The Plan did not pass. The Media are running around waving their arms, doing their job: scaring the American people. They join their Siamese twin, the executive branch, in fear mongering. "Iraq has WMD's": a lie. "Mission accomplished": a lie. "Waterboarding is not torture": a lie. The lies are endless. Congrats, W: you and your cohorts in the "ahl bidness" and associated industries have turned America into a dirty banana republic, like Florida, Louisiana, or Texas.
When people wanted to protest at the Republican convention in 2004, they were herded into "free speech zones" blocks and blocks away. The America I grew up in was a free speech zone: no more. I was in the sixth grade when JFK was shot, and it has been steadily downhill since then. Soldiers in Vietnam who tortured prisoners, if discovered, were court-martialed (well,anyone at or below the rank of Captain:that is another rant) and put away. Now torture is just another tool. An American mother will regret that decision someday. Our beloved leaders tell us it is not torture. If waterboarding is not torture, W., put your vice pres. on national tv for a demonstration.
If you think I am picking on the Republicans, fear not: The Democrats are just as bad. Like Ralph Nader said: There is not a dime's difference between either party nowadays. They are all swine. Bill Clinton, to look like a badass who was tough on crime, suspended his first presidential campaign just to go back to his home state to oversee the execution of a retarded prisoner. It's all spin and no substance now.
My suggestion: Khmer Rouge DC and Wall Street, drive the brutes away from the troughs, out into the countryside. The fresh air will do them good, and they can raise pigs, since they are such experts on pork.
3 comments:
But I have this fear that the resultant pork would be over-expensive and flavourless.
Viewing America (in effect, the UK writ large) at the moment is excruciating. Wrong end of a telescope and all that. A million miles away from the suburbs where we encountered such warmth, generosity and fun. It would be hilarious if it weren't simultaneously tragic hearing a politician resisting the badly conceived bail-out on the grounds that it's "un-American" or "socialistic" when subsidies to large manufacturers, especially in the defence sector, are paid out without a blink. Other demagogues, conscious of election-year fever, argue against government action because the fat cats must suffer in the same way as those who have lost their homes. Conveniently forgetting that the homeless will suffer twice over unless something is done.
Not that I'm in favour of this hastily cobbled bail-out which seems to carry no strings whatsoever. It lacks a sense of history. A couple of years ago I bought Arthur Schlesinger's "The coming of the New Deal" and it's still breathtaking in my memory. I love the idea that FDR was described as "a traitor to his class" as if being born into an easeful life meant he was therefore compelled to devote himself to grinding the faces of the under-privileged. But where's an FDR when you need him?
George Nader?
Anyway, keep on ranting. One of the things we learned about our hosts in the USA was that they are the most effective (and often the wittiest) complainers on earth. And at the moment complaining is patriotic.
really have tried to keep politics to a minimum, following the barber shop rule, but needed the pressure relief valve that a blog offers.
FDR was a one-off, I'm afraid. Anne Coulter, a rabble-rouser of the right, has declared him a traitor to the nation. I remember the days when one could have a drink with conservatives, swap stories, and generally get along. No more. It has become too polarized for such niceties, another legacy of W.
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