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 Bushies Fiddle while
the Earth Burns
by ROBERT ZIMMER, JR.
Wednesday, July 25, 2001
LOS ANGELES, CA.
The audacity. A 'president' who didn't even win the popular vote. A man who dispatched his thugs to Florida to manipulate the overseas ballot boxes, who steamrolled over the Florida Supreme Court to steal an election. This man has the audacity to travel to the G8 Summit in Europe and claim to represent our nation.
This alone is ample embarrassment, even If Bush had arrived in Genoa, Italy and kept his trap shut. But he had to open his mealy mouth and make me embarrassed to be an American today.
It is genuinely shocking how out of touch with reality Bush truly is. Rioters numbering in the thousands rage outside a posh 13th-century castle as the president offers what amounts to Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake."
He says they don't represent the voices of the poor. Then what do they represent, exactly? They're not rioting for more keg parties back at Yale.
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I wonder if it has occurred to the ever-reflective president that the cost of throwing this orgy of capitalist self-congratulation would feed every hungry American for a week.
Perhaps the president would like to take a moment to step outside and explain to the protesters how he -- apparently the true champion for the poor -- thinks that American money is better spent on a ludicrous missile defense program than on education, AIDS, and poverty programs. His answer will come when one of these protesters sails a boat into New York harbor and detonates a nuclear device right underneath the missile shield. Oops! So much for those hundreds of billions of dollars used to feed the military-industrial complex.
Then again, it almost doesn't matter whether New York City survives such an easy attack, because by the year 2100, it will be a goner anyway. Greenhouse emissions will have caused catastrophic global warming by then. This will melt the ice caps so severely that the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. will be underwater. Oh, but why waste time thinking 99 years into the future? The pesky Kyoto accord, which Mr. Bush opposes beyond any semblance of common sense, would "put Americans out of work." I'd say drowning would put them out of work too.
Not only did the president show up to the G8 with a "no" on the Kyoto accord, he didn't even have a better idea ready. Scrambling in embarrassment to not look completely inept on the issue of the environment, Bush cronies promised an alternative proposal would be ready by the fall. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretian's reaction to this promise was identical to mine: a very skeptical "We'll see."
And if I hear the president roll out a cheerful "We've agreed to disagree" line one more time after a discussion with a European head of state, I'll puke. While he agrees to disagree, the world crumbles around his fatuous arrogance -- and our allies wonder just how stupid Americans must have been to elect this guy. We didn't, of course.
The Kyoto accord, the missile defense plan, the self-absorbed lack of awareness of the plight of the common person. It's only three in a long list of dangerous signs that Bush is at the head of a Republican hydra determined to ram its radical right-wing agenda down the throats of Americans and the world. How dare they think they have a mandate to do this?
Back at home, embarrassment after embarrassment complements Bush's foolishness abroad. Senior advisor Karl Rove leaves a sleazy trail more obvious than a horde of snails as he lies about his involvement with the Salvation Army debacle, and about his meetings with officials of a company in which he owned stock. The administration's arrogance cost the Republicans control of the Senate. Vice President Cheney's insightful remark that conservation is no more than a personal virtue let Americans know that lining the pockets of the environment-ruining corporations is far more important than trifles such as campaign finance reform or prescription drugs for senior citizens. Perhaps he should consider a pacemaker for his soul.
President Bush claimed his administration wouldn't be governed by polls. Another lie, as hatchet-man Karl Rove reviews poll numbers regularly in scheduled West Wing meetings. Hatchet-woman Karen Hughes uses the numbers to suggest new ways of putting the "compassionate" face on the brutal conservatism of the administration. It almost makes me nostalgic for Monica Lewinsky.
Perhaps the president and his staff should use the numbers to face up to what is also common sense: What they want isn't what average Americans want. It isn't what our allies want. What's more, it isn't right. Not now, not in the future. Wrap it in all the pretty wrapping paper you want, but Bush agenda is designed to benefit a small group of elitists. The Republicans and their greedy corporate sponsors see their growing irrelevance, and they are selfishly, desperately clawing at any last shred of power. All of this comes at the expense of the poor and the underprivileged. They should be ashamed.
And more importantly, they should be shown the door in 2004.
ROBERT ZIMMER, Jr., IS A FILM AND TELEVISION WRITER/PRODUCER LIVING IN LOS ANGELES. BORN IN TEXAS, NO LESS. |
 Send your comments to Coffee Shop Times editorial observer Robert Zimmer, Jr.
Copyright © 2001 The Coffee Shop Times
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