Yeah, it's shameless self-promotion. But my latest column just went live on
tonight, and it's one that some of you may enjoy.
Why Does George W. Bush Hate Americans?
Shows little compassion despite beheadings, dying soldiers
By Jason Jackson
Times-Patriot Columnist
September 29, 2004 -- Last week, Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley were kidnapped and beheaded by militant Iraqi insurgents. As was the case earlier this year when Paul Johnson, Nicholas Berg, Kim Sun-il and Daniel Pearl suffered similar fates, their tortured screams and cries were captured on videotape.
American television has spared us from this footage, but the Internet has not. To put it simply, your children are but a Google search away from learning what it sounds like to saw off someone's head while that someone is still alive and screaming for God or any other deity to intervene.
It wasn't that long ago when lopping off the head of an American drew the ire of the entire American populace. These days, it apparently doesn't even warrant a mention from the President of the United States. George W. Bush has yet to comment on Hensley's killing and at this point probably never will.
The day before Hensley was killed, Bush said the nation "stands in solidarity" with the hostage while meeting with his personal dancing bear, Iraqi Prime Minister and Puppet Ayad Allawi. It was improbable that Hensley's captors would have ever released him anyway, but those words from Bush -- spoken with the hated Allawi standing nearby -- likely hastened the homicide.
"Obviously, our thoughts and prayers are with the Hensley family," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan after Hensley's murder. "Their strength during a difficult time is amazing. The terrorists want to shake our will, but they will not." In other words, the Hensley family received two sentences of comfort from the press secretary -- not even the president himself, but the lousy press secretary -- before the Bush administration began politicizing the event.
As of today, 1,054 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Over the past several months, George W. Bush has found the time to clear bushels of brush from his ranch, to go fishing with his father at their elitist Kennebunkport family compound, and to lie about John Kerry's voting record in the Senate. But Bush still hasn't taken the opportunity to attend a single funeral for a fallen soldier. If his past history is any indication, he probably never will.
Unfortunately for the families of those killed, Bush is busy trying to win an election. Given the degree to which he and his zealous cast of surrogates misinform the American public about their spotty record and, more frequently, about their opponent, it's evident that nothing to George W. Bush is more important. Not even your sons or daughters. Not even the soldier who leaves behind a pregnant wife in the states. Not even Sara Hensley, whose high-school classmates can watch her daddy's head get cut off while surfing the 'Net.
Bush has many flaws as a president. He sent troops to fight a war against the wrong enemy. He neglected the domestic economy by irresponsibly demanding tax cuts while our country was at war, which had wisely never before been done in our nation's history. He single-handedly sabotaged an unprecedented level of international support of the United States in the months following September 11 and is now viewed globally as an irrational tyrant with an itchy trigger finger.
But Bush's flaws as a man are far more troubling. Even though he is the father of twin girls the same age as many of the soldiers dying overseas, the self-proclaimed compassionate conservative can't even muster up enough compassion to attend a single funeral. Bush couldn't even take a couple of spare moments to comment on the beheading of an American in Iraq. To Bush, it's almost as if these events aren't happening.
That is not the case. They are happening, and Bush knows all about them. He also knows that acknowledging these tragic events further puts his failed Iraq policy on display, and that could justifiably harm him in the voting booth. He's been aware of this since the first bomb was dropped on Baghdad, when he ordered that no photographs be taken of flag-draped coffins carrying the remains of soldiers killed in action.
But those aren't just photographs, George. They aren't statistics. Those are real lives that came to an end because of your misguided, arrogant policies.
Lest one think that only soldiers bear the brunt of Bush's abomination towards the American public, he proved last week that those living in poverty are also on his list of enemies. If three years have taught us anything, it's this: George W. Bush will do anything to help corporate America, even if it means further oppressing the poor.
In Bush's latest tax-relief bill, corporations will receive an additional $13 billion in tax breaks, according to the Washington Post. However, a provision that would have preserved tax refunds for poor families was left out of the new plan. Of the 11 million impoverished families that were able to claim this particular tax refund last year, more than 4 million of them (a group that represents 9.2 million children) will see the credit shrink or disappear in 2005.
The cost of preserving the tax refund would have been a mere $4.3 billion over five years. But when a CEO needs money, he knows he can always call on George W. Bush. Bush may hate Americans, but he loves corporations. And, as he's proven time and time again, he also loves leaving your child behind.
George W. Bush's incompetence as a president should be enough to have him removed from office come November. But it's his incompetence as a human being that should be of most concern to the American public. For the first time in American history, the United States has a leader with no compassion for his constituents -- and the rest of the world knows it.
Now if only the people of the United States would figure it out.