I am not a conventionally religious man, or even a very superstitious one, but I do wish George Bush would stop asking God to bless America. Every time he does, we seem to be visited with another plague, suggesting divine wrath over our president's evil ways. How else to explain the persistent calamity that has marked this administration: a pointless but very costly war over nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the devastating New Orleans flood, the betrayal of the nation by the money-changers -- from Enron to Goldman Sachs -- that Bush welcomed into the temple of the White House?
What's next? Pestilence, frogs, locusts or incurable boils? Dare we risk four more years of catastrophic misrule by a "W" alter ego? For those indifferent to the serious implications of that question, I recommend Oliver Stone's new bio-flick, which brilliantly captures the "banality of evil" that has controlled our political life these past eight years. This phrase from Hannah Arendt's characterization of the mundane cruelty that so marked the daily experience of European fascism has a frightening applicability to the Republican leadership that has done so much damage to this nation's reputation for democratic integrity.
Cynicism rules even as ritualistic prayer breaks, as depicted in the film "W," abound. The pretense of piety earns the president and his accomplices a get-out-of-jail-free card; at no point in the film do any in the top ranks of this administration -- captured so accurately and depressingly -- accept one iota of accountability for how much damage they have wrought. Unrepentant, the same Republican apparatchiks are employing the familiar Rovian tactic of divide and conquer in seeking to continue their hold on power. Once again, they seek to focus attention on hot-button social issues and patriotic litmus tests to draw attention from the fact that family values are being destroyed by the loss of job and home.
Perhaps John McCain is not a perfect replica of George W. Bush, but the parallels go beyond the senator's enthusiastic support for the toxic mix of Bush's imperial foreign policy and his arrogant indifference to the travails of our domestic existence. Neither man seems to have any sense of how we actually live or what we need from government. How else to explain their common antipathy to Social Security and Medicare, which, after public education, represent the nation's most successful programs? Can you imagine the panic today if McCain and Bush had succeeded in tying Social Security to investments in the stock market? They view government as nothing more than a proud sponsor of the military-industrial complex while ignoring the threat to homeland security from corporate pirates.
Don't say we weren't warned. Bush came into office believing fervently that what was good for Enron and its CEO, Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay, Bush's top financial sponsor, was good for the country. So, too, McCain, who chose Phil Gramm as co-chair of his presidential campaign, ignoring the huge loophole in Gramm's Commodity Futures Trading Act, which allowed Enron, where his wife, Wendy Gramm, was on the board of directors, to so shamelessly game the energy market.
Trumpeting the benefits of the legislation he tacked onto an omnibus spending bill the day before the 2000 Christmas recess, then-Sen. Gramm stated: "It protects financial institutions from over-regulation. It provides legal certainty for the $60 billion market in swaps." Those swaps created the toxic investments that U.S. taxpayers are now stuck with as the nation struggles to save those unregulated financial institutions from bankruptcy.
McCain, who should have learned the cost of radical deregulation from his own involvement in the savings and loan scandal as one of the infamous "Keating Five," totally bought Gramm's line. McCain was the chair of Gramm's 1996 presidential bid and up until major Wall Street firms collapsed continued to echo the insistence of the former-Texas-senator-turned-banker that there was no real crisis in the financial markets.
McCain evidences the underlying motivator attributed to Bush in Stone's movie: the distorted priorities of a son of privilege doing battle with the legacy of more gifted and responsible family ancestors. Both grew up as spoiled screw-ups repeatedly bailed out of trouble by their highly accomplished fathers, in McCain's case an admiral, and both assume, as a matter of legacy, that they have a right to rule. What they ignored in their legacy was a Christian's obligation to make the economic system that handsomely rewarded their kin at least minimally responsive to the needs of ordinary folk.
Robert Scheer is the editor in chief of Truthdig and author of a new book, "The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America."
The Bush crowd are not just unrepentant, they are attempting to help put into office a person who is a hothead, self-serving, arrogant out-of-touch war monger! With McCain's famous rage syndrome ~ do you really believe he's someone you want near the 'N' button ~ not me!
Meanwhile they have not controlled their own spending - their favorites being defense and pork barrel projects like the $750 million requested by Sarah Palin for Alaska last year -
and tax cuts for the very rich - another form of spending - while we the middle class carry the load!
YOU JUST HIT THE BALL OUT OF THE PARK, AND I AM GLAD SOMEBODY HAS LET THE GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE BY COMPARING THE REPUBLICANISM OF TODAY WITH THE FACISM OF EUROPE PRE-WWII.
ALSO, I HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED, DOWN DEEP, IF THE BUSH CABAL IS REALLY T-H-A-T EVIL AND SOCIOPATHIC. AFTER 12 YEARS OF BUSH PRESIDENCIES, WITH VIRTUALLY NO REGARD FOR PEOPLE AND NO MORAL COMPASS WHATSOEVER, I THINK THE ANSWER IS YES, THEY ARE....
I USED TO LOOK AT #41 AND THINK HE WAS THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE; THEN HIS EVIL SON CAME ALONG. A PSYCHIC SAID SHE WATCHED #43 ON TELEVISION AND SAW THE DEVIL INSTEAD....
BTW: UNTIL OBAMA IS ACTUALLY GIVEN THE OATH OF OFFICE, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT BUSH/CHENEY WON'T ATTACK IRAN TO TRIGGER WWIII, AND IN DOING SO, DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND SUSPENSION OF THE CONSTITUTION, SO THEY CAN REMAIN IN POWER, BACKED BY THE BROWN SHIRT BLACKWATER HITMEN...
God forbid we should have recognized that the only jobs being created under Bush were at Black water and Walmart. God forbid the bankers should have respected their fiduciary responsibility..
That is it, these People are guiltry of Criminal Malfeasance due to the EXPICIT abrogation of their FIDUCIARY RESPONISIBILITY.... Yes I had the opportunity to collect 2 million, did I take it, no I was young and naive,,,Now that I am older and facing retirement, I would not hesitate to take it...(well maybe I would hesitate)... So I am saying that Temptation and GREED are the issues, we need to put the income taxes back up to 90% and audit the expenses...The idea that AIG had the HUBRIS to spend 500,000 including travel expenses after the bailout is just INSANE...
I am surprised by several of the 'mediocre' reviews of Stone's film. What I took away from it was exactly what, I believe, the director intended: W is a spoiled, reckless, untalented n'er-do-well with a chip on his shoulder.
In that sense, I am astonished by the parallels between Bush and McCain, which more than anything make the case for 'more of the same' should McCain assume the role of president. And McCain's blatant display of Obama during both debates clearly illustrates his fear of genuine talent, and regret for his own youth, and so many missed opportunities for excellence.
FYI, Stone will be one of the guests on Bill Maher's "Real Time" show on HBO this FRiday.
Wilbur
Let's not just rush in panic the way Congress did in passing the bailout. They yelled FIRE in the theatre and brought in a picture of a cup of water in to put it out.
If Obama thinks Warren Buffet would make a good Treasury Secretary why not just pick Kenneth Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, and hand over the title of the US to him.
I know that Mr. Scheer heard what Obama said about Afghanistan and Iran. Let's not ignore the obvious implications for the future.
Present Administration is going down in the history as the worst and yet as grammatically incorrect as it would be, a McCain/Palin Administration might be the most worst and perhaps the last Administration if the manage to start WWIII.
God help us.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
As for guilty by association McCain should be quiet -- the first link below is about McCain money and organized crime and the second is about the same thing but with an interesting twist. It was written by Jerome Corsi back in February of this year. I just read a story about Corsi yesterday on HP (third link) so I found the coincidence a humorous sign that the stars are aligning perfectly. Seems Corsi was not always enamored with McCain.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/5/113331/0255
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=57354
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/07/jerome-corsi-obama-smear_n_132522.html