| |
|
I wouldn't say "getting the Taliban out of power" like it's a done deal. In some areas their power is rising. There is still plenty of war going on in Afghanistan to this day.
The situation is Iraq is in some ways better than when Saddam was in power, but in other ways it's worse. A report was released last year about the living conditions in Iraq. Its findings include the facts that... Even though most Iraqis are now connected to water, electricity or sewage networks, supplies remain unstable and unreliable. Almost a quarter of children between the ages of six months and five years suffer from malnutrition. More young people today are illiterate than in previous generations. Just 83 percent of boys and 79 percent of girls of school age are enrolled in primary school.
Oh, wait, I'm not following the rules of the Devil's Advocate game, am I? I think pointing out the plus sides of the Bush Administration is a highly dubious venture, since the media at large and the administration itself has been working hard to put a positive spin on its path of destruction for the past six years without needing any help from us. But okay, I'll play along.
*The American economy is doing amazingly well right now. I say "amazingly" because for everyday Americans - saving is the lowest it's been since the Great Depression, spending and consumer debt are high just to afford the basics in life, home foreclosures are on the rise, and consumer confidence is low and sinking.
*And yet the economy is robust and corporations are making record profits. This is because The Bush Admin (hereafter TBA) has done plenty for big business. Their tax cuts have greatly benefitted the rich and tossed a token to the middle classes. They have refused to tell the automobile industry to improve fuel economy standards within a decade which helps the car companies and oil industry moguls get richer. Bush also declared that Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant and therefore can't be regulated by the Clean Air Act, which really helps out those struggling auto makers and power plants. And it works! The oil companies have been having record profits.
Let's see, what else.
*Well, if you believe that marriage is a sacred institution you might appreciate the fact that TBA established Marriage Protection Week, with the President declaring I call upon the people of the United States to observe this week with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies.
Bush has also pushed hard to get more federal funding poured into religious organizations. That's great news if you feel that churches can use more federal funding for their social programs. On the other hand, not so good news if you think separation of church and state is important.
Most of all, TBA has done so much to keep us safe from terrorism....
*The Patriot Act. This greatly increased the government's ability to run surveillance, obtain secret warrants, get simple search warrants where more difficult wiretap warrants were once needed, etc.
*The NSA warrantless wiretap program began after 911. This is when the President issued a secret executive order that authorized the NSA to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance of international communication on anyone who was suspected of having links to a terrorist organization such as al-Qaeda or its affiliates.
*The NSA database of domestic calls also started up after 911. The NSA started keeping call logs for every single phone call in the US that was carried by 3 out of 4 major providers. Unfortunately they couldn't get the last one to cooperate with the program.
*And TBA is securing the borders. They're going to send national guard troops to the Mexican border to control that a little more tightly. And they'll be cracking down on that loosey-goosey Canadian border too, requiring passports or border crossing IDs by 2007.
My web-fu and my stomach are beginning to give out. Feel free to chime in, anyone. |
|
|
