I'm so very thankful that I live in the U.S. If I was living somewhere in say, like, Latin America, France or one of the many socially conscious nations that still exhibit signs of brainwave activity, the streets of America would be in flames and very dangerous places to be by now.
Recent examples of news I'm going to ignore:
- Our "Big Dick" Cheney's Halliburton moving its headquarters offshore to Dubais where there exists no extradition treaty with the U.S. should future investigators want to subpoena executives of that company regarding its alleged $2.7 billion of overcharges and contractor waste. It appears Halliburton is simply practicing good business from lessons learned from president Bush's buddy, "Kenny Boy" Lay who led Enron and formulated Dick Cheney's energy policy but ended up dying (or faking his death) before beginning his jail sentence or, sadly, making it to safe haven in Dubais.
- Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, dictating the terms of his departure, i.e., that he did nothing wrong. (Also one of the architects of our "victory" in the Iraq War.) It's classic "fox holding the rebellious chickens at bay" as he beats his retreat for the hen house door.
- Our very own justice department under Alberto Gonzales, supreme law enforcer of the land, as illustrated in the unfolding story of the U.S. Attorney's fired, is heading up nothing but a mafia gang of thugs doing exactly what they're charged with preventing--the breaking of U.S. laws! Yet despite the latest call for his head by 56 of his former Harvard Law School classmates, Gonzales remains like a stubborn tick with his head embedded in a dog's hide.
- President Bush's stonewalling yesterday of NBC's Kelly O'Donnell when she asked if he "personally had sent former Chief of Staff Andrew Card and then-White House counsel Gonzales to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft's sickbed to get him to approve the wiretapping program. "
(Wake up America to who the real fucking "lurking enemy" Bush is referring to!)
So, between companies with perhaps something to hide fleeing overseas, faulty leadership memories like "I can't recall," or "Senator I don't remember," or Bush claiming national security or evoking an executive order to seal outright the papers of former presidents in perpetual secrecy, we have no right to know what the fuck's going on in the executive branch of our government. It appears one of the Bush legacies will be the complete collapse of historical records of exactly what the hell went on since the beginning of the new millennium.
Like I say, thank god this is America and not some rowdy Third World nation like France.
* Attribute: Dan Froomkin, Washington Post
6 comments:
Yes, the great uniter-not-divider has caused us all to have to divide our brains into neat little compartments in order to deal with the daily shitstorm. Everything is now CYA for the official record; i.e. "I didn't personally know Ken Lay", "Wolfowitz resigned", "General Petraeus' plan will implement what the American people voted for last November", "I have no knowledge", "This problem goes back to the Clinton Adm", ad nauseum until your few remaining sane brain cells revolt & head for France (uh-oh, didn't that right-winger bush-butt-licker just become the new french prez?).
You are sooo right, our historical records will make us wonder if our own memories are wrong. After a few more decades, it'll be: "don't talk to Gramps about Bush, he goes a little nuts & it's not good for his health; just pop a few xanax into his gob if he starts to stroll down memory lane."
BTW, I perfected a tick removal method when we lived in tick country. First I doused them in alcohol which caused them to loosen their grip, then I carefully tweezered them out a tiny bit at a time, wriggling their horrid little heads this way & that, while pouring on more alcohol until I could finally get the whole head in my tweezer & YANK. The head with its sucking mouth is the most important part to remove. I doubt the alchohol part would work in DC, a place already already so deeply steeped. The YANKING part & getting the whole head is still a worthy goal, I think.
BTW, my crazyass bro came up with this idea: mandatory drug testing at the door of every govt bldg. He's convinced they are all on heavy pyscho drugs?!? ~~ D.K.
w00t go you, dada, i totally agree - down with crappy governments worldwide
I bet Halliburton pays little to no tax as it is now.
The average corp in the U.S. pays 4% to 6%
They've mastered the offshore tax loophole corporate headquarters in Bermuda or the Caymans.
What I fail to fully grasp is how the working class Republicans can continue to support the elitist Republicans who are robbing them blind with their blessing.
Interesting you bring this up polishifter...how ordinary working class republicans can continue to swallow the swill. Reason I find it so curious was I was rereading one of my earliest blogs today, written almost two years ago.
It dealt with this very same question; of people we considered friends, shared some laughs with throughout the nineties.
I saw them in Costco recently (it was unavoidable), but I not so subtlely let them know we weren't there to buy anything--we couldn't, thanks to Bush. We were just window shopping. ("He" ignored my bait.) I dropped several other hints about what I thought of THEIR government as our brief encounter continued. I've grown to really hate these ordinary working class republicans.
But our relationship gradually fell apart after Bush stole the country. In that blog from July 2005, I concluded when the nation eventually sinks into chaos and we encounter these former friends then, we'll have to kill each other.
anonymous: I totally agree, but what an enormous task -- there's just so many crappy governments around the world. ~grin
But I think you make a good point, which seems to be mankind just is not of the nature to do without them, those institutions that seem to inevitably corrupt eventually leaving mankind worse off because OF HIS NEED for governments (that have become crappy). ~sigh
Raed: For over seven years now, I've felt I am tick infested. But, obviously, these tick-like bastards are not easily removed because they're internal; they're in my brain! Granted, I try some occasional alcohol, but their tiny heads--embedded in the gray matter--refuse to give up leeching my life blood.
America doesn't seem inclined to do anything about it or doesn't know what to do, so the leechy bastards continue to suck the life from us and I don't know if we'll make it to 1/2009 a sane nation. (Oh wait, we've long ago thrown sanity overboard, haven't we?)
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