The Impending Death Of The American Dream!

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I was inspired to write this article because of a recent column by Jaime O'Neill in the Paradise Post newspaper entitled, "A Death Down In Dallas," where he expressed his feelings subsequent to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. He mentions the "school children who cheered the news, sons and daughters of those who had vilified the man as a threat to American values, a guy who had tried to tell big business what to do..." He ends by stating, "Much of that mood now has returned to theses shores in a time when far too many Americans hunger for a world of stark and simple-minded contrasts: between black and white, good and evil, American and un-American. Voices of fear and hate grow louder as promised hope for change seems to recede."

The great "American experiment" may have tossed out the old aristocracies, but it replaced them with a positive notion of "Capitalism,"* eventually creating an Oligarchy based on wealth and power alone, without the need for the "divine right of birth," or even most of "The People." While so many still adhere to an extreme sense of nationalism, believing the Republic is still alive and well, it has in reality been replaced by Corporatism, driven by old and new money powers alike.

Letter To The President On Health Care

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The nation needs strong, viable health care reform. The majority is demanding a public option that is the best in the world. We hear about other single payer plans around the world that have various faults, so let's learn from these and establish a system that works better!

The Democrats, in my perception, were elected as a majority in Washington DC to provide "great" health care for all Americans, at a price that all can "comfortably" afford, and to end our participation in two wars that are sapping us of vital resources, in manpower, money, and moral superiority. Let's get out of those wars, end the tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, and use that money to protect Americans in a "real" way.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." -- Sound familiar?

Both the President and members of Congress separately take oaths supporting the principles stated in this preamble to the Constitution. The President swears to "...preserve, protect and defend the Constitution..." Congress swears to "support and defend the Constitution...against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

Why do so many believe that insuring domestic tranquility, defending America, and promoting the general welfare, doesn't include insuring the entire population adequate protection from disease, injury and ill health? The population now exceeds 305 million, and the escalation of serious health problems represents a true threat to the welfare of both the people, and by extension, the nation. It's as important to defend the nation from within, as it is to protect it from without. Denial of this is as archaic as it is ludicrous. And, how often is it simply a matter of profit before service?

While recently watching the movie "The Reader," based on a novel about a former female Nazi concentration camp guard being tried in Germany in 1958 for war crimes, a question crossed my mind. In real life, how many of the outraged adults on the panel of judges or spectators at that trial would have in some way shared some complicity for what happened in their nation in the late 1930s and early 1940s by reason of knowing that something heinous was occurring and not objecting? The concentration camps didn't exist in a vacuum - they were spread throughout Germany, employed tens of thousands of Germans, and housed millions of prisoners, not to mention the stink in the air from the ovens burning bodies. Did they realize these atrocities were committed in the name of the German people (as are the occurrences of every war), and did they suspect how long the stigma of guilt would hang over them and their nation when it finally ended? And what if there had been no war crimes tribunals?

Now I'm not in any way comparing the level of abuse of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and other facilities around the world with the treatment of the Holocaust victims - the degrees of difference are too enormous to consider. The comparison I do make, and what deeply bothers and offends me, is that the American Government aka the Bush Administration did choose to sanction torture, and that that decision ultimately reflects on all Americans. Thus, our Republic, albeit a very questionable one (Democracy is too funny to consider seriously), becomes responsible for such actions, and by default "we the people."

Will America, as did Germany, purge the guilt and attempt to reclaim its honor by punishing those grossly misusing governmental authority, or will it ignore their decisions, condone those actions, and effectively set a precedent for their reoccurrence in the future? Will those of us who stood against the Iraq War and torture be exonerated or actually end up sharing some complicity in this whole mess?

Is Inciting Sedition The Latest Republican Strategy?

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Back in June of 2008 I wrote a blog entitled, “Surround Barack Obama With Protective Energy.” Most of the over 2000 readers “got” the point, the need to protect by any means a man who, by his very nature, would incite many against him. After all, he was half Black, and his liberal-leaning ideas would most assuredly seem threatening to many within the economic “Establishment” and, by definition, the right wing. Little did I know at the time just how important the need for protection might become.

I didn’t realize the extent of the forces that would align against him no matter what he said or actually did. I didn’t know the Republican Party would so viciously and systematically go after Obama simply because he won the election. I didn’t as yet understand how pathologically desperate the right wing is to be “right,” nor did I know how firmly and totally they embrace the ideology that there are only two kinds of people in the world, those with them and those against them, basically those who are them, and those who are not!

Fortunately, as a result of just how well the Republicans did govern for the past eight years, and after two disastrous (for them) Congressional elections and the recent Presidential election, the Republican Party has been relegated to the sidelines to fight among themselves and everyone else. They love to talk about how they hate government (the bigger the badder), and they never miss an opportunity to demonstrate this point of view when they actually find themselves in charge.

Just what are these rascally Republicans up to now that the American voters have finally responded negatively to this party’s natural inclination to govern badly? Are they helping the new Administration to clean up the mess they passed on to it? Are they ashamed to leave the nation and so many Americans in such dire straits? Are they showing any signs of contrition, shame, or humility as they unite around the new government in an attempt to help set right the wrongs they perpetrated on a nation, and the world?

Unfortunately, these are not things the Republican Party is doing after losing the last election. Instead, their motto subtly morphed from “we put country before party,” to “what stinkin’ country?” So what do Republicans do when not in charge?

A Time To Listen -- This Time!

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For eight long years I’ve argued with many diehard Republicans about the wisdom of voting for George W Bush, not just once, but twice. I ended up being called a Bush hater and even worse, a “liberal,” and basically dismissed for my efforts. Actually a lot of people warned that the policies of George Bush would lead to serious problems for our nation, and guess what? They have! Besides all the families catastrophically effected by the war in Iraq, there are now millions facing the loss of jobs, their homes, and more recently the loss of their pensions, retirement benefits, and ultimately Social Security and Medicare benefits if another Republican Administration gets in office.

Now on the eve of the 2008 presidential election many of the same people, plus many renowned conservative Republicans are strongly warning against voting for John McCain, essentially for the same reasons – basically he offers more of the same, and the nation cannot afford it! Colin Powell and Christopher Buckley, son of the late conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr., just to name a couple, have actually endorsed Barack Obama because the alternative would be so bad for America.

Three 49er Comments The Paradise Post Refused To Print

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September 16, 2008: “Why do Republicans embrace lies? The McCain/Palin False-Talk Express lies, lies, lies! Palin did NOT say “thanks, but no thanks” to Congress, and asked for and received huge earmarks for Alaska! She’s NOT a fiscal reformer! While mayor of Wasilla, seven times smaller than Paradise, she created a $20 million-plus deficit, building a $13 million sport’s arena! Doh! Wall Street is in danger (as is your retirement), the dollar is dropping. We DO need REAL change! At least give the other party a “chance,” before we lose it all!”

September 2, 2008: “Apparently Maria Schulte, you don't know the difference between caring for women and using them. Sarah Palin is a very transparent attempt to pander for female and social conservative votes. When the Democrats didn’t nominate a woman, the GOP backroom boys obviously drooled over each other to nominate just ANY woman so as to appear “progressive.” Shameless pandering is clearly McCain’s strongest political trait! You trust him to be president? Which promises to which group will he honor?”

August 31, 2008: ‘”As you sow so shall you reap.” -- Sound familiar? Recently a James Dobson minion and employee of “Focus on the Family,” Stuart Shepard, asked politically conservative Christians to pray for rain at Invesco Park in time for Barack Obama’s DNC acceptance speech, calling it “boyish humor.” Apparently God didn’t appreciate the humor, as hurricane Gustav approaches Louisiana in time to threaten or alter the Republican National Convention. Prayer isn’t meant for selfish purposes, or as a political weapon!’


Let’s Set The Record Straight –Part I

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A few facts:

The nation is in deep financial trouble, and lost in the quagmire of two seemingly endless wars. Who has been in power for the past eight years? Who has run the government of the United States? The Republicans.

The Congress has the lowest approval ratings in its history. Who is responsible? Though the Democrats have technically “controlled” Congress for less than two years, the Republicans have obstructed their almost every move.

Barack Obama, contrary to the constant lie disseminated by those same Republicans, is NOT going to raise your taxes. Who will see an increase in taxes? Those earning in excess of $250,000 per year -- that is one quarter of a million dollars annually.

Let’s correct some major misconceptions that are being held by all too many McCain/Palin/Republican supporters, and whoever else. At this time of crisis in American history, the American people need facts, NOT party talking points!

The 800-Pound Gorilla That Dooms The Republicans To Failure

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The slogans and focal point of the 2008 election in both campaigns will revolve around the “need for change” in one way or another. Why? The nation desperately and surely needs change, and quickly! From what exactly? The same thing the Republican Party is desperately running away from -- the 800-pound gorilla sitting in the room, namely, the ghost of the last eight years of Republican dominated government that hangs around its collective neck like an albatross.

There is presently a very obvious and blatant disconnect in the Republican Party between actions and message. They are admittedly (according to Fox “News”) and desperately doing whatever possible to disassociate themselves from that same government, represented primarily by George Bush and Dick Cheney. Paradoxically, and at the same time, they are all the while clinging to the idea that the Republican Party, and John McCain specifically, are the entities that can and will institute the change everyone is clamoring for.

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