Political Crossfire Forums

[John Galt]

Bush lets silence fill Ground Zero

By Caroline Daniel in New York

Published: September 10 2006 20:27 | Last updated: September 10 2006 20:27

President George W. Bush has spoken 22,000 words in the past week in a series of speeches on the “war on terror” but on Sunday he let a carefully posed silence remind Americans of September 11 2001 as he laid a wreath at Ground Zero.

Faced with criticism from Democrats that he was politicising the day, the White House said Mr Bush would make no prepared remarks on Monday, as he marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks with a meeting of emergency personnel in New York and holds further moments of silence at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The return to Ground Zero will revive images of the day that Mr Bush’s presidency, and his personality, were transformed, and whose “bullhorn moment” on top of the smouldering rubble became an enduring image of a resolute leader. Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, denied, however, that the aim was to evoke those memories or “draw on some atavistic sense of nostalgia about the date”.

Even so, Mr Bush who has let the last two anniversaries pass without much fanfare, has spent the past two weeks framing the debate on the midterm congressional elections in quiet but clear political tones.

In the speeches he has used every opportunity to cast himself and the Republican party as the best hope to secure the US from future attack.

“I just read all the speeches in one sitting this weekend. They set out the mortal threat to our civilisation that America and our allies have to wrestle with,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker. “The president is staking his presidency and his place in history on his courage to tell the truth, even if at times it is politically inconvenient. These speeches were a deliberate, systematic effort to reframe the threat for the country, at an historic level, which went beyond partisan politics.”

Yet he criticised the administration for how long it had taken to present a more systematic defence. “They probably should have from day one followed a more open policy of engaging the civilised world in this discussion.”

Mr Bush’s message on the dangers posed by Islamist terrorism will be reinforced on Sunday night with a prime-time television address. “This is not a political speech; there are not going to be any calls to action for Congress,” said Mr Snow. “This is not something where we’re trying to draw bright lines to separate Democrats from Republicans.”

The White House strategy has been crafted to blunt efforts by Democrats to turn the mid-term elections into a referendum on the Iraq war. The aim is to dent the political potency of Iraq by placing it in a wider context of the “war on terror”. Polls, however, show that the majority of Americans do not agree the two are connected.

A key part of the strategy has been to use the anniversary to revive fears of Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaeda leader, who has been largely absent in Mr Bush’s speeches for the past few years, was cited 17 times in a speech last Tuesday. “They have gone back to the world’s leading bogeymen,” said Daniel Benjamin, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A leading Republican strategist who attended a dinner last week with senior White House advisers said the mood in the party remained bleak. “It is the only card Republicans have to play. The country may well say they are not buying it another time.”

The Financial Times Limited 2006

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/18975b08-4101-11db-827f-0000779e2340.html

[sustainablepeace]

Social Contract for a More Perfect Union

This paper discusses the intentions of a more perfect union, and why a culture of free market enterprise has a tradition of war far too lucrative to reason; but sustainable peace is an option.

The union in question is the American polity. Over two hundred years ago people agreed to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and future generations. That agreement was democracy culminating in republicanism.

True republicanism respects no partisan; it has nothing to do with the Republican Party, just as democracy has nothing to do with the Democratic Party. Republicanism makes clear the utility of philosophy, religion, art, and science; it proves business follows the will of the people. Its keystone is liberty.

Liberty is evidenced by movement and speech; but the essential blessings of liberty are the foundation of America's republican sovereignty. They are the responsibility of 'we the people to establish, ensure, provide, and promote.

To establish justice: requires 'we the people' to be objective.

To ensure domestic tranquility: requires 'we the people' to agree with nature.

To provide for the common defense: requires 'we the people' to have a common heart.

To promote the general welfare: requires 'we the people' to be equal.

To secure the (se) blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity: requires 'we the people' to understand constitutional solidarity; which is more cultural than individual. It secures a place in humankind for posterity, allowing we the people to feel, and grow a republican form of government that "shall never perish from the Earth" if the utility of our pursuits serve its Devine Will, to socialize the cultural heritage of the (se) blessings of liberty secured to people and future generations.

Lessons of Mass Instruction

(1) There is nothing poetic about the veracity of justice; it's impartial, factual, and severe. It must be received, retained, and released to establish it as an essential blessing of liberty.

(2) The tranquility of nature must be developed in the home and grown with family, culminating in a community with the highest regard for the land, because nature addresses that which surpasses human understanding; which is based upon the principles of cause and effect: purpose. The purpose of ensuring domestic tranquility is to enable people to peacefully coexistence; which is most ensured when all are in agreement with nature.

(3) The founders of the United States provided the foundation for American sovereignty. This unbiased authority entrusted from one generation to the next is the best defense, because it provides the principle of immovable force. A nation with this heart is most likely to be invincible.

(4) The general welfare must express most generally Justice, Tranquility, and the common (heart), because your life, liberty, and pursuit of your happiness, and my life, liberty, and pursuit of my happiness are co-dependent upon the essential blessings of liberty promoting equality.

When the US Constitution was ordained and established, citizens agreed to accept the responsibility of American Sovereignty. This socialized authority added responsibility to virtue in government; sovereign authority became subject to republican responsibility. However, over 200 years of US history shows how past agreements cloud over with opinions.

Opinions vary regarding democracy, republicanism, and the purpose and limits of a government. Furthermore, opinions based upon information gathered from gossip and hearsay are excellent fodder for mushrooms thriving off of darkness and bull's scat; and it is unfortunate darkness and excrement have been put into writing and written with enough credibility so as to make so many believe them to be true. "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities."

Why many do not believe the preamble of the US Constitution to be true is because, in June of 1804, when "...in every case after the choice of president...the person having the greatest number of votes shall be the vice president..." was amended by "... vote by ballot for president and vice president;" defending the principles so enshrined gave way to offending with the principles of partisanship.

Partisanship evolved from old world European democracy; the common quest for power and prestige began with the Magna Charta. It has been described as common law concepts evolved over many centuries by judges in English courts, setting precedents, granting public advantage to churches, nobles, and government bureaucrats; but what's truly common about it is the tyranny left imposed upon common people.

These common law concepts are "case centered and hence judge centered, allowing scope for judicial discretion;" but they digress with rule of law that says nothing of the justness of the law, but simply how the legal system upholds the law; which derogates the preamble of the US Constitution from what it is: a preliminary introduction to explain purpose.

The purpose of a republican form of government prescribed in the preamble must be used to determine legislative intent, and limit the exercise of judicial discretion. Otherwise, those who have died defending the republic, for which the US flag stands, died for nothing.

Old world partisanship has plagued the new world because; the oldest and most prestigious schools in the United States were around before the American Revolution. Their standard has been mimicked, poorly mimicked, and faked throughout the United States in the form of public education.

What trickles down from Harvard and Yale is a sincere 18th century belief in partisanship; but this sincerity is factious, contentious and, offers no guarantee for right reason in agreement with the principles so enshrined. It is a dollar driven thorn in the backside of the American Experiment. This old world democracy inspired the founders of the United States to give Americans the opportunity, if not the responsibility, of page turning, starting a new chapter: A Republican Form of Government.

Re-linking the Chain of Trust

The founder of the Iroquois Confederacy said, "Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families; think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground.

Natural republicanism secured Original North Americans to the essential blessings of liberty, because food, shelter, transportation, and communication required co-operation. A House was responsible for its members. If a member committed a wrong to a member of another House, Houses, represented by House Chiefs, through circle sentencing with the wronged and the wrong doer, restored justice. Dispersed cultures dispersed as population saturation demanded it. They were happy and characterized by reason and tolerance. They were free until economic ties culturally decimated True Liberty, replacing True Authority with economic authority. The ensuing material disparity proved carcinogenic; wars were inevitable.

The utility of war serves economic dominance, never peaceful coexistence. It reoccurs when economically feasible to acquire, control, or protect interests far too lucrative to reason in agreement with Justice, Tranquility, the common (heart), and equality.

The essential blessings of liberty, transferred from one generation to the next, is the chain of trust implied by the supreme law of the greatest land; but the body of the US constitution has only begun to serve as the means commensurate to American Sovereignty because, liberty has been confused with privately seeking public advantage; which is, by default, a title of nobility, a cultural virus. "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States..." because unreasonable advantage causes people to struggle against unreasonable demands, or escape to another land.

Forced migration has caused cultural transmigration; but the cultural virus remains. It is yet to be seen how the utility of capitalism can be secured to the foundation of American Sovereignty, how its laws can spring form justice, tranquility, the common (heart), and equality.

Free market enterprise seems harmless in a short sighted economic sense, but its continuation is self-evident. It has assured men there is no end, no solidary purpose other than their desires with no limit; it misguides humankind to "quit the principles of human nature," and degenerate into "noxious creatures" of cultured debauchery.

Cultured debauchery has diluted rule of law with irrational inequality; it knows not trust. A land without trust is a land without sovereign authority; fear, and/or uncertainty prevail in a culture of robbing, ripping off, scamming, cheating, taxing, and lying.

A United Nations study states that in more than half the world the rights and freedoms of citizens are limited. This is true because republicanism is limited. It is the result of dollar driven dementia echoed by Oh boy cheers of calamitous joy, "Freedom is what you can get away with, and liberty is not for the poor; but they do pay for it with poor health, homelessness, inhibitions to movement and speech, environmental degradation, material disparity, and cultural decimation of family, community, and the republic for which their flag stands."

Multicultural factions and coalitions, vying for what ever they can, provide fertile soil for striving economically; but merging cultures are biased. They have yet to develop beyond capitalism.

The most basic principle of capitalism is exploitation within in a competitive economic system of privately seeking public advantage. The most basic principle of democracy is virtue within a cooperative government system securing public freedom; but public freedom is dependent upon the most basic principle of a republican form of government: RESPONSIBILITY!!

The responsibility prescribed in the preamble of the US Constitution allows people to be "equal and independent." It encourages self-respect; true Americans do not "harm another's life, health, liberty, or possessions," because to do so forfeits their own human equity.

The 21st century is proving ripe for an American constitutional renaissance, because life, health, liberty, and possessions have become fodder for maleficent exploitation; food, shelter, transportation, and communication are commodities in an obsessive/oppressive culture that denies freedom.

Freedom is dependent upon the foundation of American sovereignty linking people together, building a bridge of sustainable peace supported by the republican keystone of liberty.

Seeds for Sustainable Peace

Justice, Domestic Tranquility, Common (Heart), and General Welfare are the seeds, but they must be cultivated by preserving trial by jury, growing a garden, acquiring knowledge of a republican form of government, and regulating commerce among the several states, with foreign nations, and with the Indian tribes to promote the equality of well-being.

Some will declare, communism!!! But the most basic principle of communism is federalization within a despotic government system controlling people. Its common good does not require consent of the governed with no more than (1) representative for every thirty thousand.

The present number of U.S. representative, with gerrymandered districts, was fixed by a law that must be used as a trial, because it denies the American people a republican form of government.

A republican government must be guided by sovereign authority to make a positive impact. Its administration must be impartial, factual, and severe; representatives must not be an inhabitant (an established person with age) of that state in which he shall be elected, and must be elected every two years to protect sovereign authority from the cultural virus.

Sovereign authority, which is essentially consent of the governed, demands cognition of the principles so enshrined; which allows people to see the utility of their pursuits.

The principles so enshrined must "be the first impressions received; and as we prepare for civil life, each ought to be governed pursuant to those principles which benefit the great family which comprehends all. If the constituent parts are principled, so will the government be."

A principled government governs less those who discipline themselves; knowledge of the principles so enshrined empowers the governed to give their consent to right reason in agreement with True Liberty.

Consent of the governed, which is essentially sovereign authority, depends upon the ability of representatives to confer with their constituencies, "to develop a general consensus; which must be general in its purpose as well as its nature to apply to all. Otherwise, there is no sound principle of equity to guide government."

Governing the governed reflectively, so as not to dramatize man's inhumanity to man has yet to make a positive impact because, "those entrusted with the execution of democracy must be sensible of being subject to its direction."

This dictum displays how a republican government must be culture dependent. The virtue of democracy is entrusted to representatives who represent not themselves, but the governed; but the governed must be sensible of being subject to right reason in agreement with their own sovereign responsibility.

Choices

You and I have inherited a culture of denial; fear, greed, and hate are not blessings of liberty. The ghost of governments past is musing, "Least happy is the (world with) institutions entirely off the path that leads to a right and perfect end;" but the republic for which the US flag stands is not a done deal. It is the means of working towards a right and perfect end, to answer the prayer "...thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven..." to form a perfect union.

Think about it! "...instituted among men, deriving (its) powers from the consent of the governed..." requires Americans to be cognizant. Their sovereign responsibility demands co-operation in a real socio-eco-economic sense; free elections are but first steps in the process of Sovereign Responsibility guiding government.

American's sovereign responsibility will not triumph by convincing the demented and making them see the light; they will continue to live and die for nothing, but future generations are becoming more dependent upon choices made today. Competition, diffidence, and glory are choices for more war. Co-operation, common knowledge of republican form of government, and responsibility are choices for sustainable peace.

People of the world, the third century of the U.S. republic allows people to look at history and see where the future is not; but the future of humankind must needs be guided by the principles so enshrined: We the people (of your country), in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common (heart), promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to (yourselves) and (your) Posterity, must ordain and establish (a constitution for your country to serve this devine will; which is your own sovereign responsibility.)

Quotes/Sources: Marcus Cicero, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Breide et de Montesquieu, Dekanawidah, Niccolo Machiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Franois-Marie Arouet, Textus Receptus, John Lock, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, R. H. Tawney, David Kelly, Gary Slapper, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers, and the US Constitution.

[Dookiestix]

Quote: Faced with criticism from Democrats that he was politicising the day, the White House said Mr Bush would make no prepared remarks on Monday, as he marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks with a meeting of emergency personnel in New York and holds further moments of silence at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Didn't Bush make a prepared comment on Monday in commemorating those who died on 9/11 by attempting (for the upteenth time) to justify his actions in Iraq?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,213439,00.html

[camille]

On the first of november was held a conference by the lebanese Thaly Boustros in front of the representators of the security council, concerning the actual situation in lebanon.
The beautiful 23 years old lady impressed the audiance by her capacity to attract people and by her informations about the subject.
She assured that lebanon can stand alone and face all the troubles that he is living.She said that due to Weber , a nation is a combination of 3 elements: power,land and population , and Lebanon has everything except the power that is being stolen from him day after day.
With a sweet smile she end up her 2 hours conference inviting everyone to look at a country that is the key for the world peace.
Lots of comment has been given about Thaly Boustros and the best of them was coming from Bob Harley who said: I couldnt concentrate much. Thaly Boustros is in herself a big distraction.