Freedomfest April 14, 2005

LET NATIVES TALK IN PEACE:The Pentagon is stepping up its spending ofyour tax dollars, this time to teach foreign languages to more of its soldiers.I have a simpler and cheaper solution: BRING OUR TROOPS HOME!

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EMPTYWORDSFORFULLSERVICE:Dubya Bush, currying favor with the forces at Fort Hood, recalled the many soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq andpurred, "Your sacrifice will always be remembered by a gratefulnation." Considering the meat-ax hacking of funds for veterans' hospitals, that tidal wave of gratitude didn't even get Dubya's feet damp.

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LINGUISTIC PROGRESS:It used to be said, "as strong as the dollar." Now more appropriate: asstrong as Dubya's commitment to poverty for poor people.

WHAT "HERITAGE OF FREEDOM"?
A few at the top get the plums,
the rest of us, pits and crumbs.
An economy lean and mean
is America lean and mean.
We've turned so many glorious pages
only to land in the Middle Ages?
Is this the best we can will
to kids with big shoes to fill?

QUESTION OF THE WEEK:How can the Bush administration bring democracyto the world when it can't even bring it to theUSA?Or as Pastor John Snider said it:"Before demanding democracy in other countries, let's begin respecting it here."

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DON'T UNDERESTIMATEPENTAGONEERS:Loud yelps of disapproval greeted Paul Wolfowitz's appointment as president of the World Bank."What's a Pentagon pro know about solving world poverty problems?!"Plenty.In drawing up the plans, lies and all, for the Iraq invasion, Paul solved the poverty problems--permanently--for upwards of 100,000 Iraqis.So if he can cure that many cases of poverty without even trying, what can he do when he really sets his mind to it?

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MANHUNT:Cardinal Stafford says the new pope should be "authentic and honest."Well, most everybody is authentic in some way or another, so that should be no problem.But honest, now.Ay, there's the rub.Just think of the problems poor Diogenes ran into trying to find an honest man!

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DOSTORKSBRINGTERRORISTBABIES?Foreign-relations expert George F. Kennan explained that blessed event way back in l987: "Were the Soviet Union to (disappear), our mighty American military-industrial establishment would have to go on substantially unchanged till some other enemy or adversary could be invented."

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NOTABLE QUOTABLES:"Bush says that God sent him to save the world. But it's God who must save us from Bush, the real menace to the world."-- Pres. Hugo Chavez

"The way that a country treats its kids is a prime expression of the ethical and human quality of that society."--UNICEF rep Yorika Yasukawa, from Economist Adam Smith

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