Trick? Or Treat?

Depends on which side of the current political landscape you call home, I guess.

People for the American Way says: "the judicial philosophy of Samuel Alito is far to the right. In fact, he has been given the nickname “Scalito” by some who practice before him and liken him to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He has demonstrated hostility toward the principles undergirding a woman’s constitutionally protected right to govern her own reproductive choices – most notably in the Third Circuit’s attempt to limit or overturn Roe v. Wade in the context of the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case. In addition, he has issued a number of troubling opinions that seek to undermine established civil rights law, especially in the areas of gender and race, and that seek to severely limit the federal government’s ability to protect its citizens. Alito claimed that the federal government could not apply the Family and Medical Leave Act to state employees, a decision effectively reversed by the Supreme Court, and even argued that Congress could not enact a ban on the possession of machine guns. It is clear that Alito’s confirmation would seriously jeopardize Americans’ rights."

On the other hand, MSNBC is reporting that Pat Robertson has called the nomination "A grand-slam home run."

For what it's worth: I think this is exactly what I predicted would happen. Bush has offered the Conservative's a golden boy. Someone with impeccable Conservative credentials.

In other words: Pro-business, anti-rights, anti-women.

Just what we need to hasten this country's race down the toilet bowl.

Some liberals bloggers are saying that this nomination is a gift, and I agree:
Absent a 'consensus' nomination, we at least have a judge with actual judicial history. At least now we know where this guy stands.

So the question now becomes: Do we have any Democratic Senators with the balls to dissent?

Yeharr

First Time in 135 Years a Senior White House Official is Indicted

Haldemen, Erlichman, even Nixon shot out of office before the indictments and impeachment came down. It's telling that these white house staffers hold on to the last second, disbelieving in their own accountability, convinced that they've rigged the system so completely in their favor that there is no moral conscience or rule of law to answer to.

It's disgraceful. You know, Libby got a letter yesterday about it, he could have saved face, still he probably couldn't believe it and just waited for the shoe to drop. On him.

Moral values, that's what got them in, right?

Or was it just the appeal of Bush as "born again" so that his past "indiscretions" were wiped clean, he was a blank slate, and he could not be held accountable because he was "saved" and could now do no wrong?

It's a nice fairy tale, but an insult to all those who truly have a moral faith, isn't it? As Bush clearly does not.

Alterman has a brilliant take on this.

Either way, Bush is finished as a force in American politics. How he ever got to become president in the first place -- not once, but twice -- will remain a subject social scientists will study and debate for decades to come. Because there was plenty of evidence that George W. Bush was a made man. He had accomplished nothing in his adult life on his own -- not one thing.

Click here for more of this article -
(Click here for more on how little Bush has accomplished on his own.)

Rove is up next, the the rumor is that he's working furiously behind the scenes to change it. Raw Story reports that an indictment was pending, but somehow got scuttled at the last minute...

RAW STORY also reported that Fitzgerald had intended to charge Bush's deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, but last minute deals appear to have derailed the indictment for now. Rove will remain under scrutiny.

Here is more on that.

Link

Hard Right Ahead

With Harriet Miers relegated to her normal position of fawning adoration of The Worrst President in History, we are still short a Justice on the Supreme Court. The two factions who voiced the most displeasure about the Miers nomination were Conservatives and the Reality-Based Community.

And we know how the President feels about those two groups.

So, in picking his new nom, who do you think Dubya's gonna try his dangdest to please?

Charles Krauthammer, the Conservative columnist who predicted that Miers would withdrawal on the grounds of protecting Presidential Privilege,* ** has now predicted that the new nom will be so much of a wingnut that Democrats will wish we had Miers back.

There's going to be a battle ahead.

Yeharr

*On Bush: He nominates a woman with even less of a paper trail than Roberts, then acts pissed off when the Senate asks for what little documentation is available? What the hell did he expect to happen here? Is this guy so out of touch with reality that he really thinks that the country will agree to his choice just because he says so? Well, I guess that a guy who thinks that getting slightly more than 50% of the popular vote is a mandate might think like that. Boni's right: delusional.

**on Krauthammer's prediction: Even a blind pig can find an acorn every now and again.

With Apologies to C&C Music Factory...

These are some things that are currently making me go "Hmmm:"

• I haven't done any research, but I'm reasonably sure that two of Tom DeLay's favorite targets over the years have been Democrats and trial lawyers (remember tort reform?) Yet when he gets into trouble, he hires a trial lawyer who's a Democrat? Hmmmm...
• DeLay is asking for a new judge for his trial, because the current presiding judge contributed to MoveOn.org during the 2004 elections. He says that he won't get a fair trial because of the judge's politics. At the same time, Republican loyalists are going around trying to convince the Conservative base that Harriet Miers is truly a Conservative. Why can one person not be a judge because of politics, but another person CAN be a judge because of their politics? Hmmm...
• According to Daniel Schorr, if any indictments are handed out in the investigation of the Valerie Plame outing, they will be for perjury and obstruction of justice, but not for the actual breaking of Federal laws pertaining to the exposure of a CIA agent. I wish I could find it again, but I saw one Conservative commentator write that this is just a 'technicality.' So perjury is enough to attempt to impeach the President of the United States when he's a Democrat, but when it's a Republican official that lies, it's just the "Criminalization of Politics?" Hmmmm....
• The Wingnuts over at Little Green Footballs think that the death of 2000 Americans in Iraq has somehow made those of us in the Reality-Based Community happy, because there are many groups--the American Friends Service Committee in particular--who staged vigils to mark this sad fact. They even are so callous as to call them 'parties.' I have not met a single person from the left who looked forward to this happening with anything other than a dreaded resignation. But over on the right, the folks at Little Green Footballs think it's so funny that they're making Photoshopped pictures mocking Americans who are mourning. Does anyone think that's funny?
  

hmmm....


Yeharr

Talking Points

Democrats need solid talking points, that address the real concerns of voters day life. People are out of work, can't pay bills, don't feel safe. "Culture of Corruption" is not emotional. We need to hear: "Safety, Security, Salary". That should be a Democrat mantra to their constiuents.

"Democrats will Bring Safety to your communities, Security to the country, and a Salary to your family. We want to run the country, not just run for office. Vote Democrat."

That will give us majority control.

The Wheels on the Bus Come Off, Off, Off, GOP sends administration back on Warranty repair

Boy do they now wish they had spent the extra $60 on the four year extended warranty, don't you think?

I mean, the wagon was so red and so solid just ten months ago, steamrolling to mandate victory, riding the crest of that 3% Tsunami in the 2000 vote.

"...Political capital..."

Bush had said that he earned it, and was going to spend it.

Now, if he said he was going to spend it like a drunken sailor on a three day black-out binge after four years at sea in a submarine with a full crew and no shower, that would have been one thing. Who would have believed him? Because that's what he did.

I mean, the war along is costing a billion dollars a day and he has no interest in pulling the troops out. Does anyone have a clue as to the size of that number and what it means? A billion dollars? A DAY?

Do you all realize how deep we are in deficit? That to keep this country going - and to keep this country at war - right now we are borrowing all the money we're using - from all the countries that lend to money? It means we technically have no money of our own any more, and that we're borrowing like mad, spending on a virtual mammoth credit card and pretending there's no limit, and just paying on the percentage, forget the principle.

Sound fiscal policy?

Any of you out there remember that Bush bankrupted both companies he headed in his pre-political days, and that Daddy bailed him out of trouble?

Daddy can't write the check for this one.

That's never happened in the history of this country, by the way. Waging a war on credit. What do you think would happen if the creditors decide they've had enough and Bush's "bushit" (no typo there), and shut down the credit card? Because that's where we're potentially headed. Bush is handing all our power to all the countries that extend us credit, by bankrolling our activities every day.

And those countries wouldn't have to pull the plug, just have a delegation show up at the white house with a list of really good ideas they'd like America to do - right now - so the plug isn't pulled. How do you think that would affect policy?

Okay, back to what Bush did say about his mandate.

"Keep those big tax cuts permanent."

and

"Fix social security. Privatize it, and make private accounts for everyone."

And so far, he's 0-2, both of these second term agendas have tanked. They were tanking on their own before Katrina, because they were bad ideas to begin with that even his blind faithful had to pause a moment and go - "he did actually graduate from Yale? Or did he leave that early too and have those records destroyed also?"

Then Cindy Sheehan shows up outside of Bush's ranch, and doesn't go away. And Bush is afraid to talk to her. Then "Camp Casey" forms around her, the beginning of a very public anti-war movement, and Bush's big response is that sure he understands she has a right to her opinions, but he has to -

"get back to his own life."

Man, is that the leader of the free world hiding from a - mom? In retrospect you know what this is?

The first wheel coming off the bus.

Show's what a coward he really is. Then his "ham-handed" response to the deadliest hurricane in our nation's history, and the thorough crony-ing up of FEMA, appointing unqualified, untrained sycophants and a clueless leader, and New Orleans is wiped off the map and ignored for about the time it took God to create the Earth.

And what is also revealed, is just how unprepared we are to really do anything regarding our Homeland or our Security, and this was the second wheel to fall off the bus.

The public outcry was so intense that they shelved social security reform permanently, permanent tax reform too has taken a back seat.

As I said, two wheels off.

Then DeLay gets indicted. Twice, and Frist at first reveals he's being investigated by the SEC, oh yes, and that he's been subpoenaed too. Seferian's arrested, let's see, Abramoff too...hmmm...all the Republicans are in trouble with the law.

Third wheel comes off.

But that doesn't stop the President from continuing his terrific leadership: and nominate Harriet Miers, a lawyer who ran the Texas Lottery Commission, is a Texas Right to Lifer, and never failed to blow a kiss to Bush's rumble seat at every opportunity, as the next supreme court justice. Even the Right took offense at this, and isn't promising an easy process.

At the same time the real leaks begin to spring forth from Fitzgerald's investigation which point fingers at Rove, Libby, Cheney and others in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, and what surfaces is that this has been going on for weeks and weeks, and it's why Karl Rove's tight hand of control has been flabby, because he might be indicted, as might all the others, all this allowing George to talk in front of a mike on his own, without the tight leash of talking point control, explaining many of W.'s mis-steps in the last six weeks.

And wheel four comes off.

The bus is flat on the road. 'Aint going nowhere fast. And it took only seven weeks from hot rod to junk heap.

And poor W. is only in month eleven of this second term.

The GOP were feeling so untouchable, I don't think they even signed up for AAA.

I was looking for a big change in 2008, but the real news is that the winds of change are coming in 2006.

Planet Bush

How far away is it? And where the hell are we? And if he's so far away form us on another planet, how come we can see him on TV?

I mean, the guy is seriously not down here with the rest of us, or perhaps he looks like he is, but he's just not in his own body. Because there's something going on and I think I finally got a handle on it.

He's on Planet Bush. And on Planet Bush all continues to go well. The historical level of arrests and indictments in the top tiers of Republican government are just - wait for it -

"...background noise..."

Yes, actual quote from Bush on Planet Bush (the actual quote - see link). Now remember, Abramoff was arrested, Seferian was arrested (he was the guy that allocated Federal funds from the government to whoever he wanted to, big job ), DeLay has been indicted and you got to see his mug shot today on AOL, Frist has been indicted - and folks - the Republicans control all branches of the government! This isn't Clinton Time - when he was a Dem President and a GOP congress was in control and out to get him. The Republicans are running this show and they're still dropping like flies! That's some major background noise!

But not on Planet Bush. Because George follows up with:

"the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."

First of all, at this point, the 39% that seem to still think he should show up at work, must have had a problem understanding the pollster on the phone. But assuming they're good with his track record, the 61% who think our ship is sinking are probably just crossing their fingers and hoping he's not going to have to do any more of his particular brand of on the "job" training until his time runs out.

But what is the President's job on Planet Bush?

Is it to chide his most trusted advisor, Karl Rove, about the embarrassment and potential massive criminal fallout and future office cleansing of the Valer Plame outing? Of course it is! But not that what he did was wrong, merely that he got caught! See link. Apparantly he expects Karl to chat with the press and leak what's neccesary, as they've done through their entire rise to power, but Bush was angry at him for the

"...ham handed..."

way in which this particlar leak was done. Allowing it to be lead back to Rove and the White House. (This is quite a stunning article in the Daily news, actually, not a page one either, but it quotes sources at the White House who are admitting now that Bush has lied for the past two years in saying he did not know of the leak, who leaked what, and that Rove told him to his face he did was not involved.) More to the point, the author of the article is one who has written a book supporting Bush, and has known the family for years, so this is not some journalist's idle chatter, but a loyalist with access.

Rats do leave a sinking ship. Even on Planet Bush. So the fact that insiders are talking in such a damaging way is telling.

Speaking of insiders talking, how about that Lawrence Wilkerson! Ex-chief of staff to Ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell and his "scathing attack"? He said on the record yesterday - in part -

"Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world" - ouch!

This guy is definitely not on Planet Bush any longer, but has come back home. He added:

"And I would say that we have courted disaster, in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran, generally with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita and I could go on back, we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government." Yowchers!

Click the dude's name for the whole story.

See, and you thought I was just paranoid and burned out. Got to tell you, I'm not exactly thrilled at being vindicated. It would be much much better for all of us if everything was fine, and I was merely paranoid.

Oh yes - more background noise details: Scooter Libby, Cheney's #1 guy and Rove can't keep their lying straight, blaming reporters for having leaked Plame's name to them - but they're coming up with conflicting dates and times of their various lies, so red lights are going off on Fitzgerald's legal pad, because it's obvious someone's lying the question is; a few of them, or all of them? And believe me, Fitzgerald's not sacrificing his career to a benign report this late in the game, with such public attention and a week to go. I think someone's going to get a bad report card. A report card that will definitely not be brought home on Planet Bush.

Also worrisome for Libby, Judith Miller (recently sprung NYT reporter) told the grand jury that Libby told her a classified report (pre-iraq war) showed even more damning evidence supporting WMD in Iraq, leading her to write one of her various page one NYT articles very pro war, very pro WMD, and helping push the country to war - and 10 days later the actual classified report Libby refered to is published - and it's 180 degrees opposite of what Libby said, little evidence to support WMD's. Fitzgerald hears this and realizes there are major conspiracy issues and potential charges, in addition to the perjury. So.

Cheney's going to need a temp. Kelly Girl D.C.

But everything's okay on Planet Bush, thank God. Woops - wrong again:

Howard Fineman writes for Newsweek: "George W. Bush rose to power on the strength of a disciplined, aggressive, tightly-focused, leak-proof spin-machine -- one that took issue positions and stuck to them, divided the world (including the media) into friends and enemies, and steamrollered the opposition with ruthless skill while the candidate remained smilingly above the fray....

....But the machine they built may have run amok -- at least that seems to be what Fitzgerald is examining...

...in the meantime...tightly-knit groups rise together, but they fall together. If the inner circle is small, it takes only one insider 'flip' to endanger the rest."

Seems to me, there's a lot more giong on here than background noise, doesn't it?

Don't you think somone at the grand jury is out to save themself and screw the rest? Isn't that what you do when a boat is sinking, really sinking? You try to save yourself?

I think the offices on Planet Bush are going to be much emptier very soon.

So what do do? Lie to yourself and say everything's fine. It's worked so far.

So on Planet Bush pathological lying is rule of the day. Because at the end of the day, it's probably the only way he can get through the day and live with himself and the historic level of disasterous policy decisions, lives lost in war and natural disasters, quality of life eroding for those not yet killed by the adminsitration, and the bright future of our country permanently damaged and dimmed.

For real.

And I wish I were really kidding.

Link

Negative

Do you know why there's so much negative campaigning in elections? It's not because it ever causes a majority, or even a large minority, to change their minds about the candidate being smeared. A recent poll showed that, all other factors being equal, only 3% of undecided voters said that a negative campaign was likely to cause them to vote against the candidate being smeared. 35% said it would probably sway their vote toward the smeared candidate.

The rest didn't know what to think. 62% gave some version of "I still don't know what to think."

And that's the plan.

If you're a campaign manager, you look at the electorate and see three basic groups: with your guy, against your guy, and the undecideds.

Undecideds are the crucial link to close elections. They're the wild card.

So, if you're a campaign manager who thinks your candidate will win, especially if it's a close margin, what do you do with the undecideds? What buttons can you push to get them to vote for your candidate? Unfortunately, these undecideds fall into a wide socio-econo-political spectrum, united only in their inability to shit or get off the pot. The buttons you would push to sway one bunch of undecideds to vote for your guy will most likely alienate an equal number of undec's. And of course, you can't say one thing to one group and its opposite to another, since the one thing modern journalists can do is compare transcripts. And this would alienate a large bunch of folks.

It's the ultimate in cat-herding.

So, if you can't control this large group of folks, what do you do with it? What can you do?

Here's an idea: Prevent it from voting. And that's the beauty of negative campaigning--it has the ability to turn people off--not just for or against your candidate, but against the whole process.

So, for the sake of argument, let's say you have a White House that is particularly adept at this sort of politicking. In fact, it is so adept at it, that it has taken it to new heights. Or depths, depending on your point of view. Let's take it further--let's imagine this group's agenda is so selfish, so destructive, and so unAmerican that it should cause the country as a whole to rise up and run this cabal out of Washington, and perhaps even into prison.

How could you possibly sell this to a watchful public?

'Well,' the hypothetical campaign manager-turned presidential advisor says, running his pudgy little fingers through his thinning blonde hair, 'what if we continue to baffle them with bullshit? what if we continue to run a negative campaign, against those who oppose us, including journalists? What if, while we on the whole make their lives harder to live, offer them tax cuts, giving them hundreds of dollars, while taking millions for ourselves?

'What if we run a negative campaign against America?'

What do you think the results would be?

Yeharr

A Few Good Men?

Here's a recounting of one of the techniques used by the guards on 'unruly' prisoners of war...er...enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay:

THE WORST punishment for prisoners was a “forced cell extraction” by a group of six to eight guards called the Initial Response Force. The troopers called it IRFing.

I witnessed my first IRFing after a military policeman had performed the “credit card swipe” — pressing his fingers inside a detainee’s buttock crack to look for a weapon. This type of physical contact is not acceptable under Islamic law and the detainee had pushed the guard away. But prisoners were not allowed to touch an MP and immediately eight guards were summoned.

They put on riot protection gear — helmets, heavy gloves, shin guards and chest protectors — before forming a huddle and chanting in unison, getting themselves pumped up. Still chanting, they rushed the block, their heavy boots sounding like a stampede on the steel floor. Detainees throughout Camp Delta started to yell and shake their cage doors.

When the IRF team reached the offending detainee, the team leader drenched him with pepper spray and opened the door to his cell. The others charged in. He was no match for eight men in riot gear. The guards used their shields and bodies to force him to the floor. With his wrists and ankles tied, he was dragged down the corridor to solitary confinement.

When it was over the guards high-fived each other and slammed their chests together like professional basketball players — an odd victory celebration for eight men who took down one prisoner.

IRFing was used with extraordinary frequency. Seemingly harmless behaviour could bring it on: not responding when a guard spoke or having two plastic cups in a cage instead of the regulation one. Invasive body searches occurred daily and were a constant source of tension leading to IRFing. I came to believe that the searches were done solely to rile the detainees. The prisoners had been locked in cages for several months in a remote area of Cuba. What could they possibly be hiding?


This was written by an Army Chaplain. Now, read about how he was treated:

Naked, I had to run my hands through my hair to show that I was not concealing a weapon in it. Then mouth open, tongue up, down, nothing inside. Right arm up, nothing in my armpit. Left arm up. Lift the right testicle, nothing hidden. Lift the left. Turn around, bend over, spread your buttocks, knowing a camera was displaying my naked image as male and female guards watched.

It didn’t matter that I was an army captain, a graduate of West Point, the elite US military academy. It didn’t matter that my religious beliefs prohibited me from being fully naked in front of strangers. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t been charged with a crime. It didn’t matter that my wife and daughter had no idea where I was. And it certainly didn’t matter that I was a loyal American citizen and, above all, innocent.

This is the story of Captain James Yee. Remember him? Read his story, and keep repeating to yourself, "We're the good guys. We're the good guys..."

Yeharr

Who, Then, For the Dems?

Note: I fixed the link

I've been having lots of conversations with fellow burned-ou paranoids where we all come to a conclusion that then elicits further questions:

Because of [insert litany of egregious, immoral, and downright godawful things the current regime is currently either denying or trying to shove down our throat], it's pretty evident that the GOP is apt to collapse under its own mismanaged weight.

Question 1: Why in the hell isn't the so-called liberal media going after this group?

Questtion 2: Who on the left--Democratic party member or otherwise--can we rally behind?

To answer both, I submit a quote:

"The news divisions - which used to be seen as serving a public interest and were subsidized by the rest of the network - are now seen as profit centers designed to generate revenue and, more importantly, to advance the larger agenda of the corporation of which they are a small part. They have fewer reporters, fewer stories, smaller budgets, less travel, fewer bureaus, less independent judgment, more vulnerability to influence by management, and more dependence on government sources and canned public relations hand-outs. This tragedy is compounded by the ironic fact that this generation of journalists is the best trained and most highly skilled in the history of their profession. But they are usually not allowed to do the job they have been trained to do.

The present executive branch has made it a practice to try and control and intimidate news organizations: from PBS to CBS to Newsweek. They placed a former male escort in the White House press pool to pose as a reporter - and then called upon him to give the president a hand at crucial moments. They paid actors to make make phony video press releases and paid cash to some reporters who were willing to take it in return for positive stories. And every day they unleash squadrons of digital brownshirts to harass and hector any journalist who is critical of the President.

Al Gore for President.
Eight years late is better than not at all.

Yeharr

From Brad Blog

One of the forerunners in the blogosphere to investigate and police the vauter fraud in this country in 2000 and 20o4, a great blog, recognized by Congressman Conyers and others, and this was just too good to let it pass by without a nod:

Who hits zero first?

Latest Bush Approval Rating: 37% (and falling)
Latest Diebold Stock Price: $34.25 (and falling)

Blogged by Brad on 10/6/2005 @ 7:56pm PT...

Link

He's Going Back for a Fourth Chat

Prosecutor Fitzgerald is bringing Turd Blossom back yet again. He was caught lying, apparently - surprising that. Turd's lawyer defends him saying "he hasn't received a 'target letter'", which is the document stating that you are going to be indicted and must appear before the grand jury. But that's a lawyer's trick - if you voluntarily agree to testify when asked, then you're not subpoenaed - and a target letter is only ever attached to your subpoena. So Rove's lawyer can say that to make things appear fine and dandy, but it's meaningless.

And Fitzgerald has said to Rove's attorney that he can not promise that Rove won't be indicted. That, apparently, the Prosecutor has to say to a witness who may be in trouble, upon asking that witness back to testify. Legal protections against self-incriminating statements kick in if the witness is not aware that they are potential targets of indictments, and their testimony may hurt their own case. Thus, the prosecutor must inform them up front that it's possible, and then everything is cool and the witness can blab away. So - he was warned. Thus - there is a big chance Mr. Blossom may be receiving some nasty legal documents in the mail.

Link

International Merchants Have No Country, Bush is One of Them

Thomas Jefferson said it best.

"Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.

Bush is beholden to the guys who are raiding the treasury, literally, he's one of them. Part of the Carlyle group, the oil/gas cartel whose mammoth profits determine geopolitics. He's in bed so thick with the Saudis he gives them every consideration, and a hands off approach to thier foreign policy. He gives tax breaks to every internation corporation who throws money at him for re-election. Hey, who cares about America when you're floating in the wealth generated by pleasing the companies who lobby the GOP? And just so no corporate coffer be put out, Bush is using the social security fund to keep the government going, as past administrations have done, except this adminstration has no intention of paying it back.

So to try and curtail the spiraling deficit, currently at 7 trillion, and refusing to include any of the war operations budget into the fiscal budget, which is beyound maxed out, he's decided on cutting government spending and services to the poor and middle class all the way across the board as the way to go to keep things in the illusion of checked and balanced.

Because the bottom line is the dollar. Keep the money, and take the money, from whever you can, and hold it for yourself and your friends.

So cutting taxes again and again, and getting the no bid contracts for their buddies, for the wartime disaster and the natural disasters, is business as usual. And the way to keep that going, is to take away the people's funding: Schools that work, hospitals that work, police forces that are large enough to work, medical coverage for the elederly that works, watch it all start to crumble, with what Bush's government is now planning to cut it down to.

And four years after 9/11, the only thing that seems to have come from all the government re-organiztion, the creation of Homeland Security, and the rainbow colored disaster codes, is that they can't manage a disaster very well. They can, however, make an excellent profit at the disaster, doling out the countracts to favored companies and friends, and keeping the clean up in the privatizing theme. Once again, taking great care of their own, and screw you if you're not part of the club.

And America is very gib and their club is very, very small. If you're reading this, you're not in it.

Hell, I thought America was the club. The greatest country in the world, the one everyone wants to get to, be a part of, buy a part of, emulate the artists of, happy just to be a citizen of.

Not to these guys. America can go screw itself, while Bush retires to his ranch and Cheney to his new estate. But they'll take our money.

Don't you think their own greed will be their own destruction? Private sector has to make a profit, has to cut corners to stay in the black, and thta's why we still have bodies in NO, morgues backed up because FEMA shuts the morges early, etc. etc. , it's tragic - but they are standing on the stilts of profit, and sawing the stilts off below their feet to be used as even more new-found money! That's how these guys think. Nothing is sacred.

'Taint gonna work.

Supreme Cushion a.k.a. Half-Baked Court

There are some interesting theories abounding lately as to the rushed nature of Bush's Supreme Court nominees. John Roberts aggresive inability to answer questions not withstanding (one was lead to believe that even "how are you feeling?" could be met with an answer along the lines of: "answering that question might jeapoardize a future moment when I might be asked "how I was feeling", revealing the nature of how I might answer that question, and prejudicing my own answer as to how I answered previously, or signalling to the questioning party how I might already feel, suggesting they mightnot ask how I feel, so I won't answer that question"), he at least was a judge. Harriet Miers has the advantage of never having ever been a judge, avoiding the messy paper trail that could indicate any beliefs or belief system she has at all, except for her undying gratitutde and allegiance to the President, particularly when he apointed her to run the Texas State Lottery Commission.

Lottery Commission. You read correctly. That's who George has picked to become a Supreme Court Judge. One of nine judges in the land who have the final say on the law of the land, their purpose to be independent of the Executive Branch, to interpret law, untangle complex decisions rife with philospphical questions of the modern age, that would make the framers of our Constitution heads' spin.

And she reigned over the Lottery Commission. Just what John Adams, Jefferson and Ben Franklin would have hoped for. (Not to mention she very likely will be the deciding vote against legalized abortion in this country if she makes the bench - see "With Miers Bush Gets Fifth Vote Against Roe") (And not to mention, she may have helped hide W's National Guard derelcition of duty days.)(Woops)

At the same time, and seemingly on a parallel track, manequin-journalist Judith Miller, who has spent 86 days in jail protecting her source on the Valerie Plame investigation (the investigation to discover the origin of the leak that "outed" her once uncercover CIA operative status to the US media, who's husband, diplomat Joseph Wilson, was on a then anti-Bush tirade against their faulty intelligence justifying the then unstarted war agaisnt Iraq), suddenly voluntarily decides to suddenly un-protect her source, pop out of jail and testify in front of the grand jury, allowing Fitzgerald to finally close his case.

Well, a leak from the grand jury about the leak case has fingered Dick Cheney himself, and his chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby as potential indictment targets.

It's very possible the indictments will come down, and very possibly for some very real jail time and loss of power will rear its heads for some very real high level players in this government.

Unless...we are to look at the timing.

John Roberts is voted in as Chief Justice. Making it a very conservative majority ofthe now eight judges on the Supreme Court. And Judith Miller pops out of jail the next day like a piece of over done toast, allowing Fitzgerald to close a case that had been in limbo, waiting on her testimony.

Because if indictments come down on Cheney, and Libby, for some very real jail time for the very real crime of "outing" a CIA agent, there is only one recourse to protect them?

Presidential Pardon.

And that would create an outcry in half the population of the land, and be fought immediately in the Federal courts of Wasthington, who would not want the hot potato of course, or even if they did would find the case immediately appealed if the Govt. lost, which would bump the case up into the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court.

Where sits Bush's newest crony, and now awaits the next one.

And what if this new George Bush Supreme Court were to rule that the Presidential Pardon in this case were legal? Check Mate. Cheney and Libby are free, no crime has been committed. Everyone go back to raiding the treasury.

The Political Right in this country has always been two to three steps ahead in their game of political chess. Lacking a moral compass, they are quick to throw caution, common sense, tradition and precedent to the wind, as long as they can stay in power. (See Tom DeLay and his indictments) And it's sometimes hard for the rest of us to imagine the next move in their game of Souless Stratego, as it's only about keeping the power.

If this is indeed the plan, it's brilliant in it's empty Machiavellianism, but bufoonish on the face of it, as even extreme conservatives Trent Lott and George Will have had it with this administration's blatant attempts at self preservation to the point of desecrating the country's branches of government. When these Righties have to draw a line in the sand at W.'s lack of familiarity or appreciation of this country's great history in selecting law makers, one really has to sit up and take notice.

The Texas Lottery Commission.

Really now, is the President that stupid? That he thinks he can just put in all his friends and neighbors to the most important posts of the country with no training, and not have the country fall apart? The bottom line, of course, is that he just doesn't care.

Small man in a big job. Small selfish ideas win the day. Big problems come later down the line. He shrugs. We suffer.

The fall of his house of cards started with Katrina. I'm praying it's not forced to fall to the ground before he's stopped. Because we live in his house of cards.

Link

Fight or Die!

New Slogan for the Democratic Party?

A Republican calls the DNC for help with a dying woman from NO in his residence, as his endless calls for help to his own party go unanswered. This true and very moving story from a DNC staffer (link from Democratic Underground).

"At 10 a.m. the phone rang, and while I usually only get calls from the press, this one was different. A man identifying himself as a lifelong Republican was on the line. I began to prepare myself for whatever harsh words he was about to unleash, but to my surprise he said, "I need your help." So I asked him "What do you need?"

More.

Link

Gulf Coast Update

Taken from Aimee's Blog:

Yesterday we tried requesting a new insurance adjuster because ours is wet being the ears, plus we had a Builder's Risk policy & that is supposed to cover ANYTHING that goes wrong during the building process. Our adjuster had no experience, much less experience with this particular type of policy. Not only were we denied the request for a new adjuster, but the insurance company is giving us the run around on getting us the paper saying we're denied any type of compensation (we need this paper to give to FEMA.)
Ahh-FEMA. They told us today that we do not qualify for any type of assistance. We can't get an SBA loan on the place we were living, because we were renting & we can't get a loan for the new place we were building because it wasn't our primary residence yet. So once again we're bureaucracy is bending us over & having their way with us.
So since the squeaky wheel usually gets the grease...we called the bank our construction loan is with, Dicky Scruggs' office, the MS Attorney General's office, Gene Taylor's office, the MS Insurance Hotline & I'm going to call the FBI to put in a complaint about FEMA. So far no luck. But our story needs to get out there. We can't be the only ones in this situation & no one will know that young, hard working couples like us are being screwed if no one speaks up.
Also, I would like for someone to explain something to me. My bil (Darren's brother) had a tree pushed into his house by the wind. His insurance is going to pay him for everything. We had water pushed into our house by the wind & our insurance company is telling us to go fly a kite. What makes a tree more worthy of insurance money than water????

I wish I was in a position to do something about this. Right now, I'm wracking my brains, trying to see if I can't find someone in a national news operation that might be able to tell her story.

Because the sad truth is what Aimee alluded to: The government, and the insurance companies, will do their best to deny as much coverage to the victims of Katrina as they possibly can.

This is the problem with small government (or in this case, humongous government running a massive deficit). This is the problem with Dubya's 'private sector' approach to assistance. At some point, private sector concerns say "Hey, we have to think about the bottom line." At some point, all the promises of huge amounts of assistance given at the podium run up against the bean counters who say "From were do we get this money?"

I don't want to overly politicize this. I have no idea, nor do I care, what Aimee's politics are. But the fact of the matter is: she's just one of thousands in the same predicament.

Let's help these people.

Yeharr

Oh, and one other thing: the ever-excellent Greg Saunders rips Bill Bennet a new asshole (passing right through the New Republic's Andrew McCarthy along the way) at This Modern World. Worth a read.