Accidental Blogger

Readers may have noticed a paucity of political posts and a preponderance of art and culture related writings on the blog in the last week or so.  It is not because I am not thinking of politics. I am – almost all the time. But I am numb, exhausted, bereft and too demoralized to collect my thoughts into cogent commentary.

My mind criss-crosses the devastated landscape of our national and political scene and comes to the unmistakable realization that there are not enough checks and balances in our system to counter the toxic effects of putting grossly incompetent leaders at the helm. The Bush administration and the usual culprits in its midst, have by their own misdeeds, facilitated corruption and incompetence in all other branches of our government. Executive missteps have been so many and the mischief so pervasive that one doesn’t know where to begin. What have I been thinking of but cannot bring myself to write about in a calm and collected way?  Here are only a few of the many thoughts that keep spinning in my brain and make me dizzy.

• I have been thinking about Haditha where US marines, who we are told, are on a mission of mercy spreading freedom and democracy, went on a rage filled rampage and killed civilians including children.
• I have been thinking of nameless soldiers and  well known journalists who continue to lose their lives and sustain serious injuries in Iraq.
• In the above two contexts, I think about right wing cheerleaders and warmongers who continue to whine that "good news" in Iraq is being blacked out by the "liberal media."
• I think disgustedly of a hypocritical and cowardly congress bent upon hiding behind the cover of "separation of powers" to keep their bipartisan corruption and thieving beyond public scrutiny.
• I think with disbelief about big name insurance companies who operate Ponzi schemes instead of being  "good neighbors" as they promise in their ads. They commit daylight robbery while an impotent and well lobbied Congress watches – taking money from customers while the sun shines and pulling up stakes and leaving town when disaster strikes.
• I have been thinking why in the recent immigration debate, we carefully account for the monetary benefits that "illegal immigrants" draw from our system but we are vague about how much we ourselves benefit from their desperation and the cheap labor they provide.
• I have also been thinking that I am exhausted from repeating the same things over and over again but see little hope of improvement any time soon. Like a refugee in a disaster zone, I am waiting to be rescued. Perhaps as early as 2006 or at least by 2008.  But the rescue is contingent upon how the clueless Dems play their presidential politics -whether they will pick the right guy or choose the wrong dame.

I could have written a substantive post on any one of the above topics but I was afraid of launching into an unseemly and enraged rant. So for the sake of etiquette, I have immersed myself of late into art, poetry, social issues and the politics of other countries.

I have also been thinking that fish rots from the head as we non-vegetarians know well. I have been wondering why it is that a country which was eager and ready to tar and feather a recent past president for a sordid personal dalliance which deserved only a few guffaws and clicking of tongues, still continues to tolerate Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld in positions of power.   But today I came across the Mother of All Rants (via Leiter Reports) and it is a beauty ! It has relieved a lot of pressure that was building up in my brain. It says everything I feel like screaming from the roof top. Thank you Will Durst ! You sure don’t need a thesaurus and I won’t try to give you a lesson in punctuation.

NOTE: Sujatha adds one more to the list of things to rant about.