That list is actually pages long. Just start naming any area of “public policy” upon which millions of America depend upon or have some expectations that there are people spending time and tax dollars trying to administer something of an equitable state of affairs in terms of law, education, economy, etc. Not that Christians should be surprised that such things need watching after and national leaders in office held accountable. Nor should they be surprised that there will be those who will use opportunities to improve their own lot or in effect steal from the national budget to benefit themselves and their usually wealthy backers. BUT……these Bush administration folks take the cake. In a staggering amount of cases across the board, favors are granted in the form of appointments to postions that are presumed to carry a sense of responsibility for the protection of the citizenry, but instead are given out to those who want “protection of the citizenry” taking a back seat to the profits of those who see such protections as “impediments” in their way to bigger profits.

And now we have Iran “in our sights” it seems. I am apalled that there isn’t more of a “Don’t Even Go There” warning being given the Bush administration by the people of this nation. Isn’t there the slightest bit of recognition of the similarities here to the whole Iraq debacle? Isn’t it somewhat recognizable what these neocon-maniacs are doing? How much shorter can the public memory get?

The whole oil battle right now, and Bush’s posturing as some sort of “alternative energy” , “cutting edge guy” is simply laughable to anyone who knows how long advocates for alternative energy have gone unheeded by not only Republican administrations, but Democrats as well since the last “energy crisis” in the 70’s. But this crew is especially blind to the gravity of this situation, immersed as they are in oil company involvements, and manipulating Middle East relationships to the benefit of the oil companies.

With the oil companies reporting record profits, is this not a time to call for the rather novel notion that the oil companies pass on this windfall to the consumer? Of course this brings us to the issue of consumerism and lack of discipline in a time of shortage. The past 10 years have seen a gluttony of oil usage amongst the nation’s vehicle buyers. We have been weaned to “shop, use, waste, eat , drink, and be merry”. In the 70’s , when the shortage was there but not near the crisis we now have, there were (GASP) MEASURES actually taken. Speed limits were lowered from 60-70 to 55, and a line of fuel efficient cars saturated the market. But then Reagan entered and reversed Carter’s call for sacrafice and ushered in a new era of unchecked “freedom” (of the consumer that is—-LIVE IT UP——Clinton and Gore didn’t exactly stem this tide. It continued on, as the economy boomed in the 90’s.)

Now we have Bush telling us “America is addicted to oil”. (Just as he has worked to insure that this was the case.) And now its time to play the “jump on the bandwagon” game — up to now the people calling for caution and discipline have been treated by the Bush administration as “alarmists” at best and “tree-hugging crazies” at worst , but he is doing these “talks about fuel” , as usual, only in rhetoric. He’s already rejected a windfall tax as “not the right solution”. And of course, he won’t listen to the people who actually know something about economy, environment, and international relations. On these things, the man is an idiot (at best, that is— at worst, he is a determined , deceived, crazed neocon) , and listens only to those who tells him what he wants to hear, or how he can sell these manipulations to the public. Recently yet another economist has written an expose on the Bush economic policy (which is , in a nutshell, without policy on such matters. Their hardest work is done on producing ideology from think-tank members staffed by Necon ideologues. No real economists want to work for Bush. They want to be taken seriously rather than a cheerleader for the Bush administration. And so we’ve seen a constant enter and exit line of Treasury Secretaries who discover this to their chagrin. The recent expose is entitled Imposter, by the guy who wrote the book on Reganomics, is the critic this time. He’s noticed the very different breed of administration we have now. He’s not a partisan opponent who will say anything. He is an advocate for an economic policy that I found repugnant, and yet he , like John Diulio , the first “Faith -Based Policy Czar” under Bush, notices a “complete lack of policy aparatus”. The Bush administration has , from the get-go, been a reactionary PR apparatus, simply moving to cover-up and obscure their granting of government overseeing responsibilities to people whose lives have been spent in working for the interests of those who place profits of their corporations and industries ahead of all.

Now Bush has been saying , concerning options in dealing with Iran, that “nothing is off the table”, and talk abounds that we’re scoping out sites to bomb. I would hope that there would be a mass movement of protest (of course, my deepest resentment is with the American Church and its silence in the “prior deceptions” and manipulations, and even prior to the evidence to the contrary, the alternatives to war in Iraq when noone knew for sure about WMD’s were brushed aside as irresponsible delay . If our churches had been calling for , at worst, a deeper look at all the options, and at best, a repudiation of this outmoded and morally bankrupt notion that war is preferrable and at all acceptable, the road Bush has taken would have been much less doable, and thousands of lives would have been spared.
I could go on and on still. But I had to spill it a bit here today.