February 6, 2001
I have a fear. This fear is deeply rooted in my being. When I think about this fear, I cringe, because I know that this fear is not me just being paranoid due to past political idealologies. This fear is very real, and I think that more people all over this country need to look at it and understand what a true threat this fear is.
I’m sure you know what I’m about to comment on. Yes, this is another tirade about the President of the United States, Mr. George W. Bush. (Notice, I still will never address him as President ____) Now, I do not believe that I harbor this fear because of prejudices against the man. People who personally know Dubyah have told me that he is a very nice, compassionate, and understanding individual. He is supposedly very charismatic and I, having never met the man, cannot confirm or deny this rumor. He is an educated man…he stumbles over words and phrases daily, but he is indeed a College Graduate. (Which is more than I can say for myself) He has run several businesses, albeit badly, and has made some money jerking around other millionaires, which is, of course, the American way.
So now you’re asking yourself, “Why are you so worried Brian? Why do you have “The Fear?” I will respond in points, commenting on each as we move down the list.
1)These traits we have been talking about are in fact, good traits. Being nice, charismatic, and understanding do get you further in life than being crass, sheltered and resentful. (Unless your name happens to be Andrew “Dice” Clay) These traits alone though do not make for a “Good President”. You have to go beyond the surface and into the man’s heart to determine his viability for presidency. What I’m saying is that George W. Bush has no backbone. He is an open-faced liar, and has repeatedly over the past two weeks in the Oval Office, lied to many a congressman. Lying is ok when you are applying for a job as a custodian. “No Sir, I have never been convicted of a felony.” You cannot, however, lie to other liars. My father used to say (and still probably does), “Son you cannot bullshit a bullshitter.” Georgie would be so good as to take this trite saying to heart. Just yesterday it came out that a group of Democratic Congressmen confronted Mr. Bush about an executive order he signed January 22, just two days after taking office. This executive order bans US funding of international aid groups that provide abortions or abortion counseling, even if the U.S. funds are not directly used for the abortion work. Now, Democrats are concerned because there seems to be some hypocrisy in George W. Bush’s executive order. They consider this executive order to be a double standard because the administration is going to allow funding to faith-based charities that conduct religious activities using private funds. These religious activities will inevitably include abstinence and a general Pro-life stance, although this cannot be confirmed, only speculated.
Bush then lied to the congressmen, saying that his executive order only outlawed the direct funding of abortions, honestly! The Democrats in the room then corrected the Bush, informing him that his executive order did ban moneys even though they were not being used to fund the abortions themselves. The Democrats have even reported that he turned “bright red” when confronted about this policy change.
What I don’t understand is why Bush thinks he can get away with things like this. Either he is dumber than everyone expects, or he is just a shady individual. I tend to think that it is the latter of the two. His entire life he has never had to face diversity, and now, when confronted with 24-hour scrutiny, he will inevitably collapse like many a folding chair.
2)This brings me to my next point. There is more to this world than just the United States. I do honestly believe that the typical middle class conservative American thinks that other countries only exist during the Olympics. The truth of the matter is, there are billions of other people in this world that do not live in the US and many, if not most, of them, HATE America. This is not just an opinion, however, this is a FACT. These other people live in other countries. These other countries are not run by the silver spoon fed baby boy of an ex-president. These other countries are not run by spineless ex-owners of the Texas Rangers. These other countries are run by ruthless and vengeful dictators who, if you can believe it, hate America more than their constituents. We should be very scared of these people and what they can do to America as a whole. By God George is. Consider the entire missile defense system that the Republicans are drooling to build. Said Missile Defense System will inevitably violate a long-standing treaty that was signed with Russia in 1972. The Russians have even sent warnings to the Bush Administration stating that America should stick to the prevention of a nuclear war by decreasing the amount of nuclear arms in the country. Europe, Asia and Germany are showing a great deal of concern. Yet, Bush seems to want to add fuel to the fire and increase the threat of a full-scale nuclear war. Hell, he’s even betting on it. Why else would he want to spend trillions on a Missile Defense System that, even during the Red Scare, America didn’t think they needed? Today (Feb 6,2001) Russia all but guaranteed in a statement that if America were to build a new defense system, it would only lead to a new arms race. With that kind of threat looming, why on earth would Bush want to enact such a system? The Russians have said that the missiles they developed during the Regan years could easily penetrate any type of defense system we American’s could build. The Russian technology is lying dormant right now, why would we want them to stretch their proverbial wings again? Now, you might be saying, “Well then Brian, if other countries hate America so much, why not build a Missile Defense System?” The answer is very simple, “Because the countries that HATE us are generally considered “Third World” countries.” With the exception of Iraq and North Korea, what we’re looking at is continued acts of isolated terrorist activities. Our fragile pact with Russia is still intact, and Asia hasn’t had a problem with us since we dropped a big fat bomb on them. Sometimes I think that a lot of this has to do with the Bush administration trying to prove themselves to the rest of the country. If you were electorated by a mere 537 votes, wouldn’t you want to “show them all”?
3)Bush isn’t skilled at anything that matters a hill of shit in the real world. It’s scary to think that no one who is any position of power in the world has any respect for our current President. Hell, even the Prime Minister of Canada openly admitted that he would have rather dealt with Al Gore. Al Gore is smart, he’s been in the game, and he knows how to play it. He has backbone, although an embellished one, and was Clinton’s understudy for 8 years. Clinton was well respected by the rest of the world. Leaders called him a friend, and went to him in times of need. I think that Bush’s view of the world is extremely limited and he will have to rely on his advisors to give him updates on foreign policy. With so many leaders taking a personal interest in America, we can’t afford to have a leader who doesn’t take an interest in other countries. His whole policy on Israel peace talks is, “We’ll just wait until the elections are over, we can’t do anything until then.” BULLSHIT. You can’t wait for two weeks to interact with a country that is about to implode. I may not be all THAT informed on foreign policy, but I know enough to understand how precious time is. Every second wasted is another second the riff has time to grow.
Another point to mention here in Bush’s Skills Category is his complete lack of interest in anything technological. There is a huge foreign threat out there to America’s Info structure. That threat is known as the internet and terrorists are using it to hack into American agencies, and will someday be using it to attack America. Think back on December 31, 1999…you can, I believe in you. Remember how incredibly scared most American’s were about Y2K? Well that could actually happen, not from the computers being confused, but by a terrorist organization. This type of warfare is called Information Warfare (IW) and it is a very real threat. So real in fact that Clinton appointed 21 of his advisors to the National Infrastructure Assurance Council (NIAC), which he established as an executive order in 1999, who will advise Bush on how to best protect the nation’s information. Clinton also established a directive that began the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) that outlines a national infrastructure protection plan to bring better security and reporting to the telecommunications, transportation, emergency services, energy and financial industries. The directive is PDD-63 and it could be in jeopardy. It is documented that Bush isn’t bound to support the directive and could dissolve both of these councils, given the proper time.
4)And last but certainly not least is Bush’s views on the environment. His appointment of Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior is somewhat frightening. She has, throughout history, been a harsh critic of federal environmental protection efforts, and as the Colorado's attorney general from 1991 to 1999, she backed the state's environmental "self-audit" law, which allows companies to review their own compliance with environmental rules an exempts them from penalties if they report and correct violation themselves (CNN.com). Furthermore, she is a proponent of drilling in the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last remaining untouched areas in the world. Bush’s plan for drilling is said to “be environmentally friendly”. Yet, how could drilling in the only Alaskan area without such a industry, be environmentally friendly? Everything we as human beings do on this Earth impacts it in an extremely negative way. How could drilling be a good thing? The horrific fact is the total devotion that the Bush Administration has to the Alaskan Drilling. They are not seeking alternative means or even assuring environmental agencies that they will be gentle with their efforts. Last week Bush officials had this to say:
“We intended to act "boldly and swiftly" to enact his plan, which includes an effort to pass legislation allowing drilling in protected areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and granting waivers to states that seek to run older plants at full capacity —even, administration officials said, if that means violating clean air standards.” (New York Times Jan 30)
That means that they are going to drill no matter what you and your hippy friends have to say about it. This my friends, is from the same man who vetoed a billion dollar plan in Texas to clean up the air and to restrict certain amounts of pollution. This plan was already in effect when he vetoed it since it was approved when Ann Richards was in office as Texas Governor. So, in vetoing the bill, Bush not only assured his state of continued pollution, he cost the state millions of dollars that had already been spent carrying this bill into action.
Hopefully, you will now have a better understanding of why I am so frightened by Mr. Bush’s Presidency. Should you be worried that this country might not survive his four-year term? No. Should you be worried about the state of the country after Bush and his republican senate have their way with it? Very much so. I would love to look back at this article four years from now and realize that I was wrong about Dubyah. I want to know that our country is in better hands than the ones they were in with Clinton. I want to see prosperity, world peace, and love triumph. You see…I am not a pessimist. Yet, the facts are too resounding to look around. We as an America people have to live with what transpires for the duration of America. I just hope, for our children’s sake, that Bush and his administration do not make this world a horrible place to live.
All opinions expressed are manifested from the mind of Brian Melton.
All facts are facts picked up by his sponge-like brain from The New York Times, CNN, and any other reputable news source.
I'm scared Brian...where do I hide?