- To paraphrase Forrest Gump, going to the White House
web site is like a box of chocolates you never know what you're gonna get.
It may be some hilarious prevarication by press secretary Tony Snow or
it may be the usual verbal bumbling or outright lies by George W. Bush
in one of his speeches. But one place that's always sure to give you a
you-can't-make-this-stuff-up moment, is going to the section giving Bush's
presidential proclamations.
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- In 2006 alone, we've seen hypocritical celebrations that
included the irony of Child Health Day -- from an administration that's
done nothing to make American children healthier -- to a warmonger like
Bush lauding Prayer for Peace day and the grotesque spectacle of Gold
Star Mother's Day being heralded by a man who is responsible for creating
so many new Gold Star Mothers.
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- We have another one to add to that collection because,
whether you realize it or not, we're smack-dab in the middle of what Bush
has officially proclaimed National Character Counts Week. It runs October
15 through October 21 and is intended, according to Bush, to "renew
our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging
all Americans to remember the importance of good character."
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- "As individuals, we all have an obligation to help
our children become responsible citizens and realize their full potential,"
reads the Bush proclamation. "By demonstrating values such as integrity,
courage, honesty, and patriotism, all Americans can help our children develop
strength and character."
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- Fortunately, in our household, we have a child who truly
is being taught these values and we hold up this president and his lying,
corrupt administration as examples of everything our little boy does not
want to be.
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- Of every president in United States history, how hypocritical
is it for George W. Bush to talk about integrity and honesty? This is a
guy who ran for president saying that "it's time to restore honor
and dignity to the White House" and then proceeded to set new records
for lying to the American people, while making the United States the most
despised, disrespected country in the world.
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- The president who speaks so stridently about honesty
is the same guy who got people to vote for him by claiming over and over
that he was a "uniter not a divider" and then went on to bitterly
divide this country more than it has been since our own Civil War.
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- And, sadly, the biggest example of this administration's
adherence to honesty and integrity is how they lied about weapons of mass
destruction and the bogus connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin
Laden to force us to war with Iraq -- and continued to do so even after
evidence to the contrary became public knowledge.
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- "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found
biological laboratories...for those who say we haven't found the banned
manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them,"
said Bush in May of 2003, despite the fact that, well, that wasn't true.
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- I also don't recall in grades K-12, my time in the military
or my subsequent four years of college leaning that it was part of our
national "character" to unilaterally invade a sovereign country
with no justification and with no direct threat to us but, hey, maybe I
missed that day of class. I'm also pretty damn sure that our national character
isn't embodied in the number of Republicans who have been nailed for everything
from accepting bribes to money laundering in the last few years and I think
the court of public opinion has already weighed in on how much character
it takes for the GOP to launch a major cover-up to protect one of their
pedophiles in Congress.
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- I don't have the space required to outline every bit
of dishonesty and lack of character shown by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and
their whole cabal of miscreants, but it also includes Bush lying about
his party's wedge issue of the new decade -- gay marriage.
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- "The state can do what they want to do. Don't try
to trap me in this state's issue like you're trying to get me into,"
said Bush, to Larry King, while running for president in 2000. Of course,
we know what's happened since -- gotta pay those debts to the Religious
Right -- because there was Bush in February of 2004 saying "Today
I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for
ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting
marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife."
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- Bush ends his stirring proclamation saying "National
Character Counts Week is an opportunity to recognize the depth of America's
character and appreciate those who pass on our values to future generations."
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- It's a good thing that our children learning honesty,
integrity and character begins at home or the "future generations"
might waste time looking for it in this president, his administration and
the Republican-controlled Congress -- which, of course, would be like trying
to find WMD in Iraq.
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