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