Addicted To Lies
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! In his State of the Union, Bush accused Americans of being addicted to oil. Excuse me, but he is the alcoholic oilman killing thousands of innocent people in Iraq to satisfy his lust for oil. I own a car that gets 30 miles a gallon.
Bush lets car makers build more fuel-inefficient vehicles by pretending to conserve oil they really aren’t conserving. It was another of his con jobs – another kickback scheme tailored to oil companies and automakers. Bush is so addicted to the oil companies that he's giving them our land. He is so addicted that he's turning over our national parks. He is so addicted he invades other countries just to feed his addiction. For Bush to accuse Americans of being addicted to oil, is as if Bill Clinton accused America of being addicted to sex.
Clue to Bush: An addict is not someone who drives to work in the morning or heats their home in the winter. That’s not the definition of an addict. An addict is someone who will do absolutely anything to get their fix, no matter what the consequences may be. And while that definition happens to fit George W Bush and his oil company pals to a T, it does not fit most Americans. Most Americans disagree with Bush’s blood for oil policies in Iraq, they disagree with his tax cuts for wealthy oil companies and the despoiling of our natural resources.
Bush’s real grievance with the American public is that we are not quite as addicted as he would like us to be. That's really why he’s dropped like a rock in the polls. The American people no longer feel like enabling his dysfunctional policies in Iraq, even though he’s allowed the oil companies to gouge us at the pump. Most Americans would like cheaper gasoline and heating oil, but not at the cost of American lives.
Instead of facing up and dealing with his own addiction, and admitting that he is the one with the problem, Bush remains in denial. And as long as he is, the troops will keep dying. He projects his murderous addiction onto the American public, as if we were the ones who lied and falsified intelligence, as if we were the ones who authorized torture, as if we were the ones receiving a massive campaign kickback fix from the oil companies.
Which only goes to show just how far addicts will go, in telling any lie to rationalize their addictive behaviors. First Bush wanted us to believe that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, but that was just a lie. Then he wanted us to believe that he’s bringing democracy and stability to the middle east, but that’s another lie. So now he wants us to believe that all his disfunctional fumbling was our fault all along. Like an addict caught in the web of his own lies, he now blames the American people for his disasterous policies. We are the ones who made him do it. It’s all our fault. We forced him to lie and torture and kill hundreds of thousands of Innocent Iraqis. It was really our addiction for oil that he was trying to feed, rather than his own. But that’s another lie.
The truth is that Bush, Cheney and all their oil co. pals would do absolutely anything to feed their oil addiction, whether the public likes it or not. The truth is that Bush doesn’t care how many people die in Iraq as long as oil company profits are up, Halliburton’s stock is soaring, and Republicans are raking in record campaign bribes. An addict never cares how many people his addiction hurts – all he wants is his fix.
Our nation functions very much like a alcoholic family in denial, tyrannized by its sickest and most addicted member. That these oil addicts also happen to be very rich is evidence of the fact that the underlying addiction is not for oil, but an insatiable greed for more money. Like the glass that holds the alcohol, oil is just the vehicle and the means to deliver the payoff, the cash, and the campaign contributions. The love of money is not only the root of all evil, it is also the source of Bush’s oil addiction.
America’s most pressing problem is not any addiction to foreign oil, and it is not the war in Iraq either. Those are two symptoms of the real problem. The real problem is corporate greed and political corruption, and this problem has decisively affected everything, including America’s energy dependence.
If Bush had wanted to wean our nation from its dependence on foreign oil, he should have been doing the exact opposite of what he has been doing over the past five years. He could have gone a long way to help cure our dependence on foreign oil, rather than leading our nation in the opposite direction, and ultimately into Iraq. He could have been increasing the mileage standards for autos rather than helping corporations find ways around the ones that were already in place. He could have made real investments in alternative sources of energy rather than paying lip service while investing countless billions in more tax cuts and subsidies for oil companies that were already raking in record windfall profits. Rather than investing in alternative energy, he's bankrupted the nation to finance a war we can't win and tax cuts we can't afford. Rather than looking for ways to harness the energy of the wind, waves and the sun, he’s been looking for ever more schemes to destroy public land in his greed for campaign kickbacks.
In short, Bush has done none of the things needed to solve the energy problem, and he never will because he’s a flunky of the oil companies. They own him the same way the drug owns an addict. Whenever Bush pretends otherwise, it is more of the same lies and empty rationalizations that he has always used to cover up and maintain his addiction. To the extent that we pretend otherwise, we are only fooling ourselves and enabling an manipulative addict.
Bush would certainly like Americans to feel guilty about his lack of action in helping to wean America from its dependency on oil. Because the more America feels guilty, the less he has to take responsibility for his failed policies, and the less he will be held responsible at the polls this November. That’s the way addiction is perpetuated. It’s called co-dependency, and it is just as sick and addictive.
Americans are responsible for the mess we are in, to the extent that they've elected and enabled corrupt politicians like Bush. Americans are responsible to the extent that they’ve let a dry (or is it wet?) drunk waste human lives and material resources in Iraq. The solution is not for Americans to feel guilty about driving a car to work or heating our house – to quit our jobs and sit in our cold, dark homes all day. That would make America just as sick and dysfunctional as Bush . Though conservation is always a good idea, it's not the solution to America's dependence on oil. The solution is to impeach corrupt public employees and put them in prison where they belong. It is to elect candidates who do what’s in the public’s interest, instead of enabling crooked politicians driven by their addiction to oil company interests and campaign kickbacks.
The public interest on every front is held hostage to corporate greed and political corruption. Our most immediate danger is not our dependence on foreign oil, but the unchecked power of an increasingly out-of-control president who cares more about getting his fix of corporate cash than doing what’s in the best interest of America.
Bush lets car makers build more fuel-inefficient vehicles by pretending to conserve oil they really aren’t conserving. It was another of his con jobs – another kickback scheme tailored to oil companies and automakers. Bush is so addicted to the oil companies that he's giving them our land. He is so addicted that he's turning over our national parks. He is so addicted he invades other countries just to feed his addiction. For Bush to accuse Americans of being addicted to oil, is as if Bill Clinton accused America of being addicted to sex.
Clue to Bush: An addict is not someone who drives to work in the morning or heats their home in the winter. That’s not the definition of an addict. An addict is someone who will do absolutely anything to get their fix, no matter what the consequences may be. And while that definition happens to fit George W Bush and his oil company pals to a T, it does not fit most Americans. Most Americans disagree with Bush’s blood for oil policies in Iraq, they disagree with his tax cuts for wealthy oil companies and the despoiling of our natural resources.
Bush’s real grievance with the American public is that we are not quite as addicted as he would like us to be. That's really why he’s dropped like a rock in the polls. The American people no longer feel like enabling his dysfunctional policies in Iraq, even though he’s allowed the oil companies to gouge us at the pump. Most Americans would like cheaper gasoline and heating oil, but not at the cost of American lives.
Instead of facing up and dealing with his own addiction, and admitting that he is the one with the problem, Bush remains in denial. And as long as he is, the troops will keep dying. He projects his murderous addiction onto the American public, as if we were the ones who lied and falsified intelligence, as if we were the ones who authorized torture, as if we were the ones receiving a massive campaign kickback fix from the oil companies.
Which only goes to show just how far addicts will go, in telling any lie to rationalize their addictive behaviors. First Bush wanted us to believe that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, but that was just a lie. Then he wanted us to believe that he’s bringing democracy and stability to the middle east, but that’s another lie. So now he wants us to believe that all his disfunctional fumbling was our fault all along. Like an addict caught in the web of his own lies, he now blames the American people for his disasterous policies. We are the ones who made him do it. It’s all our fault. We forced him to lie and torture and kill hundreds of thousands of Innocent Iraqis. It was really our addiction for oil that he was trying to feed, rather than his own. But that’s another lie.
The truth is that Bush, Cheney and all their oil co. pals would do absolutely anything to feed their oil addiction, whether the public likes it or not. The truth is that Bush doesn’t care how many people die in Iraq as long as oil company profits are up, Halliburton’s stock is soaring, and Republicans are raking in record campaign bribes. An addict never cares how many people his addiction hurts – all he wants is his fix.
Our nation functions very much like a alcoholic family in denial, tyrannized by its sickest and most addicted member. That these oil addicts also happen to be very rich is evidence of the fact that the underlying addiction is not for oil, but an insatiable greed for more money. Like the glass that holds the alcohol, oil is just the vehicle and the means to deliver the payoff, the cash, and the campaign contributions. The love of money is not only the root of all evil, it is also the source of Bush’s oil addiction.
America’s most pressing problem is not any addiction to foreign oil, and it is not the war in Iraq either. Those are two symptoms of the real problem. The real problem is corporate greed and political corruption, and this problem has decisively affected everything, including America’s energy dependence.
If Bush had wanted to wean our nation from its dependence on foreign oil, he should have been doing the exact opposite of what he has been doing over the past five years. He could have gone a long way to help cure our dependence on foreign oil, rather than leading our nation in the opposite direction, and ultimately into Iraq. He could have been increasing the mileage standards for autos rather than helping corporations find ways around the ones that were already in place. He could have made real investments in alternative sources of energy rather than paying lip service while investing countless billions in more tax cuts and subsidies for oil companies that were already raking in record windfall profits. Rather than investing in alternative energy, he's bankrupted the nation to finance a war we can't win and tax cuts we can't afford. Rather than looking for ways to harness the energy of the wind, waves and the sun, he’s been looking for ever more schemes to destroy public land in his greed for campaign kickbacks.
In short, Bush has done none of the things needed to solve the energy problem, and he never will because he’s a flunky of the oil companies. They own him the same way the drug owns an addict. Whenever Bush pretends otherwise, it is more of the same lies and empty rationalizations that he has always used to cover up and maintain his addiction. To the extent that we pretend otherwise, we are only fooling ourselves and enabling an manipulative addict.
Bush would certainly like Americans to feel guilty about his lack of action in helping to wean America from its dependency on oil. Because the more America feels guilty, the less he has to take responsibility for his failed policies, and the less he will be held responsible at the polls this November. That’s the way addiction is perpetuated. It’s called co-dependency, and it is just as sick and addictive.
Americans are responsible for the mess we are in, to the extent that they've elected and enabled corrupt politicians like Bush. Americans are responsible to the extent that they’ve let a dry (or is it wet?) drunk waste human lives and material resources in Iraq. The solution is not for Americans to feel guilty about driving a car to work or heating our house – to quit our jobs and sit in our cold, dark homes all day. That would make America just as sick and dysfunctional as Bush . Though conservation is always a good idea, it's not the solution to America's dependence on oil. The solution is to impeach corrupt public employees and put them in prison where they belong. It is to elect candidates who do what’s in the public’s interest, instead of enabling crooked politicians driven by their addiction to oil company interests and campaign kickbacks.
The public interest on every front is held hostage to corporate greed and political corruption. Our most immediate danger is not our dependence on foreign oil, but the unchecked power of an increasingly out-of-control president who cares more about getting his fix of corporate cash than doing what’s in the best interest of America.
posted by R. Stephen Hanchett at 4:20 PM
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