Uniform Defeat: Little Big Bush

Salvador Dali was the surrealist painter to whom distortion was means, ends and art all in one. These are Dali times, minus the art. George W. Bush is the surrealist president to whom distortion is means, ends and crime. Dali’s dalliance with fascism was the harmless product of a man infatuated with schlock. Bush’s dalliance with fascism is the by-product of a man who thinks being on a mission from God is not just a line in “The Blues Brothers,” but an executive order from a gospel of his own discovery. Dali would have appreciated the gall of a president still pushing the hallucinogens of 9/11, especially this month, when the American death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan will exceed that of Ground Zero. Bush is just glad a third of the nation and most of Congress are still inhaling.

A quick example. On the inhaling side, there’s the $70 billion in tax cut extensions for the rich (those who profit from capital gains and stock dividends) that the Senate just approved. On the exhaling side, it’s exactly the amount Bush is requesting in his latest “supplemental” bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Supplementals are the accounting deceptions that hide how the United States spends more on its $600 billion military than all other nations combined. The latest supplemental will bring the cumulative cost of Iraq and Afghanistan to $438 billion by midyear, and past the half-trillion dollar mark by the time American deaths in Iraq alone are likely to exceed all those of 9/11, in time for Christmas. Read the full column ...