lowercase thought.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Cowards on Parade
When I noticed that Norm Ornstein (from that noted bastion of right-think The American Enterprise Institute who brought you the musings of compulsive gambler William Bennett) wrote this piece, I nodded knowingly. Ornstein has been working on his terror scare-tactics for quite some time. In fact, BEFORE September 11th he was working on a "presidential succession" project at AEI in order to better protect the "will of the people" (read: make sure a Bushie kept control incase someone offed the guy).
FUD is indeed the operative word today. Did anyone notice that the sonofabitchin' coward wouldn't even get out of his car to face the public until the last block where the people allowed in those stands had to pay $200 a pop? Not surprisingly, there were none of the signs in that crowd that had lined the route earlier like, "Four More Wars" and "ImpeachBush.org". Sure, he can hide behind the guise of "security" all he wants, but the entire 5-block area surrounding PA Ave. was on lock-down in a fashion never seen before. Also, did you see the convoy of black Suburbans and Secret Service? As one of my co-worker's noted, "Jesus, what does this say about American society when the guy is that isolated from the masses?"
The fact is, Bush has always been isolated from any criticism, and that's what burns us (his detractors) up more than anything. If you're going to be "bold" with your agenda, at least have the balls to answer questions at regular press conferences rather than three-hour love-fests with Bill O'Reilly and The Washington Times.
Bush the 41st, for all his misgivings, was still a decent President who would answer the tough questions without hesitating and with minimal ducking. There's also something to be said for his ability to go to war with a true international coalition and with an actual exit strategy, but we'll leave that aside for now.
On to the discussion of the $50+ million pricetag for the inauguration. Many folks have said that it's just sour grapes on the part of Democrats and the "liberal media" for even bringing it up. Let's look at the numbers, shall we? Bush the 41st's inauguration cost $30 million. Clinton's inauguration in 1993 cost $33 million. Bush's 2001 inauguration cost $40 million. So while we're asking kids to scrounge up fitty cent to donate to their school's tsunami-relief collection, the nation's elite are dropping fitty dime on celebrating their benefactor's re-election.
The most troubling is the more than $2.7 million donated as of Friday by the energy industry--the very same group who is benefitting most from Bush's War on Iraq. Needless to say, United Technologies gave their $250K.
FUD is indeed the operative word today. Did anyone notice that the sonofabitchin' coward wouldn't even get out of his car to face the public until the last block where the people allowed in those stands had to pay $200 a pop? Not surprisingly, there were none of the signs in that crowd that had lined the route earlier like, "Four More Wars" and "ImpeachBush.org". Sure, he can hide behind the guise of "security" all he wants, but the entire 5-block area surrounding PA Ave. was on lock-down in a fashion never seen before. Also, did you see the convoy of black Suburbans and Secret Service? As one of my co-worker's noted, "Jesus, what does this say about American society when the guy is that isolated from the masses?"The fact is, Bush has always been isolated from any criticism, and that's what burns us (his detractors) up more than anything. If you're going to be "bold" with your agenda, at least have the balls to answer questions at regular press conferences rather than three-hour love-fests with Bill O'Reilly and The Washington Times.
Bush the 41st, for all his misgivings, was still a decent President who would answer the tough questions without hesitating and with minimal ducking. There's also something to be said for his ability to go to war with a true international coalition and with an actual exit strategy, but we'll leave that aside for now.
On to the discussion of the $50+ million pricetag for the inauguration. Many folks have said that it's just sour grapes on the part of Democrats and the "liberal media" for even bringing it up. Let's look at the numbers, shall we? Bush the 41st's inauguration cost $30 million. Clinton's inauguration in 1993 cost $33 million. Bush's 2001 inauguration cost $40 million. So while we're asking kids to scrounge up fitty cent to donate to their school's tsunami-relief collection, the nation's elite are dropping fitty dime on celebrating their benefactor's re-election.
The most troubling is the more than $2.7 million donated as of Friday by the energy industry--the very same group who is benefitting most from Bush's War on Iraq. Needless to say, United Technologies gave their $250K.
Docciavelli 2:44 PM
