42

Despite mine or any one else’s opinion as to what Bush has done or not done, our union must be strong in order to finally have the first female speaker of the house.

Congratulations to Speaker Pelosi in being the point person for a milestone in American history.

Years of insurrection have finally led to the government considering amnesty. Some decry it as giving criminals & murders a free ride, others claim it is forgiveness. Those that claim it as criminals getting a free ride. How can we possibly forgive those that killed Americans. They cries of betrayal and backstabbing sound in the halls of congress.

You may think I am talking about Iraq in 2006, but I am not. This is what happened in 1863. President Lincoln offered a full pardon to those who were fighting for the Confederacy. He returned their rights and property (minus the slaves) for just a statement of loyalty. This was the precedent set by Abraham Lincoln on December 8th, 1863.

When President Lincoln was assassinated, Andrew Johnson became president. His offer of Amnesty was not so generous. It contained fourteen classes of persons that were excepted from the offer. President Johnson was also of the belief that the Southerners needed to be punished for their crimes against America. This was one of a number of issues that led directly to well over a hundred years of trouble between the North & the South in the United States.

Why discuss this now? Because it appears that Congress has not learned from the mistakes of the past. The US Government is in a similar position to that of the 1860’s. We can forgive or punish. We can learn from the past and not enter into a hundred years of problems just to satisfy the short term blood lust.

President Bush claims that Abraham Lincoln is one the presidents he uses as a model, let him model his compassion and give truth to the claim of Compassionate Conservative.

For years we have scoured the deserts of Iraq for WMD’s to no avail. Then from out of nowhere a WMD is unleashed on American soil. Since 9/11 the government has told us that they had a plan. If we just trust in them and let them spend money to fund this plan, they would keep the WMD’s off our shores. They also said that a WMD being loosed on a major American city was inevitable, so they created the Department of Homeland Security with the mandate of preventing the WMD in the first place and minimizing the damage when it finally happened. As we can now see, they have failed.

On August 29, New Orleans was the target of a WMD. This Water of Mass Destruction was not on any government watch list. It was not stopped by our military or police forces. It did not even register as important enough for President Bush to end his vacation early and demonstrate the war time leadership he has bragged about for so many tears, um years. Four days after more than 500,000 people were displaced from their homes, President Bush decided to finally return to his command post in the White House. It was there that photo ops and the rallying around the president began. It is unthinkable that this president, who has limited freedom more than almost any other president, could possibly be wrong.

On September 3, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as “probably the worst catastrophe, or set of catastrophes” in the country’s history. I wonder why it took nearly a week to come to that conclusion. Did we have that many comparable disasters to compare it against? Or did it just take that long to sink in that the government really did fail the people of the United States.

I think thats enough ranting. I would add one more thing. I am a republican. I am one of the duped. I am a fool. I believed in defending this country by taking the fight to other shores. I believed my government when they said there would be WMD’s in Iraq. I believed all of this and voted for George W. Bush. I am now paying for my mistakes with shame.

The recent weeks in NYC have been an embarrassment thanks to our governor. He wavered on the Freedom Tower plan for the WTC. This led to numerous stories on the Freedom Tower being canceled or back to the design phase. His lack of leadership before, during, and since 9/11 is always most visible when he actually takes action. Let us hope and work towards ensuring that this governor has seen his last term. For all of our sakes.