November 14, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

REALITY CHECK: MOST OF US WON'T BE RICH

Some working class people oppose taxing the very wealthy what the very wealthy should pay because they, the working class people, think by some happenstance they too will be rich one day and they don't want to pay those taxes. If I were to get rich, I don't think I'd mind paying taxes all that much. I would still be rich. But the fact is that most of us will never be rich. The system is designed to keep most of us at subsistence level. This article by John Buell is at www.commondreams.org:

Though polls suggest American citizens would support such reforms now, many working-class Americans still shrug off or even resist any tax increase. They assume that they too will become rich, either by working hard or developing a new product or just through luck. Call it Powerball politics.

Some might change their minds if commentators, even those on the left, did more to remind citizens that many of today’s wealthiest did not, as the Smith Barney ad used to say, “Make money the old fashioned way, they earned it.” Behind many of today’s great fortunes lie abuses of power and privilege by those already well placed. In addition, not only have these actions failed to bring the poor and working class along, they have contributed to their problems.

Sklar points out that much of today’s great wealth comes from Wall Street speculation. The current difficulties in the subprime mortgage market are symptomatic of larger pathologies. Guardian (London) business writer Will Hutton points out: “lending 100 percent mortgages to borrowers with no income, employment or assets, packaging up the resulting debt and selling it to banks around the globe while taking a handsome fee on every transaction - can be launched with impunity.”

Conflicts of interest and abuse of insider information taint the entire system. The firms issuing the new securities pay the purportedly impartial rating agencies, Moody’s and Standard and Poor. The Bush administration touts the freedom to create these new exotic financial instruments. Nonetheless, when the whole system eventually starts to implode, the same insiders who once demanded freedom from government beg the Federal Reserve to opens the discount window to keep big financial houses from failing.

GIULIANI IS A THUG

I heard that the Congressman from the district, Republican Rubber Stamp George Radanovich, has endorsed Rudolph Giuliani for president. Radanovich has been onboard for every vile thing the Bush administration has done, and apparently likes the cut of the cloth of a thug like Rudy Giuliani. It's interesting that Pat Robertson, that "pro-life" guy, has also endorsed Rudy. Robertson isn't bothered by Giuliani's past support for abortion rights, among other things. This commentary by Margaret Kimberley is at www.truthout.org:

Now Giuliani is running for the Republican presidential nomination and he is the very worst of a bad lot. He unabashedly supports the occupation of Iraq and a military attack on Iran. He doesn't think simulating drowning via water boarding is torture and agrees wholeheartedly with the Bush destruction of civil liberties.

If a potential Giuliani presidency in any way resembles a Giuliani mayoralty then the country would be in for a truly awful time. As mayor Giuliani promoted the worst, least competent people to high positions in New York City government. Bernard Kerik, an undercover cop, had the shrewdness to put himself in the right place at the right time when he volunteered to drive Rudy around during his mayoral campaign. Despite the lack of any other credential, his rise to power was swift. First he was made a Deputy Commissioner at the Department of Corrections, then Commissioner.

Kerik was nothing but a crook. Fully aware that Kerik was under investigation for taking money from a construction company with organized crime connections, Giuliani nonetheless appointed him Police Commissioner. While others insist that they informed Giuliani of Kerik's mob ties, Rudy claims not to remember. He certainly didn't remember when he recommended his pal for a cabinet level position as Secretary of Homeland Security. When Kerik imploded under an avalanche of bad publicity Rudy just shrugged his shoulders, confident that he would continue to get away with doing whatever he wants.