REPUBLICANS WAY OR THE HIGHWAY

[Guest guest]

Alot has changed in America since the theft of the Presidency in

2000, but none as drastic as what occured at the opening session of

Congress in 2005. What the Republicans have done through rule changes

and bullying tactics is effectively end representative government,

and make the Speaker of the House dictator of the House of

Representatives. Before any commitees were assigned, and before any

business was conducted a new rule was put into play by Dennis Hastert

the House Speaker, the rule states that in essence that their can be

floating members assigned by the Speaker that can vote on any

commitee of his choosing, or any issue of his choosing. This of

course is to make sure that every part of this right wing agenda has

enough votes to get to the floor, it is put in play to stifle

Democrats and to control the moderate Republican who may go against

this hard right plan for America. This is another slap in the face of

democracy from the arrogant Republican party, and another attempt to

change the way our founding fathers saw fit to conduct the business

of America, for over 200 years the Congress has followed certain

rules and protocol which were put in place to protect our system

of 'checks and balances' and to protect the very democracy these

lawmakers have sworn to protect. Our government today is ruled by

fear, as every part of our government is being purged of moderate and

progressive voices, free thinking is not allowed, and speaking out

will only get you fired. Tonight, in his State of the Union address

George Bush will talk of spreading freedom and democracy throughout

the world, while he continues to stifle freedom and democracy at

home, and of course he will pound his chest with pride over the

elections in Iraq, elections that were held with the whole country in

lockdown mode, where one had to go through barbed wire and barricades

to cast a ballot, and where the candidates couldn't put their names

on the ballots for fear of assasination. If they want to be truthful

to the American people, they should show videos of Bush's previous

addresses to the nation making his case for war, a compassionate yet

strong President told the nation " I don't want the smoking gun to

come in the form of a mushroom cloud " or " he has the weapons, we know

where they are " . Maybe we should go back further and look at

candidate Bush telling us he didn't believe America should engage in

nation building, I cannot quite understand how our former President

was investigated, villified, and attacked for 8 years, and eventually

brought up on impeachment charges for a sexual encounter, while the

lies of this President which have caused Americans to die, and have

effectively bankrupted our nation go unpunished. So tonight the

Republicans will stand and cheer, Democrats will politely applaud,

and this President will continue to mislead the American people, he

will go back to the tried and true method of fear, as he attempts to

tell America there is a crisis in Social Security and we must accept

his plan to save it. The truth is Social Security is solvent until at

least 2045, and America has time to come up with a proper solution to

fix it, but the neocons have been planning to dismantle Social

Security for 25 years, and they feel this is their chance. There are

two factions of the right Bush is appeasing with his Social Security

plan The far right believes in an economic system of survival of the

fittest, that there should be no safety net, and if people cannot

make ends meet once they retire, its their fault and the hell with

them. What is appalling about the far right and their views, is a

good majority of these people were born into money, and they look

down at the rest of society as if they themselves have accomplished

something, that being born into money is somehow attributed to their

abilities. By putting the Social Security trust fund into the hands

of Wall Street, Bush gives his biggest benefactors a 2 trillion

dollar reward up front, allows them to control trillions in

retirement funds, and the brokerage houses will make commission on

every trade, quite the little givaway. Despite what the neocons say

Social Security is not a charitable givaway, it is an insurance

policy paid for by the insured, 2/3 of retirees depend on S.S., many

would not be able to survive without it. The federal government has

been borrowing from the S.S. Trust Fund for over 20 years, replacing

the money with IOU's, George Bush pledged to stop that practice

during the 2000 campaign and again during his first State of the

Union address, as of now Bush has tapped into the account for 509

billion which is a violation of federal law and his pledge to the

American people. It was the 'baby boomer' generation that saved S.S.

in 1983 by paying more into the system, in effect the government has

been stealing this money and replacing them with worthless IOU's, one

Senator called it a 21st century version of Confederate money.

All 'baby boomers' regardless of political affiliation should stand

together on this one, but Republicans are a strange breed, they will

go against their own best interests to support their ideology, even

when that very ideology is taking what is rightfully theirs. America

is a far different place than it was 4 years ago, it is darker,

colder, and more sinister than it ever has been before, we are now

known as invaders, liars, and torturers, and a good majority of the

world either now hates us or mistrusts us. Somehow I don't think this

is the way America was meant to be.