Good morning,
I'm assuming that everyone enjoyed the good doctor's speech at the Democratic National Convention and all praise has been given.
Perhaps because I'm a contrarian or in the interest of getting on with the real task at hand, the following is a letter I sent off to 43 papers just before turning in last night.
I bring it up now because in my morning paper there's a story from Iraq about American military commanders handing out thousands of dollars to locals and insisting that these payments are not "bribes."
Clearly, much of what the current administration has done has skirted if not violated the law. However, getting that point across to law-abiding people who've had no personal involvement with the courts is difficult. So, what I'm thinking is that most everyone knows what the term "bribery" means.
Dear Editor:
While it is true that the federal tax cut on which the current administration brags has had the effect of increasing taxes and fees on the state and local level, the Democrats are missing the boat when they point this out.
That's because that tax cut, whether it went to the wealthy or the ordinary working bloke, was nothing less than a bribe, a pay-off to insure that the people in power and their neo-con friends could violate the law of the land with impunity.
Of course, nobody's come out and said "We'll give you some money and then we'll take your rights as citizens," but that's what's happened. Make no mistake. The Constituttion is being shredded right before our eyes. Just take a gander at Americans relegated to cages in free speech zones.
In case you're thinking that the term bribery doesn't apply to ordinary citizens being bought off, just remember that our Constitution, the law of the land, relies on the people to insure compliance.