September 2005, Volume 13 Nr. 3, Issue 171

No More Bush Bullhorn Bullshit 
See You in Washington D.C. on September 24, 2005

Jozef Hand-Boniakowski

You could almost see Mr. Bush's political base starting to crumble at its very epicenter, Fox News, by Thursday night. Even there it was impossible to ignore that the administration was no more successful at securing New Orleans than it had been at pacifying Falluja.  

Frank Rich's piece might have been titled "Bush's Bullshit Floods the Superdome".  Rich is far less uncomplimentary toward the clueless, lying president, than many people, perhaps the majority across the country have now become.  The failures, however, are much deeper than that of the symbolic head of wealth and power in the United States.  The failures are endemic of the United States' corporate-state system which is one of unbridled greed, wealth and power.  In the tragedy that is New Orleans, the priorities of the greedy for-profit system are now self-evident.  As horrified viewers witnessed bloated fellow-Americans floating face down in raw sewage, the established capitalist order continues to take time out from its news coverage to sell us penis enlarging products on national television.  On satellite radio, news of the tragedy and of $6.00 per gallon gasoline is interrupted by advertisements selling opportunities on how to make a killing in "fuel futures" by hoarding gasoline and home heating fuel until the winter.  Imagine it.  As the people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are getting shafted by the system, the system is offering them the opportunity to shaft each other.  Making a profit on your neighbor's misery is good for business.  God bless the "free market".  

Money buys survival.  If you have more money than you know what to do with, the odds of surviving events such as Hurricane Katrina are greatly enhanced, often guaranteed.  If you have little or no money with which to evacuate, you die.  How many rich people died as a result of Hurricane Katrina?  I could not help but wonder what the preparations and responses might have been like if Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane, were slamming into Kennebunkport, Maine?  Would it take 5 days for search and rescue to get rolling?  Would people be dying due to lack of means to use the evacuation routes or emergency contingencies?  Would the Bush crime family be holed-up in Kennebunkport's clothing and jewelry boutiques and art galleries?  Would people be defecating on the floors of the finest restaurants on the Maine Coast awaiting rescue the way the Superdome survivors did on the Gulf Coast?

In the aftermath of Cindy Sheehan's Camp Casey successes, George W. Bush had one major priority on his mind.  It was the same priority that he had on his mind in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and now again, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  In fact, it is the same priority he has on his mind every time he is called to be accountable for his actions and to take responsibility for them.  George W. Bush pulls out the bullhorn bullshit and covers his backside.  As Frank Rich put it,

As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2.

With the bullhorn bullshit come the props and the contrived political choreography masking buffoonery in its attempts to create an effectual presidential appearance.  The facade of fakery of the man in the White House becomes more apparent every time he speaks.   As George W. Bush visited the death and destruction in Louisiana, he at least spared us the infamous and monumental bulge in the crotch of his pants.  Compassion demanded at least that much.  He did not, however, spare us the bullshit of the photo ops carefully contrived to create an air of caring amidst catastrophe.  Frank Tiggelaar, a Dutchman comparing CNN's and the German TV news ZDF on the Laura Rozen website's coverage of Bush's latest public relations ploy writes,

ZDF News reported that the president's visit was a completely staged event. Their crew witnessed how the open air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time.

Then, there is George W. Bush decrying the breakdown of law in New Orleans.  Looting must be stopped says the man who looted Iraq's art treasures, wealth, oil, sovereignty, land and dignity.  Bush just spent five weeks on vacation, being transported to and from Crawford in a 747 jumbo jet that also carries his armored limousine.  Then he goes on national television telling the country to drive only when they have to.  Well, Mr. Bush, poor people had to drive to get out of New Orleans and many do not own a car, nor could they afford to do so, nor was the means provided for them to get out.  Don't speak to me of looting as you loot the working men and women of this country while further enriching the powerful and wealthy class of which you are a member. 

George W. Bush is bullshit, and people are not listening any more.  They have had enough.  It has become clear to the majority of the United States' populace, as it is to the vast majority of the world, that George W. Bush doesn't relate to them, and he could care less about them.  George W. Bush has no comprehension of what it means to make an annual salary less than six-figures.  Like his father before him, King George III, has little idea how the working man or woman struggles to make ends meet.  He can no more relate to people's  struggles in paying their bills then he can to quantum mechanics.  

Mr. Folksy Cowboy with a swagger and a smirk, and an afternoon nap, can no longer hide from the fact that he has done irreparable damage to the United States.  This has become evident to most of the citizens of the United States, even to those that have been programmed into believing the bullshit of the invincible mythological superpower in the first place.  On September 3, 2005, the New Orleans Time-Picayune article written by Michelle Krupa reported,

Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said...The food was expected to be in the hands of storm survivors after the president left the devastated region Friday night...

This speaks volumes about George W. Bush's priorities.  Lest the reader think this criticism is too harsh, consider the recent words of the United States Senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu,

But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast – black and white, rich and poor, young and old – deserve far better from their national government.

Yes, the people of the United States deserve better from their government, and the people of the world deserve better from the United States.  The people of the United States, however, are about to demand that George W. Bush and his regime finally be held accountable for their crimes, and for their dereliction of duty.  The people no longer will tolerate Bush's bullhorn bullshit.  See you in Washington D.C. on September 24, 2005, as the mobilization marches past the White House with the people's bullhorns saying "No!" to G.W. Bush's bullshit.  

For more information on the mobilization for the weekend of national events and actions taking place in Washington D.C., September 24 - 26, 2005, contact the following two organizations: International A.N.S.W.E.R. at http://www.internationalanswer.org/ and United for Peace and Justice at http://www.unitedforpeace.org/   See you in Washington D.C.