Cheney, autocracy and the "F" word

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Cheney, autocracy and the “F” word

Just when you think there are no more wheels left to come off the cart of state, here comes Lamb Chop Cheney flinging the “F” word at Senator Patrick Leahy of all people. And on the floor of the Senate yet.

As Cheney told the animals over at the Fox Farm, it made him “feel better.” And W’s reaction to it all was that “things happen.”

W, of course, is, as of this writing, over in Turkey. Word is that he was so fearful of being disemboweled by some Islamic lunatic that he actually took his own secure potty along on the trip. Obviously for a man as macho as W, losing ones genitals is far worse than losing one’s head, though in W’s case – at least according to Michael Moore – it’s hard to tell which would be the greater, or lesser, loss.

Nevertheless, there was Cheney telling Leahy to “fuck off” and “fuck you.”

The irony of all this is precious, in that W’s right-wing-laden FCC has just upped the ante for saying George Carlin’s seven deadly words on radio and TV. And this as a result of one Jacksonian nipple’s appearance during the Super Bowl.

As things stand now, then, what’s okay for Cheney is definitely not okay for Howard Stern, who’s so rankled by the FCC strictures that the former Bush supporter is now, on a daily basis, calling for the head, or genitals, of the Commander in Chief.

What occasioned the Veep’s blast was an unfortunate reference on Leahy’s part to the touchy subject of the federal money-guzzling bunch at Halliburton, which has been bilking and milking the taxpayers and the Iraqis to the tune of millions. What Leahy apparently doesn’t understand is that the rebuilding of Iraq is, in the eyes of Lamb Chop, tantamount to the upbuilding of Halliburton.

But the implications go deeper than that. In fact, Cheney’s response was all too indicative of an administration that is so outside the law and so beyond accountability that any questions regarding its operations are immediately suspect and subject to secretive dismissal.

A case in point is the recent refusal by Cheney to cough up the details of his energy task force and the names of those who participated in fashioning what is risibly called the Bush energy policy. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, which still seems to consider itself an appendage of the Bush machine, caved in once again and secured Cheney’s hidey hole relative to all that.

Luckily, enough information has been leaked to the press for us to know that the oil barons were first in line at the suggestion box, and that one environmental group was given short shrift and essentially told, like Leahy, to fuck off.

When you come right down to it, what our government has become is nothing more nor less than a tyrannical autocracy. And lately, it is an autocracy in a state of constant denial.

Despite the claims of the 9/11 commission that there was no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda, both Cheney and Bush have insisted otherwise. With but the lamest of lies they continue to force their Orwellian message down the throats of the public, which is becoming ever more restive.

And when they were caught red-handed in the bucket of Abu Ghraib’s blood and torture, they once again denied that anyone at the top would sanction such behavior. “This is not what America is all about,” said W.

Well, of course this is what America is all about. It’s all about crazed former prison guards who have tortured prisoners in our own jails going to Iraq and pursuing the same psychotic methods over there. And it’s about autocrats like Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rove, Cheney and Bush setting interrogation policies that violate every humanitarian norm known to the civilized world.

But in the name of fighting terrorism, the administration’s response to any who question their methods or who try to investigate their secret dicta, is basically “Fuck off.”

No doubt the same response will be given to those who question the viability of the middle-of-the-night handoff of power to the Iraqis by Bremer & Company. In fact, I’m sure we’re all feeling that an immense weight has been lifted from our shoulders now that a country whose infrastructure is non-existent, whose territory is a bastion for terrorists and whose laws were fashioned by Paul Bremer is being handed back to a bunch of selectmen picked by Bush and the UN.

Yet Bush and Cheney will undoubtedly be rattling the cage of “complete Iraqi sovereignty” throughout the election campaign. And this despite the fact that Americans are still being blown to bits over there – and will be for the foreseeable future.

In fact, we seem to care not one whit that Iraqi security forces are blasé at best and frequently no-shows when it comes to the daily grind. On any given day, only half the police and armed forces show up for work. But the Iraqis have sovereignty, and that’s all that counts. At least politically. And at least for Bush.

As usual, the media are capitulating to this marvel of political shamanism and telling the American people what great strides we’ve made in Iraq. But in the unlikely event that they begin to question the rationale for all this, you can bet that they’ll get the usual Bush/Cheney reply: “Fuck off.” And that will be that.

Yet there is a ray of hope. At one showing of Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” in the Hamptons last weekend, one brave moviegoer, when Cheney first appeared on the screen, stood up and yelled, “Fuck you!”

June 29, 2004