Mornin' (barely) Everyone,
This is the first in what I intend to be a weekly Sunday editorial. It is my hope that in the coming weeks, I will also be accompanied by some contributing writers. For those of you unfamiliar with me, I'm your Relevant Rhino.
This weekend is of particular importance to me, friends and neighbors. Not only because it was the second week in a row "Meet The Press" lost to lil' Georgie Stephanopolous (someone, give me five minutes with David fuckin' Gregory and the world will be a better place), but the Steelers *file photo* are in the AFC Championship game tonight.
We know that this weekend, as well as Monday and Tuesday, will be steeped in history. Both anniversaries and those that will become anniversaries will be celebrated, champagne will flow in America’s capital, followed by cocktails; which will lead to an awkward moment between John King and Anderson Cooper one morning in the CNN suite at the D.C. Hilton.
And one really awkward moment when the 45.7% of Americans who voted Republican will hear the words, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…”
But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.
I wanna revisit how we came to be here- in this moment: 48 hours away from electing America’s first half-black, Muslim, communist, fascist, “messiah”, anti-christ, socialist, corporate shill, Kenyan citizen/British citizen/Indonesian citizen.
A man who is building his own private army to force Marxism on our fair sod, and abort all the babies he can’t make gay.
A man who’s bigoted preacher wasn’t Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, or Jerry Falwell.
A man who said he would sit down and talk with our enemies- sans insulting demands (preconditions, for you righties)- instead of destroying their infrastructure, decimating its civilian population, forcing exile upon the educated and contributing members of their society, and simultaneously create both a com-fucking-pletely ruined view of our country on an international scale and new and exciting places for the terrorists to set up shop.
That one? How the hell did we end up electing that one?
Shortly after he was elected, the US intelligence community figured out that al-Qaeda was responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole. Richard Clarke even briefed him on how to take down the terrorist organization. That, however, was not on Dubya's to do list. Instead, by as early as six weeks into his first term the Bush Administration had a plan in the works for invading Iraq and a post-Saddam era. By March, 2001, the Bush Administration had a plan for Iraqi oil exploration. Despite his warnings, Richard Clarke was told by Condi Rice that the President "didn't want any long memos". Apparently, "memos" meant "stuff I'd have to think about", and that didn't sit well with the new POTUS.
August, 2001: CIA briefs Dubya while on vacation in Crawford- the focus of the discussion is the "bin Laden determined to strike in the US" paper. After being shown incontrovertible evidence of an imminent threat on American soil, Dubya tells the analyst, "Well, I guess you've covered your ass..."
Just days after Richard Clarke's request for Predator Drones to fly over Afghanistan and take out bin Laden was rejected by the Pentagon, 19 hijackers overtake four airplanes and killed thousands. Remaining paralyzed for the better part of ten minutes, Dubya then flies around the country while vowing a "full scale investigation to find the folks who did it".
By December, Rumsfeld claims Afghanistan doesn't have enough targets, we've got to go after Iraq. By January of '02, with bin Laden in sight, the request for 800 Army Rangers to secure and capture bin Laden is instead outsourced by Dubya to the Pakistanis. Cooperative and sympathetic to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, they let bin Laden escape.
The march to war with Iraq was fueled with lies, propaganda, a shell-shocked and compliant media, and fear. If you told BushCo that more troops would be needed to invade Iraq, you were fired. If you claimed the cost would reach a hundred billion, you were fired. If you revealed that the yellowcake was, in fact, just a slice of yellow cake, you were vilified, and your wife's covert status was exposed. If, however, you were complicit in the run-up to invading the wrong fucking country, you were given 'Medals of Freedom'. Even if you were convicted, your sentence was commuted by prez'nint Bush.
When we finally get to Iraq, things don't necessarily pan out the way that BushCo planned. The whole of the Iraqi army disbanded, statues toppled while Sunnis were slaughtered. We lost over 200,000 weapons and billions of dollars. Just. Lost. Mercenary groups are allowed to operate above the law...the US military is allowed to operate beyond the terms of the Geneva Convention and the laws of basic fucking human decency. One in six Iraqis are forced from their homes, while tens of thousands are rounded up and shipped to Abu Ghraib, or Gitmo, or who knows where to be held without charges and tortured. Including 1,200 American citizens.
Our rewards for this have been oil. Oil, and billions for Government contractors while the number of jobs lost during the Bush Administration has grown near 10 million.
We were rewarded with FISA.
We were rewarded with the Patriot Act.
We were rewarded with trillions in debt.
With a collapsing economy.
With three wars. Yes. Three. The "Global War On Terror" counts, and it counts in billions.
With warrantless wiretapping.
With No-Child-Left-Behind.
With "Heckuva job, Browine"
With 65,ooo New Orleans residents still living in FEMA trailers.
With signing statements that exclude or circumvent Dubya from any accountability or prosecutory measures.
With the Military Commissions Act.
With lower regulatory standards on everything from your money to the food you eat.
With the Clean Skies Initiative.
With the Healthy Forests Initiative.
With 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams choking on runoff from mountaintop removal mining.
Without capturing bin Laden.
With Hamas and Hezbollah elected democratically.
Without an exit strategy in Iraq.
With 7.2% unemployment.
Without a net gain in the average wage.
With union-busting.
Without the respect of the international community.
With the largest dropout rate in American schools. Ever.
Without a modicum of understanding on the part of the outgoing administration regarding what it is they've done to this country.
With a modicum of hope.
The red text was inspired by, and partially cribbed from Keith Olbermann's "Eight Years in Eight Minutes" segment from Countdown, 16 January, 2009.
Til Next Time...
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