Things have been kinda hectic lately. Major project going on in the house, hence, major disruptions. I've been missing some of the news.
I did manage to catch Bush choking on his words as he took responsibility for mistakes made with Katrina. Yes, he choked when he said that but I wouldn't take it too seriously. Bush has never taken responsibility for anything he's done and, as most of us know, he's a history of screwing up everything his dad involved him in. His accountability isn't sincere. It was just something Rove made him say. Another 'stratagem' from the Turd Blossom.
Locally, there was a notice in yesterday's paper our electric rates are going up 10%. That's hefty, but no match for healthcare costs. Is everyone's wages/salaries going up enough to cover these increases? And, of course, there's those soaring gas prices and record oil company profits. I suspect the impact of the price of energy hasn't fully hit us yet, but rest assured the oil companies are already reaping their results, i.e., they're swimming in cash. No, that's not exactly right, they're fucking drowning in it. (Be patient, our "reaping" the impact of higher energy costs is just down the road.)
Why, even our own Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow, admitted, "The fruits of strong economic growth are not spreading equally." Seems the capitalists, those who have the money and control the means of manufacture and the "free"-- something for nothing--markets, are faring far, far better than those of us they employ.
So some among us may not have yet felt how their "quality" of life habits will be impacted. To those who think they won't be, I caution, don't be too nonchalant about the pool of dire economics you're now immersed in. You and I may still, one day, be neighbors under the same freeway bridge.
Allan Lichtman, professor of history at American University, wrote last month in Newsday: "Like a master pickpocket, George W. Bush distracts the American people with one hand, while reaching into their pockets with the other. The distraction comes through the flash and bombast of explosive social issues like abortion, gay rights, public displays of religion, end-of-life decisions and creationism. ... The pilfering comes through initiatives that take from working- and middle-class Americans and give to Bush's corporate backers, to whom he has delivered the goods big-time."
Lichtman cites the media's preoccupation over whether Bush's pick for the Supreme Court will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, while Congress passed an energy bill with $14.5 billion in tax breaks, most of which go to companies like Exxon, which last year alone made $25 billion and is swimming in cash on hand. He added:
-- Just before Congress left for the summer recess, the administration won passage of a free-trade agreement with Central America that makes it easier for companies to outsource jobs and investments, and that bypasses protections for workers and the environment.
-- Last spring, while the public focused on the Terri Schiavo case, Republican leaders passed a new bankruptcy bill written by lobbyists for the credit-card industry. The credit-card companies stand to profit from the new law by several billion dollars.
-- Ditto the new prescription drug benefit "for seniors," actually written by and for big drug companies.
"What all of this really amounts to is a political revolution in the United States, creating a form of conservative big government that promotes not the general interests of ordinary Americans, but the special interests of big corporations," Lichtman wrote. "This creates a sharply upward redistribution of wealth and power that threatens long-term prosperity. ... The revolution also is making government costlier and less fair, stifling individual freedom and democratic decision-making, and opening fissures between the wealthy and other Americans."*
*Molly Ivins
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By the way, can anyone tell me if there's still a green zone in Baghdad? I'm just curious. Maybe the rush to freedom and democracy in Iraq has seen the dissolution of this "safe zone," that is, maybe it's no longer needed? Just curious. I've been kind of out of touch with the news lately.
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