April 09, 2007

How many times have we heard that promise? Do you remember what Bush said about rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast “bigger and better than ever?” Where are we almost two years later? Now, he’s going to fix things at Walter Reed Hospital where wounded veterans that carried out his murder, mayhem, and misery have been neglected and mistreated.

The Bush administration still refuses to accept the blame for New Orleans flooding or place blame where it belongs – on the levees that were built weak in the first place, levees that were supposed to withstand Category Three hurricanes but folded under waves generated by winds barely a Category Two. Federal judges admit this and do not allow insurance companies to get away with “natural disaster” or “force majeure” clauses when the problem was man made. Even the Army Corps of Engineers, who built the levees, admits they should have been at least fifty feet deep and anchored on bedrock.

Does George take responsibility and correct the problem? Hell no. He’s betting that another hurricane will not again come ashore East of NOLA presenting soft-side North winds over Lake Pontchartrain. Besides, he needs the money for invasions and occupations that should never have taken place. Blame Katrina for everything and fix nothing.

How many other things has George W. Bush lied to us about?

If we were really engaged in a “war on terror,” what Bush describes as an ideological war against cultures that want to do away with “our way of life,” would we still have wide open borders, especially after nineteen Arabs entered our country legally, trained here for years, and then brought us the horrors of 9/11? At the very least, we could establish ways to keep track of the forty percent who enter our country legally and then overstay their visas or permits to be here. Only fools and traitors would be talking about amnesty or citizenship for those who broke the law by crossing our borders illegally.

If we were honest with ourselves, we would not be calling the four year conflict in Iraq a war. It was an invasion, plain and simple. An unwarranted intrusion into a small republic the size of California conducted under a pack of lies and for no reason other than greed and the extension of the American Military Empire.

Both of these problems could be resolved by the simplest of action. Illegal aliens would pack up and go home if we arrested, fined, and punished leaders from the companies that hire them starting with Tyson Foods that closed four plants so their illegal workers could attend last year’s protests.

And the people want us out of Iraq. They would like to see General Tommy Franks sent back to Qatar to put his invasion plans in reverse. Get us out of Iraq as fast as we went in.

However, the war mongers of the Bush administration are never going to do this. Instead, they’ve adopted the childish and irrational logic that we can’t get out because we went in. We’ve got to stay until we win, which is ridiculous because that is never going to happen without doing the same evil things we accused Saddam Hussein of doing – something that’s not beyond the Bush nature and mentality.

If you think our torture policies or the use of weapons like depleted uranium, cluster bombs, and so forth, outlawed by humanitarian conventions is going to stop us, then you probably do not realize that the only thing that’s changed since Abu Ghraib is that cameras are no longer allowed in the prisons.

What’s more, coupled with our enormous annual trade deficit, shipping containers are becoming a nuisance because Japan and China consider them disposable, not worth shipping back empty. A thriving business can be built buying these empty containers cheap and converting them into storage sheds and even living quarters that are more stable than the temporary trailers Bush sent and didn’t send to the Gulf Coast at our expense. They’re stronger and more stable and can even be anchored to foundations. Places like WalMart and Target might even pay to have them removed from their property where they’re piling up.

George’s crazy invasions have already cost us a fortune with more to come. Congress just approved $124 billion in supplemental money for Iraq, Afghanistan, and God only knows what’s next. Except for further cuts in discretionary spending, the only place the government can get this money is by borrowing it. And with our two major creditors, again China and Japan, flatly stating that they’re “coming off the dollar” and investing elsewhere, money is becoming harder and harder to borrow.

In fact, the government, the media, and the Bush economists expect the same people who want us “out of Iraq” to rise to the challenge and loan them money by purchasing Treasury securities. Isn’t that ironic? Not when you consider the push that’s on to get employees and their employers to invest in 401(k) type retirement plans and diversify their investments. If the people truly wanted to get us out of Iraq, they would tell their retirement managers to stop buying Treasury securities on the bond market. It's nothing more than loaning the war mongers more money.

The federal government cannot operate without the money we give them. Stop loaning it to them.

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