Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

President Bush doesn’t want Americans to do anything besides go shopping. But President Clinton would ask more of Americans. Senator Hillary Clinton has announced her plan to form a national Public Service Academy: “Modeled after the military service academies, the Public Service Academy would provide a four-year, federally subsidized college education for more than 5,000 students a year in exchange for a five-year commitment to public service following graduation. Graduates of the Academy would serve their country for five years, creating a new generation of young people dedicated to public service.” We could have a new, even greater Greatest Generation if Hillary Clinton is elected president.

Enlisted Soldiers Oath

 Enlisted Oath: I, ___, do solemnly swear  (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;  and that I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of  the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. 

 Officer Oath

Officer Oath: I, A.B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.  

http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj02/win02/keskel.html

Senate/House Oath

 do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
http://www.emailyoursenator.com/oath.html

It’s been a tired refrain of the knee-jerk pro-war right wing of American politics that “we have to fight them over there so that we don’t have to fight them over here”. There, in this statement, refers to Iraq. Here refers to the United States of America, or as the right wingers prefer to call it, The Homeland.

This slogan in favor of war disintegrates like cotton candy in a rainstorm when it is realistically evaluated. The most obvious problem is that there was no threatening terrorist activity in Iraq until the invasion of Iraq by the USA inspired it there. Every year that the American military does its work in Iraq, there are more terrorists there, not fewer. So, by being over there, the American military is creating more people who would like to hurt us here.

The right wingers insist that this isn’t so, despite the evidence to the contrary, but they acknowledge the existence of the problem in their continued obsession with keeping foreigners from crossing the border into the United States. Take, for example, the statement by Republicans congressional candidate Keiran Michael Lalor, who states on his campaign web site,

“Kieran has seen the necessity of a muscular defense. He knows that confronting terrorists on their turf is essential to thwarting attacks on ours. He also understands that fighting them over there while letting them in over here is a deeply flawed policy. According to Kieran, true homeland security requires protecting our borders and prosecuting illegal immigrants and those who hire or enable them.”

Mr. Lalor’s justifications for the love of war and for the hatred of foreigners run so fast together that they end up contradicting each other. First, Lalor says that we have to fight terrorists in Iraq so that we don’t have to deal with terrorist here in the United States. Then, in the very next breath, Lalor says that we have to fight against terrorist infiltrators here in the United States.

If Lalor really believes that fighting a war in Iraq prevents the need to fight against terrorist infiltrators in the United States, then why is Lalor proposing that the American government fight the war in Iraq AND fight the threat of terrorist infiltrators here in the United States? If Lalor believed the words coming out of his own mouth about Iraq, he would say that we don’t need to worry about terrorists infiltrating the United States. The war in Iraq would prevent them from coming here, by Lalor’s own theory.

The problem is that Lalor doesn’t really have an actual theory of war or a theory of terrorism. All Lalor has is an ideology that promotes war and promotes a Security Cult of the Homeland. Neither the war nor the Homeland Security system are founded in rational needs. Rather, they are founded upon the thrill some people feel in the thrills of hunting and fighting.

Let them get their thrills in the private sphere. Let them go turkey hunting, and train to fight in the boxing ring, if they’re looking for an adrenaline rush. Their blood lust should not be allowed, however, to direct the American identity.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the remains the Catholic Church has claimed are those of Joan of Arc are fakes, part of a fraud perpetrated by the church to keep believers enthralled.

The obvious question now is: Where are the real remains of Joan of Arc?

The deeper question that few people will think to ask is: Are there any remains of Joan of Arc?

A person cannot have remains unless that person has died. Now that we see that the Catholic Church was willing to create a hoax involving the fake dead body of Joan of Arc, we have to consider the most frequent reason for creating a fake dead body. Usually, when people create a fake dead body, it is because the death itself has been faked.

It is now reasonable to assume that Joan of Arc never really died.

Do not discount the Egyptian connection. The body parts that were used to create the fake remains of Joan of Arc were from a mummy in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians were known, through secretive rituals of the very sort that Joan of Arc was accused of, for using techniques to extend the lives of political leaders, such as Joan of Arc, to the point of immortality.

Where is Joan of Arc now, and why is she being kept alive?

The Xinhua news agency is reporting that “large amounts of pine pollen were found among the relics”.

Is it a coincidence, then, that Pine Gap in Australia is home to one of the world’s secret military bases used for communicating with extraterrestrials in UFOs?

Any rational adult can connect the dots. Joan of Arc is alive, and is planning an alien invasion of planet Earth in revenge for the Catholic Church’s attempt to burn her at the stake. Her recorded experiences are consistent with the experiences of people abducted by UFOs in modern times.

Now that Joan of Arc’s death has been exposed as fraudulent, the alien invasion is likely to come later. We need to prepare now, or we’re all going to die at the hands of Joan of Arc and her Martian friends, bent on revenge!

Senator Hillary Clinton is using the bully pulpit of her presidential campaign to promote activism among citizens. Sign the petition Clinton started that demands Alberto Gonzales resign for inserting politics into Justice and then LYING about it. Unforgiveable! Thank you, Hillary Clinton, for giving Americans something better to do about injustice in the world than going shopping for duct tape.

Bush does it again. Everyone remember when King Shrub II got John Bolton jammed into the UN? Welp, he’s repeated his antics only this time with Belgium. Let’s read, shall we?

Bush Bypasses Senate to Name Ambassador

Bush bypasses Senate to name ambassador
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

President Bush named Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress, where Democrats had derailed Fox’s nomination.

The appointment, made while lawmakers were out of town on spring break, prompted angry rebukes from Democrats, who said Bush’s action may even be illegal.

Democrats had denounced Fox for his donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential campaign. The group’s TV ads, which claimed that Sen. John Kerry exaggerated his military record in Vietnam, were viewed as a major factor in the Massachusetts Democrat’s election loss.

Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation in the Foreign Relations Committee, Bush withdrew the nomination last week. On Wednesday, with the Senate on a one-week break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.

This means Fox can remain ambassador until the end of the next session of Congress, effectively through the end of the Bush presidency.

“It’s sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate,” Kerry said in a statement.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he plans to ask the Government Accountability Office to issue an opinion on whether the recess appointment is legal.

Recess appointments are intended to give the president flexibility if Congress is out for a lengthy period of time, such as the four-week adjournment in summer. But Dodd said the law was not intended to circumvent lawmakers’ approval.

“This is really now taking the recess appointment vehicle and abusing this beyond anyone’s imagination,” said Dodd, a candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. “This is a travesty.”

Bush also used his recess appointment authority to make Andrew Biggs deputy director of Social Security. The president’s earlier nomination of Biggs, an outspoken advocate of partially privatizing the government’s retirement program, was rejected by Senate Democrats in February.

Presidents since George Washington have made appointments during congressional recesses to fill positions in the executive and judicial branches. Bush has used the authority more frequently than some — but not all — of his most recent predecessors, making 171 so far, compared with 140 for President Clinton over two terms, 77 by his father in one term and 243 by President Reagan during two terms.

Some of Bush’s more notable recess appointments include John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Bolton arrived at the U.N. in August 2005 after being appointed during a congressional recess because he twice failed to be confirmed by the Senate. Still unable to get Senate backing, he stepped down in December.

Others include include William Pryor and Charles Pickering (news, bio, voting record) as federal appeals court judges, in 2004, and Otto Reich as an assistant secretary of state, in 2002.

Fox, a 77-year-old St. Louis businessman, gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat group. He is national chairman of the Jewish Republican Coalition and was dubbed a “ranger” by Bush’s 2004 campaign for raising at least $200,000. He is founder and chairman of the Clayton, Mo.-based Harbour Group, which specializes in the takeover of manufacturing companies.

Fox has donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes since the 1990s.

In answer to questions about the Swift Boat donation, Fox has said he gives when asked, insisting he was not involved with the writing of the ad scripts and never saw them before they aired but had been aware of the general thrust of the group.

Fox issued a statement saying he is “delighted and honored” to accept the ambassadorial appointment.

“As the son of a man who fled Europe to find freedom and a better life, I am especially humbled by the opportunity to return to that continent as this nation’s representative,” he said.

Made you look, fundamentalists!

No, I’m not talking about the end of the world of evangelical Christian mythology, the rapture that is supposed to leave a bunch of empty cars on the freeway in Arkansas as a precursor of Satan’s wrath on Earth. I’m talking about Iraq.

The end times of the Iraq War are nigh!

The following short statement was released by Senator Russ Feingold today: “The President says he supports our troops, yet he wants to keep them in the middle of an Iraqi civil war indefinitely. We cannot afford to continue the President’s disastrous Iraq policy, which has weakened our national security and undercut our fight against those who attacked us on 9/11. The bill Majority Leader Reid and I have proposed gives the President the time and the funding he needs to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008.”

Let March 31, 2008 be the time of the second coming… of peace. I’m surprised, but impressed, that Senator Feingold has the support of Senator Harry Reid for this legislation to set a firm end for the Iraq War before one year from today.

Oh, how I wish Russ Feingold were running for President in 2008.

I’m still waiting for the Library of Congress to release the text of Feingold and Reid’s legislation.

While Mitt Romney could only get $20 million in contributions, Rudy Giuliani had just $15 million and John McCain had to settle for a paltry $12.5 million, Hillary Clinton dominated with $26 million in campaign contributions. Hillary Clinton is simply dominant. And what is much more impressive than even that is that Senator Clinton managed to collect her $26 million in contributions with 80% of donors giving just $100 or less. These 80% — some 40,000 donors — represent the American heartland, not some bigwigs, and they will be able to give again and again and again as Senator Clinton needs the money without hitting campaign contribution maximums. The numbers alone show that Hillary Clinton is on her way to an impressive, dominating presence in the 2008 campaign. The big boys of Republican politics have nothing to show compared to Hillary Clinton.

… for right-wing nut cases, is that she is a woman and not ashamed of it. Yes, the Christian fundies have their knickers in a twist over the fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman and not just content to stand by her man, but determined to run for President.

But isn’t it great that just about everyone else isn’t focussing on what it means that Hillary Clinton is a woman? Senator Clinton is being evaluated for her policy positions and her stated priorities for a presidency. Know what that means? It means that most of us in America (Christian fundies) excluded have grown up and started looking at a leader’s content of character and history of action. Aren’t you proud to see this come to pass?

Yesterday here on the Irregular Diaries, a new writer named Rusty celebrated the fact that Senator Hillary Clinton has been able to gather huge amounts of money to spend on her campaign. I can’t share in that celebration.

The reason: The more money a candidate makes, the more suspicious I get. I know very well that most of the money that presidential candidates bring comes from the rich and powerful. So, the bigger the stash of campaign donations a presidential candidate makes, the more indebted that candidate is to the rich and powerful. Thus, the more money a candidate raises, the more I doubt that the candidate will make a good president.

Besides, what does Hillary Clinton actually stand for? Does anyone know? It seems to me that Hillary Clinton represents the rich and powerful, and is motivated only by her own ambition. I just don’t trust her.