By Lee Gottlieb

Mr Bush takes great pleasure talking about his economic plan. What economic plan?

The truth is that since the Republicans stole the office of president, the country has lost millions of jobs and his is the first Administration since Herbert Hoover's to lose jobs. If there is a plan, it looks like it's designed to destroy the republic.

Poverty in the U.S. is on the rise. Almost 12 percent of the population has fallen into the ranks of the impoverished. In 2002, more than 34-million Americans lived in households uncertain of the next meal. That's almost one-and-a-half million more Americans than in 2001.

It's reported 23-million Americans visit food kitchens annually. Among these unfortunates are many former middle-class workers seeking handouts for the first time in their lives, and embarrased about it. But the jobs for which they qualify are gone: to India, to China, to Taiwan. To everywhere but where they rightfully belong: here in this country.

Everyone is in debt. Individuals, corporations, states, municipalities, the nation.

In December, 2000, our unelected president stated that by dedicating the entire budget surplus to paying off the national debt, "the United States can be debt-free by this decade." Instead, he and his cohorts squandered the first surplus the country has had in many years, awarding tax cuts to the very rich.

The annual budget deficit is reported to be around $450-billion and it's estimated that by the end of this year the total national debt will be $3-trillion. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that if the trend continues, by 2013, the total deficit will be more than $4-trillion.

Who is going to repay the debt, if not the working citizens of the country? Under Republican regimes, the wealthiest American citizens, the people who don't labor for a living, pay progressively less.

This is the man who rashly took us to war in Afghanistan claiming Osam bin Laden and the Taliban (remember them?) were responsible for the tragedy of September 11, 2000. Yet the perpetrators weren't Afghanis but Saudis, and all the reports indicated that it was Saudi Arabia that openly funded and supported anti-American sentiment in Mid-Eastern countries.

The unelected president and his gang were aware of this truth. Why the lie?

This is the man who blatantly lied to us about Sadam Hussein possessing "weapons of mass destruction," prompting the invasion of Iraq, and the chaos that followed.

This is the man who talks of protecting the environment, but has had laws passed that will unleash corporations into previously protected forests and restricted environments. Why the lies?

This is the man who berates the United Natons organization for not supporting his invasion of Iraq and is trying to intimidate it into taking some

responsibility for cleaning up the mess his Administration has made in that country.

This is the man who has approved the Patriot Act that removes the right of privacy from American citizens, and who has approved the totalitarian methods used to detain people merely suspected of not liking the U.S., or of acting against it.

Mr. Bush is a man with a forked-tongue, a man of great shallownesss, filled with contempt for the intelligence of ordinary Americans. He doesn't believe that we can see his deceptions. But, of course, we can.

We understand he sends our young people to die unnecessarily in wars that benefit only the oil companies, of which he and his Administration are part and parcel. We understand the invasion has given American oil companies control of the second largest oil reserve in the world.

We understand his looting of the American Treasury is matched only by the looting of Ronald Reagan's Republican Administration, and that although Democrat officials manage to get their pork barrel goodies, only Republicans would dare commit such outrageous thievery.

We understand his open-ended war on terrorism, which can never end and can never be won, is merely an excuse to give American Administrations the "crisis" necessary to grasp emergency controls of the country, and an excuse to aid dictators around the globe fight their ordinary citizens (labeled terrorists) wanting to depose them.

The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are not too different than the American invasion of the Philippines at the end of the Spanish American War.

The Fillipinos didn't want Americans as rulers of their country any more than they had wanted the Spanish. But the American Establishment was driven to possess the resources of the country and so persisted in its aggression, despite the truth that it was a brutal act of war, and that more Americans died in that little war than in the Spanish-American War preceding it, which was also, probably, instigated by the American Establishment.

The Establishment media in 1899 made it appear as if it were a glorious fight for freedom, just as it does today with our invasion of Iraq. But the only freedom fought, then and now, is the freedom of greedy men to violently take what they want with brute-force.

The Establishment media clamored for impeachment when a president dropped his drawers, but has been strangely silent at a president and his associates who might be guilty of subversion. That's because the media is primarilly Republican/Establishment and Mr. Clinton was a registered Democrat, while Mr. Bush is a bonafide Republican.

Mr. Bush and his gang are successfully evading all attempts to investigate their knowlege, their actions, and their intent since taking office, and unless the American people shake off their lethargy and agressively demand a thorough, independent investigation, the odds are the evasion will prevail.

Of course, Mr. Bush and the Republican hierarchy believe such a miracle will never happen. The odds are their belief will also prevail.