Forget the Killian Memo Details and Pay Attention

Ezra at Pandagon (and thanks to David Anderson for reminding me it's been way too long since I visited there) sums it up well. Forget the memos, the font, the other nonsense and pay attention to what looks like irrefutable evidence (mostly presented by Greg Palast but unheeded) of what went down with W because it matters:

Now, I don't know if Palast's reporting is true, but if it is, then that's it for George. Again, I can't confirm it so you should all go read it yourselves, but here's the outline:

• Barnes, as he now admits, pulled strings to get a young George W. Bush into the Guard.
• Barnes, a former Lt. Governor of Texas, was a corporate lobbyist when Bush ran for governor in 1994.
• Barnes' client, GTech, was accused of corruption (and were being investigated by the FBI for attempting to influence lawmakers) and about to lose its license to run the Texas state lottery.
• Barnes made a deal with Bush, under which he kept silent about Bush's Guard connections if Bush got Gtech the deal again.
• Bush spoke to the head of the lottery commission and the commission reversed itself, giving GTech a no-bid contract.
• Barnes got paid $23 million, Bush took the governor's mansion.

Except, of course, that this won't be it for W. He's had an amazing life of getting away with things that anyone else would have been creamed over (multiple failed businesses, screwy behavior on the Carlisle Group's board, failed political runs before he hooked up with Rove, the drugs and the drinking) and then he's managed to even get the Supreme Court to make things right for him. The leadup to the Iraq War was just a sham? Hey, that's fine, the country said. The National Guard convention pissed all over itself yesterday making him feel like he was a legitimate member of their own.

I am now thoroughly convinced that we have reached the stage of insanity ruling that someone who's had his record could walk onto the floor of the Senate or the EU governing board in a drunken, doped stupor, shoot someone in a stupid rage, and no one would do more than debate it... lightly. And we'd hear that somehow, really, it was Bill Clinton's fault and that CSPAN (that huge liberal extremist terrorist group, as Rush and a few others might present it) had doctored the live video feed.

The pundit debate would be dominated by whether he was a hero for doing so and no one would raise pesky details like murder being an abomination (the Bible doesn't have to tell you "thou shalt not kill" for you to not do it) or whether a) people with guns should be allowed in public places b)people who are drunk and stoned should have a gun and c)whether someone lacking full mental resources should have control of the country.