Reese: Vote for a man, not a puppet

Sorry, I can't find the link to this, it was sent to me through a message board.

You might be interested in the following just written by Charley Reese
of the Orlando Sentinel. If you know the writer and his strongly
conservative reputation, you should find it eye opening. Note particularly what he
says about John Kerry.
Here's a column from the VERY CONSERVATIVE Charley Reese of the Orlando Sentinel.
______________________________________________
Vote For A Man, Not A Puppet

Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush's
re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war - Dick
Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal of
neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers.
I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a
frontman, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his
administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the
world of any president in my memory. It's no wonder the president avoids
press conferences like the plague. Take away his cue cards and he can barely
talk. Americans should be embarrassed that an Arab king (Abdullah of
Jordan) spoke more fluently and articulately in English than our own
president at their joint press conference recently.

John Kerry is at least an educated man, well-read, who knows how to
think and who knows that the world is a great deal more complex than Bush's
comic-book world of American heroes and foreign evildoers. It's
unfortunate that in our poorly educated country, Kerry's very intelligence and
refusal to adopt simplistic slogans might doom his presidential election
efforts.

But Thomas Jefferson said it well, as he did so often, when he observed
that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was
and never will be. People who think of themselves as conservatives will
really display their stupidity, as I did in the last election, by voting for
Bush. Bush is as far from being a conservative as you can get. Well, he
fooled me once, but he won't fool me twice.
It is not at all conservative to balloon government spending, to vastly
increase the power of government, to show contempt for the Constitution
and the rule of law, or to tell people that foreign outsourcing of American
jobs is good for them, that giant fiscal and trade deficits don't
matter, and that people should not know what their government is doing.
Bush is the most prone-to-classify, the most secretive president in the
20th century. His administration leans dangerously toward the
authoritarian. It's no wonder that the Justice Department has convicted
a few Arab-Americans of supporting terrorism. What would you do if you
found yourself arrested and a federal prosecutor whispers in your ear that
either you can plea-bargain this or the president will designate you an enemy
combatant and you'll be held incommunicado for the duration?

This election really is important, not only for domestic reasons, but
because Bush's foreign policy has been a dangerous disaster. He's
almost restarted the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race. America
is not only hated in the Middle East, but it has few friends anywhere in
the world thanks to the arrogance and ineptness of the Bush administration.

Don't forget, a scientific poll of Europeans found us, Israel, North
Korea and Iran as the greatest threats to world peace.

I will swallow a lot of petty policy differences with Kerry to get a
man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world and us with
it. Go to Kerry's Web site (www.johnkerry.com) and read some of the
magazine profiles on him. You'll find that there is a great deal more to Kerry
than the GOP attack dogs would have you believe. Besides, it would be fun to
have a president who plays hockey, windsurfs, ride motorcycles, plays
the guitar, writes poetry and speaks French. It would be good to have a man
in the White House who has killed people face to face. Killing people has
a sobering effect on a man and dispels all illusions

when the left and right agree! Thanks.

Absolutley amazing

site:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese74.html

Here is his farewell column. Very interesting, he changed his mind on Israel. Good for him. It is rare that a conservative like that is open minded enough to let new information change his views so completely.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/orl-oped-reesefinal072901,1,3432312.column


"Another question people ask is why I changed my position on the Israeli-Palestinian question. The answer is quite simple. Initially I believed the Israeli version of the country's history. A new generation of Israeli historians, however, began to publish works that proved the official Zionist version was made up of lies and half truths. The Palestinians had indeed been done a grave injustice.

After that revelation, I contacted Palestinians who live in this area, and they very generously gave me their time and insights. It is not pleasant to realize you've been so wrong, not only about Israel's history, but about Palestinians as human beings. You won't find any better people."

Please continue discussion here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x63498