Thursday, April 08, 2004

W.'s Second Term: If you Think the First is Bad ...: "A friend who specializes in foreign policy and hobnobs with subcabinet officials in the Defense and State departments told me that the only thing that's stopped the Bushies from storming into Iran and North Korea is the upcoming election.If Bush is re-elected, '[Dick] Cheney and [Donald] Rumsfeld are out of the box,' he said. 'They'll take Bush's re-election as a mandate to wage the 'war on terror' everywhere and anywhere.' ... the few shards of regulation still protecting the environment and the safety of American workers will be eliminated... Bush will slash all domestic spending outside of defense... Such a [Supreme] court will curtail abortion rights, whittle down the Fourth and Fifth amendments, end all affirmative action, and eliminate much of what's left of the barrier between church and state. Karl Rove and Tom DeLay, meanwhile, will have four more years to fulfill their goal of transforming American democracy into a one-party state... Changes in campaign-finance laws will permit larger "hard money" donations by corporate executives and federal contractors who have benefited by Republican policies. Finally, the Federal Communications Commission will allow three or four giant media empires -- all tightly connected to the Republican Party -- to consolidate their ownership over all television and radio broadcasting."

What's remarkable about this article is that the opinions voiced are not those of some far-left critic of the US, but those of Robert B. Reich, secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University.

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