APOCALIPSTICK NOW

My goodness! Did you happen to catch that speech? So help me, it reminded me of a hostage tape! There was a certain surreal glaze in the First Fool's eyes that was disconcerting to say the very least. Is it possible that the hideous little bastard back on the stuff? As an ex-drug user I can tell you that it is a question that must be confronted head on. Even though I've been clean for slightly over thirty years, I can still spot another junkie a mile away. It takes a thief to catch a thief, you dig?
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And yet, despite his strange, almost dream-like performance, the trademark Bushian arrogance was still there. The most casual observer could not have possibly missed it:
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"It's mah way er the hah-way".
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Put yourself in the position of one of our beleaguered lawmakers. There sat Henry Paulson, representing the most incompetent, corrupt administration in the history of this troubled country - an administration that lied the American people into an unnecessary war that has thus far led to the deaths of at least a million people; an administration that has subverted the Constitution; an administration which squandered an astronomical monetary surplus on a tax cut for a class of people who already had more money than they knew what to do with; an administration that tried to do away with habeas corpus; an administration that has engaged in political persecutions - and this asshole wants the congress to entrust him with three-quarters of a trillion dollars?
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Gosh, we live in interesting times! We really do!
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The irony is the fact that there are more than a few Democrats at whose doorstep the blame for the current economic meltdown may be properly laid - and I would include Bill Clinton in that mix. Although he did not create this deplorable situation, as president he could have put an end to the orgy of deregulation on Wall Street and yet merely enabled it. That is why Bubbah was such a deep disappointment as president. He had the intellectual ability to be one of the greatest presidents in American history but only squandered his eight years in office appeasing the right wing. He's just one of the many reasons I left that silly party years ago.
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But Democratic culpability aside, when you go to the polls on Election Day to cast your precious ballot, don't you dare forget this one, undeniable, and avoidable fact:
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It was the Republicans that did this to you. .
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You would think that if the American taxpayers are expected to bail out the plutocracy from this generation's financial Titanic, those same taxpayers should expect a little piece of any potential profit that would result, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you?? Yeah, I would too. Think again.
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Someone has accurately described it as privatized profit and socialized loss. How much more proof do the clueless American people need? The mask has been yanked away from the phantom of this stupid operetta and the real, ugly face of the so-called "Reagan Revolution" is revealed for all to behold. THEY are allowed to run roughshod through our social and economic infrastructure. WE are expected to clean up THEIR mess. THEY walk away from the economic carnage relatively unscathed, THEIR tax cuts, quarterly dividend checks and multi-million dollar severance packages still firmly in place, while WE are left to bear the burden of THEIR greed and recklessness. Fuck THEM!
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"You say you want a revolution? Well, you know, we all want to change the world."
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Question: Are you one/tenth as pissed off as I? If you are, you're pretty damned angry, pardner. You're at the end of your patience and your wits. You've had it up to here with the stupid and incompetent bastards and bitches who have spent the last thirty fucking years destroying a country that used to be a nice place in which to live. You feel like Peter Finch in the movie Network, when he stood out in front of his shell-shocked country and proclaimed, loudly as he could:
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"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
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Or maybe your style is a bit more cerebral. Maybe you feel a bit more like Thomas Jefferson in 1776, when he put quill to parchment and wrote:.
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men [and women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men [and Women!], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right [and the duty!] of the People to alter or abolish it...."
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Honestly, to whom do you think it would do us good to listen to: Thomas Jefferson - or George W. Bush? Just a little something to think about. There are an awful lot of angry Americans out there and we mean business, Buster. If we can't alter this government - make no mistake about it - we will abolish it. Democracy needs to be saved - but it won't be the elected officials of either party who will be doing the saving. It'll be WEEDA PEEPLE, BABY! Okay, I'll admit that this is wishful thinking on my part - most of the snoring bumpkins who comprise WalMart Nation have nary a clue as to what is happening to them. But then again, you can't blame a guy for dreaming, can you?
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We can also save capitalism by doing what FDR did: "tempering it's excesses". Oh! And speaking of excesses....
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From "The Rant", June 8, 2008:
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"So desperate is the Bush Mob to forestall the inevitable, catastrophic economic collapse that is months - if not weeks away - they have resorted to sending checks in the amount of several hundred dollars to every taxpayer in the United States. Their intention is to keep the economy barely sustained just long enough to be able to get out of town while the getting is good and blame the coming, unavoidable meltdown on the next administration - an administration they have some reason to believe will be a Democratic one. What they are in the process of doing may very well serve as a temporary fix, but it will eventually only further deplete our already decimated national treasure. Seriously, has it dawned on you yet how utterly contemptible these people are? I was just wondering."
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Aw, nuts! Their little scheme backfired. If the damned economy only could have held up a few months longer. Talk about bad timing! The truth is, early in the summer when Henry Paulson told reporters that the economy was doing well, he was lying. The economy was about to go over a cliff and the son-of-a-bitch knew it. Listen, Folks, I dropped out of High School at the beginning of the eleventh grade. I did a total year-and-a-half in an upstate New York community college. If it was obvious to me in June that the economy was "weeks if not months away" from tanking, of this you may be absolutely certain: it was obvious to the homicidal little thug in the Oval Office and the sycophants that surround him. Don't say I didn't warn you. By the way, Uncle Sam, I'm still waiting for my check.
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In the meantime, the sheer desperation of Camp McCain has been a wonderful, laugh-riot to behold. The latest addition to the giggle fest was their pathetic attempt to prove that Gidget - I mean, Sarah Palin - has geo-political credentials. How were they able to do this, you may well ask? They sent the poor gal to the U.N. to be photographed with foreign leaders. I was once shown on CNN, shaking hands with the Irish politician Gerry Adams. It's a curious thing. After that event was televised, no one assumed that I was an expert on the diplomatic relationship between Ireland and the United States. It just shows what John McCain thinks about the intelligence of the American people. Come to think about it, I think the old bugger might be onto something.
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As if that weren't weird enough, McCain has obviously come to the realization that he has no factual ground to stand on in a debate with Barack Obama. The other day when the Illinois senator attempted to get in touch with the McCain campaign to issue a joint statement in order not to politicize the crisis in Washington, John McCain then went on to politicize the crisis in Washington. He stood out in front of the press and said he was cancelling the debate scheduled for this evening and was heading back to DC to save America.
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How touching. Where's my handkerchief?
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The truth is, a proposed debate is a mere formality at this stage. Senator Obama doesn't even have to show up. Were McCain to debate an empty chair, the chair would win. These people are ideologically bankrupt. They can not win an election by talking about their ideas because their ideas are atrocious. Their only option is to divide, distort and distract - "Lipstick on a pig" - the old Lee Attwater/Karl Rove playbook. To paraphrase President Roosevelt, the only thing they have to offer is fear itself.
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We must confront the ominous truth that what happened on Wall Street on September 15, 2008 was only the dawn of what I fear will prove to be years of hardship for the people of the United States and the world. You can take that to the bank....
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....On second thought, stuff it under the mattress.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
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SUGGESTED READING:
The Declaration of Independence
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There are one-hundred and fifteen days until the disgusting, corrupt incompetent, half-witted, murderous, foolish and inarticulate little piece of shit we spent eight long years laughingly referring to as the "commander-in-chief" is GONE FOREVER! Oh, man! January 20, 2009 just can't come soon enough for me.