Letters to the Editor
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Dry Drunk
Some in AA would call that a very good description of a "Dry Drunk" or one that has stopped drinking but not dealt with the root issues that caused them to drink.
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Someday, all may see the glory of the republic written in indictments of the whole pack.
I am generally in agreement with most of Blumenthal's articles, but I think in this one too much credit is given to Cheney, Rummy, et al. I honestly believe that the last ditch tactics that are and will be employed by Rove at Bush's behest are evidence that these guys know what is coming. Treason, perjury, conspiracy, violation of civil rights, contempt of congress, fraud, and potentially European Union indictments for kidnapping, torture, attempted murder, murder, and war crimes are all on the menu.
The Libby charges are small potatoes compared to what could be in store for Bush's inner circle if an ambitious prosecutor lines up with a willing congress and starts pulling records for KBR (Halliburton), Blackwater, the Carlisle Group, or other shady entities whose members will start singing the moment they are faced with serious time in the federal pen.
I don't believe Cheney and Rummy are trying to secure a legacy, or that this is some grand attempt to ensure that the policies and influence of this administration extend beyond 2008. Rather, I think this is a serious attempt to protect top members of a crime syndicate that puts La Cosa Nostra to shame. I am completely serious- the ONLY thing anyone in this pack of thieves has been fired for is a violation of "Omerta", the oath of silence. All other crimes are just family business.
Cheney may only last a few years, but many of the key players here, including W himself, are only in their 50's or early 60's. Even if full disclosure is never made in the US, these clowns could be in a situation where if they step off a plane anywhere in the world in the next 25 years, they could be hauled in by Interpol and dragged before a court in any EU member state (for involvement in the extraordinary rendition of EU citizens). At this point they're just trying to cover their increasingly exposed backsides, and any thoughts of historical remembrance are limited to their own hope that history doesn't remember them as American Pinochets, Milosevics, Pol Pots, or just plain convicted felons. Make no mistake, these rats are cornered and increasingly dangerous.
My own hope for restoring some semblance of resepct for the rule of law will be a searchable database in the future, akin to a sex offender registry, where I can search among the following names to find out if a traitor lives in my neighborhood:
Addington, Bush, Bybee, Cambone, Card, Cheney, Chertoff, Feith, Gonzales, Hayden, Libby, Miller, Rice, Rove, Rumsfeld, Tenet, Wolfowitz, Yoo, and who knows how many others.
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A chilling addendum
Another possibility in addition to a scorched earth approach to the midterm elections is that we will soon see the wheels of the presidential pardon machine start to spin. Should there be a real change in control of congress, we could see a wave of pre-emptive pardons during the lame duck session and subsequent adjournment. Shame certainly would not prevent W from pulling this kind of stunt, and his predilection for recess appointments to positions requiring senate confirmation certainly shows a willingness to bypass congress for even routine matters.
If the Nixon debacle taught Cheney and Rummy anything, it's that the pardons should kick in before the underlings start to sing about their bosses. I hope I'm wrong, but like everyone else, I have underestimated the degree to which this administration is willing to show naked contempt for the rule of law.
I have not yet overestimated their ruthlessnes- For instance, I do not believe that Karl Rove actually relieves stress by stomping on bunnies on the white house lawn.
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You're far too kind, Sid
Rumsfeld and Cheney want an unaccountable imperial presidency?
What about the Clintons--both of them. You think they wanted Bill or the
the next democratic executive to have such unfettered power? Get real.
Rumsfeld and Cheney want nothing so grand, especially Cheney. Cheney just
wants to the line his pockets and those of his friends with greenbacks.
Rummy's already lined his, and the bird flew scare hasn't hurt.
You go easy on the bastards, ascribing to them such
lofty goals. They're scum, pure and simple.
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What the "Passion" base requires
I assumed from the title that you would touch on the need for Bush to service the last remainder of his base: the religious right. In smaller red state cities and towns across America, the ministers of flocks who trooped to the polls en masse and 100%, are being promised that it is just a matter of perhaps weeks before their hero triggers the Rapture they require.
Remember that the sale of millions of the Left Behind book series, written by GOP dirty tricks operative Tim LaHaye (nursing sour grapes over loss of his cause/obsession against gay rights), set the scene for the largest sustained mass psychosis religious episode in American history. When such crackpot endtimes theories were popularized in the 1920s, organized religion largely helped dispel them. But as Jimmy Carter warned in a NY Times op-ed just before the Iraq invasion, this time the scam was supported by none other than the Southern Baptist convention, which is the largest Protestant denomination after Catholicism in the US. My own family were referred to the Left Behind series by their Southern Baptist mega-church, which held hugely attended study classes/Iraq War rallies that treated this fiction as prophesy.
It remains to be seen whether Bush is a part of the national endtimes dementia. In his recent best seller "American Theocracy" Kevin Phillips estimates it may be 30% of the public, and you can count on that same 30% being the Bush supportive hold-outs. What they are holding out for is the end of the world. Will their hero deliver?
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Eschatology vs. The Omega Point
While our deluded messianic President dissolves in a ball of phlegm, it is assumed that as many as 30 per cent of the American Public, who fully expect him to usher in The Rupture (my preferred term for the Christian End of the World pre-show). I actually fully expect that Tielhard de Chardin will win this one. Yes, a (dead)Catholic priest, but also a scientist, a Christian mystic and poet, once regarded by his own church as a heretic for having denounced not only Darwin but Creationism in his quest for "the tiller of the Universe" will likely have the last say. This is because Tielhard believed that if enough people achieve enlightenment in a given area of concern, they would, like physical matter, pull the rest across the Rubicon with them, in effect completing the transformation of man. In this case, on a much smaller scale (and hopefully sooner than the date both Tielhard and Terrence McKenna chose - 2012), I sincerely believe we as a people will shortly have reached, due to the mind-boggling arrogance, ignorance and narcisism the President and his entire posse of human vultures have inflicted on us all, that tipping point that will pull the rest of the populace with them - with US - back to the center, and the center will most certainly hold. To quote Hemingway's Mayor in "The Moon Is Down": "The people do not like to be conquered, sir, and so they won't."
If Bush (I cringe to attach "President" to that name) can see himself in apocalyptic terms and Blumenthal can couch his observations in similarly cosmic ones, I don't see why we should not see our impending uprising and victory over the current madness as anything less than a grand triumph of the spirit. The more esoteric religions of the world - Sufism, Coptic Christianity, and most certainly Primitive Christianity and the Egyptian Mystery Schools - see a necessity to be brought down to nothing, to be virtually destroyed, in order to be reborn. Whether it is the Democratic Party that is reborn, or merely Critical Thinking, our national pride was struck a huge blow on 9/11/2001, but what has been done to this nation and the world in the interim has taken us down to the bare metal. The last few pathetic hangers-on no longer have the power to persuade good people to simply stand by and hope the Wrong Numbers will give us the right answer. A day of reckoning is coming, for sure, but it won't be the glorification of the current idiocy, nor of what Bill Burroughs called "pure educated evil." It will be the transformative power of a center that has held through our own first Revolution, our first Civil War and our Three Strikes (Viet Nam, Desert Storm and the current fiasco). When the turnover comes,it won't be a vision of Dubya triumphant seen in the clouds, but the face of God (you should forgive the term), in our neighbor's, our own salvation by our own hands despite our own delayed development.
The end truly is near - for the soul-less idiot irresponsibles who have helped us to this turning point. For the rest of us I see a beginning at last visible on the horizon. As for the rest, may their god have mercy on their souls, because their ass is ours.