America, will you remember? As the winter ends and the spring blends into summer, will you remember? More importantly, when we head toward November, will you remember? Will you recall the promises not kept, the lies and scandals, the real truth behind the last six years? Or will you believe the newest Osama tape, the elevated terror alert, or the hollow calls for reform? Will you believe your own eyes, your own ears, and your own experience or will you be cowered by the latest ruse employed by the "War on Terrorism" fanatics?
With each passing day there are new revelations about the corruption in this administration and the complicit GOP Congress. Will you remember Jack Abramoff calling his clients "troglodytes" as he bilked them for millions of dollars? Will you remember that the Bush Administration lied when initially asked about Abramoff's relationship with Bush, only until more and more photos of the two emerged? Will you remember the Abramoff fake charity, The Capitol Athletic Foundation, which was supposed to help inner-city youth, but instead, used 99% of the millions of dollars raised for schmooze-trips to go golfing in Scotland for Republican Congresspersons? One percent for the children, 99% for the GOP. Will you remember these facts, or will you believe the lies that this was a bipartisan scandal, even though NOTHING went to Democratic Congresspersons? Yes, some democrats received contributions from the clients who were cheated by Jack Abramoff, but not one actually received a dime of the money he cheated them out of.
Will you remember that the War on Terror is a sham? Will you recall that Iraq never had those pesky little WMD George Bush likes to joke about? I know the other side will have you believe we live in a Machiavellian society where ridding the world of a tinpot dictator is more than enough of an excuse for lying to Congress and sacrificing more than 2,200 of our children's lives on the altar of political expediency but will YOU remember? Will you remember that at the height of the supposed concerns over WMD, this administration thought it made most sense to ruin the career of a woman whose job it was to protect you from WMD proliferation? Will you remember that the only sin Valerie Plame committed to deserve that career ruination was she was married to a man who dared to speak the truth about the lies told by George W. Bush in his State of the Union address? Will you remember that the trial for Lewis Libby, who now has admitted in court papers that Dick Cheney instructed him to reveal Palme's identity, has been conveniently scheduled for two months AFTER the crucial mid-term elections?
Will you remember an America where our civil liberties were worth fighting for? Will you remember a president that looked America in the eye and admitted he had broken the law by illegally wiretapping YOU, and boldly said, "so what?" Will you recall a president that had the nerve to say he would continue to break the law as he saw fit? A man who twisted a congressional resolution that allowed him to wage his failed war on terror, to mean that he has absolute dictatorial powers? A man who for the previous two years before being exposed, looked you in the eye and lied about wiretapping? A man who co-opted YOUR press into squashing the truth about the DOMESTIC spying program for over a year? Will you remember Cindy Sheehan, dragged out of the people's house in shackles for daring to wear a t-shirt which simply counted the number of Americans who have sacrificed their lives in this war? Will you remember "free-speech zones" as the public's opinion was shuttled off in exchange for fake town hall meetings where every question for a daring president starts with "Gosh I just love you?" Will you remember Jeff Gannon, an avowed male homosexual prostitute who managed to sit two rows away from the president so he could toss him softball questions? Will you remember Jose Padilla, rotting in a prison, an accused "terrorist" but a US citizen nonetheless? A man who according to our laws deserves his day in court, an opportunity to hear his accusers. Instead, he rots while the administration again ignores a court order? Will you remember when our rule of law was the fabric that held our country together? Will you remember our president refusing to follow federal law or will you cower under your desk at the next Osama tape?
Will you believe your own bank accounts or the tripe that keeps being sold to you by the very people who have benefited from the failed economic policies of the past six years? To hear any administration official tell it, we have turned a corner and the economy is "robust." Nonsense. Anyone who understands the truth about what is left of the middle class in this country knows that the middle class and the working poor are being mixed together to create a new class, a middle-poor class where jobs that vanish do not come back. Where new jobs created do not pay as much and have no health benefits. Here is the truth about this economy over the past five years, summarized by Paul Craig Roberts:
- US manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs, almost 17% of the manufacturing work force.
- Not a single manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job.
- Communications equipment lost 43% of its workforce.
- Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37% of its workforce.
- The workforce in computers and electronic products declined 30%.
- Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25% of its employees.
- The workforce in motor vehicles and parts declined 12%.
- Furniture and related products lost 17% of its jobs.
- Apparel manufacturers lost almost half of the work force.
- Employment in textile mills declined 43%.
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