Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Kill the Messenger

Other Presidents have lashed out at the press when it suited their purposes. Jack Kennedy famously called and cancelled his subscription to the New York Herald Tribune and was rightly chastised for it by Richard Nixon who later tried to cancel the entire New York Times for publishing the Pentagon Papers. Nixon unleashed the criminal Spiro Agnew on the press and they ended up doing a jig on his political grave. So now the Bush leaguers want to take on the New York Times with righteous indignation about the newspaper revealing yet another secret executive power grab of questionable legality. Taking on the press is fair enough, but there should be one rule. Before you start criticizing a newspaper, you must first have to read it.

The Presidents red-faced tirade about the Times revealing the government's secret sifting through Americans' private bank records, calling it a disgrace that gave aid and comfort to the enemy was transparently rehearsed. Cheney's speech was just plain eerie. Cheney must be wondering who they are going to cast in his role in the movie. Is Donald Pleasance dead? Then Anthony Hopkins it is. "Hello Clarice." What took them two days to work up sufficient rage about the story? The fact that they used the Times like they were Jeff Gannon/Gunterts for hire to plant favorable stories about their rogue schemes, then allow one of their reporters to twist slowly in the wind, and the Times has the gall to turn on them? Every day, someone, somewhere reveals another of this regime's secret dealings and it is frightening.

This photo-op, propaganda saturated administration is like a bad dream that just won't quit. Look at these guys. The speaker is Denny Hastert, the majority leader is Bumbling Bill Frist, the political guru is Karl Rove, and the President is George By-Damn Dubya Bush. They are like the Student Government at a bad community college. The only thing they are capable of doing is choosing the band to play on the Washington mall this fourth of July. I'm certain it won't be the Dixie Chicks. I'd like to see them get Toby Keith, Lee Greenwood, Hank, Jr., and Charlie Daniels too, for a grand old Texas style celebration of xenophobia and ignorance. And nobody better burn a flag, Hoss, even though that jingoistic screed went down in flames in the Senate. Here's a solution to the flag burning amendment. Pass a law that says real American flags must be made of non-flammable material. They did it for children's' pajamas. Then anytime someone burned a flag, you would know it wasn't an "official" flag.

If the carnage in Iraq continues at the current pace, we'll need all the flags we can get to fold up for our servicemen's families. The Senate Republicans scorned the Democrats as cowards and traitors for suggesting a timetable for troop withdrawal, then General Casey announces just such a plan. I'll take my troop withdrawals any way I can get them, but it seems particularly sinister to release a token group of forces from their grinding duties just in time for the fall election. How cruel it must feel to wake up in a war zone knowing that you just missed a politician's required quota of troops to go home. If Cheney turns up with Bin Laden's head on a pike in time for the next presidential election, I won't be surprised. Everything the Bush leaguers do is for political effect.

This is the result of an electorate so distracted and delusional they will elect a President according to reality television rules. Outlast, out wit, out survive. This President came to office with no real vision for the nation, he just hired his Daddy's old administration, and they had a metaphoric hard-on for Saddam Hussein. The Bush Posse seized power after being appointed by the Supreme Court, with no mandate, and proceeded to operate government according to their own narrow ideology. They believe that government functions to reward your friends and punish your enemies, like the Baathist Regime. But for them to use the worst attack ever suffered on this soil to sell the American people a bill of goods including mushroom clouds, enrichment of uranium, and biochemical weapons factories on wheels, is beyond cynical. It is evil.

I still hope for some miracle of diplomacy to bring a political solution to the Iraqi insurgency. The hard figures require a miracle to even begin to reconcile the irreparable damage that the Bush government has done in our name. Beyond the 20,000 American casualties, the journalists kidnapped and killed, the beheadings, and the other atrocities, there is one stark figure that screams out; 50,000 dead Iraqi civilians whose only crime was being born. That's going to take more diplomacy to resolve than Karen Hughes can provide. I want every cabinet officer of this administration to remain hale and healthy. I want President Shemp to mountain bike, jog, and clear some brush. He'll need all his stamina for his trial in the Senate next year. And Daddy's Boys are ripe for an appearance at a war crimes tribunal in the Hague. It would be fitting for "Old Europe" to decide what punishment befits new world liars and warmongers.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You speak as though the Democrats would be one bit better. The news is that they both suck...but I'd sooner trust Jane Fonda with the defense of this country than the hand-wringing, cowards that call themselves Democrats. I'm afraid that the situation is too far gone in this country and that terrorist attacks on our own soil will be a way of life like it is in Israel. I'll say one thing for the Jews and that is that they have balls. Screw with the Jews and they come after you. We will see the day that we will wish that we had the backbone and will to survive that Israel does. If they were as wimpy as we are they would have been wiped off the face of the earth long ago. Put the Democrats in charge of our defense and the enemies of this country will have a field day. Admittedly, the only thing that the Republicans are good at is war, but at least we have a chance at survival with them. What we need is a kick-ass (in terms of defense) Libertarian government. Freedom is what neither the Repubs or Dems offer. Either way the Gov. grows more extensive and more oppressive.

Anonymous said...

I am so ashamed of our government, not just for the war they dreamed up, but for the thousands of hard working Americans that die each year from pollution.

Our government is by the "big business" and for the "big business", the people are not represented.

If the average American ever figures out how badly they are being screwed, there will be a revolution.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous is full of it. Whenever the fascist Republicans get their nuts in a vice, they talk about how great a "Libertarian" givernment would be. They want to wax rhapsodic about this government, which will NEVER be elected in the USA. This is to draw attention from their own brand of lying, cheating and stealing.
Also, WRONG, the Republicans do not know how to wage war, but merely blunder into their own self interest, until they have to exit not by "cutting and running", oh no, they just declare victory. Remember "Mission Accomplished". Bush is a lying weasel that by any other government standard would be hiding in his own "spider hole".

Lastly, as a Jew I resent the Republican "compliment" that we know how to fight. It is like complimenting the blacks on athletic prowess or musicianship. It is a necessary survival skill for us. And the Republicans are as "anti-semitic" a bunch as lives in this anti-semitic and rascist country. The best of them "loves" the Jews because of some Revelations historical plan.

This is also a smokescreen to deflect the honest truth that Bush has pushed us into an unjust war that we can never win, which is exactly like Viet Nam. In doing this, he has bankrupted this country with debts that our granchildren will not be able to pay off. AND he did this be labeling anyone who disagreed with him a traitor or coward!! Yes, George," Arbeit Macht Frei".

The tragic thing is that otherwise good men and women have been silent to avoid this type of slander and having their lives ruined by these Gestapo tactics. HEIL W! May his war crimes trial render justice.

Anonymous said...

Dear Dave the Dog, firstly I am not a Republican. My main point is that I would not trust the Dems to defend anything. But then I don't trust the government regardless of who is running the show. They are all bogus, disgusting blowhards and power freaks. Secondly, I have high esteem for the Jews primarily because I grew up with them in my neighborhood and throughout my school years. I never understood anti-semitism...probably born of jealousy. This is painting with a broad brush, but in my experience I never met a bad one, but you could be the exception.

Anonymous said...

Finally! The way things are beginning to go now, the only 'war crimes' likely to be punished are going to be the traitorous acts of all you slimeballs.
Calling the President everything under the sun behind your safe little computer screens. Say it out in the open, anytime in the near future, and you're likely to get burned or maybe even jailed.
I hope so. I'm sick of you whiny, answerless, poor excuses for human beings. Get lost!

Anonymous said...

I wish to point out the previous nite as evidence of how successful this administration has been with its' Nixonian divide and conquer mentality. And it didn't have to be this way. On Sept.12, the American people were united with the same resolve; avenge the attacks on our country. A more enlightened leader would have built consensus, but that's not Karl Rove's style. They mean to pit people one against the other and enflame emotions with issues like gay marriage and flag burning and their silly agenda of "traditional values," to deflect attention from the Bush war machine killing innocents abroad. It's an effective strategy, because I, for one, am also sick to death of the mindless administration defenders while a parade of government lackeys go straight to jail. As for "hiding behind the computer screen," and "answerless human beings," I would refer the commenter to my posts titled "Takin' it to the Street," and "My Exit Strategy." The "commpasionate conservative" President's empathy extends to all who aren't Democrats, feminists, gay, black, foreign, liberal or outspoken. What a terrible time to have a fundamentalist regime run the nation's affairs. Or, not run them, as the case may be. The first step towards rectifying this gross abberation of freedom and democracy comes at the ballot box in November. Don't waste the opportunity.

Anonymous said...

correction: make that "I wish to point out the previous note...."

Anonymous said...

Lest we forget, the Republicans called Clinton a murderer and a rapist. Newt Gingrich personally called him a pedophile. I think warmonger and liar are accurate descriptions no one could question.

Anonymous said...

Now let me see. The country I'm supposed to be "patriotic" about, and the "democratic" country that I should be happy to go out to protect the ideals of, would be the same one that would "burn" me or "jail" me for speaking my little ole democratic mind. My, oh my, I thought that that kind of trouble making was for those Commie red bastards and those slant eyed gooks and all those other unAmerican poor attempts at being human. Why would an American ever have anything bad to say about America? Hell, if you arent' born in the good ole USA and don't do just like you're supposed to then maybe you better move on back to where you came from........
Was that you, Saddam? or was it you, Adolf? or, maybe you, Nikita? who made the comments about keeping your mouth shut, no matter what.
Certainly didn't sound like Mr. Franklin, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, or any of those other good ole boys who actually did the hard work to explain how a democracy was supposed to work. Oh, and Dwight D Eisenhower, a pretty honest performer for the cause of democracy, laid out a hard warning as he left office. He was very concerned about the Military-Industrial Complex. Now, if he were alive, and he thought that there was something unripe in paradise, do you think you'd burn and jail him if he spoke up? Well, I guess that would be pretty unpatriotic of the guy who helped win WWII. Let's burn him.

Anonymous said...

Gregg, you are a stream of consciousness artist and heir apparent of 'Deep Thoughts' author Jack Handy. You have untapped talent...please write more.