Wednesday, August 06, 2008

What ME Worry?: I enjoyed Jeff Jacoby's editorial "What them worry?" in the August 6 Globe. I cannot argue with any of it. It was well written, as usual . There is truth to this one. Conservatives, though, start worrying me when they begin to wax on and on about the horrendous deficit and what they perceive are its causes. The similarities between I as a progressive and Jeff Jacoby as a conservative are that we both agree the Bush deficits are absolutely humongous and will be a horrific burden for future generations to undo. The difference between the two of us, though, is what government expenditures we would love to trim. When conservatives decry all the "entitlement programs" they are speaking about the various humanitarian programs government since the New Deal has employed. I then start to get nervous as those so called entitlements save my and the whole country's life. When conservatives want to cut entitlements they mean they want to cut programs for the poor, the sick, the elderly, the handicapped, the retired or the dispossessed. When I talk about balancing the budget I mean cutting huge wasted expenditures on a military and now a war industrial complex gone haywire. The operative word here, I believe, is humanitarian. I know, of course, a military is necessary so please do not think I am stupidly naive and want to cut out military spending to the degree it would put our country at great risk. Even Dwight Eisenhower, president and five star general, though, talked about the dangers of a bloated military and I believe Dwight Eisenhower was no liberal. If the cuts come anywhere, I believe, they should start trimming our military budget and revisiting nature of our foreign policy which gets us into purposeless no-end-in-sight wars which cost a fortune. That is the real culprit which puts this nation at great risk.
I tried to email benfurw as he asked me to respond to his comment about the Anthrax investigation and the alleged perpetrator's suicide. The email did not for some reason go through. So I will do it on my blog itself. Thank you for your comment.

If you read well what I said I never make a statement saying that there is proof positive that something conspiratorial occurred. I would NEVER do that without having absolute proof positive that it did. All I am saying is there are questions. I am NOT absolutely NOT a conspiracy theorist advocate usually ever. I am one of the few who believe Oswald actually acted alone. In the Bush's administration's case though the corruption -- documented corruption -- has been SO systemic and so part of this administration's modus operandi, I really said the thing about THINKING this government -- the Bush government -- complicit in the Antrax attack to push its insane war was that it really did NOT seem totally kooky. THAT is what I find surprising.

In Ron Suskind's new book, "The Way of the World", this administration, to drum up advocacy for the war, allegedly did impeachable and very illegal things. Yet more questioning occurs about this rancid administration's proclivity to, by any means necessary, do what they have to do to support their cause INCLUDING, according to Suskind's taped reliable sources, constructing a fake letter stating the connection between Mohammad Atta and Sadam Hussein. Of course, there was none.

This administration EVEN has US attorneys fired because they are not political enough in the right direction (Pardon the pun). Really, sir, there is ample proof of a thousand different scandals of corruption and manipulation of facts whether it's Anthrax or global warming or justification for Iraq. They even fudge science. This administration promulgated a war which we now know UNEQUIVOCALLY was falsely based on lies. Sir, we are talking LIVES. 4000 of them plus hundreds of thousands of others and horrendously wounded and a Middle East discombobulated like it needed to be discombobulated any more. Now Iran is a huge player and top dog and could gain hegemony in the worst of all possible areas, the Middle East.

The funniest part is that I, an ardent Democrat and more often than not a progressive, actually supported the Iraq war initially because I really thought in my stupidity that my president was telling the truth. I thought, what if what our government told us was true. Others more savvy and in-the-know than certainly I said it could be true based on the "proof" of what the government said. I even once entertained the idea that maybe it was divine purpose, even though I never supported Bush for the presidency, that he with his cowboy bully mentality was in there for a reason. I was so utterly angry and aggrieved by 9/11, I forgot to question everything this government said. I should have known better. Truth be told I suppose I am SO angry now that what I believed initially was so categorically false in every way. I look like an idiot to all my very smart friends and am constantly having to defend the indefensible.

So to recap..it's not that I see the truth of an Anthrax government conspiracy staring me in the face. I don't -- not yet. There are questions though and more today in The Boston Globe as the FBI tried to PAY Iven's daughter to turn in her father. What is that about? So it's that it really does NOT seem preposterous that an attempt was made by this White House to either perpetrate the Anthrax attack or USE the Anthrax attack to sell its agenda. That I can even entertain the possibility of that is what is startling to me and says so much about this administration. They surely verbally tried to link the attacks to Iraq and Iraq to all things terrorist but surprise they were wrong. Iraq had nothing to do with anything. How could a government go SO wrong and the people let it happen?

My point is this government is capable (as probably all governments are) of anything and does, in fact, do unethical and even illegal things. True they do not do much well so it probably was not a conspiracy. I just thought this country was above going to the sewer or as Cheney characterizes it "the dark side". I'm all for "going to the dark side" IF there is some light shed on truth. MY mistake. That is what I am really so angry about.

NOT ANYMORE

  I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated agai...