Does George Bush Bother You?
By Peter Fredson
March 11, 2006
I don't care how much brush George cuts down on that ex-pig farm that he calls a ranch. I don't care how many barbecues he has there, or if he strums a guitar, eats cake, watches TV, eats pretzels, rides bicycles, or gets on with his life in Crawford, Texas. He can spend his entire life strutting, swaggering, and smirking there. In fact, he can do anything the Texas Rangers will not stop. That doesn't bother me.
As long as it does not affect me, he can swim naked, rant and rave at this family, scratch his butt, take pills, pray day or night, eat crackers in bed, catch crawfish, shake dandruff off his head, squeeze a pimple, play the hump-backed beast with Laura, or sodomize Karl Rove. Whatever. I couldn't care less.
I would never bother him, call him, worry about him, or include him in any of my plans. I might dislike his petulance, his privileged background, his unearned wealth, his dependence on his powerful daddy, his irresponsible attitude, his perpetual lies, his smirking, and most of his friends, like Bolton and Rove.
But all of that doesn't bother me a whit or a tittle or a smidgeon. He could live that life from birth to natural death, undisturbed by me.
But, the instant that his actions affect my well-being, my privacy, my safety, my family, my health, my costs, my choices, or any one of my constitutional rights, is when I say "enough." And, I must say "enough" now.
It is very rare that I feel a "hate" of people. My experiences in World War II, seeing thousands of deaths on sandy beaches, seeing the Dachau concentration camp with its skeletal occupants (the victims of beyond horrible,) determined me to do everything possible to avoid the hatred I saw.
But I am seeing replays of the Nazi administration of Germany, the tyranny without end, the spying, secret camps, wire taps, arrests without warrant, kidnapping, renditions, indefinite detention, despising the Geneva Conventions, despising our own Constitution and assumption of dictatorial prerogatives.
Above all the disregard of human life, the abuse and torture, the deliberate degradation, the secrecy, the atmosphere of fear that affected the entire population and made them whisper softly lest a Hitlerian sycophant turn them over to some death squad, the knocks on the door at night, lack of legal counsel, the complete disregard for legalities, and a hundred other acts of viciousness that are now being replayed by the Bush bullies led to an egomaniac, irritable, petulant, dangerous sociopath who loved to strut and swagger in uniform.
I had a very small part in helping to start the Nuremburg trials and saw the end results with the Nazi bullies committing suicide or dangling from the gallows. I saw the newsreels of Benito Musssolini, beaten to death by mobs, hanging dead by his heels.
Evidently George Bush thinks that his imperial manners will protect him for all time in all ways and that no court of retribution will ever find him. Most dictators think that way. They live for the present, surround themselves with guards, and imagine that they are immune or impervious in their bubble of faith.
We do have impeachment as a remedy but most Republican Senators will expend all their energy and eloquence in protecting George Bush at all costs. If he goes, most of them too will go. So as long as we have sycophants in Congress there is little possibility of any impeachment movement succeeded.
A John Warner will block it with cunning maneuvers. A Trist will find ways to negate it. A Santorum will talk himself hoarse to avoid it. A Hastert will shout it out of existence.
Such people lack a sense of responsibility to protect and defend our Constitution, being deaf and dumb in order to protect their own office-holding cherished prerogatives and do not want "to rock the boat" with its juicy jobs, corrupt influences and good old boy intimacy. Unless, and until the public demands that they get off their hind ends and act like Senators who seriously intend to preserve our separation of powers instead of being butt-kissers to a petulant, irritable, ignorant oaf.
We continue with our tyrannical, bullying, imperial Presidency that is manipulated by many powerful influences. And we remain hopeful that enough Senators will join the movement to impeach or otherwise restrain this incompetent person from inflicting further damage and cost to our democracy in favor of his neocon corporate theocracy.
At present there are only very small signs of this happening, but history shows us what finally happens to tyrants. Let's hope it is sooner than later.
Meanwhile many Americans must cower in fear of some unknown enemy produced by Bush and the known Bush tyrant in our midst.