|
In
the Spring of 2007, members of the U.S.
Congress were faced with a pivotal opportunity
to end the war and occupation of Iraq.
(see more)
Those
members who voted to continue funding
for the Iraq war and occupation are hereby
labeled 'War
Accomplices'
and recorded in history for their cowardly
act, along with the entire Administration
of President George W. Bush.
Representatives:
Barton, Brady, Burgess,
Carter, Conaway, Cuellar, Culberson, Edwards,
Gohmert, Gonzalez, Granger, Green, Hall,
Hensarling, Hinojosa, Johnson (Sam), Marchant,
McCaul, Neugebauer, Ortiz, Poe, Reyes,
Rodriguez, Sessions, Smith, Thornberry
Senators:
John Cornyn, Kay
Bailey Hutchison
|
The War on the Poor: Plutocracy
in the Age of Oligarchs
Just exactly when did we go
from a "war on poverty" to a "war
on the poor"? - Sojourners
Magazine editorial
During the 1960's
most workers were able to find a job
that would provide a minimum of food and shelter
for their families and the chance, even for
the poorest, that a college degree would ensure
upward mobility. Even while the government was
wasting billions on "that
old crazy Asian war" it was also
attempting to eradicate poverty, racial injustice
and sexual and age discrimination in the U.S.
and usher in a "great society".
"It seems like only yesterday,"
say the baby
boomer leaders who control the nation's
wealth and power today.
But somehow the promise of the
past hasn't caught up with the reality of today.
Something went horribly wrong, particularly
in Texas which is home to some of the richest,
and poorest, Americans.
Texas with a population of twenty-six
million people (0.4% of the world's population)
is home to 25
of the world's 793 billionaires. According
to Forbes magazine, there are more billionaires
in Texas than either the entire country of Canada
(19) or Mexico (10). The number of Texas millionaire
families exceeds 225,000. Millionaire families
are almost common in most urban areas of the
state: Harris Co. - 96,592, Dallas Co. - 67,080,
Travis Co.- 20,500, Bexar Co - 25,000.
Yet, across Texas and America
millions of families live in poverty. In America
today, 37
million people live in poverty, (defined
as a family of four with less than $20,000 in
annual income).
In addition to lacking the income
needed to buy basics such as food, clothing,
housing, and fuel, One
in five Texas families has zero or negative
net worth, according to the Texans Finance
Commission.
There's a war on the poor in the
Lone Star State. Where once land was
given away for free, now live in poverty
more
than 3 million poor Texas children.
They are part of the millions across the country
who have been "left
out" and left behind
as wealth grows rapidly for those at the top.
All of this comes at a time when
many of an earlier generation, who once wore
"free speech" and "question authority"
buttons, now own the instruments of the press
and hold the reigns of power. But Instead of
restructuring social, political and economic
power, they have found that "life
is good at the top" and are less
concerned with social inequities than in their
youth.
With the enormous rise in wealth
since the 1980s the "virtue
of selfishness" and its disciples
appear to be firmly in charge of politics and
the public purse. Some advocates of this near
feudalism also question whether
capitalism even needs democracy. Public
good and civic virtues, considered old fashioned
by both arch-conservatives and those who once
advocated "turn on, tune in, drop out".
It has been instead replaced by a social
plutocracy of both liberals and conservatives
"in charge".
The new oligarchs
constitute a greedy and predatory class who
own businesses - but don't believe in paying
living wages (can you say "modern-day
slaveowners"?), own rental property and
land - but charge exorbitant rents, own banks
- and charge usurious
interest, and own the media outright...but
complain when "their" candidate doesn't
win.
These "Machiavellian
moneyed elites infest and dominate nearly every
node of power in our maleficent socioeconomic
and political infrastructure,"
while having little heart for those destroyed
by their wars or their perfidity.
Le Monde environmental
editor Hervé Kempf recently complained
that "the
Rich are destroying the planet"
while failing to acknowledge that it is exactly
the readers of his magazine, along with readers
of the New York Times and Wall Street
Journal, and the Economist (or Mother
Jones and Texas Monthly for that
matter), that are likely to constitute "the
rich", compared to the masses of poor on
the planet.. In pointing out unbridled greed
and ostentatious consumption he neglected to
criticize members of his own class of elites
- those who are in power today.......MORE
Page 2>
|
Mothers for Peace arrested in DC - 
Gaza
crisis worsens
11900 Metric Blvd., Ste. J-163, Austin, TX 78758