Stuck Between Two Thoughts

Sometimes I get caught between several subjects and I'm not sure which is the most important to me and today was one of those days.   So I'm going to write about two issues that , though it won't seem like it at first blush, really are related and I'll try to pull them together for you at the end.  The first subject is a dead horse I often beat the fur off of in hopes of bringing it back to life and it is the subject of lies of the Bush administration and those within the administration who tell them.   I found this very well laid out article here: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10578257/site/newsweek/ written by Eleanor Clift.  This is as close to that thing Joe Friday use to call "just the facts" as you get in MSM these days.
 
After my last post you probably have a good idea of how intense I feel about the subject of telling lies.  Please allow me at this point to philosophize a little.  I don't get real excited about one of my colleagues exaggerating about the fish they caught last weekend.   That really doesn't bother me that much.  I don't even get real excited about one of my children avoiding the consequences of their actions by being less than truthful.   We can fix that with some good parenting skills.  I can deal with those issues and generally they don't really hurt a lot of people.  On the other hand I get pretty upset when my country's president avoids the consequences of his actions that have resulted in the deaths of hundreds to thousands of people and jeopardized the lives and futures of generations of Americans and other citizens of the world.  Are you getting where I'm coming from here?  Does anyone else see the somewhat significant differences here?  I believe that Ms. Clift points out several of these consequence avoiding actions of the president and his staff and the reality is that, in spite of themselves, several other MSM types have divulged the pattern of consequence avoidance practiced by this administration.   Based on this reasonably reliable information I think we should start calling this activity just what it is and what it is is LYING.
 
I believe that it is incumbent upon us as American citizens to hold our elected officials accountable for their actions.   I also believe that it is incumbent upon members of the Congress to hold the executive branch as well as its own members accountable for their actions.  During the Clinton administration the Congress beat the drum that I am now hammering and initiated investigation after investigation into the activities of the executive branch.   I believe it is time that this Congress did its constitutionally mandated duty of checks and balances and performed its duty of oversight of the executive branch.   There is more than sufficient public information, circumstantial evidence, and hard evidence for Congress to move forward with the already begun and mostly stalled Senate investigation into the use of prewar intelligence by the Bush administration and they should move immediately forward with holding hearing and investigating the activities of the executive branch in relation to the NSA's monitoring domestic communications of American citizens.
 
George W. Bush has committed at least two impeachable offenses.  He lied to the American people in taking us to war in Iraq by purposefully misrepresenting the available intelligence and he ordered domestic wiretaps of American citizens by the National Security Agency.   It is time that the American people and Congress held him and his administration accountable.
 
The second issue I wanted to address is an article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10513234/site/newsweek/ by Stephen Glain.  In an earlier post I predicted and I still predict that the United States will go into a recession by the summer of 2007.   It is my belief that, in spite of all the Pollyanna's that advocate the contrary the American economy is on the rocks.  I also believe that it is not just possible but highly probable that the Euro dollar will replace the American dollar as the currency of the world within the next two years.   These two dramatic events are going to occur as a direct result of the shear hubris of this president.
 
This nation faces many incredibly difficult challenges.  We have been facing them since George W. Bush entered office and because of the misguided policies and priorities of his administration we have not addressed them in any meaningful manner.   The world is growing economically flatter each day.  We are being propelled into a world economy that we do not and cannot control and there is nothing being done by this administration to prepare our nation for the changes and challenges that are coming.  The United States has been a world economic and political power and leader for much of our existence but all of that is about to change because of this presidents lack of vision and inability to lead.
 
To be a world leader you must be able to communicate with, understand, and respect other nations and cultures of the world.   This president is not capable of any of these things.  His perspective of the world is limited by his own capacities and obstructed by his inability to see outside of his very small circle of neo-conservative chicken hawk advisors who have a radical and distortedly narrow ideological, economic, military, and cultural world view.   The Iraq war is a sterling example of the results of this radical and distortedly diminutive view where narrow economic and ideological goals influence the nation's leader's effective response to terrorism. In this case the response is not only misguided but has resulted in the depletion of vital national resources that are required to maintain and build our economic strength hence the connection between lying and the demise of the dollar as the world currency.   The combination of the depletion of monetary resources by diverting them to a needless war, failure to address national economic issues through investing in economic engines to make us competitive in the world economy, and failure to effectively combat terrorism and make us a more secure nation are all contributing to the erosion of our stature and real power in the world community.
 
In plain English, how much more broke can you be.
 
Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.