Sticky in Chennai

Yes, I know this is a travel blog, but excuse me for a moment as we descend into the zany world of American politics.

This morning I had another attack of the dreaded Bush Fever. Bush Fever is the condition when your head whirls madly, your whole body gets hot and sweaty, and you begin to ramble and yelp incoherently about the fact that there is a crime boss mafia don sitting in the White House. How, why, what twisted twirk of fate let such a despicable character into the single most powerful position the world has ever known? Why Why Why Why?!?!!???!

And I am not going to slip into that lazy mental trap of thinking Bush is stupid. The Bush=stupid meme is just, well, stupid. A person who is stupid is ineffective, is helpless, deserves pity, and is certainly not harmful. Bush is anything but stupid. He is incredibly effective at achieving his goals and he is a very dangerous man. To all those satirists out there who rifted on the ‘Bush=stupid’ joke during the last election: open your eyes, this is exactly the joke the Bush crime family loves the most. Who can fear a simply dumb cowboy? Actually, who can not but love the simple common cowboy? People of America, Wake up! Bush is not a character from Dumb and Dumber. He’s Darth Vader.

What set off my most recent attack of Bush Fever? Why, reading the news of course. In particular this article from the Washington Post:

Bush says takes threats from bin Laden seriously
By Caren Bohan
Reuters
Wednesday, January 25, 2006; 6:08 PM
FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he took Osama bin Laden's threats of another attack seriously and invoked the al Qaeda leader's recent audiotape to defend a domestic eavesdropping program.
"I understand there are some in America who say, 'Well this can't be true, there aren't still people willing to attack.' All I would ask them to do is listen to the words of Osama bin Laden and take him seriously," Bush said at the National Security Agency.
"When he says he's going to hurt the American people again or try to, he means it. I take it seriously and the people of NSA take it seriously and most of the American people take it seriously as well," Bush said.

Listen up people! I am exhausted by the Bush Crime Family's use of such dishonest rhetoric. The critics of the Bush Crime Family are up in arms because the domestic wiretap program is ILLEGAL, because it violates the US Constitution on a very fundamental level. No one ever said we are against the wiretaps because we think Bin Laden doesn’t want to kill us. But Bush knows this. His speechwriters know this.

Know that this is called the straw man attack. It s when you attack an intentionally distorted depiction of your critic’s arguments as opposed to their actual arguments. (You attack the ‘straw man’ as opposed to the real man. I understand that straw men go down real easy.) The above article is great for Bush, because if there is a reader who does not know his critics’ perspective well, he will think: “My God! Do the Democrats really think Bin Laden is not going to attack! What buffoons! We need those wiretaps! The Democrats just can not be trusted with security!”

I want a world where everyone knows the term ‘straw man attack.’ And when someone in a very important position of power uses a straw man attack there should be a headline in the Washington Post that reads : “Bush Uses Deceptive Straw man Attack in Attempt to Counter Critics.” Because that is the real story in this article.
Oy. No. I feel another attack of Bush Fever coming on. I have to go. Arrggghhh!!!!!