PELOSI AND REID, WEENIE CITY

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (12/28/07)

In a fire-fight Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) are two people I wouldn’t want beside me. Rep. Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representative, would be figuring out how she could parse a compromise while passing out go-to-front-of-the-lines cards for her nearest and dearest comrades. Sen. Reid, the Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate and former boxer, would be wildly punching the air, a punch-drunk fighter blinded by a bloodied face. When the chips were down, they were nowhere to be found.

Ending the Bush-Cheney-Halliburton Iraqi War was the platform on which the Democrats ran and won in 2006. It was a clear mandate. Even the suicidal Republicans accepted the challenge in their support for the BCH War. The Pelosi-Reid excuse for failing to deliver on their promises was that the Republicans and Bush wouldn’t cooperate with them. Weenie City.

Pelosi-Reid claim that Bush has and will veto any war-reduction bill they might send, and that they don’t have enough votes to override a veto. If Bush keeps vetoing war-funding bills, ultimately there will be no money to fund the war. In government, the power of the purse is final.

Hand-wringing Pelosi-Reid fear that the Republicans will call their dirty names and thereby break their bones, shouting that they’re betraying the troops in Iraq or even calling them unpatriotic cowards, all from an AWOL and a draft dodger. It’s time for patriotic politicians to cowboy-up and support the troops by getting them out of Iraq.

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2007

AN OFF-RAMP GOVERNMENT

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (8/21/07)

While stopping for lunch at an off-ramp restaurant, I noticed a Pepto-Bismol dispenser next to the cash register. It didn’t augur well for a comfortable meal. Recently, while shopping for fruits and vegetables at my favorite supermarket, next to the tomatoes I noticed a product called Environne Vegiwash. The implication is that the vegetables and fruits were unsafe to eat. With 90% of our fruits and vegetables untested for pesticides and pathogens, it’s no wonder that an enterprising capitalist would seize on our anxieties to turn a profit.

So much for being safe from terrorist threats. As they say, the devil is in the details. President Bush has been so focused on winning his unwinable, elective mega-war that he forgot the details of food. Of course, paying for his tragic fiasco has meant that the federal government no longer has the resources to protect our borders or our food.

Next after food, our children’s toys from China are lethal. The government, whose chief task is to protect the citizens, fails its first task. So much for seafood, dogs, cats, and toothpaste. Ironically, President Bush’s tragic war on Islamic terrorists ignores our own capitalistic terrorists. They’ve been so busy making a fast buck that they didn’t bother to protect our food, health, and children while our youth are eaten in the jaws of war. Of course, they’re Bush’s kind of people. They like cheap labor, unprotected borders, killer toys, lethal food, and war profits. They’ve got the big picture. It’s greed.

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2007

GREED AND LUST

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (12/26/07)

Greed is the vice that makes capitalism work just as it’s the vice that destroys capitalism. Lust for power is the vice that makes democracy work just as it’s the vice that destroys democracy. The only saving grace is a government willing to check greed by a system of taxes penalizing the most successful of greediest and an openness that exposes the corruption inherent in a successful lust for political power. Having done neither, the Bush Administration and the Republicans are threats to capitalism and democracy.

Greed makes capitalism work because it motivates people to work hard, to scheme, and to take risks. However, if left unchecked, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. This Christmas luxury items are selling like hotcakes while clothing languishes and gas prices rise. What did Bush and the Republicans do? They cut taxes for the rich, the oil companies, and other sociopathic corporations.

In a stunning fusion of greed and lust for power, they lied us into a war in Iraq that enriched corporations, such as Halliburton, previously managed by our favorite old draft dodger, Vice President Cheney.

As for the politicians’ lust for power, it’s been unchecked by the Bush Administration’s secrecy. Inevitably, unchecked lust for power breeds corruption. The Bush Administration is a government of secrecy and corruption.

The Democrats haven’t been much help. They talk tough, but weenie out, afraid of being called names by a windshield cowboy who’s afraid of horses and can’t pronounce nuclear.

Copyright © Dana Prom Smith 2007

ON SITTING DOWN

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (9/26/07)


As President Bush’s tenure in the White House peters out, grey eminences are detailing their differences with the Bush Administration. One wonders where they were when the nation needed them. If Colin Powell and other elders in the military establishment, such as Ricardo Sanchez, formerly our military man in Iraq, had spoken out at the time about the folly of Bush’s Iraqi War, we might not be in the current tragic catastrophe. As Dante once wrote, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” Colin Powell and Gen. Sanchez sat on their hands when they should’ve stood up.

Now, Alan Greenspan tells us that he supported Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy but opposed his extravagant spending. Where was he when it came time to speak up? Maintaining his neutrality.

These formerly distinguished gentlemen protected their positions by maintain their neutrality in a time of great moral crisis.

Then, we have the generals, reading the Vietnam cue card, calling for more time to succeed. They may believe what they say, but the really frightening thing is that they may believe what they say.

Speaking of the hottest places in hell, Senators Lieberman (D-Conn) and Kyl (R-Ariz), reading Bush’s Iraqi cue card, introduced legislation authorizing war against Iran which sadly passed with Senator Clinton’s support. Do they believe we need to bomb the whole world?

Theodore Roosevelt said of William McKinley, “He had about much backbone as a chocolate éclair.”

Copyright (c) Dana Prom Smith 2007

REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS
The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (12/6/07)

During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, President Roosevelt and the Democrats used the federal government’s power to restore the nation’s welfare. The Republicans fought them tooth and toe nail with cries for limited federal government intervention, states’ rights, and balanced budget. President Roosevelt believed that a thriving economy meant people working and earning money, not a comfortable wealthy class.

Over the years the Republicans have repudiated their own objections to Roosevelt’s use of the federal government. They’ve tried to abrogate states’ rights by proposing constitutional amendments outlawing abortion and homosexual marriages. They’ve tried to intrude into deathbeds and wombs. They’ve produced the greatest deficits in history. Roosevelt used the federal government to promote the welfare of the poor and the middle classes. The Republicans beginning with President Reagan and culminating in President Bush have used the federal government to wage war on the poor and the middle classes in favor of sociopathic corporations, banks, drug companies, insurance companies, etc.

President Bush and the Republicans lied about the Iraqi war, and now we hear that he and they’ve lied to us again about Iran’s nuclear capabilities to justify military action against Iran. One of the victims of their deceits has been our military, a used up army and Marine Corps, dead and maimed soldiers, and enormous waste of heroism at the hands of a draft dodger and a favored son who ignored his military duty. They’ve been incompetent, arrogant, and deceitful.

Vote Republican and get more of the same.