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Things Reconsidered
February
19, 2003
by
Alexander Washburn
Democrats
support war – Have you heard otherwise?
Depending
on where you get your news, the crowds from New York
City's anti-war protests ranged anywhere from 100,000
to one million. Getting hung up on the numbers is exactly
what some media organizations like the Paper of Record
wants. The pro-war New York Post reported crowds at barely
100,000, which showed how transparent their views are.
As one of the crowd, I can say that the crowd was larger
than Phish's Clifford Ball in Plattsburg, New York
in 1996 but less than the first Million Man March
in 1997. Regardless of the size, you couldn't help but
sense the power of a crowd not deterred in their attempt
to steer this country away from this embarrassing chapter
in American foreign policy. For all of those downplaying
the numbers, I defy them to find even 50,000 war supporters
– who don't work for Enron, Texaco, BP, Shell
– to brave the cold and make their voices heard.
The above 'Enron…' chant was just one of the amusing
ones heard as I walked along with other marchers past
the Cinema East Movie Theater on Third Avenue. My other
favorite chants were 'Bush and Cheney: Why Ya Buggin?'
'Who Let the Bombs Out? Bush. Bush,' and this one, which
took a while to catch on but had me rolling from the start:
'We Will. We We Will. Stop You. Stop You.' Consider me
a sucker for Top 40 songs altered to sound like songs
of freedom. By far the best sign I spied was right at
the entrance of Central Park where the Labor unions had
gathered for the walk down to the United Nations. It said
quite simply: 'Bomb Iraq.'
Along the march, I started talking to reporter Heather
Fletcher from the webzine BreakingNewsNet.com.
It didn't take very long before the conversation went
from the humorous chants to how the clock was ticking
for the Democratic Party on the need to form a coherent
policy for toppling Saddam that doesn't include war. To
this date, leaders of the Jack Ass Party like Hillary
Clinton, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry and
New York's senior Senator Charles Schumer, who
seems more interested in trying to get Gil Hodges
elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame, than working on
a diplomatic strategy that deposes of Saddam while bringing
stability to the region. All of the above voted for Bush's
strong-arm U.N. resolution calling for force. They all
have said repeatedly that they support removing Saddam.
Surely, they all realize that in order to do that, blood
innocent blood for that matter, will have to be shed.
None of them have called for a policy otherwise, yet on
the streets of New York all of the ire was focused on
the Bush-Cheney war machine. Granted, they are the face
of this fight. But the only Democrats with presidential
aspirations saying anything anti-war related are Dr.
Howard Dean and Al Sharpton, who the party
is going to great pains to remove from the race before
he creates a real dialogue. 'No to War' won't be enough.
There are some tough questions to be asked and answered
in Iraq. I happen to agree with all people from Saturday's
protest that none of the answers include killing innocent
people.
Tom
Ridge is a Threat to National Security
It's clear that Democrats are still to afraid to speak
out against the war but I can't for the life of me understand
why the party hasn't raised the necessary cane over the
lack of Federal funds from the biggest of all unfunded
mandates: The Department of Homeland Security.
Mike Barnicle of the New York Daily News is a plagiarist
but his Sunday column still hit home and should worry
not just New Yorkers but the tourist this city so desperately
needs to visit in order to get back on its feet. In a
piece entitled 'New York's safety Takes Backseat to Politics,'
Barnicle reports that here in New York, the Bush administration
has yet to fork over the promised money to replace the
damaged fire trucks and other equipment stemming from
9/11. Barnicle writes: "There are cops doing a whole
lot of overtime, firefighters working in engine companies
that may soon be boarded up, more need than ever to hire
and train people to deal with biological hazards and a
population being told to check a color chart to combat
fear." If that doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy,
then how about the ABC News report from last week where
New York City subway workers say they're ill prepared
for a lot of things – from changing a dollar to a
chemical weapon attack.
Truth is, New York City is just one of too many cities,
plants, airports, docks, borders, and buildings that the
Federal government promised to protect with Homeland Security
Department funds and still haven't. Washington Governor
Gary Locke made this a key point as he gave the
rebuttal to the Bush State of the Union. In his speech,
Locke said: "Now, a year and a half after September
11th, America is still far too vulnerable. Last year Congress
authorized $2.5 billion in vital new resources to protect
our citizens – for equipment for firefighters and
police, to protect ports, to guard against bioterrorism,
to secure nuclear power plants, and more. It's hard to
believe, but President Bush actually refused to release
the money. Republicans now say we can't afford it."
Sadly, Democrats haven't heeded Locke's call and this
is coming from a man who had an al Qeada operative try
to gain entrance to his state with a car full of explosives.
If you think back to the days before Bush, you couldn't
pick up National Review and not hear chatter that
fueled stories of Tom Ridge being a serious White House
contender. Ridge, a Rust Belt Republican who is pro-choice
has always been a favorite of the inside the Beltway crowd
largely because he is a Rust Belt Republican who is pro-choice.
After his less than authoritative and assertive interview
with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation, Ridge is
surely a threat to the safety of this country and for
people like me, who happen to think that Ridge is on the
fast track to replace Dick Cheney as Vice President shortly
after the 2004 Election, this does not bode well. In a
job that requires straight answers, Ridge failed time
after time to give them. Questioned on that ridiculous
duct tape advice, Ridge first denied that The Department
of Color Coded Warnings (as my friend the Daily Feed
calls the Homeland Security Office) ever offered advice.
When pressed, Ridge admitted that was indeed his department's
advice, yet couldn't answer the question of how are people
going to breathe in a house with all the air sealed off.
Truth
is, the Three Blind Mice of the Bush Cabinet: Ridge,
Ashcroft and Mueller, all need to go. Last week's 'Orange'
alert was one of too many pathetic exercises that lay
at the feet of these three. Ashcroft has shattered the
Bill of Rights, Mueller has people in jail without being
charged with a crime, and Ridge doesn't have a clue as
to how to run the largest bureaucracy Washington has ever
seen - a department that was of course created by the
party that stresses small government and less Washington.
That's so ironic, I should have Alanis Morrisette
on cue when talking about the Bush White House.
(Alexander Washburn is a volunteer staff writer for 2 Walls Webzine.)
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