Have you ever wondered?

by RW Spisak Jr.
janhuss@bellsouth.net

Every time, I hear some right wing spokes-model declaim that "the reason American Automotive Manufacturers are failing is the burden of their workers medical care." Which of course they then offer to correct with the perfect prescription, Cast off those onerous contracts with bankrupcy ! Tallyho and off to the Fox Hunt in our Limos, Old Bean! I admit to being slightly puzzled.

I am puzzled that they never seem to consider the impact of the stratospheric wages and benefits, and bonuses, and perks paid to the executives. They don't seem to imagine that salaries that are tens of thousands of times greater than any paid worker, has maybe a greater relevance.

National Health Care advocates have a solution, and it certainly makes sense, that if America Healthcare was no longer tethered to employment [ask the millions whose employers do not offer health insurance] this would remove that burden. This seems to me, while accurate, is a side issue, and not precisely to the point.

Did anyone hear from the BARON'S OF BAILOUT a demand that WALL $TREET come up with a long term financial $tability plan ?? Did you hear any call for a cut in Wall $treet $alaries or even "gawd forbid" a demand that Wall $treet Investment Banker$ renounce those MILLION DOLLAR BONUSE$?
No? Hmmm, neither did I.

I'll tell you what I heard instead - I heard a Wall $treet $poke$model proclaim that they must CONTINUE the BONUSE$, because otherwise, they might loose the brilliant minds that delivered this mess! We must pay these bonuses, after all, we might not have this caliber of leadership!

No one ever seems to suggest that Wall $treet benefits need reduced. Noone asks about their LIMOS? Or asks about their excesses. Even when they take a break from begging to ba$k and bake at Million Dollar re$ort$ while ca$hing the taxpayer$ check$.

Health Care, sure that's an issue and I'm certainly no advocate of executive pay rates in Detroit, but fair is fair, any demands we make of the Auto Industry leadership before they get a tax payer funded bailout - the same demands must be included in the BAILOUT PLAN offered WALL$TREET?

Yes, and by all means, let us, as taxpayers, de-fund the Medical Insurance Industry who makes it's BLOOD MONEY finding ways to reduce American Health Care Benefits. Let's Defend American Health Care FIRST - then, after we deal with the Tyrants of Health Care Insurance, if we have some money left - we can deal with the Tyrants of the Taliban?

What do you think? the Tyrants in the Afghanistan/Pakistan Mountains? or the Tyrants who blocked your Mom's operation and put the price of your child's pills beyond your reach?

RE CONSTANT MEDIA ATTACKS on Bush

I am a liberal, and progressive.

I opposed slavery while it was still "popular" and legal. I supported an end to child labor, a progressive position at the time. I proposed an end to chaining people with mental troubles in the dark dank. I supported women's right to vote. I opposed the mistreatment of American Indians and supported full voting rights for African Americans. I called for an end to Jim Crow. I even supported the radical idea of Roosevelts' to provide a small stipend called Social Security for Seniors. By the way, the republic seems to have survived quite well despite it.

The press never embraced these issues except as an opportunity to sell papers by stirring controversy. Since we are far from knowing the truth about the BUSH REGIME's MISDEEDS, there are many charges you may yet have a chance to defend George Bush from.

Is it sensible to attack the press for reporting the BUSH REGIME did everything possible to spy on Americans? Does it make any sense to attack the press for reporting on BUSH's assaults on human rights undertaken in our name, at Abu Gharib and Bhaghram and Guantanamo, and other still secret sites?

Sy Hersh, Woodward and Bernstein did not remove the weapons of mass destruction and it wasn't CBS who told General Colin Powell to lie at the UN.

The press didn't commit these crimes, and I for one do not believe that the soldiers who were ordered to use dog leashes on human beings under Commander in Chief George Bush's orders bear the sole responsibility for the humiliations, degradations, beatings and deaths delivered to prisoners in American custody. The press didn't conduct the water boarding, or the dog attacks, or the Shock and Awe bombing campaigns nor did they insist on bailing out their investment banker friends on Wall Street, while demanding that regular working Americans pay for those Million Dollar Salaries and Platinum Parachutes.

You might as well blame the press for Custer's massacre for simply reporting the facts. Did the New York Times or GASP even Faux News force the GOVERNOR of Alaska to dress her husband and kids in the finest Neiman Marcus designer duds? Did the evil New York Times demand the Thriller from Wasilla pack $150,000.00 of expensive clothes in her tiny, unused mental valise?

Even given the misdeeds of Corporate Media we cannot blame them, for either the Cheney Bush crimes nor the implosion and intellectual bankrupcy of the McCain Campaign. I place that one also where it belongs at the muddy, bloody feet of Karl "turd-blossom" Rove. Please join me in a toast of Bitters... to the "Architect"

Letter to the Editor Stuart News

RE: "Policies of President Bush, Republicans have failed us"

by RW Spisak Jr.

Ms. Post your comments are thoughtful and accurate.

We have been burdened by a right-tilted government since the "Reagan era", misled and mesmerizing the electorate with a republican ideology of dismantling regulation and getting "government" out of the way of the carnivorous free market.
FEELS PRETTY GOOD, EH?

Remember the firing of the FAA union staff because they dared strike for better working conditions and improved safety for the flying public? Remember when Ronnie Reagan said "forests cause more pollution than factories, and "we don't need to worry about poor children, eating vegetables, they can just eat catsup ?" Remember Newt Gingrich's cute "... we want to make government so small it can be drowned in a tub" comment?

The Bush agenda, with the complicit support of the Republican Legislature and a Right-Tilted Supreme Court have done everything within, and far beyond the law, to destroy even the tiniest modest protection for the working poor.

Whether in the air, on the ground, in their foods or at their jobs, Worker's Rights be damned, and full speed ahead to any fantastic Wall Street scheme they could dream up. Don't worry about the fantasy faux-values, if there are any losses, the American tax-payers (the suckers) will pick up the tab. [we have their checkbook!]

Even in the final weeks (thank providence) of the current administration, they're working overtime to gut any remaining shreds of protection for regular working Americans who live outside their walled enclaves. The current and most recent deregulation frenzy as reported in the Washington Post would "...clear obstacles to some commercial ocean-fishing activities, ease controls on emissions of pollutants that contribute to global warming, relax drinking-water standards and lift a key restriction on mountaintop coal mining."

Since the Republican Legislatures which voting Americans have finally drove a stake through, will be long remembered for the INFAMOUS PRACTICE, of allowing INDUSTRY LOBBYISTS to draft regulations and legislation. Finally with a Democratic President-Elect, and a new Democratic Congress, maybe the people's business will again be conducted for the benefit of "the people."

Now that the final cart of cash has been gleefully delivered to Wall Street by the BUSH-ITES (delivered intentionally free of oversight) and America's government bankrupted by design, maybe starting January 21st of 2009, we can begin the process of re-purchasing American Civic Justice and Economic Life from the legacy of decades of republican-corporate misrule and corruption. President-elect Barack Obama will be the president of all the people, and we have every reason to hope he will govern, with the people's needs foremost, instead of JUST CORPORATE NEEDS.

America will again be concerned, about the health and welfare of the American People, not just the welfare of International Mega-Corporations. [Especially those whose offices are located in a drawer in the Bahamas]

We the people... sounds pretty good!

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