John F. Youmans is a retired USAF major and a well decorated disabled Vietnam Veteran who served at Bien Hoa AB from 1966-1967. Mr. Youmans served 30 years in the USAF. Since his military retirement in 1993, Mr. Youmans has become a well published journalist and a reporter for the Daily Record in Dunn, N.C. for several years when forced to resign due to his health and disability stemming from Hodgkin’s Disease and Agent Orange. Mr. Youmans continues, however, to write articles for newspapers across the nation from home. In addition, he is a featured columnist for Military.Com and staff writer for several other Internet web sites including www.supportthevets.com, www.usdr.org and several others. Mr. Youmans has taken the task of advocating improvements for veterans’ benefits as a personal goal.
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In my opinion, President George W. Bush’s popularity will soon explode to new heights and he will win the upcoming election by a large margin. A nationwide high level of patriotism will guarantee Bush’s reelection while the catalyst for this resurgence will be based strictly on fear. Visions from God to Mr. Bush, Pat Robertson of the"700 Club" and others have already confirmed Mr. Bush’s reelection.
At the present time, President George W. Bush is not doing well. But I expect that to change between now and the November presidential election. Recent polls indicate 50 percent or less of the country would vote for Bush for reelection now. Only something catastrophic can bring about such a significant change in this country.
Bush’s credibility is in the sewer as the country learns there aren’t any WMD in Iraq; however, more than 530 American troops have been killed in Iraq and more than 3,000 wounded with the number rising daily. Many believe the WMD problem goes well beyond just poor intelligence and includes outright intentional misrepresentation of the facts … lies.
The national deficit is another problem. There was a record $237 billion federal surplus in 2000 and a $375 billion deficit last year, the largest ever in dollar terms. The administration expects a worse-still $521 billion shortfall this year.
Outsourcing and the total loss of more than 3 million jobs in America since Bush was elected continues to be the most bothersome to citizens today. A promise of an additional 2.6 million jobs this year is already being revised by the Bush administration. This is not just unlikely, it is impossible.
George W. Bush has chosen, and continues to choose, tax cuts for the wealthy and special favors for the special interests groups over our economic future. While economic growth and profit for corporations may be up, workers are not seeing any of these profits.
No. George W. Bush is not doing well. This is especially significant when compared to his popularity just following 9/11. His popularity has fallen about as fast as the $237 billion federal surplus in 2000.
This is what Mr. Bush is talking about when he says, "I am a wartime president." He wants to return to the days following 9/11 when the entire country thought he walked on water. Bush believes he was chosen by God to rule the country and the world. He is going to save the world from the "Evil Doers." No matter what! No matter how many US lives it costs and no matter how many wounded disabled veterans, now in excess of 3,000, are returned to the US with inadequate VA healthcare. In fact, Bush is continually attempting to reduce Veterans’ benefits even as this war continues.
What else can Bush do to ensure his reelection? He can’t boast a good economy, he can’t boast victory in Iraq, he certainly can not boast a safe and secure US, with our porous borders and very little being done to change it. Everything is negative except his image immediately following 9/11.
One citizen speaks for millions when he said, "What can explain his (Bush) popularity? Can that many people be enamored of what he has accomplished in Iraq? Of how he has fortified our constitutional freedoms with the USA Patriot Act? Of how he has bolstered our economy? Of how he has protected our environment? Perhaps they've been impressed with the president's personal integrity and the articulation of his grand vision for America? (See Project for the New American Century.) Is that likely?"
No. Mr. Bush has a big problem. What could possibly be turning longtime conservatives, Republican moderates, and former Bush supporters away from considering voting for him in the upcoming Presidential election? Could it be the growing perception that the Bush dynasty and leadership is only about a trifecta of Greed, Oil and Power? Is that really an accurate view that drives the #1 policymaker in America today? Many say they had a winner who could do no wrong; now they have a guy who realistically cannot do anything right.
In my opinion, Mr. Bush would do anything necessary to regain his post-9/11 popularity. Anything! As Mr. Bush once said to the Palestinian Prime Minister: "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you can help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them."
Bush’s visions from God have no limits, no bounds and no restrictions. He is determined to dominate the world. The Iraq War was intended to mark the official emergence of the United States as a full-fledged global empire, seizing sole responsibility and authority as planetary policeman. It would be the culmination of a plan 10 years or more in the making, carried out by those who believe the United States must seize the opportunity for global domination, even if it means becoming the "American imperialists" that our enemies claim we are.
President Bush already knows he is going to win the election. To further substantiate this point, Tim Russert of "Meet The Press" on Feb. 8, asked Mr. Bush what he would do if he lost the election? Mr. Bush already knew he was going to win because of his vision. Here is what he said: "Well, I don’t plan on losing. I have a vision for what I want to do for the country. See, I know exactly where I want to lead. I want to lead us, I want to lead this world toward more peace and freedom. I want to lead this great country to work with others to change the world in positive ways, particularly as we fight the war on terror."
What does Mr. Bush and others mean when they say they have a vision? "Vision: an experience in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to the mind, although not actually present under the influence of a divine or other agency."
Sounds like grandeur illusions or hallucinations to me. Perhaps he needs to spend more time figuring out how to help the citizens of the United States of America and less on dominating the world. The war on terror will never end. We can fight in a guerilla war for decades and only continue to lose lives. Perhaps he needs to spend more time solving the problems with Israel. With that problem solved fairly, perhaps the others will diminish.
So with all the negatives against Bush, how can I predict he is going to be reelected? Because of all the visions from God we are hearing about.
Pat Robertson of the"700 Club" also had a vision from God concerning Bush’s reelection. In January, Pat Robertson said, "God told me President Bush will be re-elected in a landslide. I think George Bush is going to win in a walk.
"I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way," Robertson said.
"The Lord has just blessed him," Robertson said of Bush. "I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn't make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he's a man of prayer and God's blessing him."
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, a frequent Robertson critic and executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he had a prediction of his own.
"I predict that Pat Robertson in 2004 will continue to use his multimillion broadcasting empire to promote George Bush and other Republican candidates," Lynn said in a statement. "Maybe Pat got a message from (Bush political adviser) Karl Rove and thought it was from God."
With all of these visions appearing, with God already deciding President Bush will win the reelection, how can anyone think otherwise?
What is Bush going to do with his support and popularity sinking faster than the Titanic? What is Karl Rove going to come up with to recoup his loses?
Well George Bush and Pat Robertson are not the only people who can have a vision.
Yup! I had a vision too. It was terrifying. And my vision is beginning to play-out on FOX News, day by day, one clip at a time.
I had a vision of a part of New York City being devastated by some type of (as George Bush would say) nucular devise or dirty bomb shortly before the November election. I saw smoke and fire, rubble, and death.
I saw our "Wartime President" days later, promising the world to put an end to terrorism and evil once and for all. He promised to punish al Qaeda immediately, everywhere they are located or suspected of being located.
In my vision, George Bush was once again a national hero, a "Wartime President" in spite of all his many failures and, as Pat Robertson predicted, he won the election in a "blowout election."
Also in that vision, was the capture of Osama Bin Laden. Many are already calling Bin Laden, "Bin Hidden". In my vision, Bin Laden was being held in Pakistan.
My actual vision covered a time period of 10 months beginning in January and going through November. That is the way visions are: compressed previews of things to come. And it convinced me Bush could not lose the next election.
I knew my vision was possibly coming true while I was watching FOX News one night recently and learned about Abdul Qadeer Khan and his nuclear proliferation. Out of the blue, Abdul Qadeer Khan confessed to leaking nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. According to the AP, "Khan is lauded by his countrymen as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, and the country's leading nuclear weapons facility, the Khan Research Laboratories, bears his name."
Another article says, "Pakistan and its nuclear laboratories named after Dr Khan, at Kahuta, south of Islamabad, are the common factor in tracing equipment found in Libya and Iran, and believed to be in North Korea. But the networks which appear to have been set up in the mid-80s may now have grown so extensive as to have acquired a life of their own, independent of the original Pakistani sponsors." And what is being done about it? We went to war with Iraq over hints of WMD and nuclear proliferation. Who knows where it is now. Who knows, Cuba may be next. More fear. Khan and Pakistan get a smack on the hand. Why?
The Herald Tribune then writes on Mar. 23, "Iran admits secretly buying nuclear components. Faced with the imminent release of a report by international nuclear inspectors, Iran has acknowledged publicly that it secretly purchased components for its nuclear program from a network of international suppliers, but continued to insist that its program was for electricity production, not nuclear weapons. "It's a report that no one will like," said a senior European diplomat. "The Americans will not like the fact that the agency does not declare that the Iranians were making a weapon," a charge that Bush leveled directly in a speech this month. "The Iranians will not like the fact that they are essentially accused of playing a shell game."
And the last part, so far, of my vision possibly playing out on FOX News was Greta Van Susteren interviewing New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Greta’s website said, "The New York [City] Police Department is preparing for what is being called a possible catastrophic terror attack involving nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. This would be the most threatening attack facing the city since 9/11."
Greta said, "So a catastrophic attack hits New York, a dirty bomb, for instance. The police don this sort of gear. What about the seven, eight, nine million people you have in Manhattan? What's the plan to evacuate them or protect them?
Commissioner Kelly responded, " Well, it all depends on the situation that we encounter. But we have to be able to operate in the toxic environment, be it biological, chemical or radiological. We have to function so that the public can function, can be administered to. That's the -- our primary goal is to prepare to help the public. We are in the prevention business. We want to prevent an attack, but we also have to be ready to do our job in the event that an attack of this nature happens.
Greta then asked, "In terms of since 9/11, have you had any big scares that the rest of us haven't heard about, that kept you up but just the rest of us were able to sleep?
Kelly replied, "Oh, there's this kind of ongoing flow of information. And again, most of it lacks precision, but there's enough there to get us concerned. So we've had a series of those, and that's something that we have to contend with in our post-9/11 world. So the answer is yes, but that's all part of the business.
This little scenario cost more than $30 million. Aside from creating fear, what was the purpose?
Fear is now the basis of the GOP Party message. It is everywhere. It will be the prime motivator in this year’s election as Karl Rove persuades President Bush to beat the drums of fear loud and hard. Karl Rove knows how to exploit our fear and patriotism. He is an expert at it.
Fear has served the GOP beautifully. It served to pump up two wars and has funneled billions into the coffers of crony corporations and there is no reason to stop now.
Bush and Rove are committed to get the populace scared enough to get away with anything. Fear yanks away our basic civil liberties, our intuition, our sense of dignity and humane behavior.
Fear means barely wincing as the utterly draconian USA Patriot Act gets reamed through Congress, twice, giving the FBI and police appalling new powers to monitor our e-mail, Internet sites, credit card usage and telephone calls without warning or warrant or even probable cause.
Fear is a poison in the air, a cancer in the national bloodstream, a media pastime and a cultural narcotic. And here's the worst of all: Fear is a learned trait, a practiced habit. It is something you cling to and allow to fester. They are counting on it.
Yes. Bush has to do something to regain his "Wartime President" status. The economy is not going to miraculously get better. Three million jobs aren’t going to appear out of the blue. The huge $500 billion deficit isn’t going to go away, and that does not even include the billions looted from our trust funds that is not being reported. Add to that the lies about WMD and the 530 plus deaths and 3,000 wounded during the Iraq War.
Instead of praying for a miracle, Bush, Rove, and Robertson choose to rely on "Visions". I hope none of these visions come true. I hope a Democrat wins the election, preferably, John Kerry. Anyone but Bush. We need a president who is concerned about the United States of America and its citizens. We need to return America to the people and give the country back its soul. It has been stolen by fear and imperialistic visions.
