Silence is Consent

If you don't speak up you accept what is happening. This site was born out of the mainstream media's inability to cover the news. I am just an American cititzen trying to spread the word in the era of FCC consolidation, post 9/11 Patriot Act hysteria, hackable voting machines and war without end. I rant and post news items I perceive to be relevant to our current situation.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
- Thomas Jefferson

Social Security is not broken and therefore does not need to be fixed

So Called Social Security Crisis (SCSSC)

Comments, questions, corrections, rebuttals are always welcome.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004
 
I'm not sure what you thought of it but I wasn't able to see it. What do I mean the SOTU, of course. I debated the whole way home whether I was going to watch the speech or the Texas basketball game instead. I probably have watched everyone of these since somewhere during the Reagan years. I consider it a civic duty to watch it. Last night was my turn to put our youngest daughter to bed so I didn't see it live. When she finally went to sleep it was over, Texas won in overtime by the way. But my wife watched it or at least she did until she couldn't take it anymore. She didn't want to see her dinner again. I remember stepping into the room at one point and heard Bush rambling on about steroids and wondering what the hell he was saying--admittedly I knew he was probably filling because it was around 9 o'clock. I never was able to sit down and watch the whole thing. I caught bits and pieces here and there. From what I've been able make of it there was not much new there. The one thing I did see that stuck with me was the "permission slip" comment.
From the beginning, America has sought international support for our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we have gained much support. There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few. America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country.
Do you see the spin here? First of all the whole permission slip is tied to national security. He also lumps Afghanistan and Iraq together. If any of these two wars had anything to do with national security it was Afghanistan. We all know that Iraq was not a threat to our security. All of our historical allies ever would have willingly joined us in Iraq if Iraq was an imminent threat to our security. I said this before and I will say it again. If Iraq was a WMD threat and especially a nuclear threat Israel would have acted long before we did. They did it before! Just one of what I'm sure are a million examples like this in this speech.

Stephen Zunes and An Annotated Critique of the Foreign Policy Segments of President George W. Bush’s 2004 State of the Union Address. Here is his take on the "permission slip" comment:
In reality, it was not a few nations, but an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations that opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Furthermore, public opinion polls show that even in countries whose governments did support the U.S. invasion, the majority of these countries’ populations opposed it. It is highly unlikely that there would be any opposition in the United Nations Security Council or anywhere else for the U.S. government to “defend the security of our people.” The invasion of Iraq, however, was not about defending the security of the American people but an illegal act of aggression, according to the United Nations Charter, which has been signed and ratified by the United States and virtually every country in the world.
Sounds familiar.

More analysis:
Bush's Defiant State of the Union.

Editorial: State of the Union/It's not good, thanks to Bush.


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