The unraveling

Another high ranking Justice Department official has resigned. That means that the whole top tier is gone, leaving Gonzales alone. What we know about is disgraceful but what about actions that have not been reported. I would bet that we know only the tip of this unethical iceberg. Watch for the last ditch defense of, "No laws were broken" - as if not being a criminal is good enough.

I wonder if we are in for a relentless march of scandals from now to the end of Bush's term. I know of terrible performance in other government agencies that have not bubbled up to the evening news. I suspect they will be on our TV screens, computer monitors and newspapers in the near future.

The mismanagement and corruption in Iraq has directly contributed to our problems there and cost billions. Yes, billions. Some of those stories are being drowned in the sea of bad news. Ultimately, we pay and we suffer the consequences (along the the Iraqi people and the innocent in Afghanistan, etc.).

We are watching the unraveling of our government itself.

Moral castration

I wondered in an earlier post if we are drifting to the left. It looks more and more like the country is moving leftward. Republicans are either out of touch or captured by their extremist right wing base. The 3 leading Republican candidates are more liberal than the base and are dancing around their positions instead of embracing their principles and values. They have been morally castrated.

David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, issued a warning to readers of the conservative magazine National Review: “Have Republicans absorbed how much trouble their party is in? To the (limited) extent that we do, we tend to attribute everything to Iraq - as if Katrina, the Schiavo affair, corruption in Congress and the intensifying irrelevance of our domestic-policy agenda did not exist. And so we demand from our candidates ever more fervent declarations of fealty to an ideology that interests an ever dwindling proportion of the public.”

A Newsweek poll last week had the three leading Democratic presidential candidates beating the three top-tier Republicans in every matchup. That’s nine potential races, and nine Democratic victories

And while Rome burns

I'm hearing the white house and its allies complaining that its critics are trying to "micromanage" the war and that decisions about it should be left to the military. Whoa! The Democrats and a few Republicans are trying to stop the war, not manage it. It is the role of congress to declare war, not generals.

Another amazement: the legislative body of Iraq government had planned to take off two months for vacation this summer. Wow. After a lot of pressure from us, they decided to only take off one month or even maybe just a few weeks. Its staggering to think that these people are about to loose their American security blanket because of a lack of political progress and, knowing that, decide to stop work (and stop progress) for two months.

These are the people we are there to help. These are the people for whom our soldiers die. Americans will be killed in Iraq while they take vacation.

Presidential debates seen from Mars

Questions From Mars.
Q What is the purpose of these debates?
We are in the process of selecting our president, and debates are a way of learning more about the candidates.
Q What is the president?
The president is the most important person in America, the person who drives the national agenda and is the center of media attention.
Q So the current president is Paris Hilton?
Yes.
Q Then why is President Hilton going to jail?
She plunged America in a disastrous war based on false assumptions, she filled government with political hacks and she values mindless loyalty over competence.
Q And your presidents go to jail for such things?
No, they usually get reelected for such things. But we are making an exception.
Q We could not help but notice that all the Republican debaters in Simi Valley were white males. Are all Republicans white males?
Yes.
Q Then how do they create more Republicans?
Ah, you have been studying our ways! I was kidding. There are Republicans who are not white and not male. But they are not allowed to run for president.
Q Are all Republicans otherwise alike?
No, they sometimes disagree. The most revealing thing about the Republican debate was that three of the candidates -- Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Tom Tancredo -- say they do not believe in evolution.
Q What is evolution?
Evolution is the process by which humans developed from single-cell organisms to the superior and complex beings that they are today. This happened through a process called "natural selection," which is also sometimes called "survival of the fittest" or "politics."
Q And what do Brownback, Huckabee and Tancredo believe?
That a deity created the entire world and everything on it about 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. This is called "creationism."
Q What do you believe?
Well, if evolution results in superior and complex beings, how do we account for Brownback, Huckabee and Tancredo?
Q We noticed that the Democrats had a woman and a black man among their debaters. Can women and black people become president?
Of course. We are an advanced and civilized country.
Q How many women have become president of your country?
None.
Q How many black people have become president of your country?
None.
Q What does this mean?
We are still evolving.
Q We also noticed that three Democrats -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards -- said they have never had a gun in their houses. What is a gun?
A gun is a symbol of American independence, a tool by which we gained our freedom and conquered a wilderness. You can also use one to shoot somebody who you don't like.
Q Are the positions of Clinton, Obama and Edwards popular within the Democratic Party?
No. Democrats used to be for gun control, but now the deep thinkers in their party are for guns. They believe getting the votes of gun owners will be their key to victory next fall.
Q So Clinton, Obama and Edwards are doing badly?
No, they are leading in all the polls for the nomination.
Q We are confused.
In that case, you have become Democrats.
Q Is Mike Huckabee gaining weight?
We think so. Or else he is about to create another Republican.
Q One last question. Can you tell us who Mike Gravel is?
You mean he's not a Martian?
.................from politico.com

Terrorism

Bush talks about a war on global terror but, as Joe Biden says,

"Terrorism is a means, not an end, and very different groups and countries are using it toward very different goals. If we can't even identify the enemy or describe the war we're fighting, it's difficult to see how we will win."

"Terror is a tactic. Terror is not a philosophy," Biden said. "The war in Chechnya is a war of liberation -- it engaged in terrorist activities, but it it is fundamentally different."Bush's insistence on seeing Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflicts as fronts in the same war, Biden said, is "the reason why [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's gotten away with murder."

We should all remember how tricky Bush and his gang can be. This slippery phrase of his allowed him to make it mean whatever he wants it to because, fundamentally, it doesn't mean anything at all.

The truth

The media likes to report in sound bites so they tell us that Bush's low approval rating is due to Iraq. The reality is more complex. I believe Katrina tore off the curtain of competency behind which Bush hid like the wizard of Oz. It is not just Iraq policy. It is also mismanagement, corruption, and attitude. We don't think of our country as an arrogant bully, which is what Bush looks like.

This administration continues to lie to us. And, lie is the right word. Ms Rice is on TV, rewriting history. She even lies about provable matters of fact. They are desperate and sinking.

This is not good for our country and I take no joy in it. But Bush and his people have to be held accountable and the truth must be exposed.

The flaccid state of the 4th estate

This morning I'm moving back to politics and current events and I want to look at why we have been and are so deceived by Bush. The main reason Bush gets away with deceiving us is the flaccid state of the fourth estate. Just recently the press has found its backbone and recalled its duty to investigate. They still tend to act as stenographers. Too often they accept the Bush narrative and frame and report within it. We still get bland acceptance when we need skepticism.

I watch the talking heads on TV and read the "wise men" who write newspaper columns. They are chummy with the politicians they write about. They accept the premise and the honesty of the politicians. They miss the point that most of us get.

The Bush administration can still establish story lines as fake as “Mission Accomplished” and get a free pass. To pick just one overarching example: much of the press still takes it as a given that Iraq has a functioning government that might meet political benchmarks (oil law, de-Baathification reform, etc., etc.) that would facilitate an American withdrawal. In reality, the Maliki “government” can’t meet any benchmarks, even if they were enforced, because that government exists only as a fictional White House talking point. As Gen. Barry McCaffrey said last week, this government doesn’t fully control a single province. Its Parliament, now approaching a scheduled summer recess, has passed no major legislation in months. Iraq’s sole recent democratic achievement is to ban the release of civilian casualty figures, lest they challenge White House happy talk about “progress” in Iraq.