THE GREAT WHITE BEAR

Just call me "Sulfur Boy"

In the year 2000, the Republican party swept to power on a platform that promised to:
1. Increase prosperity for working Americans
2. Increase access to higher education for all Americans.
3. Improve our standing in the world, especially the middle east.
4. Combat terrorism.
5. Save Social Security
6. Preserve and improve Medicare
7. Provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans
8. Provide energy security.

After 6 years in power, these are the promises kept:
Er, well.......

That’s right, none.

They have however:
1. Given us a stupid, immoral, unnecessary, unwinable war that has cost nearly 3,000 American and British lives, over 100,000 Iraqi lives, and over $300 billion, with no end in sight. We have turned a stable, secular country into a sectarian civil war front. 100 Iraqi’s die daily. Women, who had civil rights on a par with western societies , have lost most of those rights. In fact we have turned Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorists. All the meanwhile strengthening the hands of our enemies in Iran.

2. Managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Afghanistan. The Taliban are resurgent, and gaining in popularity. In alliance with war lords turned drug lords, they have turned Afghanistan into a narco state, the new Columbia.

3. Turned budget surpluses into record deficits.

4. Given us a recession, one of the weakest recoveries in history, and an economy slipping back into recession.

Now, let’s look at those promises:
1. Increased prosperity for working Americans: The realty is that 90% of wage earners have lost about 5% of their income to inflation since 2000.

2. Increased access to higher education for all Americans. Fact: College tuition is has risen at twice the rate of inflation since the Republicans took control. Worse, the government just drastically raised the interest on student loans, pricing even more young people out of a college education.

3. Improve our standing in the world: Okay, you can get up off the floor from that laughing fit now! This administration has managed to squander all the good will we had world wide after 9/11. Now, even our allies despise us. Btw, if you have to travel to the UK or Europe, make sure you always wear a Toronto Maple Leafs baseball hat or jersey. Likely to save you from a mugging.

4. Combat terrorism: On the floor again?!!!! Yeah, the latest national security estimate says we are creating terrorists much faster than we can kill them. Try to find a retired military officer who has anything positive to say about Iraq and the war on terrorism. Because they have all been on the radio calling Sulfur Boy everything but caucasian.

5. Save Social Security: Nothing pending on that front. Plan on working till you drop dead.

6. Preserve and improve Medicare: Not happening. In fact, there is a movement in the AMA for doctors to drop medicare patients, due to payment cuts. Seniors, need that operation? Better keep eating Kibbles and Bits so you can save enough to have it done!

7. Provide affordable health insurance to all Americans: Did you all choke on that one? 40,000,000 Americans without health insurance, and almost that many more who go without medical care because of unaffordable deductibles. Does that remotely sound like affordable health care to YOU?

8. Energy security. Do recent events make you feel secure?


How long would you keep someone around who consistently lied and broke their promises to you? Six years is long enough. Time to send Mr. Wizard the Lizard to DC so he can chant “Drissle drassel, dressel drone. Time for these ones to come home”

Send the bums packing!

p.s. My apologies to Tudor Turtle