Jerry Tenuto: "Out Of The Blue" -- At the onset of his administration, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said we only had to fear "fear itself." He never imagined fear would emanate directly from the Oval Office.

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“…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself...”

That famous phrase was uttered early on by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his first Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933. Although many, yours truly included, have erroneously attributed it to America’s entry into World War II, he was speaking about the raging Depression. It set the tone for the rest of the speech, his next four years in office, and, as fate would have it, the balance of the man’s life.

Being neither oracle nor prophet, FDR could not possibly have known of the impending births of a relatively small bunch of individuals, and the havoc their existences – once brought together -- would thrust upon our Nation and the rest of the Planet.

Neither could he have foreseen the event, just shy of 60 years after his own forthcoming Pearl Harbor, that would open the door for these brigands to put their plot into full motion.

The first thing we have to overcome is false fear that Herr Ubermeister Karl Rove has been seeding American minds and hearts with since 9/11.

As I’ve noted here in this column, during both his speeches to the Conservative 1% privileged folks of New York State and more recently the RNC, the Minister of Pulling W’s Strings has no new ideas to introduce to the voters of America.

Why would the GOP need any? There’s already misaligned voting districts unfavorable to minorities and other Democratic-based demographics; contracts for electronic voting machines hard-wired to deliver pro-GOP votes; voting officials in key precincts who are certain to do their duty and keep the riff-raff out; states like Georgia with new laws, enacted by Republican-dominated legislatures, that make it difficult if not impossible for minorities and poor to vote.

FDR’s line, and I’ve never before read or heard the rest of it quoted, went like so: “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

This is exactly what Rove has counted on, and gotten away with – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror. Terror from what? This filters down from Herr Karl through Bush #43, Dark Lord the Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi “But I really am a single, middle-aged Black woman?” Rice, Ken “Can’t Hold a Real Job” Mehlman, and the rest of the war-loving, torture-approving members of the Senate, Congress, the Military hierarchy, to be spread like manure by the mainstream press, then beaten into far too many skulls by the extreme rightist talk radio clucks.

According to one poll I noticed the other day, 76% of Republican respondents are still buying his bullshit that somebody is going to attack us, and it’s a good idea that we send our young adults into Iran to be slaughtered there, too.

What we genuinely have to fear are the Republicans who spout “Constitution this” and “Liberty that” and “our real Democracy” – while in the meantime they’ve got the machinery in high gear dismantling each and every personal freedom that makes America great.

And with each passing second and every shady deal these guys’ money clips just keep getting heavier and fatter.

Tom DeLay has lost his position as House Majority Leader, thank Heaven. So who’s the frontrunner for the position? Roy Blunt, the very guy Smiler Tom groomed to be his Capo. What in the hell kind of reform is that?

(As we know, John Boehner of Ohio, another DeLayist, edged out Blunt for the leadership position – and has subsequently altered nothing.)

While we’re on the subject, it seems that a wise move for the House Republicans might be to get rid of Dennis Hastert as Speaker. He’s not without stink and manure-encrusted shoes from the K Street lobbyist fiasco.

Even when Hastert suggested changing the rules about lobbyists, many within the GOP rank and file went ballistic. These good folks don’t want any reform at all, schmucks like Jerry Weller, the DeLay/Hastert bootlicker of my 11th Illinois District, a taker of Abramoff money, who rubber stamps anything the White House or Smiler Tom says to approve.

Then there’s the other bootlicker in the neighboring 15th District, Tim Johnson.

Tweedledufus and Tweedledufuser.

It will be a much brighter day when the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives is improved by the removal of the two aforementioned wastes of space, and they are replaced with Democratic newcomers Dr. David Gill (15th) and former CIA counter terrorism operative John Pavich (11th), among others.

Also in that speech, FDR took a shot directly at greed and corruption: “Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing…

“Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This nation asks for action, and action now.”

Not one person outside of the Democratic Party has taken an honest stand to address the serious level of corruption that permeates the Republican machine. In truth, it’s more appropriate to call the lot a cabal.

We as a Nation have far more to fear from these incompetents who neither wish to nor know how to govern for the people. There are now four sitting justices on the Supremes who are members of the Federalist Society. It’s sad, but most Americans don’t know that. Sadder still, even more of us have no idea who or what the Federalist Society is.

Short version, the FS was begun in 1982 by Edwin Meese, William Rehnquist, et al, with funding from Richard Mellon Scaife and cohorts to reach out to and recruit young Conservative law students for internships with the Supremes and other prestigious government positions. The intent was to get American courts back to the far Right, to what this small group of individuals considered to be their proper place.

In other words, disgruntled rich white judges, attorneys and politicians who want everything their way. Some of the society’s more famous (or infamous) names include Robert Bork, Ken Starr, Antonin Scalia, John Bolton, Samuel Alito, Irving Kristol, William Kristol, John Negroponte, Michael Chertoff, John Ashcroft, Clarence Thomas (oops, where’d the Black guy come from?).

Look at all we’ve lost since having the power of our votes being counted dismissed by the late, ungreat William Rehnquist:
Nearly 3,000 dead on 9/11 who may not have perished had someone in the White House paid attention or cared; schools going down the tubes;
loss of 1st Amendment Rights, especially when it applies to criticizing the Bush regime;
no citizen is allowed to hear the faux-president or Dark Lord Cheney speechify in person without signing his or her soul to the devil;
money flying out of our pockets and straight into the coffers of the big oil companies in the form of exorbitant profits;
all the president’s friends, cronies and contributors getting fat;
tax dollars being funneled directed from the IRS to Halliburton and its subsidiaries, as well as the other no-bid contractors;
New Orleans.

I caught part of the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings on C-Span today. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Vice Chair, was giving National Intelligence Director Negroponte a dressing down, expressing his dismay at the complete lack of candor from either the intelligence community or the White House concerning King George XLIII’s warrantless eavesdropping policy. He made some excellent points, including the fact that the excuse for informing Committee Chair Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), a Bush lapdog, yet not the rest of the members for lacking necessary clearances as lame and derelict.

Rockefeller ended his time by inquiring who were all these thousands of people this invasion of privacy has saved. Before going on to the next person Roberts, ever the Bushite and hawk, made a snide comment about all those who weren’t killed on the George Washington Bridge.

Where in the hell did that come from? What plot against the George Washington Bridge? Does this fool have any idea how much in the way of high-grade military explosives it would take to even make a dent in that bridge?

Then Negroponte, the career expert at taking what appears to be the truth then making it something completely different, began to speak. Interminably. And he said nothing. For well over an hour. Maybe two. I dunno, I lost track.

It was not Benjamin Franklin, but a contemporary of his, Richard Jackson, who most likely wrote, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Despite the author, the fact remains that he’s Bush #43, not King George XLIII, and has no business listening in on our telephone calls or reading our e-mails.

On the flip side, the president is a public servant and answerable to both Houses, the Courts, and the People. So where are ALL the photos, documents and e-mails the White House has been asked to produce the past five years?

And Dark Lord the Dick Cheney has even less excuse not to come across with documents as requested.

We are the richest, most powerful country in the World. We have the potential to lead on many fronts. But part of the reason we can’t is, as former President Jimmy Carter and John “Saint Jack” Danforth (Episcopal priest; former Ambassador and Senator-MO) there are too many evangelicals mucking up the Government because they can’t distinguish where their version(s) of the Bible ends and where the law of man begins.

And it has become painfully obvious, far too many of these quasi-evangelicals are as corrupt as there are interpretations of the Book.

While reading Roosevelt’s inauguration speech I was impressed by the sheer wisdom of the man. Bill Clinton attempted to display wisdom from time to time, but was forced by the need to reach the lowest common denominator to ustilize the KISS method – keep it simple, stupid. Prior to Bill, Jimmy Carter occasionally touched upon brilliance and wisdom; John Kennedy was a wise man and it often shone through in his speeches.

There hasn’t been anything even remotely close to that which might resemble wisdom emanating from anyone who works in the West Wing, especially the highly educated Condi Rice, since January 20, 2001.

As a reminder to the Republicans and their continual talk of war, that Democrats are wusses who won’t protect America, here’s what the man who was forced to take on the Japanese and the Germans at the same time (as well as Grandpa Prescott Bush, indicted by FDR’s Justice Department for consorting with and profiteering from the Nazis):

“In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor – the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others – the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.”

DAY 1,886 OF AMERICA HELD HOSTAGE – our White House and the Executive Branch overrun by the Karl Rove-controlled Neo-con Fascist Regime.
Impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

(This column appeared in THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST and at www.LoneStarIcon.com the week of Feb. 7, 2006)
© 2006, The Lone Star Iconoclast

Authors Website: www.lonestaricon.com

Authors Bio:
An erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator, Jerry Tenuto is a veteran of seven years service in the U.S. Army. He holds a BS and MA in Broadcast Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. For two decades Jerry filled the airwaves with rock, roll and banter as a disc jockey -- until greed, the rebirth of payola, and de-Reaganlation ruined that medium. Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly "Out Of The Blue" feature in THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST, Crawford, Texas, www.LoneStarIcon.com -- because somebody from that community has to do the world right.