I checked out George Allen+óGé¼Gäós website the other day. I saw a lot of the word "Jeffersonian." All over the site, it's Jeffersonian this, Jeffersonian that. Why? Does George Allen really have something in common with our nation's third President, author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom? Obviously not. So what's Jefferson doing there?Perhaps Allen mentions the great Jefferson so frequently because it's far better than being compared to George W. Bush, who most historians rank as one of the worst president in history. But let+óGé¼Gäós not kid ourselves, George Allen doesn+óGé¼Gäót deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as a founding father like Thomas Jefferson. Frankly, George Allen is no Thomas Jefferson. Nor does his right-wing ideology reflect Thomas Jefferson's "conservative" principles of 250 years ago.
In reality, George Allen is not like Thomas Jefferson much at all. For starters, Allen is not even from Virginia, he's born in Michigan and raised in Southern California. Perhaps that's why Georgie Boy thinks there are cowboys and cattle ranches on the Great Plains of Virginia. It makes you wonder if George Allen understands Virginia much at all. I guess he's confusing Virginia with Iowa, where he wishes he had been born, once again. Thomas Jefferson was a true blue Virginian all the way. Jethro Allen is a wannabe of the worst sort.
For the ultimate test of whether George Allen is like Thomas Jefferson, we need only visit Jefferson+óGé¼Gäós tombstone. Perhaps Allen has visited the site, perhaps not. If he has, he certainly hasn+óGé¼Gäót read what's written there. Thomas Jefferson asked for just three things to be etched on his grave. First and foremost, that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence. Second, that he created the University of Virginia. And third, that he wrote the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. Let+óGé¼Gäós see which ones Allen seems to honor...if any.
The Declaration of Independence states the +óGé¼+ôAll Men are Created Equal.+óGé¼-¥ It declares that our Freedom is given to us by God and can+óGé¼Gäót be taken from us by any man on Earth. So, when in his life has George Allen fought for Equal Rights? When has George Allen stood up and fought to make sure the little guy can compete with the big guy? In reality, George Allen has voted with President Bush 97% of the time, including the Bush tax cuts that favor the top 1% wealthiest Americans. Clearly, George Allen has failed the first Jeffersonian characteristic. George Allen is now 0 for 1.
What about UVA? George Allen actually attended the school and was a football...um..."star" there. Ha ha. So, I+óGé¼Gäóll give this one to Allen; he's got real ties to the University of Virginia, although he certainly didn't found the school or anything like that. Still, George Allen is now 1 for 2 with regards to Thomas Jefferson's tombstone. However, this one doesn+óGé¼Gäót make me any more willing to support George Allen. I happen to be a proud Hokie, and I know the Virginia Tech Young Democrats will have a blast revamping our "Kilgore is a Wahoo" buttons to read "Allen is a Wahoo."
Finally, the third and most important point: George Allen and Virginia's Statute of Religious Freedom do not mix. In fact, Thomas Jefferson believed strongly in religious freedom and separation of church and state. In 1800, he wrote, in reference to a group of clergy who hoped to create an official Christian Church for the United States:
The clergy...believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.
In addition, Jefferson had this to say about people who try to bring Religion out of the realm of personal belief and into the public sphere:
Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle.
So how is Thomas Jefferson, a man who believed deeply that religion was a private matter that should be kept out of the public domain, like George Allen, one of the leading members of the religious right wing today? Let's put it this way, do you think Mr.-Take-The-Entire-Bible-Literally-Pat-Robertson would support Thomas Jefferson like he supports George Allen? Something tells me the answer is "no!" After all, it was Thomas Jefferson who wrote:
In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.
Hmm, I wonder what George Allen has to say about THAT quote? Ha.
The bottom line is that George Allen is nothing like Thomas Jefferson when it comes to religion. George Allen is now 1 for 3 when it comes to Jefferson's tombtsone inscription. At Virginia Tech, and also at Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia, that's a failing grade. It's not bad in baseball, though!
Unlike our great founding father, George Allen doesn't seem to understand the importance of religious freedom. And, unlike Thomas Jefferson, our Southern California Cowboy doesn't seem to appreciate that All Men are Equal. In stark contrast to Thomas Jefferson, George Allen supports policies that actually take power from the poor and middle classes and give it to the rich (or those who can figure out a way to buy it). As I said earlier, George Allen is no Thomas Jefferson, based on Jefferson's own greatest accomplishments in life.
Is there anyone around today who is like Thomas Jefferson? As a matter of fact, Jim Webb is much closer than George Allen to the "Thomas Jefferson tombstone test." On that basis, Webb excels at 2 of the 3, "All Men are Created Equal" and religious freedom/church-state separation. Interestingly, these are the same two Jeffersonian principles that Allen failed miserably. In contrast, Jim Webb "fails" only with regard to UVA, which he didn't attend, having graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968 (and having finished first in his class of 243 at the Marine Corps Officer's Basic School in Quantico).
In sum, George Allen really needs to rethink trying to pretend that Thomas Jefferson is his "role model." Perhaps, if Georgie Boy looks hard enough, he'll find somebody who is actually a little like him? The current President, perhaps?
Let's be real here. George Allen not only is no Thomas Jefferson, he actually disgraces Jefferson's memory by comparing himself with one of Virginia+óGé¼Gäós greatest sons. Let's drop that one right now. Instead, how about we all help George Allen find himself a "Jefferson" that fits him better? Off the top of my head, I can think of one. Ha.
Allen so thoroughly serves the interests of well-connected corporate leaders and investors at the expense of nation and society that I find him little more than a boot-lick devoid of genuine principle and inferior in every way to Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson Davis.
Allen's disgusting displays of bigotry and childish understanding of the "Old South" marks him as an ignorant and uncouth buffoon alien to any sort of genuine Southern conservatism which finds it's roots in an organic, familial and social attachment to the past. While Allen finds it useful to wrap his current political conduct in the veneer of principle, one cannot help but point to his actions as reprehensible examples of opportunism and self-serving ambition.
Thomas Jefferson sought to protect the rights of Americans as free people. George Allen diminishes the rights of Americans leading us down the path of serfdom before a more powerful intrusive state and financial interests which have become the de facto masters of our representative government.
There is no substance to George Allen. Neither Thomas Jefferson nor the Stars and Bars can conceal the shallow, crude and thoughtless political machinations of this modern day tool of the economic elites.
In a final campaign swing through Virginia, Kennedy responded to Nixon's attempt:
"A contemporary once said of Jefferson that he was a young man of 32 who could plot an eclipse, survey a field, plan an edifice, break a horse, play a violin and dance a minuet.
"What on earth has he got in common with Richard Milhous Nixon?" Kennedy asked voters.
All I want is for Georgie to be a one-term failed senator. The failed part he has already accomplished. The one-term part thousands of us will work hard to make a fact for the "Wanna Be" boy.
All Marine Corps officers attend what is called The Basic School at Quantico AFTER they are commissioned 2nd Lts. It does not matter if that commission is upon completing OCS, graduating from a service academy (there are always a few from West Point as well as Annapolis), ROTC, or direct commission (exceedingly rare). Simply put, the Mission of The Basic School is to
Train and educate newly commissioned or appointed officers in the high standards of professional knowledge, esprit-de-corps, and leadership required to prepare them for duty as company grade officers in the operating forces, with particular emphasis on the duties, responsibilities and warfighting skills required of a rifle platoon commander.
That Jim finished first in his class at this level demonstrated how capable he was at a young age of leadership. Being first in one's class academically, even at a service academy, does not come close to what this demands.
It might be worth putting out what this means on a far broader basis.
It was NOT officer training. It was leadership training for already commissioned officers.
I don't think Thomas Jefferson would like Allen's Standards of Learning at all. Jefferson sounds like he was a man of substance more so than Allen who preys on and tries to take advantage of peoples lack of education --Allen's outlook to education is much like Bush's plan of "No childs behind left"(Ann Richard's quote)It's all verbage and NO SUBSTANCE. Just look at his current ad on TV where he boasts about crime, education etc. Anyone who knows Virginia and how much harm Allen has done to it probably gets sick everytime that big lie comes on. I'm out.
John F. Kennedy in Roanoke
(WDBJ Television, Roanoke, VA)
(This speech is identical to the one delivered on WDBJ tape 02-36, but this segment contains a much longer portion of JFK's speech.)Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy came to Roanoke for a campaign speech in 1960.
Kennedy acknowledged the presence of Governors Battle and Almond, and Congressmen Jennings, Downing, Gary, and Hardy. The theme of Kennedy's speech was straightforward: "Virginia should not vote Republican."
Kennedy said Virginia is the home of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Party, and thus, it could not afford to elect Richard Nixon as President of the United States. Kennedy chided his Republican opponent Richard Nixon for his reliance on "body guards" to escort him through the state New York. Kennedy scoffed at Nixon's Republican supporters who accompanied him to New York and campaigned on his behalf, including Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Nelson Rockefeller, and President Eisenhower.
Kennedy said, "the people of Virginia and the people of the United States must decide" whether a person who dodged a fifth television debate, or who needed an "escort guard" in New York, was fit to lead the people of the United States. Kennedy's rhetoric of virility and strength was meant to make Nixon appear weak, too weak to stand up to the Soviets.
Kennedy said nothing about civil rights in this speech, instead hinging his campaign on strong Democratic traditions in Virginia and on foreign policy differences with his opponent. "
THIS IS SO TRUE. READ IT AND WEEP ALLEN. KC.