Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Post-Election Reflection


It's official. Virginia has just come through for Jim Webb. George Allen, the guy who looks like Spiro Agnew with a bad John F. Kennedy haircut, is on his way to well-deserved political obscurity. The Democrats now control both houses of congress. Maybe we really will be able to take our country back from these hideous bastards after all. One week ago, we had every right to be pessimistic. All of that has changed. Oh, happy day! As a caller said on the Sam Seder program on Air America Radio yesterday, "I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl"! Full disclosure: the caller was a guy. It's a new morning in America, baby! As Mr. Dylan said in perfect context over forty years ago, "the times they are a'changin'"!

The unavoidable conclusion is that the Bush administration is as dead as a door nail. Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace exactly one week before my sixteenth birthday in 1974. At the time I remember thinking that the American political landscape would never again get as interesting as it was during the Watergate era. Oh, brother! Fasten your seatbelts, kids! The next two years are going to make 1972/74 look boring civics lecture. George W. Bush now has to answer for his crimes against humanity. He now faces a legislative body that not only possesses the power of the subpoena but has every intention of taking advantage of it. But the depressing era of a corrupt and sycophantic rubber-stamp congress is not yet over - not at all. Remember, these criminal fools have over a month left to inflict even more destruction on your once-great country. Keep your eyes on the damage they do between now and then.

Come January 1st, it's all over - and by "over" I'm not merely referring to the Bush presidency - I'm referring to the entire right wing movement that began with the so-called "Reagan Revolution" over a quarter of a century ago. For twenty-six years we've had to listen to these assholes lecture us about family values while they waged an unrelenting war upon the middle class. As a result, the disparity of income in the United States has not been this blatantly obvious since the end of the nineteenth century. The middle class, which during the last half of the twentieth century was the oil that fueled America's economic engine, is on the verge of virtual extinction. There's a very good reason why the GOP hadn't controlled both houses of Congress in over forty years when they took power in 1994. The Eighty-third Congress of 1953-55 saw some of the worst abuses of congressional power in American history. If you'll remember, that was the period when the infamous "witch hunts" provided by the House Un-American Activities Committee sent our Bill of Rights through the sausage grinder. When the Dems were finally able to regain control of the situation in January of '55, the Republican president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, shocked by his own party's mindless extremism, breathed a prolonged sigh of relief. The irony of it all is the fact that the McCarthy era, as damaging to our nation's psyche as it was, was a relatively brief span of time. This situation has gone on for twelve long years!

Finally there is light at the end of this long, depressing tunnel. Very soon, the Bush Mob will have to raise their right hands and take an oath to tell the whole, ugly truth. True, some of them will lie their asses off - don't forget this is the most dishonest White House we've ever had - but some of them are going to crack, make no mistake about it. Within a year it's going to be official and undeniable: George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They wanted to seize control of the second largest oil reserves on the planet. It was never about "bringing freedom and democracy to the Iraqi people". These are the same people who stole two elections in their own country. These are the same people who spied on American citizens without a constitutionally mandated, court-ordered warrant. These are the same people who gave us the Patriot Act and effectively did away with habeas corpus. These are the same people who now advocate torture. Implying that they believe in "freedom and democracy" in Iraq (or anywhere else for that matter) only insults my intelligence.

It's just so much fun watching this disgusting administration fall apart at the seams! The First Fool's day of reckoning is nye (and I don't mean Louie!) My prediction is that Bush will be remembered as the first US president in history to go to federal prison. Dick Cheney will probably avoid the same, well-deserved fate. Sadly, that fatal heart attack we've all been waiting for these past six years is likely to come any minute now. (Question: Would it be a federal offence to send a Triple Whopper with Cheese to the vice-president's residence? Just wondering). But while he may be able to avoid the judgement of a jury of his peers, no one is immune from the judgement of history. The most eye-popping aspect of this administration's arrogance has always been their obvious belief that they are so immune. That is why, within minutes of swearing to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" on January 20, 2001, the half-witted little thug we now call the commander-in-chief issued an executive order to seal the papers of not only his father's administration but Ronald Reagan's as well - curiously omitting the Clinton papers at the same time. They don't want history to know the truth. Sorry folks. History knows.

The clock is ticking and the sun is setting. A whole posse of murderously angry chickens will be coming home to roost very soon - and they have a serious agenda. Our president (yours and mine), George W. Bush is guilty of genocide; that is the very unpleasant reality that we all have to come to terms with. The sooner we do, the healthier - mentally and maybe even spiritually - we'll all be. Someone mentioned the other day that this is the beginning of the end of the George W. Bush presidency. That's not quite correct. The beginning of the end came the day in March of 2003 when they made the stupidest military blunder in American history by invading Iraq. The end arrived on Tuesday. It's over. It's all over.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

20 Comments:

At 8:20 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As usual, good one Tom.Did you notice that in the party of "family values" and "born again" etc corruption was most mentioned even among Republicans for the reason they dumped their candidates? Now that you have showed Bush the error of his ways take on the press and the judiciary. The press knew this was coming but their corporate masters dictated they spout the same old same old. A Democracy or any free system of government cannot survive without a free independent press, that was the reason I was so despondent before the election but the grassroots effort made the difference. Impeachment will never get anywhere with the appeals courts and the Supremes that Bush has put in place

 
At 8:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

PS. Sorry, I forgot in the giddiness of the big win but saw yesterday the Ken Lay verdict is null and void, don't remember what the process was called but Mrs Lay gets to live out her life as a VERY rich widow just as I predicted when Kenny Boy went to his reward whereever and whatever that is.

 
At 9:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let us hope that there will be a day of reckoning and accountability for this rotten administration. If the Bush loaded appeals and Supreme Court refuse to try them, we can always hope that Bush & Co can be dragged up before an international criminal tribunal. These people are the closest incarnation to Hitler and the Nazis ever seen in this country. Wouldn't it be wonderful to see his sorry ass in prison, along with Cheney and Rumsfeld? And we might as well toss Rove and Rice in there also.

In the meantime, at least the Democrats can put the brakes on a rubber stamp policy to give this little jug eared jackass everything he wants.

 
At 9:32 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Hey there!
Good one, Charles! I agree with yopu, Wilma: the gass roots effort made all the difference in the world. The people made history in 2006. That hasn't happened in a long, long time.
Cheers!
Tom

 
At 9:37 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, Hell must have frozen over. That's what I would have said to anyone a year ago who told me I would end up voting for anyone with the last name "Clinton." I figure, Hillary is such a power hungry cutthroat whore when it comes to politics that she will get behind the popular issue of the day, no matter what it is. With the Democrats in power she'll probably start acting more like one of them and come down on the war like she should have from the beginning. It'll be interesting to see how she backtracks and redefines the things she has said in the past for the war. I hope she doesn't let Bill coach her on this and get into defining the meaning of words like "is." I really don't care how she does it, as long as she comes out against the war now.

In the past I've been naive and trusted people I shouldn't have for my information, something I will regret always. I hope to make some good trouble now for those who misled me and are still misleading others.

Wilma, your prediction about the courts is rather depressing, but I think you must be right. Isn't there a way to pressure judges to make good decisions? Maybe by exposure in the press? I think a lot of bad things go down because people simply don't know what is happening before it is too late. Even the most biased news media must hate to miss a good scoop. Maybe if enough of us write letters to enough papers it might make a difference.

Tom, Thanks for another motivating piece and congratulations on the election results!

 
At 10:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

fearless flower: Since we have discovered how effective people power is we can go to work on the courts and the corporate media. I'm heartened by the young people who turned out in such numbers and voted our way, get them while they are hot now they know their voices are being heard. It won't be a cakewalk but the old song said "I never promised you a rose garden" I guess the Republicans did but the thorns outnumbered the roses

 
At 10:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wilma again. The folks who should also go down in history and deserve our thanks are the tireless election monitors. a dirty trick or lie no sooner hit the airwaves or phones than they were there warning of it or refuting it. Also there were machine glitches that they caugt and fixed. Without these grand folks' tireless work this election would very well have had a different outcome. Give 'em your heartfelt thanks

 
At 6:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Its not all over yet... remember there are plenty of lousy-rubber-stamping-bush-yes-men&woman still in office and plenty of money still flowing into DC (now to the dems). It is ironic that being in the minority party has insulated them to some extent from the Abramoff money. For this reason I predict both houses will continue to have additional republicans fall victom to scandal. This is good - but the lobbists are already hard at work to currupt the next congress. The cash cow that is the 'war' has paid off and the military industrialists who are profiting from it are not going to just let it end. Their mantra is 'stay the course'. Therefore we must continue our efforts and get louder and louder to end the war. The democratic gain is not yet the solution - just a foothold to help us on the way.

 
At 9:20 PM, Blogger cindi said...

Hey, sweetie:

i heard a whisper that Germany was preparing to file war crimes charges against Rummy now that he no longer has the protection of office. Have you heard anything about that? Perhaps they'll provide the same service for the rest of the gangsters in a few years ... that makes having impeachment off the table worthwhile.

Of course, they'll have to catch them before they escape to that 100,000 acres Georgie bought in Paraquay.

 
At 10:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cindi, We will have to get the Dems to make damn sure we have an extradition treatu with Paraguay before starting impeachment or war crimes trials for these low life criminals.

 
At 2:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom,

Did you happen to read the NYT article on the Bush agenda for the next month or so? It is really scary that the lame duck congress might just give in his immunity to the wire tapping, make Bolton permanente UN representative and lots of other stuff they have not been able to push thru due to the coming elections.

Come January, I hope everyone is rested and ready to sit this straight in the fist 100 hours. I hope they can do something about MSM and all the damn monopolies. We do need a free press somewhere or people will get lazy again care more about who is cheating on whom and other such trash.

Thanks as always Tom for your good thoughts. Keep holding them.

 
At 4:08 AM, Blogger landsker said...

Seems like the story of America has the first lines of a new chapter.
Good. As you said, Nixon resigned in disgrace, but never went to jail. Interestingly, if bush is guilty of genocide, what term would describe the deaths of 3 million Vietnamese?
If Saddam must hang for the deaths of a few thousand Iraquis, then what fate for bush? and rumpsfeld? cheney? rice?
Where does it stop? Should some generals also be indicted?

 
At 8:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Landsker; The generals can cite the Nuremburg War Tribunals where "we were following orders" was the defense. Nat a Nazi sympathizer but I can see their point, opposition had consequences in the Third as it does in the Fourth Reich here at home

 
At 3:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

More! Tom, this is such a good site. The only problem is please write even more! (I read your comments at Alternet frequently so I know you write a lot elsewhere too)

Now we have to make sure our new elected officials do what should be done. I'm with you on impeach and try Bush, but am afraid it is unlikely.
For you and me, "do the crime" means "do the time", but Presidents, even fake ones,obviously don't get treated the same way. But his invasion of Iraq is a war crime all by itself, and I would also agree that the huge numbers of Iraquis killed is mass murder, and the blood is on Bush's hands. Not to mention all the other abuses of power.
p.s.
I think Nancy Pelosi is just great and I don't think she is afraid of Bush at all. So kick some presidential posterior, Nancy, for all of us who have wanted Bush out ever since he came in.

 
At 5:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Saltwater, don't forget Afghanistan in the war crimes toll. Afghanistan was a "do something even if it is wrong" distraction from 9 11. I agree about Pelosi, she would challenge Bush to an arm wrestling match in the oval office my money would be on her to win. I don't think Bush's soft soap fooled her for a second

 
At 4:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom,

What do you make of analyses likes these of Mike Whitney and Chris Floyd, who(in a nutshell) claim that it was all orchestrated by the "Old Guard" cabal of Bush I and Jim Baker. I dunno, if I sunk to their level of cynicism - I think I would have to go and shoot myself.

I was thrilled to see Jerry McNerney put that slimeball Richard Pombo out to pasture, but very sad to see whistle-blower Clint Curtis fail to unseat King of Corruption Tom Feeney up the coast from me aways.

 
At 10:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Talk about slimeballs anyone have any ideas about Bill Frist's and Rick Santorum's plan's for future? Good riddance to them both for now since they both inflicted severe damage on many.

 
At 2:32 AM, Blogger sumo said...

Frist and Santorum can go flip burgers at the local In and Out...where their spiritual humbleness will be well accepted.

 
At 7:50 PM, Blogger Nancy said...

The Idiot-in-chief is still in the White House and he's repealed most of the Constitution. I won't feel relaxed until the impeachment hearings have started and Congress has repealed the Patriot Act, the Bankruptcy bill, and restored all the provisions of the Constitutional checks and balances. And while they are at it, let's ensure that corporations are not counted as PEOPLE, and eliminate the cancer from the system.
I'm in favor of banning any corporate employee from government service because of conflict of interest---look at the Vice President, for example. Speaking of which, he seems to have gone to ground.
Do not underestimate cornered rats.

 
At 8:22 PM, Blogger sumo said...

The Dark One has gone underground because he's mad that he isn't getting his way about Rummy. He's just a VP now...no say in anything now...the Dems are on to him/them. I like the idea of a cornered rat Dick. Heh heh!

 

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