Let me start out tonight be saying that I’ve finally figured out how to see if anyone has happened onto this site, and to my surprise several people have. Of course, everyone is anonymous to me, but so far no one has ventured to make a comment. Just so you know, if you happen to be the occasional visitor tonight, comments would be welcomed – even if you think I’m nuts! I’m going to continue writing because it makes me feel a lot better as I look at a world that seems to be pretty much self-destructing right before our eyes. While my Christian friends write everything that is happening off as us being in the “end times,” I seem to take the approach that it’s time for many of us “baby boomers” who spoke out during Viet Nam and then retreated to the peaceful life of the middle class to start speaking out again. We kind of stood back and watched, sometimes with a feeling of helplessness, as the “Reagan revolution” has attempted to destroy what we learned to take for granted after the protests of the sixties and seventies.

I still remember the day when I was confident that the Congress was watching what was going on in the White House, when the news media actually had journalists working for them (Walter Cronkite, Edward R Murrow, etc), and when working class people could raise a family on one income. Without getting into too much nostalgia, this little part of the blogosphere (keep in mind, I still haven’t participated in what would probably be called the real blog, so I’m assuming this is a blog because my service provider set it up for me :o) is my way of speaking out. It helps me to collect my thoughts so that when I’m in conversation with someone who watches too much Fox, I have a better grip on the “ammunition” I use in an attempt to bring them to their senses. My co-workers think I’ve read too many books lately in my attempt to make up for all the years that I just watched as republicans were stealing our government, our tax dollars, and our standing in the world right out from under our noses.

So, I’m going to continue to speak out, with most of my “speaking out” probably coming from this site. My point: feel free to argue with me, agree with me, or a combination of the two. Probably the vast majority of my posts have related in some fashion to my disgust of George W Bush and those in the upper echelon of his administration, most notably Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales to name a few. I opposed the Iraq invasion from the day it was first publicly discussed and, as I look back, I believe I would have given Bush more respect had he continued pursuing Osama bin Laden until he was captured and either killed or brought to justice. I’m not sure what grieved me more; taking the focus off of bin Laden – the mastermind behind the attack on Manhattan and the Pentagon, or the invasion of Iraq. I saw Viet Nam all over Iraq right from the first day it was mentioned. I still remember Dick Cheney, on some national TV show, predicting we would be greeted as “liberators.” And Donald Rumsfeld saying the “war” would take, “maybe six days, six weeks, I don’t think six months.”

These guys were so obsessed with the huge oil reserves sitting under Iraq and how much money they could make by controlling them that they didn’t take the time to figure out what they were getting into. There are many books about this war and one of the common themes, no matter who the author, is that the Bush administration had virtually no plan for an occupation. They figured that the Iraqi’s would be so glad to get rid of Saddam that they would just do whatever we wanted them to do (I guess). Considering Bush had no idea about the thousand plus year conflict between the Shia and Sunni Arabs, the results have not been surprising. The really sad thing about all this (well, once you get beyond the incredible toll on lives of actual living human beings from all the countries involved) is that bin Laden couldn’t have scripted things any better from his standpoint. George W Bush did the same thing with this war, with the “war” in Afganistan, with our government, and with our economy that he has done with everything else he has touched, from a business standpoint, in his life. HE SCREWED IT UP!

I could never figure out how the republicans could have nominated him in the first place. And, of course, I then have to add that how in the world could “We the People” vote him into office – a man who has been consistent at only one thing – failure – in his life? But, of course, at some point history will prevail and we will find out the truth about that 2000 election. And I’m at this point not even complaining too much about how he stole his way into the White House, because Al Gore’s first “decision” as the democratic nominee wasn’t too impressive either. Can you imagine if Joe Lieberman had been the Vice President and then ran for president in this last election? That would have meant that we just put off the disaster for eight years. So, in a way, the way it worked out was just getting this incompetence out of the way. Now, hopefully, we can start looking at what our nation has REALLY been doing on the world stage and tackling the huge task of restoring what people like me consider the “American Dream.”

President Elect Barrack Obama has an incredible challenge as he takes over the “reins” of our government. I’m feeling that he’s not going to do the “right” thing and select an independent prosecutor to investigate ALL the misbehavior of the Bush administration, and the result of that will be that the republicans will feel this is a temporary setback for them as they are on the outside looking in at the White House. Remember, they still control the media, and that is not likely to change anytime soon. They will continue to operate as they have as long as the Democrats allow it, and everything I’ve seen points to more of the same in regards to Democrats cowing down to Republicans. As far as I’m concerned, the Republicans have virtually destroyed our government. We don’t need to compromise with them on the legislation designed to fix things. They will continue to feed their lies to the air waves and the Democrats will continue to be manipulated as we go forward. I’m certainly not going to “go after” Obama before he gets into office, but I’m seeing some things that are putting up red flags for me.

While Obama is working to “fix” the economy and, hopefully, while he brings our troops home from Iraq and Afganistan, here are a few things that should be investigated. First, due to the amount of human destruction, let’s start with Iraq. Just the fact that there is clear evidence that the White House ordered forged documents to be strategically placed in Bagdad to support the invasion is enough for me to say that all the lies should be investigated. Add to that, the no-bid contracts to corporations directly connected to Rumsfeld and Cheney (and, of course, large Republican donors) – where billions were spent and work was never done or services were never rendered – these should all be investigated. As Franklin Roosevelt so aptly stated, there’s nothing worse than a war profiteer. Secondly, The warrantless wiretapping is a huge infringement on our constitution. At the bare minimum, we should know what has happened and who authorized it. If we allow our constitution to be shredded, the terrorists have basically prevailed. And the torture; everytime they tortured someone it’s as if every person in this country was culpible. We have to face up to what it means that our leaders think they can get away with actions that caused us to put Japanese leaders before the Hague after WW II. Dick Cheney has admitted on national TV that he participated in the authorization of this and hinted that Bush was involved as well (which we all know he was) yet no one seems to want to hold them accountable. ARE WE A NATION OF COWARDS??? (I could go on – outing a CIA agent, refusing subpeonas, fraud in the Wall Street “Bailout” to name a few)

I will be continuing to write my thoughts on this little part of the blogosphere and, again, if you happen by, I invite your comments whether in agreement or not. It would be kind of fun to have a dialogue. And if you’re one of my republican friends (I have a lot of republican friends – proof that God really does have a sense of humor) go ahead and defend yourself. You Republicans really showed me something in this past election. A lot of you really did vote for McCain/Palin, which only proved to me that Republicans don’t take qualification into account when they are deciding on who to vote for. In fact, it’s almost like being unqualified is the requirement. That thought would reinforce the rumor that whoever is controlling the Republican party is remaining invisibly in the background. But seriously, you couldn’t do better than a 72 year old who was more intellectually challenged than Bush and a woman whose claim to fame will probably be her appearances on Saturday Night Live (although some people I’ve talked to are actually pushing for Palin in 2012 – boy wouldn’t that give me a lot of ammuntion to write about!)? Even if you’re a Republican, it’s nice to know that someone is stopping by once in a while!

This morning on my way to work I listened to President Elect Barrack Obama’s speach intended to prod the new congress into acting swiftly to pass his “Stimulus” package in order to get our economy “moving again.” As usual, it was a smooth, well organized speech. And I truly wish him well, as all Americans should, because I agree with him that inaction could be disastrous beyond our imagination (my interpretation of his words). There were, however, a couple mini “red flags” as I listened to the speech. First, I’m really tired of politicians trying to scare me into thinking what they’re saying is “life or death.” Now, in the case of our economy, Obama may very well be correct, and I don’t want to find out if he’s not correct (although, one way or the other we will). Based on the mandate he has, I believe at the bare minimum Congress needs to pass the legislation he wants and then we can decide the level of his wisdom based on the ensuing results. That being said, I really hope he doesn’t continue the policy of framing every request for political decision making on fear. I know what he’s thinking – he’s trying to head off the normal oppositional stonewalling that has been a hallmark of the US Senate for as long as most of us can remember – no matter which party is in control. The minority party uses the threat of filibuster to manipulate legislation that ultimately emerges from the Senate.

My thought is: stop with the fear mongering, present ideas based on their worth, and if the republicans threaten to obstruct good legislation through filibuster, let them do so. Let them make specktacles of themselves right in front of the American people (personally, I believe if they actually had to filibuster – if you’re not sure what that means, it is an “endless” debate that prevents an up or down vote on legislation in the senate – it would never go past Thursday, because these republicans won’t let anything get in the way of their weekends!). Don’t use the tactics of the people we just threw out of office in order to get legislation passed. Please think in terms of the long haul! Yes, things are really messed up and everyone knows it’s because of the greed, corruption, and incompetence of the Bush administration (well, I shouldn’t say everyone – the people who have taken the time to figure out what has gotten us to this place know this). We can’t continue to let these people control what’s happening in our government – especially from the minority position in Congress.

This brings me to my second point. I believe the size of the tax cut proposed by Obama is intended to get republican votes and there is ample evidence that it will have little impact on the real problems we’re facing as a nation. I hope I’m wrong here (that Obama is placating republicans by offering an increased tax cut), because if you’ve read any of my previous posts on this site you know that I want to take the republicans on head first, so to speak. They have virtually destroyed our government. We do not need to listen to them at this point. “Throwing in” a significant tax cut to make republicans happy is the last thing we need to be doing right now. I agree with all the talk about creating jobs rebuilding the infrastructure of this nation. That would be wise investment that would give something back to our children who we have been borrowing from for years. WE CAN’T SOLVE A PROBLEM CAUSED BY BORROWING THROUGH MORE BORROWING! And I’m making a distinction between borrowing and investing. The tax cut is borrowing – the rebuilding of our country’s infrastructure is investing – we will have something tangible to show for the money spent for years to come.

George W Bush inherited a 250 Billion dollar surplus which he threw away in his first couple months in office. He is leaving Obama a deficit for fiscal year 2009 (Obama has little control over the first year’s deficit) of what has been estimated at $1.2 Trillion and I’m pretty sure that is before taking into account money wasted in Iraq and the so-called TARP program where Henry Paulsen managed to funnel almost half a trillion to his buddies on Wall Street. Additionally, the national debt has more than doubled under Bush’s “watch” (that’s right, in 8 years he’s put us in debt more than the total debt from the previous 200+ years! Ouchee) Good Americans are losing their homes and jobs by the millions – so I understand that Obama is probably a bit shell shocked. You’ve heard the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” Well, he ran (volunteered) for this office and now the reality that he’s taking over under arguably the worst circumstances for any President Elect in our nation’s history must certainly be settling in. I have to say that from what I’ve seen, Barrack Obama seems to have the temperament and the intellectual capacity to handle the job, if anyone does. But, I’m really hoping he doesn’t over-estimate the value of cozying up to republicans in the process. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF REPUBLICANS AND WE VOTED FOR CHANGE!

So Please, President Obama (I’m going to start calling him that as of right now, because GW Bush has already been AWOL for a couple months and these last two weeks of his term may be critical – we really do need a leader right now) don’t cave in to the republicans. TAKE THEM ON – STRAIGHT UP – IF THAT’S WHAT IT TAKES! If you want to do the fear mongering – please do it in the caucus meetings – just give us the facts and I believe we will support you. By that I mean, tell us what the result will be should your proposals be enacted and leave it at that. We all know what the result will be if something drastic doesn’t happen soon and if republicans block your proposals. And don’t cave to these republicans. Let them filibuster till the cows come home if that’s what they think will work for them. We don’t need to burden the already burgeoning debt with more tax cuts. As I’ve said in earlier posts, I believe you should immediately impose a 50 cent per gallon gas tax to discourage consumption of gas and to encourage energy alternatives along with the immediate repeal of the Bush tax cuts that the upper crust of this country didn’t need in the first place and don’t need now. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and others in their category will do just fine with 3% or so less at the end of each year. This would shrink the deficit instead of widening it. And we will have then made a statement that we are all going to pull together, not only as we rebuild the foundation of this great nation, but also as we change how we go about “business as usual.”

At some point we need to quit borrowing our way out of every problem – and as far as I’m concerned we might as well start doing it now. I really like President Obama’s commitment to a “bottom up” approach in an attempt to fix the disaster he’s inheriting. I just don’t feel the need to do it in a way that panders to republicans. They have made their statement loud and clear – they want to destroy our government. They have been very good at this and they almost succeeded – but we have thrown them out with the hope for “real change.” As we go through the difficulties of the next few years trying to recover from the damage caused by George W Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of their cronies we have to make a complete “split.” As much as I would like to get another $1000 handed to me from the government, I honestly don’t see where it’s going to do much to solve the problems we’re facing for the long term. The money needs to be invested in a way that creates jobs and leaves something of value behind and additionally the decisions made need to be a clear break from the immediate past. So, again, I’m asking President Obama to make decisions based on core democratic values and don’t even leave the impression that he’s compromising positions based on the threat of republican obstructionism. Please, don’t give us another tax cut just to get republicans to vote for the stimulus package!

The last few days as I’ve been driving around experiencing what I call my “quiet time,” time to contemplate everything from my own spirituality to the issues of the day that seem to drive my posts on this so-called blog, I can’t seem to get it off my mind that there’s still an illegal occupation going on in Iraq. We have somewhere close to 140,000 troops still in “harm’s way,” and there are close to 200,000 mercenaries – usually referred to as “contractors” – on the US payroll participating in this occupation. The one thing that is clear about the Iraqi and American populations, the one thing they have in common, is that they don’t want the American troops in Iraq anymore. Of course, the multi-national corporations who wanted this “war” in the first place and the politicians who do their bidding, would like this occupation to go on indefinitely. I’m sure the prospect that the United States is not going to control the Iraqi oil reserves after we “leave” is very unsettling to GW Bush and his associates, but I digress.

As I was driving home tonight after a meeting with some friends I heard a quote from a member of NPR, a black journalist named Juan Williams, who stated that the Iraqi people don’t appreciate all we’ve done for them. It’s statements like that from members of the supposed “Main Stream media” that just drive me nuts. These guys are speaking to untold millions of Americans and unfortunately many people assume they have a clue about what they’re saying. I don’t know if they say stuff like this on purpose, or if they really just are “lazy” as some have pointed out and don’t do the research necessary to make competent remarks. Now, I realize that one could just say that I just have a difference of opinion with Mr. Williams, but the evidence to the contrary is so overwhelming that I believe either these people believe the propoganda they’ve been fed by the Bush administration (that in itself, in my mind, would be heresy for a reporter that has any kind of integrity) or they’re part of the propoganda “machine” on purpose. Either way is bad and represents, to me, why this nation is in danger of being reduced to an after thought on the world “stage.”

I’m going to start my explanation of why this type of reporting bothers me so by saying people are STILL dying every day in Iraq due to the conflict that we essentially set ablaze. It’s true that Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but the world is full of tyrants in societies that we don’t understand. What Saddam did was provide a bit of stability in one of the most unstable parts of the world. Since “Mission Accomplished” we have lost over 4000 troops in Iraq and the last count I heard put the Iraqi death toll at over 600,000 and maybe as high as a million – far worse than anything Saddam ever did to his people. The reason the figures are estimates is because our press has basically stopped reporting on the war. Our economy is in the tank and therefore the Iraq war is no longer front page news. Our so-called main stream media has evidently bought into the idea that the “surge” worked and we’re “winning” in Iraq. To me, this is almost beyond absurd and it is evidence as to how much our media is controlled by members of the Bush administration. This lull in “news” is allowing Bush, Cheney, and others to try to rewrite history as they exit Washington and it gives the republican “attack machine” time to regroup and prepare itself to attack President-Elect Obama as he pulls our troops out – presumably with the idea of blaming him for the US “losing” this war.

Well, we lost this war the day we started it. The statistics are so overwhelming as to the folly of this action that it is amazing to me that as a nation we have allowed our media to manipulate the reality of what has happened. I’ll just lay it out briefly: First, as stated above, over 4000 of our best men and women have given their lives for an act of adventurism by a group of politicians who have profited handsomely from the fiasco – that is treason in itself – war profiteering (by the accounts I’ve read both Cheney and Rumsfeld over $100 million a piece as of about 4 years into the “war” – just to mention a couple of the culprits). Secondly, tens of thousands of our troops have been injured to varying degrees and are receiving abominable care once back in the states. The Bush administration didn’t even support the GI Bill that was passed by the recent Democratic Congress as a belated act to demonstrate REAL support for our troops. Thirdly, close to a million Iraqi’s are dead from this occupation (as previously mentioned) and subsequent insurgency (remember – we unleashed the insurgency so don’t blame it on the Iraqi’s), and estimates are that 4 million Iraqi’s have been externally displaced – meaning they are outside of the country and another 2 million are internally displaced – meaning inside the country’s boundaries, but out of their homes and communities. Combining these three groups with the million or two Iraqi’s wounded gives you approximately one-third of the Iraq population either dead, wounded, or displaced from this “war.”

I don’t know how you could make any kind of a claim for “victory” with statistics like that staring you in the face (remember, we’re supposed to be defending Iraq). But wait, it gets better (or worse depending on your perspective – I have a tendency toward sarcasm): The United States military has been stretched so thin that it is literally “reeling” from almost 6 years of “quagmire” in this nation full of people who have hated each other for thousands of years and are going to continue hating each other long after we leave. This war has been a catalyst to the near bankruptcy (or bankruptcy depending on how you look at that) of our nation’s economy – exactly what Osama bin Laden wanted when he attacked the World Trade Center on 9/11. Remember bin Laden, well, he’s still at large and in fact maybe even stronger than when he originally attacked us. We couldn’t have done him a bigger favor than to get “bogged down” in Iraq. His goal was to get us “bogged down” in Afganistan, but we actually were about to capture him and put an end to al Qaeda when Bush/Cheney “took their eyes off the ball” and pulled our resources out of Afganistan and put them in Iraq. It’s almost as if they were thinking what’s best for Osama – unbelievable to me – yet our media is still talking about “victory” in Iraq – because they can’t get beyond the lying propoganda machine of the republican party and the Bush administration.

Worse still, we have made Iran a “player” on the world stage. Just what all our “friends” feared in the middle east was a resurgent Iran, and the end result of our occupation in Iraq will be some kind of unification of the Shia in Iraq with the Shia government of Iran. I realize that many people point out that the Iraqi’s hate the Iranians, but I firmly believe that theory stems from the fact that Iraq’s Sunni minority has ruled the country for years and the real “divide” is a Sunni/Shia divide that will ultimately put the Shia in Iraq and Iran in control of the largest oil reserves in the world (a combination of the reserves of the two countries). Additionally, with a resurgent al Qaeda and an empowered Shia Iraq/Iran the possibility of more conflict in the middle east is measurably higher not lower – and we are therefore less safe and not more safe as some in the Bush administration and the media would have us believe. I’m sure the monarchies in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and other countries along with the dictatorial countries which are allied with us are not feeling too stable at this moment.

This gets me back to the comments of Juan Williams that the Iraqi’s don’t appreciate what we’ve done for them. Well, that just isn’t too surprising. In fact there aren’t many Americans left who appreciate what we’ve done for them. At this point most Americans are settling in with the reality that it will take years to undo the damage from this invasion, if we can somehow manage to do it – I mean what is it going to take to “fix” Iraq? I don’t know – one third of the country is dead, wounded, or displaced – that is HUGE! And I haven’t even brought up the damage to the infrastructure. Our occupation has certainly not solved the Sunni/Shia problem and we can’t stay there until all the “bad guys” have been killed or imprisoned. OUR OCCUPATION HAS DESTROYED THEIR COUNTRY AND IT’S DESTROYING OURS! It would be nice if people like Williams would do their “homework” and tell the truth to the American people so that we can move on in an appropriate manner. Quite naturally, if we don’t hold the “culprits” who orchestrated this abomination accountable it will make forgiveness by Iraqi’s to Americans even more difficult – but it’s not hard at all to understand why the Iraqi’s wouldn’t appreciate what we’ve done for them – IT IS UNIMAGINABLE! Comments such as those by Juan Williams makes it clear to me that without a free, courageous, and responsible press the United States is becoming a second rate nation!

The “Change We Need” is enormous and, as I’ve stated in previous posts, I believe the “rubble” from 8 years of George W Bush will be showing its ugly head for years to come.  It is going to be very difficult to get out from under the mess and it is going to take a considerable amount of time.  Everyone needs to be realistic about the challenge that lies ahead.  Of course, the first thing to accomplish is to make sure there is no mistaking that the republican “mantra” of “trickle down” economics is at an end.  What has been happening is more like “trickle up” and the wealth of the richest nation in the history of the world has been funnelled up to a small number of mega-millionaire-billionaires.  Dealing with this problem should be high on the list of places to start for the incoming Obama administration.

Bill Clinton managed to bring the American budget into balance, but many of the decisions he made have had a lasting downward effect on the working people of America.  The reason I bring this up is that his economic policies are often mentioned as suggestions as to direction for the new administration.  I would submit that would not be the “Change We Need.”  Clinton was a significant supporter of “Globalization” which has led to, what I consider, out of control behavior on the part of so-called multi-national corporations.  We are fast losing what is left of our manufacturing base and companies are outsourcing every aspect of their business they can.  There seems to be little left of the sense of patriotism and loyalty that were part of major corporations back in my youth.  In the 60’s and 70’s it was not unusual at all for people to spend their entire careers working for the same company.  And blue collar workers could work their career at one place, purchase a home in the process, and put their children through college.

What we have evolved to are companies that are constantly combining with other companies as a way to eliminate workers, reduce benefits for workers, and keep workers on edge worrying about whether or not they will have a job tomorrow.  It is not uncommon for “customer service” to be provided by call centers in India, Pakistan, the Phillipines and many companies are constantly moving manufacturing to the country with the cheepest labor and the lowest taxes.  In fact, many US corporations are moving their headquarters to foreign countries in an attempt to reduce or eliminate the need to pay US taxes.

Now, many might say that all of this is just good business.  It surely has been in the eyes of American politicians (of both parties) that have allowed themselves to be bought off by these corporations in the form of huge contributions while they say it is only natural for corporations to focus on the bottom line and their stockholders.  The main example that comes to my mind is Halliburton, the oil services corporation which was led by Dick Cheney prior to his eight years as Vice President and benefitted to the tune of billions in no-bid government contracts just in Iraq during the occupation.  At the first sign they were going to be investigated for fraud in relation to these sweetheart deals seemingly coming direct from the White House Halliburton moved their headquarters to Dubai freeing it from the obligation to pay taxes to the US government from which it was gaining billions of dollars.  STOPPING THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR IS A GREAT PLACE TO START for the “Change We Need.”

Multi-national corporations have minimal liability for their actions and they are acting with no regard to the people and the nation which provides the base for them to operate profitably.  The whole mindset has to change in how we look at this as a nation.  The other day I forced myself to watch a debate on a similar topic on Fox “News.”  The person representing the “Conservative” viewpoint said something like: “If we force these companies to pay taxes and act responsibly (my interpretation) they will move offshore.”  Well, my thought is let them move offshore and our government needs to re-institute tariffs that ultimately lets these companies know that if they are going to do business in this country they are going to participate in the economic health of the “commons.”  That is to say, they are going to pay their fair share of the expense of paying for a functioning national economy.

I have already suggested the importance of raising the gas tax and repealing the “Bush taxcuts” as ways to generate revenue and support the changes necessary for the US to address as we move forward.  I have also made my thoughts clear about the need to investigate the corruption and lawbreaking of the Bush administration (in fact, any lawbreakers in Washington) in order to make it clear that “business as usual” has changed in our government.  I believe another important “first step” is to make sure that we deal with the abuses of these multi-national corporations which have acted like they are more important than our government.  They are funneling millions to our politicians and expecting a free ride in return.  It is time for us to expect these corporations to be willing to act with a sense of patriotism for the right to do business in this country.  I believe if they decide to go elsewhere because they don’t want to pay taxes or operate responsibly – someone else will fill the void.  If Halliburton wants to be located in Dubai let them do business in Dubai!

Well, 2009 has finally arrived and it’s only 20 days until the administration of President Elect Barrack Obama takes over the reins of the United States government. I’m honestly not sure which is more significant – the arrival of Obama or the departure of George W Bush. It’s a new year and I’m trying to be positive in my thinking, but the reality of the past eight years is close to overwhelming. The damage of the Bush years is so huge, I believe we will be feeling it for many years to come. There will continue to be additional “foopahs” discovered as time goes by where George Bush’s administration, either purposefully or through utter incompetence, have set back the fortunes of this great nation beyond what for me is conceivable. I like to compare his damage to some of the folly that came from the mouth of Donald Rumsfeld while he was still Secretary of Defense and screwing up our foreign policy in Iraq. At the end of one of his diatribes he concluded with words resembling: “There are known unknowns, and there are unknown unknowns,” that is to say there are problems we haven’t discovered yet.

Well, I just couldn’t find words to put it any better than that. I really want to look ahead and think in terms of the ideas that might foster some kind of positive result as we, as a nation, try to pull ourselves out of the scrap-heap that Bush/Cheney is leaving behind. THIS IS GOING TO BE HARD – and, as I’ve said many times, we will not be able to do this by strictly “looking forward.” The republicans have not been defeated yet. Complacency on the part of President Obama and the Democratic party in regards to the Republicans will be disastrous. These guys are not going to want Obama to succeed “For the good of the country” because if he succeeds, they won’t be back in office for maybe a couple generations. So, tonight I want to attempt to both look ahead and behind at the same time. That is to say, take a look at some “redirection” that might address the changes needed to get this nation headed in a morally acceptable direction and that doesn’t “gloss over” what has fueled the downward spiral which has resulted in the present set of disastrous circumstances.

This might seem insignificant to many, but I believe that a subject of national importance should be integrity. Let me kind of rephrase that so that the people I hang out with will better understand; lying by politicians. Most of my friends, and should someone actually be reading this – keep in mind that I’ve been voting for 0ver 40 years and you had to be 21 when I cast my first vote – just so you know what my friends might look like, can remember that back in the seventies there were actually some politicians that didn’t lie all the time. Now, I’m going to place the blame on this significant change on the Republican party, but please don’t misunderstand me – I believe by today’s standards finding any politician from either party who doesn’t routinely lie is a tough challenge. But, let me take you back to Watergate. For those of you old enough to remember this fiasco, it was the result of the Nixon administration (Republican) acting like an organized crime syndicate (sound familiar?). What was significant to me, as I looked back on that time, was that there were some members of Nixon’s “team” who were willing to tell the truth, which is ultimately what brought it down.

Additionally, the congress was made up of some people who actually had some “cohunas.” They knew something was wrong and they went after it as if it was important to send a message that the President was not above the law. This was the time period when the FISA legislation that George W Bush basically disregarded was passed – with bi-partisan support – because Congress understood the importance of its “oversight” role and the members seemingly took a different view of their pledge to defend the constitution upon taking their oath of office than today’s Congress. Another significant part of that memory was the fact that the “culprits” of Nixon’s administration openly castigated the people who told the truth about what was going on as “traitors.” The one who I remember the most was G Gordon Liddy, who is still spewing his vile garbage to this day – and probably has a larger republican audience today than he had then. And if you’ve never listened to the stuff that comes out of Liddy’s mouth, you really need to Google him and either listen to or read some of his trash before you’ll fully understand me. The heart of the Nixon administration felt that lying and cheating were just part of the “game” and that politics was about nothing more than power.

A few years later we got Ronald Reagan. You know, the nice grandfatherly like figure who was going to “cut taxes and balance the budget.” Well, if you’ve been paying attention at all to where our government is right now – you can give Reagan a lot of credit for that. He was famous for saying that “Government is the problem, not the solution.” Aside from the fact that Reagan’s economic ideas have led us collectively to the poor house, it was under his “regime” that we had “Iran/Contra.” This was another organized crime like scheme for republican insiders to be able to have another secret war – this time in South America – directly against the will of Congress. We got another group of excellent liars from this fiasco, among them the most famous would probably be Oliver North – whom republicans have managed to lift up to heroic status, despite the fact he was convicted of lying to Congress on several occasions. And, of course, they either turned their collective backs or pardoned anyone involved and I guess by this time the Democrats had pretty much lost their spine – being a “liberal” was a dirty word in those days and there weren’t too many willing to stand up for what was right. To make matters worse, when Bill Clinton entered the White House he chose to look the other way (as I’m afraid Obama is going to do with GW Bush and Company) and all these criminals resurfaced again after the Supreme Court installed the second Bush administration.

So, lying was an accepted practice and didn’t face much opposition, once George W Bush moved into the White House. And, as we all know, he and his cronies have taken it to another level. The part about this that bothers me the most is the willingness of my Christian friends to accept it as business as usual in Washington. When the clergy that are supporting Presidents (and I believe they should be focused soley on their churches and the souls of those attending them) are willingly lying and saying it’s OK because the ends justify the means – THEN WE’VE GONE WAY TOO FAR. When lying felons (Ollie North for example, or G Gordon Libby) are lifted up as heroes and become filthy rich because people think their lying was justified – then our whole sytem of government is in the crumbling stage.

Therefore, in my attempt to look both forward and backward at the same time with an idea for helping us move on to a better society, I believe this is a good place to start. President Obama, as he has done, could stake a moral claim to this issue very easily. The first way he could do this is to direct his new attorney general to clean up the legal “waste” of the Bush administration – most of which has been built on lies. Alberto Gonzales was so pathetic when he was testifying in front of Congress that it was embarrassing. EVERYONE KNEW HE WAS SPEWING ONE LIE AFTER ANOTHER! What was even more embarrassing and disgusting, to me, was that nothing was done about it! What kind of message did that send to the people of this great nation? It seems to me the message was that it’s OK to lie. And Dick Cheney is still lying us, or seemingly so as he tries to redirect history while packing his bags to get out of the Vice President’s residence, into the Iraq war – 5 years after everyone figured out it was a built on lies.

Republicans are lying about the economy, some going to the incredible extent to blame our pending depression on Obama over a month before he actually has any authority (even I couldn’t believe that one). I could go on and on, the lying has become routine in Washington, and the Republicans are un-apologetic about it. I just finished a book called “The Wrecking Crew” by Thomas Frank where Republican insiders like Grover Norquist and Tom Delay brag about lying and boast about how weak the Democrats are – which is one thing I can agree with them on. These guys should be in jail – especially Delay – he’s another criminal that somehow has managed to maintain a celebrity status despite a long line of dishonest dealings.

Once Obama has set in motion the legal remedy for the past dishonesty, he needs to claim the future “High ground.” He needs to do this in a way that lets all Americans know that no one in his administration, including the President himself, is above the law and that lying will not be tolerated. Of course, that will require leadership on Obama’s part – the best way he can challenge the presiding viewpoint that all politicians lie, is to set the correct example himself. I believe it’s great that he wants to work “across the isle” and his goal is national unity, but it will never happen if he doesn’t do these two things I’ve pointed out here. President Obama must prosecute the past liars and facilitate honesty in politics through his own behavior. For anyone who might read this and think I’m being totally naive here, I can only tell you that the direction we’re headed is toward third world status. There is, of course, more to “The Change We Need” than honesty in government, but that would be a great start!

As we approach 2009 and the end of the horror of the administration of George W Bush, and hopefully the end of 30+ years of republicans trying to destroy our government in the name of conservatism – but in reality a scheme to funnell the nation’s monetary resources upward – it’s time to start thinking of how do we extricate ourselves from the rubble the republicans have left behind. And make no mistake, THERE IS A LOT OF “RUBBLE.” The mess is huge, and from what I can see, the republicans are in a total state of denial as to why we may be entering the “next” great depression. One of the major problems that I see with the struggle to free ourselves from the disaster that is consuming virtually every phase of American society at this point is the aforementioned denial from the republicans and the refusal to “tell it like it is” from the “other side of the isle.”

I was watching Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC tonight, and I don’t think many would argue against the point that Maddow is decidedly liberal, and the one thing that I still don’t see happening from those who are trying to “guide” us forth – just ponying up the fact that none of this seemingly endless disaster is by accident. The republicans have been trying to destroy our government since at least Nixon, with “high gear” occurring during the Reagan years. So as the pundits intellectualize the circumstances, in my mind if they don’t start calling this purposeful assault like it is, the solution becomes infinitely more difficult. For anyone who believes that they (republicans) are satisfied with the damage done, just listen to people like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell – Republican leaders in the House and Senate respectively – and you will quickly realize that they are not finished. Not finished with the obstructionism of the past two years since they lost control of congress in 2006, and not finished with the idea that the best place for whatever money is left in this great nation belongs with the rich – whatever that means.

They will continue to fight the unions in this nation, they will continue to fight for consolidation of the media to continue the control they hold on information, they will continue to fight for deregulation of business, and they will continue to fight for the control of Congress through the lobbying system that has so generously rewarded them and their republican buddies over the last three decades. When it comes to greed, I just don’t see any sign that their insatiable appetite has been met. The negative spin regarding Detroit, Obama, and the upcoming “stimulus package” is already heading into full force. I’m convinced that the democrats are going to cave into the temptation to actually hold these theives accountable (probably because of the vulnerability of complicity) so we’re going to have to go forward while Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove/Gonzales/et al walk away “Scott free.” OK, I’ve finally come to grips with that (although, I’ll hold out hope that Obama is above that until the “cave in” is reality).

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with my first thought of a decision that would head us in the right direction – in several ways. I believe one of the first things President Obama needs to do is to put a significant gas tax on the books as soon as possible once in office. People can and will only spend so much on gas (as proved by the reduction in demand in reaction to the high gas prices of just the past few months). Now would be the perfect time to do this – and I’m talking about at least 50 cents per gallon. The prices have dropped more than in half, and you know that the oil industry is going to do everything in its power to get the prices up again. So why not help them. I don’t know how much this would raise for our government, but it would go a long way to pay for the infrastructure rebuilding that is presumably going to be a centerpiece of Obama’s stimulus package. For those of us who this would affect the most (myself included) we would be forced to drive less, take mass transit where possible, or drive more fuel efficient vehicles. Americans have a short memory and with the prices down over 50% I want to make sure that we don’t forget the real problem and make sure we work as a nation to free ourselves from this dependency on oil. A percentage of this money could be used to stimulate the research that will be necessary to find alternative ways to power our vehicles.

The other thing that I believe is important is that, in a sign of fortitude, President Obama needs to immediately rescind the “Bush Taxcuts” that provided un-needed and for many un-wanted tax relief to the people who needed it the least (most not at all). This is a “principal of the thing” move that would send the right message to all Americans that there is no elite group in this country that will benefit because they have the money to influence the political process in their favor. I realize the political process is in a constant state of being influenced, but we need to send the message that the people with the most benefit the most from this nation and the idea that somehow by giving them even more there will be huge benefits to the ordinary citizens is a clearly debunked myth. And the idea of our government actually operating within a balanced budget is a good idea. Now, there’s no practical way for Obama to balance the budget in his first few years in office, but I don’t buy into the theory that it’s not important, and these two ideas alone would, based on my mental “math” calculations, cut the deficit for the first two or three years in at least half – and more importantly it would send the message that all Americans are going to participate in the restructuring of how we do business and paying for the changes. People like me would pony up everytime we filled our gas tank and the millionaires and billionaires could feel like they were doing their part every April 15th (and, you know what – if President Obama just hiked their taxes back up to where they were during the Clinton years – they’ll all still have plenty left over).

We need to set the goal for a national surpluss again, as we had when George W took office. I still remember how disgusted I was when I listened to the republicans disdainfully claiming that paying off the national debt was stupid – “It’s not the government’s money, the citizens know better how to spend it.” The thing that bugs me the most about their argument is that somewhere in excess of 3 trillion of the national debt has come from the Social Security trust fund – with the apparent intention of turning Social Security into a “Ponzi Scheme” by never intending to pay the money back. And then, of course, after robbing the fund republicans complain about how Social Security will be insolvent in 2040 or some distant year – always with the idea that somehow maybe they can destroy it and get all that money flowing into Wall Street. Can you imagine what the result would have been had Bush and Company succeeded in “privatizing” Social Security? What we need to do is restore the money they have “borrowed” from the fund and tell the government to go elsewhere the next time they need a loan – as witness the recent $700 billion bailout of Henry Paulsen’s buddies on Wall Street the government can just speed up the printing presses if they need money bad enough.

So, my idea is to start the process of balancing the federal budget from day one of the Obama administration. I believe the two logical first steps that would significantly impact such a plan would be a gas tax of at least 50 cents per gallon (I forgot to mention – not for fuel used to transport goods such as deisel for truckers, etc.) and the repeal of the “Bush taxcuts” for the upper 1% of Americans who don’t need it in the first place. There are ways you could minimize the impact on low income people with something like food stamps only make it “gas stamps.” The idea would be that as a nation we all commit together to participate in restoring this nation to its rightful place as the “moral authority” in the free world. Of course there’s much more that would need to be done to accomplish that goal, but this would be a good start. All Americans need to understand that we all benefit from a sound economy that is not based on smoke and mirrors. Our sacrifice needs to be more significant than to “keep shopping.”

Should there be anyone out there who reads my rants here, I apologize for the seemingly endless tirade against the administration of George W Bush. If you read closely, I hope you can see that the tirade is really against the republican party as it presently is constituted. And I’m very afraid that President Elect Obama is going to “move ahead” without dealing with the corruption and lawbreaking that will have proceeded his administration come January 20th, 2009. In my view, this will be a huge mistake and I’m doing everything I can to encourage him to reconstitute the justice department of the United States of America with lawyers committed to the pledge they take to enforce the constitution once their service begins. The damage from the George W Bush administration is deep, but it is just a furtherance of what started under Richard Nixon and was put into high gear by Ronald Reagan.

Make no mistake, Ronald Reagan is still the “darling” of this republican party. If you don’t believe me, just go back and listen to any republican debate during the previous presidential primary season. Hardly a reference to George W Bush (likely because he was even more effective in destroying government than Reagan and happened to be “at the wheel” when everything started to crumble) during the past year of republican politicking, but a sickening number of references to Reagan – who, while I agree that GW Bush is the worst ever – will be close to the top of horribel presidents once history has a chance to truly digest the consequeces of the so-called conservative revolution.

Quite simply, their goal has been to destroy government as we knew it coming into the seventies. The republicans hated the New Deal, despite the fact that it brought this nation out of the worst financial collapse in history (of course, Bush may have outdone Hoover – time will tell) and set the foundation for the healthiest middle class in the history of the world. They hated the legislation of Lyndon Johnson which empowered Blacks and minorities in the voting booths, in the courtrooms, and in the workplace. The idea of government “watching” what business does and regulating it “for the good of the many” was, and is, antithetical to the “conservative movement.” Now, I was one who read Barry Goldwater’s “Conscience of a Conservative” and, while I didn’t agree with many of his positions, I always looked at him as the “Father of the modern conservative.” But, as I think back to what he wrote (and, the book is out of print, so I have been unable to find another copy to re-read) I have to think he’s “rolling in his grave” at what has become of the conservative movement and the republican party. They have become so brazen and arrogant in their actions, daring Congress to intervene apparently knowing it won’t happen, that as the government, the economy, and the nation is heading toward third world status, they want more!

I have watched in horror as government agencies were headed, one after another, by people whose intention was to tear it down. I remember when Reagan was first in office, he named James Waat to head the Interior department. Waat was widely known to be a staunch opponent of the interior department and his job was to essentially destroy it. The only thing that stopped him, as I remember it, was his foul mouth – something he said (I can’t remember exactly what it was) was brazen enough, even in that atmosphere, to force him to resign. But in the ensuing years that’s what the republicans have been doing – trying to destroy the very institutions they are supposed to be running. And they’ve done a remarkably good job of it. It’s taken a virtual total collapse of our economy to get people’s attention, and it remains to be seen what Obama does with the opportunity that he has to rebuild things.

The way government has worked under George W Bush (and this is just kind of like a ball rolling down a hill – after the example set by Reagan – they’ve just picked up the momentum, so to speak) is that he brings his cronies in to head government agencies, they get rid of anyone who is a lifetime civil servant they can while finding ways to undermine the very intention of the agency they supposedly serve. These agencies then become, instead of watchdogs on private enterprise, enablers of businesses that want to avoid regulation and, more importantly, want to lower their obligations to the lowly workers. The agencies look the other way as safety standards are reduced or removed altogether, benefits are taken away, and companies are allowed to force workers to do more for less. In fact, in the last 8 years productivity has significantly gone up in this nation while workers salaries and benefits have gone down. This is like Christmas every day to conservatives. Then what happens is that the crony that screwed up the government agency at the benefit of the corporation gets a job paying many times over his/her government salary at the very company that benefitted from his/her intentional incompetence! And what is really incredible, until the economy finally collapsed under the weight of all the incompetence and corruption, PEOPLE KEPT VOTING FOR THESE THUGS!

A good example of what I’m trying to point out here would be New Orleans. It has been at least three years since the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Now, I remember well the advance notice that this hurricane was potentially going to do what it actually did, yet there were no emergency personel there to help with the evacuation of the people who needed it most, with the end result being something like 2000 fatalities. As there should have been, there was a lot of angst about the incompetence of the Bush administration, and I do think that this was the beginning of the end of their charade – but the outrage should have been much greater. FEMA, which was a very effective agency just a few years previously under the Clinton administration, seemed almost non-existent. And I’ll never forget the words from President Bush, “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie” referring, of course, to the now infamous Michael Brown who had no business being the head of any government agency let alone one with this importance, but this was just one of the best examples of the results of 30+ years of conservative rule in Washington DC. Brown was the heir to a guy I believe named Joe Allbaugh who was also not qualified to lead FEMA except that he was a loyal Bushite (which we later learned in the US attorney scandal – was the main requirement for employment in government) and he was committed to destroying the very agency he was in charge of.

Now Allbaugh had moved on to the lobbying business and turned the reins over to Brown. This is how it works for our great conservative philosophy. Allbaugh had done as much as he could to neuter the agency he was in charge of so it was time to get into the private enterprise system to “cash in” on all his good work. Well, after the hurricane, you didn’t see a bunch of the locals who had been lucky enough to survive doing the cleanup and reconstruction work (as in the past, to prop up the economy of the disaster area) – you saw the private contractors who had been giving money to the republicans swoop in with massive no-bid government contracts to “rebuild” New Orleans like a bunch of scavengers who had just discovered some prime road kill. And, of course, many of the companies that benefitted from this “reconstruction” were the companies being represented by Allbaugh. It shouldn’t be too surpising that the poorest neighborhoods of New Orleans still lie in ruins as I write this and it is only part of the reason this whole scenario is so disgusting. Everybody who has paid any attention to politics over the past 40+ years, the length of time of my interest in the subject, knows that the republicans are unapologetic racists (of course publically, they try to say the “right” thing once in a while, but their actions are conclusive) – so it has been no surprise to me that they could leave the Black neighborhoods of New Orleans in ruins until the time they are being finally thrown out of office. It’s the flagrant thumbing their collective noses at legality, morality, and civility – without consequence number one – that bothers me the most.

This gets me back to the point that I’ve been writing about since shorty after Barrack Obama’s election. The damage these guys have caused is HUGE! They can’t be allowed to just walk away and not have to pay for what they’ve done to our government and the people it serves. The big obvious issues are the warrantless wiretapping, the torture, and the financial fraud on Wall Street – but make no mistake – all of this is part of a bigger fraud that has been imposed on the American people with more and more brazenous as the years have progressed since Reagan destroyed the Air Traffic Controllers in 1981. They have been purposely and with premeditation destroying the very government they have pledged to defend. Their handiwork has led to an assault on workers from every corner of the economic spectrum, and it has funnelled the money that is represented in our 11 or 12 trillion dollar deficit into the hands of their cronies. This has been the greatest fleece job, by far, in the history of the world. And there’s a bunch of them that should be walking around thinking of their need to possibly require legal counsel.

The only way this will happen, however, is if Obama and the Democratically controlled congress finally develop a spine and start “fighting back.” This has been a war waged by a bunch of selfish, greedy, people who figured out how to take the entity that they despised the most, the US Government, and turn it into an incredible “Cash cow.” And the sad thing is that they’ve figured out how to get the very people they are fleecing to vote for them and keep them in power (if anyone thinks this war is over just because Obama won this past election, you’re kidding yourself). It is time for all of the corrupt activities to be investigated and for the criminals who have used our system of government to enrich themselves and their buddies to be prosecuted. And whether Obama wants a “unified” nation (I’m longing for the same thing) or not, we’re not going anywhere until this stuff is dealt with. And the window of opportunity is not large. They have to begin the process immediately upon assuming office. They can implement the programs that will get the economy going and do this at the same time. There are plenty of good Americans who will answer the call once it is clear what we need to do to save this nation – but we need to scour these arrogant criminals from our government and prosecute those who have stepped over the line of what is legal and what is not. We can’t have a nation of laws when the people at the top are flipping our legal system “the bird!”

I think what is really bothering me of late is, as I read in a New York Times Op Ed today, the “rush to the bottom.” As a school teacher I watch how hard other teachers are working to help our students succeed in an atmosphere that is set up for failure, that being the so-called “No Child left Behind” policy of the Bush administration. Then I read and listen as many “pundits” place the blame for “failing schools” on the teachers. This is an unfortunate “setup” created by right wing politicians who want to see public education destroyed. And then you watch their attacks on one of the last bastions of productivity in this nation, the domestic auto industry, and you realize these guys have no scruples whatsoever. You don’t have to look too far past those two examples to get further evidence of what makes these, mostly republican, “lawmakers” tick. Today I read an article about the lobbyists who have been in a feeding frenzy over the graft provided by Ted Stevens of Alasks who is soon to be a part of the history of the US Senate.

Stevens, according to this article, was personally responsible (I hope that’s the right term) for about $60 million per year in lobbying fees paid to members of the “K Street” lobbyists who were in his inner circle. Stevens was sending billions in “earmarks” to Alaska each year and these lobbyists were evidently the conduit in which his power was connected to whatever mechanism made this work for the people of Alaska, the lobbyists, and the contractors all of which I’m sure were very unhappy to see him go, despite conviction on 7 felonies of political corruption. The thing that probably bothers me the most is that, while Stevens may very well have been at the top of this example of greed personified, it is pretty much commonplace in Washington DC over the past 30 or so years and kicked into high gear over the past 8 years. So while these republicans are attacking teachers and blue collar workers, especially those represented by unions, they and their compatriots have been fleecing the system by the billions with hardly any notice.

It’s not like people don’t know this is going on – I mean large gated communities with million dollar estates are springing up all over the Virginia counties adjoining Washington DC. And I’ll be that if someone were to check on who is filling these communities, who has the where with all to afford such an exhorbitant lifestyle, you’d find a combination of the contractors who are benefitting from the contracts passed around through the house and senate like candy, and the lobbyists who are facilitating the process. While all this is happening, the federal government is headed toward bankruptcy, the “financial sector” is in the process of bilking close to another trillion out of Uncle Sam, and all the while the people in those gated communities are complaining about how Obama might raise taxes on the “rich” and how the auto workers are making too much money and that’s what’s wrong with Detroit. Just take a quick moment to think about how all these communities have electronically controlled gates around them and some of the homes inside do as well. That is even happening out West where I’m writing this from. What we’re seeing is a great example of the “haves and the have nots” emerging in America.

In their intense effort to destroy unions and “put workers in their place” these politicians, lobbyists, and executives evidently are feeling a bit unsafe (has anyone out there read Marx and the ultimate destruction of a capitalist society once greed has squeezed almost everyone out of the middle class). It reminds me of my trip to Mexico a few years ago. Now, I’m not much of a world travelor, in fact I’ve only been to Mexico and Canada once each. My trip to Mexico lasted about a week, long enough to help build a small guest house at a children’s home in Madera which is located in Chiwawa (I hope I came close to spelling that correctly). During that week one of the things I remember was as we went back and forth from the hotel to the work site the difference between the run down homes of the average Mexican and the few nice homes of the, I assume, privileged. Each of the nice homes had high steel fences surrounding them with electronically controlled gates protecting the property. I remember thinking how this must be due to the fact that there is so much unemployment in Mexico that the people with nice homes feel the necessity to protect their property. Do we want this to happen in America?

Evidently there are many who would like this society to regress to something like that. I’m not sure how possible that is, but I’m anxious to see who purchases the millions of homes that are being foreclosed upon due to the political failures of the last eight years (I realize that republicans can always find someone else to blame for the problems that happen on their “watch” but I’m just telling it like it is – their greed has finally brought us all to this unpleasant place). The idea of gated communities for the rich – I guess the gates are necessary because the general public won’t be able to afford police and with a high level of unemployment there must be a bit of concern about people breaking into their homes – so that gates and fences must be designed to stop crime. I won’t be surprised if I start seeing security guards inside the gates ensuring that no one attempts to get in. Do you see what I’m getting at here? Sure, progress is happening, but is this the kind of progress that is good for the country? I’m honestly not understanding how some of these people think they can get along fine without the rest of us. Is somebody going to invent a car that has protective devices which will allow these people to go out into public if it gets that bad? Personally, I believe it’s time for this country to tear down the gated walls and rebuild the middle class!

Another night where I just need to write to make myself better able to deal with the reality of what is happening to this country that I love. And if you’ve read many of my posts, you know that I’m not much of a fan of George W. Bush or the republican party as it is presently constituted. In fact, the more I watch what is going on as the days slowly dwindle away in the administration of President Bush giving way to the optimism of the Presidency of Barrack Obama the more I’m concerned about the next four years. I’ve watched with a quiet curiosity as Obama has put together a “team” which will be challenged as no other president has been challenged since the days of Franklin D Roosevelt. I’m going to reserve judgement on his choices, most people are very impressed with the majority of them, and I’m not even in the camp that is upset that Obama has reached out to Pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration – I’ve read the book that made Warren a national figure “Purpose Driven Life,” and found it quite good – because someone has to let the so-called “Christian Right” understand that the conservative movement in this country is no more “Christian” than many of the issues they vehemently oppose. In fact, I’m convinced that once the Christian movement fully realizes what they’ve been the “base” to, the republican party will either have to make monumental changes or be a “thing of the past.”

My concern tonight is the nagging thought that Obama is going to do too much reaching and not enough extinguishing (for lack of a better word). I’m really worried that President Obama, in the interest of “unity,” is going to just “move on” and let bygones be bygones. In my opinion, if he chooses this path, IT WILL BE A HUGE MISTAKE. I’m reading lots of stuff, In fact the other day I was stuck in my car during a snow storm and decided to force myself to listen to some conservative talk radio, and I’m convinced that the conservative movement is all fired up and is gearing up the propaganda machine to start the attacks on Obama well before he becomes President (In fact, they’ve already started). I actually like the thought of unity, but not at the expense of standing up for the principles that have brought this nation to the role of “leader of the free world.” I believe that if Obama shows the “gumption” to emphasize that this is a nation ruled by laws and not “men” we will have taken a huge step forward. Unfortunately, in my opinion the reverse holds true as well. Should he choose to allow the “Bush Crime family” to walk away without consequence for their actions he will have just proved what the republicans always say, that the democrats have no spine – they are weak.

Let me give you some examples of the problems that I see growing if something isn’t done forcefully about them (and, believe me, there are plenty more than what I’m going to list here). Because it’s so important in my mind; there simply HAS to be accountability for the abuses in President Bush’s “warrantless wiretapping” program. I continue to be amazed that there isn’t more outrage about the fact the government has been and is spying on virtually all of it’s citizens. As with most of their abuses the Bush administration throws up the “National Security” excuse for a behemoth of felonies committed on the behalf of stopping terrorist attacks – even though they had the necessary authority to stop 9/11 and bungled everything when the opportunity was there. To me, the thought that every email I send, every phone call I make, and even every purchase I make online (and probably offline using a credit card) is being monitered by my government is more than a bit chilling. The fact that they don’t have a reason to worry about what I’m doing is not the point (although, when you think about it, the day could possibly be closer than we think, should this continue, where bloggers could be considered “enemy combatants” if their thoughts are not in concert with the “powers that be) – the point is that we seem to be willingly giving up one of the basic rights (the right to privacy) that men and women have been fighting and dying to protect for the past 200+ years.

Here’s what’s worse about the warrantless wiretapping program. The United States of America has spent billions of dollars creating huge facilities to gather, store, and analyze an unbelievable amount of data over the past 8 years (they were spending a lot prior to Bush II but he’s really raised the bar and there seems to be no limit on what he’s willing to dole out for the latest greatest technology). In the process we have become beholden to at least two companies from Israel(I believe a third is emerging) who specialize in gathering information from cell phones, hi speed internet cables, whatever methods people use to communicate from one to another. These companies, quite naturally, are in business to make a profit – and the satellites and internet cables they have figured out how to intrude on actually circle the globe many times over. Cell phones and the internet are not just common in America, even many third world countries are wired to the hilt – many of the countries where we are concerned about the human rights practices of their governments – like Viet Nam, China, Sudan, etc. These countries are buying the technology that is being developed by the Israeli complanies for the US government, but technology that the US government has no proprietory ownership of, and they are using this same technology to virtually halt any dissent in their nations. There is not only technology to gather virtually all the info, but now they have developed software to “sift” through this technology at alarmingly fast rates to descipher key words or phrases. So not only has this program of Bush’s allowed our government to intrude on its citizens, it is allowing foriegn nations to clamp down on dissenters who are seeking free societies. THE DAMAGE OF THIS PROGRAM IS SEVERE.

The people involved in this program have known all along that it is illegal, even to the point that when it was made public in 2005 the employees began training on how to lie in front of congress if they were called to testify about what they were doing. Bush and Cheney got a couple of their own lawyers to write bogus legal “opinions” to provide them “cover” but they knew right from the start what they were doing was illegal. They just didn’t want to go through the hassle, and possibility of denial, that would have been involved in getting the FISA law tweeked to give them more leeway in “fighting terrorism.” These two guys in particular just didn’t like the idea that the President of the United States was obligated to follow the laws that they had taken an oath to protect when they took their offices. This attitude, of course, carried over into other areas. The idea that the United States of America is now regarded internationally as a country that believes in torture, is torture to me – as a citizen. In my research into this problem I discovered that torture isn’t something altogether new for our government, it’s just been done in more discreet ways in the past.

For example, during the 70’s and 80’s our CIA facilitated several coups in South America and other places around the globe, orchestrating in governments that were willing to support our taking their national resources (such as copper in Chile, oil in Venezuela, etc.) in return for us helping them to stay in power and to thwart dissent through “disappearing” of dissidents and the secret prisons that have become so commonplace since 9/11 – no wonder our CIA is looked at around the world with such disdain (the reason the Iranians hate us is because in the 50’s our CIA put the Shah in power at the expense of a freely elected government with the result being a despot who was, in the minds of many, worse than Saddam Hussein). IT IS TIME FOR THE US TO LET THE REST OF THE WORLD KNOW THAT THIS STUFF IS GOING TO STOP!!! And the way to do this is for Barrack Obama to hold those in the Bush administration accountable who authorized “enhanced interrogations.” We know this includes Cheney and Rumsfeld via admissions on national TV, and there can be little doubt that this includes the President as well. The thought that a few sargeants and privates would take the fall for Abu Ghraib, for instance, is deplorable. Obama can take a huge step toward REALLY CHANGING the direction of this country if he stands up to these arrogant cowards! (Yes, cowards – neither Bush nor Cheney would ever have thought about going into combat, but they didn’t think twice about ruining the lives of millions of people in their quest for oil or whatever else was on their mind when they illegally invaded Iraq).

I’m not going to get into detail about the abuses that have occurred in the “financial sector” of our economy – but there has to be accountability there as well. These people have been robbing us blind for years and it hit the crescendo stage during the Bush administration. Many of the “thieves” in Bush’s “army” got their start under either Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan. And don’t kid yourself, most of these people are the ones best ready to “weather the storm” that lies ahead in the economic recession/depression that Obama is facing as he takes the “reins” of office. These guys didn’t go away during the eight years of Bill Clinton (in fact they have the money to pay for the attacks that will insure that our nation stays divided, because that’s how they make such huge amounts of money) and they won’t go away during the Obama administration if they are not ferretted out and held legally accountable for the corruption that has been rampant during the last 28 years. One thing that is really important here, there can be no favoritism for democrats over republicans, which is why this part of the accountability will be so difficult. There will be a lot of Washington’s “elite” going down if this is fully investigated. When you get an environment where it is OK for the CEO’s to be earning (I say earning a bit tongue in cheek) 4500 times what their workers are earning, you know things are way out of tilt. A quick look at the lobbying “industry” and how it is connected to the Senate and Representative “industry” and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realize that there’s a lot of corruption “on both sides of the isle.” This need to be investigated if we are going to have the “Change we can believe in.” Without accountability for the past corruption and lawbreaking change will be an empty word.

Well, we’ve got a foot of snow at my house, it’s still falling, and it looks like my appointment at the doctor’s office two days from now is up in the air. I can say this, a good snow storm helps me to appreciate the beauty of “Mother Nature,” even though it’s got me stuck where I’m at. Actually, it’s kind of nice to be forced to just relax and do nothing for a while. Today, a neighbor happened by with his family for a bit of hot tea, cocoa, and cider. We had a very nice discussion. My friend is an engineer at Hewlett Packard and always blows me away at his ability to tear things apart and put them back together as if they suddenly became new again. As a school teacher, when I’m around him – and others with such talent who have done something with it – at first I marvel and then I think about how I can motivate the students I have with natural talent to develop it and strive to “make something of themselves.” Tonight, our converstation evolved into a discussion about the American “obsession” with “accountability” while at the same time looking downward on workers which has brought us to a place where many in our workforce (including my friend) are kind of walking on “pins and needles” in their jobs as upper management uses the threat of job loss to extract every bit of whatever they can get from their employees. The sense of community and loyalty that once was pervasive in companies like Hewlett Packard (They once took pride in having never “laid off” an employee) is a thing of the past. Anything and everything that corporations can “outsource” to save a few dollars at the expense of this sense of loyalty gets outsourced. I’m really getting tired of calling “customer service” and being routed through India. I’m saying this in the wake of the so-called “auto bailout” which is really a bridge loan that, in my mind, is Bush’s way of passing the problem onto Obama, still hoping for the demise of the United Auto Workers.

I’m OK with that. Now it is up to President Elect Obama to show some leadership (which is what I’m hopeful will be his strength) to ensure that the UAW succeeds, our domestic auto industry succeeds (I’m still baffled by the number of republicans that seem to think losing our domestic auto industry would be OK), and unions in general start to make a comeback in this country. While I’m pretty focused on the corruption of the corporations in America, the political parties in America, and of course the Bush administration – there can be no doubt that over the course of years the labor unions have had their share of corruption. Keep in mind that this has been largely abuses by the leadership of these unions – but the reality is that the union workers, the ones who fought for worker’s rights from the thirties up until this day, have been the backbone of this nation. They are the reason for so many workplace benefits that I believe many of us Americans just take for granted, that the time has come when we have to band together and re-commit to the value of collective bargaining and the reality that without it you end up with a system that is totally out of balance such as what we are experiencing today.

When it is not unusual for corporate CEO’s to be making multi-million dollar salaries and then issuing themselves huge bonuses – in today’s economic atmosphere despite tremendous corporate losses – and then doing everything they can to reduce jobs, something is terribly wrong. How did we get to the point where, en masse, we just seem to stand by and watch this happen? I’m sure there are less people working in America today than the day George W Bush took office almost 8 years ago. That is a damning and disgusting fact. And it appears that it is going to get worse before it gets better. We are still listening to too many people arguing that GM should be allowed to go bankrupt – to me more the victim of the financial meltdown (remember, most Americans have to go to the bank to be able to buy a new car) than their own lack of foresight as to how they should compete in the market we are now faced with. My friend who works at Hewlett Packard tells of how their company merged with Compaq and one of the “benefits” was the elimination of thousands of jobs. Additionally, thousands of other jobs were eliminated because, due to the advances in technology (for example face to face meetings over the internet), it is very easy to replace an American worker with one in Singapore who will work for less.

The CEO’s who are doing a good job of eliminating these jobs are being rewarded with huge bonuses. Last year the CEO at Hewlett Packard was compensated with a salary of $23 million. Well, that is less than the CEO of GM who received $28 million – so I suppose that gives him something to “shoot” for. And today I read where the CEO of Merrill Lynch (keep in mind that to avoid bankruptcy they were purchased in a “hastily arranged” takeover by Bank of America – after losing something close to $10 Billion) was compensated with $83 million – because he took over after most of the damage had been done, I suppose someone thought that it could have been worse. The point I’m trying to make is that until we change the mindset that has been programmed into the minds of the American people allowing for these abuses to happen, while thinking it’s OK for genuine workers who actually produce things to “go down,” we are in a world of hurt. The greed level in the US is unbelievable. My friend and I looked at his children and I referred to my grandchildren and grown children, and we agreed “We have to start speaking out about this.” Trickle down economics don’t work and the money has become “stuck” at the top of the “food chain.” Our children deserve the opportunity to have their work valued in a way that will support their future families.