Subject: What Does this Election Mean?
The United States of America is the only superpower
left, and what we do
here at home effects the entire world. If anyone
disagrees with that statement,
they should probably quit reading now. Otherwise...Consider
this:
Somewhere in some third-world rathole, there's
a guy locked up in a filthy,
dark cell. He's there because he said or did
something that prompted someone
in power to say he's an "enemy of the state."
He's what we call a "political prisoner".
For the sake of discussion, let's say that he's
a pro-democracy
guy, a guy that (in theory at least) the US would
consider a good guy.
Well, they just tightened his shackles. They just
sealed that little crack in his cell wall
that let in a little light. His chances of seeing
his wife and kids again just got a little slimmer.
More realistically, they just evaporated.
Before George Bush Jr. was installed, they people
in charge knew that they
could only torture him so far, that they could
only trample his human rights
just so much before the US cracked down in some
way. The US...the guardian
(albeit an imperfect one) of human rights and
liberty. US representatives were
always there...in the U.N., and on the various
world stages where human
rights issues are debated, asking the questions,
pointing the finger, pushing for
sanctions or intervention if necessary.
For all their sanctimonious bullshit,
US representatives spoke from a position of inherent
truth, a position of
legitimacy when it came to human rights. Sure,
they could be argued with,
but the arguments always fell apart in the face
of one irrefutable fact
- we don't do that to people in the US.
We walk the talk...and we could wag our national
finger in their faces and say,
"Behave"...or else.
Maybe we didn't win enough battles. Sure,
there was still too much abuse
of human rights, but one thing was for sure --
the US kept the bar HIGH.
Now, when we try to preach about democracy and
voting rights, we'll first
have to fight our way out of the crowd and into
the pulpit we used to occupy.
We no longer have the high ground, and as a result,
the hopes for a world with
more freedom of speech, more freedom of self-determination,
more equality
and justice, more human decency have grown a
lot dimmer.
There was a time when it would've been a near-impossible
thing to debate
the US on the question of human rights and win.
Not now. They might not win,
but they can obfuscate the truth and blow smoke
with accusations of hypocrisy
and illegitimacy, to the point that they'll at
least checkmate us.
Freedom lacks a legitimate champion, perhaps for
the first time since our
nation was born, and it makes me want to cry.
Doug Bounds
From: Judson_Kilpatrick@chcmail.com
Subject: Rice Back in White House
at Top Job
by LAURA MECKLER
"Bush has said that he likes Rice because she explains issues in a way he can understand."
ha ha
That's the best opening line I've seen in a long time.
Condoleezza Rice, called Condi by nearly all
who know her, was born into segregated
Birmingham, Ala., in the autumn of 1954. She
was 9 years old when a bomb exploded
in the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing
four black girls, including a friend from kindergarten.
Rice was at Sunday School, just a couple of
blocks away.
They were scary times, she said.
``The men in the community, my father among
them, would go to the head of
the cul-de-sac at night and sit there armed
to keep night riders from
coming through,'' she wrote in an essay for
Time magazine. "
hmmmm, I wonder why she worked so hard to bring those days back
From: mondaydavid@InfoAve.Net
Subject: A Humble Yet Interesting Suggestion
Hey, BC!
What would your opinion be if we sent BlowMonkey
a sock full of coal to
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue every Christmas during
his term (which will
hopefully be 4 yrs. or less)?
ha ha
From: ghamill@pocahontasfoods.com
Subject: Predictions for the W presidency
Hi Bartcop,
I have three predictions for the W years.
Hillary Clinton will write another book called "It Takes a Village Idiot"
about her service in the Senate during the W presidency.
The statesmanship for the W administration will come from General Powell's colon.
W's inauguration ceremony will include the arrest of thousands of
protesters
for throwing bananas at the podium.
Grant Hamill
Richmond, Va.
From: maverickrepublican@prodigy.net
Subject: Great Democrat Quotes
Great Democrat Quotes
"Without him, you're like deer ticks..........without
a deer."
Garrison Keillor, "Prairie Home Companion", NPR,
Sunday, 12/17/00
(referring to conservative talk radio hosts having
to deal with not having Clinton in office)
Commentary:
Considering just how deer ticks feed, did G.K.
actually say of conservative talk radio hosts,
"You guys SUCK!" ?
Mav
From: jsherry@maysteel.com
Subject: Great Quote
Our elections are free -- it's in the results
where eventually we pay.
-Bill Stern
From: mr_utopia@hotmail.com
Subject: Another link
BC,
Another worthwhile link for your "Links" section:
Updated regularly, well-spoken, and smart as a whip.
-Paul
I think that's my buddy Steve!
Yes, visit Steve's anti-Pigboy page!