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How Bush Will Interpret
The Omens Before His State Of
The Union Sermon

By Abullisan wal-Qalem

10 January, 2006
Countercurrents.org

2006 has started on a disastrous note for President George Bush, the man who has a hotline to God. It will be interested to analyze how our evangelical-fundamentalist President will read these strings of bad omens. We will soon be enlightened on the new revelations he has received through the hotline, when the President delivers his upcoming State of the Union Address. One of the leaders of his camp, Pat Robertson is already warning the President to beware of the Divine Wrath. The God has already striken down Sharon with a stroke, Robertson declared, because Sharon has ignored the biblical lesson of ethnic-cleansing of Cananites and showed a weakening of his resolve against the descendants of Cananites, the Palestinians.

The first major sign was the Abramoffgate. Jack Abramoff's much awaited and anticipated guilty plea was entered in a Washington Court on a cold winter morning on approximately the 3rd of January, 2006 CE. Approximately, because the dates and months were changed a few times when the Julian calendar was being adjusted by the Popes Gregory XIII and it appears that, contrary to Robertson's beliefs, Jesus was actually born 4 years before he is believed to have been born. The act was repeated the next day in a Federal court. In return for a reduced prison term Abramoff and his partner will "sing" against their powerful friends in the government.

Abramoff's singing is sure to affect the sleep of many mighty men and some mighty women all across the US and the Middle East. In Washington two congressmen and three Congressional staffers are already under investigation according to the plea details made public today. Many more at both at the capitol and in the white house are expected to join the long list of neo-insomniacs. The same will hold true for many Federal bureaucrats such as David Saffavian, who has already been charged, and many State level politicians.

In Iran and Syria the powers that be will sleep a little easier now that the saber-rattling Bush administration is going to be under siege itself and therefore distracted from new overseas adventures.

The Administration and its spin-masters were hoping that with the Iraqi elections having been accomplished with relatively less violence and with the American economy improving, the President’s falling fortunes and popularity ratings would finally make a complete U turn in the new year. The Republican members of Congress who are up for reelection were sighing with relief.

But it seems that the President's run of bad-luck is not over. The domestic news are focusing not on an improving economy but on the government breaking its own law and spying on its citizens and on the Congress rebelling against the Patriot act

The dramatic increase in the body count in Iraq was the second sign. The “successful” holding of elections in Iraq have created a new headache with the less than satisfactory results. The American backed "secular" Shia parties and their leaders Chalabi and Allawi have suffered ignominious defeats. There is no end in sight for the insurgency in Iraq.

Sharon's stroke was the third sign adding to the president's strokes of bad luck. In the Middle East, the leader on whom Mr. Bush has been relying so heavily, Prime minister Sharon who is despised by Muslims for massacring Palestinians in Qibya, Gaza, Beirut and Jenin but loved by Bush and Pat Roberstson, is fighting a losing battle for his life. Abbas' lack of authority and power and Sharon's wish to unilaterally scrape the "road map” had already pushed the region to the brink of a greater abyss.

Sharon will be old news soon but the saga of the mother of all scandals to hit the Congress- Abramoffgate has just begun.

In the summer, at a time when the American public's attention should be getting drawn to the approaching elections, the trial of Scooter Libby and Jack Abramoff will be starting. The Republicans will be suffering from insomnia and anxiety attacks.

Politicians from the President down to state legislators are trying to distance themselves away from Abramoff and Delay. Even Jewish leaders have started to disown this once powerful member of the community as evident by a rabbinical fatwa on the Virtual Talmud Blog on Beliefnet.com ( http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/virtualtalmud/
2006/01/jewish-lesson-in-abramoffs-misdeeds.html)

The Abramoffgate scandal is breathtaking and disturbing in its hugeness. The huge number of people from the legislative and executive branches at the State and national levels, who are said to be complicit, the obscene amounts of money involved, the arrogance and greed exhibited by the culprits, is sure to shock a nation that has become desensitized to corruption in politics.

Explosive terms such as corruption, bribes, double dealing, fraud, racketeering, illegal contracts, money laundering, bank fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and obstruction of justice involving the most high and mighty and mostly from within the Republican Party are sure to keep the public riveted to their TVs. Shockingly racist name calling by Mr. Abramoff while referring to his own clients, who he was defrauding of millions of dollars is likely to revolt the nation. The fact that he considers them to be “monkeys,” “idiots” and “troglodites” simply because they are native Americans and not white Christians or Jews are sure to shock and repulse most Americans.

Abramoff, a self-proclaimed practicing Orthodox Jew and his self-proclaimed Christian-fundamentalists friends such as Tom Delay and Ralph Reed have shown how power and money can corrupt the seemingly incorruptible. These right wing ideologues who have had a “holier than thou attitude” towards those who did not ascribe to their “moral values” but might soon be exposed as hypocrites who did not have any moral values at all.

The Bible-thumping President who it seems takes orders directly from God Himself is ironically being undermined by Divine predicaments such as hurricanes and the fallibility of his aide-de-camps. These are surely the signs indicative of the last days as many in his party might say.

The Abramoffgate scandal has the potential to change the way politics are run in this country, both at the local and the national level. But its far reaching ramifications will extend well beyond the shores of this continent.

The President and his war party had once again started issuing belligerent demands to the besieged Syrian regime. Timetable for regime changes were being advanced. Former vice-president Abd al-Halim Khaddam the old loyalist hatchet man of the bloodthirsty Assad clan was being reinvented as an acceptable alternative to his erstwhile masters. Bashar al Assad was having nightmares if and when he could get some sleep. Now he can sleep a little better.

After the “successful” elections of Iraq, the war drums against Iran had again started to beat. Under pressure from Israel and according to the “vision” of the neo-conservatives, the Iranian nuclear installations were being brought into the cross-hairs of the awesome US air and naval armada. Tremendous pressure was being brought to bear on Turkey in the last few weeks to force it to take sides against its neighbor. The anti-Israeli rhetoric of the politically naive hardliner President of Iran and Iran’s growing rift with Russia on the Iranian nuclear plants were all being interpreted as good omens from the Almighty himself.

But the President must be perplexed by the confusing and conflicting signals from the heavens. The irony of the Iraqi elections, the reversal of the ill fortunes and the wining of reprieve by his evil Iranian enemies are part of these confusing signs. Russia with its ill-timed gas-pipes rattling alarmed the energy-dependent Europeans, and was itself forced into a defensive corner just as it assumed the leadership of G-8 with promises of providing energy security. It will need the Iranian game to be a drawn-out affair to stack up its cards. When the President had first looked into the eyes of Vladimir Putin he had actually looked into his soul. Only then did he call Vladimir his friend. But friend-Vladimir is acting confused and confusingly.

Bush should have been confused a long time ago, that is, if he was really thinking. His neo-con allies, who supported McCain's candidacy in the 2000 Republican primaries hold a belief that Israel, to ensure its survival, needs to subjugate, divide and control its neighbors. The President's co-religionists believe the same thing but only to ensure its eventual self-destruction. For, according to the fundamentalist evangelical belief, Israel's existence is a precondition for the second coming of Jesus. Jesus will then convert the Jews to good Christians! Surely, our "moral" President must have pondered who is morally right, the neo-cons or the evangelists?

No one can blame the President if he is heard muttering "strange are the ways of Lord" Even a person who is used to thinking would be confused with all these confusing signs. But aren’t the confusing signs themselves a sign of the Last Days?

The Abramoffgate scandal might still end up pushing the President to take military action in Syria or Iran or both so that he might use it as a cover and distraction from his domestic war. He will of course not attribute this to political expediency but to divine inspiration. Stranger will be the coming days and fearsome and fascinating too. Surely the signs abound but who knows what they say? So my dear readers: keep all fingers crossed. And Muslims and Hindus and other such people, please don’t bother to object to my use of Christian religious symbols. After all America is exclusively a Judeo-Christian country. Who says so? Well the President, Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff and yes Bill O Rielly say so.

So, keep your fingers crossed and wait for the President's State of the Union Sermon.

Abullisan wal-Qalem is a civil rights activist

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