George Bush has recently started comparing himself to one of our former great presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

This president was a president during my younger years and also during my military service in World War II.

M. Bush would be wise to not compare himself with this president.

F.D.R. as he was known to the public was one who leveled with Americans.

Here is one example. His radio speech on December 9, 1941.

Two days after Pearl Harbor.

Note how he does not try to minimize the bad news. No -----

He tells the truth.

I hope to post other ways, from time to time, in which F.D.R. shows his respect for the American people.

He does this by being honest with them.

A.B.

ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT DELIVERED BY RADIO FROM THE WHITE HOUSE
BROADCAST FROM THE OVAL ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE, NATIONALLY, AND OVER A WORLD-WIDE HOOKUP
DECEMBER 9, 1941 -- 10:00 PM


MY FELLOW AMERICANS:

The sudden criminal attacks perpetrated by the Japanese in the Pacific provide the climax of a decade of international immorality.

Powerful and resourceful gangsters have banded together to make war upon the whole human race. Their challenge has now been flung at the United States of America. The Japanese have treacherously violated the longstanding peace between us. Many American soldiers and sailors have been killed by enemy action. American ships have been sunk; American airplanes have been destroyed.

The Congress and the people of the United States have accepted that challenge.

Together with other free peoples, we are now fighting to maintain our right to live among our world neighbors in freedom, in common decency, without fear of assault.

I have prepared the full record of our past relations with Japan, and it will be submitted to the Congress. It begins with the visit of Commodore Parry to Japan eighty-eight years ago. It ends with the visit of two Japanese emissaries to the Secretary of State last Sunday, an hour after Japanese forces had loosed their bombs and machine guns against our flag, our forces and our citizens.

I can say with utmost confidence that no Americans today or a thousand years hence, need feel anything but pride in our patience and in our efforts through all the years toward achieving a peace in the Pacific which would be fair and honorable to every nation, large or small. And no honest person, today or a thousand years hence, will be able to suppress a sense of indignation and horror at the treachery committed by the military dictators of Japan, under the very shadow of the flag of peace borne by their special envoys in our midst.

The course that Japan has followed for the past ten years in Asia has paralleled the course of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe and in Africa. Today, it has become far more than a parallel. It is actual collaboration so well calculated that all the continents of the world, and all the oceans, are now considered by the Axis strategists as one gigantic battlefield.

In 1931, ten years ago, Japan invaded Manchukuo -- without warning.

In 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia -- without warning. In 1938, Hitler occupied Austria -- without warning.

In 1939, Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia -- without warning. Later in '39, Hitler invaded Poland -- without warning. In 1940, Hitler invaded Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg -- without warning.

In 1940, Italy attacked France and later Greece -- without warning.

And this year, in 1941, the Axis Powers attacked Yugoslavia and Greece and they dominated the Balkans -- without warning. In 1941, also, Hitler invaded Russia -- without warning. And now Japan has attacked Malaya and Thailand -- and the United States -- without warning.

It is all of one pattern.

We are now in this war. We are all in it -- all the way. Every single man, woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history. We must share together the bad news and the good news, the defeats and the victories -- the changing fortunes of war.

So far, the news has been all bad. We have suffered a serious setback in Hawaii. Our forces in the Philippines, which include the brave people of that Commonwealth, are taking punishment, but are defending themselves vigorously. The reports from Guam and Wake and Midway Islands are still confused, but we must be prepared for the announcement that all these three outposts have been seized.

The casualty lists of these first few days will undoubtedly be large. I deeply feel the anxiety of all of the families of the men in our armed forces and the relatives of people in cities which have been bombed. I can only give them my solemn promise that they will get news just as quickly as possible.

This Government will put its trust in the stamina of the American people, and will give the facts to the public just as soon as two conditions have been fulfilled: first, that the information has been definitely and officially confirmed; and, second, that the release of the information at the time it is received will not prove valuable to the enemy directly or indirectly.

Most earnestly I urge my countrymen to reject all rumors. These ugly little hints of complete disaster fly thick and fast in wartime. They have to be examined and appraised.

As an example, I can tell you frankly that until further surveys are made, I have not sufficient information to state the exact damage which has been done to our naval vessels at Pearl Harbor. Admittedly the damage is serious. But no one can say how serious, until we know how much of this damage can be repaired and how quickly the necessary repairs can be made.

I cite as another example a statement made on Sunday night that a Japanese carrier had been located and sunk off the Canal Zone. And when you hear statements that are attributed to what they call "an authoritative source," you can be reasonably sure from now on that under these war circumstances the "authoritative source" is not any person in authority.

Many rumors and reports which we now hear originate, of course, with enemy sources. For instance, today the Japanese are claiming that as a result of their one action against Hawaii they hare gained naval supremacy in the Pacific. This is an old trick of propaganda which has been used innumerable times by the Nazis. The purposes of such fantastic claims are, of course, to spread fear and confusion among us, and to goad us into revealing military information which our enemies are desperately anxious to obtain.

Our Government will not be caught in this obvious trap -- and neither will the people of the United States.

It must be remembered by each and every one of us that our free and rapid communication these days must be greatly restricted in wartime. It is not possible to receive full and speedy and accurate reports front distant areas of combat. This is particularly true where naval operations are concerned. For in these days of the marvels of the radio it is often impossible for the Commanders of various units to report their activities by radio at all, for the very simple reason that this information would become available to the enemy and would disclose their position and their plan of defense or attack.

Of necessity there will be delays in officially confirming or denying reports of operations, but we will not hide facts from the country if we know the facts and if the enemy will not be aided by their disclosure.

To all newspapers and radio stations -- all those who reach the eyes and ears of the American people -- I say this: You have a most grave responsibility to the nation now and for the duration of this war.

If you feel that your Government is not disclosing enough of the truth, you have every right to say so. But in the absence of all the facts, as revealed by official sources, you have no right in the ethics of patriotism to deal out unconfirmed reports in such a way as to make people believe that they are gospel truth. Every citizen, in every walk of life, shares this same responsibility. The lives of our soldiers and sailors -- the whole future of this nation -- depend upon the manner in which each and every one of us fulfills his obligation to our country. Now a word about the recent past and the future. A year and a half has elapsed since the fall of France, when the whole world first realized the mechanized might which the Axis nations had been building up for so many years. America has used that year and a half to great advantage. Knowing that the attack might reach us in all too short a time, we immediately began greatly to increase our industrial strength and our capacity to meet the demands of modern warfare.

Precious months were gained by sending vast quantities of our war material to the nations of the world still able to resist Axis aggression. Our policy rested on the fundamental truth that the defense of any country resisting Hitler or Japan was in the long run the defense of our own country. That policy has been justified. It has given us time, invaluable time, to build our American assembly lines of production.

Assembly lines are now in operation. Others are being rushed to completion. A steady stream of tanks and planes, of guns and ships and shells and equipment -- that is what these eighteen months have given us.

But it is all only a beginning of what still has to be done. We must be set to face a long war against crafty and powerful bandits. The attack at Pearl Harbor can be repeated at any one of many points, points in both oceans and along both our coast lines and against all the rest of the Hemisphere.

It will not only be a long war, it will be a hard war. That is the basis on which we now lay all our plans. That is the yardstick by which we measure what we shall need and demand; money, materials, doubled and quadrupled production -- ever-increasing. The production must be not only for our own Army and Navy and air forces. It must reinforce the other armies and navies and air forces fighting the Nazis and the war lords of Japan throughout the Americas and throughout the world. I have been working today on the subject of production. Your Government has decided on two broad policies.

The first is to speed up all existing production by working on a seven day week basis in every war industry, including the production of essential raw materials.

The second policy, now being put into form, is to rush additions to the capacity of production by building more new plants, by adding to old plants, and by using the many smaller plants for war needs.

Over the hard road of the past months, we have at times met obstacles and difficulties, divisions and disputes, indifference and callousness. That is now all past -- and, I am sure, forgotten.

The fact is that the country now has an organization in Washington built around men and women who are recognized experts in their own fields. I think the country knows that the people who are actually responsible in each and every one of these many fields are pulling together with a teamwork that has never before been excelled.

On the road ahead there lies hard work -- gruelling work -- day and night, every hour and every minute.

I was about to add that ahead there lies sacrifice for all of us.

But it is not correct to use that word. The United States does not consider it a sacrifice to do all one can, to give one's best to our nation, when the nation is fighting for its existence and its future life.

It is not a sacrifice for any man, old or young, to be in the Army or the Navy of the United States. Rather it is a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice for the industrialist or the wage earner, the farmer or the shopkeeper, the trainmen or the doctor, to pay more taxes, to buy more bonds, to forego extra profits, to work longer or harder at the task for which he is best fitted. Rather it is a privilege.

It is not a sacrifice to do without many things to which we are accustomed if the national defense calls for doing without it.

A review this morning leads me to the conclusion that at present we shall not have to curtail the normal use of articles of food. There is enough food today for all of us and enough left over to send to those who are fighting on the same side with us.

But there will be a clear and definite shortage of metals for many kinds of civilian use, for the very good reason that in our increased program we shall need for war purposes more than half of that portion of the principal metals which during the past year have gone into articles for civilian use. Yes, we shall have to give up many things entirely.

And I am sure that the people in every part of the nation are prepared in their individual living to win this war. I am sure that they will cheerfully help to pay a large part of its financial cost while it goes on. I am sure they will cheerfully give up those material things that they are asked to give up. And I am sure that they will retain all those great spiritual things without which we cannot win through.

I repeat that the United States can accept no result save victory, final and complete. Not only must the shame of Japanese treachery be wiped out, but the sources of international brutality, wherever they exist, must be absolutely and finally broken.

In my Message to the Congress yesterday I said that we "will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again." In order to achieve that certainty, we must begin the great task that is before us by abandoning once and for all the illusion that we can ever again isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.

In these past few years -- and, most violently, in the past three days -- we have learned a terrible lesson.

It is our obligation to our dead -- it is our sacred obligation to their children and to our children -- that we must never forget what we have learned.

And what we have learned is this:

There is no such thing as security for any nation -- or any individual -- in a world ruled by the principles of gangsterism. There is no such thing as impregnable defense against powerful aggressors who sneak up in the dark and strike without warning.

We have learned that our ocean-girt hemisphere is not immune from severe attack -- that we cannot measure our safety in terms of miles on any map any more.

We may acknowledge that our enemies have performed a brilliant feat of deception, perfectly timed and executed with great skill. It was a thoroughly dishonorable deed, but we must face the fact that modern warfare as conducted in the Nazi manner is a dirty business. We don't like it -- we didn't want to get in it -- but we are in it and we're going to fight it with everything we've got.

I do not think any American has any doubt of our ability to administer proper punishment to the perpetrators of these crimes. Your Government knows that for weeks Germany has been telling Japan that if Japan did not attack the United States, Japan would not share in dividing the spoils with Germany when peace came. She was promised by Germany that if she came in she would receive the complete and perpetual control of the whole of the Pacific area -- and that means not only the Ear East, but also all of the Islands in the Pacific, and also a stranglehold on the west coast of North, Central and South America. We know also that Germany and Japan are conducting their military and naval operations in accordance with a joint plan. That plan considers all peoples and nations which are not helping the Axis powers as common enemies of each and every one of the Axis powers.

That is their simple and obvious grand strategy. And that is why the American people must realize that it can be matched only with similar grand strategy. We must realize for example that Japanese successes against the United States in the Pacific are helpful to German operations in Libya; that any German success against the Caucasus is inevitably an assistance to Japan in her operations against the Dutch East Indies; that a German attack against Algiers or Morocco opens the way to a German attack against South America and the Canal.

On the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the Germans in, let us say Serbia or Norway, helps us; that a successful Russian offensive against the Germans helps us; and that British successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain or Russia. And Germany puts all the other Republics of the Americas into the same category of enemies. The people of our sister Republics of this Hemisphere can be honored by that fact.

The true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. When we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. We Americans are not destroyers -- we are builders.

We are now in the midst of a war, not for conquest, not for vengeance, but for a world in which this nation, and all that this nation represents, will be safe for our children. We expect to eliminate the danger from Japan, but it would serve us ill if we accomplished that and found that the rest of the world was dominated by Hitler and Mussolini.

So we are going to win the war and we are going to win the peace that follows.

And in the difficult hours of this day -- through dark days that may be yet to come -- we will know that the vast majority of the members of the human race are on our side. Many of them are fighting with us. All of them are praying for us. But, in representing our cause, we represent theirs as well -- our hope and their hope for liberty under God.

So here are some excerpts from George W Bush" speech on Sept 21, 2001:

...America is successful because of the hard work and creativity and enterprise of our people. These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11, and they are our strengths today.

...We will come together to take active steps that strengthen America's economy and put our people back to work.

...It is my hope that in the months and years ahead life will return almost to normal. We'll go back to our lives and routines and that is good...


I'm sure there were word in there that we should "go shopping - it's our patriotic duty!"

But I can't find them.

He is kinda lost compared to F.D.R. don't you think

I was thinking of F.D.R. earlier today, and his fireside chats, I believe he called them.

An entirely different man than George W. Bush, and that is for sure.

Cut from some different cloth, is what I think!

I think of F.D.R. as urbane, which means notably polite or finished in manner; qualities that I personally would like and want in MY American president!

F.D.R. made it very clear that as to "war powers", THEY belong to the American people, and not the American president!

He, or she exercises them ON OUR BEHALF, and not otherwise!

George W. Bush, in my estimation has violated that precept or tenet, and so, in my opinion as a citizen and disabled veteran, George W. Bush, in doing so, waging aggressive war on false pretext, has altered, or warped, or skewed the Office of American President in a very unhealthy manner, and so, he is the antithesis of F.D.R., as I see it.

In fact, to me, George W. Bush comparing himself to F.D.R. is high farce, indeed!

FDR also had a GREAT first lady,which Bush lacks.

We should "encourage" this attempt at comparison! Bush comes off as a pathetic liar!

The only thing they have in common is Social Security:

FDR created it, and GWB is determined to finish it off.

THAT IS A VERY GOOD "SOUND BYTE"!!! Send this to the Dem leadership ( Howard Dean), PLEASE?

Actually, when comparing Bush to FDR, I think of another speech of Roosevelt's, his first inaugural speech. When FDR took office in 1933, the country was in the midst of a terrible depression that threatened not only our economic system, but our very foundation of government. Our country probably faced its greatest peril since the Civil War. Many feared that we would follow the paths taken in Italy and Germany, and turn to fascism to combat our economic and social ills.

From his inauguration in 1933, and thereafter, instead of using the depression for his own or for his party's political gain, Roosevelt said:

http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html

To me, aside from his role in winning WWII, FDR's greatest legacy was creating a safety net for all Americans, not just the wealthiest ones. It is the remnants of that safety net that Mr. Bush and his supporters work so tirelessly to destroy. In contrast to FDR, Bush has used fear, spread fear, and banked on fear, to control this country and to profit from that control.

There IS no comparison bewteen Bush and FDR.

Agreed that's why we should "encourage" the comparison! But we need sound bytes to reach the kool-aid drinkers!

Okay, I will.

SLOGAN:

George W Bush has recently taken to comparing himself to Franklin D Roosevelt. But the only thing they have in common is Social Security:
FDR created it, and GWB is determined to finish it off.

Is this okay?

Recently neocons have begun throwing out the book "Day of Deceit" by Bush family friend Robert Stinnett, about FDR and Pearl Harbor foreknowledge. If someone wanted to make the comparison to 9-11 they'd be fine citing "Crossing the Rubicon" by Michael Ruppert of fromthewilderness.com .

I find the FDR Pearl Harbor foreknowledge book interesting since Adm Kimmell still didn't arm the harbor against aircraft or put up proper torpedoe nets etc. etc. even after being forewarned WITHOUT the indepth intelligence being withheld from him. FDR knew an attack was coming and entry to WWII was a necessity.

Bush, if aware of 9-11 beforehand could have done something also. Plus this FDR stuff is intended to put the public into panic mode and allow Private Accounts, which essentially kill Social Security (as Santorum's goons were chanting yesterday !).

The old dream of those who plotted against FDR in 1932 just will not die; they want to destroy the New Deal's linchpin, Social Security. Check out the film and book "The Plot to Overthrow FDR" http://www.ihffilm.com/r547.html or Jules Archers book "The Plot to Seize the White House"...but be prepared, this book is rare and costs something like $300 on order ! I guess they don't want us reading it...

Ah, but there is, and you just made one.

And a very good one it is!

Perhaps it should be said that when the comparison is made, as you have done it, then it is obvious to a blind man that George W. Bush is no F.D.R., and that it is high farce indeed to even try and make such a comparison!

And that would be an interesting Mel Brooks movie to watch, "Young George W. Bush meets FDR!"

I wonder who Mel would have had playing George W. Bush?

Mel Gibson?

Steve McQueen?

Bob Redford?

AH, maybe Ah-nold Schwarzenegger?

Or Clint Eastwood as "Dirty Harry"; "now, let's see here, punk, in the heat of confusion, did I fire five hundred times, or was it ten thousand, I just can't remember, so, do you feel lucky?"

Arnold should be the one. He is as dumb as Bush.
DAHH... Mel Brooks would cast Bush as Hitler in "The Producers" Musical Version. HEIL TO ME, I'M the greatest dictator in the land. :D

Thanks Livyjr. One of the problems we have in this country is a lack of knowledge of our history. I suspect that most people who support Bush have no knowledge of the Depression, of what this country was like before the New Deal, or of the rise of fascism and its cost and effects. And then of course, there are those who do have such knowledge, but don't care because Bush looks after them. I refer to the wealthiest 2% of Americans who bankroll the Bush Republicans.

As for movies, I'm thinking of a remake of "The Great Dictator." Can you see a Bush look-alike lying on his desk in the oval office, kicking a balloon globe up and down?

A huge problem that we have in this country is that people here in America, natural-born, anyway, indeed do not know our history, and I know, from my own face-to-face conversations with younger Americans, that they know very little or nothing at all about what happened last week, let alone back before WWII!

Most younger Americans know nothing about WWII, either, and I would honestly doubt that they could tell you anything about FDR, who is dead, and so, cannot defend himself; which makes it generally safe for George W. Bush to compare himself to FDR, because outside of old timers like Mr. A.B. in here, who would question that comparison, present company excluded, of course?

It just does not seem necessary to have to know anything, beyond, "consuming", to be an American today, IF YOU ARE BORN HERE, and so, people don't.

And so, they can be manipulated, and are, BECAUSE, they lack this basis of comparison!

As for the movie, would you have Mel Brooks direct, or whom, if not him?

And do you intend for your movie to be serious drama, or would it still be high farce?

And does anyone out there actually look like George W. Bush, I wonder, outside of Bob Redford, of course, and well, there is Ah-nold .....

I would have Mel Brooks write and direct. He has the experience in making fools out of fools. He would have to wait till he is through filiming a new movie on the Producers from the NY stage show. But he would be the best one.
:D I think its too late in the game to have him change the Hitler in the Producers to BUSHIE in the production.

And here is the gold mine, a natural born one to work with!

This presidency to date reminds me more of a parody of "Blazing Saddles" than it does anything else, with George W. Bush as the "NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN, as he was characterized back in the beginning of his first term, by himself, I think it was; and despite that, this Mr. Bush still has the temerity to compare himself favorably with FDR.

If taken seriously, that characterization by this caricature of a president only serves to similarly reduce FDR to a caricature, not bring Mr. Bush up to any level of respect such as the real FDR has enjoyed for many, many years now.

Name-droppers are still merely name-droppers, even if their name is George W. Bush!

Who he can compare himself to, favorably, I think, however, is that Putin character that they have over there in Russia.

Now, that is a comparison that I find I could "buy in to", without much trouble.

And, then, of course, if there is further need for comparison, there is always Idi Amin, and "Papa Doc" Duvallier .....

Perfect!

From the Annotations to the United States Constitution as found at http://www.findlaw.com

"Presidential Theory of the Commander-in-Chiefship in World War II--And Beyond"

In his message of September 7, 1942, to Congress, in which he demanded that Congress forthwith repeal certain provisions of the Emergency Price Control Act of the previous January 30th, President Roosevelt formulated his conception of his powers as ''Commander in Chief in wartime'' as follows:

''I ask the Congress to take this action by the first of October."

"Inaction on your part by that date will leave me with an inescapable responsibility to the people of this country to see to it that the war effort is no longer imperiled by threat of economic chaos."

''In the event that the Congress should fail to act, and act adequately, I shall accept the responsibility, and I will act."

''At the same time that farm prices are stabilized, wages can and will be stabilized also."

"This I will do."

''The President has the powers, under the Constitution and under Congressional acts, to take measures necessary to avert a disaster which would interfere with the winning of the war."

''I have given the most thoughtful consideration to meeting this issue without further reference to the Congress."

"I have determined, however, on this vital matter to consult with the Congress. . ."

''The American people can be sure that I will use my powers with a full sense of my responsibility to the Constitution and to my country."

The American people can also be sure that I shall not hesitate to use every power vested in me to accomplish the defeat of our enemies in any part of the world where our own safety demands such defeat."

''When the war is won, the powers under which I act automatically revert to the people--to whom they belong.''

A Commander in Chief you could trust. Unlike the present lame excuse!

The present incumbent is not only the "anti" of Jesus, or Christ, as Mr. A.B. points out in another thread, but the "anti" of FDR as well!

That makes George W. Bush the Commander-in-Chief that we cannot trust, AT ALL, ever!

As Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, when he'd finally pulled off his mask;

"You look funny without mask white eyes, sort of like negative raccoon!"

Perfect.

A.B.

Edie

Great observation! Bush never required his supporters to have knowledge of history or anything else for that matter. The requirement he had for the poorer ones necessitated that they be ignorant, fanatically religious and unable to understand anything deeper and more complex than 1 + 1 = 2. His requirements for the rich was nil. The fact that they were rich in itself engendered immense sympathy in him such that even to this day he just can't do enough for them.

And it is interesting that we are even having this conversation in here, when you think on it, as so many people in America, and likely in here, too, probably do not even have much of an idea anymore who FDR even is.

I wonder, outside of Mr. A.B., how many people in here have actual living memories of FDR as a man, as opposed to having only heard stories of him, as a president.

In another thread, Mr. A.B. shared with us his remembrances of FDR speaking to the nation on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, and that was something that FDR used to do regularly, I believe, have "fireside chats" with America, though the medium of the radio, which probably reached into a lot of homes in America back then, despite the poverty of the Great Depression.

Earlier, as a result of this thread, I was actually thinking more in depth about the differences between these two presidents, FDR, and George W. Bush, and to be truthful, the only real concrete description I have for the comparison is "night and day"!

Maybe it is because I am older, but in all truth, I find absolutely nothing admirable about George W. Bush to take in my own life as an example, at all!

In another thread of Mr. A.B.'s, which deals with the religious side of this equation involving George W. Bush and the presidency of America, a poster made a comment about how George W. Bush finally beat his alcohol addiction, as if that might be an "admirable" thing, to her, anyway, and after thinking on that for awhile, as I do not like to commit to hasty judgments, nor do I like to be impolite to someone, I still have to come back and say what I was saying way back in 1999: that according to my own "value" system, and we are the same age, Mr. Bush and I, HE SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ON THE SAUCE IN THE FIRST PLACE, if he was any kind of man at all, and so, him getting himself finally sobered up was something he should have done, which does not make it admirable or heroic to me!

I know a lot of drunks, and that is what they are, God bless them for that.

Some have sobered up, and I do respect them for that, and some have not.

In fact, many of them have simply died, as drunks!

That George W. Bush finally sobered up, then, just makes him part of a bigger crowd who did the same exact thing, to me, at least!

He certainly is not a hero for doing that!

Not even close!

That he might have "found" Jesus in the course of doing so similarly does not move me, as he really shouldn't have lost him in the first place, again, according to my own way of seeing life, down here on this earth of ours!

And there is where I presently am with all of this, stuck on that one thought, because to a lot of people that I have talked to in America, they feel George W. Bush IS JUST LIKE THEM, because of his weaknesses, and that is his appeal!

He is not above them, and in some undefined way, FDR, who battled polio valiantly, is!

People today have an affinity for George W. Bush, and an antipathy for FDR, and it is a "class" kind of thing, just as it actually was back in the days of the real FDR and George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush, the father of George H.W. Bush!

FDR was the enemy of George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush, and so, he is the enemy of the followers of the Bush grandson, George W., who is our president today!

SO!

A divided America, just as it was then, but this time, it is the Bush's who are ascendent!

A wheel turns!

An interesting thread, Mr. A.B., thanks for starting it!

And if you would, Mr. A.B., or anyone older than me who can remember FDR's voice, perhaps you would share some of your recollections of what hearing that voice meant to you personally, in your younger lives.

After all, when people talk about FDR just as a set pf policies, like the "New Deal", the man himself gets lost, because policy itself is dry, and I would bet that no one in America today even knows what the "New Deal" was anymore, and why it therefore might be relevant to anything or any one of us in here today, and it has to be explained as something more than just social security, because it is here especially that FDR will be vilified, as being "out of touch" with OUR times; the man and his policies both!

I, for one, don't know all that much about what the "New Deal" really meant to living, breathing people back then, and how could I; after all; I wasn't there to learn the difference, first-hand, and I think when it comes to perceptions, that makes all the difference in the world, not having that first-hand experience of those times, and why FDR made such a difference in the lives of those people who were alive back then, like Mr. A.B., who started this thread!

As always Well Said! My parents knew of and revered the man! They trusted him as president, and their trust was NOT betrayed! They lived through the Depression and WWII and were patriotic heros like the rest of that generation! They were grateful for the policies that helped them and their families, and for FDR's strength, and leadership that SAVED the WORLD!

That is why, in comparison I revile this persident whose words I cannot trust, and whose actions represent the worst interests of our society!

America (and the world) would be better off had George W Bush remained a drunk and not found Jesus.

Just seeing the two names in the same post is offensive.

And is it offensive, or obscene?

"George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography" by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin

Chapter - II - The Hitler Project

Bush Property Seized--Trading with the Enemy

In October 1942, ten months after entering World War II, America was preparing its first assault against Nazi military forces.

Prescott Bush was managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman.

His 18-year-old son George, the future U.S. President, had just begun training to become a naval pilot.

On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which were being conducted by Prescott Bush.

Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the government took over the Union Banking Corporation, in which Bush was a director.

The U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corp.'s stock shares, all of which were owned by Prescott Bush, E. Roland "Bunny'' Harriman, three Nazi executives, and two other associates of Bush. 1

The order seizing the bank "vests'' (seizes) "all of the capital stock of Union Banking Corporation, a New York corporation, and names the holders of its shares as:

"E. Roland Harriman--3991 shares''
[chairman and director of Union Banking Corp. (UBC); this is "Bunny'' Harriman, described by Prescott Bush as a place holder who didn't get much into banking affairs; Prescott managed his personal investments]

"Cornelis Lievense--4 shares''
[president and director of UBC; New York resident banking functionary for the Nazis]

"Harold D. Pennington--1 share''
[treasurer and director of UBC; an office manager employed by Bush at Brown Brothers Harriman]

"Ray Morris--1 share''
[director of UBC; partner of Bush and the Harrimans]

"Prescott S. Bush--1 share''
[director of UBC, which was co-founded and sponsored by his father-in-law George Walker; senior managing partner for E. Roland Harriman and Averell Harriman]

"H.J. Kouwenhoven--1 share''
[director of UBC; organized UBC as the emissary of Fritz Thyssen in negotiations with George Walker and Averell Harriman; managing director of UBC's Netherlands affiliate under Nazi occupation; industrial executive in Nazi Germany; director and chief foreign financial executive of the German Steel Trust]

"Johann G. Groeninger--1 share''
[director of UBC and of its Netherlands affiliate; industrial executive in Nazi Germany]

"all of which shares are held for the benefit of ... members of the Thyssen family, [and] is property of nationals ... of a designated enemy country.... ''

By Oct. 26, 1942, U.S. troops were under way for North Africa.

On Oct. 28, the government issued orders seizing two Nazi front organizations run by the Bush-Harriman bank: the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation. 2

U.S. forces landed under fire near Algiers on Nov. 8, 1942; heavy combat raged throughout November.

Nazi interests in the Silesian-American Corporation, long managed by Prescott Bush and his father-in-law George Herbert Walker, were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act on Nov. 17, 1942.

In this action, the government announced that it was seizing only the Nazi interests, leaving the Nazis' U.S. partners to carry on the business. 3

These and other actions taken by the U.S. government in wartime were, tragically, too little and too late.

President Bush's family had already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler for his takeover of Germany; in financing and managing the buildup of Nazi war industries for the conquest of Europe and war against the U.S.A.; and in the development of Nazi genocide theories and racial propaganda, with their well-known results.

The facts presented here must be known, and their implications reflected upon, for a proper understanding of President George Herbert Walker Bush and of the danger to mankind that he represents.

The President's family fortune was largely a result of the Hitler project.

The powerful Anglo-American family associations, which later boosted him into the Central Intelligence Agency and up to the White House, were his father's partners in the Hitler project.

President Franklin Roosevelt's Alien Property Custodian, Leo T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order Number 248 seizing the property of Prescott Bush under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

The order, published in obscure government record books and kept out of the news, (4) explained nothing about the Nazis involved; only that the Union Banking Corporation was run for the "Thyssen family'' of "Germany and/or Hungary '' --"nationals ... of a designated enemy country.''

By deciding that Prescott Bush and the other directors of the Union Banking Corp. were legally front men for the Nazis, the government avoided the more important historical issue: In what way were Hitler's Nazis themselves hired, armed and instructed by the New York and London clique of which Prescott Bush was an executive manager?

Let us examine the Harriman-Bush Hitler project from the 1920s until it was partially broken up, to seek an answer for that question.

Origin and Extent of the Project

Fritz Thyssen and his business partners are universally recognized as the most important German financiers of Adolf Hitler's takeover of Germany.

At the time of the order seizing the Thyssen family's Union Banking Corp., Mr. Fritz Thyssen had already published his famous book, I Paid Hitler, (5) admitting that he had financed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement since October 1923.

Thyssen's role as the leading early backer of Hitler's grab for power in Germany had been noted by U.S. diplomats in Berlin in 1932. 6

The order seizing the Bush-Thyssen bank was curiously quiet and modest about the identity of the perpetrators who had been nailed.

But two weeks before the official order, government investigators had reported secretly that "W. Averell Harriman was in Europe sometime prior to 1924 and at that time became acquainted with Fritz Thyssen, the German industrialist.''

Harriman and Thyssen agreed to set up a bank for Thyssen in New York.

"[C]ertain of [Harriman's] associates would serve as directors....''

Thyssen agent "H. J. Kouwenhoven ... came to the United States ... prior to 1924 for conferences with the Harriman Company in this connection....'' 7

When exactly was "Harriman in Europe sometime prior to 1924''?

In fact, he was in Berlin in 1922 to set up the Berlin branch of W.A. Harriman & Co. under George Walker's presidency.

The Union Banking Corporation was established formally in 1924, as a unit in the Manhattan offices of W.A. Harriman & Co., interlocking with the Thyssen-owned Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart (BHS) in the Netherlands.

The investigators concluded that "the Union Banking Corporation has since its inception handled funds chiefly supplied to it through the Dutch bank by the Thyssen interests for American investment.''

Thus by personal agreement between Averell Harriman and Fritz Thyssen in 1922, W.A. Harriman & Co. (alias Union Banking Corporation) would be transferring funds back and forth between New York and the "Thyssen interests'' in Germany.

By putting up about $400,000, the Harriman organization would be joint owner and manager of Thyssen's banking operations outside of Germany.

How important was the Nazi enterprise for which President Bush's father was the New York banker?

The 1942 U.S. government investigative report said that Bush's Nazi-front bank was an interlocking concern with the Vereinigte Stahlwerke (United Steel Works Corporation or German Steel Trust) led by Fritz Thyssen and his two brothers.

After the war, Congressional investigators probed the Thyssen interests, Union Banking Corp. and related Nazi units.

The investigation showed that the Vereinigte Stahlwerke had produced the following approximate proportions of total German national output:

50.8% of Nazi Germany's pig iron
41.4% of Nazi Germany's universal plate
36.0% of Nazi Germany's heavy plate
38.5% of Nazi Germany's galvanized sheet
45.5% of Nazi Germany's pipes and tubes
22.1% of Nazi Germany's wire
35.0% of Nazi Germany's explosives. 8

Prescott Bush became vice president of W.A. Harriman & Co. in 1926.

That same year, a friend of Harriman and Bush set up a giant new organization for their client Fritz Thyssen, prime sponsor of politician Adolf Hitler.

The new German Steel Trust, Germany's largest industrial corporation, was organized in 1926 by Wall Street banker Clarence Dillon.

Dillon was the old comrade of Prescott Bush's father Sam Bush from the "Merchants of Death'' bureau in World War I.

In return for putting up $70 million to create his organization, majority owner Thyssen gave the Dillon Read company two or more representatives on the board of the new Steel Trust. 9

Thus there is a division of labor: Thyssen's own confidential accounts, for political and related purposes, were run through the Walker-Bush organization; the German Steel Trust did its corporate banking through Dillon Read.

The Walker-Bush firm's banking activities were not just politically neutral money-making ventures which happened to coincide with the aims of German Nazis.

All of the firm's European business in those days was organized around anti-democratic political forces.

In 1927, criticism of their support for totalitarianism drew this retort from Bert Walker, written from Kennebunkport to Averell Harriman: "It seems to me that the suggestion in connection with Lord Bearsted's views that we withdraw from Russia smacks somewhat of the impertinent.... I think that we have drawn our line and should hew to it. '' 10

Averell Harriman met with Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.

A representative of the firm subsequently telegraphed good news back to his chief executive Bert Walker: "... During these last days ... Mussolini ... has examined and approved our c[o]ntract 15 June.'' 11

The great financial collapse of 1929-31 shook America, Germany and Britain, weakening all governments.

It also made the hard-pressed Prescott Bush even more willing to do whatever was necessary to retain his new place in the world.

It was in this crisis that certain Anglo-Americans determined on the installation of a Hitler regime in Germany.

W.A. Harriman & Co., well-positioned for this enterprise and rich in assets from their German and Russian business, merged with the British-American investment house, Brown Brothers, on January 1, 1931.

Bert Walker retired to his own G.H. Walker & Co.

This left the Harriman brothers, Prescott Bush and Thatcher M. Brown as the senior partners of the new Brown Brothers Harriman firm.

(The London, England branch of the Brown family firm continued operating under its historic name--Brown, Shipley.)

Robert A. Lovett also came over as a partner from Brown Brothers.

His father, E.H. Harriman's lawyer and railroad chief, had been on the War Industries Board with Prescott's father.

Though he remained a partner in Brown Brothers Harriman, the junior Lovett soon replaced his father as chief executive of Union Pacific Railroad.

Brown Brothers had a racial tradition that fitted it well for the Hitler project!

American patriots had cursed its name back in U.S. Civil War days.

Brown Brothers, with offices in the U.S.A. and in England, had carried on their ships fully 75 percent of the slave cotton from the American South over to British mill owners.

Now in 1931, the virtual dictator of world finance, Bank of England Governor Montagu Collet Norman, was a former Brown Brothers partner, whose grandfather had been boss of Brown Brothers during the U.S. Civil War.

Montagu Norman was known as the most avid of Hitler's supporters within British ruling circles, and Norman's intimacy with this firm was essential to his management of the Hitler project.

In 1931, while Prescott Bush ran the New York office of Brown Brothers Harriman, Prescott's partner was Montagu Norman's intimate friend Thatcher Brown.

The Bank of England chief always stayed at the home of Prescott's partner on his hush-hush trips to New York.

Prescott Bush concentrated on the firm's German activities, and Thatcher Brown saw to their business in old England, under the guidance of his mentor Montagu Norman. 12

Hitler's Ladder to Power

Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany January 30, 1933, and absolute dictator in March 1933, after two years of expensive and violent lobbying and electioneering.

Two affiliates of the Bush-Harriman organization played great parts in this criminal undertaking: Thyssen's German Steel Trust; and the Hamburg-Amerika Line and several of its executives. 13

Let us look more closely at the Bush family's German partners.

Fritz Thyssen told Allied interrogators after the war about some of his financial support for the Nazi Party: "In 1930 or 1931 ... I told [Hitler's deputy Rudolph] Hess ... I would arrange a credit for him with a Dutch bank in Rotterdam, the Bank fuaur Handel und Schiff [i.e. Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart (BHS), the Harriman-Bush affiliate]."

"I arranged the credit ... he would pay it back in three years.... I chose a Dutch bank because I did not want to be mixed up with German banks in my position, and because I thought it was better to do business with a Dutch bank, and I thought I would have the Nazis a little more in my hands...."

"The credit was about 250-300,000 [gold] marks--about the sum I had given before."

"The loan has been repaid in part to the Dutch bank, but I think some money is still owing on it.... " 14

The overall total of Thyssen's political donations and loans to the Nazis was well over a million dollars, including funds he raised from others--in a period of terrible money shortage in Germany.

Friedrich Flick was the major co-owner of the German Steel Trust with Fritz Thyssen, Thyssen's long-time collaborator and occasional competitor.

In preparation for the war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg, the U.S. government said that Flick was "one of leading financiers and industrialists who from 1932 contributed large sums to the Nazi Party ... member of `Circle of Friends' of Himmler who contributed large sums to the SS.'' 15

Flick, like Thyssen, financed the Nazis to maintain their private armies called Schutzstaffel (S.S. or Black Shirts) and Sturmabteilung (S.A., storm troops or Brown Shirts).

The Flick-Harriman partnership was directly supervised by Prescott Bush, President Bush's father, and by George Walker, President Bush's grandfather.

The Harriman-Walker Union Banking Corp. arrangements for the German Steel Trust had made them bankers for Flick and his vast operations in Germany by no later than 1926.

The Harriman Fifteen Corporation (George Walker, president, Prescott Bush and Averell Harriman, sole directors) held a substantial stake in the Silesian Holding Co. at the time of the merger with Brown Brothers, Jan. 1, 1931.

This holding correlated to Averell Harriman's chairmanship of the Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation, the American group owning one-third of a complex of steel-making, coal-mining and zinc-mining activities in Germany and Poland, in which Friedrich Flick owned two-thirds. 16

The Nuremberg prosecutor characterized Flick as follows:

"Proprietor and head of a large group of industrial enterprises (coal and iron mines, steel producing and fabricating plants) ... `Wehrwirtschaftsfuhaurer', 1938 [title awarded to prominent industrialists for merit in armaments drive--`Military Economy Leader']....'' 17

For this buildup of the Hitler war machine with coal, steel and arms production, using slave laborers, the Nazi Flick was condemned to seven years in prison at the Nuremberg trials; he served three years.

With friends in New York and London, however, Flick lived into the 1970s and died a billionaire.

On March 19, 1934, Prescott Bush--then director of the German Steel Trust's Union Banking Corporation--initiated an alert to the absent Averell Harriman about a problem which had developed in the Flick partnership. 18

Bush sent Harriman a clipping from the New York Times of that day, which reported that the Polish government was fighting back against American and German stockholders who controlled "Poland's largest industrial unit, the Upper Silesian Coal and Steel Company....''

The Times article continued: "The company has long been accused of mismanagement, excessive borrowing, fictitious bookkeeping and gambling in securities."

"Warrants were issued in December for several directors accused of tax evasions."

"They were German citizens and they fled."

"They were replaced by Poles."

"Herr Flick, regarding this as an attempt to make the company's board entirely Polish, retaliated by restricting credits until the new Polish directors were unable to pay the workmen regularly.''

The Times noted that the company's mines and mills "employ 25,000 men and account for 45 percent of Poland's total steel output and 12 percent of her coal production."

"Two-thirds of the company's stock is owned by Friedrich Flick, a leading German steel industrialist, and the remainder is owned by interests in the United States.''

In view of the fact that a great deal of Polish output was being exported to Hitler Germany under depression conditions, the Polish government thought that Prescott Bush, Harriman and their Nazi partners should at least pay full taxes on their Polish holdings.

The U.S. and Nazi owners responded with a lockout.

The letter to Harriman in Washington reported a cable from their European representative:

"Have undertaken new steps London Berlin ... please establish friendly relations with Polish Ambassador [in Washington].''

A 1935 Harriman Fifteen Corporation memo from George Walker announced an agreement had been made "in Berlin'' to sell an 8,000 block of their shares in Consolidated Silesian Steel. 19

But the dispute with Poland did not deter the Bush family from continuing its partnership with Flick.

Nazi tanks and bombs "settled'' this dispute in September, 1939 with the invasion of Poland, beginning World War II.

The Nazi army had been equipped by Flick, Harriman, Walker and Bush, with materials essentially stolen from Poland.

There were probably few people at the time who could appreciate the irony, that when the Soviets also attacked and invaded Poland from the East, their vehicles were fueled by oil pumped from Baku wells revived by the Harriman/Walker/Bush enterprise.

Three years later, nearly a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of the Nazis' share in the Silesian-American Corporation under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

Enemy nationals were said to own 49 percent of the common stock and 41.67 percent of the preferred stock of the company.

The order characterized the company as a "business enterprise within the United States, owned by [a front company in] Zurich, Switzerland, and held for the benefit of Bergwerksgesellschaft George von Giesche's Erben, a German corporation.... '' 20

Bert Walker was still the senior director of the company, which he had founded back in 1926 simultaneously with the creation of the German Steel Trust.

Ray Morris, Prescott's partner from Union Banking Corp. and Brown Brothers Harriman, was also a director.

The investigative report prior to the government crackdown explained the "NATURE OF BUSINESS: The subject corporation is an American holding company for German and Polish subsidiaries, which own large and valuable coal and zinc mines in Silesia, Poland and Germany."

"Since September 1939, these properties have been in the possession of and have been operated by the German government and have undoubtedly been of considerable assistance to that country in its war effort. '' 21

The report noted that the American stockholders hoped to regain control of the European properties after the war.

NOTES:

1. Office of Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order No. 248. The order was signed by Leo T. Crowley, Alien Property Custodian, executed October 20, 1942; F.R. Doc. 42-11568; Filed, November 6, 1942, 11:31 A.M.; 7 Fed. Reg. 9097 (Nov. 7, 1942). See also the New York City Directory of Directors (available at the Library of Congress). The volumes for the 1930s and 1940s list Prescott Bush as a director of Union Banking Corporation for the years 1934 through 1943.

2. Alien Property Custodian Vesting Order No. 259: Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation; Vesting Order No. 261: Holland-American Trading Corp.

3. Alien Property Custodian Vesting Order No. 370: Silesian-American Corp.

4. The New York Times on December 16, 1944, ran a five-paragraph page 25 article on actions of the New York State Banking Department. Only the last sentence refers to the Nazi bank, as follows: "The Union Banking Corporation, 39 Broadway, New York, has received authority to change its principal place of business to 120 Broadway.''

The Times omitted the fact that the Union Banking Corporation had been seized by the government for trading with the enemy, and even the fact that 120 Broadway was the address of the government's Alien Property Custodian.

5. Fritz Thyssen, I Paid Hitler, 1941, reprinted in (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1972), p. 133. Thyssen says his contributions began with 100,000 marks given in October 1923, for Hitler's attempted "putsch'' against the constitutional government.

6. Confidential memorandum from U.S. embassy, Berlin, to the U.S. Secretary of State, April 20, 1932, on microfilm in Confidential Reports of U.S. State Dept., 1930s, Germany, at major U.S. libraries.

7. Oct. 5, 1942, Memorandum to the Executive Committee of the Office of Alien Property Custodian, stamped CONFIDENTIAL, from the Division of Investigation and Research, Homer Jones, Chief. Now declassified in United States National Archives, Suitland, Maryland annex. See Record Group 131, Alien Property Custodian, investigative reports, in file box relating to Vesting Order No. 248.

8. Elimination of German Resources for War: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, Seventy-Ninth Congress; Part 5, Testimony of [the United States] Treasury Department, July 2, 1945. P. 507: Table of Vereinigte Stahlwerke output, figures are percent of German total as of 1938; Thyssen organization including Union Banking Corporation pp. 727-31.

9. Robert Sobel, The Life and Times of Dillon Read (New York: Dutton-Penguin, 1991), pp. 92-111. The Dillon Read firm cooperated in the development of Sobel's book.

10. George Walker to Averell Harriman, Aug. 11, 1927, in the W. Averell Harriman papers at the Library of Congress (designated hereafter WAH papers).

11. "Iaccarino'' to G. H. Walker, RCA Radiogram Sept. 12, 1927. The specific nature of their business with Mussolini is not explained in correspondence available for public access.

12. Andrew Boyle, Montagu Norman (London: Cassell, 1967).

Sir Henry Clay, Lord Norman (London, MacMillan & Co., 1957), pp. 18, 57, 70-71.

John A. Kouwenhouven, Partners in Banking ... Brown Brothers Harriman (Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1969).

13. Coordination of much of the Hitler project took place at a single New York address. The Union Banking Corporation had been set up by George Walker at 39 Broadway. Management of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, carried out through Harriman's American Ship and Commerce Corp., was also set up by George Walker at 39 Broadway.

14. Interrogation of Fritz Thyssen, EF/Me/1 of Sept. 4, 1945 in U.S. Control Council records, photostat on page 167 in Anthony Sutton, An Introduction to The Order (Billings, Mt.: Liberty House Press, 1986).

15. Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression--Supplement B, by the Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, United States Government Printing Office, (Washington: 1948), pp. 1597, 1686.

16. "Consolidated Silesian Steel Corporation - [minutes of the] Meeting of Board of Directors,'' Oct. 31, 1930 (Harriman papers, Library of Congress), shows Averell Harriman as Chairman of the Board.

Prescott Bush to W.A. Harriman, Memorandum Dec. 19, 1930 on their Harriman Fifteen Corp.

Annual Report of United Konigs and Laura Steel and Iron Works for the year 1930 (Harriman papers, Library of Congress) lists "Dr. Friedrich Flick ... Berlin'' and "William Averell Harriman ... New York'' on the Board of Directors.

"Harriman Fifteen Corporation Securities Position February 28, 1931,'' Harriman papers, Library of Congress. This report shows Harriman Fifteen Corporation holding 32,576 shares in Silesian Holding Co. V.T.C. worth (in scarce depression dollars) $1,628,800, just over half the value of the Harriman Fifteen Corporation's total holdings.

The New York City Directory of Directors volumes for the 1930s (available at the Library of Congress) show Prescott Sheldon Bush and W. Averell Harriman as the directors of Harriman Fifteen Corp.

"Appointments,'' (three typed pages) marked "Noted May 18 1931 W.A.H.,'' (among the papers from Prescott Bush's New York Office of Brown Brothers Harriman, Harriman papers, Library of Congress), lists a meeting between Averell Harriman and Friedrich Flick in Berlin at 4:00 P.M., Wednesday April 22, 1931. This was followed immediately by a meeting with Wilhelm Cuno, chief executive of the Hamburg-Amerika Line.

The "Report To the Stockholders of the Harriman Fifteen Corporation,'' Oct. 19, 1933 (in the Harriman papers, Library of Congress) names G.H. Walker as president of the corporation. It shows the Harriman Fifteen Corporation's address as 1 Wall Street--the location of G.H. Walker and Co.

17. Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression--Supplement B, op. cit., p. 1686.

18. Jim Flaherty (a BBH manager, Prescott Bush's employee), March 19, 1934 to W.A. Harriman.

"Dear Averell:

In Roland's absence Pres[cott] thought it advisable for me to let you know that we received the following cable from [our European representative] Rossi dated March 17th [relating to conflict with the Polish government]....''

19. Harriman Fifteen Corporation notice to stockholders Jan. 7, 1935, under the name of George Walker, President.

20. Order No. 370: Silesian-American Corp. Executed Nov. 17, 1942. Signed by Leo T. Crowley, Alien Property Custodian. F.R. Doc. 42-14183; Filed Dec. 31, 1942, 11:28 A.M.; 8 Fed. Reg. 33 (Jan. 1, 1943).

The order confiscated the Nazis' holdings of 98,000 shares of common and 50,000 shares of preferred stock in Silesian-American.

The Nazi parent company in Breslau, Germany wrote directly to Averell Harriman at 59 Wall St. on Aug. 5, 1940, with "an invitation to take part in the regular meeting of the members of the Bergwerksgesellsc[h]aft Georg von Giesche's Erben.... '' WAH papers.

21. Sept. 25, 1942, Memorandum To the Executive Committee of the Office of Alien Property Custodian, stamped CONFIDENTIAL, from the Division of Investigation and Research, Homer Jones, Chief. Now declassified in United States National Archives, Suitland, Maryland annex. See Record Group 131, Alien Property Custodian, investigative reports, in file box relating to Vesting Order No. 370.

Here's the link for the entire book:

http://www.american-buddha.com/unauthor.bio.bush.htm

And it's quite a family that we are dealing with here, indeed!

Democracy's greatest enemies, if ever there was one!

And George W. Bush has the temerity and the unmitigated gall to compare himself favorably with FDR!

If he could, he would probably have FDR up on a torture stake, right next to Jesus!

George W. Bush, the "Anti-FDR"!

this link has problems. Here's a better one:

http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm

Question for jeffmoskin:

I wanted to attach a small photo to a reply.

Was unable to figure out how to do it.

Can you help?


A.B.

I'm afrraid I don't know how. Ask Sandra, the moderator.

In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill bringng Social Security into law.

This bill was passed guaranteeing an amount of money to every working person upon retitement at the age of 65.

In 2005, George Bush took the first step into demolishing that guaranteed income to retirees.

He also misused the name of Franklin D. Roosevelt by implying that FDR would approve of his actions of destroying one of the most trustworthy programs in U.S. history.

Following are the words of FDR's grandson.


JAMES ROOSEVELT JR.
Don't use FDR to undermine Social Security
By James Roosevelt Jr. | January 31, 2005

IN HIS inaugural address, President George W. Bush invoked the name of my grandfather, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as part of his campaign to privatize Social Security. Similarly, a political organization supporting that drastic change recently ran a television commercial using a newsreel clip showing President Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law. The implication that FDR would support privatization of America's greatest national program is an attempt to deceive the American people and an outrage.

President Roosevelt founded Social Security for very basic but important reasons. He believed that the only enemy that could ever defeat the United States was fear itself. He and my grandmother, Eleanor, looked at America and found fear of want -- particularly after retirement or loss of a parent. Today, thanks in large part to Social Security, the number of older Americans below the poverty line has dropped from almost 50 percent to only 8 percent.

FDR believed that Social Security should be simple, guaranteed, fair, earned, and available to all Americans. President Roosevelt was adamant that Social Security was an insurance program to provide basic needs in retirement.

As a former Wall Street lawyer, my grandfather fully supported the opportunity of every American to have fair investment opportunities. But Social Security was -- and is -- something different. It was -- and is -- the guaranteed basis of a secure retirement. The risk is that future retired Americans will lose that assurance if the guaranteed benefit is eliminated. Drastic changes that divert the payroll tax to privatization will almost certainly eliminate that guaranteed benefit by crippling the ability to pay benefits, imposing trillions of dollars of new costs on the government and creating massive federal debt. Privatization threatens to bring about the collapse of the entire Social Security system.

FDR was realistic about the need to adapt Social Security as the workforce evolved. In my office I have his original handwritten note to my father outlining the principles I've just discussed. By the time the program was enacted in 1935, the details were quite different. But the principles remained the same.

Throughout the six successful decades of Social Security, it has been adjusted in both benefits and revenues. But it has continued to observe FDR's principles of a secure, guaranteed retirement income provided by an insurance system that all workers pay for. Then, as now, the key to taking the fear out of the Social Security debate is speaking truthfully. Instead, the proponents of privatization have not only misused the name and image of my grandfather, they have mischaracterized undisputed facts to create a phony impetus for abandonment of the program.

Those who are seeking immediate, drastic change should recognize that even the Social Security trustees appointed by the president agree that Social Security with no changes could pay full benefits until 2042, even under pessimistic assumptions about economic growth. They should recognize that the Congressional Budget Office says that Social Security with no changes could pay full benefits until 2052. They should recognize that even then benefits would be cut only about 25 percent if there were no changes, not nearly as drastically as most private account proposals would cut them. The lies and half-truths from the proponents of privatization must stop.

Most of all, the creation of fear by the unjustified use of words like "crisis" and "bankruptcy" is destructive of a reasonable debate about what adjustments to Social Security will ensure the payment of full benefits throughout the 21st century. Every honest person knows that there is no crisis, there is no threat of bankruptcy, and that what is needed are adjustments, not drastic measures like privatization. Just as bad is the use of terms like "worthless IOUs" to describe US Treasury bonds held by the trust fund. These are scare tactics designed to create fear.

These attempts to divide grandparents, parents, and children are an attack on the most successful program this country has ever had. Social Security unites the interests of my parents' generation, my contemporaries, and my children's generation. It can be strengthened with incremental changes. To achieve that, the Congress and the White House must work together -- without ideological agendas. FDR's goal of freedom from fear can be preserved by truthful, reasonable negotiation that is free of false implications and misrepresentation.

James Roosevelt Jr. is a lawyer and former associate commissioner of Social Security.



© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

What an article, Mr. AB., and thanks for giving me a head's up that you had posted it, because in all truth, like you and probably many other Americans today, I am running ninety miles an hour just to get further and further behind on what is really happening to OUR America these days, AND THAT IS BY DESIGN, not accident, that we are being "WHIP-SAWED" by this administration!

And that "whip-sawing" is a tactic the Republicans have developed very well!

Put out a number of major issues all at once, with some being nothing more than straw-dogs and stalking horses, and in the meantime, bury us under a whole mountain of lies to obfuscate and obscure what is really going on, so that we cannot effectively comment, and then divide us, as this article says, by generations, and then, RAM THROUGH more crap that takes from us and gives to the "FAT-BOTTOM" boys who are George W. Bush "CORPORATE"!

And it is too bad this article is kind of hidden away, like it is in here!

In all truth, if you had not told me of it, I would have missed it completely, BECAUSE I DID!

And so, I must wonder how few Americans actually saw the article and therefore, are aware that this man and his words even exist!

There should be billboards all over America with this posted on them, so that every American can see, for what they really are, the pack of lies this Bush Co. is pumping out here!

The biggest enemy that America has right now is George W. Bush, and his!

No bigger enemy to OUR liberty and Constitutional freedoms exists on this earth right now, and that is just how I see it!

SO!

Keep up the good work, Mr. A. B., and if I look to my left or right and see a small, older, middle-eastern looking guy with a beard nailed to a tree near to where I am also nailed, to a tree, might I presume that that is you?

Probably.

I do believe we should hang out together.

A.B.

God bless you, Mr. A.B. you are always good for a chuckle when I need one the most, and boy, is that an awful lot of the times these days, here in this America of George W. Bush's, BECAUSE IT SURE IS NOT OURS, anymore, and may never be again, if this crowd that is with him has its way, WITH US!

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall
all hang separately" - B. Franklin