Strictly Bush League
Barb’s May 4 post (“Fu** the Troops”) detects the telltale spoor of Karl Rove, the evil prince of CSB (Crime Scene Beautification). As she points out, “Fund the troops” is the meretricious White House euphemism for “Fund the war” or “Keep on killing.” And, sure enough, the news media and even some Democrats fell for it and started using the term.
It’s one crime in a spree, clearly a spawn of the Rove modus operandi:
Holy words masking vile actions.
All you need to succeed in the Bush League is the ability to throw a curve ball low and into the dirt. It’s their only hope ever to be perceived as Major Leaguers and to escape moral, historical, sometimes criminal liability. Bush Leaguers believe the stepping stones to impunity, immunity, and glory are talking points, and that the point of talking points has nothing to do with honesty or democracy.
Thus, in Bush League dialect…
Torture is called “enhanced interrogation.” And when caught flat-footed in this lie, as at Abu Ghraib, then the culprits are “a few bad apples.” Bush Leaguers hope nobody will notice that the bad apples responsible are in the Cabinet and the White House.
Eavesdropping on Americans and prying into their medical and library records is “homeland security.” Actually, homeland security should be the term for inspecting containers at port facilities and protecting chemical and nuclear plants, but the Bush Leaguers don’t do enough of that to need a word for it.
Rigging elections is called “prosecuting voter fraud.” U. S. attorneys and their employees were chosen for loyalty to the Bush League (or fired for lack of it) and pressured to prosecute Democrats, protect Republicans, and scare minorities away from the polls.
The push toward a Theocracy goes under the name “faith-based initiatives.” At heart, the Bush Leaguers are Taliban.
Unlimited presidential power and a gutted Constitution are packaged as “the Patriot Act.”
Phantom enemies. There were phantom WMDs. Now Bush says we’re fighting “the enemy in Iraq.” Who’s that – the Shias? The Sunnis? The Kurds? The rug merchants?
Looters and polluters – utility companies and others – are allowed to double their emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides under what the Bush Leaguers call “the Clear Skies Act.”
Irreplaceable forests handed over to logging companies is “the Healthy Forests Initiative.”
Poisoning our streams by allowing the discharge of previously-banned carcinogens is called “the Clean Streams Act.”
Attack and Smear. Just as bad things get good names, good things get bad names. “Liberal,” which in the civilized world means generous, tolerant, and humane, becomes a dirty word in the Bush League. People who want to end the war are called “defeatists” who want to “cut and run” and who “don’t support the troops.” Meanwhile, the Bush Leaguers support the troops by sending them into battle without body armor, failing to armor their vehicles, repeatedly extending their tours while their families come apart, and letting them rot in cockroach-infested wards at Walter Reid when they come home wounded or disabled.
That’s the system. Every act of subversion, cronyism, and robbing from working people to give to the obscenely rich is framed as patriotic heroism. Every catastrophic blunder is a mission accomplished.
When the time finally comes to build the bookless Bush Library, we’ll pull one those FEMA trailers out of New Orleans and call it the Bushmobile.
3 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
I like bush leaguers and shrub. I think we need to start appreciating his consistency. His politics always favors the wealthy. He never fires his incompetent appointees. He never reads papers. He has terrible constipation. OK–a little speculation having watched him walk.
Comment by Dr. Steve — May 8, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
I like his consistency too—It’s sort of thick and tacky, with crunchy little crystals of dumb.
Comment by Whiney left coaster — May 8, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
“At heart, the Bush Leaguers are Taliban.”
I never thought of it this way, but you’re absolutely right. It’s just a question of *whose* god is the winner. I guess I’d be compelled to go with Bush, because I look awful with a beard.
Comment by TC — June 1, 2007 @ 10:39 am