Back to work/ the morning edit
Well, it's been a while since I've posted on this blog. I've been busy with life and all that and things have slid a bit to the wayside.
But while I've been away, the Bushies have been hard at work providing me with much fodder; so much that I'm not sure where to begin. And just to show how much things have changed, I now find that there's a majority on the Lunatic Right who agree with me that Bush needs to go. I don't know how I feel about that. It's like the old Groucho Marx quote about not wanting to belong to any country club that would accept the likes of him. I mean, what's next- having my pic splashed across the tabloids of me in a liplock with Kennedy the former MTV trollop turned GOP strumpet?
No thanks- I'll have the soup.
But.... good goddamn. The level and depth of incompetence and weasely venality is truly stunning. I was discussing this with an acquaintance and whenever there has been a decision to be made by the Administration, it has almost always been wrong. Now I can understand being wrong once in a while- that's human. But to be wrong on such a consistent basis for almost 6 years?? Unbelievable.
What threw things into very stark relief for me was thinking back to 9/11. I happened to be on YouTube and a link to a 9/11 video was there so I clicked on it and for the next 10 minutes relived the horror of that day. I was awoken that fateful morning by a phone call telling me to put on the news. I turned on the tv to see smoke pouring out of one of the twin towers. My first thought was that it was a fire. But then the second plane zoomed into the frame and slammed into the other tower and that was when I lost my shit.
Like most other Americans I was beyond horrified to the point that when I initially saw the tape of Bush being told of the attack, I was willing to give him a free pass on sitting there with that 'deer caught in the headlights' look that he gets.
As the days passed we learned what had happened and I found myself feeling patriotic. The sight of Congress rising as one to sing 'God Bless America' stirred something deep inside me and as much as I did not like Bush, he was the president and at a time when we are under attack (such as we were), it was time to put aside partisan differences and stand together.
And stand we did as we sent troops into Afghanistan on a mission to wipe out the Al Qaeda training camps and to kill Osama Bin Ladin. Al Qaeda wanted war, well, we would give them war and hunt them to the ends of the earth and make them pay for what they had done.
If only Bush had stuck to that.
Instead, he and his advisors caved in to some deep dark impulse to use the excuse of Al Qaeda to settle an old score with Saddam Hussein. Evidence was fudged, intelligence reports slanted, and phony pretenses foisted not just upon the American people, but upon the world. General Colin Powell, probably one of the most respected people in America, was sent before the United Nations and presented a case that unbeknownst to him, was full of lies and deceit. This honorable warrior and politician was heinously tossed under the bus by craven and cowardly politicians. When the truth came out, it tarnished his name and reputation, all to whore forth the lies that Hussein was behind 9/11 and that Hussein also had WMDs.
The French saw this for what it was and they openly mocked the US and they were dead fucking on. And the Germans and Russians refused to play along in the charade as well.
But Bush went forward. The political capital and good-will paid for with the blood of over 3100 dead Americans was cashed in to pay for both a personal vendetta and war spoils for Haliburton. Onward the US blundered into Iraq, ignoring calls for more diplomacy and continued containment of a renegade regime that thus far had worked. Still we were lied to about WMDs, with Condee Rice warning that the smoking gun could well be a mushroom cloud.
All we were told about Iraq was a lie. There was no Al Qaeda there- at least not until we turned Iraq into a free-fire zone and bandit country. Nor were there the promised cheering throngs tossing rose petals at the feet of our advancing soldiers. And no, mission was not accomplished 3 years 2400 dead servicepeople and $300+ billion ago.
Then we had Katrina. While New Orleans drowned, Bush strummed. His head guy had no fucking clue when anyone who was watching the news- even the dreck disguised as news on Fox- knew people were dying at the Convention Center. When push came to shove, Bush failed and failed miserably.
And like with Iraq and with his National Guard record, he just couldn't bring himself to tell the truth. He said he wasn't informed, but then a tape of the video conference with a man looking very much like him sitting in a room being fed information surfaced.
And now, mother of Christ, we have this merry band of intrepid fuckups about to get us involved in yet another war, this time with Iran. I saw this coming and may have even commented upon it back when he gave the State of the Union. We heard him use the same phrases about Iran that he used with Iraq- that they were seeking to develop nuclear weapons and that they were playing footsie with Al Qaeda. And since that speech we've had them steadily pounding the drum.
But then we had a remarkable thing happen. The president of Iran sent a letter to President Bush seeking to open a dialog on a number of fronts. Now the US and Iran have not had any official communications since the hostage crisis of 1979-80. Just the fact that they contacted the US is amazing. But rather than look upon this as an opportunity, the usually brilliant Condee Rice essentially told them, in bureacratees, to eat shit and howl at the moon.
Why? Who the hell knows? But the damage has now been done. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in terms of Iranian politicians is a moderate, stuck his neck out on this. Rice's reply confirmed the suspicions of every hard-liner and religious nutjob in Iran that the US has no interest in diplomacy and wants to wage yet more war against a Muslim country.
And yet again, the Bushies have been successfully played for a bunch of bloodthirsty stupid ignorant chumps. First they fell into the trap of fulfilling Bin Ladin's crazed ramblings that it was the goal of the US to invade and occupy an oil-rich Muslim country, and now it is this.
As further proof that the Bushies lack a sense of irony, I just want to note that back when Reagan committed his treason by engineering a back-room deal with the Ayatollah Khomeini while Jimmy Carter was still president, as part of this treasonous sucking-up Reagan had his minions deliver a birthday cake and a Holy Bible (which as we all know every Ayatollah needs) with a personalized inscription. So now we have an Iranian sending a US president a letter chock full o' Christiany goodness. I know I'm laughing about this and god knows we all need a laugh to keep from going insane.
Maybe we should just give up and admit that we are truly a nation of cocksucking ignorant chickenfucking assholes. We're so goddamn stupid that we can't even see when others are laughing at us and not with us. We stand here tilting at windmills and rushing off against manufactured enemies while in the meantime, every other developed nation is quietly preparing to clean our clock and relegate us to the status of slave state.
Shit, just keep us fed on a diet of bullshit, vapid celebrity, and manufactured "reality" tv and we'll be happy. Never mind that our kids can't find their asses with both hands and cannot locate on a map most of the states in the country. Just keep tossing us the latest Paris Hilton news and we'll be good little slaves. People can tell you more names of the cast of "Survivor" than amendments that make up the Bill of Rights.
I feel a lot like Hunter Thompson felt when he was talking about the end of the 60s and the beginning of the age of Nixon. We had our own renaissance with the 90s under Clinton. But then Bush came in and now we are a shattered and disgraced shell of a nation and so widely loathed that many foreigners not only have lost sympathy for us because of 9/11 but believe the US deserved it.
But again, nobody gives a rat's ass. We'll just yell mindless slogans like "Git 'er done" and send in more poor young bastards to die for yet more lies in Iran.
Our only hope is that people are finally starting to wake up. It's a dream that I hang onto, just because the alternative is too damn depressing. Yet the rational side of me sees the writing on the wall and it scares the hell out of me.
And that, dear reader, is what I take to bed with me on this cold rainy miserable New England night.
Tags: Bush Iran letter failure Iraq Reagan cake ayatollah treason
But while I've been away, the Bushies have been hard at work providing me with much fodder; so much that I'm not sure where to begin. And just to show how much things have changed, I now find that there's a majority on the Lunatic Right who agree with me that Bush needs to go. I don't know how I feel about that. It's like the old Groucho Marx quote about not wanting to belong to any country club that would accept the likes of him. I mean, what's next- having my pic splashed across the tabloids of me in a liplock with Kennedy the former MTV trollop turned GOP strumpet?
No thanks- I'll have the soup.
But.... good goddamn. The level and depth of incompetence and weasely venality is truly stunning. I was discussing this with an acquaintance and whenever there has been a decision to be made by the Administration, it has almost always been wrong. Now I can understand being wrong once in a while- that's human. But to be wrong on such a consistent basis for almost 6 years?? Unbelievable.
What threw things into very stark relief for me was thinking back to 9/11. I happened to be on YouTube and a link to a 9/11 video was there so I clicked on it and for the next 10 minutes relived the horror of that day. I was awoken that fateful morning by a phone call telling me to put on the news. I turned on the tv to see smoke pouring out of one of the twin towers. My first thought was that it was a fire. But then the second plane zoomed into the frame and slammed into the other tower and that was when I lost my shit.
Like most other Americans I was beyond horrified to the point that when I initially saw the tape of Bush being told of the attack, I was willing to give him a free pass on sitting there with that 'deer caught in the headlights' look that he gets.
As the days passed we learned what had happened and I found myself feeling patriotic. The sight of Congress rising as one to sing 'God Bless America' stirred something deep inside me and as much as I did not like Bush, he was the president and at a time when we are under attack (such as we were), it was time to put aside partisan differences and stand together.
And stand we did as we sent troops into Afghanistan on a mission to wipe out the Al Qaeda training camps and to kill Osama Bin Ladin. Al Qaeda wanted war, well, we would give them war and hunt them to the ends of the earth and make them pay for what they had done.
If only Bush had stuck to that.
Instead, he and his advisors caved in to some deep dark impulse to use the excuse of Al Qaeda to settle an old score with Saddam Hussein. Evidence was fudged, intelligence reports slanted, and phony pretenses foisted not just upon the American people, but upon the world. General Colin Powell, probably one of the most respected people in America, was sent before the United Nations and presented a case that unbeknownst to him, was full of lies and deceit. This honorable warrior and politician was heinously tossed under the bus by craven and cowardly politicians. When the truth came out, it tarnished his name and reputation, all to whore forth the lies that Hussein was behind 9/11 and that Hussein also had WMDs.
The French saw this for what it was and they openly mocked the US and they were dead fucking on. And the Germans and Russians refused to play along in the charade as well.
But Bush went forward. The political capital and good-will paid for with the blood of over 3100 dead Americans was cashed in to pay for both a personal vendetta and war spoils for Haliburton. Onward the US blundered into Iraq, ignoring calls for more diplomacy and continued containment of a renegade regime that thus far had worked. Still we were lied to about WMDs, with Condee Rice warning that the smoking gun could well be a mushroom cloud.
All we were told about Iraq was a lie. There was no Al Qaeda there- at least not until we turned Iraq into a free-fire zone and bandit country. Nor were there the promised cheering throngs tossing rose petals at the feet of our advancing soldiers. And no, mission was not accomplished 3 years 2400 dead servicepeople and $300+ billion ago.
Then we had Katrina. While New Orleans drowned, Bush strummed. His head guy had no fucking clue when anyone who was watching the news- even the dreck disguised as news on Fox- knew people were dying at the Convention Center. When push came to shove, Bush failed and failed miserably.
And like with Iraq and with his National Guard record, he just couldn't bring himself to tell the truth. He said he wasn't informed, but then a tape of the video conference with a man looking very much like him sitting in a room being fed information surfaced.
And now, mother of Christ, we have this merry band of intrepid fuckups about to get us involved in yet another war, this time with Iran. I saw this coming and may have even commented upon it back when he gave the State of the Union. We heard him use the same phrases about Iran that he used with Iraq- that they were seeking to develop nuclear weapons and that they were playing footsie with Al Qaeda. And since that speech we've had them steadily pounding the drum.
But then we had a remarkable thing happen. The president of Iran sent a letter to President Bush seeking to open a dialog on a number of fronts. Now the US and Iran have not had any official communications since the hostage crisis of 1979-80. Just the fact that they contacted the US is amazing. But rather than look upon this as an opportunity, the usually brilliant Condee Rice essentially told them, in bureacratees, to eat shit and howl at the moon.
Why? Who the hell knows? But the damage has now been done. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who in terms of Iranian politicians is a moderate, stuck his neck out on this. Rice's reply confirmed the suspicions of every hard-liner and religious nutjob in Iran that the US has no interest in diplomacy and wants to wage yet more war against a Muslim country.
And yet again, the Bushies have been successfully played for a bunch of bloodthirsty stupid ignorant chumps. First they fell into the trap of fulfilling Bin Ladin's crazed ramblings that it was the goal of the US to invade and occupy an oil-rich Muslim country, and now it is this.
As further proof that the Bushies lack a sense of irony, I just want to note that back when Reagan committed his treason by engineering a back-room deal with the Ayatollah Khomeini while Jimmy Carter was still president, as part of this treasonous sucking-up Reagan had his minions deliver a birthday cake and a Holy Bible (which as we all know every Ayatollah needs) with a personalized inscription. So now we have an Iranian sending a US president a letter chock full o' Christiany goodness. I know I'm laughing about this and god knows we all need a laugh to keep from going insane.
Maybe we should just give up and admit that we are truly a nation of cocksucking ignorant chickenfucking assholes. We're so goddamn stupid that we can't even see when others are laughing at us and not with us. We stand here tilting at windmills and rushing off against manufactured enemies while in the meantime, every other developed nation is quietly preparing to clean our clock and relegate us to the status of slave state.
Shit, just keep us fed on a diet of bullshit, vapid celebrity, and manufactured "reality" tv and we'll be happy. Never mind that our kids can't find their asses with both hands and cannot locate on a map most of the states in the country. Just keep tossing us the latest Paris Hilton news and we'll be good little slaves. People can tell you more names of the cast of "Survivor" than amendments that make up the Bill of Rights.
I feel a lot like Hunter Thompson felt when he was talking about the end of the 60s and the beginning of the age of Nixon. We had our own renaissance with the 90s under Clinton. But then Bush came in and now we are a shattered and disgraced shell of a nation and so widely loathed that many foreigners not only have lost sympathy for us because of 9/11 but believe the US deserved it.
But again, nobody gives a rat's ass. We'll just yell mindless slogans like "Git 'er done" and send in more poor young bastards to die for yet more lies in Iran.
Our only hope is that people are finally starting to wake up. It's a dream that I hang onto, just because the alternative is too damn depressing. Yet the rational side of me sees the writing on the wall and it scares the hell out of me.
And that, dear reader, is what I take to bed with me on this cold rainy miserable New England night.
Tags: Bush Iran letter failure Iraq Reagan cake ayatollah treason
posted by Stevie Z at 3:24 AM
2 Comments:
Yes, "special" is indeed an apt term, as in "short bus special". I just cannot believe that those running our country are so blindly ignorant of history. I can understand We The People preferring to stew in their own drool created by too much reality tv. But there's always been some expectation that those in charge were somehow smarter and more fit to lead. Then again, it is yet more proof of the old maxim "in a democracy people get the kind of government they deserve."
Nice! Where you get this guestbook? I want the same script.. Awesome content. thankyou.
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