(P1) Political
Who Cares About The Individual Citizens?
It has become increasingly evident to me that the Bush Administration cares not a single whit about the individual citizens of this nation. To be fair, Bush and the Cronies (interesting rock and roll band possibility) may not be accurately characterized as "anti-people" so much as "pro-billionaire." So I guess that if you view a billionaire as an "individual," perhaps it was unfair of me to write that he doesn't care about (at least a very few) individuals.
Seriously, I think most of us can agree that the administration associates with a stratum which blinds it to the interests and needs of the common folk.
Here are a few examples:
1. The total blindness to Poverty which was brought forcefully to their attention in New Orleans.
2. The effort to eliminate Social Security in favor of privatized accounts.
3. The constant emphasis on Tax Cuts and especially attempts to eliminate the cynically disguised "death tax," an inheritance tax elimination which really would benefit only the 3000 richest people in America. Why are other tax cuts anti-people? Because people need vital services and infrastructure improvements, and all of this must be paid for.
4. The current recommendation to Reduce many categories Mortgage Interest Deductions for Homeowners.
5. The recommendation to Reduce Popular Deductions for Employer Sponsored Health Plans.
6. Although the right to declare Individual Bankruptcy has been severely curtailed, corporate bankruptcy allows United Airlines to Gut Employee Pension Plans. Virtually eliminating Individual bankruptcy enables the banks and credit card companies to continue to try to get 20 credit cards into everybody's hands, milk them dry, and then, when their "customer/cadaver" faces divorce or a catastrophic disease or injury, the predator can take everything they have.
7. The ongoing disinterest in Health Care and Elder Care priorities.
8. The degree of debt America has entered into with China (among others) holding the note. No payments are being made. The entire burden has been shifted to our children and grandchildren (who, after all, are also "people").
9. Then there's the entire issue of "Voodoo" Supply-Side Economics (Anybody experiencing any trickling down?). This seems to imply that our so-called "conservative" administration can spend, spend, spend on foreign wars, massive hurricane relief, and corporate tax cuts (a type of "expense") without raising the money to pay for all of this. (I suppose that it's too much to ask such gutless politicians to raise taxes, but, for God's sake, cease this nonsensical reducing of taxes!).
10. The recent poll showing only two percent (2 %) ! of black/African-American voters approving of George Bush's performance. What happened to his care for these people?
11. And finally, lest we forget, every single day in our local communities, another young man or woman dies in Iraq in a war which has nothing to do with our national security and everything to do with corporate welfare of the most extreme sort.
(P2) Philosophical
Of Things Seen and Obscene
I was both amused and horrified watching the Today Show on October 12th. They were doing a bit of a puff piece about Exorcism. It borrowed from the obvious movies and discussed how the last pope had participated in 3 exorcisms while he was in power. The handsome movie-star-like priest who has become Today's spokesman for the Catholic Church explained, in defense of the Church's practice of exorcism, that it is better to err on the side of believing in the devil rather than dismissing the notion. Faith is said to be a belief in things unseen. Interesting then that the Catholic Church would trot out the unseen devil in the midst of the very much visible child molestation issue. Why then are they not performing exorcisms on their own staff on this very day when the headline was, "Files Show The Long History of Abuse by L.A. Priests - At Least 8 Priests Allowed to Remain in Contact With Children Despite Allegations"?
(P3) Poetical
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3 comments:
I was just looking at your blog, Ed, and I realized I forgot to ask you if you saw the Newsweek with your presidential candidate (Oprah Winfrey) on the cover. Did you? About women leaders? I almost felt as if you were personally responsible for it!
God, I don't know why I torture myself by reading William F. Buckley Jr.'s columns. That human defect to occasionally self flagellate, I suppose. I know that part of the reason is that I find his poetry cloaked blather amusing to read. In his column dated October 28, he essentially argues for giving the Bushies the benefit of the doubt about WMD in Iraq, because why else would they have spent so much time and energy looking for them if they didn't believe it. Pleeeaze . . .!
It is entirely plausible to me that the administration had no evidence of WMD, and was relying on wishful thinking that they might just be lucky enough to uncover some long forgotten old stash of bio-weapons so they could say I told you so. That didn't happen, so all of a sudden it turned into a noble struggle to democratize the Middle East -- a bait-and-switch on the grandest scale. In fact, I wouldn't put it past that felon-to-be "Scooter" and his boss Dick to have thought of planting some WMD there, if they thought they could get away with it.
Well, the editorial disclaimer I wrote on the tree subject should have gone here in politics. Ah, well, then.
On the subject of Oprah, I guess I'd better do some research as it seems I'm out of step with a lot of people. The number one, overriding quality of the presidential candidate for whom I search (in vain?) is...no, the TWO overriding qualities are integrity and leadership. I realize I don't have enough information to judge Oprah on these criteria. In other words, what evidence do we have of her leadership qualities and her integrity? She can certainly run a company, but so can Dick Cheney. There are leaders and there are ruthless bastards. As to her integrity, I don't know. I can only say that I know she has made herself very rich, lots and lots of people like to watch her TV show and she likes to give away a lot of money and material. (At least it's hers and not ours.)
Based on what I know now, I can't support her for President. I'll try to learn more.
Now, as to the comprehensive list of our present administration's undoing of the American Dream, I agree with all your points. This president is destined to go down as one our worst ever.
I hate to be the one to always point out arguable points, but the beginnings of the capitalization of China began with Nixon in the '70's. For 20 years the Chinese govt. evolved and began to "tool up". It was then Clinton who encouraged "everyone" to exploit the economic windfalls available in Chinese manufacturing, along with those in Central and South America. Bush just inherited the Chinese "problem" and, of course, has not and will not do anything about it. A little while ago, I posted here that we should teach our grandchildren Chinese. Some schools in California are already giving Chinese language lessons.
The rest of your points are well stated and, as I said, I agree (except I believe much of our tax monies are wasted). The question is, What are we (the people) going to do about it? As I stated previously here, I don't think protests accomplish much...that is, unless your protest(s) are about 1 million persons strong. Now, there's a thought.
Go forth and organize.
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