Fish in a barrel

I have to confess I am beginning to feel guilty about criticizing the Bush/Cheney bunch of loonies. I was brought up to believe you should not "kick people when they are down," and always engage in "fair play," and try to "help the handicapped," "you should not shoot fish in a barrel,"and other what I assume to be American values. But in the case of the Bush/Cheney administration it has become just too easy. Take any subject you wish: the military, the national debt, health care, torture, Katrina, Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Israel/Palestine, the Sudan, war crimes, the national debt, diplomacy, the U.N., nation building, Bechuanaland (if it still existed), whatever, and you can be sure the Bush/Cheney administration has screwed it up beyond belief. It is actually unbelievable. And what is more unbelievable is that the Republican House and Senate continue to support these totally incompetent, bumbling, idiotic, stupid, malicious, evil, rotten, miserable, consciousless, lying, profiteering bastards even when they go so far as to try to do away with habeas corpus (the most basic principle of a democratic society).

I have to admit that I believe if we cannot get a democratic House and/or Senate in the coming election the United States is doomed. Never has there been such an abuse of power, such greed, such class warfare, such noncompassion, such lack of empathy, understanding, and respect for human dignity, than now (although, granted, the early 1900's were pretty bad). The day I was born the stock market crashed, the great depression began. I cannot claim to have personally suffered much as I was too young to recognize what was happening and we always seemed to have enough to eat and a roof over our heads. But having heard about it, and read about it, I do not believe the level of outright lying and deceit even approximated what we are experiencing today. And we certainly didn't indulge in war crimes and torture (we were too busy strike-breaking and union-busting). Inevitably basic human rights won out, let's hope that can happen again.