Check out what W's home town paper in
Crawford, Texas had to say about his
candidacy.
Kerry Will Restore
American Dignity
2004 Iconoclast Presidential Endorsement
Few Americans would have voted for George W.
Bush four years ago if he had promised that,
as President, he would:
• Empty the Social Security trust fund by
$507 billion to help offset fiscal
irresponsibility and at the same time slash
Social Security benefits.
• Cut Medicare by 17 percent and reduce
veterans’ benefits and military pay.
• Eliminate overtime pay for millions of
Americans and raise oil prices by 50 percent.
• Give tax cuts to businesses that sent
American jobs overseas, and, in fact, by
policy encourage their departure.
• Give away billions of tax dollars in
government contracts without competitive
bids.
• Involve this country in a deadly and
highly questionable war, and
• Take a budget surplus and turn it into the
worst deficit in the history of the United
States, creating a debt in just four years
that will take generations to repay.
These were elements of a hidden agenda that
surfaced only after he took office.
The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed
Bush four years ago, based on the things he
promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda.
Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John
Kerry, based not only on the things that
Bush has delivered, but also on the vision
of a return to normality that Kerry says our
country needs.
Four items trouble us the most about the
Bush administration: his initiatives to
disable the Social Security system, the
deteriorating state of the American economy,
a dangerous shift away from the basic
freedoms established by our founding
fathers, and his continuous mistakes
regarding terrorism and Iraq.
President Bush has announced plans to change
the Social Security system as we know it by
privatizing it, which when considering all
the tangents related to such a change, would
put the entire economy in a dramatic
tailspin.
The Social Security Trust Fund actually
lends money to the rest of the government in
exchange for government bonds, which is how
the system must work by law, but how do you
later repay Social Security while you are
running a huge deficit? It’s impossible,
without raising taxes sometime in the future
or becoming fiscally responsible now. Social
Security money is being used to escalate our
deficit and, at the same time, mask a much
larger government deficit, instead of paying
down the national debt, which would be a
proper use, to guarantee a future gain.
Privatization is problematic in that it
would subject Social Security to the ups,
downs, and outright crashes of the Stock
Market. It would take millions in brokerage
fees and commissions out of the system, and,
unless we have assurance that the Ivan
Boeskys and Ken Lays of the world will be
caught and punished as a deterrent, subject
both the Market and the Social Security Fund
to fraud and market manipulation, not to
mention devastate and ruin multitudes of
American families that would find their
lives lost to starvation, shame, and
isolation.
Kerry wants to keep Social Security, which
each of us already owns. He says that the
program is manageable, since it is projected
to be solvent through 2042, with use of its
trust funds. This would give ample time to
strengthen the economy, reduce the budget
deficit the Bush administration has created,
and, therefore, bolster the program as
needed to fit ever-changing demographics.
Our senior citizens depend upon Social
Security. Bush’s answer is radical and
uncalled for, and would result in chaos as
Americans have never experienced. Do we
really want to risk the future of Social
Security on Bush by spinning the wheel of
uncertainty?
In those dark hours after the World Trade
Center attacks, Americans rallied together
with a new sense of patriotism. We were
ready to follow Bush’s lead through any
travail.
He let us down.
When he finally emerged from his hide-outs
on remote military bases well after the
first crucial hours following the attack, he
gave sound-bytes instead of solutions.
He did not trust us to be ready to
sacrifice, build up our public and private
security infrastructure, or cut down on our
energy use to put economic pressure on the
enemy in all the nations where he hides. He
merely told us to shop, spend, and pretend
nothing was wrong.
Rather than using the billions of dollars
expended on the invasion of Iraq to shore up
our boundaries and go after Osama bin Laden
and the Saudi Arabian terrorists, the funds
were used to initiate a war with what Bush
called a more immediate menace, Saddam
Hussein, in oil-rich Iraq. After all, Bush
said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
trained on America. We believed him, just as
we believed it when he reported that Iraq
was the heart of terrorism. We trusted him.
The Iconoclast, the President’s hometown
newspaper, took Bush on his word and
editorialized in favor of the invasion. The
newspaper’s publisher promoted Bush and the
invasion of Iraq to Londoners in a BBC
interview during the time that the
administration was wooing the support of
Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Again, he let us down.
We presumed the President had solid proof of
the existence of these weapons, what and
where they were, even as the search
continued. Otherwise, our troops would be in
much greater danger and the premise for a
hurried-up invasion would be moot, allowing
more time to solicit assistance from our
allies.
Instead we were duped into following yet
another privileged agenda.
Now he argues unconvincingly that Iraq was
providing safe harbor to terrorists, his new
key justification for the invasion. It is
like arguing that America provided safe
harbor to terrorists leading to 9/11.
Once and for all, George Bush was President
of the United States on that day. No one
else. He had been President nine months, he
had been officially warned of just such an
attack a full month before it happened. As
President, ultimately he and only he was
responsible for our failure to avert those
attacks.
We should expect that a sitting President
would vacation less, if at all, and instead
tend to the business of running the country,
especially if he is, as he likes to boast, a
“wartime president.” America is in service
365 days a year. We don’t need a part-time
President who does not show up for duty as
Commander-In-Chief until he is forced to,
and who is in a constant state of blameless
denial when things don’t get done.
What has evolved from the virtual
go-it-alone conquest of Iraq is more
gruesome than a stain on a White House
intern’s dress. America’s reputation and
influence in the world has diminished,
leaving us with brute force as our most
persuasive voice.
Iraq is now a quagmire: no WMDs, no
substantive link between Saddam and Osama,
and no workable plan for the withdrawal of
our troops. We are asked to go along on
faith. But remember, blind patriotism can be
a dangerous thing and “spin” will not bring
back to life a dead soldier; certainly not a
thousand of them.
Kerry has remained true to his vote granting
the President the authority to use the
threat of war to intimidate Saddam Hussein
into allowing weapons inspections. He
believes President Bush rushed into war
before the inspectors finished their jobs.
Kerry also voted against President Bush’s
$87 billion for troop funding because the
bill promoted poor policy in Iraq,
privileged Halliburton and other corporate
friends of the Bush administration to
profiteer from the war, and forced debt upon
future generations of Americans.
Kerry’s four-point plan for Iraq is
realistic, wise, strong, and correct. With
the help from our European and Middle
Eastern allies, his plan is to train Iraqi
security forces, involve Iraqis in their
rebuilding and constitution-writing
processes, forgive Iraq’s multi-billion
dollar debts, and convene a regional
conference with Iraq’s neighbors in order to
secure a pledge of respect for Iraq’s
borders and non-interference in Iraq’s
internal affairs.
The publishers of the Iconoclast differ with
Bush on other issues, including the denial
of stem cell research, shortchanging
veterans’ entitlements, cutting school
programs and grants, dictating what our
children learn through a thought-controlling
“test” from Washington rather than allowing
local school boards and parents to decide
how young people should be taught, ignoring
the environment, and creating extraneous
language in the Patriot Act that removes
some of the very freedoms that our founding
fathers and generations of soldiers fought
so hard to preserve.
We are concerned about the vast exportation
of jobs to other countries, due in large
part to policies carried out by Bush
appointees. Funds previously geared at
retention of small companies are being given
to larger concerns, such as Halliburton —
companies with strong ties to oil and gas.
Job training has been cut every year that
Bush has resided at the White House.
Then there is his resolve to inadequately
finance Homeland Security and to cut the
Community Oriented Policing Program (COPS)
by 94 percent, to reduce money for rural
development, to slash appropriations for the
Small Business Administration, and to
under-fund veterans’ programs.
Likewise troubling is that President Bush
fought against the creation of the 9/11
Commission and is yet to embrace its
recommendations.
Vice President Cheney’s Halliburton has been
awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts
without undergoing any meaningful bid
process — an enormous conflict of interest —
plus the company has been significantly
raiding the funds of Export-Import Bank of
America, reducing investment that could have
gone toward small business trade.
When examined based on all the facts,
Kerry’s voting record is enviable and echoes
that of many Bush allies who are aghast at
how the Bush administration has destroyed
the American economy. Compared to Bush on
economic issues, Kerry would be an
arch-conservative, providing for Americans
first. He has what it takes to right our
wronged economy.
The re-election of George W. Bush would be a
mandate to continue on our present course of
chaos. We cannot afford to double the debt
that we already have. We need to be moving
in the opposite direction.
John Kerry has 30 years of experience
looking out for the American people and can
navigate our country back to prosperity and
re-instill in America the dignity she so
craves and deserves. He has served us well
as a highly decorated Vietnam veteran and
has had a successful career as a district
attorney, lieutenant governor, and senator.
Kerry has a positive vision for America,
plus the proven intelligence, good sense,
and guts to make it happen.
That’s why The Iconoclast urges Texans not
to rate the candidate by his hometown or
even his political party, but instead by
where he intends to take the country.
The Iconoclast wholeheartedly endorses John
Kerry.
http://news.iconoclast-texas.com/web/Columns/Editorial/editorial39.htm
Tom Barger
ShadowMom
mroop
jsk2001
INeedAlover
Pagan
