PARIS HILTON vs TOM HYLTON AND THE GOP vs AMERICA
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Erik Eckholm's story in today's NEW YORK TIMES isn't about Oregon, although it is set there. It is about America. It is about George Bush's America. It is about the America that is part and parcel to the anti-FDR, Republican vision for what they want our country to be.
"Residents [of Oakridge, Oregon] now live with lowered expectations, and a share of them have felt the sharp pinch of rural poverty. The town is an acute example of a national trend, the widening gap in pay between workers in urban areas and those in rural locales, where much of any job growth has been in low-end retailing and services." Families live paycheck to paycheck. Expressed in terms of 2005 dollars, the income of a full-time worker in rural Oregon has dropped from $34,200 in 1976 to $27,600 in 2005. The Bush Regime has failed these people... miserably, by pushing their agenda that is only about creating great wealth for the corporate management class.
"Two-thirds of public school students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, meaning their families
are near the poverty line or below it. About 260 of the town’s 1,200 housing units are single-width trailers." Some families have been living in tents in the woods. This is the America the BushCheney Regime has been seeking to create. All of their policies are aimed at this. These are the most dangerous people who have ever seized control of our governing institutions.
George Bush's America on the Fox Propaganda Network is all about Paris Hilton and her billionaire family for whom the Republicans are making exempt from taxation. But the part of Bush's America Fox doesn't show is Robert Hylton's family. They live in an RV in the forest outside Oakridge. "Robert Hylton, 42, was living hand to mouth on a river bank with his 30-year-old wife, Shella, and their daughters, ages 1 and 2. Strain showed on the face of Mrs. Hylton as she washed clothes in a tub. The family catches trout to eat three times a week. Mr. Hylton drives, or bikes when there is no gas money, into Oakridge for food baskets and the occasional construction job. 'We're trying,' he said, 'to figure out what to do next.'"
Unfortunately, so are Cheney and Rove and the radical, extremist Republicans who are determined to transform America into a plantation society.
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 1:09 PM
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2 Comments:
The problem is many of those people would blame liberals or Democrats for the towns downfall because of environmental regulation that has cut logging down to almost nothing. I don't believe many of them would put together the fact that this is due in large part to Republican "free trade" and tax policies many that were also supported by quite a few Democrats as well.
I just don't know how many people get what is going on from a policy and philosophy level with conservatives.
I agree with you totally; the Republicans have an extremely strong building lobby. We should certainly talk if you've heard of Tom Hylton, author of Save Our Land, Save Our Towns. I presume you've seen the movie? The other thing is that it's controlled by different parties at different governmental levels, and that corporations can sidestep the boundary between state, local, and national government. In theory, the Democrats are all for free sprawl housing for rich retired Democrats from Philly unions who want to get away from Philadelphia suburbs in their later years. This is what is hitting Lancaster County now.
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