Thirty-four percent is the current approval rating for the President of the United States. To be more accurate, his disapproval rating is at 66%. There is no point in measuring negatives and pretending there is anything positive about it. To those of us who have been on this side for years we are still left wondering who these 34% are. The lies are all becoming unraveled and all that is left for the most corrupt administration in modern history is trot out tired old lines and scare tactics while using the troops they have put into harms way to support their lies in the most disgusting of fashions.
This past week has seen the President insisting that it is "irresponsible" to question the use of intelligence that has led to the deaths of over 100,000 people, at least 2,000 of them American children. As if that was not enough the Vice President emerged from his darkened lair long enough to say that critics of the war were dishonest and reprehensible. This is all they have left. To try and accuse those in search of the truth with the same foibles they represent. Irresponsible, dishonest and reprehensible. That just about summarizes this administration left with nothing to sell the American people except the same worn-out lies that they have been pimping for years now. The difference now though is 66% of America has awoken from the fear slumber and realizes that this kind of talk is nothing more than desperation on the precipice of disaster.
Irresponsible describes the manner in which this administration has waged this war. Does anyone remember the way this began? Promises of us being greeted as liberators, six month timeframe, and fanciful tales of Iraq's oil revenues footing the bill have all been proven to be irresponsible at best. Trillions of dollars missing with no explanation while administration-friendly companies have made the lion's share of blood profits. Troops sent in without adequate equipment and families left to raise money for body armor. Vehicles without doors, let alone protection. Soldiers used to protect oil ministries while weapons stockpiles went unguarded. Soldiers used to protect truckers from Halliburton who were earning insulting wages above that of a typical soldier. What about politically assassinating a critic of the war by purposefully outing his wife as a covert CIA operative? Irresponsible to say the least, compounded by the fact that she was actually working on weapons of mass destruction issues to begin with. Setting up fake PR stunts using the troops who are dying in this war to make the president look as if he is supported. Irresponsible does not even begin to cover it.
Dishonesty? How about claiming we had not used white phosphorous in Iraq until proof emerges and then changing the rationale to it was "not illegal". What do you call a president who claims anyone involved in a leak will be removed from the administration and then changes their story to say anyone who is indicted? Dishonest? The same president who claims that Congress had the same intelligence even when that portion of the investigation has not even started yet as the GOP has stonewalled for years now. Is there anything honest about a budget that strips over 80 billion in services to the nations poorest in order to continue to handout 70 billion more to the nations richest? Anyone who is not in the Forbes 500 knows this country is far worse economically now and the end is not in sight. Healthcare is either not accessible or cost prohibitive. Wages are far lower and bankruptcy is now not even a likely way out for people who find themselves with their backs to the wall. Yet whenever administration hawkers speak about the economy they brag about the job Bush has done.
Dishonesty does not do justice to that gall this administration has. When asked about Iraq, things are going well to them. The economy? Things are looking up! Torture? Bush says we don't do torture on the same day that Cheney goes to Congress to lobby on behalf of the CIA being exempted from the torture ban. White phosphorous? No we never used that as a weapon"oh you have a video, well, it's not illegal. Pre-war intelligence? Saddam has biological weapons, chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, botulism toxin, sarin, mustard gas, nerve gas, mobile weapons labs, anthrax, I mean we can't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud"oh, he had none of this and the nuclear proof we knew was bogus? Well, Saddam was a bad guy and if you speak out against this war then you must be supporting Saddam. The ends justify the means now don't they? Either way, criticizing why our kids were sent off to die, while they are still dying is" dishonest and irresponsible. Wow.
Thirty-four percent of this country actually still supports this. That is the truly frightening prospect. What word can properly describe such vile dishonesty and such blatant irresponsibility? That's right, Dick told us already, REPREHENSIBLE. It is reprehensible to send kids off to die for what you knew were lies. The alternative is that if it were not lies then you are entirely too stupid to hold public office. No one has ever accused the people in this administration of being stupid. Reprehensible though, that fits quite nicely. It is reprehensible to take the legacy of the United States and reduce it to a torture supporting, fiscally and morally bankrupt society which seeks to undermine its own values in the pursuit of an ideology which 66% of the people now disagree with.
What about Abu Ghraib and Gitmo? How about trying to allow torture as a policy? How about torturing prisoners to death in Afghanistan? How about the Geneva Convention as being rendered quaint? How about men who were too busy to serve when it was their turn disagreeing with a man like John McCain on the value of torture? Reprehensible barely scratches the surface.
The facts are clear and 66% of this country now sees the light. They see an administration devoid of morality selling war as a moral imperative. They see people who did not have the courage to fight for this country when it was their turn wrap themselves up in the flag and lecture us about God and country, while they strip our civil liberties. About duty and patriotism, while they allow the looting of this once great nation to continue. About honor and values from people who dishonor the service of the people they have sent to die by continuing to lie about why they were sent in the first place. They stand on the precipice of a disaster of their own making as only 34% of the people are left waving their little flags while their children die. Upon that precipice they have only one thing left to sell us, and that is their own desperation.
