wimpy Kerry.....
I hate to "jump on the bandwagon", but as an obsessive reader/blogger, I often compile the "latest and greatest" articles and editorials, and then try to tie them together, or summarize them, or try to note any turning points, important insights, or critical comments in them.
In this case, I'm "jumping on" the bandwagon of award-winning actor George Clooney's editorial earlier today on Huffington Post, where Clooney basically reprises the role of the boy who shouts out "The emperor is wearing no clothes!" In this case, NOT emperor bush, but the cowering-complicit Democrats. Clooney STATES THE OBVIOUS: that Democrats were NOT MISLED into supporting the war, they opted to vote for giving bush (almost) unlimited WAR POWERS, because they didn't want to have to defend against (contest) karl "traitor" rove's inevitable attack campaign, that would have said "Democrats are traitors who want to let the 9-11 perpetrators get off scott free!" There were THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of us who protested the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Ashcroft-GOP march to war, and many of us cited the words of former President (George H.W.) Bush about the costs and consequences of invading and occupying an Arab country. And that was BEFORE the stark, raving incompetence and arrogance of the Rumsfeld/DoD occupation command, including LETTING insurgents cart off TONS and TONS and TONS of Saddam's munitions from the Al Qaaqa ammunition complex - while US GI's were peeling potatoes on KP duty, their commanders not aware, or not concerned, that a huge Iraqi ammo dump was unguarded and open to looters!!!!
OK, please excuse the long-paragraph digression, but the sad facts are that our Democratic Party "leaders", and especially presidential candidate John Kerry, IGNORED the OPPOSITION to the war. And now kerry is BACK reprising his role as "raise a few million bucks, QUASH voting Dems. OUTRAGE against the serial Bush-GOP lies, frauds, and outright atrocities.
So, Sen. John Kerry, this article, the first posting of this web-log, is dedicated to you. IT IS JUST ONE of the many thousands of Americans YOU LEFT TWISTING IN THE WIND with your vapid, spineless 2004 campaign. I believe it was Oliphant did a cartoon of you and your running mate, Sen. John Edwards, as Rip Van Winkles, SLEEPING through the campaign season of 2004, and NEVER MISSING AN OPPORTUNITY to DUCK a confrontation with Mr. Bush's record of lies and distortions.
Senator Kerry, I never doubted your valor during the Vietnam war, or in your opposition to that war after your return from that war-torn country. But you HAD to know that your opposition to the Vietnam war WOULD be made an issue by Righty Bush supporters in the 2004 election campaign, and you SHOULD have prepared for it.... even had you been grossly ignorant of karl rove's tactics and history as a demagogue. And IF you were IGNORANT of Karl Rove's history, why that is an admission of political incompetence clear past criminal neglect.
Speaking of, where were you when Rove and Bush's enforcement fraulein, Karen Hughes, SMEARED the departing Clinton-Gore White House staffers with the infamous "White House Trashing" "scandal", that never had ONE PHOTOGRAPH to document the appalling charges of destruction of property (vandalism) attributed by Bush's Press Secretary, and trumpeted by every paper in Washington and New York (and across the land)?? That may be 'another story," just like the ANTHRAX ATTACKS on Senators Tom Dashle and Patrick Leahy are "another story." But if you didn't KNOW about those stories, you were politicallly incompetent. If you DID know about those stories, but CHOOSE to leave them "unmentioned" in the 2004 election (as by all accounts you did), then I suppose we can simply chalk it up to "Some more victims, whistleblowers, and Bush admin. opponents LEFT TWISTING IN THE WIND by the candidate who accepted the mantle of "Democratic Party LEADER."
______________________________________________
<< I did not falsify or fabricate these documents in any way, nor the backgrounds given concerning them.
I saw no meaningful purpose in sharing them until the summer of 2004 because I felt the Vietnam debate was counterproductive to the nation. But once the issue became integrity and truthfulness, the documents took on a different level of importance, and I relinquished them.
There were lots of strange things and facts that no one wants to report because they undermine the theories that have been launched. For example, at least one major media person who was at the front of exposing my identity withheld key and critical information in his possession that would have proven my credibility. Not only the Republicans, but the Democrats were working this story and not from a factual perspective on either side. And the talking points on the memos that ended up while the piece was playing came from a leak within the CBS team and their consultants.
It was contentious and lost its credibility no sooner than it was released because the same people fighting this issue were part of the multi million dollar Swift Boat campaign.
What did it cost me? Most everything except my integrity and my spirit. >>
______________________________________________
March 12, 2006
Why I did what I did
by Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, Texas Air National Guard, ret.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_lt__col__060312_why_i_did_what_i_did.htm
http://www.opednews.com
Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, Texas National Guard, retired, caused a firestorm in September, 2004, when he was involved in a 60 Minutes segment which dealt with President Bush’s service in the National Guard. While CBS ultimately retracted their story, the basic truth of the revelations is unchallenged. Peabody Award winner Mary Mapes, who produced the segment of 60 Minutes and was fired after CBS apologized for it, maintains the authenticity of the documents and claims that the attacks against her were orchestrated by a right-wing Internet smear campaign. She wrote a book, Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power about the scandal. Lt. Col. Burkett has been attacked and maligned for his involvement in this episode. In my eyes, Lt. Col. Burkett served his country honorably and in this instance tried to do the right thing, at great personal cost. He is a true ‘local hero’ in a time sorely lacking many. This OpEd piece is in response to my request that he write about why he did what he did. Below is his reply.
Joan Brunwasser
Why did I do what I did… First let me say what I did and didn't do. I did finally decide to share these documents which were passed to me along with other archives with those that could enter them within an ongoing debate concerning a resume that was obviously fudged, had absolute gaps and unanswered questions big enough to drive a truck through. The President could have honestly answered those questions, but chose not to after obviously fabricating a media message within his autobiography that was false. He wisely decided to stop lying, so he went silent.
I did not falsify or fabricate these documents in any way, nor the backgrounds given concerning them.
I saw no meaningful purpose in sharing them until the summer of 2004 because I felt the Vietnam debate was counterproductive to the nation. But once the issue became integrity and truthfulness, the documents took on a different level of importance, and I relinquished them.
There were lots of strange things and facts that no one wants to report because they undermine the theories that have been launched. For example, at least one major media person who was at the front of exposing my identity withheld key and critical information in his possession that would have proven my credibility. Not only the Republicans, but the Democrats were working this story and not from a factual perspective on either side. And the talking points on the memos that ended up while the piece was playing came from a leak within the CBS team and their consultants.
It was contentious and lost its credibility no sooner than it was released because the same people fighting this issue were part of the multi million dollar Swift Boat campaign.
What did it cost me? Most everything except my integrity and my spirit.
None of that was for sale and therefore could not be eroded by anyone other than me.
For 28 years I served in uniform; took an oath that said I would protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic; and placed America first.
I don't think that's any different calling than any stockholder of this country must take.
What must we all do?
Our educators have done us a disservice over the past 25 years. Most of our citizens under the age of 35 have never read the Declaration of Independence which defines WHY we became a free and sovereign nation and what sets America apart.
I believe that less than 10% of all Americans under the age of 35 have ever read the Constitution of the United States and understand the "VALUES" of America.
That's why they could invent, substitute and otherwise overlay CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICAN VALUES with more sectarian ones through the last seven Presidential campaigns.
So I have no doubt that once these two basic steps are taken by Every American, we will find a renewed soberness and intensity within this land.
How do you change the mindset of putting myself first - the selfish mindset - with "selfless mindsets" or putting the nation first?
Well we know it won't come out of Washington, and that's the cynicism that is almost unanimous in America.
So it must come from each of us who feel betrayed by the candidate choices at each election. You see, I believe that there is no way that Americans would tolerate the poor government that they receive if they were not conditioned to expecting nothing but poor government.
If we are conditioned that all politicians are crooked, then we are not surprised when we find it in bushel basket lots, corruption abounding. We aren't surprised that the President and Vice President have lied to America profusely, and therefore consider it politics as usual rather than a criminal act.
We must first hold America and our Constitution and dreams to a much higher standard. They are the law of the land.
But the responsibility to police that standard begins with each of us. It doesn't start in the pulpit. It doesn't start in the classroom. It doesn't start in the city hall, legislature, or the Beltway.
It begins at home.
Values aren't about religion. They aren't a product of going to church, necessarily, even though churches should be teaching them, and many are simply not. Today's pulpits are more filled with politics than most political campaigns. They are money machines meant as an elixir to make us feel better; making us feel good than we are better than the largely unnamed heathens and witches of society (JUDGEMENTALISM is a sin), ignoring the needs of those afflicted other than a good scolding, and building temples and trinkets of worship (idolatry) through brick and mortar, wealth and trinkets of gold and wealth.
American Values are rooted within the Bible, yes. But they too are rooted within the Koran, and all things good in religion.
They are rooted also within the Constitution of this United States not as a sectarian statement but as a values statement that "all men are created equal and equally endowed by their creator", the true Value of America and Democracy.
So it begins with each of us.
It begins in our churches and schools, where we speak out and demand that education begin with the reading and understanding of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and paralleling World History such as the Republic of Germany circa 1921-1943.
It begins in churches when we demand that we quit speaking of government as being an extension of the church and confronting those that wrongfully do.
It begins in elections when we demand campaign integrity, and fair elections and completely eliminate practices that bias, discriminate or otherwise falsely disenfranchise - and that includes electronic voting.
It begins with each of us in letters to the editor, in letters to candidates (before they are congressmen), in essays and in stands within our precinct meetings. It means a need for prompt and immediate accountability of those elected and if not accountable that they be fired in the Donald Trump tradition of immediacy.
These are simple things that each of us have allowed ourselves to think are beyond our reach.
When we feel small, we ignore. It becomes a cancer on our soul. We are unwilling to take a risk to do what we know is right.
We must take every risk.
I am a stronger man today than I was two years ago. I am poorer in the bank, but stronger in my character and self-respect.
I know of no other time in history in which 56 congressmen stood up and introduced a resolution that in essence indicted me without even an investigation or trial. It was the worst case of slander and libel in this nation's history and many organizations including CBS, Rush Limbaugh and politicians, Congress and those writing books participated without a hint of the facts.
But the facts have not and will not change.
I am personally struggling to keep up with the increasing health demands and the financial squeeze that this defamation of my character has placed me under. I am angry and have every right to be.
But I love this country no less than before.
I often wish I could run and hide; move to Mexico, Costa Rica or Belize. I am gravely concerned. But as long as I consider myself an American, I must fight for her.
It is simply my responsibility under my Contract with America - the Constitution of the United States.
Bill Burkett
Lt. Col. Burkett, Texas National Guard, ret. lives in Texas.
In this case, I'm "jumping on" the bandwagon of award-winning actor George Clooney's editorial earlier today on Huffington Post, where Clooney basically reprises the role of the boy who shouts out "The emperor is wearing no clothes!" In this case, NOT emperor bush, but the cowering-complicit Democrats. Clooney STATES THE OBVIOUS: that Democrats were NOT MISLED into supporting the war, they opted to vote for giving bush (almost) unlimited WAR POWERS, because they didn't want to have to defend against (contest) karl "traitor" rove's inevitable attack campaign, that would have said "Democrats are traitors who want to let the 9-11 perpetrators get off scott free!" There were THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of us who protested the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Ashcroft-GOP march to war, and many of us cited the words of former President (George H.W.) Bush about the costs and consequences of invading and occupying an Arab country. And that was BEFORE the stark, raving incompetence and arrogance of the Rumsfeld/DoD occupation command, including LETTING insurgents cart off TONS and TONS and TONS of Saddam's munitions from the Al Qaaqa ammunition complex - while US GI's were peeling potatoes on KP duty, their commanders not aware, or not concerned, that a huge Iraqi ammo dump was unguarded and open to looters!!!!
OK, please excuse the long-paragraph digression, but the sad facts are that our Democratic Party "leaders", and especially presidential candidate John Kerry, IGNORED the OPPOSITION to the war. And now kerry is BACK reprising his role as "raise a few million bucks, QUASH voting Dems. OUTRAGE against the serial Bush-GOP lies, frauds, and outright atrocities.
So, Sen. John Kerry, this article, the first posting of this web-log, is dedicated to you. IT IS JUST ONE of the many thousands of Americans YOU LEFT TWISTING IN THE WIND with your vapid, spineless 2004 campaign. I believe it was Oliphant did a cartoon of you and your running mate, Sen. John Edwards, as Rip Van Winkles, SLEEPING through the campaign season of 2004, and NEVER MISSING AN OPPORTUNITY to DUCK a confrontation with Mr. Bush's record of lies and distortions.
Senator Kerry, I never doubted your valor during the Vietnam war, or in your opposition to that war after your return from that war-torn country. But you HAD to know that your opposition to the Vietnam war WOULD be made an issue by Righty Bush supporters in the 2004 election campaign, and you SHOULD have prepared for it.... even had you been grossly ignorant of karl rove's tactics and history as a demagogue. And IF you were IGNORANT of Karl Rove's history, why that is an admission of political incompetence clear past criminal neglect.
Speaking of, where were you when Rove and Bush's enforcement fraulein, Karen Hughes, SMEARED the departing Clinton-Gore White House staffers with the infamous "White House Trashing" "scandal", that never had ONE PHOTOGRAPH to document the appalling charges of destruction of property (vandalism) attributed by Bush's Press Secretary, and trumpeted by every paper in Washington and New York (and across the land)?? That may be 'another story," just like the ANTHRAX ATTACKS on Senators Tom Dashle and Patrick Leahy are "another story." But if you didn't KNOW about those stories, you were politicallly incompetent. If you DID know about those stories, but CHOOSE to leave them "unmentioned" in the 2004 election (as by all accounts you did), then I suppose we can simply chalk it up to "Some more victims, whistleblowers, and Bush admin. opponents LEFT TWISTING IN THE WIND by the candidate who accepted the mantle of "Democratic Party LEADER."
______________________________________________
<< I did not falsify or fabricate these documents in any way, nor the backgrounds given concerning them.
I saw no meaningful purpose in sharing them until the summer of 2004 because I felt the Vietnam debate was counterproductive to the nation. But once the issue became integrity and truthfulness, the documents took on a different level of importance, and I relinquished them.
There were lots of strange things and facts that no one wants to report because they undermine the theories that have been launched. For example, at least one major media person who was at the front of exposing my identity withheld key and critical information in his possession that would have proven my credibility. Not only the Republicans, but the Democrats were working this story and not from a factual perspective on either side. And the talking points on the memos that ended up while the piece was playing came from a leak within the CBS team and their consultants.
It was contentious and lost its credibility no sooner than it was released because the same people fighting this issue were part of the multi million dollar Swift Boat campaign.
What did it cost me? Most everything except my integrity and my spirit. >>
______________________________________________
March 12, 2006
Why I did what I did
by Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, Texas Air National Guard, ret.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_lt__col__060312_why_i_did_what_i_did.htm
http://www.opednews.com
Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, Texas National Guard, retired, caused a firestorm in September, 2004, when he was involved in a 60 Minutes segment which dealt with President Bush’s service in the National Guard. While CBS ultimately retracted their story, the basic truth of the revelations is unchallenged. Peabody Award winner Mary Mapes, who produced the segment of 60 Minutes and was fired after CBS apologized for it, maintains the authenticity of the documents and claims that the attacks against her were orchestrated by a right-wing Internet smear campaign. She wrote a book, Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power about the scandal. Lt. Col. Burkett has been attacked and maligned for his involvement in this episode. In my eyes, Lt. Col. Burkett served his country honorably and in this instance tried to do the right thing, at great personal cost. He is a true ‘local hero’ in a time sorely lacking many. This OpEd piece is in response to my request that he write about why he did what he did. Below is his reply.
Joan Brunwasser
Why did I do what I did… First let me say what I did and didn't do. I did finally decide to share these documents which were passed to me along with other archives with those that could enter them within an ongoing debate concerning a resume that was obviously fudged, had absolute gaps and unanswered questions big enough to drive a truck through. The President could have honestly answered those questions, but chose not to after obviously fabricating a media message within his autobiography that was false. He wisely decided to stop lying, so he went silent.
I did not falsify or fabricate these documents in any way, nor the backgrounds given concerning them.
I saw no meaningful purpose in sharing them until the summer of 2004 because I felt the Vietnam debate was counterproductive to the nation. But once the issue became integrity and truthfulness, the documents took on a different level of importance, and I relinquished them.
There were lots of strange things and facts that no one wants to report because they undermine the theories that have been launched. For example, at least one major media person who was at the front of exposing my identity withheld key and critical information in his possession that would have proven my credibility. Not only the Republicans, but the Democrats were working this story and not from a factual perspective on either side. And the talking points on the memos that ended up while the piece was playing came from a leak within the CBS team and their consultants.
It was contentious and lost its credibility no sooner than it was released because the same people fighting this issue were part of the multi million dollar Swift Boat campaign.
What did it cost me? Most everything except my integrity and my spirit.
None of that was for sale and therefore could not be eroded by anyone other than me.
For 28 years I served in uniform; took an oath that said I would protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic; and placed America first.
I don't think that's any different calling than any stockholder of this country must take.
What must we all do?
Our educators have done us a disservice over the past 25 years. Most of our citizens under the age of 35 have never read the Declaration of Independence which defines WHY we became a free and sovereign nation and what sets America apart.
I believe that less than 10% of all Americans under the age of 35 have ever read the Constitution of the United States and understand the "VALUES" of America.
That's why they could invent, substitute and otherwise overlay CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICAN VALUES with more sectarian ones through the last seven Presidential campaigns.
So I have no doubt that once these two basic steps are taken by Every American, we will find a renewed soberness and intensity within this land.
How do you change the mindset of putting myself first - the selfish mindset - with "selfless mindsets" or putting the nation first?
Well we know it won't come out of Washington, and that's the cynicism that is almost unanimous in America.
So it must come from each of us who feel betrayed by the candidate choices at each election. You see, I believe that there is no way that Americans would tolerate the poor government that they receive if they were not conditioned to expecting nothing but poor government.
If we are conditioned that all politicians are crooked, then we are not surprised when we find it in bushel basket lots, corruption abounding. We aren't surprised that the President and Vice President have lied to America profusely, and therefore consider it politics as usual rather than a criminal act.
We must first hold America and our Constitution and dreams to a much higher standard. They are the law of the land.
But the responsibility to police that standard begins with each of us. It doesn't start in the pulpit. It doesn't start in the classroom. It doesn't start in the city hall, legislature, or the Beltway.
It begins at home.
Values aren't about religion. They aren't a product of going to church, necessarily, even though churches should be teaching them, and many are simply not. Today's pulpits are more filled with politics than most political campaigns. They are money machines meant as an elixir to make us feel better; making us feel good than we are better than the largely unnamed heathens and witches of society (JUDGEMENTALISM is a sin), ignoring the needs of those afflicted other than a good scolding, and building temples and trinkets of worship (idolatry) through brick and mortar, wealth and trinkets of gold and wealth.
American Values are rooted within the Bible, yes. But they too are rooted within the Koran, and all things good in religion.
They are rooted also within the Constitution of this United States not as a sectarian statement but as a values statement that "all men are created equal and equally endowed by their creator", the true Value of America and Democracy.
So it begins with each of us.
It begins in our churches and schools, where we speak out and demand that education begin with the reading and understanding of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and paralleling World History such as the Republic of Germany circa 1921-1943.
It begins in churches when we demand that we quit speaking of government as being an extension of the church and confronting those that wrongfully do.
It begins in elections when we demand campaign integrity, and fair elections and completely eliminate practices that bias, discriminate or otherwise falsely disenfranchise - and that includes electronic voting.
It begins with each of us in letters to the editor, in letters to candidates (before they are congressmen), in essays and in stands within our precinct meetings. It means a need for prompt and immediate accountability of those elected and if not accountable that they be fired in the Donald Trump tradition of immediacy.
These are simple things that each of us have allowed ourselves to think are beyond our reach.
When we feel small, we ignore. It becomes a cancer on our soul. We are unwilling to take a risk to do what we know is right.
We must take every risk.
I am a stronger man today than I was two years ago. I am poorer in the bank, but stronger in my character and self-respect.
I know of no other time in history in which 56 congressmen stood up and introduced a resolution that in essence indicted me without even an investigation or trial. It was the worst case of slander and libel in this nation's history and many organizations including CBS, Rush Limbaugh and politicians, Congress and those writing books participated without a hint of the facts.
But the facts have not and will not change.
I am personally struggling to keep up with the increasing health demands and the financial squeeze that this defamation of my character has placed me under. I am angry and have every right to be.
But I love this country no less than before.
I often wish I could run and hide; move to Mexico, Costa Rica or Belize. I am gravely concerned. But as long as I consider myself an American, I must fight for her.
It is simply my responsibility under my Contract with America - the Constitution of the United States.
Bill Burkett
Lt. Col. Burkett, Texas National Guard, ret. lives in Texas.
posted by verifi at 8:33 PM
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