No Rush

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, a naval base that should have been somewhat on guard given the uneasiness of the world situation in December of 1941, it was thought that they had awakened a sleeping giant.

Nearly sixty years later the same analogy was applied to what occurred when Islamist extremists crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The giant was asleep again.  This nap was inexplicable because this same group of people had been killing Americans or attempting to do so for years.

Many assume that the sleeping giant is the American military.  It is not.  That slumbering behemoths has always been the American people.  Our military doesn't get to do much unless they have a reasonable amount of the will of the American people behind them.

Sadly enough, we hit the snooze button shortly after our last wake up call on September 11, 2001.  Yes we awoke.  We were shocked.  We were angry.  We mourned the losses suffered and rallied behind the President of the United States. 

Then, we rolled over and went back to sleep.

I have never trusted George W. Bush.  Not even when he grabbed a bullhorn atop a pile of rubble for his most famous photo-op.  President Bush and the people he surrounds himself with are part of the problem.  They have never had a solution, they only compound and aggravate existing situations.

They started by using the September 11 attacks as an excuse to execute a plan of action that had been sitting in Paul Wolfowitz's briefcase since the first Bush Administration.  They misled the American people into believing that the invasion of Iraq was a response to the attacks of September 11th.  Most Americans believed them.  Colin Powell, because of his credibility, was dispatched to the United Nations to lie to the rest of the world about the urgency of the suggested mission.  The world rolled its eyes at what they were told by Powell and the much maligned UN was further criticized here in America because they were foreigners.  Hey, it wasn't their buildings that got crashed into!

Once the invasion started, there was no turning back.  Even people who did not believe the Bush Administration's story about the necessity of invading Iraq, now know that pulling out now would leave Iraq in such a mess that it would become a hotbed for terrorist.  Not that it was before the invasion, but those arguments are rendered moot because "it's too late, we're already there."

President Bush enjoyed approval ratings that were through the roof.  After all, he was a "War President."  This approval promoted in him and his team an arrogance that has led to a litany of bad moves and displays of indifference toward the welfare of this country and its citizens.

Invading Iraq and maintaining it is very expensive, yet, the Bush Administration is not doing much to pay for their actions abroad.  They have not raised taxes nor cut spending.  The giant sleeps easier with money in his pockets.  I remember when the standard attack on Democrats was that they were tax and spend liberals.  I don't see much difference between that and a tax and spend conservative.

The Patriot Act was passed.  First, because it had a very marketable name.  Second, because no one who voted for it read it.  This was a necessary act to enable our government to peer into every aspect of the life of anyone it deemed an enemy of the state.  Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus during the Civil War, so there.  That was the administration's response to anyone who questioned the invasiveness of the Patriot Act.  At least that was the administration's public response.  Who knows what revenge the Patriot Act allowed.  After all, to be against the Patriot Act would mean you were unPatriotic.

The invasion went so very well that it ended sooner than expected.  So now it was time to be greeted as liberators as the people of Iraq greeted the American Troops by throwing flowers at them.  This was how we were told, by the officials who sold us the  idea, that they would be greeted by the Iraqi people.  A report prepared by the Bush Administration's own State Department that warned of looting and lawlessness and the chaos that often follows when a government is overthrown was ignored by the President and the people who actually make the decisions in the administration. 

Because the Iraq situation was the definition of what this administration was all about, anyone who questioned the reality of the thought process was an enemy of the state.  Toward that end, the administration outed Valerie Plame, a CIA Operative, whose husband, Joe Wilson, publicly disputed a claim that was critical toward the administration's case for invading Iraq.

TheAdministration's friend, Ken Lay, and his company Enron, committed a gigantic hoax that shook people from Houston to Washington to Wall Street to California.  First, they screwed with California's power to the point that the rolling blackouts were used as the impetus for the recall election of Democratic Governor Grey Davis.  The company continually lied about how well it was doing and the biggest firms on Wall Street and the largest banks in the country believed the company with no proof.  What brought Enron down was the simplest of questions:  What does Enron do to make money? 

Back to the "war."  The world was outraged when pictures surfaced of the abuse being heaped on Iraqui prisoners at Abu Gahrib prison.  American soldiers took pictures of each other teasing and humiliating prisoners.  It was a disgrace to be sure.  It was also in violation of accepted international standards for treatment of prisoners of war.  The Bush Administration's response was to say that these prisoners were not technically prisoners of war.  This was from the "War" President.  To believe that higher ups in the Defense Department did not know of or approve of these actions is to be in denial.  Invading an Arab country that had never attacked this country was bad enough.  Nothing screams "attack us again" like abusing Arab prisoners in the humiliating way that our troops did.  Enlisted personnel were tried and convicted after the excuse making did not wash.

Hurricane Katrina is a microcosm of the Bush Administration.  Indifference.  Ineptitude.  Excuses.  Finally, finger pointing.  FEMA was incredibly weakened when the Bush Administration decided to place it under the umbrella of the new Homeland Security Department.  The government even took funding from efforts to bolster hurricane preparation in Louisiana.  Everyone in America knew this hurricane was coming.  Everyone knew it was going to be a category four or five hurricane.  It was also public knowledge that it was heading for New Orleans.  Surprisingly a category five hurricane hit New Orleans dead on.  The richest government in the world stood and watched thousands of its citizens get devastated and hundreds die and did as close to nothing as possible.  When it did make an effort, the attempt was half assed.  They then did what they do best, they blamed someone else.  This was a local government responsibility.  That line became the Republican Party talking point.  A massive storm is about to wipe out an American city and the those kick ass cowboys that make up the Bush Administration tell us it's not their job.  The President that was sold in 2004 as the guy to lead us in these dangerous times leads a government that can't evacuate or prepare a city with almost a week's notice.  He put a cronie in as FEMA chief.  Michael Brown was a Bush buddy and Bush thought so little of the importance of federal emergency response that he put an unqualified friend in charge.

Most recently we have discovered that in conducting the "War on Terror" the President has deemed it necessary to approve of wiretapping without warrants.  It is important to understand that it is possible to go ahead and wiretap and get the warrant after the fact.  Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was brought before the Senate Judiciary Committee which was holding a hearing on the wiretap issue.  Committee Chairman Arlen Specter did not deem it necessary to swear Gonzales in so the Attorney General wasn't under oath.  Not that mattered since he wouldn't answer questions anyway.  Everything was to sensitive to talk about. 

Finally, President Asleep at the Switch apparently didin't realize that there would be a problem if a company from Dubai was in charge of watching our ports.  He has threatened to veto the law Congress has threatened to send his way banning the deal that would permit a company from the United Arab Emirates from overseeing American ports.  Apparently, the President is now politically correct feeling it would be wrong to profile in such an instance. 

As a Republican this all pains me.  Finally, the GOP has control of the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and essentially, the Supreme Court.  Look at what has been done with a Republican run government.  Spending is out of control.  We have alienated most of the world.  We are spending money on a fight we started unnecessarily and are not handling well.  African Americans, especially poor ones, have all but officially been told they are of no importance to this government.  This country cannot defend itself from a hurricane let alone another terrorist attack.  After six years of one party rule America is weaker, poorer, dumber and uglier than ever.

This list of grievances only represents what I could come up with off the top of my head.  Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting companion doesn't qualify as an affront to the country as it only directly affected one man.  However, his response, that of a child who broke Mom's lamp while playing in the house, was typical.  These are the people that attacked Bill Clinton for being irresponsible.  Hypocrisy is a reflex for these guys.

What makes America truly great is that we have the ability to correct our problems.  We can rid ourselves of George W. Bush and his kind.  That is still possible.  Mr. Bush cannot run for reelection and we must do our best to ensure that no one like him sees the inside of our government again.

Wake up you sleeping giant!  There are Barbarians at our gates.  Let's let them out.

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