Michael Hureaux - Our Guy in New York

The Greatest President Since Warren Harding January 20th has come and gone, the second Bush presidency is now a reality. The world hasn't ended, but it isn't looking so well, either. On the plus side, 20,000 people showed up to hoot the ascension of His Indolency, and rumor has it that an egg actually hit the limousine as it cruised down Pennsylvania Avenue. Of course, the powers that be (market, state, church, media) are trying to give that event as little play as they can, as the powers that be hate to admit they havn't thought of everything, or that there might actually be people out there who wish to greet the new presidency with foodstuff. The central story at this point, however, should be the so-called Democratic Party leadership, which is busy confirming two thirds of the more dangerous Bush appointees as though there were no tomorrow. Bush is a creep, but he'd be able to get away with a lot less if the Democratic opposition were actually an opposition. Ashcroft is sailing through his confirmation process, as is Norton; Powell is a done deal, as is Rice. The Democrats help make the right-wing reaction possible, but every two years or better the same sad-eyed clowns come out and tell us to vote for people like Gore as though it actually made a difference. The exiting head of the Democratic Party, Bill the C., pardoned just about every hustler he could think of on his way out of office--every cheap hood or paquetero the ex-pres could think of on his way out of town. Bill, ever the man of the (right) people, managed to find some release papers for those martyred to the Clinton cause, his re-election or his business partner/spouse and her climb to the senate. Bill has never met a campaign contributor he didn't like, neither has Hillary, and if the contemporary mainstream political scene seems so vapid to you, you have them largely to thank for the situation. For twelve years now, they and their running buddy Gore have consolidated the grip of a right-wing clique on the Democratic party. Well, Bill and Al are leaving now, but shed no tears. Save them for Leonard Peltier, who might well die in prison given the complications he faces from diabetes and high blood pressure in his high security lockdown. Some of you were calling for pressure on the White House through the Internet, bless your hardy selves. I sent e-mail as well, but I knew Clinton wasn't going to budge, especially after the FBI marched on the White House in protest of a potential Peltier pardon. Bill always let the military scare him to death. A proper response to this action staged by a national police agency would have been for Bill to remind Director Louis Freeh that we still have a civilian head of government, and fire his ass on the spot. But Bill couldn't do that. You know, there was a time in this country when presidents did that sort of thing. Harry Truman fired Douglas MacArthur for violating Truman's concept of civilian authority during an active military engagement. Lincoln went through six generals during the Civil War as civilian head of government before he found one that met his expectations. Because it is important for the civilian head of government to make it clear that he retains executive function. But Bill couldn't do that. Why? Plain and simple. Clinton could not, in the words of Lyndon Johnson, make a distinction between chicken salad and chicken shit. I"m not sure if any of you remember that shortly after he took office as president, Clinton made a tour of military installations in the southeast of the country. This was in all the media. He was implicitly warned by the senior senator from North Carolina, one Jesse Helms, that "he'd best not come to North Carolina, as many people down there, military retirees, did not like him," and that "North Carolina could not guarantee his safety." Now, if you said this sort of thing about the president to the media, you could be charged with inciting violence against a federal official. But Jesse Helms was allowed to say it. An elected executive with a lick of sense in his head would have placed the Senator under arrest, cited his words, and gone before the public to explain that he believed the Senator was threatening the country with a military coup. That's how you have to deal with the right wing. Truman did it. Lincoln, at a time of high gold speculation during the Civil War, expressed a desire to "shoot the heads off of" a clique of conservative investors. But Clinton was afraid of the right wing and the military clique surrounding them all his days in office, and had he stood them off early in the beginning, and gone to the country with an explanation for his defensive actions, he would have done much to save us the moment were living in now. But he didn't because he couldn't. The man didn't have it in him, ever. It was much easier to kill Iraqi kids for big petroleum, jail hundreds of thousands of Black and Latino kids over piddling amounts of marijuana, and lie through his teeth to the country over an extramarital blowjob that everyone knew was a nothing charge to begin with. Bill Clinton never trusted the mass base of people who actually supported him, I'm damned if I can figure out why they trusted him so bloody much. I'm telling you, we lose nothing with his departure. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. And we lose nothing through Gore's defeat, either. As loyal as Black voters were to Gore, he didn't even have the temerity to endorse and follow through the investigation of numerous charges of intimidation of Black voters down in Florida. Forget the dimpled chads, or hanging chads, or anything else. Here was a clear chance for Gore to stand up for something principled for the first time in his career, and he passed on that opportunity as well. As I've said before, Gore couldn't even carry his home state of Tennessee as a "favorite son" because they know him better than the rest of the country does. No, no, friends, it's time to rock and roll. Let's follow the example of the 20,000 who greeted His Fraudulency George II last Saturday. The best way to begin to solve this problem is to start early, and make the country as ungovernable as possible. To hell with all the Slick Willies, past, present and future. --Michael Hureaux Perez   Michael Hureaux Perez and the Voodoo Commie Network may be reached at: eyeneye@earthlink.net