Saturday, December 17, 2005

Brutally Honest Rant - 12/14/05

(Just a quick blogging note: although this is the last audio rant for 2005, it doesn't mean that I won't have anything to say about some of the other stuff going on from now until mid-January.)

Brutally Honest Special: Final Rant for 2005
Audio Transcripts
12/14/05

[Start Program]

(Computer – This week’s program has been made possible thanks to…)
(Music intro – "Real American Remix 2" – by David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

Well as it happens every year since I’ve been doing audio rants, there comes a point in the year when I must take a break from it all. And, no, it’s not original. This is something that was actually borrowed from the radio talking heads, because they would also take this time to go on vacation, and then for the next few weeks we’re all stuck with endless loops of their "Best Of" stuff and the occasional b-list substitute host. And that sort of sucks for us and also for them because if something SHOULD happen while they’re out, what then? I know, I know, it usually doesn’t happen… unless of course a tsunami should strike like it did last year.

But there are a few things that I need to discuss now before I go into my own year-end break…

First of all, all of the Bush supporters really want people to think that the economy is once again going full-steam, but that’s not what’s really happening. You take a look at what’s going on with the economy right now. You take a good, hard, REALISTIC look. Companies are announcing layoffs. We have the Secretary of Energy, who is still kissing Saudi ass, telling people that we SHOULD expect oil prices to remain high for the next year or so. That puts a serious crimp in the economy! You can’t keep energy prices that high and not expect the economy to make up the difference with higher prices. And that’s already happening, people. I go to the same grocery stores as you do, and I can see the increases already happening with my own eyes!

The Bush-backers and apologists can deny, deny, deny all they want about the economy starting to sour. That’s their prerogative, just as it was the prerogative of the Clinton-supporters to falsely believe that their idol was single-handedly responsible for the economic success story of the 90’s. Just don’t be surprised when things go from bad to worse and the Imperium finally gets it and wonders just what the hell happened. And don’t expect them to be able to fix things either… if they don’t know how things soured in the first place, they sure as hell won’t know how to fix them!

But there are three little words that seemed to be a common theme for the White House for the start of the second term of George W. Bush… and it’s the reason why I began to refer to that White House as an "Imperium" instead of an "Administration" in 2005.

Those three little words are… Abuse of power.

Abuse of power permeated and corroded everything that both the Bush Imperium AND the Republican-controlled Congress claimed to represent.

We have… Armstrong Williams getting paid by the Department of Education to hype the No Child Left Behind Law in violation of federal PAYOLA laws "Oh, you mean it’s ILLEGAL? Oh, we didn’t know… our bad."

Then we have the US military supposedly paying Iraqi newspapers to run "positive" stories. Not illegal per se… but still very unethical.

Of course, abuse of power takes many forms… such as the failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Why was she even nominated? Well, nobody outside of the Imperium’s inner circle would even know, but the only guess that people could come up with was that she’s an avid Bush cheerleader. It’s called cronyism, and it is another form of abuse of power.

Then of course we have Michael Brown of FEMA. That was just a fuster-cluck waiting to happen. The huge FIASCO that was Hurricane Katrina not only exposed Brown’s inability to handle a serious national crisis, but also of the Bush Imperium’s embarrassing Post-9/11 ineptitude. There were plenty of resources, but they went everywhere EXCEPT to where they were needed! Hundreds of trailers sitting in Georgia. Truckloads of ice that kept on getting diverted all around the country. Medical supplies, rescue workers, they all got shuffled around to places where they didn’t need to be! Bureaucracy that is STILL screwing victims around. That’s ineptitude and mismanagement on a GROSS scale!

And then you had the President… who refused to cut his vacation short in spite of the seriousness of the disaster before it hits… who simply does a FLY-OVER three days after the crisis, and doesn’t even BEGIN to address the matter until it became painfully clear that things were falling apart and it was actually hurting his poll numbers. You know… those things that he supposedly doesn’t care for anymore. He didn’t address the spiking gas prices or the gas outages until several days after the whole nation felt the burden of that double-whammy. He should have had these things ready on DAY ONE. This wasn’t a storm that suddenly popped out of nowhere. But then again, there was a lot that they should have known and didn’t respond to until it was time for some serious Karl Rove damage control.

That one event basically spelled doom for the Imperium. It’s been downhill for them since then.

And by the way, of all of the places to have a huge last-minute press conference to assume responsibility for this gross ineptitude of the Imperium, why was it that Bush Junior made his speech someplace that had absolutely no storm damage whatsoever? At least the TV reporters would make a point of standing someplace near boarded-up buildings or the remains of a brick wall. SOMETHING to show that they were actually there.

That brings me to a certain news story that I’m somewhat hesitant to report on, but if it’s true it show just how BAD the abuse of power is in the White House. And it’s something that you WILL NOT hear in the air-fluffed mainstream media!

According to Doug Thompson of Capital Hill Blue, we have President George W. Bush screaming at a group of Republican legislators that the United States Constitution is just – in his words – a "goddamned piece of paper!"

Now according to Thompson, that statement was verified by three people who were there and did hear the president make that specific exclamation. And it was supposedly in regards to the Imperium’s efforts to renew portions of the heavily unconstitutional PATRIOT Act that are set to expire at the end of 2005. If that statement is true, if the President of the United States really DOES think that the document that he TWICE took an OATH UNDER GOD to protect and defend is just a "goddamned piece of paper", then what does that say about how this man views his job? I mean, this is pretty much a validation of our worst fears about electing a Republican.

It sort of puts a new spin on the whole idea of Bush Junior seeing himself as a modern-day Roman Emperor. Although we’d have to wonder if he is more along the lines of Caesar Claudius or Caesar Nero.

And it’s not just the White House dealing with this problem. The GOP-controlled Congress is guilty of abuse of power as well.

We have House Majority Leader Tom DeLay telling federal judges this year "You boys are gonna decide cases the way WE TELL YOU to decide them, and if you don’t agree with our positions, then we’re going to accuse you of legislating from the bench and have you removed." And then turning around and telling the public "Oh but I believe in the Constitutional separation of power. I BELIEVE in an independent judiciary." Yeah, but only as long as that judiciary agrees with HIM! Then when he gets indicted for money laundering, he gets the judge that was going to preside over the case thrown out because the judge is a Democrat, and he accuses the most ethical prosecutor in Texas of running a biased unethical witch-hunt.

We have Senate Majority Leader DOCTOR Bill Frist giving expert medical diagnosis of a severely brain-damaged woman on the floor of the US Senate in a field that he’s not even a specialist on! We have F "-You" James Senenbreenner threatening to throw people like Howard Stern in prison while blatantly violating House procedures to throw out Democrat-run forums that HE personally opposes and in unilaterally closing committee meetings when he had ABSOLUTELY NO AUTHORITY to do so.

And let’s not forget former Congressman Randy Duke Cunningham! At least this yahoo had the decency to resign after pleading guilty to accepting bribes. That actually puts him ahead of the curve.

Let’s get brutally honest here… 2005 showed that the whole GOP in Washington, from the Oval Office on down, is RIFE with corruption and abuse of power! They have written off the "Rule of Law" that they USED to champion, back when Bill Clinton was in the White House, and have instead imposed the "Rule of Man"… namely the "Rule of the Republican Man".

And bear in mind that this is the party that CLAIMS to be the party of ethics and of "doing what’s right". This is the party that CLAIMS to be on the side of the angels. But all of those claims simply do not match up with their actions and statements.

You know, when Bush Junior took over the White House in 2001, I said that I would give this guy a fair shake. And I did. But this is not the same C-grade career politician who squeaked through the 2000 Fiasco Election. We’re seeing the REAL Republicans here, folks.

And the scary part is, this is just the FIRST YEAR of Bush Junior’s second term! We still have to put up with him and his people for three more years! Fortunately, next November, we’ll be able to let the GOP know exactly what we think of their tenure in Washington.

2006 will certainly be an interesting year.

(Computer – Sorry, but you have to listen to the rant to hear what it is, but it IS a good one.)
(Fade Music In – "Mythodea" by Vangelis)

Before I wrap things up I just want to say thank you to everyone who has sent me emails and feedback about my rants, both agreeing with and disagreeing with what I have to say. I know that I’m not going to create an endless supply of dittoheads or try to spearhead some new world order. That’s just not what I’m doing this for. I just want to get people to THINK. That’s not easy to do when you have all of these groups who want to TELL you what to think, and do everything possible to get you to not think at all.

And I also know that there are A LOT more people who sit by the digital sidelines. They come across my websites, they read my weekly commentary, they visit the blog page, they listen to these audio rants, and then register what I have to say someplace in their brains as either someone new and refreshing, or either a liberal or conservative wonk, depending on which group that I’m bashing at the moment. For those of you who are too afraid to speak up or really don’t want to bother speaking up, I want to thank you for at least checking this stuff out. I hope that I at least got some of your brain cells fired up, and maybe that will be the start of something wonderful. And who knows? Maybe next year some of my silent listeners and readers will start speaking up.

2006 will mark the TENTH YEAR of my online commentary, and the only good thing about having far-from-perfect politicians in positions of power is that it gives someone like me PLENTY to rant about. In fact, I’m already coming up with articles to discuss for next year. So believe me, I’m just getting started.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, thank you for listening, have a wonderful "whatever" season, and I’ll see you guys in 2006!

(Fade out)

(Computer – Quickie Ending)
(Computer – "End of Recording")

[End of program]
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