Pretty damned good for a Republican.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/30/164516/543
Address by
Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson
Washington Square
Salt Lake City, Utah
August 30, 2006
A patriot is a person who loves his or her country.
Who among you loves your country so much that you have come here today to
raise your voice out of deep concern for our nation - and for our world?
And who among you loves your country so much that you insist that our
nation's leaders tell us the truth?
Let's hear it: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us the truth!"
Let no one deny we are patriots. We support our nation's troops. We are
grateful to our veterans who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms. We
love our
country, we hold dear the values upon which our nation was founded, and we
are distressed at what our President, his administration, and our Congress
are
doing to, and in the name of, our great nation.
Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism.
A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their
country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the
name of
politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind
obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering,
human-rights-violating
president.
That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant. That person is
a
member of a frightening culture of obedience - a culture where falling in
line with authority is more important than choosing what is right, even if
it is
not easy, safe, or popular. And, I suspect, that person is afraid - afraid
we
are right, afraid of the truth (even to the point of denying it), afraid he
or she has put in with an oppressive, inhumane, regime that does not respect
the laws and traditions of our country, and that history will rank as the
worst
presidency our nation has ever had to endure.
In response to those who believe we should blindly support this disastrous
president, his administration, and the complacent, complicit Congress,
listen to
the words of Theodore Roosevelt, a great president and a Republican, who
said:
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public
servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is
warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency
in
rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to
tell the
truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame
him
when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude
in
an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be
no
criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right
or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to
the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any
one
else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or
unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
We are here today as truth-tellers.
And we are here to demand: "Give us the truth! Give us the truth! Give us
the truth!"
We are here today to insist that those who were elected to be our leaders
must tell us the truth.
We are here today to insist that our news media live up to its sacred
responsibility to ascertain and report the truth - rather than acting like
nothing
more than a bulletin board for the lies and propaganda of a manipulative,
dishonest federal government.
We have been getting just about everything but the truth on matters of life
and death . . . on matters upon which our nation's reputation hinges . . .
on
matters that directly relate to our nation's fundamental values . . . and on
matters relating to the survival of our planet.
In the process, our nation has engaged in an unnecessary war, based upon
false justifications. More than a hundred thousand people have been
killed - and
many more have been seriously maimed, brain damaged, or rendered mentally
ill.
Our nation's reputation throughout much of the world has been destroyed. We
have many more enemies bent on our destruction than before our invasion of
Iraq. And the hatred toward us has grown to the point that it will take
many
years, perhaps generations, to overcome the loathing created by our invasion
and
occupation of a Muslim country.
What incredible ineptitude and callousness for our President to talk about a
Crusade while lying to us to make a case for the invasion and occupation of
a
Muslim country!
Our children and later generations will pay the price of the lies, the
violence, the cruelty, the incompetence, and the inhumanity of the Bush
administration and the lackey Congress that has so cowardly abrogated its
responsibility
and authority under our checks-and-balances system of government.
We are here to say, "We will not stand for it any more. No more lies. No
more pre-emptive, illegal war, based on false information. No more
God-is-on-our-side religious nonsense to justify this immoral, illegal war.
No more
inhumanity."
Let's raise our voices, and demand, "Give us the truth! Give us the truth!
Give us the truth!"
Let's consider some of the most monstrous lies - lies that have led us, like
a nation of sheep, to this tragic war.
Following September 11, 2001, the world knew that Osama bin Laden and al
Qaeda were responsible for the horrific attacks on our country. Our
long-time
allies were sympathetic and supportive. But our president transformed that
support into international disdain for the United States, choosing to
illegally
invade and occupy Iraq, rather than focus on and capture the perpetrators of
the
9/11 attacks.
Why invade and occupy Iraq? Vice President ***** Cheney and Condoleezza Rice
represented to us, without qualification, that there were strong ties
between
Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
In September, 2002, President Bush made the incredible claim that "You can't
distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam."
President Bush represented to Congress, without any factual basis
whatsoever,
that Iraq planned, authorized, committed, or aided the 9/11 attacks.
Our President and Vice-President, along with an unquestioning news media,
repeatedly led our nation to believe that there was a working relationship
between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government, a relationship that threatened
the US.
Even last week, when I met with Thomas Bock, National Commander of the
American Legion, I asked him why we are engaged in the war in Iraq. He
said, "Why,
of course, because of the 9/11 attacks on our country." I asked, "What did
Iraq have to do with those attacks?" He looked puzzled, then said, "Well,
the
connection between al Qaeda and Iraq."
I was shocked. Here is a man who has criticized us for opposing the war in
Iraq - and he is completely wrong about the underlying facts used to justify
this war.
Not only has there never been any evidence of any involvement by Saddam
Hussein or Iraq with the attacks on 9/11, but there has never been any
evidence of
any operational connection whatsoever between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.
Colin Powell finally conceded there is no "concrete evidence about the
connection." "The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United
Nations
Security Council to track al Qaeda" disclosed that "his team had found no
evidence linking al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein." And the top investigator for
our
European allies has said, `If there were such links, we would have found
them.
But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.'"
President Bush himself finally admitted nine days ago during a press
conference that there was no connection between the attacks on 9/11 and
Iraq. It's
terrific that the President has now admitted what others have known for so
long -
but where is the accountability for the tragic war we were led into on the
basis of his earlier misrepresentations?
Besides the fictions of Saddam Hussein somehow being linked to the 9/11
attacks and his supposed connection with al Qaeda, what was the principal
justification for forgoing additional weapons inspections, failing to work
with our
allies toward a solution, refraining from seeking additional resolutions
from the
United Nations, and hurrying to war - a so-called "pre-emptive" war - in
which we would attack and occupy a Muslim nation that posed no security risk
to
the United States, and cause the deaths of many thousands of innocent men,
women, and children - and the deaths and lifetime injuries to many thousands
of our
own servicemen and servicewomen?
The principal claim was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass
destruction -
biological and chemical weapons - and was seeking to build up a nuclear
weapons capability. As we now know, there was nothing - no evidence
whatsoever -
to support those claims.
President Bush represented to us - and to people around the world - that one
of the reasons we needed to make war in Iraq - and to do it right away - was
because Saddam Hussein was seeking to build nuclear weapons. His assertions
about Saddam Hussein trying to purchase nuclear materials from an African
nation
and about Iraq seeking to obtain aluminum tubes for the enrichment of
uranium
were challenged at the time by our own intelligence agency and scientists,
yet he didn't tell us that!
Ten days before the invasion of Iraq, it was proven that the documents upon
which President Bush's claim about Saddam Hussein trying to obtain uranium
was
based were forgeries. However, President Bush did not disclose that to the
American people. By that failure, he betrayed each of us, he betrayed our
country, and he betrayed the cause of world peace.
Neither did the vast majority of the news media disclose the forgeries -
until it was far too late. It took our local newspapers here in Salt Lake
City
four months - until after President Bush declared that major combat in Iraq
was
over - to report the discovery that the documents were forgeries - and,
therefore, that there was no basis for the false claims about Saddam Hussein
trying
to build up a nuclear capability. By its failure to promptly disclose the
forgeries, the news media betrayed us as well.
Had the American people known we were being lied to - had President Bush
informed us that the documents were forged and that he had no other basis
for his
claim - had our nation's media done its job, rather than slavishly repeating
to us the lies being fed to it by the Bush administration - our nation may
well
not have allowed the commencement of this outrageous, illegal, unjustified
war.
To President Bush, to his administration, to our go-along Congress, and to
our news media, we are here today, demanding, "Give us the truth! Give us
the
truth! Give us the truth!"
Then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said that high-strength
aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were "only really suited for nuclear weapons
programs," warning "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
Undisclosed by President Bush or Condoleezza Rice was the fact that top
nuclear scientists had informed the Administration that the tubes were "too
narrow,
too heavy, too long" to be useful in developing nuclear weapons and could be
used for other purposes. Dr. Mohamed El Baradei, director general of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, agreed.
So much for the phony claims of Saddam Hussein building nuclear weapons -
the primary claims justifying the rush to war.
What were we told about chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction?
These claims were as baseless and fraudulent as the claims about nuclear
weapons.
President Bush told us in his January 2003 State of the Union address that
Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard
and
VX nerve agent. Then, in May of 2003, he made the outlandish statement
that,
"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological
laboratories."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told us, "We know where the [WMDs]
are."
Vice President Cheney and then-Secretary of State Powell also joined in the
chorus of lies and misinformation about weapons of mass destruction.
Of course, no stockpiles of biological or chemical weapons were found.
Bush
Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay noted that Iraq did not have an
ongoing chemical weapons program after 1991--a conclusion remarkably similar
to
statements made by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11
attacks -
and before they sacrificed the truth in the service of promoting the Bush
administration's case for war against Iraq.
On February 24, 2001, less than 7 months before 9/11, Colin Powell said that
Saddam Hussein "has not developed any significant capability with respect to
weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power
against his neighbors," said Colin Powell.
And in July 2001, two months before 9/11, Condoleezza Rice said: "We are
able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
It is astounding how they changed their claims after the President decided
to
make a case for the invasion and occupation of Iraq!
To think that we could be lied to by so many members of the Bush
administration with such impunity is frightening - chilling. Yet these
imperious,
arrogant, dishonest people think we should just fall in line with them and
continue
to take them at their word.
The truth has been established. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11
attacks
on the United States. There is no evidence of any operational ties between
Iraq and al Qaeda. And there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
What a tragedy, leading to greater tragedy. We are fed lie after lie, our
media reinforces those lies, and we are a nation led to a tragic, illegal,
unprovoked war.
We are here because of our values. We love our country. We cherish the
freedoms and liberties of our country. We don't call those who speak out
against our nation's leaders unpatriotic or un-American or appeasers of
fascists.
We have good, wholesome family values. In our families, we teach honesty,
we
teach kindness and compassion toward others, we teach that violence, if ever
justified, must be an absolutely last resort. In our families, we teach
that
our nation's constitutional values are to be upheld, and that they are worth
standing up and fighting for. Our family values promote respect and equal
rights toward everyone, regardless of race, ethnic origin, and sexual
orientation.
In our families, we teach the value of hard work and competence - and we
are
left to wonder about a President who, after receiving an intelligence memo
about the threat posed by al Qaeda, decides to continue his month-long
vacation
- just before the 9/11 attacks on our country.
As we demand the truth from others, let us also face the truth. Our
government all too often has not cared about the human rights of people in
other
nations - and it doesn't really care about democracy, unless it leads to the
election of those who will do our bidding.
Consider the irony regarding the claims that Saddam had chemical weapons
and,
because of that, we needed to rush to war in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein was
using chemical weapons - first against Iranians, then against his own
people,
the Kurds - our country provided him with biological and chemical agents and
equipment to make the weapons. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush
refused
even to support economic sanctions against Hussein for his use of weapons of
mass destruction. What did our nation do in response to Hussein's use of
chemical weapons, killing tens of thousand of people, when he actually had
them? We
befriended, coddled, and rewarded him - with government-guaranteed loans
totaling $5 billion since 1983, freeing up currency for Hussein to modernize
his
military assets.
Perhaps those in the US government who aided and abetted Saddam Hussein to
further US business interests, while he was gassing the Kurds, should be
sharing
his courtroom dock as he is being tried now for crimes against humanity.
No more lies, no more hiding of the truth, no more wars that more than
triple
the value of stock in ***** Cheney's prior employer, Halliburton - and which,
as of last September, has increased the value of the Halliburton CEO's stock
by $78 million.
We are patriots. We're deeply concerned. And we demand change, now.
No more lies from Condoleezza Rice about whether she and President Bush were
advised before 9/11 of the possibility of planes being flown into buildings
by
terrorists.
No more gross incompetence in the office of the Secretary of Defense.
No more torture of human beings.
No more disregard of the basic human rights enshrined in the Geneva
Convention.
No more kidnapping of people and sending them off to secret prisons in
nations where we can expect they will be tortured.
No more unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans.
No more proposed amendments to the United States Constitution that would,
for
the first time, limit fundamental rights and liberties for entire classes of
people simply on the basis of sexual orientation.
No more federal land giveaways to developers.
No more increases in mercury emissions from old, dirty, dangerous
coal-burning power plants.
No more backroom deals that deprive protection for millions of acres of wild
lands.
No more attacks on immigrants who work so hard to build better lives.
No more inaction by Congress on fixing our hypocritical and inconsistent
immigration laws and policies.
No more reliance on fiction rather than the science of global warming.
No more manipulation of our media with false propaganda.
No more disastrous cuts in funding for those most in need.
No more federal cuts in community policing and local law enforcement grant
programs for our cities.
No more inaction on stopping the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
No more of the Patriot Act.
No more killing.
No more pre-emptive wars.
No more contempt for our long-time allies around the world.
No more dependence on foreign oil.
No more failure to impose increased fuel efficiency standards for
automobiles.
No more energy policies developed in secret meetings between ***** Cheney and
his energy company cronies.
No more excuses for failing to aggressively cut global warming pollutant
emissions.
No more tragically incompetent federal responses to natural disasters.
No more tax cuts for the wealthiest, while the middle class and those who
are
economically-disadvantaged continue to struggle more and more each year.
No more reckless spending and massive tax cuts, resulting in historic
deficits and historic accumulated national debt.
No more purchasing of elections by the wealthiest corporations and
individuals in the country.
No more phony, ineffective, inhumane so-called war on drugs.
No more failure to pass an increase in the minimum wage.
No more silence by the American people.
This is a new day. We will not be silent. We will continue to raise our
voices. We will bring others with us. We will grow and grow, regardless of
political party - unified in our insistence upon the truth, upon
peace-making,
upon more humane treatment of our brothers and sisters around the world.
We will be ever cognizant of our moral responsibility to speak up in the
face
of wrongdoing, and to work as we can for a better, safer, more just
community, nation, and world.
So we won't let down. We won't be quiet. We will continue to resist the
lies, the deception, the outrages of the Bush administration. We will
insist
that peace be pursued, and that, as a nation, we help those in need. We
must
break the cycle of hatred, of intolerance, of exploitation. We must pursue
peace
as vigorously as the Bush administration has pursued war. It's up to all of
us to do our part.
Thank you everyone for lending your voices to this call for compassion, for
peace, for greater humanity. Let us keep in mind the injunction of Dr.
Martin
Luther King, Jr.: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about
things that matter."
--
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Michelle Malkin (Mickey) aa list#1
BAAWA Knight & Bible Thumper Thumper
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