Watching Bush's foreign travels to escape his woes is so reminiscent of Nixon's South American adventure in 1958 when he was Vice President. It was there that many of us saw an official of the U.S. government spat at and jeered for the first time. Hearing Bush proclaim "We don't torture," while in Argentina was eerily like hearing Nixon say "I am not a crook." We do, in fact, torture, and Nixon was a crook.
This government seems to be morphing into the Nixon administration a little more every day. What with their secret plans to end the war while indictments loom like thunder clouds over major cabinet officials. When this is all over, the only one left standing may well be Bush and that is only because Rove, Cheney, and Rumsfeld kept him out of the loop for plausible deniability's sake. When John Dean wrote a book called "Worse Than Watergate," many of us thought it to be merely hyperbole and not understatement.
At least in the darkest days of Watergate, Nixon could escape to China and Russia because he made significant foreign policy breakthroughs in those nations. Bush has no such foreign policy successes, and so if the crowd is not hand picked or screened, he cannot go anywhere in the world without violent demonstrations following him. Even the old Nixon trick of saying criticism of the war is hurting our troops was dusted off by the actual president, "Dirty" Dick Cheney. But there was no silent majority to arouse this time and he was speaking to the ever dwindling choir.
It was considerate of Bush to go to China to visit our money but it was a bad idea to insult them before he went. China is the country holding the note on our bloated budget deficits and is a rising superpower that we will be struggling with in the coming years, not only over commerce, but for the diminished supply of oil left in the Earth. It was a quarrel over iron and steel that fueled our dispute with the Japanese in the 30s. If this government will invade a sovereign country in the middle east for cheap gas, is there any doubt that we will use similar force against any nation that would keep us from it now? Bush did everything wrong in China except throw up in the Premier's lap. He has lost the moral authority to lecture other nations about religion and human rights while he is attempting to make theology into law at home and threatening his first presidential veto against a bill that would prohibit torture by the U.S., at home and abroad, that was drawn by Senator McCain.
What I have not yet discovered is, if Bush achieved the main objective of his Asian vacation. Three weeks before the President's Asian trip, Secretary Rumsfeld visited Mongolia and was given the gift of a pure bred Mongolian horse. What other reason would Bush have for going there other than to pick up his horsie? This administration is all about the perks of power. Why risk looking like a moron standing there trying to open locked doors if there wasn't a little something in it for your trouble? Forget the cover-up over the CIA leak case; I want to know if the President got his pony.
Of course, upon return from his arduous journeys in the East it was vacation time once again, war protesters be damned. In case we need a reminder, New Orleans drowned because the Bush administration was on vacation. While Bush was away, there was a little dust-up in the House of Representatives with a distinguished war veteran calling for the return of American troops from Iraq and a dim bulb congresswoman only Nixon could love inferring that he was a "coward" for a suggestion so seditious.
It was the attempt at image manipulation, false propaganda, and dirty trickery that finally did in the Nixon administration and it appears that the same tactics will do in the Bush regime. In this case the "Boy Genius" Rove's cleverness didn't transfer well into adulthood. He was President of the Young College Republicans in 1972 and was one of the indoctrinees wearing a straw boater and lustily cheering for "four more years" at the Nixon convention of that same year. Rove was around to watch Donald Segretti go to jail for his dirty tricks and he was both a peer and disciple of Lee Atwater, the creator of the Willie Horton ad campaign for the Senior Bush. Nixon did not last a year into his second term and the Atwater ads are a benchmark in divisive politics. Rove's flaw was believing he was invincible and would never be caught with his fingerprints on any illegal activity.
We will all wait and see what transpires. Meanwhile, that iceberg in the distance is coming closer with the words "Special Prosecutor" on it and Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are steering the ship of state right into it. Then all the indictments, resignations, and Senate Investigations that go along with such a disaster will transpire. Perhaps then we may get some answers from the most secretive government since Nixon's. John Dean is right. This will make Watergate look like a curious antiquity of another age. Nixon resigned before facing trial in the Senate. This time, nearly the entire cabinet and their advisors are culpable in the fabrications concocted to mislead and falsely persuade the American public. The people will not be continually lied to about the condition of their society, and sooner or later they will rise in indignation and hold the liars accountable. Too bad the indignation did not come in time to prevent Bush from winning a second term. But like Nixon, he may have used his last trick to get re-elected. And like Nixon, he may face an early exit from office. That is why I encourage all informed citizens to appeal to Congress to IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST. We have enough liars and war profiteers this time around to fill Bush's remaining three years with plea bargains and sentencing recommendations.
With all the professional pundits and former loyalists from his own party turning against the President, it is almost unsporting for a lay journalist to take a whack at him. But never forget that it was G.W. Bush that said, "Bring 'em on!"
This government seems to be morphing into the Nixon administration a little more every day. What with their secret plans to end the war while indictments loom like thunder clouds over major cabinet officials. When this is all over, the only one left standing may well be Bush and that is only because Rove, Cheney, and Rumsfeld kept him out of the loop for plausible deniability's sake. When John Dean wrote a book called "Worse Than Watergate," many of us thought it to be merely hyperbole and not understatement.
At least in the darkest days of Watergate, Nixon could escape to China and Russia because he made significant foreign policy breakthroughs in those nations. Bush has no such foreign policy successes, and so if the crowd is not hand picked or screened, he cannot go anywhere in the world without violent demonstrations following him. Even the old Nixon trick of saying criticism of the war is hurting our troops was dusted off by the actual president, "Dirty" Dick Cheney. But there was no silent majority to arouse this time and he was speaking to the ever dwindling choir.
It was considerate of Bush to go to China to visit our money but it was a bad idea to insult them before he went. China is the country holding the note on our bloated budget deficits and is a rising superpower that we will be struggling with in the coming years, not only over commerce, but for the diminished supply of oil left in the Earth. It was a quarrel over iron and steel that fueled our dispute with the Japanese in the 30s. If this government will invade a sovereign country in the middle east for cheap gas, is there any doubt that we will use similar force against any nation that would keep us from it now? Bush did everything wrong in China except throw up in the Premier's lap. He has lost the moral authority to lecture other nations about religion and human rights while he is attempting to make theology into law at home and threatening his first presidential veto against a bill that would prohibit torture by the U.S., at home and abroad, that was drawn by Senator McCain.
What I have not yet discovered is, if Bush achieved the main objective of his Asian vacation. Three weeks before the President's Asian trip, Secretary Rumsfeld visited Mongolia and was given the gift of a pure bred Mongolian horse. What other reason would Bush have for going there other than to pick up his horsie? This administration is all about the perks of power. Why risk looking like a moron standing there trying to open locked doors if there wasn't a little something in it for your trouble? Forget the cover-up over the CIA leak case; I want to know if the President got his pony.
Of course, upon return from his arduous journeys in the East it was vacation time once again, war protesters be damned. In case we need a reminder, New Orleans drowned because the Bush administration was on vacation. While Bush was away, there was a little dust-up in the House of Representatives with a distinguished war veteran calling for the return of American troops from Iraq and a dim bulb congresswoman only Nixon could love inferring that he was a "coward" for a suggestion so seditious.
It was the attempt at image manipulation, false propaganda, and dirty trickery that finally did in the Nixon administration and it appears that the same tactics will do in the Bush regime. In this case the "Boy Genius" Rove's cleverness didn't transfer well into adulthood. He was President of the Young College Republicans in 1972 and was one of the indoctrinees wearing a straw boater and lustily cheering for "four more years" at the Nixon convention of that same year. Rove was around to watch Donald Segretti go to jail for his dirty tricks and he was both a peer and disciple of Lee Atwater, the creator of the Willie Horton ad campaign for the Senior Bush. Nixon did not last a year into his second term and the Atwater ads are a benchmark in divisive politics. Rove's flaw was believing he was invincible and would never be caught with his fingerprints on any illegal activity.
We will all wait and see what transpires. Meanwhile, that iceberg in the distance is coming closer with the words "Special Prosecutor" on it and Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are steering the ship of state right into it. Then all the indictments, resignations, and Senate Investigations that go along with such a disaster will transpire. Perhaps then we may get some answers from the most secretive government since Nixon's. John Dean is right. This will make Watergate look like a curious antiquity of another age. Nixon resigned before facing trial in the Senate. This time, nearly the entire cabinet and their advisors are culpable in the fabrications concocted to mislead and falsely persuade the American public. The people will not be continually lied to about the condition of their society, and sooner or later they will rise in indignation and hold the liars accountable. Too bad the indignation did not come in time to prevent Bush from winning a second term. But like Nixon, he may have used his last trick to get re-elected. And like Nixon, he may face an early exit from office. That is why I encourage all informed citizens to appeal to Congress to IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST. We have enough liars and war profiteers this time around to fill Bush's remaining three years with plea bargains and sentencing recommendations.
With all the professional pundits and former loyalists from his own party turning against the President, it is almost unsporting for a lay journalist to take a whack at him. But never forget that it was G.W. Bush that said, "Bring 'em on!"
2 comments:
Good stuff, man. I am in agreement with you. Cheney needs to be relegated to the same fate as Spiro Agnew.
Joel Williams
Screw impeaching Cheney. I will not be satisfied until his "head" is on my PIKE! Cheney, Rove and Bush are the true "traitors" of this beloved country and they deserve a traitor's fate. Death by Torture!!
Rock on!
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