Soapbox

Today’s Rant 9/17

Last week President Bush told us that the war in Iraq and its $87 billion price tag was going to require some sacrifice. Now we’re getting an idea whose sacrifice he was referring to.

Well, we all knew it wasn’t going to be HIS sacrifice. He’s not putting his life on the line, and he’s not putting his paycheck on the line, and he’s not even willing to put his “No Billionaire Left Behind” tax cut, or any other part of his punishing domestic policy on the line. Bush will sacrifice the lives of U.S. soldiers (as all presidents must) whom he pays an appallingly low wage for their sacrifice. He has already sacrificed the reputation and respectability of America as a nation with his hideous “shoot from the hip” foreign policy. The nation’s economic problems are causing the sacrifice of more and more jobs, but Bush wants us to stay the course. And now, along with the fiscal security of future generations, he wants to sacrifice day-care for low-income mothers.

According to EJ Donne in todays Dispatch, the Bush administration asked the Senate Finance committee to vote down extra money for day care for low-income workers, because they want to be “fiscally responsible” And this qualifies? This is their great plan to keep their “Rob from the poor and give to the rich” tax cut from tanking the economy? “Billions for Iraq but not a penny for Welfare Moms!”
It’s not that I think that the U.S, having started this whole mud-slide in Iraq, shouldn’t have to stick around and pay for the clean-up. I do. It’s the only thing that might , just might keep the mideast from blowing up. And it will require a lot of money to do it. I guess just I’m pissed that the people who wanted the damn war, the people who started the damn war, the ones who jeered and insulted the people who tried to prevent the war, aren’t the ones who are going to pay for the war!!

I never saw a war in which the cost of victory fell
On those who sound the battle cry,
For they do profit well. *

Senator Rick Santorum, when asked about economic hardships brought on by Bush’s policies says that hey- it’s good for people to struggle a bit. He feels it builds character. (Clearly then, neither he nor President Bush ever had to struggle.) And of course the government can’t just endlessly give everything to everybody. But when we passed the welfare reform laws, we promised people that we’d help with child care when we sent all those moms off to work in low-wage jobs. Oh well, sacrifices are necessary, and the Bush administration is ready to cut close to the bone- as long as they and their friends aren’t doing the bleeding.
When asked (in the name of fiscal responsibility) to entertain the idea of dropping the proposed tax cut for just the top 1% of Americans, Cheney said “Absolutely not!” His reason: it would hurt small business. Gee, I wonder how many owners of mom and pop grocery stores fall in the top 1% of the income bracket?

Sounds to me like he’s worried it would hurt campaign contributions. I know I’m being cynical here, but how can you not be? Bush and “the shrubs” are being frugal only with money for the poor, while the rich get a free lunch! This administration only wants less government intrusion when it comes to stopping pollution or keeping the wallstreet elite from fleecing the nation. They want a big, fat old government when it comes to people using medical marijuana, or unwed girls having abortions, or the FBI looking at my library card!

When Bush was elected, some liberals acted like the sky was falling and predicted all sorts of dire things for the country. Personally, I thought this was just opposition sour grapes. I didn’t like Bush, but I thought he was like a friendly, stupid dog, who might dig holes in your yard and bark all the time and drive you crazy but was not evil or anything. If he surrounded himself with good people, the country would muddle along- some things better, some worse- as we do with all presidents.

Boy was I wrong. And unlike Bush, I can admit it when I am.

So we’re to swallow the notion that massive deficits are not going to hurt the economy because we’re still holding the line on headstart and child care and military pay increases…oh, and on funding that moronic “No Child left un-tested” educational mandate he’s ramming down the states’ throats. And all the money he’s giving away to his rich friends and spending in Iraq, that doesn’t matter. Wow. I feel better, knowing that Bush and Cheney, those big deficit hawks, are on the job!!

Oh, and on the “I told you so” front (I also admit when I”m right!) I see that Justice (and I use the term loosely) Roy Moore is annoyed that he’s actually gone an entire day without his name in the paper, so he’s announced that he wants to move the 10 Commandments to the US Capitol building. And it worked: he’s in the paper again!
Moore says that he wants the congress to affirm the right to acknowledge God. And people actually buy that crap!! Its a sad, sad thing that so many well-meaning people think that Moore is doing this for God.
Buit really, it’s all about Mr. Moore.

Hey Roy, you can acknowledge God all you want to, bud. You can write the 10 Commandments on your car, you can paint them on the roof of your house for low-flying planes to read, you can stand up and recite them in the middle of Wendys and you can even have them tatooed on your fat Bubba ass for all I care. No law in this country says you can’t, and I sure won’t try to stop you. But the only place you NEED the Commandments is inside, which in your case seems to be a hollow and empty place.
Perhaps you just want the government to say “Hey folks, Roy is right about God and all of you who think something else are wrong, nanny nanny boo-boo.” But the fact is, as I said in my “Bunch of Rocks” letter, you’re wrong! You’re making a mockery of the very tenants you claim to follow.
Go read the Bible or something in all that free-time you have since you got suspended for refusing to uphold the laws of the State of Alabama. Start with the Gosple of Matthew. And when you finish, try reading a few law books, because you don’t seem to know much about that, either.

Whew. I feel better now. 🙂

* From The Politics of Bread by you-know-who (Voldemort?)