Politics 2002

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Kirwan Articles Time is Running Out on the Tyranny of Lies October 18, 2002
Over the last two decades, the U.S. Government has been steadily chipping away at the quality of our lives while intruding into things that are not their business. At the same time, the government demands accountability testing in the public schools; no national plan for healthcare, no protection for employees from either the corruption of the companies they work for or the corrupt bankers and markets that prey upon them. And, all of this is all done at our expense without recourse or public discussion.
	It is time that people turned the tables on the inept and corrupt members of Congress, the venomous and unqualified appointees in the administration and the deaf, dumb and blind members of the judicial system who routinely sanction the disparities in all of the above. For starters we should create a national
qualifications test for those running for political office and another for political appointees. If this is good enough for all students in every public school in the nation, then surely such a system should apply first and foremost to all those who advocate such a constricted view of 'what works and what does not.' Government is very fond of saying that 'Americans need to be sure that they are getting their money's worth - when it comes to education.' But, when it comes to the public 'getting their money's worth' from the politicians they elect that seems to be a whole other issue. This is the worst kind of a double standard. Let politicians and political appointees be publicly tested. If they can't read, if they have no knowledge of common sense or common decency - then they're out. Then we'll also need mandated evaluations and annual reviews to be a part of every new piece of legislation- both to curb the glut of useless laws and to force an end to unworkable laws before they further erode what's left of our natural resources or our personal options as adults.
	In medicine, the government has been subsidizing the insurance companies at stratospheric rates while underwriting the most unworkable of all medical protection schemes anywhere within the developed world. This is possible because government workers are not subject to the pitfalls of social security or health care. That's because government
bureaucrats have their own very generous system and do not need to worry that they personally will ever suffer what the rest of us have to simply accept. This double standard must be eliminated. There should be only one health care/social security system for all Americans. It should be the very best system that is currently in place - for government workers. If it is good enough for those who serve the public, then the public should enjoy the same benefits. Employee protections from company initiated fraud and corruption, protection for workers from company theft of their assets and some kind of safety net that helps with catastrophic injuries or illness are things that government is charged with doing. The feds scream "socialism" whenever this topic is raised, and yet the obscene amounts of money that the federal government underwrites for corporate welfare dwarfs the costs of necessary public services that this government refuses to either create or to sanction. Then, there are the issues of personal responsibility, public accountability and plain common sense. Since September 11, 2001, there has been a lot of hand wringing and a lot of bombing that led to a whole lot of macho posturing. There have supposedly been investigations and inquiries. There's even a proposal for a complete reorganization of the entire federal government. However, no one has yet to be fired! This government should live and die by the same policies and ineptitudes that it has savagely forced down the throats of American citizens in the name of security, in the name of public welfare and in the name of keeping the fat cats safe from us. When a corporation begins to feel a breeze of difficulty on the far horizon, they lay people off. When a business makes a defective or fraudulent product and the public clearly has discovered that fact, that business fails. But government is more than just a get-rich-quick scheme for some. Government has responsibilities! When government miserably fails on all fronts to protect the public from catastrophic events -- which they should have not only known about, but should have prevented -- heads should roll in the thousands. No one in the intelligence services, the congressional oversight committees or the administration has even been threatened with termination. Why not?
	When a worker is laid off or fired, that's just how it goes. Basically it's "shut up and get another job." If your entire career field has been eliminated, then just go get yourself some training- at your own expense -and do whatever the business world says it needs today. But if you're a government employee and you screw up, it's either a promotion or a transfer.
There's no thought or danger of termination because the trough of public money is there for you to enjoy- no matter how inept, corrupt or stupid you may be. This needs to change. Still, there is a far more serious principle involved here. Having a job- whether private or public -is one thing, but to have your job be the actual protection of the nation is altogether different. Maybe those jobs that involve this high degree of responsibility should come under the Uniform Code of Military Justice- especially since those who failed their duties in this case are in bed with those who should be prosecuting them. I'm suggesting here that thousands of people should be at the very least fired. And those individuals with ultimate responsibility should be tried for dereliction of public duty which, in this case, cost the lives of over 3,000 civilians. I think the legal term might be manslaughter. Such action will of course never be taken because it might cause too many people to begin to think about just who is responsible for this and why we haven't looked into this before now? When the government began its simplistic approach to all things dealing with "The National Security," why did no one even question the culpability or possible criminal involvement of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Ashcroft? If ever there were reasons to test our public officials before they were let loose upon the nation, then these four creatures of opportunity have to be outstanding reasons for the need to do such national testing. If terrorism is an attack upon the Constitution and the nation- as well as upon the people, then Americans need to begin to look more closely at those who are supposedly leading them. Take Ashcroft as one example of a total failure. This individual has played fast and loose with settled law- in the name of national security -when, in fact, his perverted ideas of complete power are totalitarian in nature and fascist in application. If by magic all his proposed polices were to actually be the fact tomorrow, then this nation would cease to exist as anything that was once called The United States of America. Things in 'America at War' need to change, and those changes need to begin with wholesale government firings from all branches of this behemoth of bureaucracy. Our forefathers, in their dispute with the English Crown, knew that "Taxation without representation is tyranny." And this led to the bloody revolution that gave birth to a nation. If Americans continue to fail to address the deep-seated corruption and complete disregard for the people that this government displays today, then we, as the governed, will deserve whatever happens to us.
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