[Grovenet] An interesting view of a legacy . . .

[Walt Wentz]

Steve:
For "substantive content," one has only to look at the current news.
Ordinary working Americans are losing jobs, savings and hope; the 
phrase "living income" has apparently become an obscenity, never to 
be spoken in the circles of power; The super-rich, and those 
"artificial persons" known as corporations, have come to monopolize 
the vast majority of the nation's wealth, and that percentage is 
increasing every day, with the active connivance and assistance of 
the present administration (read: "permanent tax cuts;") while the 
sons and daughters of  our working poor (which will soon mean most of 
us, given current trends), having no other hope of ever improving 
their lot through higher education, are enlisting in an apparently 
endless war, hoping that they will emerge from service alive and with 
brains undamaged for the sake of the mere pittance for "educational 
assistance" which has replaced the old G.I. Bill that made our 
country great.
Substantive content? Our supposedly "conservative" government, far 
from maintaining its cherished old "existing views, conditions or 
institutions" regarding small government, fiscal responsibility and 
noninterference, has been borrowing and spending like a drunken 
sailor, building up a national debt which will crush our descendants 
for generations to come. The future of our economy is now at the 
mercy of foreign governments which have to real reason to wish us 
well... China, Saudi Arabia, other nations who hold trillions in US 
dollars in their national treasuries, and who could  collapse the 
American  economy like a house of cards merely by releasing a flood 
of those dollars on the international market.
Substantive content? Osama bin Laden is still alive, free and 
inspiring another generation of jihadists, six years after our 
present administration swore vengeance and swift victory; 
Afghanistan, which was supposed to become a free and law-abiding 
nation,has instead produced all-time record crops of opium last year, 
resulting an actual over-supply of heroin for the world's crime 
syndicates and drug addicts, while the Taliban are back, striking 
down agents of change and their own people apparently at will, while 
their own casualties are replaced by more jihadists flowing through 
the lawless tribal areas of our supposedly brave and loyal ally, 
Pakistan. Despite all the encouraging propaganda from our 
administration, one has only to read the news from the BBC and other 
foreign services to realize Afghanistan is rapidly becoming a "failed 
state," a chaotic collection of drug fiefdoms and mutually hostile 
tribes, sects and clans, ruled by brutal warlords and Taliban 
zealots-- all this because our present administration decided to 
divide our forces for a fraudulent and utterly irrational invasion of 
Iraq, a nation that had been so badly defeated and disrupted it could 
not defend its own borders against its own neighbors, let alone the 
US Army.
More than five years after "Mission Accomplished," we are still 
there... pushing a determined and resilient "insurgency" from one 
part of the country to another but never actually defeating it, while 
the weak puppet government we installed engages in endless mutual 
backstabbing and thievery, and billions of American reconstruction 
dollars continue to flow into a bottomless black hole of corruption, 
and both Iraqis and Americans continue to die-- despite the 
triumphant announcements when "fewer" die  in a given month than in 
another.
Substantive content? (Expletive deleted!) The world is echoing with 
"substantive content," while our supposedly "conservative" 
administration continues to mouth political slogans, tries to 
distract us with "God, guns and gays" and attempts to scapegoat those 
problems they cannot ignore or deny onto illegal immigrants-- that 
is, the economic refugees fleeing the devastation wrought by our own 
"free-trade" agreements with their home countries.
Sorry if I seem angry and overheated. I am ordinarily of an 
idealistic and optimistic nature, but the "substantive content" of 
our present situation would be enough to infuriate a statue.
Walt



>Walt,
>
>
>And , likewise, liberal propogandization has changed the definition of
>conservative from " tending or disposed to maintain existing views,
>conditions, or institutions,  marked by moderation or caution"  to
>   " reactionaries, bigots, chickenhawks and the assorted other frauds and
>fakers. "
>
>I wish both sides would just grow up and limit discussions to substantive
>content.
>
>
>Steve
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Walt Wentz" <waltw at teleport.com>
>To: "Forest Grove local interests list" <grovenet at rdrop.com>
>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 9:51 PM
>Subject: Re: [Grovenet] An interesting view of a legacy . . .
>
>
>>  >Walt,
>>>
>>>So, you are saying that " reactionaries, bigots, chickenhawks and the
>>>assorted other frauds and fakers " are exclusively conservative?
>>
>>  Nope. Only that suchlike have hijacked the "conservative" label.
>>  Meanwhile, through 30 years of sustained propagandizing, they have
>>  managed to change the label of "liberal" from its dictionary
>>  definition of "generous, tolerant, free," to "crazy criminal-coddling
>>  commie-lovin' tax-and-spend treasonous sinners."
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>
>
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