Six Months To Go....

Take a long, hard look at that photograph above! Doesn't it just speak volumes? Do you find it as disturbing as I do that the American political system has become so dysfunctional in the last thirty years, that this fucking idiot - this half-witted, murderous little piece of shit - could somehow be elevated to the office of president of the United States? Does it not trouble you that so huge a segment of the American electorate has become so incredibly dumbed down in recent years, that after foolishly sending this homicidal little thug to the White House in 2000, they then compounded that mistake by repeating it four years later? Who the hell are these people? How can anyone be so ill-informed with regard to affairs of state, that they would actually squander their precious ballot by voting for this asshole? Hold your head high, Bubbah! Stand up and take a bow!

Well, fear not, children! I bear welcome news! We have only six months left - one-hundred and eighty-three days - of what only a fool would argue is the worst administration since the invention of dirt. That's the good news. Here's the bad news: It is going to be the longest six months we've ever lived through. There is still much additional harm that this stupid bastard and his sycophantic minions can do to your once-great nation. Make no mistake about it, when the Black Man enters the White House next year, he will spend ninety percent of his time in office (be it one term or two) dealing with the damage this disgusting administration has done. He will only be the first of many. As I said on this site almost two years ago, fifty years from today, the president of the United States - whom in all likelihood hasn't even been born yet - will still, on a daily basis, be dealing with the damage that was done by this utterly clueless, imbecilic man so many decades before. We will be generations recovering from the Age of Dubya.

If you ever find yourself traveling through Orange County, New York, sixty miles north of Manhattan, it is as easy as pie to spot me. I'm the guy in the navy blue van, a 2000 Oldsmobile Silhouette, with two huge, magnetic signs on either side of it. In red and blue letters on a white background it says, "IMPEACH BUSH". When I first commissioned those signs to be made almost three years ago, the reaction was mostly hostile. Today it is almost universally positive. Lately, however, people have taken to asking me why I even bother. After all, they say, he has only a few months left. How much sense would it possibly make to impeach him at this late date? My response is always that those signs will remain on my van until high noon, January 20, 2009 - if only to make a point. After that, what the hell, I'll donate the damned things to the Smithsonian Institution - or the George W. Bush Presidential Library! By the way, here's a little prediction: If that library ever even comes into being (and that is highly doubtful) it will be surrounded by a long ribbon of yellow tape that will say,
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"CRIME SCENE * DO NOT CROSS"

What amazes me more than anything is the fact that the American people have yet to come face to face with the nasty reality behind the Bush administration. This was not by any means your average, run-of-the-mill, corrupt White House - ala Dick Nixon and friends or Warren G. Harding's "Ohio Gang". What we have been dealing with these last seven-and-a-half-years is a cabal of so-called neo-conservative "intellectuals" (former liberals, we're told) who were bent on taking full advantage of the void that was left in geopolitics with the fall of the Soviet Union almost twenty years ago. These people wanted to take over the world! That is not an overstated opinion. That is a documented fact. It was all spelled out over ten years ago - published for anyone to read - by the authors of the Project for a New American Century. Many within that organization (or supporters of it) - Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, et. al. - would later go on to be key singers and dancers in the Bush Follies. In 1998, in an open letter they called on President Bill Clinton to ignore all existing international law and invade the sovereign nation of Iraq. Three years later, the very same authors of that letter were conducting America's foreign policy. It was only a matter of time before they struck. All they needed was an excuse. That excuse came - gift wrapped - on a clear, late summer's morning in September of 2001.
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How were these kooks, criminals and fools able to gain control of an American administration, you may well ask? Let's rewind the tape to June of 2000. It was at that time that Bush 41 asked his former Secretary of Defence, Richard B. Cheney, to find a suitable running mate for his idiotic kid. Certainly, Junior couldn't be counted on to make an intelligent choice all by himself. After what I'm sure was a long and exhaustive search (Wink! Wink!) the Dickster slithered back into Camp Bush and informed Poppy and Dubya that he had found the perfect, the ideal running mate: DICK CHENEY! Here's how mind-bendingly stupid your current president is: He thought that that was a dandy idea! Just dandy!

Eight years on, the damage that has been done to this country and the world, largely at Cheney's instigation, is incalculable. In their attempt to seize the second largest oil reserves on the planet (which was the only motivation for the invasion - let's stop kidding ourselves) they have created a foreign policy catastrophe that will literally take generations to remedy. When our war criminal president is finally brought to trial (and it will happen - take it to the bank) his defence is probably going to be that he was never really in charge, that it was the Vice-President who was running the show and that he was merely a puppet/figurehead. When George goes on trial, Dick will make the perfect scapegoat because by that time he'll be long dead. A man with his history of serious heart problems does not live very long. Maybe Cheney really has been calling the shots for all these years. But it can never be denied that the First Fool was a willing, eager participant in the crimes that have been committed against humanity by this tidal wave of corruption and incompetence.

Here's another prediction for you:
Six months from today, when President Barack Obama (Oh, please, Lord!) is inaugurated under the dome of the U.S. Capital as the 44th President of the United States, George W. Bush will be nowhere to be found. It's a sure bet that the hideous little bastard is gonna get out of town while the getting is good. He won't be there to receive the ultimate humiliation after Barack takes the oath of office and the crowd erupts into a devastating ovation (an ovation that will probably last for a half an hour or more) that will signify a national sigh of relief at being done with and rid of the most laughably corrupt chief-executive in American history. Come January 20, 2009, the dogs of justice will be hot on the trail of Bush and all of his flunky, homicidal "yes" men and women. Come January 20, 2009, it will be obvious to all thinking people that Bush needs to be sent to federal prison for the rest of his life. No. As jaw droppingly arrogant as this president has proven to be, he won't dare show his face on Inauguration Day. Come January 20, 2009, the disgusting little twit will be in the process of skipping the country. Count on it.

There's every reason to be anxious about the next six months. The general consensus of opinion is that we should not be consumed by worry; they've done all the damage they can possibly do and that they'll soon be gone. Here's why we need to worry. The only way Bush will be able to avoid receiving his due justice will be if John McCain is elected in November. The power of incumbency is limitless and of this you may be absolutely certain: this criminal administration is going to resort to any means necessary to see that Obama is defeated. Don't even think for a moment that they're not above allowing some "incident" to transpire that gets a few thousand people killed. All the polls suggest that some unforeseen military adventure such as a war with Iran (a war that these jackasses are just itching to fight) will benefit only McCain. For reasons I have never been able to figure out, Americans believe that liberal Democrats lack the innate ability to wage a successful military campaign. Apparently a lot of these same people are under the impression that Franklin D. Roosevelt was a right wing Republican. They would feel more comfortable with a veteran like Senator McCain steering the ship of state should events overseas get a little testy - even though he spent the bulk of the Vietnam war as a guest of Ho Chi Minh in a North Vietnamese prison. For the record: FDR had no military experience. None.

Here's another thing that must be taken into consideration: another domestic attack on the same level of 9/11. If intelligence is now mounting that such an attack is imminent, don't think for a minute that the Bush Mob won't be ignoring it - just as they ignored the warning, "BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO STRIKE IN THE U.S." in the months leading up to September 11, 2001. If we're attacked between now and Election Day, John McCain wins . It's as simple and as sad as that. Whatever may or may not happen between now and November 4, these people will continue to promote a sweltering climate of fear. As our beloved Molly Ivins once declared, "Keep your eye on the shell with the pea under it."

So there you have it folks! The next six months will seem to many like a century. As far as yours truly in concerned, January 20, 2009 can't come soon enough. And remember the mantra they kept repeating when an ideologically perverted Supreme Court allowed them to seize control of our government seven and-a-half years ago today? "The grownups are now in charge". Well, a lot of these so-called "grownups" will soon be headed to the slammer. I sincerely believe that George W. Bush will be among them. But don't think that he is just going to go away. His destructive legacy will loom large for the rest of our lives.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Photograph of the author of "The Rant" taken on March 4, 2007
Goshen, NY