Required Reading For Voters (IMO)

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I found it very interesting and very correct IMHO

http://pinione.blogspot.com/2010/09/...-american.html

Although republicans are trying to hold democrats responsible for the ongoing recession in America, GOP politicians have a selective and very short-term memory when it comes their party’s handling of the U.S. economy. In addition to trying to blame Obama for the economy, republicans are also trying to accuse Obama and the democrats of a government takeover of healthcare and other abuses of power. These are audacious claims coming from a political party which launched the United States on a war based on false intelligence, while at the same time cutting taxes and instituting a cowardice stop loss policy on military members, which enabled the Bush administration and the GOP controlled congress to avoid any political fallout from conscription. Counting on the notorious short-term memory of American voters, GOP political strategists in Washington are running a mid-term campaign centered on fear, a flawed policy of economic stimulus through tax cuts, and continuing to support a flawed national security policy of energy security through military protection for a finite natural resource.

During the mid-term election season of 2010, Americans need to be reminded that it was a republican controlled congress and White House and not the Obama administration that should be held accountable for the current economic malaise in America. The Bush administration and the GOP controlled congress decision to invade and occupy Iraq, while at the same time cutting taxes for wealthy Americans, have directly resulted in adding over one trillion dollars to the public debt and contributed significantly to the current federal deficit of over one trillion dollars. These actions eradicate any claims by republican candidates as being more fiscally conservative or capable in issues related to national security.

The greatest economic recession since the Great Depression, along with two years of economic misery and high unemployment, has allowed republican candidates, enabled by an unwitting mass media, to distract American voters from the abuses of power, subversion of the U.S. Constitution, and the mishandling of the economy by the republicans from 2001 to 2006. Although the Bush administration was simply taking advantage of the powerful executive branch institutions created by the National Security Act of 1947, both political parties bear responsibility in their failure to check the power of an executive branch determined to go to war.

By launching the United States on a preemptive war based on false intelligence, while at the same time trying to use the least amount of troops to achieve their political goal of replacing Saddam Hussein, the GOP has forfeited all their self-proclaimed political capital on matters related to military defense, national security, and defending the freedoms given to Americans in the Constitution.. Political rhetoric of supporting the troops, while at the same time implementing the cruel cowardice of a stop loss policy on military members, which enabled Bush administration and the GOP controlled congress to avoid the political fallout of conscription, further forfeited any national security credentials republicans may still try to claim.

Voters in the mid-term election of 2010 need to be reminded that The Patriot Act of 2002 and the military attack on Iraq started with false intelligence, occurred under republican control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government. Voters should also be reminded that some of the most damaging attacks on American democracy and the U.S. Constitution occurred during republican control of the legislative and executive branches from 2001 to 2006. Some of the more notable abuses of power and violations of the U.S. Constitution conducted during republican control of the government included the illegal and unconstitutional wiretapping of American citizens, encouraging the illegal use of torture on prisoners, and formally invoking executive privilege, a concept not found in the U.S. Constitution, seven times between 2001 and 2008.

Instead of debating if a mosque should be built on private property or how they are going to jump start the economy, politicians from both political parties in the current mid-term election campaign season should be discussing ways to reverse the constitutional crisis created by militarism and corporatism in America over the last 60 years. No bid contracts for the politically connected Halliburton, numerous stories of corruption and graft related to the reconstruction effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, are only a few examples of how militarism and corporatism are destroying the country from within. While politicians proclaim their support for democracy and freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, due to executive branch expansion over the last four decades and a negligent legislative branch to confront it, significant rollbacks of Americans own constitutional liberties have taken place. Writing in Federalist No.8 in 1787, Alexander Hamilton predicted how war and liberty are at odds with each other.

“The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effect and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger will compel nations the most attached to liberty, to resort to repose and security to institutions which will have the tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become more willing to run the risk of being less free.”