THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Executive Privilege and Privileged Executives

By James Clingman, NNPA Columnist
October 10, 2005 talkback

We have heard of executive privilege and have seen it in action several times, especially now that arrogance reigns in the White House. Our president exercises his executive privileges, and passes them on to his buddies in the private sector as well. The attitudes and actions of privileged executives are in-your-face, I-don't-care-about-you, and you-can-kiss-my-assets-and-go-to-hell.

Current political policies are a death sentence to Black and poor people in this country. The president travels across the country talking about why we should support the war in Iraq, all the while apparently not believing that the majority of the population is telling him what he can do with his war, as New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport, and Mobile drown. He finally "cuts his vacation short" and wants us to be impressed about it.

That's what Bush executive privilege is all about; and you thought it was simply about signing orders or withholding information from the public. This guy flies over the gulf coast and then holds a press briefing telling us what we already know. In addition to rattling off numbers meals and other items he says will arrive in New Orleans, oh about four days too late. He has to read everything he says, even his regrets and sympathies to families that have lost loved ones. I suppose his executive privilege dictates his reaction to the recent hurricane devastation. Seems to me, as I recall, it was bit different when hurricanes hit his brother's state of Florida.

Executive privilege by privileged executives like Bush, Ken Lay, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others is both appalling and enlightening. People in this country are on the brink of starvation and epidemic, wandering through the streets like Darfurians, Rwandans, and Haitians (Hmmm, I wonder why all of those groups happen to be Black), and Bush comes to the rescue four days late seeking credit for doing what we pay him to do. The hugging and kissing photo opportunities were great.

Executive privilege supports lying, cheating, deceit, and arrogance of the highest degree. It allows the spending of a billion dollars per week on a stupid war, but not even a million per week on our own citizens who are stranded, stricken, and suffering from Hurricane Katrina. Water, so plentiful in this country is not even available to those who desperately need it. Food, in this land of bounty, is scarce and in short supply for the children caught in this quagmire. Executive privilege allows "fly-overs" and shallow speeches. Privileged executives continue to watch the big board at the New York Stock Exchange and applaud after the day's trading is over, especially the oil and drug execs.

The juxtaposition of the tragedy along the gulf coast against multi-million dollar earning CEO 's getting raises and making even more in Bush's compassionate economy suggests a decadent and Nero-like society teetering on the edge of destruction. All the signs are there. How we treat the least among us is the determining factor in whether we will be treated kindly. But we get the leadership we deserve, don't we?

George Bush and his men of ill repute are now in their second term. They have lied to us and caused untold numbers of people to be killed in their war, yet they are still in charge. They have not been indicted; Bush has not been impeached, as Clinton was for lying about an affair; and now another Bush waits in the wings to be crowned leader of this country. We get the leadership we deserve.

Executive privilege among privileged executives will be the ultimate demise of this country because as it says in Ecclesiastes 5:10, "Whoever loves money, never has money enough, whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income" Many of our billionaire privileged executives will go to their graves thinking their money will be their salvation. They will continue to overcharge and rip people off in the midst of devastation. They will pass laws that negatively affect the poor and disenfranchised, while increasing their own assets. They will stand before us and lie to our faces, eat caviar and drink champagne, and watch thousands of their brothers and sisters wade through infested waters trying to survive. They will shake their heads and wag their fingers at poor people ripping off abandoned Wal-Mart stores, while they rip off entire countries for their oil and other valuable resources.

Privileged executives, buoyed by executive privilege, are just plain greedy, aloof, and despicable. They do flyovers rather than parachute drops; they do press briefings instead of pressing into action; they read from Teleprompters rather than speak from their hearts (If they have hearts); they are patronizing rather than patriotic; they are rhetorical instead of real; they are sarcastic rather than sacrificial; they are condescending rather than conscious; they are evil rather than good.

We had better awaken from our comatose state real soon, brothers and sisters. We may as well accept the fact that we are not high on the agenda of those who run this country. We must deal with the fact that some of our more prominent brothers and sisters have sold us out and continue to do so, as they follow and praise a guy like George Bush, despite all that he has done and now in the face of what he has not done. We may as well deal with the fact that some of our black preachers are closely tied to Bush and continue to support his sinfulness simply for money and the "privilege" of dining with him.

We must face these realities and move with whomever we have to assure that Black people in the U.S. do not become extinct. Look at New Orleans and ask yourself: "Do we have a choice?"

// posted by montag @ 6:28 PM