PRESIDENT BUSH 'OUT OF TOUCH' WITH REALITY

By Joyce Marcel,
American Reporter Correspondent,
Dummerston, VT.

DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the election recedes, there's good news and bad news. And we're not going to like any of it.

Welcome to the world of investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, whose remarkable career has been bookended by two of the most shameful events in America's military history: My Lai in Vietnam, a story he broke as a free-lance reporter, and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq, a story he broke for The New Yorker.

During his 38-year career, Hersh has written eight books, won the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Pulitzer and a host of other prizes. His sources serve at the highest levels of many governments, including our own.

In person, Hersh is tall, stooped, rumpled, gray-haired and bespectacled. He speaks rapidly and intensely in a deep voice. Currently touring to "pimp," as he put it, his newest book, "Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib," he spoke last week at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., to a rapt audience of about 900 people. They greeted him with applause; he said, "Thank you, but you'll be less happy once I'm done."

Hersh's message is simple and frightening: "(George W.) Bush is an ideologue, a Utopian," Hersh said. "He wants to clean out the Middle East and install democracy. He doesn't care how many body bags come back home. There's nothing more dangerous than an ideologue who is completely bonkers and no one is going to tell him."

President Bush is committed to perpetual war, Hersh said.

The emperor continues to wander about with no clothes on and, seems intent on remaining in a state of deshabillé. This highlighted by the fact that he is stacking his cabinet with like-minded ideologues, also known as 'yes men'. In Condi's case, that would be 'yes woman'. Dubbyuh's cabinet, like so many bobble-head figures, will avidly nod yes at his every suggestion, no matter how ludicrous or outright mad it may be.

As his disconnect with reality continues to widen, events will spiral more and more wildly out of control and Dubbyuh will remain insulated in his blood-stained bubble. In the meantime, more of our soldiers will come home in body bags...Iraq will slide into civil-war...The US economy will continue to crumble, this as the world trades in euros rather than dollars...And our American Nero will continue to fiddle.

It's getting a bit drafty, don't you think

The number of US troops in Iraq is being ramped up by some 12,000 in advance of January's elections in Iraq. Dubbyuh's refusal to delay the elections ot the behest of Iraq's own political parties, is nothing short of simple, bullheaded intransigence. Especially in light of the decaying security situation in the country. When the folks on the ground and living there say, "Let's slow down a little.." it might be wise to listen to them.

In order to cover this build-up of personel units are, yet again, having their tours extended. The ready and inactive reserves are also being called up. Contributing to a shortage of personel is the ARNG's failure to meet its recent enlistment quotas. As troop losses mount and raw recruits are shipped in to replace the losses, unit cohesion and morale begin to decay. But this doesn't seem to matter to the administration. But that's the beauty of an all-volunteer force. When the potential enlistees begin to see how badly they would be used in some misguided foreign adventurism, they simply stop enlisting.

Of course, given the nature of Dubbyuh's administration, they would find an alternative. It's getting a bit drafty, don't you think?

American Cowboy

America's number 1 cowboy action-hero, George W. Bush, seems to be under the impression that America can pretty much do as it pleases. He seems to think that America can "..go it alone, if necessary..." with military adventurism wherever and whenever it wishes. He's fogettting one important fact though...America is a debtor nation.

Suppose, just for the sake of argument, that our foreign creditors failed to show up at US bond auctions to buy that debt? The possibility of this happening grows with each day the dollar continues to slide.

The fall in the dollar’s external value per se may not cause additional financing difficulties, but if this fall is symptomatic of a generalised withdrawal of foreign credit, then the whole underlying credit structure could fall apart, as it has done many times before in other financial crises. Given the size of the US, the global fall-out will obviously be substantially greater. - Marshall Auerback

Remeber the peso crisis in Mexico? Remember the economic collapse of Southeast Asia in the 90's? As speculators dump US treasury notes on favor of euro based notes, the dollars decline will accelerate leading to a decline in the US economy similar to that which occured in those emerging markets. Only, because of the size of the US markets, the global effects will be much worse...not to mention the effects here at home. This also provides an economic lever to influence US foreign policy, in case you haven't figured that out by now.

So, America's #1 cowboy action-hero needs to wake up and smell the coffee, before he smells the ashes of his pyhrric victory on November 2nd.

A More Secure America?

I think not. Denny Hasturt has refused to bring the Intelligence Reform Bill to a vote. With the CIA in chaos due to Porter Goss' purge, we need solid, meaningful intelligence reform now, not a year from now.

But no...The House Reichpublican leadership is more interestd in turf wars and control of funding than they are in passing intelligence reform. While Dubbyuh has mouthed phrases of support for the bill, yet again, his actions fall far short of his words. Let us remember that Dubbyuh fought the formation of the 9/11 Commission tooth and nail, and he had to be dragged kicking and screaming to speak before it...This with Uncle Dick at his side telling him what to say. So, don't expect Dubbyuh to stand up and fight for intel reform.

Failure to pass these much needed reforms can be laid squarely upon the doorstep of the right-wing Reichpublican leadership. Their dedication to ideological purity over reality will be the undoing of us all.

So, contact your Representative and iform them of your displeasure, if not your being outright pissed-off, by their food dragging on this important issue.

American Hero...?

At least that's the way Dubbyuh's supporters would paint him. The reality, though, is far from the image.

The Israeli/Palestinian peace process languished...Dubbyuh did nothing.

The mean global temperature continues to rise, the Kyoto Protocols remain unratified...Dubbyuh does nothing.

The violence in Iraq spirals further and further out of control...Dubbyuh does nothing.

The social safety net continues to erode, leaving more and more people in poverty...Dubbyuh does nothing.

The budget and trade deficits continue to balloon, with no end in sight...Dubbyuh does nothing.

The dollar's freefall continues unchecked, threatening American and world economic progress...Dubbyuh does nothing.

We have not an American Hero, but an American Nero. Just as Nero was content to sit idly by while Rome burned, to rebuild it according to his own plans, perhaps Dubbyuh is content to let America burn in order to rebuild it according to his own ideological bent. And why not? After all, the blueprints were drawn up in "Rebuilding America's Defenses" written by the neo-con think-tank, The Project for the New American Century. Amongst its members are those who have played a role in either the Bush White House or the neo-con movement.

So, we have a choice. We can sit by and do nothing. Or we can start writing, calling, faxing, camping out in the offices of, our elected representatives asking them to do the right thing, not the politically expedient thing. Failing that, we remove them from office at the next election or begin recall movements where they are permitted. Failing these options, we have the The Declaration Of Independence to look to...

"--That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security --"

We can do, as the citizens of Massachusetts did in 1774 when they rose up and took back control of the mechanisms of government from the British after Governor Thomas Gage passed the "Massachusetts Government Act" which effectively violated the Charter of 1691 and disenfranchised all of the citizens of Massachusetts. The choice is ours. We can chose to "suffer, while evils are sufferable". Or we can act before the evils become insufferable.

A parable for our times...

George W. Bush and the Republican party support state's rights and trust the wisdom of the voters...Except when states and voters views are contrary to his.

Earlier this month, John "Beaten-by-a-Dead-Man-and-don't-let-the-door-hit-your-sorry-ass-on-the-way-out" Ashcroft, resumed his efforts to undermine Oregon's death-with-dignity law. This law was passed by a majority not once, but twice.

Now the Justice Department is putting the screws to folks using marijuana for medical purposes. This in states, and there are 10 of 'em, where the use of the ol' wacky weed is legal for medical purposes. The case they're bearing down on now involves a woman with an inoperable brain tumor. Ya gotta wonder, with the threats facing America and the world today, don't they have anything better to do? They've had absolutely zero, zip, nada for successful prosecutions of those accused of terrorist activities in this country. The best they can do is try to justify the continued imprisonment, without charge, of some ex-gangbanger from Chicago who's guilty of nothing but an excess of stupidity.

Yeah, I feel alot safer knowin' them scofflaw medical marijuana users are behind bars.