Quote of the Day -- Campaign Finance Reform Edition from the Wayback Machine

Check out this very appropriate quote today. More American history too many don't know.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt called for campaign finance reform. The result was the Tillman Act of 1907, the first law prohibiting corporate donations to national political parties. And note. Teddy Roosevelt was a member of the Republican Party. He'd no way be welcomed by them today.

I Know I'm Not the Only One Who Misses Intelligent Presidents

I know I'm not.

I can't be.

Teddy Roosevelt.  A Republican, for God's sake.

FDR.

JFK.

Intelligent, eloquent Presidents.

How I miss them.

Healthcare Workers Appalled as Trump Says Nurses 'Running Into Death' to Treat Covid-19 Patients Is 'A Beautiful Thing to See'

'Obvious Our President Is Beyond Incompetent': Chorus of Ridicule After Trump Brags of New 'Super-Duper Missile'

Quote of the Day -- Independence Day Edition

"Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children's children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance." 

--President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt 

With thanks to the Sierra Club for the reminder.

Happy Fourth, everyone.

A Very Timely Patriotism Quote

US Immigration Over 100 Years

"We cannot afford to continue to use hundreds of thousands of immigrants merely as industrial assets while they remain social outcasts and menaces any more than fifty years ago we could afford to keep the black man merely as an industrial asset and not as a human being."

- Theodore Roosevelt, in speech to the Knights of Columbus, Carnegie Hall, New York, 12 October 1915.

Link:  Tomgram: Aviva Chomsky, The Criminalization of Immigrants From Clinton to Trump

Quote of the Day -- On Presidents

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

—President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt from his essay "Lincoln and Free Speech", The Kansas City Star, 18 May 1918

Links:

Donald Trump's escalating war against the media

President Trump declares war against facts and the news media

President Trump's dangerous war on the media

Teddy Roosevelt On the Presidency---From Our Own KC Star

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. 

Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. 

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

--President Theodore Roosevelt, Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918

Quote of the Day, of the Year