Trashing of America’s ideals and values worst thing about this administration

Really. Such arrogance. How embarrassing.  Our people, our fellow Americans, have used or condoned torture on prisoners. Our government purposefully decided not to bring prisoners to this country so we don’t have to grant them basic human rights as written in our own Constitution? Don’t we know that intelligence experts say that such tactics don’t gain us reliable information? Don’t we know that justice will not be served by using such tactics?

Sure, we hear that these prisoners are not prisoners of war, but rather, terrorists.

Isn’t it embarrassing that this administration’s black-or-white, with-me-or-against-me, no-negotiation attitude has alienated most of our friends around the world? Such attitudes fall in lock step behind the ultra-partisanship in Washington.

Isn’t it strange that we decided to attack a dictator in Iraq rather than attack dictators in Burma or North Korea?

We’ve asked our soldiers to fight and die in Iraq for what cause? 9/11? What’s the connection?

Haven’t our country’s decisions and actions created and encouraged even more Islamic terrorists?

I can’t wait for a Democrat to be elected president, one who will lead us out of this morass of immoral, unethical, unpatriotic practices.

I declare, I’m embarrassed to be a member of the baby-boomer generation

In the past baby boomers held great ideals.  And as such, we marched and fought to enact changes in civil rights and protections for the environment.  We helped bring down a corrupt and Constitution-prostituting administration.  Today we help elect a corrupt and Constitution prostituting administration, twice.  What went wrong?

Baby boomers don’t like to sacrifice.  Early on it was easy to fight against the establishment when we could rely on our parents to feed, cloth, and pamper us.  Our sacrifices came at a minimum.   As a result, as we became the establishment our avoidance of shared sacrifice has become entrenched.

In the late 70’s President Carter said that we are facing the “moral equivalency of war” in our need to end our dependency on foreign oil.  Drive 55, set your thermostat a few degrees higher in the summer and a few degrees lower in the winter, conserve natural resources and seek new energy technologies.  He was reviled and made fun of.  It was easier to accept Reagan’s rosy platitudes and slogans.  “It’s the dawning of a new America”, “Don’t worry, be happy”.  There is no need to sacrifice, we can have it all because we are Americans and we deserve it.    Don’t worry about exploding deficits.  Don’t worry that we support corrupt dictators all over the world, don’t worry that clear cutting is happening in National Forests and water and air qualities are deteriorating.  Look how comfortable you are.

Now we have the embodiment of our baby boomer generation as President.  When 9/11 occurred Bush’s requested us to “go shopping”.    If we quit shopping then the terrorist win.   Here, take this tax break and buy a Hummer and why not reduce all taxes especially the ones on those who really don’t like to sacrifice, the super wealthy.  Let’s attack Iraq.  They have lots of targets to hit and they have oil and we want it, we deserve it.  Run away deficits are not a problem it’s just an accounting thing. Again, no sacrifices have to be made to fight terrorism except those to our basic rights and that pesky Constitution.

While not all baby boomers fall into the above categories, the great trend of our generation has been to avoid the heavy lifting.  As a result, we have come full circle.  We now have an administration that is corrupt, war mongering, and Constitution-prostituting and we put it in power.  Where is our outrage and idealism? Where would we be now if we had accepted President Carter’s call to sacrifice?  When do we accept the fact that a shared sacrifice is needed?  Oh, we have, we have sacrificed our children’s futures and replaced our idealism with fear.   Fear is a whole new topic.

Fight the fight

I declare that Dwight Eisenhower was right in January of 1961, and getting righter every day about the dangers of the Military-Industrial Complex. Don’t know about it? Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
Better yet, rent Eugene Jarecki’s 2005 film “Why We Fight.”

I happened to be watching the latter the other night, and my 11-year-old walked in and sat down to watch with me. When it was over, he soberly asked if HE’D have to go and fight in Iraq some day. After I peeled myself off the ceiling, I did my best to reassure him “no (expletive deleted) way, Honey!” He’s moved on to worry about his math homework and a certain girl in his class. But his question haunts me. Why should an 11-year-old have to worry about something like that? And why can’t I assure him that we WON’T still be in Iraq in another 7 years, not to mention Iran or somewhere else the warmongers cook up a conflict? And more than anything, why can’t rational Americans do more to stop a system that’s taken on a life of its own?

Democrats are at their best when simply trying to solve a problem

I declare that we Democrats accomplish more for the whole nation — even for our Republican friends — when we don’t try to be as uber-partisan as the Republican leadership of Congress has been the past 20 or so years. We accomplish more when we reach across the aisle to seek reasonable compromises, as evidenced by the clean water and clean air acts and amendments passed during the Nixon administration. We accomplish more when we face a problem and try to come up with legislation to solve it — without being self-righteous about it. Think of the political insights of John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. We accomplish more when we to do the right thing for the nation, as evidenced by passage of the civil rights laws. We accomplish more when our political leaders talk face-to-face more and talk less for the cameras or radio talk shows.

I declare, I can’t believe there are STILL W stickers out there

Honestly, the whole phenomenon is a mystery to me. I remember first noticing the “W the President” stickers after his 2000 “win.” It was interesting because, before, it was uncommon to see so many candidate stickers around AFTER an election. I remember thinking they were mushrooming everywhere in a kind of nanny-nanny-boo-boo, dancing-in-the-end-zone-for-hours sort of way. Or at least they were in my red state. I was used to that kind of chest beating around here for football teams. Never for a political candidate. And it seemed even then to be signaling some kind of creepy downturn in our national character.

The sticker’s real message? “He’s the ultimate.” How else to explain the countless knockoffs such as “G the Creator” and “J the Christ.” (I kid you not. They’re out there.) Any way, my question is, why all the pride in this guy—still? Among countless other egregious blunders, he’s horribly mismanaging a war and in the process of driving the economy to the brink. Aren’t the abilities to manage a war and right the economy the two biggest selling points in the Republican brochure? So why is more than one quarter of the electorate (that’s one in four) still behind this guy? Much less, bragging about it?

Someone enlighten me, please…