Writers wanted…
From Micah:
Personal Democracy Forum, a new online resource focusing on the intersection of technology and politics, is seeking contributors for its website, blog and newsletter. We’re looking for seasoned journalists versed, ideally, in both the political and technology industries who are interested in covering a wide range of subjects, including: how the Internet is moving votes, money and perceptions; the digital political industry; tools and techniques of clued-in campaigns; and emergent technology-enabled democracy. Political or business journalism background a plus but not required. We’re looking for 800- to 1500-word features as well as shorter blog entries on ongoing beats. Will pay competitive freelance rates. Send resume, clips, blog info, etc to Micah L. Sifry at [email protected].
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“There is no feeling more profound than the feeling of fear a parent experiences when one of their children is serving in the military and in harm’s way.”
A Parent’s Deepest Fear
by Larry S. Rolirad
On September 17, 2004, a mother of a soldier who died in Iraq appeared at a republican campaign rally at the Colonial Fire Department in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, where First Lady Laura Bush was speaking. When the woman spoke out to Laura Bush by saying “When are YOU going to serve?” “When are YOU going to fight?” she was drowned out by the entire Bush mob of 700 republicans, who began chanting, “Four more years! Four more years!”. So much for a mother’s right to free speech. So much for republicans being for the First Amendment, or our Constitution.
The mother, Ms. Sue Niederer, of Hopewell, N.J., was wearing a T-shirt with the words “President Bush, You Killed My Son!” on the front of the shirt, and on the back of the T-shirt was a picture of her dead son. Her son was Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, who was killed in Iraq in February while trying to disarm a bomb. Republicans in the audience tried to cover-up Ms. Niederer’s T-shirt with Bush campaign signs. While Laura Bush was talking about the war and the troops, Ms. Niederer yelled out to Laura Bush to get her attention. When Ms. Niederer continued yelling out to Laura Bush asking why her son was killed, the entire mob of seven hundred republicans kept increasing the volume of their chant of “Four more years! Four more years!” So much for the republican “compassionate conservatism” for this woman filled with grief over the loss of her son.
Laura Bush never acknowledged the plea from the despondent and grief-stricken mother. She just continued reading her speech. So much for Laura Bush expressing any compassion toward another human being who was feeling so much emotional pain. Being a Bush means never having to be accountable for your actions. Being a Bush means never having to say you’re sorry. And being a Bush means never having to have any feelings for any other human being. Laura Bush takes after her mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, who callously made the following statement about our troops, “Why should we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it’s gonna happen? It’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?” This comment by Barbara Bush concerning our troops was made on ABC’s Good Morning America on March 18, 2003. Barbara Bush’s total lack of sensitivity was obviously passed on to her offspring.
When Laura Bush mentioned the troops who were over in Iraq in her speech, Ms. Niederer shouted out “When are your children going to serve?” referring to Bush’s 22-year-old twin daughters, who aren’t even in the armed services. Laura Bush said nothing and continued with her speech. Why would Laura Bush answer a question like that? After all, dying in battle is for the poor and the middle classes, certainly not for anyone in the Bush clan of cowards.
As Ms. Niederer again tried to make her voice heard she was silenced by republican thugs who grabbed her and handed her over to the Secret Service and local police. The police handcuffed her and led her out of the event. Once outside, Ms. Niederer told the police that she had a ticket and asked, “Why am I being arrested?” She was told by the police that she had entered a private event and refused to leave, according to the Trenton Times. Ms. Niederer told the police she had a ticket to the event so she wasn’t trespassing. That didn’t matter to the GOP Gestapo working for the republican party. Their job was to silence her.
After handcuffing Ms. Niederer and reading her the Miranda rights, police locked Ms. Niederer in the back of a police van like a common criminal. She was charged with defiant trespass and later released. For speaking out for her dead son, who died in Bush’s Iraq War, Ms. Niederer could have received a fine and as much as sixty days in jail. Can anyone say “Police State”? What if all of the protesters in the Boston Tea Party were arrested? The republicans are like the British who ruled the colonies and used force and other coercive tactics to stop the people from demonstrating or speaking out. Our Founding Fathers believed that “Free Speech” and “Right to Protest” were so important they put them in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Republicans believe that only the wealthy should have a right to free speech.
This republican event is an example of how much republicans have complete control over every one of their staged and scripted events. Only people who are right-wing republicans are allowed to enter one of their events. And only right-wing republicans are allowed to ask softball questions. And all questions are prescreened so GW Bush can rehearse the answers given to him by his circus-like trainers. Republicans don’t want their events televised showing someone asking GW Bush a real question, or a question he hadn’t had time to rehearse over and over again. That is why the republican mob of 700 silenced a lone grief-stricken woman. She was asking questions that Laura or George Bush don’t feel they have to answer. It is a supreme act of cowardice when republicans feel they have to silence a grieving mother who lost her only son in Bush’s Iraq War.
In a later makeshift interview following her arrest, Sue Niederer said “I was denied my freedom of speech.” Republican thugs always instruct their right-wing audiences to mindlessly chant the phrase “Four more years!” “Four more years!” over and over again if anyone tries to speak out against any of their speakers. Republicans started using this infantile, yet effective tactic during their convention a month earlier where they used the chant “Four more years” over and over again to drown out three people who managed to sneak into their four day political advertisement, otherwise known as a ‘convention’.
A week before she was arrested, in an interview with CBS NNS Correspondent David Martin, Ms. Niederer said she viewed her son’s death in Iraq as a “total waste” and “my son died for absolutely nothing”. She called the war in Iraq a “personal vendetta” of President George W. Bush. Ms Niederer said just before her son’s death what he felt about Iraq. First Lt. Seth Dvorin said “When I leave here I never want to come back! He said he thought it (the Iraq War) was useless. We weren’t going to win a war on terrorism or war on religion. It was just a guerilla war.” You never hear statements like this from our troops because there is a mandatory oath of silence placed on troops who served in Iraq and are still in Iraq fighting. A recent poll revealed that more than eighty percent of our troops in Iraq are against President Bush. The same amount believe that Bush is not doing his job. Military records even cite that more than 25 percent of all soldiers returning home are suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The line “The first casualty of war is the truth” is unfortunately very accurate. It allows predatory politicians, like GW Bush, to use war to their advantage because no dissenting views are allowed. Even President Bush told the nation, “If you are not with us, you are against us.” These are the words of a dictator in a totalitarian regime. They certainly should not be uttered by a president of the United States. Thomas Jefferson said “Dissent is healthy for a representative democracy.” President Bush does not believe there should be any dissent. And republicans who support president Bush also are opposed to anyone who disagrees with Bush. Military law dictates that no one in the military can criticize the president, since he is their commander-in-chief. Since Ms. Niederer’s son is dead, the military can’t hurt him anymore for words he shared with his mother.
In an interview with Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, May 22 and 23, 2004, Ms. Niederer said “All returning caskets from Iraq should absolutely be shown. This is the cost of war. This is reality. You hear a number. Numbers don’t mean anything but when you see a coffin you know there’s a family behind this coffin. That’s impact.” When Ms. Niederer was asked what her response was to the recent evidence that this war was waged on the basis of “misinformation” she said “I wanted to rip the president’s head off. Curse him, yell at him, call him a self-righteous bastard and a lot of other words. I think if I had him in front of me I would shoot him in the groined area. Let him suffer. And just continue shooting him there. Put him through misery, like he’s doing to everyone else. He doesn’t deserve any better.”
When asked, Are you worried that Bush could win in November? Ms. Niederer replied, “Extremely concerned. If this country allows him (GW Bush), we are the fools. We deserve everything we get or do not get from him. We are allowing him to get away with anything he wants to do. He flat out lied to us, killing our troops. He doesn’t face the fallen family. If this is what we reelect, we deserve everything we get.” If you could speak to Bush or members of Congress who support this war, what would you tell them? Ms. Niederer replied, “Trade places with the troops over there now. You go over there. You send your children, husbands, wives. Let them come back in a coffin. Let me know what you think. You aren’t worth being called president. You’re not even worth being called Mr.. Face me, talk to me the victim of your war. But you don’t have the guts to do that.”
Isn’t there one republican who believes that losing your son or daughter during war earns you a right to speak out in protest? GW Bush is obviously ashamed of our troops who are brought back to the United States in coffins. President Bush ordered all dead troops to be brought back home in the dead of night to prevent the media from recording the event and to prevent military honor guards to properly acknowledge the deceased soldiers. Bush’s order is also depriving the families of our fallen soldiers from being able to pay their respects to their loved ones immediately upon their return. Bush is terrified of the signal that 1045 flag-draped coffins would send to the American people if they were allowed to be brought back during the day. Bush is only concerned about his own political future. He couldn’t care less about our dead soldiers or their grieving families. Bush and the GOP undoubtedly used focus groups to tell them that allowing the televising of the return of flag-draped coffins would hurt their chances for reelection this November. It is a supreme act of cowardice when republicans have so much fear from even one grieving mother who lost her only son in Bush’s Iraq War. They sure do not want to face 1045 mothers of dead troops returning from Bush’s Iraq War. So they continue to hide the returning dead.
Bush and the GOP are so terrified of the truth, and the American people, that they only agreed to three debates with Senator John Kerry if direct questions from Senator Kerry would NOT be allowed. All questions would come from moderators. And I am sure that those questions will be given to Bush and his handlers before the debates. What is Bush afraid of? What is the GOP afraid of? Why are they so terrified of John Kerry’s direct questions to Bush? It is obvious that they want to protect GW Bush from himself. Bush has a long record of making gaffes and mutilating the English language. Bush and the GOP are too cowardly to be a part of an open debate, with no restrictions or limits. The GOP has agreed to having one debate in the form of a Town Hall style. But there are four pages of limitations mandated by the GOP for that debate format. Four pages!!! One example of the restrictions on the debate is this debate agreement: “If any audience member poses a question or makes a statement that is in any material way different than the question that the audience member earlier submitted to the moderator for review, the moderator will cut off the questioner and advise the audience that such non-reviewed questions are not permitted”. Talk about being cowardly. Talk about not wanting to be responsive to the American people. Talk about not wanting to be accountable to the American people. Why should you fall for Bush’s attempt to avoid the citizens of our country? Speak out. Demand that Bush agree to open and unrestricted debates. If Bush rejects your demands then he will have proven himself to be a coward.
In another related incident which occurred on Thursday, August 26, 2004, Mr. Carlos Arredondo, 44, who lives in Hollywood, Florida, felt so much grief after learning his only son was killed in Iraq that he torched a military van that was parked outside of his house. Mr. Arredondo had just been informed by three Marines that his 20 year old son, Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, was killed in Iraq. Mr. Arredondo suffered second degree burns over fifty percent of his body. Mr. Arredondo’s wife, Melida, said her husband “went crazy” when he learned that Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo, who was serving with the Marines in Iraq, had been killed fighting in Najaf. This father of the killed marine could face charges for arson, destruction of military property, and for public endangerment.
Karen Unruh-Wahrer is a Tucson, Arizona mother who recently lost her son in the Iraq War. Karen was a young 45 year old woman who just found out her son had been killed in Iraq. She was so devastated she cried uncontrollably for five days. On the fifth day, her overwhelming grief caused her to have a probable heart attack. Her son was only twenty-five years old when he was killed by insurgents in Iraq near Baghdad on September 25. He was a combat engineer who was only in Iraq less than a month when he was fatally shot during an attack on his unit.
Mrs.Unruh-Wahrer was totally consumed with the loss of her son. “Her grief was so intense…it seemed it could have harmed her, could have caused a heart attack. Her husband described it as a broken heart,” said Cheryl Hamilton, the manager of a respiratory care services facility at the University Medical Center, where Unruh-Wahrer worked as a respiratory therapist.
Five days after learning of her son’s death in Iraq, Karen saw her son’s body. That triggered such an extremely grief-stricken response she died from a broken heart just a few hours later. Her grief-stricken husband tried to perform CPR on his wife but couldn’t revive her. It was as if the pain from the loss of her son was so intense that she wanted to die. The Wahrer family is now experiencing a double tragedy, and they will be devastated for life.
Army Specialist Robert Unruh, will be buried on Friday, October 8. His mother’s body will follow her son’s in the procession to the cemetery, where she will be laid to rest next to her son.
In each of the three cases above, a parent acted out in grief after learning of their child’s death in Bush’s Iraq Corporate War. But their pleas fell on deaf ears from the entire republican party. Republicans are all pro-war and they couldn’t care less about our soldiers who are being mutilated or killed. When you question a republican about the death of a soldier they always reply with “They knew when they signed up that they could be killed. They knew. They knew.” No, they did NOT know. They signed up believing they would fight for our country. They signed up believing they would protect our country from all enemies, but Iraq never posed any threat to the United States. They signed up believing that they would fight to defend our freedoms, but Iraq never posed any threat to any of our freedoms. Our soldiers never believed that they would be sent to war to die for corrupt republican corporations, who all received multibillion dollar no-bid contracts from the Bush Regime. Lastly, they never believed that they would be sold out by their commander-in-chief to become mere cannon fodder for America’s richest people. No republican in government will ever speak to the devastated families mentioned earlier. President Bush or Vice President Cheney will never talk with the family of Army Specialist Robert Unruh. They will never talk with the family of Lance Cpl. Alexander Arredondo. And they will never talk with the family of Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin. No, they won’t talk to these families. They are too busy using government to enrich their corrupt corporate buddies who are making billions of dollars off of the bodies of our dead soldiers.
Even though Halliburton has been caught three times defrauding the American taxpayer out of millions of dollars they are suffering no penalties. Under law, if a company is under indictment and investigation, money to their contract is suspended. But President Bush is doing nothing to enforce that law.
President Bush, and Halliburton’s ex-CEO, Dick Cheney, certainly would never speak out against Halliburton for stealing money from the taxpayers. After all, Dick Cheney is still receiving millions of dollars in retirement money from Halliburton. Cheney only worked for Halliburton for five years. And in that five years he was paid a whopping 55 million dollars. And now he is receiving millions a year in retirement. How many of you could work at a company a mere five years and get an obscene amount of money in retirement? How would you like to be a CEO of a company when you had zero experience or ability to be their CEO? The only experience that Dick Cheney had with oil was having his driver pull his limousine into a full-service pump and having the attendant fill up the car with gas. And Dick Cheney had zero experience as a CEO. But, Dick Cheney had something more than experience in the oil industry. He had government contacts and boy did Dick ever cash in on them. He used his government contacts to funnel billions of dollars in contracts to the Halliburton corporation. He also was the CEO of Halliburton when the company used offshore companies to avoid paying taxes. Under Dick Cheney’s watch, offshore shell companies were formed who did business with Syria, Iran and Iraq. All three of these countries were enemy nations to the United States. Dick Cheney committed treasonous acts by secretly doing business with rouge nations. But where is the outrage?
When will people wake up and begin to denounce the cowardly republican party, and the corrupt Bush Regime? They are bankrupting our country, they are killing thousands of innocent Iraqis and Afghans, they have killed 1058 of our troops (so far), they have mutilated more than 10,000 of our troops (so far), and they are causing our country to be the most hated country on earth.
When will YOU speak out? When will YOU start to fulfill your responsibilities as a citizen of the United States and stand up to the corrupt forces which are eating away at the fabric which makes our country great? When will you start fulfilling your duties as an American?
Copyright 2004, by the Author, All Rights Reserved
My Wife, the Terrorist
by Larry S. Rolirad
I hadn’t realized my wife was a terrorist until the Bush administration’s Rod Paige informed us last Spring. Rod Paige, Bush’s Secretary of Education, called America’s largest teacher’s union a “terrorist organization”. Since President Bush didn’t condemn Rod Paige’s statement Bush must agree with him. Bush obviously must believe that teachers are terrorists too.
I had the task of telling my wife that she was a terrorist. She took the news well because she knew that no one in the Bush administration would ever make such an accusation unless it was true. President Bush has repeatedly said that “if you not with us, you are against us”. According to Bush, all teachers are against Bush and everyone in his administration.
Since my wife is now deemed a terrorist I suppose our next step should be to try to get on Osama bin Laden’s email list so my wife can get up to date on what she is supposed to do. If we can’t reach Osama then perhaps we could get in touch with one of his deputies.
My wife was first dismayed because she was considered a terrorist by the Bush regime until she started to think of it as being an opportunity to buy a new wardrobe. She has already started buying Islamic clothing such as a contemporary two piece Jilbab, a georgette hijab, a lovely Khimar, and a nice triple layered Burka. She is getting excited about fulfilling Rod Paige’s statement saying that she is a terrorist.
We don’t own any weapons or any explosive stuff so I don’t know how good my wife will be as a terrorist. Heck, we don’t even have a box cutter. Even if she had such things my wife wouldn’t know how to use them. She is hoping that Osama, or one of his followers, will teach her the fundamentals of being a terrorist. She thought maybe the leaders of Al Quaeda have a DVD on how to become a terrorist. She searched on Ebay and Amazon but she became discouraged because neither had any terrorist training DVDs. While my wife is waiting for instructions from Osama, I suppose she will wait until there is another gun show in our area so she can load up with a lot of assault rifles, hand guns, and ammo. I believe she can get box cutters at Home Depot.
My wife has always been an excellent teacher. She teaches multiple handicapped students, almost all of whom can’t function on a five year old level. These are children who were born with physical and mental defects. Their ages are chronologically between eight and fourteen but they perform at 4 to 5 year old levels. They are much like the Bush children and their father. It is very hard and demanding to teach these children. And it is a very emotionally draining experience. My wife cannot help but get emotionally attached to each of her students. She is a real miracle worker. She has a gift that allows her to get through to the children and with time they respond very well. They will never be self-sufficient but they can be taught to be more aware of their surroundings and taught to be more socially adept.
I mentioned my wife’s teaching history because I believe she will be able to bring the same commitment, devotion, and passion to her new job as a terrorist. After all, terrorists must have a lot of passion to be willing to be a suicide bomber. My wife will be anxiously waiting for contact from someone in the Taliban, Al Quaeda, or from Osama bin Laden for future instructions. At first it disturbed my wife to be linked to the Taliban, Al Quaeda, and Osama bin Laden until I told her that President Bush and his father had a lot of ties with them. The Bushes and the bin Laden family have been friends for thirty years. And President GW Bush even gave 43 million dollars of our tax dollars to Taliban leaders in the Spring of 2001, just five months before these terrorists attacked the US on September 11, 2001. Even when GW Bush was still governor he met with Taliban leaders in Texas. They talked about building a pipeline through Afghanistan. So my wife thinks that if President Bush has had such a close relationship with terrorists then she sees nothing wrong with her being friends with them too.
My wife is getting excited because of the new challenges she is now facing. If she is going to be called a terrorist by a high official in the Bush regime then she must be a terrorist. After all, we all know that no one in the Bush regime has ever told a lie.
Copyright 2004, Larry S. Rolirad, All Rights Reserved
This article may be republished as long as the author is clearly credited.
Summary/Abstract
Based on heights of presidential candidates for the past 100 years I can safely say that Senator John F. Kerry, the taller candidate in this year’s election, will win with ease.
SIZE DOES MATTER
Kerry to Win Easily
by Larry S. Rolirad
Pollsters, pundits and politics. Had enough? Well, folks, you can forget all of the political rhetoric you have been hearing from both sides of the political spectrum. Toss it. Chunk it. It is no longer relevant.
What does matter is a one hundred year statistical record which fairly well confirms a win this November for Senator John Kerry.
In the last one hundred years in US history the tallest presidential candidates received more popular votes in 88% of the elections, and won 84% of the time. This year’s election pits presidential contender, Senator John F. Kerry at a whopping height of 6 foot 4 inches against President George W. Bush, who’s height is a ‘paltry’ 5 feet 11 inches. Since the shorter candidate for president lost 84% of the time since 1904, President Bush’s chances of winning in 2004 appear very slim.
The last time we had a president as tall as Kerry’s 6 foot 4 inch frame it was 140 years ago, and the president was Abraham Lincoln. If Kerry wins in November he will match our tallest president’s height.
Since 1904, only three times has the shorter candidate received more popular votes in the election. The first happened in the 1940 election where presidential challenger, Wendell L. Willkie at 6′ 2 1/2″ lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt at 6′ 2″. The other two shorter candidates who managed to buck the odds and win the most popular votes were Richard M. Nixon at 5′ 11 1/2″ and Jimmy E. Carter at 5′ 9 1/2″, in years 1972 and 1976; respectively.
There are several other statistics that spell doom for another Bush win in this year’s election. GW Bush is the first president to preside over a net loss of jobs during his watch since President Herbert Hoover, seventy-two years earlier. Under Hoover, the net loss of jobs was a whopping negative 9.0 percent. Under Bush, the loss of jobs was a negative 0.8 percent. No other presidents in the past hundred years has had a net loss of jobs. Only Presidents Hoover and Bush share that dubious “distinction”.
Like Herbert Hoover, President Bush is a republican incumbent president who facing a taller challenger for reelection. President Hoover at 5′ 11″ lost to challenger Franklin D. Roosevelt at 6′ 2′. And President Bush is facing Senator John Kerry, a challenger who is a whopping 6′ 4″.
There are a lot of similarities between Bush and Hoover. Both men share the same height at 5 foot 11 inches. Both men were republicans. Both men were incumbents when they faced taller opponents. And Hoover had two sons (Herbert Clark Hoover and Allan Henry Hoover) while Bush had two daughters (Barbara and Jenna). There is a certain Yin and Yang about this. GW Bush is even a distant cousin to Herbert Hoover, but related nevertheless. Samuel Prescott Bush, George W. Bush’s great grandfather, was an Ohio manufacturer who was also a close advisor to President Herbert Hoover. And if President Bush is defeated, he will share the same distinction with President Hoover as both being one-term presidents.
Another curious connection between Presidents Hoover and Bush occurs if you add up all of the digits in the year republican President Hoover lost, or “1932”, the total is “six”, or 1+ 9+3 +2 =15, then add the digits in “15”, or 1+5=6. Now add up the digits in the current year in which Bush is running for office, or “2004”, you get the same common number, or 2+0+0+4=6.
The same number “6” is also common to both presidents in one other way. Herbert Clark Hoover contains 6 vowels, Herbert (2) Clark (1) Hoover (3), or 2+1+3=6; as does George Walker Bush, George (3) Walker (2) Bush (1), or 3+1=6.
Herbert Hoover was born in 1874 and GW Bush in 1946. If you add all of the digits in each birth year the total is 20 for each president, Herbert Hoover, 1+8+7+4=20, and GW Bush, 1+9+4+6=20.
Lastly, if Kerry wins he will match Lincoln’s height as the tallest presidents in our history. Both Lincoln and Kerry were 6 foot 4 inches. Abe Lincoln and Senator Kerry share another similarity. With a Kerry win he will match Lincoln’s age when he was elected in 1864. Lincoln was 59 in the 1864 election and Kerry will be 59 at the time of the 2004 election.
Statistics don’t lie. My money is on a Senator John Kerry win.
1904
Theodore Roosevelt (Rep) 5’10” TALLER WINS
Alton B. Parker (Dem) 5′ 9″
1908
William H. Taft (Rep) 6’0″ TALLER WINS
William J. Bryan (Dem) 5′ 10″
1912
Woodrow Wilson (Dem) 5′ 11″ TALLER WINS
Theodore Roosevelt (P) 5′ 10″
1916
Woodrow Wilson (Dem) 5′ 11″ TALLER WINS
Charles E. Hughes (Rep) 5′ 10″
1920
Warren G. Harding (Rep) 6′ 0″ TALLER WINS
James M. Cox (Dem) 5′ 10″
1924
Calvin Coolidge (Rep) 5′ 10″ TALLER WINS
John W. Davis (Dem) 5′ 9″
1928
Herbert Hoover (Rep) 5′ 11″ TALLER WINS
Alfred E. Smith (Dem) 5′ 10″
1932
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem) 6′ 2″ TALLER WINS
Herbert Hoover (Rep) 5′ 11″
1936
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem) 6′ 2″ TALLER WINS
Alfred M. Landon (Rep) 6′ 0″
1940
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem) 6′ 2″ SHORTER WINS
Wendell L Willkie (Rep) 6′ 2 1/2″
1944
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem) 6′ 2″ TALLER WINS
Thomas E. Dewey (Rep) 5′ 8″
1948
Harry S Truman (Dem) 5′ 9″ TALLER WINS
Thomas E. Dewey (Rep) 5′ 8″
1952
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep) 5′ 10 1/2″ TALLER WINS
Adlai Stevenson (Dem) 5′ 10″
1956
Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep) 5′ 10 1/2″ TALLER WINS
Adlai Stevenson (Dem) 5′ 10″
1960
John F. Kennedy (Dem) 6′ 0″ TALLER WINS
Richard M. Nixon (Rep) 5′ 11 1/2″
1964
Lyndon B. Johnson (Dem) 6′ 1″ TALLER WINS
Barry Goldwater (Rep) 6′ 0″
1968
Richard M. Nixon (Rep) 5′ 11 1/2″ TALLER WINS
Hubert H. Humphrey (Dem) 5′ 11″
George C. Wallace (Ind) 5′ 10″
1972
George McGovern (Dem) 6′ 1″
Richard M. Nixon (Rep) 5′ 11 1/2″ SHORTER WINS
1976
Gerald Ford (Rep) 6′ 0″
Jimmy E. Carter (Dem) 5′ 9 1/2″ SHORTER WINS
1980
Ronald W. Reagan (Rep) 6′ 1″ TALLER WINS
Jimmy E. Carter (Dem) 5′ 9 1/2″
1984
Ronald W. Reagan (Rep) 6′ 1″ TALLER WINS
Walter Mondale (Dem) 5′ 11″
1988
George HW Bush (Rep) 6′ 1 1/2″ TALLER WINS
Michael Dukakis (Dem) 5′ 8″
1992
Bill J. Clinton (Dem) 6′ 2 1/2″ TALLER WINS
George HW Bush (Rep) 6′ 1 1/2″
Ross Perot (Ind) 5′ 7″
1996
Bill J. Clinton (Dem) 6′ 2 1/2″ TALLER WINS
Bob Dole (Rep) 6′ 1″
Ross Perot (Ind) 5′ 7″
2000
Al Gore (Dem) 6′ 1″ ***Most Popular Votes/Lost
George W. Bush (Rep) 5′ 11″ SHORTER WINS
2004
John F. Kerry (Dem) 6′ 4 ”
George W. Bush (Rep) 5′ 11″
***Vice President Al Gore, the taller candidate in the 2000 election, received more than a half million more popular votes than his opponent, but lost to Governor George W. Bush, who received the most electoral votes in a very controversial win.
Copyright 2004, Larry S. Rolirad, All Rights Reserved
This article may be republished as long as the author is clearly credited and the article is reproduced in its entirety. .
Article Submission: Bush’s Low Paid Mercenaries
Our troops in Iraq are being used to protect American businesses like Halliburton. Shouldn’t these businesses have to pay for their own defense considering they are making fortunes in Iraq? Our military has been relegated to being low paid mercenaries to protect these American companies and that is wrong.
Bush’s Cheap Mercenaries
by Larry S. Rolirad
President Bush’s unilateral, preemptive war against Iraq is the worst foreign policy decision in the history of our country. Even GW Bush’s father said in his book “A World Transformed” the following: “I firmly believed that we should not march into Baghdad. … To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us.” It is too bad that GHW Bush’s son has put our military in the position as very low paid mercenaries, who are only in Iraq to protect the interests of dozens of republican-friendly corporations, like Halliburton, all companies who have contributed to the republican party.
GW Bush and the GOP started the Iraq War using blatant lies, deliberate deceptions, lies by omission, and misleading Americans by stating that our soldiers would be met with Iraqis with flowers. Those ‘flowers’ turned out to be bombs, grenade launchers, mines, automatic weapon fire, knives, stones, and bricks. Any fool should have known that Iraqi insurgents would resist every US attempt to gain control over the country. But the Bush Regime never mentioned even once how difficult it would be to gain control over the country. And Bush ordered the attack on Iraq without any exit strategy. Republican leaders lied either by omission or they were inept in their analysis of post war Iraq. In either case, GW Bush should be impeached for deliberately lying to the American people and for being so incompetent that he did not foretell the difficulty in maintaining a peaceful control of the country.
The Bush Regime used deliberate devious tactics to fool their party faithful into believing propaganda that wasn’t the truth. Bush and everyone in his Regime used mixed messages contained in one sentence in their attempt to demonize Iraq and Saddam Hussein. In one devious tactic, Bush, Cheney, Powell and Rice constantly made statements which included WMDs, Osama bin Laden, terrorists, and Al Quaeda with Saddam Hussein in the same sentence. Their intent was clear. To infer that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and he had direct ties to terrorist networks. But that was a lie, and the 9/11 Commission confirmed that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and no ties to terrorists. The GOP was successful in duping their party faithful with their trickery, but their attempt to link Hussein and Al Quaeda was proven to be a lie. And true to form, not one republican has publicly admitted that they deliberately lied.
The result of the GOP’s devious propaganda the rank-n-file republicans still believe that Al Quaeda and Saddam Hussein were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were behind the 9/11 attacks, and that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Not one of these GOP-generated propaganda tactics were true. But that still isn’t stopping them from still using the same tactics to keep their party faithful duped. The Bush Regime has been very successful in manipulating their rank-n-file into believing the demonization of Iraq.
In polls of republicans, 70 to 80 percent still believe the lies listed above even though all of the links by the Bush Regime have been proven false. Bush even finally admitted that there weren’t any links between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. But he fell far short of saying he lied when he first said there was a link between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks. Republicans will continue to believe the Bush Regime lies because they want it to be true. They are not very concerned with little things like ‘the truth’.
To justify going to war with Iraq, Bush lied during his 2003 State of the Union address by saying that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and saying that Iraq had received key parts to build nuclear weapons from an African country. Bush LIED. Iraq DID NOT have any weapons of mass destruction and they DID NOT have a nuclear weapons capability. Bush has continued to repeat his lies throughout the duration of the Iraq War.
Prior to the Iraq War, Colin Powell openly lied during his presentation to the United Nations. Powell used cartoon drawings of imaginary containers that Powell said were weapons systems. He said the drawings he presented were proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Those drawings turned out to be fake and not based on any reliable intelligence. Powell was so desperate to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that he even quoted from a student’s thesis paper which was written twelve years earlier. To say Colin Powell’s credibility and stature have been drastically diminished by his blatant lies to the United Nations and the American people is an understatement.
The republican attack against Iraq is the most blatant misuse of our military in the history of our country. Our troops are not in Iraq to make US safer or to fight terrorism. That is just 100% GOP propaganda republicans have been duped into believing. If corporations, like Halliburton, want to make 18 billion dollar contracts let them defend themselves. Force them to hire mercenaries from all over the world to defend themselves, and then we could withdraw every US troop and bring them home where they belong. Our military should be defending the United States and Americans, not be used as a mercenary force to protect corrupt corporations from cashing in on other people’s misery. Our soldiers in Iraq are being paid a couple of thousand dollars a month. They are in constant danger 24 hours a day. They are working alongside American contractors who are making five times that amount for working only eight hours a day.
And that brings up another grand GW Bush failure to defend our country. One and a half million illegal aliens are flooding across the Mexico/US border every year and GW Bush is doing nothing to stop the flood. A whopping 4,000 illegal aliens are streaming across the US/Mexican border every day. Since GW Bush has been president more than six million Mexican aliens have entered our country. We could better use our military on our own borders to defend our country and our citizens. After all, it only took 19 terrorists to wreak havoc on September 11, 2001. How many of those six million illegal aliens from Mexico have been fundamentalist Muslim radicals or members of Al Quaeda? It is safe to say that a lot more than 19 terrorists could have walked across our border with the other 6,000,000 aliens in the past three and a half years. The reason GW Bush is not doing anything to stop the flow of aliens is because he doesn’t want to anger the Hispanic vote. Bush has said he wants to give worker cards even to Mexicans who cross the borders illegally. President Bush never said a word about bringing those lawbreaking aliens to justice. Bush’s actions are flagrantly obvious that he is putting his political future ahead of the welfare and safety of our American citizens. Since Bush is not acting in the best interests of American citizens this is just one more strong case for his removal from office. Since both houses of congress are controlled by republicans there is no chance that they would act honorably or ethically and remove President Bush from office. We the people will have to do that in the election.
Bush and the GOP are shameless in their use of propaganda to hide the fact that they are using our troops for the financial fortunes of their corporate masters. Their lust for money (lots of money) has led to the deaths of more than 1058 troops so far, and that doesn’t include the tens of thousands mutilated or psychologically ruined soldiers, or the untold number of murdered innocent Iraqis.
Bush and the GOP obviously don’t give a damn about our troops. All they care about is controlling the oil in Iraq. Bush and the GOP have handed out a huge number of NO-BID contracts to their corporate campaign contributors, all republican companies. By acting in the best interests of American corporations over the safety of American citizens and our military, everyone in the Bush Regime should be removed from office and have criminal charges filed against them.
I wish one republican could see through the thinly veiled propaganda the GOP is busy spinning out of their propaganda machine. Isn’t there one republican out there who is honest, has integrity, and can act in an honorable fashion? It doesn’t appear so. All republicans appear to be nothing but pawns to fear-based propaganda from the evil GOP.
My hope is that people will wake up and start to think, especially before this November’s elections. Four more years of republican control of our government will certainly cause severe damage to our once great country. And our brave troops will continue to be killed at an even faster pace, be mutilated, or psychologically scarred for the rest of their lives. With Bush as a lame duck president there will be no stopping him and the GOP from increasing the scale of the Iraq war, strip all human services, and give further tax breaks to the extremely wealthy. And every bill they pass will result in a large burden on middle and lower class Americans. And it won’t just affect this generation, but generations to come. The GOP has demonstrated zero concern for the financial futures of our children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. President Bush is the most fiscally irresponsible president in our nation’s history.
The time to say “No” to the Bush Regime is now, and on election day. We must stop the republican plundering of our treasury. And we must stop the republicans from using our troops as cannon fodder so that republican corporations can increase their bottom lines.
Copyright 2004, Larry S. Rolirad, All Rights Reserved
This article may be republished as long as the author is clearly credited.
President Bush: A YELLOW CHICKENHAWK
by Larry S. Rolirad
Overwhelming evidence proves that President Bush received special treatment not available to the average person. Bush leapfrogged over 500 more qualified men who were waiting for a position in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. Thirty-five hundred Texans died in the Vietnam War. Which one took President GW Bush’s place and died in Vietnam? Which Texan has his name etched on the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. in the place of GW Bush?
On CBS’s “60 Minutes” program, which aired on September 8, 2004, former speaker of the Texas house, Ben Barnes, told the truth about Bush getting preferential treatment during the Vietnam War. Ben Barnes admitting using his political clout to get GW Bush into the safest guard unit in Texas. In fact, Bush was trained to fly planes that were obsolete so that meant that Bush would have never been sent to Vietnam.
Ben Barnes said that he felt remorse because he “played god” by choosing who would go to Vietnam, and who he could hide in safe guard unit. Mr. Barnes also said his conscience bothered him after he visited the Vietnam Memorial Wall and saw the names of all our dead soldiers etched on it. Mr. Barnes admitted that he had no right to put himself in a position of determining who would live and who would die, as he did to gain political power.
Also in this CBS report, it became obvious with new documents which just surfaced after 35 years that GW Bush couldn’t even handle fulfilling his guard commitment. Bush failed to show up for guard meetings for almost a year, and possibly two years. After Bush received transfer orders to go to Georgia no one in the small Georgia unit ever remembered seeing Bush. And there have been many people who have offered thousands of dollars in rewards for anyone who would come forward to say they saw Bush at his Georgia assignment. No one came forward to claim that reward. The reason why: Bush just never showed up. Most of the new documents presented by CBS were supported with other Bush military records which were released five years ago by the Pentagon.
On September 11, 2004, Ms. Marian Carr Knox, the secretary to President Bush’s National Guard commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, appeared with Dan Rather on CBS’s Wednesday’s program. Ms. Knox acknowledged that some of the documents CBS relied on were not written by her. But she acknowledged that she had written memorandums identical to the ones presented by CBS. Ms. Knox’s testimony transcends the importance of the memorandums, which were written by an unknown author. Ms. Knox gave first hand evidence that Bush was arrogant, aloof, and a person who didn’t take serving in the guard seriously. She stated that other officers under Lt. Col. Jerry Killian resented Bush for his demeanor and attitude while in the guard. She said that Bush thought he was above the rules of the guard, or the military’s Uniform Code of Military Justice. Bush did what he wanted to do. It should be noted that secretaries are usually at the heart of any organization putting them at the center of all information flows. So Ms. Knox recollections of the events of that era should be considered reputable, accurate, and true.
Ms. Knox is 86 years old and had no reason for not telling the truth. How could anyone believe that someone with her advanced age would come forth and lie. She flatly stated that Bush failed to take physical as he was ordered to do by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. She said “It was a big no-no to not follow orders. And I can’t remember anyone (other than Bush) refusing to.” She also stated that anyone who failed to take a physical was grounded and was not allowed to fly. Bush was indeed grounded and there is documented evidence from five years ago that substantiate the documents that CBS provided that proves that Bush was grounded for “failure to submit to a physical”.
Ms. Knox said that Bush’s commander was very upset that Bush failed to follow Lt. Col. Killian’s order to take a physical. “Bush felt that he was above reproach”, according to Ms. Knox. Her testimony is consistent with documents which were provided by the Pentagon, by other witnesses, by documents from five years ago from the Pentagon, and recent documents of which the authors were unknown. Ms. Knox also stated that documents which were possibly not originals were 100 percent accurate in their content.
Knox says that Lt. Col. Killian started what she calls a “cover-your-back” file, or in more commonly used words, a “cover-your-ass”, or CYA file. — a personal file where he stored the memos about the problems with Mr. Bush’s performance, his failure to take a physical, and the pressure Killian felt from upstairs. Ms. Knox discussed one memorandum which had a reference to retired General Staudt putting pressure on Lt. Col. Killian to give Lt. Bush a positive officer training report. Ms. Knox said that she knew of the pressure Lt. Col. Killian was under from his superiors to give Bush a positive rating instead of a negative one.
“Lt. Bush repeatedly missing drills was not lost on his fellow pilots. They missed him. It was sort of gossip around there, and they’d [the other officers would] snicker and so forth about what he was getting away with,” says Knox. “I guess there was even a resentment.”
Ms. Knox said “But, his time there, it seemed that the other fellows were, I’m going to say this, sort of resentful of him because of his attitude … that he (Bush) really didn’t have to go by the rules.”
Ms. Knox said Bush told her he “had this campaign to take care of, and that’s what he was going to do — and that’s what he did do.” So much for Bush fulfilling his commitment that he promised to uphold when he joined the guard.
Even though the documents provided by CBS were presumably written by someone other than Ms. Knox or Bush’s commanding officer, Ms. Knox stated beyond a shadow of doubt that the contents of those documents were accurate and true. And the CBS-obtained documents are not the only documents that verify conclusively that Bush failed to take physical, was grounded, and was missing from action. Other documents obtained by the Freedom of Information Act have been in existence for the last five years. These documents were from the Pentagon so their authenticity is beyond reproach. The facts are that Bush did get special treatment to get into the guard.
Ex-Lt. Governor Ben Barnes admitted to helping Bush get into the safest guard in Texas. And other documents from the Pentagon reveal how Bush was grounded from flying. And the only reason why Bush could be grounded from flying is because he refused to take his yearly physical. And by refusing to take a physical Lt. Bush must have defied a direct order from his commander. Such an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice should have led to the court-martialing of Bush, and at the least led to Bush being busted down in rank, and then activated, and then sent to Vietnam as a private. But Bush again received special treatment and was allowed to escape certain penalties. Any non-connected soldiers would have certainly been activated and sent to Vietnam.
Republicans do not see anything wrong with what Bush did before he got into the guard and what he did after he was in the guard. It doesn’t matter to them that it took more than a million dollars to train Bush how to fly an F-102A and then he flippantly refused a direct order from his superior to submit to a medical examination, which grounded him. Republicans don’t question why Bush would refuse to submit to an examination? Was it because drugs, like cocaine, would have been found in his blood? Since there is very compelling evidence that GW Bush used cocaine and booze regularly during those days of ‘youthful indiscretion’ he could have faced prosecution and a trip to Leavenworth Prison for a minimum of twenty years. That would have been an ample reason to refuse a direct order from a commanding officer.
CBS also provided another Bush service record that, although not an original document, was given authenticity by Ms. Knox, Lt. Bush’s commander’s secretary. This document revealed that Bush failed to live up to the standards of the Texas Air National Guard. The content of this document was based on Bush’s refusal to take a physical, failing to follow a direct order, for being grounded and for failure to appear at scheduled meetings. Not one of these four offenses can be refuted by anyone.
Missing just one weekend meeting could have busted Lt. Bush down several grades. Since Bush was a commissioned officer he could have been stripped of his commission and sent to Vietnam as a private. But Bush missed more than just one weekend. He missed an entire year, or more. There is no proof that Bush showed up for that period. Somewhere in the murky world of special political favors and connections, Bush was spared any consequences for his irresponsible and criminal actions. Failure to adhere to guard standards meant that Bush should have been activated and sent to Vietnam. But again, Bush was given special treatment.
As evidence of the severity of missing meetings in the guard during Vietnam, I will share with you a personal experience with a friend of mine. He was an E-5. He had served a tour of duty in Vietnam. He also received a Purple Heart for being wounded in battle. After his tour of duty, the Army was allowing soldiers to apply for an “early out”. And “early out” meant that a person could go into a guard unit for a year in place of the final year in active service. He served two years active service and then he was transferred to a guard unit close to his home. During that year in the guard he missed one weekend to help when his father had back surgery. My friend was discharged after a year in the guard and six months later he received a notice from the army stating that his rank was busted down from an E-5 to an E-3 because he missed one guard meeting. Compare the treatment of my friend, who risked his life in Vietnam and was busted down two ranks for missing one meeting, to GW Bush who missed more than a year of meetings and who never risked his life. The difference is obvious. Bush had political connections and my friend did not.
Bush did go AWOL, but the only thing in question was the length of time that he was missing. If a person goes AWOL during a time of war it is considered “DESERTION”. And the penalty for desertion could have been death by a six-man firing squad. At the very least, anyone who misses even one meeting can be busted down several grades. And if you miss more than one meeting you stand the good chance that you will be sent up to active duty and put on the front lines of battle, with an M-16 automatic rifle in your hands. But Bush didn’t miss just a few meetings. He missed at least a year of meetings and possibly two years. Bush should have been sent up to active duty and sent to Vietnam. But he again received preferential treatment and escaped such penalties that only the non-connected soldiers receive.
Bush managed to evade serving in Vietnam for five and a half years. And even though he made a commitment to stay in the guard for a full six years, Bush applied for and received permission to get out eight months early. So much for living up to one’s commitment. Bush had better things to do other than to serve his country.
In the book, “A Charge to Keep”, a book allegedly written by GW Bush, there contains a major lie. Bush claimed he served in the US Air Force. But Bush didn’t serve in the Air Force. Bush lied. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard, not the Air Force. And Bush didn’t even serve in the TANG honorably. He used special connections to get into the guard, missed numerous meetings, refused to take a physical and drug test, was grounded from flying, and then he left the guard eight months early. Bush claims to have served in both branches of the military but it is obvious that he failed to serve in either one honorably.
Anyone, republican, democrat, or independent, should be outraged that Bush received special treatment to avoid serving in Vietnam by using special political connections. This shouldn’t be a party issue. It is an issue of honor and integrity. And on those counts, Bush failed miserably. For the past thirty-five years Bush has repeated the same lie over and over again by saying he never received special treatment to get into one of the safest guard units in Texas. And he always says he received an honorable discharge. Well, if a person can get special treatment to hide in a safe guard couldn’t that same person use those connections to get an undeserved honorable discharge?
Republicans like to counter Bush’s irresponsible and criminal actions during his service with the Air National Guard by saying that President Clinton never served in the military. They use this tactic (always blame Clinton) to avoid the truth. At least Bill Clinton was an opponent of the Vietnam War and he protested against it. GW Bush was a staunch war hawk, but instead of volunteering for duty to fight in Vietnam, he choose to hide in a safe guard unit in Texas. Apparently, Bush was a war hawk only if others went to Vietnam to die, or be mutilated.
If Bush hadn’t been given special treatment he would have certainly been sent to Vietnam. I remember joining the army during the Vietnam War at the same time Bush was in the TANG. When we were being processed into basic training a group of about 600 guys were sent to a large auditorium. Once there, we were all given tests. After an allotted time, we were told to turn in the tests and wait. After about twenty minutes about 150 names were called out and asked to leave the auditorium. This went on four times. I made it to the final and fourth test. I was asked to apply for officer’s candidate school and declined.
I learned later that the guys who were asked to leave after the first segment of testing scored in the lowest fourth and were sent to infantry, advanced infantry, and then to Vietnam. Guys in the other three groups were assigned other duties. Because I was an enlisted soldier, and not a draftee, I already knew what my MOS (field of duty) was.
I said the above because Bush scored in the bottom fourth of the TANG’s pilot’s aptitude test after he was given preferential treatment by former Texas Speaker of the House, Ben Barnes. If Bush had been drafted, or activated from the TANG for failure to follow orders, Bush would have certainly been sent to infantry classes, then advanced infantry, and then to Vietnam. But again, GW Bush received preferential treatment and was allowed to escape responsibility.
So far, Bush has escaped all repercussions for receiving preferential treatment and for his poor guard record. Bush was allowed to leapfrog over more than 500 other candidates who were more qualified that he was, and who were waiting for years to get into the guard. Who went to Vietnam and died in Bush’s place? It could have been one of over 3500 Texans who lost their lives during the Vietnam War. I have listed the names of every Texan soldier who died while Bush was safely in Houston chasing tail, getting drunk, and missing guard meetings he was required to attend. Which one of the 3500 names listed below, or at the provided link, took Bush’s place and died so that Bush could live? You won’t see GW Bush’s name on this list of Texan’s who were killed in Vietnam. And remember, the names below only reflect soldiers who were killed. It doesn’t included the hundred and fifty-thousand soldiers who lost arms, legs, where blinded, or otherwise mutilated. And it doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands who succumbed to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Bush evaded all of this because he received special treatment to avoid serving in Vietnam.
If anyone fails to see the seriousness of the infractions Bush committed while in the guard, then your integrity, honesty, ethics, and morals have to be brought into question. As I stated earlier, this is not a republican matter, this is not a democratic matter, and this is not an independent matter, it is a matter of honor, in which GW Bush is totally lacking.
On September 16, 2004, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. ordered the Pentagon to find and make public any unreleased files about President Bush’s Vietnam-era Air National Guard service and to resolve a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Associated Press. The AP had to sue to get this information because the President Bush has not cooperated with them and has been deliberately trying to keep any of his military documents secret. The judge ordered the disclosure of all previously unreleased flight logs from Bush’s days piloting F-102A fighters. All documents have been ordered to be released by September 29, 2004.
LIST OF TEXANS WHO SERVED AND DIED IN THE VIETNAM WAR
JAMES DOWNING AALUND
MICHAEL PETER AARON
DAVID FLOYD ABLE
PAUL HAROLD ABRAHAM
JESSE RODRIQUEZ ACOSTA
TOM PERRY ACTON
EDDIE DUANE ACUFF
ARTHUR PINA ADAME
CHECK THE SITE BELOW FOR THE COMPLETE LIST OF 3500 TEXANS WHO DIED IN VIETNAM. WHICH ONE COULDN’T GET SPECIAL TREATMENT LIKE BUSH DID AND HAD TO GO TO VIETNAM TO FIGHT AND DIE? WHICH ONE OF THESE BRAVE SOULS TOOK BUSH’S PLACE AND DIED?
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/research_topics/vietnam_war_casualty_lists/tx_alphabetical
ARTURO S ZAMORA
BENIGNO ZAMUDIO JR
PETER ALLEN ZANCA
ARMANDO MARIN ZEPEDA
FRANK LOUIS ZIGALO
ROBERT JOHN ZONNE JR
DANIEL MORAN ZUNIGA
GUADALUPE NATAL ZUNIGA
It has been written that those whose names are remembered, never really die. Let us all remember the above names of fallen soldiers. They deserve our sincere respect for they served when called to do so. They didn’t hide. They didn’t get preferential treatment to avoid serving. They didn’t go to Canada. They served and they lost their lives. And when their bodies were returned home they weren’t returned in the dead of night as troops who are dying in Iraq are under Bush. They came home during the day so that they could be greeted with honor guards and their grieving families. “President” Bush directly ordered all coffins from Iraq to be returned in the middle of the night to avoid the media. It is obvious that Bush and the GOP conducted focus groups which told them that bringing our dead troops home in their flag-drapped coffins during the day would not look good for the Bush Regime and its propaganda ministers.
If only our current ‘commander-in-chief’ had walked in the brave footsteps of Texans who served while Bush was hiding during the Vietnam War. Instead of doing the honorable thing and refusing preferential treatment and serving in Vietnam, Bush took the coward’s way out and hid in a safe guard unit for the duration of the Vietnam War. Compare Bush’s cowardly actions to those of a true hero, Senator John Kerry, who volunteered for Vietnam duty, who acted with bravery and valor, who risked his life to save a fellow crewmember, and who received five medals for his heroism.
Copyright 2004, Larry S. Rolirad, All Rights Reseerved
Author encourages the distribution of this article as long as he is properly credited.
Fantastic articles Mr. Rolirad. What publication can I subscribe to that you write for? Thanks in advance!!! Keep up the great work