as we rally and march in Washington DC and around the country against this insane war, and this insane President. You may not agree with every one of my reasons but I’m sure you’ll find at least one that would justify marching against Bush on 9/24.
Number 10: Cronyism and Corruption
This is the most corrupt Presidency and Congressional Leadership of all time. Billions unaccounted for in Iraq. No-bid contracts awarded to companies like Halliburton who have connections to the Bush administration, companies that turn around and gouge our troops for needed supplies. Environmental regulations relaxed or ignored to appease major campaign contributors such as the utility companies and the mining companies. FCC regulations rewritten to allow major media companies to consolidate their hold on the public airwaves (again in exchange for campaign contributions). The Bankruptcy bill bought and paid for by the bribes of the Banks and Credit Card companies. The list could go on for many more pages.
(The rest of my reasons after the fold)
Number 9: Tax dollars used to fund Propaganda
Literally, news coverage favorable to the GOP and the Bush administration is being bought and paid for (and sometimes produced as well) with your tax dollars. We are funding spin and lies while essential services go begging for money. We are funding campaigns seeking to destroy social security, to further enrich the wealthiest among us, to justify an illegal war in Iraq, and to paint over the massive corruption and dismantling of our government.
Number 8: Global Warming
No President in history has done more to sabotage international efforts to deal with the most serious environmental issue facing the entire world. No administration in history has done more to discredit reputable scientists and critics of its “see nothing, do nothing” policies. No administration in history has done more to insure that we will continue to use more and more fossil fuels, deepening our dependency on foreign sources of oil even as we befoul the planet’s atmosphere and set the stage for the possible extinction of much of the world’s flora and fauna, including the distinct possibility that homo sapiens itself may perish as a species.
Number 7: Loss of Civil Rights
From the venomous Patriot Act, to the unconstitutional detentions of American citizens and others without any trial before an independent tribunal of the charges against them, to the attacks on our privacy rights (whether the right to keep medical information secret, or financial information, or which books we read, or the right of women to choose to have an abortion), no administration as done more to destroy the rights guaranteed to us under the first ten amendments of our Constitution than this President and his lapdog Congress. Perhaps most blatant, has been the GOP’s attack on the most fundamental right of any citizen: the right to vote. If you doubt me on that, just go read Congressman Conyer’s report on the atrocity which was the 2004 election in the State of Ohio.
Number 6: The Devastation of Our Economy
We are losing more high value jobs to countries overseas and replacing them with lower paying jobs than in any time in our history. The middle class is squeezed by rising gas prices, large consumer debt and lower wages. The rich get richer increasing the inequality between the wealthiest and the poorest to the greatest extent since the days preceding the Great Depression. Our Federal deficit grows worse every year as does our trade deficit. We are dependent on China, Japan and Korea to buy our treasury bills in order to fund our federal government. Many state and local governments are running in the red, forcing them to cut back on money essential services such as schools, police, firefighters, etc. We are nearing a catastrophic collapse of our economy. It’s not a matter of if anymore, but when it will occur.
Number 5: The Bush/GOP Slime Machine
You know whereof I speak. The systematic and coordinated attack on anyone who criticizes Bush or his policy failures. Whistle blowers who are defamed. Valerie Plame’s job at the CIA exposed in order to get back at Joe Wilson for pointing out the lies on Iraq’s missing wmd. The campaign to attack the 9/11 mothers and Cindy Sheehan. The firing or “reassignment” of federal employees who have the unmitigated gall to simply tell the truth. Lies and slanders spread against any Democratic candidate for any office, the most obvious being the swift boat slurs against John Kerry. The attacks on scientists whether they speak up on environmental issues, the teaching of creationism in our schools, or the massaging of official government reports by political hacks. Yes, they have help from a lazy media, but the depths to which they will go to slander decent Americans simply trying to speak the truth to the American Public is symbolic of everything else that is wrong with their leadership of our country.
Number 4: The Failure to Improve National Security
Just go down the list. Failed to prevent 9/11 then tried to cover up their own failures. Failed to capture Osama Bin Laden. Reduced funds for first responders, and for the protection of our ports, chemical plants, nuclear plants, etc. Billions wasted on an anti-ballistic missile system that has yet to pass one single test of its proficiency, even when the test have been rigged to make success easier. Waging useless wars overseas, and torturing and killing prisoners, thus laying the groundwork for more terrorists in the future. Overstretching our military to the breaking limit. Failing to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons in North Korea and Iran, while allowing Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, the source of most of the Al Qaida terrorist who attacked us to skate free of any consequences.
Number 3: Katrina
Katrina, and our federal government’s response to it is in many ways emblematic of everything this dangerously incompetent and greedy administration has done. In effect, Bush and the GOP eviscerated a once proud and effective organization, who’s primary mission was the protection of American lives and property from the effects of natural disasters and turned it into a nightmare of failed leadership: leaders who were appointed by Bush to reward loyal followers as patronage rather than appointing experts who knew what to do when disaster struck. Katrina highlights many of the other problems: cronyism and corruption, the GOP slime attacks on Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin, the Rovian propaganda spin that everything was really A-OK, the lies and cover-up by administration officials as to the extent of their own malfeasance, the failure to protect our citizens from well known and anticipated threats, the lack of funding for essential projects and the disregard of environmental issues which surely contributed to the disaster (loss of wetlands among them).
Number 2: The Illegal War in Iraq
The reasons we were given for invading Iraq are well known to have been lies. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There were no terrorists, there was no connection between Saddam and 9/11. We aren’t there for the spreading of a western style democracy, but merely to establish a client state who will allow us to keep basing our troops and weaponry there regardless of its theocratic and misogynous nature. We are violating our responsibilities under the Geneva conventions and US law with respect to the use of torture, including the rape of children. We are killing innocent civilians and fueling the insurgency with our presence. We are not making ourselves safer by fighting the terrorists over there, but merely giving jihadists a training ground for future terrorist actions in the United States. We are underfunding our homeland defense to wage war in Iraq. We are not supporting the troops because we have failed to provide them with the equipment they need. We have, much like an earlier conflict in Vietnam, lost our way, and are in the process of losing our collective soul.
Number 1: The Dead
3000 on 9/11
Over 2000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
10,000 to, 40,000 estimated in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast states.
If those aren’t good enough reasons for you, feel free to add your own. If you can’t think of any reason to march against Bush on 9/24, why — you must be a dittohead troll who gets all their news from Fox and Rush. Even Karl Rove, I bet, could come up with a few reasons to oppose this President (provided he was working for another GOP candidate for President).
