Category — George Bush

MoveOn.org has launched a campaign to pressure Republican presidential candidate John McCain to fire his chief advisor, Charlie Black, who in his work as a lobbyist has represented some pretty creepy foreign clients including dictators Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillippines and Mobuto Sese Seko in Zaire and mass murderer Jonas Savimbi in Angola. Here is MoveOn’s ad:

Charlie Black is a long-time Republican political operative who has served as an adviser to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, who themselves showed little compunction about cozying up to tyrants and terrorists when it served their ultra-right pro-corporate agenda. He is obviously without conscience and I concur with MoveOn that he should be dismissed.

In addition to contacting McCain at (703)-418-2008 to urge him to dismiss Charlie Black, residents of the 6th should contact Peter Roskam, who serves on the McCain Campaign’s Illinois Leadership Team. Roskam can be reached at his Washington office at (202) 225-4561 or in Bloomingdale at (630) 893-9670.

After you’ve made your phone calls, mosey on over to WBEZ’s web site and listen to the Worldview interviews from May 19th with Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and with James
Jordan of the Alliance for Global Justice. The theme was the so-called “democracy-building” agenda under President Bush and predecessors. I think the show points out pretty starkly what a sham and failure this agenda has been, back as far as Nixon and Reagan and should help motivate you to throw out the McCains and the Roskams and their spooky hangers-on like Charlie Black. The world can’t handle much more of their brand of “democracy-building”.

Addendum 5/22: The Washington Post published an article about the Black controversy today.

Peter Roskam does not say much to his constituents about the war against Iraq. He doesn’t seem to think that we are concerned and doesn’t even  list it in the issues section on his House web site. He apparently doesn’t believe that he is accountable to his district regarding the war. This is a mistake and a big part of the reason that Roskam will be defeated in his re-election bid later this year.

Roskam did, helpfully, this week, with his votes on HR 2642, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008, go on record as to precisely where he stands on Iraq:

• Peter Roskam is OK with leaving our troops in Iraq indefinitely
• Peter Roskam is unwilling to have Congress reclaim the war powers bestowed on it by the constitution, preferring to allow President Bush to engage in whatever military adventure he desires
• Peter Roskam is OK with the continuing to allow the Iraqi government to avoid sharing fully in the costs of reconstruction - that’s what American taxpayers are for
• It is fine with Peter Roskam if American troops in Iraq are charged more for fuel that Iraqi troops are charged - we have plenty of money
• Peter Roskam opposes any requirement that troops be combat-ready before deployment to Iraq and does not believe that Pentagon-established guidelines defining how long troops should be deployed should be enforced
• Peter Roskam believes that U.S. contractors operating in Iraq should enjoy immunity from prosecution for violations of U.S. law and opposes extending the statute of limitations for fraud committed against U.S. taxpayers during the war.
• Peter Roskam thinks permanent bases in Iraq are just fine
• Peter Roskam does not believe there should be restrictions on the practice of torture

What do you do if you are a cocky, first-term Republican Congressman who has hitched his wagon securely to the most unpopular President in American history, and now, as the time for re-election draws near, you realize you are in trouble?

What do you do if you have spent your first term in office ignoring the real needs of your constituents in order to cater to the wishes of the fat cats who paid for your campaign?

Well, if you are Peter Roskam, you come up with some lame gimmick to try and convince the residents of your district that you give a damn.

Roskam recently announced, in front of an auditorium virtually devoid of an audience, his “There Ought to Be a Law” competition, asking his constituents to go to his website and submit their legislative ideas. Roskam will then pick the top five ideas and allow his constituents to vote on which should be drafted into a bill by Roskam.

Roskam rationalizes the contest this way:

“As a new member of Congress, I have learned first-hand what most 6th District residents already know, Washington is broken. Partisan politics have hamstrung Congress’ ability to find solutions to the most pressing problems our nation faces.

“The constituents I represent are reasonable folks with sound ideas – and it’s time to send a little more 6th District solutions to Washington.

This, of course, is ridiculous. What is broken, what isn’t working, is Roskam. Roskam has been presented with a wealth of good ideas during his first term:

• A fair minimum wage
• Equal pay for equal work
• Non discrimination in employment
• Help for homeowners struggling with out of control mortgage payments
• Tougher standards to prevent workplace injuries
• Development of alternative energy sources
• Ending the practice of torture
• Providing health coverage to uninsured Illinois children
• Congressional ethics reform
• Health and employment services for returning veterans

To name just a few. Democrats in Congress, working for change, have proposed them all. Roskam has opposed them all for partisan reasons and to please those who lavish campaign contributions upon him. Roskam has a lot of nerve complaining about partisanship.

Nevertheless, I shall humor my Congressman. Here are my 5 modest ideas for your consideration, Peter:

1. De-fund the present occupation of Iraq and provide for an orderly withdrawal of American troops from that country.
2. Reclaim Congressional war powers and act to prevent the President from initiating a new military conflict with Iraq.
3. Draft articles of impeachment against the President and Vice President for their illegal use of domestic surveillance, their illegal practice of torture and rendition to torture, for their politicization of the justice department, for outing an inteligence officer, etc. etc. etc.
4. Definitively outlaw the practice of torture and of warrant-less domestic surveillance.
5. Sign on in support of the new GI bill to help the men and women who have put their lives in jeopardy in Iraq and Afghanistan for the good of us all and are returning to face unemployment and economic and medical hardships.

So that’s my entry, Peter. I’m afraid that if I enter them on your web site they won’t see the light of day. So I’m challenging you here, publicly, to take them up. I know from my logs that your office reads this blog.

You will probably label my ideas as extreme or nutty. But I know that I am not alone among your constituents in thinking this way. I encourage my fellow residents of the 6th to really speak their minds and see if you are for real.

For my part, if you do these 5 things, I promise I’ll vote for you in November.

I first ran this back in November. I have not received any responses. Could my theory be correct? I’m giving you another chance to prove me wrong. There are fabulous prizes at stake.

Peter Roskam is George Bush. At least that’s my working theory.

Have you ever seen a picture of George Bush and Peter Roskam together? I haven’t and I’ve really hunted for one.

I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s wife Laura:

I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s evil VP Cheney:

I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s Puppet Master Karl Rove:

And I’ve seen Roskam with Bush’s designated successor John McCain:

But I’ve never seen Roskam and Bush together.

Bush supposedly appeared at a fundraiser with Roskam and Denny Hastert in October 2006 but I can’t find a photographic record of it. Did anybody actually see them together or did Peter suddenly leave the room before Bush took the stage?

And look at Roskam’s voting record - he’s George Bush’s Congressional alter-ego:

So you can’t blame me for wondering whether they are one and the same person.

But to test my theory, I am running a little contest. The first reader to send me an undoctored .jpg image of George Bush and Peter Roskam standing next to each other will receive a wonderful prize: a copy of Paul Krugman’s book “The Conscience of a Liberal” and a copy of Barry Goldwater’s book “The Conscience of a Conservative“. (RSR is nothing if not fair and balanced.) The books are brand spankin’ new. Just ordered them from Amazon.

And, if the picture includes such public display of affection as shown in the photo below, the winner will receive a special bonus prize, the beautiful Greenpeace: Standing Up for the Earth Calendar 2009.

So get to work and prove me wrong. And don’t be disappointed if I am wrong because voting for Roskam will still be just like voting for Bush.

Send your entry to rubberstamproskam@gmail.com.

This evening, the House of Representatives tried and failed to override Bush’s veto on Saturday of the intelligence funding bill which would have outlawed the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture by the CIA. The vote was 225 to 188, 51 votes short of the 2/3 majority needed for an override.

Peter Roskam, of course, voted no, opting to allow such practices to continue.

Other members of the Illinois pro-torture caucus include Kirk, Weller, Biggert, Manzullo, LaHood, and Shimkus - the usual fascists - all choosing to vote with their party rather than to do the right thing.

I don’t know why Peter Roskam has such a tin ear to issues involving human rights and human suffering. It may be that because of his privileged upbringing and situation he just doesn’t understand. Or it may be that he just doesn’t care. Sadly, the more I observe him, the more I think the latter is true.

Peter Roskam is Mr. Law and Order when it comes to migrant workers who come to our country seeking a better life for themselves and their children. But Roskam draws the line at telling the big corporations he represents in Congress, or even the President that they need to obey the law. In fact, Roskam wants to give the President and the telephone companies a pass. This is a pattern with Roskam: giving free rein to Bush’s lawless administration while promoting the interests of corporations over those of ordinary citizens.

George W. Bush broke the law by directing the National Security Agency to start eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants by listening in on their phone calls and reading their email messages He did this despite having the legal means at his disposal to obtain warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Bush solicited the cooperation of some large telephone companies in his criminal enterprise and they cheerfully complied.

Once Bush’s illegal program was uncovered, he started pressuring Congress to cover his own ass and the collective asses of the telephone companies by granting the companies retroactive immunity from prosecution for their complicity.

Now the question of immunity is coming to a head. Under consideration now are two competing revisions of a revision of the FISA legislation: the Senate version provides retroactive immunity to the telephone companies, the House version does not.

Bush and Roskam and other Republicans are trying to intimidate legislators and scare citizens into accepting the Senate’s bill, even presenting television commercials with a ticking time bomb implying that the bill is the only thing than can prevent another terrorist attack. Citizens should not let themselves be cowed by the likes of Bush and Roskam. It is possible to be secure and at the same time require that the President and the corporations obey the laws and observe due process when their is a real need for surveillance.

Residents of the 6th Congressional District can help Democrats in Congress ensure that the final bill supports the rule of law and protects citizens from warrantless surveillance by doing 3 simple things:

• Call the White House at (202) 456-1111 and tell President Bush to quit trying to scare the public into accepting a bad FISA bill including immunity
• Call Peter Roskam at (202) 225-4561 and tell him the same thing. Remind him of his own words: “we are a nation of laws.”
• Visit the Fix FISA website of Rep John Conyers and Senator Patrick Leahy and use their simple tool to help you send a letter to the editor of a local newspaper

The need is urgent Please do these 3 things today and let men like George Bush and Peter Roskam know that laws are for everyone.