The bountiful Bush harvest

As a parent I have strived to plant seeds within my children. I have taught by both word and example the following traits:

Honesty & Integrity
Respect for themselves and others
Caring for all living things
Responsibility for their own actions & words
Conservation of our natural resources

Each and every item on my list is under attack by the social morays set in place by the Bush administration.

Honesty & Integrity

Tom DeLay has been so intellectually dishonest for so long that news that he may have been criminally dishonest hardly comes as a surprise. - http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=65567

The Bush administration engaged in "covert propaganda" in hiring conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams to promote a controversial education program, congressional investigators said Friday. - http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-williams1oct01,1,6986314.story?coll=la-news-a_section

UNMOVIC did not find undeclared weapons of mass destruction, relevant production facilities, or significant amounts of materials and equipment intended for such weapons. On the contrary, it confirmed that Iraq had destroyed the bulk of its capabilities, either unilaterally before UNSCOM inspections commenced in 1991 or under UNSCOM’s supervision. UNMOVIC determined that Iraq’s chemical weapons program had ended, and its previous arsenal, with the exception of a few chemical shells, had been destroyed. In the biological weapons area, although some substantive questions persisted, no weapons or facilities were found. Claims by the United States that Iraq had developed mobile biological weapons laboratories and unmanned aerial vehicles for delivering biological weapons were credibly refuted. - http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_09/LookingBack-UNMOVIC.asp

Respect for themselves and others

Making FEMA part of Homeland Security, cutting its funding and staffing since 2001, Brown said, led to the “emaciation of FEMA.” Whose bright idea was this again? Rhymes with tush.

Speaking of the president, The New York Times reported that business has been good for “Friend of Bush” Allbaugh, formerly of FEMA. Companies he represents, including Halliburton and the Shaw Group, have received lucrative government contracts since Katrina. Reportedly, more than 80 percent of the $1.5 billion contracts through FEMA were awarded without competitive bids. The FOBs are making a killing from Katrina, just as they are from the war in Iraq. - http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/12794328.htm

It worked, and a lot of big news stories since then-- the Cindy Sheehan saga, the death of William Rehnquist, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the ongoing war in Iraq and scandals surrounding Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Bill Frist and other Republicans -- have kept Plamegate so far off the back burner that it's dripped down the far side of the stove. But with New York Times reporter Judith Miller's release from jail -- and the confirmation that Scooter Libby was the source she was "protecting" -- the White House role in the Plame story is back on the front page now. - http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/09/30/bushmiller/index.html

Caring for all Living Things

Addressing a caller's suggestion that the "lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30 years" would be enough to preserve Social Security's solvency, radio host and former Reagan administration Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dismissed such "far-reaching, extensive extrapolations" by declaring that if "you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." Bennett conceded that aborting all African-American babies "would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do," then added again, "but the crime rate would go down." - http://mediamatters.org/items/200509280006

Facing growing criticism about conflicts of interest, the Food and Drug Administration's new chief is temporarily giving up his old job as the government's top cancer researcher... - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050930/ap_on_go_ot/fda_commissioner;_ylt=Ale_Oq2ubZoWV8ITy_4s21gNJ_wE;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

The rich are safe and sound, the middle class is struggling, and the poor are left behind. It’s the story of the Bush presidency. - http://www.thinkprogress.org/index.php?cat=2

Responsibility for their own actions & words

Yesterday, Michael Brown acted like the people who appointed him—denied all blame, blamed everyone else, made up lies and fantasies compared to what was really happening and showed total lack of compassion and disregard for the countless victims his behavior, attitude and policies impacted upon. - http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_050928_michael_brown__the_r.htm

An officer who has claimed that a classified military unit identified four Sept. 11 hijackers before the 2001 attacks is facing Pentagon accusations of breaking numerous rules, charges his lawyer suggests are aimed at undermining his credibility. - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051001/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/sept11_hijackers;_ylt=AgBZlJ.rgy9.C80YtjsZNdgD5gcF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Katrina Timeline - http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline

Conservation of our Natural Resources

News outlets nationwide highlighted President Bush's recent request that U.S. consumers drive less and "be better conservers of energy" in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But most media outlets reporting on Bush's public appeal did not note that it represents a departure from his administration's prior stance on energy conservation. - http://mediamatters.org/items/200509280007

The Bush Record - http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord/default.asp

I have heard parents on all sides of the political spectrum complain about the "Oral Office" fiasco and how difficult it was to explain to children. I agree. It isn't enough for our leaders to stand in front of the camera and pledge their allegiance to a lifestyle based on religious morals while privately ignoring the mandates of that religion.

Such are the seeds being strewn by the Bush administration. What will the parents tell their children at harvest time?

"Jones down the road did all the work....all I did was pretend to be a living scarecrow...and he gimme a bunch o corn"