I'm sort of President of it. (Well, the Mass chapter anyway.) I discovered my abiding dislike of this mental defective last January when I was watching the Condiliar Rice confirmation farce in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This was part of Sen. Barfbag's opening remarks which he continued to rave on and on about until Sen. Lugar found some crayons and a coloring book and distracted the big oaf. (Lugar: "Georgie, leave the nice lady alone so she can lie some more to the nasty Democrats. Look Georgie, keys. Nice shiny keys. Yes, you can play with them. Now sit and be quiet till someone comes to pick you up and take to the Senate day care.")
The wit and wisdom of George Allen, 1/18/05. Starts out making some sort of point about Condi going to the Birmingham Church in Alabama that was bombed and then fell of the mental wagon somewhere.
And a lot of those -- now, Dr. King obviously is gone, but many of those who were involved in the civil rights movement are actually still alive and you can talk and question them on what they were trying to do.
Dr. Rice, you mentioned the future, which is important. And some people call the 20th century America's century. I believe, as you do, that the 21st century needs to be freedom's century. And individual freedom, regardless of race or gender or ethnicity or religion are key. I look at those as some of the four pillars of freedom or individual liberty are freedom of religion, freedom of speech. You used the town hall test. Three is private ownership of property, and fourth, the rule of law to protect those rights and constitutional rule.
And we do learn from history. And that's why I like reading and listening to your statement. And you referenced President Truman and Acheson and so forth and 1947 to 1949. And that is fine; that was the beginning of the Cold War.
I will say, though, that President Ronald Reagan and George Shultz and Cap Weinberger and that administration were the ones who changed that dynamic of the Cold War from one of containment and co-existence to the advancement of freedom.
Some criticized President Reagan for calling the Soviet Union, in my view, rightfully, the Evil Empire. They criticized him for going to Brandenburg Gate and telling Mr. Gorbachev to tear down that wall. But that's actually what did happen.
Because of that, there are now hundreds of millions of people tasting that sweet nectar of liberty in Central Europe who are friends and allies, not just in the war on terror but also economically, thanks to that leadership.
Sen. Kerry, who obviously has boxes of Maalox in his office just for such occasions, got to question Condi after Sen. Allen. It was the difference between hearing 'Jingle bells' played on a kazoo and a full orchestra rendition of a Beethoven symphony. Sigh!