Opinion Editorials, July 2006, To see today's opinion articles, click here: www.aljazeerah.info

 

 

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Mean Girls: To stop a dictator, take away his resources

By Jane Stillwater

Al-Jazeerah, July 31, 2006

I was sitting around the waiting room of my doctor's office, waiting to be examined to see if I was healthy enough to spend two years in sub-Saharan Africa with the Peace Corps in November and there was a video tape playing in the waiting room so that us patients wouldn't get bored. It was Lindsay Lohan, starring in "Mean Girls".

Here's the plot: Lindsay's sidekick was trying to keep some bitchy preppy cheerleader type and her evil gang of high school popular-girl-wannabees from ruining Lindsay's life. "To stop a dictator," said the sidekick, "you gotta take away his resources." Hollywood does it again! Pearls of wisdom have once again dropped from the silver screen -- right into my lap!

Americans also have a bitchy spoiled preppy cheerleader type and an evil gang of popular-girl-wannabees trying to ruin OUR lives. That description fits the Bush bureaucracy perfectly! So. Let's take away George Bush's resources too.

Hell, let's follow Grover Norquist's advice and "drown it in the bathtub."

Where would Bush be if we took away his Air Force One? "No more Air Force One for you, buddy. You gotta be ELECTED to fly around on Air Force One." Ever seen a grown man cry?

Let's take away Camp David. "No more summer camp for you, kid. You've been an evil dictator long enough." And let's stop giving Bush 400 billion dollars a year in pocket money to spend at the dictator mall. Of course he'll throw a tantrum but so what.

I'd like to see his face when we take away the CIA. And no more war toys either. No more blowing up people -- not even frogs.

Let's boycott George's corporate donors and strip him of Diebold and take away his limos, his head chef and his key to the Lincoln Bedroom. Let's make him live like the rest of us. Make him get a real job. Make him abide by the rules. If anyone else had murdered over 200,000 people in cold blood, they would have had to go to jail. Why make an exception for him? Let's throw him in jail for war crimes and let him live on prison food. And make that a TEXAS jail.

How can we stop this dictator? Take away his resources -- any way we can. Let's start by taking back Congress.

But why wait until November? Let's start asking OPEC to take away Bush's oil now.

Why Bush IS incompetent -- despite his successful reduction of govt. services

By Jane Stillwater

My friend Sonya just called and said, "Jane you HAVE to listen to KPFA. Chris Welsh is interviewing George Lakoff." I got stuff to do, Sonya. I gotta be out the door! I don't have time...

But I turned on the radio anyway -- I've learned the hard way to never ignore Sonya when she is on a roll -- and Lakoff was talking about how Progressives claim that George Bush is incompetent because of his Katrina, Iraq, etc. failures. "But," stated Lakoff, "the Progressives are wrong."

As far as Conservatives are concerned, Bush's "Let them eat cake" policies aren't failures. They are SUCCESSES. Why? Because Bush is doing exactly what they want -- reducing government and making us all fend for ourselves. You know. The old neo-con "drown it in the bathtub" theory of government.

According to Lakoff, Conservatives deliberately allowed FEMA to fall to pieces because Americans, not the government, should be paying to fix their own freaking levees and repair their own freaking roofs. Stop looking to the government for a hand-out. If you are flooded in Pennsylvania, too bad for you. You shoulda had some savings to cover the costs. Stop being a cry-baby. Suck it up. What would The Terminator do....

And in Iraq -- and DEFINITELY in Afghanistan -- the Conservatives have made the people there -- not the occupiers -- be responsible for reconstruction. Can't get more Conservative than that.

If you look at the Bush bureaucracy from this angle, it has been VERY successful. We (and the rest of the world) HAVE been left to fend for ourselves. And Bush HAS reduced government services.

But Lakoff is wrong. Bush is STILL an incompetent. Why? Because he has reduced government services FOR YOU AND ME. But he has not reduced government services for corporations. When corporations also are cut adrift and are forced to fend for themselves, then maybe we can start to talk about Bush's competence as a Conservative.

But, most important, Bush is an incompetent, even by Conservative standards, because he has NOT reduced taxes (except for millionaires and that doesn't count). If we are still paying taxes on services we are not receiving, then THAT IS FAILURE.

As long as there is still an April 15th -- even if there is no reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan and no levee repair here -- then Bush and his Conservative buddies are still a bunch of incompetents. Period. End of discussion.

Jane Stillwater http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com 

 

 
Earth, a planet hungry for peace

 Apartheid Wall

   
The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

 

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.

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