A Knight in Shining Armour Or, Get with the McCainite Faction........
I looked up from my treadmill and Lo! I saw Him! A knight in shining armour gliding by. My heart leapt! What grace! What manly vigour! Could it be Him, the Awaited One, the One who has come amongst us to cleanse the Republic and sweep away the hellish hordes of rottenness and smite the abominable tribe of Bushites? Yea! and it was on Fox News too.
On the treadmill in the gym is where I do the little TV-watching that I do. Happily channel jumping (what guy doesn’t) between BBC World and Fox News (CNN seems to have done a bunk in my gym), a whole load of animal stuff and on occasion (God help me!) E.News. I get an earfull of all the idiot music I need simultaneously on the competing channels around me.
And that’s where I saw the clip of John Kerry sailing by in an ice hockey game. Now anyone who knows anything about hockey knows it ain’t for sissies. It was just about the time Dean consigned himself to outer darkness with that weird shriek and Kerry won big for the first time. And a war hero to boot! A man who had not only fought bravely but had protested the War as well. Perfect! A 60’s paragon, a paladin with the visage of Abraham Lincoln. Why! It’s almost as good as Gregory Peck running for President......
That’s when I knew that Dubya and his creatures were history, a one-term presidency. My heart soared. But why, I wondered, did I dislike George W. Bush so much? More so than any American President I can ever recall. It’s not even that I think he was wrong to invade Iraq, although I knew he was full of it at the time and bound to screw up the aftermath. It’s not that I think he’s stupid, though no one would call him a mental giant and no way he’s up to the job. It’s really two things, I think. First, that the man has not an ounce of spontaneity in him. He looks for all the answers outside himself so there’s no shred of integrity within. He has no moral compass of his own and is reduced to playing roles. Hence the 3rd rate good ol’ boy swagger and the painfully absurd military braggadocio. “Ah’m ah Wah President, ah am....” Oh, dear me, I don’t think so. Not to mention all that wannabe flyboy stuff strutting round aircraft carriers.
That, and most of all, it’s the despicable bunch of carpet bagging bastards that run the show around him. In one short term they have raped the environment and the treasury, rolled back civil liberties, appealed State stays of executions, lined their pockets, debased the institutions and organs of state, started wars they are not competent to finish and have brought America into contempt and disrepute around the world.
The most revealing thing I find about all this is that in the last 6 months I have for the first time in my life conceived how it might be that I could come to regard the USA as an enemy nation and that shocked me. Now I’m no cheese-eating surrender monkey with delusions of La Gloire and I certainly wouldn’t buy a 2nd hand car or much else from the likes of Messrs Chirac & Juppe. Nor am I a Moslem who might rightly or wrongly feel that the US is unsympathetic toward me, my religion and my culture. No, I’m an anglo-saxon Atlantacist, born in England and along with most other Britons have always felt that, by and large and with all kinds of aberrations, America was essentially one of the good guys. Instead of seeing America as free and accessible, a kind of 2nd country, as in many ways it has been, for the first time I could actually conceive of a scenario where, when the chips were down, I could be on the other side. A reluctant but direct opponent of the US, which had become hostile and alien. I saw that the side of America I feared and disliked, and really knew very little about, actually could become the ruling majority for the foreseeable future. The Kingdom of the Simple, people who didn’t know or like abroad, people who wrapped themselves in God, the Flag, corporate malfeasance, homophobia, violence and liked executing children and lunatics.People who didn’t think twice about passing laws abridging their own and everyone else’s hard won civil freedoms. In other words non-liberal Republicans, right?
Can that really be half the nation and more?
I don’t think so. And that’s why I’m optimistic.
The last election was a steal. With no mandate this administration has cynically proceeded to ransack the nation. The nature of this beast has been revealed. The shock of 9/11 has come and gone. America has lost it’s virginity in terms of terrorism and joined the rest of the world. I cannot believe that the majority of Americans can be so benighted that they would vote in a man of straw like Bush and his rapacious minions a second time around, whatever their party affiliation. They’d have to be bandits or bigots, morons or morally maimed to do so.
That is why a decent human being like Kerry, whatever flaws and compromises he may have had to make along the way will be, nay has to be, the next president of the United States. So to any Americans who are Republicans I say on this one occasion your patriotic duty, if not as a human being, is to vote Democrat, or .....
DITCH BUSH NOW! GET WITH THE McCAINITE FACTION!
ParacelsusAsia
ParacelsusAsia@yahoo.com
Here, courtesy of the ether, comes a resume which I am happy to pass on:
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GEORGE W. BUSH - RESUME
The White House, USA
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EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE :
Law Enforcement: I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.
Military: I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By taking advantage of family connections I was able to join the Texas Air National Guard, thus avoiding combat duty in Vietnam.
College: I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I had no athletic aptitude so became a cheerleader.
Past Work Experience: I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock. I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our right-wing friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas.
Accomplishments as Governor of Texas: I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America. I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money. I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history. With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida, and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:
I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record. I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week. Within 2 years I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury. I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history. I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period. I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period. I presided over the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
I'm proud to say that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. The 'poorest millionaire in my cabinet,' Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations. My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, Enron. My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my presidential election decision. I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history.
I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed. I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history. I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts. I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history. I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history. I am the first U.S. President to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission. I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. Prisoners Of War detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention. I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election). I set the record for holding the fewest number of press conferences of any President since the advent of television. I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history. I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest against me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protesters against any person in the history of mankind.
I am the first U.S. President to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and most of the world community. I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in war time. In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq, then blamed those lies on our British friends.
I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security. I am supporting the development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a Weapon of Mass Destruction.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES:
All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view. All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed and unavailable for public view. All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President attended regarding public energy policy are sealed and unavailable for public review.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN 2004.
