Summertime

And the livin’ is sleazy

© Bryan Zepp Jamieson

7/31/05

http://www.mytown.ca/zepp

Congress has adjourned for the summer, which, according to the pundits, means that Putsch has the opportunity to abuse the recess appointment loophole and ram the violent and unbalanced John Bolton down the throats of the UN as the American ambassador, and thus further cement America’s Nazi Germany-like alienation from the world.

The rest of the world isn’t wasting much time on America these days. We’ve gone from "We are all Americans" less than four years ago to an increasingly coordinated attack against the neo-fascist regime of America, the folks that think that John Bolton is the face America should present to the world.

In recent days, China, Russia, and several smaller central Asian countries have come out formally and said that it is time for America to abandon the military bases it has erected around the Caspian and Black seas, and throughout the middle east. Uzbekistan was more direct, simply ordering the Americans out in six months.

America is frantically pressing the parliament of Iraq to erect a constitution, any constitution, so they can declare victory and pull out, leaving behind 60,000 troops to try and maintain control of the pipelines Halliburton is busily building for the multinational corporations that pull America’s strings. Why the administration thinks Iraq would want American troops to remain in those huge new permanent bases they’ve been building is something of a mystery. Perhaps Putsch is just too used to simply taking what he wants to consider offering any sort of a deal.

Iran, happy that an old enemy on their western border has been replaced with a powerful new ally, announced today that they are continuing with their nuclear program. Why shouldn’t they? America is a paper tiger, Iran has realized. Just occupying Afghanistan and Iraq has left the Americans strapped, and unable to use the threat of military force. And since the Americans have refused to trade with Iran since the hostage-taking, they have no economic clout with which they can threaten Iran. The EU will continue to negotiate with Iran in the hopes of stopping proliferation, but they, too, realize that as long as America shows willingness to attack nations that don’t have WMDs while avoiding confrontation with those that do, the rush to secure Putsch deterrents will go on.

China finally did something with their yuan while avoiding any movement toward economic scrutability. But now, instead of pegging it to the dollar, they seem to have made it responsible to the arbitrary notions of their government, a policy that seems destined to fail, but which will cause America to use the dollar to keep the yuan stable. In other words, the Chinese are bowing to American demands to stop pegging the yuan to the value of the dollar by creating a situation where the Americans will peg the yuan to the value of the dollar. The admin got snookered on that deal.

The thing about Putsch and his junta is that while they may be pure-d fools who can’t keep friends or win a single hand of poker, they are still consummate thieves and liars. The Congress passed an energy bill that, among other things, gives the oil companies another eleven billion in tax subsidies and incentives. Some of the bigger outfits have been pulling in a half a billion a week in net profits, but they just don’t feel like going out and doing anything to enhance profits unless motivated by a multi-billion dollar gift from the people they are cheating. Poor fellows. I’m sure glad we’ve got a honest Congress that represents the people. Aren’t you?

At least the Congress was shamed into dropping Tom DeLay’s demand that the manufacturers of MTBE be shielded from any liability due to the damage their product has caused to America’s water supplies. Tom, who recognizes that the corporatization of the American dream is the only thing keeping his thieving ass out of jail, felt that just because the manufacturers of MTBE demanded the right to conduct the testing procedures themselves, faked the results, and sold Congress on using MTBE instead of safer, less expensive alternatives based on those lies, they shouldn’t have to pay for the damage. Congress narrowly decided that maybe they should have to at least be asked to pay for the damages they did. Good old noble Congress!

Tom DeLay? Well, maybe not so noble. Sinbad, over at PHX News, writes: "Here is the anatomy of DeLay’s scam: The 1.5 billion bucks is designated for ‘oil and natural gas drilling research.’ Ordinarily, any company could apply for this money directly from the government. But the crooked DeLay does things a little differently. In this case, the bulk of the money must be handed over to ‘a corporation that is constructed as a consortium.’ Guess what? As it so happens, ‘the leading contender for this contract appears to be the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) consortium, housed in the Texas Energy Center in Sugar Land, Texas,’ Tom DeLay's home district. RPSEA ‘has been advocating such a research program and is in a better position than any other group.’ You gotta admire a thief so dedicated he keeps on stealing with both hands even when he’s trying to stave off the US marshalls.

Of course, the media ignored the vast giveaway to ChevronExxonMobilStandardTexaco and the fact that they nearly did the equivalent of passing a law to protect people who cheat the public as long as they used fraud to do so, and instead focused on the utterly meaningless fact that by extending daylight savings time a week in the fall, it would now end after Halloween. If it wasn’t for that, most Americans wouldn’t know that the energy bill had passed.

In a hilarious sidenote, the EPA deliberately tried to delay release of the mileage averages for the national automotive fleet, which is – surprise! – down 4% from the previous year. People are driving gas-guzzling testostertrucks instead of sedans, and as a result, we’re more dependent on foreign oil. Purchase price for that HumVee: your neighbor’s children! What a deal!

The bill dropped the provision for drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, but Republican leaders hastened to assure their corporate masters that it would be taken up again in the fall.

They also passed a bill that took gun manufacturers off the hook for the damage their products do if used according to directions. The NRA, the manufacturer’s puppet organization, making America safe for criminals and terrorists so those manufacturers can sell unlimited guns, had pressed hard on this one, outraged that anyone should hold them responsible, for (as Greg Palast noted) deliberately flooding the market with guns, and selling the majority of them to places where regulation of guns sales was weakest. Where, in other words, the guns were most likely to end up in the paws of criminals and terrorists.

I can’t wait to read that some guy got popped for taking pictures of the local kids and selling the pictures, along with names and addresses – innocent in and of themselves – to pedophiles. After all, he’s not responsible for what pedophiles do with those pictures, right?

Lenin once remarked that he would sell capitalism the rope with which it would hang itself. By playing on the cowardice and paranoia of many people, the NRA is selling America the guns with which it will blow its brains out. They deliberately oversaturate the market because the more armed a society is, the more armed it feels it needs to be, until the entire country looks like the Mexican standoff scene in "Reservoir Dogs" – and ends in much the same way.

So: Congress is adjourned, and good riddance to bad rubbish.

America, figure out when you are tired of being screwed by these corporate whores, and want your country back. The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be.