- The Fourth of July! Here we are all decked out in Red,
White and Boo-wondering if we should risk that trip to the lake or, gosh,
take in a parade? The President is down in West Virginia; lost in a haze
of flags and cheering crowds. Did you ever notice how cropped these shots
are and not a Democrat-Independent-or Communist in the crowd. Amazing!
Mr. Bush was going through the usual routine of how we're recovering all
those lost jobs one by one by one. He warned that he's not looking for
a deluge of jobs, just a steady recovery. Hmm! Well, with him living in
palatial government housing, full medical coverage forever, and a $400,000
plus perks salary, I can understand why he's not in a rush.
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- He's certainly not worried about the price of gas, flying
hither and yon in that gas guzzling Air Force One - and convoys of limousines.
I bet he's not checking the oil tank in the basement wondering how many
hours two inches of sludge on the bottom will last. He, nor any of the
Congress will have to make that dreary trip to the unemployment office
and PROVE that they're looking for work. The bile green, Venetian blinded
gloom of these places sure doesn't lift one's spirits. Nor do the gum chewing,
bouffant haired, civil servants, draped over government issued desks add
any encouragement. I, for one, did not find: "Wanted: Easter Bunny"
a real career move.
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- With textile plants, steel mills, tool and die shops,
auto factories, ship building, and fishing boats in dry dock, I was wondering
where these 100,000 jobs were located? Couldn't be in Information Technology
- those jobs are gone to India and elsewhere. When my phone was out of
order I found myself talking to customer service in Bangkok. With prisons
now privatized, everyone not in the military is going to jail. Privatized
prisons or privatized anything, is about profits and satisfying stockholders
not consumers. Corporations have now found a captive work force amongst
the two million and climbing prison population. No vacation time, no sick
leave, no pensions, no health care, and no strikes. Nice to know when you're
making that plane reservation that you might be chatting with a serial
killer or rapist.
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- With towns across the nation filled with rusted decaying
plants and boarded up mills-the rush is on to refurbish these as malls,
storage, or apartments. Nothing, to employ anyone with a worthwhile-livable
wage. Here in NH, politicians saw no problem with keeping minimum wage
at $5.15 an hour. Their insane excuse was that only the children of the
rich work at these jobs. This shows you how removed all politicians are
from reality. The real reason was to cater to the tourist industry. With
hundreds of thousands of foreign workers being imported on special work
visas why pay anything decent? The Foggy Bottom Boys don't need to worry
about this. They give themselves an automatic cost of living increase every
year. Pensions are obscenely lucrative with the same cost of living increase.
Meantime their buddies contributing millions to their campaigns have left
hundreds of thousands without jobs or pensions due to their insatiable
protected greed. I bet none of these honchos will be taking plane reservations.
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- But meantime we're to be thrilled at those new Wal-Mart
Greeter jobs, Home Depot part time Associates, blackjack dealers, snow
makers, ski lift operators, garbage men and convenience store clerks. Then
there are the newest jobs of "contractors" for the war zone.
Now this is something we know the President and fellow politicians can't
relate to. They go to a meeting and whole countries have to be locked down-roads
cleared-oceans guarded and tanks guarding them. Sea Island, Georgia became
an armed camp a few weeks back. We weren't ready for 911 but by God let
an errant, argyle sock tourist, or local take a wrong turn, and flak jacketed-M-16
forces were good to go. What's wrong with this picture on IN-DEPENDENCE
DAY? Taking a job as a "contractor" can have you losing your
head. Imagine your first day at work? One is nervous enough under ordinary
circumstances. I imagine worry about having your head chopped off doesn't
make for a peaceful work environment.
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- President Bush said today, "We are thankful that
this Nation under God is still free, independent, and the best hope of
mankind. We are caring toward neighbors and generous to the sick and struggling."
He goes on to thank those fighting in distant lands who threaten America.
I know dissent and wondering is unpatriotic, but not fully programmed as
yet, I can't help thinking that maybe the people of Iraq and all this resistance,
might be that they don't see occupation, by yet another world power, as
freedom? Somewhere along the line the word "democracy" got shelved
and we told them that we were giving them sovereignty and then limited
sovereignty. Listening to the fireworks going off somewhere in town I was
wondering how Iraqi citizens will be celebrating Sovereignty Day next June
28? Obviously with the whole thing done in secrecy and stealth celebrations
will follow suit. People will meet in locked rooms-unfurl flags-light candles-and
then someone will read The Edicts of Bremmer. No fireworks!
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- With House Arabs appointed to run the show, I don't think
Iraqi citizens had a full knowing of just what liberation meant? I know
the U.S. was mistakenly advised by flim-flam Arabs, that we would be welcomed
with flowers and cheers. Common sense should have come into the picture
at some point. Bremmer, wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, when he disbanded
350,000 military men. What did he think they'd do-go home and wait for
democracy or some semblance of normalcy to return? The West in its arrogance
took no thought to the makeup of this tribal nation-its various factions
or taboos. Not only did we immediately have 350,000 angry military personnel
on the loose but every other group of terrorists and opportunists on a
rampage.
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- Imagine waiting for this long promised liberation only
to have doors kicked in-villagers rousted-families shot to death in cars,
and innocent civilians rounded up and imprisoned. The horror of man's inhumanity
to man, having people guilty of being Iraqi citizens; brutalized, kicked,
beaten to death, sexually humiliated, with snarling dogs set upon them.
President Bush told the world, in lieu of finding no weapons of mass destruction,
that we got rid of a madman. Don't madmen torture-brutalize-and beat people
to death? How were these liberators any different than Saddam? What happens
that causes a man or woman to so lose their moral compass and their connectiveness
to humanity, that they can in such a short time become savage, mindless,
brutal, barbarians? Think of the insanity of all this? Think of the diabolical
mindset that could create and think up such heinous deeds. Worse yet were
the excuses offered of a "few bad apples"-"just following
orders" or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld; arguing over the difference
between abuse and torture. Once upon a time, used car salesman Rush Limbaugh,
thought of this torture as mere hazing. Li
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- When did Saddam become a madman? Surely not when he was
being trained by the CIA-or when Mr.Rumsfeld met with him in the 80s. Surely
not, when we were supplying him with all kinds of chemicals and helicopters.
Maybe it's when he took the oil business into his own hands? Like a Frankenstein
monster, we created this man, and then loosed him on innocent people. Then
the monster decided he was not going to be controlled anymore. Frankenstein
had to be taken out. And so it is, with the many Frankenstein's we've built,
nurtured and coddled throughout the world. You just can't trust a monster
to remain passive and compliant. Monsters? Kim Jong, of North Korea, with
the world's largest collection of Daffy Duck films, makes Saddam look like
Mr. Rodgers. This crazed mutant man, has hundreds of thousands of his citizens
(including children) locked up in the most horrific of slave camps, suffering
the unimaginable. The world remains silent. He's killed millions more.
Someone steps out of line in that madhouse and he locks up three generations.
Now there's a people who need rescued.
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- While I'm sure the President believes what he's saying;
politicians, all politicians, are two steps removed from reality. While
he and his fellow elected officials and appointees are well cared for,
I can't agree with his statement of, "We are caring toward neighbors
in need and generous to the sick and struggling". No not exactly.
Social services are being cut in communities across the nation, due to
the five billion plus per month, that it is costing us for war. You don't
cut Section 8 housing assistance, unemployment benefits, and veteran's
benefits and say you care. You can't possible say you're being "generous"
when approximately 47 million Americans (and growing) are without medical
coverage. When citizens can't afford their medicine and have to cut pills
in half, that's not caring. With billions being cut from HUD; resulting
in more tens of thousands joining the homeless ranks, that's not caring
about your neighbors.
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- In closing, citizens do not feel they are living in a
place of freedom and opportunity when they, the victims of 911, are now
marked as the enemy. Searched, scanned, fingerprinted, and having to produce
triplicate ID is not freedom. Cameras and road blocks, is not freedom.
Background checks and drug testing, is not freedom. The cursory look, at
the horror of 911, by the recent Commission, revealed that there was a
communications breakdown between various agencies and those charged to
protect and defend America (their one important job). Here's a message:
We the American citizens (some with Pilgrim blood) did not board the planes
on 911. We did not purchase box cutters nor indulge in any crop dusting
training. We were not anxious to die and find 37 virgins or super studs
waiting for us (if that's what Arab women die for?) And, if as the President
says, this is indeed a "place of opportunity", then we want the
"opportunity" to be the land of the Free that Independence Day
says we are. Add this to the Commission Report and the (un)Patriot Act-IT
WASN'T US!
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