Nightmares

Am I dreaming? Instead of binding international treaties, President Bush, according to a top administration official, favors controlling global warming by letting each country “make a contribution consistent with its national circumstances.” Does he favor the same approach to nuclear arms control? Forget treaties. Should each sovereign state decide what it does with its warheads “consistent with its national circumstances”? And is that why he is dissing the United Nations by holding a global warming meeting at the same time the U.N. is?

Am I dreaming? Are we, as the American Friends (Quakers) tally, spending $720 million a day, more than $250 billion a year, on the Iraq war at the same time the president threatens to veto an additional $5 billion a year for children’s health insurance?

Am I dreaming? Did Hillary REALLY say that she favors public funding as the only way she and her other campaigners can avoid taking tainted money from shady characters? Is her defense really “The others are doing it too”? And is that true? What does that say about the state of politics?

Am I dreaming? Was that Rudy Giuliani pandering to the National Rifle Association by saying he was for gun control when he was mayor but he’s kinda not for it now? Or was that Mitt Romney on abortion?

Am I dreaming? Is that Chuck Schumer and the other Democrats rolling over and playing dead while the White House nominates for attorney general a man who favors  the presidential power to indefinitely detain an American citizen? I’m talking about former federal judge Michael Mukasey, whose main qualification for the new gig is that he would be following a really, really bad act.

Am I dreaming? Did the same airlines who put travelers through pure hell these last few months actually report increased profits while doing so? Is that why we stay with this deregulated customer-be-damned system?

Am I dreaming, speaking of air travel, that nuclear armed missiles flew around this country, thanks to an almost comical series of blunders by the low-level grunts who are given responsibility for all those “failsafe” assurances we get from our high-level military leaders? You know: The ones who are supposed to protect us from annihilation.

Am I dreaming? I need to wake up. We all need to wake up.