http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060515_molly_ivins_lunacy/
Politics, or Insanity?
By Molly Ivins
May 15, 2006, Trughdig
Plan to militarize Mexican border is sheer madness or blatant pandering.
Austin, Texas - I hate to raise such an ugly possibility, but have you
considered lunacy as an explanation? Craziness would make a certain amount
of sense. I mean, you announce you are going to militarize the Mexican
border, but you assure the president of Mexico you are not militarizing the
border. You announce you are sending the National Guard, but then you assure
everyone it's not very many soldiers and just for a little while.
Militarizing the border is a totally terrible idea. Do we have a State
Department? Are they sentient? How much do you want to infuriate Mexico when
it's sitting on quite a bit of oil? Bush knows what the most likely outcome
of this move will be. He was governor during the political firestorm that
ensued when a Marine taking part in anti-drug patrols on the border shot and
killed Esequiel Hernandez, an innocent goat-herder from Redford, Texas.
That's the definition of crazy - repeatedly doing the same thing and
expecting a different result.
I suppose politics could explain it, too. It's quite possible that
lunacy and politics are closely related. It's still damned hard cheese for
the Guard, though. The Guard is heavily deployed in Iraq, currently 20
percent of those serving, down from 40 percent last year. Some soldiers are
sent back for multiple tours. Lt. Gen. James Helmly, head of the Army
Reserve, said the Reserve is rapidly degenerating into "a broken force" and
is "in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements."
Happy hurricane season to you, too. The Guard is also short on equipment and
falling short on recruiting goals.
But right-wingers are very unhappy with Bush right now, and this is a
strong, red-meat gesture that will make them happy, even if it does nothing
to shut down the border. You want to shut down illegal immigration? You want
to use the military as police? Make it illegal hire undocumented workers and
put the National Guard into enforcing that. Then rewrite NAFTA and invest in
Mexico.
Meanwhile, further proof that the entire party is cuckoo comes to us
with the passage of another $70 billion tax cut for the rich. The Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities says the average middle-income household will
get a $20 tax cut, while those making more than $1 million a year will get
nearly $42,000.
The Washington Post editorialized, "Budgetary dishonesty, distributional
unfairness, fiscal irresponsibility - by now the words are so familiar, it
can be hard to appreciate how damaging this fiscal course will be."
Both President Bush and Veep Cheney are still going around claiming if
you cut taxes, your tax revenues increase. No, they don't. Now we're just in
whackoville. It's not true. Their own economists tell them it's not true,
but they go about claiming it is with the same desperate tenacity they clung
to false tales of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. How pathetic.
Speaking of lunacy, the saddest report from Iraq is that American
soldiers showing signs of psychological distress and depression are being
kept on active duty, increasing the risk of suicide. The Hartford Courant
reports that even soldiers who have already been diagnosed with
post-traumatic stress syndrome are kept on duty. This has led to an increase
in the suicide rate - 22 soldiers in 2005. And as I have reported before,
the military is unprepared to deal with the flood of head cases coming back
from Iraq. How many ways can we mistreat our own soldiers, while the right
makes this elaborate show of devotion to "the troops"?
The consistent pattern that runs through all these problems is the
failure to distinguish fantasy from reality. Mexican immigrants keep
crossing the border because they can get jobs here - and most of those jobs
are provided by companies whose CEOs support George W. Bush. That's where he
can have an impact on the problem, should he choose to do so.
The $70 billion tax cut is part of a continuing right-wing fantasy going
back to the Laffer Curve. Of course, clinging to demonstrably false economic
precepts is understandable when you benefit from them, but at some point
reality does intervene.
As for the Iraq fantasy and those who pushed it on a reluctant country
through lies, disinformation and bending intelligence - isn't there a law
against that?
***
----- Original Message -----
From: UFPJ Action Alerts
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 9:14 AM
Subject: TAKE ACTION TODAY: National Call-In to Congress to Stop NSA Phone
Surveillance
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545 | Click to subscribe
Please forward widely!
TAKE ACTION TODAY, MAY 17th
National Call-In to Congress to Stop NSA Phone Surveillance
Last December, we learned that President Bush had broken the law by allowing
the National Security Agency to listen in on the phone calls of tens of
thousands of people in this country.
On Thursday, May 11th, USA Today published a major cover story revealing a
National Security Agency (NSA) database of millions of innocent peoples'
domestic phone call records, indicating who, when and where we are calling.
This database has nothing to do with catching suspected terrorists: It is
documenting all our associations in the largest database in history -- with
a goal of including "every call ever made" within the nation's borders!
Take Action Now
It's time for us to tell Congress in a clear, loud voice that we've had
enough!
Today, Wednesday, May 17th, people from around the country will participate
in the Congressional Call-In Day initiated by the Bill of Rights Defense
Committee, the ACLU, People For the American Way, and other organizations
(see below). We will demand a Congressional investigation of this government
intrusion immediately. If you can't make the calls today, then any day this
week would be great. Let's keep those phones ringing in the Congressional
halls all week long!
The Message
Please phone each of your Senators, and your Representative. Urge them NOT
to consider draft legislation that would give the executive branch new
surveillance powers that are immune to oversight by the courts and Congress.
Call for a full, public investigation of the NSA surveillance program.
Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 (24 hours) and ask the operator
to connect you. Or use the Bill of Rights Defense Committee call-in page to
find your legislators' phone numbers.
Sample talking points:
Here are a few suggestions. Choose one or two:
The President has broken the law. He must stop warrantless eavesdropping and
collecting records on all our phone calls and come clean about any further
secret powers he claims as Commander-in-Chief.
The administration's claim that it must break the law to protect us from
al-Qaeda are just plain false: Monitoring any communications targeting an
al-Qaeda member outside the U.S. doesn't even require a warrant, and FISA
judges are ready and waiting to issue warrants to wiretap any suspected
al-Qaeda in the U.S. -- even if those calls include U.S. citizens or
residents.
Overburdening the FBI with thousands of false leads makes us less safe
because it leaves them less time and fewer resources to find the real
terrorists.
How can Congress even consider passing legislation to make these illegal
programs legal, when it can't even find out what they entail? It must
investigate. This is no time for new legislation!
What's needed is an immediate, full and unrestricted public investigation
into the NSA spying program, including a probe into the massive database
collecting millions of peoples' phone calls.
The idea that the database of all our calls is permissible as long as it
doesn't contain names and addresses is ludicrous. By linking the database of
phone calls with all the other government data-mining operations, the
government can literally follow our every move, every contact, and every
transaction. It's "Big Brother" run amok!
Congress needs to pass whistleblower protections for government employees
and safeguards for journalists who provide information about illegal
government acts.
The Fourth Amendment is clear. Electronic surveillance of this sort requires
a warrant. A warrant allows a judge to serve as a check against executive
abuse of power. That check keeps our government honest -- preventing one
branch of government from mischief and errors.
Organizations supporting the call-in day (partial list) include the Alliance
for Justice, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Civil
Liberties Union, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Council on
American-Islamic Relations, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic
Privacy Information Center, First Amendment Foundation, Friends Committee on
National Legislation, Liberty Coalition, National Association of Criminal
Defense Lawyers, National Coalition Against Repressive Legislation, National
Lawyers Guild, Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, People For the
American Way, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Unitarian
Universalist Association of Congregations, and United for Peace and Justice.
ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
To subscribe, visit www.unitedforpeace.org/email
If you no longer wish to receive emails from us, visit
www.demaction.org/ufpj/unsubscribe.jsp
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Everything you need is one click away. Make Yahoo! your home page now.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/AHchtC/4FxNAA/yQLSAA/7gSolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
