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I'm putting this up on my website later this week...but I thought I'd toss it out here first to get some feedback, comment and criticism.
Thanks!
I hate to say it, but I have been watching the news in abject horror over the last couple of weeks. No, not because they are back to feeding us a steady diet of Gary Condit, shark attacks and Robert Blake, that's enough to make me remember that I have 200 other channels I could be watching with more meaningful fare such as Blind Date and Elimidate Deluxe, but because I can't believe how the news people and the government are whipped up into a frenzy over the fact that there were memos saying that the Al Qaeda was planning on hijacking planes before 9/11.
I don't quite know how to break it to all people who are ready to ask, "What did Bush know and when did he know it?" but if you had a dollar for every memo that talked about how some group hates us and wants to attack us, you'd be able to afford a nice house in the suburbs under current housing prices. I don't doubt that Bush was told that Osama bin Laden had said he would bring us down. He's been saying it since the early 90's, remember? Just in my OWN stupid news parody I can go back and find references to the poor little rich psychopath going back to 1996, so its not like he's been keeping his hatred from us a secret as he shakes hands and passes out Krispy Kremes.
I'm no fan of Bush and his FOX News watching, corporate teat suckling, defense contract loving, deficit spending, free speech hating, Enron Supporting, election stealing, assault rifle loving, Still Fighting the Cold War, rights curtailing, religious zealot, class warrior, hypocritical jagoff staff, but I don't think they gave Osama and his crew a free ticket and wave onto those planes that morning. Sure, they were still trying to figure out how to make China and North Korea into threats so they could shove an overprices missile defense plan down our throat like we're in a low rent porn movie, but they weren't any more asleep at the wheel than any other administration has been.
Carter's people didn't realize that the uprising in Iran might be bad for us since we had supported an oppressive regime for about 30 years. Reagan's people ignored the threats to our soldiers in the Middle East until a suicide bomber was able to kill a couple hundred soldiers. Bush Sr.'s people didn't pay attention to Saddam Hussein hinting he was getting pretty damn envious of Kuwait's bank accounts since his was running dry. Clinton was too busy feeling up the help and letting Wall Street run the economic policy to realize the right wing psychos in the US were starting to reach critical mass.
I think we can stop with the blaming the FBI, CIA and everyone else for 9/11 when we know whose fault it is. People who own SUVs and clamor to send our troops to protect our God Given Right to have cheap gas.
Sorry, that's a different droning. Just ignore that.
We have to blame Osama bin Laden. And we have to bring him to justice. And while I know the Bush team is all about lowering our expectations, but could they quit looking at refighting the Gulf War long enough to track that waste of skin down and put him in prison with the inspiration for the cast of OZ until he's begging Allah to keep him from dropping the soap?
Also, on a side note, to those of you who are harboring in your little pinheads that "We're lucky that Bush was in office, if it was Clinton or Gore, the country would have gone to hell in a hand basket and they'd still be attacking us," I have this advice:
Shut your pie holes and get some facts.
Remember those terrorist attacks on December 31st, 1999? You don't? You know why? THEY DIDN'T HAPPEN. Do you think that Osama said to himself, "Hmmm... let's see, here's a day that the people of the US will be out in a ton of public places as well as have fears that their civilization will collapse. Instead of using this golden opportunity to strike at the Great Satan, I'll just kick back and whittle."
Oh, and for those of you who also say that only Bush could have put together the military assault, I have another fact for you:
Bush had been in office about 7 months, with a month off for watching Spongebob Squarepants at his ranch in Texas. He didn't create that military and he didn't have time to create the strategy. It was the military and strategy devised by the Clinton Administration. I didn't like the guy either, but let's give credit where it's due, OK?
While I think the attacks on the Administration over what they did or didn't do with the information that Osama bin Laden didn't much care for us are something to give George Will to get his bow tie in a knot over on Sunday Morning, the Bushies have gone on the attack in a way that shows their character, and just how shamefully pathetic they are when it comes to how they treat the American public.
The first chance they get after the news comes out, they blame Hillary Clinton.
Let that sink in for a minute.
"Isn't it her people who leaking this info?"
Nope. The information that the President was briefed about Al Qaeda's plans to hijack planes was released by the ranking REPUBLICAN on the Intelligence committee. Guess he didn't need to have Dick Cheney raise a couple million for his re-election, because he's going to be about as welcome at the White House as I am in Los Angeles.
"Maybe it was because she was trying to make political hay out of it?"
If you watched the sound bite, it sure seemed like it, but the entire quote she had on the Senate floor was her asking for a group to look into the allegations being raised by other Senators.
Why blame her? Because it takes the heat off of them and manipulates the public.
Senate Leader Tom Daschle said that maybe they should appoint a non-partisan panel to look into what the intelligence agencies knew and how they can communicate better in the future, and was literally called a traitor by the Vice President.
Maybe I'm being a bit naive, but if it were Clinton who was President and this information came out, there would be the exact same people saying, "Nothing to see here, move along" who would be screaming for his head on a pole and taking an impeachment vote before the end of the day.
However, those aren't the most repulsive thing about this whole ugly escapade. Nope, it's the fact that the Vice President, the FBI and everyone else involved has decided that the best way to deal with this is to try to scare the living shit out of everyone in the US. The Vice President himself went on TV and said that another attack is "Immanent and Inevitable."
Imminent and Inevitable.
That was a week ago.
As I look around, I don't see an attack.
Sorry.
The FBI has issued at least one or two warnings a DAY since then, and including that planes will smash into buildings again, apartments are going to be packed with explosives, parades will have poison gas sprayed on them, nuclear power plants will be attacked and so on.
Yes, we should be vigilant. Here in the US, and pretty much in any nation that isn't ruled by a Moslem majority there are people who don't like you and want to see you hurt. Yes, we should know that there are terrorists who have ideas and plans to do us harm. But this relentless fear mongering seems like the actions of a petulant child who is saying, "Fine, you are mad we didn't tell you? Now we'll give you EVERYTHING we know" and doing it in such a way that it all seems like an immediate harbinger of doom.
And just to let them know, the guy with the signboard who says the end of the world is coming soon gets ignored after the world doesn't end for a while.
When an attack is NOT imminent and inevitable, it destroys the credibility of the people who said that it was. When you are considered a traitor for daring to ask questions, we become as totalitarian as the people we are supposedly fighting against.
My advice? Investigate who knew what, use that information to try and stop the next attack and quit treating the American people as if we either the enemy. We aren't the enemy, and this quick message to the Bushies, you are pretty damn popular now, quit worrying that we won't like you if we aren't in imminent danger. You already have to job, and how you do it (or if you can get the Supreme Court to change the rules again) determines if we elect you next time. We just want to know if it's safe to go to the mall and waste our money on worthless crap again, thanks. |
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