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Grubble Grubble
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Tuesday, June 24, 2003 :::
rant
Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Where are the chemical weapons that Saddam was supposedly on the brink of releasing on the world? Better yet, where is U.S. credibility on the world stage right now?
When we elected George Bush (this was not my vote), we allowed ourselves to be sucked in by his shell game the first time. He took trickle-down economics and repackaged it and sold us a bill of goods. You all remember trickle-down economics. That was the package that Reagan sold us back in '80. Guess what? It didn't work then and it is not working now. Big surprise.
The next shell game was the "No Child Left Behind Act." This basically was going to ensure that every child is being properly educated. What it really entails is that we test and retest every child in public schools. Does this ensure children are being properly educated? No. It ensures that teachers are making sure the kids know what they need to get past all the tests.
Now, for those of you not in education, testing is not cheap. It costs money. No worries. Our dear President Bush declared that the federal government would make money available to schools for this program. Did it happen? No. The states are currently left holding the bag to pay for the testing. What does this mean? It means cutbacks and layoffs at schools across the country. So, we might find the money to do the testing, but we no longer have the teachers to do the testing. Bush is calling himself the Education President. His father did the same thing. He cut Education budgets too.
Ok, so then terrorists destroy the World Trade Center. It was a horrible day. I remember a sick feeling in my stomach for days afterwards. George sent troops and overthrew the Taliban, in Afghanistan, because they were supporting Osama bin Laden, the man behind the act. Is he in jail right now, waiting to pay for his crimes? Nope.
We did, however, capture hundreds of Taliban fighters. We are currently housing them in Cuba in a prison built specifically for them. That's fantastic. It is currently 2003. It is almost 2 years since 9/11. Have any of these fighters been tried and convicted? Nope. Have any been tried and acquitted? No again. They are being held without being charged, without being given access to lawyers, without being given any rights whatsoever. We overthrew the Taliban because we called them an oppressive regime. Same with Iraq. Many of these men in Cuba claim they are innocent and were just caught up in sweeps. Could they be lying? Of course. But some could be telling the truth. Someday, they may get to prove it. I am betting it will be after Bush is out of office.
Bush then created the Department of Homeland Security. This was touted as the agency that would protect us from terrorists in our own lands. To ensure it was manned, other government agencies were raped for agents and staff. Rob Peter to pay Paul. We also federalized certain airport security workers to ensure terrorists would never make it onto a plane again. Has it worked? Seemingly. Of course, the use of airplanes in terrorist actions has not been particularly popular since the early 80's. But, rest assured that no single human being will be able to clip their nails on an airplane again.
Now, let's discuss TIPS. This program was designed to get maintenance men, postal workers, and anyone else, who in the course of their work day has access to private homes and businesses, to spy on American citizens. Any suspicious activity was to be passed on through an 800 number. The first part of this would have tested it in major American cities with a combined population of 24 million people with an estimated 1 million spies. 1 in 24. At the height of the Soviet Union, Stalin could not claim 1 in 24 domestic spies.
Was this program publicized? Were Americans told they could sleep safely now knowing that their postman was watching (them)? No, it was a last minute addition to another bill. Unfortunately, word leaked and people found out. The Postmaster General unequivocally said no to his postmen being used. Suddenly, I no longer feel so bad about paying for postage. The bill was then watered down and had it's teeth pulled.
At long last, Iraq fell into the sights of Cowboy George. Never mind that the U.N. would not give its support to military action. We are right. If you are not with us, you are against us. Yeah, George, that will get people on our side. Call them terror supporters for not accepting your desire for war.
The entire time inspectors were looking through Iraq, we were massing troops on the border. Saddam in no innocent angel, but what incentive does this give him? We made it clear that war was going to happen anyway. And it did. Without world support. And guess what? No Saddam and no weapons of mass destruction.
We won the war in less than a month. We are losing the peace. Soldiers die every day. Iraqis that supported us in the beginning want us to leave so they can govern themselves. We will spend years mired in Viet, oops, Iraq. Why? Because Bush wants to ensure that his cronies have lucrative government contracts that are designed to make them all richer. For crying out loud, our forward firebases during the war were called Shell and Exxon. Haliburton, Vice-President Dick Cheney's old company, was given the contract to help extinguish well fires. Some of those fires were allowed to burn long enough for Haliburton employees to get there to put them out. The Brits were getting it done before we could get "our" people into Iraq. In police work, we used to call that a clue.
In all this time, our unemployment has skyrocketed. People are being put out of work all over the country. Three days after Christmas 2002, many of these people lost their unemployment benefits. Did Bush rush to their rescue? Nope. He waited til after New Years to work on an extension. I am sure Christmas and New Years were fine in his house. Those people who lost their benefits will likely tell a different story about celebrations in their house. And unemployment continues to grow.
It is time for Bush to go away. Clinton may have been a moral reprobate, but when the Democrats were in office, we had prosperity.
/rant
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