The next five years will determine what the U.S, will look and be like, for the next fifty years. After Bush undermined the government’s revenue base by handing out $3.5 trillion in corporate tax breaks, he started a couple of wars that have, to date, cost an estimated $2.4 trillion. Factor in taxpayer hand outs of a few more trillions to the banks, and the republicans have finally realized their long term goal – breaking the U.S. Government. The day will come when a state is so broke it will ask the corporate banks for help. The help will be conditional of course. The state will be forced to privatize its government functions, which will involve the elimination of all social programs. All of its resources, natural or industrial, will be handed over to corporate management. Americans will have paid the corporations to dictate the terms by which they live. Even today, corporations are buying up water all over the planet, and in the not so distant future if a populace wants this essential element of life they will have to jump through a few hoops to get it. Finally, freedom and the human need for independence will die with a whimper, not a bang.
In 2000, those Americans who weren’t addled, saw a coup that robbed a majority of them of their vote. They joked that Bush won the election fair and square. He got five votes to Gore’s four. Voting is revolution without the blood, but voting failed as a transitional medium with which to transfer power after the Supreme Court hijacked the 2000 election, and not a single Democratic Senator stood up to object. Americans were asked to believe that Bush won Florida by a few hundred votes, even as Gore won a national majority. Jeb and Katherine Harris sat idly by insuring that all was fair and above board. Yeah, right. Wanna buy some real estate on Pluto? Then, the Supreme Court ruled on what came to be known as the “Gore Exception.” This “exception” was Constitutional if counting the votes in a contested state would result in Gore winning the presidency.
Obama is a marginally better president than Bush, as Biden is a marginally better V.P. than Cheney. But that wasn’t why voters put Obama in office, and gave him a filibuster proof majority. Obama promised change. Voters thought an Obama priority was getting the U.S. out of Iraq. Voters most definitely did not think he’d increase funding for the war in Afghanistan, and they damn sure didn’t expect him to beef up troop strength in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s the same old bullshit, different day, different face. Many Americans are under no delusions of how far gone Representative Democracy is. Millions more haven’t a clue. Congress has become so arrogant it no longer feels obligated to even pretend to its representative function.
Obama has a Constitutional, and legal duty, to see that another Bush and Cheney don’t morph the executive into a tin pot tyranny. Adding grievous insult to injury, Cheney seems to be advising Obama to stick with torture because, according to Dick, it works. This, according to Limbaugh, Fox News and O’Reilly – and the usual assortment of slobbering imbeciles. The fact that torture is against domestic and international law is never mentioned.
John Yoo was a Deputy Attorney General with the Bush Administration. In one of his more inspired moments Yoo said, “If the President deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him.” Yoo also advised Bush & Co that evidence obtained through torture was admissible at trial. A sub human ass like Yoo skates, but If a democratic president is rumored to have gotten a blowjob, nothing will do until a full investigation is launched, and impeachment proceedings initiated. Of course, any mention of prosecuting those who sanctioned, or ordered the torture of enemy combatants, is dismissed as loony left hysteria.
There are alternatives other than going quietly into the night. Imagine if in the next election every incumbent were voted out of office. Imagine the reactions of Congress and the President if, one day out of every week, Americans simply failed to show up for work. What could they do? Fire everyone? Run their corporations and the government by themselves? Politicians can’t imagine a worse form of torture than Americans turning off their televisions and leaving them off. A politician can’t survive if he’s ignored. The point is Americans don’t have to conform helplessly to the corporate/political hierarchy.
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