Forget media bias. Look at the sources in the stories and links below. The data flowing out in news this week is coming from highly credible sources and demonstrating failure after failure of the Bush administration. Sure, those on the right can spin a tornado into a butterfly's wing flap, but, any objective reading of the following stories begs the question, why is Bush leading in the polls?
The Iconoclast, a newspaper in Crawford, Texas that endorsed President Bush in 2000 has announced it is endorsing Sen. John Kerry in 2004. The editorial by the paper's publishers begins:
It is difficult to tell if the enemy within being discussed in the Senate’s intelligence community overhaul bill is terrorists or the Committee itself. There is no question from a reading of the 9/11 Commission’s report that intelligence overhaul is necessary. But a key component of the Commission’s report is dangerously absent from the Senate’s overhaul legislation coming to a vote on the Senate floor: checks and balances.
In 1992, we went from 6% budget deficits to 2% surplus in Jan. 2000. Due in no small part to the reductions in defense spending, the Clinton administration and Chairman Greenspan of the Federal Reserve Board, saved our nation from potential economic demise in the years 2000 to 2004, when our society underwent huge shocks to our economic system.
Also, during the 90's, a balanced Senate between the political parties and a bi-partisan President willing to accede to some Republican conservative fiscal policy while expanding social programs to grow work forces and update education and worker qualifications allowed workers in large part to meet employment demands, and helped grow federal revenues during the nineties along with the tech bubble.
What could be worse than a terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant in the US of A? Very little. So the public should expect that securing nuclear plants should be Job No. 1. The Bush Administration, in what is becoming all too commonplace, has tried to keep important information on this matter from the public.
Public Citizen, a citizen's rights advocacy group, has just won an important victory against the administration's secrecy tactics which prevent government accountability to the people.
President Bush's speech to the United Nations Assembly this week was remarkable. His speech was far more subdued than in the past. But, his words brought a host of images, questions, and implications to mind given the context of current events. It is worth reviewing some of the phrases and concepts in the speech for a glimpse of what may have crossed the minds of delegates attending the UN assembly on that day, as they crossed mine.
Sen. John Kerry was featured yesterday evening on C-Span speaking from a lecturn with a sign stating Stronger At Home, Respected in the World. But, that was not the core of John Kerry's message. Almost the entire riveting speech was a litany of President Bush's misleading statements, missed opportunties, "errors in judgement of historical proportions", and made the case that Bush's war in Iraq diverted America's attention, resources, and strength from the war on terrorism which Americans want to fight. An act of negligence Kerry says has left America without allies whom Bush can call upon, without the funds and military resources to pursue Osama bin Laden where ever he is, and without a unified electorate determined on a unified course to destroy fundamentalist Islamic terrorists in the Middle East.
al-Queda viewed western influence as a threat to their way of life. Thus, they preemptively struck the N.Y. Tower in 1991, the USS Cole, and the Twin Towers, Pentagon, and airline passengers in 2001. Seemed like a good strategy to President Bush and Dick Cheney. The President said we knew Iraq had WMD, and following al-Queda's preemptive strike policy he ordered our military to invade and occupy Iraq.
For decades eminent domain has been used to throw homeowners and businesses off their properties, purchased by court order of governments and tax payer dollars, only to be given free to corporate entities like General Motors. Corporate socialism has grown and prospered in the United States. Bailouts of corporate interests using tax dollars have been prevalent also since those years of the Chrysler bailout, airlines bailouts, and corporate farming subsidies.
Well, I was impressed; truly, very impressed with Bush's speech tonight. He overwhelmed my mind with thoughts of the greatest showman on earth, PT Barnum. The thought of reincarnation even occurred to me. He was not just the greatest showman, but, magician as well. President Bush took one of the greatest tragedies to hit the U.S. in the last 60 years which occurred on his watch, and hid that fact from view while impressing everyone with the statement that he will not allow such an event to happen on his watch. Wow! Now that is true circus, true showmanship, and master magic.
Fire can be hot and destructive or warm and sustaining. So much of what Zell Miller had to say tonight was distortion, misrepresentation, out of context, and demonstrated his deep and abiding disappointment with the Democratic Party that gave up support for its conservative wing decades ago.
