Trash-the-Earth-for-Big-Business Model

[Guest guest]

J.I. Abbot

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White House Chutzpah

By Arianna Huffington

Remember how the Bush administration ambled unassumingly into

office -- downing Texas-sized helpings of humble pie at every

meal?

"I hope I'm viewed as a humble person," the president said just

before moving into the White House. And on his first day on the

job, he counseled his senior staff members to "be an example of

humility and decency and fairness." White House chief of staff

Andy Card echoed the sentiment, telling would-be staffers: "Be

among the most humble people in Washington."

Well, those days are certainly long gone. Forget tiptoeing. Team

Bush now stomps down the halls of power like Godzilla trampling

the streets of Tokyo. Humble pie is no longer being served at the

White House -- instead, it's being shoved in our faces.

When describing the administration at midterm, the words that

come to mind are arrogant, cocky, galling, and drunk with power.

Almost every day brings fresh evidence that Bush and his crew

believe that they can get away with just about anything -- no

matter how shocking, offensive, corrupt, underhanded or

in-your-face the transgression. The prevailing motto seems to be:

"Our way or the highway. If you don't like it, you can just move

to Canada."

The latest example of Bush's "screw you" mind-set was the

stunning appointment of cover-up cover boy Henry Kissinger to

head the 9/11 commission. I mean, what was he thinking? Was he

deliberately trying to select the one person in the world least

likely to get to the bottom of the foul-ups that preceded Sept.

11. Was Prince Bandar too busy reining in his wife's charitable

impulses to take the job?

The only thing more ludicrous than naming Kissinger to head this

inquiry, would be picking somebody who thinks "pollution is a

right" to head the Department of the Interior or selecting a guy

who made his name fighting to undercut the authority of the

Securities and Exchange Commission as its chairman. Oh, wait a

minute -- that's right, Bush already did both of those things,

too. It's only a matter of time before Rush Limbaugh is tapped to

be Chief of Protocol.

But the Kissinger appointment is merely the pointy tip of the

chutzpah iceberg. In the last few months alone, the White House

has shown its disdain for public opinion -- and indeed the public

interest -- in an exceptionally wide variety of areas. Here are

just a few of the more blood-boiling cases:

On the environment: Not satisfied with just gutting the Clean Air

Act, the White House chose to announce its polluter-friendly

decision in the most dismissive, least accountable way possible,

delivered not by the president or EPA head Christie Whitman but

by a low-level administrator, on a Friday afternoon leading into

a holiday week, and with no cameras allowed. In your face, people

who like fresh air!

On stealing from the poor to give to the rich: In an act of

reverse Robin Hood effrontery, the president helped defray some

of the cost of his non-stop campaigning with an accounting trick

that allowed him to dip into the coffers of the Office of Family

Assistance by piggy-backing campaign appearances onto trips

ostensibly made to talk about welfare reform. That's right, money

meant to assist poor families was used to help elect politicians

who believe that, even with all the problems facing this country,

cutting taxes for the rich should be job No. 1. These, of course,

are the same Scrooges who did nothing to stop the unemployment

benefits of 800,000 workers from expiring during the midst of the

holiday season. Ho, ho, ho, poor people!

On sucking up to special interests: I guess that the back channel

passage of that tailor-made -- and White House approved --

amendment to the Homeland Security Bill protecting Eli Lilly,

maker of the questionable vaccine preservative Thimerosal, from

billions in potential lawsuits just wasn't enough of an insult to

democracy. To pour salt in that fresh wound, the administration

has asked a federal claims court to block public access to

documents unearthed in over a thousand Thimerosal-related

lawsuits. Take that, suffering parents of autistic children!

On political patronage: At the same time the White House was

moving to scale back pay increases for career federal employees,

it was also secretly doling out big buck bonuses to political

appointees -- a practice banned during the Clinton presidency

because of abuses during the last Bush administration. Who was it

again who was going to restore integrity to the White House?

On fighting the war on terror: A majority of Americans have a

negative view of Saudi Arabia. As well they should, given the

desert kingdom's two-faced attitude, the money that ended up in

the pockets of 9/11 hijackers, its telethons for suicide bombers,

its refusal to let U.S. planes targeting the Taliban take off

from Saudi soil, and the not insignificant fact that most of the

9/11 hijackers were Saudi, as are most of the suspects being held

in Guantanamo. In spite of all this, the White House continues to

treat the spoiled princes of the House of Saud as bosom brothers,

welcome at the Crawford ranch anytime they're in the mood for a

little down-home cookin'.

In your eye, American people!

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If you have questions or comments, please contact me at

arianna (AT) ariannaonline (DOT) com.

To /, please visit

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/maillist.html.

[Guest guest]

It is *your* burden to demonstrate what, if anything, he is doing right

Oh, I forgot; he and Laura are just such a nice couple - nice people.

Please stop buying the propaganda. They *need* you to believe this kind of pap.