...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Wednesday, May 21, 2003
      ( 4:04 PM )
 
I Heard the News Today, Oh Boy

Just a little cruise around news that's come out just in the last day or two and it is truly frightening the condition of our society. In just the last few days, the news stories are indicative of how BushCo has run our country into the ground, lied, made us less safe, and coddled its corporate friends. This is just a microcosm of the regular news we get, and yet it's a prime example of why I don't understand how Bush continues to get such high job ratings:

On Monday it was announced that WorldCom would pay a mere $500 million to settle the claims against it. It stole and lied about billions of dollars. Two years after Enron, our government has done nothing to clean up corporate crime or punish the criminals who steal people's pensions and cause the working people to have to pay more taxes to bail out the corporations.

US soldiers are killing people and being wounded themselves in Afghanistan today. This on top of the news that we have almost completely pulled all our promised assistance and aid to Afghanistan and there has been reported a marked rise in Taliban activity again. Oh well... our promise to "free" Afghanistan and root out the evil terrorists was made 2 years ago.. you can't expect BushCo to keep a promise made so long ago, can you?

Christine Todd Whitman quit her position in the Administration today (director of the EPA). Can anyone say rats from a sinking ship? This is the ...oh, tenth? twelfth? Bush appointee to quit in the last year. It's long been known that she's sparred with Bush over his environmental felonies policies, but it doesn't bode well that the President continues to lose his top people to "spending more time with their families."

The Texas police destroyed all records of the hunt for the Democratic State Legislators last week. That's right... they. destroyed. all. records. ...especially the ones having to do with how they managed to use the Department of Homeland Security in their schemes. While most people just sigh and say "Texas, it's like a whole other country," this is again a result of BushCo's strong arm politics as displayed by Tom DeLay. Well, good to know the DHS is spot on the job...

Greenspan announces the Fed will be watching out for Deflation. Not only are jobless rates the highest ever, not only are almost all 50 states going into bankruptcy, but our national economy is now facing deflation. While Greenspan likes to start his pronouncements with "Well, I'm HOPING the economy will pick up soon!" they always end with something like "But, we'll keep our eye on the fact that consumer prices are continuing to drop and we haven't seen numbers like this since 1929." Thanks BushCo for finding the right solution to our economic woes. Because cutting revenue will definitely help, especially since the (bankrupt) states will have to bear most of the burden now.

The Pentagon has decided to expand its data mining system for TIA so that it can scoop up much more detailed information about many more people. It will literally be able to gather and keep things like every email sent, every picture taken, every magazine read, every tv show watched, every phone call made. This is the Pentagon using this program to spy and collect information on our citizens. It's not the FBI, it's not any other investigative organizaiton (though them doing it would be unacceptable as well), it's the Pentagon, under the direction of a convicted criminal. This administration has gone forward with the wholesale stripping of our civil liberties as if it were just a walk in the park. Why is there not more outcry over this? Do you think this doesn't affect you? Just wait till someone with your name turns out to be a criminal and then try catching a plane.

Fresh Al Qaeda tapes threaten all sorts of people. We're on "high" alert again. Embassies are closing around the world. Oh yes, that war on Iraq made us safer, didn't it? And boy, BushCo's "war on terrorism" sure is panning out to be a success. Well at least we know that we're at "orange" level - that should make things all the more better once we're attacked, because at least we knew we were going to be attacked.

BushCo/Rumsfeld wants to use nuclear weapons! Not just develop them, not just hoard them, but use them. Does this make any sense? Once we use a nuclear weapon, no matter how "small" or for what purpose, we've doomed the earth and all its inhabitants. How do you roll back an action like that? Everyone else who has nukes would be justified in using them! Does anyone in this administration have a brain in their head? And the stellar geniuses in the Senate are "compromising" by backing a plan to "study" these weapons for use. Whaaa????

In Tarrytown, New York, a judge asked a woman if she was a terrorist just because she's Arab-American. A US Citizen, Annisa Khoder collapsed when the judge just said out loud in his courtroom while she was appearing regarding a parking violation, "you have money to support the terrorists, but you don't want to pay the ticket." My god. Not only is it racist, but for a judge, a representative of government, law and authority to treat a person that way and make judgments like that is not only disgusting, but it is alarming because our federal government has prompted this kind of attitude by the way they have dealt consistently badly with Arab-Americans since 9/11. Just incredible.

And finally, an explosion at Yale Law School today. So far, an hour now after it was first reported, there aren't any injuries and it doesn't appear to be a "terrorist" attack...but I'm sure most people in the country wondered. Are you feeling safer for all this administration has done to protect you?

And all this news was brought to you by the "mainstream" press... the real news is worse. Can we continue to live with these conditions...are we able to justify a government that continues to take away our freedoms, make us less secure because of its own imperialistic agenda, steal our jobs and money and eradicate our children's futures?

Why does he get such high job ratings????

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