There are 'moderate' Republicans who have done their duty for America by bleating, belching, burbling and otherwise registering their disapproval for the radical, immoral, extreme actions taken by the Bush administration in its fighting of the War on Terr-- sorry: the War for Oil.
Torture, wiretapping, re-jigging the justice department for purely partisan purposes. These have earned the fleeting disapproval of 'moderates' like Warner, Arlen Specter, John McCain.
The disapproval is fleeting, since these mavericks always reconsider and decide that just about anything Bush/Cheney/Rove does is essential for country's future.
Their feinting in the direction of dissent is mere window-dressing, kabuki theatre to make people think that if these wise 'moderate' independent thinkers feel that the outrageous actions of the Bush gov't are okay - after long, sceptical, judicious consideration, of course - why then the radical policies can't be that far-out, right? After all, these guys all are their own men, right?
Thus, these 'moderates' perform an essential duty for the extremists in power. They give the cover of reason and dignity to the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth policies of Cheney, the foul, amoral propositions of Bush and Rove - in the same way that the dignified prudence of Powell and Petraeus have provided a sheen of illusory respectability for the nefarious plans of the regime.
This is all pretty much known and recognized. What doesn't seem to be as known - or is perhaps now sinking into public consciousness - is that this same Kabuki production also exists on an entirely different level, performed by an entirely different troupe.
The name of that troupe is the Democratic Party.
Like Specter, McCain, Warner, and Powell, they make noises of dissent. But again and again, they roll over for the regime.
They speak up just enough to give the impression that there may be an opposition party. But it is only theater.
The war continues because they have tacitly agreed to let it continue. They've made it exceedingly clear that there is only one party in America. The millionaire's party. And as long as the millionaire's party wants the war it will continue.
There is simply too much to be lost by letting the oil fields of Iraq fall into someone else's hands. A few bold or incautious voices have let this truth slip out. There is simply too much money to be made from the war for it ever to end.
It doesn't matter that the vast majority of Americans want the war to end. The vast majority of Americans aren't millionaires. The same media corporations who cheerleaded the war into existence now cheerlead for its continuation.
After all the media isn't owned by poor people. It's owned by millionaires. And if they want their war they shall have it.
The Bush regime's foreign policy is precisely the same as its domestic policy. Its purpose is to further concentrate wealth into the upper ten percent of the population. There is simply no way they will end their war, a war which is the regime's main reason for existence.
As Bush himself is the front man for the millionaire's party, so are the 'moderate' Republicans front men for him - they are 'reasonable' facades masking a relentless program of thievery and pillage.
As the 'moderates' cover for Bush, the Democrats cover for the Republicans, helpfully providing the illusion of opposition, of an alternative - an illusion of democracy itself.
It really is a show. The millionaires have decided the war will go on, and so it will. They have pulled up their gangplank and are progressing full steam ahead. The people at large are kindly advised to go shopping and watch more television - or head to the nearest recruitment office.
Really, they should be grateful to the powers that be for going to the trouble of putting on any type of kabuki show at all. Quite rightly, the regime will soon likely recognize how unnecessary such performances are, and dispense of them....making the pathetic contemporary 'debate' over the war democracy's last kabuki show.
By that time, it will be widely accepted that democracy itself has become a kabuki show.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Flushing the Turd
It was touching to see Bush embrace his 'dear friend', his own personal Goebbels, as Karl Rove prepared to leave Washington last week.
Rove's departure bore all the earmarks which have characterized his foul presence on the American landscape.
First and foremost, it was phony. No-one believes the reason he gave for his leaving. No-one believes that he won't continue to advise Bush, to serve as his 'brain'. His 'departure' is pure cosmetics. Either, as many hope, some bad news is coming down the chute as a result of one of his traitorous and criminal acts of the past - so he has to get out while gettin's good - or, as I think, he's getting out of the White House in order to comandeer the forces for the 2008 election, or maybe attempt to burnish Bush's image. He couldn't do these things while still 'serving' in the Administration.
Secondly, the departure was characteristic of Rove since it concluded with him poking his stick into the eye of objective reality one again. For nothing so exults the soul of a divisive, power-at-all-costs, cheap smear-slinging proponent of the Big Lie than to assert falsehoods as though they were ultimate truth - and to see them stick, see them repeated as fact. This is the ultimate thrill which drives Rove - the whole "We create our own reality" thing.
This was seen in his description of Bush as a man of 'courage' and 'vision', etc. But further and more importantly, it was seen in Rove's identification of Bush, and of himself, with the simple God-fearin' folk of America, the folks who told the President they were a-prayin' for him. Tears starting in his eyes, the lump growing larger in his throat, Rove nearly sobbed as he related his communion with the church-going decent people, and expressed his hope that the 'Almighty' would continue to bless America.
For anyone with the slightest knowledge of how Rove used religion to divide America, to win his pathetic 51% 'mandate' to govern the country according to principles diamterically opposed to Christ's words, the irony-meter must be going off the dial.
Anyone knowing the slander and deception, the low, dirty tricks and the amoral mindset behind Rove's life work knows that Rove is no Christian. Christopher Hitchens has noted that Rove has stated he's "not fortunate enough to be a person of faith".
So why the praying and the Almighty stuff? To give the knife a final, dashing twist, of course. One more spiteful perversion of reality on the way out the door. That's Rove's stock in trade. Of course he doesn't believe in the Almighty. It's just one last sprinkle of fairy dust for the chumps.
Is Bush really a believer? Perhaps in his mind he is - perhaps he believes Jesus helped him to quit drinking. But a quick perusal of the Gospels finds him lacking as a Christian. Sure - all Christians are lacking: we are all sinners.
But there's a difference between sinning as a result of falling off a path one is trying to follow, and sinning as a philosophy one is following which is quite opposed to the teachings of Christ. There's a difference between failing when you're trying to do good, and following a path which is badness itself.
Ruling entirely in the interests of the wealthiest 10 per cent of the nation, punshing the poor, ignoring the afflicted, mounting a propaganda campaign to deceive the public into an injust, illegal war for the undisclosed reason of poaching oil and enriching the wealthiest ten per cent of the nation - these are in no way the actions of a Christian, or of one trying to be a Christian.
What we have is a case of Christianity being used as a Trojan horse which is used to ride into the halls of power - and once in, all manner of anti-Christian policies are unpacked and implemented.
Whether Bush's 'Christianity' is merely a subterfuge concocted by Rove, much like Bush's 'rancher image', to make him a more saleable candidate, we can't know. Only Bush knows how sincere he believes himself to be. What is known is that Rove has never failed to capitalize religion and use it on his opponents as a weapon at every opportunity. Bush's 'Christianity' sure served Rove's plan well enough.
That's why it was entirely appropriate that Rove fought back a few tears while speaking of the Almighty after being embraced by his creation. Yes - the same Almighty who smiled upon Rove's smearing of McCain as an illegitmate black child-fathering nut case, who smiles on all the lives Rove has destroyed with his finkish actions, all the lives ended as a result of Rove's enabling of this most destructive regime which has unfailingly 'created its own reality' - aided by a compliant media seduced by Rove's winking amorality.
The whole thing has been false from beginning to end, a charade put on with the nihilistic objective of seeing how far reality could be twisted in the name of power. A few tears and prayers at the end - how it warms the cockles of the heart! How fitting for a departure which is no departure since Rove isn't really going anywhere. In fact, the law of perversity by which he lives decrees that he will be more present after his leaving than ever before.
Rove's departure bore all the earmarks which have characterized his foul presence on the American landscape.
First and foremost, it was phony. No-one believes the reason he gave for his leaving. No-one believes that he won't continue to advise Bush, to serve as his 'brain'. His 'departure' is pure cosmetics. Either, as many hope, some bad news is coming down the chute as a result of one of his traitorous and criminal acts of the past - so he has to get out while gettin's good - or, as I think, he's getting out of the White House in order to comandeer the forces for the 2008 election, or maybe attempt to burnish Bush's image. He couldn't do these things while still 'serving' in the Administration.
Secondly, the departure was characteristic of Rove since it concluded with him poking his stick into the eye of objective reality one again. For nothing so exults the soul of a divisive, power-at-all-costs, cheap smear-slinging proponent of the Big Lie than to assert falsehoods as though they were ultimate truth - and to see them stick, see them repeated as fact. This is the ultimate thrill which drives Rove - the whole "We create our own reality" thing.
This was seen in his description of Bush as a man of 'courage' and 'vision', etc. But further and more importantly, it was seen in Rove's identification of Bush, and of himself, with the simple God-fearin' folk of America, the folks who told the President they were a-prayin' for him. Tears starting in his eyes, the lump growing larger in his throat, Rove nearly sobbed as he related his communion with the church-going decent people, and expressed his hope that the 'Almighty' would continue to bless America.
For anyone with the slightest knowledge of how Rove used religion to divide America, to win his pathetic 51% 'mandate' to govern the country according to principles diamterically opposed to Christ's words, the irony-meter must be going off the dial.
Anyone knowing the slander and deception, the low, dirty tricks and the amoral mindset behind Rove's life work knows that Rove is no Christian. Christopher Hitchens has noted that Rove has stated he's "not fortunate enough to be a person of faith".
So why the praying and the Almighty stuff? To give the knife a final, dashing twist, of course. One more spiteful perversion of reality on the way out the door. That's Rove's stock in trade. Of course he doesn't believe in the Almighty. It's just one last sprinkle of fairy dust for the chumps.
Is Bush really a believer? Perhaps in his mind he is - perhaps he believes Jesus helped him to quit drinking. But a quick perusal of the Gospels finds him lacking as a Christian. Sure - all Christians are lacking: we are all sinners.
But there's a difference between sinning as a result of falling off a path one is trying to follow, and sinning as a philosophy one is following which is quite opposed to the teachings of Christ. There's a difference between failing when you're trying to do good, and following a path which is badness itself.
Ruling entirely in the interests of the wealthiest 10 per cent of the nation, punshing the poor, ignoring the afflicted, mounting a propaganda campaign to deceive the public into an injust, illegal war for the undisclosed reason of poaching oil and enriching the wealthiest ten per cent of the nation - these are in no way the actions of a Christian, or of one trying to be a Christian.
What we have is a case of Christianity being used as a Trojan horse which is used to ride into the halls of power - and once in, all manner of anti-Christian policies are unpacked and implemented.
Whether Bush's 'Christianity' is merely a subterfuge concocted by Rove, much like Bush's 'rancher image', to make him a more saleable candidate, we can't know. Only Bush knows how sincere he believes himself to be. What is known is that Rove has never failed to capitalize religion and use it on his opponents as a weapon at every opportunity. Bush's 'Christianity' sure served Rove's plan well enough.
That's why it was entirely appropriate that Rove fought back a few tears while speaking of the Almighty after being embraced by his creation. Yes - the same Almighty who smiled upon Rove's smearing of McCain as an illegitmate black child-fathering nut case, who smiles on all the lives Rove has destroyed with his finkish actions, all the lives ended as a result of Rove's enabling of this most destructive regime which has unfailingly 'created its own reality' - aided by a compliant media seduced by Rove's winking amorality.
The whole thing has been false from beginning to end, a charade put on with the nihilistic objective of seeing how far reality could be twisted in the name of power. A few tears and prayers at the end - how it warms the cockles of the heart! How fitting for a departure which is no departure since Rove isn't really going anywhere. In fact, the law of perversity by which he lives decrees that he will be more present after his leaving than ever before.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I wonder
I wonder why no-one ever mentions that the War on Terror is the War for Oil?
I wonder why no-one ever mentions that the legislation the Bush government hopes
the Iraqi parliament will pass in October will give the Iraqi people full control over
20% of their country's oil - and privatize the remaining 80% for the benefit of the oil
companies who have been Bush's greatest supporters?
How does one wage a war on Terror?
Does Terror have armies, navies? Is Terror a massive beast who lives in Terrorland?
I wonder how mowing down people in Iraq so that large multinational oil companies
can procure their oil stops people from boarding planes with box-cutters and directing
the planes into buildings in America?
How is it possible to stop a person from striding into a shopping mall with a dirty bomb by
occupying a distant country illegally and stealing their oil?
It is almost as though the War on Terror, on closer examination, has little to do with Terror at all. And much to do with oil.
I say 'little' to do with Terror because Terror was used as the springboard for the occupation of Iraq and the seizure of its oil.
And Terror has been used to justify continuing the war in Iraq.
One thing seems certain: as long as the American people remain Terrorized, America will remain in Iraq.
As each successive rationale for 'staying the course' sputters out, it becomes obvious who the chief 'Terrorizer' of Americans is.
And once the oil legislation is ratified by the puppet government in Iraq in October and the 'surge' begins to be pulled down to a handy little force capable of protecting the purloined oil, it will become obvious what the 'War on Terror' has really been all about.
Meanwhile: that Bin Laden sure is a slippery feller!
I wonder why no-one ever mentions that the legislation the Bush government hopes
the Iraqi parliament will pass in October will give the Iraqi people full control over
20% of their country's oil - and privatize the remaining 80% for the benefit of the oil
companies who have been Bush's greatest supporters?
How does one wage a war on Terror?
Does Terror have armies, navies? Is Terror a massive beast who lives in Terrorland?
I wonder how mowing down people in Iraq so that large multinational oil companies
can procure their oil stops people from boarding planes with box-cutters and directing
the planes into buildings in America?
How is it possible to stop a person from striding into a shopping mall with a dirty bomb by
occupying a distant country illegally and stealing their oil?
It is almost as though the War on Terror, on closer examination, has little to do with Terror at all. And much to do with oil.
I say 'little' to do with Terror because Terror was used as the springboard for the occupation of Iraq and the seizure of its oil.
And Terror has been used to justify continuing the war in Iraq.
One thing seems certain: as long as the American people remain Terrorized, America will remain in Iraq.
As each successive rationale for 'staying the course' sputters out, it becomes obvious who the chief 'Terrorizer' of Americans is.
And once the oil legislation is ratified by the puppet government in Iraq in October and the 'surge' begins to be pulled down to a handy little force capable of protecting the purloined oil, it will become obvious what the 'War on Terror' has really been all about.
Meanwhile: that Bin Laden sure is a slippery feller!
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