On Bush's approval ratings

The following is a post by contributor Ray Mouton.

Bush 34%, Cheney 18% - - The results of a CNN-TIME poll of all Americans, published February 27, 2006.

As the poll was being taken last week, in real time, at the actual same time the poll was being taken, the following was occuring - - - -

*** There were more serious signs of the inevitable Iraq civil war playing out on a big stage

***Two trucks laden with explosives were stopped just short of blowing up the Saudi facility that handles two thirds of their oil exports

*** The President of the United States was again acting as a defiant dictator of a defacto theocracy. It is a defacto theocracy for while Bush rails against fundementalist religious regimes, he only has power because or the support of the fundementalist right wing religious fanatics in the U.S. Bush's actions again proved he is head of an active fascist ruling regime. What was he doing? He was making a speech and reasserting his right to illegally wiretap Americans in order to protect America.

*** The President, in the same speech, was stating that he would turn over some U.S. port facilities to the management and control of a company owned by an Arab country that is the transfer point for all nuclear weapons material moving in the region, a money laundering center for terrorists with direct ties to two 9.11 hijackers (and he was again lying to the American people in telling them that neither Homeland Security or the Coast Guard had any security concerns about the deal when both agencies had weighed in months ago in writing with a long list of concerns).

*** The President said he was so committed to this course of giving an Arab country control of U.S. ports that he would veto Republican legislation aimed at blocking the action, if necessary. And what the media missed for the most part is that it is almost a moot point anyway regarding port security as the Bush Regime passed the Port Security Act post- 9.11 that required 540 million to secure the ports and they appropriated only 175 million in that year, and this year they lowered the amount to 46 million which is less than pre-9.11 allocations, i.e. this is proof that they are no more serious about port security than they are about Homeland Security as Hurricane Katrina proved.

*** At the same time, Secretary of State Condi Rice was whispering (unidentified State Department staffers leaking) about maybe punishing Palestine for electing Hamas to its leadership by witholding western funding, the emptiest threat ever made as the Palestian people have to overt support of some of their neighboring regimes, and the covert support of the others, all of whom are awash in cash while the U.S. is drowning in deficits.

It is clear that the ruling regime in Washington has abandoned everything America ever stood far.

This regime will give control of U.S. port facilities to Arab countries, but it will will not allow musician Ry Cooder to record in Cuba again, while it uses Cuba to hold 500 people whom the U.S. tortures, inmate who have never had charges made against them. This is the same regime that tortures people in black prisons, tortures people in Iraqi prisons, and was operating under a legal paper authored by the U.S. Attorney
General that stated his legal opinion that the U.S. was not bound by the Geneva Conventions that apply to the rest of the civilised world - - it was his position the U.S. was not bound by the accord until there is a move to release additional still and video images of Iraqis being tortured by U.S. troops, at which time the Attorney General said that to show images of the prisoners being tortured to the public would violate the prisoner's rights under the Geneva Conventions. This kind of hypocrisy, inconsistency, and irrationality has been the hallmark charaterstic of the Bush regime since the moment the coup occurred that elevated him to the presidency (and make no mistake about it - - when a Republican court steps into an election where they lack jurisdiction to rule and stops the vote counting process, a coup has occurred).

What will happen in Iraq is inevitable. If anyone in this regime had read Kipling, maybe they might have understood. How a Brit like Tony Blair could have missed the history lesson is beyond me. Perhaps Blair was home sick on the days when the lessons learned by the British were taught in the classroom.

The regime is already "spinning" things, floating out the idea that the Iraqi's are ungrateful for the liberation and freedom American gave them and maybe America ought to just pick up their toys and come home. Arch conservative columnist William Buckley tossed that absurd idea out a week ago.

There are only two choices for America and the British in Iraq.
Either remove all of the troops in disgrace or stay and see some of the troops slaughtered in place. Some of our actions will convince the Shia we are on the side of the Sunnis while other actions will convince the Sunnis we are on the side of the Shia. The strategy was doomed months before the invasion, on the first day Tony Blair drank the kool aid with George Bush and made their pact.

At home this regime has amassed a budget deficit larger than all prior administrations combined, the Patriot Act is a fascist document on its face and by its intent, and the U.S. has literally lost the world, including Latin America where five out of nine elections this year will bring anti-U.S. people to the leadership of these countries to our south.

On 9.12 the Paris headlines proclaimed "We Are All Americans" and millions demonstrated in cities across the world in solidarity with the U.S. and all of that support and more has been lost through the actions of this regime who have ruined the reputation of America.

On 9.11 the world was with American. The United States was unified. Then as this fascist regime revealed itself to the people of the world and the people of the United States, most of the world began to despise this regime and now seventy to eighty percent of Americans have turned on the respective leaders of the regime who languish at 34% and 18% respectively in the current poll.

It is worthy of note that when the Atocha train station was bombed in Madrid, other than the usual mike bite stuff in D.C., there was no expression of empathy or sympathy by the American people though it was our war that caused the attack on innocent civilians. And there was no outpouring of sympathy from Americans when London was hit for the same reason last summer. The fact is Americans are fairly stupid, selfish people in political matters, myopic about their country, blind to all others, and they just do not care about the rest of the world that they have no comprehension of.

This is a serious time, the most serious time in our lifetimes, a time testing what America really is. America is failing the tests daily. In failing, America has abandoned all it ever stood for.


___________ R. M. is an American writer living in France