Echoes of the past come marching home:

Thirty-five years ago, one of the more popular songs playing on the AM dial

was "One Tin Soldier." I remember the song because we sang it in

school, and only learned years later it was a protest song against the Vietnam

War.

"On the mountain was a treasure

"Buried deep beneath the stone,

"And the valley-people swore

"They'd have it for their very own."

Sound familiar? By now, even the most hardened Bush backers are starting

to realize there were no weapons of mass destructions or nuclear threat in

Iraq. The rationalization for going to war with this third-world country

shifts with the sands every week. But to paraphrase political consultant

James Carville, "It's the oil, stupid."

The Texas tea buried under the sands of Iraq helps fuel the Hummers that

jettison down the highways. It's also interesting that starting in the

war year of 2003, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the Jobs and

Growth Act that allows the entire cost of all but the largest Hummer to be

deducted as a business expense.

Hmm. I wonder how many of those middle-class folks the President is always

claiming to help were able to use that tax deduction last year?

"Go ahead and hate your neighbor,

"Go ahead and hate your friend,

"Do it in the name of heaven,

"You can justify it in the end."

Not only has this administration heaped millions of dollars on its wealthy

corporate friends, it also has furthered the division in this country by

acting as God bullies.

One of the programs W. is most proud of is the faith-based initiative to

help serve those in society who are down on their luck. Bush said these faith-based

groups would now be able to get federal funds to help with their social programs.

The White House proudly proclaimed this would help fill in the holes in the

safety net.

Well, it might if you're a Christian, but if you're Jewish or

Muslim, you can "fuggedaboutit," as Tony Soprano would say.

As Esther Kaplan points out in her book on how Christian fundamentalism

has trampled democracy, one of the first recipients was the Rev. Pat Robertson's

Operation Blessing, which is under investigation by the state of Virginia

for funneling relief funds to a for-profit diamond mining operation.

Robertson received $1.5 million for three years. He received the money in

spite of calling the initiative a "Pandora's Box" that could

fund cults. Well, the only funding is going to Christian organizations as

Kaplan points out in her book.

Oh, another early recipient of your tax dollars is Watergate henchman Chuck

Colson who found Jesus and is one of only four national partners to receive

$22 million to help former prisoners get back into the workplace.

Despite the constant blathering of evangelicals, this was not a nation founded

on Christianity. Many of the signers of the Constitution and Declaration

of Independence and the Constitution were deists or freemasons. There is

no mention of Christianity in either of those two documents, but there is

mention of the subject in the 1797 treaty between the then-young United States

and Tripoli.

"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense

founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity

against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said

States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan

nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious

opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between

the two countries."

The treaty was signed at the end of George Washington's term as president

and seems to make the feelings of our Founding Fathers pretty well known.

"Now the valley cried with anger,

"'Mount your horses! Draw your sword!'"

"And they killed the mountain-people,

"So they won their just reward."

Since the war began, more than 1,100 American soldiers have lost their lives.

But I guess it's heartening that only 967 of these came after our Tom

Cruise-wannabe President proclaimed, "Mission accomplished," on

an aircraft carrier in May of 2003.

"Now they stood beside the treasure,

"On the mountain, dark and red.

"Turned the stone and looked beneath it ...

"'Peace on Earth' was all it said."

rant by "the liberal media." Well, before you cast your vote, consider

a recent essay in American Conservative Magazine.

"Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president

is supposed to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort

of conservatism for generations," writes Scott McConnell.

"The launching of an invasion against a country that posed no threat

to the U.S., the doling out of war profits and concessions to politically

favored corporations, the financing of the war by ballooning the deficit

to be passed on to the nation's children, the ceaseless drive to cut

taxes for those outside the middle class and working poor: it is as if Bush

sought to resurrect every false 1960s-era left-wing cliche about predatory

imperialism and turn it into administration policy."

McConnell tells conservatives why he's thrown his support behind Kerry.

"The only way Americans will have a presidency in which neoconservatives

and the Christian Armageddon set are not holding the reins of power is if

Kerry is elected."

I'm with ya, Scott. It's time to take back the country.