President
William Clinton
Britain admires you, Sir!
We wish you could be our Prime Minister!
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Click here for Clinton T~shirts and other items. Some of the images displayed on this page are available on our Make a Statement site.
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William the Conqueror
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29 November 1995
Hail to the Chief!
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2 October 2002
Britain loves you, President Clinton!
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In Praise of Bill Clinton
For fear of the Bush Campaign pouncing on them like a crazed leopard, many Democratic officials won’t say it. So BuzzFlash will.
Bill Clinton, Congratulations on a job well done.
For eight years, the United States of America has enjoyed
unprecedented prosperity, declining crime rates, and a
world at relative peace. Bill Clinton led this country
through that period, even though everything ~ including
the kitchen sink ~ was tossed at him by the rabid dog
wing of the GOP.
From the moment Clinton was elected, the Grand Old Party
didn’t let up for a minute. They raged and whined
their way through eight of the most stable and
economically sound years the U.S. has enjoyed in decades.
After the Bubba from Arkansas outfoxed them time after
time, they tried the highest risk manoeuvre offered in a
democracy: impeachment. When the smoke cleared, Bill
Clinton was still standing. Weakened, but still in power.
Yes, Clinton has a zipper problem. And when he got caught
with his pants down, he lied to the nation. Let’s
forget for the moment that the Paula Jones deposition was
the culmination of an entrapment plot by a loose
confederation of right wing and GOP operatives. Clinton
was wrong ~ and he apologized.
Clinton’s sin was venial, not mortal. The fallout
from the scandal should have ended long ago. But even
now, the GOP standard bearer, George W. Bush, is
continuing to bring the topic up. Why are the
conservative Republicans obsessed with sex in the White
House? Because they can’t attack Clinton for what is
really at the heart of their hatred. Clear and simple,
the conservatives loathe the President for his embracing
of a multi~cultural society. They don’t like
assertive women in the cabinet, minorities in prominent
positions, gays treated with respect and dignity ~ and
they detest an assertive first lady. Sex is just the tar
they use to demonise Clinton.
If it were about sex, the Republicans would just be
shooting themselves in the head. BuzzFlash could name all
the GOP leaders who have admitted to adulterous affairs
or been ousted, but the list would be too long and would
ruin the flow of this article. Two examples, one past and
one present, will do.
Newt Gingrich was welcomed back to the Philly Convention
as a wounded warrior on the mend. Of course, Newt was
chief flamethrower during the impeachment process,
decrying Clinton as a moral degenerate. Newt, however,
didn’t disclose that he was screwing a Congressional
aide more than 20 years his junior, cheating on his
second wife, at the same time that he was calling on
Clinton to resign because of his adultery. So how come
Newt wasn’t wearing a scarlet “A” at the
GOP convention?
Then there’s Bill Thomas. You may not have heard of
him. But Congressman Thomas is Chair of the powerful Ways
and Means Subcommittee on Health, which oversees Medicare
issues including prescription benefits for seniors. Just
a few weeks ago, Thomas’s hometown paper in
California revealed that the married Congressman was
having an affair with a high~powered lobbyist for the
pharmaceutical industry. Adultery and conflict of
interest all wrapped in one satin sheet: sounds like
something that the GOP junkyard dogs would leap on in a
minute. But did you hear a word of condemnation out of
George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert or Dick Armey?
No charges of immorality, no calls for Thomas’s
resignation. Not a peep.
The Republicans are quick to forget the human failings of
their own. Heck, just ask George W. Bush. Here is a guy
who was a self~confessed alcoholic until he was forty,
has all but admitted to snorting cocaine, was a womaniser, a failed business man until luck hit him on
his head ~ and he evaded service in Vietnam to boot. Does
anyone see any sneers and jeers coming out from the
Republican National Committee about the Texas Governor?
Is anyone calling for investigations?
Call it hypocrisy of a cunning and brazen sort. But the
anti~Clinton drumbeat that continues to this day is not
about randy romps in the Oval Office or House Office
Buildings. It is about Clinton betraying the Southern
Good Old Boys and letting women, gays, and minorities get
in on a cut of the action. That is the mortal sin in
their eyes. That is what drove them into an eight~year
frenzy and obsession with taking Clinton down.
Among all the accusations that have flown, all the
investigations that have been conducted, all the venomous
attacks that have been launched, the only thing that
stuck was that a White House intern performed sexual
favors on the President.
Clinton may have lied to the American people about an
Oval Office sex act, but he never betrayed the American
people in the most fundamental sense. No recent president
has put more energy, intellect and political savvy into
the job than Bill Clinton ~ and BuzzFlash would be hard
put to recall any public policy action he took that was
not in the interest of the nation. We are a better
country now than we were eight years ago.
Whatever his moral lapses, Bill Clinton, as he enters the
final lap of his presidency deserves our praise, not our
condemnation. Al Gore, who has been the most active vice
president in the nation’s history, also merits much
of the credit.
It is a shame that conventional wisdom will force Gore to
distance himself from the President. Bill Clinton stood
up to the forces who oppose America’s evolution into
a multi~cultural society, time and time again. It was no
game for the faint of heart. We are a better country for
it.
Thanks, Bill.
A BuzzFlash
Editorial Commentary Originally Posted in the Fall of
2000
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~ The Torch is Passed ~
President Kennedy and Young William Clinton
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God bless you, Mr. President. Thank you for 8 glorious years! Cheers!
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20 January 1993
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20 January 2001
If you would like to write President Clinton, his office address is:
President William Jefferson
Clinton
55 West 125th Street
14th Floor
New York, NY 10027
USA
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The Coolest President!
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President William J. Clinton & First Lady Hillary Rodham~Clinton
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" The only way they could win the election was to stop the counting in Florida"
~ President William Jefferson Clinton ~
"Back
the Dog You Got"
by Christian Mitchell
Friday, Dec. 22, 2000 (AmpolNS) ~ Pardon me, but I’m getting a little fed up.
All we’ve been hearing since November 8 is how Al Gore blew the election. He could’ve fought harder, he could’ve insisted on different rules in the debates, he could’ve done this, he could’ve done that. And we’re not just hearing it from the other guys. We’re hearing it from our side, too.
My apologies to my friends on the same side of the aisle who feel this way. I know you’re upset about all this. So am I. But I’m going to say this because it needs to be said.
Let’s lay off Al.
Al Gore got a bum rap from all sides throughout the campaign, and now he’s getting a bum rap from his own people. We’re making the same mistake Democrats ALWAYS make. We’re turning on our own people. We did it to Carter, we did it to Mondale and Dukakis, and now we’re going to do it to Gore.
All through the campaign, what did we hear?
From the Greens: There is no difference between Gore and Bush. Gore is beholden to special interests. Gore is a pawn of big business. A vote for Nader is not a vote for Bush.
From the GOP: Chinagate, Liar, Slumlord, Invented the Internet, Buddhist Temple. That’s right, a vote for Nader is not a vote for Bush, but here’s a million dollars, Greens, go run a bunch of Nader commercials in California.
From the media: He’s boring. He’s a know~it~all. He doesn’t connect with people. Why is he wearing beige?
We all have jobs, right? We go to work, we deal with office politics and tight deadlines and occasional pressure from the boss. We sweet~talk Sylvia in supply who doesn’t want to order the cute little multi~colored paperclips we like because they’re too expensive, and we kick in for Ed’s birthday present even though we really don’t much like the guy, and we do our jobs and go home, right?
Well, think about this for a job, folks. You go to work every day at five in the morning and work ‘til well past midnight. You run around from place to place giving of your time and attention to everybody who needs it. Every day you have ten meetings in five different cities and at every one of them you’ve got to explain to people why they should give you a promotion when they really don’t even know what it is you do.
You talk to crowds of 5,000 and 10,000 people until your voice is hoarse and your throat burns. You shake so many hands each day that your arm is numb and stuff and you have to put ice on it at night.
The other guy who’s up for the same job is a drunk and a cocaine user. He’s never held a real job, is dumb as sled tracks and can barely put a sentence together. He won’t even debate you unless you promise not to ask him any questions ~ but if you don’t agree to the rules, the pundits will say it’s you who’s afraid to debate.
And if you point out what an idiot the guy is, they’ll say you’re mean. They’ll make you look bad, and say you don’t deserve the promotion ‘cause God don’t like ugly. And the people will believe it because, hell, what is it you do again?
To top it all off, the press is screaming that you’re not enough of an Alpha male, then you’re too much of one, and you’re cold and pedantic and superior and condescending and don’t crack enough jokes, and you dropped out of law school. They’re telling horrible lies about you, and won’t print the truth even if you correct them. They’re even suggesting that you’re a traitor.
And you must endure all this while running on four hours’ sleep.
Now, could you do that job?
I couldn’t.
Well, Al Gore did. Not only did he do the job, he got the promotion. He won the goddamn election, let’s not forget that.
Gore won the popular vote by over half a million votes.
He won the electoral college, until the GOP Scalia’d him. It is clear that if the Republicans had allowed the vote counting to go forward, Gore would’ve won Florida by about 23,000 votes, and thus would’ve won the electoral college.
He garnered 90% of the African American vote.
He got more votes than any other Presidential candidate in history, Democrat or Republican, except Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Well, folks, he must’ve been doing SOMETHING right.
But oh, everybody says, he’s no Clinton. Why can’t he be more like Clinton? Clinton could fend off the attacks, Clinton could connect with people, Clinton this and Clinton that.
Well, there’s something very special about Bill Clinton, folks. This is very important, so mark it well:
Bill Clinton is the greatest politician since Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln came to Washington a country lawyer, with almost no legislative experience and certainly no executive experience. His election drove the south from the Union, and he steered the country through a Civil War during the first two years of which his armies hardly ever won a battle. They called him stupid, they called him insipid, they called him a gorilla. He broke a lot of rules. He suspended the writ of habeas corpus, he shut down Copperhead newspapers, and he had political rivals arrested before the 1864 election. And still he earned the affectionate nickname Honest Abe. He ended the war and encouraged gentle and inclusive reconstruction policies. During all this, he lost his beloved nine~year~old boy Willie and his wife went insane. He was assassinated a week after the Confederate capital fell, before he hardly took a breath in a nation at peace.
He is remembered as Father Abraham.
Bill Clinton was a poor boy from Arkansas with no daddy. He had to stand up to his step~daddy when he tried to beat his mother. He had no money and no connections. Yet he got himself elected President, even with the whole country knowing he’d had multiple affairs. He took office in the worst recession since the Great Depression, with trillion~dollar deficits, staggering unemployment and a middle~ and working~class population ravaged by twelve years of Republican rule. He survived two hits right out of the gate over gays in the military and health care, passed a balanced budget amendment and eliminated the deficit while two hundred lawyers were spending $65 million dollars and crawling all over Little Rock looking for crimes to convict him of. He got impeached for getting a blowjob, and was still able to give a sweeping and triumphant State of the Union Address. He was acquitted in the Senate, has protected more lands by Executive Order than any President since Teddy Roosevelt, and is still negotiating for Middle East peace as this is being written. He even did a Rolling Stone cover. And he leaves office with an approval rating of 67%.
He is the Big Dog.
We will never have another Bill Clinton, folks. So focus those energies on repealing the 22nd Amendment and, in the meantime, back the dog you got.
Al Gore may be a little boring and lacking in Clinton’s political skills. And he may come from a more privileged background than Lincoln or Clinton. But he’s never forgotten the working people of this country, or those who are discriminated against, or the kids and the fact that they deserve clean air to breathe and water to drink, and he’s fought like hell for us for 24 years.
Let’s all take a break, lay off poor Al, and put the blame where it belongs, squarely on the fascist li'l shoulders of King George and the fabulous goose~stepping GOP.
They were bound and determined to steal this election, and nothing Gore could’ve done could’ve stopped them.
They stole it in Florida, and we all know what happened there.
They stole it in Georgia, where complaints have surfaced about rigged polling machines, where folks put the ballot in and punch it for Al Gore, but the machine actually punched the hole one line higher. And who was one line higher on those ballots than Al Gore? King George, of course.
They stole it in Tennessee, where there are also allegations of voter intimidation, particularly of minorities ~ gee, what a surprise, huh? ~ in cities like Memphis, where black people were told to go to the back of the voting line behind whites with this phrase, "You black people know what it’s like to go to the back of the bus, don’t you?" So it seems Al Gore in fact would’ve won his home state, if not for the Gestapo tactics of the GOP.
If this is what King George meant by his little tag, compassionate conservative, somebody get that boy a dictionary.
The GOP has always been an organized solidarity. They fight like an army in battle, and they strike ferociously as a unified force. Focus on one target and attack viciously until it is reduced to a pile of ruins.
And now they have the field. They have the White House, the House and Senate, and the Supreme Court. They’re in their earthworks and fortified, the most coveted spot for an army, and for abatis they have Tom DeLay and Dick Armey and the Christian Right with sticks pointed to razor sharpness, waiting to impale whoever charges them. All they have to do is stick together and huddle.
To fight an army like that, we have to become an army ourselves. And an army doesn’t fight a battle by splitting up its forces and fighting each other on the field, then letting the Division that survived fight the enemy. The division that’s left is bloodied and spent and has no energy left to fight the fight that counts.
We have to be a unified army and we have to stick together.
And don’t bet on Hillary. If she runs in 2004, we will lose and lose big. The hate the GOP feels for her surpasses even the hate they have for the Big Dog. They will stop at nothing to keep her from the White House. And I mean nothing. Remember JFK and RFK and MLK, folks? Don’t fool yourselves, I’m talking THAT kind of hate.
Besides Hillary, who have we got?
Daschle’s too milquetoast, we need Gephardt as Speaker, Kerry of Massachusetts is too liberal and Kerrey of Nebraska is a self~serving traitor.
Them’s the facts, folks.
Al Gore’s our dog. He won the election and everybody knows it. He’s got the mandate thing going and he’s got the rematch thing going and he’s got the underdog thing going. If we’re smart and we stick together, he can come back in 2004 and beat the knee~pants off of King George.
But if we do as we always do, blame our guy and fight amongst ourselves, we’ll be looking at four more years of GOP rule.
Anybody as terrified at that thought as I am?
Copyright
© 2000, Christian Mitchell. Reprinted by permission.
Copyright © 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, American
Politics Journal Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Update
Tuesday 6 April 2004 01:11 PM
Clinton strikes deal to increase distribution of cheap AIDS drugs
NEW
YORK (AFP) ~ The charitable foundation set up by former
President Bill Clinton
said it has signed agreements with three aid agencies
to make cut~price AIDS
drugs available to hundreds of thousands
of people in the developing world.
Under
agreements with the World Bank, UNICEF and the Global Fund,
the Clinton
Foundation will provide developing nations with access to the cheapest available
AIDS drugs as well as vastly discounted medical equipment.
The Clinton Foundation has negotiated price breaks of up to 50 percent on antiretroviral drugs with five pharmaceutical companies and discounts of up to 80 percent on medical equipment used in the diagnosis of the deadly disease with five other companies.
It is already providing the cut~price drugs to 16 African and Caribbean countries through its HIV/AIDS program, but the latest agreements would permit recipients of World Bank, Global Fund or UNICEF funding to take advantage of the cheap drug supply, according to a joint statement from the four parties.
The medicines are critical components of the "first line" AIDS treatments recommended by the World Health Organization, which are available to fewer than 200,000 people living with the virus, outside of Brazil which has authorised the manufacture of generic AIDS drugs.
"With
these agreements, we are one step closer to making sure future generations can
live without the scourge of AIDS," said former
President Clinton in a
statement.
"We are hopeful that developing countries and those who support them in the fight against AIDS will take full advantage of this agreement and act quickly to do all they can to help in this fight."
The foundation pledged to work to get the life~saving medicines to those in need as quickly as possible, subject to the necessary guarantees of payment, and the provision of safe distribution channels.
"This initiative will help to get treatment to those most in need ~ the world's poorest people," said World Bank President James Wolfensohn.
The Global Fund, a public-private group committed to fighting diseases including AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and and the World Bank are among the world's largest sources of funding commitments to AIDS treatment.
"This new partnership works to break down some of the barriers -- such as price, supply and demand ~ that are impeding access to life~saving AIDS medicines and diagnostics in developing countries," said Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF ~ the UN children's fund.
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