- i knew that i was dying.
- something in me said, go ahead, die, sleep, become
- them, accept.
- then something else in me said, no, save the tiniest
- bit.
- it needn't be much, just a spark.
- a spark can set a whole forest on
- fire.
- just a spark.
- save it.
-
- - Charles Bukowski "He shall
from time to time," reads the Constitution, "give to the Congress
information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration
such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." And so it
shall be. George W. Bush will be speaking tonight from the podium in the
House of Representatives. Before him will be arrayed Senators, Representatives,
generals and judges. The balconies will be filled with observers, luminaries,
reporters and a few so-called "special guests" whose presence
will be used to reinforce some argument or another.
-
- It shall be quite a thing to
see, a show worth watching if only to observe exactly how many lies, distortions,
threats, taunts and smirks can be crammed into a single speech. This will
be Mr. Bush speaking, after all, and the truth is not in him. It will be
in every pertinent sense a mere commercial, a television advertisement
from a failing company, a whitewashing of ugly truths by a staggering CEO
whose sole desire is to keep the stockholders in line for another quarter.
-
- In the interests of truth, the
actual state of this union deserves to be displayed for all to see. This
is the deal. This is how it is.
-
- The Real Economy
-
- Since 2000, the number of Americans
living in poverty has risen to nearly 37 million. More than 13 million
of these are children. More than one in four American families with children
make less than $30,000 a year. Look within that number and you will find
46% of African American families with children and 44% of Hispanic families
with children fall below this mark. Average annual income for Americans
fell once again in 2005. 46 million Americans live without health insurance.
-
- The response to this? Vice President
Cheney, three days before Christmas, cast the tie-breaking vote on a spending
reduction bill that will fall most heavily on the poor, the infirm and
the elderly. Funding for health care, child support, and education subsidies
for low-income families has been gutted. Medicaid benefits for the poor
were cut by $7 billion, and Medicare programs for the elderly were cut
by $6.4 billion. Federal student-loan programs were cut by $12.7 billion.
-
- On the very same day, the Senate
passed legislation that drastically cut funding for the departments of
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. The Head Start program
was hit especially hard: the cuts here eliminate some 25,000 slots for
low-income children. All in all, these spending reductions are expected
to save $40 billion.
-
- Meanwhile, recently-passed tax
cuts ravage the budget far more deeply than these drastic budget cuts.
Two tax cuts in particular that went into effect on New Year's Day will
cost $27 billion, more than half of what the spending reductions are supposed
to save. These cuts will cost more than $150 billion over the next ten
years. 97% of the money from these cuts will go to households making more
than $200,000 a year. Households with incomes under $100,000 will get 0.1%
of these cuts.
-
- If all of Mr. Bush's tax cuts
are stopped or allowed to expire, $750 billion will be added to the federal
budget. That is more than enough to pay for the programs that have been
eviscerated. It won't happen, not with the priorities of this administration,
but that is the simple math of the matter.
-
- New Orleans Drowned in a Bathtub
-
- The first weeks of September
brought to all Americans a devastating tragedy. The city of New Orleans
was all but obliterated by Hurricane Katrina when levies meant to hold
back the waters failed. The failure of these levies came, in no small part,
because of unprecedented budget cuts for the Army Corps of Engineers, which
was tasked to keep the levies viable.
-
- The tragedy was compounded by
the utterly incompetent management of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency and its head, Michael Brown, whose experience with disaster management
came while he was serving as an attorney for owners of Arabian horses.
In the weeks to follow, lavish promises were made by Mr. Bush. "We
will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens
rebuild their communities and their lives," he said on September 15th.
-
- Those promises have been broken.
We have gone from oaths to revive this cherished city to this: "I
want to remind people in that part of the world, $85 billion is a lot,"
said Bush on January 26th. Hundreds of thousands of Americans remain displaced,
many holding on by the skin of their teeth in cramped trailers. Thirty
million cubic yards of debris remain uncollected - the Washington Post
estimated over the weekend that this was "enough to build a five-sided
column more than 50 stories tall over the Pentagon." There is not
even a plan in place to begin to attack the problem. The Bush administration
has left New Orleans to rot, and the next hurricane season is four months
away.
-
- Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist
once famously stated that he wanted to shrink the federal government to
the size where it could be drowned in a bathtub. As evidenced by the budget
cuts and tax giveaways described above, many within this government feel
as Norquist does. Thanks to their actions, to the cuts in the Army Corps
of Engineers budget, to the nomination of useless cronies like Brown to
vital positions of civil defense, to a war in Iraq that has bled the budget
further and left Louisiana without sufficient National Guard troops to
help the population, it is New Orleans that has been drowned in Norquist's
bathtub. A major American city has been shattered, and nothing is done
about it.
-
- To add insult to injury, the
Bush administration utterly refuses to answer any questions on the matter.
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, perhaps the most widely-known
Democratic defender of Mr. Bush, is the ranking minority member on the
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Even Mr. Lieberman
is flabbergasted by the stonewalling of the White House.
-
- "My staff believes that
DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) has engaged in a conscious strategy
of slow-walking our investigation in the hope that we would run out of
time to follow the investigation's natural progression to where it leads,"
Lieberman said last week. "At this point, I cannot disagree. There's
been no assertion of executive privilege, just a refusal to answer. I have
been told by my staff that almost every question our staff has asked federal
agency witnesses regarding conversations with or involvement of the White
House has been met with a response that they could not answer on direction
of the White House."
-
- Mark Folse, a New Orleans native,
operates a blog called "Wet Bank Guide." On Monday, Mr. Folse
posted a message for Mr. Bush. "I've never lost the deepest allegiance
I've ever held: to my city," wrote Folse. "We have always known
we were a people different and unique, as divided as we may seem. That
sense of identity as a New Orleanian is the powerful bond that draws me
on. It is the deep love of country that drives me - of my country, New
Orleans and southern Louisiana. It is the irrational emotional attachment
to my piece of America that leads men and women to go willingly up Bunker
Hill, to follow General Pickett, to volunteer for Iraq."
-
- "A life of assured privilege
has protected you from having to take these sorts of risks," continued
Folse, "to find the strength to get up and go into the maw of uncertainty,
to risk and gamble your own and not other peoples' lives or money. You
can pledge allegiance or sing the anthem or give a stirring speech as well
as any, but you know you have no allegiance except self-interest."
-
- "If nothing moves you except
your own self-interest," concluded Folse, "then consider this.
There are hundreds of thousands of us, scattered throughout most of the
United States. We are everywhere you and your party will go to campaign:
Arkansas and Atlanta and Austin, Dallas and Detroit and Denver, Los Angeles
and Las Vegas, Baltimore and Boston, Chicago and Charlotte. Many will remain
there indefinitely, unable to go home, precisely because you have lied
to them and betrayed them. We will not let you escape from the net of lies
you have woven. Wherever you turn, you will find us, ready to call you
out."
-
- The situation in New Orleans
is a problem that will not go away. Men like Mark Folse will make absolutely
sure of that.
-
- "Scandal" Is Too Small
a Word
-
- The Abramoff scandal directly
touches some sixty Republican congresspeople, according to campaign finance
records that show where the disgraced lobbyist sent his money. Mr. Bush
recently promoted the lead investigator in this case, effectively removing
him from the investigation. Despite this, the hard look into Mr. Abramoff's
dealings continue. Mr. Abramoff's plea deal has a lot of people in Washington
suffering from flop-sweat.
-
- Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation
into the outing of a deep-cover CIA agent by administration officials continues
apace, and has already cashiered Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby.
According to t r u t h o u t investigative reporter Jason Leopold, Fitzgerald
has "spent the past month preparing evidence he will present to a
grand jury alleging that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove knowingly
made false statements to FBI and Justice Department investigators and lied
under oath while he was being questioned about his role in the leak of
covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity more than two years ago, according
to sources knowledgeable about the probe."
-
- "Although there have not
been rumblings regarding Fitzgerald's probe into the Plame leak since he
met with the grand jury hearing evidence in the case more than a month
ago," continued Leopold in his January 10th report, "the sources
said that Fitzgerald has been quietly building his case against Rove and
has been interviewing witnesses, in some cases for the second and third
time, who have provided him with information related to Rove's role in
the leak."
-
- None of this will be mentioned
in the State of the Union speech tonight. The Bush administration continues
to stonewall these investigations with all its might - Mr. Bush has denied
ever knowing Jack Abramoff, despite the existence of several pictures showing
them glad-handing each other in the White House - and the Republican-controlled
congress will certainly do nothing to advance the questions being asked.
-
- In contrast, a portion of the
speech will certainly be dedicated to moralistic sloganeering about values.
Remember, as high-flown words about truth and justice are spoken, what
the Abramoff and Plame scandals represent: a government run by thieves,
stroked by swindlers, and staffed by assassins who sing of defending the
nation even as they cast us down into greater danger.
-
- And, by the way, the Enron trial
started on Monday.
-
- The Middle East
-
- 2,242 American soldiers have
died in Iraq. Tens of thousands more are grievously wounded. Tens and tens
of thousands of civilians are dead or maimed. Scores more simmer in rage
and pick up weapons to attack American forces. American soldiers wishing
to go around the Pentagon to augment their meager armor have been threatened
with the revocation of death benefits for their families. A coalition of
fundamentalist Shiite groups has taken over the government, the two main
parts of which are notorious terrorist organizations with umbilical ties
to Iran. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent to do this. There
is no end in sight.
-
- Three years ago, in another State
of the Union address, Mr. Bush told the nation that Iraq was in possession
of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons
(which is 1,000,000 pounds) of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent, 30,000
munitions to deliver these agents, mobile biological weapons labs, al Qaeda
connections, and uranium from Niger for use in a robust nuclear weapons
program. Mr. Bush will have to work very hard tonight to tell a lie as
vast, dramatic and bloody as this.
-
- Certainly, Mr. Bush will sing
the praises of bringing democracy to the Middle East. It is worthwhile,
however, to consider what his concept of democracy has accomplished to
date. Six months ago, a radical named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president
of Iran. Thanks to the intense feelings within Iran's populace about the
US occupation of Iraq, Ahmadinejad has been able to unify his country behind
the establishment of a nuclear program that frightens the rest of the world.
Ahmadinejad's election itself owes a great deal to Mr. Bush's policies
on Iraq.
-
- Last week, the terrorist organization
Hamas was overwhelmingly elected by the Palestinian people to run their
government, leaving the Fatah party shocked and displaced. While the success
of Hamas has much to do with Fatah's corruption and lack of progress on
several fronts, the slow radicalization of the general population in the
Middle East once again can be laid at the doorstep of Mr. Bush. It has
been revealed that Bush's decision to disengage from the peace process
between Israel and Palestine several years ago was a disastrous choice.
Couple that with the occupation of Iraq and the torture of its citizens,
and few can be surprised when the general population in the Middle East
turns toward more radical elements.
-
- Democracy is a tricky thing.
The fact that people in Iraq, Iran and Palestine are afforded the opportunity
to vote, instead of suffering the absolute control of a dictatorship, is
arguably a good thing in the main. Yet methods matter. When the Iraqi people
are given the vote by way of a ravaging war that inflames the passions
of the region and enshrines a radical government, democracy becomes its
own worst enemy. When that ravaging war empowers a fringe president in
Iran, democracy becomes its own worst enemy.
-
- Methods matter. Democracy does
not exist in a vacuum. When it is forced upon a population at the point
of a sword, that population will see the sword as the best viable option
to exercise its collective will. Almost immediately, democracy will be
used to elect radicals, and those radicals will dispose of democracy at
the first opportunity. The radicalization of governments all across the
Middle East has made the world substantially more dangerous. Mr. Bush will
speak of progress tonight. The only progress being made is toward a general
conflagration.
-
- On the other hand, Exxon Mobil
has posted a $32 billion profit for the last year. This stands as the largest
single one-year profit in the entire history of the world. Progress indeed.
-
- The Unitary Executive Tapping
Your Phone
-
- Mr. Bush and friends have been
jumping through flaming hoops to justify the blatantly illegal policy of
spying on Americans by way of the National Security Agency. Their tortured
arguments in favor of this action, and their flat-footed declaration that
the policy will continue, makes confetti of the Fourth Amendment.
-
- More than that, however, it moves
this nation one step closer to having an Executive Branch that supersedes
all others in power and scope. Not only will Mr. Bush spy on whomever he
pleases, but he will also torture whomever he pleases. Put simply, the
constitutionally-required separation of powers, the checks and balances
that have maintained the stability of this republic, is being destroyed.
This will echo down the corridors of our history long after Mr. Bush has
left his office.
-
- On Monday afternoon, Senate Democrats
failed to muster the necessary 41 votes needed to avoid cloture on the
nomination of Samuel Alito. The man will be elevated to the highest court.
Beyond the fact that Alito is hostile to a woman's right to choose, hostile
to privacy rights in the face of unwarranted police intrusion, and hostile
to the poor and disadvantaged, there is the matter of his opinion on the
powers of the Executive. In short, he agrees with Mr. Bush.
-
- The Reign of Witches
-
- The state of this union is not
good. We are poorer, frightened, faced with the swelling ranks of enemies
our leaders have created, and hell-bent to do away with the most precious
aspects of our system of government. We are surveilled, propagandized,
intimidated. We empower the radicals and disenfranchise the common good.
We are fed swill via the television and thus convinced that what they tell
us is what we already believe. We are bought, and we are paid for.
-
- The radicals running this country
have long desired to destroy the government's ability to govern - they
found things like taxes intrusive, which is amusing when one hears them
now defending warrantless spying on Americans - and they are well along
the path towards success. The budget is destroyed, spent on tax cuts and
the Iraq occupation, while millions of Americans suffer the loss of necessary
services. The one percent of the one percent is making a killing, and the
rest of us are left behind.
-
- If there is hope to be found
in all this, it is in the words of Thomas Jefferson, written 208 years
ago after the passage of the Sedition Act.
-
- "A little patience, and
we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and
the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its
true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply
in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous
public debt. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are
at stake."
-
- William Rivers Pitt is a New
York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: War on
Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition
Is Silence.
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