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Imagine, if you will, Dick Cheney in 1992, just after Clinton won the election. Imagine his disdain for Ross Perot, and his utter loathing of Bill Clinton. Take a moment to think of his alliances with the civilian military leaders over the years; men like Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Hadley and, of course, I. Lewis Libby.
When G.H.W. Bush prevented the military from entering Iraq, his gesture of compassion would invoke a decade of prosperity among Americans. Yet, for Cheney and his men, it was a bitter disappointment, for they knew that the opportunity to control the world's second largest oil reserve was missed. Conventional wisdom assumed that the evil "hitler," Saddam Husein, would not give up and a further incursion into Iraq would be necessary within months. But, this did not materialize.
Why? Because American patriots of all persuasions, from Ross Perot to the Governor of Arkansas, were screaming about the economy.
The economy. Bill Clinton had a different plan altogether.
The wealthy must pay more and be responsible Americans.
The middle class need health care.
Poverty must be reduced in our great nation.
And for 8 years, that's how he ran the country. It worked really well. Republicans got so mad that they had to catch the President in a hallway with Ms Lewinsky. They made a spectacle the likes of which will hopefully never be seen again. But, Americans were pleased with our government.
Meanwhile, days were grim for Cheney. After Saddam tried to kill GHW Bush, it is easy to imagine a major regrouping event. Having almost lost his father, Bush the younger seemed to have almost volunteered himself to be the front man into politics.
The energy barons schemed as well, and spent many years developing a new and, ultimately, phony industry with no real name, represented by the conglomerate called Enron. Vagaries defined this enterprise, emphasized by their own company slogan: Why?
Eventually, it was learned that they had created their own energy commodities market, acting as an intermediary between the producers and the suppliers. On first blush, the notion sounds like good old American enterprising. But, with further inspection, we realized that the energy "entrepreneurs" were actually the producers of the energy creating a middle man in order to control prices more easily, as well as distribution. In fact, the lobbied heavily in major markets like California for the government to buy into the idea of a "free market for energy." And California's Democratic humdrums were caught off guard.
Yes, the energy barons had robbed California of her enormous state bank account. The plan worked, and the energy barons moved to the Bahamas where they live now. The collapse of Enron was timed specifically to coincide with GWBush and Cheney being installed into office by the Supreme Court. The Republicans bankrolled their candidate and, it was later learned, actually committed voter fraud by manipulating tabulations across the country with their new voter software (which are privately owned by Republican Americans and who claim patent rights to prevent monitors from inspecting the voting machines).
The timing was impeccable. Once in office, the Bush Administration quashed all information regarding anything that had to do with energy. Bush refused to intervene against Enron on behalf of California. And the energy tycoons' dominance of the American economy was realized.
Cheney, lest we stray from the topic at hand, had, in the intervening years, married himself to the energy and industrial complex. He stood side by side with the leaders of Enron and, resigned as CEO of Halliburton just to run for Vice President. It's not hard to imagine that this event had been planned since long before 1998 when Cheney went to Texas to ask Gov. Bush if he would be interested in playing President to his Vice President. It's not even difficult to imagine that the idea was stirring in the executive chambers of Enron and Halliburton, with Dick Cheney, Ken Lay and I. Lewis Libby sharing a meal.
What is difficult to imagine is the incredible coincidence of Sep. 11, 2001. After Enron collapsed and the energy tycoons were safe from prosecution, Cheney held a meeting of all his Energy friends. We don't even know who attended the meeting because it was so secret, but you can imagine it was a huge celebration. They had pulled off an incredible robbery of California, Texas, and vast quantities of public resources. And now that they were in control, they could all live free of taxes and free of prosecution.
But they weren't finished. This was a new beginning and Chaney's Energy Task Force made secret plans for the future. Enter, September 11, 2001. This was a stunning event. To even suggest that Enron and Cheney were involved in this event musters shivers to all Americans. The alternative is to believe that it was a truly independent party aggressively striking the US. Assuming this is true, the moment when Cheney, Bush, Libby and the Energy tycoons all realized that Iraq had become an easy target was undoubtedly too provocative to overlook.
So enticing was the idea of global dominance that they lost their concern for America. It's not difficult to image the gang sitting to dinner once again and making the decision to invade Iraq, and Cheney saying he will find a way to make it work. After all, they had done this kind of thing before and gotten away with it.
With Enron having burst the technology bubble, taxes and revenues cut so deeply as to require gargantuan loans, and a population geared up for war, we were all sitting ducks. The Bush Administration spent all of our savings and put us in debt at record levels while allowing our jobs to disappear my the millions without returning ever. They greedily underused the military to profit through private contractors. And now it's medicaid, medicare, and social security that are the targets of the Republicans.
Energy prices, and profits, are soaring to record highs. Inflation is rising, as is unemployment and poverty. Millions of Americans, including myself, have no health insurance. There is a new void in America's middle class and it exists in every state, red, white and blue. My fellow American's, we've been robbed by our own countrymen.
It's time we did something about it.
A New Democratic Congress in '06. We're ready for the truth.
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