A "Can Do" 2009

The Washington Post looks at 2009 today in "The New Year - There is good reason for trepidation, but also for hope."

Most of us know about the trepidation, so let's focus on the hope.

"A new presidential administration is on the way, full of ideas and vigor."

Ideas, vigor.... YES!

And just to put a fine point on president-elect Obama's resolve to move ahead, another WaPo headline tells us that on Monday "Obama, Pelosi to Discuss Scope of Economic Package."

"Sources said Obama and Pelosi will discuss the scope and timing of the economic recovery package, which Obama has said will be his first priority upon being sworn into office. Pelosi has said her goal is to have the legislation on the new president's desk and ready to be signed on Jan. 20."

Obama's thirst to get things moving with solid policies is more than the empty Texas boast we've come to expect. As WaPo editorializes.... "Policy will matter, and in this regard it is good to know that the president-elect is not given to following the tired formulations of the left, the right and the various shills and operators who dominate so much of what passes for public discussion. He is pragmatic, open-minded and thoughtful. But, as he knows, he will also have to take on some powerful forces, those aligned with his party and those in opposition, and that will take courage.

"And in the end, of course, it will be not just policy that saves us but, as always, the energy, imagination and desire of the people -- people who see opportunity where others do not and who have the freedom to pursue it.

"Some well-known words from Abraham Lincoln, delivered to Congress in December 1862, have been cited often in the past few months. They are worth citing once more on this day: 'The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.' "

Out with dogma, in with pragmatism... out with division, in with cooperation... out with pandering, in with courage.

Yes we can!

Unveiling Bush's Legacy

"Welcome to my hanging."

So said popularity bottom-feeder President George W. Bush at the unveiling of his Union League of Philadelphia's portrait.

Continuing to entertain his receptive audience, he complimented the artist, Mark Carder, for his fine job and observed, "I was taken aback by how much gray paint you had to use."

He later remarked, "I'm especially proud to be co-recipient with a guy I call '41'... we owe our achievements to the same savvy political counselor and firm disciplinarian: Barbara."

After these witty and self-deprecating remarks The Decider made an unabashed grab for Abraham Lincoln's distinguished coattails.

The Union League presidential gallery displays portraits of every Republican president since Lincoln. Bush seized on "Abe's" controversial leadership legacy saying.... "the principles on which he stood have stood the test of time: All men are created equal under God, he said, unflinchingly throughout his presidency. Liberty was given to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth. He has taught Presidents that you must act on your principles and make tough decisions, regardless of the political consequences.

"I have been a..... I have drawn strength from his example. I have learned lessons by reading about Abraham Lincoln"

Oh, pleeeeeze.

Too bad The Decider didn't live up to his own rhetoric or Abe's example.

An editorial in today's The New York Times, "Tortured Justice," paints a far different portrait than the one Bush wants us to see.... "The nation’s courts continue to grapple with the abuses committed by President Bush’s administration in the name of fighting terrorism. The extent of the damage to American liberties, and how lasting it will be, will be told in part by the outcome of two cases that are to be heard by the federal courts."

"On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that turns on Mr. Bush’s claim that he can order people living in the United States to be detained by the military indefinitely without charges. The case involves Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar who was in the United States legally. He was declared an enemy combatant in mid-2003 and has been held in a Navy brig since then..... This intolerable reading of the law would leave a president free to suspend the rights of anyone, including American citizens."

The second case involves "a Syrian-born Canadian with no ties to terrorism who became a victim of the Bush team’s lawless policy of 'extraordinary rendition' — the outsourcing of interrogations to foreign governments known to torture prisoners.

"Mr. Arar’s ordeal began in 2002, when he was seized by federal agents as he tried to change planes on his way home to Canada from a family vacation. After being held incommunicado in solitary confinement and subjected to harsh interrogation without proper access to a lawyer, he was 'rendered' to Syria, where he was tortured. He was locked up for almost a year in a dank underground cell the size of a grave before he was finally let go."

The Union League Bush portrait depicts a benignly smiling man.... not the ruthless, law-breaking, Constitution-rending, outlaw president who destroyed the American ideal of equal justice for all. Hopefully when hanging The Decider, the Union League doesn't place his portrait anywhere near honest Abe's.

Where's Our Lincoln?

The Library of Congress has uncovered four new photos of the second inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1865.

They show the large crowds and the many soldiers who participated in an inaugural parade including African-Americans who proudly marched in the parade for the first time. Lincoln shook at least 6,000 hands that day.... a day of celebration for a country emerging from the bloody Civil War. A little over a month later Lincoln was struck down by an assassin at Ford's Theater.

Many people well remember the words from that second inaugural speech that are captured on Lincoln's memorial to "bind up the nation's wounds." But, how many recall the part of the address where he names the cause of those wounds? Here are his thoughts on that day......

"....One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union...."

While slavery constituted the "powerful interest" in the United States that took a Civil War to contain, so too are special and powerful corporate interests squeezing the lifeblood from our country now in the name of greed and profits.

The next president must stop these powerful corporate and foreign interests from stealing our hard-won Union, restore trust in the government and, yes, bind our wounds.

Freedom from Tyranny

The 4th of July!

A day where we should be able to look to our leaders to inspire, and uphold the vision of our founding fathers, who took a stand for freedom and the self-evident truths embodied in their Declaration of Independence.

Today the Flag still waves, the fireworks still awe, and the bands still march.... but most citizens don't look to the White House, Congress, or the Justice Department for principled leadership. By their base actions they have sullied the idealism embodied in that ringing declaration.

We are painfully aware of the unequal treatment under the law doled out by President Bush and his Justice Department, but John Fabian Witt today reminds us of another abandoned precept in, "A Declaration The President Ignores." (WaPo)

That precept is that war ought to be governed by law.

"In late June 1776, as the first detachments of what was to become a sizable British force were landing 90 miles away in New York, Thomas Jefferson and the Continental Congress in Philadelphia drew up charges denouncing King George III to the world. The accusations were to serve as the core of the declaration. The climatic final charges, for which the rest were prologue, indicted the king for war crimes."

Since then the United States has aligned itself with the rules of warfare.... the 1780s treaty with Prussia.... Abraham Lincoln's code for the Union Army.... Franklin Roosevelt's guidance in establishing the Nuremberg tribunal for German war criminals and his aides who wrote the U.N. charter's rules for the use of force.... and the international law regarding combatants, civilians and mercenaries embodied in the Third Geneva Convention's rules on prisoners of war.

Sadly, we've had to bear witness as our present King George has morphed into British King George III. Under the guise of national security, he has drug our nation into the muddy pits of Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons, Abu Ghraib and even "formalized" torture.

As a result, King George has fueled the rise of terrorist recruitment, has isolated us and tarnished our reputation in the eyes of the world.... what the Declaration calls "the Opinions of Mankind."

This day as we celebrate the courage it took to declare our independence in 1776, let's vow to regain that courage and declare our own independence from the tyranny of King George and his minions.

Tell them loud and clear.... "We're taking back our country!"