Progressive Minds

Blogging live, from somewhere in the reality-based community. Speaking truth to power. You've entered the real "no spin zone." Republicans beware!

2005/10/24

Rosa Parks- In Memorium

@ 09:04 PM (93 months, 3 days ago)

There is probably not anything I could say in this post tonight, that would do true justice to the life and legacy of Ms. Rosa Parks.

Sometimes I think the words 'courage' and 'patriot' are overused in today's society, so much so that they have almost lost their meaning.

But not in the case of Rosa Parks.  Her courage helped define the modern Civil Rights Movement, and gave voice to a generation of oppressed Americans who began to demand accountability from the government that had failed them.

And she was a true patriot in every sense of the word.  And because she was a patriot, she demanded the best from her country. She knew that America was not what it could or should be at that moment in time.  And because she loved her country, she worked tirelessly to change it.

When I think of Rosa Parks and the other mothers and fathers of the civil rights movement, I think of the incredible gifts they left my generation.  And I have to ask myself, what is the gift my generation will leave the next?  Years from now, when my 10-year old cousin and her generation read about the lies that lead us into Iraq, and the cycle of poverty that prevented so many from fleeing Hurricane Katrina's impending wrath in New Orleans, what will they say about us?  Will they say that we did nothing?  Will they say we sat idely by while America sent its sons and daugthers to die in a needless war?  And that we did not have the will or the courage to help lift up the least among us?

So tonight I simply want to say "thank you" to Rosa Parks.  Thank you for your courage and patriotism that helped show us the way.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051025/ap_on_re_us/obit_rosa_parks

The GOP's Spin Cycle

@ 06:17 AM (93 months, 4 days ago)

We now see the beginnings of how the Republican Party will try to spin possible coming indictments against Bush administration officials in the Valerie Plame case.

 Based on comments by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson on Meet The Press this weekend, the Republican Party is poised to minimize any indictments on perjury or obstruction of justice as just a "technicality."

 "I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars."

 Let me see if I can wrap my brain around this.  Multiple articles of impeachment were passed against President William Jefferson Clinton for lying about a consensual sexual affair.

 From Article One of the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton:

"On August 17, 1998, William Jefferson Clinton swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth before a Federal grand jury of the United States. Contrary to that oath, William Jefferson Clinton willfully provided perjurious, false and misleading testimony to the grand jury concerning one or more of the following: (1) the nature and details of his relationship with a subordinate Government employee; (2) prior perjurious, false and misleading testimony he gave in a Federal civil rights action brought against him; (3) prior false and misleading statements he allowed his attorney to make to a Federal judge in that civil rights action; and (4) his corrupt efforts to influence the testimony of witnesses and to impede the discovery of evidence in that civil rights action."

 Yet the Republicans are already signaling that they will NOT consider it a serious offense, but just a "techicality" if Bush administration officials are indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the outing of a covert CIA operative with unofficial cover.

 You gotta love the Republican's values: lying about a consensual sexual affair between two adults is very bad.  Lying about your role in the outing of a covert CIA official, which damaged our national security, is no problem at all.

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/23/hutchinson-technicality