by James Glaser
September 10, 2002

As you can see I have now added the Senate to my list of sites I visit, along with the House site. About the only time these guys give any notice to Americans is during an election year. I have written to many and asked if unlike the Patriot Bill, they would start reading what they are voting on. I did check it out and from so many sources it has been reported that Congress voted on the Bill before it came back from the printers and only some saw an outline of what they were voting on. Makes you feel safe huh!

Another safety issue, not so much for us in the short run, but this Iraq war that Dick and George are foaming at the mouth over could lead to more terrorist attacks years down the road. We are already giving our children and grandchildren a mountain of debt to pay off, let us not give them a whole world of haters

Neither Dick nor George have the expertise to decide if a war is appropriate, but we do have "experts" that can guide us in which direction to take. One of these "experts," Scott Ritter probably has spent more time in Iraq than any other American.

In Mr. Ritter's own words, "There is no case for war. I say that, not as a pacifist, or someone who is afraid of war. I've been to war with the US Marine Corps. Moreover, I'm a Card-carrying Republican, who voted for George W. Bush for president. More important, I believe in the truth."

Scott Ritter personally lead the UN team that inspected and destroyed Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs. He went on to say " The UN weapons inspections inspectors enjoyed tremendous success in Iraq. By the end of our job, we ascertained a 90-95 percent level of disarmament. Not because we took at face value what Iraqis' said. We went to Europe and scoured the countries that sold technology to Iraq until we found the company that had a invoice signed by an Iraqi official. We crossed checked every piece of equipment with serial numbers. We confirmed that 96 of Iraq's 98 missiles were destroyed."

And all those chemical weapons that the Bush administration keep saying Saddam hid. "As for the chemical weapons, even if Iraq had succeeded in hiding stocks of sarin and tabun nerve agents, these chemicals have a shelf life of five years, after that they deteriorate and become useless gunk." Ritter does go on to say that Iraq could have begun to reconstitute its weapons program, but they would have had to start from scratch because their factories, research and development plants have been destroyed. If chemical and biological weapons were being made in any amount the byproducts could be detected from satellites.

So this being an election year, write to your Senators and Representative and express how you feel about starting another war on top of Afghanistan. You could just maybe save a young American's life or maybe some small children in Iraq.

If you are planing to write listen to this first. There is a debate going on in Washington between those that believe in the Constitution and a authoritarian president that will sacrifice that Constitution in the name of security. You lose the Constitution and you have lost not only security, but your freedom as well..

Our President, George Bush wants to get rid of labor contracts, civil service rules and wants total control over spending for the whole Department of Homeland Security. I am not a Constitutional expert, but I can read and the Constitution is real clear that all of these power grabs by George are taking the authority directly away from Congress and wimpy as they are, he just might. Your letter to those who represent you, might just give them some backbone.

In a article by Charlie Reese today, he says "we have had ignorant men occupy the presidency several times, but none I think, as ignorant of the Constitution and as disinclined toward freedom as George Bush."

This Department of Homeland Security is really a Department of Executive power. Heck the two agencies that are supposed to "secure" America, the CIA and the FBI are not even included. Really why do we need to change labor laws that took seventy years to figure out, to make us secure?

Just think about Civil Service laws. Congress made them to protect federal employees from being abused by politicians who would, if they could, fire people to make room for patronage jobs. Also politicians in the past extorted campaign money from federal workers. That is why we had to put these laws in place. It just doesn't make sense that these laws would hurt our national security.

Giving the President total control over the budget for 150,000 workers makes no sense either. If your agency produces a report that the Executive branch does not approve of, then your budget could be lowered. Think about the power that would give George.

Someday, those in Washington will have to face up to the fact that our National Security and our National Foreign Policies are intertwined The biggest threat to our National Security today is President George W. Bush.

Here is another quote from Mr. Reese's column and I think it will tell you why I feel so strongly about President Bush. "He made a Freudian slip one day (Bush) in a offhand remark to the press. He said, "I think Americans ought to be allowed to express their opinions." Mr. Reese goes on to remark " Ought to be allowed? Ought to be allowed? Hey, Mr. President, read the First Amendment. We have the God given right to express our opinions, whether you and your government think we should be "allowed" or not. Allowed my foot"

And there it is, I think America has got itself a President that is so drunk with power that he will subvert the Constitution and any other law in order to get more power. George Bush is a power junkie.

America is slowly waking up to this fact and I believe by the time his next term comes up he will be out or else he will have us in one heck of a war.