by James Glaser
November 25, 2003

It bothers me that the head of AARP told the nation that "We must pass this prescription drug bill today." What is wrong with Congress first reading a bill? Would it be wrong if the government explained to the American people just what this bill would do for them, so they could then give feedback to their elected officials before they vote. It bothers me that Congress won't do that.

It bothers me to no end that this Prescription Drug bill will cost billions and billions of dollars we don't have, but we are going to write a bad check and have our children and grandchildren pay for it.

It bothers me that President Bush and our Congress have no concept of what deficit spending is going to do to our children.

Sunday night on the TV show 60 Minutes there was a segment that really bothered me. It was about 17 POWs from the first Gulf war that were tortured by the Iraqi government. These Americans sued Saddam Hussein and Iraq and won in Federal Court. They hoped to collect their money from Iraqi assets that our government had frozen. Wouldn't you know it, but George Bush took those assets and said these torture victims couldn't have any of the money owed to them.

These seventeen guys said they only sued to send a message to other governments, that torturing our troops will cost them millions of dollars. Also they were going to set up a fund to help future torture victims.

Now our government is trying to do a legal maneuver, that would make it like this lawsuit never happened. This bothers me. Another set of veterans getting screwed by the Bush Administration.

It bothers me that the American people still can not find out what kind of warning George Bush had about the September 11th, 2001 attack. He got the warning at his ranch in Texas in August of that year. Also I would like to know why all senior Bush administration officials were ordered not to fly commercial airlines a few months before that attack.

It bothers me that many in this world no longer respect America, but fear it

It bothers me that we will never know what any of the last several Presidents did while they worked for us. President Bush has made all Presidential Papers "Secret" and even after a former President dies, his Family can still keep everything secret.

It bothers me that nobody in the Bush Administration nor anyone from Congress will attend the funerals of those troops that die in Afghanistan or Iraq. It also bothers me that nobody from our government is visiting our wounded Veterans in the hospital.

It bothers me that we claim the Ten Commandments as a basis for our laws and we are constantly killing people all over the world.

It bothers me that almost all of the famous people, the stars of the entertainment world, avoid wounded Vets like they have the plague. It bothers me that no one in our Government is asking the American people to write to wounded Veterans

It bothers me that George Bush believes our right to attack other countries is greater than the right to life, for those innocent people we kill in our attacks. It bothers me that Americans go all agog that 3000 innocent people were killed on September 11th, 2001, but nothing is even said when we kill many times that number, of innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It bothers me that millions and millions of people the world over believe that President Bush is a greater threat to peace that Osama bin Laden.

It bothers me that we think so little of the Iraqi and Afghan people that we will not even count the number we kill.

It bothers me that Bills like the PATRIOT ACT are passed by Congress before they even read what it allows the Government to do.

It bothers me that the President can put American citizens in prison as long as he wants with no charges against them, no judge, no trial, no lawyers, and "no innocent until proven Guilty."

It bothers me that so few countries want to help America. It bothers me that we lied to so many countries when we were trying to get their help in Iraq.

It bothers me that $1.8 billion can be taken away from Veteran Medical care and nobody in the Government gets upset. Not even the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

It bothers me that there are people in America living like shit and we are sending billions of dollars to Iraq and any number of other countries.

It bothers that we are spending money we don't have and that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for our deficit spending. It really bothers me that Congress knows this and spends the money anyway.

It bothers me that Congress has the best medical insurance our money can buy, while over 40,000,000 Americans have none.

It bothers me that so many people can't see that if we give up the Right to Bear Arms we will then lose all of our other rights. So few people realize that Adolph Hitler invented gun control.

It bothers me that Israel treats Palestinians, like the Jews were treated in the 1930s

It bothers me that George Bush and Colin Power felt that it was OK to lie to the American people about Iraq.

It bothers me that we pay millions of dollars to lawless War Lords in Afghanistan.

It bothers me that we let Afghanistan again become the largest Opium/Herion producer in the world.

It bothers me that we have more people in prison than any other country in the world.

It bothers me that we kill little kids and then say that is unfortunate.

Lots of things bother me, but what bothers me the most is that we tell ourselves and the world that we are a Christian Nation, but very few of the things our country does are Christian Acts.