Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Beware The Opportunivores
When your Angry Buddhist was on his annual trek for deeper wisdom far in the backcountry of Yosemite's High Sierras not that many years ago, the noble and learned National Park Ranger taught our humble group about the Opportunivores of the wild.They were the animals who based their existence and survival by feasting on the carcasses of others. They took every advantage of illness, weakness or injury as their means of doing business.
In the big "Lion King" circle of life one comes to understand that these Opportunivores are necessary in an evolutionary recycling kind of way. Not exactly a "Hakuna Matada" kind of moment, but it's called wild life for a reason now, ain't it?
The thing about the Opportunivores of the wild is that they don't just dine on the dead. They will happily eat out of garbage cans. They'll break into your car if they smell food. They'll steal your backpack, they'll swoop down and swipe your sandwich or bag of chips off the picnic table if you turn your back.
The trained outdoorsmen knows to be on their guard with their food, not to leave any in the car, or untended or to turn one's back on one's Doritos.
But human beings, no matter how poor and unfortunate their circumstances, no matter how alien they may seem to you in your lofty, lucky sperm club fantasy life, are not animals. And if we are going to pretend that we live in some semblance of an advanced civilization then the shocking reality of what we've all seen on TV for the last two weeks must serve as a defining moment for change.
But we by no means live in a civilized society. In fact, we live in a very primitive society ruled by fear, superstition and above all greed.
That's why instead of this being a defining moment of change, this is instead feeding time for the Opportunivores. And let me tell you baby, they are licking their chops.
As I've previously mentioned, Halliburton has already scored a no bid contract. So too now has Bechtel and Fluor Group. The Angry Buddhist can easily visualized their razor sharp talons tainted with first blood and hungry for much more.
Former FEMA head Joe Allbaugh is already generating cash flow off Katrina before the body count is even close to complete. Animal instinct will have "Heck Of A Job Brownie" at that feeding hole soon enough as well. He can smell dinner from where he's sitting.
Billions of bucks are now available to try and repair... the President's image and ratings, and all the usual suspects are salivating over the prospect of the body in the backcounty.
$62 billion rush approved for the Opportunavores to feast on with no oversight in sight.
But they wouldn't be living up to their full Opportunavore potential if while getting fat and happy off this death and destruction they weren't at the same time getting to screw the workers they hire to do the actual work they'll be profiting off of.
That's where Bush's executive order allowing companies to pay their workers below the legal prevailing wage rears its Opportunivore head. This way they get to screw both working folks and unions in one slick move.
Bush suspended the 74 year old Davis-Bacon Act that requires that companies or agencies employing workers with federal monies pay at least the prevailing wage in any given area. The wage is to be based on the amount "determined by the Secretary of Labor to be prevailing for the corresponding classes of laborers and mechanics employed on projects of a character similar to the contract work in the city, town, village or other civil subdivisionÂ…"
But as Brendan Coyne writes in his excellent, "Bush Suspends Prevailing Wage Laws for Katrina Clean Up":
The order, which drew outrage from labor leaders, follows letters urging the action from Republican representatives and an anti-tax group.You've got to love Grover Norquist, one of the world's most dedicated Opportunivores, while others are pointing fingers, Grover is chewing the fingers off those who work with their hands.
Last week, Americans for Tax Reform, an organization founded by long-time Republican activists Grover Norquist, sent Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao a letter asking that she suspend the Davis-Bacon Act in order to free taxpayers from paying too much for the disaster clean up and management. Wednesday, Representatives Tom Feeney (R-Florida), Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colorado), sent Bush a similar letter, stating that the Act drives costs up and "effectively discriminates against non-union contractors."
Just as you have to love Bush's leadership...of the oil industry as he moved swiftly and decisively early in the disaster to immediately suspend air pollution regulations.
The price of gasoline has increased 50% in just the last year and amazingly, the oil Opportunivores have had their greatest profits in history.Yet when the recent energy bill passed it gave all these same companies incredible tax breaks. And while an advanced civilized society in the 21st century would be giving out tax breaks only for clean burning, renewable forms of energy, the primitive Opportunivores scarf down fresh pork when no corpse meat is around. Just look at the recent transportation bill and how many obscene payoffs were part of it.
And back in the disaster zone....
The rich white people who have always owned and run New Orleans are classic Southern Opportunivores who see Katrina as divine intervention - having cleaned out the black ghettos better than any wet dream they ever had, either killing the poor black folks they despised or scattering them to every state in the country... probably never to return, never to vote against Republicans again.
The rich white folk live in a different world that even hurricanes, storm surges and epic flooding do not fuck with. Their families have been Opportunivores going back to the slave trade days.
For them disasters are mostly inconveniences that can be remedied by throwing money at them.
Thus the rich who run New Orleans drink their cocktails on the balconies of their unscathed mansions protected by their private army of Israeli security guards. They helicopter in and out at will and suffer no communications breakdowns as they plan the future of the new New Orleans, the one whose carcasses have been all been picked clean and eliminated by the Opportunivores.
No, gentle followers, your Angry Buddhist does not engage in hyperbole with these tales for far too man know they are true and none other than the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, September 8 ran the inside scoop in their front page story, "Old-Line Families Escape Worst of Flood And Plot the Future" (click on this blog's headline to read the story)
The green expanse of Audubon Park, in the city's Uptown area, has doubled in recent days as a heliport for the city's rich -- and a terminus for the small armies of private security guards who have been dispatched to keep the homes there safe and habitable. Mr. O'Dwyer has cellphone service and ice cubes to cool off his highballs in the evening.Of course that is just New Orleans and the few, relatively small time Opportunivores preying on that beleagured city. Sure, they managed to get all the poor, black Democrats out of town to never vote in local elections again, but that's petty stuff compared to what the really big beasts lay in wait to do.
By yesterday, the city water service even sprang to life, making the daily trips to his neighbor's pool unnecessary. A pair of oil-company engineers, dispatched by his son-in-law, delivered four cases of water, a box of delicacies including herring with mustard sauce and 15 gallons of generator gasoline.
Despite the disaster that has overwhelmed New Orleans, the city's monied, mostly white elite is hanging on and maneuvering to play a role in the recovery when the floodwaters of Katrina are gone. "New Orleans is ready to be rebuilt. Let's start right here," says Mr. O'Dwyer, standing in his expansive kitchen, next to a counter covered with a jumble of weaponry and electric wires.
The far larger, far more dangerous Opportunivores who rip at the very flesh of America's body whenever it is down and weakened.
Like, on 9-11 when America was injured and hurt and confused. That's pretty much an Opportunivore's fantasy come true and they came out of the woodwork to give the government the kind of abusive powers and unlimited access they only previously fantasized about.
Opportunivores begat Homeland Security and the many laws passed that came straight out Orwell's 1984.
Meanwhile Opportunivores scammed money intended for victims and profiteered with other money meant to make us safer and prevent future disasters. Just as they are doing with the Katrina money.
But what are we to do with the Opportunivores who try to steal our personal rights and freedoms? Who try to drill or mine or otherwise extract the natural resources that to enrich themselves from our National Parks and the protected lands we set aside for future generations?
How are we to stop these Opportunivores whose animal instincts drive them to injure, maim, kill and destroy? To provide less and less care and support for the poorest and least able among us?
Or what of the Opportunivores who while our backs are turned and most aren't watching have put forth a plan where the President would have the option of using nuclear weapons to PREEMPT a terror attack.
One thing is for certain, in Washington DC and in every state of America, the Opportunivores are not exclusively Republicans. Most, if not all, Democrats are Opportunivores too. How could they possibly raise all those millions and millions of dollars to get elected without being the most evolved Opportunivores of all?
Your Angry Buddhist says you should now watch for Bush in his speech this Thursday to use his "I take responsibility" ploy to actually try and take even more of an Opportunivore's advantage in all the areas that mean most to him.
Your Angry Buddhist advises... Patience, peace and understanding on your part only emboldens and encourages Opportunivores to do more of what they do best.
There is only one way to defeat Opportunivores.
They must be overwhelmed by a relentless offense attack launched by seemingly endless numbers of fearless enemies who will not rest until they drive the oppressors from their environment.
