Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

We must consider those who "saw the light" when the truth came out regarding the lies, forgeries and propaganda that propelled them to vote for the Iraq War, and renounced the Administration's rush to war.  Courageously they have spoken out against those who led the way down the destruction trail.

The burden of blame must be placed on those responsible for this black mark on American history.  Bush, Cheney, Powell, Dr. Rice, Wolfowitz and Perle all played a significant role in this rush to war against Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11, as the Administration was to claim, and nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction that never existed.

Bush's plan for victory is to see who is the winner in the civil war between Sunnis and Shiites and hope for democracy to develop.  It is wishful thinking as far as bringing democracy there is concerned.  These religions have been around for thousands of years.  The life of the U.S. is around 230 years.  The 2000 election proved as far as democracy is concerned, we lost it!

As for the plan for victory - we are aiming for victory, and we'll be in Iraq until we triumph.  As far as some of the Middle East leaders are concerned, this will happen when hell freezes over.  They want control of Iraq's oil supply.

Bush can talk about his spending restraints.  He can tell the public the way to do it is to pour billions more into Iraq and spread democracy to the Middle East.  He will insist that this is such a noble cause and further insist that it has nothing to do with wanting to control Iraq's oil reserves.  Why would you every think such a thing when you know we are all idealists!

What Bush won't tell you is that those tax cuts for the rich he insists will let the dollars drip down to the pour, will only provide the U.S. with permanent deficits.  

When Bush strikes fear into the heart of U.S. citizens, he will use this as his excuse for not following the laws on surveillance.  Going to get a court order is so time consuming, anyway.  And, let's face it, with the King George complex - why take time to follow the law?  

Isn't the King above the law?  The Republicans think so as they bend over and accept the contributions of lobbyists to their noble campaigns.

As for doing away with lobbying.  Forget that part of the State of the Union message.   We need lobbyists to fund the TV networks when a campaign is run.  When you want to play a good game of golf, the best courses are in Scotland.  We learned that when Jack Abramoff was funding those $50,000 golf course excursions.  

After all, all Abramoff really wanted was your vote for the people who funded your trip.  Isn't that democracy in action?

Furthermore, when you resign your role in government affairs, or are kicked out for corruption, you too can become a lobbyist and hand money out to congressmen for their votes.  With 34,000 lobbyists carrying on in Washington, it will keep the American-style democracy alive and well.

The U.S. economy is thriving, so they tell us.  Two million people were displaced by Hurricane Katrina's hit in New Orleans.  And the cost of Katrina in Mississippi is a mere $125 billion.  But not to worry.  As long as the printing press can roll, and other nations accept our declining debt-riddled dollar, we have nothing to worry about.

American savings per capita aren't even 1 percent now, but not to worry.  What were credit cards created for?  Actually, for times like these.

As for the deaths in the mines, well, authorities did cite the mining company over 200 times for violations, but remember the words of that great Republican leader who tripled the national debt in eight years, none other than Ronald (movie star) Reagan, "Get the government off of people's backs!"  Is that why we named a Washington airport after him?

The government got off the backs of the mine owners where the men died.  The fines were small; the mining companies didn't have to worry.   The bottom line is business is, after all, profits at any price, isn't it?

General Motors lays off 30,000 employees and Ford, isn't it 50,000 employees?  Oh well, let's put all those baby boomers back to work in the service industries.

So what if we lose our manufacturing base.  We can always create more theme parks.  Didn't experts predict years ago that U.S. citizens would have more leisure time?  Isn't that the reason why big business outsources our technical jobs to India?

And the visionary agenda Bush will no doubt state that we must make sure we don't link that fantasy of "pollution" creating the greenhouse gas effect.  Alright, so 47 Nobel Prize winning scientists claim there is a definite connection between the 24 percent of the world's pollution created by U.S. industry helping generate the greenhouse effect, which triggers hurricanes and climate change the world over.

All right, so we had 26 storms in Florida alone.  Blame those nasty hurricanes on Katrina and Wilma.  The simple solution is to avoid New Orleans and Florida during hurricane season.  And when buying hurricane insurance, make sure the insurance agent include water as well as wind damage.

Then you are safe.  As for the pensions big business used to offer employees, and relied upon the U.S. to bail them out then they went broke.  The moral is "become part of the ownership society."  

Bail yourself out by saving in your own bank account for any pension funds you ever hope to receive, because frankly the U.S. pension bailout net is broken.  The CEO's of big business gave themselves huge bonuses, and severance packages, raiding the employees' pension plans.

While you are saving for your own pension, a word to the wise.  Save for your personal health care.  Big business is ending health care continuation for many retirees.  Many doctors are refusing Medicare patients after the Administration cut their fees at the same time they cut the food stamps for the needy.

But not to worry, the tax cuts for the rich will become permanent if Bush has anything to say about it.

All right, so we "goofed" on providing aid to New Orleans hurricane victims.  But we have plans to house the 600,000 homeless in New Orleans, and to fund the $125 billion needed for taking care of the Mississippi Katrina damage.  We will recommend service jobs for the laid off Ford and GM employees.

What more can I say?  Bush will smile and wave his arm in his usual triumphant gesture as the Administration robots rise to their feet in a standing ovation, cheering their leaders on for all they achieved during their reign of error.