George Bush is BANKRUPTING Americans. Cowardly Democrats don't seem to notice or care...
It's not bad enough that the Republicans "won" the White House, Senate, and Congress by relentlessly attacking, smearing, and investigating ANYTHING to do with Democrats or the Clinton White House for over a decade. Or, after running on "uniter, not divider" and "moral values" themes, the Republicans obstructed Florida state law to prevent the legal and required vote recount as mandated in Florida election statuttes, thereby disenfranchising thousands of Florida votes, and overriding the one-half million popular vote majority for Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in the 2000 election that the partisan majority Supreme Court handed to George W. Bush.
The FIRST thing the Bush-Cheney administration did after stealing the White House and US government was to slap "TOP SECRET!" on EVERYTHING that would possibly affect public opinion re the Republican drive to push America as far to the right - as far back to the days of disenfranchisement, segregation, autocracy, and one-party rule - as possible, Mr. Bush's clearly fraudulent "more bipartisan" campaign rhetoric notwithstanding.
And the Democrats are "OK" with all that. The sole purpose of the Democratic Party today is to provide a whitewash, a doormat, a facade of legitimacy to the Bush administration's radical right-wing agenda. In this case, as long as Democrats continue to earn their collective $100 million in campaign funds and big-donor donations, they will happily allow the Bush Republicans to loot the US Treasury of billions and billions in deficit spending,, and force thousands of US taxpayers into bankruptcy.
President Bush says "Kiss My Ass!" and the Democrats respond "YES SIR!"
This blog shouldn't have to point out HOW MANY AMERICAN FAMILIES CAN NO LONGER AFFORD HEALTH CARE since George W. Bush became president.. or how many American families have fallen BELOW the poverty threshhold since Jan. 2001. Those facts should be Democratic Talking Points EVERY SINGLE DAY, and the Democrats should be MOLDING the press-media to REPORT THE FACTS, instead of SELLING OUT MILLIONS OF AMERICANS for big-donor contributions that get handed right back to the anti-democratic corporate media.
Gauthier: Thieves in the White House
By Deborah E. Gauthier / Local Columnist
Saturday, April 29, 2006 - Updated: 02:24 AM EST
http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/view.bg?articleid=90777&format=text
This country needs a positive unifying cause -- something that draws us together like brothers and sisters ’round the deathbed of a parent -- something upon which even political enemies could agree.
That something could be oil.
Illegal immigrants and American citizens, Iraq war supporters and peaceniks, Christians, agnostics and atheists, all pay the same exorbitant price to fill their gas tanks and, thinking ahead to the winter, worry over how they’re going to pay the ever-higher cost of heating their home.
We’re not too far from a national consensus that the energy policy of the George W. Bush administration is deliberately skewed to favor oil barons like Lee Raymond, an Exxon-Mobil CEO paid EVERY DAY what the average joe is lucky to earn over a four or five year period.
The headlines are gone, but bad memories have a way of sticking with us. Exxon-Mobil profits for 2005 totaled $36.1 billion, followed by Chevron, $14.4 billion, and ConocoPhillips, $13.5 billion.
Big oil supporters say CEOs for those companies should be paid handsomely. It is their leadership, after all, that lead to handsome profits.
Except it isn’t leadership, it is the right grease (political donations), at the right time (Republican majority in Congress), in the right place (Republican war chests). According to the the Center for Responsive Politics, political candidates on the federal level received $75,491,794 from the energy industry between 2000 and 2004, and $60,324,779 of that went to Republican candidates.
Did those donations translate into access to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as they created an energy policy that some blame for the $3 plus we’re paying for a gallon of gas today?
The Freedom of Information Center says yes, an opinion upheld, in a way, by Cheney, who headed the committee that created the National Energy Policy in 2001. Why would he refuse to release the names of those who helped write it? Why would he refuse to release records from each meeting? Meetings, by the way, that are supposed to be conducted publicly. Why? Because it would look bad.
Cheney insisted on privacy, claiming he and the president have a right to formulate policies privately and to form those policies with advice from outside sources, such as energy company executives. What about our rights? Don’t we have a right to know how OUR national decisions are made?
In the end, Cheney released about 13,500 pages of information on energy task force meetings, but the pages were heavily censored, some of them completely blank. Even so, the role of energy industries -- particularly gas and oil -- in the creation of our energy policy is evident. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, some recommendations were written, word for word, into the document.
Sen. John McCain (a Republican) calls the policy "the No-Lobbyist-Left-Behind Act." In a special report released by The Freedom of Information Center, McCain is quoted as saying: "This secretive, exclusive process has led to a 1,200-page monstrosity that is chock full of special interest giveaways and exemptions from environmental and other laws that frankly can’t withstand the light of scrutiny."
And Cheney, hiding behind "executive privilege" is making sure it can’t be properly scrutinized.
The House Committee on Government Reform looked into a crystal ball and said the policy would cost taxpayers $140 billion over the next 10 years, and result in higher prices for gas and electricity. And that’s exactly what it’s doing.
On Tuesday, the three biggest oil companies projected a combined 19 percent increase in profits for the first three months of this year. At the same time, Bush gave another perk to the energy industry. Disguised as an attempt to lower the price at the pump, he’s easing environmental standards that govern fuel.
Illegal immigrants have marched on Washington. Iraq war protesters have marched on Washington. It’s time we all march on Washington and demand that Bush and Cheney answer for policies that are making a few people obscenely rich and bankrupting the rest of us.
Deb Gauthier can be reached by e-mail at dgauthie@cnc.com
The FIRST thing the Bush-Cheney administration did after stealing the White House and US government was to slap "TOP SECRET!" on EVERYTHING that would possibly affect public opinion re the Republican drive to push America as far to the right - as far back to the days of disenfranchisement, segregation, autocracy, and one-party rule - as possible, Mr. Bush's clearly fraudulent "more bipartisan" campaign rhetoric notwithstanding.
And the Democrats are "OK" with all that. The sole purpose of the Democratic Party today is to provide a whitewash, a doormat, a facade of legitimacy to the Bush administration's radical right-wing agenda. In this case, as long as Democrats continue to earn their collective $100 million in campaign funds and big-donor donations, they will happily allow the Bush Republicans to loot the US Treasury of billions and billions in deficit spending,, and force thousands of US taxpayers into bankruptcy.
President Bush says "Kiss My Ass!" and the Democrats respond "YES SIR!"
This blog shouldn't have to point out HOW MANY AMERICAN FAMILIES CAN NO LONGER AFFORD HEALTH CARE since George W. Bush became president.. or how many American families have fallen BELOW the poverty threshhold since Jan. 2001. Those facts should be Democratic Talking Points EVERY SINGLE DAY, and the Democrats should be MOLDING the press-media to REPORT THE FACTS, instead of SELLING OUT MILLIONS OF AMERICANS for big-donor contributions that get handed right back to the anti-democratic corporate media.
Gauthier: Thieves in the White House
By Deborah E. Gauthier / Local Columnist
Saturday, April 29, 2006 - Updated: 02:24 AM EST
http://www.milforddailynews.com/opinion/view.bg?articleid=90777&format=text
This country needs a positive unifying cause -- something that draws us together like brothers and sisters ’round the deathbed of a parent -- something upon which even political enemies could agree.
That something could be oil.
Illegal immigrants and American citizens, Iraq war supporters and peaceniks, Christians, agnostics and atheists, all pay the same exorbitant price to fill their gas tanks and, thinking ahead to the winter, worry over how they’re going to pay the ever-higher cost of heating their home.
We’re not too far from a national consensus that the energy policy of the George W. Bush administration is deliberately skewed to favor oil barons like Lee Raymond, an Exxon-Mobil CEO paid EVERY DAY what the average joe is lucky to earn over a four or five year period.
The headlines are gone, but bad memories have a way of sticking with us. Exxon-Mobil profits for 2005 totaled $36.1 billion, followed by Chevron, $14.4 billion, and ConocoPhillips, $13.5 billion.
Big oil supporters say CEOs for those companies should be paid handsomely. It is their leadership, after all, that lead to handsome profits.
Except it isn’t leadership, it is the right grease (political donations), at the right time (Republican majority in Congress), in the right place (Republican war chests). According to the the Center for Responsive Politics, political candidates on the federal level received $75,491,794 from the energy industry between 2000 and 2004, and $60,324,779 of that went to Republican candidates.
Did those donations translate into access to Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as they created an energy policy that some blame for the $3 plus we’re paying for a gallon of gas today?
The Freedom of Information Center says yes, an opinion upheld, in a way, by Cheney, who headed the committee that created the National Energy Policy in 2001. Why would he refuse to release the names of those who helped write it? Why would he refuse to release records from each meeting? Meetings, by the way, that are supposed to be conducted publicly. Why? Because it would look bad.
Cheney insisted on privacy, claiming he and the president have a right to formulate policies privately and to form those policies with advice from outside sources, such as energy company executives. What about our rights? Don’t we have a right to know how OUR national decisions are made?
In the end, Cheney released about 13,500 pages of information on energy task force meetings, but the pages were heavily censored, some of them completely blank. Even so, the role of energy industries -- particularly gas and oil -- in the creation of our energy policy is evident. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, some recommendations were written, word for word, into the document.
Sen. John McCain (a Republican) calls the policy "the No-Lobbyist-Left-Behind Act." In a special report released by The Freedom of Information Center, McCain is quoted as saying: "This secretive, exclusive process has led to a 1,200-page monstrosity that is chock full of special interest giveaways and exemptions from environmental and other laws that frankly can’t withstand the light of scrutiny."
And Cheney, hiding behind "executive privilege" is making sure it can’t be properly scrutinized.
The House Committee on Government Reform looked into a crystal ball and said the policy would cost taxpayers $140 billion over the next 10 years, and result in higher prices for gas and electricity. And that’s exactly what it’s doing.
On Tuesday, the three biggest oil companies projected a combined 19 percent increase in profits for the first three months of this year. At the same time, Bush gave another perk to the energy industry. Disguised as an attempt to lower the price at the pump, he’s easing environmental standards that govern fuel.
Illegal immigrants have marched on Washington. Iraq war protesters have marched on Washington. It’s time we all march on Washington and demand that Bush and Cheney answer for policies that are making a few people obscenely rich and bankrupting the rest of us.
Deb Gauthier can be reached by e-mail at dgauthie@cnc.com
posted by verifi at 9:39 AM
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