"Nucular"
Winter
June 8, 2002
By Bridget Gibson
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a
lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
- George W. Bush, December 18, 2000
To every time there is a season and right now we are experiencing
the winter of souls. Nuclear weapons are waving their ugly
heads from the Capitol of the United States to the mountains
of Kashmir. Rogue nations are ruffling feathers in the Bush
White House, while the Bush administration has shown that
it can exercise no discretion in its war-hyped rhetoric. Continuing
to push its unilateralist agenda down the globe's throat has
produced the frigid cold war climate that it sought. Behind
the scenes they have rewarded movers and shakers from the
Carlyle Group.
The spirit of Joseph McCarthy glows jealously at the powers
that our strutting Attorney General John Ashcroft has achieved.
While John slyly implies that any who question his motives
is a closet terrorist, he hides his inner glee that his bullying
tactics cover his complete ineptitude and incompetence or
worse.
After seeing how handily Robert Mueller's self-effacing apology
and mea culpas deflected the questioning spotlight of his
inability to rise above the political posturing and butt-covering
in the wake of Colleen Rowley's exposure of his naked stupidity
in understanding national security, J. Edgar Hoover's transvestite
soul is probably raising his skirts attempting to lure some
attention to his bedraggled reputation.
Watching Ashcroft and Mueller pass the hot potato of blame
seems to take the focus of the camera lens away from George
Tenet, CIA Director and fellow-incompetent in the September
11 national security failure.
The hawking Donald Rumsfeld (premier prot�g� of the Manhattan
Project) must chuckle over drinks with his college roomy -
Frank Carlucci - about the great deal they cooked up with
the Crusader. Though they trashed the badly designed howitzer
after hyping it for eight months, the Carlyle Group still
gets to pocket $520 million in cancellation fees (after making
a tidy sum on the IPO of United Defense).
Dick Cheney's sideways sneer seems to have frightened the
spinal challenged into submission and obsequiousness. This
Halliburton bully has made a fortune from demanding that he
be the alpha dog of every pack. Now that the accounting practices
that were used while he was CEO are being questioned, it has
become more important than ever that he demands unquestioning
loyalty from all those legislators that he purchased so long
ago.
I suppose being scared to death by these guardians of patriotism
is preferable to being embarrassed to death by the utter degradation
to the Oval Office that is foisted upon us by George Walker
Bush. I tried in vain last week to disprove that he has a
nickname for Vladimir Putin, president of Russia. With my
head held low, I had to picture the esteem in which they held
the United States when George called him Pootie-Poot. We even
got the treat of learning that he has instructed National
Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice �to get Pootie-Poot on
the line'. We had the added bonus of hearing that the Russian
television replayed endlessly a clip of George entering a
high-profile meeting chewing gum and spitting it into his
hand. Luckily the clip did not divulge if he stuck his gum
under the polished meeting table.
When I was growing up, I was told that anyone could become
the President of the United States of America. Our society
tolerated no boundaries limiting the minds and ambitions of
its citizens. By any instrument of measure, that tolerance
is now tested at its limit, and the joke is on the citizens.
We have somehow allowed the bar to be lowered to such an extreme
that the inferior student frat-boy and class-clown is playing
the palace.
Our nation has lost its credibility and its honor. The verbal
gaffes and political mistakes have cost us in ways that may
never be forgotten or forgiven across the globe. The abyss
yawns before us and the memories of more prosperous times
for our world and families dim.
The lesson that we must absorb at this moment in time, is
that although almost anyone in our country may be eligible
for the highest office, not just anyone should occupy it.
Money and family names should never be used as a criteria
for voting. Don't sell yourself and your country down the
drain. When you go to the voting booth in November, disregard
the slick salesmanship and remember that those television
commercials cost a great deal of money. How much is your vote
worth? How much is your honor worth? How much is your pride
worth? Mere money cannot buy the good citizens of this country.
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