It’s Been a Bad Year
By Royce Carlson

Following the Enron collapse, several huge companies admitted that they cooked the books. WorldCom was the largest, over-reporting more than 3 billion dollars in non-existent income. The oversight of these companies’ accounting was also compromised. Arthur Anderson, one of the largest accounting and auditing firms, has disappeared because they covered up for Enron and other companies. Stock market analysts for several major companies were caught promoting stocks to investors that they knew were bad investments. As a result of the exposure of this corruption, many investors no longer trust corporations, analysts, or auditors.

Global warming is increasing faster than expected. 2002 was the second warmest year recently recorded. Melting of the ice cap on Greenland trapped scientists. A big chunk of Antarctica’s ice broke away. Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa is expected to be devoid of ice in just a few years. Several island nations are now threatened with disaster as the ocean’s level rises. Evidence for the rise in temperature points to the emission of greenhouse gases as a cause. The world is trying to respond but the United States government is dragging its heals by refusing to sign an international agreement that would help curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The war-mongering wackos in the United States government now have a military budget larger than the next 13 countries combined. They’re itching to use it, too. Troops are massing in the Persian Gulf in preparation for a war on Iraq. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, says that the United States is capable of mounting a war on North Korea at the same time. All this is in addition to the already declared war on terrorism. The United States defense policy statement issued early in 2002 states that preemptive strikes and the possible use of nuclear weapons are now part of American defense strategy. The U.S. government also refused to sign a treaty prohibiting the use of land mines. The United States is not only the most powerful nation on earth, it is now the most dangerous. The world is afraid.

The Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security bill reduce the privacy of all Americans. The government can now collect information on everything you buy, every book you check out from the library, and any other transaction with an electronic record. Search and seizure protections have been lessened. Big Brother is watching.

Vice President Cheney refused to reveal who he consulted with when creating the Bush administration’s energy policy. In spite of lawsuits and pressure from the American people, he still has not come up with the information. It is now more difficult to get access to public information formerly easily available. We are allowed less and less information on what our government is doing.

Bush’s huge increases in military spending combined with a tax cut for the wealthy and a declining economy has put the United States back into deficit spending. Government programs are being cut - especially education and social services. The Bush administration must think it is more important to threaten and kill people in other countries than to contribute to the health and education of American children.

Manipulation and posturing has always been a feature of American politics but 2002 was worse. Keeping Americans afraid has been the policy of the Bush administration. Every time attention shifted to the United States’ domestic problems, a new potential threat was revealed to distract the public. The increased climate of fear has prompted Americans to accept the degradation of their freedoms in exchange for false security. The Democrats now act more like the Republicans of the last few decades and the Republicans are acting more like Fascists. The whole of American politics has shifted drastically toward the right.