April 21, 2008
Philip A Farruggio
Rome would conquer and occupy half the civilized world, stretching its armies throughout the globe. It would plunder and pillage whole cultures, while the folks back home...... went to circuses and gladiator fights, with full bellies from the ' spoils of war and conquest ' .
It seems America, circa 2008 has it about half right.
We have over 700 military bases in over 100 countries, and for five years running have ' plundered and pillaged ' Iraq..... for democracy! The plundering comes through, in many instances, ' no bid contracts' given to corporate friends of Bush & Cheney - you know, Fat Cats who supported these jokers for 8 years and two elections.
Money! Moolah!
You 'give and you get' in this American version of Rome, from local city councils right up to the chambers of Congress and the White House. Even the Supreme Court. Do you know anything about this guy, Chief Justice John Roberts? During the 80s, John boy was a lawyer who worked tirelessly in the Reagan administration to ..... write the thesis advocating what Bush junior has been using for years: The Unitary Executive!
Translated, it means giving the president of the US the power to disregard and supersede the wishes and laws of Congress. Congress passes a law, don't use your veto ( which could be overridden by a 2/3 vote ). No, simply sign the bill into law and then issue a signing statement which says: " Screw you, I ain't gonna enforce it ! "
Unitary executive.
Lawyer Roberts, during the 80s, was so into this that the Reagan guys, who were lobbying for a Unitary Executive, actually pushed him out. Even they realized that his aggressive venom against our constitution was treading on dangerous ground, by bringing too much attention to it. Now , if this writer found all this out, what about our current crop of Democrats? Oh, they just pushed him through to the highest position on the highest court in all the world.
Nero fiddled. Bush dances around like some chimpanzee on a leash. Only difference is that in Rome, they gave the suckers plenty of bread to go with the circuses and duels to the death ( ' Lions 1000, Christians 0 ' ) . However, our emperor and his crew , they don't even want you to have a belly full of slop.
No, these guys want it all.
They allow their Big Oil donors (and future employers) to obtain record profits while the price of gasoline strangles our economy. Layoffs, lower sales with higher prices, truckers on strike as diesel hits $ 4.00 a gallon..... and where is the oversight ? A Congress too chicken hearted to pass a ' Windfall Profits Tax ' on Big Oil. A president and VP who couldn't care less, and Americans who pay the price, eat the junk food and soak up the crap on the boob tube, night after night.
At least the Romans had their orgies and other perversions to repent from. Americans just have Survivor , Big Brother and The Apprentice among other such diversions. The town where I live in, well, never would it sponsor town hall forums on key issues that affect our way of life. No.
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Yet, every other week or so, it seems they sponsor Family Days , Carnivals and Festivals. The vendors drive into town, set up booths and the good folks of our town run out to ' inhale ' the smoke and mirrors . Meanwhile, for 42 months of Tuesday afternoons, we are lucky to get 15 people to stand with us for one hour in protest to the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Rome!
Denial of the obvious cause of one's problems is either a sign of immaturity, ignorance or mental illness. It is also a symptom, in some cases, of actual cowardice. The dictionary defines coward as " One who lacks courage in the face of danger, pain or hardship " . Cowardice is defined as " The lack of courage or resoluteness " . Resoluteness is defined as " Firmness and determination " .
You get my drift, yes? What is happening throughout our great nation is denial . Most of our friends and neighbors just refuse to confront the terrible and horrific mess we are all in. To do that would be, perhaps, to transform one's thinking from the ' status quo ' of the Two Party System of government to one more of issues and solutions. If 1 % of the population of America controls over 50% of our wealth, well...... time to tax the super rich more. If 5 or 6 corporations control most of our airwaves ( which are, by the way, owned by we the people ), its time to spread out the ownership to include more independent media. Same with newspapers.
This writer has sent out op eds and columns to many local papers in my own state. None of them ever publish. Yet, many fine sites post the work. Finally, after being rejected by a St. Augustine paper for over 2 years, someone from that paper finally answered the question: " Why do you reject my op eds on Iraq ?" The answer: " We stick to local issues of importance to our community. " One would surmise that this person does not care that $ 600 Billion of our tax dollars going out of country has no affect on ' local issues ' .
Perhaps when the town has no money for services and the property taxes go higher and higher, schools cannot be built or repaired, jobs cut etc., perhaps then the dots will be connected. No money from Washington to Florida ( they call it Block Grants Mr. Editor ) whereupon Florida would then trickle down to the local communities. That is what happens when $ 600 billion and another $ 12 Billion per month goes to Iraq. One would bet that St. Augustine still has money to sponsor festivals and family day carnivals .
No bread...... plenty of circuses. Wake up Americans! Or should you be called Romans?
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Philip A Farruggio [send him email] is a free lance columnist, small businessman and activist. Since the 2000 elections, he has written over 80 op ed columns- few if any get published or posted. to review some which have been shown, just google his name.
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