Tuesday
07/12/04
I Fascists Stanno Venendo!
More often than not, I pride myself on the dizzying heights of sophistication and subtle irony reached by my posts. And yet, after glancing at the BBC news this morning, I find that I’m barely able to manage a rather unsubtle "Holy Crap!" Truly, there’s no other way to approach this morning’s news than to dive right in and go straight at it.
So, just in case you happen to live in a refrigerator box under the 59th street bridge, let me be the first to inform you that the Beeb reported this morning that the Bush administration is examining "what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the 2 November election." WTF?
Ok, you other fifty percent of America, it’s really time to wake up now. Get a damn clue. All right, let’s start with Point One and before you know it we’ll bring this baby full circle: Bush and his handlers are neo-conservatives, not Republicans. Republicans believe in fiscal conservatism, not huge tax cuts during wartime that are pushing us into record-breaking deficits. Republicans believe in individual freedom and protection from regulation and scrutiny, not the creation of an office of Total Information Awareness. Likewise, Republicans believe in States Rights, not constitutional amendments that would supercede those rights as well as abridging the rights of individuals in the process. And for Heaven’s sake, only neo-consevatives could possibly invoke the term "support our troops" daily, all the while consistently and quietly gutting veterans services. These are not the actions of real Republicans.
Point Two: Each and every living person in this nation with a pulse no longer has any excuse to imagine that our war in Iraq has anything to do with terrorism or Al Qaeda. The 9/11 investigative panel chairman, Republican Tom Kean, stated once and for all that no one has any evidence of a collaboration between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Period. Just because Bush is shameless enough to then face the cameras and say that he still knows that there was a connection, doesn’t make it so.
Point Three: (And this is where we bring it all full circle)… we’ve seen in Point Two how desperate this neo-conservative administration is to create an atmosphere in which a constant state of war seems acceptable, and what is even more troubling is that the goal of a perpetual state of war is actually attainable. And such a circumstance is attainable precisely because the neo-conservatives have declared a much broader war not on a nation or a people, but a tactic called terrorism. A war that, just by chance, only benefits the heavy industry and services companies that are so inextricably linked to every senior member of this administration.
In the big picture, of course, to declare a war on a social and military strategy is as illogical as it is foolhardy. A "war on terrorism" is no more winnable than the so-called "war on drugs." The "war" on drugs is merely a euphemism for containment; and it was, for instance, just such a policy of containment that won the cold war for us. And yet, as part of the clarion call to war against Iraq, this administration was inexplicably successful in convincing fully half of this nation that containment is somehow equivalent appeasement. It isn’t.
So then, where does all this leave us? It’s clear that we have a corporate elite of neo-conservatives who have successfully hijacked the name of the Republican Party… and, as of this morning, are openly planning for the postponement of the presidential election in November. Hello? Any real, old fashioned, Republicans out there still thinking? Go on, connect the damned dots and tell me it isn’t time to put an end to all this before it’s too late.
Really, when any government starts planning to disrupt it’s own elections, it’s time to be very afraid indeed.
P.S.- Oh, yeah, and one last thing, don’t even start simpering about any of this having to do with the so-called "liberal mainstream media," because there isn’t any such thing. Again, just because Hannity and Limbaugh and their ilk bray incessantly that the public is being mislead by a mainstream liberal media, it doesn’t make it so.
In fact, here’s a challenge for anyone who believes in that myth: Just take two weeks and start each day by reading the Agonist online for all the world news that gets buried by the major outlets. Then, spend part of your day listening to Air America, and then finish your day by watching a couple of hours of Freespeech TV. Now that’s what liberal media are. Trust me, you’ll never again imagine that CNN, ABC, or your local Gannett rag is pushing some sort of "Liberal Agenda".
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I Fascists Stanno Venendo!
More often than not, I pride myself on the dizzying heights of sophistication and subtle irony reached by my posts. And yet, after glancing at the BBC news this morning, I find that I’m barely able to manage a rather unsubtle "Holy Crap!" Truly, there’s no other way to approach this morning’s news than to dive right in and go straight at it.
So, just in case you happen to live in a refrigerator box under the 59th street bridge, let me be the first to inform you that the Beeb reported this morning that the Bush administration is examining "what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the 2 November election." WTF?
Ok, you other fifty percent of America, it’s really time to wake up now. Get a damn clue. All right, let’s start with Point One and before you know it we’ll bring this baby full circle: Bush and his handlers are neo-conservatives, not Republicans. Republicans believe in fiscal conservatism, not huge tax cuts during wartime that are pushing us into record-breaking deficits. Republicans believe in individual freedom and protection from regulation and scrutiny, not the creation of an office of Total Information Awareness. Likewise, Republicans believe in States Rights, not constitutional amendments that would supercede those rights as well as abridging the rights of individuals in the process. And for Heaven’s sake, only neo-consevatives could possibly invoke the term "support our troops" daily, all the while consistently and quietly gutting veterans services. These are not the actions of real Republicans.
Point Two: Each and every living person in this nation with a pulse no longer has any excuse to imagine that our war in Iraq has anything to do with terrorism or Al Qaeda. The 9/11 investigative panel chairman, Republican Tom Kean, stated once and for all that no one has any evidence of a collaboration between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Period. Just because Bush is shameless enough to then face the cameras and say that he still knows that there was a connection, doesn’t make it so.
Point Three: (And this is where we bring it all full circle)… we’ve seen in Point Two how desperate this neo-conservative administration is to create an atmosphere in which a constant state of war seems acceptable, and what is even more troubling is that the goal of a perpetual state of war is actually attainable. And such a circumstance is attainable precisely because the neo-conservatives have declared a much broader war not on a nation or a people, but a tactic called terrorism. A war that, just by chance, only benefits the heavy industry and services companies that are so inextricably linked to every senior member of this administration.
In the big picture, of course, to declare a war on a social and military strategy is as illogical as it is foolhardy. A "war on terrorism" is no more winnable than the so-called "war on drugs." The "war" on drugs is merely a euphemism for containment; and it was, for instance, just such a policy of containment that won the cold war for us. And yet, as part of the clarion call to war against Iraq, this administration was inexplicably successful in convincing fully half of this nation that containment is somehow equivalent appeasement. It isn’t.
So then, where does all this leave us? It’s clear that we have a corporate elite of neo-conservatives who have successfully hijacked the name of the Republican Party… and, as of this morning, are openly planning for the postponement of the presidential election in November. Hello? Any real, old fashioned, Republicans out there still thinking? Go on, connect the damned dots and tell me it isn’t time to put an end to all this before it’s too late.
Really, when any government starts planning to disrupt it’s own elections, it’s time to be very afraid indeed.
P.S.- Oh, yeah, and one last thing, don’t even start simpering about any of this having to do with the so-called "liberal mainstream media," because there isn’t any such thing. Again, just because Hannity and Limbaugh and their ilk bray incessantly that the public is being mislead by a mainstream liberal media, it doesn’t make it so.
In fact, here’s a challenge for anyone who believes in that myth: Just take two weeks and start each day by reading the Agonist online for all the world news that gets buried by the major outlets. Then, spend part of your day listening to Air America, and then finish your day by watching a couple of hours of Freespeech TV. Now that’s what liberal media are. Trust me, you’ll never again imagine that CNN, ABC, or your local Gannett rag is pushing some sort of "Liberal Agenda".
