NOTE; This was written before Bush's speecg excelt for the "postscript" at the end.
Unless you want a rerun of Corporate trade happy talk, cowboy foreign policy and utright lies, skip Bush's State of the Union speech. Here's what the Decider-in-Chief will NOT be saying about the state of our nation.
You are paying $8 BILLION every month for the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
You work an ENTIRE YEAR to make what a CEO makes in ONE DAY.
Bush wants to send another 21,000 troops to iraq. The only reason I can imagine for this is to guard Iraqi oil facilities after passing a new law that gives U.S. oil companies control over them for the forseeable future.
College tuition keeps gong up. Grants get cut.
If you're a youth in small town/rural America, Uncle Sam (or Wal-Mart) wants YOU! If you're a youth of color in our cities, your options are Mickey D's, Uncle Sam's military or a slot in one of America's few growth industries--private prisons.
The military budget balloons. Corporate welfare expands. All human investment is cut.
New Orleans remains in ruins. Homelessness keeps rising.
You may soon be REQUIRED BY LAW to buy the health insurance that you already cannot afford.
Haven't the American people had enough yet?
It doesn't have to be this way! Here's a hint: when a country or it's leader is demonized by the U.S. government, that's an attempt to snow the American people--to keep us from seeing alternatives.
Take Cuba: that island nation of 11 million people has healthcare for all and better health outcomes (such as lower infant mortality rates)than the U.S. does.
Consider Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez is challenging corporate power and taking back his country's resources for the benefit of the people--not a tiny elite. G.,W. Bush and BOTH U.S. political parties cater to corporations at the expense of everyone eles.
And Iran? IF Iran is even working on nuclear weapons, it would be five or 10 years before they could have weapons. However, Bush is pushing to build MORE nuclear weapons.
Reality-check: The U.S. is the ONLY nation on Earth to use atomic bombs on people--Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WWII. American weaqpons of mass destruction (such as the "depleted" uranium bunker busters that have been dropped on Iraq in 1991 and in the current invasion/occupation), are the real danger--NOT Iranian weapons that do not even exist.
Lydia Howell is a Minneapolis journalist, poet, activist and producer/host of "Catalyst:politics & culture" on KFAI Radio, all shows archived for 2 weeks after braodcast at www.kfai.org
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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