Lessons of the Father

We get these things in our email. Some are funny, some are just mean spirited and nasty, and some are actually well crafted bits of propaganda which come out of sophisticated Marketing firms which are paid handsomely to produce them, of which this is one example:

When President Truman retired from office in 1952, his income was substantially a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25 000 per year. When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, 'You don't want me. You want the office of the president, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale.' Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, 'I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise.' We now see that the Clintons have found a new level of success in cashing in on the presidency, resulting in untold wealth. To day, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale.?

Was good old Harry Truman correct when he observed, 'My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference."

Subtle, funny, and completely misleading, with the all too obvious intent of bashing the Clintons.

But...Why use a great Democratic President to bash another when there are so many excellent Republican Presidents to bash?

The Clintons were shown the way by their predecessors, Reagan and Bush, although GHW Bush simply used his Presidential connections to amass greater wealth by forming Carlyle Investment group, and had to wait for his son to start the war which made him obscene profits. What a tag team these guys are!

And shall we get started on Dick Cheney's Halliburton? Wait...He was only a Veep, so we can't count him, even though he still holds major amounts of stock by proxy in a hedge fund which held at one time 70% of its assets in Halliburton and its subsidiaries. Kellog Brown and Root is now responsible for the greatest atrocities of the war as well as war profiteering by overcharging the US Government for services it never -delivered. And whenever you're ready we can talk about the $8-9 BILLION that Cheney's Halliburton simply "lost" somewhere in Iraq...Money provided by the US Government that was supposed to be used for rebuilding and is completely unaccounted for.

Back to Presidents...Reagan...Why did you get me started? Paid Two million dollars for one speech and a meal with international big shots, he had to actually "work" two hours. His $300,000 house was bought by a Republican doner for $1.7 million, conveniently providing Reagan with the money needed to buy the Reagan ranch, where he hid out so that people would not realize exactly how far into Alzheimers disease Reagan actually was during his presidency.

So have the Clintons profitted from their term in the Whitehouse? Absolutely. But they worked hard at it making speeches for one tenth what Reagan was given for his payback, and they won't have to start a war that kills millions and forever burdens America with Trillions of dollars in debt.

But when you talk about the "Last Honest President" why not mention Dwight David Eisenhower? Ike was that rarest of humanity, an "Honest Republican". Would that all republicans held Eisenhower as their hero instead of Ronald Reagan (a paper president completely unattached to reality merely reading the lines written for him by Peggy Noonan). Eisenhower, in his farewell speech, warned America of a grave threat to its future and world peace...Republicans!

I suggest you go back and read Ike's farewell speech in its entirety but here is an excerpt:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted
influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military-Industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Dwight D. Eisenhower as he left office in 1961...See? Ike was warning His country to beware of Republicans!

Lessons taught by the father that are sometimes well learned by the chikldren...I think it is well worth noting that Dwight Eisenhower's son, David, and Richard Nixon's daughter, Julie, who are husband and wife, have turned away from the Republican party and have recently endorsed Barrack H. Obama for President of the United States of America.

Peace,
Steve