When George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, William Gates, and countless other Bush administration cabinet members were killed on January 17, 2008, the United States government - as citizens knew it - had abruptly come to a halt. Wealthy industrialists, rich athletes, celebrities, corporate executives, political pundits, media moguls, and others who had way too much money and/or power and influence, had all fallen victims to the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. January bombings. Corporate America was no longer able to call on its friends in Congress for special favors or political accommodations.
When the hurricanes devastated the east coasts of America and an ungodly earthquake flattened most of Los Angeles, things came to an abrupt end. No more X-rated movies were being produced; "Hollywood" gossip sheets and "entertainment" magazines ceased publication. Corrupt politicians were buried in tons of rubble and debris, or - if their remains had been found - were quietly laid to rest in a family burial plot without the typical fanfare accompanying such a death. Those who had successfuly run for office had not been tainted by dirty politics; small businesses were quickly replacing the mammoth corporate behemoths that dominated American consumerism. WalMart was obliterated. General Motors no longer assembled automobiles. The American Broadcasting Company found itself rudderless, without leadership from its Disney corporate owners. Banks no longer had hundreds - or thousands - of locations. Most banking was done at an extremely local level, where perhaps only one or two community bank offices remained. Wall Street was all but destroyed. Madison Avenue no longer was home to multi-billion-dollar advertising agencies that preyed on the American consumer, urging him to buy this product or that service. Local store managers of national chains such as Kroger, Radio Shack, McDonald's, Edward Jones, Taco Bell, Gannett newspapers, Wells-Fargo banks, H&R Block, K-Mart, The Gap clothing stores, IBM, Verizon, and thousands of other "big" corporations, suddenly found themselves in awkward positions of authority as they made their own purchasing decisions, managed their own payrolls, and divorced themselves from the corporate hierarchies that demanded senseless weekly reports and mountains of useless paperwork. These store managers were now store owners, running their own businesses in their own communities. All those glitzy corporate headquarters had been demolished. Managers could actually focus on customer needs instead of "going through corporate" for everything from paper clips to advertising campaigns. In most cases, customers no longer had to tolerate automated voice systems or customer service representatives with Swahili accents, just to resolve a problem or correct an error. While some 'regional supervisors' tried valiantly to maintain a corporate order, most local managers simply ignored them and went about their business at an exclusively local level. In ten short months, local economies were thriving while the national economy was all but dead. The "Great Depression II" was affecting the country, to be sure - but small mom-'n-pop shops were doing brisk businesses in most regions of the country.
Politically, the landscape had seen dramatic change as local municipalities took care of their own communities instead of relying a hand-outs from the federal government. Many town councils were passing new laws that applied only to their own communities, and all this was being done without the typical power plays, backstabbing, and political malfeasance all too common in contemporary politicis.
While clean-up continued unabated in many parts of the nation, citizens began taking a more avid interest in things like the environment, the delicate ecological balance necessary to sustain all men, plants and animals on Earth, recycling programs, and more care for such issues as the depletion of the ozone layer and global warming - issues that until just a few months ago had all been pooh-poohed by most federal government agencies as unimportant or "chicken little" theories.
During his inaugural address to the nation, George H.W. Bush (the nation's 41st President) had eluded to "a kinder, gentler nation" - but failed to live up to his vision as his administration embroiled itself in Desert Storm, a war against Iraq that was more personal in nature because Saddam Hussein had threatened President Bush's friends in Kuwait. When the son, George W. Bush, took over as the nation's 43rd President, the first thing on his agenda was to 'get even' with Hussein. Father Bush had been criticized, ridiculed, and embarassed for not 'finishng the job' and ousting Hussein at that time. Now, son Bush was determined to assuage that personal vendetta and see to it that Hussein hanged for humiliating his daddy. Extraordinary measures were put into place that allowed it all to happen. The wealth of evidence that eventually documented the Bush administration's distortions, lies, manipulation of facts, and paranoia culminated in George W. Bush going down in history as the worst U.S. President ever. His administration was scandal-filled and disproportionately corrupt and evil, even when compared to all of the most recent administrations, all the way back to the Kennedy dynasty. No politics had truly become a voice of the people, for the people, and by the people. New candidates were already rolling up their sleeves and working toward tumultuous change within America's political system. A Presidential triumverate wherein the country was run by a trio of elected public servants was perhaps the most noteworthy change ever to embrace American politics. Candidates had been elected from various walks of life, and of significantly different political agendas. It became important that all of these new ideas be melded into a cohesive form of fresh government, structured to serve all the people. O.U.T.R.A.G.E. would have a hand in such transformation. And 'the beat goes on....'