TERRORISM MAKES CONVERTS IN AMERICA

Terrorism is winning converts among America’s most powerful leaders. A recent convert to terrorism is Oklahoma’s Republican Senator James Inhofe. He’s enraged at the rage of Americans who can’t stomach terrorism of any sort by any side and the actions that flow from the rage of terrorism. In fact, he’s quite the rage-aholic because his Bushman’s got us in a Bushmess which gets deeper by the day, but the only Bushmess of Bushmess is Bushmess so what does an intelligent man like Inhofe do when faced with his president’s ignorance? Of course! Aim his anger at the people who long ago saw Bush for the fool he is. Don’t aim it at the junior who got us into his mess.

Inhofe wants us to ignore the Geneva Conventions and permit any means to torture information from prisoners. He admits to his conversion to the world of terrorism when he clearly states, “We’re in a different kind of world than we’ve ever been in before, and I believe we need to be tougher than we have ever been before.”

The different world Inhofe speaks of is, of course, the “world of terrorism” from which he now gets his terrorist ideas. Fortunately, some of us are resisting being terrorists and remain in the sane world outside the “different world” Inhofe now lives in. I refuse to become a terrorist or to bend my democratic standards. Terrorists will not convert me to terrorism’s tactics. Unlike Inhofe, I’ll remain a law-abiding American, if you don’t mind.

Find more about Inhofe and terrorism on Page A4 of USA TODAY, Wednesday, May 12, 2004.


NADARFACTS [See Citizen Works.]

In a March/April, 2004 article, “Corporate Supremacy and the Erosion of Democracy,” in The Humanist magazine, Ralph Nadar points out that the ratio of labor dollars to business dollars dedicated to political activism has declined for labor from 3/1 to 14/1.

Nadar also writes, “Despite all the indictments over recent scandals, not one CEO has yet been sent to jail. The settlements for ten Wall Street firms were a laughable slap on the wrist. They weren’t even required to admit wrongdoing and their $1.4 billion assessment fee is deductible—we’re all sharing in it. That was considered the toughest fine in corporate history and it isn’t even one day’s revenues for firms like Citicorp.”

[Both passages are on page 9.]


BUSHIFACTS

From the same issue of “The Humanist” comes Fred Edwords’ article, “The Democratic Ideal Versus the State of the Union” which concentrates on three ways that Bushocracy falls short of the ideals of democracy. In that article is the following scary observation by Christy Todd Whitman, another of the fairly intelligent people who made the mistake of disagreeing with her not so bright Bush-league boss.

“...Christine Todd Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, had never heard Bush ‘analize a complex issue, parse opposing positions, and settle on a judicious path. In fact, no one—inside or outside of government, here or across the globe—had heard him do that to any significant degree.’” (Pages 13-14.)

If you ask me, Bush’s inability to do those things is a sign of his mental deficiency rather than a conscious decision about how to handle complex intellectual issues. It’s also a sign of his tendency to put ideology ahead of rational process. He just gets things in his head and runs with them like a bull in the Iraqi shop. Jeez! Keep him out of the China shop. Imagine what China is thinking while watching this naked display of stupidity by an American president?


IS IT JUST A REPUBLICAN THING?

“Things have never been more like the way they are today in history.” —Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969)