The Bombs in the Basement
By Ernest Partridge
08/24/05 "The
Crisis Papers" -- -- By all outward appearances,
the Busheviks and the Republicans have it made. They are, as
the late Red Barber used to say, “sitting in the catbird
seat.” They own the White House, the Congress, and soon the
Federal Judiciary. The mainstream media are safely corralled,
with just enough dissenting voices (such as Krugman, Rich,
Dionne and Oliphant) to give credence to the absurd right-wing
complaint of “liberal media bias.” Potentially
devastating news developments and issues, such as election
fraud, the Downing Street Memos, Plamegate, political
corruption, growing domestic dissent and international
hostility are not refuted in the media as much as they are
ignored – crowded out with trivial reports of runaway
brides, disappearing teenagers, celebrity trials and romances,
etc., ad nauseum.
For all that, the Bush regime has reason to be nervous. For
its continuing success depends totally on the public’s
inattention to, apathy toward, and even ignorance of several
potentially explosive issues which, if brought to light,
publicized, investigated, and then criminally prosecuted,
could demolish the House of Bush and the Republicans. These
“bombs in the basement” of the GOP establishment are not
disarmed. They are fully armed and ready to go off, if only
the opposition can get to them and mobilize the public. And
the Busheviks know this all too well.
I am not referring here to mismanagement or incompetence on
the part of the Bush Administration and the Congress, although
there is certainly plenty of that. Instead, I mean criminal
activity – indictable and impeachable violations of the law.
Amazingly, many of these crimes are no secret, rather they are
open and plain to see by all with eyes to see. What additional
crimes lurk beneath the surface is anyone’s guess. Even so,
the crimes that are out in the open do not arouse the media or
a significant portion of the American public. Abroad, its
quite another story, as the foreign press freely reports and
comments on these crimes, and international outrage at the
Bushista outlaws continues to grow.
Among these open and confirmable crimes:
-
Lying to Congress is a
crime.
-
Disclosing the identity of
a covert intelligence agent is a crime.
-
Perjury is a crime.
-
Influence peddling
(“graft”) is a crime.
-
Torture of prisoners and
violation of the Geneva Conventions is a crime.
-
Violation of civil
liberties (denial of rights to counsel, trial, etc.) is a
crime.
-
Failure to obey a court
order (i.e. of the Supreme Court) is a crime.
-
Misprision (i.e.,
incitement) of a felony is a crime.
-
Voting fraud is a crime.
-
Obstruction of Justice is a
crime.
Yet the Congress refuses to
investigate, and the mainstream media refuse to investigate
and report, which means that the Congress and the media are
(in an unindictable sense) “accessories” to these crimes.
Each of these is a momentous offense, totally incompatible
with a political order that claims to function under the rule
of law. Yet there they are, recognizable and still unpunished
– and tolerated by a public that appears to be unwilling or
unable to appreciate the gravity of the crimes openly
committed by their government.
But for how long? History teaches us that public opinion can
be “turned on a dime,” by a catalyzing event. On December
6, 1941, a majority of Americans opposed entering the war.
That all changed the following day, when the bombs fell at
Pearl Harbor. Senator Joe McCarthy had the Congress, the
Press, and even President Eisenhower intimidated until the day
that an obscure lawyer, Joseph Welch, stood his ground and
said to the Senator: “have you no shame!” The
public, as it turned out, was more than willing to listen.
Regimes also die gradually of a thousand cuts. In 1964, Lyndon
Johnson soundly defeated Barry Goldwater by twenty percentage
points, and four years later recognized that he was
unelectable. In 1972, Richard Nixon was re-elected in an
electoral college landslide, carrying every state but one. A
year and a half later, he was forced to resign in disgrace.
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, George Bush’s approval ratings
were above 80%. Now they are half of that, and falling – the
result of which is still to be known.
And so, if, at last the public at large comes to appreciate
the magnitude of the crimes of this administration, the Bush
crime syndicate will soon be swept from power, despite the
best efforts of the captive media to prop it up.
But can the public be aroused from its slumbers? On that
question, history will turn.
In the meantime, uneasy sits the junta in the mansion atop the
unexploded bombs.
However, we, the public, need not sit silently, as helpless
spectators, hoping for a reversal of fortune while our
democracy is being taken from us. In fact, a significant and
growing portion of the public is taking action, as the Bush
administration and its bodyguard media lose credibility. The
public is acquiring immunity to the official lies and Karl
Rove’s smear machine. They worked against Al Gore, Max
Cleland and John Kerry, but against Joe Wilson and Cindy
Sheehan, the slime appears not to be sticking. The mainstream
media, having shed its sense of responsibility to the truth
and to the public, is now losing circulation and ratings,
while it remains answerable to its stockholders. That media
might thus face the choice of either becoming irrelevant or,
to avoid bankruptcy, practicing honest journalism again.
There is movement afoot and the public is beginning to stir.
As gas prices and interest rates rise, the disastrous
consequences of Bushenomics are coming into view. Some
conservative pundits appear ready to wander off the GOP
reservation. “The I-word” – impeachment – is heard
more frequently. And yet, amazingly, and disgracefully, the
Democratic Party establishment appears reluctant to play a
significant role in this movement.
Thus it remains the responsibility of each private dissenting
citizen to join the struggle – a thousand, better millions,
of “points of light,” to use George H. W. Bush’s
metaphor in a manner he never intended. The citizen can act
with boycotts, letters to editors, demonstrations, and by
supporting progressive voices in the independent media and the
internet. The citizen can act by being heard in public
meetings and private conversations, and, if sufficiently
resourceful and courageous, with acts of civil disobedience.
But can private citizens make a difference? Ask that question
of the protesters at Camp Casey, and you will find your
answer. Joseph Wilson made a difference. Cindy Sheehan
made a difference. Colleen Rowley made a difference. Who’s
next? Maybe you. As Margaret Mead once said: "Never doubt
that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change
the world: Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
What, if anything, might set off the bomb that puts an end to
the Bush regime? Possibly Patrick Fitzgerald’s
investigation. He has no shortage of indictable felonies to
deal with. The great unknown is the courage of Fitzgerald, his
legal team, and the grand jury. Also unknown is whether
Bush’s Justice Department dares to fire Fitzgerald, possibly
igniting a Nixonian fire-storm.
To my mind, the most vulnerable line of attack against the
Bush/GOP machine is voting fraud. The evidence is compelling
(see Dennis Loo’s “No
Paper Trail Left Behind” and The Crisis
Paper’s “Election
Fraud” page). The best that the GOP and the media
can offer as rebuttal is (a) stonewall silence, (b) the
laughable, unsupported and refuted hypothesis of “the
reluctant Bush voters” at the exit polls, and (c)
predictably, smearing the election-critics by calling them
“conspiracy theorists.” Substantive proof that the
paperless e-voting machines and central compiling were totally
honest is non-existent. That’s the way the e-voting machines
were designed.
Nothing, except perhaps a collapse of the economy, is more
likely to move the public to open revolt than proof, possibly
in the form of criminal indictments and conviction, that their
votes were stolen, and that the administration and Congress in
Washington have put themselves beyond the reach of recall by
the voters. Despite the determination of the mainstream media
to ignore the issue of voting fraud, it will not go away.
Occasional doubts of the integrity of the ballot break through
the media’s wall of silence: first Keith Olberman, and just
this week, Paul
Krugman. Citizen doubts must now be relentlessly
expressed. As more White House lies are exposed, as casualties
mount in Iraq, and as the economy darkens, more and more
citizens will be open to the idea that they’ve been had –
at the polls.
Obviously, the Congress and Bush’s Attorney General will not
investigate the issue of voting fraud. But no matter. National
elections are administered on the state and local level, and
thus any state attorney general or local district attorney is
authorized to investigate and bring charges of voting fraud.
One must wonder why it hasn’t happened yet. (Perhaps such
investigations are underway and the media won't tell us about
them). Citizen pressure has more clout on the state and local
level than on the federal level. So that’s where demands for
action must be made.
The Bush Administration is energizing a formidable array of
opponents: foreign governments that it is bullying and
betraying, ordinary citizens that it is robbing of social
services, health care, and job security, military personnel
that it is sending in harm’s way to Iraq (and who knows,
next Iran?), and the grieving parents, spouses and children
losing their loved ones in that atrocious war.
And finally, the Bush Administration is engaged in a contest
against the truth and against reality, as it spins out lie
after lie, and as it rewrites and censors scientific reports.
This is a contest that it must eventually lose. Presumably,
the primary objective of the Busheviks now is to prolong their
charade until January 2009, when they leave office. Our job as
responsible citizens is to pull away the curtain and expose
the wizard as soon as possible, to minimize further damage to
our country – to its economy, to its international
reputation, to its honor.
For, to quote the late physicist Richard Feynman in his
dissent to the Challenger Disaster report, "reality
must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot
be fooled."
Copyright 2005 by Ernest Partridge
