Regions and AmSouth banks are merging, just two years after Wachovia absorbed SouthTrust bank. In the Wachovia/SouthTrust merger, at least 2000 jobs were lost, and even more will probably be lost in this latest monopolization.

According to the Birmingham News, the bank representatives have said that one reason is to save money by firing workers. Apparently, this statement was made from either a golf course or an executive jet..

Adam Smith in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, pointed out that, without government regulation, corporations will move toward monopoly. He is not quoted for this by bankers and their lackey economists, but he predicted it clearly.

The Bush administration has rubber stamped every monopolistic merger that has come along, and now that the Bush administration is coming to an end in two years, corporate monopolists are on a merger craze, trying to get them in before the Democrats get back in the White House and possibly do something to thwart this unchecked greed. Meanwhile, workers with good jobs are being fired and the nation is rapidly moving into a plutocracy - rule by the rich.

Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, saw the problem when he was elected in 1900, and moved to increase government regulation on corporations, as well as break up the most monstrous of monopolies and trusts. In contrast, the Bush administration is violating this Republican program by being a lapdog for the banks and corporations.

The Democrats need to be returned to Congress in this year’s elections and the White House in 2008 to institute the conservative Republican program of Teddy Roosevelt.

Ironic, isn’t it?

Jack Zylman
Southside, Birmingham

Regions Financial, AmSouth Bank Continue Merger Mania

Dear Mr. Bush,

I understand you.

I know you do not tolerate criticism, so this letter is written with understanding. The mid term elections are around the corner. Some retired generals are demanding Rumsfeld’s head. Predictably the Democrats have joined in and even some Republicans, afraid of loosing their seats are peeling the blinders off and flirting with disloyalty. As usual they ‘misunderestimate’ you.

They do not grasp that you cannot fire your mentors like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi Rice and the Neo-con coterie, or perhaps they do understand that it would knock off the props from what they consider to be a Manchurian Presidency. Who else can run the policies with greater vigor than the ones who instituted them in your name?

You have the courage of their convictions. You do not entertain silly, soul-searching, tortuous reasoning that comes from studying history and analyzing contexts. It saps resolve and creates anxiety. You are proud of strong single-minded leadership with confidence rooted in cultivated ignorance.

Your mentors planned getting rid of Saddam Hussein even before your election. The quick way to defeat a regional bully is to be a world-class bully. You so enjoy that role. It always works in the short run. Elections are not fought for the long-term. The long-term consequences are for the historian nannies and the future generations to handle.

People who eagerly swallowed the lies in the service of “the cause” are complaining now. You know better. Torture of prisoners, spying on Americans, deceit in the service of “the cause” is justified and should be commended. Those citing constitution do not appreciate the importance of lying as the central tenet of an effective policy.

Unfortunately you have hit a rough patch. The Congressional Republicans committing the sin of getting caught in sleazy deals and the inept cover up of the utter fiasco in response to Katrina does not help either.

People do not realize how difficult it is to attend to silly problems. They even intrude in your vacations. You are right to lay down strict rules not to be disturbed. What are the mentors for? It worked for Reagan.

You resolutely destroyed the Iraqi army and its civilian infrastructure. The best way is to start with a clean slate and build a new country to the liking of your mentors. But Iraqis are such ingrates. They not only do not appreciate it, they have the temerity to ask for a democratic system suited to their historical, ethnic and cultural needs. Time and again they have stymied the Quislings you installed.

You have stayed the course with tenacity and were able to scare the Iraqis, the Arabs and the world, but master-stroke was scaring the Americans into re-electing you. Unfortunately the Americans are also impetuous ingrates. They are not scared any more and have started questioning your policies. Even the supine news media has started asking rude questions, thus helping the enemy. Just freeze them out, except sycophants like O’ Reillys and Hannitys populating the Fox news, and please do not forget the loyalty of Judith Miller.

To keep Americans scared, it is a good time to saber rattle against Iran. Your advisors brilliantly kept Iran firmly planted as an enemy. The axis of evil gambit helped defeat the moderating influence of President Khatami’s government. With quagmire in Iraq, problems in Afghanistan, the failure in North Korea, the Iranians came through when you needed a new enemy to demonize.

The Congress foolishly blocked your efforts to develop tactical nuclear bunker buster bomb that violated the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. Threatening Iran for three years, you skillfully succeeded in strengthening their resolve to start Uranium enrichment. With your bluster you were able to convince Iranian Mullahs that the only safety for them is to have nuclear weapons. It helps in keeping Americans scared.

With the US power, the world stands in awe of your ability to ignore reality and speak with ambidextrous mouth. You have thrown the gauntlet for Iran to accept our meddling to change their democratically elected government, as in the past. In 1941 we installed the young Shah, then overthrow Mosaddeq’s democracy in 1953 and helped Saddam Hussein to wage an eight-year war on Iran, using chemical weapons in the 1980s. It is good that Americans only remember the hostage taking by Iran in 1979. It helps in brazenly threatening Iran with invasion, including nuclear attack.

The courage of your mentors’ conviction helped you invade Iraq. The same courage is helping you carry on, unmindful of the no-win situation. If Iran does not back down we loose whatever credibility is left. If we attack Iran no one in the world, except Israel would even pretend to be with us. But that is a long-term problem. It will actually be advantageous in supplying more terrorists for you and your successors to keep Americans scared for a long time. There are people calling for caution. Do not listen to them. It only weakens the resolve and saps your visceral energy.

The most important thing is to keep Americans scared and plied with well placed lies. Lofty ideals are for speeches, real politics works at the basest level. I am in awe of your simplistic courage Mr. President.

You may need to get this letter translated. Don’t bother Cheney, Rummy or Condi. Just ask any high school student.

Mirza A. Beg
mab64@yahoo.com

To the editor:

The Alabama legislature is well on the way to passing a fetal protection bill which will make it murder to kill a fetus - meaning that if a pregnant woman is killed that the killer will be charged with two murders. Unfortunately, this will not protect the fetus from being killed.

But another bill on the way to passage can protect those fetuses. This bill will protect anyone who kills someone they think is threatening them in their home or vehicle.

The answer to the weakness of the fetal protection bill will be solved if we just add the word “womb” to the “home or vehicle” clause in that bill. They we can require doctors to implant little guns in every pregnant woman so that little bugger can defend itself.

That’s the Alabama way, at least in an election year.

Rev. Jack Zylman
Southside, Birmingham

To the editor:

The newly passed anti-abortion law passed in South Dakota is grabbing headlines, as the media debate whether the newly revised Supreme Court will ratify it or not.

However, the greatest danger of the South Dakota law, which outlaws almost all abortions and reverses Roe v Wade, is as a stalking horse for the continued erosion of women’s reproductive rights.

While the movement for a rational and humane abortion policy is distracted by this battle, we may begin to see increased erosion of abortion rights by less draconian measures, but measures which gradually limit the rights of women to control their reproductive lives. These must not be ignored.

Having spent many years in the struggle for reproductive rights, I have seen the anti-abortion professionals close up and come to know some. They will be happiest just hacking at the rights of women slowly, because they will not lose their cause or their jobs. Women will suffer and the anti-abortion crowd will thrive.

Outlawing abortion will actually lose their jobs and their power. They do not really want that.

Pro-choice advocates should not be distracted from the quiet grinding away of abortion rights even during this time. Every battle, however small, must be fought and the enemies of women must be turned back.

Rev. Jack Zylman
Founder, Alabama Clergy for Choice
Southside, Birmingham, Ala.