FIRST CHECK OUT THIS LINK ABOUT OLIVER STONE'S UPCOMING MOVIE ABOUT "W"
www.slate.com/id/2188423WHAT INSPIRED THIS BLOG? SOME ULTRA-PARTISAN REPUBLICAN RIGHT-WINGER SENT ME ONE OF THOSE GROUP E-MAILS RANTING ABOUT HOW THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS IS TO BLAME FOR AMERICA'S CURRENT PROBLEMS, BELOW IS MY REPLY, I THOUGHT I'D POST IT HERE ON MY BLOG:
I agree our country is not the best shape. But how can anyone blame the Democrats, they've just stood by and watched, no serious hearings, no John Dingell-style of subpoenas like in the old days, etc...
SINCE VOTING IN A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT IN 2000:
0. We've seen our system of elections turn into a shambles, - whether it be pregnant or hanging chads as in 2000, - whether it be the Ohio recount fiasco in 2004, where a recount was completed in December 2004. HOWEVER, in January 2007 a jury convicted two Ohio elections officials of selecting precincts to recount where they already knew the hand total would match the machine total, thereby avoiding having to perform a full recount. The official tally had Bush over Kerry by 2.11 percent out of 5,625,467 votes cast. Only God knows the outcome had a full recount been done in Ohio. (In fairness to the Republicans, the Democrats are no better, given their current controversy on how 'superdelegates' should vote in their 2008 convention. This could possibly contravene the will of the voters if Obama wins the popular vote but the superdelegates give Hillary the nod. Hmmm.... didn't some lawyer way back think that one person-one vote isn't always a good idea, I think her name was Lani Guinier.....hmmm... hmmm......deja vu all over again.....) 1. we've seen the price of oil rise from $26 a barrel to over $100 per barrel;
2. we've lost over 4000 of our best men and women in a futile attempt at nationbuilding in Iraq;
3. we've lost another 500 soldiers in Afghanistan in a futile attempt at nationbuilding; plus the Afghan warlords still control all the outlying provinces; plus there continues year after year bumper crop harvests of opium poppys, which are manufactured into heroin for European consumers, et. al., plus Bin Laden etc. are just a stone's throw away in the nebulous Northwest Frontier of Pakistan, where no true border exists with Afghanistan. Just remember, Bin Laden is reportedly on kidney dialysis, and I doubt there are many places in a third world no-man's land which has state of the art dialysis facilities. On that note, we haven't found the Taliban's leader either, Mullah Omar. If I remember correctly from the news reports of late 2001, when we invaded Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was basically a one-eyed guy who gets around on an old moped.
4. we've seen two dedicated Border Patrol agents (Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean) sentenced to over 10 years in Federal Prison for shooting a known drug smuggler and now the other Border Patrol agents are naturally reluctant to protect our border, thereby letting illegal aliens and drugs flow over our southern border;
5. we've seen a mockery made of the need to keep CIA operatives' names secret in the Valerie Plame affair, and possibly the imprisonment or worse of her former contacts in the countries she had previously worked; (and no one has gone to prison for this from Bush's admin.) So how many potential foreign sources of human intelligence will be eager to work for the CIA now, knowing their CIA contact's cover could one day be blown with impugnity? Don't worry, we still have $30 billion or so of satellites and listening stations, we don't need human intelligence. Maybe think again, lack of human intelligence resulted in us being blind-sided in the following: 1) overthrow of the Shah; 2) Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1980; 3) fall of Soviet Union; 4) Iraq invasion of Kuwait; 5) Mohammed Atta and 18 others flying planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon; and 6) ureliable info on the Iraq WMD program, we thought they had them, it was a 'slam dunk' someone said.
6. Speaking of no. 4 and no. 5 above, wouldn't a President like Washington, Jefferson, Reagan etc have pardoned Ramos and Compean instead of Scooter Libby?
7. We've seen our budding partnership with Russia turn into the beginnings of a new Cold War, almost monthly the Russian Migs skirt our airspace and cause U.S. fighters to scramble, for now the Russians are just tweaking our nose, but what happens when the take full advantage of their oil and gas reserves?
8. we've seen North Korea detonate a test nuclear device, and we have yet to do much more than twiddle our thumbs, and we still send North Korea grain and other supplies to keep them placated enough not to invade South Korea.
9. Speaking of South Korea, by and large, the national opinion they hold towards us, their 'ally', is very negative.
10. We've sent roughly $2.6 Billion dollars per year to Egypt (this was going .. Bush though, in fairness) and the Egyptians continue to suppress political opponents of Hosni Mubarak, as well as harass and discriminate against the minory Christians in Egypt (the Coptics). The Coptics are denied civil rights which are inherent to Egyptians Muslims. Furthermore, Hosni Mubarak is engineering a dynasty, it is widely understood that his son Gamal Mubarak will take over as President. So much for the U.S. spreading democracy in the mid-East. I'm not going on hearsay, I visited the Cairo Coptic quarter in 2000, there is an ancient Coptic church which does not have a roof, the Egyptians for whatever reason won't let them build a roof on the church.
11. We routinely denounce the democratically elected government of the Palestinians, branding them 'terrorists' despite their victory in the last elections. For a while we refused to acknowledge their legitimacy. So much for the U.S. spreading democracy in the mid-East. As for the Palestinians, it is a knee-jerk reaction for Americans to assume they are all fanatical Islamic suicide bombers. Sure many of them are, and their past actions haven't made for good public relations. Yet around 15 percent are Christians. Despite this, Israel lumps them all together under the rubric of 'Palestinians'. I had a secretary at the United Nations -Vienna who was a Christian Palestinian, she told me how she had to wait and wait and grovel before the Israeli authorities to obtain a passport. Israel controls that aspect of their lives, among many others. Jimmy Carter was correct in calling the situation in the Occupied Territories 'Apartheid'. Nelson Mandela has also termed the situation 'Apartheid', he should know. At any rate, we give Israel over $3 Billion per year in aid.
12. We've seen our national infrastructure, that is our roads and bridges, continue to crumble. Look up on the relevant websites just how bad our bridges are. Just about every one of the 50 states has several bridges which are on the verge of being 'CONDEMNED'! Think about that when you walk you children down to the bus stop tomorrow. AND on that note, why are we building and improving bridges in Iraq and Afghanistan while ours are in such pitiful shape?
13. We've seen a hidden cabal of warmongers, nicknamed 'chickenhawks' since they never served in the military yet are happy to go to war against any country which deigns to think for themselves instead of 'DOING WHAT THE U.S. SAYS.' These chickenhawks continually try and goad Bush into bombing Iran, despite the fact that Iran is consistently in compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards inspections. In fact, we've been trying, since 1992, to play 'Gotcha!' with Iran, and they have acquiesced to special, intrusive inspections, allowing Canadian-led inspection teams to fly all over Iran to 'suspect sites'. So far, nothing unusual has turned up. I will personally vouch for the thoroughness of the IAEA inspections, having spent over 250 days in the field performing IAEA inspections. Sure it was easy to fool the IAEA prior to the 1991 Iraq war, but since then most countries including IRan, have signed and ratified an 'Additional Inspection Protocol' which allows the IAEA to wander off the beaten path and take samples of the environment, etc. to find isotopic evidence of clandestine nuclear activities. IRan consistently 'passes.' Besides, the Non-Proliferation Treaty allows them to make nuclear fuel and generate power from nuclear reactors as long as they comply with inspections. But the U.S. tends to pick and choose what treaties or what parts of treaties we want to follow. Also with regard to Iran, shortly after the 9/11 Terrorist attacks, even THEY were protesting in the streets of Tehran and elsewhere, IN SUPPORT OF US! That brief support fell by the wayside a few months later when they found out they were part of the 'Axis of Evil'. Another valuable opening lost to mend old friendships, which generally their government and citizens want. Of course there are a few hardliners who would oppose rapprochment, but we have a few of those here in the US also.
14. Speaking of UN Treaties, the U.S. is a signatory to the Treaty which prohibits torture, yet we've seen Abu Ghraib's torture abuses, and deny access for the Red Cross to certain Gitmo detainees. It strikes me as funny that a country would sign a treaty on prohibiting torture, yet turn around and actually debate how much torture to employ on detainees. Think about that the next time you anti-U.S. protests - not just in Iran - but in France, Germany, Britain, etc.....
15. We've seen the U.S. Constitution practically eviscerated, in particular the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights holds a special place for me, in that I am from Mason County which is named for George Mason, the father of the Bill of Rights. ON THIS TOPIC, I WOULD SHUDDER TO THINK IF JEFFERSON, WASHINGTON, FRANKLIN, MADISON, ADAMS, THOMAS PAINE, AND PATRICK HENRY WOULD THINK IF SOMEHOW THEY MATERIALIZED TOMORROW, (VIA SOME TIME MACHINE), ON THE CAPITOL STEPS, AND WERE GIVEN FREE REIN TO WANDER AROUND. IMAGINE THEIR THOUGHTS IF THEY HAD TIME TO CHECK UP ON HOW THE REPUBLIC IS DOING 232 YEARS LATER? REMEMBER, THOSE MEN LITERALLY RISKED THEIR LIVES, PROPERTIES, AND FREEDOM FOR A DREAM. THEY TOUGHED IT OUT DURING THE DARKEST DAYS OF THE REVOLUTION, WITH MEN LEARNING MILITARY DRILLS WITH RAGS WRAPPED AROUND THEIR FEET INSTEAD OF NICE COMFORTABLE BOOTS LIKE THE BRITISH HAD. I TRULY BELIEVE, THAT AFTER OUR FOUNDING FATHERS WENT ON A 3 DAY TOUR OF DC AND WHEREVER ELSE THEY COULD GET TO IN THAT SHORT PERIOD, THEY'D PROBABLY ALL SIT DOWN AND CRY AND WONDER 'WHAT WENT WRONG?' (IMAGINE THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF EXPLAINING TO GEORGE WASHINGTON WHAT 'DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL' MEANS?
16. I cannot say the Democrats are any better, in our democracy the have the power to institute checks and balances on the Presidency, but they haven't done much, if anything, since November 2006. In fact they seem to have given Bush administration 'carte blanche' to continue on as usual.
17. Don't count on the Supreme Court to provide the final check and balance, since 2000, we've seen a fundamental right taken away, that of eminent domain, and sadly a man's (or woman's) home is no longer is castle in the event a rich developer comes along with grandiose dreams of 'urban renewal'. I know many many immigrants from all over the world, and this one was really a 'bucket of cold water' in their face. Having come from countries where one can lose his house or business at the whim of the government, they came here for the security against such abuse to seek the American Dream. Let's just hope they aren't in some potential resort/casino developers' sights.
18. We've seen the FBI run unchecked year after year since the PATRIOT Act, every year since that was enacted, an Official Report is published on all the illegal uses of the PATRIOT Act by FBI agents for reasons unrelated to terrorism. (Just a little follow-up info to point number 15.)
19. Another quick follow-up to point 15, we've seen the U.S. military spying on peaceful anti-war protests, and ominously they have instituted a database of U.S. citizens who participate in such protests. Probably the ones on that list will be the first one's rounded up. There is also legislation in the works to allow U.S. military personnel to spy on U.S. citizens, within the U.S.
20. We've seen a major city, New Orleans, also one of America's great cultural icons, degenerate into a third world urban warfare zone, due to the thoroughly inadequate response of FEMA. We saw police officers looting local business, the Superdome was full of hungry people being preyed upon by thugs, and ....this is just my opinion, but the worst thing was that we saw 'THE GOVERNMENT' coming to citizens' houses to confiscate legally purchased and owned firearms, despite the massive swarming of New Orleans by looters, thugs and rogue cops. (Good reason perhaps to learn archery, you may have to use bows and arrows to defend your family and property, in the event YOU are in a disaster zone.) Heck of a job, Brownie!
21. Well, now I truly realize this could be an all night typing session, and bear in mind, I'm writing extemporaneously, I haven't had to go research any news websites etc. I almost forgot to mention the Republican family values, such as covering up the MArk Foley gay propensity for young male Congressional Pages, and well before Foley's downfall there were complaints made to the Republican House leadership. They allowed Foley to continue. I thought the Republicans had a problem with gays? They had a problem years back with Barney Frank. Also, Newt Gingrich, somehow I can't see a man who is on his 3rd wife, and who once came to the hospital room of another wife who was dying of cancer, to get her to sign divorce papers. Also, the Christian Coalition ex-leader Ralph Reed, who is facing possible legal charges in the Jack Abramoff scandal, from what I can tell, he was in there as deep as any of those convicted in that scandal. Also for Reed, I don't think it's very Christian to dupe Indians and play the tribes off against each other for casino rights, and side with the highest bidding tribe, and lastly I would think that the Christian Right sorta frowned on gambling. Rush Limbaugh excoriated drug addicts (mostly the lower income ones) for years, but then he became a drug addict. The worst for last is Ann Coulter, who thinks women should not have the right to vote (even herself?) because she thinks women tend to vote liberal. She recently told Donny Deutsh that Christians are 'perfected Jews', apparently she thinks she is a Christian, yet won't say what church or denomination she attends, and I doubt one could find a witness anywhere who'd say they saw Ann Coulter in ANY church.
22. America still has no viable, long-term, energy policy. For the amount we've spent on IRaq, or will spend, estimated at upwards of $2 trillion dollars, we could have used that money to fund the U.S. national laboratories to come up with better batteries for electric cars and alternate sources of power. We did a lot more in less time, scientifically speaking, during the Manhattan Project to create atomic weapons.
25. and so on and so on and so on ad infinitum.....so this is what we get for putting an amiable dunce in the Oval Office.
Nowadays, I regret not voting for Al Gore, Nobel Prize Winner and Oscar Award Winner....
