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                |  |  |  | Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.  We have all known that since we were children.  The axiom is Lord Actor's; he was a
 famous what is wrong with you people?
 it--or if he does, disdains it.  How
 could it be otherwise?  He's not wise enough to understand the idea.
 He's a dumb, venal bully, with a big insecure ego--and plenty of
 business experience with corruption and the way to achieve power.  And
 he is surrounded by bigger egos--his attorney general even calls himself
 "General Ashcroft"--crazy for power, ruhless, and mean beyond belief.
 And all of them, like Bush, are business rich.
 Like most bullies, Bush and his regime focus on "small and weak
 countries"--that's a quote from the Bush decree on pre-emptive attacks
 on people we don't like.  In his latest attacks on freedom and respect
 for law, he proves the point once again.  His administration's attempt
 to circumvent this country's environmental laws regarding contamination
 of the oceans which surround us is aimed at helping the oil and gas
 industry, industrial fishing, and the military.  And his attempt to
 pressure nations not to use the International Criminal Court is even
 worse.
 The Bushers threaten small and weak nations with loss of US military
 assistance if they don't pledge to shield USers from the jurisdiction of
 the International Criminal Court.  He isn't threatening France, Germany,
 Britain, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and the other
 members of NATO or the European Union, not Japan or Australia; they are
 exempt from the threat.  So what the Bushers are doing is creating a
 mock-alliance with Rumania (it wants into NATO, and the US has simply
 blackmailed Rumanioa into signing on to protect USers from prosecution)
 and other little nations that might want USer help in buying guns and
 learning how to use them.
 Of course, all these pledges--if the Bush regime gets any beyond
 Rumania's--will be worthless.  Nobody has a moral obligation to keep
 pledges made under duress.  And Bush has already demonstrated
 that--according to his rules--treaty agreements can be cancelled easily
 enough.  He unilaterally cancelled the ABM treaty with Russia, and
 nobody objected--including the US congress, which had ratified the ABM
 treaty.  So why can't the Rumanians or anybody else who signs on do the
 same?
 I wish that the US really were a country "under God"--that we could
 indeed trust in God--so that Gog could stop these outrages.  The people
 of the US don't have enough integrity or self-respect or courage to stop
 the Bush regime's destructive policies.
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