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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Today's Note From a Madman
May 1, 2008
A Real AP headline:
"Economy grows by only 0.6 percent on housing and credit woes"
...and this is how President Bush will spin it:
"WOW! The economy grew!"
After all, it is the little victories that matter, isn't it?
Some of you might remember that our nation - under the "leadership" of George W.
Bush and his "Administration of Diminished Responsibility" - had a net job loss
in the first four years of his presidency. Likewise, some of you will also
remember his bragging about "x-number" of months after that when jobs were
actually created, even though the jobs created didn't even keep up with the
growth in population. So today's news that the economy isn't in a defined
recession - yet - comes as good news for the spinners and shakers who occupy
offices at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Certainly growth - any kind of growth at
all - must be "good news", right?
It isn't.
"This is nothing to crow about. It is very slow growth, but it is growth
nonetheless."
-White House Press Secretary Dana Perino
One has to think that there's a special place in hell for the liars and spinners
of the Bush administration. There is no good news, Ms. Perino. And all one has
to do is look at any average American who belongs to the middle-now-poorer class
to know that.
"difficult times,"
-President Bush
And just what would our fear-mongering leader know about "difficult times"
anyway? Was it "difficult" for him to be born on third base and have his daddy's
friends tell him he hit a triple? Was it "difficult" for him to "volunteer" for
the Texas Air National Guard to defend Texas from the hoards of North Vietnamese
who could have invaded our shores at any minute? Was it then "difficult" for him
to desert his post and fail to take a physical exam in order to "work" for a
politician? And was it "difficult" to bankrupt companies financed by his daddy's
friends and still be given the golden boy status?
I mean, this guy even traded Sammy Sosa from the Texas Rangers when he was a
part-owner of the team, and they've never been the same since. In terms of
"touch", this golden boy's "touch" isn't so "golden". It appears that everything
he touches turns to manure and the only ones who benefit were told to invest in
manure right away.
Even a program such as the No Child Left Behind act blew up for its lack of
follow-through, with the exception, of course, of Presidential brother Neil bush
making a mint on the standardized testing which he so fortunately had the
"foresight" to invest in.
When Governor Bill Clinton, then running for President of the United States,
said to us, "I feel your pain," we believed him. Just what pain has George W.
Bush ever felt, other than a hangover?
Much like in the Presidential debates of 2000, when all then-Governor Bush had
to do was to not trip over his own tongue for him to be considered successful,
the bar has been set so low today for his economic numbers (as well as all other
areas of his policies) that they'll even take credit for the bad news and spin
it into "good news".
And a 0.5 percent "gain" is bad news.
I think back to a Saturday night Live skit just prior to the 2000 elections. The
skit had Will Ferrell as President Bush in the no-too-distant future sitting at
his desk in the Oval Office with Washington DC burning in the background,
apologizing to the American people for screwing things up. Who knew that this
comedic skit would turn into our tragic future, if not literally, then
figuratively.
The only difference is that this President never apologizes for anything, and
why would he? If you ask him he'll tell you that he's never done anything wrong.
Here's where the "modest" growth took place:
"Exports of U.S. goods and services, which increased at a 5.5 percent pace, also
helped first-quarter growth. U.S. exports are being helped by the falling value
of the U.S. dollar, which makes U.S. made goods and services less expensive to
foreign buyers."
-The AP
See? The dropping-like-a-stone US dollar is also "good news" Forget the fact
that we are in a global marketplace competing against stronger currencies for
things such as CRUDE OIL, the stuff that fuels our cars, delivers merchandise to
market; and keeps grandma warm in the winter. What's a few more dollars per
gallon, as long as it makes the Bush "base of haves and have mores" have even a
little more anyway?
And if that isn't enough to make your blood boil, get this:
"Spending by the government was another factor helping out GDP in the first
quarter. That spending rose at a 2 percent pace for the second quarter in a
row."
-The AP
That's right, boys and girls. The US Government - OUR US Government - the one
led by George W. Bush is spending OUR US dollars at a pace hundreds of times
higher than the growth of our economy. In other words, as President Bush likes
to say himself, they're spending our money to make themselves look good. If it
weren't for George W. Bush's big spending ways, even Bush himself might have to
use the "R"-word (Recession).
I wonder who got richer from that extra 2 percent spending spree?
So much for the Republicans being the party of small government.
-Noah Greenberg
Answering the Hillary Vs. McCain
Question
I wanted a Democrat to emerge from the Democratic primary but given the “Animal
Farm” like process the corporate media has orchestrated for us, I find that I am
offered the choice of either a half a loaf or no loaf at all. The country
desperately needs a real Democrat in the White House. The world desperately
needs a real Democrat in the White House. I believe that Barack Obama is a
conservative Democrat. He was not my first, second, or even my third, choice to
be our Democratic standard bearer. Of the two remaining Democratic Party
Candidates, Barack is the only one that I could mistake for being a Democrat,
and the more I hear him speak, the better he looks.
The candidates that I would have preferred to see on the ballot have all dropped
out. I suspect that Barack was viewed as more easily defeated by a Republican at
the right time, than they were. I am still pissed off about the fact that just
two days after I cast my absentee ballot, my candidate dropped out of the race
thus disenfranchising my vote. I am mad as hell and not in the mood for a Hilary
Clinton to mock my vote. I would have preferred Dennis K, Al G, John E, or Joe
B, but Barack is certainly qualified and he is a Democrat.
As much as I would prefer a woman in the White House, Hillary looks a lot like a
Republican to me. Her husband carried NAFTA and the rest of the Republican
agenda through on his watch. When I look at Hilary I see a representative of Big
Business as usual Corporate Interests. I don’t see single payer health care. I
don’t see an end to war. I don’t see the Bush Crime Family put in irons for
treason and war crimes, I don’t see a rational energy policy. I don’t see
massive improvements to environmental protections.
Looking back on Bill Clinton’s administration I would give him a C+ on the
environment. He made some efforts but the world is going to hell in a hand
basket right now! Bill may look like a saint next to (Alfred E Newman) want -a
-be George Bush, but it’s hard not to notice things like all of those gang land
style “accidental deaths” that occurred to numerous inconvenient people involved
with the Clintons. I smell criminality, not a restoration of the office of the
President. I want a change of government, not a recycled government. I believe
that Bill Clinton was co-opted in many ways and has many favors owning, which
Hillary will be asked to deliver payment upon. The country needs a clean sweep.
I am a 61 year old, college educated business man. I was a combat veteran of
both the Navy and the Army in Vietnam. I am an environmentalist, a college
educator, and I am active in my community and the Democratic Party. I have
always voted and believed that voting was my patriotic duty. I usually vote for
a Democrat if I don’t have to hold my nose too much. Hilary would be too much.
If I am faced with the options of picking between Hillary and John “Manchurian
Candidate” McCain then I feel that I really have no options.
I refuse to be gamed by the power elite and media even once more. Radical
changes are needed and I do not believe that Hillary will make those changes.
Without very radical changes in so many areas we are doomed. We need to restore
our Bill of Rights and Constitution. We need to undo a lot of damage to our
economy, infrastructure and environment. Anything less that an all out “full
speed reverse engines” and restoration of the “New Deal”, represents nothing
more than just the rearrangement of furniture on “planet Titanic”.
With McCain I expect a rerun of the great depression punctuated by world war
three, beginning in Iran. He’s not very creative about reliving the mistakes of
History. Under McCain we would get to play the part of the Nazi’s. I don’t think
that Hillary will change the underlying problems that would preclude any of this
from happening sooner or later. She will have to prove she is as tough as a man
and that means war. What the Corporatists want inevitably drives us down this
path.
If she is the Democratic standard bearer then I will be staying home, digging a
good bunker and stocking it up with food, water, and ammo. I feel a slight list
here on the promenade deck. Can you feel it? Can I borrow your life vest? Blub!
Blub!.
-Bob Rawson
In response to, "Clinton supporters (her Philadelphia headquarters was run by as
many African-Americans as whites)," Dorothy Schwartz writes:
An important note to add to the Philadelphia-area writer's comment: the Obama
headquarters I went to in Northeast Philadelphia, a mixed, but primarily
African-American area (she will know the area; it's next to the Frankford
Transportation Center) had as many, possibly more, whites as African-Americans.
It was amazing in fact, to see the campaign workers and canvassers there: young,
old, white, black, Hispanic, male, female. All very enthusiastic, and very
inspiring for me.
In response to "I have two sisters," the response to the Lavender Tube, Victoria
Brownworth writes:
First, my name is Victoria, not Victory. Second, I have a Ph.D. and am getting
pretty tired of the "all Clinton supporters are stupid and ignorant." Dewey
wasn't able to proof-read his own response, which is almost wholly
unintelligible. So I can only take from this pathetic exercise that Dewey is one
of those uneducated, anti-intellectual, knee-jerk Obama supporters. Dewey should
keep in mind that the antagonism proffered by the Obamaniacs toward Clinton
supporters will not serve them well come November if Obama is--and I certainly
hope he won't be--the nominee. You'll need all those stupid, uneducated, Ph"D's
for Clinton to win for your candidate. Especially when it turns out there are
actually no "Obamacans" and the college kid stoners got high instead of
remembering to vote.
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg