Well Ms. Rice, Allow me to Retort

So Condi yesterday, was pondering why America appears to be about as popular in the world as poison ivy at a nudist colony (okay I'll admit I miss Dan rather):

To meet this charge our nation must engage in a much stronger dialogue with the
world. Sadly, too few in the world today know about the goodness and compassion
and generosity of the American people. Too few know of our belief that every man
and woman and child has value and that every voice has value. Too few know of
our deep respect for the history and traditions of others and our respect for
the religions of all. Too few know of the protections that we provide for
freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. And too few know of the value we
place on international institutions and the rule of law. Too few know, too, that
American lives have been lost so that others, including Muslims, might live in
freedom and that others might have a future of their own making.

In the immortal words of Samuel L. Jackson: "well Allow me to Retort"

Sadly, too few in the world today know about the goodness and compassion and generosity of the American people

UN official slams US as 'stingy' over aid

The Bush administration yesterday pledged $15 million to Asian nations hit by a
tsunami that has killed more than 22,500 people, ... the United Nations'
humanitarian-aid chief called the donation "stingy."

US lags all industrialized nations in Tsunami relief per Capita

US foreign aid budget ranks dead last among developed nations as % of GDP

Less than 1 percent of the U.S. budget goes to foreign aid...The U.S.
foreign-aid budget as a percentage of gross national product (GNP) ranks last
among the world's wealthiest countries ..The tiny Netherlands (pop. 16.3
million) gave $3.2 billion in 2001--almost a third of what America
contributed.

Bush Budget Slashes Aids Research Funding

Too few know of our belief that every man and woman and child has value and that every voice has value

Bush Budget Cuts Hurt the most needy

Elementary and secondary education programs, including the president's No Child
Left Behind initiative, would be cut by $11.5 billion ..

The WIC program,
which subsidizes the diets of low-income pregnant women and nursing mothers -- a
major preventative against low-weight babies -- would be cut by $658 million,
enough to reduce coverage in 2010 by 660,000 women.

Head Start funds
would be reduced $3.3 billion over five years, ..

Clean water and
clean air funding would decline by $6.4 billion over five
years,

..Community development programs used by cities to build up
impoverished neighborhoods would lose $9.2 billion in five years, a 36 percent
cut in 2010.

Too few know of our deep respect for the history and traditions of others and our respect for the religions of all

Mississippi Allow Display of Ten Commandments and others

The Mississippi House has overwhelmingly passed a bill allowing the posting of
certain religious documents in public buildings. At least one state senator
thinks the measure will fare well in the Senate. The bill allows the posting of
the Ten Commandments, the national motto ("In God We Trust"), and the Beatitudes
on all public buildings

State Senator Alan Nunnelee says "I think there's a systematic effort made by
the liberal elite in this country to deny any biblical basis for the foundation
of our country, and it's just a fact of life that our nation was built on those
principles

Top US general says US is a Christian Nation engaged in a war Against Satan


Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, whose promotion and appointment was confirmed by the Senate in June, in dress uniform before a religious group in Oregon in June, said Islamic extremists hate the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christians. ... And the enemy is a guy named Satan."

Discussing a U.S. Army battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia in 1993, Boykin told one audience, "I knew my god was bigger than his. I knew that my god was a real god and his was an idol."

Boykin has also said

" Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote
for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as
this."

"My references to Judeo-Christian roots in America or our nation as a
Christian nation are historically undeniable."

-- said Boykin in a
statement issued by the Pentagon in Oct.

Too few know of the protections that we provide for freedom of conscience and freedom of speech.


ACLU Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Protesters Arrested at Bush Rally

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a federal lawsuit today
on behalf of five men who were arrested after they stripped down to thong
underwear and formed a human pyramid in anticipation of President Bush's
motorcade procession through Lancaster County.

"These young men were
arrested and removed from sight for no other reason than the fact that their
presence would have resulted in an embarrassing visual for the president," said
Paula Knudsen, an ACLU of Pennsylvania attorney who is co-counsel for the
protesters. "These unjustified arrests were motivated by politics, not law. The
actions of these men are clearly protected under the First Amendment."

Ashcroft's Infamous warning about too much free speech

In his testimony before the Senate on December 6, Attorney General John
Ashcroft displayed his total lack of tolerance for dissent: "To those who scare
peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your
tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our
resolve They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's
friends."

White House asserts the right to lock up people that don't inform on their neighbors

After hearing Green's hypothetical questions, the military agreed it could
imprison a Muslim teacher whose class includes a family with Taliban
connections. It also agreed that it could detain a man who does not report his
suspicions that his cousin may be an al Qaeda member, or a reporter who knows
where Osama bin Laden is located but does not divulge the information to protect
an anonymous source.

_____________

And too few know of the value we place on international institutions and the rule of law

__________.

With unilateralist pique, the Bush administration has turned its back on sound international law

The administration announced that the United States was withdrawing from the
optional protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

As a
result of the administration's action, the United States excused itself from
international court jurisdiction.

Attorney General Calls Geneva Convention "Quaint", Outmoded

Gonzales concluded in stark terms: "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders
obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and
renders quaint some of its provisions."

Too few know, too, that American lives have been lost so that others, including Muslims, might live in freedom and that others might have a future of their own making.

1519 US troops KIA, 11,220 Wounded as a direct result of enemy fire and Over 50,000 injured as a result of actions taken in the war

However:

At least 69,000 Iraqi and Afghani civilians killed by US Forces, Over 159,000 seriously wounded

Perhaps Ms. Rice too Few Know these things about America because they have seen too little of them since your boss took over?

If you want America to be regarded as it once was, you are going to have to let America Be what it once was. Or to quote

Langston Hughes

Let America be America again.

Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.