The Good Old Days

Whatever else you can say about the Bush Administration, it's certainly true that they've brought back the Good Old Days...

First they regained that lost legacy deeply mourned, the Divine Right of the rulers to set aside any laws they choose. Then they rediscovered the glorious ability to incarcerate anyone indefinately on their own say-so. Soon they had progressed to the quaint old art of torturing those thus incarcerated. Yesterday, we learned that denouncing of heretics is making a comeback. Whatever next, you may ask?

Why, serfdom, of course. Read it and weep.

..."I cursed my fate -- not having a feeling my life was secure, knowing I could not go back, and being treated like a kind of animal," said Ajayakumar, who worked for less than $7 a day.

Working alongside Americans trying to rebuild Iraq are an estimated tens of thousands of foreign contractors without whom the reconstruction could not function. Many toil for wages that are one-tenth -- or less -- of what U.S. workers might demand, saving millions of taxpayer dollars.

...

One evening soon afterward, when they were handed a dinner of beef curry that hadn't been fully cooked, several dozen of them went to their manager, who worked for Gulf Catering, to complain. According to the workers, the man told them they would not get any more food. "We bought you," he reportedly said.

A question that needs to be asked is why are Halliburton et al importing what are essentially slaves to do the work when unemployment in Iraq approachs 80%? Oh, of course... Iraqis might object to eating spoiled food and being paid pennies by their imperial overlords.