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The Hidden Passages in Bush's Inaugural Address
Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address: "The Most Un-American
Speech I've Ever Heard"
Women and Science: A Look at Harvard Pres. Larry Summers
The Hidden Passages in Bush's Inaugural Address
We speak with Matt Rothschild of The Progressive Magazine
who analyzes President Bush's second inaugural address. Rothschild
finds that in addition to the many explicit references to
God, Bush's speech contained even more hidden allusions to
the Bible. [includes rush
transcript]
The speech given by President Bush last Thursday at his second
inauguration in Washington DC has generated a significant
amount of attention worldwide, as well as in this country
among some of Bush's most consistent supporters.
Former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote in Friday's
Wall Street Journal that the speech was "startling,"
"over the top" and "left me with a bad feeling."
She called the speech "heavenish" and wrote, "It
was a God-drenched speech" adding that his declaration
to end tyranny "seemed to me to land somewhere between
dreamy and disturbing."
Former Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson said the speech
was "wide open for interpretation," and to him "felt
like quite an overreach." Internationally, the speech
was also criticized. The Star of London had a headline the
next day that said "Bush: I swear it's Iran next."
Britain's Telegraph newspaper decried what they called Bush's
"muscular foreign policy," and the Times of London
slammed him for a mission to "end tyranny on Earth."
London's Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper described the speech
as "pretentious and meaningless," and called "the
democracy which President Bush is heralding" to be a
"bloody democracy which cost the lives of 100,000 Iraqi
martyrs."
The White House was quick to try and recast the speech, saying
it represented no significant shift in U.S. foreign policy
but instead was meant as a crystallization and clarification
of policies he is pursuing in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle
East and elsewhere. Former President George Bush told reporters
at the White House Friday that critics were overreacting saying
people were reading too deeply into the speech. The elder
Bush also represented a change in US policy. Today, we are
going to look closely at this speech. In a moment, we will
hear from Gore Vidal. But first, we turn to Matt Rothschild.
Gore Vidal on Bush's Inaugural Address: "The
Most Un-American Speech I've Ever Heard"
We take a look at President Bush's inaugural address with
Gore Vidal, one of America's most respected writers and thinkers
and the author of more than 20 novels and 5 plays. Vidal says,
"If the United States does go abroad to slay dragons
in the name of freedom, liberty and so on, she could become
dictatress of the world, but in the process she would lose
her soul." [includes rush
transcript]
As we continue our discussion of President Bush's inaugural
address. Let's hear a portion of that speech.
- President Bush, inaugural address January 20, 2005.
We are joined now by Gore Vidal. He is one of America's most
respected writers and thinkers. He is the author of more than
20 novels and 5 plays. He is author, most recently, of the
national bestsellers "Dreaming War" and "Perpetual
War for Perpetual Peace." His latest book is called "Imperial
America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia."
Women and Science: A Look at Harvard Pres. Larry
Summers
Harvard University president Lawrence Summers created a
firestorm earlier this month for claiming that women have
less innate scientific ability than men. We speak with the
Nancy Hopkins, the MIT professor who walked out of Summers'
speech as well as Dave Targan, the Dean of Science Programs
at Brown University.
Harvard University president and former Treasury Secretary
Lawrence Summers created a firestorm earlier this month for
suggesting that women have less innate scientific ability
than men.
Summers initially defended his comments, maintaining he was
merely suggesting that the role of discrimination and innate
abilities of women and men in the sciences need further research
and apologized only for a "misunderstanding."
However, after a flood of commentary and condemnation in
the media and the academic community, Summers reversed course
last week in an open-letter saying "I did not say, and
I do not believe, that girls are intellectually less able
than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the
highest levels of science. As the careers of a great many
distinguished women scientists make plain, the human potential
to excel in science is not somehow the province of one gender
or another."
Summers is also now developing a set of initiatives to bolster
the status of women within Harvard where they continue to
face a greater challenge getting tenured positions.
- Nancy Hopkins, Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. She walked out in protest of Larry
Summers speech.
- David Targan, Dean of Science Programs at Brown University
in Rhode Island.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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