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State of the Union: Grave and Delusional
by Jack Random
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 24, 2007
Against a backdrop of fresh bloodshed in Iraq, the death of Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, the accusation in the opening salvo of the Plamegate case that Vice President Dick Cheney set Scooter Libby up for the fall, with Cheney hovering over one shoulder and Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the other, our beleaguered president proclaimed,
“Our state of the union is strong and our cause in the world is right.”
Tragically, the president remains in a state of delusion.
The state of the union is grave and deteriorating and our conduct in the world is the primary cause.
Sweeping through his domestic overtures like a bat out of hell or a frat boy late for a date, the president’s initiatives might have carried some weight if we were not entering the seventh year of the Bush house of horrors. The secret is out: All Bush initiatives on health care, social security, education and energy policy invariably turn out to be thinly veiled attempts to privatize government functions in the name of corporate efficiency -- the kind of efficiency so rudely and brutally demonstrated by the rescue and restoration of New Orleans.
The president did not mention New Orleans.
He wishes to balance the federal budget without taxes while increasing global military expenditures in Iraq and elsewhere by stripping social services to the bone. Under the president’s tutelage, the plight of New Orleans will become the plight of every American below the elite ten percent of wealth accumulation.
The president made no mention of New Orleans.
One year ago, the president was seemingly fixated on home ownership as a barometer of economic strength -- not any more. There is a rising tide of bankruptcy and home foreclosures that is scheduled for implosion as interest only and adjustable rate mortgages come due in the fourth quarter of this year.
The president made no mention of New Orleans.
The wholesale disaster of No Child Left Behind, which has transformed public schools into paper pushing test machines, defeating dedicated educators, leaving federal mandates unfunded and saddling overburdened teachers with the same over-regulation that this administration deplores in corporate institutions, should be thoroughly repudiated, not reauthorized.
The president did not mention New Orleans.
The Democrats may find common ground with the president on immigration and while it may prevent the national disgrace of a wall separating us from our southern neighbors, it only pushes the issue down the road for it fails to address the behemoth behind the elephant: global “free” trade.
The president made no mention of New Orleans.
The president made passing reference to “global climate change” as if the words alone were a policy change but we have already seen how quickly this administration’s environmental initiatives are transformed into subsidies for “clean” coal, nuclear expansion and big oil. Asking this president to reduce oil consumption or carbon monoxide emissions is like asking a corporate accountant to ingest a truth serum.
The president did not mention New Orleans.
The president’s blood did not begin to warm until he came to his “defining hour” – the global war on terror. As if slipping into an alternative universe where the lies of war had not been stripped from his tired arguments, the president summoned 911 repeatedly as if the connection between Iraq and that historic tragedy had not been thoroughly repudiated.
The president decried Al Qaeda in Iraq and “other Sunni extremists”, neglecting to note that he created both.
The president pined for war with Iran and Syria, neglecting to note that the Iraqi government has reached out to both for diplomatic support and cooperation.
The president condemns Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese organization that fought back an American supported Israeli assault, as if Hezbollah had anything to do with the Iraqi occupation.
The president pleads for time and support, as our soldiers die in the crossfire of civil war, to continue his march of destruction, to engage his enemies, to create the very nightmare of regional and global conflict he warns will follow the withdrawal of our forces.
The president is delusional, demented, far gone from this world of light, and it falls to congress to supply the necessary medications to hold him in check.
An evening that began optimistically with “Madam Speaker” ended up belonging to newly elected Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. A military man with a proud military tradition, he reminded us that every soldier must rely on “trust in the judgment of our national leaders.” He reminded us that “the president took us into this war recklessly.” He informed a delusional president that, if he is not up to the task of ending a misbegotten war, congress will “show him the way.”
If there was any man or woman who did not, at that sorry moment, wish that Jim Webb were commander in chief, then reason and compassion have been banished from the American soul.
The president made no mention of New Orleans.
Jack Random
is the author of Ghost Dance Insurrection (Dry Bones Press) the
Jazzman Chronicles, Volumes I and II (City
Lights Books). The Chronicles have been published by
CounterPunch, the Albion Monitor, Buzzle,
Dissident Voice and others. Visit his website:
Random Jack.
Other Articles by Jack
Random
* Bush to America: War!
* A Dance of
Death: The Hanging of Saddam Hussein
* Ahmadinejad,
Bush and Kofi Annan
* The
Propaganda War: Revisiting Afghanistan on 9-11
* J’ Accuse!:
Israeli Crimes Against Humanity
* Liberation
Ramble South of the Border
* Haditha,
Zarqawi & the Politics of Distraction
*
Misconceptions in the Immigration Debate: What Would Crazy Horse Do?
* Requiem for
American Democracy
* Paradigm
Shift: Embracing the Power of Green
* Remember the
Bastille: A Response to Mickey Z
* Designated
Fall Guy: Replacing Rummy
* Libertad Y
Justicia Para Todo!: Liberty and Justice For All
* Barry Bonds
and the Steroids Saga
* Defiling the
Grave of an American Hero: The Censoring of Rachel Corrie
* Starving the
Beast: Programmed Ineptitude
*
Constitutional Suspension: An Abdication of Democracy
* Right and
Responsibility Depictions of the Prophet Mohammed
* Open Letter
to Cindy Sheehan: Challenging the Pro-War Democrats
* The State of
the Union: A Stumbling Illusion of Strength
* The
Presidential Power Grab
* Surrealistic
Pillow: The West Virginia Mining Disaster
* Pataki &
Bloomberg: How to Bust a Union
* The
Imperial President and the NSA Spying Scandal
* France and
the Burning Embers of Repression
* The
Activist Court & the Neoconservative Agenda
* The Agnew
Factor: Clearing the Impeachment Path
* Iraq and
New Orleans: The ABCs of Police Lawlessness
* The Age of
Catastrophe: Preparing for Disaster
* No Tears
for Rehnquist: The Legacy of a Chief Justice
* Zero
Tolerance: Bush Gets Tough as New Orleans Suffers
* Hugo Chavez
and the American Slug: Pat Robertson’s Call for Assassination
* The Lie of
a Strong Economy (Beneath the Towers of Avarice)
* Fooled
Again: Major Party Turnabout
* The New War
Candidate: Major Paul Hackett for Congress
* Free Judy!
The Fine Art of Calling a Bluff
* Executive
Blackmail: The Betrayal of Democracy in Haiti
* Blame the
Democrats & Move On: The Federalist Court
* Against
the Wind: The Inevitable End of the Iraqi Occupation
* London and
Madrid: Reflections on the War on Terror
* Judith
Miller: The Anti-Hero
* Schizo
Scherzo: The Last Waltz
* The Last
Throes: The Light at the End of the Tunnel
* Impeach
Bush -- US Out Now!
* Recall the
Governator
* The Gates
of Hell: Occupied Iraq
* May Day:
The Rise & Fall of the Middle Class
* The Papal
Aristocracy: Confessions of a Nonbeliever
* No Citizen
Left Behind
* A Marine
Comes Home: The Untold Story of War
* The
Compassionate Leader -- In a Time of Crisis
* In
Defense of Barry Bonds
* Defending
Dan? Rather Not
* David
Went to Canada...& Johnny Got His Gun