Today’s Topic: More of the Same
Stunning incompetence I believe Joe Conason said in a 23 Feb 2007 commentary for AlterNet.
Stunning incompetence indeed. Purposeful degradation of the Constitution, ignoring all history and law that has gone before, George W. Bush is trying to forge a new America cast in the burned out ruins of Germany’s Third Reich.
We no longer have the opportunity to allow this administration to continue. We have to take back America now so that America really means AMERICA.
But first we need to again come to the realization that all things Bush have become the opposite of what America really means, and that includes the religious right who have become so bellicose that war seems alright even if their children are dying for a mission that has no end. But it also means that the neo-cons still hold sway over the office of the President and something as stupid as a fifth "surge" in Iraq isn’t going to achieve any of what the American public was told would happen.
The newest lesson as to how Bush views the world comes as he supposes his "surge" is going to change anything when his efforts at diplomacy fall by the wayside. The lesson also includes the idea that regardless of how Americans voted in the 2006 elections, Bush has no concern of the way the electorate goes, because he is the "decider".
Well, Georgie boy, we already know how bad your decisions are. Apparently you are the one that has no clue.
George W. Bush and Richard Cheney need to be impeached. Period. If, in the end, the House of Representatives have presented the articles of impeachment, and the Senate votes on that impeachment, then regardless of what the outcome, the necessities of bringing this administration to trial will have been accomplished.
But my guess is that whatever the charges, they won’t represent the damage that this administration has perpetrated upon the Constitution, and by their actions, they have destroyed the one thing they propose to save.
By employing virtually all of the ideals of the Nazi regime in somehow tagging the populace and garnering all the information possible about the American citizens, this administration has stepped closer to true fascism even if they are too stupid to realize the errors of their ways.
Joe Conason is an optimist when he suggests that such hasn’t happened yet nor will it in our lifetimes. It is far easier to look at the failures of this administration and wonder how anyone would accept the decision process that pervades the administration unless some outside influence was applied.
The Neo-Cons don’t believe themselves to be fascist, but the truth is if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. The Neo-Cons of this administration support Imperialism. They support dominance of the world for the world’s sake. They have no concern for the people they harm in these endeavors. They employ religious sects and rites. They suppose that their ideology is stronger and better than any other.
Sounds like Nazis to me.
Now perhaps it doesn’t come down to the Aryan race type of Nazism, but the fact is that this administration is playing the God card in that this administration is led by a chosen man of God. And the fact is that many of the appointed higher officials who supported this war against Iraq even before 9/11 had represented the desires of this president.
If, in a pocket pool tournament, I was presented with an easy ball to sink or one less hard but which would offer me better position on the next shot, then I would choose the harder shot. President Bush choose what he perceived as the easier shot and 4 years later we have encouraged corruption in contracting, amongst a number of other outrageous war profiteering motives. We have expended so many United States Guard troops in Iraq that Bush placed corporate mercenaries onto the streets of New Orleans with the right to shoot to kill.
This past month a little known article of the 2008 Budget killed the idea of Posse Comitatus, which killed the restrictions of placing military troops on American soil for the purposes of law enforcement, but we see that this administration has already found a method to place "shoot to kill" troops onto the streets of American towns without supposedly breaking the law.
And this last paragraph brings up another topic that I’ve previously written about, which is the idea that America doesn’t need all of the current National Guard and Air National Guard bases because it costs too much. Well, if you are going to put regular Army troops on American soil, then how best to facilitate that action than by eliminating strategically located Guard bases thus making the idea of putting regular Army troops on American soil acceptable?
In 2004 Michael Brown authorized payment of some $34 million to people in Florida after 4 major hurricanes devasted that state. The $34 million was paid out to people claiming losses of TVs, cars, homes, etc., and many without any proper documentation. In 2005, New Orleans, killed by Katrina and viewed live on TV, no state entity could gain federal monies without a 100 page application process.
Jeb Bush was Governor of Florida in 2004. Haley Barber was Governor of Mississippi in 2005. Both Republicans. Mississippi got 80% of the funds and help after Katrina. Jeb Bush's Florida received immediate monies, mostly dispensed without proper documentation.
In 2005, mostly Republicans were in office during and after Katrina, but New Orleans and Louisiana were mostly elected Democrats. New Orleans is still a dead city.
STILL A DEAD CITY.
The results of what we see aren’t blinded by spin. The spin, if one looks, leads back to one culprit. If this administration can accept giving $34 million to fraud, whilst holding up funds for all of the parishes of New Orleans based on 100 page applications for relief, then there is something nefarious going on.
Just compare the two circumstances and make your own judgements. And then extrapolate those circumstances to the voting public. If you have a Republican President then you’d better have a Republican Governor, two Republican Senators, and a whole bunch of Republican Representatives or you don’t get squat even if the most dire of situations is in evidence.
Now it is easy to see some of what this administration is doing because it has long been held by the Republicans that such entitlements as welfare, low income housing and such were the bane of the Capitalist agenda. But the facts couldn’t be more wrong.
The American Dream is the most sought after goal but one has to wonder just what the "American Dream" is. And it doesn’t depend upon what the meaning of "is" is. It depends upon other extremes.
I’ve often said here that the concept of free speech is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, but in practice it is a right conveyed upon one by the majority of the others. If you choose to stand up and say what you believe, it is only acceptable because those listening believe what you say, or accept your belief of your convictions.
What I’m saying is that the Constitutionally guaranteed right of "Free Speech" only works if those listening give you that right. Apparently Bush’s inner circle realize this same message and have come out time and time again against the possibility of free speech by either hunting it down and killing it or penning it up inside cages.
Is this America? Let’s face it, the concept of providing free speech cages, regardless of the distance from the Presidential venue, means that most people would prefer to be on the outside of the cage and NOT inside the cage.
It’s pretty much plain and simple. If you want to protest, you go to a box that looks strangely like jail cell bars, and you shout at the top of your lungs with 1400 watts of power, and somehow you go home feeling abused.
And abused you are. This is not free speech. Free speech encompasses such thoughts as "I hate this President" as much as it encompasses thoughts like "My father is my hero". It encompasses "This government sucks" as much as it encompasses "This is a great government."
Under this administration one cannot tell whether they are on the suspect list of intelligence scrutiny, but one can say that they feel comfortable in supporting the Constitution of the United States by saying what they mean and meaning what they say.
This attitude would be decidedly against the way this administration works. But it will make you feel better in the long run. Imagine telling your kids or your grandkids that you helped get George W. Bush out of the White House.
It’s possible.
8:32:49 PM 
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