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THE OFFICIAL WEB SITE OF THE MADISON TIMES WEEKLY NEWSPAPER |
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OPINION |
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Blackonomics / James Clingman All the president’s men But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2nd Timothy 3:1-5 The above passage of scripture reflects the dire straits we face not only in this country, but throughout the world. We have a president who has surrounded himself with some of the most vile, evil, greedy, arrogant men in America. We have a world leader who has allowed himself to be dangled by puppet strings and made to dance to tunes played by the likes of Rove, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and all of the other dastardly characters in Washington. Our president has also cavorted with various corporate thieves. Although he has tried to make examples of a few of them by prosecuting a crook here and there, the leader of the pack, Enron executive Ken Lay, is still “Mr. Untouchable” and has yet to be brought to justice. All the president’s men could also be described as “all the president’s friends.” What is taking place in this oil-based economy of ours is beyond shameful and beyond unconscionable. Under the guise of a war to “protect America’s freedom” and to “liberate the people of Iraq,” our president and his friends are raping this country’s economy and robbing the consumers and hard working people who live here. The latest in-your-face discovery is the audio tape recording of Enron employees bragging about how they ripped-off “Grandma Millie” and how they knew what they were doing was wrong but, as one said, “I’ll just be a good soldier so I won’t have to go to jail but once.” The boastful, proud, abusive, and treacherous men on the tape actually laughed at their ability to cause the energy prices for consumers in California to rise to a level one of them described as “$250 per kilowatt hour.” They knew what they were doing was wrong; they knew they were stealing from people, but they did it without remorse, and laughed and joked about it on tape, even though they knew their conversation was being recorded. How brash is that? How arrogant is that? These men worked for Ken Lay, the king of Enron, who is one of Bush’s friends and one of Cheney’s men. Maybe that’s why he has not bitten the dust in court yet. What malevolence; what maliciousness; what immorality; what wickedness we see in “high places.” This, indeed, let’s us know that we are not fighting against flesh and blood. These guys could very well be signals to us that the end is very near. They are the epitome of unrighteousness. How about Halliburton? You remember, Cheney’s company, the one with which he declared he had no “financial ties.” This company and its crooks got no-bid contracts from the Bush administration and immediately started stealing from the taxpayers by overcharging for their gasoline. What an irony! High gasoline prices in Iraq. All the president’s men export high-paying jobs to Iraq by destroying the infrastructure of that country, and then give billions of dollars in contracts to Cheney’s company, Halliburton, to fix what they broke. Men and women willing to put their lives at risk for six-figure salaries must chase those jobs by going to Iraq, maybe to be kidnapped, tortured, maimed, or slaughtered like Nick Berg. All of this on top of the president’s edict to lock up Americans, indefinitely and without access to due process, because he and his men decide “certain” citizens are threats. Another one of the president’s men, Ahmad Chalabi, has been paid more than $40 million dollars for services rendered. He was a crook when they began to use him, at least that’s what Jordanian officials said, yet the Bush administration put him into the top job in Iraq, no doubt to do their bidding. Chalabi is now under investigation by the FBI for giving information to that other country in Bush’s “Axis of Evil,” Iran. What a circle of friends our president has. So what will we do about this group? How will we respond to their increasing control of economic resources and the very freedom we hold so dear? They have shown us their disdain for ethics, justice, and humility, and they have dug-in for four more years of even more shenanigans. Will we continue to put up with their treachery, or will we put an end to this madness? I don’t know what we will do, but I know what we should do? First, we must admit that we have gotten ourselves into a terrible situation, and George Bush should put his swagger aside and do the same. Then, we must understand the spiritual ramifications of what is taking place in these “last days.” And finally, we must make sure that in November 2004, this dishonest, greedy, arrogant group of men is sent packing, back to wherever they came from, never to be in charge again. Because, as we are admonished in 2nd Timothy 3:5, they have a “form” of godliness, but they deny the power of godliness, and we must “have nothing to do with them.” James E. Clingman is an adjunct professor in the University of Cincinnati's African American Studies Department. His latest book is “Black-O-Knowledge: Stuff We Need to Know.” Contact him at 513-489-4132 or visit the Web site www.blackonomics.com.
END OF OPINION SECTION |
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