A Political Battle for Planet Earth

[benfranklin1776]

"The U.S. news media may have trouble looking beyond the
trivia of politics – from John Kerry’s wrinkles to Howard
Dean’s arm-waving – but American voters seem tired of those
distractions. Indeed, many now see the stakes in November as
monumental: a choice between a world that cooperates on
environmental, economic and security challenges versus one
that promises endless war, deepening economic disparity and
neglect of environmental dangers like global warming.

From the intensity of voter interest in the early Democratic presidential race,
it appears “the Democratic base” as well as many political independents
sense that what’s at stake may be nothing short of the future of
the American democratic experiment and a healthy planet, possibly a last
chance to avert catastrophe.

To these voters, Election 2004 is shaping up as a real-life Lord of the
Rings’s “battle for middle earth.” Disparate groups – anti-war activists,
“deficit hawks,” civil libertarians, union members, environmentalists and
other traditional grassroots supporters of the Democratic Party – are trying
to unite for one last, desperate battle against a political Sauron, represented
by George W. Bush and a Republican administration that even Bush’s first
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill has concluded is detached from reality and
a threat to the future.


* * * *


Like much else, this sense of urgency has been mischaracterized by the
mainstream media and conservative pundits as an irrational hatred of Bush.
Instead, the reaction of the Democratic base reflects a far more rational
sense of foreboding. Bush and the neo-conservative ideologues who
surround him appear to be putting in place a radically different kind of
political system than what Americans have known, one that supplants facts
and reasoned debate with bogus information and ideological rants, backed
by punishments for those who dissent or simply disagree."


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/020304.html



A MUST READ which delineates the true stakes of this election. The man makes clear that nothing less than the future survival of our democracy is at stake.

[Martin Eden]

1. MUST READ entire article

!!!

[Karmadillo]

2. Kick for an excellent article.

n/t

[Martin Eden]

3. Sunday KICK

for those who may have missed it

[hatrack]

4. Very, VERY good!

The whole ball of wax, neatly wrapped and nicely displayed.

[benfranklin1776]

6. Yes it was. Mr. Parry is to be commended.

He has written a cogent, concise summary of our current crisis of democracy.

[glitch]

5. I always like to kick the consortiumnews articles

this one mentions the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr article from Rolling Stone, which made me listen again to his speech (mp3 available from http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=7849) regarding the corporatization of water:

He talks about responding to the question (paraphrasing)
Is Bush just an aberration, a horrible mistake? with the following:
No, this is the face of globalization, this is the final battle, this is armageddon, this is the battle against ignorance and greed, and the forces of ignorance and greed will greet us with the seduction of a warm handshake and a congenial smile, and divert the rivers toward the big money, and, I'm sorry.

If you like this article you'll love this speech, worth a listen!

[teryang]

7. Bush budget equals "looting."

<George Akerlof, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, went even further. He said Bush’s economic policies are “not normal government policy” but rather “a form of looting.” Akerlof told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, “This is the worst government the U.S. has ever had in its more than 200 years of history.” ><http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,258983,00.html>


These people are criminals. Why is it so hard for people to grasp this? Enron was just their calling card. It is the same group of people who looted the nations S&Ls over and over. The Bushes were in the forefront of this crime. They're doing it again because they are above the law. America is getting the government it deserves. The foxes are in charge of the hen house.

[Snappy]

8. The Hard Driving Basic Issues

"a choice between a world that cooperates on
environmental, economic and security challenges versus one
that promises endless war, deepening economic disparity and
neglect of environmental dangers like global warming."

These should be the Democratic Platform.