The past month and a half have been a bit shoddy for George Bush, what with Cindy, Katrina, and the resultant saggy poll numbers. Despite all of that, the administration is marching ahead "un-de-Turd" with the agenda we elected them to carry out--establishment of a fascist state with plans to use nuclear weapons against terrorists. What? We didn't elect them to do that?
The nuking terrorist plans was the news I awoke to this morning on my Excite.com homepage. The news I had closed out Saturday with was bad enough--Blackwater privatized martial-law officers brought in from Iraq that have been deputized by the governor of Louisiana and are working under contract for Home Security in New Orleans.
What do plans to use WMDs against terrorists and privatized thugs against Americans (who are not accountable to the police and military) in New Orleans have in common? They're both above the law. But that shouldn't surprise any of us. They're options conceived and birthed by the Bush administration, itself above the law. But that's okay. I mean, we re-"elected" these goons knowing of they're unaccountability to anyone, be it the American electorate or the international community. It didn't upset us last November, it shouldn't upset us now. We have the government we want. Right?
But I do appreciate the sacrifice of the supra-law enforcement contractors overseeing our police and military in Louisiana. Pulled from Iraq, they're only making $350/day plus per diem while here in New Orleans. (Just for the mathematically lazy among us, that's about $91,000/yr. NOT counting reimbursement for expenses. They make more than that "where the real action is" back in Iraq.) I'm just thankful I live in a nation rich enough to afford these men who keep our other martial law enforcement agencies in check. Plus...PLUS, they can kill people with impunity. Just like our Executive Branch.
As for the plans that have been drawn up to nuke terrorists: The "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations," as now revised in Rumsfeld's Pentagon, makes clear the use of nuclear weapons at any level is an option of the president's. No big deal, I suppose. I mean, the president had his finger on the button his first four years and didn't blow up anything. (I mean with nuclear weapons, silly! ~ And depleted uranium in Iraq doesn't count, okay?) This latest revelation is simply a refinement of Bush's power.
Knowing that the number of terrorist cells are great in number, growing under Bush, and scattered globally, this option to nuke 'em may involve more than just blowing up Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Afghanistan. (Oh wait, did I forget Pakistan and the other "Stans"? Sorry.) We know terrorist cells also exist in Europe, Canada, Russia, etc. Maybe we'll have to just salt all of these regions with nuclear bombs. It seems a shame to sacrifice, oh say, the Louvre, Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower to take out a cell of 20-30 Al Qaeda, but I supoose no price is too high when it comes to eliminating terrorism, right? At least that's what we Americans seem to think by the people we "elect".
I'm just a bit nervous about what the rest of the world's reaction might be to our use of nukes with impunity. Oh well, thank god, last November we renewed the right man for the job for another four years--"Marshal Dillon", who vowed with no uncertainty during his first term to bring in Osama, dead or alive.
I guess those are the two main items than have me so amused this morning. Never mind the small stuff like the hugely obscene quarterly profits now being reported by the oil companies on Wall Street. Or the barring of journalists from New Orleans' dead zones where bodies are being recovered. Or the usual hackneyed stories of companies tied to the Bush administration picking up lucrative post-Katrina contracts.
Forget the German plane headed to the gulf with 15 tons of relief rations that was turned back. Why accept donated aid from generous allies when we can provide them ourselves to ourselves and we can charge ourselves for 'em? (And--just curious--how is it we can turn back aircraft too aid victims of Katrina, but not aircraft being flown into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11 to kill them? It's probably just a question of priorities I don't understand.)
And another small story that's going on while we're all distracted by the Katrina disaster: the bombing of Tal Afar ala Fallujah, in the further Stone Ageifcation of Iraq, despite desperate pleas by residents there to the international community to intercede on their behalf.
Then there's the compassion of our congress which plans to press ahead with further cuts in Medicaid, food stamps, and other benefits just when the desperate need of those are at their all-time high under Bush. I guess we just can't afford that. "Wars" on two fronts, in the Middle East and Gulf Coast is prohibitively expensive.
I guess we get the government we deserve. Mercenaries making $350/day here, more in Iraq, don't come cheap. Oh, and per diem. Don't forget to add their per diem. It's what Americans want. It IS what we want, isn't it?
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