Bush views Emancipation Proclamation

[Judi Lynn]

Bush views Emancipation Proclamation
Jan 16, 2006, 16:16 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush traveled to the National Archives for a showing of the original Emancipation Proclamation to mark Martin Luther King Day.

With the federal government marking the anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King`s birth, the archives, which often brings out little-scene documents for appropriate events, was showing the 142-year-old proclamation.

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves held in states that had broken from the United States after his election in 1860. It took effect Jan. 1, 1863, when the Civil War was about 20 months old.

'It seems fitting on Martin Luther King Day that I come and look at the Emancipation Proclamation in its original form,' Bush said. 'Abraham Lincoln recognized that all men are created equal.'
(snip/...)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1076555.php/Bush_views_Emancipation_Proclamation

[ixion]

1. but some are more equal than others

ain't that right, georgie. :evilgrin:

[tabasco]

22. Yes, "my base" is much more equal.

That's why Bush has done everything in his power to fuck the little guy and help his billonaire friends since he stole office.

It is an eternal disgrace to our Nation that a man of such little character or ability has been able to hold the same office as Abraham Lincoln.

[toymachines]

2. did he eat the proclamation?

I could see that happening. By accident of course.

[Brooklyn Michael]

26. And then choked on it....

...which, in addition to being accidental, would also be poetic justice.

[punpirate]

3. "It seems...

... fitting... that I come and look at...."

Ultimately, it's always about him, or what he's doing. It's as if he's narrating his presidency, from his point of view, for the benefit of his subjects. It's getting very tiresome, but any expectation of him changing at this point is likely to be frustrated.

[AspenRose]

8. Personally I think it would have been more fitting for him to look at

MLK's "I have a dream" speech TODAY and the Emancipation Proclamation next month, on President's Day.

But what do I know. :shrug:

[YDogg]

12. But to him, blacks = slavery, evidently.

[cmdrzog]

27. More than odd, and more than Bush

It would appear to be a deliberate attempt to subjugate MLK to Lincoln is underway in both TV and newspapers. Last night I mentioned to my wife how the two events and lives were being confused and presented as one; she is very apolitical but had also noticed it and was bothered by it.

Not only does this place MLK's vision and work as a footnote to Lincoln but it also casts them as related in time and as such removes MLK as a contemporary of many living Americans relocating him to the 19th century. Another reality altering change appears to be unfolding.

[YDogg]

11. Exactly.

And this seems odd: 'It seems fitting on Martin Luther King Day that I come and look at the Emancipation Proclamation in its original form.'

What, was he surprised it was written down and all. Did he think it was typewritten?

[jpak]

16. Hey - it's a "little-scene" document - lol

Maybe he thought it was made out of action figures or sum'mm...

[VegasWolf]

13. That was my thought exactly!!!! I once had an english teacher that

cautioned against using the word "I" very often as it sounds moronic and childish. One should be very cautious about using that word often. Bush perfectly exemplifies that sentiment!

:bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

[kayice]

21. That is what narcissistic personalities do.....

it is always about them (me, me, me) and damn anyone or anything that gets in their way. Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are all cut from the same mold.

Can you picture Dubya doing any 'service' like Clinton, Carter or even 'Daddy' Bush after he is out of office?

[Inland]

31. Hah! Good point, he does that all the time. It's his "message, I care."

It's a variation on his dad saying "Message, I care". He wants to make sure that we all know the trouble he is going to in his worthless bit of symbolism. But of course, if we were told, we would wonder what fundraiser is being held in Virginia that's the next stop.

You know that he asks, "why am I doing this, going there, pretending to be this, talking to that?" and someone explains the symbolism, and he just barfs it out. He can't say, "hey, this EP refers to important stuff about our nation's history, I'm going to riff on it for a half hour" like Bill Clinton.

[Inland]

33. mistaken placement nt

[Yupster]

45. There's method to his madness I believe

I think he picked the EP precisely because it was a case where the president overstepped his authority and everyone thinks it was the right thing to do today.

I don't think he chose that by accident.

Slavery was actually written into the Constitution in 1861. I don't see how the president claimed the authority to change the Constitution by writing a letter.

I think Bush would like us to see that a president has that authority.

[VegasWolf]

49. Madness has it's own method. Freud? nt

[punpirate]

52. The only way something can be...

... "written into the Constitution" is through amendment. The 12th amendment was passed not long after the 1800 election to prevent the sort of confusion which occurred when Jefferson and Burr received identical votes in the Electoral College, when the intent of the voters was to elect Jefferson as President and Burr as Vice-President.

The next amendment to come along was the 13th, which made slavery and all indentured servitude illegal in the entire republic, and that amendment was ratified in 1865.

Now, you are partially correct. Slavery was embedded in the Constitution of the Confederacy upon its ratification by the Confederate states in March, 1861. That document is not recognized as binding in US law today.

The original Constitution, upon ratification in 1789, recognized slaves for the purposes of representation only (that's where the 3/5ths of a vote per slave comes in), but there was also a provision in the original Constitution which forbade international slave trade twenty years after ratification, and that provision was put into law, more or less on schedule, in 1819, equating that international trade in slaves as the equivalent of piracy, punishable by death.

So, in fact, no, there was no provision put into the Constitution legalizing slavery in 1861. Therefore, Lincoln's proclamation in 1862 was not a clear violation of law, and it was done in concert with Congress, which, after all, initiated and passed the legislation for the 13th amendment and which began the ratification process completed in 1865.

Bush's situation is quite different--he's ignoring Congress and the courts. I would guess that the rolling out of the original Emancipation Proclamation was just another rather transparent attempt at a cute photo-op to convince black voters what a great guy Bush is.

Cheers.

[tenshi816]

4. Did he say

"it's just a g-d piece of paper"?

[saigon68]

5. Nice Photo --- I like this one better

[Judi Lynn]

42. Eerie how the face blends seamlessly with the shrubbery.

That should be his official pResidential portrait. It flatters him.

[Judi Lynn]

43. Sorry, dupe.

I'll use this space for a Ricky Martin dance photo, instead.



Keep on dancin'.

[FormerRepublican]

6. Bush is probably dreaming about the day when he can reverse it...

...and pocket the profits. Sorry, but Bushie and any form of human rights simply doesn't fit together in my mind. I can imagine him sitting in the Oval office and wondering how he can enslave all the poor and middle class people in America to improve the profit margins for his cronies. I will celebrate for MONTHS when that revolting piece of crap is removed from office!

[Debau2005]

9. You give him too much credit!

He probably does not know what it is or what it means. It is just an old piece of paper to him! Rove has yet to explain it to him in terms he can understand.

[54anickel]

7. BS, his only interest is in gathering ideas for his own damn proclamation.

Lincoln's authority was questioned then just as Bush's is being questioned today. He just wants to pull this as an example of when a president's authority was questioned and later proved by history to be "a noble and just cause".

Bush's spygate is being questioned and his over abundance of "signing statements" is getting press - his evil power grab has been exposed to the light of truth. He's looking for justification. What better way then to abuse the great MLK and Lincoln's proclamation. :puke:

edit to add:

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/24.htm

Lincoln and the North entered the war to preserve the Union rather than to free the slaves, but within a relatively short time emancipation became an accepted war aim. Neither Congress nor the president knew exactly what constitutional powers they had in this area; according to the Dred Scott decision, they had none. But Lincoln believed that the Constitution gave the Union whatever powers it needed to preserve itself, and that he, as commander-in-chief, had the authority to use those powers.

In the fall of 1862, after the Union army victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation, warning that on January 1, 1863, he would free all the slaves in those states still in rebellion. Intended as a war and propaganda measure, the Emancipation Proclamation had far more symbolic than real impact, because the federal government had no means to enforce it at the time. But the document clearly and irrevocably notified the South and the world that the war was being fought not just to preserve the Union, but to put an end to the peculiar institution. Eventually, as Union armies occupied more and more southern territory, the Proclamation turned into reality, as thousands of slaves were set free by the advancing federal troops.

[onehandle]

10. ...and promptly blows his nose with it. nt

[Lisa]

14. I'm surprised that he didn't wither up in a puff of smoke! (n/t)

[CGrantt57]

15. The real story

Bush views Emancipation Proclamation

"Just lookin' for loopholes," the President said, and smirked.

[Yupster]

47. There was a very big loophole in it

It freed the slaves only in places which were not under federal government controll, but kept slavery legal in places which were under federal controll so the slaves were supposedly freed in Richmond but they were still slaves in Maryland, Kentucky, and New Orleans just to name a few places.

[anotherdrew]

17. did he burn it up with his eye beams?

bush can go to hell

[sakabatou]

18. "...except for anybody that disagrees with me. Heh heh heh."

:puke:

[deminks]

19. That's it???? You and Uncle KKKarl could think of nothing else????

You effing could not come up with something to say????? Your effing idea of marking this day is to go to an effing photo op with an archived document that you have never read before??????

Course, Smirky would have reserved the right not to enforce that law, isn't that true, you wittle unitary executive, you?

Effing piece of horse pucky, that's what you are, Smirks. The real president spoke today. He speaks for me. He is my president, Smirky. His name is Al Gore. He won.

[dusmcj]

20. Of, By, For - he wouldn't understand. nt

[melody]

23. Oh, that's really progressive of him (eye roll)

Is that his idea of honoring Dr. King, by propping up the only good thing a Republican President has ever done for minorities - the century before last????

[pinerow]

24. I have to wonder...is this the first time he's seen one of the most

important historical documents in American history...?

[Charlie Brown]

25. His supporters are sympathetic to the traitors who OPPOSED the emancipatio

I'll bet there will be some heated threads on this topic at FR.

[AndyTiedye]

28. He Has Miers and Gonzales Going Over It Looking for Loopholes

[tmooses]

29. He must have had the area cleared of any NAACP members.

n/t

[warrens]

30. Bush views Emancipation Proclamation: Uses for toilet paper

Constitution? Bill of Rights? It's all fit only to wipe his ass.

[symbolman]

32. Of course he had to avoid crowds of black people

who revile him, and could potentially (and justifiably IMHO) lynch the son of a bitch for what he's done to further Racism of all kinds..

You think he'd going to go anywhere NEAR a crowd of blacks after he MURDERED all those people in New Orleans?

If there is such a thing as Voo Doo (and I believe in a LOT of things) then he's in a LOT of trouble..

I was eating fresh goat the other day with some philipinos one of which was an actual recruiter, fresh from Iraq, glad he's safe now he is, and sending other people to their deaths for career advantage.. before I let him know that I'd been drafted during Nam I thought I'd float a little concept past him.. I looked him in the eye and said, "Oh, by the way have you noticed that since WW2 just about ever action or war has been rich WHITE PEOPLE killing yellow and brown people?"

Everyone got pretty quiet, it shut his ass up quick.. took some of the gleam out of his eye, which in a recruiter eye if you look real close is a reflection of a SKULL..

Then I let him know I was a Vietnam Era draftee and thanked him for his service to our country and that I hoped he failed miserably in his job :)

Yeah George, who needs black people when you have Diebold?

[Inland]

34. Bush finally finds a presidential action that IHO is unconsitutional. nt

[superconnected]

35. In other words he wants to see the wording, to over-turn it.

He hasn't shown an interest in history or civil rights before. The only thing he's shown by not meeting with the naacp, making sure millions of blacks cant vote(via his party), and his administrations plan to rebuild NO without fixing the lower 9th, is that he doesn't care for the blacks.

Bet the blacks end up being rounded up faster than the immigrants if the supreme court starts passing the rw fundy agenda into hate/protection laws.

[TomClash]

36. The Emancipation Proclamation is the only civil rights document . . .

. . . he approves of. Remember, Daddy voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the very reason for March on Washington in '63 - during which MLK gave his famous "I Had a Dream" speech - the very culmination of the Mongomery Bus Boycott, the Selma March, the Crusade for Citizenship, the Freedom Rides and the Albany Movement.

Hearing Bush's words, MLK is spinning in his grave.

[Writer]

37. George, George, you simple-minded fool.

The Emancipation Proclamation? Don't you remember what Dr. King actually fought? Jim Crow. Separate but Equal. Sitting on the back of the bus.

Do you remember Rosa Parks? Yeah, George, the bus boycott lady. She died recently, but maybe you don't remember, because for some reason you didn't show up for her memorial service. Your predecessor did, George, and he spoke eloquently about what she - and Dr. King - fought for. Equality.

Equality means, dear sweet little George, that ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE CREATED SO. That means gay men and women, too. But maybe that is what you're avoiding George, by simplisitically racing over to the Emanicipation Proclamation for a quick look-see. Your symbolic Sven Galli. In your simple little mind, Black Americans are former slaves. That's all. Not former slaves who, after gaining emancipation, were made second-class citizens in southern states by Jim Crow laws, and even after those were repealed, still find themselves disenfranchised by unwritten laws that routinely keep them in poverty and crime.

Remember New Orleans, George? That's what Dr. King was fighting against. An equal chance for health, happiness, and the ability to survive. But your simple mind can't grab those details. And your simple little narcissistic mind tells itself that it did a good deed today by such vacuous symbolism.

But we know better, George. And we also know, after so many have suffered and died in Iraq and New Orleans that there is a place in hell for you.

[sonsera]

38. The Emancipation Proclamation was

a shrew political move on Lincoln’s part but it didn’t free any slaves and Lincoln knew it wouldn’t. The south had already formed their own government under President Jefferson Davis in 1861 and didn’t recognize any laws passed by the north. Slavery was abolished by the 13th amendment, Dec. 6, 1865 after vice president Andrew Johnson was sworn in as president following the assassination of Lincoln on April 14th. Contrary to the sugar coated history taught in schools today, Lincoln didn’t believe in slavery but he also didn’t believe in equal rights for blacks, e.g. voting rights.

[Orsino]

39. Did he drop off a signing statement? n/t

[NYC Liberal]

40. Funny. Bush wouldn't have signed it today. You know, his "base"

wouldn't have approved.

[jsamuel]

41. Seriously... WTF does the Emancipation Proclamation have to do with MLK?

Why not look at any of the laws that were passed as a consequence of MLK? Are none of those important or valuable? The EP was done 100 years before many of the laws MLK helped push through passed. I feel like looking at the EP today minimizes what MLK did in his lifetime by saying that he really didn't do anything, but the EP, which had nothing to do with him, is good.

[Charlie Brown]

46. Lincoln was a Republican

and Bush is trying desperately to connect the dots to try and hijack MLK's legacy for conservatives.

The party of "free speech, free press, free soil, free men" had almost nothing in common with today's corporate/religious right GOP, FYI, and most of Bush's supporters are sympathetic to the Confederate States of America, but that will not stop Bush from rewriting history.

[Bluerthanblue]

48. actually a Lincoln Republican is a todays Dem-

not exactly sure how that went, but I'm pretty sure its truth-
I'll see if i can find it-

[Bluerthanblue]

50. here is a link-

that explains it a little-

Worth the read-

http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/3481.html

[Turbineguy]

44. Even the President

has to see something he can laugh at from time to time. I guess he's bored with the flag-draped coffins.

[Endangered Specie]

51. Five bucks says he didn't pronounce it right the first time.