”A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” — Martin Luther King

This speech by Martin Luther King is stunning. He moves through a thorough history into an uncertain future. Take out the words Vietnam and Communism, replace them with Iraq and Terrorism, and you see how little we have progressed in over 35 years. mjh

Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam

I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political play thing of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. …

They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government. …

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. …

Perhaps only his sense of humor and irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor, weak nation more than 8000 miles from its shores. …

I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop must be ours. …

[Quoting another:] “The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of violence and militarism.” …

Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative means of protest possible. …

[T]he words of John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investment.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. When machines and computers, profit and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values will soon look easily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. …

The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: “This way of settling differences is not just.” …

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. …

Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.

Let’s review: Scalia is one of the Justices who gave his ‘long-time friend’ Dick Cheney the Vice-Presidency (Scalia’s wife and son were involved in the Bush/Cheney campaign and transition team). A month later, Cheney meets in secret with energy corporations (excluding others) — including the notoriously corrupt Enron. After 3 years, Scalia is one to agree to hear about the propriety of that secret meeting. Then he camps with Cheney for days on a trip sponsored by an oil company. Finally, he can’t imagine anyone questioning his impartiality. Scalia is unworthy of the Supreme Court and should be impeached! These guys are beyond belief. mjh

CBS News | Scalia-Cheney Trip Raises Eyebrows | January 17, 2004 11:08:19

Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting together at a private camp in southern Louisiana, just three weeks after the court agreed to take up the vice president’s appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration’s energy task force, the Los Angeles Times says in its Saturday editions.

While Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and longtime friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of their trip and said it raised doubts about Scalia’s ability to judge the case impartially, the newspaper pointed out.

But Scalia rejected that concern Friday, telling the Times, “I do not think my impartiality could reasonably be questioned.”

Federal law says “any justice or judge shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might be questioned,” the Times notes. …

The Times notes that pair arrived Jan. 5 on Gulfstream jets and were guests of Wallace Carline, the owner of Diamond Services Corp., an oil services company in Amelia, La. …

“The duck hunting was lousy …,” the justice said in his written response to the [Los Angeles] Times. “I did come back with a few ducks, which tasted swell.”

[See google news for latest on this]

Notice that those who support Bush’s appointment of Pickering identify Pickering as a pro-life judge. Bush makes another sneaky move to serve the religious right. mjh

Bush Installs Pro-Life Judicial Nominee Foiling Filibusters by Pro-Abortion Senators

Following years of bickering and stall tactics by pro-abortion Senators, pro-life judge Charles Pickering has finally been installed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals today. President Bush got around the stalling tactics of the Senators who refused to allow his nomination to come up for a vote, by making a recess appointment which is valid until January 2005.

American Life League (ALL) was the first group to advocate for recess appointments. Joseph R. Giganti, ALL’s director of media and government relations commented on the Pickering appointment saying, “Clearly the White House has realized that the militant, pro-abortion zealots in the Senate will neither listen to reason nor recognize the limit to their own power in this matter.” Guganti added, “The president has four more days to make more recess appointments. We hope he will take advantage of this opportunity to ensure that pro-life judges are appointed to the bench.”

Gary L. Bauer, Chairman of the Campaign for Working Families commented on the move saying, “It is unfortunate that the president was forced to take such action in response to Senate radicals like Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Tom Daschle, who are desperate to maintain the liberal stranglehold over our federal courts, but we are pleased to see him do so. Frankly, it was long overdue. Hopefully, today’s surprise move signals a renewed commitment by the White House to spotlight the Senate’s liberal obstructionists who are abusing Senate procedures and running roughshod over the Constitution.”

FRC Praises Recess Appointment of Charles Pickering to Federal Bench

In response to news that President Bush will use his recess appointment authority to place Charles Pickering on the federal bench, Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins released the following statement:

“This is a bold and necessary move by President Bush. Left-wing groups and their allies on the Senate Judiciary Committee have worked overtime these past three years to besmirch the character and record of Mr. Pickering. Charles Pickering is exactly the type of judge this country needs on our federal bench.

“Perhaps this move by the President will show Planned Parenthood, NARAL, People for the American Way and all the other extremist groups on the left that their allies in the Senate — Sens. Chuck Schumer, Ted Kennedy and John Edwards — will not be able to use their obstructionist tactics to unconstitutionally deny President Bush his power to place qualified jurists on the federal bench.

“At a time when our courts at every level are over stepping their bounds by sanctioning same-sex marriage and infanticide and stripping us of our religious freedoms, President Bush has taken the first step to ensure that our federal courts are filled with jurists who understand their role is to follow the Constitution, not reinvent it.”

U.S. Newswire – National Organization for Women ‘Outraged by Bush’s Underhanded Appointment of Pickering’

“The National Organization for Women is outraged by George W. Bush’s installation of Charles Pickering on the federal appeals court while Congress is in recess,” said NOW President Kim Gandy. “We’re no longer surprised by the underhandedness of this President-Bush apparently thinks that he can act unilaterally wherever and whenever he pleases.”

“NOW has vigorously opposed Pickering’s nomination to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for more than two years, and the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected this foe of women’s rights once before,” said Gandy. “We will certainly work to ensure that this unmerited appointment is overturned when the next Congress takes office in January 2005.”

Pickering, a district court judge from Mississippi, has a long record of opposing civil rights and civil liberties, demonstrating significant judicial activism from the bench. He was an opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment and has expressed his support for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. As a state senator, Pickering repeatedly voted against measures that would expand electoral opportunities for African Americans after passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

“Bush’s total disregard for the Democratic members of Congress who rightfully blocked Pickering’s nomination, his disregard for the women of this country and for democracy in general are appalling,” said Gandy. “All the more reason for women’s rights supporters to get active and to vote Bush out of office in November.”

t r u t h o u t – Former Pentagon Insider : ‘Neoconservative Propaganda Campaign Led to Iraq War’ By Karen Kwiatkowski, The American Conservative

[Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former Pentagon insider, concludes her observations on the run-up to the Iraq war in this last of a three-part series.]

As the winter of 2002 approached, I was increasingly amazed at the success of the propaganda campaign being waged by President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and neoconservative mouthpieces at the Washington Times and Wall Street Journal. …

In December, I requested an acceleration of my retirement after just over 20 years on duty and exactly the required three years of time-in-grade as a lieutenant colonel. I felt fortunate not to have being fired or court-martialed due to my politically incorrect ways in the previous two years as a real conservative in a neoconservative Office of Secretary of Defense. …

When military officers conspicuously crossed the neoconservative party line, the results were predictable—get back in line or get out. …

In my study of the neoconservatives, it was easy to find out whom in Washington they liked and whom they didn’t. They liked most of the Heritage Foundation and all of the American Enterprise Institute. They liked writers Charles Krauthammer and Bill Kristol. To find out whom they didn’t like, no research was required. All I had to do was walk the corridors and attend staff meetings. There were several shared prerequisites to get on the Neoconservative List of Major Despicable People, and in spite of the rhetoric hurled against these enemies of the state, most really weren’t Rodents of Unusual Size. Most, in fact, were retired from a branch of the military with a star or two or four on their shoulders. …

Soon after, I was out-processed for retirement and couldn’t have been more relieved to be away from daily exposure to practices I had come to believe were unconstitutional. War is generally crafted and pursued for political reasons, but the reasons given to Congress and the American people for this one were so inaccurate and misleading as to be false. Certainly, the neoconservatives never bothered to sell the rest of the country on the real reasons for occupation of Iraq—more bases from which to flex U.S. muscle with Syria and Iran, better positioning for the inevitable fall of the regional sheikdoms, maintaining OPEC on a dollar track, and fulfilling a half-baked imperial vision. These more accurate reasons could have been argued on their merits, and the American people might indeed have supported the war. But we never got a chance to debate it.

My personal experience leaning precariously toward the neoconservative maw showed me that their philosophy remains remarkably untouched by respect for real liberty, justice, and American values. My years of military service taught me that values and ideas matter, but these most important aspects of our great nation cannot be defended adequately by those in uniform. This time, salvaging our honor will require a conscious, thoughtful, and stubborn commitment from each and every one of us, and though I no longer wear the uniform, I have not given up the fight.

Just in case you reject this piece because it comes from the liberal truthout.org, note it originally appeared in The American Conservative . Who could imagine I would quote Pat Buchanan and cite his magazine. mjh

Bush clutches for the Vision Thing. Some vision: we got to the moon in less than 10 years of effort. Thirty five years later, we think we can do it again in another 15 years. That’s ambition!

Of course, going to the moon will cost a lot more than the War on Terrorism. Where will the money come from? Corporate sponsors? ”The Coca-cola lander has just left the Fed-Ex Rocket on its way down to Ronald Raygun Spaceport.

Finally, no one has mentioned the inevitable truth with this President: this is a step towards militarizing space. How long before this President insists on nuclear weapons in space. Some vision. mjh

Beacon Journal | 01/15/2004 | John Glenn doesn’t think Bush’s space plan will fly By Bob Dyer, Beacon Journal

The first American to orbit the Earth thinks President Bush’s plan to build a permanent base on the moon and use it as a launching pad to Mars makes Bush look like a space cadet.

In a general sense, John Glenn loves the plan Bush unveiled Wednesday afternoon. But Glenn thinks the president’s cost projections are so far off target as to be nearly weightless. …

Bush wants to complete the space station within six years. But Glenn fears plans for the operation of the finished station will be slaughtered if $11 billion of NASA’s $15 billion annual budget is raided for use exclusively on this new plan. …

The Democrat is flabbergasted by that promise. “You’re not going to run a moon or a Mars program on $11 billion reprogrammed from the NASA budget. That will pay for the blueprint paper.” …

From 1903 to 1969, humans went from not flying at all to landing on the moon. That’s 66 years. Since then, 35 years have passed and we haven’t gone any farther.

”Barry Goldwater must be spinning in his grave.” So says arch-conservative Pat Buchanan. Of Bush’s ”Healthy Marriage” proposal, Buchanan calls it ”faith-based pork to buy off his supporters on the religious right.”

Op-Ed Columnist: Masters of Deception By BOB HERBERT, NYTimes

At one point, [Al Gore] told his audience: ”In preparing this series of speeches, I have noticed a troubling pattern that characterizes the Bush-Cheney administration’s approach to almost all issues. In almost every policy area, the administration’s consistent goal has been to eliminate any constraints on their exercise of raw power, whether by law, regulation, alliance or treaty. And in the process, they have in each case caused America to be seen by the other nations of the world as showing disdain for the international community.”

Amid cheers, he made it clear that the broad interests of the American public are consistently betrayed by the policies and practices of President Bush and his administration. “They devise their policies with as much secrecy as possible,” he said, “and in close cooperation with the most powerful special interests that have a monetary stake in what happens. In each case, the public interest is not only ignored, but actively undermined. In each case, they devote considerable attention to a clever strategy of deception that appears designed to prevent the American people from discerning what it is they are actually doing.

“Indeed, they often use Orwellian language to disguise their true purposes. For example, a policy that opens national forests to destructive logging of old-growth trees is labeled Healthy Forest Initiative. A policy that vastly increases the amount of pollution that can be dumped into the air is called the Clear Skies Initiative.” …

“This is insanity,” said Mr. Gore, referring to the administration’s handling of the environment. But his speech made it clear that he could just as easily have applied that sentiment to the full range of Bush-Cheney policies. History will not be kind to the chicanery that passes for governing in the Bush II administration.