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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Srexley who wrote (248348)	4/16/2002 6:08:02 PM
From: MSI	Respond to of 769670

The facts, as I see them, are: 1) Gov't power is increasing steadily and dramatically, in every way, from getting into your pocketbook, media, email, and your reading lists. Every administration has gone more or less in this direction. The Bush admin has the worst record and relies heavily on control of intel services. One factor in Gov't power is the power to keep secrets, which in the information age is the greatest power, even more important than military power. Too much money + too much secrecy will produce a comfortable sort of 21st century fascism, where everyone is numb and compliant, but takes no say in the political process. This administration is obsessed with hiding the public's information, with a "you work for me" attitude, instead of being a servant of the people. The last 20 years' pres papers are one example, overturning FOIA and Congressional oversight. 2) Incompetence in spite of unprecedented military and intelligence service power and funding is inexplicable. The failures in light of previous knowledge of terrorist activities conflicts with common sense. The publicity of Spann's family name and city contradicts policy and sense, unless there is either incompetence or real knowledge of a much different level of security than is being disclosed. 3) Bush Junior is a down-home guy, who does exactly what he is told. He is a figurehead for the Senior's group making decisions who benefit, which is obvious if you look at interviews and statements, by him and the rest of the administration, who carefully try to avoid that impression. I have no quarrel with Junior. He is of no consequence. The failure to accomplish anything, such as finding OBL, starts becoming like the story of OJ looking for the "real killers", when you realize the outstanding level of capability of the military services, versus what is being accomplished. OBL reportedly had 3 hours to vacate his cave before one bombing... something isn't right. Eventually, I come to the repeated suspicion that their hands are being tied, that there is backroom dealing being done, and then look to "follow the money", as well as the political profit. In a real war, the citizenry is mobilized, especially in domestic attack. That is not the goal here. The goal is to numb the populace and keep all responsibility in the hands of the central gov't. When you add to that refusal of Senior to back away from profiteering from worldwide conflict, and not disavowing his Saudi partners after 9/11, it makes me puke. Compare that to Teddy Roosevelt, who backed away from no challenge, who refused to profit from anything gained in office, even the $30k Nobel Prize given to him personally. He was, by contrast, a man of principle and integrity. We can't legislate morality, but transparency and full disclosure will go a long way towards exposing and preventing malfeasance. As far as paranoia goes? My greatest fear, I suppose, is a domestic version of General Ripper, who feels it necessary to deploy mass-destruction to militate the public against terrorism, and has sufficient media control to get away with it. Read about General Butler, linked to earlier. These wealthy families in the early part of this century felt they were entitled to take over the country, to reverse FDR's election. eclectica.org korpios.org It's not a totally unfounded suspicion. Some authors are paranoid but have the occasional nugget among the flotsam to be concerned about: gwu.edu geocities.com kmf.org