FEATURED ARTICLES
- Kucinich Takes Roads Less Traveled, Washington Post
- United States National Debt (1938 to Present), cedarcomm.com
- Reagan and the Russians, Atlantic Monthly
- Kerry: Bush Army Plan Is 'Backdoor Draft', AP
- Tenet leaves CIA's Reputation in Tatters, by Scott Ritter, Newsday
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Ronald Reagan and many of us disagreed on one issue or another, but he always disagreed with a smile, without partisanship. I think he had a sense of idealism and a sense of optimism of the possibilities about our country that define leadership. We will miss him, no matter what party, no matter what our beliefs. He was a leader, and we'll miss him."
- - Senator John Kerry
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JUNE 7th
1971 -- US Supreme Court rules 5-4 that wearing a jacket that reads "Fuck the Draft" is protected by the First amendment.
1982 -- US President Ronald Reagan visits Pope John Paul II and suggests that God saved their lives and must have some special task in mind for them. The Pope agrees and they become even closer. Word has it they conspired to crush the evil communist empire.
2001 -- US President George Bush signs a $1.35-trillion tax cut, mostly for the rich; supposed to stimulate the economy, which quickly goes further into the tank; "Balanced Budget" & other "Free Market" rightwingers have federal & state deficits soaring to new heights. Shrub does it again in 2003, with 85% of the cut going to the richest in America.
RHINO HERE:
The Monday agenda's as follows:
1) Responding to Rhino's less that 100% commentary on the anniversary of the passing of Robert Kennedy, Rhino's Blog reader & editor of Indian Country Today, Jose Barreiro writes:
The world's peoples owe Bobby Kennedy big time. He saved our all our lives. Bobby was the brilliant lynchpin who figured out the communications key with Nikita Khrushchev for how to save the world from certain nuclear war during the "October Crisis" or Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
2) The BOTTOM LINE today contains Scott Ritter's take on the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet. As "President Kerry" searches for his cabinet, The Rhino hopes he'll keep Mr. Ritter in mind. CIA Chief possibly?
3) Congressman Dennis Kucinich continues his Presidential campaign, tallying more delegates & heading for the Democratic Convention, hoping to pull the party left. Here's some coverage of his travels in today's Washington Post. (You'll need to register to access the site but it's fast & free to do so.
Kucinich Takes Roads Less Traveled in Bid
Campaign Stops in Neglected Areas Help Democrat Net 70 Convention Delegates
By Evelyn Nieves, Washington Post, June 7, 2004
...For several months, Kucinich has made it a point to visit some of the most forgotten corners of the country -- public housing complexes, down-and-out main streets and the like -- to call attention to poverty, which he calls "a weapon of mass destruction." At each turn, he launches into lengthy discussions on the need to pull out of Iraq, the invasion of which he voted against, and his proposals for a Cabinet-level "Department of Peace," which would apply Gandhian principles to curbing violence, both domestic and global.
Until May, Kucinich's campaign gained little traction. He had won 40 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, out of 4,322. Kerry had won enough delegates by early March to secure the nomination. But after the primaries and caucuses in Maine, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon, Kucinich suddenly had 70 delegates. In Missoula, Mont., late last month, he spoke at a jampacked theater. The audience greeted him with a standing ovation. The television talk shows, which had all but ignored him all year, have started calling. The campaign hopes to go into the convention with about 80 delegates, after the last primaries are counted. Kucinich is hoping that those delegates will help give him a platform on which to discuss why the country should leave Iraq, and how. "This is why I've stayed in the race," he said...
IT'S ALL AT: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20705-2004Jun6.html
4) In today's Quote Of The Day, John Kerry's comment on the passing of Ronald Reagan shows how many people who knew the man had strong disagreements on principles & policies, yet still liked him, even saying they were inspired by his optimism. Some say of The Gipper that he maintained a civility even with his critics, something lacking in the attack mentality of today's discourse. Here's a few more:
"The warmth of his personality always showed through."
- - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, (D-Mass)
"He was a very charismatic president and had a very friendly nature that people responded to."
- - Former Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio)
"Whether you agreed or disagreed with Ronald Reagan, you can't deny that he was honest, fought hard for what he believed in, and had the courage of his convictions."
- - Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-NY)
"More than any President in modern times, he understood the essential optimism of the American people. He evoked it and exemplified it. His passing at this troubling hour in our national experience therefore is exceedingly sad and leaves a great void."
- - Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Taking into consideration, the spirit of the comments above, and the Rhino's appreciation of Mrs. Reagan's recent courageous support for stem cell research, still, the Rhino feels the need to offset the current love fest to remind those that may not remember, that President Reagan's anti communist zealotry, & his misunderstanding of the plight of the poor in Latin America contributed significantly to the deaths of thousands of impoverished Indians in Guatemala, El Salvador & elsewhere. This via his enthusiastic support of repressive military run regimes, who's leaders were trained at the infamous US Army School Of The Americas.
Without harping too hard on the man before he's been moved from dust to dust, I do offer 2 articles addressing aspects of the Reagan legacy sure to be debates in these next few weeks; the end of the cold war & the US economy.
United States National Debt (1938 to Present)
An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible For Excessive Spending
By Steve McGourty, 6 July 2003
The chart below shows the United Stated national debt (per Microsoft's Encarta Encyclopedia[1]) with the various Presidents' terms marked by vertical lines. Under Clinton the growth in debt ceased, but note the radical change in direction debt has taken since George W. Bush entered office. There is no question that the steepest upward rises in debt take place when Conservative Republican Presidents are in office (see red below).
http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm
Reagan and the Russians
The Cold War ended despite President Reagan's arms buildup, not because of it--or so former President Gorbachev told the authors
by Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein, Atlantic Monthly, February 1994
Shortly after the Berlin Wall was torn down, prominent political leaders and commentators concluded that the U.S. military buildup under President Ronald Reagan had won the Cold War... ... If American defense spending had bankrupted the Soviet economy, forcing an end to the Cold War, Soviet defense spending should have declined as East-West relations improved. CIA estimates show that it remained relatively constant as a proportion of the Soviet gross national product during the 1980s, including Gorbachev's first four years in office. Soviet defense spending was not reduced until 1989 and did not decline nearly as rapidly as the overall economy... ... The Carter-Reagan military buildup did not defeat the Soviet Union. On the contrary, it prolonged the Cold War. Gorbachev's determination to reform an economy crippled in part by defense spending urged by special interests, but far more by structural rigidities, fueled his persistent search for an accommodation with the West. That persistence, not SDI, ended the Cold War.
IT'S ALL AT: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/foreign/reagrus.htm
5) Here Democratic Senator Kerry' speaks out on the shrub gang's "stop loss" policy.
Kerry: Bush Army Plan Is 'Backdoor Draft'
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press, 6/3/04
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. - Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry said Thursday that the Bush administration has instituted a "backdoor draft" by requiring thousands of soldiers to stay in the military if their units are ordered to Iraq or Afghanistan. Kerry said the Pentagon's announcement of the "stop-loss" program Wednesday may have increased the forces by 30,000 troops. "But this has happened on the backs of the men and women who've already fulfilled their obligation to the armed forces and to our country - and it runs counter to the traditions of an all-volunteer Army," he said during a speech on modernizing the military at the Truman Presidential Library. "They have effectively used a stop-loss policy as a backdoor draft," he said...
MORE: Backdoor Draft
8:24:51 AM 
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