Please excuse the rant, but I watched Bush's press conference earlier and I feel compelled to vent. I must confess that I did get a little teary-eyed when Dubya expressed his gratitude for all who have "said a prayer" for him. What a swell guy...when a phony "conservative" is in doubt, he just needs to appeal to the so-called "Christian Right" by mentioning "God" and "prayers", and everything will be just fine and dandy.

Where to start? I just don't believe what is going on in the "land of the free and the home of the brave". America has gone mad.

A lawyer was arrested for wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "Give peace a chance" written on the front. Arrested!

Then there's Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, apparently arrested and claimed to be al-Qaeda's "number three operative"...errrr...except that the CIA announced six months ago that he was dead. Earlier in '02 he was a mere #22. I guess being captured bumps you up on the list. What's the truth?

And then we have Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer who goes on TV talk shows and openly advocates the use of torture against "enemies of the USA"...nice man! And speaking of talk shows, Phil Donahue, top rated talk show host is fired because he is anti-war...and therefore anti-American, a non-patriot and on the side of the enemies. Really? As Albert Einstein once said: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." Perhaps Dershowitz would like to see Donahue tortured?

Donahue's firing really does beg the question: "Whatever happened to free speech in America?" Bush said the world hated America because it was a "free country". Excuse me,look around...are the "terrorists" targeting Switzerland and Sweden? They are "free democracies" last time I checked, but they are not issuing terror alerts to scare their populations into submission. Also, Georgie, America is no longer a free country, by the way...it's a police state, led by an undemocratic dictatorship that wants to wage a war against the world and take over the world's resources (oil) for its own business uses. In other words America is embarking on an "endless war" of hegemony that will eventually turn back on the USA and destroy it, like what happened to ancient Rome and the British Empire..."what you sow, so shall you also reap."

Where's Osama, Georgie? In Oct. 2001 you promised not to stop until he was captured. Then a year later, Saddam had morphed into your new boogey-man, and when asked about bin Laden, you said that you didn't know and it's not as important as getting that Saddam...kind of makes "I did not sleep with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" seem trivial in comparison. Also, being a typical Republican, you campaigned on a platform of "small government". Yet now, you are the head of the largest, most intrusive Federal government ever.

And what of America's leaders? It now emerges that Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and many others in the Bush administration are not only members of the "Project for a New American Century", a neo-conservative "think tank" that seriously advocates American global domination, but are also Zionists with connections to members of the Bilderberg Group of "elite" world policymakers. And yet Americans still believe this coming war is being fought in America's interest to "preserve our freedom"...really? Or is it to extend our imperialism?

For months now the Bush gang has justified their stance on Iraq by pointing out that Iraq has violated the will of the UN and in doing so had thumbed their nose at "the free world". Now, the UN will not give us permission to attack, and Bush is saying he will attack Saddam anyway. But wait, isn't that just what Saddam has been doing all these years, i.e. disobeying the UN? Talk about a hypocrite.

Meanwhile, in Israel,the largest recipient of American foreign aid, a tank fires on and kills over twenty civilians in Gaza, including a nine month pregnant woman, plus many small children and young boys...then a suicide bomber attacks a bus and kills twelve students in Haifa...

Back home, America's major companies are "outsourcing" 4 million IT jobs to Third World countries where rates of pay are much lower than in the US...and what of those 4 million "knowledge" jobs and the US WORKERS who did them, or could do them?.......finished....unemployed. Very patriotic. Why are "American" companies allowed to hire foreigners while there are millions of unemployed Americans right here in our backyard? "Free trade", that's why.

Look at the US economy...America is broke...look at the budget deficit and the stock market, look at the dollar against the Euro...it's the economy stupid, and it's all messeded up, too....America is not only financially but spiritually bankrupt...and all the while North Korea wonders what the hell they have to do to attract America's attention. Find some oil, perhaps? They're getting jealous of Iraq already.

Have Americans been too busy watching the War Channel, aka Fox News and reading the New York Times to notice the truth about their country? Are the folks of America so brainwashed and frightened by the propaganda and lies ("Terror alert is high! And red, too!") coming from the likes of Ashcroft and Cheney that they won't leave their sanitized, plastic-sheeted, duct-taped living rooms to find out what's really going on? Please, someone let me know. What the hell is going on in America at the moment?

Ever hear of "Carnivore" or "Echelon"? These are programs that the FBI or CIA could use to read any email they wanted. Thanks to the "Patriot Act", they can do so without getting a judge's approval. Perhaps even now my words are being analyzed by some CIA flunky or "Homeland Security" goon, each word damning me and earning me an "enemy of the USA" badge because what I have to say does not please the "powers that be." So be it then.

If the Bush administration is really frightened of people like me and what I have to say...tough. Bush and his lackeys can call me and like-minded people "un-American", "unpatriotic", or better yet, "terrorist sympathizers" - I don't care. After all, this is the administration that considered tens of millions of people marching against the war (Feb. 15) as "nothing much".

Unbelievable. Someone - anyone - needs to beat this guy in 2004 and rid us of this administration. Feel free to forward to your friends if they need a fresh breath of political air.

Update: Dubya will soon ask Congress to allocate an astounding $75 billion to help finance our conquest of Iraq.

That's $75 billion of our tax dollars, all you working men and women.

That's our money which should be used to provide us with public services.

Not to mention that we have already spent our surplus and are in the "red" with our budget. The price tag on this war of aggression will not only cost us lives of American soldiers, but will also widen the defecit.

I also sense that our country is extremely divided at this point in time.

I agree with you Doug that our country in becoming increasingly polarized.  It is so difficult for me to present a cogent argument to the many Bush sympathizers when everywhere I turn there is propaganda and misinformation.  And whats worse, it seems some people, particularly of the Christian right, seem to revel in this debauchery, calling it justice and compassion.  My words choke in my throat as I vainly try to dissuade these people.  They want to believe the rhetoric, they need to, and they will villify all who question their ideology.  I can't understand it and what's worse, I can't even seem to combat it.  I have had friends violently oppose even the suggestion that they could be wrong.  I am frustrated and at a loss as to how I should respond.  I wish that I had your gift for cogency and clarity.

What are your thoughts on Bush's proposed tax cut?

/salute
Tim

This may lack the depth of all the other replies but I found those terror alerts very amusing.  "Its orange go and get the tape!" I watched that press confrance too. Man it was boring and a waste of time. Oh yeah and Switzerland doesn't have any army to speak of... Or one that has the power of ours. Doesn't it usually remain neutral? Oh yeah one somewhat unrelated question because no one ever gives me a straight answer. Why didn't Hitler take Switzerland? Thanks in advance if someone answers that for me.