Clueless, unaccountable officials ruled the decade
By SETH GROSSMAN, Political Columnist
(Reprinted from December 30, 2009 Current-Gazette Newspapers of Atlantic and Cape May Counties, http://www.shorenewstoday.com/news.php?id=6519)
?In those days there was no king in Israel. Everybody did as he pleased.?
? Judges 21:25.
With these words, the seventh book of the Old Testament of the Bible explains why there were 300 years of ignorance, betrayal, and anarchy in ancient Israel. It also explained how the people got comfortable in the ?Promised Land,? and forgot how their grandparents got there only by swearing to obey the Ten Commandments.
That book reminds me of the past 10 years in America.
January 2000: Only good luck stopped Muslim terrorists from killing hundreds at the Los Angeles Airport, on a U.S. destroyer near Yemen, and by the Strasbourg Cathedral in France. FBI anti-terrorist experts John O’Neill and Chuck Stern, both Atlantic City natives, urged their superiors to warn and prepare Americans against future attacks. They were both ignored.
June 2000: Federal agents snatched 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from his bed at gunpoint. Neither Republicans nor Democrats demanded the rule of law ? that the boy be returned to his father through a routine custody case in Family Court.
October 2000: Muslim suicide bombers killed 17 American sailors and nearly sank the U.S. destroyer Cole. Our sailors had strict orders not to shoot at them.
November 2000: Republican George Bush was elected president and Republicans kept control of Congress. But the elections were close. The Democrats almost won because of massive vote fraud by groups like ACORN. But Republicans did nothing about it. Instead, Republicans pushed through new ?motor voter? laws that made it even easier for Democrats to steal elections.
2001: The Republican Congress worked with liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy to spend $54.4 billion on local public schools with No Child Left Behind. This spending violated the Constitution and did nothing to raise test scores. Republicans betrayed their ?balanced budget? pledge and spent billions on projects ?earmarked? for each congressional district.
Sept. 11, 2001: Muslim jihadists murdered 2,900 Americans, including World Trade Center head of security John O?Neill and United Airlines pilot Victor Saracini, both of Atlantic City. No investigations or hearings took place until everyone hired lawyers and got their stories straight. No government officials were held personally responsible or punished in any way.
2002: Congress created a new Department of Homeland Security, then gave it billions for vote-buying projects around the country, like Ventnor?s new fire truck.
2003: We invaded Iraq and quickly removed its evil dictator from power. But we didn?t let our soldiers do what they did to ?denazify? Germany after World War II. Within weeks Saddam Hussein?s thugs and secret police were again terrorizing the country and killing Americans. Bush?s clueless ?special envoy? L. Paul Bremer was given a medal.
2003: Republican Treasury officials told Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not to guarantee billions of dollars of bad mortgage loans. But Democrats like Barney Frank called the Republicans ?racists.? So the Republicans gave up and then passed a new $400 billion Medicare drug benefit law.
2004: Americans learned that our soldiers brutalized Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib for more than a year. It turned out that 90 percent of those prisoners did nothing wrong; they were arrested for not paying off the right people. This was a big propaganda victory for America?s enemies. It caused many American deaths. A few lower-level soldiers were punished, but there were no courts-martial or punishment for the senior commanders who were mostly responsible.
2004: Republican George Bush defeated Democrat John Kerry, but only because Swift Boat Veterans and conservatives stood by him, something Bush didn?t seem to know or care about.
2005: Although Louisiana Democrats failed to deal with the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina, Americans lost faith in Republicans because Michael Brown, Bush?s head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was as clueless as L. Paul Bremer had been in Iraq.
2006: Republicans George Bush and John McCain demanded amnesty for illegal immigrants and then attacked the conservatives who elected them. Although we were losing the war in Iraq, President Bush did nothing to change leaders or tactics ? until the Democrats won control of Congress in the November elections.
September-October, 2008: Bush Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for $200 billion and wiped out its shareholders. Republicans then joined Democrats to borrow $700 billion for Wall Street and Detroit bailouts.
November, 2008-December, 2009: Democrat Barack Obama was elected president. He promised ?change,? but did everything George Bush Republicans already did ? except Obama did it a lot more quickly.
Somers Point attorney Seth Grossman appears live on WVLT 92.1FM 8 to 9 a.m. every Saturday throughout southern New Jersey. For information see www.libertyandprosperity.org, email grossman@snip.net or call (609) 927-7333. Breakfast discussions are held 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. every Saturday at the Athena Diner, 1515 New Road, Northfield.
