Who Is Wrecking America?

After listening to the rabble-rousing listlessness that is passing for the Republican Convention, I've come to one conclusion. They are speaking to themselves . . . and are not listening. Granted, they are cheering loudly for Romney's asinine right-wing cliches right now, but it's easy to figure out why. He appeals to the last of the truly stupid neocon believers of rank nonsense with lines like (and I'm paraphrasing) - What type of Supreme Court rules that prisoners in Guantanamo prison have Constitutional rights? A librul Supreme Court!!! - and the cheers resound through the rafters. Not a Supreme Court that follows the Constitution and the dreams of our forefathers, of course; and certainly not the current Supreme Court led by John Roberts and inhabited by right-wingnutters like Clarence Thomas and Scaldallia. I guess out of all the words that Mitters emitted he just didn't want to admit that what he truly desires is a radical Supreme Court that follows, no, not that Constitution, but the true Constitution of The Patriot Act of the wet dreams of an unelected fear-mongering cabal of corporations on the take at the public trough in Iraq and Afghanistan and soon to be Georgia and Iran and . . . . Now there's something to stand up and cheer for. Even David Brooks remarks on it right afterward by asking (Jim Lehrer, Mark Shields, et al.) incredulously "Hey, who was that guy? I think we have a guy who used to be a moderate conservative who has decided that if McCain loses (and he won't if Bush has anything to do with it), they will turn to a much more right-wing figure and that will be he!" Brooks then quotes Lindsay Graham (South Cackalak lead fool in the Senate) as believing that the reason McCain's poll numbers are so darn low is that he's not playing the right-wing cards hard enough. And, well shucks, he's gonna correct that! The clearsightedness of this position has not escaped David F. Brooks tonight. Next, we have that paragon of faith and logic (see his belief in a literal reading of the Bible for his cred), Mike Huckabee, telling the Convention to raucous cheering that the media has done a "good job!" "Yes, they have unified the Republicans as the winning party." And then he began repeating all the Rethuglican talking points until he decided to confuse the already thoroughly confused by saying that he doesn't want to hear about Sarah Paling's lack of preparation for office as she received more votes when running for mayor of east podunk Alastundra (in the 600's) than Joe Biden did (good comparison!). Now that's a brilliant ex-presidential candidate. And quick thinking too. After listening to Carly Fiorina (who could hardly be heard over the loud chatting of the inattentive and unimpressed audience) and Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii (who scored right around zero on the excitement scale with the delegates), I fear for the reputation of women in politics. Or at least Rethuglican political women. They bring the compelling thought to the decision-making neurons in the cerebral cortex (once again) that most of these women (including the now infamous Veep candidate haras) were recruited because they could be told to say anything and would with enthusiasm. But there again, they have nothing on Rudy. Listening to Rudy Ghouliani I can't help thinking that he's bound to be losing votes for this most dense party gathering on record. He has insulted people who know anything about history, women in general (but what's new about that for our pretty-boy, cross-dressing Ghouli?), anyone educated or sophisticated in judgment or taste and then called all Islamists terrorists (and if that's not what he meant, contact him and tell him he should offer an apology to those who heard his speech, because that's exactly what it sounded like). I can't go on. And I could. If I had a stronger stomach. And I have nothing to say about Fred "Give me some more Law and Order" Thompson gun's recital of McInsane's hidden history - did you know McCain was a POW hero? And he's the only one in this race? But I'm getting ahead of myself. The main message I've been hearing is that absolutely no one there has a clue that the nation is in trouble. They aren't in trouble it seems, and they want things to remain exactly as they are if not even more so, which the election of John McInSane guarantees. And speaking of a solid guarantee, our newest feminist candidate has gotten the word from the Big G. Yes, she, like our current White House resident, has gotten the word that the war in Iraq was "a task from God." Glad she's straightened that out for those of us who aren't on the party line.

Like US President George W. Bush, Governor Palin attempted to justify her policies by claiming they were divinely-ordered during a speech at the Wasilla Assembly of God church in June. "Pray for our military. Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right for this country - that our leaders, our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," the Alaska governor said in her address posted on the website of the Wasilla Assembly of God. Earlier in 2005, President Bush claimed he was on a mission from God when he started the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. "I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did." The US president told a Palestinian delegation in Sharm el-Sheikh. Palin, prior to her 'there is a plan and that it is God's plan' comment on the Iraq war, asked the audience to pray for a $30 billion national gas pipeline project because it was 'God's will to get that gas line built' as well. Earlier in March 2007, Palin had said, "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." The report comes as one of the first on Paling's positions on foreign policy issues, as the Republican camp has not yet allowed her to hold a press conference.

Poor haras, she thinks because she has a semi-strong, singsong vocal quality and enough political naivete to say anything that is included in the speech she read from the teleprompter (written by whom?), that she is well qualified for President (pardon me, please, I meant Vice President (and she definitely knows something about vice - as she is being sued for harassment)). I did notice something strange though about yet another Rethuglican, unexpectedly plucked from obscurity for greatness, and that was she had no problem in raking Barack Obama over the coals in every other sentence. The level of gleeful nastiness had no equal in what designation as a "hockey mom" would lead me to expect (although maybe I don't know many that well - okay, I probably do (Hi Cathy!) - and the ones I do are pretty much pacifists who make their kids obey the rules and apologize for bad behavior), and these sharp-tongued verbal attacks would be atypical of what I had expected from my Bible study about those who were genuinely divinely inspired. Is this where I finally figure out that, once again, the Rethugs are playing both sides of the street against the middle? Enough of this convention charade coverage! I thought Thomas Frank's book What's the Matter With Kansas was a hard-hitting indictment of the people who were fooled by the right-wing think tanks into voting against their economic interests in order to believe they were the most moral voters or merely just ensuring their arrival at Heaven's gate, no matter or in spite of the cost to them while on earth. Paul Craig Roberts has a different take than I on Frank's new book, and although I don't agree with him about what the Reagan administration (in which he took a leading role and therefore may need to bob and weave a bit) did while in office (well, almost anything there), I think he almost jumps off the conservative cliff into the arms of the radical paranoia goddess, which is atypical behavior for him. However, he is a smart guy, who writes an intriguing essay, and makes some good points that are worth our while to consider. This book is on my list. (Emphasis marks and some editing are included in the essay to improve legibility.) ___________________________________________

Who Is Wrecking America? Paul Craig Roberts September 3, 2008 Information ClearingHouse Does the liberal-left have a clue? I sometimes think not. In his book, What’s the Matter With Kansas?, Thomas Frank made the excellent point that the Karl Rove Republicans take advantage of ordinary people’s frustrations and resentments to lead them into voting against their best interest. Frank’s new book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, lacks the insight that distinguished his previous book. Why does Frank think that conservatives or liberals rule? Neither rule. America is ruled by organized interest groups with money to elect candidates who serve their interests. Frank’s book does not even mention the Israel Lobby, which bleeds Americans for the sake of Israeli territorial expansion. Check the index. Israel is not there. Does Frank think that rapture evangelicals are conservative, that Christian Zionists are conservative? If so, where did he learn his theology? Frank can’t tell the difference between Ronald Reagan and Cheney/Bush. He conflates the collection of opportunists and fanatics that comprise the Bush Party with the Reagan conservatives who ended stagflation and the cold war. The adventurer, Jack Abramoff, is Frank’s epitome of a conservative. Abramoff is the most mentioned person in Frank’s story. In Frank’s view, conservatives are out to ruin everyone except the rich. But it was the Clinton administration that rigged the Consumer Price Index in order to cheat retired people out of their Social Security cost of living increases. It was the Clinton administration that vanished discouraged workers from the unemployment rolls. It was the Clinton administration that wrecked “effective government” by encouraging early civil service retirements in order to make way for quota hires. Why doesn’t Frank know that the “Reagan deficit” was due to the collapse of inflation below the forecast, thus reducing the flow of inflated revenues into the government’s budget, whereas the Bush deficit is a result of what Nobel Democrat economist Joe Stiglitz has calculated to be a $3 trillion dollar war in the Middle East? Frank doesn’t want to know. Like so many fighting ideological battles, he just wants to damn “the enemy.” But who is Frank’s enemy? He calls them “conservatives.” But the Bush regime is a neoconservative regime. Neoconservatives, despite the name, are not conservatives. They have taken over formerly conservative publications, think tanks, and foundations and driven out the conservatives. Neoconservatives are in the tradition of the French Jacobins of the 18th century. Having had the French Revolution, the revolutionaries thought that they should take it to all of Europe. Napoleon exercised French hegemony over Europe. The American neocons desire American hegemony over the world. The true American conservative does not believe in foreign wars. In US history, conservatives were derided by liberals as “isolationists.” There is nothing conservative about launching wars of aggression on the basis of lies and deception in order to control the direction of oil pipelines and to enhance Israeli territorial expansion. Frank misses all of this. And what a pity that is. A false conservative-liberal fight distracts attention from the growing police state that is destroying civil liberties for all Americans. It obscures the real motives of policies in behalf of special interests that are leading to nuclear confrontation with Russia and China. What is wrecking America is not conservatives, but a neoconservative ideology of US hegemony. What is wrecking America is the “impeachment-is-off-the-table” twins, Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers. What is wrecking America is the Democratic Party, which was put in control of the House and Senate in the 2006 congressional elections to stop the gratuitous wars and gestapo police, but, instead, has continued to cooperate with the Cheney/Bush regime in behalf of war and police repression, such as we witnessed at the Republican National Convention. Frank’s book, The Wrecking Crew falls into the scapegoat category of blaming the innocent and irrelevant. The Democrat Party could impeach Cheney/Bush and cut off funding for the wars and corrupt military contracts. But they do nothing and get a free pass from Frank. The Wrecking Crew does have one virtue. Frank shows that the Republicans have spawned a new generation of brownshirts that lust to imprison, torture, and kill people. These ignorant bloodthirsty thugs see enemies everywhere and fervently desire to nuke them all. The Republican brownshirts are equally willing to kill American critics of the Bush regime as to kill Taliban and al Qaeda. The latest “enemy” is Russia. The Bush regime, complicit in its Georgian puppet’s war crimes against South Ossetia, is attempting to hide its responsibility for ethnic cleansing by demonizing Russia. With every threat the Bush regime issues against Russia, the war drums beat louder. Yet, the print and TV media and Democratic Party have jumped on the war wagon. The rapture evangelicals and the neocons are euphoric at the prospect of nuclear war. Frank’s misguided barrage at conservatives, who are a brake on war and the police state, hastens end times.

And there you have it. The conservatives are once again the good guys! (And you don't want to read Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com who says watch out for the September Surprise.) And on to the last day of the repulsive Convention. Suzan ________________________________________________