Last weeks election results have me baffled. Keeping my cool has been seriously compromised. What are the American people thinking? On election day I hunkered down outside my local polling station, curious what kinds of folks would show up. Few did, but one Hispanic guy was open to discuss his choices. Pissed at our Democratic Governor who had been embroiled in scandal, he blamed Richardson for stealing his Mom's pension fund. So he was ready for change. He claimed to listen to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, but he voted for a Republican Governor. So now we have Susanna Martinez, the first female Hispanic Governor ever and what does she do? Investigate already on how to reverse recent legislation in regard to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) as if the environment needed not more, but less protection! With big money from Texas ,her home state ,we are sure to see oil interests rise and pristine areas opened to invasive drilling, resisted up until now.
A planned acquisition of land for an ambitious 4 prong project to rescue wild Mustangs, to rehabilitate and employ them for therapeutic gains for kids and vets and tourists will likely get nixed with the myopic state of minds of most Republicans. One elderly lady expects hunters to be given access to up till now protected environments. One would wish for more wisdom with females in leading positions, but I never believed peace to reign with females bickering (and this our two contenders for Governor did up to election day.)
One of my favorite cute young check-out guy at Trader Joe's grocery store admitted he did not bother to vote. I gave him hell. Well, not really, but I did impress on him the importance of doing so and he agreed he made a mistake. Have you talked to your check-out guy or gal lately, about things that matter? I highly recommend talking to those around us for real.
At the dog park on my twice daily outings I inquired about how others feel about the results and lo and behold there are a few there too that voted supposedly conservative. The First Lady's entourage was blamed, the expenses of the President's trips were mentioned, but not the expenses of Bush's war mongering? It took only one round around the park for one woman to consider she may have made a mistake with her vote for Republicans. Mind you we parted with hugs and the satisfaction of being able to voice our differing views and hear each other and find a surprising lot of common ground. Have you talked to your friends and neighbors yet lately? Again, I highly recommend it, we do need civilized discourse. Politics and money should no longer be off limits, they are too important.
Bush is hawking his book and so I got to watch him on Oprah. He mentioned that sinking feeling when he learned that there were no weapons of mass destruction and then continued that EVERYBODY believed Saddam had them. Nope, I did not, and neither did the investigators and he chose not to listen to them, but follow in the footsteps of unconfirmed ideations of his own. I blame him for not having taken the time, not having had the wisdom to wait out the results of an almost complete investigation. before going to war. Inexcusable. Bush did not say he was sorry! Instead he claims a black entertainer's critique of racism hurt him the most! But objections to his actions from throughout the world, in the millions, ran down his bare back like water and left him unaffected? Bush says he is done with politics and it seems to confirm that his stints as Governor and President were likely geared towards pleasing his Dad. Gosh what an immature mind. Do the American people really have such a short memory?
to be continued ...
I agree with your comments.When you ask do Americans have short memories? Yes they do but they are not alone in this. For instance, the British voted Blair in twice.
ReplyDeleteIn Australia, if you do not vote you are subject to a fine, I don't know how big the fine is but it seems a good idea to me. If most of the electorate choose not to vote, you are not really living in a democracy are you?I imagine the voting numbers would soar if a citizenship privilege was withdrawn from those who did not vote. Can you see the uproar if say....your driving license became invalid or passport not honoured if you had no proof of voting?
I have only read reviews of the Bush book, so I do not have the full picture. It is of cause going to spin things in Bush's favour. He does admit to a slow response to Katrina I believe. Katrina was at the very least a huge PR failure. America, the "can do" richest western country could not drop bottled water to their own citizens? TV slots, time after time humiliated America.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of what lawyers say, I do believe waterboarding to be torture. You can then go into in the arguments of torturing one to save many lives and I admit I have no ready answer for that.
A leader does have to be strong and make his own decisions BUT a leader cannot be deaf to all authoritative opinion. Everyone and I still think Bush and Blair knew that there were no WMD. I still think that this was Haliburton's war, all about the oil.
I cannot forgive the waste of the Iraq and now the Afghan wars. I don't believe that the West is safer because of these actions, in fact the reverse is true as it is a focus for terrorist recruitment.
I absolutely do not think that the everyday lives of people in Iraq are better now.
I regret the thousands of soldier's lives lost, their families shattered. I regret the multi thousands of Iraqi lives lost, their famlies lives absolutely shattered.
I regret the loss of money.....billions and billions a fraction of this money seeding good work could have made us all safer at home.
I regret that irreplaceable artifacts and sites of the first human civilizations have been damaged, stolen, lost. Not only Iraqi history...world history.
I regret and I see this as the Bush major sin, that there was no post war plan for Irag. Rumsfeldt and Cheyney had no thought for that, they are major war criminals to my mind, if not by intent....by arrogance and stupidity.
So my review of the Bush Book , gathered from reviews and interviews...... Mr. Bush has charm granted but there is no excuse for what he did.
I did not read the book either, of course, but from the interview gathered even more of a suspicion that getting back at Saddam was linked to avenging his father. He said that the criticism directed at himself meant nothing, but against his father hurt him deeply. I find that a very telling, likely true statement. I am afraid much of his existence in politics is due to wanting to please his Daddy.
ReplyDeleteThe lack in proper restraint and the proper time, before invasion to me seems a serious criminal offense, but I am not hungry for revenge.
Demanding votes without real viable choices seems unfair too. Maybe better to reward voting then punish not voting? Tax relief for voters lol? Food stamps for those with no income to speak of?
Maybe more transparency in governing will eliminate some of the corruption and abuse of power, so we can once more believe what comes out of a politician's mouth?
Good points you made, more grist for the mill, thank you for commenting rockflower.