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Max Castro: The Horrors of Halloween
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
Progreso Weekly - Nov 1, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=213&Itemid=1
Horrors of Halloween
By Max J. Castro
The week before Halloween was an ugly one in Wa****ngton. A sad and
silly season it was, too. It wasnt the rainy weather or the looming
day of witches and goblins that was the horror. It was the exercise of
power in the White House and on Capitol Hill that produced fear and
revulsion, as well as a dose of ridicule.
Fear came with the sinking sensation that the drive toward a new war
with Iran might be underway. This even as the nightmare with no end in
sight continues in Iraq. Saber rattling was the order of the day in
DC. There was a sense of d(c)j vu about it all. The administration
talked of diplomacy, and imposed sanctions. It evoked the prospect of
World War III if Iranians acquire the mere knowledge to make a nuclear
bomb. Although there wont be an invasion this time --even the Bush
administration is not that crazy -- these scare tactics seem designed
to justify an air assault against Iran. It doesnt appear that the
decision to go military has been made but the political conditions are
being prepared in case that it is.
Revulsion was the feeling that came over you after the Senate defeat of
the Dream Act, a law that would have given undo***ented immigrant
children brought to the United States by their parents a chance to
become legal residents. Such is the hysteria against illegal
immigrants that 44 Senators could not see past it and realize the
promise that these young people, who have to graduate from high school
to qualify for legal status and finish two years of college or military
service to be able to apply for citizen****p, represent for this country.
Such was the hysteria that 8 Democratic Senators joined the Republicans
to kill the Dream Act while 11 Republicans bucked the tide of
xenophobia in their own party and voted in favor. The lack of a
straight party-line vote, however, should not obscure the big picture
concerning which party overwhelmingly sup****ts inclusion and which
massively opts for exclusion: 84 percent of Democratic Senators
sup****ted the Dream Act compared to 23 percent of Republicans.
Revulsion also was evoked by Presidents Bush threat to once again veto
a bill that would provide health insurance for millions of children. In
issuing the veto threat, Bush was not swayed by the fact that the new
version of the law was crafted to respond to criticisms from
Republicans that the previous version was not targeted sufficiently on
lower income groups. Instead, the President said the measure was too
costly. This statement came the same week that it was announced that
the official estimate of what the Iraq war will cost before it is over
is now $2.4 trillion!
Revulsion also was elicited by the news that the Bush administration
had once again subverted science and perverted truth in the interest of
ideology. It accomplished this when it censored the Congressional
testimony of Dr. Julie Gerberding, the Director of the Centers for
Disease Control, in order to downplay the threat that global warming
poses for the American people, and particularly for the poor,
minorities, and other vulnerable populations.
Overwhelming revulsion was produced by the realization that the White
House lied in saying that the sections of the Gerberding text that were
deleted were cut because they contradicted the findings of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In fact, a
side-by-side comparison of the IPPC text and the unedited Gerberding
testimony shows the truth is the exact opposite: the deleted ****tions
accurately reflect the findings of the IPCC.
Revulsion also might be an appropriate response to President Bushs
much- ballyhooed new initiative on Cuba. But the tone and tenor of
the announcement and the hackneyed and vacuous nature of the measures
only managed to evoke ridicule. It was much ado about nothing except
bluster and hot air.
With the exception of the most extreme and partisan sector of the exile
community, which expressed its ecstasy, that is exactly how Bushs rare
speech on Cuba was received.
Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, heaped scorn
on the whole thing, saying on National Public Radio that the
announcement was purely cosmetic and that it was rather silly for
Bush to threaten the new leader****p in Cuba about what would happen if
it did not follow the U.S. line on transition because transition had
already taken place and nothing has happened.
Even The Miami Heralds Andr(c)s Oppenheimer, the most consistent
Cuba-basher in the U.S. mainstream media, found the speech sorely
wanting and even counterproductive. Oppenheimer also used the occasion
to criticize much of Bushs past Cuba initiatives as smacking of
interventionism while praising the President for speaking out on human
rights.
A Western diplomat speaking anonymously to The Miami Herald summed it
all up nicely: When you convene the foreign diplomatic corps, you
expect its going to be something new, a new initiative]It was really
nothing. It is a statement that indicates that, like U.S. policy
toward Cuba as a whole, this latest initiative, which aims, for the
hundredth time, to convince the rest of the world to adopt U.S.-style
policies toward Cuba, is a non-starter.
The week before Halloween was ugly in Wa****ngton. With Bush in the
White House and enough Republicans and faint-hearted Democrats in
Congress to block progress on every front, there probably wont be much
to be politically thankful for next month either. That is all the more
reason to work to give new meaning to Thanksgiving 2008.
*
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