BuzzFlash Guest Contribution

CONTRIBUTOR ARCHIVES  

Our Nation Has Become an Obscene Parody of Itself under Bush

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

As I was watching the Rice confirmation hearings, and cheering for Barbara Boxer, seemingly the only Democrat left with even a semblance of a spine, it hit me that Boxer's grilling of Rice is the only thing I have had to cheer about in a very long time.

During some award show (there are so many now, who can keep up with them all?) in Hollywood, a few years back, a well-known Hollywood star (can't remember exactly who it was now; prolonged stress can interfere with memory storage in the brain) said that he felt like he was riding in the back of an SUV with a guy driving who was drunk on power, or something like that. Well, if he thought so then, we should all be feeling it now, because George W. Bush is riding high and shooting off six guns in every direction, while continuing to careen around dangerous mountain curves like the un-recovered drunk that he is, and all of us are likely to get hit sooner or later, cause we are all in the back of that giant SUV.

But I have to say that I just can't muster up anymore fear. Might say I am all-feared-out. What's there to fear when every single one of one's worst nightmares have come to pass in my country, even though it has never been the Shining City on a Hill that old Dr. Feelgood Reagan tried to paint a few centuries ago (just ask some of my ancestors, the Cherokee). Come to think of it, it was another well-known, my-way-or-the-highway sort of blowhard, strutting, scumbag, who committed that atrocity, now known as the Trail of Tears -- Andrew Stonewall Jackson, against the order of the Supreme Court, as I recall. No need going through the litany of horrors which have been committed by that city on a hill, darker than we would like to believe.

This week as the 40-50 million dollar Coronation of Mad King George unfolds, in and of itself a monument to obscene wealth and privilege, we find ourselves bogged down in a never-ending struggle with Resistance Fighters in Iraq that any Private in the Army can tell you we cannot win; social security is about to be gutted right before the baby boomers retire; and health care has tuned into a cruel joke in this country, where drug companies spend more on advertising that on R&D and your local pharmacist can tell which drug reps have been in the neighborhood because they are all filling prescriptions for the same super expensive drug when there are older, equally effective ones, and probably safer, truth be told, that could have been prescribed. Bush rewards them for this behavior. Healthcare is now a full blown racket.

As if all that weren't enough, Bush's favorite project of making all the children of the nation as stupid as he is, is succeeding, I understand from teacher friends. Kids are not learning critical thinking, and that is one talent they are going to need badly in the world they will inherit, if they do, indeed, inherit one at all. It is for damn sure that most of their parents are not shining role models when it comes to any kind of thinking, let alone critical thinking.

Still, there is more, if you are not already in the depths of despair, Alberto Gonzales will now be the Attorney General of the United States. Yes, that's right, the man who was a leader in bending, folding and mutilating International and American Law so that human beings, who have done nothing wrong, could be tortured (yes, that is the word, not abused) in ways that made us all sick in heart and mind when we saw the photographic evidence. In many ways, this is the worst news yet because, you see, it is one thing to have President Bush hire or nominate a man closely associated with torture. It is entirely another to have that man confirmed to serve by our Senators. Our Senators have now had the opportunity to say a very loud NO to torture and to say it to a president who does not seem to know where the bounds of civilized behavior lie. But they blew it, big time. Oh sure, there were tough questions and a few righteous statements, but a tongue-lashing and a promotion just does not seem like appropriate treatment of a guy who wanted to see others tortured, I don't care what they have done; not in my name!

It also makes everyone of us who voted for the Senators who voted for Gonzales, and all of us who pay taxes to pay their salaries conspirators after the fact, in war crimes. In paying these people we are enabling atrocities to be committed in our names and with our resources. This, in my mind, makes us all culpable.

Being a survivor of the Vietnam era, I knew where this was all headed when, as Andy Card said, the Bush administration in Sept 2002, rolled out its brand new product, better known as Bush's Iraq Quagmire. It was then that I had to make my decision. I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and that is not with this government and what has become, as I expected, its criminal policies. I became a war tax resister. Since then there have been more and more reasons for my action.

These people, our employees, have lied about 9/11. They have lied about Iraq. They are now lying about Social Security. Most of their lies have been in an effort to scare Americans and make them feel vulnerable, others have been to attempt to cover-up their mistakes and intentional behavior that would be even more shocking than Abu Ghraib to most Americans.

It is now time for massive Civil Disobediance, on a scale not seen in this country since the Revolution and the ousting of that other King George. Tax Resistance is a very good place to start. Look carefully at the Budget and you will understand why.

It isn't only the criminal and unjust war, there is also the funding, with tax payer money, of the Moonies abstinance program for schools. Now we can argue 'til the cows come home about whether or not teaching abstinance only is a good idea (I think it is a non-reality based idea, but that's just me), but do we really want our tax dollars going to have the moonies infiltrate our schools? Were it not for the Bushs' support, Sun Yung Fool, the self-proclaimed new messiah, would probably be in prison today. I don't want my tax money going for any kind of religious indoctrination, much less that of the Moonies. This is only one example where our tax dollars are being used to dimantle the Constitution. There are others, even worse, but I am sure that you can come up with plenty on your own.

Civil Disobediance should, in my mind, never be a first choice, under most administrations and Congresses, but this administration has shown time and time again that it does not wish to hear from people who do not share its view. As a matter of fact, it has shown nothing but contempt for the opposition. Congress has shown time and time again that it is unwilling or unable to confront, in any meaningful way, and hold this administration accountable for its many astoundingly disastrous policies and criminal behavior on the world stage. We have spent the last two years marching, demonstrating, raising money, working ourselves into a coma on the election, blogging our fingers off, etc, etc, and if anything, we are worse off than we were. We might as well have spent the last year in Amsterdam, high as a kite, for all the good it has done.

These people only understand violence and money. I am not into violence, though I will damn sure defend myself and mine, so I say take their money away. Do you you really want to pay for top class healthcare for these people in Washington who cannot figure a way to make even minimal healthcare available to all Americans? I don't. The very idea of it makes me furious, but I cannot afford to have a stroke, because I would lose everything, which ain't much to begin with.

We have to find ways of depriving them of their drug of choice; MONEY, which, of course is the same thing as power. Tax resistance, Buying Blue, targeted boycots of War profitteers and Bush-backers (is there any difference?), where possible, and costing them money, where possible, is only the first step in bringing these bastards to their knees. I say go directly after the corporations, the string-pullers, the ruling-elite, behind the scenes, who feel so damn secure it makes me sick. I say they should feel no more secure than the poorest person you ever met.

But let's not forget Congress either. It may be time for some vocal folks in the galleries of Congress. Let's not forget, they work for us!

The fight to take our country back is ours to fight. We are not going to get much, if any, leadership from Washington. They are all too invested in the Status Quo. They will change only when the status quo becomes painful enough for them. It is up to us to make it very painful! This war, unlike Bush's "war on terra" is going to require sacrifice from all of us. We are going to have to hurt to make them hurt, but the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

A BuzzFlash Reader

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION