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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 27, 2006 Web Letters to the editor (While web letters do not appear in the print version of the Tidings they are placed here as a courtesy to our readers in order to provide an opportunity for greater and more frequent dialogue amongst members of our community. Web letters follow the same rules of polite speech as letters appearing in our paper, but receive a lesser degree of editing. The Tidings' editors reserve the right to remove or discontinue any thread in this forum that oversteps the boundaries of polite discourse.) America: The Ruler of the World The question of the day is why so many otherwise intelligent people still support Bush. Part of the reason may be that they don't see a viable alternative But it also reflects the success of the ãconservative movementä in discrediting the mainstream news media (which is the primary source of information about what is going on) and demonizing the Democrats. Of course, there is the blog and the internet, but they are better at supplementing an informed position, than building one. If you are already pretty well informed maybe you can sift out a pearl now and then from the blog, if you are careful.. Bush himself is proudly uninformed (says that he never looks at the daily papers) and is reported to insist on one page summaries of decision making problems. The people that he depends upon are all close advisers he has known for years and are ideologues who think along the same lines. As for education, he enthusiastsically supports the Party position to pander to the religious right and so has shifted public support from public schools to private and parochial schools, where the content of education can be oriented the conservative way. His team, beginning with Cheney and Rumsfeld, believe sincerely that America will only be safe in a world where America is the absolute dominant military power. The paper and detailed analysis that underlies this thinking, and signed off on by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and other neocons, is ãRebuilding Americaâs Defensesã (see Google) . They believe that military force is the only dependable answer to international issues and relations. The pure insanity of this policy is perfectly exemplified by the program beginning year before last to purchase 295 new stealth fighters for around $250 million a copy for a grand total of $70 billion. It should be obvious that these are utterly useless against terrorism and every other conceivable enemy now and in the foreseeable future. Bush has no interest or compassion for the millions and millions of families that are worse off because of his conservative policy to starve social programs to find more funds for military spending and giving tax cuts that go mainly to the rich. His exploitation of the terrorist issue is strongly reminiscent of the McCarthy period and his paranoia over the Communist threat during the Cold War years, But Bush did Reagan one better. Bush actually promoted a war to require more military spending. And this is only part of a grand plan to make America the world power feared by every nation. The inevitable (and welcomed) consequence is that there is nothing left, for health care, education, preservation of the environment, consumer protection, social programs to help the poor, and so on. For real conservatives, who all subscribe to the bogeyman theory of government , these are not the business of government anyway. To sum it all up, if you are the kind of conservative who wants to build a military machine for world domination, believe that security trumps personal freedom every time, have no concern for the well-being of people with lower incomes or the environment and see tax cuts for the rich (they save more) as the best way to keep the economy going, this administration is for you. Harry L. Cook Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams