"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine." - - - William Blum

January 19, 2005

Waiting for the Dark Period to End


Mark Morford's latest rant (excerpt):

....the terrorists are as giddy as schoolgirls. Bush's warmongering agenda has done more to destabilize the Middle East than Osama could have ever dreamed. The U.S. is more loathed and mocked on the global stage than anytime in past 100 years. Our credibility as a peacemaker and a humanitarian force is the lowest in modern history, so much so that Bush had to send out a signed op-ed letter to the international papers, claiming that the American government really does care about all those dead Muslim tsunami victims, no really we do, despite how many of their co-religionists we're killing in our brutal occupation of Iraq.

And now, all outrage has become muted and lethargic. All protests, in the wake of BushCo's nauseating fear-based win last November, have become pale and moot and limp. We are numb and resigned to the steady stream of lie and abuse. This is the sentiment, even among many fear-hammered red staters who insist on seeing Bush as their pseudo-religious dumb-guy Messiah: a sort of national teeth gritting, a dark period in America, a hunkering down and waiting for it to be over and for the light to emerge again.

Term II is under way. The vicious Republican PR machine is of such potent talent that Bush could now walk up to a live TV camera and jam his thumbs in his big monkey ears and wiggle his fingers and stick out his tongue and say Ppppbbbtthhtt, ha ha America, it's my gul-dang war and I knew all along Saddam was an easy mark, a pip-squeak tyrant, never had WMDs, and I lied to the whole stupid nation to make me look manly and to help my buddies in Big Oil, and in the military industry, and in my daddy's Carlyle Group, and for my rich Saudi pals.

And he could say: Too bad about all those dead 'Murkin soldiers. Too bad about all those soldiers who will be dying very soon. Too bad they can't go AWOL and skip out on the war like I did. Too bad they're dying for reasons no one can justify, and never could. Okey doke, I'm off to the ranch for even more vacation, the most of any president in American history. Bye now. Oh, yes, one more thing: ppppbbbtthhtt!

And most of America would apparently sit there and watch him, and sigh, and go, oh that Dubya, such an honest and God-loving man, so simple and plainspoken and not all that bright. Just like the rest of us. He's a Good Man, isn't he? He's sturdy and stalwart and on the side of righteousness. I mean, isn't he, Lord? Hello?

I wish for the ability to write like that.

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