Deja Vu

Deja vu, indeed. The wholly fabricated Tonkin Gulf incident was used to justify US intervention in Viet Nam. It was, however, so well done that the truth of it didn't come out until the parties involved were mostly dead or drooling in their pablum.

Bush's "Tonkin II", however, was ham-handed and amateurish. It didn't long survive scrutiny in the light of day. Yet here we are...now...fighting an illegitimate, illegal war of aggression in Iraq. Nobody questioned the administration's evidence, mostly because they never released it. We have gone to war on nothing more than the say-so of a dry-drunk with a massive Oedipal complex; backed by a coterie of power and money hungry monsters who would peddle their own mother's ass on the streets if they thought they could turn a buck and kill her if she if she couldn't turn a profit.

It's impeachment time.

The Myth of "Compassionate Conservatism"

With our attention riveted on the death and destruction in Iraq, and the continued threat to Americans in the war zone, the other very serious problems facing the U.S. get short shrift. We knew last fall that the proportion of Americans living in poverty had risen, and that income for middle-class households had fallen.

We know that unemployment, especially long-term unemployment, is a big problem. And we've known that the states are facing their worst budget crisis since the Great Depression, a development that has led, among other things, to drastic cuts in education aid that are crushing the budgets of local public school districts.

These issues aren't even being properly discussed. The Bush administration sounds the alarm for war and blows the trumpet for tax cuts, and Congress plunges ahead with the cuts in domestic programs that must inevitably follow. The voices of those who object are effectively silenced by the war propaganda and the fear of seeming unpatriotic.

With attention thus deflected, the administration and its allies in Congress have come up with one proposal after another to weaken programs that were designed to help struggling Americans.- Bob Herbert, The New York Times, 03/27/2003

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Casualties at Home

As America's public education, its healthcare system, its social safety -nets collapse, Bush wages bloody war abroad. He cries for tax-cuts at home, he seeks to undermine the very foundations of this democracy, all while the nation is distracted by the events unfolding in Iraq.

These policies have nothing to do with compassion, but rather with a naked lust for unbridled power and unlimited wealth, bought with the blood and suffering of countless innocents. Bush claims the Prince of Peace as his role model, yet his actions seem to be guided more by the Prince of Darkness. His actions brand him a hypocrite of the worst sort, one who wears the mantle of piety to hide the rotten core of his soul.

Compassionate Conservatism = Bullshit

This enormous tax cut will provide a break of $256 a year to the average working family. Almost half of all taxpayers will get less than $100. But someone making a million dollars a year will cut a cut of $92,000. This is iniquitous. It is wicked. It is damnably unfair.

This budget does three stupid and mean things simultaneously: It cuts taxes for the richest Americans during a national crisis, cuts domestic spending that people's lives depend on, and completely ignores the cost of both war and reconstruction. Under this budget, almost all discretionary domestic programs, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, are subject to cuts or restraints. - Molly Ivins, 3/25/2003

Bush is, apparently, under the impression that Americans can be bribed to support his wrong-headed, misguided policies for chump-change. Looking at current poll numbers, one can assume that many Americans are stupid enough to fall for it.

Wake up America! The country is being systematically looted for the benefit of a few oligarch wannabes. It's being done on the backs of you, and me, and countless others across the world. Imperial America is being built on the suffering of those who will be left behind by the administration's policies. Our children, grand children and their children's children will be paying for this debacle for generations, and America may never recover.

Whose Side is God On?

Saddam claims God is on his side, Bush claims God is on his...which is it? Both Islam and Christianity claim to follow the God of Abraham. It seems more likely that God isn't on Bush's side, as the Pope, and the leaders of most of the other of the world's great religious orders, have denounced Bush's dirty little war. The glaring exception is the Southern Baptist Convention. Their take on Christian virtue is a rabid xenophobia and complete intolerance of any view not in lockstep with their own. Sounds kinda like Bush.

The upshot here is, that both Bush and Saddam use religion as a tool of political convenience. Neither has any true understanding of the ideals of their espoused religions. Both are hypocites. If there actually is a God, and a just one at that, Bush and Saddam will spend eternity roasting in hell's deepest pit...tied face to face.