State of the Union: Grave and Delusional

Against a backdrop of fresh bloodshed in Iraq, the death of Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt, the opening salvo in the Plamegate case focusing on Vice President Dick Cheney and operative Karl Rove, with Cheney hovering over one shoulder and Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the other, our beleaguered president proclaimed:

"Our state of the union is strong and our cause in the world is right."

Tragically, the president remains in a state of delusion.

The state of the union is grave and deteriorating and our conduct in the world is the primary cause.

Sweeping through his domestic overtures like a bat out of hell or a frat boy late for a date, the president’s initiatives might have carried some weight if we were not entering the seventh year of the Bush house of horrors. The secret is out: All Bush initiatives on health care, social security, education and energy policy invariably turn out to be thinly veiled attempts to privatize government functions in the name of corporate efficiency – the kind of efficiency so rudely and brutally demonstrated by the rescue and restoration of New Orleans.

The president did not mention New Orleans.

He wishes to balance the federal budget without taxes while increasing global military expenditures in Iraq and elsewhere by stripping social services to the bone. Under the president’s tutelage, the plight of New Orleans will become the plight of every American below the elite ten percent of wealth accumulation.

The president made no mention of New Orleans.

One year ago, the president was seemingly fixated on home ownership as a barometer of economic strength – not any more. There is a rising tide of bankruptcy and home foreclosures that is scheduled for implosion as interest only and adjustable rate mortgages come due in the fourth quarter of this year.

The president made no mention of New Orleans.

The wholesale disaster of No Child Left Behind, which has transformed public schools into paper pushing test machines, defeating dedicated educators, leaving federal mandates unfunded and saddling overburdened teachers with the same over-regulation that this administration deplores in corporate institutions, should be thoroughly repudiated, not reauthorized.

The president did not mention New Orleans.

The Democrats may find common ground with the president on immigration and while it may prevent the national disgrace of a wall separating us from our southern neighbors, it only pushes the issue down the road for it fails to address the behemoth behind the elephant: global "free" trade.

The president made no mention of New Orleans.

The president made passing reference to "global climate change" as if the words alone were a policy change but we have already seen how quickly this administration’s environmental initiatives are transformed into subsidies for "clean" coal, nuclear expansion and big oil. Asking this president to reduce oil consumption or carbon monoxide emissions is like asking a corporate accountant to ingest a truth serum.

The president did not mention New Orleans.

The president’s blood did not begin to warm until he came to his "defining hour" – the global war on terror. As if slipping into an alternative universe where the lies of war had not been stripped from his tired arguments, the president summoned 911 repeatedly as if the connection between Iraq and that historic tragedy had not been summarily dismissed.

The president decried Al Qaeda in Iraq and "other Sunni extremists", neglecting to note that he created both.

The president pined for war with Iran and Syria, neglecting to note that the Iraqi government has reached out to both for diplomatic support and cooperation.

The president condemns Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese organization that fought back an American supported Israeli assault, as if Hezbollah had anything to do with the Iraqi occupation.

The president pleads for time and support, as our soldiers die in the crossfire of civil war, to continue his march of destruction, to engage his enemies, to create the very nightmare of regional and global conflict he warns will follow the withdrawal of our forces.

The president is delusional, demented, far gone from this world of light, and it falls to congress to supply the necessary medications to hold him in check.

An evening that began optimistically with "Madam Speaker" ended up belonging to newly elected Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. A military man with a proud military tradition, he reminded us that every soldier must rely on "trust in the judgment of our national leaders." He reminded us that "the president took us into this war recklessly." He informed a delusional president that, if he is not up to the task of ending a misbegotten war, congress will "show him the way."

If there was any man or woman who did not, at that sorry moment, wish that Jim Webb were commander in chief, then reason and compassion have been banished from the American soul.

The president made no mention of New Orleans.

Jazz.

[This article first posted on Dissident Voice and Peace-Earth-Justice 1/24/07.]

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON THE ALBION MONITOR, PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE, THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, LEFTWARD, DISSIDENT VOICE AND COUNTERPUNCH.