"Presidential Appointments" is a term I have come to loath. President Bush wrote the blurb below for the White House website.
"The success of the Bush-Cheney administration will depend on the quality appointees we choose to join us to lead this nation in the years ahead. I will look for people who are willing to work hard to do what is best for America, who examine the facts and do what is right whether or not it is popular. I will look for people from across the country and from every walk of life. I welcome all who are ready for this great challenge to apply."
President George W. Bush
What I have come to realize is that Bush is serious about his "...best for America" statement. Of course, it is best as he see it. His appointments follow either a theocratic or a big business agenda. The big business agenda alarms me, the theocratic agenda terrifies me.
In 2005 Bush nominated fundamentalist Janet Parshall to the UN conference on Women. Parshall is famous for comparing same sex adoptions to child abuse and for telling the world that Matthew Shepard's lifestyle was responsible for his murder.
Let's not forget Randall Tobias, former Deputy Secretary of State. He was working with the UN to Stamp out prostitution while at the same time ordering call girls from the D.C. Madam. Tobias is famous for promoting abstinence over condom use in the fight against Aids.
Or how about Eric Keroack? Bush appointed Keroack to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Keroack is famous for believing contraception is ethical. His mandate was to guide young women towards abstanace.
Alberto Gonzales is famous for turning the Justice Department into a politically aligned foot solder in Bush's culture war. Yet his real crime is only now coming to light. Career lawyers are leaving the Civil Rights department in droves because Gonzales refocused them on The First Freedom Project. What is the important priority in The First Freedom Project? Instead of fighting for the rights of the oppressed, they are using the full might of the government to put prayer back in school and the ten commandments back in our public spaces. And lets not forget the case we just lost - Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation.
I feel it is my Patriotic duty to express my outrage and discontent at George W. Bush's attempt to turn America into a theocracy. Writing about it is the least I can do.
