Yes, Bush Is a Crook
I was listening to a clip on the news yesterday where Bush became indignant and defensive when a reporter dared to ask him about the Downing Street Memo. The memo states something that I'm sure everyone already knows - the fact that Bush made up his mind early on to invade Iraq, and that he had subsequently twisted the facts to fit his policy. The memo is only news because our media doesn't report the facts - it reports whatever lie Bush wants to foist upon the American public, and then pretends it is the truth. It was certainly obvious to me at the time that Bush was lying when he said he hadn't yet made up his mind about attacking Iraq, because absolutely everything he was doing was to only push the country in that direction.
So I was listening to all these lies that were streaming out of Bush's mouth - about how he didn't want to go to war, and sending soldiers to their death is the last thing a president wants to do - the usual crap told for the benefit of Americans who want to keep on deceiving themselves about what a murderous sociopath he really is. When it struck me how similar it was to when Nixon indignantly told the American people that in spite of all the facts that had come out about Watergate and the ensuing cover-up, that "I'm NOT a Crook!" Unfortunately he was. Nixon was lying too.
But there's also a big difference between Nixon and Bush, and as John Dean pointed out in his book "Worse than Watergate" the damage that the criminals in the White House have done to this nation to date, far surpasses anything Nixon could have dreamed of. There's also a fundamental character difference between Nixon and Bush. Nixon certainly broke the law - he was a liar and a criminal who never should have been given power. But he wasn't a crook in the sense that he did it for money or out of greed. He didn't continue fighting the Vietnam war in order to enrich himself and his friends. But that's precisely what Bush has done in Iraq. Everything Bush does is founded in greed and avarice, and in a very real way, that makes him even more of a crook than Nixon who was simply a paranoid man. Bush is more corrupt than Nixon, and much more of a political degenerate.
The other primary difference between Nixon 30 years ago and Bush today is the media. Though I don't believe the media was 'out to get' Nixon, the media certainly was doing its job in rooting out corruption. Perhaps the media generally didn't like Nixon, but so what? It is certainly better than a media that is treated as household pets and given nicknames, and is afraid of doing their jobs. The media shouldn't like or kowtow to any president. At least they were doing their jobs back then. Today the media and the president are working for the same corporations - they are on the same team.
The Downing Street Memo is just more evidence that the corporate media is completely in the pocket of the Bush regime. This memo itself was ignored by our media, and then after someone DARED to ask him a question about it during a visit by Tony Blair, the media treats it as old news no longer worthy of their attention, as USA Today did with "Downing Street Memo Gets Fresh Attention." Fresh attention??? How about ANY attention? I saw where Hillary Clinton the other day was chastising the media for not doing their jobs. Investigative journalism is dead in America, and the closest the public gets to finding out what is really going on is when someone from inside the administration defects and starts talking. Then the media actually goes out of its way to try and protect Bush. The media is still protecting the criminal who outed whistlblower Joseph Wilson's wife, who was undercover in the CIA, by pretending that they are protecting their "confidential sources" rather than aiding a traitor. Yet when the criminal Bush regime wanted to slime another whistleblower named Richard Clarke, Fox released a transcript of a 2002 political briefing that was understood to be confidential. "This is a big story!" they exclaimed. "To hell with confidential sources and journalistic ethics." So the coverup continues.
Increadibly, the media's reaction to criticism seems to be to keep going after Howard Dean. If the media was 1/10 as good at exposing all Bush's lies and corruption, as it is at twisting Dean's words, and if they played the clip of Bush proclaiming “mission accomplished” against the backdrop of the continuing death and destruction, as often as they played the distorted audio of the “Dean Scream”, Dean would be in the White House today.
America has become like a corrupt and dysfunctional family where the only sin is telling the obvious truth. There are families where there is violence, sexual abuse, drug abuse and alcoholism, and everyone stays in denial about what is really going on. All the lies, abuse, suffering and cruelty - that is all treated like water under the bridge. Ultimately anything can be forgiven except telling the truth about what is really going on.
It was the same way in Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. People had to learn to lie about what was really going on - or at least they felt that they had to. Bush is the most transparently corrupt and dishonest president this country has ever had - by far. For the first time this country is systematically torturing people, and Bush is still getting away with lying about it. There is more outright theft and corruption going on in Iraq today than most people could even imagine. There is an incredible $9 BILLION that is simply missing - but nobody in Congress or the media even wants to talk about it. What they want to talk about is Howard Dean, and the outrageous (and truthful) things he keeps saying. Because in a nation of lies and liars, where everyone has become part of the cover-up, the only real sin is telling the truth. That can't be tolerated, and it won't be forgiven.
It was the same way when Jesus started preaching against the corruption and hypocrisy of the religious establishment of his day. That was something they could not, and would not tolerate. He said "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin." It's the same today when Dean says that DeLay should be in jail. Everyone knows it's true, but to begin telling the truth is something that could upset the entire filthy and corrupt corporate system.
Note: I counted 11-1 to ban "Jason" (correction, "Jasper" - thanks 322) and Bush-Cheney 08, so the motion is passed and I put a ban on BC and I will do the same for Jasper as soon as he creates another name(s) for himself and tries to get back on. My own view is that Jasper is a classic troll who changes his name regularly and simply gets off on monopolizing the discussion and upsetting people, whether or not that's how he thinks of himself. BC08 is a troll-in-training who isn't quite as bad yet, but he will probably get there eventually, especially with Jasper as his mentor. Since he is only 15, I think it is best that he learn his trolling skills elsewhere, rather than having this blog contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In the corporate media, discussing political issues means that you get two sides holding diametrically opposed to shout at each other for a half hour. Nothing is really accomplished, and no minds are ever changed, and political discussion is reduced to a few inflexable sound bites and talking points. I don't think everyone reading this blog will agree with me, and I don't really care if they do. But if someone wants to come on here and try and force their views on everyone else, like I think Jasper and BC08 have done, then that is abusive, that is called trolling, and that won't be tolerated.
The real difference between Jason (correction, Jasper) and BC08 and others who comment on this blog, isn't the fact that they are far to the right and the others aren't. The real difference is that they are political extremists, and they can't tolerate anyone who disagrees with them. The only reason they are here in the first place is because they can't tolerate my views, and they wanted to create as much trouble and commotion as they could to try and shut it down, to eliminate my free speech. It would be one thing if they simply stated their views and let it go at that. But that isn't what they were doing. They were littering this blog with endless rants and political propaganda, often cutting and pasted from various right-wing rags. But I didn’t create this bog to disseminate their propaganda. Let them create their own blog for that. They were out to prove that they have the only correct opinion, and that everyone else was wrong. But I don't see anybody else here so arrogant as to do that, even though I'm sure that others have posted opinions that not everyone agrees with. That's the difference.
When Howard Dean called the Republican party the 'white Christian party", what he was saying was that the Republican party really isn't a political party anymore - it is a religious party for white people who think they have all the divinely-inspired answers. The difference between a political party and a religion, is that political parties in a democracy recognize the right of other parties and other people to exist and hold views that are different than theirs. Politics is ultimately is the art of compromise. Religions, OTOH, often tend not to recognize other points of view as legitimate, and they see any sort of compromise as a sellout. Their ultimate goal is to enforce an orthodoxy by stifling dissent, and silencing free speech. That was Jasper and BC's goal as well.
So I was listening to all these lies that were streaming out of Bush's mouth - about how he didn't want to go to war, and sending soldiers to their death is the last thing a president wants to do - the usual crap told for the benefit of Americans who want to keep on deceiving themselves about what a murderous sociopath he really is. When it struck me how similar it was to when Nixon indignantly told the American people that in spite of all the facts that had come out about Watergate and the ensuing cover-up, that "I'm NOT a Crook!" Unfortunately he was. Nixon was lying too.
But there's also a big difference between Nixon and Bush, and as John Dean pointed out in his book "Worse than Watergate" the damage that the criminals in the White House have done to this nation to date, far surpasses anything Nixon could have dreamed of. There's also a fundamental character difference between Nixon and Bush. Nixon certainly broke the law - he was a liar and a criminal who never should have been given power. But he wasn't a crook in the sense that he did it for money or out of greed. He didn't continue fighting the Vietnam war in order to enrich himself and his friends. But that's precisely what Bush has done in Iraq. Everything Bush does is founded in greed and avarice, and in a very real way, that makes him even more of a crook than Nixon who was simply a paranoid man. Bush is more corrupt than Nixon, and much more of a political degenerate.
The other primary difference between Nixon 30 years ago and Bush today is the media. Though I don't believe the media was 'out to get' Nixon, the media certainly was doing its job in rooting out corruption. Perhaps the media generally didn't like Nixon, but so what? It is certainly better than a media that is treated as household pets and given nicknames, and is afraid of doing their jobs. The media shouldn't like or kowtow to any president. At least they were doing their jobs back then. Today the media and the president are working for the same corporations - they are on the same team.
The Downing Street Memo is just more evidence that the corporate media is completely in the pocket of the Bush regime. This memo itself was ignored by our media, and then after someone DARED to ask him a question about it during a visit by Tony Blair, the media treats it as old news no longer worthy of their attention, as USA Today did with "Downing Street Memo Gets Fresh Attention." Fresh attention??? How about ANY attention? I saw where Hillary Clinton the other day was chastising the media for not doing their jobs. Investigative journalism is dead in America, and the closest the public gets to finding out what is really going on is when someone from inside the administration defects and starts talking. Then the media actually goes out of its way to try and protect Bush. The media is still protecting the criminal who outed whistlblower Joseph Wilson's wife, who was undercover in the CIA, by pretending that they are protecting their "confidential sources" rather than aiding a traitor. Yet when the criminal Bush regime wanted to slime another whistleblower named Richard Clarke, Fox released a transcript of a 2002 political briefing that was understood to be confidential. "This is a big story!" they exclaimed. "To hell with confidential sources and journalistic ethics." So the coverup continues.
Increadibly, the media's reaction to criticism seems to be to keep going after Howard Dean. If the media was 1/10 as good at exposing all Bush's lies and corruption, as it is at twisting Dean's words, and if they played the clip of Bush proclaiming “mission accomplished” against the backdrop of the continuing death and destruction, as often as they played the distorted audio of the “Dean Scream”, Dean would be in the White House today.
America has become like a corrupt and dysfunctional family where the only sin is telling the obvious truth. There are families where there is violence, sexual abuse, drug abuse and alcoholism, and everyone stays in denial about what is really going on. All the lies, abuse, suffering and cruelty - that is all treated like water under the bridge. Ultimately anything can be forgiven except telling the truth about what is really going on.
It was the same way in Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. People had to learn to lie about what was really going on - or at least they felt that they had to. Bush is the most transparently corrupt and dishonest president this country has ever had - by far. For the first time this country is systematically torturing people, and Bush is still getting away with lying about it. There is more outright theft and corruption going on in Iraq today than most people could even imagine. There is an incredible $9 BILLION that is simply missing - but nobody in Congress or the media even wants to talk about it. What they want to talk about is Howard Dean, and the outrageous (and truthful) things he keeps saying. Because in a nation of lies and liars, where everyone has become part of the cover-up, the only real sin is telling the truth. That can't be tolerated, and it won't be forgiven.
It was the same way when Jesus started preaching against the corruption and hypocrisy of the religious establishment of his day. That was something they could not, and would not tolerate. He said "If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin." It's the same today when Dean says that DeLay should be in jail. Everyone knows it's true, but to begin telling the truth is something that could upset the entire filthy and corrupt corporate system.
Note: I counted 11-1 to ban "Jason" (correction, "Jasper" - thanks 322) and Bush-Cheney 08, so the motion is passed and I put a ban on BC and I will do the same for Jasper as soon as he creates another name(s) for himself and tries to get back on. My own view is that Jasper is a classic troll who changes his name regularly and simply gets off on monopolizing the discussion and upsetting people, whether or not that's how he thinks of himself. BC08 is a troll-in-training who isn't quite as bad yet, but he will probably get there eventually, especially with Jasper as his mentor. Since he is only 15, I think it is best that he learn his trolling skills elsewhere, rather than having this blog contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In the corporate media, discussing political issues means that you get two sides holding diametrically opposed to shout at each other for a half hour. Nothing is really accomplished, and no minds are ever changed, and political discussion is reduced to a few inflexable sound bites and talking points. I don't think everyone reading this blog will agree with me, and I don't really care if they do. But if someone wants to come on here and try and force their views on everyone else, like I think Jasper and BC08 have done, then that is abusive, that is called trolling, and that won't be tolerated.
The real difference between Jason (correction, Jasper) and BC08 and others who comment on this blog, isn't the fact that they are far to the right and the others aren't. The real difference is that they are political extremists, and they can't tolerate anyone who disagrees with them. The only reason they are here in the first place is because they can't tolerate my views, and they wanted to create as much trouble and commotion as they could to try and shut it down, to eliminate my free speech. It would be one thing if they simply stated their views and let it go at that. But that isn't what they were doing. They were littering this blog with endless rants and political propaganda, often cutting and pasted from various right-wing rags. But I didn’t create this bog to disseminate their propaganda. Let them create their own blog for that. They were out to prove that they have the only correct opinion, and that everyone else was wrong. But I don't see anybody else here so arrogant as to do that, even though I'm sure that others have posted opinions that not everyone agrees with. That's the difference.
When Howard Dean called the Republican party the 'white Christian party", what he was saying was that the Republican party really isn't a political party anymore - it is a religious party for white people who think they have all the divinely-inspired answers. The difference between a political party and a religion, is that political parties in a democracy recognize the right of other parties and other people to exist and hold views that are different than theirs. Politics is ultimately is the art of compromise. Religions, OTOH, often tend not to recognize other points of view as legitimate, and they see any sort of compromise as a sellout. Their ultimate goal is to enforce an orthodoxy by stifling dissent, and silencing free speech. That was Jasper and BC's goal as well.
posted by R. Stephen Hanchett at 9:53 AM
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