On Aug. 16, 2003, at a rural intersection near Sioux Falls, SD, Rep. Bill Janklow (R-SD), ran a stop sign with his Cadillac sedan and collided with a motorcycle, killing its driver, Randolph E. Scott, age 55. A preliminary investigation by prosecutors indicates that Janklow was exceeding the speed limit.
Rev. Janklow’s car traveled at least 300 feet past the point of impact, according to the accounts of eye witnesses. The local D.A. is considering vehicular homicide charges against the congressman, who is also a former four-term South Dakota governor. The victim, Scott, was known as a "very nice man."
Receiving speeding tickets over the last decade has been a Janklow habit. In a way, his predicament, his apparent indifference to the state’s traffic laws, and also to human life itself, is a metaphor for the state of the Congress. It, too, is out of control.
Janklow is a knee jerk supporter of George W. Bush’s Iraq War policies. He called that conflict, "the grandest military success in the history of the country? (AberdeenNews.com, 05/02/03).
Early this year, the Congress gave the White House a green light to invade Iraq. Despite a clear Constitutional obligation that granted to it, and to it alone, the power "to declare war," the Congress took the coward’s way out. It delegated its awesome war making power to a president, who is dominated by War Hawks; like Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Perle.
This is the same Congress that passed in 2002, in the middle of the night, the draconian USA Patriot Act. These same members, too, gave President Bush a free pass, when he urged the adoption of the Homeland Security Law, an Orwellian measure that is slowly turning America into a caricature of a "Banana Republic."
On March 20, 2003, Bush, relying on "cooked" intelligence, ordered the invasion of Iraq. By any definition, the invasion, and the ongoing occupation, have been unmitigated disasters. It may cost the taxpayers over $600 billion (Fairandbalanced.org).
The price in human terms of the invasion has been tragic, too. Try 37,137 Iraqis dead (TWF.org)!
More of our courageous troops are, daily, coming home in body bags. There is no end in sight to the guerrilla war that is now emerging in that land. There never were any WMD in Iraq. And, sadly, the U.S. never had any exit strategy either.
Congress helped to put this nation in the Iraqi quagmire, which will also undoubtedly make us additional enemies in the Islamic World. More 9/11-like attacks on the U.S. can be expected.
The Congress allowed rabid warmongers and Israel Firsters, like: Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) and Sen. Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter (R-PA), to recklessly lead it astray. Now, it is the taxpayers, and our brave military personnel, who must pay for the hubris of these pro Iraq war agitators and their legislative lackeys.
Meanwhile, the national debt stands at a staggering $6.7 trillion. The interest payment alone ran to $332 billion last year, while the deficit for this fiscal year could easily hit $600 billion.
The recent "Grid Black Out" that brought a huge section of the country, from New York City to Detroit, to a standstill is symbolic of even deeper problems with our aging infrastructures. Our cities are in particularly desperate shape when it comes to needed repairs and rebuilding of their antiquated water and sewage facilities and also their streets and bridges.
So many of our major roadways, such as the New Jersey Turnpike, (built in 1951), can’t adequately handle today’s rising traffic load. The total deficits now facing some of our most important states, including bankrupt California, is over $100 billion. The future is looking bleak for many local and state governments.
Our manufacturing base continues to shrink, while 3 million people have joined the ranks of the unemployed in the private sector since 2001. However, the richest 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers will, on average, each receive $ 96,634 in tax cuts over the next four years (AFSME’s "Public Employee," Sept./Oct., 2003).
On the environmental front, our primary streams, rivers and bays, are in serious decline. Pollution is slowly killing, for example, the Chesapeake Bay, that borders on Maryland and Virginia. 40% of that once pristine body of water is arrested, a dead zone, with too little oxygen "to support aquatic life" ("Baltimore Sun," 08/22/03).
Unfortunately, building new prisons is one of our growth industries. America, today, has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the Western World. Possession of modest amounts of an illegal drug by an individual can lead to a stiff jail sentence, while white collar criminals that have looted major corporations, like Enron and ImClone, usually get off with a slap on the wrist.
Our health care system is on life support. The average person can’t afford to get sick.
Many of our schools use WWII-era trailers as class rooms, while over $100 billion in freebies has gone to an ungrateful, repressive and militant Israel, since 1948 (See "WRMEA," 05/03). Today, the Israeli Right Winger, Ariel Sharon, the Lazar Kaganovich of the International Zionist Cartel, is the main recipient of U.S. largess. How is the public good being served by this insanity?
In conclusion, almost every single member of the Congress stands in contempt of his (or her) oath of office. They have failed, miserably, to put the interest of this Republic, before the special interests of the cunning globalists. Shame on them!
Keep in mind, too, that last year, in the U.S., 400 people, many residing in luxurious gated community and in high rise condos, like the ones that look out over Central Park in midtown Manhattan, raked in a mind-boggling $70 billion in income.
Finally, like the accused Rep. Janklow, Congress, too, is out of control. Forget about California’s Governor Gray Davis. Unless stopped by outraged voters, Congress will continue to take the country on a dangerous ride that will lead it directly down the path to perdition.
Perhaps, we should recall Congress!
