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The State of the Nation
Mark A. Goldman                                    Dated: 1/31/06

 

George W. Bush and his administration are creating a legacy of lies and unkept promises; they have demonstrated only incompetence in every possible aspect of public governance. The state of the nation is not good: 

1.   The reasons we were given for attacking Iraq turned out to be false; most of what we were told about Iraq, Saddam Hussein and al-Quaeda also turned out to be false.

2.   The way Bush has conducted the war has been totally incompetent in that he and his war…

  • have increased the insurgency 

  • killed and injured great numbers innocent people 

  • failed in his fiduciary responsibility to protect innocent Iraqi citizens and assets that belonged to the Iraqi people 

  • is ruining the reputation of the US as a nation that respects the rule of law

  • is doing great damage to the Constitution and International Law, undermining a legacy that was built over the entire history of our republic and particularly since WW II.

  • wasted, through fraud and incompetence, billions of dollars of American taxpayer's money

  • made it more likely that Iraq will end up not as a Democracy but as a theocracy with close links to Iran

  • rather than support our troops, actually denied them the tools they needed to succeed, and he has denied them the care they need when they return home.  He called for the reduction of their benefits.  He uses them and then betrays them with lies and broken promises.

  • made perpetual war a likely scenario for the foreseeable future

  • has made every American and every world citizen less safe than we used to be

3.    His tax policies have damaged the fabric of our society and made life more insecure for most Americans

4.    His "leave no child behind" initiative is a failure.  There is more inequality than every before and more poverty for our children, and certainly more inequality between the rich and the poor when it comes to educating our children.

5.   His initiatives that were supposed to protect Americans in the event of national emergencies turned out to be a total failure.  The promises he made in response to that failure are not being kept.

6.   He has broken the law, violated his oath of office, demeaned his office, created a Constitutional crisis, often in the name of national security.   Damaging the rule of law is, in and of itself, a failure to protect us. It is, in fact, our worst nightmare.  It puts every American and every American dream in jeopardy.

7.   He has left Americans less safe by lowering standards… for clean air, economic security, worker safety, food safety, and more.  He broke agreements with the American people and with other nations by ignoring the threat of global warming. 

8.   He failed to create a credible energy policy, and allowed oil companies to take advantage of the American people by not limiting their windfall profits.

9.    He populated the government at every level with political cronies instead of competent administrators capable of executing their duties responsibly and credibly.  He prosecutes whistle-blowers while he protects liars and cheats.  He demoralizes honest public servants and undermines their ability to serve.

10.  He promised to bring the country together and instead created deeper divisions than ever before.

11.  He has undermined Congress by ascribing to himself greater power than the Constitution provides and using various techniques such as signing statements, is destroying the ability of Congress to make law altogether. He has corrupted members of Congress, pressuring them into joining his conspiracy to defraud the American people.

12.  He has ignored Supreme Court judgments and directives, thereby showing disrespect for the Judicial branch of government, in the same manner that he has shown disrespect for the legislative branch.

13.  He has undermined the public's access to the information they need to be responsible citizens... by intimidating the press, allowing media outlets to consolidate and be dominated by corporate interests, and  fraudulently using the media for his own propaganda purposes; he has prevented the American people from learning what is really happening in Iraq and in other places.

14.  He damaged the first amendment by creating "free speech zones" which are anything but that, and has excluded dissenters from attending his public forums, which are staged, giving the public the misleading appearance that his policies are generally held in high esteem.  In fact, his appearances themselves are an egregious act of disrespect for the American people and the Constitution. His use of agencies to illegally spy on US citizens is a betrayal of his oath of office.

15.  He has undermined the public's right to know by preventing transparency in the operation of government processes; he operates in secret to an unprecedented degree; he thwarts laws that were intended to provide citizens with information about their own government; he disrespects the public's right to know what their government is up to; and he disrespects congress's right to exercise due diligence in their oversight responsibilities; he has made secret the papers of prior administrations, inhibiting a better understanding and accounting of our own history, and hides the truth about the illegal activities of his administration and those that came before.

16.  He disrespects the Constitution's requirement for keeping church and state separate, which endangers every person's religious freedom, making it more likely that the US will one day become a theocracy.

17.  He doesn't respect a woman's right to privacy or her right to make decisions about her own body.  He makes it more likely that a woman will choose to have an abortion by reducing the social safety net which denies all women of limited economic means, access to resources for the support and benefit of their born and unborn children.  That destroys a woman's confidence that children she might bring into the world will be treated fairly, or have a reasonable chance to enjoy the blessings of a free and prosperous life.  By working to take away her hope, he has made it more likely that she will opt to abort her pregnancy.  Most of what Bush has done during his presidency has undermined  his own stated objective of valuing and supporting life.

18.  The gap between the rich and poor is greater than it has ever been.  The savings rate of US citizens is now as low as it was in 1933 for the first time since The Great Depression.  Most states in the union are at or near insolvency, and their ability to protect and support their own citizens are more at risk than ever before.  Bush advocates for limiting loans to college students, undermining our children's right to an education and making them less able to compete in the world.  He advocates for the reduction of Medicare and Medicaid benefits.  He tried to destroy Social Security, the most successful social program the US has ever had. The money he has wasted in Iraq could have made these programs secure for many many decades. His priorities are upside down, backwards, and irresponsible.

19.  The US is the most powerful nation on earth and yet the health of our citizens is lower than every other rich country.  We spend more on health care than other nations and yet by any measure we have the worst health. Infant mortality rates are higher than other industrialized nations and life expectancy is among the lowest in comparison.  Every initiative this administration has undertaken with respect to health care is making things worse, not better.  Millions of our citizens are without any health care at all, which is tragically unique among all other wealthy nations. Only our drug companies are doing well, but at the expense of our people.

20.  This administration is competent in only one area... in it's ability to successfully lie to the American people and the world about what it is doing and where it is heading.  It's lies have damaged the fabric of our society, undermined the rule of law, made us all less safe, more afraid, less able to compete in the world, less loved by others, more afraid of one another, and more afraid of the future.  Its lies and disinformation has made most of us so uninformed that many of our citizens regularly vote against their own best interests.  This administration is a failure by any measure unless we assume their purpose is to destroy this nation, perhaps in an effort to satisfy some misunderstood religious prophesy... in which case, we could say they are succeeding.

21. This President and his supporters are closely associated with the most corrupt individuals who ever walked the streets of Washington or the halls of Congress.

22.  Bush is trying to populate the courts with those who do not love you.  He has demonstrated that he loves power more than he loves people.

23.  The President and his closest advisors have committed egregious crimes against the people of this nation and others, including crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes against peace.  He and his closest advisors should be impeached, and they should face criminal prosecution.  Those in Congress who have supported this government in committing these crimes should also be removed from office and the American people should look for new leadership... leadership that respects the rule of law; leadership that respects the truth; leadership that loves people and has the wisdom and a vision to make peace and not war.  Bush has undermined nearly every article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. He has shown us how a nation should not be governed.  In that, he has provided us all a great service.  We should be grateful for the education, but now it's time for us to move on.

The state of our nation is at one of the lowest points in our history. We are in a state of moral and spiritual decline. Our republic, our heritage, and our children's freedom is hanging by a thread.  The state of our nation no longer depends on this President, his corrupt administration, or our failed Congress.   The state of our nation now depends on you.

Mark A. Goldman
www.gpln.com
www.gpln.com/citizen.htm
www.gpln.com/protect.htm
www.gpln.com/basicstrategy.htm
www.gpln.com/onwork.htm
www.gpln.com/udhr.html

 

 

Copyright © 1999-2006 Mark A. Goldman