This clip should be required viewing for every meat eater in the United States of America.
D. Grant Haynes
http://www.peta.org/content/standalone/VeggieLove/Default.aspx
By D. Grant Haynes
Most of the cowards crafted a headline and story lead about Abraham Lincoln being the best American president. That was hardly riveting news, but, rather, President's Day fluff.
A few timid editors covered their asses with a lead about Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, being adjudged one of the worst U.S. presidents. Again, that was comfortably safe but hardly news at all.
I want to know why no major news organization went with the most obvious angle to be garnered from C-Span's February 15 reportage of a new presidential poll--that George W. Bush (Dubya) was ranked 36 out of a possible 42 among American presidents going all the way back to George Washington.
Put another way, the whiz kid from Midland is in the 15th percentile on the list. That means that 85 percent of all American presidents (35) were adjudged to have turned in a better performance than this tortured generation's George W. Bush.
The poll was taken by C-Span during December and January among 64 leading American history scholars and presidential historians drawn from a broad ideological spectrum.
From this writer's perspective, Bush's dismal showing in the poll is a confirmation of what many of us who were voices crying in the wilderness for much of the last eight years always suspected. We deserve exoneration. We deserve an opportunity to gloat.
But the news organizations did not see it that way. They are apparently mostly into letting bygones be bygones--forgiving and forgetting--turning a page, etc.
Sorry, but not this ole boy. Not yet, anyway.
Bush damned nearly destroyed my nation and her place in the world. I want to see his ineptitude and criminality exposed and punished--not swept under the rug as he assumes the unlikely role of elder statesman.
Overall rankings of U.S. presidents in the C-Span poll were:
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. George Washington
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Harry S. Truman
6. John F. Kennedy
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. Dwight D. Eisenhower
9. Woodrow Wilson
10. Ronald Reagan
11. Lyndon B. Johnson
12. James K. Polk
13. Andrew Jackson
14. James Monroe
15. Bill Clinton
16. William McKinley
17. John Adams
18. George H. W. Bush
19. John Quincy Adams
20. James Madison
21. Grover Cleveland
22. Gerald R. Ford
23. Ulysses S. Grant
24. William Howard Taft
25. Jimmy Carter
26. Calvin Coolidge
27. Richard M. Nixon
28. James A. Garfield
29. Zachary Taylor
30. Benjamin Harrison
31. Martin Van Buren
32. Chester A. Arthur
33. Rutherford B. Hayes
34. Herbert Hoover
35. John Tyler
36. George W. Bush
37. Millard Fillmore
38. Warren G. Harding
39. William Henry Harrison
40. Franklin D. Pierce
41. Andrew Johnson
42. James Buchanan
The roster of historians participating in the poll included Douglas Brinkley of Rice University, Richard Norton Smith of George Mason University, Robert Dallek of Boston University, Edna Medford of predominantly black Howard University, Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, and presidential biographer Lou Cannon
Characteristics on which presidents were judged included public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with congress, vision and agenda setting, pursuit of equal justice for all, and overall performance within the context of the times.
For more details, go to:
http://www.c-span.org/PresidentialSurvey/Overall-Ranking.aspx
State GOP Leader Says Sen. Roland Burris an 'Embarrassment'
FOXNews.com
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna said U.S. Sen. Roland Burris' appointment was an "embarrassment to the people," hours after Burris claimed he was not guilty of lying to a state House panel.
McKenna issued a statement Sunday evening.
"Today Roland Burris provided an object lesson in why Blagojevich Democrats should have stripped Rod Blagojevich of his appointment powers in December and kept their promise to people of Illinois to hold a special election," he wrote.
Burris' appointment was an "embarrassment to the people of Illinois," McKenna wrote.
"This continuing national embarrassment could have been avoided if Blagojevich Democrats had simply kept their promise to the people of Illinois and allowed them, instead of Rod Blagojevich, to choose Illinois junior Senator."... .
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Where were these stinking hypocrites during the eight years their George W. Bush embarrassed Americans and the world with his subnormal intelligence, foolish press conference performances, nonsense statements, and failed policies?
Republicans self-destructed in November 2008 with their ridiculous McCain-Palin ticket. Now, their only role is apparently to mount opposition and dead ender scorched earth obstruction to each of President Obama's initiatives. They are not patriots and they have no love of their nation, else they would find some constructive role for themselves as they lick their wounds and seek to rebuild a political party that is in shambles.
I predicted in mid-December that Republicans would never let the Rod Blagojevich affair go. They cannot. Hope springs eternal in their warped little minds. Blagojevich offers them the slenderest of threads of an opportunity to eventually mount a Monicagate-like assault on President Obama even as he works diligently to undo the disasters their embarrassment of a president caused.
D. Grant Haynes
Army: Suicides higher than combat deaths
Kansas City Star
February 5, 2009
The Army is reporting a stunning rise in suicides for last month, with the number likely to surpass combat deaths.
According to figures obtained by The Associated Press, there were 24 suspected suicides in January, compared with just four in January of 2008.
If all 24 are confirmed, that would be higher than the 16 combat deaths reported in all branches of the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan last month.
Officials said Army leaders are alarmed by the monthly figure, and they took the unusual step of briefing congressional leaders on the information this morning.
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George W. Bush, you are personally responsible for the deaths of these soldiers.
You sent them on a mission that lacked honor or principle and now that their nation is repudiating what you, their commander-in-chief, forced them to do, they cannot live with themselves and their memories.
You left Washington January 20 proclaiming that your head was held high. If that is actually the case, such is a telling commentary on your moral idiocy.
Obama's Half-Brother Arrested on Drug Charges in Kenya
FOXNews 1/31/09
The half-brother of President Barack Obama was arrested for alleged possession of marijuana on Saturday near his home in a Nairobi shantytown, police said... .
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Report: Daschle Delayed Tax Revelation
FOXNews - 2/1/09
Health and Human Services secretary nominee reportedly waited nearly a month after being nominated before informing President Obama that he had not paid years of back taxes... .
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Steele Focused on Three Critical Races In Rebuilding GOP
FOXNews - 1/31/09
Newly elected RNC chairman Michael Steele said a GOP comeback rests on the outcomes of three critical races. Newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele said he is focused on three races in his effort to rebuild the GOP ... .