The Pay of Bigs Operation

We’re fresh from our triumphant whatever in the Middle East (Victory? Occupation? Nation Building?). Now that effort has been taken away from the DOD and put in the hands of piano playing chickenhen, Condelezza Rice. So DOD has some time on its hands, I guess. Hola, before you can say “Libre!” the Administration has now decided to take our eyes off the prize and launch a new front…on Cuba.

Fidel stinks, OK. But I must have missed the whole, “Cuba has weapons of mass destruction and could strike us in just minutes,” part of the rationale. Doesn’t matter, clearly. Doesn't matter for Iraq anymore, does it? Perhaps Cuba is threatening the security of those non-charged enemy combatants in Gitmo. They could be over the wall and free those terrorists in minutes, after all. To paraphrase Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men: I just can’t handle the truth.

At least we'll have plenty of native language speakers, already in the military this time, to help with the interrogations.

But turning seriously to this latest, craven play to ensure that the Cuban vote in Florida stays with the Republicans in 2004, President Bush has now speechified about the open arms with which we plan to greet all Cubans fleeing the dictator Castro. Things are pretty lousy in Mexico and most of Central and South American, but our arms appear resolutely shut to desperate liberation seekers from those countries.

In fact, we are preparing to rush humanitarian aid to Cuba in the event that the government finally collapses. I can only wonder how many billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars will line the bottomless pockets of the likes of Halliburton and the “consultants” who peddle access up and down K street (“peddling access” is the domestic equivalent of taking bribes to get things done, a practice we decry when done by those corrupt evil-doers in foreign countries). I can also only wonder, along with more radio shows beamed to Castro’s Cuba, how many stingers we’ll be sending, just like we did in Afghanistan, to the Taliban, but a few short years ago.

In other words, what with all the profits to be had from war mongering and war profiteering, our leadership class is in the pay of the bigs. The rich, as usual, are employing the elected.

And along with the profits, our same engines of industry (owned and operated by the rich) are rushing to send our decent paying middle class jobs to countries that have no human rights, let along OSHA or the EPA. Sending jobs to countries that employ slave labor policies, like China, really means that we have reincorporated slavery back into our economy. It means that we have found a way to work around that pesky prohibition against slavery in the U.S. (like when you buy sneakers made there). It means that when we finish freeing Cuba, that country’s citizens will be free at last to work in sweatshops at slave wages with no hope of getting out from under the grinding economic wheel.

After all, that’s what Nafta has wrought for Mexicans, among others. That’s why they’re rushing our borders in droves. In fact, if the illegal immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America had any sense, they would get phony documents that made them Cubans. Or sneak into Cuba first and then flee to Miami from there. That way they would be greeted with open arms by the Bushies, embraced and instantly given green cards. Go figure.

Cuba? One of our first exploited colonies is now in the cross hairs again. By the time we finish, the people there will probably still be exploited and bad off, the U.S. taxpayer will be even deeper in debt and the war-profiteers colluding with the White House will be even fatter cats than they are now.

And speaking of fat cats, hats off to Rush Limbaugh for fessing up that he’s a junkie ”I am no role model,” he said. My heart goes out to him. Really. I’ve always advocated treatment not jail for junkies.

For his sake, I can only hope he is not treated as harshly as he has for so long advocated junkies, like him, be treated. Otherwise he’s looking at a long jolt in a tough prison. But hey, those weak-minded liberals have probably forced the prison he’d wind up in to waste some money on a rehabilitation program.

Maybe they’ve got a prison radio station. That way he can while away his stretch broadcasting his “get tough on crime” preacheries. It’ll give him something to do, since they probably won’t be offering him decent drug treatment options, thanks to efforts of conservatives like him. ¶ 4:37 PM

  The Deafening Silence of Political Correctness

There are those who may have thought my position on Spy-gate one-sided.

So in the spirit of equal opportunity, let’s point out that a partisan and unsavory hush now hangs like a pall over the Left concerning the startling spy-ring revelations at Gitmo.

Where are calls for a serious investigation of a Muslim-based ring of spies not only there, but also throughout the government? Congress appears mute on the issue. Oh, excuse me, how politically incorrect! Profile people because of a demonstrable tendency, based on religion? And during a time of war?

What must I be thinking? I can hear the protestors in the Muslim-American community howling already. Along with a good chunk of the core liberal base.

That said, the Left, is not alone. Where is the outrage of the Right? Monsieur Novak is strangely silent, when it comes to lowering the boom on another screw up by the Administration now unfolding at Gitmo.

Is Rumsfeld going to stonewall again? Never in doubt and never wrong as usual, his response to this latest crisis of his leadership is as follows: “Raising the question you did about profiling is not a useful thing to do,” AP reports. “The fact of the matter is that there are a variety of vetting procedures, and people who happen to be of one religion - I don't think one has to assume that they have a monopoly on this type of activity.”

No? Not even in Gitmo?

Is it a surprise that an organization of terrorists that spent over a decade to destroy the World Trade Center would have also been creating a spy network in both the U.S. military and our civilian population at large? Wouldn’t it have behooved our DOD planners to look to thwarting the fifth column before, or at least concurrently with, going after the other four? Have they never seen a James Bond flick? Never read Le Carre? (Or even Tom Clancy?)

Now we must play catch up. There are spies and anarchists among us and they must be rooted out by many unpleasant, but necessary, means.

This puts us smack against arguably the thorniest and most obvious issue that infests our public discourse today. Namely, political correctness as it regards profiling.

What does this mean in practice? It means that violence-provoking speech, even religious or racially based, let alone actions, should lead to profiling. It means that every member of a group is held responsible in some fashion for each member’s behavior.

Such organizations that pay lip service to any sort of violence in the name of religious and First Amendment freedoms should be watched, and watched closely. That includes religious fundamentalists, communists, neo-nazis, racists of all colors, anti-abortionists (with apologies to any violent extremist group I may have unwittingly left off the list). We must now hold accountable those communities of like-minded people, be their ideals religious or secular, that shelter and spawn extremists in their midst. And I mean all such communities, equally.

That last, holding all communities with extremist fringe elements equally accountable, is the appropriate place for the ideal of political correctness. Maybe, the pressure of profiling may lead the tolerant majority in these communities to step up. It is their duty as Americans to identify their truly violent, anti-democratic and anti-American members and turn them over to the appropriate governmental authorities. This would, in turn, lead to a reduction in the need to profile any in such communities.

I feel most uncomfortable about suggesting this course of action. Believe me, I am no fan of the Patriot Act. But it is clear that something must now be done in the gray area between allowing the DOJ to arrest someone and hold them indefinitely without charging them (not good), and letting a cop on the beat ask a few questions, even hold someone at the station for further questioning and background checks (necessary infringement on our freedom).

Let’s hope such measures are temporary, as can be if all citizens stand up to violence, anti-democratic and anti-Americanism behavior and teachings in their own communities. Then the government can back off.

But only when we see results. Like spies and anarchists frog-walked to jail, turned in by the people of good will in whose midst they are now hiding. ¶ 8:07 AM