The Extreme Right-wing Bush crap and baloney of the week, Part 2

 

A somewhat jaundiced progressive view of stories, articles and headlines seen in today's Sacramento Bee.

FRONT SECTION:

PAGE ONE:

1. "Staying alive: Army revises its training for reservists who will face terrorist threat in Iraq." Q: are men who defend their country against foreign invaders to always be called "terrorists?" Was George Washington a terrorist? Were John Adams, Paul Revere and Patrick Henry "terrorists" for defending American states against the British invaders?

Actually Bush was the biggest terrorist in Iraq. He called in the bombers who dropped "bunker busters" and anti-personnel cluster bombs on Iraqi cities. Thousands of innocent Iraqis were murdered in the illegal, criminal Bush invasion of Iraq in 2003.

American military forces need to be withdrawn from Iraq, immediately and unconditionally. Leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi military forces under his command were not even a threat to the Kurds living in the northern part of Iraq. Nor were they a threat to neighboring countries such as Turkey, Iran or Israel. Nor were they a threat to Western Europe. And they certainly posed no threat to the U. S.

PAGE EIGHT:

2. "Medicare drug win turning into a bitter pill for the GOP." And rightly so, for this "reform package" was mostly a big giveaway of billions of taxpayer dollars to Bush contributors, the HMOs and the pharmaceutical manufacturers. Did Bush & Co. think that they could keep on getting away with these massive gifts to their friends?

PAGE NINE:

3. "Bush argues for new funds to fight drugs." It seems like the ever-pugnacious Bush is always starting new wars, making new enemies or trying to enlarge old "wars." The so-called "war on drugs" is basically just a wrongheaded stupid war on poor people. It has criminalized agricultural products such as marijuana, coca and opium and thus made their cultivation, distribution and sale highly profitable. This creates a criminal class. If plant-based recreational drugs were decriminalized, their distribution and use could be regulated and even taxed a little. We should certainly not be forcing the mandatory drug testing of school children. This is a police state tactic and has no place in a democracy. Alcohol and tobacco use create truly serious health problems, much more than the so-called illegal drugs.

PAGE SEVENTEEN

4. "U. S. to beef up bin Laden hunt." There were some stories in the media last week that the U. S. and Pakistan forces have already captured Bin Laden and that they are holding him in custody and that his capture will be announced to the American public a few days before the November 2004 Presidential election to help Bush. Who knows?

PAGE TWENTY:

5. "Death squad vets, killers lead rebels." In Haiti, we are watching the Bush Administration sit by and let bands of armed thugs destroy the democracy. For the last three years, the Bush Administration has done its level best to sabotage the elected government of Aristide. Foreign economic aid has been blocked by the Bush Administration. Hundreds of millions of dollars in loans have been held up this way. Bush detests Aristide because Aristide is actually trying to help the masses of poor people in Haiti. Bush seems to think that the only function of government and its leaders should be to enrich the rulers and their buddies.

PAGE TWENTY-ONE:

6. "Violence slows in Haiti, but no accord reached." In Haiti, we are watching the Bush Administration sit by and let bands of armed thugs destroy the democracy. For the last three years, the Bush Administration has done its level best to sabotage the elected government of Aristide. Foreign economic aid has been blocked by the Bush Administration. Hundreds of millions of dollars in loans have been held up this way. Bush detests Aristide because Aristide is actually trying to help the masses of poor people in Haiti. Bush seems to think that the only function of government and its leaders should be to enrich the rulers and their buddies.

 

by James K. Sayre

 

29 February 2004