Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

(Weekly Column)

With George W. Bush's popularity rating vacillating between Richard Nixon and the common cold, he limped on the television set to tell us he was doing a "heckuva job." His words falling on deaf ears and his policies turning a blind eye to reality, the only reason to watch the president's primetime address was to gauge the state of his delusion.

Well, there was the historic moment when Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House, took her seat in back of the president. Next to the sleepy Dick Cheney, who seemed to periodically be closing his eyes, Madam Speaker looked quite alert and spry. Pelosi's ascension, much like the Gina Davis character in the television drama Commander in Chief, is a major boost for Hillary Clinton. The more America gets used to seeing women in power, the easier it will be for Clinton to make her case that America is ready for a woman in the oval office.

The most amusing part of the evening was watching political rivals pretend they liked each other and had intentions of actually working together. Bush and Pelosi looked like parents in the aftermath of a shattered marriage that pledged to smile in divorce court for the sake of the kids.

Interestingly, with Bush's policies tied up in knots, gay couples tying the knot were no longer considered a grave threat to marriage or society. For the first time in years, there was no mention of the odious Federal Marriage Amendment, which would essentially write gay couples out of the U.S. Constitution. This omission alone was reason for GLBT Americans to celebrate and savor the new Democratic led Congress.

Like the dead marriage amendment, Bush also conveniently forgot to mention the damned city of New Orleans. Following Hurricane Katrina, the president made a dramatic speech in the glow of floodlights promising to fix the mess. However, it is now clear that his promises were just a bunch of political jazz and the only sinking city on his mind these days is Baghdad.

On a hawkish twist to John Lennon's hit, Bush asked Congress to give war a chance. But key Republicans, such as Sen. John Warner (R-VA), were already singing a different tune and figuring out how to extricate the nation from Iraq's civil war. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) gave one of the strongest responses to the State of the Union in memory, hinting that the Democrats may thankfully not act like Democrats for a change.

The truth is, the war has long been lost and soldiers will lose legs for the sake of Bush's legacy and die to keep his presidency alive. Some will have their faces burned off so this stubborn president can save face and others will sacrifice their mental health in the name of an insane policy that was doomed since the plot to invade Iraq was hatched.

At the heart of the matter is the harsh fact that there is no Iraq nor are there any Iraqis. The nation has contrived borders formed by Western nations that pay little attention to the needs or desires of the people who actually live there.

In retrospect, it is easy to see that the only way Iraq can survive in its present incarnation is to have the biggest SOB in the region firmly in control. Saddam Hussein was the perfect sociopath to fill this role and he did so with aplomb.

Still, it was instructive that a monster like Saddam, who punished his adversaries with acid baths, had to take extraordinary measures to survive. He had more doubles than a Hollywood action figure, employed food tasters and slept in a different location each night, so enemies could not predict his whereabouts. If this brutal dictator had to run through such machinations to survive, how can America make this land safe enough to rule?

The best we can hope for with Bush's surge is to temporarily take over small patches of real estate. But, the moment we leave the insurgents will move back in. Look, the Iraqi people don't want us there and the American people don't want to be there. It sounds like the beginning of common ground, don't you think?

Finally, the Iraqi misadventure has been a nightmare for minorities. There are ongoing reports that the Shiite militias are hunting down gay people and women have less freedom, as the mullahs are trying to impose Islamic law in the areas they control.

As long as the state of our union is dependent on the state of Bush's delusions, our nation is in deep trouble. In the coming weeks, adults in both parties will have to decide for the "decider" that patriotism comes before parroting his failed strategies at home and abroad.

24 Comments:

Bush's narcissistic personality disorder will *never* allow him to admit that he has ever made a mistake or change his course of action. An acquintance of mine who was born and raised in Lebanon (as a Christian) said that Americans have no idea how intensly and completely people there can hate someone simply because of their ethnic/religious background. And Lebanon (except for last years conflict with Israel in the south) has been relatively peaceful and prosperous. Can you imagine how Iraqis feel by now not only about us, but each other? Bush is indeed clueless and delusional.
posted by Anonymous, at 1/24/2007 1:26 PM

"As the dog returns to its vomit, so does the fool to his folly."--The Bible
posted by Bobblereader, at 1/24/2007 6:17 PM

If you intended to give a little boost to Marriage Expert Hillary Clinton, a very prim and religious chick... y'know, born in the middle of the nation in a middle class family during the middle of the century... who writes off any marriage except between a man and a woman... forget it. I would drink my own piss before voting for her. And don't believe all the crap the neocons put out about Saddam Hussein either in the run-up to the war. In fact, he's starting to look awfully good, isn't he?
posted by ProfessorVP, at 1/24/2007 10:27 PM

This is a country? As far as I can tell, Bush doesn't see it as a country.
It's a business where the corporate market and it's captains don't want national boundaries and sovereignty to get in the way of unbridled profit.
Nationhood? Oh...we don't have that.
Evidently, Saudi Arabia and Mexico can dictate the terms of what our country can do FOR THEM and their populations.
We're just the local ATM (America's taxpayers money) for Bush and his 'have mores' to use to fail us everywhere.

Our poor nation is bleeding from a thousand cuts, and will die soon.
We have no unifying language or culture to speak of really anymore.
We are a young country, we used to have a certain attitude where at least those self same captains of industry had a loyalty to their nation and the people with in it to drive their capitalist train.

Now the train is being wrecked by Third World corrupted values that requires America's middle class to compete with Third World wages and incursion by those with an attitude of entitlement.
Cheating, by any means necessary...is rewarded.
Export jobs, import more people to compete with them, their legal status to even do so, be damned.

We are a just a place for people to park their asses and wait for the gravy train, while the rest of us struggle to understand where our billions went and who spent it into oblivion.

Just when I was starting to recognize MY America...the one who had a can do spirit and was ready to meet progress head on.
We used to be braver, more ready for change that strengthened our identity.

We don't know who we are anymore, and we don't want to be E Pluribus Unum...
And the candy asses little shop floor boss that Bush has become, reading the future of this nation in the toilet paper he wipes his butt with, offends me to the core.

He likes being the boss, he likes the ATM to spend any way he wants.
He's running a business, instead of doing the business of a country.
And if history serves, he'll destroy this business as surely as the other businesses he was charged with before.
And he'll retire to somewhere he won't hear the boom...of America's back breaking and it's people scattered and shattered.
America...we used to be so full of ourselves. We liked a challenge and a stand up fight.

Not anymore...if it were up to me.
I'd know how to patch this place together, I'd tap that spirit.
I'd look at the beautiful face of Lady Liberty and remember what we're really about.
Justice, fairness...organization and creativity.
Some of us have always had to work harder to get it...
But we've gotten it.

This spoiled little brat looking over his shop floor worker bees has another think coming.
I'm not too tired, nor am I sleeping through the revolution.
He hasn't the fists or backbone for the kind of stand up fight most of us have already fought.

Okay...so who's in?
posted by Regan, at 1/25/2007 11:36 AM

The good think about Bush's SOTU speech is that he didn't pledge to ban gay marriage in the U.S. constitution!
The bad news is that he didn't mention his Katrina disaster neither.
The worst news is that he has sworn Mary Cheney would be a good mother to her filthy out-of-wedlock fetus while repeatedly denying basic human rights for GLBTs as his VP refuses to discuss the religious right's attacks on his lesbionic daughter and her embryo.
posted by Yvon Thivierge, at 1/25/2007 12:01 PM

Hey Wayne, can not wait to see your new book. Wish you all the best and have a fabulous time in 07~~

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posted by Anonymous, at 1/25/2007 4:13 PM

Professor VP: I hear what you're saying, but please keep this in mind: we are either going to have a Democrat (i.e., Hillary Clinton) or a Republican as our next president. True, Hillary's position on marriage is not what we would like, but she would be FAR, FAR BETTER than any Republican could ever be. We've just endured six years of gay bashing from the Oval Office. As far as I'm concerned, even an opportunistic Democrat is a better bet than an authentic Republican.
posted by Chris L., at 1/25/2007 5:34 PM

Wayne, an excellent piece. And REGAN is correct. I believe America is finished. Greedy, corrupt and spineless. I am so glad I am leaving. It really is so sad and depressing, but what REGAN says is true.
posted by Laurice4, at 1/25/2007 7:30 PM

You fucking Americans are due for a civil war and I hope you will deal and get it over with asap!

We could just see Nancy Pelosi reaching over to Dick Cheney and wringing his neck as we could imagine the latter turning towards the House Leader and ripping off her tits!

You are so fundamentally at oods with each other that you can no longer be an example for the world.

Your lust for riches and power, both religious and secular, prvent you from being a truly democratic nation. Your greed and xenophobia make you pariahs of the civilized world.

We Canadians have had enough of you and wish you would just go away, wipe yourselves out in an all-out uncivil war.

Yvon Thivierge, Ottawa CANADA
posted by Yvon Thivierge, at 1/25/2007 10:18 PM

What about Guilliani? I can't stand Hilary, personally. If she were to get the democratic nomination, I might be tempted to go with the green party. But from what I can see, if Guilliani go the nod from the republicans, I could vote for him.
posted by jekelhyde, at 1/25/2007 10:38 PM

To Yvon in Canada: You have a great deal in common with us Americans, actually. Many of us feel exactly like you do and are grieving about the path our country is currently on. We are as sick and tired of the liars and bullsh*tters as you are. Instead of hoping that America goes down in civil war, we should work together to put things back in good order. We now have to wait less than two years before "the decider" is retired to Crawford, Texas. We wait with you in common.
posted by Chris L., at 1/26/2007 4:47 PM

God Yvon, take a chill pill! And calling Mary Cheney's fetus "filthy" was pretty low!! The child's grandfather and his co-horts are robber barons, liars and killers; but no child has any control over its parentage. By the way, didnt Canada recently elect an anti-gay right-wingnut?!
People who live in glass maisons shouldn't throw pierres.
Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at 1/27/2007 1:56 PM

To Gary from NJ

My use of the qualifier "filthy" to describe Mary Cheney's fetus is simply to point out the cons' misguided and dangerous priorities of caring much more about embryos than actual babies and their parents. Then again, like mother like son or daughter: if Mary turned out as fascist-leaning albeit less dangerous than her father, one can only surmise her baby will grow to be another poor excuse for a human being. But as we don't know who the father is, all options are open.
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