I keep thinking the time to stop writing is near, but there never seems to be a shortage of things to “discuss.”  Today, for example, as I was driving to school (for anyone new around here, I’m a sixth grade school teacher) I listened to a newscast where it was pointed out in one breath that Congress was voting down legislation aimed at continuing unemployment (and other) benefits for longterm unemployed people in America and, in the next breath, the broadcaster calmly said something like, “and, Congress has passed another 60 BILLION DOLLARS for suplemental funding of the “wars” in Iraq and Afganistan.  Doesn’t that tell it all as to where we are as a nation?  It honestly makes me ashamed when I think of the priorities of my own government!  I ALWAYS VOTE – so, therefore, some of this is on me.  The members of Congress I get to vote for are IN Congress (that means the ones I voted for won their elections) and, I voted for President Obama.  So, I’ve got to rethink my own priorities – because I’m in such disagreement with those of my government!

I almost don’t know where to start with all of this.  Something like 15 MILLION Americans are without work – thanks, in large part, to the policies of previous administrations who allowed large corporations to run ruff shod over them.  And, the “nirvana” for these corporations was the Bush/Cheney adminstration which not only allowed an increase in the gutting of regulations, they installed “managers” into government oversight departments who had no intention of fulfilling their obligations.  For example, putting “oil people” in the Mineral Management Service who had no intention of overseeing offshore drilling, coal mining, or anything else which might interfere with the profits of the large MULTI-NATIONAL corporations involved – our environment be damned.  The “multi-national” part of that last sentence is the worst part.  We’re allowing the endangerment of our WORKERS (remember 29 WORKERS died in the recent coal mining disaster, and 11 WORKERS died in the deep water oil disaster) and our environment to protect the profits of companies which AREN’T EVEN AMERICAN COMPANIES!

How far are we going to let the so-called “free market” thugs push this before we start pushing back?  And, of course, it’s entirely possible that we won’t see any pushing back until there is a thorough “house cleaning” in Congress.  However, I can virtually guarantee you that the “housecleaning” had better not result in the election of candidates from the “tea party,” unless you believe the best way to put out a fire is to throw gas on it.  Those people think Bush/Cheney were leftists!  We’d not only get MORE DEREGULATION with the Rand Paul’s of this world, but we’d take a GIANT step BACKWARD in the fight to end racism in America once and for all and, while they’re claiming to be “constitutionalists” we’d be giving up even more of our “inalienable rights.”  Just take a moment to think about what it means that we, as a nation, won’t spend money for our long term unemployed, but there’s no questions asked when it comes time to keep our military entrenched in two unwinnable occupations in Arab countries who absolutely don’t want them there. 

The day is fast approaching when the price tag for Afganistan and Iraq (combined) will reach ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!  Now, if that doesn’t have any meaning to you, let me put it this way.  The state I live in is laying off thousands of teachers and other public servants because of a 2 BILLION dollar shortfall.  Now, for all you people who hate state employees, I’ll just tell you that I find it sickening that there are so many who are willing to stack the deck MORE against success for our children’s education.  It also makes me sick when I listen to someone who has his/her education complaining about that of today’s children in school (the “I’ve got mine, screw you” syndrome).  And, the other public servants we’re talking about that are expendable?  Policemen, Firemen, social workers, mental health workers, people working to help the MILLIONS who are unemployed – essentially, people working with “the least of these” to quote a phrase from my main advisor – Jesus Christ.

Let’s look at this from another direction.  (and, keep in mind that I believe the ONE TRILLION DOLLARS for the two occupations doesn’t include the cost of treating the sick and wounded who come home from their multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afganistan – those multiple tours being another disgusting reality which is cause for a post on another day)  One TRILLION DOLLARS was the estimate of what it would have cost to implement a health care plan that included a ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION over a TEN YEAR PERIOD!  Are you kidding me?  We are so willing to keep throwing BILLIONS down the “drain” in Iraq and Afganistan to the point where it will possibly BANKRUPT our nation, but we can’t provide health care for our own people (health care reform which would arguably be a MAJOR FORCE in rejuvenating our economy).  What is wrong with us?  We’ve got these right wing WACKOS on the radio airwaves spewing the same lies of Bush/Cheney OR WORSE suggesting that BLOWING all this money is keeping us safe.  Osama bin Laden couldn’t ask for more!  When he attacked us on 9/11 his wish was to get America ENTRENCHED in Afganistan like the Soviets in the 1980’s.  Bush/Cheney did him one better and LIED us into Iraq – with a new president, now, who seems unwilling or unable to take decisive action to end these FIASCOS!

Of course, it would be too much to expect people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and the also ran “talkers” on the “right” like Lars Larson and Michael Savage to understand that the very people they support are playing right into the hands of our enemy – bin Laden.  I didn’t hear one of them complain when the Bush administration let bin Laden go free at Tora Bora so that they could justify their invasion of Iraq.  No, and why not you might ask?  Well, we’re getting right back to this “free market” economy those nimwits are so proud to boast about.  It’s a free market for corporations like Haliburton, GE, McDonald Douglas/Boeing, Blackwater (now Xe), Bechtel, Kellog Brown and Root (KBR), and – you guessed it – BP plus other corporations who either cut off continual FAT HOGS from their PLUSH no bid contracts from the US government’s seemingly constant intrusions into foreign lands or from “waivers” allowing them to plunder our natural resources on the “cheap” as with BP.  Who do you suppose is giving these right wing “talkers” (propogandists) their “talking points?”  Who do you think is supporting them?  Beck has lost something like 100 – 200 sponsors since some insensitive racist remarks a few months ago – but, there’s plenty of DEEP POCKETED “sponsors” who want to keep the likes of him and the others on the air.  To them, as long as people continue to fall for their pathalogical lying, Beck, Limbaugh, Larson, et al are good investments.  And, these “talkers” apparently have no consciences!

Believe me – these corporations aren’t going to give up that “FAT HOG” easily.  The FACT we just lost our 1000th service person in Afganistan means NOTHING to them.  The ONLY thing that has meaning is that we continue to spend the money without any oversight.  I’m sure they’re right with bin Laden on this one – they’d like to see this war go on forever!  You have to remember that George W Bush wanted to be remembered as the “War President.”  Well, I seriously hope he gets his wish!  I truly wish for the history books to be clear about the lying, bumbling, and incompetently ignorant miscalculations of the Bush/Cheney “war machine.” (although, I believe he miscalculated by thinking perpetual war would be a “boon” for our economy – it should be an eye opener to Americans that bin Laden outsmarted the supposed “most powerful person in the world.”)  The REALLY disappointing part of all of this for me is that President Obama has been in office going on a year and a half now and the democratically controlled congress has been “in charge” since 2006, AND WE’RE STILL IN IRAQ AND AFGANISTAN!  Just a little reminder to Obama and the democrats, Viet Nam was “owned” by Nixon by the time we got out – and Obama is precariously close to “owning” both Iraq and Afganistan.  At the point that happens, I don’t anticipate the above mentioned corporations complaining, but I can’t wait to hear the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Larson, and the others.  We’ll have thought Bush/Cheney never existed.

Don’t get me wrong here.  I won’t be blaming the repuplicans and their “talking heads” at that point.  Obama will deserve the criticism if he continues to show a lack of leadership in extricating us from these RIDICULOUS occupations.  I’m just pointing out that these “thugs” will be gladly taking the money but will continue with their plan to make sure our president “fails.”  It’s called the “have your cake and eat it too” plan.  I’m sure the next stage of their “plan,” in that regard, (to make sure that our Black president doesn’t succeed) will be to pin the BP oil disaster on Obama.  Of course, if you looked at it from his (Obama’s) point of view, he was definitely in a no win situation with these ambassadors of hate.  And, I hope he’s finally realizing this.  Taking the reasoned pragmatic course that he’s taken has required him to “trust” BP to stop the oil leak and clean up the mess in the gulf.  Of course, as all the evidence pours out, BP shouldn’t be trusted for anything.  Every indication is they were trying to reap the harvest of a HUGE oil reservoir (estimated at 100 MILLION barrels) on the CHEAP – with ABSOLUTELY no plan B!  Ultimately, I believe the problem will trace back to the bludgeoning of the Mineral Management Service by the Bush administration – and, it will highlight the FOLLY of Obama’s seemingly endless patronizing of republicans.  These agencies are still filled with people who shouldn’t be there – they need to be PURGED!  Just as I’ve advocated for Obama to PURGE the justice department of all the politically appointed Bush/Cheney holdovers, so should these other regulatory agencies be purged of the people who were hired to cause the agency they worked for to fail – to give ALL the benefits to the private corporations.

In fact, in all too many cases, government oversight has been actually “contracted” to private FOR PROFIT businesses.  To me, that’s one of the scams of the century.  The republican party convincing the American public that government is evil and we should be trusting these private corporations, many of which are run by our own enemies.  Let me give you one good example.  Fox “news.”  The two largest share holders in Fox are not Americans.   Rupert Murdoch is an Australian (right winger) and the second largest shareholder in Fox is a Saudi Arabian.  (If you don’t remember, most of the hijackers on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia – bin Laden is from Saudi Arabia – and where do you think his money comes from? Seriously!)  The same Saudi Prince owns a huge “stake” in Citicorp and Halliburton, for good measure, is now located in Dubai.  Then there’s IBM’s computer division which was sold to a Chinese corporation – Lenovo (just think of the possibilities with that one).  It wouldn’t take a lot of time on Google to add many examples to this list.  So, this is what our present government seems so desperate to continue supporting – these multinational corporations while the millions of long term unemployed face loss of benefits.  It would take a small fraction of the money going to Iraq and Afganistan to not only continue the unemployment benefits, but to prevent the layoffs of all the teachers, cops, firemen, social workers, and others who care about the basic needs of our own people.  The question becomes, how much of America’s future are we willing to sacrifice to save face in Afganistan and Iraq?  Additionally, who’s more important?  The American people? or the multinational corporations who are buying off our politicians and intruding on our democracy MORE and MORE every day? (need more proof as to America becoming a total corporatocracy?  click here or Google: “Citizen’s United” – read the Supreme Court decision)