WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICA?

The hurricane Katrina fiasco is just the latest in a long line of embarrassments for our country. We used to be the good guys who helped out our enemies after we defeated them in war. Now we can’t even help our own people after a disaster and we are considered to be a predatory warmonger by most of the civilized world. What happened? Where did we go wrong? Is this the country we want?

I have been giving this subject a lot of thought lately. Even though it’s easy to blame G.W. Bush and his gang of thieves for everything (and I do), I believe it goes much deeper than that. Bush & Company is just a symptom of the malicious disease we have contracted. That disease is called corruption. Our political system has been corrupted by money – billions of dollars that should be used for research and for improving our lives are being wasted in the scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours corporate welfare scheme.

No-bid government contracts, the revolving door between corporate and government positions, tax breaks for huge global corporations, and the obscene amounts of money spent on federal elections all point to corruption. Corporations are called in to write laws that are supposed to regulate them (drug companies for Medicare, energy companies for energy bills, etc.). The entire system has failed us and we need to do something to take back our country.

Although I think a Democratic administration would probably be an improvement over the one we have now, that party is also a big part of the problem. This situation did not happen overnight and both parties have been complicit in the scheme. It’s no surprise that unions are dying and that jobs are going offshore along with profits. Try to find a job paying a living wage with benefits without having a higher education. Not everyone can afford college. If a degree is necessary for a decent job then college should be free.

Here’s the irony: the only way out of this mess other than a revolution is for congress to reform itself! I’m not a revolutionary, but the alternative is a long shot to be sure. If we just keep on voting for the same old same old, we will get what we deserve – crooks and liars and thieves and jokers and all eating at the corporate trough.

As voters and citizens, we need to get creative and start by electing people to office who will work to reform the system from the inside. Elections should be limited in time and money spent and corporations should be forbidden from contributing to campaigns. I don’t know the answers, but I’m pretty sure the two major political parties don’t either. That’s why I’m joining the Green Party. Look for a party you can support. If we all boycott the “Repubicrats” maybe we still have time to save our country.

THE BIG SLEAZY

THE BIG SLEAZY

There’s not much I can add to the outrage over the Bush administration’s mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath except to say it was no big surprise. They have exhibited their incompetence on a daily basis since day one. Add to that their complete lack of compassion for anyone not rich and/or white and you have a recipe for disaster.

Despite repeated warnings of impending doom, Mr. Bush ignored the recommendations of  meteorologists and other scientists that the Gulf lowlands were in extreme danger of just this kind of ecological disaster. His repeated refusal to take global warming seriously, his gutting of FEMA and putting it under Homeland Security, the staffing it with political hacks who know nothing about emergencies, all indicate ignorance at best if not malfeasance.

I think the entire Bush family should be taken from their homes by force and locked in the Superdome with no food or water or facilities for 5 days with no electricity, then taken to a Red Cross shelter and be given a tent to live in for a year. That would actually be too good for them, but I am opposed to the death penalty – even for them.

I just hope we all survive until 2008.