Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The Real World

And here I sit so patiently/Waiting to find out what price/You have to pay to get out of/Going through all these things twice.
Bob Dylan, "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again"

Now that everyone I see, hear, or talk to is outraged, furious, or frustrated, I would like to pose a question. Who could have imagined that electing a political novice as president, a Texas one and a half term governor who was incompetent and unprepared for the job, would have turned out so badly? I couldn't. I thought President Jethro would be a caretaker who would try to reverse the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson, at worst. When Dubya made his speech to the joint session of Congress after the attacks of 9/11, I not only thought it was a great speech, I thought it was one of the best speeches I had ever heard. But Dubya's posse had a chip on their collective shoulders from the unfinished business of Bush the Smarter in Iraq. They rolled an amiable dunce into believing he was Charlemagne. Perhaps Secretary Rumsfeld should have read Robert McNamara's book, "In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam." Does that say it plainly enough?

Most frustrating is the mirror image of the war in Iraq with the war in Vietnam. Out of the whole bunch, only Colin Powell seemed sobered by that war and learned its painful lessons. The tag-team of Rummy/Cheney came aboard during the Ford administration after the war had ended. President Jethro was partying hardy and the neocons who participated in planning their war fantasy in Iraq never got a whiff of gunpowder. Neither did a lot of people who's lives were torn asunder by arrogant politicians who refused to admit their errors. But this regime never participated in the protests but, rather, had contempt for the protesters who they felt aided the enemy. History has disproven this lie as history will reveal the current lies. The people who are now shouting the loudest about accountability for the warmongerers are those same people who helped drag the Vietnam War to its inevitable conclusion through outrage and protest. They are attempting to keep up the pressure to end our presence in Iraq quickly, before the body count is to ghastly to conceive. The rage is the result of most 60s protesters believing they would never have had to experience such a tragedy again.

But the Vietraq comparisons will be the same at the end as they were at the beginning. Here is how I know. The turning point in the Nixon administration's intransigence began when the soldiers who fought came home and founded the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and marched on Washington. That was John Kerry's finest hour, unfortunately. Two weeks ago in New York there was a protest march attended by 300,000 people and it was led by soldiers disillusioned by their tour of duty in Iraq. You would think a third of a million people in the street would be banner headlines and leading news stories on the networks, but the corporate press was too busy covering the phony "crisis" in illegal immigration. This Rovian scheme to make illegals into felons even fooled the immigrants. Their turnout for amnesty was the result of the fear of being criminalized for existing, but it overshadowed the war protests.

Unprecedented, however, is this revolt of the retired generals and the mutiny at the CIA over the very real possibility that the Bush regime is going to bomb Iran. A great many people feel we have a score to settle with Iran over the humiliation of the hostage crisis during the Carter administration. Most don't know that in 1953, the CIA and the British Secret Service arranged and executed a coup to overthrow the democratically elected President of Iran, Dr. Mohammed Mossadeq, because he would not allow foreign interference in Iran's oil industry. Instead, our government re-instated the Shah, who's brutal secret police terrorized the citizenry until the Iranian revolution of the 1970s. Our government created the environment for the mullahs who now rule Iran to come into power. These are the unlearned lessons of intervention and intrigue. Was that those chickens I heard coming home to roost? I just hope we can impeach President Jethro before he starts World War III.

On this, the cusp of Karl Rove's indictment for perjury, and the eve of a breaking corruption scandal that will make Watergate look like Travelgate, it's good to reflect on the abuses of power that led to Richard Nixon's impeachment. No leader since Nixon has been more deserving of impeachment than President Jethro, maybe since Andrew Johnson, who botched Reconstruction. This President, however, if impeached and put on trial in the Senate will not only be removed from office, he will be sent to jail or The Hague, along with his fellow travelers who have caused so much misery and instability in the world.

We cannot afford to allow another three years to pass without holding the offenders accountable. The hapless and spineless Democrats are no lead pipe cinch to win back the House because they are busy pandering to the cult of personality that elected Bush. The only politician other than Russ Feingold who has been consistently anti-war and vocal in his denouncement of this cynical cabal has been Al Gore. If one potential freshman Congressman or Senator would run for office on the promise of initiating real investigations with subpoena power into this regime's deceptions, that would be sufficient reason to vote for them. The only political progressive with those kind of guts plays a funny conservative on TV with the courage to risk public condemnation in order to tell the truth.

Mealymouth Republican candidate for president George Allen of Virginia recently said, "We need people like Tony Snow, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh to speak out. They know what's going on in the real world." That is akin to the Democrats urging Courtney Love to be more outspoken. While Limbaugh was swimming in a sea of Oxycontin, in the real world a local home moving business has to drastically raise prices to put gas in their trucks. In the real world, a round trip from Memphis to Nashville in an SUV costs nearly as much as an airline ticket. In the real world, if you own stock in Exxon you're doing fine, but if you need Exxon to get to work, you're in trouble. And ultimately, in the real world, this president is not "The Decider," you are! It is past time that we should remember that.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

No one posts a comment because it's futile. It's the same whimpering over and over, about how bad and stupid Bush is. We know you will never get over loosing the election or the majority. So blabber on and 'your kind' will listen, gladly, to hear someone make the nonsense that you make so well.

Anonymous said...

We need a third party. The Dems/Repubs are Tweedle-Dee, Tweedle-Dum. I am currently taking a look at the Libertarians or perhaps, the Greens...maybe a Libertarian/Green fusion.You can make as good a case against the Dems...they are all BOGUS. In the end, there may not be a political solution to the country's problems. We just may be too lame as a people to sustain a viable civilization...this country may die on the vine.Who was it that said that death is nature's way of saying that something is wrong?

Anonymous said...

It amazes me that I can continue to be shocked by the blind ignorance as exemplified by "anonymous" who made their brilliant comment at 7:47am. This is all about loooosing the election? No, this is all about the time I skinned my knee and then some snot had just come out of my nose and then when I tried to wipe the snot off so that my teacher wouldn't see it I accidentally kicked Janice Leviton's desk and the pencil that her mother had given her fell off and that's when I saw and then everyone else saw that Janice had peed herself something fierce. That's what's this is all about, Mr. Anonymous. Didn't you know that? Man, you are an idiot! -------What the hell do I care about somebody else's two year old getting blown to smithereens by some bomb that I paid for by sending a check in to my Treasury Dept on April 15th believeing that my government, you know that government that gets its instructions right from God himself, wouldn't go out and kill some other person's two year old. I mean, it wasn't my kid. The hell with everybody else's kids. You know those Eyerackies don't even speak Ehnglish.
----------Stay anonymous Mr. Anonymous. I don't want to have a face or name in my mind when I think of you. I already have a picture of a sheep with stupid looking eyes with a bottle of gin being poured down its throat by Karl Rove who is smiling into the camera in a frame over my bed. Boy that sheep looks the kind that would steal his sister's Bible and sell it for a few extra Percocet.

Anonymous said...

The 'crisis' of illegal immigration is real. I'm not saying that as a zenophobe, but as a practical matter. The problem is not immigration...it is rampant, unorganized immigration. Any country has an optimal absorption rate that will allow for assimilation. Think of your family of 5 in a lifeboat that will accomodate 12 in an ocean of drowning people. Your kind intentions won't mean much if everyone drowns. If immigrants aren't properly assimilated, the country will be (further) balkanized, and we will be reduced to a nation of warring factions. The blacks are already beginning to get concerned about their interests being infringed upon by the countless millions of Hispanics streaming, uncontrolled into the country. And the problem is just beginning...wait and see. There will be some very interesting political/societal issues arising in the coming years. America will eventually become a third world, chaotic nation...much like Mexico or Africa. We are a nation of immigrants, but today's situation is different from when the nation was being settled. This is not racism. It's called reality...the way things work in the real world. Liberals are well-meaning, but they have never understood that the name of the game in the real world is hard ball. We forget that at our own peril.

Anonymous said...

I too do not conflate illegal immigration with the cause of ending this bad war. Illegal immigrants are already misdemeanants; they have committed a crime against the United States.

I don't use the euphemism "progressive" in place of "liberal," although I see its value in blunting kneejerk responses by lifestyle conservatives who, when joined with the scared public who thought Iraq was a smart target, have proven a disgustingly durable bloc in the American politic.

I joined the Libertarian Party decades ago because it was the only national party who opposed prohibition of euphoriants. Decades later, nothing has changed; and I had to consider the hippie movement as a vanguard with some ideological leadership and a lot of fellow travelers whom time has since changed.

Anonymous said...

Now that you mention it, a political prisoner that is seldom mentioned is pot...the most harmless of the recreational euphoriants. Much less lethal than either tobacco or alcohol. Alcohol was dubbed the sanctioned inebriant because it promotes mindlessness and pig-headed aggression and other such traits that the corporate world finds unthreatening. Pot on the other hand promotes passivity and introspection and is seen as anti-thetical to the mentality of the 'suits'. This is one of many reasons why the Libertarians should be running things. The Dems/Repubs would try to regulate how many times you can shake your peter after peeing if they could.

Anonymous said...

Hey Gregg, do you have enough of that stuff you've been smoking to sell me a lid? Judging from your statement, it must be some really powerful weed...hallucinogenic even.

Anonymous said...

P.S. What happened to my coat hanger story?

Anonymous said...

I keep hoping to encounter a conservative who can explain logically why he hasn't yet peeled the "W" sticker off the back of his Suburban, as he fills it with $3 gas. Instead, I only see the lame but noisy types like "Anonymous" (at 7:47, 11:41 and 11:59), so enamored of Rush Limbaugh's style, that he has completely abandoned reasoned discourse in favor of personal attacks and name-calling.

People like this are not out to win converts for a philosophy that is understandable and meritorious. Their goal is merely to keep a majority of registered voters cowed and towing a badly frayed line. Most folks do not have the fortitude to speak out against an injustice or flawed political course, if the response will be a loud and vitriolic insult. It's too much like elementary school.

So Anon--go back to the comfy red chair and shout at the MoonGod Monkeys. You're probably missing a juicy, juvenile smackdown on Fox News.

(The moderator judiciously removed an obnoxious personal slur posted by Anonymous earlier in the day against another contributor--one who was bold enough to post under his real name.)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Keep it klean, kids.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Randy, I didn't mean to be offensive. I have a bizarre sense of humor and in certain ways I still live in the free-wheeling, no-holds-barred 60's/70's. I am still adjusting to the present day culture which is sort of like the 50's and early 60's. I wasn't lampooning the guy's political statement...I really thought he was high and the comment was more of a 'wish I was there' kind of thing. And the coat hanger story was true. I thought it was funny. I guess I need to develop a more acute sense of propriety. I'll be more sane and subdued in the future.

Anonymous said...

Hi Randy. Is that you? Pretty good blog. What did you think of tonight's results?

Cliff Karchmer
ckarchmer@verizon.net

Anonymous said...

My name is Kurt Fischer and i would like to show you my personal experience with Oxycontin.

I have taken for 2 years. I am 27 years old. I took percecet 10 mg 4 times a day and they helped but gave me massive mindgrains so I switched to oxycotin which I think is a better long term drug. Oxycontin doesnt have a coming down experience you stay feeling good the whole day. The only bad thing about it is getting off it, I just resestly got off it 3 days ago and had very bad withdrawl symptoms even with help of a "junkie" medication.

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Kurt Fischer