Sea Street

TREASON

Arrest of Bush and Cheney on charges of treason

For over twenty years I've walked on the Cape Cod Canal four or five days a week and in the course of this time I've made many friends. Prior to Barack Obama's inaugural, two of them said to me (practically in unison), "Barack should take the oath and then immediately order the arrest of Bush and Cheney on charges of treason."

This is a sentiment that many people share but I think certain things should be considered. First of all, we have to consider Texas and its part in this. George Bush is a Texan; you can tell it by his syntax and his malapropisms, in spite of the fact that he is descended from an old New England family. He is a distant cousin to Senator Kerry whose mother's family dates from colonial times. Heritage is everything but being raised in Texas can cancel it out. My younger half brother, Dennis, is descended from an old Midwestern family (Illinois) and yet he was raised in West Virginia. He's as different as night and day from my brother, James, and I. Half the time we can't understand a word he says.

In Huntington, West Virginia where I met my wife, Karen, I asked the next-door neighbor, a schoolteacher, what he taught and he said, "Ah tach spach."

"What," I said.

"Spach," he replied.

Of course he meant "Speech". The irony of this explains a lot. In another instance: One fine spring day while walking to the park I passed a lady sweeping the sidewalk in front of her house. "It's a fine day for May," I said to her.

To which she replied, "It's a fine day for mah too."

Anyway, back to Texas-as I said, environment is everything. I have some acquaintance with Texas. My stepfather was in the oil business in Midland, George Bush's hometown. He drilled ten dry holes in a row in the McElroy Field. (See Chapter Sixteen-A RED STATE HERO) and I've driven across Texas more than once and can say that of the thirty-one states in the Union that I've lived or played music in, Texas is absolutely the most boring, tedious humorless place I've ever been. In my experience that explains, to a large degree, the character of its people. I've found that states with nice scenery have nicer people while states in the flatlands produce lots of aggressive, violent types; so the tradition of gunslinger and the tradition of shootouts at high noon are cherished Texas traditions.

This state of mind explains, to a large degree, George Bush's presidency. He came into office vowing to be a "compassionate conservative" but 9/11 turned him into Gary Cooper; and he loved to play the part. "Let's shoot first and ask questions later." For a short period of time he became America's savior. I said to my wife when this happened, "Nine Eleven is the best gift George Bush could have ever received." But in the greatest irony of all, 9/11 should have never happened and anyone who has flown El Al Airlines knows why. The Israeli's don't fool around. You'll be searched if you fly El Al, thoroughly searched. Of course, if you're Jewish you'll also be approached by the Hasidim and asked to strap on a Tefillin and recite prayers in Hebrew. That's a small price to pay to be a passenger on the safest, best maintained and best piloted airline in the world. An airline with not one passenger death or injury in its history. Contrast that with the situation at Logan prior to 9/11.

One week before 9/11, my daughter, Rachel, arrived on the very same L.A. to Boston flight that the hijackers used. As I waited for her, I noticed how sloppy the non-English speaking baggage checkers were. I also noticed that one of them was sitting in a chair propped against the wall sound asleep. When the supervisor came around, he began to shout at this young man in Arabic. After 9/11, I called the FBI in Boston and reported this incident. I never heard from anyone. Not enough has been said about this, not enough has been said about the deregulation of the airlines which was largely responsible for this. Not enough has been said about the boneheaded, stupidity of the people at Logan.

In any case, George Bush, who already thought of himself as a cowboy, began to see himself as the savior of America. What's a few Civil Liberties compared to a mission like that. I recently saw the movie Appaloosa wherein Ed Harris and his sidekick were hired to save a town from evil. In no time at all, they were depriving citizens of their Rights. It comes with the territory and its an international phenomenon, it's the basic story of several Kurosawa films. Toshiro Mifune, the Samurai, shows up and a few weeks later there's peace in the village. Of course, everyone is dead. This same scenario plays out in Latin America with epic proportions. Currently, Caesar Chavez is playing the role. So with all these factors inherent in George Bush's situation I don't really know if the country has been his victim or if he has been the victim of the "shootout culture".

"Does he know what he's done? Does he know he's an idiot"

The question is, "Does he know what he's done? Does he know he's an idiot? Does he know that he's clueless? Does he know that he's a jerk?" As in the time that he mockingly searched for Weapons of Mass Destruction under the tables at a banquet in Washington. The following quote is from Ben Bradley of the New York Times. "He's a cocky but bumbling fellow, trapped forever in puberty, always eager to play and eternally armored in the self-assurance that often goes with a lack of self-knowledge. He is given to jaw-dropping malapropisms and misinterpretations, and he has a raunchy exhibitionist streak. He is, in other words, a typical leading man from a Will Ferrell comedy."

The third irony of this piece is the cowardly yellow-livered behavior of a president and vice president who did no military service. As someone who did a tour of duty in Korea, I can't stomach the fact that Cheney said, "I had other plans" when asked about his military service. Instead of serving in the military, he became an obstreperous and opportunistic ass in a time of war.

Congressman Conyers and Senator Leahy want to hold Hearings about the President lying us into an unnecessary war, about illegal wire taping, about torture, etc.

But I don't think investigating these fools is part of Barack Obama's design. After all, Barack Obama himself, is tiptoeing down the same path that Bush has taken. His Justice Department was recently in Court to block the right of Habeas Corpus for certain "terrorist" prisoners. In the middle of the night Rahm Emanuel, his Chief of Staff, moved the headquarters of the Census from the Commerce Department to the White House. The Census, according to the Constitution, is to be non-political. After all, manipulating the Census can change the makeup of Congress. Imagine the outcry if this had been done during the Bush Administration by Karl Rove.

The Media has been peculiarly silent on these matters. Don't worry, Barack, the Media that got you elected will ultimately turn on you. If Hearings did proceed, we would all have to hear endless speeches from Republicans of every stripe. We would have to endure protest from the Fox Channel and worst of all; we would have to endure the gaseous utterings of Rush Liverwurst. God save us from all that.

The last, and final irony of all this, is that throughout my lifetime, the Republican Party has been paranoid about the threat of Communism, the threat of Liberalism and finally, the threat of Islamic Extremism. But nothing has come so close to destroying America and the Republican Party as the inept administration of George Bush. He has not only damaged America, but he has in addition, destroyed the Republican Party and, in the process, the Bush family name-turning it into a verb, as in "I've been Bushed" or "He Bushed it".

Bush and Cheney will have to live out their lives knowing what history has in store for them. George Bush will live in Dallas in a city where many of his fellow citizens have been ruined by his economic policies. The hatred will be so thick that you could cut it with a knife-he doesn't have to be tried for Treason.

Be sure to watch David Rojay on The Dan and Dad Show each Saturday night at 9:30 on Channel 17. Read A RED STATE HERO by David Rojay on capecodtoday.com. Read Sea Street-David Rojay's blog on capecodtoday.com and finally check out David Rojay on YOUTUBE. For more information, Google "David Rojay".