Counting on Stupidity

"If you thought the army was here protecting people like yourself, I've some news for you, we're here to defend wealth." - Billy Bragg

First it was Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron, who testified before a Congressional Hearing that he was just mentality inept and could not understand how Enron operated, then last week Bernie Ebbers, former CEO of WorldCom stated that he was "too stupid to know what my company's doing." There are others that have decided not to tell anything about what or when they knew things were not as they should be or even appeared to be.

This week in Waco, Texas (site of the Luby's Restaurant massacre and David Koresh's bonfire), we have had another spectacle: George W. Bush's Economic Summit. And a fine summit it was. The pinnacle of disgraceful "yes" men and women who could not fall over themselves quickly enough to applaud the miraculous job that Boy George had done with the American economy. And Mr. Bush was quick to say that he had the economy under control.

Excuse me. If this is control, please stop the train, I want off.

I also need to mention that Charles Schwab was a keynote speaker at that Waco Summit. It also bears mentioning that on the very day of the summit, Mr. Schwab's company (which graciously donated $965,000 to the Republican National Committee for the 2000 election cycle - this total excludes contributions to individual candidates) handed out pink slips to 375 employees.

I hate to watch the employment news these days. This week the following job losses were announced:


IBM - 15,600 employees are to be laid off

Ames Companies - 20,000 employees are to be laid off

Agere - 4,000 employees are to be laid off

American Airlines - 7,000 employees are to be laid off

Flextronics - 5,261 employees are to be laid off


I know that it's stupid to be counting things these days, but I just can't help myself. There are so many things that I have lost count of lately. The short list is:


How many times I have heard that war with Iraq is inevitable

How many times I have heard that the economy is on track and headed in the right direction

How many times I have heard that Social Security Funds should be privatized

How many times I have heard that every thing should be blamed on Bill Clinton

How many times I have heard that the Constitution and Bill of Rights should be forgotten

How many times I have heard that we are at "war" (remember that Congress has not declared it as such)

How many times I have heard that George and John have the blanket authority to strip a citizen of his/her inalienable rights without offering any evidence of wrongdoing

How many times I have heard that Dick Cheney does not have to answer questions regarding his meetings setting governmental policies

How many times I have NOT heard how much Kenneth (Kenny-Boy) Lay's "get out of jail free" card cost the average American taxpayer