When President Bush gave a speech at a St. Louis warehouse announcing his new tax plan, he stood against what appeared to be a backdrop of cardboard boxes stamped "MADE IN U.S.A." The backdrop, however, was actually a painted facade. Bush's advance team had used pieces of white paper to cover over the "Made in China" stamps on hundreds of real boxes in the warehouse.

It is most fitting that this speech last week on "Strenghening America's Economy" as it served an excellent metaphor for Globalization's devastation to our economy and the masking of the truth by the nation's power brokers. It's not just manufacturing jobs now, but more and more high-tech and other "knowledge based" jobs have migrated to Asia. Multinationals, spurred by the allure of cheap labor, have poured billions of dollars into the coffers of a repressive regime that is the antithesis of freedom and just about everything emblematic of America. There's no evidence that increased trade has led to increased freedom for China's workers. Earlier this month, for example, labor activists Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang were put on trial by the Chinese government. Their crime? Organizing protests at a steel mill. Their demand? Back wages that had gone unpaid for as long as 20 months and overdue pension payments for retirees.

The effect on our economy has been catastrophic - unemployment is rising, mortgage foreclosure numbers are at epic proportions and our federal budget deficit is now spiraling into the stratosphere.
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I remember when I used to eagerly flip the pages" of the daily newspaper simply to read the letters to the editor. It used to be fun to read, full of generally intelligent discourse on matters the paper had reported on though sometimes the rants and comic takes would stretch to metaphoric hyperbole. But no more. Over time, that part of the paper became increasingly reserved for overly simplistic bromides, jingoistic monosyllabic blurbs, and occasionally an inane retort to a previous day's letter to the editor entry. But's now it's sunk even lower, serving as a host for the Republican National Committee's propaganda server, dishing out it's latest maniacal machinations.

The Google cache doesn't lie here. The same exact 130 word letter promoting Bush 43's tax cut scheme was printed by dozens of nationwide hometown newspapers. Shame on Chuck and Leah Williams, Nick Koszykowsi, David Bednarski, Sherry Collins, Stephanie Johnson, John Pinckney, Trevor Carlson and all the others who abdicated their freedom of thought in a pathetic sham. Well, if those are truly authentic names -- it could be just be a piece of work by the Republican Machine, churning out Republi-Bots to disseminate mindless indoctrination via seasoned blurb bits.

You too can be a GOP Team Leader...

I guess with his approval rating sinking, Bush 43 and team are reaching deep into online Republican activist toolbox kit...