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...two great articles, there must be many many others around the country. Let's see more of them here on DU!
It’s the economy, stupid
Originally published on Saturday, September 11
The fact that the federal government spent $422 billion more this year than it collected in taxes has been pronounced as “super” by Oklahoma’s retiring U.S. Senator Don Nickles.
That the U.S. is spending billions to rebuild the Iraqi infrastructure that our government blew to smithereens is partly to blame.
So U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe backed off on his demand for $318 billion a year to build highways in America, settling for $299 billion as championed by his counterpart in the House of Representatives.
Then a spokesman for Nickles told Tulsa World reporter Jim Myers that Nickles has reservations about how even the $299 billion will be funded and was withholding support until he saw particulars.
Hey, motorists who study the gasoline price break-down at pumps know how it will be paid. It is by the gallon — and a lot. Motorists also know their cars are being shaken expensively to death by bad roads caused by poor maintenance blamed on inadequate funding.
About the $422 billion 2004 deficit that is projected to grow to $2 trillion in a decade, Nickles himself told Oklahoman reporter Chris Casteel, “Deficits are falling. That’s good. The tax cuts we passed last year are raising more money than people anticipated. That is real economic growth. That is super.”
Amid this incredible blur of balderdash is the mystery of whether George W. Bush was a cheerleader at Yale. We believe Nickles, who is leaving the Senate and will no doubt remain in Washington as a lobbyist getting richer, is certainly a cheerleader for Bush.
Voters should remember that when Bush took office, the deficit was nil. And Nickles was a leading senator while Inhofe was snorting that the real issues were “guns, God and gays.”
Will America’s grandchildren, who surely must pay the bills and obviously will be left with highways to repair, agree?
The online edition of the Claremore Daily Progress is updated Tuesday thru Saturday at 4:00 PM
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It's The Truth, Stupid!
What the American people really need, now
September 10 2004
Counterbias.com
Douglass J. Griffin
What should be a referendum on President George W. Bush’s record in the White House has become a referendum on how well the national media (a.k.a. the so-called liberal media) reports the constant misleading distortions that come from the Bush Administration. To expect that ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, or any of the alphabet soup we call the news will suddenly do their jobs and accurately report the goings on of the Bush Administration would be naïve, to say the least.
Today, we have a photo-op news media tailored for a photo-op president. Why should the news media bother to do its job when the president doesn’t bother to do his?
Why doesn’t the media make more of an issue that this president has been on vacation more than any other? How, exactly, is this working hard for the American people?
If we lived in a world where only the superficial mattered, then that would be okay. The problem is, we live in a world where only focusing on the superficial ends with essential details being missed. The ADD news media has created an ADD public.
This is where we have come.
We know the media isn’t posing the tough questions - at least not to the Bush-Cheney campaign. Where are those tough questions about the war in Iraq? The economy? Health care? The war on terror?
Essentially, it is the economy, stupid! As much as it is the war in Iraq, health care, and the war on terror.
But it goes well beyond the superficial reporting that we receive from the so-called liberal media (SCLM).
The Bush-Cheney camp definitely knows this and is counting on the media to continue kowtowing by amplifying Bush’s distortions and spotlighting perceived faults in Kerry. Swift Boat Veterans for Bush come to mind. Stalin had Pravda and Bush has the American mainstream media.
Since the Republican National Convention concluded, what most outside the SCLM say is that the RNC lacked truth.
Truth about the direction the country is headed. Truth about the real agenda of the Bush Administration. Truth about the face of the modern Republican party.
Truth.
The Bush Administration has bastardized truth beyond recognition by distorting, misleading, and outright lying to the American people. The American media have been only too happy to repeat the misinformation over and over again so that the process can be complete. The American public accepts the lies as truth.
Looking past the subterfuge…
When you get past the Kobe case, Peterson trial, Nipple-gate (Super Bowl XXXVIII), Michael Jackson, and all the other distractions we’ve been given, it is not a pretty picture for the Bush Administration.
Bush has moved to underfund his own initiative, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), for the last three years by a combined total of $94 billion. That’s the truth!
Here’s a tough question for the media to ask: “Why?” Or better yet, “How can you call yourself an ‘Education’ President, Mr. President?”
Nearly 36 million Americans, including 13 million children, live in poverty. That’s the truth!
Again, why?
Nearly 45 million Americans live without health care. The number has increased every year that President Bush has been in office. That’s the truth!
Why?
Despite the president’s promises that his Medicare initiative would save seniors money, it will actually cost them significantly more than they already pay. That’s the truth!
Why?
Mercury and arsenic levels are at unacceptably high levels for all of us, but especially for children and pregnant women. Bush appointees to the EPA and other environmental watchdog groups are former lobbyists and employees of the companies that pollute our air and water with mercury and arsenic among other toxins. We can thank Dick Cheney for that. That’s the truth!
Why?
George W. Bush ignored warnings that America was about to be attacked prior to 9/11. He and his administration also ignored stern warnings from the Clinton Administration about terrorism. That’s the truth!
Why?
Rudy Giuliani claimed to have seen people leap to their deaths from the WTC attack. While that was going on, George W. Bush was in a Florida classroom continuing his photo-op to the sounds of My Pet Goat. That’s the truth!
“Thank God George W. Bush is president!” said Rudy.
Saudi Arabia had more to do with 9/11 than we have been told. That’s the truth! Where’s the in depth reporting on that?
Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. That’s the truth! Where’s the in depth reporting on that?
George W. Bush knows that Saudi Arabia was connected to 9/11 and that Saddam Hussein was not. That’s the truth! Where’s the in depth reporting on that?
“Thank God…” indeed, Rudy!
In the past, presidents have claimed partisanship within Congress as the roadblock impeding the progress of their initiatives. The Republicans basically control all three branches of government and yet there has been no progress for the people Bush (one of the bluest of the blue bloods) claims to represent – the middle class, which is still in recession. That’s the truth!
What’s George W. Bush’s excuse?
September 11 cannot be blamed for all that is wrong with America today. It was just one horrific day in our lives. That too, is the truth!
Had the media done its job, George W. Bush would have either resigned or been impeached or both, by now. That’s the truth!
It’s the truth about these issues that the American people so desperately need. The Bush-Cheney campaign cannot afford an informed public. An informed public would surely vote for John F. Kerry over George W. Bush any day.
That’s the absolute truth!
Armed with the truth, the American people can affect regime change right here at home, where it should’ve begun in the first place.
Yes, it is about the economy, the war on terror, health care, the environment, and the war in Iraq. But it’s the truth about these issues the American people need to hear.
Bottom line… It’s the truth, stupid!
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