As President Barack Obama proposes a program to get the U.S. out of the deep, deep hole the Bush administration put us into, the Republicans scream strange comments about "family values."  Family values have been under attack since Ronald Reagan took the presidency and suddenly found Jesus.  Reagan, who had a reputation in Hollywood for womanizing, and who had been a labor union advocate and Democrat, found that he could garner far more political capital by being a far right conservative.  The right-wing hounds hovered around him eagerly because he could be manipulated by big money and big business.  He was led like a puppet to put forth the greed-capitalist agenda.  And he "succeeded."  The immoral-but-moralizing right-wing was in its glory.  And it went out to destroy everything that might get in its way.  Labor unions, blacks, and liberals were favorite targets of the right-wing.

Black people were put in prison for minor offenses, but offenses that made for good political headlines.  Of course there was racism in this, but it got people elected.  Jails become loaded with black people like never before.  And in the process America's black society further became imperiled as it became popular to demonize minority women as taking welfare and driving a Cadillac.  While black people in America never had a level playing field and had been mistreated throughout our history, the missiles fired from the right-wing on black culture ravished African Americans.  There became an absence of black men in black culture outside the criminal justice system.  I know all the camouflage the right-wing uses to "disprove" all this, but the fact remains that the Republican programs have aimed there most destructive weapons at black society here.

As the success grew for Republicans, the Democrats became reluctant comrades because they thought this would preserve their political power.  It did just the opposite.  Both political parties bowed to corporate strength that bought and sold politicians like they did stock.  America became beholden to big business.  Greed-capitalism not only flourished, it created a belief in it that permeated even the middle classes.  Our entire political and economic system became dependent on a population on a shopping spree.  Buy-buy-buy, spend-spend-spend.  The buying demand drove up the cost of everything.  And as the "value" of homes skyrocketed the middle class thought it was experiencing nirvana.  What it was really experiencing was a build-up of debt and overspending that would break the economic, protective dam and bring flooding that sank almost everything as the "I've got mine, too bad about you" mentality started to go down the sewer.

Space here does not allow me to present this disasterous and historical scenario fully, and history is loaded with proof.  But now the proof is in what faces the U.S. today.  The build-up of the rich and the decimation of the poor and middle classes is evidence enough.  President Obama has put forth a road map that will get the ship of state more balanced and representative of what a democratic society should be, and in the process he will heal the break in the levee that caused all this.  Stimulus?  Yes.  Jobs?  Yes.  Economic help?  Yes.  But also a return of fairness in the American system.  Every American, regardless of skin color or economic status, has a right to proper health care, to a decent minimum wage, to understanding for families in which someone is ill and a parent needs to take a sick day, equality of all people of all political persuasions and sexual orientation, religious freedom from right-wing coercion, etc.

If we work together in all this, we can again be proud of the United States of America.  We can again be a beacon to what democracy ought to be.  We can again be seen as a helping hand not a military bully.  We can show the world that there are morality and family values in treating people equally and fairly.  Instead of lying rhetoric, we can TRULY become a "city on the hill," proud of what we represent.

Especially since the reactionary presidency of Ronald Reagan, America has been hell-bent on "lock 'em up and throw away the key."  With the introduction of drugs into American culture during the horrid Vietnam War, breaking the law to get a fix permeated all of society in the U.S.  Ironically, the very conservatives who wanted to lock up all drug offenders, had supported the Vietnam War and the Contras in Nicaragua, both wars greatly causing the rise in illegal drug use here.  The path of drugs to America can be laid largely at the feet of conservatives.  History has a strange way of showing us the truth.

What has happened since the Reagan administration's decision to lock up more people, even for minor offenses?  The obvious result can be found in the astronomical increase in the prison population.  Another result has been the deterioration of the inner cities where drugs and crime go hand in hand as the white population was not serving sentences as long as blacks, and where white suppliers internationally rarely went to jail.  Young blacks, either coming home from Vietnam or living in despair in an unequal world, turned to drugs for "relief."  Marijuana smoking often resulted in long sentences in prison, sometimes even a life sentence for using or selling weed.  Cheap crack cocaine, used primarily in poor areas, resulted in far harsher sentencing than the white-preferred powder cocaine.  Blacks were taking a double hit in this system.

However the greatest problem with sentencing ANYONE to long prison sentences for non-violent crimes is that we turn amateur criminals into professional criminals in the prison crime "universities."  And when young people are sentenced to long prison sentences during the years in which they should be establishing a work or educational resume, we not only lose these people for life but we [society] ensures their long life of crime.

What happens in prison?  Budget constraints have taken away educational opportunities, lessened quality drug treatment, taken away recreational programs in prisons.  Punishment, not correction, is the order of the day.  People who work in prison may sometimes be understanding and well-intentioned human beings, but working in a structure of "lock 'em up and throw away the key" evaporates their most humane intent.  Rape and sodomy are common experiences.  The media presents what is viewed as the general population's desire for harsh treatment.  To make staffs and politicians happy, the prisons present a bleak picture for the people who are locked up.

How do I know this?  In Washington, DC and in Wisconsin, I have served on boards of directors, thrown myself deeply into "corrections," met with state legislators on the subject, and got to know what the truth is in this regard.  It isn't pretty.  It isn't even very human.  It is counterproductive and out of step with a civilized society.  And the people from the legislature who serve on prison or corrections committees too often know little or nothing about what they are making decisions about.

Critics of my point of view immediately jump to the worst and most hardened and dangerous criminals and scare people because these offenders will be released [or "unleased"] into society to threaten us, our children, our wives.  But I am not advocating for no prisons, and certainly not for releasing violent offenders.  But there are many, many people in prison for driving with no lawful driver's license, for smoking or selling marijuana, for failing to pay parking fines, ad infinitum. 

To take away programs that serve to educate and rehabilitate offenders is like shooting oneself in the foot.  We should definitely use every possible rehabilitation tool to help these offenders to become useful, tax-paying, healthy citizens.  Prison is no place for this to happen, at least not our current prisons.

To change all this will require a total change of attitude by the public, people serving in the corrections and judicial system, and even the media.  When it is pointed out, for example, that a state that was more harsh in treating offenders saw their crime rates go down, it is rarely pointed out that those states that did not do that had a similar drop in crime statistics.  We have a mess in criminal justice and corrections in the U.S.  We are hurting ourselves in the process.  And for the conservatives who are always yelling about taxes, it should be comforting to know that a more enlightened approach to corrections results in lower recidivism, smaller corrections costs, fewer people in prison, etc.  We can all vote for that! 

***Inasmuch as I always hear from the people who still believe the Reagan myth, check these sources and also check about Gary Webb and his series of reports on Reagan, the CIA, and the introduction of drugs into the U.S.:

http://capitolhillblue.com/node/13035

www.consortiumnews.com/2008/120908.html 

George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus from Bill Clinton.  By the end of two terms of the Bush administration, trillions of dollars have been added to the national debt.  What do you think the deficit is?  It is an astronomical new tax.  It has to be paid.  And as the cowardly Bush administration often did, it ran away from its responsibility and dumped it on the next president: Barack Obama.  And to add to the gutless actions, now the Republicans are screaming, "No new taxes!"  It was a Republican administration that ran up the biggest debt and thus the biggest tax burden in U.S. history.

We cannot just stand on the sidelines and scream about taxes; that is what the Republicans and Limbaughites do.  The problem inherited by the current administration must be dealt with now. .  We cannot just shove it aside.  The current administration of Barack Obama is not that insensitive to families.  It cannot simply add to the debt that already will be passed onto our children and grandchildren.  As we now have to face, action is needed to begin to clean up the horrible mess the conservatives made.  Here it is, now we have to deal with it.  Taxes, run up and passed on by the neocons, will now have to be paid.  The taxes you will be faced with are by and large levied on you by Reagan and Bush.  The irresponsibility of those years is now shoved into your face, whether you like it or not.  Obama must deal with what Bush ran up and avoided. 

The Bush administration also ran away from other responsibilities that will cost us astronomical amounts..  How will we pay for the trillions of dollars owed to injured military men and women, the cost over-runs of military equipment, the billions that have been stolen by unbid contracts to old buddies at Halliburton and Blackwater, veterans hospital costs, medicine, psychological and psychiatric treatment for Iraq War vets, and the unimaginable costs of the misguided and mishandled foreign affairs during the conservative reign and illegal war.  If the sticky problems with North Korea, Iran, Palestine, etc. had been dealt with during the Bush administration, we would not now have the additional burden from years of neglect.  In 2000 there was some hope on the horizon to settle some of those problems.  Now there is a garbage heap of international problems magnified by the stupidity, stubborness, and silly bravado of the Bush years.  Almost the entire world now breathes a sigh of relief that some intelligence, honesty, and stability have returned to America's White House.

Everytime I read or hear the phrase "no new taxes" from Republicans, I think that the correct time for that outrage was when George W. Bush began his spending spree.  Now that Bush has left us with a multi-trillion-dollar bill, suddently the Republicans have become thrifty.  What an example of the dishonesty in politics in the U.S.!

From the robber barons, through the early industrial giants, to the big corporation bosses [Ford, DuPont, etc.] who helped Hilter rise to power in Germany, to those who fought every social program of FDR, to the McCarthyites and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, to Goldwater, and especially to Ronald Reagan and the Bushes, there has been an attempt to fight every humane piece of legislation offered in the House and Senate.  While the U.S. came close to setting up a fascist state with the attempt to violently overthrow FDR [see General Smedley Butler, twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and asked by DuPont to head this scheme], we have only had bouts with the power of the extreme right, not very far from fascism.  McCarthy made a Commie suspect out of everybody.  The fight between fascism and communism was fought through the latter two-thirds of the 20th century, and in the minds of the right-wing, that fight is not over until a fascist or fascist-like state is created in the U.S.  If you are not a right-winger, you are labeled a communist or socialist.

Through these same years, many peoples' lives were ruined simply from being called a communist.  Today the claims of the right-wing have switched, and the term "socialist" in put on any social legislation or program that helps anyone but the richest Americans.  Sadly, many middle class Americans have been hoodwinked to believe the rich.   The result is a series of complex laws and tax regulations that benefit the richest Americans.  Now that that favoritism is in place clandestinely, the right-wing screams "no new taxes" because they already have a system that benefits them to the detriment of the poor and much of the middle class.  Greed and huberis reign in the right-wing, and this sort of viewpoint is not only considered best, it is the mantra of everything that goes on in Washington and state capitols.

Barack Obama must be destroyed, this is the secret call from the right.  And they have so much power in the U.S. that they just might make that happen.  My hope is that the American people see through it finally, and begin to realize that the mirage that they have been presented with since Reagan has come tumbling down.  Who will suffer?  The rich are already buying up everything in sight at bargain basement prices.  The average guy or gal is fearful and struggling to make ends meet for themselves and their families.  The right-wing will tell you that the way out of this mess is to give more favors to the rich and to big corporations.  But that is exactly what got us into this mess.  America's tremendous wealth must finally be shared among all elements of American society.  And the rich will then FINALLY meet their responbilities to the general population.  We are in this together, but the rich never see it that way.  Their comfort zone does not allow them to see anything like altruism or shared responsibility. 

America needs a major change in course.  The ongoing robbers in Armani suits and Parisian fashions may have to finally be dragged into the reality of "fair share."  How long it has taken, how many people's lives have been destroyed, how so much of America's wealth has been hoarded by the few, and how cruel have been those who cannot bring themselves to see the U.S. as a place where community sharing should be the standard not the exception.

[Yes, there really was money made available from Henry Ford to help Adolf Hitler, and the Ford Motor Co. in Germany stayed open making vehicles for the German army to kill Americans, and so did American banks stay open to deal with the Germans all during World War II.  And yes, there really was a plot by American industrialists to overthrow the FDR government and Gen. Smedley Butler was asked to help...he refused and has spoken and written widely on the subject.  And yes, Prescott Bush, grandfather of recent President Bush, made a fortune trading with the fascist governments during World War II and established a long, ongoing relationship between the Bush family and Saudi Arabia in the process.  We have been on the verge of a fascist government several times in the U.S.]

With the neocon flights of military grandeur plummeted and beaten into the ground by the entire world, the right-wing is now turning its desire to attack somebody, and that somebody is America.  Instead of re-directing their efforts toward helping solve the tremendous problems at home that THEY created, they choose instead to follow Rush Limbaugh's words and hope for failure in the U.S.  Imagine!  These are the people who made so much of patriotism and following President Bush into an illegal war, handouts to the richest Americans, no-bid contracts to Bush-Cheney buddies, torture, destroying the federal budget, and blind adherence to whatever came out of the White House, even in its most obvious mistakes.  How do you like your patriotic right-wingers now?

There never should be blind adherence to a President of the U.S.  And obviously there should never-never be blind adherence to the actions of one political party.  The Democrats are far too cozy with monied interests themselves.  The Democrats were far too willing to go along with the atrocious mistakes of the Bush administration.  And the Democrats themselves are an embarrassment to President Barack Obama.

Watch for a confrontation between Obama and the Congressional Democrats in the near future.  The majority in Congress will mean nothing to Obama if that party insists on following the special interests that support them financially.  It will be a very short honeymoon if the Democrats continue to propose plans that have earmarks galore.  However it should be remembered that Bush and the Republicans [and too many Democrats] spent money like drunken sailors for 8 years.  Let us not forget that it was Reagan-Bush-Bush that created this financial disaster.  But let us also not forget how much of a role many Democrats played in allowing it to happen and jumping in themselvs for favors from right-wing big-shots.

This is no time to turn our right-wing desire for killing and empire-building in America into taking shots at President Obama.  Right-wingers are in no position to be critical of anybody after what they left us from Reagan to Bush. 

It is time for all Americans to join hands and take on this monstrous economic debacle.  Let us extend our hand to each other to help pull the financial truck out of the mud. 

In the United States, where our Founding Fathers hoped to establish a society free from religious coercion, we have done just the opposite.  "People of faith" in the U.S. almost always assume we are talking about Christianity.  And those most steadfast in their opinions are often far, far away from the intent of Jefferson and Franklin.  Christianity in the U.S. is an odd mixture of greed-capitalism, narrow evangelism, judgmentalism, anti-intellectual, anti-science, and not at all reflective of the word they love to throw around, freedom.  So, out of this cave-dweller mentality have evolved many selfish things, many that would seem to be abhorent to the Jesus who preached peace.

Militarism.  This has been monied fuel for the industrialists and the politicans they have purchased.  As a Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower, warned us: beware of the over-reaching influence of the military-industrial complex in the U.S.  This complex has drained trillions of dollars out of the American economy and sent us on military adventures that have led to our embarrassment and enemy-making in the world.  Each of our recent wars have turned more people against us than has garnered us friends.  Yet the money keeps rolling in.   Added to this has been the military-industrial control of American media.  Much of today's major media is not owned by media people, it is owned by some huge corporate octopus that his its tentacles in all sorts of military equipment and service.  And many of these military-industrialists and their puppet politicians make certain to parade themselves as sincere religious people.  Gag.

In the land of the free, what do you think would be the chances for election to the presidency of a Moslem, Jew, atheist, Buddhist, or anything other than corporate Christian?  John Kennedy was a "dangerous" Catholic and almost had to smear the Vatican to be elected.  What do you think the chances would be for a compassionate and honest atheist?  As a matter of fact, what do you think the chances would be for anyone to be President of the U.S. who was truly compassionate and honest?

It is amazing how much has been done by President Obama in a few short weeks.  As the right-wing fires up its list of things that they want Obama to do to solve all the problems from Reagan to Bush, they are now demanding that it be done by...oh, say next week Tuesday.  When George Bush the Elder was running against Ronald Reagan in 1980, he called Reagan's financial plans, "voodoo economics."  That's what it was alright.  And the scheming card tricks of the Reagan hucksters set us off on a course of unregulated corporate greed that led to the inevitable crash we are now experiencing after almost 30 years of tricksterism.  The people who knew the most about the economy were bought off with big bonuses so the favors could be handed out to pharmaceutical giants, military-industrial behemoths, media octopi, oil cartels, etc.  The mounting greed and self-serving stealing had to end sometime.  Unfortunately, the huge corporation execs had theirs safely hidden away in off-shore companies and foreign banks.  Now we are paying AIG to bail out some of these foreign banks.

That means that you, sucker, were not only fleeced once, but fleeced again as your money flows through taxes to some of the same swindlers in other countries.  And we voted for some of these guys and gals!  While the majority of the early schemers were Republicans, the money got so great that far too many Democrats joined the fleecing of the flock.  Now, while the crooks have their loot stashed away, they yell, "No more taxes!"  "Cut Medicare!"  "Privatize Social Security!" "No more pork!"  "Get the government out of our business!"  Wow, the screams are deafening.  But these screamers were and are glad to take the money when it heads straight to their pockets.  They want it straight from your pocket to their stash.

For 28 years the financial game was played.  That includes the presidency of Bill Clinton also.  After all, while he was tied up defending his oral activities, Newt and the boys were opening the U.S. Treasury to the big boys who know how to collect corporate greed.  No matter that Newt was fooling around with interns himself, let him take it, and now let him give big ticket speeches to the Republican faithful.  Disgusting.

President Obama, what is taking you so long?  I want this fixed tomorrow ...or sooner, if possible.

What is the major reason the most militant Moslem terrorists do not want any encroachment on their carefully crafted culture?  Women's rights, or in the case of the militants, lack of women's rights.  The male leadership wants to hold onto their privileged place in that society.  Multiple wives?  Sure.  And what do you think is waiting for a terrorist who bombs innocent civilians?  Scores of young virgins to serve him in paradise.  No schooling for women.  Insistence on wearing clothing that covers their faces and bodies and allows them no individual expression.  They must remain silent.  No driving autos.  No speaking up to their husbands.  No choice in who their marriage partner will be.  Subservience to their male leaders and/or to their husband.  Separated in most activities from the more lenient activities of the men.  This is a religion that is afraid of women.  This is a religion that is weak and must show its strength through violence to anyone who challenges its practices.  This is a religion that does not listen to others, but wants to force its will on others.

Much of this is true of most religions in their extreme elements.  But we tend to overlook the lesser position we assign to women in our own religious practices.  The majority of Christians in the world do not allow women to serve as clergy.  The head of the church [patriarch or pope] must be a man.  Religious ceremonial rites place women in a secondary role.  And the more militant is the form of Christianity, the more male-dominated it is.  Please-please don't try to ply me with examples of tokenism in a specific denomination or sect.  The majority of Christians have beliefs that are more akin to practices from the Dark Ages than the 21st century.  Strict religious adherence equals inequality.

And so it is with most religions in the world.  At the base of all this hocus-pocus and voodoo is a fear of women.  And men, not having enough self-esteem to play on a level playing field, concoct all sorts of tactics that are pieced into religious practices that make things seem righteous and rosy (as long as the women know their place in them).  Once world societies evolved a little, and men could not dominate women by hitting them over the head with a club, men had to go to more and more extremes to put together religious practices to keep women in their place.  After all, that is what the male description of what constitutes God is: a man.  Listen to him!

What impact do you think there would be on world peace if these fears and religious practices were eliminated in the world?

Examine your own religious beliefs and practices.  Look carefully and objectively into them.  If you are honest with them and with yourself you will see how camouflaged are these gender inequalities.  But they are nonetheless real.

When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

Yes, I am aware of the Holocaust.  Yes, I am aware of the pogroms.  Yes, I am aware of anti-Semitism.  Yes, I am aware of the death camps and forced labor.  Yes, I am aware of the discrimination faced against Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere.  Yes, I am aware of the horrible, ongoing rockets launched from Gaza into Israel.  Yes, I am aware of the attempts by Egypt and Syria to invade Israel.  Yes, I am aware of Israel's vulnerability in its area of the world.  Yes, I am aware of Arab terrorism inside Israel through the years.  Yes, I am aware that Israel is a democracy amid a sea of anti-democratic nations.  Yes, I am aware of Hamas and Hezbollah's open challenge to Israel's very existence as a nation.  And yes, I am even aware of the additional empathy and understanding I should have with a typical German name like Schultz.

However the horrific and inhuman acts by Israel in its treatment of Palestinians, some were living in Israel when their homes were taken from them, cannot forever be ignored.  Gaza has become a sealed prison.  Israel controls the fate of many innocent civilians living in squalor and illness in the most crowded area of the world.  Roadblocks and limiting supplies, even medical supplies, into Gaza is inhuman.  Israel's own, self-serving agreements about Jewish settlements in Palestinian territory are being broken continually..  While the Israeli government says it does not condone these encroachment settlements, it is now using its own tax money to build roads and facilities into these illegal areas.  While Israelis and Jews worldwide tell us that we do not understand and realize the ongoing terrorism and threat to Israel, the American media and leading politicans here voice a clear favoritism in the direction of Israel.  The voice of the Palestinians barely scratches the surface by comparison.

I have remained silent in deference to the historical plight of the Jews.  But evidence is accumulating that Isreal is acting like a bully and inhumane punisher of Palestinians.  And much of the criticism of Israel in this regard is coming from Israelis themselves.  Many Israeli citizens are horrified at what their nation has done to the residents of Gaza.  Israeli citizens are growing in their fear of the unchecked terror state that is rising up in their midst in the Jewish homeland.

An alarm was sounded when Israeli troops began to reveal the extent of brutality of its own army in the recent invasion of Gaza.  The Israeli government has said that the 1500 Gazan casualities were legitimate targets and that they tried to prevent civilians casualties.  Many Israeli soldiers now dispute this.  Some have been very specific in expressing their outrage against their own army.  Space does not allow me here to detail all of the sad and sick findings. 

An Israeli soldier described and testified what he saw and experienced.  His name is Ram.  "What I do remember in particular at the beginning is the feeling of an almost religious mission."  He said there was a "huge gap" between background material given out by the army's education corps and the religious material distributed by the army's rabbinate.  Ram continues, "Their message was very clear: 'We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle.  God brought us back to this land, and now we need to fight to expel the gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land."

Nations that ascribe their existence to God's plan, whether Christian, Jew, Moslem, Hindu, or whatever, are extremely dangerous.  They then can claim almost any action on their part is O.K. because it is "God's will."  With that in mind it is well for all of us to ponder what happened to similar claims by Native Americans and Austrailian aborigines and others whose sacred land was taken over and abused by the onslaught of a more dominant or military culture with little regard for the sensitivies of such people.  Where does your God's plan stand next to another God's plan?