You have said: It’s what we the American people have allowed those in power to do that is the problem. We the people bear the responsibility for the mess that this nation has become. And, it is a royal mess.

I agree that the people bear the responsibility for electing leaders based on 16 second sound bites and election hype. Look what it has lead to.

Spiritual confusion and idolatry – war mongering
To give everything for one’s country is to worship one’s country. For those who take this position nationalism becomes religion and patriotism turns into idolatry, which is neither moral nor rational.

In America this spiritual confusion and idolatry has led to years of America’s young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of oil under the guise of a colossal lie (WMD). The true aim of the war was to establish American hegemony in the Middle East and a strategic strike point against Iran. Thousands of injured vets have returned home only to find that the medical attention they require is not available. Thousands more have deserted.

Civilian death toll – Bush and his administration are responsible for the slaying of between 87,558 and 95,557 Iraqi’s to attempt to build American oil hegemony in the Middle East and to secure a strategic position from which an attack Iran could be launched (primarily women and children).

The invasion and war against Iraq is not only illegal (the UN Security Council never approved it as “a just war”) but it’s also immoral. The claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was prepared to unleash them against the American public was false.

In fact, the long-awaited report, authored by Charles Duelfer, who advises the director of central intelligence on Iraqi weapons, stated Iraq’s WMD program was essentially destroyed in 1991 and Saddam ended Iraq’s nuclear program after the 1991 Gulf War.

Christians in America who proclaim “we must support the troops fighting for our country in Iraq” must be in a delusional state of denial to maintain a belief that God is on their side. In fact, the founding fathers were cautious no to create “a Christian Nation” as evidenced by their aversion to the Divine Right of Kings and England’s empire building and colonization pattern they created a Republic with a Constitution and the Amendments (Bill of Rights) that are in polar opposition from what was evidenced in Europe.

Moreover, the New Testament is a covenant for peacemaking and not war making. It provides no basis for the justification of the use of violence for any purposes, even for reasons of self defense, let alone, for war. Lastly, it would appear that God is never on anyone’s side as scripture indicates believers are meant to be on his side and that’s the side of love and peace.

Worship of capitalism and creation of unregulated and unaccountable corporate growth

The 25 corporations making the big bucks off the war in Iraq, which is destined to fail, are: Halliburton, Veritas Capital Fund/DynCorp, Washington Group International, Environmental Chemical, Aegis, International American Products, Erinys, Fluor, Perini, URS Corporation, Parsons, First Kuwaiti General Trading & Contracting, Armor Holdings, L3 Communications, AM General, HSBC Bank, Cummins, MerchantBridge, GlobalRisk Strategies, ControlRisks, CACI, Bechtel, Custer Battles, Nour USA and General Dynamics.

American taxpayers, 42 thousand of whom who do not have access to healthcare will be spending $2.7 trillion on this war and its aftermath, yet they are less safe around the globe and more divided at home than ever before.

Economic mismanagement
(1) Bush’s tax cuts for the rich have reduced annual tax revenue available for public needs hundreds of billions each year. McCain’s plan is more of the same. In addition the Bush Administration’s support of deregulation has led to economic fallout and the creation of corporate welfare bums that are subsidized by taxpayers and that in many cases pay not taxes at all.

(2) Bush/Cheney’s occupation of Afghanistan and invasion of Iraq plan has cost citizens trillions of dollars of debt and interest. This is not to mention the human loss of men and women being sent home in body bags who would have otherwise lived, worked and paid taxes. The tab is estimated to be well into the trillions when you add rehabilitation for injured vets, replacement of military hardware, and the value of things Americans could have produced but didn’t. The vets returning home are not getting the medical help they need. McCain’s plan is more of the same.

(3) Bush and his buddies finished off the deregulation of banking that began in earnest during Clinton’s presidency. This ideological madness has caused the collapse of investment funds, banks, and the stock value of corporations that depend on them (which is to say most of Wall Street and much of the financial world), as well as a steep decline in the value of most homes in America and a sharp rise in the cost of living in them, foreclosures, and bankruptcies. Now the Bush administration is bailing the big guys out, while on the same day the economic collapse took place McCain claimed the economy is fundamentally sound.

(4) President Bush lied in his September 6th radio address when he said that the oil in the offshore protected areas is equal to 10 years of current production. It’s not true. The Energy Information Agency, which is the government agency responsible for making estimates of oil reserves, says there are approximately 8 billion of barrels of oil in the protected areas. Current production is approximately 3 billion barrels a year and that means the oil in the offshore protected areas is equal to less than 3 years of annual production, not ten years.

Republicans like McCain and Palin are pushing offshore drilling in environmentally sensitive areas as part “an ‘all of the above’ strategy to lower gasoline prices and decrease dependence on imported oil. It can’t be true, because there is not enough oil in these areas to have more than a minimal impact on gas prices (e.g. 3-4 cents per gallon) and even this benefit will not be realized for close to two decades.

Abortion, Contraception and Dirty Politics
(5) Bush is attempting to redefine contraception as abortion. Can you imagine living in a place where birth control is considered an “abortion” and health insurers won’t cover it? Where even rape victims are denied emergency contraception?

It seems unbelievable, but the Bush Administration is quietly trying to redefine “abortion” to include birth control. The Houston Chronicle says this could wipe out dozens of state laws that protect reproductive freedom for women and also protect rape victims. Access to basic health care for millions of women would be jeopardized. And it’s being pushed as a “rule change”—meaning, it doesn’t need congressional approval.
The links for Bush administration’s draft regulations on abortion and contraception can be found in my post read at http://thistimethisspace.com/2008/08/22/abortion-contraception-bush-and-dirty-poli...

McCain and Palin’s religious choices and their positions on these issues propose more of the same dirty politics the Bush Administration undertook when it comes to eliminating reproductive freedom for women.

What would it take to fix the system? A bail-out of banks? No, what is required is an overhaul of the whole economic system; a system-wide fix. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7642664.stm

In order for that shift in thinking and action to take place there must be a huge paradigm shift between the ears of American voters; they must stop pursuing the American dream and become conscious. And, if they don’t then Rome IMO will fall.