| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Fleabass76 |
Posted - 10/17/2002 : 3:17:18 PM
I was slightly appalled when i saw this site. Not only because of the information presented, but also because the information comes from reputable sources, not some leftist rag.
http://www.wage-slave.org/scorecard4.html
Here's some examples:
Let's set the scene. It's early June, and questions about the CIA and FBI are dominating the news. What's an administration addicted to secrecy to do? Attorney General John Ashcroft, thinking quickly, cobbles together a news conference during a trip to Moscow to announce important breaking news: the Justice Department arrested someone who maybe was thinking about releasing a dirty bomb someday, if he could find the parts and come up with a plan. Oh, and the arrest was a month earlier. While the media was trying to explain why dirty bombs aren't really any worse than regular, clean bombs, they mostly missed the big story. The Bush administration has put Jose Padilla away without charging him, without giving him access to a lawyer, and without any obligation to release him. Ever. When did we throw out the Constitution?
What's left to say about Bush's gifts to the energy industry, which bankrolled his campaign? It almost seems absurd at this point to list yet another pristine American natural treasure that our president has opened up to spoilage in some way. This time it's the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon, which Bush wants to open up to his friends in the mining industry.
President Bush wants more tax breaks for the rich, and he's not letting Congress get in the way. While it normally falls on our elected lawmakers to make the laws, Bush is using whatever regulatory means at his disposal to lighten the tax burden on America's corporations. Remember this. Anytime Bush says there isn't enough money for anything: Social Security, Medicare, schools--anything--it's because of this. Because Bush continues to give tax breaks to the richest individuals and the richest corporations, there isn't enough money to pay for your retirement, for your children's schools, for adequate environmental protections, and for so much more.
The hidden costs of Bush's tax cut to the wealthiest Americans will be emerging for years. Here's a good example. In order to bring down the projected $100 billion federal deficit this year, the administration suggests ending a $1.3 billion program that helps college graduates bring down their costs by consolidating their student loans into a single fixed-rate loan. That means that Bush wants recent college graduates to pay for his tax cut to the richest of the rich.
It's starting to look a lot like the 1980s again. Tax breaks for the rich, cuts to social services, market deregulation, and now, U.S.-backed coups of democratically elected Latin American leaders. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is popular with the people who elected him, especially the poor. But the wealthiest members of Venezuelan society don't appreciate his policies, so they decide a military coup is just the thing. And since Bush understands the needs of wealthy right-wingers, his administration supports the coup instead of condemning it. Even when it fails two days later, Bush still fails to condemn it. After all, it's not the votes that count, right?
For years, the United States has maintained its nuclear arsenal for one purpose: to deter other countries from using nuclear weapons. They were meant solely to serve as a warning, never to be used in conventional warfare. No more. With its Nuclear Posture Review, Bush's Pentagon changes America's nuclear strategy dramatically. It names new nations at which we should point our nuclear missiles and suggests we develop new, smaller nuclear devices to use in conventional warfare. The idea of using nuclear bombs when there's no threat of one hitting us crosses a line that has gone uncrossed for decades. It's a new world.
When Bush promised a two-thirds reduction in America's nuclear arsenal, most people assumed that meant America would have two-thirds fewer nuclear weapons. How silly. Turns out that "reducing" just means "turning them off and storing them" to be used in case another enemy pops up. This makes it more likely that Russia won't destroy its nuclear weapons, which in turn makes it more likely that someone will steal nuclear material.
I'm not sure most Americans understand the foundations on which our freedoms sit. For example, one of the reasons we're not supposed to fear our government is that our elected representatives have oversight of both the military and law enforcement. Now, when Congress passed the (do I have to say it?) USA PATRIOT Act, it gave the Justice Department overly broad powers, but at least we knew there'd be Congressional oversight. Oops! Forgot who was president! Bush and Ashcroft have made an art form of avoiding Congress, and PATRIOT Act law enforcement is no exception. Ashcroft refuses to provide the House Judiciary Committee the tools it needs to watch over the Justice Department, returning America to a colonial-era style of enforcing the law. The Bush administration does what it wants, and we just have to accept it.
In 1997, Iranians elected Mohammad Khatami, a moderate interested in restoring ties with America, to the presidency. They reelected him in 2001. In doing so, the people of Iran rejected the fundamentalism of their totalitarian religious leaders and took baby steps toward democracy. But President Bush announces a refusal to deal with the Khatami government, taking an enormous step back that rivals his ridiculous "axis of evil" policy.
"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire. |
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| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 5:35:44 PM
Couldn't stuff like this be said about any president? I mean, I don't know, but couldn't it? I'm sure every president makes bad choices. Hell, sometimes a president probably even has to pick one solution out of a few undesireables.
But I don't know. I don't know much about politics, and that's my fault. |
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