Bush Thanksgiving trip: "It's not about the Iraqis, stupid."

[Catt03]

The Politics of Indignity
When proud people feel like afterthoughts they get angry, whether in restive Iraq or rural America. And some get violent


NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE


Nov 28 — Thanksgiving is not an Iraqi holiday. So maybe it’s not surprising that few Iraqis were in evidence when President George W. Bush made his gutsy whistle-stop at the darkened Baghdad airport on Thursday. He was there to share turkey with the troops, after all, not with the people they liberated. Security considerations are great. The natives are restless. Bush managed to meet briefly with four local officials, but to paraphrase an earlier maxim of campaign strategy, “It’s not about the Iraqis, stupid.”

snip

In the last few weeks, as I’ve driven around the United States and read through the hundreds of emails sent to [e-mail], I’ve discovered an awful lot of anger at home, too. It’s far from the savagery encountered in Mosul, thank God. But it’s plenty intense. And a lot of the American anger, like that of average Iraqis, comes from the feeling that Washington treats them as second-class, as afterthoughts in the Establishment’s great scheme of things, as pawns in someone else’s game of kings.
This home-grown fury isn’t directed only at the Bush administration, but at the whole Washington scene, with the daily tragedies in Iraq and the known excesses of the Patriot Act contributing to the anger. A reader in Atlanta, for instance, wrote an apoplectic letter after he discovered that only six U.S. Senators were present on the floor when the $87 billion for Iraq was passed with a simple voice vote—no roll call—at the beginning of the month. “Those that supported the bill didn’t want to explain to their constituents why they supported it, and those that were against it didn’t want to be painted as unpatriotic,” wrote D.B. from Atlanta. “These soul-less, ball-less cowards don’t even want their votes recorded. How would you feel if you were in Iraq seeing your buddies die every day knowing that your leaders are too chicken-s—- to even say whether or not they support you?”

More

http://www.msnbc.com/news/999029.asp?0cv=KA01&MSID=298c065837dd4fa8a91fb68a2a9344c2

[teryang]

1. Good commentary

I had similar thoughts recently regarding the inequity in wealth, income, taxes and opportunity in this country which has become worse not better as the years go by. The seriousness of the widening rift between rich and poor and the destruction of the middle class is being papered over literally by an easy credit policy which by now has millions of families in bondage to obligations beyond their means.

Property is the relationsip of people to things and possession is nine tenths of the law. Will people start shooting over things like repossessions, evictions and mortgage foreclosures? Maybe not, but things are probably going to change radically. The enforcement of an abstraction like creditor rights or property rights is wholly dependent upon the willingness of the population to go along with it. Of course direct linkage may not be appreciated, when the sheriff shows up to order you out on the street, you go. But then later what do you do to get a place to live? Do you acquiesce to homeless status?

How will this dilemna be resolved? I think the ruling class has to inflate out of it. Inflation is a form of debtor relief and a sacrifice that the creditor class will have to make. Another concession will be universal health care or something close to it. Not the faux version but the real thing. Without an estate or at least a body that has a future things could get pretty nasty.

[walford]

2. Bush trip cloaked in lies and secrecy -

by H Legamenon

Investigators speaking on the condition of anonymity, have confirmed to the Times that a prove has been lunch to determine which laws were broken when President Bush directed his White House staff to lie to aids, Secret Service Agents and even to Reporters in preparation for his public-relations saving trip to Baghdad last Thursday. “The problem is, that here you have the president using the power of his office to deceive not only government officials but even the public, and that is unacceptable regardless of the reason” said one agent with knowledge of the investigation.

According to one investigator, who works in a department charged with assuring the accuracy of Government Press Releases, the use of ruse in presidential action is unprecedented. “I do not think we have seen such trickery in the white House in at least 11 years.”

Congress was a swarm yesterday with predictions of impeachment. For Bush, who won the presidency in 2000 despite losing the popular vote, the news could not have come at a worse time. Besides using un-allotted funds for the trip, it may have involved Campaign Finance violations. Senator John McCain was adamant: “It is a violation of law, for the president to profit politically from anything he does in public, so the question here is has he profited from the tip?”

That question remains to be answered. Most people were initially skeptical about the trip. Others thought it out of character for a president not known for empathy or genuineness. Some conceded it as a ploy for a president whose approval numbers are so low that they can only climb. As one NPR host put it: “Certainly Karl Rove was behind this.” If the irony plays out, Rove, who single handedly brought an unpopular southern governor to the presidency, may finally have run out of luck.

[MasonJar]

3. Boy, would I love this to be true, but

it seems unlikely that anyone is even in D.C. so how coes the article compute?

[Tellurian]

4. Do you have LINK for that story?

n/t

[newyawker99]

5. Hi walford!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: