Not sure how many of you listened to the President's speech yesterday. I myself could only stand it for a short time realizing how full of it he was. I was going to read the transcript so I could take it apart bit by bit, but someone else already did a better job.
Here it is:
www.GregPalast.comThursday, January 20, 2005
by Greg Palast
Watching John Kerry lip-synch the oath of office, I couldn't help
wondering, 'what if.'
Here on stage in Washington was the winner-class warmed and
protected
by cashmere and tax cuts against the strange, nipple-chilling cold.
Hell
had frozen over.
Our President said, "It is the policy of the United States to seek
and
support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every
nation." Well, no, it isn't.
Our President said, "We will widen retirement savings and health
insurance." No, he won't.
Our President said, "America will not pretend that jailed dissidents
prefer their chains." Yes, he will.
Our President said, "And our country must abandon all the habits of
racism." Oh, sure.
He doesn't believe a single word he's saying. And all over America,
everyone knows he's lying and America is truly relieved.
America doesn't want to give up the habit of racism. Karl Rove
doesn't. Jeb Bush doesn't. If not for challenging hundreds of
thousands of
voters in Black precincts of Ohio and other swing states, if not for
purging thousands more from voter rolls for the crime of voting
while Black,
you wouldn't be president now, would you, Mr. President?
You won't "pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains,"
unless
they are chained by your buck-buddies in Saudi Arabia.
You'll "support democratic movements" so long as the citizens of
Venezuela don't get carried away and decide that democracy means
they can
choose a leader you don't like.
And you'll "widen Social Security and health insurance"? Who are you
kidding? I just got a doctor bill for $5,200 … should I send it to
you at
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
You said, "You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real,
and
courage triumphs." What you meant was, "Courage is fragile and real
evil
triumphs." Indeed your entire campaign was about American cowardice:
"they" are coming to get us. Americans, scared for their lives,
soiled
their underpants and waddled to the polls crying, "Georgie, save us!"
Franklin Roosevelt said in his inaugural, "We have nothing to fear
but
fear itself." But he didn't have Dick Cheney creating from his
bunker a
government which is little more than a Wal-Mart of Fear: midnight
snatchings of citizens for uncharged crimes, wars to hunt for
imaginary
weapons aimed at Los Angeles, DNA data banks of kids and grandmas,
the
Chicken Little sky-is-falling social security spook-show, and shoe-
searches
in airports. Fear is your only product.
In another world, in which all votes are counted, J.F. Kerry would
have
gathered most of those arcane chits called "electoral votes" and
would
have taken that oath today.
But, dear Reader, there's one cold statistic Kerry voters must
face.
The fact that Republicans monkeyed with the votes in swing states
doesn't wash away that big red stain: 59 million Americans marched
to the
polls and voted for George W. Bush.
If bin Laden doesn't scare you, THAT should.
Because if 59 million Americans agreed with George Bush that every
millionaire's son, like him, shouldn't have to pay inheritance
taxes; that
sucking up to Saudi petrocrats constitutes a foreign policy; that
killing Muslims in Mesopotamia will make them less inclined to kill
us in
Manhattan; that turning over social security to the casino operators
that
gave us Enron, WorldCom and world depression is smart economics;
then,
fine, Mr. Bush deserves the job. But most Americans, bless'm, don't
actually believe any of that hokum. YET MOST STILL VOTED FOR HIM!
What we witnessed on November 2, 2004 was a 59-million strong army
of
pinheads on parade ready to gamble away their social security so
long as
George Bush makes sure that boys kill each other, not kiss each
other;
who feel right proud that our uniformed services can kick some
scrawny
brown people in the ass in some far off place when we're mad and
can't
find Osama; who can't bring themselves to vote for a guy with a
snooty
Boston accent who's never been to a NASCAR tractor pull and who
certainly thinks anyone who does is a low-Q beer-burping blockhead.
And they
are.
Today we witnessed more than the coronation of some privileged
little
munchkin of mendacity. It is the triumphal re-occupation of our
nation
by nitwits who think Ollie North's a hero not a conman, who can't
name
their congressman, who believe that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin
Laden
were going steady, who can't tell Afghanistan from Souvlaki-stan.
Bloated with lies and super-size fries, they clomped to the polls 59
million
strong to vent their small-minded little hatreds on us all.
When I looked today at the oaf of office, I could not shake the
feeling that this election was an intelligence test that America
flunked.
Catch Greg Palast's film, "Bush Family Fortunes," at the Freedom
Film
Festival at Sundance, Thursday, January 27. For more information or
to
sign up for Palast's writings, go to
www.GregPalast.com Palast is
the
author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money
Can
Buy.
