A Government of opportunists, by opportunists and for opportunists.

[KlatooBNikto]

With apologies to Abe My Man, this is the only correct way to describe our pitiful Government and Society. Starting at the very top is the Opportunist Par Excellence who parlayed his name and the Mega Millions at his command into the Presidency of the country.His two Sancho Panzas, Rumsfeld and Cheney, have been at the game of opportunism for so long it has become second nature to them.

Along with these opportunists at the apex of the power structure, you have the lesser lights of the Bush Administration such as Condi Rice, Colin Powell who never missed an opportunity to make money, especially an opportunity that comes from simply using their names.They join the opportunists like Tony Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who by doing what the Big Man wants have put themselves at the seat of power.You also have the many senators and Congressmen who are at the ready salivating for what crumbs the Big Men throw at them.

Two other groups, joined at the hip also deserve mention:Business and the Press.As the profit making ability of Big Business has deteriorated, it has naturally been attracted to the possibilities inherent in looting the Public Treasury.Enter the Bush Gang.In return for tax cuts both for personal and business incomes, Big Business has thrown its weight behind the Bush clan so it can get its hands on the Public Treasury at will.Gone are the days when the American Corporation felt that it can compete with the Germans and the Japanese, and now increasingly the Chinese and the Indians, in the marketplace.The ability to simply loot the treasury in return for campaign contributions has proven irresistible.The Press, seemingly independent, has been roped in by threats of loss of advertising revenues, if they don't play ball with the Bushes. Because advertising now constitutes a huge percentage of the income of mainstream media a threat of loss of this stream of income is enough to send jitters at the board rooms of the NYT and the Wa Po. Thus are born the numerous shills who can tell which way the wind is blowing just by taking cues from the biggest shills.So too do the talking heads on TV.No matter what one thinks of the blond bimbettes like An Coulter, Laura Ingraham etc., no one can accuse them of not being able to smell money from a distance and change their opinion wardrobes accordingly.The same holds true for the Krauthammers and the Dowds and the Safires and Judy Millers, not to mention the Limbaughs and the Hannitys.This reaches ludicrous depths in the ravings of a woman called Michelle Malkin, who being a Filipina immigrant herself, plumbs new depths of opportunism by calling for profiling of immigrants in the wake of 9/11.The lure of Right Wing money is too irresistible to think about such inconsistencies, I suppose.Another immigrant along this line is the socalled Scholar-in-Residence at the American Enterprise Institute, Dinesh D'Souza, who as a brown skinned man from India, became a made man of the Right Wing by bashing Affirmative Action programs for black people.

One need not recite the depredations of the Enrons, the World Coms, the Tycos etc. to complete this picture.I will limit myself to the role of the Fundamenatlist Christian sects like Falwell and Robertson, who after securing the never ceasing cash flows from poor and ignorant people week after week are going after the bigger prize of the Faith Based stripping of the Federal Treasury.

Paraphrasing Mencken, you can never underestimate the ability of any American to smell money and doing whatever it takes to secure it.Iraq may very well have been the victim of this opportunism.Dressing it up as a noble venture in the Export of Freedom and Democracy is also par for the course for our con men from top to bottom.

[Nimrod]

1. Brilliant

Quite franky, I believe money is the single worst thing that ever happened to us.

[kuozzman]

3. "The real truth of the matter is,

as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

[KlatooBNikto]

6. Great quotes.Thanks.

[KlatooBNikto]

4. I forgot to mention that the disease has also infected the Democratic

Party.The people who used to have faith that the Democratic Party could be counted upon to speak for them, have realized in their gut, that trust will be easily betrayed as it has been ever since the Clintons and the DLC took control of the Party.That is why even the enthusiasm for Al Gore and Kerry has been muted from the traditional Democratic constituents.Howard Dean's surge during the primaries sent a collective shiver among the DLC who, because of their addiction to money, abandoned their principles and have now paid the price. All of this has essentially corroborated Gore Vidal's observation that we have only one Party, the Money Party, in the U.S. with its Democratic and Republican, wings.As confirmation, one has only to look at the pronouncements of Kerry on the Iraq War.One would be hard put to differentiate it from those of George Bush.

[kuozzman]

2. A word from Abe:

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people (e.g., by pitting the cooperation-oriented political left against the competition-oriented political right), until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of the war."
- Abraham Lincoln

[KlatooBNikto]

5. Amazing! Abe is my man in more ways than one!

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Excellent post -- and full of plain truth!

[KlatooBNikto]

8. Because I believe that there is a reluctance on the part of Democrats to

speak their minds about the War, the economy and assorted problems that affect our daily lives, I do not think in the end that Kerry's win would have mattered very much.The only way we can make a difference is by going all out in assaulting the suppositions on the War, economy and health care issues that affect us. Even if we lose, it would be far better for us to display our passion to our loyal constituents than to become a zombie like species that sees nothing, feels nothing and hears nothing.Out of these ashes a real democratic party can emerge that will be true to its roots.

We simply need to get rid of the McAuliffes, Braziles, Shrums and assorted paid losers of the DLC.

[Hotler]

9. Money is the reason the Democrats...

won't call it like is and spread forth before the country and world what a bunch of mean hateful treasonous thieving thugs the neo-cons are. They let Clinton be impeached because it wasn't going to cost them any money. Impeach the little turd from crowford and the money stops..

[KlatooBNikto]

10. Very good observation.Long time ago, a greedy bastard from,

where else, Texas, called Nelson Bunker Hunt, tried to corner the world's silver market so he could hike the prices at will and deal himself a fortune.His plan fell apart because he had not taken into account the millions of ounces of this precious metal that poor women in Asian countries have used as a hedge against financial disaster.

When money becomes the be all and end all of our existence as it seems to be for Republicans and Democrats alike, the public has sensed that they are irrelevant to this political process and show very little enthusiasm for either side. The Republicans at least can fake their loyalty and passion.Democrats, like women saddled with passionless partners, can only fake their orgasms.