Weird Times in America

Where are we now? Things are moving at such an incredible pace, it's hard to keep up with it all. Someone remarked to me recently that she was amazed at how prolific I seem to be as a writer, having posted eighty-six good sized pieces on this blog (some of them several pages in length) since I started it on June 2, 2006. Prolific? Are you kidding me??? In the age of Bush, these things write themselves, pardner! When Bill Clinton was living in the White House, I was lucky to get in two letters to the editor a year. While this may be the worst time in America since the Great Depression, it is, indeed, the most interesting of times to be alive. That's the good news. The bad news is the fact that it's more than likely going to get much worse - but (more good news!) it also going to get a hell of a lot more interesting. By year's end, you won't even recognize America - that's assuming you recognize it now. You can count on impeachment proceedings to be under way by the end of the summer. The prosecution and punishment of these despicable people for their crimes against humanity will be a long and complicated process; but of this you may be absolutely certain: George W. Bush will die in federal prison. I'm as sure of that as I am my own name.

Tom Degan. Damned glad to know ya!

Here's something I never thought I would hear myself saying: I feel really sorry for Bush Forty-One. Can you even imagine the turmoil the old bastard must be going through at this very moment? It must be unbearable for him, tossing and turning in his bed at night, knowing that his snot-nosed, half-witted kid is responsible for destroying the country that the old man put his life on the line for in World War Two. I never cared much for Poppy Bush as a man and even less for him as a president. Nor have I ever cared for that hideous bitch he calls "The Mrs." - in fact I'm of the opinion that the whole family is inherently evil (in the strictest, theological definition of that word) - but one can't help but feel at least some degree of sympathy for the man. It must be a terrible thing, indeed, living with the almost certain knowledge that his life - and the the lives of millions of innocent people across the globe - would have been so much better off had he insisted that Barb have an abortion in 1945.
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And imagine what George Herbert Walker Bush must be thinking as far his legacy - or the legacy of his father - is concerned! Under normal circumstances, neither man would have left much of a mark on the pages of history. Prescott Bush, Poppy's father, wasn't much of a senator. Truth be told, he wasn't much of an American either. While his son was risking his life fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, Grandpa Bush was still conducting business with their allies, the Nazis - and would more than likely have continued to do so had he not been caught red handed. He should have been tried for treason but apparently President Roosevelt didn't have the stomach for it. Think about that: FDR could have strangled the Bush Dynasty in its cradle but, to his ever lasting shame, he didn't! I love Roosevelt (politically speaking, he is my guiding star). But in the case of Prescott Bush, he really screwed up - BIG TIME! But all of this is academic and beside the point. George H.W. Bush believes that his father was a great man. He believes that his father would have had an honored place in history's hollowed halls - but that hope has been forever, utterly dashed! From this point on, Prescott Bush will be remembered as the grandfather of George W. Bush, the worst president in American history; the man who destroyed America. That must truly be a horrible thing to live with. Poor ol' Poppy!
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That the immoral war against the people of Iraq has done to the United States what the immoral war against the people of Afghanistan did to the late Soviet Union will become clear to everyone very soon. The sickest thing of all is the fact that it was launched primarily for reasons of politics - they were determined to keep a permanent Republican majority, come what may. By the Spring of 2002, the warm and fuzzy, patriotic afterglow of September the 11th was beginning to wear thin and the American people were starting to see the Bush Mob for the corrupt, despotic assholes they really were. The only way Bush was only going to win the mid-terms in '02 and re-election in '04 was going to be as a war president. From his book, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold", by the greatest columnist who ever lived, Frank Rich:
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"This partisan dream, not nation building, was consistent with the president's own history and Washington ambitions. Bush was a competitor who liked to win the game, even if he was unclear about what to do with his victory beyond catering to the economic interests of his real base, the traditional Republican business constituency. If Bob Woodward's account was true and Bush had vetoed the idea of going to war simultaneously with Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein immediately after 9/11, his personal political needs were different as the political glow from 9/11 started to fade. Iraq was just the vehicle to ride to victory in the midterms, particularly if it could be folded into the proven brand of 9/11. A cakewalk in Iraq was the easy way, the lazy way, the arrogant way, the telegenic way, the Top Gun way to hold on to power. It was of a piece with every other shortcut in Bush's career, and it was a hand-me-down from Dad drenched in oil to boot".
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The result of this little publicity stunt of theirs (as of today) has been 3,381 American kids and at least a half a million Iraqi men, women and little children who have been slaughtered for no fucking reason on the killing fields of what was at one time the cradle of civilization - indeed, what may very well turn out to be civilization's death bed. All because of the political ambitions of one inarticulate, hideous little frat boy. Let me repeat myself: GEORGE W. BUSH WILL DIE IN A FEDERAL PRISON CELL. Keep on saying it to yourself - over and over and over again. It will happen; I promise you that - It will happen.
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In the mean time, the plot is thickening; the rats are starting to flee this sinking ship of a White House and they're starting to talk. A talking rat is a wondrous, lovely thing to behold - it really is! It's going to be beautiful to watch them in the coming year as they turn on each other. George Tenet's memoirs are only the first of what promises to be a virtual tsunami of "tell all" books. Each of them will be self-serving, to be sure - desperate and bitter people, trying in vain to sanitize their dubious place in history - but when they are all taken together as a whole, a terrible and unspeakable truth will begin to emerge with regard to the criminality and incompetence of this disgusting administration. The amazing thing is that for everything we've learned - and we've learned an awful lot - we've barely scratched the surface. The investigations will be going on for decades. Many people will be sent to prison for a long, long time - some for the rest of their lives. This president was able to seize the machinery of power as the result of a stolen election in 2000. The damage that he and his Texas cronies have done to our once-great country will be with us for the rest of our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren. The next ten years, I believe, will be remembered as the Age of Adjustment. The so-called "New American Century" is over. Get used to it.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED READING:
The Greatest Story Ever Sold
by Frank Rich