Born in 1951, I grew up believing that I was guaranteed certain things by virtue of my American birth. We were taught in all confidence that the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights were unassailable - that they were sacrosanct. It was commonly believed that the civil rights of all Americans were guaranteed for all time, and this, oddly enough, at a time when black America was locked in a deadly struggle for theirs. We've always been a bit schizophrenic, we Americans.
(more below the fold...)
The only trepidation we had about totalitarianism was with regards to Russia. We were all raised on stories of jack-booted thugs, secret police, and political prisoners behind the Iron Curtain there in the Evil Empire. We all knew the stories of warrantless searches, midnight arrests, citizen spies, and brutal interrogations conducted in the absence of any and all human rights.
Except for one paranoid delusion during McCarthy's `red scare', the thought that the United States could ever become totalitarian from within was strictly the stuff of novels like Orwell's 1984, which at the time (1949) was thought to be a wildly imaginative distopian fantasy, rather than being recognized for its prophetic genius as it is today.
Yes, that Orwell - he had quite the connection to the old cosmic consciousness if you ask me. He channeled the future like drinking water, and all he got wrong was the year.
The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world.
Lies will pass into history.
~ George Orwell
While our downfall began with the election of Richard Nixon, the downward spiral accelerated with his reelection, and (merely skipping a beat post-Watergate) the later elections of Reagan and Bush the first. We caught a mild breather during the Clinton years, lulling us into a false sense of security, and objective truth did not finally gasp its last breath until the Supreme Court of the United States proclaimed Bush II emperor in the year 2000. Its demise was confirmed four years later by Diebold. Truth at that point was dead, the American people were screwed, blued, and tattooed - and democracy was a mere shadow of its former self, scarcely a ghost, an apparition formed of the residual and ethereal quality of hope vaguely remembered.
After the attacks of 9/11 (which were oh so convenient for the neocons...I'm just sayin'), the gloves were off - and so were the masks. All pretense at rationality, sobriety, restraint, wisdom, and responsible leadership by adults with common sense and good judgment was dropped like a hot and hateful rock.
Bush, once he finally finished My Pet Goat, assured a shocked and grieving nation that justice would be done. Why anybody believed him is beyond the limits of human understanding - as, of course, are so many things.
Bush pledges to get bin Laden, dead or alive
12/14/2001 - Updated 11:48 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush pledged anew Friday that Osama bin Laden will be taken "dead or alive," no matter how long it takes, amid indications that the suspected terrorist may be bottled up in a rugged Afghan canyon. The president, in an Oval Office meeting with Thailand's prime minister, would not predict the timing of bin Laden's capture but said he doesn't care how the suspect is brought to justice. "I don't care, dead or alive -- either way," Bush said. "It doesn't matter to me." Source
At some later point in time he blessed us with this golden nugget:
Our nation is somewhat sad, but we're angry. There's a certain level of blood lust, but we won't let it drive our reaction. We're steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we'll have to start displaying scalps.
~ George W. Bush
Yes George W has said some mighty stupid things, it cannot be denied, but some of the things he's said about OBL have been among the most interesting. The following is something of a timeline.
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
~ G.W. Bush, 9/13/01
"I want justice...There's an old poster out West, as I recall, that said, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'"
~ G.W. Bush, 9/17/01, UPI
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
~ G.W. Bush, 3/13/02
"I am truly not that concerned about him."
~ G.W. Bush, responding to a question about bin Laden's whereabouts,
3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)
Source
Of course Bush was lying his ass off, which is his modus operandi. He's such a shameless liar he doesn't even try to keep his stories straight anymore.
Now President Musharraf of Pakistan agrees to provide a safe haven for OBL and his pals so long as they play nicely. The response from our government, sadly, is predictable.
The inanity never ends with George. Here's a wild statement he's made numerous times. I'm sure you'll remember it. He said it again quite recently - and with a straight face (more or less). It never fails to crack me up.
Who does this fool think he's kidding? We have been torturing people all over this planet; he and his henchmen have seen to it. They are so used to hiding behind lies that they haven't quite caught on that the whole world sees through them. They've not yet quite realized that we're all hip - we all know that the emperor has no clothes. The Bush inner circle are the last to cling to the pretense that it is not so.
We don't torture. We know where the WMDs are. We're gonna get bin Laden. We never said there was a link between Iraq and al Qaeda. No one anticipated the breech of the levies. Saddam sought yellow cake in Sudan. The insurgents are in their last throes. Iraq war dissenters are the same as Nazi appeasers. Those who don't agree with all the tragically stupid shit we have done are morally confused. Even Orwell couldn't have anticipated such craziness as this.
And now we're told their beloved war on terror might last forever - maybe longer.
Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not been at war.
~ George Orwell, 1984
And now, with it being the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we are subjected to the predictable barrage of sentimental and mostly insincere bullshit. And as if that weren't bad enough, we are also to be assaulted by a despicable rightwing smear job on ABC depicting historical events the way the wingnuts would have us remember them, that is to say as a great big pile of stinking republican refuse - rank horseshit in other words. Nothing succeeds with these assholes like lies - the bigger the better. These sorry rat-bastards hate the truth like cockroaches hate the light.
Like so many Americans, I am weary of the lies, aghast at what has been done to our country (and not by the terrorists), and frankly afraid of what these demented fools have in mind for their October surprise. Whatever it might be, may the American people have wised up sufficiently to see straight through the hateful deception, cynical fear-mongering, and petty manipulation. And may they in November deliver up as a gift to the nation the mighty and resounding smack down of the insane, lying, torturing, traitorous, warmongering, war-profiteering Republicans that they so richly deserve. Amen.
Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
~ Green Day