Keystone Cops

Where are the Keystone Cops when you really need them? I am convinced they could do a better job of running a country than our current crop of elected officials (and at least one who was not truly elected). I am not thinking merely of Republicans or just the Bush/Cheney administration. As near as I can tell the whole bloody lot of them are a bunch of helpless lunatics who have no more connection to good government than they do to the rings of Saturn. Think about it.

We are being led by a bunch of obvious war criminals with the blood of thousands upon thousands on their hands. Do you ever hear anything about war crimes on our MSM? Of course not. If you hear anything about the conduct of the completely illegal, immoral and unnecessary "war" it is to the effect that the war criminals who are leading it are not good enough at it. This is simply ridiculous.

Our foreign policy is largely dictated by Israel even though Israeli interests are not always the same as our own. The Israeli lobby is so powerful no one can speak out against it no matter how outrageous Israeli policy towards the Palestinians becomes. Even though we support them to the tune of billions every year we never threaten to withdraw our aid no matter how many times they blatantly violate UN rules and regulations. And they have, in fact, violated UN regulations far more than any other country in the world, including Iraq. We aid and abet them at every turn. Ridiculous.

How about Katrina, the deadly Hurricane that left New Orleans a shambles, and a shambles it remains to this day. Government promises to rebuild, etc. have not been met. People are living in trailers that are poisoned by toxins and are just told to open the windows. Thousands have left and are unable to return. The rebuilt levees are known to be faulty, and etc. This, too, is ridiculous. Now in Kansas, a town completely destroyed by a tornado, they are having trouble helping because much of their National Guard equipment is in Iraq.

Ah, yes, Iraq. A great success there. In spite of billions of dollars wasted on war profiteers, many American lives lost, more years than WW II, we are no closer to success than we were in the beginning. If, indeed, there is any possibility of success. This phony "war" is the worst foreign policy disaster in American history -what are we doing? Why, continuing it, of course. Democrats, swept into office presumably to get us out of Iraq have proven to be every bit as hopeless as the Keystone Cops, perhaps worse. They submit a bill to Bush that calls for withdrawal knowing full well he is going to veto it. He does so. They back down on withdrawal. Now they play with funding until July when they will consider more funding. What a farce. They talk about benchmarks when it is obvious that Bush will ignore any such benchmarks if he feels like it. And they will do nothing. Impeachment is "off the table." This is super ridiculous. Kucinich, the only one with any sense of decency at all, submits articles of impeachment against the vice-president (who is the most deserving person to be impeached probably in all of American history) and everyone just ignores it.

Now we have the case of our Attorney General who just obviously stonewalls to protect the White House. When asked by a Congressman whether Bush submitted the name of Iglesias for removal Gonzales answered no. Did Cheney submit it? No. Did Karl Rove submit it? No. Did you submit it? No. None of your aides submitted it, so who did submit it? I wish I could tell you that, Gonzales replies, smirking just like his boss. It looks like he is going to get away with this as long as Bush refuses to fire him. Apparently he could be impeached but with our current bunch of witless, spineless, apparent fellow travelers he almost surely won't be.

In the six plus years Bush/Cheney have been in office there has been nothing but lies and scandals one after another. They are never held accountable no matter how outrageous the lies or the scandals. A homosexual prostitute in the White House for no obvious reason. Ignore it. Outing a CIA operative, an act of treason. Ignore it. Torture people in direct violation of International law. Ignore it. Massive corruption by many Republicans. Ignore it. Politicizing the Justice Department. Have hearings and do nothing. And so it goes, on and on and on. No one is ever held accountable for anything. Both sides of the aisle are basically hopeless do-nothings. The Republican Congress for six years did virtually nothing at all other than fatten the wallets of the huge corporations and the already filthy rich. The Democrats, so far, have done nothing to change this, and probably couldn't anyway because Republicans still have enough power to block any major changes.

We have just about destroyed our marvelous army and Marine corps. The situation is so bad that even retired Generals are on TV challenging Bush/Cheney, a virtually unprecedented situation. Are we doing anything about it. No, we're just continuing to fund this utter disaster while more and more of our troops come home in body bags or psychotic trauma or missing body parts. Democrats and Republicans alike treat our troops like they are pieces on a chess board that can be played with however they choose. Four dead one day, eight the next, two more, three more, what the hell, "war" is like that. And they did volunteer. But we do support the troops. We put stickers on our cars and fly American flags, and talk about how brave they are and how well they are doing. Unhappily, they are doing well, as well as can be expected under the circumstances (lack of adequate equipment, body armor, etc.). Don't worry, better Humvees are coming (four years too late). What has been allowed to happen here is totally disgraceful, even criminal. There is no end in sight. If only our Iraqi puppets would just sign away the right to their oil we might think about withdrawing a few of our troops.

We have, I am sorry to say, a government of clowns. From top to bottom the most inept, incompetent, useless bunch of (presumably) human beings ever assembled. Any idea that government is supposed to be of the people, for the people, vanished long ago. Government now exists for the exclusive benefit of huge, greedy, rapacious, corporations and the one percent of citizens with so much money they are untouchable. Never mind a nation half slave and half free. We now have a nation one percent free and the rest slave. Credit cards have become the functional equivalent of slavery, the only difference being that massa can't whimsically beat you whenever he feels like it.

Give me the Keystone Cops anyday. At least they were honestly inept.