My disappointment with my government has been pretty much bipartisan with a strong leaning toward the republicna party.  The democrats just don’t seem to “get” the gravity of the situation and the money from the lobbyists is apparently too much for many of them to rely on their moral “compass” in choosing sides in this “fight.”  And, when I say “fight” I really want to say “war” because I’ve been pointing out for several years now that I see an internal “war” for the “heart and soul” of this great nation that is going to be in it’s critical stages in the next couple of years (as Dick Cheney would say, “in it’s final throes”).  It is almost unbelievable to me that we’ve evolved to this place because I always thought the American people were too sophisticated to allow this nation to be taken over by authoritarian corporatists.

However, as I look back at the first decade of the 21st century I feel an overwhelming sense of alarm.  Just the fact that this impending “permanent republican majority” is even a possibility, demonstrates what a stranglehold those pushing for a corporatocracy have gained over a broad spectrum of America’s governance – and, by that I’m including the “fourth estate” – the media – in my area of concern. (Yes, that’s the so-called “liberal media”)  As I’ve shared on this site many times, I’m constantly reading books about what our government is REALLY up to – viewpoints I seldom get by watching TV “news,” which I seldom do anymore.  I feel compelled to speak out to anyone who will listen about the imminent danger to what’s left of the “New Deal” and the “Great Society,” two periods in America’s history which demonstrated the will of the American public to take care of our own – especially the less fortunate.  That will has been under attack, overtly, since the election of Ronald Reagan (I’ve learned the scheming started almost the day FDR signed the first legislation of the New Deal into law) and the attack was on steroids during the administration of George W Bush and, astonishingly, has increased during the first two years of the Obama administration.

Tonight, I wish to share some of my thoughts as to why it’s so unbelievable to me that this CABAL of right wing fanatics continues to manage to even have the possibility of success.  When I think back to the election of George W Bush I still remember that I did a minimal amount of research during that election and found NOTHING to give even the slightest hint that GW Bush was qualified to be the President of the United States.  Now, to this day I believe he became president only through the manipulation of the ballots in Florida by his brother and his brother’s associates (Jeb was governor of Florida and the overwhelming evidence was that Al Gore won the Florida election and Gore should have been president) and through the rough house tactics of Tom Delay’s “goons” and the republican “cronies” on the Supreme Court.  That being said, there has been a continuing saga of lying and incompetence from the republicans since the day GW took office that is somehow still being overlooked by our “left wing” media.  Additionally, we now have the “tea party” which is taking the lying and incompetence up a notch, still without the least bit of “fact checking” that I can find as I observe our “fourth estate” from afar.

I used to trust our “news” media to be somewhat independent of the political parties and the politicians.  However, the more I read about what our government has been “up to” over the past 30+ years it is becoming very evident that large parts of the media have become enmeshed in the “CABAL.”  Even though the Iraq fiasco and the Afghanistan occupation have been on the back pages of the news media for several years now (except for the occasional item – like the killing of Osama bin Laden) I continue to think about them a lot.  The invasion of Iraq was gut wrenching for me – I predicted before it happened that we were exposing ourselves to another Viet Nam, and the “war” in Afghanistan became intolerable to me once I realized that Bush/Cheney had abandoned the search for bin Laden.  George W Bush had world wide support in going into Afghanistan and capturing or killing bin Laden and his lieutenants who were complicit in the 9/11 attack on America.  Using the 9/11 attacks as a reason to invade Iraq was crimial as far as I was concerned then and I believe that today (which is why I will probably always be upset with President Obama for not allowing the NEEDED investigations of the Bush/Cheney lawlessness).

When you look back to the decisions the Bush/Cheney administration made (not just in Iraq and Afghanistan) and you look at who was supporting them and what their supporters were saying, it makes it even more astonishing what is happening today – and might happen in 2012.  These people were WRONG about EVERYTHING!  Not only was the Bush administration WRONG about virtually EVERYTHING they did, but their supporters were dominant on the “news” at the time, and they’re still dominant today from what I can tell.  I was at Barnes and Noble book stores recently and noticed the large number of “conservatives” with books out who were attacking President Obama as everything from a fascist to socialist to a non-American.  These are the very same people who were DEAD WRONG in virtually everything they predicted prior to the ill advised invasion of Iraq.  They were either complicit with the Bush administration or they were the perfect “stooges” and simply repeated the “talking points” as ordered by someone (I can only guess who).  The point I’m trying to make is why are these people even granted any credibility AT ALL today after helping the Bush administration lie us into a military adventure that has cost America’s treasury Trillions, over five thousand lives of our precious troops, tens of thousands of debilitating injuries to our troops, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, and MILLIONS of Iraqi’s lives upended by the chaos created by our invasion of their country and destruction of Iraq’s infrastructure.

Worse than this, the invasion of Iraq destablized the entire region, it empowered al Qaeda instead of weakening it, and it turned Iran into a much stronger force in the region by removing Saddam Hussein who was the counterforce to Iran prior to his demise.  In the end, I’m convinced that Iraq and Iran will be semi-unified as the Shia majority in Iraq becomes much more closely allied with Iran.  Additionally, instead of the US being the force of reason in the region, the “Bush doctrine” – which was touted by virtually ALL the “pundits” who were given a voice on our airwaves – turned country after country into “enemies” of America and we are now the pariah.  George W Bush and the “pundits” who supported him were prone to quote Hitler in referring to countries like Iran, the so-called axis of evil.  But, who was NOT on the airwaves pointing out to the American people which country was doing all the invading?  Which country was incarcerating thousands of “enemy combatants” without charges and was torturing them shamelessly?  And, these pundits were with Bush/Cheney all the way, as if they were cheerleaders instead of journalists.  I got sick of it and began turning it off, but I can still remember people like Bill Kristol – what an arrogant ass, and WRONG about virtually EVERYTHING I ever heard come out of his mouth.  I hate to even mention the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck – and, like the others, they continue to be WRONG about virtually everything they predict.  They have been like wind up dolls that have been programmed!

Another one I can remember is Charles Krauthammer – I believe he’s still got a job with the Washington Post.  The guy was also wrong about EVERYTHING!  Yes, these guys aren’t sometimes wrong, it’s ALL THE TIME!  Yet, for some reason he still has credibility.  Does that imply we have a “liberal media?”  I won’t go into great detail about Fox “news” because if you’re reading this you either know what they’re about or you’re sucked in by their pack of lies – but, suffice it to say, based on what I learned about America’s government when I originally went to school in the 60’s Fox “news” should have lost their license to broadcast “news” long ago.  That’s without even getting into the FACT that they are owned by a right wing Australian, their number one shareholder besides that Australian is a Saudi Prince who helped fund bin Laden, and the president of Fox”news” is a republican operative.  It’s hard for me to believe that the American public would continue to “fall” for this!  Pundit after pundit on Fox spews predictions that are WRONG yet they continue to put them on the air.  Evidently getting it “right” isn’t part of the requirement there – EVER!

Here’s another one.  I don’t remember exactly what he said, but I do remember watching Jonah Goldberg (I believe that’s his name) act as a mouthpiece for the invasion of Iraq.  The reason I point him out is because I recently saw books by him blasting Obama at Barnes and Noble and I wondered why would ANYONE spend good money to buy a book from someone who’s prognostications were so wrong.  It’s like these people can make ridiculous statements in front of millions with NO blowback when they are totally WRONG and the consequences of the actions are so devastating for our country.  I keep wondering, how long will “we the people” keep putting up with these puppets of the right wing takeover of America?  I could say the same things about Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly (supposedly the highest rated show on cable), and on and on.  The people you DON’T see on TV as “pundits” are the ones who got it right!

I still remember the guy who was the “weapons inspector” in Iraq pointing out – before the invasion – that there were no WMD’s.  Why is it I can’t remember his name?  Well, it’s because he was ostracized as something along the lines of being a traitor for telling the TRUTH.  And, where’s Phil Donahue or Dan Rather.  They were thrown off the air for questioning anything about the war or, in Rather’s case, Bush’s incompetence and irresponsibility when he was supposed to be in the Air National Guard – but was AWOL and subsequently bailed out by Dad (George HW Bush had to bail his son out of inumerable messes along the way).  Then there was Valerie Plame’s husband, Joe Wilson, who was thoroughly BLASTED for telling the truth about the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Powell LIE about “the smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud.”  Wilson proved the claim that Saddam Hussein had purchased 500 tons of “yellow cake uranium” from Niger was patently false.  Bush/Cheney responded by not only publicly DESTROYING Wilson’s career, but also his wife’s – who, ironically, was in charge of the CIA’s division that was investigating Iraq’s WMD’s. 

This is why I’m so concerned about what’s going to happen in the next two years.  Virtually EVERYONE who was right about Iraq are long since lost and forgotten – as far as our “liberal media” is concerned (shoudn’t they be who we’re listening to?) – while all those who were TOTALLY wrong are still the so-called experts or pundits who get their faces and voices on the airwaves.  Even since the election of Barack Obama Keith Olberman was silenced – presumably because he was critical of BOTH sides of this preposterous Washington sideshow.  I find something TERRIBLY wrong with that!  Not only were all the above mentioned people  who were wrong on Iraq and Afghanistan proven to have NO IDEA what they were talking about, but – if you remember the last two or three years of the Bush/Cheney disaster – they were spouting almost the same venom regarding Iran.  Many of them, Kristol included, were scheming for Bush to authorize an invasion of Iran prior to his leaving office.  And, I can guarantee you that if the republicans get into power again, that will be one of the first places they go.  In fact, it’s well known that after 9/11 Iran wanted to help (and did help) the US in the original quest to capture and kill bin Laden.  They attempted to normalize relations with the US, a move that would have precluded them building a nuclear weapon, but the Bush administration not only refused to listen to them, but belittled their attempt at diplomacy.  The Bush people and all these pundits that were their mouthpieces ostensibly are in favor of permanent war!

So, the American public is fast approaching a point where they’re going to have to decide FOR GOOD if they’re going to keep listening to these right wing WHACKOS!  People like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, the “tea partiers” (including the unbelievably WHACKO Rand Paul), Scott Walker, John Kasich, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, and I could go on and on.  Their next plan is to OFFICIALLY bankrupt the United States of America.  They will threaten to refuse to raise the debt ceiling right up until the last second and we’ll get another chance to watch President Obama decide when he’s going to say he’s had enough of their crap.  They’ll be going after Medicare and Medicaid, and covertly Social Security along with every other aspect of the aforementioned New Deal’s and Great Society’s middle class benefits they can undermine.  It’s getting to the point where President Obama will have to decide if he’s going to be the president who oversaw the undoing of those great programs.  The republicans lied about Iraq, they lied about getting bin Laden, and they’ll lie about who’s to blame for shutting down the government.  The question is, when are the democrats and our democratic president going to “call their bluff” and trust the American people to hold these thugs accountable at the ballot box.  If and when President Obama decides to lead the FIGHT against this republican CABAL, he’ll find a pent up group of PROGRESSIVES who will enthusiastically fall in line to support him!