The longer date rape goes unchecked, the more the perpetrators will take advantage of it. Pretty soon, everyone starts believing it’s the natural order of things, that it’s the way things should be, that there’s nothing anyone can do about it, the cavalry isn’t going to come to the rescue, and it’s best to just lay back and take it. Maybe learn to live with or enjoy it.

You could say this about our love affair with deluded illegal immigrants who know that they’ve broken the law. We let them do it, did little about it, and even invited them to the party with open arms. After years of permissive precedents, how can we punish them now? We’re told that it’s a complicated issue and one where the sensitivities of both sides must be taken into account, especially when it has been going on for so long and after almost five years when we had substantial reason to put a stop to it, but did nothing.

You could also say the same thing about our vicious invasion of a small republic in the Middle East that did nothing to harm us. Suffering the aftershock of 9/11, we were ready to believe all of the lies and illusions that came mostly from a man who believes he’s an anointed knight of God’s round table. And now that we’ve done the deed, now that we’ve stomped all over a relatively defenseless people, now that we know the falsehoods that angered us, we don’t dare pack up and leave. Even if we gave them enough money to rebuild and replace all that we’ve destroyed, it wouldn’t make up for the lives that have been lost, the misery and strife we’ve created, or the fact that the same money could have bought us all of their oil and allowed them to prosper for awhile anyway. At least we got rid of an elected evil leader who was able to keep them in line better than we can, and because they didn't love us for bombing their cities, killing civilian men, women, and children, we’re now attempting to duplicate his tactics with brute military force.

And then there’s my favorite subject. The dishonest leadership of the “land of the free” that steals the American worker’s supplemental retirement money in order to carry out the aggressive policies of the New World Odor while ignoring the needs of its people. The flagrant rip-off of what today amounts to $3.5 trillion held by “trust funds” that are not trusts at all, holding bogus securities that serve no purpose other than to tax and double tax us some more. Forty-two percent of our horrendous national debt that could be eliminated by the push of a delete key without harm to anyone but the crooks themselves.

While the nation rocks under this credit card debt for future taxpayers, a balance of trade that’s completely out-of-whack, a dollar falling in value worldwide, outsourcing of jobs and industry, tax cuts for the wealthy but nothing in regard to excessive payroll taxes, unemployment that’s reported only as long as benefits last, and subsidies to big corporations either bankrupt or close to it where pension and health plans are being abandoned or cut back – who is truly to blame for the economic trouble we’re in?

If you still believe that we are a representative republic, with democratically elected leaders, then the buck stops with no one other than the people who put these leaders in office – the eligible voters of America.

And that begs questions of the ethics of a two party system that attacks, stifles, and demeans, any third party initiative. With a propaganda network that sells everything from what-to-eat to foreign policy, and can exclude or ridicule third parties while telling us we would be “throwing away our vote” by siding with them; there’s little chance things will change. As these networks are continuously permitted to merge into monopolies, the situation becomes worse and worse.

Meanwhile, there is less and less of a difference between our existing two parties. Each is currently separated by the slimmest of principles and it’s rapidly becoming apparent that our government resembles an oligarchy or dynasty rather than a government “of the people.”

In the last few major elections, less than half of the eligible voters even bothered to go to the polls. During mid-term and primary elections, it’s much less. And the Latinos are right when they say “the Euros are getting old and they do not reproduce.” The situation is becoming one in which the only power of the people is to not vote, to demonstrate their disdain and frustration by not playing the game. It’s at least a depressing expression of hopelessness and a signal of being fed up with all of them.

But the powers that be don’t care. They would take office on less than ten percent of the vote. And they want instant results. They conduct exit polls where everyone should tell them to “get lost” or at least “how I voted is none of your business.” They also insist on touch screen voting that leaves no paper trail, and other untraceable computer manipulations rather than more reliable hand counts used in other nations, even Iraq.

And when it comes to how much of an oligarchy we already are, the federal government’s retirement and health care plans stand out as dramatic proof of how the nation’s largest employer, the federal government, supports its employees by cheating taxpayers, their subjects or slaves.

To see this, all anyone has to do is to take a look at the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) or their Life & Health plan. If you understand how your Social Security money is being ripped off, then you shouldn’t be surprised to find that federal employees only pay insufficient amounts into their FERS plan to rack up 8-to-1 in matching funds and Life & Health doesn’t even bother with real money input, spends millions from the Treasury’s general fund every month and with no income, in the craziest accounting ever seen, increases its holdings the more it spends.

Last year, fiscal 2005, FERS cost American taxpayers $30.8 billion and Life & Health $3.5 billion. There is no cutback or sacrifice in federal pensions and health plans, but there is in almost every company in the private sector.

The people suffer while the federal government lives high on the hog. That’s the nature of a “let them eat cake” dynasty. And it’s their slaves that allow this to continue just as provocative women sometimes get date raped. It’s too much of a temptation to those in power and they can’t resist using that power to take advantage of people.

Whether its vicious invasions of helpless countries, cheap labor for their favorite industries, or their own security, health, and retirement – the oligarchy will find ways to win your minds and your money, no matter what it takes.