- The work force in plastics and rubber products declined by 15%.
- Manufacturers of beverages and tobacco products experienced a 7% shrinkage in jobs.
- The information sector lost 17% of its jobs.
- Today there are 209,000 fewer managerial and supervisory jobs than 5 years ago.
I urge everyone to read the summation of the current economic disaster here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02112006.html
Paul Craig Roberts is no liberal. He is a former treasury Secretary under Ronald Reagan and is currently associated with the National Review and the Wall Street Journal, two far right organizations. What he is though, is brutally honest about our current economy. The line that sticks out for me from this article is, "The total number of private sector jobs created over the five year period is 500,000 jobs less than one year's legal and illegal immigration!" Will you remember that America when you go into the voting booth this November or will you listen to the talking heads paid to convince you that working three jobs is so "American?"
While you have been watching your economic state crumble around you, what about the other side? The past five years have been a boon for the super-wealthy in this country. Critics of mine will scream "class-warfare!" Let them scream I say. The Bush tax cuts only truly help the rich and he wants to make them permanent, so his base can enjoy further wealth while you search for your fourth job after visiting the soup line. Sure, the middle class received several hundred dollars under the Bush tax cuts. What is missed though is that when you cut taxes, the money actually has to come out of something. Services somewhere are cut. Those cuts eventually affect you. Maybe you are paying more for electricity, milk or health insurance. Maybe your state taxes are higher. Maybe the tuition has increased for you or your children. Maybe you have to pay for breakfast for your kids because the program was cut at your school. Maybe childcare costs have risen. Somewhere, and in most cases, in multiple places, your costs have increased to offset whatever pittance Bush threw your way in his "tax cut." Then what truly gets lost, is that for every minimal cut you get, somewhere the rich are laughing to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax breaks. The notion that trickle down economics will then spur on job growth was debunked when it failed under Reagan and it is being debunked yet again. The rich do not turn around and hand back money to the poor. They similarly, will not feel compelled to create American jobs, if those jobs can be created overseas for a fraction of the cost, and if the government actually encourages the outsourcing of those jobs. Will you remember your tax cut or the millionaire's tax cut this November? Will you remember the vile attempt to repeal the Estate Tax, which only benefits the absolutely filthy rich? Will you remember the recent budget approved by Congress, mere weeks after granting over 80 billion in new tax cuts to the nations wealthy? Will you remember the near 40 billion cut from services to the neediest in this country, right after that handout to the rich? When will it be enough for you?
While you have watched your fortunes turn for the worst, despite the expansion of wealth to the already wealthy, how have your elected officials behaved? Will you remember Duke Cunningham and the millions he took in bribes? Will you remember the yacht and Rolls Royce he was bribed with? Will you remember Tom Delay, the Poster Boy for corruption who had no problem publicly bragging that "I am the federal government?" Will you remember the various indictments' he is under? Will you remember his new replacement, John Boehner, as Majority leader in the House of Representatives? Will you remember that when trying to repair their tarnished image of corruption, the GOP had to turn to someone who rents his DC apartment from a lobbyist in a sector that Boehner directly writes legislation for! Apparently when searching for Delay's replacement, the best the GOP could come up with was someone who technically was not under indictment yet. Will you remember these people America or will you believe the lies that are designed to distract you? There is only ONE party in complete control America, ONE. Remember that party's record when you walk into the booth this November. Remember the trifecta America. You get poorer, while the rich get richer, and the politicians go golfing in Scotland.
This November represents the best opportunity to take this country back America. It represents our best chance to wrest absolute power from the hands of very dangerous people who have proven to us they cannot handle absolute power. This is not even about Bush per se. It is about the truth. It is about a country that used to stand for something. Today, Bush sees himself as a tyrant, blatantly violating federal laws and then bragging about it. He has no fear because his own party has shown no willingness to do anything other than be an accomplice to the ruination of the fabric of this country. Bush is done anyway and has only two years left in his reign. The issue this year is taking back one of the branches of government from his hands. While he has been able to ignore the judicial branch on many occasions, he will not be able to duck the legislative branch if it truly starts representing the people, as it is supposed to do. It is not about impeachment or censure, it is about the truth. It is about having a check and balance to our leaders, lest we become the type of government we seem so willing to topple. If the other party regains the legislative branch and truly independent investigations prove nothing, so be it. But where there is smoke, there is fire and this country is burning down around our ears every day and it is time to at least put out the fire and return some intrinsic fairness and openness to our systems.
Beware America, this administration and its complicit Congress will not go easily. They will fight it at every step because they realize how exposed they all are in the mess we have had to endure the past six years. Real investigations have real subpoena power and don't think for a second that does not keep Karl Rove up at night sweating. Your sensibilities will be assaulted between now and November. Your rationalities will be accosted. Remember, they control the media as well. You will hear fanciful tales of terror plans thwarted such as last week when Bush suddenly realized he had stopped a terror attack in Los Angeles in 2002. Of course everyone else "in the know" realized this was ridiculously untrue, but you must remember that ANYTHING, can and will be used for political purposes. You can rest assured that Osama will put out a new hit video, surprisingly at the exact moment to best help Bush and the GOP. Something will blow up somewhere in this world, possibly even in this country. Never mind that it would only serve to prove that this administration and its lackey Congress have done precious little to protect us over the past six years. The purpose is not to convince you of anything, just to scare you. A frightened populace gets easily confused. They walk into the voting booth and forget what they have seen, heard and experienced over the past six years. They forget that we are muddled in a war in a country that had nothing to do with 911 or terrorism. They forget that they were lied to, in order to start this war. They forget that not one conviction for terrorism has occurred since this "war on terror" has begun. They forget Abu Ghraib, Valerie Plame and John Boehner. They forget that they are being spied on by their own president while he shackles the mother of a fallen soldier for daring to wear the total number of dead soldiers, and drags her from the People's House in chains. They forget that this administration and its flunky Congress have just asked for a 7% increase in defense spending (not including overruns for the war), while making the tax cuts for the rich permanent, as they demand non-security domestic discretionary spending cuts by 4.4%. There is plenty of money for war and death but mandatory cuts to education and services to the poor. Contracts abound for Halliburton while you search for your third job.
Their primary weapon America, is fear. I mean your government, not the terrorists. Don't misunderstand me, you should be afraid America. You should be afraid of a president that assumes he can violate federal law. You should fear a Congress that has forgotten that they were elected to represent YOU, not their party. You should be very frightened about the impoverishing of a nation and loss of our national conscience. Most importantly, you should be afraid of your own memory. You should be fearful of forgetting the words of Benjamin Franklin, who said a nation that is willing to sacrifice liberty for security, deserves neither.
Don't be deceived America. Do not walk into that voting booth this November and forget. Do not forget the sacrifice of over 2,200 American children. They died to protect this country from a threat that was not there. Their blood has been used by this administration and complicit Congress to further their own agenda, at your expense. Their blood still screams out from the sands of a desert they never had any business being in. Their blood demands only one thing from you this November America. Do not forget.
Will you remember?
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