Your Enemy Is Ruling Your Country

Last night, the dictator of the “free world” gave a speech recorded here in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union Address at the Washington Post.

Summary

Pardon my cynical attitute, but my general rule of thumb with George Bush speeches is to assume he’s lying whenever his lips move. So, yeah, I exepcted to hear some innaccuracies. However, I didn’t expect the slew of fantastical imaginings this speech turned out to be. I didn’t see the speech (I read the transcript — I find it’s faster and less painful than actually watching him), so I’m going out on a limb here assuming he showed up drunk. But that’s how it reads. I mean, he might as well have pranced around the room sprinkling pixie dust on people’s heads for all the credibility he had last night.

Seriously, when was the last time you heard George mention Africa? Or AIDS? (Outside of the context of it being a disease for those of weak faith.) He doesn’t even know where Africa is. And how can you not just marvel at the gall of George talking about fuel cells or his environmental record. It was all I could do not to burst out gut-laughing while reading this thing. The only thing that puzzles me is I can’t figure out which corporate interest lined his pockets to mention some of the topics he spoke about last night.

Even taken at face value, I think that it’s amazing that he can get away with a speech that talks about health care, the economy and the environment as if they were all in generally decent shape, but with just a few kinks to work out. If you actually read the speech though, it’s a (quite long) laundry list of “hot button” topics that he mouths opinions on. It’s a feel-good list of placatives he’s mouthing, giving each one a nanosecond of attention before catering to the next issue, all the while smirking and winking to his friends in the wings, assuring them that he doesn’t really mean it; they don’t need to worry — their agendas are still on track.

You expect a politician to lie, but this was something extraordinary to behold. Almost everything he said last night is easily and directly refuted by his actions. He’s a liar who doesn’t even think he has to try anymore. You should feel insulted.

Detailed Analysis

First up is the economy, but to listen to George, everything’s rosy. For example:

“To bring our economy out of recession, we delivered the largest tax relief in a generation.” Hey, that’s awesome. I had no idea the recession was over. I’m also glad Bush pointed out that my taxes, despite being the same as last year, are in fact, lower. What mathematical prowess. Worked like a charm. Thanks, Shrub.

We “created the Department of Homeland Security”…which is the biggest government department the US has ever seen. Aren’t Republicans for smaller government? Apparently only when it involves helping people who can’t give you money. When it involves currying favor with big corporations or clamping down on the rights of the cattle feeding your war machine with taxes, it’s A-OK.

“Ninety-two million Americans will keep this year an average of almost $1,100 more of their own money.”

Here come his averages again. I would love to know the median on those numbers. I bet it’s quite a bit lower. To put it into perspective, consider this example from a recent Paul Krugman column:

“A liberal and a conservative were sitting in a bar. Then Bill Gates walked in. “Hey, we’re rich!” shouted the conservative. “The average person in this bar is now worth more than a billion!” “That’s silly,” replied the liberal. “Bill Gates raises the average, but that doesn’t make you or me any richer.””

A high average can be generated by a small number of people getting a huge tax break and most people getting small ones or nothing at all.

“These problems will not be solved with a nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care.”

Nope. Only those wimps to the North or every sissy little nancy-boy nation in Europe have successfully deployed a national health care system that works better and costs much less than the US one. But it doesn’t benefit huge pharmaceutical companies or insurance companies enough, so we can’t go that way.

“To insist on integrity in American business, we passed tough reforms, and we are holding corporate criminals to account.”

When did this happen? Four words. Ken Lay walks free. Four more words. Bush is a lying sack of shit. OK, too many words; I got carried away.

“I have sent you clear skies legislation”…again, quite disengenuous, since he got rid of most of the provisions of the Clean Air act first, which was much stricter.

“I have sent you a healthy forest initiative to help prevent the catastrophic fires that devastate communities, kill wildlife and burn away millions of acres of treasured forests.”

This continues in the disengenuous theme (or as most would call it — lying). The healthy forest initiative allows trees to avoid burning by being logged first. By Bush’s friends.

“I’m proposing $1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.”

That’s fantastic. Really it is. But he’s going to spend $200-400 Billion to go get Iraq’s oil. To which is he dedicated more? GM spent about $20 Billion on their fuel-cell prototype program alone. And isn’t this just a little bit out of the blue? When did Bush even become aware that there were alternate energy sources?

And then comes the obligatory give-federal-tax-money-to-my-largest-religious-campaign-donors plug: “I urge you to pass both my faith-based initiative and the Citizen Service Act”. Separation of church and state fall by the wayside as well. Not only do they not pay taxes, they also now can use yours to proselytize.

He also wants to help “children who have to go through a prison gate to be hugged by their mom or dad.” But, but, but, Texas has the biggest prison system in the country. It’s also the most brutal and backward one. He won the governorship there by being tough on crime and pledging to have fewer paroles and increased imprisonment. Those kids have parent behind bars because of him and his support for the drug wars.

“More than 60 percent of international food aid comes as a gift from the people of the United States.”

I don’t even know what to say here. I have no idea how he came up with that number. It’s patently false. It’s a myth fed to Americans for decades now. It will be swallowed whole.

“To date we have arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of Al Qaeda. (emphasis added)”

Holy shit! We’re assassinating people! Without trials! Or evidence! And he can say this in the state of the union (in a completely deniable form of course) and this will boost his numbers.

“And many others have met a different fate. Let’s put it this way: They are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.”

Holy shit! What is this?! A Dirty Harry movie?! Let me get this straight — if we catch them and don’t have enough evidence to arrest them, we kill them. Just wanted to be clear on that. Nice round of applause he got for that.

“I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.”

All of a sudden, he’s concerned about AIDS in Africa, but just a month ago, the US was the only dissenting country to a proposal to offer cheap AIDS vaccines to that same continent. They didn’t want to infringe on US company patents. Be careful of the “new money” thing — that means one third of the money is shuffled from other existing programs. $2 Billion per year may sound like a lot, but compare it to the trade deficit most of Africa incurs with the United States and it’s a bargain if it means keeping customers for our corporations alive.

His speech is so full of fear-mongering, like “we are beginning to field a defense to protect this nation against ballistic missiles…” (who the hell has those? Nobody. This is just a boondoggle to make Halliburton some money.) “effort to guard our people against bio-terrorism, called Project Bioshield…” (Wait, wasn’t the only bioterrorism found to be internal, prompting the investigation to disappear? Oh yeah, we’re only suppossed to remember the Anthrax buzzword, not the actual facts.) “There’s never a day when I do not learn of another threat, or receive reports of operations in progress or give an order in this global war against a scattered network of killers. The war goes on…” That’s right. Don’t forget that you are in danger every day and the only thing that stands between you and ravaging Islamoid hordes is George W. Bush.

“we will not permit the triumph of violence in the affairs of men; free people will set the course of history.”

Stand back. I think I’m going to be sick.

“Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals, and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world.”

Is he describing his own rise to power here?

“Once again, this nation and our friends are all that stand between a world at peace, and a world of chaos and constant alarm.”

…shouldn’t have had breakfast…

Serioulsy, is “Hitlerism” even a word? Isn’t it Nazism or facism?

“I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.”…yeah, just like you almost defended the Texas border in the 70's. But, you couldn’t serve your whole tour of duty, eh? 6 years was too much….you were too coked up to fly planes anymore, so your Daddy got you into Harvard Business School. I wonder if the people he means when he says we — the US Armed Forces — are proud to serve under this Commander-in-Chief? I somehow bet they are.

So, finally he gets to Saddam, who he says has “ties to terrorism”, though there is no evidence to support this. Bush just saying it makes it true for Americans and the media, who will hammer it into your heads in little speed banner and soundbites. I think it’s more important that he mentions that Saddam has “great potential wealth [and] will not be permitted to dominate a vital region”. Yeah, the potential wealth he’s slavering over (and all of his corporate benefactors are slavering over) is, of course, Iraq’s oil. That’s why the region is so “vital”; he doesn’t mention oil by name, though…I wonder why?

The rest of the speech is babbling about what Saddam supposedly has, naming the estimations of “intelligence officials”, but not actually spelling out how they know (we checked the receipt, duh.) All of this is contrary to the declarations of the inspectors themselves, who say that Saddam is cooperating, but not volunteering information. Well, that’s not surprising. He’s a megalomaniacal dictator who’s being systematically neutered by his greatest enemy through a proxy. I wouldn’t expect that to go smoothly. But it’s proceeding, despite Bush’s claims that it isn’t.

“Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview.”

I guess that’s only fair. CIA officers are posing as the inspectors Iraqi scientists are supposed to be interviewed by. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for one of those inspections: Joseph Heller probably couldn’t have written it better.

He goes on to dwell on his favorite, unsubstantiated link to Al Qaeda, saying “It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.”

Yup, the US has never known such days of horror. People in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala and dozens more are quite familiar with such horrors…visited on them by the same corrupt cabal that was chosen by and surrounds Bush right now. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Negroponte, Poindexter, Ashcroft, Kissinger, Powell…they’ve all been doing this for years.

“The dictator who is assembling the world’s most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured.”

Again, I’m going to assume he’s referring to Saddam and not his unelected self here.

He’s probably referring to the gassing of the Kurds, which was done while we were allies with Saddam, using weapons we provided to him. We broke our alliance only 2 years later when he got uppity and tried to take Kuwait back (Kuwait was artificially split from Iraq by Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, cutting off lucrative oil fields and shipping access by water).

The fact that Bush can brazenly (though obliquely) refer to this incident as proof of Iraq’s evil without at the same time reminding people of the USA’s complicity in the act says a lot about information suppression and propaganda in the States.

“And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country, your enemy is ruling your country.”

Holy shit! That’s just what I was going to say to the people of the US! What a coincidence! I couldn’t have put it better myself.

“If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm for the safety of our people, and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.”

So, the people are unsafe because Saddam won’t disarm…? Not because he has the weapons, but because we’ll attack him to take them away (even if he doesn’t have them), killing 500,000 to 900,000 Iraqis (mostly civilians, as estimated by the UN).

“We exercise power without conquest, and we sacrifice for the liberty of strangers.”

Seriously, I’m really going to be sick now…

And finally… we should “plac[e] our confidence in the loving god behind all of life and all of history. May he guide us now, and may God continue to bless the United States of America. ”

Yeah, it’s all the other governments that are run by religious zealots. Crusade − jihad…what’s the difference?