Photo Source: Clipart.com

As I think about the way our government operates, I can't help but think that the problem is that the best people available are certainly not the ones running the government. Our government seems to have its own agenda. When I say our government, I am talking about those in power. Sometimes those in power are clearly visible, like the President and Vice President, while at other times the power brokers stay in the shadows. Isn't it amazing, when you look at the entire situation it begins to look like almost every decision made is incorrect as far as its affects the ordinary citizens? This is not to say that the decisions are wrong for those in power, they certainly are not and many have been able to feather their beds. The current government has managed to alienate many people and that is not only obvious in the president's popularity numbers, but in the reactions of people to the administration. An example of this was when one of the leading medical men called the president's science advisor a prostitute. That is frustration talking folks. Many scientists are furious with this administration, saying that scientific objectives have been twisted to fit the political agenda without any thought about the good of the country.

We all know that every administration is political, to think otherwise would be very foolish, but even in the most political administrations there was always some wiggle room for things that benefited the citizens of this country, that is until now. Manipulation seems to be the catch phrase of the day. It is unfortunate indeed, when we can't believe anything that we are told. Everything is spun and bent out of shape for political purposes. As an outsider looking in, I can't help but be amazed at the blatant awarding of contracts to firms that are of political significance. One just has to look at Iraq to see the massive, shoddy construction by these people and the crumbling buildings and projects, to realize that the multibillion's of dollars that are being poured into that country are not for the benefit of the Iraqi people, it is for the benefit of the contractors. USA Today ran an article about the shoddy construction of U.S. projects in Iraq. They went on to say things like, "some projects portrayed as successes by U.S. officials have started breaking down because of poor maintenance, shoddy construction or simple neglect." We have appropriated almost 35 BILLION dollars, that we know about, for this construction in Iraq and we could have just as easily poured the cash down the toilet as far as the results are concerned. It did, however, make a lot of rich Americans richer and a few Iraqis. So what do I mean by shoddy workmanship? Well we could use the new building that was constructed for Iraqi security forces as an example. The pipes leaked so bad in the ceiling, that it collapsed causing the building to be unusable. This example is only one of many, very many. As if the poor workmanship wasn't bad enough, there has also been cases of over billing by some of these companies. Greed has no limits. One can not speak of Iraq without noticing how the count of soldiers wounded is hardly ever discussed. It looks to me that this is a sore point with the administration, because that number is about eight times the number of military killed.

We all know that we were told that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq and if you ask those who blindly follow this administration, some will still tell you that they were there, we just haven't found them yet. Yeah, sure. Well the American people must have benefited sometime during this administration, lets look. FEMA is supposed to be there for us in a catastrophe. It failed miserable several times, but do you think that we ever hear that it was FEMA's fault? No, as with every other failure of this government, it is blamed on someone else. The administration says that all of FEMA's failures are the fault of the states and localities. There is never any mention of things like the hundreds of thousands of dollars of ice that sat around in trucks for days instead of being sent to New Orleans or the trailers that were needed that were still sitting in lots, no where near where they were needed, months after the flood. This administration seems to overlook the fact that the only reason for FEMA's existence is to help people in disaster situations. Here is where the administration failed us, from 1993 to 2000, James Lee Witt, the then head of FEMA transformed FEMA from a refuge for political patronage, into a world recognized model of efficiency. That all changed when the president appointed a new director. This director's experience at running an emergency response organization was zero. His only qualification for holding this office was that he ran the president's political campaign. He actually said that disaster planning should be scaled back, ouch! He left and his replacement had no disaster planning experience. The agency was put into the department of Homeland security and now its mission was to fight terrorism. Yipes! Political appointments then replace most of the rest of the professionals in that agency. When Katrina was known to be headed for New Orleans, only 7 of the 28 teams available from FEMA were sent there until the storm passed. FEMA waited until specific requests were made by state agencies before doing anything, instead of sending help there. They even held up the hundreds of fire fighters who went there from all over the nation and forced them to take classes in community relations and sexual harassment for days before releasing them.

Our military men, when hurt, expect to be treated medically in a decent facility and in a timely manner and lord knows they have earned this, yet look at what is done to them. Walter Reed Hospital has become a run down facility that sometimes made the wounded military wait months for the treatment they needed. Can this be classified as caring about what happens to the little guy? Certainly not, it is a national disgrace, just one of many. Most people want to get our people out of the war, yet the administration wants to surge. Have you ever noticed that when something bad is about to come out about the administration, there always seems to be a news story that breaks to cover it. Spin, spin, spin, it never stops. Can you imagine what kind of opinion is held about us by these guys? They must think that the average American is dumber than dirt and that they can be told anything and manipulated to do anything. These are the people that are supposed to look out for our best interests, instead they just use us.

Looking at the oil crisis makes me wonder. Teddy Roosevelt broke up Standard Oil under the then new monopoly laws. Isn't it strange that gasoline is about the same price where ever you go in an area? I like to tell the story about the meeting that the oil executives had with the medical and drug suppliers, which was the fastest increasing industry in price and maybe still is. They wanted to know how this was accomplished. Well they did their homework and the government is casting a blind eye on the whole problem. Contrary to what we are being told, there is still plenty of oil around. The tar sands in Canada are overflowing with oil and some estimate that there are at least a trillion barrels of oil that can be extracted from it. Just in Venezuela there is an estimated 3.5 trillion barrels of oil. Between that and Canada's tar sands there is enough oil, at the current usage rate, to last the world over 100 years. Can you imagine how much oil is really available? The administration knows this, yet nothing is being done to ease the burden on us. Those that heat with oil are particularly vulnerable to the high prices. The oil game is being played both by companies and the administration alike. I remember when oil hit $1.39 per gallon. That was an important plateau, because at that point, it became economical to create artificial gas from coal and we have hundreds of years of coal reserves in this country. Yes the little guy is being played and people are getting rich on the oil lie and yes, the people we voted for to protect us have their own interests at heart and don't even hide this fact well.

I guess we all know by now, that the President said he was never spoken to about the firing of all those federal attorneys. More spin, because Gonzalez, the Attorney General, just admitted he spoke to him about it. Can we ever get the truth from these people? Not that I care that much about this issue, since it is politicians firing politicians. What about telling the public that someone is an undercover agent for the CIA and putting all the lives of their contacts and the agent in jeopardy just to get even with a person that disagreed with you? Yep they did that too, without a care for anyone. It was more important to GET someone, in the political sense of getting even, than to protect lives. This should tell us something about who we are dealing with and how they feel about others. How can we, the little people, ever expect a fair shake form people like this? We all know that terrorism requires stronger laws, but can you go too far? Look at what is happening in this country. We now hold people for an indefinite time without charging them. The administration wants to use military tribunals instead of civilian courts and juries. The authorities can now break into homes and tap phone calls and other forms of communication. Don't believe the line that it is too hard to get approval for a search warrant or that it takes too long. The federal government always has judges available for this type of thing. Why would the administration waste money investigating things like the Janet Jackson breast scandal at halftime? Why is the press forbidden from taking photos in Iraq, of flag draped coffins? Why is it now a crime for a non profit advocacy group to mention the name of a national candidate within the last sixty days of a general election? How come free speech zones have been set up to keep war protesters away from the cameras. Why was the eminent domain law strengthened to include interstate electrical lines? The first person convicted under the Patriot Act was Mohammed Hussein, who had a money transmitting business. He received eighteen months for being a terrorist. Apparently he terrorized an application for a state business license by not filling it out correctly. These types of things only became possible under the Patriot Act.

I can't vouch for the correctness of the next statement, but I heard that it was true. Supposedly the President only reads those statements and reports given to him by his advisors. With all the tax cuts that have been given to the wealthiest segment of this population, the economy has suffered. The little guy has lost many of his deductions and many a citizen winds up filling out a short form tax return because they can't come up with enough deductions. The president has asked other countries like China and Japan to increase the value of their currency, thus making our manufacturers more competitive. Could it be that some of the hatred toward China is resulting from the fact that they haven't done this? How come the EPA ran Spanish language ads on the radio promoting the president's environmental policies? Was this just a campaign ploy for his second election attempt? Why was the law that limited the number of mining waste sites overturned, could it be because they were big contributors? Why did the President send a message to Congress not to offer the Medicare prescription drug benefit to the poor? Why won't our government admit that global warming is taking place? Why in this day and age, where it has been found that many innocent people were executed, would the President try and toughen the death penalty? Well he said there were too many obstacles when fighting terrorism. Why did the administration reverse EPA policy and allow them to sell polluted land? Many of these lands are polluted with PCBs.

Why did the government choose not to regulate auto admissions in 2003? It seems that big business ALWAYS wins with this administration. Why are no bid contracts being awarded? Why were we told another lie about the air quality near the twin towers after 9/11?

You know I could go on asking hundreds of these types of questions I could ask, but then this would become a book and not an article. The whole point is that the poor are getting poorer and the rich, much richer. The little guy just doesn't get his fair share anymore and even the precious liberties he had are being eroded. Is there something wrong in this country? You can bet your reduced pay check on that.