DON'T LET GEORGE DO IT

A self-governing people needs vigorous citizen participation to ensure justice, integrity and morality. That means activism. Only activists can save our republic now that basic decencies are violated (torture of terror suspects,) the Constitution is mocked by those who pledged to preserve it (President Bush said "it's just a goddamned piece of paper,") and the federal government is running amok.

Iraq war veteran Reserve Sergeant Marshall Thompson walks his talk. He has walked across Utah, from Idaho to Arizona, to call attention to the EYES WIDE OPEN project which focuses attention on the cost and futility of this long, undeclared war. Yes, there are folks in Utah who believe in keeping the peace. They adhere to the advice of John Quincy Adams: "We should not be going around the world looking for scoundrels to destroy." Bring the liberators home.

We elect politicians to do our business of governing, but when they forget who they are we must speak up. Teddy Roosevelt said, "It's unpatriotic not to tell the truth about the president." Please tell that to the war maniacs who dominate talk radio and that foxy news channel.

We cannot afford to sit back and let George do it. He has to be blocked and rebuffed every time he tries to start a war or demean the Constitution.

Freedom isn't free. Be an activist and take your country back.

IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

IT'S THE FALSE ECONOMY, STUPID

The economy is in the eye of the beholder. "It's pretty." or "it's pretty ugly." Utah's Senator Bob Bennett is out there painting a pretty picture of the economy. He sees and foresees nothing but roses if President Bush's policies remain in force.

Full employment doesn't mean the economy is beautiful if workers are paid less than the cost of living. When Andy can't pay the rent, it's not a recession - it's a panic. Don't tell Andy the economy is wonderful.

A healthy stock market hardly indicates that the domestic economy is pain-free. Corporate earnings are often enhanced by the very factors which harm the economy. The practice of foreign out-sourcing might increase a coupon clipper's net worth, but does little for our economy.

While Senator Bennett blows his horn, we hear David Welker, the head of the Government Accounting Office, playing a different tune. He warns of impending doom if we continue our anti-economy ways. The nearly $9 trillion national debt is already dragging us down, and Welker forsees a national debt of $46 trillion within the next few decades. We'll feel the pain before that. The burden is too heavy to bear.

Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Reagan and George W. Bush understood that deficit spending gives the economy a jolt. But the results are neither real nor lasting. It's like passing out cash to bidders at an auction. The action increases and people get excited, but the medium of exchange diminishes in value, and here we go again.

IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

THOSE OVERSEAS TRADE MISSIONS

Governor has become synonymous with Public Relations Director or Trade Commissioner. The chief executives of several states have recently returned from "trade trips" to Taiwan, Singapore, China, Ireland, and just about anywhere.

Utah's Governor Huntsman is back from China, all agog over prospects of exports from here to there. "More exports will mean more jobs here in Utah." We, the little people, could have figured that out all by ourselves, but that's not all that matters.

When Minnesota's then Governor Ventura made a trade visit to Cuba, he did more to publicize Cuban advantages, goods and services than he did Minnesota's. He even spoke to the graduates of Havana University about how to make it big in life, as he had. A usually reliable source reports that Fidel Castro was bent over, laughing uncontrollably as the tag wrestler spoke. "Useful idiot," Fidel whispered to companions.

Why are governors taking care of business? It's not their job. Do corporations lobby them to get governors to promote and sell? Could it be simply a desire for more tax revenues?

In this Sweet Land of Liberty, the protection of citizens' liberties is the primary function of government. Increasing trade at taxpayer expense is not what the good old boys - Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin - had in mind. Stay home, governors. Let businesses make the calls.

IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

THE TRUTH BE TOLD

The American public is still being asked to believe facts and concepts which are not true. This has been going on since before our invasion of Iraq. Remember when we just couldn't wait for the United Nations to take action when Iraq did not comply with Resolution #1441? President Bush rejected Saddam's plea to send in the WMD inspectors. Bush said it was too late for that.

This is a fact: #1441 did not call for attacking Iraq if they did not comply. The resolution merely stated an indication of some strong response to be decided by the Security Council. That didn't work out to the intended conclusion because the neo-con owned Bush administration was bent on Shock & Awe.

Now our soldiers mired in Iraq have to duck to escape the violence which Shiites and Sunnis inflict on each other. About 100 Iraqis die each week in the civil war, a figure many times the number of our sad losses. The Iraqi fighters are called terrorists and insurgents by Secretary of State Condi and the boys in the band. Whatever you call the Iraq factions, they are engaged in a deadly civil war. Our troops don't have to put down insurgencies as much anymore, and they're not fighting terrorism on the level claimed by our leaders.

Getting out of the middle of a civil war is not to "cut and run." It is sanity. Iraq is not ours. (Except maybe for the oil - do you suppose?) American and British corporations controlled the oil fields before Saddam, so who knows?

Support the troops. Bring the liberators home.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

SENATOR HATCH WATCH

I watched Senator Hatch this morning at a debate in St. George, Utah. He spoke for three minutes about the Iraq situation, claiming it was a good thing to depose Saddam because the dictator killed more than 300,000 of his own people - Shiites and Kurds.

Not so fast senator. The multitudes of Shiites killed were in open rebellion against the Iraq Republic. The Iraq army erased the uprising, which was a civil war involving the same parties as in the current situation. Those victims had been encouraged by agents of the George Herbert Walker Bush administration to overthrow Saddam. The pitiful rebels had been led to believe that U.S. forces were invading Iraq to end the reign of Saddam. They did not know they were alone on a mission impossible, with no Uncle Sam in sight.

As for the Kurds, they died under attack from Iranian forces using phosphene gas - not the mustard gas used by Iraq. The action took place during the Iran-Iraq war. The doctors of the U.S. Army War College went to Iraq to conduct tests on Kurd corpses, and found no victims of mustard gas. All died from phosphene gas.

Spinning, twisting, dodging, and manipulating are popular tactics these days.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

OUR REPRESENTATIVES DON'T REPRESENT US

Our Congress acted against our interests this year by approving a torture-the-captives program carried out by the administration of our ostensibly moral president. We are not that kind of people, but we are dead asleep to the deeds of our leaders. Could you torture a suspect? I guess so, if you tolerate lawmakers who make it legal.

Then Congress passed a law forbidding Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the behemoth pharmaceuticals. That means that Medicare must pay the full retail prices for drugs purchased from the pill pushers. What other industry is guaranteed by federal law to sell its products for the prices it chooses?

Oh, the pharmaceuticals lead the field in contributions to politicians. Our government is used, abused and ripped off.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

NUKES PROLIFERATE THE GLOBE

The beat goes on. President Bush is shocked that North Korea has exploded a "nukular" bomb.

When President Harry S. Truman quietly told Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference that the USA had an atomic bomb, Stalin said, "Yes, I know." Of course he knew, with his vast web of subversion operating here. American atomic bomb scientists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1952 for delivering our secrets to the Soviets.

So the USSR also had the bomb. Since then we've been repeatedly stunned each time an uninvited member breaks into the exclusive Nuke Club. We learned of Israel's secret nuclear arsenal because one of its own scientists blew the whistle. He was sent to prison for that.

As of today, we know that India, Pakistan, Russia, China, Britain, France, Israel, North Korea, and USA have nuclear weapons. Maybe there are others, as yet undisclosed.

The USA is the only member of the club to have used one - or two - of these horrendous weapons of mass destruction. For this reason, other countries probably fear us more than we fear them, and the concept of mutual destruction as a deterrent still prevails.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

HISTORY LESSON #147

Do you believe what you were taught in history class? Okay, so you believe it, but do you actually think it? A history book or an account of an event is only the writer's version, and objectivity has been extinct for many centuries. Scholars say that the history of a war is always written by the winner.

Imagine a collision of a convertible with a cement mixer at a busy downtown intersection on a rainy day. Which witness or participant are you going to believe when the drivers disagree and several bystanders tell conflicting stories? If one of them writes the official account of the accident, the truth and nothing but the truth will never make it on paper.

Henry Ford said, "All history is bunk." Think about it.

Reading only one book about what happened in days-gone-by is simply inadequate. The same goes for current history. Some of us trust television for the truth, others search the internet, newspaper lovers read it in the pages, and the true-believer types absorb what they hear from the self-assured voices on talk radio.

No single source listed above is enough to keep a self-governing people well informed. A good citizen needs the straight scoop, so you'll have to check out multiple sources.

Or you can just call me.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

AREN'T PAGES AND INTERNS PRECIOUS TO US?

Even half informed Americans know about Florida's Republican Congressman Mark Foley's transgressions with congressional pages.

But he is not worth a thought. The focus must go to the youngsters who were ushered into a den of cynics, crooks, liars and knaves. We don't condone this, but we seem to tolerate it. The crime has been committed several times in our memory. Even Monica, the intern, was young and a bit out-ranked. Rank is a word that fits here.

Bring the youth home. They don't belong in Washington, learning the ways of these elected royalists, these Constitution busters, these unsavory dealers and connivers. Keep our young people innocent and clean as long as possible. They can be pages and interns in more honorable endeavors such as health care or education.

This will be a history lesson if we do the right thing.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

OUTSIDERS ARE INSIDE CONGRESS

Democracy plus money equals oligarchy. But don't worry, the lobbyists are only knee deep.

The Founding Fathers set up a political nation, so why should we expect a pristine scene? Of course politics runs things, and you know what controls the politics. Money, power and favors (which go right back to money.)

Senator Ted Kennedy repeats and repeats: "We have the best government money can buy." Too bad someone else doesn't say that. It would sound even truer.

Two hundred years ago, James Madison warned us: "Corporations are too close to congress." Decades later, William Jennings Bryan said, "You will not crucify this nation on a cross of gold." But they sure did. Even Ross Perot tried to tell us, with his calls for campaign finance reform. He said: "It's time to clean out the barn." Along with that was his: "Everyone has a crazy aunt in the attic." We are puzzled about how she ties in with money and politics, but Ross goes deep.

People didn't listen to any of the warnings about the seductive hazards of money in the process of government. So here we are. Contributions to politicians are virtual bribes. Many congressmen hire their wives and pay them from the contributions of corporations.

Woe is I. Bring on the monarchy. If the king is corrupt or lies to you or wastes the country's treasury, there is only one thing to do - and you do it.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE

Topical and timely:

*Florida Congressman Mark Foley is oh so sorry for preying on the young pages who serve the lawmakers. The other congressmen who knew of the problem are sorry that they did not report what they knew when they knew it. Maybe we should replace the whole sorry bunch in Congress.

*President Bush is about to go full time campaigning for the election of Republicans. Is that really a president's prerogative? A president's job can't be all that tough or attention-consuming - not when you have such able hands steering the ship as Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, etc.

*Bob Woodward's latest book, "State of Denial," has the War Party in shock and awe. The author contends that Condi Rice was warned about 9/11 by CIA, Laura Bush wanted Rummy fired, and all kinds of other easy-to-believe accusations.

*A baby fell from a third floor balcony in Denver, but was caught by an alert neighbor woman. It's the best story of the day, week, month. A heroine is born!

*Bush, Cheney and Rice all came from the oil industry. How could anyone think that the Bushites could/would have any influence over lowering gas prices right before an important election? You'd have to believe in conspiracies.

Twenty-years-from-now news:

Saddam Hussein was ordered out of the court room for the 33rd time today, immediately after a young judge replaced the old judge. Saddam is still on trial for something or other back in the nineties, or was it the eighties? The judge took action against the defendant in a preemptive strike, before Saddam could throw one of his infamous tirades.

Overheard:

"What's that disease called when you can't remember names and things?"

Quoteworthy:

"We'll breed more terrorists than we'll kill." - George Galloway, British Parliament, upon our invasion of Afghanistan

BIRTH OF U.S.A.

The independence of the American colonies came out of the barrel of a gun. A key battle raged at Concord, where the patriots stored gunpowder and muskets, and the positive outcome was vital to the success of the revolution. Colonists had great respect for the right to bear arms after that.

The English ruled the colonies with a force of arms which increased in intensity and oppression as time went on. George Washington led the brave and inferior-equipped Continental Army in losing and winning battles against the occupying subjects of the king. Securing armaments was difficult for the colonists. Considerable help came from French sources and financially connected
patriots such as Robert Morris.

As a result, most Americans believe that without guns in the possession of the general populace, someone bad - our government or someone else's - would enslave them. You can debate that if you want, but the idea is ingrained in the American mind.

We loved peace from the beginning, it seems, but were willing to get violent with anyone threatening it. Be certain to understand that most colonists did not want any violence, and would have forfeited independence. The super patriots, the Sons of Liberty, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and Thomas Paine aroused just enough fighting spirit to sustain a revolt. A liberty-loving minority foisted independence on the 13 colonies.

One of the lessons of history here is that our nation was born of violent revolution and might have acquired a preference to depend on the gun to solve most any dispute.

We can trace this pattern and evaluate the validity of our contention.