NEW DAY, SAME OLD NEWS

I keep waiting for some uplifting news out of Washington, but every day it’s the same lukewarm gruel. The Democratic presidential hopefuls debate and the affair is useless and stupid; the candidates should be talking about income inequality and universal health care, but instead the “big” names spar over driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants. The Republican candidates follow with an equally pitiful showing; they sputter about “moral” values when the leader of their party is the most corrupt and immoral man ever to occupy the Oval Office.

Thomas Jefferson sitting in a room silent and alone was ten times more interesting than any of these so-called political “leaders.”

Our Democracy is tattered and torn and discredited, though the spin masters in the media keep force-feeding us American myths, lies, and legends. Meanwhile, real news is happening, like the fact that President Bush is trying to strike a deal with the Iraqi government, such as it is, that will insure a permanent US presence in Iraq – with military installations and troops to protect Iraq’s oil reserves and infrastructure. Bush claims that the US needs to be in Iraq as a bulwark against Iran, but then, Bush compared Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler, and insisted that Iraq posed a dire, imminent threat to our shores.

What Bush wants is a guarantee that American multinational oil companies will gain access to Iraq’s oil. The best way to insure such access is a network of fortified American military installations and troops. This is the central truth underlying all the other lies – the ones about WMD, bringing “democracy” to the Iraqi people (how can one nation give another a political system?) and fighting the War on Terror.

Aside from tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and endless breaks for corporations, Iraq is the only issue that Bush has pursued with dogged determination. His tools of choice are lies, falsehoods, threats, fear-mongering and empty promises.

Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly hate this Occupation and the havoc it has wrought, though public opinion doesn’t seem to bother Bush one bit. He just keeps chugging toward a permanent military foothold in Iraq and generous concessions to the American oil industry.

Perhaps George W. Bush believes that ten or fifteen years from now, when he has his Presidential library in Crawford, Texas – paid for by generous donations from his corporate cronies – he can rehabilitate his image, in the same way that Richard Nixon morphed from lying scoundrel to “elder statesman.” For all his deviousness and paranoia, Nixon, at least, could formulate a coherent thought in proper English. I can’t imagine a future American president calling on George W for advice or insight, unless he or she wants to understand the finer points of being a buffoon and a disgrace.