Friday, September 24, 2004

True Christians & True Conservatives TAKE ACTION: Visit Rhino's ACT Web Page Thousands of ACT (Americans Coming Together) volunteers will flood the battleground states in the coming weeks.  ACT's 77 field offices and paid canvassing teams will be the backbone of a truly historic  effort.  The voter canvassing volunteers will fight for every single vote it takes to elect Democrats up & down the ticket on November 2nd. But your help is needed. If you can volunteer to go to a swing state & canvass, GREAT! If not, how 'bout contributing the cost of one days van rental which averages $140. You van will shuttle the volunteers & paid canvassers from the offices to the doorsteps of targeted voters. Rhino is  committed to raising $5000 before  the month ends. Make your contribution to ACT at:    http://acthere.com/seeUser.php?memberID=4995 "SEND THIS BLOG TO A REPUBLICAN VOTING CHRISTIAN!" FEATURED ARTICLES - U.S. Policies Causing "Iron Curtain" To Fall, AFP - REPORT: Our Nation's Kids and Public Schools Left Behind, Mobilization For Great Public Schools - Compassion Gap Between President Bush's Words and Actions, Christians for Kerry/Edwards - BOTTOM LINE:  True Conservatives Would Back Kerry, By Robert Scheer, LA Times QUOTE OF THE DAY In 2000, candidate Bush, pretending to be conservative, said he was against "nation-building." Now, led by radical ideologues way outside the conservative mainstream, he's got us trying to build two nations - and failing - with many in his administration hoping to take on a few more in a second term. Talk about flip-flopping. - - Robert Scheer  (From today's RHINO's BOTTOM LINE) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - September 24th 1968 -- The CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" premiered on CBS-TV on a Tuesday night. Don Hewitt created and produced the TV news show, which only last week became a major news story itself. 1969 -- The Chicago 8 Conspiracy Trial begins. David Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Thomas Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, John Froines, Lee Weiner & Bobby Seale go on trial before Judge Julius Hoffman. It's a broad conspiracy trial stemming from the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests. The trial sought (unsuccessfully) to imprison 8 of the country's leading anti-war protest organizers. RHINO HERE: This week, Pakistan's president Perez Musharraf warned the United Nations General Assembly that  a new "iron curtain" is falling between the Islamic world & the West.  This due to Muslim world opinion that while the US makes whatever moves it deems necessary to secure natural resources in Muslim lands, including brute force, it  then justifies its actions in the name of peace, while calling any forceful reactions by Muslims, "terrorism."  This is not The Rhino saying this, folks. This is a supposed ally of the Bush administration. U.S. Policies Causing "Iron Curtain" To Fall AFP: 9/23/2004  ISLAMABAD, Sept 23 (AFP) READ IT AT: Iron Curtain So while the bush administration's preemptive, unilateral, mad cowboy foreign policies & actions continue to generate more & more anger across the Muslim world (& many non-Muslim countries as well), here at home, budgets continue to get sliced for everything we Americans rely on our government for, from emergency services to public schools. Below is a new report issued by The National Mobilization For Great Public Schools which details current budget cuts to education, as well as threatened post election cuts. Please don't miss the opportunity to sign their petition appealing to congress & the president to change direction regarding school funding. REPORT: Our Nation's Kids and Public Schools Left Behind The National Mobilization For Great Public Schools Every child in the United States should be guaranteed a great public education.  The basic building blocks are clear - good nutrition and health care, quality pre-school, small classes, skilled teachers, safe and modern schools, after school programs and affordable college.  But the White House and Congress are failing to provide the basics.  Worse, the White House now plans to cut education programs in the first budget after the election. TOPICS: - Broken Promises on Pre-School - Post- Election Threat to Pre-School - Broken Promises to Our Public Schools - Post- Election Threats to Our Public Schools - Broken Promises on Higher Education - Post- Election Threats to Higher Education READ THE DETAILS OF THIS REPORT AT: Our Nation's Kids SIGN A PETITION APPEALING TO CONGRESS & THE PRESIDENT Please call on the President and Congress to keep their promises to our children, and increase, not cut, funding for our schools! All petition signatures will be hand-delivered to the President and members of Congress the first week of October. SIGN THE PETITION AT: Petition So what happened to the "compassionate conservative" agenda that George W. Bush promised during his 2000 election campaign?  The Rhino ponders how is it that common major media knowledge would have us believe that the majority of Christian believers support this president? Where is the Christian belief in compassion for the poor? Or turning the other cheek? Who would Jesus bomb?  Here is an important article from a Christian American perspective that contrasts Bush to both George Washington & to Jesus. "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN VOTING CHRISTIAN!" The Compassion Gap Between President Bush's Words and Actions By J.J. Hutson, Christians for Kerry/Edwards, via Democrats.com Christians for Kerry/Edwards takes a hard-hitting look at Bush's "compassion gap." A Christian writer has unearthed a quote from President George Washington, which sounds like our country's first president would have taken Bush to the woodshed for failing to prevent the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. In 1775, General Washington penned a letter to Colonel Benedict Arnold, putting this officer on notice that he would be held accountable for the conduct of his soldiers as they marched through a foreign country (Canada). General Washington charged Arnold to ensure that his soldiers "look with compassion" on the local residents and respect their religion. "Bush ignored the example of President George Washington and utterly failed to 'look with compassion' upon people of another country. The Iraqi occupation has disintegrated into a festering quagmire that breeds terrorists. As a result, America is more hated and less safe." READ IT AT: Compassion Gap Finally, today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is Robert Scheer addressing the irony of so many supposed conservatives supporting a man & an administration so opposed to basic political conservative ideology. 9:15:40 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - True Conservatives Would Back Kerry "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" True Conservatives Would Back Kerry By Robert Scheer, LA Times, September 21, 2004 If they were true to their principles, moderate Republicans and consistent conservatives would be supporting John Kerry. Instead, their acquiescence to the reckless whims of George W. Bush marks a descent into that political abyss of opportunism where partisanship is everything and principle nothing. How else to explain their cynical support for this shallow adventurer, a phony lightweight who has bled the Treasury dry while incompetently squandering the lives of young Americans in a needless imperial campaign? If Al Gore had been knighted president by the Supreme Court and overseen this mess instead of Dubya, the rational remnant of the Republican Party would be rightly calling for his head. Instead, a century's worth of conservative ideals are tossed out the window for political expediency. Soaring budget deficits suddenly don't matter, and not a tear is shed for the wasted surplus accumulated during Bill Clinton's tenure. Despite two huge tax cuts for the super-rich, Bush turns out to be a big believer in that old GOP boogeyman, Big Government. An equal-opportunity spendthrift, he throws billions into the sinkhole of Iraq as easily as he doles out corporate handouts. In the newspapers we read about American mothers and fathers working in deadly Iraq as drivers and security guards because they can't find work at home. More than a million jobs have been lost since the end of the prosperous Clinton era, while real wages are stagnant. The rich have enjoyed unprecedented tax breaks even as the middle class has eroded and millions have fallen below the poverty line. Healthcare costs are spiraling, nothing has been done to shore up Social Security and Medicare against the impending flood of retiring baby boomers, and the number of those without medical insurance is a national embarrassment - though perhaps not to the former governor of Texas, a state that far and away leads the country in this disquieting statistic. Bush's startling inattention to our serious problems is explained away by reference to the new burden of the war on terror. How odd, then, to note that it was Bush's preoccupation with Iraq both before and after 9/11 that has left us so vulnerable to Muslim hatred and terrorist attacks. Before Sept. 11, 2001, ignored warnings and flaccid response; afterward, a campaign of lies to justify a military occupation at the Muslim world's heart... MORE AT: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-oe-scheer21sep21,1,4909556.column?coll=la-util-elect2004 OR http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/19946 Rhino's Blog is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. Feedback & requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. (rhino@kifaru.com) Search the Rhino's Blog Archives, The Daily Rhino Photo, and lots of links at  (http://www.rhinosblog.info) Rhino's Other Web Sites: http://www.dreamcatchers.org  (Indigenous Assistance & Intercultural Dialog) http://www.kifaru.com  (Native American Relations Video Documentaries) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 7:48:24 AM    comment

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