President Bush Shouldn't Play With Sharp Objects
The plant you show only love, And the plant you show only hate grow equally, It's the one that you ignore that dies.
Yoko Ono
Even though we've been swept into the pulse-pounding vortex of the presidential campaign, every once in a while something happens in the news which snaps us back into the dark reality that an incompetent shit-kicking hoople still occupies the White House.
This past Tuesday, for example, while the stock market buckled under the weight of a subprime-fueled recession; while oil prices drove the rate of inflation to its largest increase in 26 years; and while Citigroup panhandled for bailout cash from various and infamous foreign governments including Saudi Arabia, President Bush was busy participating in something called a "sword dance" at the Al Murabba Palace in Riyadh.
In terms of America's reputation and economy: one of the worst days imaginable.
President Bush, who has resolved to both reduce our addiction to oil and to spread democracy to the Middle East, had to skulk around with the Saudi royals -- like freakin' Gollum with an ill-favored look -- begging for more precious evildoer oil.
Rewind to three long years ago this month. The theme of the president's second inaugural address (pardon me as I involuntarily convulse at the bilious recollection of George W. Bush delivering a second inaugural) was "Celebrating Freedom" and he discussed his mission of bringing democracy and liberty to oppressed people around the world:
We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.
We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people.
America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.
Freedom. Rights. Liberty. Justice. Human dignity guiding our policies. Awesome! I've heard worse from this fear mongering imperial authoritarian.
Yet in an effort to inject more foreign oil into the tract-marked veins of the desperate American economy, the President of the United States played with swords inside the garish walls of that Saudi palace.
This past Tuesday, for example, while the stock market buckled under the weight of a subprime-fueled recession; while oil prices drove the rate of inflation to its largest increase in 26 years; and while Citigroup panhandled for bailout cash from various and infamous foreign governments including Saudi Arabia, President Bush was busy participating in something called a "sword dance" at the Al Murabba Palace in Riyadh.
In terms of America's reputation and economy: one of the worst days imaginable.
President Bush, who has resolved to both reduce our addiction to oil and to spread democracy to the Middle East, had to skulk around with the Saudi royals -- like freakin' Gollum with an ill-favored look -- begging for more precious evildoer oil.
Rewind to three long years ago this month. The theme of the president's second inaugural address (pardon me as I involuntarily convulse at the bilious recollection of George W. Bush delivering a second inaugural) was "Celebrating Freedom" and he discussed his mission of bringing democracy and liberty to oppressed people around the world:
We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies.
We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people.
America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies, yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators; they are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom, and there can be no human rights without human liberty.
Freedom. Rights. Liberty. Justice. Human dignity guiding our policies. Awesome! I've heard worse from this fear mongering imperial authoritarian.
Yet in an effort to inject more foreign oil into the tract-marked veins of the desperate American economy, the President of the United States played with swords inside the garish walls of that Saudi palace.
There's a rule -- something about running with scissors -- which ought to have applied here. But the implicit hazard of an accident-prone Ruprecht waving a sharpened blade in the vicinity of living humans fails to underscore the true danger and indignity of the event -- the real-world horror of our constitutional defender and chief diplomat dancing and smirking while brandishing those Saudi weapons.
They're called "Chop Squares", Mr. President.
While the sword President Bush had slung over his shoulder like a clump of Crawford scrub wasn't specifically an executioner's sword -- in the same way a looped and knotted length of rope isn't specifically a hangman's noose or a Teflon-coated hollow-point bullet isn't specifically a cop-killer -- the resemblance was striking enough to send a message that the United States -- the shining city on the hill or whatever the hell Saint Reagan called it -- is willing to toss aside its commitment to human rights, justice and democracy in order to sniff the taints of our true global masters: the House of Saud which, last year, conducted at least 136 public beheadings in these so-called Chop Squares. It's also worth noting that during the same year in which President Bush delivered his second inaugural, the Saudis publicly beheaded 191 people. Cont
They're called "Chop Squares", Mr. President.
While the sword President Bush had slung over his shoulder like a clump of Crawford scrub wasn't specifically an executioner's sword -- in the same way a looped and knotted length of rope isn't specifically a hangman's noose or a Teflon-coated hollow-point bullet isn't specifically a cop-killer -- the resemblance was striking enough to send a message that the United States -- the shining city on the hill or whatever the hell Saint Reagan called it -- is willing to toss aside its commitment to human rights, justice and democracy in order to sniff the taints of our true global masters: the House of Saud which, last year, conducted at least 136 public beheadings in these so-called Chop Squares. It's also worth noting that during the same year in which President Bush delivered his second inaugural, the Saudis publicly beheaded 191 people. Cont
MmeFlutterbye
The worst part is that those Saidis, in all probablity, had a lot of private yuks after our fearless leader left. Can't you just hear it in their back rooms how they made Bush look like a fool to the world while pretending to honor him. TOTALLY EMBARRASSING for the USA. When will this nightmare be terminated?
The worst part is that those Saidis, in all probablity, had a lot of private yuks after our fearless leader left. Can't you just hear it in their back rooms how they made Bush look like a fool to the world while pretending to honor him. TOTALLY EMBARRASSING for the USA. When will this nightmare be terminated?
Amen
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 2:34 PM
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