Thanksgiving!

The only holiday that I celebrate is Thanksgiving. I am one of those folks who is opposed to the commercialism of every other holiday. Thanksgiving stands out as the one and only that has escaped that fate. Have you ever received a Thanksgiving Day card? I think not! Do they even exist?

Thanksgiving for me is a day of celebration with your family, whether natural or reconstituted. It is a day to celebrate those things in your life, and the world, that we should all be thankful for and the Friday after is a day to celebrate our bounty and all of the food leftover from Thursday. For two whole days we celebrate our togetherness and that which we share with our friends and children. I love it.

That said, I have been seriously depressed since December 12, 2000 when SCOTUS decided to jettison democracy. After November 2004 I was bereft, just like 1972, when a majority of voters chose to, once again, elect a criminal enterprise. So, it would seem to many that this year I didn’t think that we had much to be thankful for.

This administration has dug a hole that the American public is going to have to repair. George W. and his cohorts maybe able to leave in 2009, but the rest of us will be left to clean up this terrible mess. We have the war, deficits as far as the eye can see, environmental damage, the destruction of America’s image abroad, the administration’s justification of torture, and the cleave in our social structure and citizenry.

So, beside the fact that our friends and family are resolute in our desire to be thankful for our bounty, whatever its size, and our love and support for each other in our isolated world, what do we have to be thankful for in the world at large?

It appears that the “Wheels Are Coming Off” the Criminal Enterprise that is BushCo., and the Republican controlled government. The Republican leadership is under investigation for money laundering and insider trading. Both Rep. DeLay, Majority Leader of the House who was forced to step down due to the felony charge, has been indicted and Sen. Frist, Senate Majority Leader, is being investigated.

The Administration's Poll numbers, as well as the President’s personal numbers, are dramatically down. Americans have also decided that the Adventure in Iraq isn’t quite what it was led to believe it would be and are getting disenchanted.

The Vice President’s chief aid, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been indicted for obstruction of justice, among other charges, in the Plame investigation. And U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald has a new grand jury which is continuing to investigate other administration officials, such as Karl Rove, not to mention the involvement of the Vice President, etc.

The FDA’s handling of Plan B is under scrutiny, as is the Administration’s use of Media Propaganda. That is a good thing. There is the imploding corruption scandals that the state of Ohio Republican’s are dealing with from the Governor’s office on down. This is not a good thing for the state that re-elected Junior amid voting irregularities.

The incompetence of this Administration was exposed when Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, one of the most important cities, both culturally and economically, in this country. How many administrations can boast of that?

President Bush 41’s friends are now openly trash talking Junior. Other family, friends, and employees are exposing Junior as being unhinged. After all, this is a hard job and what you do has consequences, unlike any of his other jobs. And for Junior things haven’t been going very well lately. The question is whether his father’s friends can pull him out of this mess that he has created. The world is hoping they can.

And then there is the scandal to beat all scandals. The multiple investigations of Jack Abramoff have the Republicans in Congress and the Administration pretty much crapping in there pants. Michael Scanlon, Abramoff’s partner,and former aid to Tom Delay, has copped a plea and is expected to expose the underbelly of this Republican operation. It is also expected that he might have some insight into that pesky gangland style hit in the SunCruz case that Abramoff and his other partner were indicted in for fraud.

Mr. Scanlon knows where a lot of the bodies are buried and you can bet that he would like to minimize the amount of time he spends away from his family. So, yes indeed, this is the one scandal that could devour the party and end the Rove and Norquist dream of Republican political hegemony. It has exposed the DeLay, Rove and Norquist K Street Project for what it is: extortion. For a really good rundown on Abramoff, DeLay, Norquist, Reed, SunCruz Murder, and K Street Project visit this site by the WAPO.

These are all things to be thankful for as they, hopefully, will remove from power those who are undermining our democracy. But at the same time they are a sad indication of where our nation has gone. That there is a national dialogue about torture as if it were a legitimate use of power, and our government is curtailing our liberties and civil right by suspending habeas corpus, a foundation for our democracy, among other actions taken by this administration and congress does not portend well for our future and the future of our Country.

These are sad times for the United States of America, and though we should be thankful that the Wheels of this Administration’s bus are coming off, we should be asking ourselves how did we get to this place?

That this dialogue is happening in earnest is what we can be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Once we give thanks, we need to roll up our sleeves as there is much work to do. So, let’s get to it.