ireadthenewstoday

Structural damage and Bush's first 6 years. The President has already said in his last press conference that the mess he has made in Iraq will have to probably be solved by future Presidents. But much worse than this, is the irreversible forces his policies and incompetence have put into play in the US economy, other countries political power, and the US's ability to compete in the global civilization of the future.
Alan Lesher is the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In discussing the Bush administration's re-writing of science with partisan politics and political spin he said in a recent article from "The New Yorker" "what we are seeing is the empowerment of idealogues who have the ability to influence the course of science far more than ever before. They say , I don't like the science, I don't like what it is showing, and therefore they ignore it". And I will add they say "it doesn't meet the approval of our political base," evangelicals who want Creationism (religion) on an equal educational level with real provable science, evolution. Or it doesn't meet the approval of corporate campaign donors who want to pollute the earth and deny global warming to approve their short term profit.
Mr. Leshner goes on to say "the very integrity of science in this country is under siege".

Also from the" New Yorker".....Last year seniors in American high schools performed below the average of 21 countries on a test of general knowledge of mathematics and science- and in advanced courses the US was near the bottem. Federal research investments are shrinking under this President, just as other nations are increasing theirs. "In 2004 more than 600,000 engineers graduated from Chinese Universities. In India the number was 350,000. In America, the figure was not quite 70,000. The US now imports more high tech products than it exports.
One more quote from Leshner "Between the visa problems (post 9/11) preventing the best students from China and India from entering this country to study or work, and the stem cell ban , our competitors are just in heavan......While we are restricting research, the European Union countries are welcoming scientists from other countries. They are not fools".
Nor might I add do they have a President that's a fool. Had Bush been President during our race to the moon with Russia, we would still be praying that we can send a rocket to the moon.
This isn't just bad politics it is very hard to reverse structural damage to our country's future.

Lets look at Bush's mostly unilateral, bullying foreign policy and the structural damage it is doing. Hammas a terrorist group gains legitimate political control of Palestine. The Egyptian Brotherhood the same in Egypt. Hezballah in Lebanon, radical anti-Bush, anti Israel leader in power in Iran, The Taliban making a political comback in Afghanistan and in Iraq we are ending up with a Iran influenced Parliment giving a anti-American religious radical like Muqtdar alSadr legitimate political power.
Here is a quote from a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle about how Bush's foreign policy has unified Latin American politics the wrong way. "With the swaggering Texan in the White House, a leftward surge has united Latin America to a degree that T-shirt icon Che Guevara could only dream of". Bush's presidency has motivated "one of the most significant political re-alignments in the history of the Western Hemisphere. By this summer every major Latin America nation but Colombia (ah the free market of the drug cartels) is likely to be run by elected leaders with stronger backgrounds in Marx than free markets".
From Bolivia to Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina and Chile and soon Peru leftist leaders have gained power all with a strong anti-Bush following. But the Bush administration is so bogged down in Iraq and their ass covering they have no time for the rest of the world. This is structrual damage, not easily changed by the 08 election even if a Democrat wins.

But the most significant structural damage this President and his brainwashed Republican, followers in Congress have done is, to our economy and our future. Not only with their spending that has caused our unprecedented debt, but with their lies and propaganda trying to cover it up.
Here's a quote from a noted economist. "The budget defecit numbers you hear announced at White house press conferences are from accounts kept on a cash basis, with no accurals msde for monies owed by or due to the government in the future"
Keeping this in mind lets compare the 04 debt number of $616 billion announced by the treasury department to the real number of $3.4 trillion when you add in the underfunding of social security and medicaid and that's not even counting the underfunded prescription drug bill (a gift to the Pharmacuetical industry).
Here is the topper total Federal obligations at the end of September 05 were $51 trillion, 4 times the level of the GDP.
So when Bush announced last week he has raised the Federal debt ceiling to $9 trillion dollars it was just the tip of the iceberg. But you don't hear the so called "liberal media" talking about this
nor do the Demos get many chances to complain.
$9 trillion is a 9 with 12 zeros after it: Just how much is that?
If you spend a million dollars a day for a 2,739 years it would add up to a measly $1 trillion.

You could hand every man woman and child in the world $1,5oo with $9 trillion dollars.
Maybe that's how we can reverse the structural damage Bush has done. At least it would be money well spent.

ireadthenewstoday

$92 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The 4th raise of the national debt ceiling under Bush, to $9 trillion dollars......What comes after a trillion? Since as long as these so-called conservative Republicans are spending our tax dollars to pad their pockets,pay back their campaign donors and cover their incompetent butts, we better get used to that new number. The question is what will come first, the new number after a trillion or economic collapse.....I didn't vote for Bush, and boy am I glad. For those who did they are getting what they paid for and more. The problem is the 53 million of us who didn't are really getting screwed. When will we ever be able to root for our country again? Oh Yeah, anybody noticed gas prices recently? It isn't even spring or summer when people drive more and they are close to $3 a gallon. the oil companies had record breaking profits last year. Chevron had a profit of $36 billion. We are headed for a summer driving season of over $3 a gallon. The oil companies have to grow their profits this year, that's a business given........Gee I almost forgot, besides being the "war President" Bush and his family are oil men. Remember I didn't vote for him.

ireadthenewstoday

Another $92 billion of our tax dollars for Iraq and Afghanistan. Another raising of the ceiling on the national debt, the 4th one under Bush, to $9 trillion dollars. If Congress thought the ports deal was a threat to our security why isn't this? The ports deal was a grain of sand on the beach of the Rebulblicans selling our country to foreignors. A large segment of the $9 trillion (I don't even know how much a trillion is?) is owed to Arabs, Chinese and Japanese investors. What happens if one of them pulls the financial plug? But these so called conservatives running our one party government are only concerned about padding their pockets and the lobbyists and campaign donors pockets. That unempolyed guy driving his pick up in Tennesee, with his gun rack and confederate flag window decal and his Frist( who just won a Presidential straw poll in Tenn.) for President bumper sticker and his radio blaring Bush talking points, doesn't have a clue how Republicans are sticking it to him. He knows Kerry was a coward, Bush is tough, the Demos are evil, affordable health care is not for him, the war in Iraq is keeping the terrorists there, and the tax cuts for the rich will eventually trickle down to him. And he knows Bush won't ever let those gay people get married. He knows all of this because Limbaugh and Hannity and O'Reilly tell him so everyday.......... and he's a product of our underfunded public school system, which he either flunked out of or dropped out of........This is the other half of the Republican base.... At the top the rich and powerful, and at the bottem angry white males who don't have a clue what the national debt even is, or that it exists.

ireadthenewstoday

It's deju-vu all over again as John Fogarty sang it. Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, or something like that. The parallels to Vietnam, of this mess Bush has created on the wrong battlefield in Iraq keep comming back to haunt us. When you look at Senator Feingold finally stepping up and calling for a censure of Bush for his law breaking on domestic spying and all the Demos cowering in political fear, you can't help remembering the late great Gene McCarthy standing up to LBJ and telling the people we need to get out of Nam....It is so hard being a Demo these days. McCarthy had the guts to do what was right and stood up against a President from his own party. Other than Feingold, the current bunch of Demos are gutless pansies. No wonder they are so easily pushed around by the Delays and Frists and Roves. This isn't even a war issue. But it is directly relevant. Either Bush spit on the Constitution and broke the law with his warrantless spying or he didn't. And if he did, and all the evidence sure points that way then he should be impeached not just censured. The President isn't above the law, even during a war on terror. The Republicans made this their mantra when they went after Clinton for lying about consensual sex and impeached him. This was during a war as well. Remember Bosnia? Why the Demos are not backing Feingold on this black and white issue is so puzzling? They've been complaining about Bush's arrogance and unaccountabilty and now is a chance to call him on this and they are wimping out. But "power to the people" love those 60s. It seems there is a groundswell of support for Feingold on "Air America" and the internet. Mc Carthy's anti war position started the same way in the 60s and gained strength from the people until the politicians realized, hey maybe we better get on board. One can only hope this happens with Feingold's position. Hillary and Kerry and Edwards will realize at some point those 53 million people that voted against Bush in the last election probably want a Demo to step up as Feingold did and hold the President accountable to the Constitution and the law of the land. If they don't screw em. How about Feingold and Clark for a 08 Demo ticket?

ireadthenewstoday

Ex President Clinton has said numerous times his biggest regret was not doing anything while President to stop the slaughter of innocents in Rawanda. The Bush administration declared in 2004 that the killings in the Darfur regions of the Sudan constitute genocide by the Arab dominated Khartoum government. The United nations has called the genocide in Darfur "the world's worst humanitarian crisis". Yet with more than 200,000 innocents dead and over 2 million refugees the Republicans in power have cut the US aid budget from $113 million last year to $40 million this year..........but nobody cares. Even "Air America" and other liberal talking heads barely mention this, and not a peep ever comes out of the mouths of holier than thou right wing Christian spokespeople, Republican bible thumping politicians, or Republican pimps, Hannity, Limbaugh and OReilly..........The genocide is still going on and the 2 million refugees are going to have even less to eat this year and less medical care, etc. But our President Bush is focused on Iraq. No amount of money is too much to throw at this disaster he has caused in the middle east. Just a small small portion of the billions unaccounted for in Iraq could stop the genocide in Darfur and keep these 2 million refugees alive, but Bush is only interested in selling freedom as an excuse to cover his mistakes and incompetency........And where is the media on this? Where are the Demos? Sure they say more than the Republicans, but it's not enough. The most publicity Darfur got recently was when American speed skater Joey Cheeks, after wining two medals in the winter olympics donated his $40k winnings to the refugee cause..........Where is Shaq, Kobe, Duncan, Bonds, P Diddy, Tiger Woods or any other well paid celebrity of African descent on this problem? Why aren't they speaking up and then putting their money where their mouths are?..........And again it is a Muslim/Arab government causing this genocide. How can this religion with 1 billion followers justify this kind of violence against innocents, not to mention the havoc they are causing in the Middle East under the same distorted religious guise?

ireadthenewstoday

Haven't those that defend this administration's incompetent occupation of Iraq consistently claimed the "liberal" media doesn't show us the good that's comming from our tax dollars and soldier's sacrifices? They only show the violence around Baghdad and in the North. Well yesterday Save The Children USA announced it is pulling it's more than 200 staff members out of Southern Iraq, where they were engaged in rebuilding and repair projects because they face "unprecedented danger" from "deterioating security"........Granted the US and the British, that are trying to protect these aid groups, who were trying to restore some normalcy to the Iraquis in Southern Iraq, are not the bad guys. Since the bad guys threatening these humanitarium workers are truly the scum of the earth in their "bite the hand that feeds you" irrational violence. But these radical Islam maniacs didn't exist in pre-invasion Iraq.......A note to Democratic politicians, even if you voted to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq, it doesn't mean you can't now say over and over again you were mis-lead by the President and his men prior to the war, and you should be complaining bitterly and pointing out to the media and people in every opportunity the un-deniable and thorough incompetency of Bush's post invasion occupation of Iraq. If after $300 billion in tax dollars and over 2,000 american soldier's lives have gone into Iraq and Save The Children now has to pull out, this war of choice is a miserable failure. And you're not being patriotic and your not supporting our troops by complying with the status quo, as the Republicans want you to.........In fact you are doing just the opposite.