In the Aftermath of the Storm

If anything has been laid bare in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina it is the long disseminated myth that America is a land of boundless opportunity and equality for all of its citizens. A land where the ability to prosper was limited only by the ability of each and every American to answer the knocking at their front door of Horatio Alger, to seize the roaring tiger named destiny by the tail and to ride on its back, roaring in unison in the pursuit of the American Dream and all of its optimism. Immigrants descended on this nation at one time literally believing that the streets were lined with gold only to find themselves trapped in hellish working conditions in factories, in fields or forced to build the railroads that would provide the infrastructure of commerce to the wealthiest of the land, to the capitalists, to the Robber Barons. The truth is that for too long the ugliness of the growing underclass has been ignored, the poor and the black are systematically ostracized from society by the adherents of the philosophy of unfettered greed that is the bastard fruit of the Reagan Revolution: the free market.

When the horrifying imagery of thousands of mainly black, poor, elderly and sick residents left to their own devices to survive in the anarchy filled streets of post Katrina New Orleans was broadcast to the entire world some very uncomfortable questions were beginning to be asked. Uncomfortable to the entire concept of an advanced egalitarian society that has for too long been accepted as gospel to ignorant, television addicted Americans and specifically troublesome for the Bush administration, whose reckless, ideological undercutting of the very foundations of the progressive social ideals that at one time had built this country into the shining city on the hill were beginning to be exposed as the nothing other than the all out class warfare with extreme prejudice that they are intended to be. Once the foolish Orwellian sloganeering is put under a microscope it is easy to see that it is all marketing, wrapped in the flag and promoted through political and media chicanery to disguise the true nature of the ideologies behind such radical assaults on American ideals as Healthy Forests, Clear Skies, No Child Left Behind, PATRIOT Act, Ownership Society and all of the other malarkey and folderol that spews forth from Rove Inc.

The very fabric of the social contract itself is being unwound, the constitution of the republic disemboweled so that the wealthiest can become wealthier, the tax cheats can continue to duck responsibility for paying their use of the infrastructure to reap profit, the tax code rewritten specifically to introduce mammoth loopholes to facilitate their willful noncompliance and the laws of the land themselves rewritten to limit the recourse of the less fortunate to hold accountable those in power. The law is also being changed so as to allow the ruling elite imperialists to loosely redefine that which constitutes terrorism so that the net becomes wide enough to entrap any dissenters to the reactionary reign of the fascist right. Corporations and the ultra rich now own congress, they subsidize the campaigns of those willing to defraud the public in their rise through the system and fully expect to be rewarded for their efforts. Corporate sponsored political organizations such as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) carefully screen all potential candidates so as to root out any progressives who would seek to close the feeding trough to ultra capitalist pigs, this further strengthens the radical right and undermines the concept of democracy. The Democratic Party itself has become so inundated with corporate hacks and compliant appeasers that it has lost its ability to act as a check on power run amok, and its fecklessness in the face of aggression bears one hell of a lot of the responsibility for the current state of this country.

What did George W. Bush do when it became apparent that his lack of response to last weeks disaster was as abysmal a failure as his leadership of the country? He made public relations appearances, he sent Laura Bush out to appear on national television. He called out the guard three days too late and when the relief convoy finally rolled into flood and mayhem roiled Louisiana it was led by a cigar chomping general, an archetype figure and just the piece of stagecraft that would demonstrate to the T.V. stewpots that law and order would damned well be restored in the American way, it if as though Patton himself were arriving to lead the charge. He enlisted the assistance of the right wing media smear machine to once again muddy the waters regarding responsibility for the disaster of New Orleans and he pulled out the race card by sending forth loyal soldier Condoleeza Rice as an emissary to show that any suggestion that his administration and the radical conservative movement was insensitive to the needs of the poor or racially insensitive to the plight of black Americans was patently absurd.

Condi, who earlier in the week while shopping for thousand dollar shoes at Ferragamo, an exclusive New York boutique was shouted down by an angry patron who screamed "How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!", the woman who was understandably incensed at seeing a top administration figure splurging lavishly on vacation while the Big Easy was being engulfed was only voicing the frustration of the growing number of Americans who realize the extent to which the pyramid of bullshit that has been constructed by this administration. The former Chevron board member was sent to the front lines to slog through the trenches of public opinion. By Sunday, Dr. Rice had her pampered ass parked in the pew of a Mobile, Alabama church where she deflected mounting criticism by proclaiming "Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race". In reality, Rice has little in common with the poor inner city blacks that she is now directed by her boss and his handlers to champion, she has far more in common with other prominent Toms like Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas and O.J. Simpson who are so smitten with their presence on the master’s plantations that they dare not even dream about biting the hand that feeds them by actually trying to bring about recognition to the problems of the poor and black second class citizens of the land. Rather they ignore them at any time when it is not necessary for public relations purposes, like their elitist benefactors they themselves become advocates of social Darwinism through their inability to utilize their positions of influence to promote concepts of humanitarianism and dignity for those who are less fortunate.

As the long Labor Day weekend wore on, the unprecedented negative media coverage given the Bush administration’s criminal neglect of the suffering citizens of New Orleans was somewhat diluted due to the fortuitously timed death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, it began to become clear that the GOP strategy would be to triangulate and redirect the blame to local officials rather than admit the embarrassing truth that every agency in America is staffed by Bush loyalist lackeys like FEMA chief and former commissioner of the Arabian Horse Association Michael Brown. The king himself stated that 'Brownie' was doing “a heck of a job” on Friday, giving a pat on the back to his utterly clueless and overwhelmed compadre. The best quote regarding the mind boggling level of utter incompetence of Brown belonged to Kate Hale, the former Miami-Dade emergency management chief who eloquently summed it up: "He's done a hell of a job, because I'm not aware of any Arabian horses being killed in this storm. The world that this man operated in and the focus of this work does not in any way translate to this. He does not have the experience.". AMEN!

The damage from the aftermath is so severe that the master of double-dealing treachery, Turd Blossom himself would personally lead the efforts to slime and discredit those who would dare to speak out against the regime in the name of the preservation of the real ‘naked’ truth that not only does the emperor have no clothes but is a fucking delusional lunatic whose incompetence is only matched by his megalomaniac fantasies of being God’s own instrument of Earthly providence.

Another pathetic opportunistic vulture is the odious Senator Bill Frist (R) TN: The flip flopping Senate Majority Leader, never one to allow a chance for publicity and self glorification go by materialized in New Orleans as a volunteer medical assistant. The heart surgeon and scion of the HCA Healthcare empire, the man who made Terri Schiavo into a personal crusade and launching pad for the 2008 GOP nomination, busied himself in triage for the benefit of the cameras although his limited participation as a volunteer would not impede his return to Washington on Tuesday for the confirmation hearings of future Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Did you expect anything less from the spokesman for the radical religious right’s Justice Sunday assaults on the judiciary?

I will never forget how angry that I became when once many years ago a young woman named Dorothy who happened to be majoring in women’s studies at a local college proclaimed that “America is a land for rich white men founded by rich white men”. This was a statement which I found to be bordering on heresy at the time given my ignorance of how the system really works. Today, in retrospect, after time and education have enlightened me I am flabbergasted at just how this angered me at the time. But then I knew nothing of the true nature of our society nor of it's at many times gruesome and sordid history. I was as oblivious to that which is now as obvious as the light of day to any who are able to rise above the lemming like mentality of the bewildered herd. In a land where twelve former U.S. Presidents were also at one time slave owners, including eight who owned them while in office it is hard to look at any broad state condoned versions of history with anything other than a skeptical eye.

This statement now ranks as one of the greatest truths that has ever been told to me in a world that is sadly lacking of them…

Thanks Dorothy….and sorry…you were right !

Let Them Eat Fear

Yesterday's appearance of Al Quaeda honcho Ayman Al-Zawahiri (Robin to Bin Laden's Batman) in a yet to be authenticated video clip aired on Al Jazeera had all of the usual trademarks: the backdrop of rock cave or canyon, Islamic fundamentalist religious garb, an assault weapon at his side as a prop and fortuitous timing. The clip just happened to pop up at a time when the Bush administration hydra was regenerating, riding high coming off of a week of fawning mainstream press coverage over the pork laden horsetrading of a corrupt one party legislature that brutally rammed through Bush priority legislation including gun industry friendly immunity from product liability, baseball steroidgate news, resurgent missing Aruba teen coverage, giant panda bear news and space shuttle stories that completely knocked traitors Karl Rove and Scooter Libby out of the headlines. Now suddenly more bad news from Bush's war threatened to slow the momentum. American marines in Iraq were becoming corpses in an increasingly bloody quagmire. 44 officially announced dead in the last 10 days was taking a bit of the bloom off of the chaff blossom that King George disappeared into on his way to yet another extended vacation on the phony Crawford, TX ranch where he spends more time on the taxpayer dole than any other chief executive in history.

Enter Al-Zawahiri. These Quaeda dudes just happen to pop up at the darndest of times, all fortuitously beneficial to periods of public discontent with the administration or ugly news that it considers inconvenient to the political agenda. Didn't Osama himself just happen to emerge from the batcave looking tanned and rested only four days prior to last years election? Such coincidence may cause people to talk. Dubya was certainly using the occasion to talk, albeit mostly in a rambling and unintelligible manner (which he typically does whenever not reading from a teleprompter or taking audio cues from a back mounted communication device) from Crawford Ranch where he launched into a belicose diatribe to remind Americans that we are in a war to the death with the terrorists, after all, these are the guys who attacked us on 9-11 because they hate our prosperous lifestyle and the egalatarian democratic system in which we live. Strong Daddy, the protector was back!

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country”

-Hermann Goering

Recent terror attacks in London and Egypt had the administration frantically trying to find an Al Quaeda connection, anything to resuscitate the specter of terror that has worked so well in using as a bludgeon of the American spirit so as to impose their radical fascist doctrine upon society, as Herr Goering said, “It works the same in any country”. The Bushie ship was taking on water due to the exposure of Rove, Libby and still to be named others in the treasonous Plame outing and terrorism has always been the ace in the hole to be played as the ultimate trump card at the most critical moment. The Al-Zawahiri video, while lacking the ability to send the nation into a much desired total lockdown where dissent would be quashed through extreme enforcement of the USAPATRIOT act certainly buys a bit of time for a workable strategy to be mapped out to distract attention for the looting of the treasury, the gutting of the constitution, the ascent of the ruling class and the rise of the theocracy.

Perhaps one day history will look upon the criminal Bush administration for its infamous crowning achievement, turning the United States of America (formerly known as the land of the free and home of the brave) into a nation of quivering, quaking, craven cowards and flag waving leg pissers. A free floating dread is maintained by melding entertainment with propaganda as evident by the popular FOX series 24 where there is always a loose nuke or other WMD in the hands of Islamic extremists seeking to destroy the American way of life. Phantom menaces the like of the all powerul Al-Zarquawi plot to turn the Iraq charnel pit into a staging ground for a war against 'democracy' drawing 'terrorists' from across the middle east to wage jihad against U.S. forces (giving the right wing media another great canard: we are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here) and to pull off daring escapes the likes of which belong in cliffhanger action movies just as his imminent capture looms, and he is free to loose his malevolence another day. I am increasingly suspicious that the dreaded Al-Zarquawi does not even exist and is just another ficticious super villian created by pentagon propaganda mills bent on peddling their illicit war to tv nation as though it another season of 24.

These days people jump at shadows and see ‘terrorists’ seeking to destroy the holy sanctimony of the American way of life in every dark skinned person and facilitators of the enemy in every citizenwho dares to question the morality of Bush’s war or the fanatic zeal of his rubber stamp congress and bureaucrats who seek to repudiate over two hundred years of constitutional freedoms. These are freedoms that have been paid for on the installment plan by each generation whose young died in a foreign war, shedding their precious blood for 'democracy'. Now for political expedience and the advancement of a fascist agenda the sacrifices of the brave ones are not only ignored but in an ultimate disgrace to their legacy, are cynically used by those usurpers of democracy who cower behind the stars and stripes and use bill of rights as a shield from which to launch attacks on others seeking to utilize their own civil liberties by standing up to the domestic terrorists in our own government and corporate America who relentlessly attack the patriotism of those questioniong any that are not a part of their particular militant status quo, be it the elitists at the top of the oligarchy, the Wall Street investment bankers, the insane, doomsday cult ‘christian’ fundamentalists or the corporate masters of energy and the military industrial complex.

Americans have for the most part been brainwashed by incessant nationalist propaganda distributed by a compliant state controlled media, rendered ignorant by those seeking to misrepresent our national history and heritage, pitted against each other so the uber-capitalists and free market fanatics can continue to wage relentless class warfare against the working people through the exportation of our jobs to low cost third world cesspools for the maximization of shareholder wealth, mortgage the future of our children by amassing unprecedented levels of foreign debt, money that will one day have to be paid back at a time when the scoundrels who have used abortion and gay marriage as a ruse to dupe people into putting their children to bed cold and hungry in order to empower those who would seek to further lay waste to the prosperity for all that was at one time, not long ago an American birthright. These people have crippled what was once the American Dream, a concept that is now on life support, they are coming to pull the plug now, hiding under the guise of phantoms and seeking to exploit FEAR in order to finish the job.

Nothing is a more useful tool than fear. Fear will distract the American sheeple from both the increasingly unpopular move to defraud the public on our nation’s longtime, successful retirement programs as well as from the news that Video News Releases (VNR’s) which are slickly produced pieces of advocacy ads produced by public relations firms that resemble actual news broadcasts are being utilized with increasing frequency by the criminally dishonest Bush administration in foisting their radical agenda off on a terrified and dumbed down public and that the usage of these slick infomercials have been decried by the GAO (Government Accounting Office) as the misuse of taxpayer dollars to fund illicit propaganda which is prohibited. If Tom Ridge’s kindergarten level homeland security color threat level chart were still in use it would likely be blinking red today.

Goering was right. It is our national shame that the GOP party strategists are so cynical and ruthlessly calculating that they freely use the techiques of his Nazi regime's playbook and nothing is more shameful than a populace that is so ignorant of history and terrifed of the present that they allow it to happen.