Sept. 21, 2003 - 21:40 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Many More Voices

Some people I didn't expect to think this way are beginning to have doubts about how Bush is trying to run our country.

A column in Sundays JOA Post/News paper is by Walter Cronkite, titled, "The New Inquisition."

In which he uses the name Torquemada. I will quote him in part: "Now of course, I am not accusing the attorney general of pulling out anyone's fingernails or burning people at the stake (at least I do not know of any such cases). But one does get the sense these days that the old Spaniard's spirit is comfortably at home in Ashcroft's Department of Justice."

He goes on to say much more eloquently than I, "The Patriot Act is much in the news as Ashcroft and his minions seek both to justify its excesses and strengthen them, thus intensifying its dangerous infringements on the Bill Of Rights."

Further on Mr. Cronkite has this to say, "Nothing so clearly evokes Torquemada's spirit as Ashcroft's penchant for over ruling U.S. attorneys who have sought lesser penalties in capital cases. The attorney general has done this at least 30 times since he took office, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel. In several cases, Ashcroft actually has overturned plea bargains negotiated by those government prosecutors. the column says, "The New York Times editorialized that the attorney general seems to want the death penalty used more often"

Mr. Cronkite goes on to say, "Ashcroft is not alone in this. His boss, while governor of Texas, seemed never to have met a death sentence he didn't like.

Then with a resounding yaaaaay from me he states, "The two of them represent a subdivision of the Republican Party known as the, "social conservatives," who often have favored the use of government power to police moral issues they view as modern heresies, such as abortion, homosexuality and obscenity. They contrast with those Republicans who tend to resist such uses of federal power and can generally be counted to defend individual rights."

Speaking about "Those who believe security must have priority over civil rights. The other stream represents those who believe that civil rights must be preserved even as we prosecute to the hilt the war on terrorism." Mr. Cronkite concludes his column, "Our liberty could drown in the resultant turbulence of these colliding currents."

Then Molly Ivins that outstanding columnist who used to work for, what ? The Fort Worth Star Telegram was it ? Who observed his actions as governor there takes a swipe at Brer Bush for his stance on pollution for one thing. She says, "For the complete black-is-white, up-is-down, peace-is-war mode, you have to check out this administration on the environment. I am fascinated by its rank chutzpah. The latest episode of moxie was President Bush's Monday visit to the Detroit Edison power plant in Monroe, Michigan, which he actually touted as a "living example" of why his dandy Clear Skies (gag me) initiative is so good for us all."

She goes on to say this, "The Monroe plant is one of the worst polluters in the country: in 2001 it sent 102,700 tons of sulfur dioxide, the leading cause of acid rain, into the atmosphere, along with 45,900 tons of nitrogen oxide, 810 pounds of mercury and 17.6 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Molly Ivins concludes, "For nearly three decades, these facilities have gotten around the New Source Review rules by continually expanding and calling it "routine maintenance."

Then Mr. Richard W. Stevenson of The New York Times gives us a bit in a column titled, "Pitfalls prod Bush to change his tone"

"By the standards of a White House that insists that nearly everything at all times is proceeding precisely according to plan, and where misjudgement is held to be a stranger, the last few weeks have brought a new, unvarnished tone."

"His plan to bring peace to the Middle East, Bush acknowledged on Thursday, is "stalled."

Mr. Stevenson gives reference to this, "A few days after Vice President Dick Cheney said the government did not know whether Saddam Hussein had some connection to the Septemeber 11 terrorist attacks, fueling criticism that the administration was still implying a possible link where none appears to exist, Bush all but contradicted him. Asked by reporters on Wednesday about Cheney's statement, the president replied, "No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th." There is more to Mr Stevenson's column, all in the same vein. My point is that so many people I respect and read are all coming to look with disfavor on the administrations operations, from many different angles.

There is a dude on the Western Slope of Colorado, Ed Quillen of Salida, Colorado -- ([email protected]) a former newspaper editor who has a down to earth outlook about things, said in his column about someone in politics in Colorado, "I'd really like to see someone with XXXXXX's attitude in Congress. But it's one of those Catch-22 situations. The people with good sense who should hold high office often have too much sense to go through the drill." Methinks Ed Quillen has a point -- which applies I am thinking to our federal administration.

As time goes on there seems to be the swelling of careful and thoughtful comments on our situation from Many More Voices . . . . . . . . . . .

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