Fear and Loathing in The States

24 June 2002

We were somewhere near day 600 of the Bush administration on the edge of sanity when reality began to take hold... And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the future was full of bombs and Enrons and Cheneys, all swooping and screeching and diving around the SUV, which was going about a hundred miles an hour straight into a brick wall. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! How did we get here?"

Feels that way sometimes. Like we're on the white-knuckle, e-ticket ride of our lives, passengers of some smacked out maniacs at the wheel, careening down freeways of their own private Idaho.

So let's get this straight...

Our foreign policy was written by a weapons manufacturer executive and our energy policy was dictated by oil-companies.

The White House finally acknowledges catastrophic global warming but says we should ignore it. Why conserve when we can drill for more! Bush didn't get his way turning the Arctic Refuge into an oil field, so he now (unbelievably) pushes for an even bigger prize: despoiling a 23-million-acre tract of pristine Alaskan wilderness, to dig for oil that will profit energy contractors, but not make a dent in the country's overwhelming consumption ... which contributes to global warming.

Hubris. Like it doesn't matter if you smash up the car because daddy's so rich he'll just buy another one.

Similar to how Cheney finagled the golden handshake from energy services company Halliburton, right before its stock collapsed due to Cheney's bad management. Or the way Bush crashed and burned company after company, only to have Poppy Bush supply him with other corporate toys to wreck.

But what they're playing with now is the future. Our future.

$100 billion has already been burned up testing the lunatic missile defense system, and billions more corporate "Star Wars" pork is on the way. This while social and environmental programs are being axed due to lack of funding, and millions of Americans continue to lose their jobs, joining the millions more already languishing in poverty, hunger and homelessness.

The administration's response? A tax cut benefiting the richest 1%, and an attempted repeal of the estate tax, further enriching the very rich.

Let them eat cow pies, apparently.

Meanwhile, philanthropist Bush scores U2-Bono points proposing billions in aid to African countries, then turns around and signs into law a farm bill not only disproportionately burdening America's poor, but also creating trade barriers so high as to wipe out any of the African aid benefit.

If this were simply madness it would be scary enough - but the coldly calculated method behind the madness confirms this administration is on a suicide run, taking us pedal to the metal down their dangerous dead end street.

We've got inebriates at the wheel, drunk on power grabbing, lies and short-term profit.

We've got Bush & Cheney et al blocking investigations into Enron, corruption and "who knew what when," Ashcroft massacring civil rights, and disempowered citizens accused of being unpatriotic if they dare to question administration policies.

But what's at stake this time isn't some car or even some company - it's our country. Our future.

Heather Wokusch © Heather Wokusch
www.heatherwokusch.com

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