“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Is it possible to become completely inured to the travesty and lies which have become our government? I read things on a daily basis, and find sometimes that I have to will myself to see them as important, in the grand scheme of things. In any other administration, these would be scandal enough. Today, they are ignored as simply standard news.

1. The Washington Post reports that oil executives were indeed part of Cheney’s secret energy task force. So? Well as recently as last week the oil executives denied this before congress (though the republican majority would not have them, as would be normal, sworn in before testifying). Basically, we’ve always known this, despite Cheney’s repeated denial. While the country was suffering under the largest increase in gas prices in it’s history, the oil companies were making record profits.
2. The General Accounting Office shows that a decision was made by the Food and Drug administration to restrict access to a “Morning After” pill for political reasons, before the usual scientific reviews were even completed.
3. The administration has already spent us so far into debt, according to comptroller general of the United States, that we may never be able to recover from it.
4. Our government is maintaining secret prisons overseas, many leftovers from the soviet gulags, and our Senate Majority leader is more concerned about how this information became known, rather than the violation of international standards, not to mention our own laws, it represents.

5. Investigators for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have shown the former chairman (who resigned recently, just before this report came out) broke numerous laws in hiring, and isolating the corporation from political influence, using his illegally to advance a conservative agenda.
6. Republican Sources are reporting that the president is behaving irrationally, not talking to his own advisors:

   The president’s reclusiveness in the face of relentless public scrutiny of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and White House leaks regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame has become so extreme that Mr. Bush has also reduced contact with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, administration sources said on the condition of anonymity.

   The sources said Mr. Bush maintains daily contact with only four people: first lady Laura Bush, his mother, Barbara Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes. The sources also say that Mr. Bush has stopped talking with his father, except on family occasions.

   Am I unreasonable to be alarmed that a president, defensive and uninformed at the best of times, is withdrawing from regular contact with anyone except his mommy, and three mommy surrogates?

7. The CIA has used foreign airports for illegal transportation of detainees, without the knowledge of their government, causing our nominal allies to attack us:

   The Spanish government had no knowledge of the alleged flights but a judge was investigating them, Alonso told Spanish television channel Telecinco.

   “If it were confirmed that this is true, we would be looking at very serious, intolerable deeds because they break the basic rules of treating people in a democratic legal and political system,”

8. The Pentagon, after first denying it, has admitted to using chemical weapons in Fallujah. In this case White Phosphorus, which when used correctly can illuminate a battlefield, but when fired at people, sticks to the skin, burning and maiming.
   Didn’t we invade Iraq because of Saddam’s inhuman use of chemical weapons? (Or was it because of 9/11, or Nuclear weapon production, or to bring democracy, or whatever lie is being told today.)

There are daily outrages such as these, with no critical response in the media, no coordinated attempt to investigate.

Meanwhile, the current death total for American Service Personnel stands at 2072. (Remember less than three weeks ago the news of it passing 2000?) Add to this the approximately 280 civilian “contractors” of the military that have been killed
(Convenient how these numbers never make the official death totals). That gives a total of 2352 American deaths alone in Iraq. The total casualties from 9/11 were approximately 2986. How long before the administration manages to kill more Americans in this war than Al Qaeda managed? This means ignoring, of course, the 10’s of thousands of Iraqi dead, the tens of thousands of American wounded, the wounded and dead from our allies, and the untold devastation in Iraq.

How can we let ourselves become inured to this?