OP/ED: Cracks in the Facade

You see them every day in the paper, on television, on the Internet and on talk radio; courageously upholding their beliefs against ever increasing odds. The tides of events are rising up against them, soon to consign their faith to the dustbin of history, and yet they still persist.


Who are these martyrs of whom I speak? Christians? No, not really, though some would have us believe that they are the only true exemplars of that faith. No, I speak of Bush supporters, those men and women, who have bravely slapped blinders onto their eyes and plugged their ears, refusing to accept, nay venomously denying the abysmal failure of his presidency and his corruption of his policies.

I have heard them profess that if Jesus the Christ were here today, he would be a card carrying Republican and Bush supporter, or that to be a true Christian and American, you have to be both conservative and Republican. They have claimed that they are the only real patriots, and that the rest of us who disagree with them are traitors who hate America. I have heard them assert that God, whom one would hope is above party politics, supports them and that he sent us George W. Bush to be the savior of our nation and to herald in the second coming. They have claimed that it was our duty as a God-fearing nation to invade Iraq. And so it goes ad-nauseam. The hubris has been so shrill as drown out all other voices, effectively eliminating the public discourse that is needed to make informed decisions with. They have smeared the good names of politicians, journalists, generals, diplomats and others who have dared to question their right to rule, their policies and their actions. And this includes even those few in their own party who listen to their own consciences. They are fanatics.

It is a fanaticism with obsessive religious imagery, and an enforced lock step political message. A fanaticism that hysterically attacks anyone that questions it. A fanaticism that practices a militant my-country-right-or-wrong jingoism that is passed off as patriotism. A fanaticism whose minions in the media manipulate the news in its favor and suppress opposing viewpoints. And, a fanaticism that rejects science in general and especially any science that questions its religious assumptions about the world. It is a fanaticism that borders on fascism, or at the very least, it expresses the type of party politics at more home in an authoritarian system, than in ours.

Yet despite their wall of political dogmatism and inflexibility, reality is forcing its way through cracks in the facade, and Americans are beginning to wake up to the fact that they have been had. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their administration are baldly put, pathological liars, and it doesn’t matter what its about either. If there is something to lie about they will, if only for practice. And, what they don’t lie about they hide behind an obsessive wall of secrecy. The lies range from Bushes Thanksgiving Day visit to the troops in Iraq, when he claimed that they almost scuttled the mission because a British Airways flight recognized Air Force One. Turns out they were flying at night without lights and the curtains were drawn so no other plane could see them except by radar, and there wasn’t a British Airways flight within one-hundred miles of them anyway. Then there are the more serious lies such as his claim that he wasn’t warned about the possible severity of Hurricane Katrina when there is a videotape of him being explicitly warned, or the lie that no one could have imagined terrorists flying planes into skyscrapers even though such a threat had been a concern for years. Lies.

There have been lies from how much the Medicaid drug plan would cost, to how cutting one billion from HUD would benefit its recipients. He lied when he claimed during the Pennsylvania mining accident how his administration had made mining safer when in actuality they had halved mine inspectors and their budgets. Then there are the lies he told as reasons why we went to war.

The evidence is mounting that Bush intended to invade Iraq regardless of whether Saddam Hussein rolled over and played dead or not, and if they had to cook the books to get that war, then by God they would do it. And they did it; ignoring intelligence that they did not like and promoting intelligence that they did, even when it was known to be wrong. So Bush lied when he claimed that they had evidence that Iraq was seeking yellow cake Uranium from Niger even though he had been warned that the evidence was false. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson was sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate, found nothing and went public with it, the Bush administration went after him via his CIA wife by illegally blowing her cover. Turns out after swearing that they would prosecute whoever leaked that information, both Bush and Cheney were up to their eyeballs in it and the subsequent cover-up. Lies go right to the heart of this administration and right to the heart of the reasons why we were given for invading Iraq. Nixon was forced from office for less serious lies and Clinton was impeached for very personal ones.

It was obvious Bush didn’t take the claim of weapons of mass destruction seriously when he made the “joke” of looking for them behind the couch and under his desk in the oval office. You do not make jokes about the reasons why you send people off to fight and die. To do so is callow, and given his constant rhetoric, the height of hypocrisy. Lies.

More lies. For several years the White house employed a former oil industry lobbyist with no science background and a history of opposition to environmental legislation, and more specifically, opposition to global warming science, to rewrite government sponsored scientific papers. He consistently watered them down to either ameliorate the threat of global warming, or to call it into question bringing them into the party line, even though these papers were of the soundest science, warning us of the grave consequences of continuing to ignore the issue. Lies.

The Bush administration has lied about what its done. It has lied about what it hasn’t done. It has lied about its intents, hiding corporate giveaways behind shell game “initiatives” such as the “Clean Air” and “Safe Forests” acts that do no such thing. He has lied about his connections to the Jack Abromoff scandal, swearing he’d never met the man until multiple photos appeared of them together and White House logs reveal him to be a regular visitor. Bush lied when he claimed that they needed to break the law requiring a court approval to wire tap domestic phone calls in order to protect us. He has lied about the approval of torture, he lied when he asserted that suspects could be held indefinitely without charge, when the constitution explicitly forbids it. He has lied about their efforts to protect us against another terrorist attack, even after the 9/11 commission gave his administration an F for its failure to do anything meaningful in that regard. The only thing we’ve gotten for all his rhetoric is a pawning of our civil liberties and freedoms in exchange for a false security blanket called “The Patriot Act”. Ben Franklin warned that, “Any people willing to trade their freedoms for a little temporary security deserve neither.”

His administration lies when it plants phony news in both American and foreign media to promote what it wants the world (and us) to see, even when it has no basis in reality… it lies... it lies... it lies, and it has dragged Americas good name through the mud as it has done so until, five years after 9/11 we have traveled from almost universal sympathy, to almost universal hatred.

This administration has withdrawn from long-standing treaties of significant import, threatened to preemptively wage war against whomever it pleases, considered the use of nuclear weapons as a matter of choice, proposed creating new ones to add to an already bloated overkill stockpile, ignored world courts and generally acted like the proverbial playground bully. To ad insult to injury, has appointed a man without a diplomatic bone in his body to the United Nations to represent us and has hired public relations firms to sell America to the world, as if they didn’t know us already.

The list goes on and the media has happily played lapdog and downplayed the depredations of this deeply corrupt administration, and through it all the true believers have held their ground. They have blamed anybody that they could for their heroes’ difficulties, and just like him, incapable of admitting mistakes, have refused to accept responsibility for their failures. I cannot help but ask why? I understand supporting a candidate and I understand supporting a party but what evades me is doing so to the obvious detriment of the country. But times are changing. Despite every attempt to control the news, Bushes approval ratings are in the mid-to low 30% range and are sinking like a proverbial rock. People are beginning to understand how his policies affect them personally. How the massive tax breaks he pushed through at the beginning of his reign, not only did not help the middle class like his lies claim, but have created a shift of wealth upward and harm the middle class by creating less opportunity for mobility. People watch the loss of meaningful jobs as greedy corporations protected by this administration, ship them overseas until we are left with work of little value and even less security. People are beginning to understand how his new drug plan is less a benefit for the elderly, than it is a giveaway to the drug companies. People are beginning to understand that teaching a child to take a test, and using that as a standard for determining a school’s soundness is not the same as teaching a child to reason and to think for themselves.

Environments die, fisheries collapse, oceans rise, fires consume the west, jobs disappear while corporations make billions and cry poor man, claiming that they need less regulation, less taxes, less worker pay, less everything except profits for their stock holders. We have gone from massive surpluses to unprecedented deficits in a handful of years, and despite claims that it was the result of 9/11 and the war that caused them, the Government Accountability Office laid blame for them instead with those much touted tax-cuts. You cannot cut taxes and raise spending indefinitely without something giving, thats basic economics. Mark my word; his policies and corporate greed will ruin this country yet.

Here we stand six years into the new millennia and the times look more like the fearful thirties or the paranoid McCarthy years than the threshold of the future. We are told that we are haunted by the clash of civilizations and that there are lean, hungry men out to pull our house down, as if a civilization can really fall without a rotten foundation. The planet is warming at an alarming rate, whole ecosystems are collapsing; pollutants are literally flowing in our veins and yet we are told not to worry but to spend, spend, spend. We have a president who is the personification of Talleyrands’ old quip about the French Bourbons, that they had “learned nothing but forgotten nothing either.” A man described as knowing nothing about history, being guided by men (and women) who care nothing for it. A president who claims that he talks to God and that only he can protect us from terrorists. But who will protect us from him while trashes our constitution?
History has shown us repeatedly that republics and democracies are inherently fragile constructs that must be continually reinforced lest they fail. As Ben Franklin replied when he was asked what form of government we would have as he left the Constitutional Congress; “A republic if you can keep it.”

Through it all, George Bush grins his Alfred E. Newman “What me worry?” Grin thankful for his own golden parachute bought at the expense of the American people.

20 January 2008 is his last day in office, unfortunately we will be paying the price of his “stewardship” for generations to come. Isn’t it time to talk about impeachment?

[edit on 7-5-2006 by UM_Gazz]

Sorry...I wanted to post it in the op/ed section but couldn't figure out how...was hoping a moderator would help in that regards. Still as this administration unravels and lurches its way into lame duckhood, the questions I raise are still valid. How can people still blindly support a president who isn't even a good liar yet is still a compulsive one. At least Clinton was entertaining.

As much as I agree with the initial posting, you really need to supply links to each of the statements you've made, as to where it should be posted, well this will be news to some but not alot of those on ATS.

Good post though...

So re-post it in the appropriate forum. I would love to joust with ya'.

I hope so...the trouble is Karl Rove and his ilk studied (metaphorically) at the feet of Gobbels and mastered the art of the BIG LIE, how to tell it often and loud enough that it obscures the truth and eventually supplants it in the mind of the populous. It is an evil art that this administration has practiced ad nauseam, and in the process totally destroyed its crediblity and by association, our countries crediblity as well.

I don't care where it's posted!

Well spoken truth always gets a WAY ABOVE from me!

I wish the Bush bashers would relax. The man has less than three years left in office. In 2008, there will be an election. At this stage of the game, no one has the slightest idea who the Republicans will run and in all likelihood a Democrat will win, if for no other reason than change. In the meantime, I guess the surest way to get a few WATS is to post a Bush bashing Op/Ed to ATSNN.


[edit on 2006/5/7 by GradyPhilpott]

Grady, I highly doubt Grover did this for the points, or the WATS votes. I think you would be annoyed if he said the same about you, no?

Is it so hard to accept that people still have strong convictions about the illegitimacy of this president and his backers? Is it so wrong to want this loser out of office before his term is up?

We've been under the spell for five years, and frankly I think that's longer than the imposter deserves. Another three years may not seem like much, but really it's the principle of the thing.

If you saw a six year old driving a car down a crowded pedestrian sidewalk, you wouldn't say "Well, he'll run out of gas shortly enough."

Thank you WyrdeOne...I have never paid attention to the points nor do I even know what getting voted WATS means (or gets), thats just not my interest. I wrote it in an attempt to articulate my outrage at such a callous, short-sighted and above all arrogant presidency.

In my opinon, well written and composed. I shall pass it on. A WATS for you.

That was very inlightening, Thats a WATS for you.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I wish the Bush bashers would relax. The man has less than three years left in office. In 2008, there will be an election.

[edit on 2006/5/7 by GradyPhilpott]

There's a scarey thought, Grady. A lot can happen in 3 years!!! The fourth and last horseman is bound to roll into town between now and then.

Another one of grover's ploys?...

You know what is more of a shame? That people like Grover keep trying to deny the tons of evidence and information which has been given against almost everything they claim, yet these people want to claim "it's all made up by the U.S. government"....

Is this the change that ATSNN was going to take? To make it more of a "let's attack the supporters of president Bush, the Bush administration and everyone that thinks differently from us?....

After 2 years of discussions, more than that for some members, and presenting evidence, which people like grover would always claim "it must have been put there by the Bush administration" because he/they can not fanthom that most of the world believed exactly what the Bush administration said since before the war started, which "their own intelligence agencies said the same thing"....

Yet to this day these same people just want to lay the blame on one person, one political party and those members who support that political party....

i fear that soon enough, if it hasn't already, and because of a certain group of people, ATSNN will become more and more another "Rense.com" site....

And the greatest shame is that it seems that the staff is going along with this change. Is this the way to deny bias?.... by insulting and demeaning anyone that does not immediately subscribes to the exagerations that people like grover like to spread?...

Is this what "Deny Ignorance" means now too?

[edit on 9-5-2006 by Muaddib]

Very nice written Grover.

For people like me that was able to see the deception after the 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq I didn't stay blind for too long.

Yes some people are more faithful loyalist to their parties than to their leaders.

Many will die supporting and defending the ideology of their political parties even if the leaders turn into incarnated devils in front of their eyes.

Because after all they come with the parties so they have to support them just the same.

After a while is just become so insane in their support and believes that it starts to sound pitiful.

But is also dangerous because more often than not it will blind them to the wrong doings of these leaders and to our nation.

This goes for both main parties supporters.

America has to wake up and realized that our political leaders are using us Americans to keep us divided and blind to what their agendas are all about.

United we stand divided we fall and vulnerable we become to exploitation.

Just because Bush says the sky is yellow and the sun blue and Tony Blair agrees with him then they must be right huh Muaddib? Perhaps it is you that has a ploy of denying and attacking every criticism of Bush and turning it on its head. I used to think you were incredibly intelligent, even if I disagreed with you even after you repeatly questioned my intelligence, something I never did with you. Now I understand that you are just another right-wing hack. I stated further back that i wrote this essay in an attempt to articulate my outrage. Why can't you just get it through your head that some people disagree with Bush and his policies, and that is alright. If everybody thought the same, we would not be a democracy. 31% approval rating for Bush and 23% for congress...you've become a minority Muaddib...perhaps we should put you on the endangered species list.

Thank you, grover, for articulating in words that need to be said during these times. There have been many posters that have been trying to get people to open their eyes and really look at the truth of the situation. And those posters have faced the brunt of abuse and ridicule for sharing their concerns.

And, in a lot of posts, I ask where the outrage is. And still, I find that some people still take this as "Bush Bashing" even though the evidence mounts daily that Mr. Bush has circumvented the law more than once without penalty. Pity for them. They don't even have to take your word, my word or others that the writing in on the wall. They can read for themselves about how Mr. Bush has sullied America's good name in the eyes of the international community and has created a vision abroad of Americans as being mind-numbing idiots following a demogague.

Oh, how the actions of the few hurt the many of us daily.

His presidency sets up dangerous precedents for future POTUS to come because of his willingness to unlawfully disregard the system of check and balances. Another thing to consider is that this is not like the "No New Taxes" line of his father. What the younger Bush did is rather serious in the eyes of United States history, with his callousness and his lack of empathy for anyone else except himself. Can anyone point to such an unique example of a POTUS who has done equally or worse damage to the state of the Union other that Mr. Bush? Not even Mr. Grant or Mr. Hoover could have done such a horrible state of affairs than their successor is right now.

You deserve a WATS for making it so plain. And I'm giving it to you. Because, this issue is not about whether anyone hates Bush or not. This is about the state of affairs in this country. And its about time that someone laid it all out for people to see despite their political affiliation. People ought to care more about their country right now than to let this happen indiscriminately further.

For those who still have their heads in the sand, what will it be the straw that breaks the camels back? When we find ourselves in a bloodier war with Iran?

You have voted grover for the Way Above Top Secret award.

[edit on 10-5-2006 by ceci2006]

Since grover is into 'calling it like it is,' then it only serves objective justice here that being that the vast majority, that's right - the vast majority of ATS's membership - is anti-Bush, thus it is not surprising, at all, that this 'hit piece' by grover would be taken none other than as the excellent editorial opinion piece that it has thus far been deemed, huh, yet another to be added to the others within the vast Halls of ATS and ATSNN?

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
Is it so hard to accept that people still have strong convictions about the illegitimacy of this president and his backers...

Is it?
Where you been?
What is truly awesome to see is that when I first started posting here, I was but one of a literal handful that had those "strong convictions" for defending aspects of the Bush Administration's doings, and now there are more and more coming out of the shadows to 'fight' along side me. What you have said is nothing that has not already been said in the Halls of ATS. You, as with others, can continue to spread your messages of 'truth', can continue to call us blind and followers of a hollow pied piper, and even continue to insinuate that we are those that have "bravely slapped blinders onto their eyes and plugged their ears," but in no way, shape, or form will this rhetoric dissuade my position, for I cannot speak for the others. But please, surely more added and damning rhetoric will be spewed forth against us- nothing new here. All this is simply more or less the continued game of partisan politics, simply played and performed on another platform, correct? Hence, again, anything new here?







seekerof

[edit on 10-5-2006 by Seekerof]

Originally posted by grover
Just because Bush says the sky is yellow and the sun blue and Tony Blair agrees with him then they must be right huh Muaddib? Perhaps it is you that has a ploy of denying and attacking every criticism of Bush and turning it on its head.

Well, just because you and some others want to post just the exagerated information, and even lies, which only has an agenda in mind no matter what, and because you don't want to believe the amount of evidence which has been posted for years from several countries, and their intelligence agencies which were saying the same thing as the Bush administration did, doesn't mean I got to immediately agree with you.

You want to continue trying to postulate that "it is all Bush fault" despite what the evidence has been saying? It is your choice, but trying to postulate your "opinion" by name calling "all those who support what the Bush administration have been doing", by starting "another thread which you are using just to insult, and belittle those who think differently than you, is not going to help you. It just shows that you are playing the political game and the blame game.

Originally posted by grover
I used to think you were incredibly intelligent, even if I disagreed with you even after you repeatly questioned my intelligence, something I never did with you. Now I understand that you are just another right-wing hack.

You "used to think"....wow, I got to be hurt by that statement right?.... i better change my opinion immediately so I become once more "intelligent in your eyes"....

You are out of your mind if you think that the "biased rethoric", your tactics on "name calling", and "your attempts at belittling" those who do not agree with you amounts to any sort of "evidence" and should immediately change the minds of people....

All this thread is showing me is that (1.) there is bias even from some staff members against those who see the "war on Islamic extremists" as the only alternative to respond to the raising violence from Islamic militants who want to spread their message of hatred (2) even in ATSNN you don't need to post all the evidence anymore and you can use threads for name calling, belittling, and attacking those who think differently from you. It don't matter, even such threads can be disguised as "trying to show people the truth" and will be accepted in ATSNN, what once "was" the portal to the news around the world....

BTW, as I have said many times I am not a religious person, and I am not Christian, I know quite a few people who are also not Christian, including moderate Muslims who disagree with pretty much everything you have said.... So where does that leave your "rethoric" on "they are all fanatics of one religion"?....



[edit on 10-5-2006 by Muaddib]

Excellent piece, grover. FWIW, you get a WATS from me.

Impeachment would send a strong message. A good message, IMO. There is too much of a tendancy by new presidents to forgive and overlook the errors of the old, and the damage George W. has done to our country has gone beyond what can be fixed during one or two subsequent presidencies.

There are too many blind, and maybe some not-so-blind, followers of this administration out there, who will ensure that this era of American history is, like the Vietnam war, forever cast into doubt. And the unprecedented degree of secrecy espoused by this administration will no doubt help those waters stay muddy.

Impeachment would send a clear message that what Bush did was wrong, and other Presidents should take note.

But then, impeachment may not really the most appropriate tool for the job. It's not Bush the man that I think has ruined our country, although he has been the favored instrument of what has. He had help, not just from people, and one of the laziest and most ill-informed electorates the world has ever known. Certain ideologies, arrogance, fear, and ignorance are the main culprits. Impeachment just indicts one man. What we need is to conclusively demonstrate how the factors behind that man (both abstract and material) led to the damage done. This, I fear, will likely never be possible, absent some catalyzing event.




[edit on 10-5-2006 by koji_K]

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
If you saw a six year old driving a car down a crowded pedestrian sidewalk, you wouldn't say "Well, he'll run out of gas shortly enough."

Aside from how well written, articulate and accurate the article is - the above quote has to be the my favorite and most telling.

Grover on the article - I'd like to see this posted on www.hannity.com...
and see the rabid Republicans froth. Or any other mainstream hardcore blinders-required forum.