O'Rourke: Neocongress To 9/11 Widows: Drop Dead!
Neocongress To 9/11 Widows: Drop Dead!
by Douglas O'Rourke
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 24, 2004 ( columnleft.com) -- The 'old far right' seemed a classic Wagnerian bunch that would never really lead America.
We laughingly called them the Lunatic Fringe.
Today's all-powerful, born again 'NEOGOP' is in complete control of the country, and a raging bunch of corporate pirates and self-hating cultural weenies are quickly exploiting the Cheney-Halliburton Ignorocracy. It's all being funded with your grandkids' social security money.
Forget Iraq. The Bush War on America has started.
Bush43.2 is a lot like the Inquisition, but with Hummers and country music. The Neocons are quickly moving to take America back -- back to somewhere between the 1950s and 32 AD, with a quick stop in 1930's Germany. Relax, it's the same folks who gave us the Dark Ages.
Modernity and enlightenment are as poisonous to our Evangelicals as they are to the Taliban. There's really no limit to the mischief afoot amid this orgy of zealots and fools.
Fundamentalists of all sorts love mixing 'God's Work' with their own personal weirdness. Now every over-groomed organ grinding cracker screwball that ever outed a Teletubbie is going to try to remake public policy. Their childhood parenting problems will become our new 'social order.'
Like it or not, we're to be a faithful nation of Kompassionate Konservative Kristians. "Any questions, look it up in your Bible. Where's the Bible you were issued? Let's see your papers! Do you have relatives in the Blue States?"
Meanwhile, the Ultra-Patriots, flush with their new mandate, have been busy. On the way out of town the Neocongress went rogue and screwed the 9/11 widows.
House Committee Chairmen, Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Ca.) and F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.), led conservatives in a hard nosed last-minute fight to block H.R.10, the bill to implement all the 9/11 Commission recommendations, including shifting much of the U.S. intelligence community's budget from DoD to a new national Intel Director. It's reported there was quiet but strong opposition not only from Mr. Rumsfeld, but within the White House itself. In the end, the much-needed intelligence changes and the grieving families of 9/11 didn't matter.
Mr. Bush always fought any serious questioning of the events leading up to 9/11, preferring to leave history unsure just who was President in 2001. The defiant widows finally shamed him into reluctantly allowing the 9/11 Commission, which his people then stonewalled in the finest Nixonion tradition. When the Commission's scathing final report became a best-seller, Candidate Bush cynically applauded the very women he'd snubbed.
Let's all hope the bad guys don't hit us again while those intelligence changes aren't made.
Above all else, Mr. Bush must appear to be not only blameless, but deeply proud that we were totally unprepared. It's worked. He got re-elected. Now that he is, all bets are off. Our Government will speak with one voice: 'Dicksmirk.'
Would any Republican have dared block the 9/11 bill if Mr. Cheney had really wanted it passed?
You'd best keep an eye on Congress. They're at http://thomas.loc.gov/.
Even as they arrogantly dumped on the widows, they still found time to stick a handy provision in H.R. 4818, their 3,000-page spending bill, which quietly gives the House and Senate Appropriations chairs and their aides access to IRS ``facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein.'' Nobody will admit to inserting it in the bill.
"Today the Red States, Tomorrow the World!"
What's going on here? Well, it's all about values. As far as we can figure, the first Neocon value is Power. The second is Greed. The third is Spite. The Sons of Nixon do love their revenge. In a way, almost half of America is on their 'enemies list.'
Even Neo-Moderate Arlen Spector (R-Pa.) was denounced for impure thoughts, and Uber-Candidate Patrick J. Buchanan is roaring like old Mr. Churchill, telling us all to watch out for the crazy Neocons.
Enough! The thinking half of the USA is going to have get back in the fight. It's not very fashionable to be a Liberal right now, but we may be just about all that stands between the true promise of America and a new fear-driven 'Darker Age' of calculated false piety and petty hatred.
The solid half that wanted the other guy to win is going to have to rise up and take back control of the United States Senate on November 7, 2006, or a lot of what we love about America is going to disappear. You have 713 days to start a revolution.
If the Republicans expand their Senate majority to 60 seats, the ball game is over.
Stay tuned. It'll be really cool to see just how the Founding Fathers and their Constitution get us out of this one...
Douglas O'Rourke is a writer in California and can be reached via www.columnleft.com
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Posted: Wednesday November 24, 2004
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