Snopes confirms President Eisenhower - Texas Millionaire story

[RobertSeattle]

(As if there was any doubt)

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/ike.asp

Claim: President Eisenhower once noted that "a few Texas oil millionaires" wanted to "abolish social security."

Status: True.

[spindoctor]

1. I didn't know that was disputed

H.L Hunt is quite a colorful figure and very well-known still today in Texas.

The Hunt family and the Bush family carry a remarkable resemblance by the way.

[LynnTheDem]

2. I posted Ike's quote a couple days ago; never knew anyone ever doubted

that he'd said it.

Too many Americans really are totally ignorant of their own country.

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.

There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3641435

[FreedomAngel82]

3. I wonder if he knew Poppy

[LynnTheDem]

4. Yeppers sure did.

"Bush became a frequent golfing partner with President Dwight Eisenhower"

http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/george_bush.pdf

Another Ike quote;

“If ever we put any other value above (our) liberty, and above principle, we shall lose both.”

Guess what? Too late; lost both.

[Mythsaje]

5. Not LOST

Merely misplaced.

We hope.

[LynnTheDem]

6. Civil war required to get them back.

As has always been the case.

[Mythsaje]

7. Maybe...

The odd thing about it is that I had a feeling this was coming some twenty years ago.

I was just hoping I was wrong.

Hard to fight a civil war with just bad language, however. The right wingers have been stockpiling weapons. What have the lefties been stockpiling?

[LynnTheDem]

8. My US career-soldier hubby said 12 years ago, US would see civil war

within his lifetime.

Not until last year did I believe he's correct.

Edit re your last question: Did you know 2/3rds of the US military enlisted troops are NOT REPUBLICANS?

[shanti]

11. ahh, but the brainwashing starts

after they get in.

[LynnTheDem]

13. Nope.

Mine has been in for 20 years. Went in a liberal, is still a liberal. And out of his entire unit, 1 voted for bush.

The enlisted troops have been an est. 1/3 republican, 2/3rds not republican for decades. Ever notice how many minorities are in the enlisted troops and who minorities usually don't vote for?

[shanti]

30. only speaking from what i know

my son, enlisted, is in the airforce and he's a dem, just like me and his grandfather (my dad was also enlisted airforce). but my son has told me personally that the upper ranks push them in the gop direction. officers are heavily rethug.

i'm glad to see that most of our troops aren't falling for it!!

peace!

[LynnTheDem]

37. officers are 7 or 8 to 1 rethugs. But officers = only 15% of the military.

The other 85% are enlisteds. And no, they're not falling for it.

And I'd rather have the enlisteds (and officer hubby, he's an exception as are of course any officers on DU ;)) on my side...most officers are useless.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. Maybe this time it'll be different

I think this time it'll be a different civil war. Not necessarily a psychical battle but one with economy and religion and truth/justice.

[Nostradammit]

16. "What have the lefties been stockpiling?"

The Truth.

We're packin' the big heat, brother.

[Selatius]

10. It may require social upheaval a la 1960s.

But if it takes more than that, civil war, then it will come, but it shouldn't come unless peaceful resistance is tried first.

[Mizmoon]

20. those very hippies who rose up back then are betraying us now

they are the ones in charge now. They are not using their positions of authority to stop the wrongdoing. They have totally deconstructed themselves and become the very opressors they once fought. It was inevitable. And if we rise up against them they will be far more vicious in their oppression than their fathers were ...

it is the way of things. I don't know why, but we seem to become the opposite of what we meant to be.

[mcscajun]

21. Don't be slamming entire generations. There are plenty of us "hippies"

Right Here on DU. We never got to be 'in charge'; we didn't "deconstruct" ourselves, and we're right here being just as oppressed and just as pissed off as you are. And we're fighting alongside you.

Don't buy into the RW hype about the 60s generation.

[Toots]

23. "NEVER Trust anyone over 30"

:shrug: It was the word of the day. Like "Tune In, Turn On, Drop Out"

[SalmonChantedEvening]

27. I haven't trusted me for over 16 years now

:D

[Selatius]

32. Most of those in charge now are privileged, un-hippie-like fools

Only a few of the radicals on the left switched over to the right, but I'd assert the reason they did was because power was their game from the very start, not ideals. When they concluded the left could not win the day, they abandoned it and got with the "winner." I say good riddance to them.

Your argument does hold some level of merit though. Many folks moved into the suburbs and for some reason or another, became incorporated into the base of the Republican Party. However, not all of them did.

Yes, there are perhaps 20,000,000+ people so devout to the current government today that they will do its bidding, even so far as to persecute and destroy fellow Americans in the name of patriotism. I think though that the moderates and leftists far outnumber them.

[misanthrope]

35. Do you mean?...

..."Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
-George Orwell, London, 1946

[dutchdemocrat]

12. Snopes has a Right Wing Agenda

It's pretty obvious.

Jane Fonda attack
http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.asp

Michael Moore apology
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/flight.htm

Bush
http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/bush.asp

Look at the Bush stories and what is being addressed and what turns out to be true and false.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/stateiq.asp

I don't touch Snopes anymore.

[Greyskye]

15. I don't agree

Which items in those links are demonstrably untrue? I find Snopes to be pretty impartial - I've yet to see any evidence of bias to the right or to the left.

[dutchdemocrat]

17. You should have read what Snopes

You should read what Snopes wrote about Michael Moore to begin with. The apology absolutely does it no justice. I was outraged when I read it prior to Snope's 'debunking' being debunked.


How Michael Moore could have spun all of this into the tale he now spouts is beyond us. Yet spout it he does, as in this excerpt from a 2 January 2002 interview with Al D'Amato and Alan Colmes of the FOX Network:

Some folks play fast and loose with the facts when they've an axe to grind, however, and in Moore's case his axe is "the dastardly Republicans and how they're responsible for every ill ever visited upon the USA." In this case, inventing a bin Laden jet that secretly flew out of the country while the rest of us were barred from the skies, and peopling it with folks who were spirited out of the FBI's grasp by a U.S. president intent upon paying back some unnamed (but darkly hinted at) favor, is a handy way of reinforcing the stereotype of Republicans as callous and greedy politicians whose paramount values involve money, not people.

Here read it.

http://agonist.org/annex/snopes2

When Michael says it, he's a crazy truth-distorting axe-grinder. But when much of what he said turns out to be true, suddenly it's "subjective political issues outside of the scope of this page."

Tom Tomorrow also analyzed the Snopes Moore debacle.

http://www.thismodernworld.com/weblog/mtarchives/week_2003_08_31.html#001034

You don't agree, that's your perogative, but IMHO they are clearly conservatives by not only choosing what to debunk, but also in how they word their analyses.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/ or http://skepdic.com/ works for me.

[Greyskye]

25. I had missed...

...the original Michael Moore/Saudi rant. And I agree with you (and the author, in her apology) that it was over the top.

However, it was corrected. And it was done in an upfront manner which I can respect.

As far as the other links you cited - which of those are incorrect? This is a very serious charge that you are putting forth - that Snopes manipulates their facts to suit an agenda. I would like to see more than one (since corrected) example of this.

By the way, thanks for the additional Urban Legend links - one can never have too many of those. :toast:

[psychopomp]

29. Thanks for the heads up

I'm glad that you pointed this out.

[MisterP]

36. they also say the Gitmo gulag members are doubleplusbadterrorists

whowanttohurtusandkillusandenslaveourwomenanddriveourcaptivesbeforethem
Even the 13-year-olds, apparently.
They also evidently reworked their site to prevent Google from caching them in the future.
They also showcase Charlie Daniels' excremental writings and those of other fascist whores.

[Greyskye]

24. self delete

self delete - responded to wrong poster

[mrfrapp]

18. Agree

I've be saying this for years. I'm glad someone else has spotted it.

[mcscajun]

22. They are impartial, except where the Truth is concerned.

I rely upon Snopes.

Here are a few citations you may have missed:

Claim: John Kerry's Vietnam War service medals (a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts) were earned under "fishy" circumstances.
Status: False.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/service.asp


Claim: Photograph shows Senator John Kerry and Jane Fonda sharing a speaker's platform at an anti-war rally.
Status: False.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp


Claim: President Bush once referred to a reporter as a "major league asshole."
Status: True.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/bushcuss.asp

[WLKjr]

14. wish there was audio of that with his face to show

that would be priceless. I want to post that on my local democratic party website.

[dhinojosa]

19. I doubted it....of course It's just the liberal in me....

But, just like any good liberal, I looked it up. I then found it to be true.

[im10ashus]

26. Who doubted it?

I posted the link to the Eisenhower Library in my thread:

http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1147.cfm

[RobertSeattle]

28. There were apparently enough who doubted it for Snopes to do a piece

That's my point.

[GreenPartyVoter]

31. It's a quote that needs to be slipped into every LTTE

[LeftHander]

33. That is the juiciest tidbit in a long time...

kick to the top...

Now to find out who those "texas oil men are..."

No doubt poppy bush comes to mind...

[Octafish]

34. Looks like Hunt & Co. got their monkey.

Bunch of traitors.

[GoBlue]

38. Geesh

I ran a Google on it and found the source within 2min.