December 23 2005
Counterbias.com
Mel Seesholtz
“You know, I could run for governor
but I’m basically a media creation.
I’ve never done anything. I’ve worked for my dad.
I worked in the oil business.
But that’s not the kind of profile you have to have
to get elected to public office.”
-- George W. Bush, 1989
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.
They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country
and our people, and neither do we.”
-- George W. Bush, August 5, 2004Combine some truth from the first confession with some from the second, add the appropriate commentary link – in this case “except” – and you have the disaster that is George W. Bush and his administration: “I’m basically a media creation. I’ve never done anything” except “stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people.”
George W. was not elected by “We the People” in 2000. Had he not been appointed president, there would not have been a second term and America would not now be sliding into what can most appropriately be called a theocratic, despotic state. A harsh assertion?
Consider the power the fanatical leaders of the evangelical Christian Right have over Mr. Bush. Maureen Dowd noted in an October 21, 2004 New York Times editorial that “evangelicals call the president a messenger of God.” The leaders of the Christian Right thrive on preaching hate and misrepresenting reality “in the name of God.” GWB is indeed their “messenger,” as “Take Him Out” Pat Robertson so well sermonized from the Gospel According to George: “I really believe I’m hearing from the Lord. It’s going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It’s shaping up that way. … The Lord has just blessed
. I mean, he could make terrible mistakes and comes out of it. It doesn’t make any difference what he does, good or bad, God picks him up because he’s a man of prayer and God’s blessing him.”
Consider a vice president who wants to legalize government-sponsored torture: “Mr. Cheney’s proposal … would give the president the power to allow government agencies outside the Defense Department (the administration has in mind the C.I.A.) to mistreat and torture prisoners as long as that behavior was part of ‘counterterrorism operations conducted abroad’ and they were not American citizens.” Former CIA director Stansfield Turner labeled Dick Cheney a “vice president for torture.” A December 19, 2005 Reuters story suggested Cheney got his way:
A human rights group said on Sunday that the United States operated a secret prison for terrorism suspects as recently as last year in Afghanistan, where detainees where subjected to torture and other mistreatment. The Bush administration has faced international criticism over detainees after a November 2 Washington Post article said the CIA held dozens of terrorism suspects in secret prisons called “black sites” in countries around the world, including eastern Europe.
And in relation to George W., consider Doug Thompson’s December 9, 2005 Capital Hill Blue report entitled “Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’”:
Keith’s Barbeque Central