[StBernard] Lee Iocacca has new book out

[Westley Annis]

The book is "Where have all the leaders gone?"  I don't think he's Mr.
Left Wing, but the excerpt is interesting...

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?
Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder.
We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over
a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't
even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But
instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when
the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the
damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and
maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this
country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass
to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack
of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut
for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business
leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're
fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know
what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard
questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours
traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not
outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have....

Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in
Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But
I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the
Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding
answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech
treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy....

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other
time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the
ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to
kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there
for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape.
You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route
back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the
panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to
the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day—and he told
Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen
in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to
tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It
took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right
photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what
did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to
Iraq—a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was
President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher
father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If
that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will....

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your
asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being
hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is
everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them
a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a
change?

Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying
to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in
America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of
America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst
crises—the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy
assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles
of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's
this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for
somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or
building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play.
That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for
people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's
getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work.
Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.