G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
America, Open For Business, Closed To Freedom
By Bob Higgins
Created Nov 2 2007 - 8:38am
Is there any area of our government, over the span of the last seven years,
any area, in domestic or foreign policy, national defense, public welfare,
the economy, name it, where the average, reasonably informed American might
point to success, to signs of progress, of improvement, something, anything,
to point to with satisfaction, with pride?
Yesterday I read an article by Steve Benin [1] on the resignation of Karen
Hughes from her post as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs, a mouthful there, and a job for which she was as ill suited
and unqualified as the man who appointed her and in which, during her two
year tenure, she accomplished little, if anything.
In truth, she accomplished nothing, unless you want to count convincing
large portions of the world that all Americans must be as out of touch with
reality, as clueless and unthinking as their current Commander in Chief, and
at that she excelled, as anyone might, having been dispatched to the Middle
East with the rank of Ambassador, but without knowledge of the language,
culture, history, religions, and general pet peeves of the various states
and peoples of the region.
But Karen Hughes was tapped for her office for the same reasons as all Bush
appointees are chosen, not for expertise or experience, not for performance
or integrity in public service but for loyalty, for unwavering belief in the
Messianic delusions of neo conservatism, and a willingness to march in
lockstep, nah, goose step, against all who might disagree or dissent.
As I read Benin's article I had the thought that he might have written a
very similar piece about nearly any federal department and the Bush
appointees thereto in the last seven years. Which of the various cabinet
level branches of the executive department of this country have not suffered
greatly under the politically connected cronyism of the Bush/ Cheney
administration?
We witnessed it at Justice, the politicization of the office of the Attorney
General, the perversion of law and the resulting descent into the barbarity
of denial of human rights and torture.
We saw it at Defense, where the best military minds of a generation were
ignored in favor of the views of sychophantic careerists who allowed a lying
Vice President and a comic opera Commander in Chief and their apparatchiks
to lead them over the cliff and into the abyss of an endless and disastrous
war.
We have seen time and again the incompetence, indifference and criminal
neglect at "Homeland" Security and FEMA.
We have seen heads of federal departments turned into agents of
electioneering, where party politics takes precedence over public welfare
and the machinery and energy of the state is turned to the furtherance of
private goals.
Agriculture, Interior, Commerce, Treasury and the rest are now run by the
industries that they are legally bound to restrain, regulate and control in
the public interest.
Executive branch departments have been stripped of many of their most
dedicated, long serving professionals and replaced with Bush loyalists from
business and industry, or, in many cases directly from the most favored
campuses, the ivy leagues of Christian evangelism. Regulatory functions have
been curtailed, enforcement budgets slashed, and inspection schedules
diminished to a laughable degree in nearly every regulatory corner of the
federal system.
But this, after all, was the intent, to create central government that would
gladly do the bidding of the corporate structure, throw aside all
restraints, all regulation and increase its profits and its power.
Nearly every day I encounter a story in the media, a story of illness,
injury, death or disaster befalling unsuspecting citizens due to the
inattention, incompetence, lack of inspection and failures of enforcement of
existing federal laws regulating consumer products, work place safety,
environmental prohibitions or other areas where purity, safety and security
were once almost taken for granted.
During the last seven years we have devolved into a country whose livestock,
produce and other foodstuffs are ridden with bacteria and other
contaminants, whose drugs and medical services are becoming untrustworthy,
whose ports and borders are dangerously porous, whose bridges and highways
are collapsing, whose military is being misused and abused in continuous
illegal and futile adventures on behalf of corporate America, whose jobs
have largely been moved to other countries and continents, whose pensions
have collapsed and whose Barbie Dolls contain enough lead to write a
novella. (Or, perhaps, the last paragraph)
The real problem however, the crux of the matter and what may finally
deliver us stumbling and stuttering, quavering with dread at the terminus of
the road to Fascist hell is the incredible damage that has been inflicted on
the American spirit, the American soul, the American psyche. I may be
accused of naivete' but in my world, in my mind and in my memory there was a
time when the eyes of America contained a great measure of compassion, of
kindness, of simple good will.
Those days are gone. Under the current regime the eyes of America, official
America, the America of the ruling oligarchy are now filled with hunger,
with avarice, with an insatiable lust for resources and power, for wealth
and influence. America's eyes are no longer the warm welcoming eyes of Lady
Liberty but the cold calculating gaze of the largest and most dangerous
predator to ever stalk the planet, a predator to be feared and distrusted,
to be resisted at all costs.
The eyes of Americans, our citizens, our electorate are filled with a
mixture of apathy and fear, of meekness, a cowering attitude and a shuffling
posture which is all too heavily reflected in their parliament.
America, in the brief span of my lifetime and largely in the span of a
single decade has devolved into a killer of humanity, a dream slayer,
despoiler of freedom, a destroyer, the destroyer of America.
Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust [2]
_______
Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust [3]
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"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. But 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."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Bob Higgins
Created Nov 2 2007 - 8:38am
Is there any area of our government, over the span of the last seven years,
any area, in domestic or foreign policy, national defense, public welfare,
the economy, name it, where the average, reasonably informed American might
point to success, to signs of progress, of improvement, something, anything,
to point to with satisfaction, with pride?
Yesterday I read an article by Steve Benin [1] on the resignation of Karen
Hughes from her post as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and
Public Affairs, a mouthful there, and a job for which she was as ill suited
and unqualified as the man who appointed her and in which, during her two
year tenure, she accomplished little, if anything.
In truth, she accomplished nothing, unless you want to count convincing
large portions of the world that all Americans must be as out of touch with
reality, as clueless and unthinking as their current Commander in Chief, and
at that she excelled, as anyone might, having been dispatched to the Middle
East with the rank of Ambassador, but without knowledge of the language,
culture, history, religions, and general pet peeves of the various states
and peoples of the region.
But Karen Hughes was tapped for her office for the same reasons as all Bush
appointees are chosen, not for expertise or experience, not for performance
or integrity in public service but for loyalty, for unwavering belief in the
Messianic delusions of neo conservatism, and a willingness to march in
lockstep, nah, goose step, against all who might disagree or dissent.
As I read Benin's article I had the thought that he might have written a
very similar piece about nearly any federal department and the Bush
appointees thereto in the last seven years. Which of the various cabinet
level branches of the executive department of this country have not suffered
greatly under the politically connected cronyism of the Bush/ Cheney
administration?
We witnessed it at Justice, the politicization of the office of the Attorney
General, the perversion of law and the resulting descent into the barbarity
of denial of human rights and torture.
We saw it at Defense, where the best military minds of a generation were
ignored in favor of the views of sychophantic careerists who allowed a lying
Vice President and a comic opera Commander in Chief and their apparatchiks
to lead them over the cliff and into the abyss of an endless and disastrous
war.
We have seen time and again the incompetence, indifference and criminal
neglect at "Homeland" Security and FEMA.
We have seen heads of federal departments turned into agents of
electioneering, where party politics takes precedence over public welfare
and the machinery and energy of the state is turned to the furtherance of
private goals.
Agriculture, Interior, Commerce, Treasury and the rest are now run by the
industries that they are legally bound to restrain, regulate and control in
the public interest.
Executive branch departments have been stripped of many of their most
dedicated, long serving professionals and replaced with Bush loyalists from
business and industry, or, in many cases directly from the most favored
campuses, the ivy leagues of Christian evangelism. Regulatory functions have
been curtailed, enforcement budgets slashed, and inspection schedules
diminished to a laughable degree in nearly every regulatory corner of the
federal system.
But this, after all, was the intent, to create central government that would
gladly do the bidding of the corporate structure, throw aside all
restraints, all regulation and increase its profits and its power.
Nearly every day I encounter a story in the media, a story of illness,
injury, death or disaster befalling unsuspecting citizens due to the
inattention, incompetence, lack of inspection and failures of enforcement of
existing federal laws regulating consumer products, work place safety,
environmental prohibitions or other areas where purity, safety and security
were once almost taken for granted.
During the last seven years we have devolved into a country whose livestock,
produce and other foodstuffs are ridden with bacteria and other
contaminants, whose drugs and medical services are becoming untrustworthy,
whose ports and borders are dangerously porous, whose bridges and highways
are collapsing, whose military is being misused and abused in continuous
illegal and futile adventures on behalf of corporate America, whose jobs
have largely been moved to other countries and continents, whose pensions
have collapsed and whose Barbie Dolls contain enough lead to write a
novella. (Or, perhaps, the last paragraph)
The real problem however, the crux of the matter and what may finally
deliver us stumbling and stuttering, quavering with dread at the terminus of
the road to Fascist hell is the incredible damage that has been inflicted on
the American spirit, the American soul, the American psyche. I may be
accused of naivete' but in my world, in my mind and in my memory there was a
time when the eyes of America contained a great measure of compassion, of
kindness, of simple good will.
Those days are gone. Under the current regime the eyes of America, official
America, the America of the ruling oligarchy are now filled with hunger,
with avarice, with an insatiable lust for resources and power, for wealth
and influence. America's eyes are no longer the warm welcoming eyes of Lady
Liberty but the cold calculating gaze of the largest and most dangerous
predator to ever stalk the planet, a predator to be feared and distrusted,
to be resisted at all costs.
The eyes of Americans, our citizens, our electorate are filled with a
mixture of apathy and fear, of meekness, a cowering attitude and a shuffling
posture which is all too heavily reflected in their parliament.
America, in the brief span of my lifetime and largely in the span of a
single decade has devolved into a killer of humanity, a dream slayer,
despoiler of freedom, a destroyer, the destroyer of America.
Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust [2]
_______
Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust [3]
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"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. But 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."
-Thomas Jefferson