What are the major issues for 2006?

Here's the way I see them...

1. The GUISE of WAR

Desert Storm was a war. Operation Iraqi Freedom is a REGIME CHANGE. The US for the first time in history is in the business of ousting governments and implanting governments that meet with its approval.

This issue must be driven home.
Why was it NOT a war?

a. No provokation for war.
b. Expressed intestest by Bushco to effect REGIME CHANGE for the specific reason to oust Saddam.
c. No ability for the Iraqi Army to stage any resistance. The 5000 tanks that were in Desert Storm had been reduced to 800. These tanks had known inferior rounds that simply bounce off our tanks. There was no Iraqi AirForce, no Skuds (they were destroyed during the 10 years of inspections). In fact, more weapons were destroyed during the 10 years of inspections than in the Desert Storm campaign itself. For those that have to believe this was a "war"....think "clean-up after Desert Storm" as the most obscure connection to a war.

Why REGIME CHANGE didn't work.

a. We could have easily threatened the use of force, demanded inspections under military force, or anything we wanted. Instead, the use of WAR level force to effect REGIME change left the country infrastructure destroyed, over 125,000 innocent civilians dead, and just another notch in America's bully image around the world.
b. At least 40% of the Iraqi's have deep seeded hate for the US after over 100,000 dead in Desert Storm and now this campaign. They want us out. The Sunni's will then likely either stage a civil war or align with Iran.
c. The only options to maintain peace include our long term occupation, the maintenence of a police state, and/or the break up of Iraq into 3 distinct provinces. The ability to maintain stability will require up to a 500,000 strong police force in Iraqi plus another 500,000 patrolling the Iraqi border. Keep in mind, we destroyed whatever Army they had, as pathetic as it was....but it could have been used to guard their border.

End result....we will have to remain as occupiers in order to protect this new puppet US state.

2. The BIG LIE about tax breaks.

When will the democrats ever frame the argument correctly? The phrase "CLASS WARFARE" should be permanently put to death after our wealth disparity has been obscenely skewed since Reagan and now Bushco. We are now at the verge of seeing the destruction of capitalism as we know it at the hands of a greedy few million Americans.

Tax breaks yield increased revenues...a win-win situation according to Reaganites, Limbaugh, and Bushco. Of course they do. But at most you might get 10 to 20% BACK on the original amount of the break!!!! If you don't understand that last sentence, think about it seriously until you suddenly realize what a ripoff Reaganomics and Bushco have been.

That's why we're now obscenely in debt.
A TAX YOU AND I, the middle class, have to pay to maintain the tax breaks to the rich.

Yes....you will pay probably 12% of your next federal tax payment on INTEREST PAYMENTS on our national debt. Do the upper 1% care about this "TAX" after they've raked in millions (or billions)? Nice model isn't it? Tax breaks for them.....we pick up the tab.....for years....or generations to come.

We are not left with new roads, improved health care, or any other quality initiative.
We are left with cry baby billionaires that believe it's more and more in their interest to do business abroad, and screw OUR middle class out of benefits and health care.
ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY

Not to mention it fuels the selling off of America, bit by bit...to foreigners.

We are witnessing the destruction of our vital, vibrant free enterprise system as we know for the especial benefit of just millions of Americans.

Think about it.
The government can implement a project to build roads, invest in renewable energy, health care, whatever worthwhile quality project you can think of....and money is invested in the economy, the economy improves, and revenues naturally increase (barring other factors which stall the economy).

Fueling the economy can come in a "Republican way" or a "Democratic Way".....
The Republican Way - Tax cuts to the rich fuel:

a. Increased revenues for the upper 1%.
b. A trend of bad business investing outside this country.
c. Not necessarily any improvement for the middle class (as has been historically demonstrated since 1975).

The Democratic Way - The investment in our middle class, or infrastructure or quality economic programs:

a. Potentially builds assets that have value for years to come. These are initiatives that would not otherwise have been accomplished by our private sector.
b. Investments in the health of our middle class, our primary economic workforce...builds stength in our economy for years to come.

x

It's just a sign of our capitalistic decadence that we allow what's happening now to take place.
It's irresponsible.
And it just fuels a lower grade free enterprise system.
Take a brief look at Canada's immigration laws.
To over simplify...you get in if you can demonstate a net positive economic benefit to the country.

I didn't see it on DU, but in my local booster-paper (It is always pro-Republican, big business so I was surprised to find it there). Anyway, Mexico is considering tougher on people illegally entering Mex. on its Southern border.

Oh, and there was another article about the proposed fence. Only instead of spending millions, Republicans want a high tech virtual fence costing $2.6 BILLION bought from likely bidders Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications or Raytheon.

Illegals will be caught by camera/motion detectors/infra-red, then held by U.S. agents that we don't have enough of, held in detention centers which we don't have enough of and set for deportation hearings that already have a 4 to 1 failure rate (the illegals don't show up).

Leave it to Republicans to turn a simple fence into a billion $ boondoggle.

This is not the first time in US History we have outed a government and replaced it with our buddies (think Latin America espically Nicaragua).

My BIG issues of 2006:
1. Bringing home my friends and peers from Iraq.
2. Stoping the abuse of the Constitution of my United States (it is not thier country, because they don't give a fuck about its laws; all they care for is money and power).
3. Education reform (NCLBA is a worthless piece of shit that requires teacher's to teach for a test. I am going to school to be a teacher and I want to actually teach my students).
4. Health Care reform (Our current system screws the poor and the middle class for what should be a guranteed right in the "Greatest Country in the World").
5. Working to elect honest and intelligent people to Congress (asshats like Delay need to be stripped of all thier power).

.