Abraca dubya

I came upon this google bomb that calls Bush an asshole and got to wondering how this country has such skillful bush-whacking web-savvy elites, avid and eloquent bloggers that just happen to hate republicans, refreshingly creative and often hilarious out of the box thinkers and then, Sean Hannity :(

At a predominantly American gathering a couple months back, I was discussing the Da Vinci Code and was trying hard to tone down my enthusiasm for the book (as my innate tendency to get carried away about the things I am passionate about often defies the norms of political and ethical correctness), so as not to set off any anti-christian sparks; turns out, I needn't have worried cos the only sparks I was turning on was animated approval on how un-put-down-able the book was.

A little surprising considering the havoc Dan Brown created with the main stream media (not just Fox, even the most objective of networks, NBC had a dateline program disputing all of Dan Brown's "facts") and I have read many a review in the very-liberal NY Times criticizing the book. Perhaps, the fact that this is Philadelphia, falling into the bracket of the little strip of blue liberal elite along the Northeast (and we must remember that the state it belongs to did vote democratic saving Kerry the embarrassment of losing in a landslide) kind of explains it.

But that doesn’t explain how practically every person I knew with a right to vote in the not-so-liberal mountain state of Colorado (not a whole heck of a lot--- but 100% is a significant fraction even if it means 10 out of 10) voted Democratic. You can argue that not many moneyed, insular republicans are going to practice research and try to cure cancer (albeit unsuccessfully) at a poorly funded state university even if it is in one of the most conservative pockets of the country.

And then I received enlightenment high atop the mountains: Bush-Cheney propaganda signs peeped out of backyards of the affluent, conservative homes (complete with stables and horses and white picket fences!) on that beautiful biking trail by the front ranges of the rockies. Yeah, you truly have to live in a fantasy-land far, far away from the real world to be able to vote for Bush and still be at peace with yourself.

So, I am thanking my lucky stars that even if these God-fearing, feverishly christian, gay-rights-opposing, pro-life, gun-carrying, death-penalty applauders are all over the place, at least I don’t SEE them cos of my life-style choices (or lack thereof). And when I do see them they are conveniently encased in a celluloid box, rendered impenetrable bcos of as much the nitrocellulose as my incomparable love for it.

So while you can see Michael Newdow (I spent many an hour applauding the “under God” underdog my first few months in this country) fighting his war and making his case because the NY and LA Times and CNN are talking about it, what you cannot see is that majority of middle American blue-collar workers are worshipping Bush because he wont allow a man to say “I do” to another man. They don’t make news cos they are the norm, not the exception.
I don’t know why Republicans are cursing the liberal-media bias -- they only benefit from it. Of course the media is biased – only the out-of-whack, out of the mainstream “wrong”doing liberals become news; the media might applaud them, but people have a way of deciding for themselves if their actions are good or bad, they just get their facts from the networks.

However, Hurricane Katrina seems to have done what 9-11 couldn’t do --broken the Bush-magic. Of course it might be cos there is no election year remaining. And now, thank God, we’ll never know.

Even republican loyalists, most notably Trent Lott, and quite a few regular Bush-suck-ups among the media like Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan have begun to outcry against the inefficiency of the Bush administration in the Katrina aftermath.

But believe me, they belong to the smarter section of the right-wing. To get the opinion of the truly stupid group of the population, that bestow their faith upon one person and then stick by him no matter what, you turn to Sean Hannity. He’s one of the most genuinely amusing men in America: the blindest of all the blind conservatives I’ve ever seen. I bet if Bush went and jumped in the ocean, he’d follow, no questions asked. In any case, I wasn’t surprised to find that Hannity is still on Dubya’s side. Since he doesn’t have anything to say for him, he’s turned this entire blame game onto the mayor of New Orleans. Limbaugh and Brit Hume have turned on Governor Blanco. And they are all passionately involved in the bickering over whether this is a race thing. Yeah, like that is the issue here. Since they need to turn the focus away from Dubya, they can now turn the flashlight on the African Americans. And they have nicely fallen into the trap, since they never think twice before jumping on the race bandwagon.

And Hannity’s argument is that everyone is politicizing this. The federal government didn’t do its job and Bush sat on his ass at the ranch two days after the hurricane hit. If that is not the most important political issue in history, I don’t know what is. Probably Clinton’s having sex with Lewinsky cos hundreds of people died of shock after that..

But this cannot be explained away by tangible interpretations or logical arguments. Maher is not exaggerating when he says ‘Bush works in mysterious ways’. It must take something akin to a god-devotee relationship for people to still be on Bush’s side --- they probably think he can spout wings and fly or walk on water; I’d sure like to see him do that in New Orleans….