June 17, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

THE LIBBY LOVE LETTERS

People who wrote letters to the judge in support of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby weren't counting on the letters becoming public. Even James Carville, for heaven's sake, signed a letter supporting Libby. Libby played a major role in revealing the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, as an act of political revenge against her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson. The people who wax eloquent over Libby don't seem to care in the least about the death and destruction in Iraq that Libby, among others, has perpetrated. This column by Frank Rich is at www.welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com:

As a weary nation awaited the fade-out of "The Sopranos" last Sunday, the widow of the actual Mafia don John Gotti visited his tomb in Queens to observe the fifth anniversary of his death. Victoria Gotti was not pleased to find reporters lying in wait.

"It's disgusting that people are still obsessed with Gotti and the mob," she told The Daily News. "They should be obsessed with that mob in Washington. They have 3,000 deaths on their hands." She demanded to know if the president and vice president have relatives on the front lines. "Every time I watch the news and I hear of another death," she said, "it sickens me."

Far be it from me to cross any member of the Gotti family, but there's nothing wrong with being obsessed with both mobs. Now that the approval rating for the entire Washington franchise, the president and Congress alike, has plummeted into the 20s, we need any distraction we can get; the Mafia is a welcome nostalgic escape from a gridlocked government at home and epic violence abroad.

BUSH HOLDS US IN CONTEMPT

George W. Bush and his neocons have consistently shown their contempt for working class Americans. Bush's tax cuts benefited the already enormously wealthy, but did little for most of us. While doing photo-ops with the troops, most of whom are working class, Bush plays his commander in chief role. But he cuts benefits for the military. We have deplorable conditions at Washington's Walter Reed Hospital exposed and it's quickly forgotten in the next wave of scandals. We can only hope that Americans for generations to come will remember this filthy deplorable administration and absolutely refuse to buy into the phony talking points of right-wing Republicans. This article by Sherwood Ross at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Low- and middle-income Americans are finding it harder and harder to make a buck and hold onto a buck. More and more families can't afford to send their kids to college. Interest rates on credit cards and payday loans today approach vigorish levels that would have gladdened the heart of a Mafia don. And under the Bush Administration, non-business bankruptcies hit an all-time record of 2 million in 2005. Writing in Business Week magazine, Bruce Katz of the Brookings Institution noted millions of Americans continue to live in inner city neighborhoods afflicted by "failing schools, unsafe streets, run-down housing, and few local jobs." One hears of the Bush Administration struggling to find jobs for unemployed Iraqis but who recalls President Bush expressing concern for inner city neighborhoods where 72% of black male high school dropouts are unemployed? Where are the make-work and training programs for them and for the rural poor, white, black, and Hispanic? And what happened to all the summer jobs this year? Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston writes the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University "projects this summer will have the lowest teen employment rate in the past 60 years."

In his proposed $2.9-trillion budget for fiscal 2008, President Bush calls for $80 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and for seniors to pay more for doctor's visits and prescription drugs. The Administration is devoting considerable time to its plans for a major attack on Iran but where is its plan to provide health care security for 45-million uncovered Americans? According to the AFL-CIO, "On the jobs front, Bush cuts more than $1 billion in job training and employment programs...(and) eliminates current job training for unemployed adults and at-risk youths..." The Bush Administration is even cutting back on "food stamps and other social programs," according to an article in the June 25 issue of "The Nation" magazine. "The number of children receiving lunch during the summer has steadily gone down in recent years dropping to 2.8 million in 2005 from a high of 3.1 million in 2000, even though the number of needy children has gone up by 1.3 million during those years, as poverty levels have risen," writes law professor Herman Schwartz, of American University. By some estimates, one out of every eight Americans lives in poverty, a figure approaching 40 million people.