Fwd: [sfbaycodepinkdiscussion] Palast's Cutting Comments on Bush State of the Union

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Begin forwarded message:

  From: cynthia papermaster <cynthia_papermaster@yahoo.com>

  Date: Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:59:06 PM US/Pacific

  To: sfbaycodepinkdiscussion@lists.riseup.net

  Subject: [sfbaycodepinkdiscussion] Palast's Cutting Comments on Bush State of
  the Union

  We sure had fun last night at the "Sorry State of the Union" party!

  This article by Greg Palast is entertaining, to say the least.

  I haven't seen any comments about the two scary things I heard Bush say--
  "the next war" and a reference to a terror attack in the US, which to me is a
  fear-inducing tactic and also a possible warning of a "false flag" or faked
  attack to justify more war and less freedoms. I try not to live in fear, but
  honestly, I'm very afraid of Cheney's agenda.

  Cynthia

  From: Greg Palast <palast@mailings.gregpalast.com>

  Reply-To: <palast@mailings.gregpalast.com>

  Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:22:55 -0500

  Subject: One Bush Left Behind

  One Bush Left Behind

  by Greg Palast

  Here’s your question, class:

  In his State of the Union, the President asked Congress for $300 million for
  poor kids in the inner city. As there are, officially, 15 million children in
  America living in poverty, how much is that per child? Correct! $20.

  Here’s your second question. The President also demanded that Congress extend
  his tax cuts. The cost: $4.3 trillion over ten years. The big recipients are
  millionaires. And the number of millionaires happens, not coincidentally, to
  equal the number of poor kids, roughly 15 million of them. OK class: what is
  the cost of the tax cut per millionaire? That’s right, Richie, $287,000
  apiece.

  Mr. Bush said, “In neighborhoods across our country, there are boys and girls
  with dreams. And a decent education is their only hope of achieving them.”

  So how much educational dreaming will $20 buy?

  -George Bush’s alma mater, Phillips Andover Academy, tells us their annual
  tuition is $37,200. The $20 “Pell Grant for Kids,” as the White House calls
  it, will buy a poor kid about 35 minutes of this educational dream. So
  they’ll have to wake up quickly.

  -$20 won’t cover the cost of the final book in the Harry Potter series.

  If you can’t buy a book nor pay tuition with a sawbuck, what exactly can a
  poor kid buy with $20 in urban America? The Palast Investigative Team donned
  baseball caps and big pants and discovered we could obtain what local
  citizens call a “rock” of crack cocaine. For $20, we were guaranteed we could
  fulfill any kid’s dream for at least 15 minutes.

  Now we could see the incontrovertible logic in what appeared to be quixotic
  ravings by the President about free trade with Colombia, Pell Grant for Kids
  and the surge in Iraq. In Iraq, General Petraeus tells us we must continue to
  feed in troops for another ten years. There is no way the military can
  recruit these freedom fighters unless our lower income youth are high, hooked
  and desperate. Don’t say, ‘crack vials,’ they’re, ‘Democracy Rocks’!

  The plan would have been clearer if Mr. Bush had kept in his speech the line
  from his original draft which read, “I have ordered 30,000 additional troops
  to Iraq this year – and I am proud to say my military-age kids are not among
  them.”

  Of course, there’s an effective alternative to Mr. Bush’s plan – which won’t
  cost a penny more. Simply turn it upside down. Let’s give each millionaire in
  America a $20 bill, and every poor child $287,000.

  And, there’s an added benefit to this alternative. Had we turned Mr. Bush and
  his plan upside down, he could have spoken to Congress from his heart.