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QUOTATION: People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. - Walter H. Judd

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2004-06-26 - 3:17 p.m.

Is It Just Me?

by Joan Callaway

  • Is it just me or does anyone else find it absolutely amazing that the U.S. government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps in the State of Washington and determine exactly what that cow ate?

      �Consumers of U.S. beef need not be alarmed,� after an animal tested positive in a preliminary screening for mad cow disease, �because it never entered the food chain,� agriculture officials say.� � AP 6/26/04

      Mad Cow Never Entered Food Chain

    They can also track her calves right to their stalls and tell you what kind of feed they ate. They can assure us that none of the meat got into OUR food source. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around in our country, including people who may be intent on blowing up important structures in the U. S. and killing hundreds, if not thousands of Americans.

    One clever person suggests the government give everyone coming into the country a cow as soon as they go through customs. Then take it out of the hands of the FBI and Homeland Security�and give it to the Department of Agriculture to track. They apparently know what they�re doing.

  • Is it just me? I gave our President the benefit of the doubt when he said Iraq was prepared to use weapons of mass destruction against us immediately. Of course, as I recall both the U.S. and USSR for forty years during the cold war resisted the impulse to strike first, preemptively, on these same grounds, but maybe he knew something I didn�t. (Well, I think he didn�t know Osama�s address, but he knew how to find Iraq and also knew that it was a weakened country that posed no real threat.) They couldn�t very well go after Osama in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia because they are our allies. Iran and North Korea, the other part of the �axis of evil� could defend themselves � and retaliate, perhaps with nuclear bombs (real WMD�s).

    Now, however, it seems clear that in spite of the facts, our delusional V.P. is still hunting for WMD and swearing that Saddam Hussein had connections with terrorists responsible for 9/11. The facts seem to be:

    1) There was no imminent threat;

    2) There were no weapons of mass destruction;

    3) There is no evidence that anti-fundamentalist Saddam Hussein had a cozy relationship with Osama bin Laden, a religious fundamentalist Saudi, or with al Qaida, a band of theocratic fanatics, who together admit responsibility for 9/11.

    But is anyone in the administration admitting this goof? Apologizing? Not hardly. They are just from time to time changing the reason for going to war, the reasons for our soldiers being there. The most current one, of course, being to bring sovereignty, freedom, democracy, and a better way of life to the people whose country we�ve decimated through shock and awe, �because,� as President Clinton said in a recent interview, �they could.�

    Fool me once, shame on you!

    Fool me twice, shame on me!

  • Is it just me? What really confuses the daylights out of me is that this month 12,000 American troops are being transferred to Iraq from the border of North Korea, (�part of the axis of evil�- remember?) where we KNOW there are nuclear bombs (WMD).

  • Is it just me? Did the Patriot Act give away more than we thought? The memo that has recently been released indicates that the Bush administration lawyers felt that the president �was not bound by either an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal anti-torture law because he had the authority as commander-in-chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation�s security." A slippery slope don�t you think? � one that has several times in the past led to the development of authoritarian governments. This and several other features of the Patriot Act worry me more than any issue since the McCarthy Era.

    The Bush Administration�s idea of responsibility vilifies a woman's right to choose even as it seeks to outlaw practical sex education and condom distribution that could reduce abortion rates, as well as AIDS. Bush's vision of responsibility preaches cleaner air, but excuses corporations from environmental regulations while limiting the rights of citizens to hold corporations accountable. It condones the abuse of prisoners and then shifts the blame onto the backs of our soldiers. In Bush's "Era of Responsibility," the buck always stops somewhere else.

    Where are more outraged voices, challenging what appears to be a monolithic, dangerous administration that threatens America�s standing in the world? Where are more outraged voices when time after time we are fed erroneous information, such as the most recent terrorist statistics for the past year? And it IS the economy, stupid! A Mike Keene cartoon in the Denver Post today shows a man with the following caption: �Two and a half years ago, I was a mechanical engineer. But then I lost my job in a lousy economy. Now the Bush administration claims credit for the creation of thousands of new jobs, and I know it�s true�� And then you see the same man, riding a bike, delivering papers, wearing a Wal-Mart shirt, and a Taco World hat, saying: ��Cause I�ve got three of �em.�

    Where are the outraged voices of Congress? Where are the checks and balances?

    (Of course, when one Senator spoke out against Vice President Cheney, he got cussed out on the Senate floor, albeit not in session, excused Cheney.

    Is it just me...or have things gotten out of hand?

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