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Fear and Loathing in The States
June 24, 2002
We were somewhere near day 600 of the Bush
administration on the edge of sanity when reality began
to take hold ... And suddenly there was a terrible roar
all around us and the future was full of bombs and
Enrons and Cheneys, all swooping and screeching and
diving around the SUV, which was going about a hundred
miles an hour straight into a brick wall. And a voice
was screaming: "Holy Jesus! How did we get here?"
Feels that way sometimes. Like we're on the
white-knuckle, e-ticket ride of our lives, passengers
of some smacked out maniacs at the wheel, careening
down freeways of their own private Idaho.
So let's get this straight ...
Our foreign policy was written by a weapons
manufacturer executive and our energy policy was
dictated by oil-companies.
The White House finally acknowledges catastrophic
global warming but says we should ignore it. Why
conserve when we can drill for more! Bush didn't get
his way turning the Arctic Refuge into an oil field, so
he now (unbelievably) pushes for an even bigger prize:
despoiling a 23-million-acre tract of pristine Alaskan
wilderness, to dig for oil that will profit energy
contractors, but not make a dent in the country's
overwhelming consumption ... which contributes to
global warming.
Hubris. Like it doesn't matter if you smash up the car
because daddy's so rich he'll just buy another one.
Similar to how Cheney finagled the golden handshake
from energy services company Halliburton, right before
its stock collapsed due to Cheney's bad management. Or
the way Bush crashed and burned company after company,
only to have Poppy Bush supply him with other corporate
toys to wreck.
But what they're playing with now is the future. Our
future.
$100 billion has already been burned up testing the
lunatic missile defense system, and billions more
corporate "Star Wars" pork is on the way. This while
social and environmental programs are being axed due to
lack of funding, and millions of Americans continue to
lose their jobs, joining the millions more already
languishing in poverty, hunger and homelessness.
The administration's response? A tax cut benefiting the
richest 1%, and an attempted repeal of the estate tax,
further enriching the very rich.
Let them eat cow pies, apparently.
Meanwhile, philanthropist Bush scores U2-Bono points
proposing billions in aid to African countries, then
turns around and signs into law a farm bill not only
disproportionately burdening America's poor, but also
creating trade barriers so high as to wipe out any of
the African aid benefit.
If this were simply madness it would be scary enough -
but the coldly calculated method behind the madness
confirms this administration is on a suicide run,
taking us pedal to the metal down their dangerous dead
end street.
We've got inebriates at the wheel, drunk on power
grabbing, lies and short-term profit.
We've got Bush & Cheney et al blocking investigations
into Enron, corruption and "who knew what when,"
Ashcroft massacring civil rights, and disempowered
citizens accused of being unpatriotic if they dare to
question administration policies.
But what's at stake this time isn't some car or even
some company - it's our country. Our future.
"The most violent element in society is ignorance."
Emma Goldman
Heather Wokusch is a freelance writer. She can be contacted at
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