March 2, 2004
Rome fell. Hard. It's a fact.
Can you feel our Land of the Free sliding down that same slippery slope?
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
• Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
• Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
• Threat to the world is greater than terrorism
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From Buzzflash:
In "The Sorrows of Empire," Chalmers Johnson, acclaimed author of "Blowback," details why a Neo-Con vision of empire, if not halted, will undo civil democracy as we know it.
As Johnson concludes, "Militarism and imperialism threaten democratic government at home just as they menace the independence and sovereignty of other countries. Whether George Bush and his zealots can bring about 'regime change' in a whole range of other countries may be an open question, but they certainly seem in the process of doing so in the United States."
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From Paul Krugman, here:
Last week Mr. Greenspan warned of the dangers posed by budget deficits. But even though the main cause of deficits is plunging revenue — the federal government's tax take is now at its lowest level as a share of the economy since 1950 — he opposes any effort to restore recent revenue losses. Instead, he supports the Bush administration's plan to make its tax cuts permanent, and calls for cuts in Social Security benefits. [snip] But wait — it gets worse.
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From Sorry, Right Number by Maureen Dowd:
The catchphrase du jour is Donald Trump's snappy, "You're fired." But no one has lost a job over the intelligence failures that led to 9/11 or the war that was trumped up and velcroed to 9/11. In fact, the only people the president and vice president are trying to put out of business are the members of the commission charged with figuring out how 9/11 happened and how to prevent another one.
The White House seems more worried about the public's finding out how much it knew and how little it did before 9/11 than it does about identifying and fixing security weaknesses.
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From a recent speech by Senator Byrd:
The IMF, an international organization normally concerned with the debt problems of third-world nations, has issued an alarming critique of the United States, pleading with the Bush Administration to rein in its massive budget and trade deficits. Similar warnings have emanated from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, from former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and from the U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. Even the Administration's own political allies, ranging from the conservative Heritage Foundation to private-sector economists who endorsed the President's tax cuts, have pleaded with this Administration to get its fiscal act together.
[snip]
Yet these warnings fall on deaf ears in this Administration. After spending $1.7 trillion to finance three enormous tax cuts in the last three years, the President's budget proposes an additional $1.24 trillion for more tax cuts.
When this Administration leaves office, its legacy will be an enormous debt burden that will weigh heavily on the middle-class. In the process, it will have severely weakened their safety net, and have left little means for fixing it.
But it won't matter to this president at that point. He'll move back to Texas knowing that his pension and health care benefits are secure, and that corporate CEOs and Texas oil men are wealthier and more comfortable than ever before. He'll never have to rely on the safety net that his Administration has worked so hard to dismantle.
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Well, while I'm waiting, powerlessly, for the American Armaggedon, I think I'll hie over to BloggerCon II on April 17 because
• it's free and only one day
• lots of non-A-list bloggers are going, and that's good
• I can stay with my daughter and son-in-law and get to see my grandson
• thanks to Lisa Williams, it's supposed to include a session of women and blogging. From Lisa's weblog:
Women & Blogs: A Roundtable Session
This session will include a lively and welcoming exchange on the best of blogs by women. Participants are encouraged to prepare to share what motivated them to start their blog, and what motivates them to keep blogging. While this session will focus on blogs written by women, guys and their perspectives on the topic will also be enthusiastically welcomed.
And just in case Armaggedon comes before BloggerCon, I'm heading out on Thursday to visit my grandson for a couple of days.
Meanwhile, I had a good laugh tonight with Judging Amy's Tyne Daly's Maxine Gray as she giggles: "I'm sixty-five years old and my boyfriend's mother hates me."
And this election campaign video did NOT make me laugh because it's so damned true. Warning: Adult language and adult content.
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Old Comments (3)
Lisa Williams on 02 Mar 2004
Woot! Can't wait to see you there!
Jon Husband on 11 Mar 2004
Don’t really know who sent me
To raise my voice and say:
May the lights in The Land of Plenty
Shine on the truth some day.
I don’t know why I come here,
Knowing as I do,
What you really think of me,
What I really think of you.
For the millions in a prison,
That wealth has set apart –
For the Christ who has not risen,
From the caverns of the heart –
For the innermost decision,
That we cannot but obey -
For what’s left of our religion,
I lift my voice and pray:
May the lights in The Land of Plenty
Shine on the truth some day.
I know I said I’d meet you,
I’d meet you at the store,
But I can’t buy it, baby.
I can’t buy it anymore.
And I don’t really know who sent me,
To raise my voice and say:
May the lights in The Land of Plenty
Shine on the truth some day.
Leonard Cohen, 2002
Jeffrey Hall on 03 Apr 2004
To Maureen "Liberal only when it suits them" Dowd who always has an excuse for a liberal, or a particular ethinic group, or religous group, or sexual group, but never satisfied with an answer from a conservative. Why do you bother trying to convince anybody of anything. You liberal, biased, scumsucking piece of crap.