JOHN D. EHRLICHMAN: The key is Reagan’s neutrality. If Reagan blasts this thing and says it’s not strong enough on the work-requirement end, that will be very bad.

NIXON: I have the greatest affection for them [blacks], but I know they’re not going to make it for 500 years. They aren’t. You know it, too. The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the present time they steal, they’re dishonest, but they do have some concept of family life. They don’t live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like.

EHRLICHMAN: The Mexican American is not as good as the Mexican. You go down to Mexico–they’re clean, they’re honest, they’re moral.

NIXON: Mexico is a much more moral country.

EHRLICHMAN: Monterrey, Cuernavaca. Go into slum areas, and by God they come out with clean shirts on a Sunday morning.

NIXON: The church. You find a helluva lot less marijuana use in Mexico than the United States.

EHRLICHMAN: The unions are actually a stronger force down there than the church.

NIXON: For what?

EHRLICHMAN: For conduct and social policy.

NIXON: … CBS … glorifying homosexuality.

EHRLICHMAN: A panel show?

H. R. HALDEMAN: No, it’s a regular show. It’s on every week. It’s usually just done in the guy’s home. It’s usually just that guy, who’s a hard hat.

NIXON: That’s right; he’s a hard hat.

EHRLICHMAN: He always looks like a slob.

NIXON: Looks like Jackie Gleason.

HALDEMAN: He has this hippie son-in-law, and usually the general trend is to downgrade him and upgrade the son-in-law–make the square hard hat out to be bad. But a few weeks ago, they had one in which the guy, the son-in-law, wrote a letter to you, President Nixon, to raise hell about something. And the guy said, “You will not write that letter from my home!” Then said, “I’m going to write President Nixon,” took off all those sloppy clothes, shaved, and went to his desk and got ready to write his letter to President Nixon. And apparently it was a good episode.

EHRLICHMAN: What’s it called?

NIXON: “Archie’s Guys.” Archie is sitting here with his hippie son-in-law, married to the screwball daughter. The son-in-law apparently goes both ways. This guy. He’s obviously queer–wears an ascot–but not offensively so. Very clever. Uses nice language. Shows pictures of his parents. And so Arch goes down to the bar. Sees his best friend, who used to play professional football. Virile, strong, this and that. Then the fairy comes into the bar.

I don’t mind the homosexuality. I understand it. Nevertheless, goddamn, I don’t think you glorify it on public television, homosexuality, even more than you glorify whores. We all know we have weaknesses. But, goddammit, what do you think that does to kids? You know what happened to the Greeks! Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo. We all know that. So was Socrates.

EHRLICHMAN: But he never had the influence television had.

NIXON: You know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. Neither in a public way. You know what happened to the popes? They were layin’ the nuns; that’s been goin’ on for years, centuries. But the Catholic Church went to hell three or four centuries ago. It was homosexual, and it had to be cleaned out. That’s what’s happened to Britain. It happened earlier to France.

Let’s look at the strong societies. The Russians. Goddamn, they root ‘em out. They don’t let ‘em around at all. I don’t know what they do with them. Look at this country. You think the Russians allow dope? Homosexuality, dope, immorality, are the enemies of strong societies. That’s why the Communists and left-wingers are clinging to one another. They’re trying to destroy us. I know Moynihan will disagree with this, [Attorney General John] Mitchell will, and Garment will. But, goddamn, we have to stand up to this.

EHRLICHMAN: It’s fatal liberality.

NIXON: Huh?

EHRLICHMAN: It’s fatal liberality. And with its use on television, it has such leverage.

NIXON: You know what’s happened [in northern California]?

EHRLICHMAN: San Francisco has just gone clear over.

NIXON: But it’s not just the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time–it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San Francisco crowd. I can’t shake hands with anybody from San Francisco.

Decorators. They got to do something. But we don’t have to glorify it. You know one of the reasons fashions have made women look so terrible is because the goddamned designers hate women. Designers taking it out on the women. Now they’re trying to get some more sexy things coming on again.

EHRLICHMAN: Hot pants.

The article is a smoking gun on Bush’s unpardonable failure to keep us safe. In just a few hours, the White House will be filling the airwaves with spin, so it’s important to reach out right now to pass on the straight story to family and friends. If each of us acts, we can directly reach millions of people before morning.

The full AP article is attached below. Can you help get the word out to at least 5 friends? You can forward on this note or follow the link below:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1508_video

At the August 28th briefing, the president was told exactly what to expect:

* The chief scientist of the National Hurricane Center warned that a major levee breach was “obviously a very, very grave concern.” Bush lied to the entire nation about this point just 5 days later.

* Michael Brown told the president that if New Orleans flooded the Superdome emergency shelter would likely be under water and short on supplies, creating a “catastrophe within a catastrophe.”

* Experts and officials implored the President to prepare for, as the AP described it, “devastation of historic proportions.”

President Bush didn’t ask a single question during the briefing. In the next two days he campaigned, attended birthday parties and played guitar while the worst natural disaster in American history killed over 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

There can now be no mistake: President Bush had a chance to lead, and he failed to keep us safe.

In the next few days, we’ll be tracking this story carefully and coordinating our response with partners in New Orleans and around the nation.

The survivors of Katrina deserve to know why the president left them to suffer the storm. And the people of the United States deserve leadership we can trust to keep our families safe. We’ll work hard together until we have both.

Tonight, let’s start by spreading the word:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1508_video

Thanks to Kathy Mack.

Regarding yesterday’s post, my mother writes,

So your father thinks that law abiding citizens are OK? If you are questioned by and not charged (even in cases of mistaken identity etc) your dna and fingerprint samples are taken and never destroyed. Of course subsequently they are used when trying to solve crimes leading of course to the arrest and charge of completely innocent people. An example being a law student being charged for theft of letters from a post box as his finger prints were found on some of the mail. It turned out (by his own investigation) that he had posted chistmas cards in the box and the mail was his own! Tory MP Grant Shapps has started a campaign to get these records destroyed as thousands of children are on the dna database. ID cards, dna retaining etc treat us all as criminals before we have committed a crime.

The evil that men do they make moves like voodoo/
sittin’ on the sidelines hoping and praying that somebody do you/
Never contemplating that somebody would school you/
Fuse melody rhythm and flow and work wit it like a tool/
You should know by now the oppressed man is not a fool/
Sign of the times evident from Elvis to Eminem don’t be cruel/
It’s a sham/ a scam /an old boy flim flam
No matter how you twist it up I know who I am/
I refuse to be a product of everything you feeding me/
Cause all you makin’ available is smoke drank and the illusion of ecstasy/
It’s ecstasy when I sit back with my eyes shut tight/
Soarin’ through a world full of freedom like shooting stars in the night/
My spirit will not be broken/ my faith will not be shakin’/
Give it how you give it man I won’t give up I gots to make it/

Chorus

I won’t give up on my life
I won’t give up it’s my life
I won’t give up on my life
I won’t give up it’s my life

It’s something bout the way I post up and I walk/
It leaves you flabbergasted tongue tied and you can’t talk/
you intimidated by the way miss Missy keep peeping at me/
You wanna put me in a cell with no bail and lock me away for a quarter century/
My first mistake was I didn’t stay awake/
I should have paid attention when you fed me the crumbs up off your plate/
Honestly I did not understand/
I was still trying to comprehend the implications of that long trip man/
It was so complex with disrespect that I didn’t know what I should feel/
I was a king in my village but now I’m serving you your meals/
That was so devastating and yet is so ironic/
I’m geographically isolated to the point I want to vomit/
But I won’t and I don’t cause now I’m feeling alright/
You can’t comprehend the light/ my eternal sight/ mind so bright/ I’m
focused and walking in the light/
And I won’t give up/ I won’t give up

Chorus

I won’t give up on my life
I won’t give up it’s my life
I won’t give up on my life
I won’t give up it’s my life

From my transgressions and indiscretion I’ve learned many lessons/
A wife children and family are multiple blessings/
History is his story repeated/
I’ma put it down and y’all make show that you read it/
The criminal minded lawyers have control of the switch/
I’m scientifically inclined but to eat I gots to dig a ditch/
I got mandatory witnesses of the these mandatory sentences/
This is genocide as a law and it’s mandatory we end this/
How low will you go below yo ego before you know/
If you keep on doin’ this to ours we gone end up doin’ it to yours/
Where is the rehabilitation in a nation full of accusations?/
Twentyfive wit an L and three strikes is equivalent to strangulation/
My astonishment is for the punishment as a curse upon my people/
The crime plus the time the punishment must be equal/
Mandatory lies/ mandatory lies/ mandatory sentences/ mandatories die/
I won’t give up

Chorus