There've been several polls recently showing that about 80 percent of the American people think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Allowing for the usual 2 percent who are too oblivious to hold an opinion on the subject, this indicates that about 18 percent of Americans believe we're on the right track. I think I know who those people are, but I'm not sure I know any of them personally. That's probably a good thing.
Jorge's approval rating is still about 30 percent, so if my math is accurate, approximately 12 percent of the people who think America is on the wrong track still think Jorge's doing a damned good job. Those are the people I want to meet sometime.
When I was a kid in school, I took civics classes. Sometimes they were called social studies. I don't know if those are still offered in public schools anymore, but they should be. One thing I remember is that the constitution established a federal government based on a system of checks and balances, with the three branches all keeping an eye on each other and each having some ability to limit the power of the other two. That's the stuff they used to teach, or at least it's the way I remember it.
When serious historical analyses of Jorge's two terms are written, chapters will be devoted to the role that Cheney and others played in expanding presidential power and eliminating the checks-and-balances, and how the other branches let it happen. There's been an absence of executive accountability under the traditional rules that staggers the imagination, and the horrors we already know about are probably just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The ultimate irony is that Jorge is the last guy on earth you'd want to entrust with absolute power and authority.
I saw an article yesterday about the massive corruption in Iraq: millions, probably billions, of dollars being wasted with contractors like Halliburton and KBR ripping us off as fast as they can think up the schemes. Cans of soda pop at 45 dollars each, that kind of thing. Incredible. Is anybody ever going to be assigned the responsibility for this mess and punished for it ? I'm not counting on it.
Conservatives like to justify Jorge's reign of error by pointing out that since 911, there hasn't been another comparable event. Maybe the terrorists have decided that America's doing such a fine job of self-destruction they can save their ammo.
Jorge's approval rating is still about 30 percent, so if my math is accurate, approximately 12 percent of the people who think America is on the wrong track still think Jorge's doing a damned good job. Those are the people I want to meet sometime.
When I was a kid in school, I took civics classes. Sometimes they were called social studies. I don't know if those are still offered in public schools anymore, but they should be. One thing I remember is that the constitution established a federal government based on a system of checks and balances, with the three branches all keeping an eye on each other and each having some ability to limit the power of the other two. That's the stuff they used to teach, or at least it's the way I remember it.
When serious historical analyses of Jorge's two terms are written, chapters will be devoted to the role that Cheney and others played in expanding presidential power and eliminating the checks-and-balances, and how the other branches let it happen. There's been an absence of executive accountability under the traditional rules that staggers the imagination, and the horrors we already know about are probably just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The ultimate irony is that Jorge is the last guy on earth you'd want to entrust with absolute power and authority.
I saw an article yesterday about the massive corruption in Iraq: millions, probably billions, of dollars being wasted with contractors like Halliburton and KBR ripping us off as fast as they can think up the schemes. Cans of soda pop at 45 dollars each, that kind of thing. Incredible. Is anybody ever going to be assigned the responsibility for this mess and punished for it ? I'm not counting on it.
Conservatives like to justify Jorge's reign of error by pointing out that since 911, there hasn't been another comparable event. Maybe the terrorists have decided that America's doing such a fine job of self-destruction they can save their ammo.
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