State of the Union Subterfuge: Going to Hell on a War Train

Dangers pile up in deadly drifts
as the train plows blindly into night
following the flow of neon and pavement
toward the rim of a Grand Canyon

Speeding up rather than slowing down
even as wildfires rage all around
the conductor jams the crank ahead
warning sirens screeching by

We loaded the 15 tons of fuel with tax
what did we get- another day of shame
and deeper in debt to a corporate game
smash and grab our last glimmers of hope

Storm clouds roll in with thunder
carrying a clinging stench of decay
from the south and the oceans
yet the train races into oblivion

Madcap flickers of figments in windows
prove the passengers preoccupied
watching pretend people acting heroic
as they fly by trenches full of bodies

This train was bound for glory
once upon a time in a book
now it’s full speed toward hell
the demon driver a silly crook

In the wind we wished for home fires
roasting sweet treats and meats
instead the stench of the nation
is bombed bits of buildings and blood

P.S.:
We’ve witnessed the wickedness of war
yet we follow warlords’ rules
killing after killing and corruption
shall our epitaph read: "Death by Fools"?

State of the Union 2006
Rest in Peace
Coretta Scott King

Regardless of the rhetoric being spun out of Washington, DC that we "must win" the war in Iraq, and the insurgents must die, along with all the terror-mad men who hate us, if we are to survive these times with any shred of dignity we must face the facts laid out before us by the rest of the world. We are suffering under the most criminally corrupt regime of corporate pirates to ever seize power in the industrial world, and we are being robbed blind as they distract all of us with far-flung manipulations of terror and sacrifice our children. War-profiteers such as the world hasn’t seen since the days of the Roman Empire.

In reality, the investigations and disclosures about the events of the 9-11 attacks are still being quashed and censored, even in the face of victims families protests, as are the apparently criminal lies of aggression which resulted in the Bush regime launching military deployment to oil-rich islamic lands. In reality, the "insurgents" are mostly people in desperate situations who have lost relatives to gargantuan military weapons doing desperate things for revenge or what they believe is survival. In reality, the "terrorists" are mostly ideologically committed young people who feel the US is challenging them to a global duel of historic proportions, which is exactly what the Bush regime has done since the day they seized the White House with the help of several Bush-appointed justices.

As tragic and bloody as their "war on terror" (an Orwellian nightmare) is, remember it is all a well-planned vast distraction. How disoriented do we feel some days when we spend so much of our energy focused on some burning country half a world away whose language we do not speak and culture we barely understand? Meanwhile, back at home, the Bush corporate cronies are busy gutting every environmental protection and social program fought for in the last century, robbing consumers at the pumps, clear-cutting forests, building secret mega-weapons, deploying God knows what new spy technology, and generally undermining what we once considered a "democracy." And the very idea that anyone will "win" the war in Iraq is a corruption in itself. Humanity has already lost itself in the bombed-out gardens of Babylon.

At some point we the people, in order to retain any sanity, will have to face these crooks and put a stop to it. Find their soft underbellies, where they claim to have a heart, plastic or otherwise. Hit them in the profiteering and expose their reptilian lies. Demand justice, and the truth for which so many thousands have died. Allow the investigations of the Bush-Bin Laden-Rumsfeld-Saddam-CIA-Saudi-Cheney-Halliburton-Enron-Unocal-9-11 web of deception to be realized, and it will be like banishing the wicked witch and her flying monkeys. Begin envisioning these war criminals behind bars.

Our world will not only be happier for it, but will actually have a chance for survival, rather than armageddon.

We should ask ourselves if
"war" is a universal idea or
an undiagnosed mental disorder

see the bloody invasions blasting
history becoming one long crime
a wasting contagion on the world

now in the final hours
like a fat drunken giant
fighting flies and wasps
with a sledgehammer

The last national challenge:
translate "patriotic"-
to extraterrestrials
before "blasting away"

Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constitution says: "The President shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." Tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET, President Bush will do just that, delivering his fifth State of the Union address. Below we tell you what to expect and what you need to know.

Alternative Energy

What Bush Will Say: "I agree with Americans who understand being hooked on foreign oil is an economic problem and a national security problem." [1/29/06]

What You Need to Know: For five years, President Bush has consistently steered the nation away from alternative fuels and towards greater dependence on polluting imported fossil fuels.

BUSH HAS INCREASED DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL: Sixty-six percent of oil consumed in the United States comes from foreign sources, up from 58 percent in 2000. Americans now spend $200,000 a minute on foreign oil, and more than $25 billion annually goes to Persian Gulf states for oil imports.

BUSH ENERGY BILL CONTAINED LITTLE ON RENEWABLE ENERGY: The energy bill supported and signed by President Bush dropped a provision that would have required utilities "to generate at least 10 percent of their electricity through renewable fuels by 2020."Â? The proposal, championed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), was "was a low-cost, market-driven approach to cutting demand for fossil fuels and easing air pollution."

BUSH ENERGY BILL WILL NOT REDUCE RELIANCE ON FOREIGN OIL: The same energy bill failed to take any steps that will substantively reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. Specifically, the final version "rejected a Senate provision that required reduction of oil consumption by one million barrels per day by 2015." Under the bill, "our need for imported oil will continue to grow for as long as models are able to project."

Warrantless Domestic Spying

What Bush Will Say: "The terrorist surveillance program is necessary to protect America from attack." [1/26/05]

What You Need to Know: President Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program undermines the fight against terrorists and violates the law.

LAWLESS SPYING THREATENS LEGITIMATE TERRORIST INVESTIGATIONS: When laws are broken, the legal system imposes consequences. Revelations about the National Security Agency wiretapping program throw into doubt a wide range of investigations and prosecutions in the fight against terrorism. In criminal cases that can put terrorists behind bars, judges now have to worry that evidence was based on illegal wiretaps. According to several FISA judges quoted by the Washington Post, there are serious concerns that "legally suspect information" acquired through warrantless surveillance was used to obtain FISA warrants, potentially rendering the warrants illegitimate. More broadly, convicted terrorists will be emboldened to challenge their prosecutions, perhaps giving them the opportunity to operate freely once again. [Washington Post, 12/21/05]

LAWLESS SPYING WASTES VALUABLE INVESTIGATIVE RESOURCES: According to the New York Times, a massive amount of time and resources were devoted to the warrantless domestic spying program but obtained minimal results. The FBI was bombarded with long lists of phone numbers generated by the NSA program. According to a senior prosecutor: "It affected the F.B.I. in the sense that they had to devote so many resources to tracking every single one of these leads, and, in my experience, they were all dry leads." Long after 9/11, "the N.S.A. material continued to be viewed as unproductive, prompting agents to joke that a new bunch of tips meant more calls to Pizza Hut." [New York Times, 1/17/06]

LAWLESS SPYING THREATENS THE CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM OF CHECKS AND BALANCES: The Bush Administration is claiming executive power far beyond our historical understanding. Among recent examples: the administration claims it can wiretap without a warrant in the United States, contrary to federal law (FISA); it can torture, contrary to international law and the recent McCain Anti-Torture Amendment; and it can hold a U.S. citizen in detention forever, with no judicial review, simply because the President labels the citizen an "enemy combatant." These positions constitute a direct attack by the executive branch on the checks and balances designed to protect our nation’s democracy.

Making Tax Cuts Permanent

What Bush Will Say: "Of course, we’ll talk about fiscal policy in my State of the Union, talking about the Congress to be wise about how we spend the people’s money and to make the tax cuts permanent." [1/26/05]

What You Need to Know: Making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent would harm the economy and worsen the nation’s poor fiscal health.

TAX CUTS WILL COST $3.4 TRILLION OVER TEN YEARS: The cost of making the tax cuts permanent will be $3.4 trillion through fiscal year 2015, according to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. This includes the cost of extending the Alternative Minimum Tax relief associated with these tax cuts. [Congressional Budget Office, 1/26/06]

DEFICITS CAUSED BY TAX CUTS NEGATE ANY POTENTIAL ECONOMIC BENEFITS: Studies by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JTC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and CBO all confirm that deficits undermine economic benefits of the cuts. In their analysis of the 2003 tax cuts, JTC found that any economic benefits of the tax cuts would "eventually likely to be outweighed by the reduction in national savings due to increasing Federal government deficits." Four of the five models they used showed a negative effect on real GDP by the next decade, while the fifth showed no impact at all. CBO and OECD studies confirmed the tax cuts would raise deficits and hurt growth. [American Progress analysis, 1/26/05; CBO, October 2005]

PERMANENT TAX CUTS OVERWHELMINGLY FAVOR THE WEALTHIEST: Estimates based on data from the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center show that if the tax cuts are made permanent, the top 1 percent of households will gain an average of $71,420 a year when the tax cuts are fully in effect, reflecting a 6.5 percent change in their after-tax income. By contrast, people in the middle of the income spectrum would secure just a 2.1 percent increase in their after-tax income, with average tax cuts of $870. [Tax Policy Center, 12/20/05]

Katrina Reconstruction

What Bush Will Say: "I’m going to remind people we show the character and compassion of America by taking focused action...to help devastated areas of our country that have been — areas that have been devastated by natural disasters." [1/26/05]

What You Need to Know: The Bush administration has bungled the reconstruction efforts and is failing to support New Orleans’ reconstruction plan.

KATRINA RECONSTRUCTION HAS BEEN SLOW AND BUNGLED: If New Orleans is to thrive, let alone survive, people must be able to return. They cannot do so under current conditions. The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson accurately notes, "the longer the city sits empty and ruined, the less likely its renaissance becomes. Who but the president can break the logjam?" Whole sections of New Orleans still "resemble a moonscape," and only around one-fifth of the city’s original population has resettled. Despite Bush’s claims that New Orleans is "a heckuva place to bring your family," many "neighborhoods still are abandoned wastelands of uninhabitable homes and sidewalks piled with moldy garbage."

KATRINA RECONSTRUCTION FUNDING HAS BEEN TAINTED BY POLITICS: The $29 billion in aid passed last month was tainted by politics: the package "gave Mississippi about five times as much per household in housing aid as Louisiana received," a "testimony to the clout" of Bush’s political ally, conservative Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R).

ADMINISTRATION REJECTED RECONSTRUCTION PLAN: President Bush said at last week’s press conference, "It’s important for New Orleans and the state of Louisiana to work together to develop a state recovery plan. ... The plan for Louisiana hasn’t come forward yet." In fact, Louisiana did come up with a plan - which the White House rejected. Rather than supporting the "most broadly supported plan for rebuilding communities," Bush instead backed $6.2 billion in block grants that Congress provided last year. Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA), whose legislation would have established the Louisiana Development Corp. to purchase flood-damaged property, called the block grants "unacceptable." "Clearly the $6 billion isn’t enough," he said. "It ignores the vital recovery in the parishes of Orleans, St. Bernard, Cameron and parts of Plaquemines."

WHITE HOUSE STONEWALLING KATRINA INVESTIGATIONS: Congressional investigations into the administration’s inadequate response to Katrina have stalled because the "Bush White House is now refusing to turn over Hurricane Katrina related documents or make senior officials available for testimony." Recent news reports revealed that only days before Katrina hit, "the White House received detailed warnings about the storm’s likely impact, including eerily prescient predictions of breached levees, massive flooding, and major losses of life and property." One House investigator said the committee will find a "disturbing inability by the White House to de-conflict and analyze information," but with the White House stonewalling the investigations with claims of executive privilege, the administration’s mistakes will not be known for years to come.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and never will."
Frederick Douglass

Wealth heaped on wealth,
nor truth nor safety buys,
The dangers gather
as the treasures rise.
Samuel Johnson

"When the people fear the government you have tyranny...
when the government fears the people you have liberty."
— Thomas Jefferson

"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death."
— Adolf Hitler

"A long dispute means that both parties are wrong."
— Francois Voltaire