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From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 20:13:00 EST

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The Savage  Carnival
By John  Cory
t r u t h o u t | Perspective 
Monday 28 March 2005 
America has become a savage carnival of freak  show religiosity and circus 
clown politics. 
Let's call them what they are: Ghoulish  Obscene Panderers. How else to 
describe Tom Delay and Bill Frist, et  al., as they crawl into bed with a 
brain-dead woman to pose for a  political Polaroid? 
If Bill Frist is the paragon of  compassionate-conservative medicine in this 
country, it is no wonder the  GOP wants to do away with trial lawyers and 
medical malpractice awards.  I mean, if Dr. Frist can diagnose via video, surely 
we can all be  diagnosed and healed by touching the magic screens of our 
televisions,  powered by the celebrated and all knowing all-powerful Dr. Oz and his  
media-evangelists, cured through Our Lady of the Sacred Cable Cathedral  and 
the Holy Order of St. Arbitron, all included in our monthly  satellite and 
cable subscription fees. Better than national healthcare.  God is good. 
And while the circus of life unfolds before  us, notice how no one 
acknowledges the rampage of giant pink elephants.  The media, like a good Ring Master, 
barks and waves, diverting our  attention to the death-defying trapeze artists, 
the bearded lady, the  two-headed boy, and the miniature fire engine loaded 
with  seltzer-spraying pundits fresh from clown college. Modern journalism  
under the Big Top. 
No one wants you to see what just happened.  They hide the fact that Congress 
passed legislation that 80 percent of  America thinks is wrong and invasive, 
that Congress passed this act with  only a minimum of congressional and senate 
membership present, which  should scare the living bejeebers out of all of 
us. What about  separation of powers? GOP is the power. What about the rule of 
law? Only  the GOP makes the law. Constitution? Just another dead document. 
What  about activist courts and judges? The GOP will tell you when activism is  
good and when the evil liberals do bad activism, and never mind the  
difference! 
Wake up America! The Republic is dead.  Welcome to the United States of 
Jesus, sponsored by the GOP Gospel Hour  Medicine Show. 
It's all a cheap savage carnival on the  midway of mendacity. If you want to 
know these people's moral values,  look no further than their pocketbook. And 
remember, George Bush says  their money is our money. Our values are their 
values. 
For every $1 we spend on education in this  country, we spend $6 on the 
defense industry. Are we really six times  more dedicated to killing than 
educating? 
While Congressional Christian Conservatives  fight to keep a brain-dead woman 
alive, they cut millions and millions  of dollars of VA Healthcare for the 
treatment of brain-injured soldiers  returning from the Iraq war, as well as 
dozens of programs intended to  help the wounded veterans and their families. Why 
are they so eager to  bury the living while digging up the dead for political 
fundraising? 
Helping the poor and homeless is called  "entitlements," while tax cuts for 
the wealthy and tax-subsidies for  corporations are considered the "America 
way." Sort of like saying that  kicking people while they are down is the best 
way to get a good shoe  shine. 
They fight to keep a brain-dead woman alive  while allowing our youngsters 
easier access to guns than to mental  healthcare. But hey, it's only ten little 
Indians in Red Lake, and  besides, Terri Schiavo is a true American. 
And like that old adage, "follow the money,"  if you watch the deposits and 
withdrawals of our moral leadership,  you'll see exactly where their values 
are, and in turn, why they  couldn't care less about your values. Because it is 
not about values, it  is about power and winning and ruling. Values are like 
congressional  ethics, flexible moral standards based on convenience and 
financial  contribution. How else to explain Democratic support of the vile and  
onerous bankruptcy legislation? I guess it's true that a conservative  Democrat is 
just a Republican in cheap clothing. 
These folks hold the Constitution as  irrelevant and Catechisms as the only 
key to America's greatness. They  want the Ten Commandments in all public 
buildings and the 12 Apostles in  Congress. They want the Virgin Mary to teach sex 
education, and they  believe in the Holy Trinity of Bush the Father, and the 
Son, and the  Holy Rove. 
Money is free speech for those who can afford  it, while "silence is golden" 
applies to the middle class and working  poor. 
So here we are, in a nation that claims to  value the sanctity of life above 
all else - even as Justice Scalia  bemoans no longer being able to put 
teenagers to death - but content  with enforcing capital punishment on mentally 
retarded prisoners. 
It's a freak show, folks. For one thin dime,  one tenth of a dollar, you can 
dance with Christian cannibals while  being baptized in the healing waters of 
the Potomac and witness the  second coming of GOP's chosen children - them 
that's got. 
It is a savage carnival that fights to keep a  brain-dead woman alive, while 
pulling the plug on democracy and the  Constitution. 
 
____________________________________
John Cory is a Vietnam veteran. He received  the Purple Heart and Bronze Star 
with V device, 1969 - 1970.  
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