BuzzFlash
presents Southern Style
by Rebecca Knight
September 2, 2002
Laboring for America!
by Rebecca Knight
In honor of Labor Day 2002, I share with you the labor of famous citizens, patriots all, through their quotes. Some are historical. Some are humorous. Some are sad. Some are prescient. Some are hard hitting. All are relevant to events of our times.
I honor all Americans who labor through word and deed in support of the patriotic ideals of America. Enjoy your holiday America!
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"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."H. L. Mencken
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"Face it: a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
Garrison Keillor
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"I'll tell you, Janet Reno was a much better attorney general than John Trashcroft. If they put this guy's brain in a hummingbird, it would fly backwards."James Carville
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"Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all."
Michael Rivero
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"Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them."Lily Tomlin
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"I believe the enemy has awakened a spirit in this country that understands in order to fight evil, in order to fight evil – that in order to fight evil, you can do so by loving your neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself."
George W. Bush
MY COMMENT: Hey George! Protestors are your neighbors, too. Would you
like to be pepper sprayed or shot at with rubber bullets?
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"Speaking of Ashcroft, after spending a year on the investigation that netted 12 hookers in New Orleans, he has now announced that he is going after deadbeat dads, surely a more socially useful thing to do. But given his record on tracking down whatever terrorists may be lurking among us, the single mothers of the nation shouldn't get their hopes up."Molly Ivins
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"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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"The only way to win World War III is to prevent it."President Dwight David Eisenhower
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"President Bush's administration has squandered a budget surplus, left the economy adrift, had some of its biggest campaign contributors plead guilty to corporate fraud and handled the war on terrorism so ineptly that the United States finds itself with little support in the world despite being horrifically attacked less than a year ago."
James Carville
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"I am familiar with the arguments against taking action in the case of Saddam Hussein. Some concede that Saddam is evil, power hungry and a menace, but that until he crosses the threshold of actually possessing nuclear weapons we should rule out any preemptive action. That logic seems to me to be deeply flawed. The argument comes down to this: 'Yes, Saddam is as dangerous as we say he is, we just need to let him get stronger before we do anything about it.'"Dick Cheney
MY COMMENT: Hey Dick! Every powerful nation in the world gets a little
more powerful as time passes. Are we going to preemptively strike them
all? How about China, North Korea, etc.? No? Why not? They don't have
any oil? And Dick, where were you during Vietnam. Another chickenhawk
demanding war!
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"How many dictators who ended up killing thousands, should we have stopped in their tracks?"Condi Rice
MY COMMENT: Uh Condi, how many thousands of Americans could lose their
lives going after Saddam? And once we get him, what will happen next?
And how man Arab nations will just sit idly by and watch us take this
action?
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"Bush, himself the most intellectually backward American president [sic] of my political lifetime, is surrounded by advisers whose bellicosity is exceeded only by their political, military and diplomatic illiteracy."Gerald Kaufman, Former British Labour Minister
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"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."John Kenneth Galbraith
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"A lecture from George Bush on business ethics? That's like getting a facial from a leper."Robin Williams
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"The problem is that the whole myth of the liberal media bias is preposterous because nobody who owns a broadcast license, or a newspaper, is a Democrat. They're all screaming on the right. And the flap about the liberal media bias was manufactured by the right wing. The right wing goes to some of their friends in another part of the right wing and says, "You attack my network. You say that CBS is too liberal and that gives us the license to behave more conservatively in order to appear to be fair." Thereby pushing any liberal idea completely out of their broadcast, and doing it in a way that's saying, "We're doing this to provide balance." Perfect fakeout. Because that's exactly what the people always wanted to do to begin with. The demise of the Red Lion Decision guaranteeing equal time for opposing points of view in a political situation – they got rid of that last year, or the year before. Most people don't even know that regulation doesn't exist anymore. It is no longer required of a broadcaster to give equal time to the opposition. And so removal of that regulation, combined with the desire to have only one point of view presented to the American public, has given them this great opportunity in this election."Frank Zappa
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"All I know is 18 months ago we had a surplus."Hillary Clinton
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"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."James Baldwin
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"If the Republicans stop telling lies about us, we will stop telling the truth about them."Adlai Stevenson
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"Bush went to Oregon today with the message, 'Only you can prevent trees.' After surveying the damage from some of Oregon's wildfires the president gave a speech blaming the fires on the government's forest policy and on conservationist lawsuits. His answer – the Healthy Forest Initiative. Critics say it's nothing more than putting the logging industry in charge of the nation's forests. Hey, it worked when he put his friends at Enron in charge of the nation's energy policy, didn't it?"James Carville
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"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."Charles Austin Beard
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"Those who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings, call this a New Order. It is not new and it is not order."President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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"President Bush handed out the Environmental Youth Awards at the White House Rose Garden. There were 33 awards handed out to youths for taking care of the environment. The awards were given out in the Rose Garden and then afterward President Bush had the kids dig up the roses and look for oil."Conan O'Brien
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"Wouldn't it be nice if just once, on some issue, the Bush administration came up with a plan that didn't involve weakened environmental protection, financial breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations and reduced public oversight?"Paul Krugman
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"When the president does it, that means it is not illegal."President Richard Milhous Nixon
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"Any fool – like, oh, say, the president – who tells you all these problems have been taken care of with the Sarbanes bill should check out the Vinson & Elkins ad. Ashcroft makes five guys do a perp walk and thinks we're dumb enough to assume that's the end of corporate fraud. It is notoriously difficult to prove fraud and I, for one, am cynical enough to believe that there is a class of people in the country called Too Rich to Go to Prison."Molly Ivins
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"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself."Mark Twain
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"Round up the usual suspects! George W. Bush's new "Healthy Forests" plan reads like a parody of his administration's standard operating procedure. You see, environmentalists cause forest fires, and those nice corporations will solve the problem if we get out of their way."Paul Krugman
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"Y'all will never get over the fact that Bill Clinton was the greatest president in the last 50 years. You'll never get over the fact that this guy in here can't walk and chew gum at the same time."James Carville
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"Well, I'm not a crook."President Richard Milhous Nixon
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"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America."President William Jefferson Clinton
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"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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Rebecca Knight is a native Tennessean, who grew up in Nashville, and currently resides in a small town near Nashville. Ms. Knight's political awareness evolved through the civil rights movement, the Vietnam era, the Watergate era, and the cold war. The debacle of the 2000 election increased her sense of responsibility for political activism. You may contact Rebecca Knight via e-mail at tennessee_gal655@yahoo.com.
© 2002 by Rebecca Knight
