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GOP
Hypocrisy and America's Refusal to Think
Jim Booth
08.16.03, 8:46 am |
In a recent Washington Post piece, EJ Dionne uncorked
a
must-read rant on the hypocrisy of the American Republican,
circa 2003. This fantastic exercise in holding the
GOP power elite accountable to its own standards touched
off an agitated reflection by Pit contributor Jim Booth.
Every
American adult who can read (no, wait, that number's too
small) should be made to read this.
Maybe
this should be read to every American via television.
No,
maybe this should be acted out by sock puppets as a reality
show called Political Survivor.
Do
I sound bitter about American recalcitrance at actually
thinking about the fact:
- that
Bush's international policies have ruined American credibility
internationally;
- that
his vice-president's oil industry cronies are manipulating
the price of oil and have been for at least the last
five years, as the International Energy Agency has "misunderestimated"
energy use and enriched OPEC (and the oil companies)
as a result;
- that
neocon rabid dog attacks on the media have reduced media
scrutiny of facist tactics by the Federalist Nationalist
Party (formerly know as the Republicans) to simpering
fawning;
- that
the Green (aka the "we can't eat carrots
cause it might hurt their feelings") Party will
again be bullied into nominating self-serving stock
maven and self-promoter (the Martha Stewart of social
justice) Ralph (I killed the Corvair, I can do the same
to America) Nader as a spoiler candidate and ensure
that Dubya is elected Dictator-for-Life in 2004;
- that
more bytes are taken up with info on J-Lo and Ben's
reaction to the failure of Gigli than to the
outlaw realignment of Texas congressional districts
to serve the political egotism of Tom (call me Hermann
Goering – no, wait Goering was a war hero) DeLay;
- that
the only candidate the Democrats have that anyone can
consider respecting is Howard ("Hey, I'm Josiah
Bartlett – sort of") Dean – and he's Eugene McCarthy
2: the Sequel.
:comments?
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God
Bless Our Troops – So Long As It Doesn't Cost
Too Much
Jim Booth
08.16.03, 9:04 am |
Then
there’s the Rumsfeld Pentagon’s neglect of American
troops, as ruminated upon by Paul Krugman in "Thanks
for the M.R.E.'s."
This
isn't really about the military at all - the military
is only one of its victims. It's really about the looting
of America by a bunch of corporate crooks whose mindsets
are the same as those at Enron, World Com, Tyco, or any
of the other companies that have chosen to believe that
theft, graft, and scamming are good business practices.
Does the name Qwest ring a bell for any readers? Pillowtex?
I
don't believe it's about fear – these bastards are fearless.
It's about a 50 year-old s.o.b. in a corner, air-conditioned
corporate office in the US making decisions about how
much water a 19 year-old kid in the 120° Iraqi desert
needs to survive.
Reminds
me of that commercial about the corporate honcho who saves
his import company a million or so by reducing the number
of olives in each jar they sell by one.
If
you reduce the number of bottles of water a soldier wearing
60 pounds of kevlar and weapons in that aforementioned
Iraqi heat can have to drink, you can save even more
than the one olive would achieve. And add it to your own
bonus.
It's
bad enough that our troops are being killed by the people
they "liberated" – that can at least partly
be explained by confused loyalties to Saddam, to jihad,
etc.
But
killing our folks to increase profit margins – that gives
Coolidge's famous edict that "the business of America
is business" a whole new twist.
:comments?
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The
Best Democracy Money Can Steal
Jim Booth
08.16.03, 9:12 am |
Greg
Palast’s The Best Democracy Money Can Buy is
a thorough postmortem on Dubya’s theft of the 2000 election,
and the first chapter has now been serialized
on the Web.
I
read this yesterday. More and more it looks like the
Bushites are taking pages from the National Socialist
playbook. Disenfranchisement of a race is only one step
from outlawing them.
I
keep thinking, too, of the reaction that was widely reported
the night of the 2000 election. Dubya was at dinner with
his dad when brought the news that Florida had gone to
Gore. His reaction was reported as angry, not disappointed.
His shock as reported seemed that of a guy who knew the
fix was in and was about to start making heads roll when
the fix didn't turn out.
I
heard Gore's speech on the local C-SPAN radio outlet on
my way down to NC last Thursday night. I thought he was
floating a "draft me if you want to win" balloon.
As I listened, I thought, "If you'd gone after that
little jerk like this during the 2000 election, and stood
up for the good you and Clinton did while plainly acknowledging
BC's faults, you'd have won going away." Let's hope
he learned that statesmanship can't be used with thugs.
If
I were advising Gore, I'd be after him every minute of
every day to use the info on how they rigged the Tennessee
election that's mentioned in Greg Palast's book. I'd be
suggesting he go after Dubya and Jeb with all the wrath
of a man cheated of his birthright. I'd advise he get
Biblical on their fascist asses.
Well,
so much for this election. Now if I can get that pretty-boy
schmuck Edwards to go home, shut up, and do something
for the voters of his home state, I'll have done my duty
for the electorate of both NC and the US of A. Then if
Al wants him for veep, so be it.
s
Coolidge's famous edict that "the business of America
is business" a whole new twist.
:comments?
