Ayatollah Pat Robertson is praying for the departure of at least three
Justices of the United States Supreme Court. And the Bush Junta continues its
relentless attack on the foundations of American democracy. The "shock and awe" of
this ever-escalating blitzkreig has been the root of Bush's strength, keeping
the opposition off balance and on the defensive.
But cracks are showing in a totalitarian assault that needs total victory.
The regime has grossly overreached its minority non-mandate. Its procession of
Big Lies, such as Saddam's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, are
generating just the kind of blowback that can shatter a tyranny, even one in
control of the mass media.
Have we turned a corner?
Robertson's "prayer" for the "removal" of three Supreme Court Justices reeks
of a "fatwah"---a call to murder. Islamic Ayatollahs issued a similar death
threat against Salman Rushdie, whose "Satanic Verses" they deemed blasphemous.
In fact, he merely lampooned the Ayatollahs. Against all odds, Rushdie still
lives.
Robertson has condemned the Court for supporting a woman's right to choose
and for guaranteeing the right of citizens to make love in ways Robertson
doesn't like. Appointed for life, the Supremes can retire or die. So if one of his
followers kills them, who will Robertson thank first? God?
Robertson and his fellow Ayatollahs, Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, hate
more than just gays: they hate America, specifically the Bill of Rights, the
Constitution, diversity of opinion and ethnicity, freedom of worship, the idea
that all people are created equal.
Their messiah, George W. Bush, is under fire for running the most secretive,
dishonest and repressive administration in US history.
With his signature lack of integrity, Bush blames anyone and everyone for his
recent whopper about Saddam Hussein's nukes. He stuck a knife in Tony
Blair's back. He trashed the CIA. He fingered an obscure White House functionary.
Along the way he illegally outed a covert agent, the wife of Joseph Wilson,
the highly respected researcher who long ago told Bush Saddam-had no nukes.
When investigative reporter Sy Hersh originally broke this story, the
Administration used the word "terrorist" to describe him.
Meanwhile, Bush has skulked away from the 9/11 inquest. Cheney's energy
policy and Bush's stock frauds remain shrouded in state secrecy. This is a
supremely cynical gang of thieves, addicted to secrecy, happy to stab anyone, any
time.
Along with a crashing economy, Bush's polls are in a tail spin. But his
strategy remains the same: attack attack attack. Every phrase of the
Constitution, every guarantee in the Bill of Rights, every icon of social welfare, every
shred of environmental protection, no matter how eminently sane or universally
accepted, is under relentless assault. For example:
In Head Start, the junta assaulted a much-loved program that has helped
millions of American children for decades.
In attacking the global treaty on the ozone layer, Bush is pushing methyl
bromide, a marginal pesticide, one of the last chemicals in use that does
serious ozone damage. Global consensus for this treaty is even more solid than on
global warming; experts everywhere are stunned.
In indicting Greenpeace USA for a peaceful action against rainforest
mahogany in Miami harbor last year, the junta has served notice it will aggressively
prosecute non-violent civil protests.
The junta used Homeland Security forces to hunt down Texas Democrats
resisting an outrageous redistricting ordered by GOP hit man Tom DeLay.
Congressional districts are traditionally redesigned every ten years. But with a new
majority in the state legislature, the GOP is demanding a coup.
Congressional Republicans called out the Capitol police against Democrats
who dared try to caucus outside a committee hearing.
Bush's horrific ultra-right judicial appointments have outraged even
moderate Democrats, prompting the GOP leadership to contemplate trashing traditional
Senatorial safeguards they used against Bill Clinton.
California's first-ever gubernatorial recall will cost taxpayers $30
million. Bought by a Republican extremist millionaire with virtually no grassroots
support, the recall is aimed at the Democratic party in its strongest
state---and at the state itself.
ESPN and Rush Limbaugh will now turn professional football into a
Republican bullhorn. Limbaugh's infamous racism will apply to many of the players
whose performances he'll describe.
Major media continue to present no-talent hate mongers like Ann Coulter and
Charles Krauthammer as if they were serious reporters or scholars, when their
sole claim to air time is one-note contempt for anything green or humanist.
But despite its total grip on the government and media, the junta's
popularity sags. It plunged into a desert quagmire with no exit strategy for one
obvious reason: Iraqi oil is the Bush Energy Plan. With the economy in free fall,
Bush must drive down gas prices for the 2004 election. So US troops will
spill every last drop of their blood to secure every last drop of that oil.
The Bush strategy is to hog tie its critics over every inch of turf, no
matter how safe it once seemed. Given the horrors of the US concentration camp at
Guantanamo, it seems all too clear the junta is capable of using the Patriot
Act and Homeland Security apparatus for Soviet-style arrests and Latin-style
disappearances even of moderate critics and internal opponents.
Yet America's pro-democracy movement has exploded at the grassroots, through
the internet and over the few talk radio outlets remaining open to diversity.
Tom Paine described an earlier crisis in American democracy as a time to try
our souls. Today yet another aggressive and intolerant tyranny has decided to
up the ante.
Will we have the strength and wisdom to win again?
Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis's SUPERPOWER OF PEACE v BUSH ET. AL. will
be available through
www.freepress.org in September.
