal.) I also have VOTED in 90% of the elections since I turned 18. (The others were because I couldn’t register in time.) Therefore, I feel like I have a right to criticize the government.
GOP fails to attend Democratic filibuster on Estrada
For the last few weeks, Million4Roe.Com has been sending me alerts about the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the District Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia. He would be the first Latino to sit on the bench, which is a nice move toward diversity. However, he is refusing to answer questions about his opinion of Roe v. Wade and other civil rights cases. Bush is not pushing him to answer and Democrats will not allow a vote until he answers. While I openly and intensely despise Bush for a *multitude* of reasons, I will usually not ask my Senators to oppose the nominations he gives them *if* I feel that this person is qualified and is not just being appointed to stack the courts in favor of Bush’s agenda. (Contrary to what some may think, I *do* vote Republican about as frequently as I vote Democrat.) I cannot in good conscience support the nomination or approval of a judge who refuses to tell where he stands on a variety of issues. I mean, don’t you want to know how he’d respond if an abortion case or women’s health issue was brought before him? What about if a racial-profiling suit was brought in front of him? It almost disturbs me more that Bush is refusing to answer. Clinton’s people didn’t always get approved but *they were at least honest about where they stood*. People criticize Slick Willie for a variety of reasons but he made his people ‘fess up about their positions. This makes me trust Bush even less because it shows his desire to stack the courts. (Well… his re-nomination of Pickering also showed that.)
Bush: Iraq is playing ‘willful charade’
Quoth King George when referring to the United Nations: “when it comes to our security, we really don’t need anybody’s permission.” Ahem? Since when do we border Iraq? Since when are we authorized to act alone? Turkey, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and Iran have more to worry about than we do because they *border* Iraq or are in close enough proximity to get hit with missles. Did Bush ever stop and think that Germany, Russia, and France are against the war because they don’t have two continents and an ocean separating them from Iraq? Also… isn’t the U.N. the body authorized to act in matter concerning disputes between countries? I agree that Saddam needs to go and that he is a modern day Hitler. I agree that he has gassed his people and has waged war on his neighbors. However, it really makes us look ugly in the sight of other countries when we’re the only ones wanting to go to war. All this anti-French mentality is irritating because the French helped us out in the Revolutionary War, we helped them out in World Wars I and II, and we’ve helped each other out at other times over the years. Did our president ever stop and think that we’re not the only country in the world and that other countries might have legit points? Then again, I think he wants a war like his daddy had. Too bad it didn’t help his daddy get re-elected. The economy was also crappy when his father lost the presidency. (One can only hope…)
Didn’t 9/11 teach us anything about how the rest of the world views us? Oh yes, if you answer “they hate because we’re free”, I will personally send someone to slap you. Canada is also a free society and they didn’t get attacked. (They also graciously accepted our planes until flights could resume and our president neglected to thank them. How rude of him!) Also, how many of the hijackers on the planes that crashed on 9/11 were Iraqi? 0. How many were Saudi? 15. Shouldn’t we be a little more worried about the Saudis?
OK… got that out of my system (on the third try posting). I feel better…
😀 yay for political jen. did you see the press conference?
Well I can only agree with you on very few points when it comes to your political ramblings about the president. I have voted 100% of the time from when I turned 18 years old and I tend to keep up with political issues so according to your philosophy on politics I have just as much of a right to criticize the government as you do.
Ok we get the point, you hate Bush. Your constant verbal bashing and hearsay and your attempts to discredit and crush the integrity of our president makes that obvious. But too much of this makes you look like a downbeat, slander slinging, dupe. I can say that I hated Bill (the pervert) Clinton and Al (the idiot)Gore just as much as you hate Bush, but spending my time verbally abusing them would make me look like a fool. Why would I want to value the opinion of someone who has nothing but garbage to spew?
Unfortunately you have blamed every single thing on the president but this isn’t a dictatorship. Bush is not the all controlling and all powerful king that you have made him out to be. You ask the questions “Does Bush ever consider this or does Bush ever think about that” like he is the only one in power and with authority that has the very job of thinking about all of the options. No matter what happens it is all his fault… well that is a bunch of bogus malarkey.
Of course God only said we had to obey the government He never said that we couldn’t bash and unwholesomely slander them…. Hmmmm…
No one’s bashing the government here. You should read before you criticize so you actually have an intelligent and coherent argument. Nobody also even forced you to read the whole posting. If you don’t agree, that’s fine. But keep three things in mind before you criticize:
1. None of the information in this posting is hearsay. It is all derived from things heard and seen in the media.
2. My wife is intelligent and has thought all this through. She too has been voting since she was 18. She has her opinions and she is entitled to them. Her blog has been established for the purpose of expressing those opinions. We all have a right to them, remember? 🙂
3. Jen has also kindly requested that no one “flame” her in her journal, and you crossed that line. I don’t like people who attack and slander my wife like you did. I am in my Biblical rights to do be ofended – Ephesians 5:28, to be exact. So don’t ever do that again. Have a nice day.
Eileen: I heard the press conference. I was not impressed and in my opinion a waste of air time. (I’m not saying this because it was Bush speaking. I’m saying it because he didn’t announce anything new.)
Pressed: Actually… you’re right. I do hate Bush. I hate that he was “appointed” to the presidency after electoral fraud in *his brother’s* state. I hate that he cut funding to international women’s health organizations because the funds *might* be used for abortion. (Any self-respecting woman should be outraged about this.) I hate that he is trying to stack the courts to get his agenda through. I hate that he is *re-nominating* his people after the Senate denies their approval because it is unfair politics. I hate that he is making the U.S. look really ugly in the eyes of the world because he can’t wait for the U.N. to let him have his little war. I hate that he is so hypocritical that he bashes affirmative action in the case of the University of Michigan when affirmative action (in the form of a legacy admittance) is the only way he got into Yale. I hate that he is twisting Christianity for his own purposes and catering to the wishes of 1% of the Christian population.
So yes… I do hate Bush and I have a valid reason. I criticized Clinton for his sex scandal and I laughed at Gore for claiming to have created the Internet. They, however, are not waging an unjust war on a country whose people cannot rise up out of fear of their leader. They did not sacrifice the lives of millions of women around the globe with one signature. (All that women’s funding would have gone toward neo-natal care, contraception [which would *prevent* abortion], parenting classes, midwives, family planning, and health needs of women in 3rd World Countries.) They are not constantly laughed at by other countries for their idiotic remarks.
Does that answer your question, Pressed? Oh yes… I also said no flames and you violated that rule. Do it again and I block your comments from my blog permanently. 🙂
For clarification sake my comment was not meant to cause flames or problems but to point out the fact that constant belligerent beating of the president makes you look bad more than it makes the president look bad and it certaintly isn’t biblical (Ephesians 4:29). There are several things that I could probably agree with you on about Bush if you explained things in a civil way, but everything you said about him sounds so vindictive. This is not me trying to be mean or to cause problems, but simply put, as a first time visitor to your site I was a bit shocked at the tone of hatred towards someone that God has put into place(Romans 13:1-2)”…For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the orinance of God…” It certainly was not what I expected from someone who is “currently in the entrance process to be a candidate for ordained ministry.”
But if my opinions are not welcome here then that is fine, ‘block’ away…
See my email to you. 🙂
yay for political posts.
let’s see…right on that you vote your conscience and email your congress people.
as far as the whole usurper thing. i personally think the electoral college is an elitist load of crap and have thought so since they taught me about it in elementary school. however, i do believe in following the rules that are set out at the beginning of the game. when we began the election of 2000, we had certain rules out there governing elections. the appointment of bush didn’t violate these rules. there is a lot of speculation, but independent (and even liberal) groups have gone through and re-counted even the possible votes and bush still won in florida. that being said, it would be silly for any of us to think that the elections are run fairly. for example, during the last primaries, people not registered as either republican or democrat in my county often got told they couldn’t vote in the primaries (for the governor and such). this is untrue (they have the right to vote on either the republican or democratic ticket). this wasn’t voter fraud, but it could be seen that way.
my point is simply whatever did or didn’t happen in florida wouldn’t be anything different than what happened in earlier elections. to me it seems silly to make fun of it, when we should simply be working to fix our electoral system.
also, in general the whole “bush stole the white house” thing bugs me because many people saying it would have been perfectly fine with gore having the exact same thing happen (and vice versa).
plus, gore was also part of a political legacy. just as a side-note.
the affirmative action thing…i never heard your response to me before, but i think that maybe he was trying to make the point that it shouldn’t be about race. i mean your post regarding that showed that, quite often, it’s more of a class thing (poor white kids from the sticks also don’t have the chance bush and other wealthy, elite kids had). he should recognize that he got help from his family, but it’s not all about race. couldn’t that be the point he was making?
About Estrada…I agree wholeheartedly that Bush and other should be requiring he answer those questions. My goodness, he should have to state his political positions to get the job anyway, imo.
I’m not a fan of the war either; however, it seems silly to assume that the U.S. has only evil reasons for wanting war and that France and Russia and Germany have only pure reasons. Just because we agree with them doesn’t mean their reasons behind it are good. There is plenty of evidence that France is opposing the war because of oil. If that is the case, why should we listen to them? That’s wrong too, just as wrong as wanting a war for oil (since both involve exploiting the Iraqi people).
I believe that Canada wouldn’t get attacked because, let’s face it, Canada isn’t controversial. I agree that they didn’t attack us because we are free. However, it’s easy for Canada to be non-contoversial when America and Britain have their back. Plus, they usually end up supporting us, just quietly. (Don’t get me wrong, I do heart Canada muchly).
really, this is the last thing I have to say (and I probably should have just emailed you…i didn’t realize i had quite so much to say…). 🙂
you said that Clinton and Gore were “not waging an unjust war on a country whose people cannot rise up out of fear of their leader. “
But they *did* do that. they bombed Iraq for no good reason 4 years ago (and led to nearly 4 years of no cooperation with the inspections process). So Clinton and Gore have already waged an unjust war against Iraq; Bush is just talking about it at this point.