|
 |
Monday, August 23, 2004 |
Thomas Jefferson:
The legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, ... thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
Letter, January 1, 1802, to Nehemiah Dodge and Others. From: The Portable Thomas Jefferson, p. 303, edied by Merrill D. Peterson (1975).
This is why the founding fathers proposed a seperation of church and state.
Tom DeLay:
Ladies and gentlemen, Christianity offers the only viable, reasonable, definitive answer to the questions of 'Where did I come from?' 'Why am I here?' 'Where am I going?' 'Does life have any meaningful purpose?' Only Christianity offers a way to understand that physical and moral border. Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world -- only Christianity.
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) at the First Baptist Church of Pearland, Texas, on April 12, 2002
The judges need to be intimidated, they need to uphold the Constitution. If they don't behave, we're going to go after them in a big way.
John Ashcroft:
Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus.
Commencement address given on May 8, 1999 at Bob Jones University
Pat Buchanan
Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free.
Ann Coulter:
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.
Newspaper Column, September 2001.
Jerry Falwell:
If we are going to save America and evangelize the world, we cannot accommodate secular philosophies that are diametrically opposed to Christian truth.
"Moral Majority Report," September, 1984.
Bailey Smith:
With all due respect to those dear people, my friend, God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew.
Bailey Smith, a founder of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, speaking during a Religious Roundtable briefing in Dallas, Texas, on June 26, 1994
7:02:36 PM 
|
|
It seems a little late on Bush's part now.
The job is already done!
Bush urges end to TV attack ads by outside groups. President Bush denounced TV ads by outside groups attacking both John Kerry and himself on Monday and called for a halt to all such political efforts. [USATODAY.com Politics - Top Stories]President Bush on Monday denounced campaign commercials aired by outside groups, including an ad that accuses John Kerry of lying about his combat record in Vietnam.
"That ad and every other ad" run by such groups have no place in the campaign, Bush said when asked about the commercial sponsored by Swift Boat Veterans For Truth that has roiled the race for the White House.
The group said it would not stop its new anti-Kerry ad, which will start running in three states this week.
3:29:43 PM
|
|
Jim Lehrer gets perspectives on the controversy over Kerry's war record from John O'Neill, co-founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and Tom Oliphant, a Boston Globe columnist who covered Kerry during his postwar protests in Washington. Oliphant talks about burden of proof.
click here: Tom Oliphant battles John O'Neal
10:36:06 AM
|
|
Kerry Unveils Ad Countering Attacks Over Vietnam
Nominee Accuses Bush of Smear Tactics on Military Service
By Lois Romano and David Nakamura Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 23, 2004; Page A02
John F. Kerry's campaign unveiled yesterday a new ad accusing President Bush of using the same smear tactics that he used against Sen. John McCain in 2000, as partisan surrogates swamped the news shows to argue about an issue that has dominated the campaign for more than a week. .
Article:
7:49:35 AM
|
|
Liars and Slimers segment
A fun look at the differences in journalistic integrity.
From The Gadflyer
Mad As Hell
Last night I appeared on Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, debating Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center (he’s the one with red hair and a beard; you may have seen him). If you're not familiar with the MRC, they're one of a number of well-funded conservative groups established to complain about liberal media bias.
Bozell and I were there to discuss the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. I've been on O'Reilly four times now, and the format is always the same: I'm the sacrificial liberal, there to be tag-teamed by the host (in this case guest host John Gibson) and the conservative guest. We'll get to what happened on the air in a moment, but what is of more interest is what happened afterward.After we finished, both of us returned to the green room to remove our makeup. Upon my arrival there, my feeling – as it usually is in this kind of situation – was that it wouldn't do much good for either of us to continue our argument off the air. I feel as passionately about politics as anyone, but let's face it, Brent Bozell and I are not going to convince each other of anything. In person, I try to be polite to everyone, even those whose political views I find repellent. Perhaps a little naïvely, I thought Bozell would feel the same way; we'd wipe our faces, wish each other good evening, and be on our separate ways.
But alas, it was not to be. The moment I walked in, Bozell looked at me angrily and said, "That was horseshit, what you said!" I reconstruct here the rest of the discussion as best I can recall. Although I wrote it down on the way home, a word here or there may be less than precise. Rest assured, though, the nasty parts from Bozell are verbatim:
WALDMAN: What part of it?
BOZELL: You're a liar!
WALDMAN: What are you talking about?
BOZELL: That stuff about Kerry!
WALDMAN: What, about atrocities?
BOZELL: He called them war criminals!
WALDMAN: He didn't accuse any individuals of anything.
BOZELL: You're a liar!
WALDMAN: He never accused those guys of anything.
BOZELL: John Kerry is a liar, and you're a liar!
WALDMAN: What are you talking about?
BOZELL: Fuck you!
At that, Bozell stormed out. I should note that throughout this little argument, I remained calm, partly in an attempt to diffuse Bozell's boiling rage, but also because I was genuinely having a hard time figuring out what he was trying to get across. Bozell, in contrast, looked as though his head was about to explode, his voice growing louder and his face redder. I would say that I was afraid he was going to take a swing at me, but I don't think "afraid" is quite the right word. I'm quite a few years younger than Bozell, and though I suspect he fights dirty, I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, so I'm pretty sure I could take him. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.
Read the transcript
7:45:44 AM
|
|
After Bob Dole's remarks on CNN, Mr Marshall had this to say:
Today Bob Dole suggested that one or more of John Kerry's Purple Hearts may have been fraudulent in some way because they were for "superficial wounds."
Dole knows better.
In a 1988 campaign-trail autobiography, here's how Dole described the incident that earned him his first Purple Heart: "As we approached the enemy, there was a brief exchange of gunfire. I took a grenade in hand, pulled the pin, and tossed it in the direction of the farmhouse. It wasn't a very good pitch (remember, I was used to catching passes, not throwing them). In the darkness, the grenade must have struck a tree and bounced off. It exploded nearby, sending a sliver of metal into my leg--the sort of injury the Army patched up with Mercurochrome and a Purple Heart."
-- Josh Marshall
7:22:57 AM
|
|
© Copyright 2004 John Amato.
|
|
|
