Fair Play - The American Way

[HARDCORE]

A stacked deck may be cool in business (to some), but for one element to do all of the giving, while the other does naught but take, is pure bull shit!

This scenario is not limited to business either, as even within some world governments and bureaucracies, a far different set of standards are practiced than preached, and this is not only unfortunate, it is also dead wrong. As a matter of fact, we have (on more than one occasion) even gone to war over a system of double standards!

With segments of our economy taking a monumental dump, one would think that management and labor would ?BOTH? be hard pressed, and in many cases they are (BUT NOT IN ALL CASES)! Pulling in the belt to some is a ?One Way Love Affair!? One in which the shared sacrifice is limited to - ?You give concessions, accept pay cuts, watch your family suffer, while we sit back (status quo or better) and sorrowfully observe your pain - ?Glass of bubbly in hand and a gut-full of prime rib nestled in at the old expanding belt-line!?

Many examples (recently) of this ?Hurrah For Me, To Hell With You? business ethic (or rather lack of it) have plunged their filthy fangs into the necks of the loyal, the unsuspecting and the patriotic! When brought to account, however, the upper echelon usually shrugs it?s shoulders and acts puzzled or hurt, just like a major airlines recently did when they demanded huge concessions from labor, and reciprocated by keeping their own lavish employment packages un-mared and unaltered. If anything, they enhanced their benefits while the bare essentials of the rank and file continued to slip and slide! ?Ah yes, if the workers can not afford bread, then let them eat cake?, at least according to the big boys!?

Of course this is not to say, or even imply, that all CEOs and Boards of Directors are self-centered blood suckers (Not All). But there are enough "Hot Shots" out there in business who mistakenly believe that the Sun rises and sets on them and their bank accounts alone? The few who mistakenly believe that their employees (No matter how many or how few) are, what was the word the President once used to describe the United Nations - ?IRRELEVANT!?

In all fairness, it must be realized that President Bush has cut the pegs out from underneath a few untouchables of mega-business, like Enron etc! But when these companies crash, so goeth the suffering employees! And how many more marginally run conglomerates, like that airlines that I mentioned above, are dangling along on government loans and gifts, and are threatening bankruptcy at every turn to gain leverage?

?So what is fair play, American Style!? I always though it was shared sacrifice and a small taste of the good times when they are up and running too? Recently, however, far too many in the ?Corporate Offices of America? have adopted the ?Old Trickle-Down Theory!" The porker on top sucks in the gin and tonic, it passes through his ass hole, and the guy on the bottom usually ends up with the bi-products, generously mixed in with naught but bodily gases! ?And that my friend translates into liquid shit in all too many cases!?

This is not the way that it has to be, just the way that it often is?! Some huge corporations, like Saddam Hussein himself, could be swimming around in a sea of milk and honey, but if your people are starving to death or being brutalized, or even preyed upon, just on the other side of yon wall, then you may as well be a million miles away from the real problems! (And so, unfortunately, many of these bonvivants often are!!)

When a nation sacrifices for a worthwhile cause, all should sacrifice to one degree or another. When that same nation is in clover, however, then all should merit at least one healthy bite of the bountiful harvest! Unfortunately, however, rhetoric, promises and hot air, are often the only portion of the feast that subsequent tiers gets to munch off of!

We are barraged daily with cleaver media spin and political drums - A clamour that stirs the soul and enliven the mind! When we look back to the authors and mentors, however, they are often no where to be found, save for the long, dangling microphone chord that disappears around some distant corner!

The only way to achieve (and keep) greatness is to constantly pull together in the same direction, and for the common good. And with our military bleeding to insure our national interests and security, I only hope that when these courageous guys and gals return from combat, they too are not quickly forgotten by government, DoD or the VA System, as has often been the case before (unfortunate but true)!

This war (Gulf War II, The War For Iraqi Independence) and it?s veterans will soon have their similar needs and problems set right along side those of past veterans! Needs that have for decades (in some cases) been ignored, abused, criminally played with, and kept dragging until the sick veteran eventually expires or gives up!

Well, that ends the VAs problems right (?), until that is, these bureaucrats find themselves standing tall before "The Man From Beyond The River Styx!"

?Then all ye who enter there can truly abandon all hope, as neither station, position, rank,excuses, connections, or finance, will save you pompous asses from your (well deserved) eternal fate!"

"And for the record, their ain?t no remands or appeals in Hell" - So laugh aloud now, oh ye who abused power - As I am sure that your transgressions are being recorded for future reference!

Getting back to "Corporate America", the rash of indictments of late, directed at those who lived like kings, while their trusting charges sacrificed, suffered, lost life savings, or had earned benefits stripped away (or even died), is a slap in the chops to our Uncle Sam and to all true patriots who value country above self!!

Our President is a ?Take No Shit Hombre? when it comes to foreign intrigue. But now is the time 'George' to turn that ardor and zeal inward to re-ignite the American economy. If you did not hesitate to slap around Hussein, Jong, Chirac, and ?Puttin-Around Putin?, maybe you should now take on a few local palookas on behalf of the American Economy and veterans!

This ?Semi-New Trickle Down Philosophy? does not translate into the same champagne for all, not even stale beer in fact!

The cold, sparkling champagne (American made, I hope) that first touched the slobbering lips of the few "Faltering Fops Who Pissed It Away", and then flushed the toilet upon us all, is hardly a refreshing or uplifting experience!?

Maybe we should turn out a deck of cards, similar to the one now circulating on Iraq. This one, however, should list (deeds and pictures) our own corporate crooks, bureaucratic blaggards and unethical users?

We could even turn out an international version of this deck with cards on Putin, Chirac, Schroeder, Cretin, Fox and the ever present "Wee Kofi Annon!"

BOTTOM LINE - "If something works, don?t fix it, and if it don't work, shit-can it, like yesterday!!? (My Opinions)

VERITAS