The good old days

[mia]

At least when Bush was president we knew what to expect and could hope for change if only the Democrats were in power. Now my expectations have been turned upside-down and there's nothing to hope for.
It doesn't matter who's president.

[Tunkamerica]

1. eh, that implies a certain amount of objectivist fatalism

only excusable if you're 18-22.

[mia]

3. Still have my rose-colored glasses too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KODZtjOIPg

[Myrina]

2. One of the GOP toads was whining on tv last night

... that if we don't raise the debt ceiling, we'll have to return to (gasp!) 2003 spending levels!! (gasp!)
Well gee skippy there pal, I'm sure the military can survive the funding cuts, as can their contractor pals. Have at it!

[mia]

4. If only a president had the power to go back to 2003 levels, but

now that "war millionaires run the country", I doubt that the "GOP toad" has anything to worry about. It's all for show.


http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0430-01.htm

Defense CEOs Are Big Winners of Iraq War

....In a radio address in May 1940, during the defense buildup prior to US entry into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said: ''Our present emergency and a common sense of decency make it imperative that no new group of war millionaires shall come into being in this nation as a result of the struggles abroad. The American people will not relish the idea of any American citizen growing rich and fat in an emergency of blood and slaughter and human suffering.''

In the same speech, Roosevelt also said, ''We must make sure, in all that we do, that there be no breakdown or cancellation of any of the great social gains which we have made in these past years. We have carried on an offensive on a broad front against social and economic inequalities and abuses which had made our society weak. That offensive should not now be broken down by the pincers movement of those who would use the present needs of physical military defense to destroy it.''

Six decades later, war millionaires run the country,whether that be Vice President Dick Cheney's old connections to Halliburton to the $13.6 million that Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, and United Technologies have given in political contributions since 2000. Military spending, after falling from $320 billion in 1991 to $266 billion in 1996, has soared to the $400 billion level.

As the war millionaires soar, using the majestic patriotic masks of eagles to disguise the ugly vulture waiting for a handout, the United States is creating a new definition of friendly fire for the budget broadsides in schools, health care, and city and state services of every kind. Sixty-three years after Roosevelt's speech, a new group of war millionaires came into being both as a result of America's struggles abroad and its abandonment of the struggle at home.

............................................................................................................................





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget