America is led by a brutal, mocking, heedless Caligula

[G_j]

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6959

America is led by a brutal, mocking, heedless Caligula

Killing Joke: The Day the American Republic Died

Chris Floyd

Bob Herbert, who has been incandescent for months now http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/o..., usefully reminds us of the comedy routine that Bush performed for a sycophantic audience of TV and radio "journalists" back in March 2004: the infamous "hunt for WMD" in the Oval Office. As you’ll recall, this was a series of cutesy shots showing Bush peering behind the office curtains, looking under the rug while cracking wise: "No weapons of mass destruction under here! Maybe they’re over here?" and so on.

I thought then - and still think - that this performance was one of the most revealing - and sickening - episodes in American political history. The cynicism of it defies belief, outstrips all comprehension. Imagine sending men and women to die - and to kill - in a war over weapons of mass destruction, then joking about the fact that no weapons were ever found. All this, while thousands continued to die, including your own soldiers.

The fact that Bush would engage so openly in such murderous cynicism was a telling revelation: it showed, or rather confirmed, that America was being led by a brutal, mocking, heedless Caligula, a spoiled, shallow, vain and selfish fool, a moral psychopath incapable of ordinary human empathy. The reaction of the "journalists" present was another soul-sinking revelation: they laughed. Oh, how they laughed. "What a kidder this Dubya is, eh? What important insiders we all are - real players, tough and savvy - sharing this special moment of "knowing" laughter with the president!" As far as I know, not a single person walked out in protest, not a single "journalist" refused to take part in this open mockery of the dead - our own, and the tens of thousands of Iraqis who had died for the WMD chimera that Bush now found so funny.

All this was bad enough: Caligula ruled us, and the press were nothing more than fat, lazy poodles dozing at his feet. But then something even more extraordinary and equally disheartening happened: the Democratic Party simply ignored the incident in the months of presidential campaigning that followed!

..more..
---------------
BOY-PRESIDENT IN A FAILED WORLD?
Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com

As reality grows ever darker, our President never ventures
far from his scripted version of a fictional world that is
nowhere to be seen.

http://www.alternet.org/story/23469 /

On Thursday morning, with the London bombings monopolizing the TV set, I watched our President take that long, outdoor, photo-op walk from the G-8 summit meeting to the microphones to make a statement to reporters. Exploding subways, a blistered bus, the dead, wounded, dazed, and distraught just then staggering through our on-screen morning, and there he was. He had his normal, slightly bowlegged walk, his arms held just out from his side in a fashion that brings the otherwise unusable word "akimbo" to mind.

<snip>
He said nothing to surprise. He offered "heartfelt condolences to the people of London, people who lost lives"; he spoke of defending Americans against heightened dangers ("I have been in contact with our Homeland Security folks. I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here and in London, and to be extra vigilant, as our folks start heading to work."); he extolled the strength of resolve of the other G-8 leaders by comparing it to his own ("I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve."); and he presented for the umpteenth time his Manichaean vision of a world of good and evil in which he and his administration are unhesitatingly the representatives of all goodness. ("he contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill -- those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks.")

There's something so confoundingly dreamlike about all this, so fantastic, even absurd, especially set against the background of the murder of random people taking public transportation in one of the globe's great cities. As reality grows ever darker, our President never ventures far from his scripted version of a fictional world that is nowhere to be seen. Let's keep in mind that this was the same President who, only the day before in Denmark, had launched a vigorous, completely ludicrous defense of his Guantánamo prison complex. Just two weeks earlier, his Vice President had pointed out -- as if he were making one of those Caribbean tourist ads -- that the prisoners there were lucky to be housed and fed so admirably in the balmy "tropics."

Now, the President was practically proffering tickets to those tropics for Europeans who wanted to check the situation out for themselves. ("he prisoners are well-treated in Guantánamo. There's total transparency. The International Red Cross can inspect any time, any day. And you're welcome to go. The press, of course, is welcome to go down to Guantánamo...There's very few prison systems around the world that have seen such scrutiny as this one. And for those of you here on the continent of Europe who have doubt, I'd suggest buying an airplane ticket and going down and look -- take a look for yourself.")

..more..

[Karenina]

1. I was STUNNED when I saw

*dauphin's little "joke." It's even MORE GROTESQUE in retrospect!

[G_j]

2. I wonder whose idea it was?

somebody with a sadistic sense of humor

[JohnyCanuck]

5. I would have thought it was something only a Karl Rove would find funny,

but then they showed on the newsclips just about all the sycophantic media and political ass-kissers in attendance appeared to think it was pretty hillarious, so I guess it must be our own sense of humor that's lacking.

[G_j]

8. LOL , seems the "angry left"

just doesn't get it.
Hear any good torure jokes lately?

[JohnyCanuck]

3. Remember how the dickhead Lieberman also had a good chuckle

over the Pretzledent's lame-ass jokes (at the expense of the people he had killed)?

Another snip from the Bellaciao article where the author wonders why no use was made in the 2004 election campaign of the Chimpman's glaring insenstivity and plain, warped-in-the-head dumb-assedness in making jokes about not finding the WMDs that "everyone knew" Saddam had hidden away:

Imagine having such a political weapon in your hand - and not using it. It would have touched all the bases: striking a chord with the uneasiness about the Iraq war felt by much of the population; educating the general public about Bush’s true nature, "getting around the filter" of the national media that continued to paint him in the heroic colors of a "war president"; underscoring the blaring fact that Bush was not the "national security" president, but was in fact a palpable danger to our national security. Everything the Democrats said they wanted to do - particularly neutralizing the security issue - could have been done by using this revolting performance as a cudgel to beat Bush with, every single day of the campaign. It would have been 100 times more effective than the ludicrious gung-ho military drag that John Kerry was festooned with ("Reporting for duty!"). With such a weapon, they could have swept to a margin of victory great enough to swamp the extensive but not-yet universal Bush machinery of vote-fixing.

(And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that the words "Abu Ghraib" never once passed Kerry’s lips during the campaign. They couldn’t even attack Bush for staining the honor of our military by involving it in his foul torture regime, his gulags and hell-holes.)

A party that could not summon the insight, the vision and the will to exploit such horrendous weaknesses in their opponent - in a race that was not just an ordinary political contest but a desperately important turning point in American history, a chance, perhaps the last chance, to save the Republic - is a dead thing, a useless dangling appendage, a collection of time-servers, lickspittles, bribe-takers and morons.

More and more, I have come to think that the March 2004 press dinner was in fact a wake for the American Republic. Given the reaction - or rather, the non-reaction - of the Establishment to this slathering little killer’s mockery of his victims, his strutting, preening celebration of the scam he had put over on the country, it seems clear that not just the Democratic Party but our democracy itself is moribund.

RIGHT FUCKING ON!

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. You know the pukes would have used it against a Dem.

Hopefully a Dem. would never be that callous and give the pukes this kind of ammo to be used against him/her.

[Delphinus]

9. Agreed, JohnyCanuck!

I forgot that it never was used during the campaign. It does make you wonder about things, doesn't it?

[kentuck]

4. Well Caligula married his horse....

Bush only tried to "milk" his horse, according to Laura.. :)

[G_j]

10. thats pretty funny

the plot deepens..

[Joanne98]

6. That's the best damned description of Bush I ever heard!

[seemslikeadream]

11. The wicked stench of exploitation

There is no quidance in your kingdom
Your wicked walk in babylon
There is no wisdom to your freedom
The richest man in babylon

Your beggars sleep outside your doorway
Your prophets leave to wonder on
You fall asleep at night with worry
The saddest man in Babylon

The wicked stench of exploitation
Hangs in the air and lingers on
Beneath the praise and admiration
The weakest man in Babylon

There is no hope left in your kingdom
Your servants have burned all their songs
Nobody here remembers freedom
The richest man in Babylon

Si la lou babylon go 'dain
Babylon gon' be rich again
But to we don' sick again
But no we no weak again
Babyloooon on on on on
(Rasta scat)
Sal la lou ca uba whoa
Si la douba douba do wa bay
??
Si la loo babylon come 'round
You better know you better understand
'Fact you know you better hear what they say
Babylon this is your final day
Babylon this is your final call
Read the writin' it's on the wall
Said United we stand
And together we fall
And if I know that
You're not 'gon catch me in a rat pack
We not go fallin' on your death trap
No way...

Whoooooa oh oh oh oh whoa oh who oh oh
Whooooooa oh oh oh
Whoa oh oh o oh

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