RockThrower

Reality According to Bush

This isn't a Television Show

Some months back, a Bush administration operative told a New York Times Reporter something like “We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”

We’ll it’s here.

This past weekend the New York Times reported in ghastly detail about the mistreatment of Afghan prisoners by U.S. soldiers. The story was so gruesome that it was hard to read through at breakfast. Among other abuses, soldiers, the article said, would repeatedly strike prisoners on the upper legs with fierce blows, leaving deep and painful bruises. As a result, two prisoners died, the cause of death believed to be blood clots caused by repeated blows to the legs.

There was little reaction from the Bush White House or the Republican led Congress. Apparently the story does not fit the Bush administrations version of reality. And so today, when a new international report by Amnesty International, citing abuses of Afhgan prisoners in Afghanistan and Cuba, labeled the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay "the gulag of our time" and said the U.S. has created a new lexicon for abuse and torture, the Bush administration said it wasn’t so, maintaining the U.S. remains a leader in Human Rights. I wonder how the little girl pictured in the New York Times article, the daughter of an apparently innocent taxi driver basically beaten to death by U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan, feels about the reality of that statement.

Meanwhile, nearly 2000 U.S. Soldiers and countless Iraqi’s have been killed. The war there we are told is going well. We are making progress.

Here on the home front, the headlines tout a breakthrough by South Korean scientists who apparently have discovered how to clone human embryos and extract stem cells, potentially opening the door to ground breaking medical treatment of sick and injured people. The South Korean government immediately pledged additional funding for further research. President Bush, rather than calling for a U.S. expansion of scientific research, responded by threatening to veto congressional legislation that would ease current U.S. restrictions on stem cell research. In the world according to Bush, reality apparently means that frozen embryos headed for the waste bin have more importance than humans suffering from disease and injury who might be helped by advances in the research.

In fact science doesn’t seem to play much of a role in the Bush reality. While every serious scientist in the world seems to have acknowledged the threat of global warming, those in the Bush administration have their doubts about the theory. And speaking of theories, according to many Bush supporters, that’s all Evolution is, a theory, despite its recognition by virtually every recognized scientific body in the world as the central concept of the earth’s biology. In the Bush reality, Intelligent Design, a code for Creationism, is the preferred theory, and is being pushed on schools across the land. Maybe that is why the Bush administration has cut the National Science Foundation budget by $100 million.

But at least we know that President Bush is looking out for our well being, stumping across the land to promote his plan to save Social Security, preserving the pensions of future generations. But not one word has he mentioned about the tens of thousand of United Airlines employees whose pensions are damaged and lives disrupted by United’s dumping of its pension responsibilities. Not one word about the need for corporate responsibility, about honoring commitments to workers has he uttered. Apparently there is no room for that in the Bush reality.

But hey, those judges he is appointing will look out for us. I hear Priscilla Owen is a real stickler for the protection of employee and consumer rights.

Senate Filibuster Vote is Payoff to Christian Right

An Up or Down Vote?

Let’s be clear about something. The phrase “up or down vote” does not appear anywhere in the United States Constitution.

Rather, that phrase, oft heard of late, is apparently part of the talking points handed out to conservative Republicans as part of their effort to frame the debate over the issue of the Senate Filibuster as one of fairness.

But there is nothing fair about the Republican leaderships efforts to change the longstanding rules of the Senate, and it certainly has nothing to do with the Constitution. The vote to end the Filibuster is nothing more than a payoff to extreme elements of the Christian right impatient for the appointment of judges who will restrict access to abortion and support Christian litigation breaking down the separation of church and state. In their view, this is about the control of the Supreme Court and the appointment of anti-abortion judges to the federal judiciary.

The leaders of religious right organizations like the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family believe they won the election for President Bush and Congressional Republicans. The Republicans have mortgaged the countries future to the Religious Right. The bill is due and they want to get paid.

How does Chief Justice Pat Robertson sound?

Senate Filibuster and Terri Schiavo

Politically Charged Case is Part of Campaign By Conservative
Christians to Gain Control of U.S. Courts

It would be nice little fairy tale to think that Terry Schiavo's parents were just an innocent couple trying to save their daughter who were helped out by some nice Christian people.  But the reality is that in their desperation, they sold their soul to a far right Christian legal organization that turned their daughter’s tragedy into part of a well-coordinated legal, political and public relations battle to break down the separation of church and state and place conservative, anti-abortion judges on the nation’s courts.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a legal organization founded and funded by conservative Christian minister Pat Robertson, got involved in the Schiavo case more than two years ago when they petitioned a Florida state court for the right to represent the Schindler's, Terri Schiavo’s parents. And from that point on, it can certainly be argued that it was the ACLJ and their like-minded brethren that pushed the Schiavo matter into the boiling caldron of national debate over the federal judiciary and the nomination process.

 Led by chief counsel Jay Sekulow, recently named by Time Magazine as one of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals, the ACLJ brought its considerable legal and financial resources to bear in the Florida state court battle against Michael Schiavo. Failing to persevere there, the ACLJ and their conservative colleagues called on Congress to push through an unprecedented congressional measure asking the federal courts to intervene in the Schiavo matter. Using their website, which reaches more than 3.5 million viewers each month, and their radio program “Jay Sekulow Live” heard in more than 550 markets across the country, the ACLJ mobilized supporters to pressure members of Congress to pass the measure. Once they got their way, with the eye of the nation’s news media focused like a laser beam on the debacle, the ACLJ filed multiple motions on behalf of the Schindler’s, seeking to get federal or state courts to intervene.  They were rejected at every turn.   

But while they lost the legal battle, the ACLJ may have won what they really wanted, to use the Schiavo Case to mobilize their base in the battle to gain control of the nation’s judicial branch. The flowers hadn’t wilted on Terri Schiavo’s grave before the ACLJ had launched a nationwide petition drive calling for the elimination of the Senate filibuster, a move that may enable Republicans to ram through the nominations of conservative, anti-abortion judges to the federal judiciary, including expected appointments to the United States Supreme Court.
Writing on the ACLJ website, Sekulow said “The American people clearly understand now -- especially after the death of Terri Schiavo -- that judges do make a difference.  At the same time, it is clear that we seem headed for a showdown in the U.S. Senate over a rules change to eliminate the unconstitutional use of the judicial filibuster.”  Linking the Schiavo case to the judicial nomination process, Sekulow has used the ACLJ website to garner more than 40,000 signatures for its petition drive, telling supporters that the battle over the senate filibuster is about control of the Supreme Court and the appointment of conservative, pro-life judicial nominees.
 
Meanwhile, the ACLJ staff has been providing the Republican Senate leadership advice on how to structure and justify an end to the Senate filibuster. At the same time, Sekulow himself has been working as one of three senior advisors helping President Bush to shepherd the nomination of judicial candidates through the Senate approval process.

Given the negative response of the public to Congressional involvement in the Schiavo matter, some elected leaders have sought to step away from the religious fervor that has come to surround the judicial nomination process. But the ACLJ and others at places like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council have kept up the pressure for eliminating the Filibuster.  And with the Senate apparently headed for a vote that may bring an end to more than 200 years of Senate procedure, it looks like they may have gotten their way.  They may get the judges they want, judges that will overturn Roe v. Wade, and side with the ACLJ and others in litigation seeking to break down the separation of church and state.

I wonder if they will even stop to write a thank you note to Terri Schiavo’s parents.