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that takes sadistic pleasure in the sufferings of others, and relishes the "dirty details" of black ops that he has ordered and permitted. i suspect that it thrills him to think that he has the power to order up death, torture, people shitting in their pants out of fear, people being water-boarded and beaten to death, and sexually humiliated. But I think it's a mistake to focus too much on Bush as a personality--and de-focus on his enablers and puppet-masters (the ones who feed him this stuff, and manipulate him with delusions of grandeur), and all the toadies and yes-men in the military and the CIA who are going along with clearly evil policies.
It's possible we have a Caligula on our hands--a psychotic child man--but such a thing is not possible without the failure, corruption and collusion of the people who should known better, the Senators, the government leaders and professionals, and the rich ruling elite who sold away the Roman Republic for protection of their little fiefdoms of power and privilege.
I was watching the DVD of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show last night on the 2004 election, the segment on the Democratic Convention. And what struck me about it was how utterly revolted these comedians were at what they found in Boston: a completely meaningless and scripted proceeding, in which democracy had gone brain-dead. They could hardly contain their revulsion, and had a hard time being funny about it (--although they are funny, for the most part--they can't help it; a brilliant comedic crew).
Two of the guests they had on were Sen. Joseph Biden and Gov. Bill Richardson (NM). And that's when *I* felt like vomiting. (You see, I don't have TV, and couldn't watch this stuff while it was happening--just learned about it from reading, and from a few clips here and there.) These corrupt war toadies And Bush enablers made me sick.
Stewart asked Biden about invading Iraq over WMDs that were never found--the false justification for the war. And Biden says, yea, their recent report on it said that 70% of the prewar intel on Iraq was wrong, and only 30% right, and that we shouldn't go to war on bad intel. Then Stewart concludes the interview with a plea to Biden that they require a 60/40 ration of bad to good intel before they go to war, not 70/30. (You see what I mean? Stewart can't help but be funny--and, oh God, is he sharp!).
Prior to this, he had Bill Richardson on--a pudgy, self-satisfied looking little man, who said absolutely nothing (a few bits of pablum from some DNC brochure). Stewart shuffles him off quickly. There is no there there.
Biden voted to give Congress' Constitutional power to declare war away to George Bush (in the Iraq war resolution of Oct. '02). He broke his oath of office on that day. And he has been supporting this illegal, unjust, murderous war, that was based on a pack of lies, ever since--with BILLIONS and BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars in appropriations for Bush to continue murdering and torturing Iraqis and others.
IF Biden and others had NOT broken their oath of office, and had NOT permitted a president to make the decision to declare war, then the evaluation of evidence against Iraq would have remained with the Congress, which would undoubtedly have let the UN weapons inspectors finish their work, for one thing, and which would then have been in a position to evaluate Colin Powell's 100% pack of lies to the UN. The UN weapons inspectors were concluding that Iraq had no WMD program left. But Bush kicked them out, precipitously, with the unnecessary invasion, and their reports and conclusions came too late.
This is WHY the Founders of our republic gave the power to declare war to CONGRESS--a deliberative body that is supposedly representative of the people, whose lives and money will be sacrificed in war--and expressly FORBADE the president to make that decision.
And there Biden sat--smiling boyishly, flashing his well-cared for teeth--saying, lightly in an off-hand way, oh yeah, we shouldn't go to war on bad intel.
I just wanted to puke. True, he was at a disadvantage sitting next to Jon Stewart (as shrewd a political comedian as I've ever seen). But I know that Biden was lying through those pretty teeth. He's an agent of the military-industrial complex--he's their shill, their biggest advocate. He knew damn well the case for war was just as phony as it could be--you can't tell me otherwise--and he, and all those who voted for BUSH to make the decision, are examples of the cowardice, corruption and parasitism that leads to a Caligula gaining imperial power within a once great, ancient Republic, the model for all republics that came after it (i.e., governments with a balance of powers among the executive, the lawmakers, and the common citizens).
As for Richardson--all you need to know about him is that the stopped the Greens from getting a recount of New Mexico in 2004 (by imposing a million dollar bond on them, or something). He helped the Bush junta steal the election.
I just happened to catch these two Bush enablers on this DVD. They are not unique. There are plenty of others like them in our political establishment, and as professionals within the government. They are the passive criminals--the well-rewarded, the smug, the ones who wink and smile. Then there are the active criminals around Bush, and the yes-men and toadies who knew how to avoid being purged, in the military and the CIA and FEMA and the other agencies.
Caligula can't help but be who he is--a pampered psychotic given wholly undeserved power by virtue of birth and privilege--like any mad king in history. We had done with all that, in the founding of THIS republic. And now the enablers, and the toadies, and the mincing rich elitists are back, to push another idea of the "balance of powers" in government into decline and fall. People like Biden and Richardson are destroying this country, just as much as Bush is. They are the ones who should know better.
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