Democrats Retreat Again, This Time on Tax Cuts

Those of us fascinated by American History recall those delightful days when the Democratic Party took the fight to the Republicans on programs it championed. How markedly different is the timid example demonstrated under the "leadership" of Harry Reid.

Earlier in the week I wrote an article advancing the idea that the Democrats had a ready made issue to take to the voters in the upcoming mid-term election. That issue was tax cuts and even as seasoned a neo-conservative strategist as Grover Norquist conceded that this could be a difficult issue for Republicans if Democrats exploited this potential strategic advantage.

With more Americans hurting by the day, with many unemployed and others working more hours than ever while seeing their standards of living eroding, there would be a massive reaction to the idea of continuing the Bush tax cuts with an emphasis on maintaining assistance to individuals in the top two percent.

Economists have estimated that maintaining those cuts would cause the ever burgeoning debt to expand by $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

What Scares Fox and Other Neocons: War Brings Dire Consequences

Here is a lesson from the neocons at Fox and elsewhere. If you cover up a war rather than covering it and refuse to show the direct results of conflict then you are a patriot.

Let us say that someone chooses to cover that same war and shows the bloodshed that resulted. To do so is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. In fact, such coverage should be immediately shut down.

This is precisely the scenario that occurred in the Iraq War. This was Donald Rumsfeld's "shock and awe" war that was supposed to inflict casualties only on the troops of dictator Saddam Hussein, the same figure that Rumsfeld visited, shook hands with, and provided weapons with which he killed his own Kurdish population.

Now the neocons of the New World Order decided that it was time to rid Iraq of former ally Saddam so that profits would not have to be shared and Halliburton, Bechtel and Monsanto would have unrestrained pickings. In fact, the division of spoils was decided in advance through secret meetings in former Halliburton head man and then Vice President Dick Cheney's office.