Are people pointing the fingers at one another...
<center>Someone else's excerpt, but something to think about...</center>
<i>"People aren’t happy with Congress, eh? People don’t want to re-elect the incumbents, hm? Gosh, imagine that. I guess all those years of Democratic control of the Houses doesn’t look so bad now, huh?
Of course, my patience with both sides of the aisle is wearing thin because everyone is more focused on winning re-election <u>than doing their job.</u> They are picking the easy, popular things to work on rather than the more important (and more complicated) issues that really need to be addressed. The way Congress grinds down to a crawl of ennui right before elections drives me crazy.
Now, if the Democrats could just get their act together, something might be accomplished. Instead of pointing fingers and playing “Gotcha!”, how ‘bout we remind people what Democrats stand for? Maybe we can reverse the image painted by the neocons of a bunch of whiny, indecisive tree-hugging commies. Aside from England’s Conservative Party, the Democratic Party is one of the oldest political associations in the world.
A lot of people accuse Democrats of being liberal (like that’s an insult or something), but really, Democrats are <u>progressive.</u> We advocate civil liberties, social freedoms, equal rights, equal opportunity, and a free enterprise system tempered by government intervention. We believe that government should play a role in alleviating poverty and social injustice, even if that means a larger role for government and progressive taxation to pay for social services. While true Republicans believe in less government and more personal and corporate decision-making, Democrats understand that you can’t always depend on people to do the right thing. (We’ve certainly seen examples in recent times.) It would be nice if they would, but people and corporations will often pursue their own best interests over social justice and equality. Not that everything should be regulated to death, either. The government is a servant of all citizens, not just those that own corporations and have deep pockets. The government should work to assist and protect everyone and use it’s might to right wrongs where they exist.
None of which are bad things, unless you’re a staunch neocon who thinks that the poor are poor because they deserve it and that the American Dream is a possibility for everyone and that people need to stop whining and having inconvenient things like illness and such. When a government truly serves its citizens and is an agent for justice, great things can be accomplished.
If one thing has become abundantly clear it’s that this administration is pretty much own by corporations and especially big oil. They give tax breaks to people making over $100K/year while saddling the middle class with the lion’s share of the tax burden. They hand out contracts to companies like Halliburton (a company that still sends ex-employee Dick Cheney royalty checks) without competitive bids. And they actively block collection of millions of dollars from oil companies.
So much for Mission Accomplished. Over 5,000 people died in Bagdad in July and August. Over 5,000 people. In one city. In two months. That’s more than ever were killed under Hussein. And the truth of the matter is that once you got outside of Bagdad and out of Hussein & Sons ring of influence, you were more or less okay. Not great, but okay. I bet the Iraqi people are just thrilled to pieces that the US galloped in on its palomino, waving its cowboy hat, spurs sparkling in the sun, and saved them. Of course, this is the same US government that overlooks torture that’s happening on a grander scale in Iraq than ever occurred under Hussein. That is, when they aren’t shipping prisoners to other countries known for their brutal treatment of the incarcerated.
Is anyone else worried about this? I mean, maybe it’s just me, but I’ve been saying for about 4 years now that <u>if terrorists really wanted to cripple the United States</u>, all they had to do was slip through those unprotected borders and poison the food supply. It’s not like there are a lot of safeguards on it. Someone with a garden sprayer loaded with E coli or anthrax could slip into a produce processing plant, point the nozzle, and viola! Hundreds sick with a few dying. Or, you know, an air borne form of hemorrhagic fever for greater impact. Or even just send some people infected with a deadly, virulent disease to roam around shopping malls and amusement parks and cough on people."</i>
So we now have more animals than just donkeys and elephants?
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