BottleOfBlog

Six Of One, Zero Of The Other

Well, that didn't take long:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department has opened an investigation into leaks to the media about the National Security Agency's classified domestic surveillance program…

The New York Times was the first to report the story on December 16th and then officials confirmed its existence to CNN and other organizations.

"The Justice Department has opened an investigation of the unauthorized disclosure of classified information related to the NSA," a Justice Department official told CNN.

The leak investigation is expected to be handled, as is standard, by Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents. Officials would not say when the investigation began.

No reason to get cynical here.  As CNN, your liberal media, points out--this kind of investigation is standard.  It's routine.  And no reason to say exactly how fast the standard justice department investigation into a leak was.  Because, you know, it's standard.  Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents standardly get on this kind of thing.  It's the way it's always done.

Go Eat Worms

(CNN) -- Far more Americans think highly of first lady Laura Bush than they think of her husband, a poll released Thursday said.

Fewer than half of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of President Bush and his top aides, about the same number who said that last summer, the poll found.

But nearly three out of four (73 percent) said they have a favorable opinion of Laura Bush, the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll said. Thirteen percent described their opinion of her as unfavorable.

Of course Americans think more highly of Laura!  Her reckless incompetence has only ever killed one person.  George's has killed thousands.

Ready for your liberal media moment of the week?

The telephone poll of 1,003 adult American adults was conducted December 16-18 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Asked their opinions of the president, 46 percent said they were favorable, a figure statistically equivalent to the 48 percent who gave that response in a July 25-28 poll.

The Preznit's approval rating has gone down two points, which, to your liberal media, means it remains the same. 

Is that right?  Is that true?

I don't know.  I could be wrong.  It's been a long time since I took a class on statistics.  Hell, it was so long ago, Joe Paterno was the coach of Penn State...well, maybe that's not a good milestone.

How about this?  Joe Paterno was only in his second decade of coaching Penn State.  Maybe the beginning of his third.  But you get the picture.

My understanding of the margin of error means that, in July of 2005, when 48 percent of the people had an insane, inexplicable favorable rating of the Preznit, the Preznit's true favorable rating, with a three percent margin of error, was anywhere from 51% tp 45%.

And, now, with his dismal favorable rating at 46%, his true favorable rating, with a 3% margin of error, is anywhere from 49% to 43%. 

Which wouldn't be statistically the same at all.  It would be a decrease by 2%.

Truly, his favorability might be the same.  It might not have changed at all.  Truly, it might actually have gone up.

But, statistically?  It wasn't equivalent.  Statistically, it went down.

To be statistically equivalent, it would have had to remain 48%, with a margin of error of 3%.  Then, it might have gone up.  It might have gone down.  But, statistically, it would be the same.

I might be wrong.  But I don't think I am.  And, even if I am, I still find it comical that your liberal media takes the time to point out that a small drop in Bush's "favorable" rating is statistically unchanged, while trumpeting a small rise in Bush's "favorable" rating as a big ol' Bush boost.

And, beyond that, don't all these articles willfully refuse to say what these articles and polls really say?

Bush came into office with a minority of Americans "approving" of him.  And, six years later, a minority of Americans still approve of him.

A couple of points here.  A couple of points there.  The dude has been languishing in the low forties to high thirties for months.  Maybe for years.  Hell, in the last two years, the only time he got above 50% was on election day.  Plus or minus three points, in the swing states.  Strangely enough. 

Then he resumed his grim slide down into the thirties.

How is it that this joker--with the exception of the world's biggest most undeserved jump on September 11th, the day of his greatest failure--never, ever is approved of by more than 50% of the American people and he's "won" two elections?

This fraud isn't even approved of by 50% of Americans going into an election week and, still, he "wins".

And, again, that was an improvement over his first presidential election, where he didn't even have 50% approval during and after the election, and he still "won".

Thank God for the First Amendment!  Praise Jesus for the free press!  Without them both, no one would ever question this absolute pretender in the White House. 

Without them both, we'd have a state run media, which would continually and unbelievably tell you how popular our Preznit is, how his "approval" ratings are going up, and how bad news is statistically insignificant.

Better Than Jaw Opening Dwarf p0rn!

Yeah, dwarf p0rn is hot.  But where's the money in it?

Subject: How many times girls dumped you because of your small dick?
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To: ricky

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I'm intrigued and, yet, skeptical.  I mean, it doesn't really say how I'm going to make mil1i0ns w1th my new $uper-sized dick.

Is it modeling?  Magazines?  The internets?  Is it $uper-size dick offs at county fairs? 

I'm all in for the $uper-sized dick and everything.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm not ungrateful.  I just want to know how to parlay it into the mil1ions of dollars.

Some email almost makes me not totally hate my worthless SPAM filter.  It's that good.

Whenever The Shit Hits The Fan...

...Bush puts his face right up to the fan and gets shitfaced.

A lot of real smart people have said a lot of real smart things about our Preznit repeatedly and intentionally and for no reason at all breaking the law. 

And a lot of insane, shameless bullshitters have come up with all kinds of crazy garbage explaining why, now that Bill Clinton is no longer Preznit, the Preznit is above the law.

Sure, sure, it's horseshit!  The Preznit could easily get a FISA warrant for nearly anything he wanted, but he couldn't be bothered, or didn't like the idea of having to ask a co-equal branch of the gubment for permission to do something.

Or, maybe he just didn't like the idea of a co-equal branch of gubment.

Sure, sure, if FISA needed to be amended, the Preznit could have easily done that, too, since on September 12th, the Congress--the totally Republican Congress--was willing to give Bush anything he wanted, including the creepy Patriot Act, War Powers without oversight, and a world record group hand job.

It's a grotesque lie, a criminal conspiracy by our War Preznit, and undoubtably an impeachable offense.  I mean, don't even waste your time thinking about it.  It's a no brainer.  Take it for granted and then grind your teeth smooth over the horrendous, unethical, immoral louses the Red Staters have sent to Congress who are all going to look the other way, like they were a bunch of fawning aristocrats who just heard the Queen fart at the dinner table.

But I think everyone is missing the real significance of this story:

In Crawford, Texas, where Bush is spending the holidays, his spokesman, Trent Duffy, defended what he called a "limited program."

"This is not about monitoring phone calls designed to arrange Little League practice or what to bring to a potluck dinner," he told reporters. "These are designed to monitor calls from very bad people to very bad people who have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings, and churches."

And, sure, if Bush and his insane clown posse are so sure these people he's wiretapping without warrants have a history of blowing up trains, weddings, and churches, yes, the obvious question comes to mind:

"Why, Monkey Brain, are you putzing around with wiretaps at all, then?  Why are you not getting warrants and about a bazillion federal agents and arresting these people???  You fucking retard."

If you know they have a history of blowing up people and trains and weddings and churches, why the fuck are you monitoring their phone calls?  Who cares?  What do you expect to find out?  Something worse than blowing up a wedding?  Do you think you can get them on a federal rap for ordering pizzas delivered to Cheney's house?   What???

Well, of course, it's all bullshit.  Bush has authorized thousands of illegal wiretaps. And, no, not all of those people--and I'd be surprised with this insanely, unbelievably incompetent crew that any of those people--have blown up weddings.

But whatever.  That's not really what I want to post about.

What I want to post about is:  once again, when things get ugly, where's Bush?  Crawford.  Sometimes he flees to Camp David.  Sometimes he flees the country.  Shit, once he went to Africa for like four days. 

Africa.  And it was like the fastest tour of Africa since the first white man set foot on the continent.  He hit like seven countries in four days, and only twice got out of the limo.

But, as always, Bush gets out of town.  When things get rough.

And, sure, sure, I know it's Christmas--or as the secular, Christmas hating Bush's like to say:  the Holidays.  Course, on the other hand, this story didn't break--for over a year--until the holidays, at the request of the White House.

I don't have the time or the resources--also, I don't care--but if someone did, they should go back through our "recovered" alcoholic's preznancy and match up Bush's trips out of town--where a man, with a drinking problem, might be able to get howling drunk out of the spotlight of Washington--with Bush's political problems. 

I think they'll match up pretty evenly.

Oh, And Just In Case You're Keeping Score At Home

Christmas 2003?  Going into an election year?

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- A newly boosted terror threat level was prompting heavier security Monday at buildings ranging from nuclear plants to shopping malls. Checkpoints for trucks were heightened at bridges including the Golden Gate Bridge and spans into New York City.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned Sunday of possible terrorist strikes more devastating than the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. He raised the alert on the nation's five-color code from "elevated" (yellow) to "high" (orange.)

Christmas 2004, after the election?  Christmas 2005?

Amazing, isn't it?  Even though world wide terrorism actually increased in that time period, even though bin Laden was still at large, even though Iraq was, rather than drawing terrorists, training and exporting them, the terror threat in America miraculously decreased!

After the election.

Another Christmas miracle!  Praise Jesus! 

No wonder Howard Dean was denounced as insane, outrageous, and cynical for even suggesting that George "Jesus Christ Almighty" Bush might do something as awful as manipulate Homeland Security terror alerts for political purposes.

Meanwhile, former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean suggested a political motivation for the terror alert -- an allegation denounced as "outrageous" by Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, one of Dean's early rivals in the race for the Democratic nomination.

There you go, Democrats!  America's Worst Senator looking out for you!

Dean's comments generated sharp rebukes on the same program from Lieberman, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and from Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate majority whip.

"I think that's the most cynical view," McConnell said. "The president, after all, is the president, even if he's running for re-election…

"And I don't think the American people believe that George W. Bush, the man who's led us so effectively on the war on terror, would politicize something like this."

Yes, he's been pretty effective.  New York was exploded on his watch.  He let bin Laden get away.  He declined to go after Zarqawi.  And, he's received nearly as many F's from the September 11th Commission as he got from Yale! 

That doesn't really sound all that effective to me.  I mean, really, it sounds like a total miserable failure.  And I'd like to say so, though, I don't have much voice in government.  Luckily, as a Democrat, I have excellent representation from my Democratic Senators!

Lieberman said he thought McConnell was "absolutely right."

Asshole.

"I don't think anybody who has any fairness or is in their right mind would think the president or the secretary of homeland security would raise an alert level and scare people for political reasons," Lieberman said. "That's outrageous."

Well, explain it to us, Joe.  In 2003, when you were busy spewing GOP talking points during the Democratic primaries to help fuel your awful, sorry Jomentum, the federal government, under Bush, was warning us that shopping malls, apartment buildings, schools, airlines, and Time's Square were about to be exploded.   

In 2004, when you were calling Howard Dean "outrageous" and out of his "right mind", the federal government, under Bush, was telling us that terrorists were going to actually disrupt the presidential elections.  In America.

And after the election?

Fucking all clear!

Christmas?  New Year's?  The Super Bowl?  Who cares!  Safe!  Totally worry fucking terrorist free!

Fly, shop, party, publicly gather in the thousands!  No worries!  Thinking about a vacation?  Ever considered the mideast?  Fly El Al! Wear a Star Spangled yarmulka! Hand out Bibles with little George W. Bush bookmarks in them!  It's that freaking safe!

Truly remarkable.

Your government spent literally billions of your dollars scaring you for cheap political purposes.  And they were as incompetent and lazy and as half assed doing it as they are with everything else that it is even more obvious now than it blatantly was at the time.

I mean, come on!  Assholes!  If you're going to fuck around with Homeland Security, don't be so goddammed stupid as to stop, on a dime, once the election is over.  Jerk us around for a year or two more, at least.

I don't know what bothers me more.  That the Bush administration actually did what it did.  That our "liberal" media, which witnessed this appalling abuse of public money and trust, gives more credence to people calling Howard Dean insane than to Howard Dean's incredibly reasonable suspicions. That forty percent of my fellow Americans are so damn dumb that they wet their pants and stock up on bottled water and canned food over this kind of crap.  That dickheads like Joe Lieberman will go out of their way to malign some of the few people who are courageous enough to say, publicly, what everyone who's anyone knows privately.

Or, that the Bush administration, even in its awful successes, is as hamhanded and obvious and incompetent in everything that it does. 

Think about it.  If this is how sloppy and obvious these clowns are trying to manipulate the American people, people they understand, just imagine what kind of laughable stupidity these assholes are throwing our money away on overseas.

Wave A White Flag

The attacks have failed.  Our forces are in disarray and unworthy of being called much more than a hysterical mob, throwing away their weapons, gibbering insanely, and running for their lives. 

The War, I'm afraid, is now finally and irretrievably lost.

Despite our best efforts, fellow liberals, Christmas happened again.

But, on the upside, I got some really super cool shit!  Including:

Yeah, that's right.  My sister knitted me a freaking Gryffindor House scarf!  You know, to wear to quidditch matches, and such.  How great is that?

The Rolling Rock, I had to supply myself.

Not only that, but check this out!

Yeah, bitches!  A Penn State Nittany Lion Santa Hat!!!

Course, it wasn't all gravy.  Once again, I failed to get what I really wanted:

If there was ever a gift that had my name on it, well, there it is.  Maybe next year...

So, anyway.  You take the good with the bad, the sweet with the sour.  I got hats and scarves(and an IPod, too!), and Bill O'Reilly gets to pretend he, alone, stood up for something everyone and their Uncle Bob absolutely loves.

It takes a brave man to side with 100% of the people.  He's like Sir Thomas More, if Sir Thomas Moore had been all angry and blotchy, and full of shit, and totally thumbs up for divorce.  And the right wing nuts who listen to and watch and believe O'Reilly are just like the people who supported Sir Thomas More, if the people who supported Sir Thomas More were all crazy and stupid and cheering wildly when More got his head cut off.

What fools we were!  How could we ever expect to defeat Christmas when it had such powerful, principled defenders?  How could we ever expect to destroy Christmas when we weren't even fighting it?  How could we have been so naive to think we could win a War Against Christmas when we were so damn busy celebrating Christmas???

For like a month.

Well, O'Reilly and the rest of the barking mad right wingers showed us.  They defeated us again, and forced to us to continue enjoying something we look forward to all year.  Those bastards.

With the way the O'Reillys and their insanely stupid right wing followers masterfully identify the enemy and brilliantly marshal their resources to fight meaningful battles, hell, it's no wonder we immediately caught bin Laden, rebuilt Afghanistan, and quickly and cheaply turned Iraq into a secular, western friendly democracy.

They're that good!  They're that smart!  Thank the sweet baby Jesus they're running the country!

Merry Christmas to you anyway, you Godless heathens!  God bless you all!

Now turn it up ridiculously loud and sing it with me:

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing Galway Bay
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day...

Then, get a good night's sleep.  Because tomorrow?

We start the War On New Year's Eve!

It Ain't Vietnam--Vietnam Was Cheap

WASHINGTON - The House cleared the way Thursday for a $453 billion defense spending bill that funnels $29 billion in hurricane aid to the Gulf Coast and $50 billion more for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…

The $50 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is to carry the Pentagon until Congress acts on another emergency war supplemental next year, which lawmakers expect to be from $80 billion to $100 billion…

It is estimated that the Pentagon is spending about $6 billion a month on the Iraq war effort.

That's great.  I'm super happy that Congress is fully funding our military.  Though, I'm just wondering when someone is going to finally ask:

Why the fuck is our military so goddammed expensive?

According to a website that I found after one second of research, so you can be sure of it's accuracy, the war in Iraq, to date, has cost the American taxpayer two hundred and twenty billion dollars.

The Christian Science Monitor, on the other hand, says that we've only spent about one hundred and ninety billion dollars in Iraq, with another seventy billion spent in Afghanistan.

Who's right?  Who knows?  And who cares?  This is George W. Bush's America!  Why quibble over thirty billion taxpayer dollars more or less?  Fuck, you can pull up the sofa cushions in the waiting room of Haliburton's world headquarters and find more than thirty billion taxpayer dollars just laying around!

So, whatever.

All I'm wondering is:  the Vietnam war lasted pretty much from 1964 until 1973.  At the height of it, there were 500,000 Americans serving there.  In over nine years, the United States dropped more ordnance on Vietnam than we dropped in all of World War Two.

It was a big deal. You could look it up.

And after all that, Vietnam cost this country about 530 billion in today's dollars.  Nine years.  A world record amount of bombing.  Battles that regularly involved batallions, regiments, even whole divisions.  At it's height, a half million American soldiers in country.

Iraq?  One hundred and fifty thousand troops.  And not since the spring of 2003 have there been organized enemy units as big as a regiment.

And after two and a half years?  Nearly half as much as nine years of Vietnam.

If the Iraq War lasts as long as Vietnam, it's going to cost at least twice as much as Vietnam.  With a third as many troops.  And a fraction of the ordnance.

So, I'm just wondering, where the fuck is all the money going?

Don't be silly.  I know where all the money is going.  It's going to the privatization of formerly military jobs--cooking and laundry, and the rest of logistics.

What I'm really wondering is, considering how much more fucking expensive this "free market" approach is, when is one of our elected representatives going to ask the same question.

I mean, private contractors don't do any of this shit better than the military.  And if they can't do it cheaper, why are they doing it at all???

Oh, that's right!  Because fiscally conservative Republicans are running the government!

But, even so, what the fuck?  Why is no one asking why our military is so damn expensive?

America, Meet Your Shithead

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday he presumed a Justice Department leak investigation was underway into who disclosed a secret NSA eavesdropping operation.

"My personal opinion is it was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war," Bush told a news conference at which he was questioned repeatedly about the controversial operation disclosed on Friday by The new York Times.

What can you say about this rotten, rotten guy?

First, he basically ignores a year or more's worth of intelligence which, if it didn’t outright let September 11th happen, it sure didn’t do much to stop it.

Then, he lets bin Laden go, for reasons known only to the Bush administration.  Though, I assume it was because the capture or killing of bin Laden would lessen the fear and anxiety of Americans, which the Bush administration was goosing to hysterical proportions.  And that would undermine the public support for invading Iraq.

Then, he secretly and illegally diverts money from the war in Afghanistan, the war Congress approved, the war to get bin Laden, the war the American people wanted, to Iraq. Where he didn't even have a stupid and unconstitutional "resolution" to do anything yet.

While at the same time, "forgetting" to appropriate a single penny for the reconstruction of Afghanistan to prevent al Qaeda and the Taliban from returning to their safe bases from which they blew up the fucking Trade Towers.

Not a cent.  Not one penny.  Bush was so intent on doing any and everything necessary to protect the American people from terrorism that he completely forgot to rebuild Afghanistan.  Where al Qaeda is.

Then, he lets Zarqawi go because it would undermine the rationale for invading Iraq.

Then, he fudges the intelligence regarding Iraq. Repeatedly. 

Then, he screws up the reconstruction of Iraq so badly that a war that we were told would take less than six months, and require a handfull of American soldiers,  would cost little, and would pay for itself has dragged on and on for nearly three years, with over 2000 Americans killed, over 15000 seriously wounded, and a price tag of well over 200 billion dollars.

Then, one of his senior administration officials gets indicted for maliciously revealing and compromising an intelligence asset.

At least one other of his administration officials is still under investigation for doing the same.

All the while, the Preznit is intentionally breaking the law, for no reason at all, since getting a FISA warrant is about as tough as a legacy getting into Yale.  Shit, you can even get them retro-actively.

Then Bush lies about it.  On TV, to the American people, and even on the White House freaking web page.

And what were some of the "credible threats" that were so pressing that Bush couldn't possible take the three and a half minutes to comply with the law and get a warrant for? 

Gay people!  They're about to attack Christmas!

And, after all this, this depressing, expensive, embarrassing, shameful episode of American history known as the Bush administration, what does the Chimp in Chief say is “shameful”? 

That someone caught him.  That someone told on him.

No, leaking this highly illegal—and unnecessarily illegal—program did not compromise national security.  FISA has been on the books for decades.  And, no, leaking this highly—and unnecessarily so—illegal program did not put government wiretaps on the front page of every newspaper in the country.

Authorizing these wiretaps without warrants did.  Breaking the law put a very useful investigative tool on the nightly news.  If the Bush administration had followed the extremely minimal requirements of FISA, they probably would have gotten nearly every single warrant they wanted.

And it would have been lawful.

And it would never, ever, ever, ever, ever have been news at all.

But the Bush administration is so lazy, and so incompetent, and so contemptuous of the Constitution, they just didn’t want to.  They just didn’t think that some stupid piece of paper and a bunch of laws, written by and for the rabble that stupid piece of paper calls “the People” should stop them from doing what they want to do, when they want to do it, how they want to do it.

They make reality, goddammit.  You have to learn to accept it.  They make the rules.  And rules are for suckers.  They expect you to follow them.

It’s their world, suckers.  They just let you live in it.

They’re so awful and so dishonest that Congressmen, who sit on intelligence committees, feel the need to make copies of their correspondence and lock it, sealed, in secure locations, lest the Bush administration destroys the evidence and out and out lies about it.

Which might seem paranoid, if it weren't for the fact that, right from the get go, Bush got on television and did lie about it.  Bush told the American people he had appraised Congress of this program, as if they were well informed about the scope and legality of it and here we have a ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, forced to handwrite a letter because he can't even discuss the matter with his staff--never mind other Senators--saying, "I'm super fucking troubled by this thing!  I question its legality and, absent more information, I have no idea what you're doing or whether you can even do it at all!  Also, you guys are creeping me out so much, I'm keeping a copy of this letter."

And no one ever responded to him.

Bush told Americans that that was appraising Congress.  That that constituted Congressional approval of his completely illegal actions.

And then, realizing just how serious this was, Bush assembled his incredibly insane, incompetent clown posse to come up with something so stupid that only people who voted for him could believe:  that a stupid Congressional resolution to use force in Afghanistan entitled the Preznit to do anything he felt was necessary to battle al Qaeda.

How can anyone believe this?  Does anyone really believe that Bush could shut down the free press, pursuant to the Afghan resolution?  Does anyone really believe that Bush could disband Congress pursuant to the Afghan resolution?  It's a resolution allowing Bush to do whatever it takes in Afghanistan to battle al Qaeda.

It was not a resolution suspending the Bill Of Rights and the United States Code.

Sure, sure, it could have been better worded.  Since when Congress authorized Bush to do whatever he wanted in Afghanistan to get bin Laden, the Bush administration failed to understand that they were supposed to actually try to fucking get bin Laden.

But you just can not read that thing and think it's a suspension of the Bill of Rights.  And even if it did read that way, guess what?  Not even Congress can do that.  Not with a stupid, non-binding resolution.

It takes some kind of world class liar to make that argument.

I started out just being kind of amused by this guy.  I didn't feel one way or the other about him.  I thought he was a bit of a joke and a PR creation.  He seemed like some kind of golfing president--he wouldn't do anything worthwhile during his time in the White House, but he probably wouldn't do anything too terrible.  After all, he didn't stand for anything.  His whole life and being was so bereft of any kind of conviction or belief that he couldn't possibly have an agenda.  Other than wanting to be Preznit.  And cutting his own taxes.

Five years later, I can barely stand to look at the man.  His voice, alone, makes me grind my teeth.  He's not only the Worst Preznit Evah, but, because of The Worst Congress Evah, he may be, all by himself, the Worst Thing That's Evah Happened To The United States Of America.

He's a one man wrecking Chimp.

He's no longer just a drunken danger to himself, a threat to world peace, a national embarrassment, a Hazelwood at the helm of our ship of state,  an Imelda Marcos with our national checkbook, a belligerent boozer at the bar of international diplomacy, he's a fucking threat to our Republic.

He's so awful that you can't be irrational, unreasonable, or shrill when you talk about the guy.  It isn't possible.

I have never, in my life, seen a Preznit, have to get on television as often as Bush and be "candid" about shit he's been on television lying about.  In eight years, Clinton lied about his crappy marriage.  In five years, Bush has lied about his job, as President, about three dozen times.

And each time is worse and more disturbing than the last.

And, people, remember, this is the most disciplined, secretive White House in the history of our nation.  Lying about intelligence, lying about wars, lying about torture and kidnapping, lying about domestic spying are only the things we've heard about.  These things are not the other shoe.

Christ Almighty, what do you think these bastards are really keeping secret?

Again, with Clinton, it was, "How many girlfriends do you think he really had?"

With Bush?  What is it?  What could be worse than what he's already done?  I'm not even sure I, as a person who's grown to despise the man, want to know.

But the worst thing that this accidental President has done, no matter what awful things he's done, is not something you can see or hear or read about.  It isn't war or torture, or election fraud, or executive lawlessness.  The worst thing this clown and his simpering courtiers have done is done.  And it can't be undone.  Ever.

What he and Karl Rove have done is prove to the people who hate you and hold you in contempt, and who view democracy as a joke and an obstacle to their desires, rather than the greatest form of government in the history of mankind, that democracy is a joke.  Even the Great American Democracy.  It's toothless.  If you've got the money and the will, and the shameless ruthlessness.

Congress will roll over.  The press can be cowed.  The people can be manipulated to believe anything--even a War On Christmas--they're so damned dumb.

Republics are fragile things, no matter how powerful your republic is.  They rely on everyone playing by the rules and believing in the rules.  That's why our Constitution keeps mentioning "due process" every couple of pages or so.

Once some prick proves that rules are for suckers, once some ratfucker proves you can break the rules and benefit from it, once some asshole shows that if you break the rules nothing happens, Republics fail.

We like to say we're governed by consent.  That those who govern do so at our consent.  But really?  Those that govern have all the money and the tanks and soldiers.  Just like in any government in the world.  Even the worst ones, like China or Cuba.

We're governed by decency.

Those in power believe in the principles of democracy.  And once those in power show absolute contempt for decency, once those, like in the Bush administration, stop believing in democracy, once they show emphatically that there is no penalty for a government to disregard the Constitution, once government finds out that even if 60% of The People disapprove of what you're doing and they still can't stop you, well, your Republic fails.

It only takes one shithead, who cares so little about any and everything that he's willing to do it, to bring the whole thing down. 

Scatter Monkey

Republicans go crazy for the Flip Flopper In Chief!

WASHINGTON - President Bush reversed course on Thursday and accepted Sen. John McCain’s call for a law banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror.

Bush said the agreement will “make it clear to the world that this government does not torture and that we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad…”

The White House at one point threatened a veto if the ban was included in legislation sent to the president’s desk, and Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to all Republican senators to give an exemption to the CIA.

But congressional sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of the ban…

So Bush caved.

Again, I applaud it.  I think it’s great that two hundred and fourteen years after it became the Supreme Law of the Land, Republicans have proposed legislation to force the Bush administration to recognize the Eighth Amendment.

Maybe more laws are in the works!  Maybe a little something about Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 11!  Though, maybe not.  I doubt Congress would want to take away its own non-binding, un-Constitutional Resolution Powers, which have served the whole nation so well by allowing individual members of Congress to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the abrogation of their Constitutional duties.

As in:  “This war isn’t our fault!  We delegated our War Powers.  And someone else made a mistake!”

And, of course, delegating your Constitutionally enumerated powers is completely acceptable.  As we all know.  Like last year, when the Congress passed a Resolution and allowed the Supreme Court to coin their own money.

Or how Preznit Bush, obviously extremely hung over from "clearing brush" on the ranch, passed a Resolution and let all 535 members of Congress nominate their own candidates for the Supreme Court.  And then Congress Resolved to let the Supreme Court itself provide the advice and consent to the 493 nominees.

You know, stuff like that.  Completely Constitutional and it works out well for everyone, if you don’t count the actual American people.

But back to the torture thing.

Again, I applaud it.  I have no beef there.

What I just can’t stop laughing at is Bush for flip-flopping on the whole torture thing.  It was just a month or two ago that he sent his Vice Preznit up to Congress to tell them how necessary it was for the CIA to be excepted from any ban on torture.

Cheney told his audience the United States doesn’t engage in torture, these participants added, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.

The Preznit needed it.  It was necessary.  Unless, of course, if he couldn’t have it.  Then that was A Okay with the Preznit!  If he couldn’t have it, well, then, by golly, now that you mention it, he didn’t really need it after all!  In fact, he was totally against it!

Which is it, Monkey Boy?  Were you lying then, or are you lying now?

I mean, if it was necessary, why the fuck are you caving into political pressure?  Are you saying that you'd actually let Americans die at the hands of terrorists because of politics???  Because you didn't have the votes in Congress???  You'd let terrorists kill Americans for politics???

And, if you aren't saying that, then you must be saying, "We didn't really mean it when we told Congress that torture was necessary."

One or the other, and, frankly, they're both horrible.

Fucking bullshitter.

And this is a guy who ran an entire campaign attacking John Kerry for flip flopping.  This is a guy who spent an entire year saying that when he said something, gosh darnit, he damn well meant it!  And no bunch of Wershington bureaucrats or any silly polls were going to make him change his mind!

He wasn’t that Clinton fella!

He was resolute!  A straight shooter!  When he sets his ol’ mind on a sumpin’, his ol’ mind is aset!

Unless the polls, or bureaucrats, or political considerations get in the way. 

Personally, I don’t care.  Being a politician is all about politics.  If it weren't, politicians would have a different name--Straight Shooterists.  Resolutists.  Leaderists.  Something.

What's funny is how many millions of Americans who voted for Bush actually believed that John Kerry was unsuitable to be Preznit because he was a flip flopper.  What's hilarious is how many Republicans are so gullible that they believed that George W. Bush was resolute, while Kerry couldn't be trusted because he changed his position on certain issues. 

And they still believe that today.

Bush, I understand.  He's a big ol' bullshitter.  He'll say anything if he has to.  He'll take any position if he has to.  The dumbasses who believe he's serious?  After all his flip flopping.  After how badly he's embarrassed them?  After he's repeatedly encouraged them to passionately take positions that he's subsequently abandoned?  Leaving them to look like absolute idiots?

And they still believe everything this guy says???  Those people, they're beyond me.

Total Hosers

Yesterday in a speech to the Canadian Club in Ottawa, US Ambassador David Wilkins warned Canadians to tone down their criticism of the United States in their current national political campaigns. Canadian elections are scheduled for January 23rd…

It was hardly the most caustic speech you've ever heard. But it's the essence of diplomatic etiquette that foreign ambassadors simply don't poke their noses into their host country's election campaigns, especially not to tell them not to criticize his country, except in cases where the host country amounts to a dependency or de facto protectorate.

So what was this guy thinking?

As you'd expect, center-left Prime Minister Paul Martin has responded to Wilkins remarks by wrapping himself in the flag and playing to Canadian disgruntlement over American big-footing…

The whole thing vaguely reminds me of Gerhard Schroeder's 2002 reelection campaign. In the world of Bushdom, every center-left leader gets to win once on his own steam and then a second time by running on domestic disdain for George W. Bush.

It's good politics.

Everywhere.

How on earth do 35% of Americans delude themselves into thinking these totally incompetent Bush clowns are going to help bring about an American friendly democracy in the Mid-East when they can't even bring about an American friendly democracy in fucking Canada???