U.S. Politics:
Bush's Honeymoon Is Over
Storm Clouds Over White House
Sixty days into his term as Blight House Resident, George W. Bush has reversed himself on every campaign promise. The administration's true agenda, which favors a hard shift to the far right should come as no surprise. Eclipse patterns over the years 1999-2000, including the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of May 28, 2000, served as harbingers of a "fixed" smack-down of the Clinton Administration's "liberal" form of governance. Without belaboring Clinton's more "unpardonable" blunders, Bush's promise to "restore dignity and honor" to the White House falls short of the mark. It eludes me as to how the American People can buy into that when it is readily apparent that Dubya has done the direct opposite of what he promised the American People.
The Honeymoon's Over
Mars's entrance in Sagittarius (and retrograde status), as well as Venus's retrograde status marks the turning point for Honeymooners Bush-Cheney, et al. Once Saturn enters Gemini (June 20, 2001), and thus abandons its limitations upon the Democratic Party's Mercury (26 Taurus-Caput Algol), Dubya will be greeted with a renewed and reinvigorated Democratic Party spoiling for political warfare.
Big Business
Since the present regime took over, it has catered to big business at the expense of those in the middle and at the bottom. Wage earners, by far the largest population in the USA, have watched helplessly as Dubya busted the unions and simultaneously prevented airline mechanics from striking. He also rescinded Clinton's Executive Order re ergonomics in the workplace. It was Republian Liddy Dole who first brought repetitive stress injury to the government's attention in 1990. No matter that it costs industry $50 billion a year in lost employee productivity via repetitive stress injuries. Bush maintains that it costs business too much money to provide the necessary alterations in the workplace. In other words, the worker is disposable. If he or she can't work, they are forced to quit in favor of another younger or less injured worker who will not need a remedy. Permanent disability claims are also expensive, but those issues are conveniently swept under the rug.
Tax Cut
Bush's tax cut plan is another case in point. Even staunch conservative journalists such as Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball," and Bill O'Reilly of Fox New's "O'Reilly Report" have criticized the plan as a blatant pandering to huge corporate and individual campaign contributors who are in line for the payback. The tax cut plan, in its present incarnation, is back-loaded. That means that regular Americans wouldn't see any real benefit from it until 2006. Democrats are lobbying for a front-end load that would include a more generous percentage break for middle to lower income families. In the final analysis, the tax cut plan will benefit those at the top who don't need to spend the money. This isn't any different from Reagan's tax cut plan nicknamed "Trickle Down Economics." Smart people know that the only thing that really flows downhill is shit.
Bankruptcy
The same can be said for the revised Chapter 7 Bankruptcy laws ratified by the Senate on March 15, 2001. The first go-round was rejected by Clinton as punitive to the majority of Chapter 7 Debtors. As reported by Frank Pellegrini of Time magazine online:
"Cynics might figure that view has been shaped by big donors like credit card giant MBNA, which along with its employees donated $1.3 million to the Bush campaign. Its president, Charles Crawley, was a Bush "pioneer" fund-raiser who, along with his wife, gave $5,000 to help fund Bush's Florida recount fight. Heck, Crawley even chipped in the maximum $100,000 for the new president's inaugural bash."
The real mix behind this is to allow banks to recover more money from the few petitioners who have assets that potentially could be utilized by the U.S. Trustee as payment upon certain debts. Percentage-wise, those who abuse the Chapter 7 provisions are very few in comparison to all people who file Chapter 7. Most petitioners literally have nothing to parlay. The interest rates paid upon credit card debt by the masses is already a built-in recoup provision for the banks. Another point to consider is that the largest economic boom in America's history benefitted whom? Working people? I think not. Remember that the next time you hear Bush say, "They keep making it about class warfare." I doubt Bush has studied Hegel.
Roe v. Wade
Commentary & Chart
CO-2 Emissions/Foot & Mouth Disease
Environmental Issues Commentary & Chart
Arsenic
"EPA Revokes Drinking Water Rule" by Eric Perrin, 3/20/01, Washington Post
"While environmentalists said the tough new arsenic standard is essential to protecting millions of Americans from cancer and
other health threats, EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman insisted there is "no consensus on a particular safe level" in
ordering the withdrawal of the standard.
"I am committed to safe and affordable drinking water for all Americans," Whitman said. "When the federal government
imposes costs on communities - especially small communities - we should be sure the facts support imposing the federal
standard."
Yes. Uh-huh. Yada, yada, yada.
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