GUEST EDITORIAL:

There’ll Be No Joy In Saying “I Told You So”

Their plan seems to be to keep us in a state of war indefinitely, as long as it helps George Bush appear more "Presidential" and suits their greedy purposes. Americans won't be safe anywhere in the world, and there will surely be more terrorist attacks here in response,and not just from a cornered Saddam Hussein with nothing to lose. Naturally, we will be paying for all of this with our tax dollars, and "Tax and Spend" will acquire an entirely new meaning.

Then, as the economy sinks further down under the weight of it all, there will be further job losses, cuts in services justified by "defense," as they step up the raiding of Social Security, gut the public school system with their "vouchers," and give everything else away to their rich buddies that helped them dupe ordinary people into voting for them.

Meanwhile, along with our civil rights, democracy withers on the vine, and we move another step closer to dictatorship, or at least oligarchy (rule by a powerful few: sound familiar?) .Congress has already abdicated such important powers to this un-elected president, we ought to demand they take a major cut in pay, but no! The Fools vote in more of the same.. and then will no doubt complain that they can't trust the government!

None of the corporate crooks that feed and feed off this system will ever get more than a slap on the hand, including Bush and Cheney themselves for their crooked dealings with Harken Energy and Enron's fixing the energy market in California. Now too, this "president" who was illegally "Installed" by the judicial system that they themselves stuffed with right-wing yes-men, will boldly install a couple more to solidify their position and further atrophy the "Supreme" Court and our three-part system intended to prevent such abuses of power. Soon no one will be able to touch them--certainly not the Will of the People. They are supposed to be working for us,remember?.. now we will become a nation of slaves to them and their right-wing agenda. And won't all those fools who voted on the President's "popularity" get a shock when they find out what REALLY happened on 9/11! That is.. if we ever get the investigation they've been trying so hard to block.

As for the Democrats,I see nothing but more defeat if they don't stop playing namby-pamby whitegloves non-partisanship with these monsters. That, and not sufficiently distinguishing themselves with a clear message and better direction, is what lost them this election. We need more Paul Wellstones in there, and what he called "The Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party." We need Nancy Pelosi, not Frost from Texas; we need to replace the spineless ones at the top with some real fighters for our cause and the Liberal (Yes, I said Unabashedly Liberal!) Ideals that made the Democratic party great.

With the Media firmly in the hands of the Right Wing ("liberal media"--hah!), and because they will ALWAYS be able to raise more money, it is now more important than ever to push campaign finance reform to its ultimate conclusion: a law banning ALL political ads, with frequent and widely seen debates instead. We also need instant runoff voting as the law of the land, so that we are not completely dependent on this two-party system that has so often failed miserably to represent us and left us with nothing but a choice between evils. (Then, when Dems fail us, we can at last vote Green--or whatever, without throwing our vote away to the one we wanted least!)

It's been a sad day for America. I fear it will get worse. And there's not going to be much joy in saying "I told you so!"