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November
9, 2006
Nancy Pelosi: Party Blender?
The
Roots of Corruption
By MANUEL GARCIA, Jr.
The reason most frequently cited by
voters in exit polls for turning on Bush and the Republicans
was "corruption." The talking heads on PBS couldn't
quite figure this out, so they interpreted it as "opposition
to the war." The American public got the message during
Hurricane Katrina. The Iraq War is corruption. The intentional
FEMA lack of response to Katrina is corruption. The intentional
throwing of the Blacks of New Orleans to the dogs is corruption.
The stealing of winter heating from grannies in California by
ENRON, and this cash flowing easily into Jack Abramoff-Karl Rove-White
House-Republican "campaigns" is corruption.
The dead American GIs of the Iraq War because of lack of body
armor, and the vulnerability of Stryker fighting vehicles (the
US Army holding one news photographer incommunicado indefinitely
for exposing this latter fact with pictures from Fallujah --
no habeas corpus, no charges, just like old Joe Stalin), these
are corruption. The "cut and run" from Iraq
by no-bid Halliburton, with several billion in profit, no work
completed on any project there, while piling up an encyclopedia
of stories of fraud is corruption. The pure cashing out
of political connections by the likes of Cunningham (San Diego,
CA) and Pombo (Modesto, CA) is corruption. The outrageous
hypocrisy of leading persecutors of homosexuals and people who
happen to have wombs, and the use of political positions as convenient
platforms from which to procure sexual favors is corruption,
as is the winking at it for partisan gain -- screw the dumb asses
who fell for the come-ons of important congressmen or big-shot
church leaders, it's more important to keep control of government
money and power; that IS corruption.
The American people are neither
intellectual nor overly moralistic; they might go along with
an oil-grab Iraq War if it was simply stated as such, and the
US was winning handily (most people didn't object to the Persian
Gulf War [Iraq War 1], and the invasions of Panama or Grenada).
But, the American public detest a pure lying cheat. We all have
to scrap for our gains, and we all hate those who have unfair
advantages over us, because the rules are bent in their favor,
or because they are allowed to steal and get away with things
we would not be allowed. You don't have to be past the 2nd grade
to understand this basic truth. And, it is against that
that the American public voted. That is corruption, the
fact that the "refs," the "teachers," the
"officials," the "cops" and the "judges"
of our daily socio-economic games were lying hypocrites who twisted
the system to our disadvantage -- and we knew "we"
would never be allowed into "the club" allowed to get
away with it. That is corruption and that is what
the American public voted against. George W. Bush was able to
focus all of that onto his administration more clearly than any
American president in living memory, and he was able to oversee
a vaster and faster rakeoff than anyone had ever experienced.
Then Katrina hit, and we got the message -- we were shit. If
push came to shove, we would be shoved overboard at the first
hint of trouble to the ruling class -- there really was no safety
net, and it could get fatally unsafe at any time. Homeland security
was a complete lie, a joke. We are allowed to buy "goods"
and "insurance" from mega-corporations, and we are
allowed to pay taxes, but come time "we" would ever
need "medicine" or become "victims" -- tough
shit. Uncle Sam had been bought off, and we are not welcome in
the neighborhoods he takes good care of. All of that is
corruption. And, it was very clear that the favorite agent of
the corrupt controllers was the Republican Party. Sure, the Democrats
are nearly as bad, because they suck up to the same sources of
money -- but the key is "nearly." It was obvious that
the Big Money used the Democrats as a hedge, but their REAL selves
were invested in the Republicans, and most especially in the
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld neoconic faction. The Wacko-Christian Church
bunch had combined with the neocons to form a political virus
totally controlling the Republican apparatus -- like the pod
people in "The Invasion of The Body Snatchers," and
there was no way to save the original host. The only way to kill
the infection was to burn the entire infected beast. The election
of 7 November 2006 was the American public acting as Gregory
Peck, shooting a mad dog in the streets in "To Kill A Mockingbird."
In this way, Election Day was like 9/11, we "all" are
united in one fundamental goal -- stop the madness, kill the
corruption.
But, this unity will not last
long, not even a week. We've slammed on the brakes and suffered
our crash after a fascist joyride, and now we're climbing out
of the wreckage. Once out and about, we'll all drift back toward
our "true" interests: progressives will hammer away
for greater social and economic equity, the petite bourgeoisie
(little "r" Republicans, "mom and pop store"
Democrats) will become refocused on money-taxes-profits-regulations,
and drift away from any big picture or moral concerns; sports
fans will return to their jobs and their favorite brain-parks
in TV-land; and the paleo-conservatives will return to trying
to convince the public at large that their Von Mises-Calvinist
ideology of "selfishness is next to godliness" is somehow
personally satisfying and miraculously sustainable. The basis
of the corruption will not be eliminated -- "impeachment
is off the table" -- Pelosi's explicit declaration of bipartisan
complicity: lobbying is not going to be regulated, the Israel
Lobby (which owns the Democratic Party) is not going to be outlawed
(foreign agents), public financing of campaigns and proportional
representation are nowhere in sight. What will be stopped are
some of the drunken war-criminals, like Rumsfeld, and some of
the rake-off operators, probably more of Abramoff's associates.
The voters have a long way to go before they can once again own
the "refs," the "teachers," the "officials,"
the "cops" and the "judges" who control the
mazes they are forced to run to get their daily bread.
The elite "realists"
of the James Baker, Robert Gates, Pappa Bush variety will reassert
control, to spread around some prescription drug medical benefits,
"Vietnamize" the Iraq War (declare some armed faction
our proxy, and move US GIs out slowly as "our Iraqi allies"
achieve "readiness") and keep the lid on otherwise:
"impeachment is off the table;" how about tax un-cuts
for the wealthy?, how about leaving Social Security alone?, how
about a national living wage?, how about habeas corpus?, outsourcing?,
media consolidation?, one can go on. The introduction of Robert
Gates, as Donald Rumsfeld's replacement, is a signal from "the
realist elite" that it has exerted control and put Bush
Baby under supervision; so we're back to Baker as effective Secretary
of State, as a regent acting on behalf of King George (Bush)
the First to supervise Bush Baby as nominal president. Same old
pattern, there's always a nanny to wield the silver spoon.
The road to ripping out the
roots of corruption lie through impeachment and then war crimes
tribunals. Let us all live under the same rules -- that is the
revolution. What Pelosi has told us most clearly is that for
2008, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party will be even
less distinguishable, they will be the right hand and the left
hand of the "realist" elite. Why? because both parties
share the same fundamental concern: to see that elections change
nothing. Will the American public ever focus on that and
recognize it as corruption?
Manuel Garcia, Jr. is a physicist and can be reached
at mango@idiom.com
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