Treasonous Bush Fostering Fascism
by Bill Gallagher
We, the suffering American people, are now in the sixth winter of our
national discontent, thoroughly numbed by President George W. Bush's radical
agenda, wild misjudgments and wholesale lies. He sells fear to win support,
when it is he we must fear most.
The nation and world brace to endure more of Bush's obsessions,
miscalculations, greed and sheer incompetence. We are in the seventh hell of
an administration that claims all power and denies all responsibility. The
state of our union is frightening.
These are very dangerous times. Nothing in our national experience has
prepared us for the chilling consequences of the double dose of foreign and
domestic irresponsibility and recklessness Bush has wrought.
Of course, I wish I could say I anticipated the cold reality of the
Bushevik horrors. I didn't. I was horribly wrong. While I get a steady flow
of hate mail accusing me of "hating Bush," I don't. I simply pity him as a
tragically flawed figure who happens to be far more lucky than good and an
effective prop for the interests he gladly serves. I do despise what he has
done to our nation already and fear what's to come.
But that's not what I thought five years ago, after the U.S. Supreme
Court selected and anointed this failed progeny of a wealthy family, with a
familiar name and vast influence.
Left on his own and relying on his own merits and wit, Bush always
fails.
But his pedigree, the country club culture and the Ivy League
affirmative action his family status guaranteed assured this manifestly
mediocre man his richly undeserved academic opportunities, business
"successes," personal wealth and the powers of high public office.
Never forget that Yale University and the Harvard Business School gave
our nation the worst president and manager of civic affairs we have ever
had. That's a stigma those otherwise respected institutions must bear. They
helped create this monster.
Reflecting on what I anticipated and wrote when the supremely
ill-qualified Texas cowpoke took office on that bleak January day, I now
realize what a fool I was.
I praised his inaugural speech, calling it "stunning." Dubya quoted
Mother Teresa and urged Americans to see the "pain of poverty." The
president who went on to do more to enrich the rich and steal from the poor
than any other in our history was calling on people to sacrifice to help
others.
"I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort," Bush said. He
fretted that, in times of economic decline, "the vulnerable will suffer
most."
And then, in one of the most pixilated moments in my life, I gushed in
the column that "our 43rd president set a decent tone for his administration
far different from his shrill campaign. He called for 'a nation of civility,
courage, compassion and character.'"
What we got was corruption, cronyism, chaos and craven assaults on the
civilized world. His "compassion" for the poor has turned into an
unprecedented raid on the U.S. Treasury to give tax cuts to the richest
Americans and his corporate sponsors. Middle-class workers are paying for
the reckless debt, as their real income remains flat or declines. Programs
to help the poor are being slashed as corporate welfare, business subsidies
and pork-barrel spending have grown wildly under Bush's watch.
A cover story in Britain's "Economist" warns this is "danger time for
America" as a result of Bush's economic and fiscal policies and the retiring
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan's monetary policies.
The article notes Greenspan's legacy and reputation may well falter
quickly from the pain his work leaves.
"Mr. Greenspan's departure could well mark a high point for America's
economy with a period of sluggish growth ahead. This is not so much that he
is leaving, but what he is leaving behind: the biggest economic imbalance in
America history," the "Economist" warns. America's housing boom -- enabled
by Greenspan's low interest rates -- results in people borrowing against
"the rising potential artificial value of their homes" to indulge in all
kinds of superficial luxuries.
As a consequence, "Americans have been able to literally consume more
than they earn. ... Part of America's prosperity is based, not on genuine
gains in income, nor on high productivity, but on borrowing from the
future," the "Economist" offers.
Consumer spending dominates the modest expansion of the U.S. economy,
but Greenspan -- along with the Busheviks -- has created a fragile and
unpredictable economic engine built with unsustainable devices.
"Robust consumer spending has boosted GDP growth," the British journal
notes, "but at the cost of a negative personal savings rate, a growing
burden of household debt and a huge current account deficit."
Greenspan recently told the French finance minister, "We have lost
control of the budget deficit."
No, Mr. Greenspan, "we" have not committed this unconscionable act of
generational thievery. You, Bush and the Republican Congress have created
this mess with your addiction to borrow-and-spend federal budgets.
Greenspan's irrational exuberance for Bush's irresponsible tax cuts
for the wealthiest Americans has put us on the track of the fiscal
trainwreck we are sure to have. Long ago, Greenspan lost any respectability
as a central banker to become a hack politician and GOP partisan. Good
riddance!
American manufacturing, especially the automotive sector, is in big
trouble, and Washington refuses to do anything to help. Detroit auto
executives, with their hubris and shortsightedness, have contributed largely
to their own plight, but some factors are beyond their control and
government can and should do something about them.
With Delphi in bankruptcy, Ford closing plants and cutting one-quarter
of its workforce, and General Motors losing $8.6 billion last year -- and
with that vulture Kirk Kerkorian ready and willing to use his large stake in
GM to force liquidation of the company -- the industry and people who depend
on it are in dire straits.
But Bush is not prepared to help in any way. He told the Wall Street
Journal last week, "I think it's very important for the market to function,"
and he downplayed any possible federal role in assisting the domestic
automakers.
Of course, Bush can't stop the Chinese from unfairly manipulating
their currency, which hurts U.S. manufacturing, because Chinese banks are
financing a substantial chunk of the enormous debt he's created. You can't
get tough with the Chinese when they're keeping us fiscally afloat.
Health care costs put American automakers at a serious competitive
disadvantage with foreign competitors. A single-payer health care system
would be the best thing the federal government could do to help U.S.
manufacturers. We pay more per capita for health care than any other
industrialized nation, and yet we still have 40 million people uninsured.
Auto executives know a single-payer system would help enormously, but
they don't have the guts to say so out loud.
Besides, they probably figure the Busheviks are so beholden to the
drug industry, insurance companies and for-profit hospital chains, it's
pointless to broach the subject.
But, by golly, some industries are doing just fine with their buddy
doing a heck of a job in the Oval Office. Military contractors and energy
companies are thriving. Halliburton, of course, is both.
Vice President ***** Cheney's former company -- with the largess of
government subsidies for oil exploration and no-bid Pentagon contracts in
Iraq -- reports the most profitable year in its 86-year-history: $1.1
billion in net income. Halliburton still sends residual payment checks to
Cheney's bunker.
The corporate culture he created there has resulted in Halliburton
being caught on numerous occasions cheating the taxpayers, overcharging and
performing substandard work. A recent report showed that company provided
untreated water for soldiers in Iraq. The market that best functions for
Halliburton is based on influence and political clout.
Chevron -- where Condoleezza Rice once served as a director -- made a
record $14.1 billion for 2005. That's as fuel prices soar, consumers and
businesses suffer, and Bush and the Republican Congress provide more tax
breaks for oil companies. It's always better to be lucky than good. Just ask
Lord Halliburton and Princess "Concealeezza."
Bush's idea of "civility, concern, compassion and character" has made
the world despise us. His war in Iraq will cost more than $1 trillion. That
money would have been better spent investing in our own infrastructure and
homeland security. Bush's neocon fantasy of forced democracy is failing in
Iraq. Sunni fundamentalists and jihadists are gaining support in Egypt,
Syria and Saudi Arabia.
The desperate Palestinians -- tired of getting nothing -- just voted
democratically for Hamas to run their government. Bush has never put up a
dime of his "political capital" to help create a Palestinian state and forge
a lasting peace. The invasion and occupation of Iraq have only diminished
hope for political stability in the region and have spread chaos and
extremism.
Bush is fostering fascism to "protect" us, claiming he has the
authority to spy on people without search warrants and indefinitely detain
"enemies" without charges and legal representation. He condones kidnappings
and torture. He says this illegal, unconstitutional and barbaric behavior
makes our nation "safer."
Bush's horrible adventure in Iraq has weakened our security and
nurtured terrorism. At home, the economy is precarious at best. We are a
fiscal basket case. Tuesday night, Bush will tell us how much better off we
are with him at the helm. The truth is, the state of our union is a
shambles. Can matters get any worse? Just wait until next winter.
Bill Gallagher, a Peabody Award winner, is a former Niagara Falls city
councilman who now covers Detroit for Fox2 News. Email to:
gallaghernewsman@sbcglobal.net.
© 2006 Niagara Falls Reporter
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