Monday, December 15, 2003

 

Brahma's View of Current Events

The following is a segment of a message I posted on Brahma's World homepage:

So, I'm sure some of you are waiting patiently... we should get to the big story of the week, as reported here by Bongo Johnny (on the spot). Saddam Hussein captured. Certainly, it's a great day for freedom as it would be when any despot is captured and forced to answer for his crimes against humanity. Contrary to Bongo's assertion, his capture is not bad news for the Brahma. News of a rebounding economy would be welcomed too....IF it were true, of course. The recent declarations of good economic news are way overblown. In fact, they really only indicated that we're not falling as fast as we were! While the 160,000 new jobs last month was a marked improvement over the past year and change, it's barely enough to satisfy the people who only first entered the job market that month. And it's believed that a disproportionate amount of those jobs were in retail sales at levels barely above minimum wage (if that). After the Holiday season, many of those new hires may be new fires.

Yes... the Stock Market has been going up. But it's because of American workers being let go (a jobless recovery) often in favor of shipping the work somewhere people are willing to work cheap and never even dreamed of unions, to say nothing of health benefits or even basic human rights. In fact.Iraq would meet ALL of those requirements.... if it weren't for those pesky guerilla fighters.

Some companies lay off a percentage of their workers, only to divide the extra work load on the remaining work force.... who are now so scared of losing their jobs that they just do the extra work for the same money and shut up. So yeah... some companies are bouncing back a bit. But it's sort of done with smoke & mirrors. Many times the Market moves for reasons unrelated to finance. This will be in evidence today when stocks leap ahead on the news of Saddam's capture.

There are many people who believe we're in for an eventual awakening and they're not all Commie-Lefties. As evidence, I offer this column by Jeff Jacoby, the conservative voice of the Boston Globe.
"But the fiscal debauchery of the Bush administration is no joke. Even before signing a huge expansion of Medicare into law this week, Bush was presiding over record-busting levels of federal spending. Brian Riedl, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, points out in a new monograph that government outlays in 2003 -- a staggering $2.15 trillion -- came to more than $20,000 per household. By that measure, government spending (in real dollars) is the highest it's been since World War II... To accommodate the extra costs of the war, the president and Congress could have cut back on nonessential spending. Instead they are choosing to lavish more money on both. The entire spending spree is being financed with borrowed funds, which is why the Congressional Budget Office forecasts a deficit of $401 billion this year, $480 billion in 2004, and nearly $1.5 trillion over the next five years. (And that doesn't include the new Medicare drug benefit, which will add tens of billions of dollars to annual federal outlays). But sooner or later, every penny of those deficits will have to be repaid -- if not by us, then by our children.
He then lists of bunch of pork-barrel spending that Congress people use to show the folks at home how they're working for them. And the Halliburtron scandal is first hitting the fan!

BUT...back to the main event, the capture of Saddam. Of course it's a good thing, despite the positive affects it could have for Bush's re-election. Sure, if the election happened to be this week, he'd ride the wave all the way in to a second term. But will American troops be any safer now? Will I not awake to the news of another soldier dying over there tomorrow...or in 3 of the next 5 days..? In other words... if Saddam was hiding like a rat in a hole in the ground all this time, apparently he's not behind the counter attacks on our troops. Here is a quote you'd do well to consider... even though it IS from Rocky's (as in Nelson) brother:

"Given the location and circumstances of his capture, it makes it clear that Saddam was not managing the insurgency and that he had very little control or influence," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. "That is significant and disturbing because it means the insurgents are not fighting for Saddam, they're fighting against the United States."

Take special notice of the last sentence.

If Saddam's capture actually signified the end of hostilities over there, that would be an entirely different situation. Bush is doing a good job of hiding the returning flag-draped caskets from public view. And that's not even considering the thousands of returning wounded. But I feel an aggressive campaign by the Demos should show them on T.V. daily. Or a facsimile. There's the rub. It can be a dramatic recreation since the real thing is being hidden away. That's the America we all know and love. No see.... no care. So, MAKE them see! It's real!
~Brahma*

posted by ~Brahma 2:30 AM