Can Arabs Stomach Rice?
Bush picks confidante Condoleeza Rice to replace Colin Powell.
Let me be clear, I respect Condi Rice. Can I call you Condi? She finished her graduate studies at DU in my home town. She is an accomplished pianist, which as a musician, I respect. She is master of Russian (which would have helped about 20 years ago-Woops!).
However, I have seen the way she has handled her position as National Security Advisor in Bush's administration, and she is nothing but a mouthpiece. I understand that to work for Bush, you must 'fall in' lockstep with policy and positions. Even the flawless Colin Powell had to do so, much to his dismay. But the new cabinet has increasingly become an ideologue thinktank for the Bushies. That is not what it is supposed to be. It should be a place where brilliant people with strong ideals argue about how best to use retraint and when and where we can no longer do so. It should be a place where people who posess knowledge about areas the president couldn't possibly master are able to pursuade him/her with reason. Honestly, how much do you think Bush knows about the geopolitical environment in Sino-china? The Cabinet should be a group of people , ever representing the reasoning of a great and powerful democracy, devising ways to help the rest of the world while protecting our interests at home and abroad. Instead it has become the proving ground for policy that has been overwhelmingly made pre-emptively.
A few examples: Do you honestly think that Mr. Powell would have created a policy in Africa (ravaged by birth defects, over-population and HIV/AIDS) whereby women are not given contraceptives or reproductive advice outside of abstinence at clinics who receive more than 20% of their funding from the United States? No. He would not have. That is the Secretary of State's job! But he had to go there and bear the bad news on behalf of an administration trying to spread their version of the 'gospel.' (note: abstinence was not a tenet of Christianity until at least 250 years after Jesus Christ's death or not death)
Do you honestly believe that Tony Snow would invite the Chinese to devalue the dollar and literally pick and choose whent heir interest rates rise and fall to buoy the U.S. dollar? No. No economist would dream of it.
Spencer Abraham is a very solid man, exiting head of the Energy Department. A former Senator from Michigan who railed against the Energy Department's lack of a future vision to deal with energy dependence. He gets in the cabinet and then is directed to slam through Bush's policy on such 'forward thinking' initiatives as "Expanded logging in Wilderness" and "Opening up Methane Resources in The Colorado- Wyoming Basin" and let's not forget about the coveted "OIL FOR MOOSES exchange" in Alaska!!! He could not get it through because congress has some democrats.
There are countless other examples. But the new Cabinet is increasingly becoming dangerous. Planning and plotting with faith based policy. A skewed eye toward the end time vision that Bush/Rove share. They feel it is manifest destiny.
Colin Powell will be the first Black President of the United States if he wants to be, and honestly, who would? I would vote for this man. But he is probably way too smart to run for president. That is why we have Bushes!!! Jeb's next.
Let me be clear, I respect Condi Rice. Can I call you Condi? She finished her graduate studies at DU in my home town. She is an accomplished pianist, which as a musician, I respect. She is master of Russian (which would have helped about 20 years ago-Woops!).
However, I have seen the way she has handled her position as National Security Advisor in Bush's administration, and she is nothing but a mouthpiece. I understand that to work for Bush, you must 'fall in' lockstep with policy and positions. Even the flawless Colin Powell had to do so, much to his dismay. But the new cabinet has increasingly become an ideologue thinktank for the Bushies. That is not what it is supposed to be. It should be a place where brilliant people with strong ideals argue about how best to use retraint and when and where we can no longer do so. It should be a place where people who posess knowledge about areas the president couldn't possibly master are able to pursuade him/her with reason. Honestly, how much do you think Bush knows about the geopolitical environment in Sino-china? The Cabinet should be a group of people , ever representing the reasoning of a great and powerful democracy, devising ways to help the rest of the world while protecting our interests at home and abroad. Instead it has become the proving ground for policy that has been overwhelmingly made pre-emptively.
A few examples: Do you honestly think that Mr. Powell would have created a policy in Africa (ravaged by birth defects, over-population and HIV/AIDS) whereby women are not given contraceptives or reproductive advice outside of abstinence at clinics who receive more than 20% of their funding from the United States? No. He would not have. That is the Secretary of State's job! But he had to go there and bear the bad news on behalf of an administration trying to spread their version of the 'gospel.' (note: abstinence was not a tenet of Christianity until at least 250 years after Jesus Christ's death or not death)
Do you honestly believe that Tony Snow would invite the Chinese to devalue the dollar and literally pick and choose whent heir interest rates rise and fall to buoy the U.S. dollar? No. No economist would dream of it.
Spencer Abraham is a very solid man, exiting head of the Energy Department. A former Senator from Michigan who railed against the Energy Department's lack of a future vision to deal with energy dependence. He gets in the cabinet and then is directed to slam through Bush's policy on such 'forward thinking' initiatives as "Expanded logging in Wilderness" and "Opening up Methane Resources in The Colorado- Wyoming Basin" and let's not forget about the coveted "OIL FOR MOOSES exchange" in Alaska!!! He could not get it through because congress has some democrats.
There are countless other examples. But the new Cabinet is increasingly becoming dangerous. Planning and plotting with faith based policy. A skewed eye toward the end time vision that Bush/Rove share. They feel it is manifest destiny.
Colin Powell will be the first Black President of the United States if he wants to be, and honestly, who would? I would vote for this man. But he is probably way too smart to run for president. That is why we have Bushes!!! Jeb's next.
posted by Michael St. James at 2:54 PM
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