29/01/08 "ICH"
- -- Each new year ushers in a myriad of "Top
Ten" lists -- 10 best things, 10 worst things,
things we need to do, things we did but shouldn't
have -- and this year, even a hilarious list of
WTF? things popped
up. I'll admit I'm not as well organized as those
who progress in 10-step increments. My problem is
narrowing the atrocities down to 10 -- and then
narrowing those 10 down to a single year. I'm
confident I could compile a really neat list if I
could decide which in the tangle of loathsome
assaults should be Number One.
It can't be done. Everything that happened in 2007
is a direct result of events in 2006, a continuation
of 2005 crimes, the bloody mess of 2004, the shock
and awe of 2003 and the vicious, ruthless lies of
2001 that led us to where we are today. It's
impossible to appraise the malignant nature of this
administration in any intelligible way. From the
outset, it came at us -- at the world -- on all
fours with fangs bared. Whether ripping the humanity
from our Constitution or drowning the innocent in a
sea of blood, its appetite is insatiable. It rises
from each feast hungrier than before.
I used to think Americans had been whipped by 9-11
terror confusion into some sort of national stupor.
That's not so. We're trapped in a massive spiritual
paralysis. Normal people are simply not equipped to
deal with remorseless psychopaths. We were not
prepared to come face to face with evil, nor to be
manipulated by lies and controlled through stark
fear. Our refusal to address the mounting list of
Bush-Cheney war crimes could be because we cannot
force ourselves to admit our "one nation under God"
spies upon its citizens, imprisons them without due
process, engages in grotesque acts of torture and
delights in mass murder. And so we stand here on the
precipice of our own destruction, waiting for evil
to run its course.
No Mercy
Evil never runs its course. With each success, it
grows stronger, more ghastly and, like Dick Cheney,
emerges a bit more from the shadows. Never doubt for
a minute that these unfeeling creatures are not
evil. They are incapable of compassion, of empathy,
of mercy. Their eyes are on the prize of One World
rule, and they
will have it in spite of --
or as a result of -- all the chaos and carnage it
takes to achieve it. There are no
"Imps of the Perverse"
among them who will be so overcome with guilt they
will break from the pack and run through the
populace shrieking,
"We're guilty! We did it! We
are murderers!"
Cheney and his destructive little sidekick, George
Bush, have brazenly committed treasonous acts --
left piles of corpses in their wake since the 2000
election coup. If there is a God, they are bound
straight for Hell. But they are not alone. They're
protected by a merciless axis of courts,
congressional conspirators and corporate media who
cover up their crimes by issuing a steady barrage of
terror threats and a relentless fog of twisted
disinformation.
Our government is nothing but a Good Ol' Boys and
Girls club, with judges, journalists, legislators
and administration jesters whooping it up while
pillaging the Treasury, ignoring the cries of their
victims, turning a blind eye to millions of
slaughtered and displaced innocents, and sending
thousands of their own citizens to their deaths.
They have mauled, raped and obstructed Justice until
that once noble Lady is no longer recognizable.
Author Kurt Vonnegut, who died last April after a
fall in his home, warned that corruption in this
government must be removed and the perpetrators must
pay for their crimes or our Republic is dead. In an
October 2005 PBS interview, as his last book, "A Man
Without a Country," soared to the top of best-seller
lists, Vonnegut said, "...we have only a one-party
government. It's the winners. And then everybody
else is the losers. And the winners are divided into
two parties. The Republicans and the
Democrats...that's what a charade the combat between
the Republicans and the Democrats is. It's rich
kids. Winners on both sides. So the winners can't
lose. And, of course, the losers have no
representation in Congress..." Vonnegut said members
of Congress, regardless of party, represent only
those who bankroll their political campaigns; those
making tons of money from Bush and Cheney's illegal
war.
Enough is Enough
The 2006 elections, which gave the Democrats control
of both houses of Congress, was a clear imperative
to govern according to the will of the people. No
Congress in history has ever been elected who knew
better what that will was -- primarily to stop an
immoral war, but also to hold accountable those
responsible for the lies, torture, loss of freedoms,
spying on their own citizens, and the relentless
slaughter of US military as well as innocent Iraqi
and Afghanistani citizens.
Nancy Pelosi, quivering at the thought of becoming
the nation's first female Speaker of the House, said
on Nov 9, 2006, "This new Democratic majority has
heard the voices of the American people." She added,
while apparently attempting to stifle a burst of
wild, maniacal laughter, "Americans placed their
trust in Democrats. We will honor that trust. We
will not disappoint.”
Pelosi's counterpart in the Senate, Harry Reid,
bowed his head and mumbled that “The days of the
do-nothing Congress are over." He looked around
furtively before whispering that Americans spoke
“clearly and decisively in favor of Democrats
leading this country in a new direction.” Reid then
scurried off to crouch behind Bush, who smirked good
naturedly while giving him a "good thumpin.."
They
knew they were elected to stop the
madness, to stem the onslaught of tyranny and to
protect and defend the Constitution, but chose
instead to fall on their knees before those who
scorned them, threatened them, or perhaps offered
them a "piece of the action." By choosing to
suspend, rather than defend, the Constitution, they
are guilty of
high crimes.
We can no longer stand on the sidelines waiting for
the evil to subside. They must go -- all of them --
starting at the top with the impeachment of the mad
Cheney and Bush and continuing through both houses
of Congress where all 435 House seats and 35 Senate
seats are up for election this year.
The majority of Americans are demanding that both
Bush and Cheney be impeached and removed from
office, and those like
David Swanson, Ohio
Rep.
Dennis Kucinich,
and now Fla Rep.
Robert Wexler, are
working tirelessly to make that happen.
We've had enough. We not only agree with Vonnegut,
but with Lee Iacocca, who
pulls no punches in
his April 2007 book, "Where Have All the Leaders
Gone?" Iacocca asks, "Am I the only guy in this
country who's fed up with what's happening? Where
the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming
bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos
steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've
got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we
can't even clean up after a hurricane much less
build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad,
everyone sits around and nods their heads when the
politicians say, 'Stay the course.'
Stay the
course? You've got to be kidding. This is
America, not the damned
Titanic. I'll
give you a sound bite:
Throw the bums out!"
Yes. Throw the bums out and watch them scatter. And
when they do, there will be a traffic jam on the
highway to Hell.
