State of Denial

Bob Woodward's new book, "State of Denial", will be remembered as the most explosive (KA-BOOM!!!) and devastating work of political journalism in to come out of the first decade of the twenty-first century. The headline in this morning's New York Times says it all:

"BOOK SAYS BUSH IGNORED URGENT WARNING ON IRAQ"

Woodward says in the introduction that his book is based on "interviews with President Bush's national security team, their deputies, and other key and senior players in the administration responsible for the military, the diplomacy, and the intelligence on Iraq". So, these murderous thugs were asleep at the switch? I'm shocked. Shocked! Let's go over some of the book's revelations, shall we?

1. In September of 2003, one of the administration's top advisers on Iraq informed the First Fool that thousands of additional troops were desperately needed to deal with the insurgency. He was ignored.

2. There was so much infighting among Bush's advisers that many of them were not on speaking terms with one another - a dangerous thing in a time of war when the sharing of information is crucial.

3. They dismissed as "too pessimistic" reports from commanders on the ground that the situation in Iraq was rapidly deteriorating.

4. According to the article by Times reporter, David E. Sanger, "Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, is described as disengaged from the nuts-and-bolts of occupying and reconstructing Iraq - a task that was initially supposed to be under the direction of the Pentagon - and so hostile toward Condoleeza Rice, then the national security adviser, that President Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls".

5. When the head of the occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and key adviser on Iraq, Robert D. Blackwell, pleaded that at least forty-thousand more troops were needed, Bush ignored them.

6. Prior to the September 11 attacks, Rumsfeld was impeding efforts of the CIA to capture or kill Osama bin Ladin because he believed that the electronic signals they had been intercepting were, "part of an elaborate deception plan by Al Qaeda"

7. In July of 2001, CIA chief, George Tenet, and the head of the administration's counter-terrorism program, J. Cofer Black, tried to convince Condi Rice of the seriousness of the impending attack but they both left her office convinced that she wasn't taking the threats seriously.

8. According to family friend, David Boren, the First Fool's parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush were both concerned about the wisdom of the invasion of Iraq. Barbara told him that Poppy Bush was "certainly worried and is losing sleep over it; he's up at night, worried".

9. Senior officials within the administration were "thoroughly uninterested" in the details for post-war planning.

10. When General Jay Garner informed the president and his cabinet of his plans to use three-hundred thousand troops from the Iraqi Army for post-war reconstruction, to his astonishment, there was not one question asked by anyone in the situation room. The Iraqi Army was disbanded shortly thereafter. General Garner was demoted.

11. There have been far more attacks on US troops than the American people are aware of (an average of eight to nine hundred a week, according to Mr. Woodward) but the administration has been able to keep the information from the American people by labeling it: "CLASSIFIED".

12. As bad as things are in Iraq at the moment, next year is going to be worse - much worse. George W. Bush and the people around him know this but, again, that information is....uhh....classified.

************

Well! Well! Well! Guess what's going to be on my reading list next week! It really is a joy that I can't adequately put into words, watching this nightmare of an administration fall apart at the seams. As more revelations come out every day, it is becoming ridiculously obvious, even to the average viewer of FOX News, that sending these despicable people to Washington six years ago was the worst electoral mistake this country ever made in its two-hundred and thirty year history. The administration of George W. Bush is in "its final throes", as Dick Cheney would say. Documents from within are starting to be leaked to the press. People inside the White House are finally starting to crack and they're naming names. Watch as they start to flee, like rats from a sinking ship, this disgusting and criminal White House. The game is over and it's only a matter of time before their house of cards comes crumbling down. Their day of reckoning is almost upon them. The trillion dollar shithammer is about to hit the fan.

I can't wait.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net

The Big, White House of Whores

In the early morning hours of 25 September 2006, C-SPAN (Thank God for C-SPAN), broadcast a hearing investigating corruption and war profiteering in Iraq by Dick Cheney's company, Haliburton. One of the witnesses, a woman named, Julie McBride, testified that when she complained to higher ups about the vast over-charging she was witnessing with her own eyes, she was promptly fired and her superiors then assigned four security guards to keep watch over her until they could get her out of the country in order to keep her from spilling the beans to military brass. Technically, had she tried to escape, they would have been able to shoot to kill - no questions asked. Mind you, this is not a branch of the US government with any kind of (real or imagined) jurisdiction over the movements of a citizen; This is a privately owned company!

Did you just spit out your coffee?

In an earlier era, before the FCC was gutted by Ronald Reagan; Before the people's airwaves were allowed to be turned into a virtual multi-channel garbage dump in order to keep the masses distracted by MTV, FOX News and E, those hearings would have been carried, live, on all three networks. The very next morning the entire nation would have stood up, en masse, and demanded congressional action. Do you remember the infamous, Saturday Night Massacre, of October of 1973? Less than forty-eight hours after Richard M. Nixon fired special prosecutor, Archibald Cox, the desks of every congressperson in Washington were flooded with telegrams and phone calls - hundreds of thousands of them - demanding the impeachment of the president. The following summer, facing that very possibility, he was forced to resign in total, utter disgrace.

And where are we as a nation a third of a century later? Crucial congressional hearings that everyone should be watching are broadcast at three o'clock in the morning on a network that hardly anyone watches!

Sixty-four years ago, an obscure senator from the state of Missouri by the name of Harry S Truman, sitting at the head of a committee that was investigating graft and corruption within what was yet to be called, the Military Industrial Complex, equated the crime of war profiteering with treason. Remember that when George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney are finally put on trial for their crimes against humanity. Since the day in March of 2003 when the perverts within the Bush administration invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, billions of dollars in taxpayer money (that's your money and mine, kiddies!) are unaccounted for. The war was seen by these treacherous thieves as a giant cash cow; Contracts for "rebuilding" the country went to companies that had financial and political ties to the main players within the republican party in general and the White House in particular. The job of administering the complex post-war re-construction went not to people with experience in such matters, but to novices whose only qualifications were that they be registered republicans. Of this you can be absolutely sure: When all of the investigations are complete and the dusts of history have finally settled, it will be found that kickbacks - a lot of them - went to the republican national committee. Oh yeah, baby! Some seriously nasty chickens are going to come home to roost. And it's a sure bet that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney will die in federal prison (NOTE TO SECRET SERVICE: From natural causes, of course, dear boys!) Is that too bold an assertion to make? Maybe. It's just that there are too many smoking guns to even contemplate and I wasn't born yesterday. Time will tell, my friends. Time will tell. One thing I'm certain about: The next two years will make the Watergate era of 1973/74 seem boring by comparison.

The next step with regard to bringing these disgusting people to justice are the November elections. Another GOP controlled congress will not, under any circumstances, impeach Bush and Cheney. Of that you can be absolutely sure. The democrats have to win back power with enough of a margin that will make it impossible for the republicans to steal the election (as they did in Ohio in 2004) with the new computerized e-voting machines. It's a big order but it can be done.

People are starting to wake up. Just the other day a man in his mid-sixties, seeing the huge, magnetic "IMPEACH BUSH" signs on both sides of my van, came up to me in front of the Kwik Stop convenience store down town and told me that he would never vote for the GOP again as long as he lives - and he has been a registered republican since the age of twenty-one! "I can't believe I ever voted for that bastard", he told me, referring to the First Fool. I took his words as a very hopeful sign. Although New York is a so-called, "blue state", Orange County, where I live, is a decidedly "red state" region. Help is on the way.

I left the democratic party years ago for painfully obvious reasons. This is not your father's Democratic party, that's for sure. It's frustrating beyond words that we have to always remind them, like semi-retarded children, that they are, in fact, the party of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. It gives me no amount of joy whatsoever to sit here and tell you that they are our only hope - but that is the cold, hard truth we've got to live with. We have no other choice but to make sure that they are victorious in November. The alternatives are just too depressing to even contemplate. Consider this for a minute: Another two years of a Bush White House and a sycophantic, lapdog republican congress? Do you have any idea as to the ramifications of that?? Think about the destruction they have wrought upon the planet in the last six years, bearing in mind that they always had an upcoming re-election or midterm to worry about. As reckless and as crazy as they have been since they seized power, if the GOP wins again, they'll have absolutely nothing to lose. Nothing! Are you ready for that? Have you any idea what that would mean domestically and internationally? It makes my hair hurt just thinking about it! It would probably destroy this country - if it's not already beyond repair.

Bush was, at one time anyway, great fodder for comedy. Let's face it: Someone as rip-roaringly stupid as our commander-in-chief is a comedy writer's dream. I remember during the campaign of 2000, Don Imus, pleading with his radio audience, "Please vote for this guy, I'm begging you"! The implication being that Imus' job of making people laugh would be a whole lot easier with so comical a figure sitting in the oval office. Those days are gone forever. This isn't funny anymore. I stopped laughing a long time ago. His regime must and will be ended. The day of reckoning is coming.

There. I feel better already!

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

The Chimes of November

There's no question about it. With the possible exceptions of the elections of 1932 and 1861, the mid-term election of 2006 will be remembered as one of the most important in the 230 year history of the American republic. For many years, the possibility that the extreme right-wing might one day seize all three branches of our government was a scenario that very few people had the foresight (or the stomach) to even contemplate. That it would happen - not by means of the electoral process - but as a result of a stolen election in 2000, no one could have anticipated. The unbearable fact is that what has happened to this country and the world since that day the Supreme Court installed George W. Bush in the White House, has made what had previously been our worst nightmare seem almost like a jolly holiday in Regents Park by comparison. It is not an exaggeration to say that the future of our country is in serious jeopardy. If you think that is an alarmist statement then, by all means, vote republican in November. It will be a vote that you will regret very soon. Believe me.

During the campaign of 2000, Bush described himself as a "compassionate conservative". Had most of us bothered to read Molly Ivins' excellent 1999 book, "Shrub: The Short, Happy, Political Life of George W. Bush", I probably wouldn't be writing these words right now. Indeed, I never would have felt the need to establish this blog site. Had most of us read Molly's book, we would have had an inside look into his personal corruption and mind-numbing stupidity. We would have known the disastrous consequences his tenure as governor of Texas had on the people of that state. We also would have been given a dire omen as to the Bush Mob's methods of attaining power. Karl Rove's propaganda machine was able to win the 1994 gubernatorial election for Bush by spreading the rumor that the then governor, the late, great Ann Richards, was a lesbian. That is the way these people do business. It was a prologue for the dirty campaign they ran against John McCain during the South Carolina primary in 2000 and the swiftboating of John Kerry in 2004. The McCain story is the most disturbing. A number of years before, he and his wife Cindy had adopted a beautiful little dark-skinned girl from Mother Theresa's orphanage in Calcutta. The Bush people distributed a photo of the child and told the voters of South Carolina (some of the stupidest people on the planet, by the way) that she was the result of McCain's liaison with a black prostitute. Late night "pollsters" would call potential voters, some of them actually asking if a person was aware of the Arizona senator's "Nigger daughter". That did the trick. Bush won the primary and McCain's campaign was finished. Although he ran for the presidency as a moderate, the moment he took the oath of office on January 20, 2001, he shifted to the hard right.

The ensuing five and a half years of a Bush White House and a GOP controlled House and Senate have resulted in what can only be described as a domestic and international calamity. Starting with a reckless and massive tax cut for the wealthiest two percent that has hurt the poor and middle class beyond adequate description and ending with a war against Iraq that has destroyed American credibility across the globe, the damage that the Bush administration and their pathetic lap dogs in congress have done to this once-great nation will be with us for generations. Their ultimate goal, I'm sure, is to bankrupt America to the point where they will be able to obliterate the social safety nets that were put in place by the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt seventy years ago. That has been the dream of the republican party for decades. It's almost a cliche now but it is true: Roosevelt saved capitalism by tempering its excesses. If you want to know what it was like in America for the working class prior to the New Deal, please, by all means, read Upton Sinclair's classic 1905 expose' of Chicago's meatpacking district, "The Jungle". A world of unregulated, out-of-control capitalism where the average worker is underpayed, overworked and disposable. That's what they want and that's where we're heading. You can count on it.

Only once, between 1933 and 1995 did they control the legislative and the executive simultaneously. That was the two year period, 1953 through 1955, when the United States saw some of the worst abuses of congressional power in its history. What they gave to us was the era of Joe McCarthy and the witchhunts by the House Un-American Activities Committee. For two miserable years, they had the entire country gripped in suspicion and paranoia. On election day, 1954, when the democrats were able to take back the congress, the republican president, Dwight Eisenhower, stunned at the mindless extremism of his own political party, breathed a prolonged sigh of relief. Forty long years would pass before they would control congress again.

2006 is not the year we should be foolishly experimenting with third party candidacies. We tried that in 2000 and look where it got us! A third party only benefits the forces of darkness. Why do you think that Rick Santorum's people are financing the Green Party candidate in Pennsylvania? The sad fact of the matter is that the democrats are, at this moment in our history at least, the best hope for our country's future. One can only hope and pray that when and if (and that's a very big "if") they regain power, they'll go back to their wicked, liberal ways. But whatever the outcome, of this we can be absolutely sure: They will prove to be far more moderate, thoughtful stewards of America's future than the right wing fanatics who are now in the process of destroying it. If you think that I'm kidding you then, fine, go ahead and vote for the republican party this November. You'll deserve everything that happens to you.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Ready or Not: The Draft Is Coming

Here's a little topic that no one is addressing at the moment. Please allow me to enlighten you: The Bush administration is, at this very moment, scheming to draft American children - yours and mine - into the armed forces. That's right! Step right up, kids! You, too, can become a cog in the military industrial complex's mighty machine! I really hope I'm wrong about this but I don't think I am. They won't make the announcement before the November elections for obvious reasons. But you can bet the farm that it will probably come between election day 2006 and New Years Day 2007 or shortly thereafter.

How am I able to make this incredibly bold prediction? It's really very simple: It is now obvious to any fool - even our esteemed commander-in-chief - that Donald Rumsfeld's original idea of a lean and compact military was a delusional pipe dream from the very beginning. One hundred and fifty thousand measly troops to invade and occupy an entire country?? What - are they out of their fucking minds???....

What am I saying? Of course they are.... General Eric Shinseki, early on, said that it couldn't be done and that it would take at least twice that number and then some to achieve any tangible military objective. And what good did all of his prescience, caution and honesty do him? It cost him his career. That's the strange thing about the Bush White House. If you want to succeed, you'd better damn well check the ugly truth at the door, pardner!

But all of this argument about troop levels is really only academic, isn't it? The fact that Saddam Hussein was a danger to no one but himself and that America never should have invaded Iraq to begin with is, by now, pretty much of a no-brainer. The people behind the Project For A New American Century (PNAC) which included Rumsfeld, Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, had been planning the invasion years before Bush even took the oath of office. At the first cabinet meeting in January of 2001, according to Paul O'Neil and Richard Clarke, Saddam's fate was sealed - with or without WMD. All they needed to make their move was one flimsy excuse. That excuse arrived on the morning of September 11, 2001.

At this moment in our history, again, for obvious reasons, military enlistments are at an all time low.This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Ask yourself this question: What able-bodied, sane young person with a bright and promising future would want to volunteer for the army or the navy - or any branch of the service for that matter - with a murderous, half-witted little piece of shit like George W. Bush calling the shots? Would you? I didn't think so.

And yet it doesn't take a genius to understand that the military ambition of the First Fool with respect to the Middle East, North Korea - and Heaven only knows where else - is totally at odds with what is readily available in terms of man (and woman) power. Since military recruiters aren't getting the job done these days and with re-enlistments all but disappearing, what's left to do? Of course! Draft the little buggers!

Did I say "Draft"?

Of course, the Bush administration, with its positively weird penchant for Orwellian Newspeak ("When we talk about war, we're really talkin' about peace"), won't call it a "draft", per se. Oh, perish the thought, dear reader! They'll probably conjure up some quaint little title like, "Freedom Service". Isn't that cute? Knowing this contemptible and all-too-predictable White House, they might even call the program, "Operation: Tide Of Patriotism", with a neat little acronym designed specifically to appeal to a generation of MTV-weaned, not very bright teenagers:

"OTOP! Dude, that's so cool!!!"

Again, I sincerely hope I'm wrong but I don't think I am. Given the sociopathic nature of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the tidal wave of human shit that comprises this disgusting administration, I know as well as I know my own name (Tom Degan - Nice to meet'cha!) that the idea of shoveling scores of thousands of American kids into the untenable slaughterhouse these dirty old men have engendered is, at the very least, on the table. It only stands to reason.

These despicable bastards and bitches (Hi, Condi!) have plans - big plans - that they have every intention of carrying out. But they can't possibly pursue their objectives with what they've got; They need bodies. Lots and lots and lots and lots of bodies. And of this you can be absolutely sure: Many of these bodies - scores of thousands of them - will ultimately translate into dead bodies. Bush has already overseen the slaughter of at least one-hundred thousand men, women and little children in Iraq. Can you possibly be foolish enough to believe that this president - of all presidents - gives a flying fuck about your kid? Please.

"Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box! And it's, one-two-three, What're we fightin' for"???

Country Joe and the Fish
Woodstock, August 1969

Three and a half years ago, almost to this very day, the president of the United States of America broadcast a message for the youth of Iraq: "Don't give your lives for a dying regime". Truth be told, I was shocked that George W. Bush was even capable of such sage advice. It's also excellent advice for the youth of America: Don't give your lives for this sick, corrupt and dying regime! And if I may, I would also like to add this little pearl to the discussion: Organize and resist.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

For more recent postings on this site please go to the link below:

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Cheer!

When In Doubt: 9/11

It'll haunt me to the day I die. I have only told a small handful of people this story for the obvious reason: I scarcely believed it myself; Why would I expect anyone else to? But since I do have one eyewitness, I'll relate it to you.

On the night of September 9, 2001, I gave my brother-in-law, Bob Borski, a ride from Goshen NY, where he was visiting his daughter, Olivia, to his apartment in Brooklyn. At exactly 10:30 PM, we drove right by the World Trade Center. I used to live in New York City in the eighties and had been down there many times since. But this was the first time I had been that far down town at night in well over ten years. I remember thinking that I had forgotten how beautiful it looked, up close, illuminating the Manhattan night. As I looked up at it through the sun roof, I related to Bob my fear of another terrorist attack. I speculated that two or three privately owned DC 10 air crafts, their aisles filled with 55 gallon drums of gasoline, would take one or both of those towers down in a matter of minutes (I never, for the life of me, even considered hijacked passenger planes). While Bob was open to the possibility of the means he was, for good reasons, skeptical as to the ends:

"Those buildings are pretty sturdy, Tom".
"I don't know, Bob", I said, "Enough fuel would melt that steel skeleton like butter".

Two days later, on the morning of September 11th, when my sister, Carol, woke me up out of a sound sleep with the news that a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers, I knew at that instant that it was terrorism.

"I don't think that anyone could have foreseen planes flying into these buildings".
Condoleeza Rice

Full disclosure: I dropped out of High School.

What can possibly be said of a politician cynical enough to exploit, for purely selfish, partisan reasons, what is undoubtedly the most devastating national trauma in almost a century and a half? George W. Bush's address tho the nation on the evening of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was the last, desperate attempt of a sick and desperate man who knows he's on his way down. As mind-bendingly stupid as the president of the United States is, he at least has the wit to know that if the democrats retake the House and the Senate in 2007, he will be remembered not only as the first chief executive in the history of the republic to be forcibly removed from office, but the first one to go to federal prison. Yeah, you'd be just a tad desperate too, wouldn't you?

Here is the challenge to all of us: In the next seven weeks Karl Rove's White House spin machine will do everything humanly possible to frighten the electorate into staying with the GOP. Count on it: In the days leading up to the elections, the "Terror Alert" will be sounded from all corners of the executive branch of your government. The big question is: Will the American people be foolish enough to fall for it? Given their past behavior (electing this moron to begin with, for instance) I'm not optimistic. And yet lately I've been seeing encouraging signs that enough of them to make the electoral difference are beginning to wake up.

They will try to tell you that those who refuse to support the atrocious policies of this corrupt administration are less than patriotic. They will try to make you believe that when you question the motives of the key players in the obscenity that we, as taxpayers, are now funding against the children of Iraq, you are, in effect, aiding and abetting the terrorists. They are exploiting the grief and fear many of us still feel, on a daily basis, five years later. We can't let them get away with it. I know it's almost too depressing to contemplate the fact that the democrats are our best hope but that is the ugly reality we have to face. 2006 and 2008 will not be years to foolishly experiment with third party candidacies - trust me on this one, kiddies! Don't come back with Ralph Nader's tired line that the two major parties are nothing more than Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee (Sorry, Ralph. I think you're great but it's time for a little tough love here). Comparing the republicans and the democrats is like comparing cyanide with alcohol; While both may be poisonous, one form is definitely preferable to the other.

Which reminds me, I need a drink.

The November mid-term election will be the most important in our lifetime. If there ever was a time for an informed and and angry populace to rise up and take a stand on the deplorable mess their country has gotten itself into, this is that time. Heaven help the American people if they're stupid enough to fall for the GOP's propaganda blitz. They'll deserve everything that happens to them.

The line it is drawn
The torch it is passed
The slow one now will later be fast
As the present now will later be past
The order is rapidly fading
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a'changin'

Bob Dylan 1963

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Kathy's Meltdown

I know that calumny is a sin and Heaven, please forgive me for what I'm about to say: It fills my heart with joy - pure, unyielding, unrelenting joy - to watch what can only be described as the very public nervous breakdown of everyone's favorite congressional call girl, Katherine Harris. I am ashamed to admit this to you but, truth be told, I'm positively giddy! Her downfall and demise is the gift that keeps giving; A virtual political buffet of tasty tidbits too tempting not to indulge in. Her comically pathetic campaign for the US Senate was doomed from the moment she announced her candidacy. Watching George W. Bush distance himself from her - while everyone else within the GOP is distancing themselves from him - is just too funny for words! At the moment both Harris and Bush are, politically speaking, radio active and neither wants to be seen within a hundred miles of the other. But wait! The story gets better! Are you ready for this?? (Hold on to your sides): In a three way primary, she got over fifty percent of the vote!!

Earth to Florida republicans: Can you people possibly get any stupider??? Just wondering.

Oh, thank you! Thank you! Thank you, fate! This is going to be one of the greatest political happenings of my lifetime! Watching that nasty little harlot go down in flames - in utter humiliating defeat - will be too good to be true. Does anyone know if she has access to firearms? Her staff (whoever they might be this week) might want to keep their eyes on her. Someone as obviously sick, tormented and delusional as she, poses not only a serious threat to herself, but to everyone around her. Make a note: Guns, sharp objects and ledges! For the love of Mike, PLEASE keep her away from building ledges more than three floors off the ground! At any moment's notice, she's liable to hurl herself out the window, taking someone with her for good measure. Please, folks! You ignore me at your own peril! I've seen it in her eyes. There was a particularly nasty close up of her on the Joe Scarborough program last evening. Take my word for it as an ex-narcotics user: I can spot another junkie a mile away! The glassy-eyed stare she exhibited was of someone who is definitely on the verge of a drug-induced psychotic breakdown. The image coming out of my television screen, like some kind of twisted LSD hallucination, was just a tad too disturbing for adequate description. This is a woman on the brink. Heed my warning, campers.

Will Katherine Harris's total obliteration from the American political landscape be mourned? Not in these quarters, that's for sure! Like the man said, "Ain't never gonna happen". I will never, as long as I live, forget her shameful and disgusting behavior as Jeb Bush's Secretary of State during the campaign of 2000. Who with any sense of justice and fairness could possibly forget it? George W. Bush is only sleeping in the White House because this hideous, painted-up, aging Barbie Doll bitch with a bad dye job almost singlehandedly orchestrated the removal of fifty-seven thousand African Americans from the list of registered voters. That's not speculation, folks. That's a proven, undeniable and documented fact. (In case you didn't know, black people, for some silly reason, tend to vote democratic. How convenient!) Just think about that for a minute: The people who were disenfranchised in order for these corrupt, half-witted bastards to be able to seize power, are the very people who have been hurt the most by their despicable policies. Do you need an aspirin yet?

Her opponent in the general election in November will be the very moderate, Bill Nelson. Sit back in your easy chair and observe how mean and vicious the Harris campaign gets as they try to portray him as some kind of rabid, baby-killing lefty! That's going to be loads of fun to watch! Not to worry, gentle reader, Nelson is a shoo-in. The poor woman is under the impression that she can be elected by appealing solely to the half-witted, far-right, fringe of the republican party. One doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. This is pathos at its most poignant, is it not?

I present to you, this bitter and unavoidable fact: Kathy's going down, baby! And you and I, thanks to the miracle of technology, will have a front row seat for the festivities! I mean, just how cool is that? When one senses the very real ethical cloud which hangs over her head (an omen before the storm, perhaps?) one cannot help but imagine possible prison time in her future. There are just too many smoking guns to contend with. The chickens are coming home to roost with a vengeance too horrible to contemplate. The people are going to demand that justice be paid by Kathy, Jebbie, Georgie and the tsunami of human shit that comprises the Bush White House. The first blow to these people must be landed at the ballot box in November. We have to - and we will - take our country back. Count on it.

Oh, man, I'm lovin' this!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Donny Rumsfeld's Twisted Worldview

It has taken me a couple of days to even get the words out. Watching Donald Rumsfeld's address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars last week left me speechless. Comparing people who oppose what is undoubtedly the stupidest foreign policy blunder in American history to Nazi era appeasers is not only the ultimate in gutter discourse, it is just plain crazy! It is as insane a statement as I've ever heard come out of the mouth of a public official in my lifetime. It is interesting to watch the utter desperation of this sick and sickening administration as they march in lockstep to the beat of Karl Rove's latest public relations ploy. So frightened are they of losing control of both houses of congress in November that they are now charting new and unexplored territory in political craziness. The new buzzword is "Islamo Fascism" and it seems as if everyone within the GOP's ideological machinery has embraced the term wholeheartedly. How do I know that? Because overnight, that is the term that every single one of these murderous bastards and bitches (Hi, Condi!) were using.

My question is this: Did any of the geniuses around the First Fool take the time to do even a minimal amount of historical research? My guess is that they did not. Calling Islamic extremists "Fascists" is about as dumb as calling them "Communists" or "Sandinistas" or "Daughters of the American Revolution". It makes no historical sense what-so-ever! It's as if, out of the blue, the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt decided to call Hitler and the Nazis, "Southern Rebels". I mean, just when you thought these people couldn't get any nuttier....You've got to say this in their favor, however: They never disappoint, do they?

No doubt about it: America is in serious need of a long overdue history lesson. That being the case, let us start with a quotation from a man who is now regarded by historians as the father of the modern fascist state, shall we? Here is how Benito Mussolini defined fascism in a 1927 interview. It was conducted in English so there is no room for misinterpretation:

"Fascism should more properly be called 'corporatism' because it is the total merging of corporate and state power".

Now ask yourself this question: Who better does that preceding quotation describe, Al Queda or the Bush administration? Ponder that for a minute or two. Don't get me wrong! I have no doubt that Osama bin Ladin's organization is made up of some seriously bad guys; No argument here. It's just that - call it a foolish eccentricity on my part - I have the silly habit of insisting that things be put in their proper historical context. Go figure.

Is this latest trick out of the Rove propaganda factory going to work? I hope not. And yet when one takes into consideration the utter, mind-numbing stupidity of the American public, there is room for pessimism - lots of room. What made Rumsfeld think he could get away with making the outrageous claim that anyone against the policies of this disgusting administration is suffering from, "moral or intellectual confusion"? Because he knows damn good and well that there are Americans out there - a whole lot of Americans - who are ready, willing and able to swallow this bullshit, hook, line and sinker. That is the reason your once-great nation is the laughingstock of the planet, kiddies!

Here is another scare tactic (and my personal favorite) that the right wing is now using on the electorate: If the democrats regain control of congress in November, they'll impeach the president. Oh, really? Gee! And why, all of the sudden, do you think they're using that line? During the midterm elections of 1984 and 1986, no one was suggesting the impeachment of Ronald Reagan. Not even during the height of the Iran-Contra affair was it ever seriously considered - in spite of the overwhelming evidence that he should have been removed from power. During the 1990 mid-terms, I don't remember anyone calling for the impeachment of King George the First! Then why, in the year 2006, do you suppose they are raising the ugly possibility of forcibly removing a sitting chief executive by means of a totally legitimate constitutional process? Is it because the Democratic Party is comprised of a posse of wild-eyed, left wing extremists? [PAUSE FOR LAUGHTER] Or might it be the fact that in 1998 the republicans lowered the bar for what constitutes an impeachable offence to an embarrassing level and that, eight years later, there is enough evidence - mountains of evidence - to send George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney to the hoose gow for a very, very long time. I'll go with the latter.

And while we're on the subject of Dick Cheney, let's not forget that thirty-three years ago, Richard M. Nixon's VP, Spiro T. Agnew, was forced to resign from office for committing relatively minor crimes while he was governor of Maryland - years before he even joined the Nixon administration. Are you gullible enough to believe that it's a mere coincidence that Cheney's "former" company, Halliburton, was able to obtain no-bid contracts in Iraq that have over-charged the taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollars? If you are, I've got a stove made out of balsa wood that I'd just love to sell you!

In a twisted impersonation of FDR: Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing the Bush administration has to offer is fear itself....Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror. That is what they are trying to do! They are attempting to scare the bleeding mortal shit out of all of us. Count on it: In the days leading up to the November elections, the "terror alert level" will go up into the stratosphere, particularly in the so-called "blue states". Let's not get fooled again.

I know that I've said this here before and please forgive me for sounding like a broken record but I've got to say it again: George W. Bush will be remembered in history, primarily, as the first (pray last) former chief executive to go to federal prison. Remember you read it here, folks.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net