I’ve been writing for years that the real war going on in America is for the heart and soul of this nation.  The question is becoming stark; are “we the people” willing to stand up and fight for the rights our parents and grandparents (in some instances great grandparents) sacrificed to provide for us?  Have those of us in the middle class become so complacent with the great benefits that have gone with being “an American” that we’re willing to allow those benefits to go away?  Have we become a society that can’t see past the propaganda of the Fox “news” people, the corporate “raiders” such as the Koch brothers, and the others who are hell bent on transferring the wealth of America into the hands of a smaller and smaller conglomerate?  They are on the precipice of Karl Rove’s “permanent republican majority” and all I can say is that I sincerely hope the incredible POWER GRAB by the newly elected “tea party” governors of Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and so many other states awakens the working middle class of America to what is really going on.

I guarantee you that you won’t be able to trust the “liberal media” to clue you in on what’s “really” happening out there.  I still remember all the publicity for the “tea party” convention which had something like 600 people attending, while crowds in excess of 100,000 in Madison Wisconsin seem to go almost unnoticed – as if it’s no “big deal” to those who are at the helm.  Well, all I can say is that I sincerely hope those people have a surprise in store.  Yes, I’m a school teacher and no, I’m not personally offended when the governor of Indiana calls me part of the “privileged elite,” (in fact, when I thought about it a bit, I wished he was right :o) and, yes, if it takes attacks on school teachers to wake people up to what’s happening in America – I say; “Bring em on!”

To President Obama;  What you’re witnessing from the democratic senators in Wisconsin is what so many Americans were hoping to see from you.  Yet, as every day passes, what we see tells us that this fight against the takeover of America by the monied interests of Wall Street will have to be won without you!  I knew something was up when you chose Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers to head your economic team and Rahm Emanuel to be your chief of staff.  The day you pardoned George W Bush and Dick Cheney, along with all the other lawbreakers they had in their administration, I knew we progressives were in BIG TROUBLE.  “Democrats” have been pardoning republicans for as long as I can remember.  When Bill Clinton took office we didn’t see any kind of willingness to finish the investigation of the Iran/Contra fiasco which almost certainly should have implicated George HW Bush (and, by the way, I’m in the middle of a book right now which is giving a compelling case that HW was right in the middle of the JFK assasination, along with a bunch of other republican leaning CIA types – very interesting to say the least – believe me, there’s SO MUCH we the people don’t know that’s going on in our names) and then we put up with countless pointless investigations of Bill and Hillary Clinton – for EIGHT years! 

George W then comes along, illegally wiretaps Americans (without question), authorizes TORTURE (without question) – along with his VP, plunders the economy, lies America into one war and recklessly gets us bogged down in another without finishing the job we went there for, totally politicizes the Justice Department, encourages regulators to cozy up to those they were regulating (leading to major disastors), and refuses to allow his surrogates to answer subpoenas to congress – and you, President Obama, said we’re going to “look forward” and ignore MAJOR FELONIES!  You, who said Waterboarding is torture, looked the other way as BOTH George W Bush and Dick Cheney ADMITTED to authorizing TORTURE on national TV virtually guaranteed the resurgence of the despicable republican party – showed them democrats don’t have the courage of their convictions.  (Remember Mr. President, you promised us during the campaign that NO ONE is above the law in America!)

Honestly, I don’t think President Obama will ever acknowledge the consequences of his decision to re-enable the republicans after they had virtually RUINED this country by LETTING THEM OFF THE HOOK.  I still listen to Randi Rhodes to this day complain about all the republican lawbreaking and then turn right around and blindly defend the president.  You have to give her credit – that she follows her own advice of when she said prior to Obama’s election that once a candidate is nominated, good democrats should simply “fall in line.”  Therefore, I’m not a good democrat – because I’m fairly disgusted with the underlying positions of President Obama.  Yes, he’s better than any republican by a longshot, I believe that fundamentally he’s a good, well meaning man, but the bottom line to me is that he’s trying to defend the “status quo” and, as long as that is our leadership mentality, America will continue on this dreadful path toward second rate status. 

Large corporate interests have been slowly eating away at the New Deal agenda since the days when it was enacted.  If you’re not understanding what I’m talking about, there are a bunch of privileged families in America (you guessed it, I’m really not part of the privileged elite – despite what the “tea party” is trying to convince America) like the Bush family, the Koch’s, the Rockefellors, the Mallon’s, and yes the Kennedy’s and the Roosevelt’s too – along with many others.  They continue to control the majority of wealth in this nation and some of them seem to have an insatiable appetite for money.  Honestly, from my perspective I have to wonder how much is enough for people like them.  For example, do the Koch’s really want more?  They already control BILLIONS upon BILLIONS of dollars, a multitude of corporations, and a sizeable chunk of the media – not to mention American politicians who are beholden to them.  I use them as an example because they’ve been “outed” recently due to their unscrupulous behavior in Wisconsin which has become public knowledge.  I’ve been hearing about them for years because of their influence with the so-called right wing “think tanks” which have been so instrumental in the republican’s Geobbel’s like propaganda scheme of the past 30+ years.

I have no doubt that the Koch’s are right in the middle of the “Family” – the group influencing right wing politicians around the world with a philosophy which outwardly proclaims to be based on Jesus, but in actuality is based on the philosophy of the fascist rulers of the World War II era – like Hitler and Mussolini.  What I’m not sure of is how interconnected these people are with the CIA and also how far over the line the CIA has gone since it was formed in the 50’s.  In the book I’m presently reading titled “Family of Secrets,” by Russ Baker, there is a compelling case made that the CIA has been involved in much more than the illicit activities that are common knowlege regarding the coups and assasinations they’ve orchestrated around the world (if you need some background, read Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine”).  Not only does he imply the CIA was involved in the assasination of JFK (with daddy Bush – that is HW Bush possibly complicit) but the evidence strongly suggests that Richard Nixon was set up by the CIA in the Watergate affair.  I’m not sure what to believe, but what is certain is that democratic presidents have shown a lack of will to investigate political crimes since I can remember, and after reading the first half of Baker’s book, it all makes more sense to me.  (the possible backlash from the CIA to presidential “meddling” probably looks pretty daunting from the Oval Office)

The circle of people involved with the CIA seem to have been (this is in the 60’s and 70’s – and, probably up to now) Castro haters, the military industrial complex, and Texas oil interests.  When the true history of the fall of the American empire is written, I believe the oil lobby – the oil MONEY – and the “war machine” will be front and center in the reason for the fall.  Not only have these industries purchased our congress to the point that it can’t function in a way that would make sense in a world which is environmentally self destructing, but we continue to throw money at these industries as if there’s no tomorrow – in fact, it appears to me that our oil and war  interests will continue to push their agenda right up to the point when America has bankrupted itself into second class status.  When you look closely at the agenda being championed by the so-called conservatives in congress today (and weakly fought by the democrats) you see them AFRAID to cut money from BIG OIL and they wouldn’t think of touching money authorized for the DEFENSE department.  Have you ever wondered what enemy is out there requiring us to spend almost a TRILLION dollars this year to defend against?

The truth is we are stuck in a vicious circle of stupidity that is generated by fearmongering and results in more spending for defense – which creates more enemies in the world who see us as the new Soviet Union – which creates even more spending for defense – which creates …….  Well, I think you get my point.  The disappointment for me is that George W Bush and Dick Cheney were so blatantly abusive to our constitution that if we couldn’t draw the line with them, well, when will we draw the line?  From what I can tell our elected representatives in congress aren’t going to draw the line.  They spend all their time trying to get re-elected.  I think what is possible, as I watch (and donate to) what is happening in Wisconsin is that it’s up to “we the people” – and, one way or the other, it’s the ground swell from the BOTTOM that is going to bring change.  The “tea party” has gotten the jump on a progressive populist movement, but I’m counting on the progressives making their point in the next election through shear numbers.  The reality is that MOST Americans are part of the working class.  So, we MUST stop fighting amongst ourselves and band together to push these corporatists out of the government and back to their corporations (which MUST be re-regulated).  The problem in America isn’t workers rights or unions, the problem is GREED coming from the wealthy.  America will be healthy again when “we the people” are caring for each other instead of turning against each other.  (instead of complaining that public workers make too much, we should all be fighting for those who make too little)  Those on the right need to understand that Fox “news” is a propaganda arm of the republican party which is carrying the “water” for the corporate interests trying to abscond with our government.  I can’t think of one good reason why any working American would call themselves a republican.  (unfortunately, the only recommendation I have for the democrats is that they aren’t republicans! ughh)