“Over the past year, we have witnessed the
behaviour of the current Presidential Administration go from bad, to worse
than we could have ever imagined. Since September 11, the mere utterance of
anything critical, let alone derogatory about the President or his
administration was risky. There has been little criticism in the mainstream
media and until now, none from any member of Congress. Fortunately, this
fear-induced silence is coming to an end. Finally, a brave member of Congress
has spoken up with both candor and criticism. United States Congressman Dennis
J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) recently made a very daring speech, highlighting the
injustices happening en masse, right before our very eyes.

Please take a moment to read the
words that have been a long time coming. http://truthout.com/02.23C.Kucinich.Prayer.htm “

Speaking of the utter lack of criticism of our administration, and the
dangers of speaking against it in a time when our civil liberties and freedom
of speech have been cast aside and called a luxury, have you noticed the
similarities between Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s admonishments and those of
Sen. Joe McCarthy? Think you can tell the difference? Bet you can’t! (I only
scored 71% myself) http://www.morons.org/feature/whosaidit.php

If you’ve read this far, you deserve a humor break. See “French Intellectuals
to be Deployed in Afghanistan…” below.

“What do you
think, Chris?” Well, I’ll tell ya.

Our country is substantially under
the control of the corporations that form the military-industrial complex,
just as Eisenhower warned. They buy all the influence there is, from the
bottom to the top of our government. They own our administration and our
Congress. They are as anxious to seize total control of our government as GW
is to run the country like a business. Good rhetoric, but what does it mean?

These companies want a couple of
things:

1. The continued massive
consumption of oil, because that’s where their dollars come from, or that’s
what their products and services
depend upon. This is the source of
the money that gives them their power, and control over the rest of the world.

2. Continued government subsidy of
their businesses, be it in the form of new contracts, or continued production
of armaments, or Superfund cleanup dollars, or subsidies to NOT plant stuff
like hemp and soy that could provide an alternative source of fuel, and the
many of the other forms such subsidies take.

3. Increased control over public
opinion about their activities.

4. No end in sight to any of the
above.

Therefore, the best way for them to
ensure they get these things is to get us, as a nation, into two unwinnable,
vaguely defined “wars”, with no clear objectives or defined ends, under which
auspices they can control the spin in the media, suspend citizens’ rights,
push through MASSIVE spending bills that nobody will ever read or understand,
get huge new investment in their businesses, obtain a huge advantage over
competitors in the global markets, get the help of foreign governments in
dominanting their markets, obtain intelligence about anyone they please, and
overwhelm the popular consciousness (easily done) with their activities, so
that people don’t want to know what’s happening, or fight about it, they just
want to get sedated and watch “Friends.”

And now we have them: The War on
Terror and the War on Drugs. Neither of them makes any sense at all. Neither
is defined, winnable, or even scoped–that is,
they are both designed to continue into perpetuity. And both can be used to justify the suspension of our
Constitutionally assured rights, at any time, because such actions are
“necessary to fight terror” or “necessary to fight drug operations”.
Each consumes billions of public money. In both cases, the
administration and its puppet pundits seek to portray “the enemy” in the most
extreme terms, in terms of “evil” and
“evildoers” without any attempt at, or need for, any justification,
evidence, or anything. We never have to account for the fact that we are
simultaneously one of the largest operations in the world in fighting drugs,
and also one of the largest distributors and suppliers of drugs. (Because
after all, it’s not REALLY about drugs, it’s about money and power going into
hands that we do not control, and we can’t have that.) If we lose our main
target in one war (bin Laden) we can pick the next one on the list (Saddam)
and keep going in our “war” without breaking stride. The public will never
notice that this has occurred, because they’re busy soaking up human interest
stories, like who gets how much from the Sept 11 fund, or the reopening of a
movie house in Afghanistan. We never have to justify anything we do in either
“war,” to anybody. And they can go on indefinitely. Pay no attention to the
men behind the curtain. We are the great and powerful Oz.

It really is 1984. We are
at “war” with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia. Eurasia is the
Axis of Evil. We must fight them because we are Good, and they are Evil. Once you have lost your freedom of speech,
any criticism of our policy or actions
is treachery and traitorous.

Oh sure, there are
plenty more articles to read. See the list at the end of this
message.