I NEED TO SEE BARACK'S PLAN. BECAUSE A PLAN IS IMPORTANT, YOU KNOW. ISN'T IT?
For all of those making baseless attacks on Barack as inexperienced and a man with no plan, I thought it would be useful to go back to the public face of the "PLAN" that GWB Inc. dangled in front of the American Public in 2000. The 2000 RNC Platform. Reading this makes one realize that everything that they criticized Clinton for, GWB has hosed up in spades.
It is one of the most stunning pieces of literature ever written. (link at bottom) Don't read too much of it. You'll get ill. Similar to the Monty Python Funniest Joke in the World. If you read too many words of it, you'll die.
In June of 2004, Maureen Farrell did a bang-up job chronicling the "flip-flops" that the first four years of GWB brought us. It is here...
http://www.buzzflash.com/...
Now for select snippets of the RNC 2000 Platform (in quotes below)
"Over a five year period, as surpluses continue to grow, we will return half a trillion dollars to the taxpayers who really own it, without touching the Social Security surplus." Surplus? What surplus?
"Homeownership is central to the American dream, and Republicans want to make it more accessible for everyone. That starts with access to capital for entrepreneurs and access to credit for consumers." How’s that working for everyone???
"Government also has a responsibility to protect personal privacy, which is the single greatest concern Americans now have about the Information Revolution. Citizens must have the confidence that their personal privacy will be respected in the use of technology by both business and government." FISA, SCHMISA.
Buckle up for this one... "The rule of law, the very foundation for a free society, has been under assault, not only by criminals from the ground up, but also from the top down. An administration that lives by evasion, coverup, stonewalling, and duplicity has given us a totally discredited Department of Justice. The credibility of those who now manage the nation’s top law enforcement agency is tragically eroded. We are fortunate to have its dedicated career workforce, especially its criminal prosecutors, who have faced the unprecedented politicization of decisions regarding both personnel and investigations." I frankly like Sara Taylor’s comment about "taking an oath to the president" the best.
"What happened? Eight years ago, the nation was energy confident. Our standing in the Middle East was at its zenith. The oil cartel was in retreat; gasoline was affordable, even as automotive progress reduced emissions from cars. Today, gas prices have skyrocketed, and oil imports are at all-time highs. Foreign oil now accounts for one-third of our total trade deficit. Meanwhile, domestic oil production has fallen 17 percent over the last eight years, as vast areas of the continental U.S. have been put off limits to energy leasing — though we depend on oil and natural gas for 65 percent of our energy supply." Drill, drill, tax break, ANWAR. repeat after me. Drill, drill, tax break, ANWAR.
"Without safe and efficient transport, the economy withers away. Maintaining that vital infrastructure has always been, in part, a federal responsibility, and Republicans have historically been the party of builders." But not the party of "maintainers" I live in Minnesota, eight miles from the 35W bridge.
"By reducing mandates, cutting red tape, and promoting regulatory common sense, congressional Republicans have given state and local officials unprecedented flexibility to set their own transportation priorities, from highways to bike trails." See the paragraph immediately above, Governor Pawlenty.
"When presidents fail to make hard choices, those who serve must make them instead. Soldiers must choose whether to stay with their families or to stay in the armed forces at all. Sending our military on vague, aimless, and endless missions rapidly saps morale. Even the highest morale is eventually undermined by back-to-back deployments, poor pay, shortages of spare parts and equipment, inadequate training, and rapidly declining readiness. When it comes to military health, the administration is not providing an adequate military health care system for active-duty service members and their families and for retired service members and their dependents. The nation is failing to fulfill its ethical, and legal health care obligations to those that are serving or have honorably served in the Armed Forces of the United States. " No comment. Too tragic.
"The maintenance and expansion of our national cemeteries is a solemn duty; a Republican administration will attend to it. Many of the programs designed to assist veterans cry out for modernization and reform. The American people cannot be content with the current unemployment rate of recently separated veterans, or with the significant number of veterans among the homeless." No comment.
NOW FOR THE BIGGIE- WAR, not so subtly FORESHADOWED-- "Perhaps nowhere has the inheritance of Republican governance been squandered so fatefully as with respect to Iraq. The anti-Iraq coalition assembled to oppose Saddam Hussein has disintegrated. The administration has pretended to support the removal of Saddam Hussein from power, but did nothing when Saddam Hussein’s army smashed the democratic opposition in northern Iraq in August 1996. The administration also surrendered the diplomatic initiative to Iraq and Iraq’s friends, and failed to champion the international inspectors charged with erasing Iraq’s nuclear, biological, chemical, and ballistic missile programs. When, in late 1998, the administration decided to take military action, it did too little, too late. Because of the administration’s failures there is no coalition, no peace, and no effective inspection regime to prevent Saddam’s development of weapons of mass destruction.
A new Republican administration will patiently rebuild an international coalition opposed to Saddam Hussein and committed to joint action. We will insist that Iraq comply fully with its disarmament commitments. We will maintain the sanctions on the Iraqi regime while seeking to alleviate the suffering of innocent Iraqi people. We will react forcefully and unequivocally to any evidence of reconstituted Iraqi capabilities for producing weapons of mass destruction. In 1998, Congress passed and the president signed the Iraq Liberation Act, the clear purpose of which is to assist the opposition to Saddam Hussein. The administration has used an arsenal of dilatory tactics to block any serious support to the Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella organization reflecting a broad and representative group of Iraqis who wish to free their country from the scourge of Saddam Hussein's regime. We support the full implementation of the Iraq Liberation Act, which should be regarded as a starting point in a comprehensive plan for the removal of Saddam Hussein and the restoration of international inspections in collaboration with his successor. Republicans recognize that peace and stability in the Persian Gulf is impossible as long as Saddam Hussein rules Iraq." Read that last sentence again.
The full, tragic text is at
http://www.cnn.com/...