Letters to the Editor
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two bad eggs
Oh, my God, we can't impeach Bush without including Cheney also. This is the real reason to not kick him out.
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What's the chance the Bush-Cheney Administration won't turn the government over to the candidate elected president in 2008?
That's a question I've asked a couple friends for the last few years. Most were so outraged by the question that their answers were in the 0%-5% range. I thought it was more like 25%, but now I think it's over 50%, now that the White House has issued the "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive": http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html. In brief, watch for the President to declare a "catastrophic emergency." This would trigger the President's takeover of all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the President's sole and direct command. A "catastrophic emergency" is loosely defined as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions" -- like another Hurricane Katrina, or an avian flu outbreak, or a 'mad cow disease' epidemic in America's beef cattle. The President has sole responsibility to determine that a catastrophic emergency has occurred, and then he's empowered to take over all government functions and to direct all private sector activities to ensure that the country will emerge from the emergency with an "enduring constitutional government." Yeah, right.
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Remarkable!
Thank you. This is excellent and compelling writing. It is so hard to understand why the public has allowed things to go this far. This article really clarifies things for me.
But, one line that stuck out for me as being a little off: "Congress and the media both gain courage as the polls sink..."
Ha! It's not courage if you wait until your previously unwelcome opinion is no longer too explosive to be tolerated! That's just hiding in your safe place when the knowledge you could have shared might have saved lives. If Congress and the media are just coming out now, then they should still be welcomed back, but certainly not seen as having gained courage.
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Why Americans Continue To Tolerate Bush
Gary Kamiya’s exploration of “Why Bush Hasn’t Been Impeached” touches an many, clearly important, aspects of the American character that have allowed the ongoing maintenance of a clearly corrupt and criminal political machine.
There are, however, other, even darker, aspects of our national character that he did not explore that may be as, or even more, relevant to the issue.
One must wonder whether, had the 9/11 atrocity been the result of a group of white Europeans (or Australians, or white South Africans, or whatever non-colored racial group you could choose, religion aside) would the American public been as ready to employ indiscriminate deadly force and as willing to ignore (or actually find contorted justifications for) the deaths of over half-a-million ‘collateral’ deaths? That vicious racism is part and parcel of the average American’s response to the issue is easily demonstrated by hearing a selection of comments made while protesting the war or the administration. America is currently in the process of whitewashing and reinventing its own history of racism - to wit: NeoConfederate revisionism, the progressive re-segregation of our neighborhoods and public schools, and the ‘blame the victim’ attitude of those who dismiss any societal responsibility for the troubles of the inner cities. Our easy tolerance of racism makes it all the easier to tolerate its effects 6,200 miles away. That those at the receiving end of our injustice believe a conflicting mythology only adds to the alienation and ease with which we can tolerate it.
Another issue to confront is our repeatedly demonstrated willingness to tolerate injustice (no matter how egregious) that brings us economic benefit. I suspect the average American on the street might be hard-pressed to describe how they depend upon the unfettered operation of the military-industrial-congressional (and now religious) complex to lend stability to their lives. I doubt, however, that many would express doubt that any interference with its ‘business as usual’ (I.e.; the promulgation of war, supplying the tools of conflict, and U.S. imperialism however else it is disguised) would be profoundly unsettling and would meet it with resistance proportional to the fear its perceived effects (loss of income, privilege, security, etc.) would raise in the public at large. As such, our national sense of personal security (defined not as fear of terrorism, but as fear of personal and economic insecurity) motivates the public to endorse the status quo rather than seek justice at the potential price of venturing into new and unknown political and economic territory. (I suspect it is this attitude that also accounts for our national inertia in responding to the threat of global warming). Our elected officials are drawn from this pool and represent them as well - they're no less immune to these fears than their constituencies.
And, while Gary touched on it, I suspect the national trend toward fundamentalist thought and ‘magical’ thinking plays a larger role than he allowed. We now live (both in the U.S. and around the world) in a time in which people have decided to believe their wishes are reality and establish “truth” by a vote or by the edicts of so-called “sacred texts“. As such, half of Americans believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and disregard as irrelevant any contradictory scientific facts - they have their own “facts”. Similarly many believe they’ll be magically transported to heaven in a “Rapture” some time in their current lifetimes just as Shia Muslims await the - expected any day - return of the 12th Imam who will establish the kingdom of the righteous on Earth. In short Americans (and others around the world) have had enough of the facts and have chosen to determine that their beliefs are reality. Perhaps the facts ’on the ground’ are too difficult to deal with and try to maintain any sense of hope in a better future. Hence, there were WMD in Iraq - only we haven’t found them. There was an association between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein - only we haven’t found the proof (doubt people believe this? Did you see Richard Perle on the PBS series “A Nation At A Crossroads”). So, despite a plethora of evidence to the contrary, it is easy to find people who, while willing to admit all that was and is wrong with our invasion of Iraq, are still willing to say “we should just nuke Baghdad and be done with it” (a direct quote from a lady I encountered during a protest who, when I pointed out that Iraq didn’t have anything to do with 9/11 said “well they’re all in that area anyway - just nuke ‘em”). In essence, the actual facts of life on Earth, including that of George Bush and his administration’s criminality, have become overwhelming and, in order to maintain sanity and hope, a new and more salutary reality is constructed. Consequently, we are left to deal with real issues and unreal perceptions of those issues and, trying to bridge to gap is far too threatening for most.
Anyway, those are my thoughts and I’m stickin’ to ‘em…
Anybody want to go visit the dinosaurs living with cavemen "historical" exhibitions in Florida and Kentucky?