Big Brother 6: Summer of Secrets at the White House

You know me. I LOVE reality shows. But "Big Brother 6: Summer of Secrets" is kinda weird even for me. Its plot? Take a bunch of pseudo-Generation X yuppie wannabes, lock them in a house for three months, offer a one million dollar prize to the last one standing and see what happens. To quote contestant Howie, "People have been cunning, mean, cross-talking and hiding out and being treacherous and scandalous and insidious''. Yuck!

With so much money at stake, everyone in the house began stooping to whole new lows in human behavior -- dishing, back-biting, selling their friends out, whispering, plotting, having affairs off-camera, rigging votes, intimidating people and bribing them, making secret deals and... and it suddenly occurred to me.

This is just like what is going on at the White House!

Trapped in a house and not allowed to get out? Scheming, plotting and gossiping? Lying, cat-fighting, having illicit sex off camera, using people, stacking elections, bribing other players, keeping skulduggery hidden, lying wherever possible and -- did I mention scheming and sticking knives in people's backs? Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld? Are they doing a Big Brother 6 imitation? You bet! They've got that show nailed -- except that the White House houseguests' behavior is much more slimey than in the reality show because in Bush's verion of "Summer of Secrets," millions of people's lives, reputations, jobs and life savings are getting snuffed out as Cheney and Rumsfeld and Rove all compete for Head of Household -- and big bucks.

This kind of behavior may be okay on a television show but for the President [sic] of the United States, his advisers and his cabinet to behave like this too? That is totally unacceptable.

Unlike on a TV show that isn't real and can be turned off if it upsets us, we American patriots (those of us who still foolishly believe in democracy and freedom that is) don't have that option. "Hey, I gotta go raid the refrigerator. I'm turning this crap off!" is not an option for us. No, we have to sit by and watch helplessly while Bush Republicans play Big Brother games at our expense and subject our country to a VERY down-and-dirty Summer of Secrets. That's just wrong.

As contestant Maggie said, "There are people who don't care about their word in this game."

As moderator Julie Chen commented, "Safety is never a sure thing in the Big Brother house."

As contestant Rachel said, "He's a dirty play. We gotta get him out of the way."

PS: Finland has a law where every single government document must be available for public scrutiny. No secrets there. There are no Big Brother schemes and mendacity and obfuscation in Finland. If we had that law here, the White House wouldn't have been able to hide the WMD lies, the Gannon sex cover-up, the betrayal of a CIA agent, the Downing Street memos, the constant plotting of illegal wars, the crimes against our environment and our national parks, the drug company scandals and give-aways, the full-scale looting of Social Security, the disappearing John Roberts White House records, the electronic voting scams, the Enron mess....

There's no secret here. I want a law like Finland has!

PPS: Contestant Kaysar Ridha was voted back into the Big Brother 6 house this week. Five million Americans voted on who they wanted to return to the house and 82% of them voted for him. The kicker? Kaysar was born in Iraq! America votes in many ways, George. Is America trying to TELL you something here? Like that you should be evicted from the White House? And sent back to Camp Crawford? Or to jail?