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

To: Bald Eagle who wrote (431161)	7/22/2003 2:12:14 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 769667

Bald Eagle, Thanks for your reply. We are in agreement on two matters. One, the legislative process in a free nation is meant to be a deliberation of the facts and an open debate before decisions are made. The Republicans seem to be violating this basic tenet of democracy with growing arrogance, hubris and lack of respect for the people of the nation. The most glaring example of this was the way that the Republican leadership ramrodded the USA PATRIOT Act (UPA)through a Congress that could not even meet in its own chambers due to anthrax attacks that, it is now known, originated from politically motivated persons inside the U.S., using U.S. military developed strains of the anthrax. This ought to be a huge red flag for Americans, where some deeply disturbed persons are criminally engaged in an effort to intimidate the legislature. In the case of the UPA, the leadership was successful at stifling discussion, smearing those who would engage in deliberations as "un-patriotic", and bullying anyone who insisted that we still live in a democracy. In other words, the GOP leadership was acting in the same deplorable and despotic fashion that they castigate the Chinese, the former Soviet Union or Nazi Germany for engaging in. The hypocrisy of their aggressive bullying ought to alarm all thinking Americans who value our way of life and our freedoms. The irony of having George Bush come out shortly after 9/11 saying that we were attacked for our "Freedoms and liberty", and then thuggishly intimidate the legislature is something that is deeply disturbing to me and to millions of other thinking Americans. ******* Our second point of agreement: As to the effort of the Republican leadership to put hand-cuffs on trial lawyers and prevent justice from being served in situations like the Louisiana nursing homes abuse cases that you cite, I agree with you. The tort system was created for a very good reason. There are abuses that occur in this world, and ordinary people need a way to redress these grievances. There are many things I disagree with in the tort system. There clearly are too many frivolous law suits, and there run-away juries. But the relative percentages of abuse by plaintiffs pales in comparison to the actual harm caused by many corporate defenders. Today, the cigarette companies all readily admit what their CEOs lied about under oath just a few years ago. That cigarettes cause lung cancer. Without a tort system, we would still be living with the lies of the CEOs. Where the tort attorneys tend to push too far however is recently exemplified by the "trial balloons" in the media regarding the proposed suits against the fast food industry. To me, this is silly stuff. And it besmirches the reputation of the trial lawyers that they'd think that they ought to be involved in this litigation. It is common sense that seems to be taking a back seat these days. Of course people who fail to exerise and eat too much junk food are going to become obese. Blaming the fast food purveyors isn't the answer though. The public really does need to be held accountable, to at least a moderate degree, for their own free choices. That said, the sort of tort reform favored by Bush & Cie. seems to be wrong-headed in many instances. A prime example is the way that environment costs are proposed to be shifted from mining and extraction industries back onto the public. A prime example of this is the amazingly lucrative deal that American Barrick got courtesy of Bush 41 lobbying on behalf of arms dealer Adnan Kashoggi in the early 1990s. Barrick captured a gold mine claim worth probably $10 Billion over time with a payment of $10,000 to the Department of the Interior. This mine, in the Humbolt River Basin of eastern Nevada, is going to eventually devastate that area. The mine spoils will be laced with cyanide from the leach heaps. The Humboldt River is currently flowing artificially high due to ground water pumping to permit the mines to operate below the normal water table and when the mines close in 20 years or so, the river will dry up, as the ground water fills the mines with acidic and poisonous waste water, similar to the huge open cesspool in Butte, MT. The local farm economy will be wrecked, the land made sterile by lack of irrigation, and Barrick will simply walk away, leaving an ecological disaster of the commons for the public to try to rectify. And what did George Bush get out of this devastation? A few hundred thousand dollars for a consulting fee, is the best guess among those in the know. Bush Sr. sold out his nation to a gun runner for a few bucks. God Bless America. [[Poppy Bush and the Stealing of America: gregpalast.com]]