June 20, 2005
No Al Gore - Harold Ford, Jr. Edition
from - smijer
Harold Ford is the Democratic hope to take the Senate seat being vacated by Bill Frist in 2006. Unlike the Republican candidates who we have discussed so far, Ford has no choice but to reach out across party lines to garner support. Unfortunately, he does so without vision, choosing the most useless, or worst, elements of the GOP platform to embrace. His vision for Tennessee and America is the same as his GOP competitors - containing little more than himself in a seat of power.
Two noteworthy defections of Ford's were his politically ill-advised embrace of Bush's Social Security privatization package, and his decision to undercut Howard Dean. His criticism may have had validity, but it was appropriate to a private discussion, not a public denunciation - at least from a Congressman from Tennessee.
His other ill-considered efforts to "cross over" are reflected in his unimpressive positions and voting record, which is not so different from those of Bryant and Hilleary:
- Voted YES on restricting bankruptcy rules. (Jan 2004)
Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. (Sep 2004)
Voted YES on protecting [sic] the Pledge of Allegiance. (Sep 2004)
Voted YES on constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration. (Jun 2003)
Voted YES on Amendment to prohibit burning the US flag. (Jun 1999)
Voted YES on Bankruptcy Overhaul requiring partial debt repayment. (Mar 2001)
Voted YES on allowing school prayer during the War on Terror. (Nov 2001)
Voted NO on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels. (Aug 2001)
Voted NO on allowing suing HMOs, but under federal rules & limited award. (Aug 2001)
Voted YES on deploying SDI. (Mar 1999)
Voted YES on repealing the estate tax ("death tax"). (Jun 2000)
Voted YES on authorizing military force in Iraq. (Oct 2002)
Ford has consistently failed to provide leadership on important environmental issues (what small record he has on the environment seems mostly acceptable). He has some good positions, too (particularly on criminal justice reform), but he has never taken ownership of any important issues and showed that he is willing to take risks to accomplish something important.
My vote will most likely go to Ford, but it will be as the lesser evil, and for the extra caucus vote. It is my hope that a honest-to-God statesman will enter the primary on the Democratic side and give me a reason to want to vote.
::Posted by smijer at June 20, 2005 07:24 AM
Any Constitutional amendment against flag desecration is bad. State laws already dictate a pledge of allegiance to the flag daily in many schools. Why is it that flag fetishists who tout flag laws don't chant the pledge every day? Their hypocrisy masks the old dark desire to make children and adults worship government daily at the ring of a government bell. Please oppose the amendment, and educate everyone about these new historical discoveries:
1. The original Pledge of Allegiance to the USA's flag used a straight-armed salute and it was the source of the salute of the monstrous National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazis). The gesture was not an ancient Roman salute. http://rexcurry.net/pledgesalute.html
2. The Pledge began with a military salute that then extended outward toward the flag. Due to the way that Francis Bellamy (the Pledge's creator) used the gestures, the military salute led to the Nazi salute. The Nazi salute is an extended military salute. http://rexcurry.net/pledge2.html & http://rexcurry.net/pledge_military.html
3. Bellamy was a self-proclaimed socialist in the nationalism movement and his dogma influenced socialists in Germany, and his pledge was the origin of their salute. Many people forget that "Nazi" means "National Socialist German Workers' Party." A mnemonic device is the swastika (Hakenkreuz in German). Although the swastika was an ancient symbol, it was also used sometimes to represent "S" letters joined for "socialism" under the German National Socialists. Hitler altered his own signature into the same stylized "S" letter for "socialist." http://rexcurry.net/bookchapter4a1a4.html
How the discoveries were made is a fascinating story in itself. I made the discoveries by accident during legal research involving litigation about the pledge. As a libertarian lawyer, I do pro bono work educating students and others about the right to reject the ritualism.
Fight the flag hags and their flag fetish and self-flagellation. Government's schools should not teach kids to verbally fellate flags each morning. It is like a brainwashed cult of the omnipotent state. For adults it is childish. Remove the pledge from the flag, remove flags from schools, remove schools from government.
A flag desecration amendment would desecrate the Constitution. Our leviathan government and its schools, and Bellamy and the Department of Education could inspire a comatose person to desecrate the flag, to pledge disallegiance, and to recite the declaration of independence.
Francis Bellamy and his cousin and cohort Edward Bellamy (author of the bestselling novel "Looking Backward") espoused "military socialism" worldwide. The Bellamy dogma was the same dogma that led to the "Wholecaust" (of which the Holocaust was a part): 62 million killed under the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; 35 million under the Peoples' Republic of China; 21 million under the National Socialist German Workers' Party. It was so bad that Holocaust Museums could quadruple in size with Wholecaust Museums to document the entire slaughter.
In the USA, the Bellamy dogma supported a government takeover of education. The government's schools imposed segregation by law and taught racism as official policy. The USA's behavior was an example for three decades before the Nazis. As under Nazism, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and blacks and the Jewish and others in the USA attended government schools that dictated segregation, taught racism, and persecuted children who refused to perform the straight-arm salute and robotically chant the pledge. Some kids were expelled from government schools and had to use the many better alternatives. There were acts of violence. When Jesse Owens competed in the 1936 Olympics in Germany, his neighbors attended segregated government schools where they saluted the flag with the Nazi salute. The U.S. practice of official racism even outlasted the horrid party. And the schools and the Pledge still exist. The Pledge is still the most visible sign of the USA's growing police state. Stop the USA's flag Nazis.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt repeated the Bellamy errors with his massive socialism, including the Civilian Conservation Corps and its military regimentalism ( as previously reported on Opinion Editorials at http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/rcurry_20050603.html ), as well as social security and its Nazi numbering ( as previously reported on Opinion Editorials at http://www.opinioneditorials.com/guestcontributors/rcurry_20050204.html ).
After segregation in government's schools ended, the Bellamy legacy caused more police-state racism of forced busing that destroyed communities and neighborhoods and deepened hostilities.
The flag desecration amendment is proof that government schools must end because they produce people and politicians who hate the Constitution and limited government.
Listen to a new talk-show appearance by RexCurry.net about the flag and the pledge http://rexcurry.net/rexcurry4.mp3
A more detailed version of the article above is at http://rexcurry.net/book1a1a1pledge-ch8a1a2.html
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Posted by RexCurry.net on June 21, 2005 04:20 PM Link to comment |
