Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

The most disgusting comments, in view of his position as a Congressman representing Harlem, the best-known African American district in America, came from Charles Rangel.  "You don't come into my country," Rangel scolded, "you don't come into my congressional district ... (and) condemn my president."

Rangel should put his remarks to an acid test by visiting his African American constituents and ask them whether they consider Bush to be their president.  How about the 2000 election, Mr. Rangel, and the widespread deprivation of voting rights flagrantly occurring in Florida through the policies of the Bush brothers in Florida?  

How about the number of discarded votes by those who cast them under the phony pretext of imperfect chads when experts conceded that the problem stemmed from antiquated and defectively serviced machines?  Did your "president" win that election, Mr. Rangel?  Ask your constituents if they think that Bush won.

Let us move four years forward, Mr. Rangel, to the 2004 election.  The Cheney-Bush Junta's man on the scene, Ohio's Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, initiated a grand theft that has been documented in a report of one of your fellow House members, John Conyers, as well as by unintimidated patriots such as Bob Fitzrakis and Kathy Dopp.  

Blackwell was assisted by Walden Dell, Diebold's CEO, who declared before the 2004 election season began his intention to do all he could to insure a Bush victory.  Take a look at those lopsided Bush winning margins in those districts where Diebold voting machines were used, Mr. Rangel.

Also take a look at what happened to African Americans from working class districts of Cleveland who were forced to stand in long lines for hours in a driving rainstorm amid winter cold.  There were no such lines in more affluent white districts, Mr. Rangel.  This conduct marks your president and his team in action.    

If you do not detect a foul scent from any of the foregoing, Mr. Rangel, please ask your constituents what they think.  When Chavez, while in your city of New York, was asked abut criticizing America's president he answered that Bush was never elected and rules instead as a dictator.  

I suggest you conduct a poll among your constituents and determine whether they agree with your position or that of Venezuela's president.

Was the Cheney-Bush rush to war in Iraq democratic?  You and your colleagues were bamboozled by lies on that one, Mr. Rangel.  You believed Cheney and Bush.  Have the Cheney-Bush tax cuts been good for your district, Mr. Rangel?  

Poverty has increased by leaps and bounds under this Ruling Junta's watch and African Americans have been in the forefront of intense suffering.  I see it daily on the streets of Seattle, where the streets include increasing numbers of homeless people, many of whom are African Americans.  Unless you are wearing blinders you ought to be seeing the same thing in your district, Mr. Rangel.  

Now just who is going over to Iraq to get bogged down in a hopeless quagmire?  Is it the Bush twins, Mr. Rangel, or Donald Rumsfeld's grandchildren?  No, it's the sons and daughters of the urban and rural poor who, in the manner of the Great Depression, joined the military due to an absence of options.  

How about those Halliburton no-bid contracts, Mr. Rangel?  Why don't you stop bellyaching about Chavez and do something constructive, such as presenting articles of impeachment against an unelected chief executive wallowing along with his cronies in a sea of corruption while the U.S. Constitution is systematically shredded?  

We now turn to Nancy Pelosi.  She referred to Chavez as "an everyday thug."  You have a super rich husband, Ms. Pelosi.  You haven't been exposed to the suffering Chavez has seen daily in his nation, and is constructively seeking to correct.  

Where were you, Ms. Pelosi, when you should have been taking the time to read the Patriot Act before casting a yes vote on legislation that is inimical to freedom and liberty and spits on the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution?  Chavez is not to blame for this shameful tragedy, Ms. Pelosi; that shame resides with you and your colleagues.

You call Chavez a thug, Ms. Pelosi, and find his "devil" reference to Bush unconscionable.  Did Chavez send Americans into Iraq, with defective equipment no less, and at an inadequate pay scale to invade a nation that was no threat to our basic security on a tissue of lies?  

Bush even held up his fist when the first bombs were falling on Baghdad and exclaimed, "Feels good!"  Feels good, indeed, as the costs in lives and dollars steadily increase.  The current figure according to international sources stands at over 250,000 Iraqi civilians dead.  The cost in dollars has now escalated to beyond $316 billion.  

But have no fear.  Halliburton and Bechtel continue to enrich themselves.  What do you call someone presiding over this kind of shameful record, Ms. Pelosi?  You know, if any foreign leaders chalked up a record like that I'll bet you would refer to them as, well, as thugs.

We read and hear so much in the mainstream media that Republicans have achieved "victory" due to Karl Rove and Tom DeLay's strategic genius.  

They have succeeded in larger measure due to so-called "opposition" from the likes Rangel, Pelosi, and others, who follow as subservient puppies in a perceived quest for unity rather than confront - as  their constitutional duties bind them to do - the continuing untrammeled forces of pillage and plunder reeking havoc in America.

I can hear it now.  "But we need to be unified after 9/11," the Rangels and Pelosis explain with Joe Lieberman style instant piety.  How many of you have demanded that a real 9/11 investigation be launched?  

How about it, Mr. Rangel and Ms. Pelosi?  How about fewer Carville-Greenberg focus studies and just one comprehensive independent investigation into 9/11?  Hugo Chavez would have no problem with that.