And the Winner for Best Actor is...George W. Bush
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
He was returning from a stage setting a world away when America's annual awards for best acting were being presented, but George W. Bush wasn't on hand for the Oscars.
Surely, if there were acting awards for President, Bush deserved one for the last five years. No, George didn't have the Gipper's background in Hollywood, but Karl Rove groomed him into acting the role of Commander-in-Chief with enough confidence to pull it off, with the help of a servile media -- and a supporting cast of walk on con artists and ideological zealots.
Shortly after 9/11, BuzzFlash ran an editorial that national security was an issue that concerned all our lives -- and that to leave all the decision making to Bush would be to abandon our safety.
But Rove masterminded the politics of fear and "Hollywoodzation" of the Presidency. All the world has been a stage for Bush. It is ironic that the party that demagogues the movie industry has pulled the wool over the nation's eyes with the tricks of the cinematic trade.
BuzzFlash has been forever cautious in predicting the demise of Bush.
We have a one-party virtual dictatorship -- and they have enormous means at their disposal to cover up the truth and lie their way out of failure. They also have a largely fawning corporate press who readily provides excuses for disastrous behavior, deceptions and actions. Not to mention a Democratic Congressional leadership that has been unimaginative and timid in standing up for the Constitution and for true national security, not the disastrous politically-motivated Potemkin Village version offered by Bush.
But, there are some creeping signs that the mainstream media may finally feel the need to cut Bush loose. He has embarrassed them with his chronic ineptitude, after all. And, clearly, some Republican insiders outraged at the arrogant incompetence of the Bush-Cheney-Rove Troika are starting to leak out the truth like a sieve. The mainstream press -- including the New York Times and Washington Post -- has buried many of these stories in the middle sections of their papers, if they've covered them at all. Some, admittedly, were just too big to ignore.
But now, there are signs the dam is breaking.
There are indications that the corporate world of the media is starting to see Bush as a liability, despite his penchant for making decisions that benefit financial interests (think Dubai Port agreement) over national security. The multimedia conglomerates that own most of the major news outlets have -- until now -- looked to the bottom line, not to the truth. And that meant protecting their investment in the Bush-Cheney Administration.
Besides which, as BuzzFlash has noted many times, news, entertainment, advertising, and public relations have merged into an inseparable blend of "truthiness" (with acknowledgements to Steven Colbert) in the mass media.
But there are glimmers that some media are starting to pull the truth out of "truthiness."
Take the Seattle Times, which concluded a March 5 editorial with this reality-based statement: "President Bush is great at sales, but he cannot deliver a product — time after time."
Actors play roles and engage us in fictional stories.
So has Bush.
One can only hope that his road show is about to close, because the reviews are starting to reflect reality, not the illusion -- and, as a result, a vast majority of the American public has stopped buying tickets to the Rove/Bush/Cheney production.
Democracy isn't secure yet, not by any means. The power is still all in the hands of the members of the cult of Bushevism.
It took decades for the Iron Curtain to fall. Rove, Bush, and Cheney (among other Republican martinets) plan for decades of Bushevism and Right Wingism to rule America.
Let us hope that turns out to be the length of their prison sentences; not the prison sentence inflicted on America.
A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL