Pollster Refuses to Poll for Pro-Impeachment Sentiment

According to this piece, Gallup has specifically refused to run a poll asking how many Americans think Bush should be canned like the mystery meat called Spam.

My Pet Goat: The Sequel

From the erudite Greg Mitchell at Ed and Pub (please read it all):

This time, during a catastrophe, the president did not merely dither for seven minutes, but for three days, and his top advisors followed suit. While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall failure of leadership in this weeks hurricane's disaster, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty.

While a rising chorus in the press has taken the White House, FEMA and the Pentagon to task for performing miserably in their response to the human disaster on the Gulf Coast, few have focused on the most telling aspect of the entire failure.

It’s not just incompetence. It’s a shameful lack of concern: The 9/11 “My Pet Goat” dithering on an administration-wide scale.Simply stated, the president and his top advisers chose vacation over action.While the media has done a good job in portraying the overall deadly failure of leadership, it has not focused enough on this deadly dereliction of duty. President Bush, in his weekly radio address on Saturday, said: “In America, we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need.” But Bush, and his top aides, quite frankly, did just that.

I was reminded of this today, seeing pictures of Vice President Dick Cheney finally showing up at the White House after riding out the storm-of-the-century in Wyoming. Perhaps he brought back with him a couple dozen trout to throw on the grill for the White House staffers.

His absence, and the president’s performance during it, can only add to the rumors that Bush is clueless without the Big Guy at his side.

This follows Bush himself remaining on vacation for more than two days after the storm hit, despite acknowledging this was the worst disaster in the nation’s history. He did take a trip during those days, not back to Washington but out to San Diego to deliver a political speech comparing his Iraq war to World War II. It got little play because nearly everyone else in the country, beyond his inner circle, was focused on New Orleans instead.

Editor and Publisher: Newspapers Conservative and Not Are Raging at This President

Well deserved, IMHO.

Bush 404 Error: This President Not Found

Mad Kane brings us this treat. Hint: look twice.

Thank you, Mad!

Words from Jesus' General

I missed them when they originally appeared at General JC Christian's site, but he kindly reprises them for us here.

The Resignation of the FEMA Director is NOT Enough

Only one man cuts the legs off FEMA so they could not respond.

That man is named George Walker Bush.

Where's the Dick? Indeed

From Xan at Corrente asking the eternal question - considering Cheney stayed on vacation in Wyoming all this week (I mean, they were just poor people affected, right?)....

Hmmmm...(via Edmonton Journal)

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney has postponed his visit to Alberta in order to tend to duties at home in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

Marisa Etmanski, spokeswoman for Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, says the White House contacted Klein's office Saturday.Cheney had planned to visit Alberta on Thursday and Friday, stopping first in Calgary and then visiting Fort McMurray and touring the oilsands. Etmanski said Klein's reaction to Cheney's change of plans was nothing but understanding.

And His Vice Dear Leaderliness has done precisely what in the way of "duties" since Katrina hit? Yeah, I know, he "issued a statement" (which turned out to be from a spokeswoman); supposedly stood up with Dear Leader at that strangely militaristic press appearance yesterday (I sure never saw him on camera live) and there was one (still) photo of him and Rove and some other flunky, which for all we know could have been taken months ago.

Weekend at Bernie's, anyone? Or is Lynn Cheney's lesser known other novel (The Body Politic) the story we're watching play out here?

Impeachment

I thought long and hard over this last night. It is not a partisan decision and is separate from ALL else we know about his actions that might lead a sane person to question whether the time has come....

Bush, once again, was on vacation while America suffered. He KNEW he had cut FEMA's ability to respond to shreds. We now know that he ignored special pleas from Gov Blanco of Louisiana even before Katrina struck.

Since then, almost everything that involved government's efforts has been a dismal failure that not only didn't get help to people who needed it, they have worked long and hard to keep anyone ELSE from getting in to help. He stopped rescue and food efforts for his photo ops down there.

Folks, it is time to remove him. He must be impeached before he endangers yet more. The time to act is now. I'm going to research whether anyone else is organizing this and, if they aren't, I will. It will probably come to naught, but this cancer must be removed. It should have been surgically extracted LONG ago; in fact, there's evidence he never should have been in office at all.

Tens of thousands dead in Katrina

And a rescue effort that took nearly a week to get underway.

As happy as I was to see 29 trucks filled in Montpelier, VT the last two days - they thought they might fill two - with clothes, food, and plenty of pet food, I wonder if any of that pet food will ever see those poor animals who were just left. They're in shock and dying, too.

And like with the humans, the authorities aren't allowing anyone in to help.

Any Thoughts on the Loss of Rehnquist

I mean, besides my multiple-fuckety fuck message?

Can you just imagine the loonball Bush will bring us?

Say Hello to

Nola.com.

Chicago Trip: Bush Made Fatal Changes to FEMA to Weaken its Ability to Cope with Disasters

Story here.

And then there's this:

Three tons of food ready for delivery by air to refugees in St. Bernard Parish and on Algiers Point sat on the Crescent City Connection bridge Friday afternoon as air traffic was halted because of President Bush’s visit to New Orleans, officials said.

The provisions, secured by U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, and state Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom, baked in the afternoon sun as Bush surveyed damage across southeast Louisiana five days after Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 storm, said Melancon’s chief of staff, Casey O’Shea.

“We had arrangements to airlift food by helicopter to these folks, and now the food is sitting in trucks because they won’t let helicopters fly,” O’Shea said Friday afternoon.The food was expected to be in the hands of storm survivors after the president left the devastated region Friday night, he said.

John McCain

I see Morbo at The Carpetbagger Report feels about the same way about John McCain I do. This man's a bit too erratic and happy to be a toady for my tastes.

What I Buy, What I Don't

Obviously, there has been huge amounts of speculation over NOLA. I mean, how does any organization, let alone a huge mass of them, all manage to fail at once and all manage to fail this spectacularly. I mean, I think we'd all admit this isn't bad: this is Herculean, Rube Goldberg-duz-Michael Jackson-duz-Keystone Kops horrific.

Some of the speculation has is that the Bushies deliberately hung Blanco, Landrieu and other dems out to dry by deliberately withholding any aid. As stories of the horror began to leak out, reporters were threatened and they tried to toss all reporters out of the city citing "martial law".

The press thing is typical Bush. They feel they own the press, and because the press today largely is mega-corps, they do to some degree.

But instead, here's what I believe: Bush has been destroying things right and left: public education, health care, Social Security, jobs and job security, the economy. This failure was at least in part deliberate, and done to assure people of the Grover Norquist philosophy that you can't trust government. The Bushies were just lucky - and knew from a very recent report which sat at the top of dozens and dozens of others - that NOLA was especially susceptible and, filled with poor, powerless blacks so Bushies felt they could make an example of how government does not work without taking the heat they would elsewhere.

Some People Believe At Least One Levee Deliberately Blown to Protect Wealthier Homes

Read this from Louise posting at DailyKos:

Friends of mine live in Dallas, and their next-door-neighbor had 9 relatives roll up from New Orleans two days ago. Their house is gone. The whole block is putting together a fund-raising party on Saturday, and the landlord of a vacant house down the street has given them three months' occupancy rent-free.

But that's not the real news. The real news is the story that the relatives tell. They lived near the 17th St. Canal, and their whole neighborhood heard two explosions that they swear was dynomite on Monday night. Perhaps it was the sound of the levees collapsing, but the people there are convinced that the levee was blown.

The theory is that the poor section of town was sacrificed to save the other, wealthier sections.

Of course it matters whether or not such an act actually occurred, but what's scarier is that so many NO residents believe that it did.

That idea - that the Corps of Engineers, a Pentagon entity, blew the levee is only going to get thrown into the mix of the incredibly slow response of the Feds, the fact that they ignored Blanco's requests, and that they won't let the Red Cross in.

Quick Roundup of Katrina Links

Bush Administration rejecting offers of assistance from the Sun-Times.

Do we need a man like this at the helm? The head of the Dept of Homeland Bullshit Security was praising FEMA for its unprecedentedly wonderful response on Thursday. Praise?

NOLA refugees kept waiting for food so Laura Bush could finish her leisurely meal.

Some Refugees Fired Upon, Killed

From Reuters:

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - People left homeless by Hurricane Katrina told horrific stories of rape, murder and trigger happy guards in two New Orleans centers that were set up as shelters but became places of violence and terror.

Police and National Guard troops on Saturday closed down the two centers -- the Superdome arena and the city's convention center -- but them penned them in outside in sweltering heat to keep them from trying to walk out of the city.

Military helicopters and buses staged a massive evacuation to take away thousands of people who waited in orderly lines in stifling heat outside the flooded convention center.

The refugees, who were waiting to be taken to sports stadiums and other huge shelters across Texas and northern Louisiana, described how the convention center and the Superdome became lawless hellholes beset by rape and murder.

Several residents of the impromptu shantytown recounted two horrific incidents where those charged with keeping people safe had killed them instead.

In one, a young man was run down and then shot by a New Orleans police officer, in another a man seeking help was gunned down by a National Guard soldier, witnesses said.

Police here refused to discuss or confirm either incident. National Guard spokesman Lt. Col Pete Schneider said "I have not heard any information of a weapon being discharged."

"They killed a man here last night," Steve Banka, 28, told Reuters. "A young lady was being raped and stabbed. And the sounds of her screaming got to this man and so he ran out into the street to get help from troops, to try to flag down a passing truck of them, and he jumped up on the truck's windshield and they shot him dead."

Louisiana Desperately Appealed to Bush for Help One FULL Week Ago

According to Daily Kos.

Bush, however, was on vacation.

My, the shit just flies everywhere on his... [cough] watch.

"The Culture of Life": Where Were They This Week?

Looking for their next Terri Schiavo or anywhere other than at those poor, desperate, defenseless people and animals in NOLA and elsewhere.

Excellent piece; I encourage you to read the entire thing at the Progressive Programmer:

Olbermann remarked that he had heard Rush Limbaugh earlier today saying that those that were still in New Orleans deserved what they had gotten, as they had chosen to live there. Olbermann went so far as to call him, "that Limbaugh". Denouncing the inherent inconsiderate nature of such a statement.

But Sharpton made the point that struck me.

The Right, as embodied by Limbaugh, Frist, Bush, Hastert, DeLay. They would move heaven and earth to save the life of one White Woman in Florida to combat the very idea of euthanasia (which technically it was not). A woman that a decade earlier had lost her ability to so much as ask for help, much less have coherent thoughts about the quality of her own life.And they would sit on their ass and watch as tens of thousands of poor men, women, children, babies, and elderly bake in the New Orleans heat surrounded by water, sewage, gasoline and an abandoned city, now devoid of anyone with the means to have escaped ahead of the storm.This is the culture of life. The culture of life wants to save brain dead white women and unborn children. The culture of life wants you to watch endless non-news about the disappearance of one white teenager in Aruba. The culture of life wants you to support your nation as it kills tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians in its Quixotic quest against a non-threat.

The culture of life wants a zero-tolerance for looters policy to sound authoritative as babies die of dehydration. The culture of life expects you to take care of yourself, and if you can't, then it is your own fault for getting into that situation in the first place. Fuck off. You had your shot. Station in life, where you hang your hat, and whether you have the $40 at the end of the month to pay for the overpriced gasoline to get out of that home in time is all up to you.

Thanks so very much to Buzzflash for this link.

While Bush Did His "I'm the Commander in Chief" Bit in Louisiana

.... food drops were suspended to the desperate and the dying.

Krugman Has the Same Questions We Do

Story here.

I only realized today - finally coming up from my shock and despair - how the rest of the country is mocking us terribly while we refuse aid those people down in NOLA and Gulfport and Biloxi desperately need.

And You Thought I Was Joking About it Earlier

...when I said watch Halliburton step in and make a bundle out of their misery - HalliCheney's modus operandi.

Posted by Vince at Spazzzdic Musings.

Passionate Words About an Abysmal, Criminal Failure

Vince Novak has some passionate words about, links to articles about, and well-placed outrage at the grave, grave conditions that are still playing out in New Orleans. He also shares some truly see-red stuff like this:

According to their website, the American Red Cross CAN NOT enter New Orleans because the Department of Homeland Security has ordered them not to return.http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4524

Aparently its because it would prevent people from leaving the city.

WTF!?!

Is This the Rapture?

I always thought there would be more music. Probably Lionel Ritchie and Marie Osmand stuff with a little pan flute and a superbly sad sounding violin.

FUCK FUCK FUCK - Rehnquist is Dead!

Oh my fucking fucking fucking fucking God.

Hugo Chavez, the Man that Great Christian, Pat Roberstson Wants to Assassinate

... has offered the US relief in the form of cheap oil but of course we did not acknowlegde his offer

Say Hello to

- and definitely drop some cash at - Liberal Bloggers for Hurricane Relief, although desperate creatures go way beyond politics.

Thanks to Skippy for the link.

Unconscionable, Indeed

Posted by Mimus Pauly at the incomparable Skippy:

john howard on the unconscionable dereliction of duty that so distinguishes awol's presidency:

...anyone can make excuses for why this isn't bush's fault, and isn't the administration's fault, and a lot of those excuses might be valid and might be true, but if you want to sit around making excuses for why you can't do anything, then why the fuck do you become the president of the united states in the first place?

Our Tax Dollars at ... er... It's Definitely Not Work...

From Talking Points Memo:

Clearly, the White House is pulling out every stop to argue for the impossibility of predicting what happened. But remember, everyone seems to agree that a Cat 4 or 5 hurricane would have created a storm surge that overtopped the levees. I want to go back and check all the details on this. But my understanding is that Katrina -- which was coming into Louisiana as a Cat 5 -- ratchetted down in final hours and actually hit NOLA as a Cat 3. This is part of what created that brief period in which it seemed that the city emerged more or less intact. The immediate storm surge didn't overtop the levees. But then levees failed and/or some were overtopped.

Whatever the details on that point, whether levees failed or were overtopped, the feds and everyone else had every reason to believe over the weekend that the city was going to be flooded. This scenario was not only predictable, but actively predicted as a likely scenario.
One other point: at Chertoff's press conference, he introduced someone as Deputy Director of FEMA. I assume it was this guy noted by Al Kamen in the Post's Inside the Loop column back on August 1st ...

Michael D. Brown , who runs the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, sent around a memo a couple of weeks ago saying "effective immediately," his chief of staff, Patrick Rhode , was the acting deputy director.

The Anger is Palpable

People are mad - from red states and blue - wondering how we can spend so very much money on government support disaster programs and bullshit about homeland security and tens of thousands of the poor and vulnerable were left to figure out how to get themselves out of New Orleans.

Six days into it, and things are barely any better.

I've heard numerous Republicans, on screen and off, offer up this, "I am ashamed to be a Republican right now. Pure shame. It's our people in the government and they've done wrong."

I mention this because it struck me strangely to hear party affiliation brought into it. Then I stopped to think.

On One Positive Note

In Vermont today, as I suppose happened many places, dropoff sites were inundated by people, on just a few hours notice, appearing at these sites dropping off water, food, clothing, toiletries, pet food and care, blankets, pillows, batteries, and just about anything else they thought could be useful. Lots of the people donating were people who looked like they were pretty strapped for money themselves... and yet, there they were, out to help those in need.

The effort will continue tomorrow (errrr... later today) before many huge trucks load up and head to Gulfport, Louisiana, the closest they can get to the site of the worst devastation.

Quite a Price Discrepancy

Congress is talking about an emergency $10.5 billion relief package for New Orleans and Mississippi.

OK, but does anyone recall the hurricanes - of much less magnitude - that hit Florida not too long before Election 2004? They allocated $14-$20 billion initially and I read somewhere not so long ago that taxpayers actually shelled out about $30 billion in direct costs for photo ops for George Bush and his chubby baby bro, Jeb, handing out water while they blocked search and rescue operations around them.

So why does so much more devastation result in so much less funding? Couldn't be the color of the faces, could it? Not just the fact Bush isn't looking to be re-selected now.

And...

you know things are serious when coverage actually knocks off update on the missing Natalee Holloway, Paris Hilton's last bowel movement, and what Martha Stewart is doing.

And Damn It...

It took three days for Bush to stop napping to attend to the disaster; Cheney's still on vacation, Condi finished her vacation before she returned, and Denny Hastert's only comment was he didn't think it was smart to bother to rebuild it. The mayor of New Orleans leaves the city.

No local, regional, or federal preparedness for what would happen if one of more of these levies failed and they were bound to fail.

To let people go for days without food, medical care, protection, water, and living in extremely squalid conditions, sleeping with the dead....

Sorry for the Silence

I don't know about all of you, but this week has just stunned me.

I can't eat a bite of food without feeling a bit of guilt, without wishing I could make dinner for every soul in the devastation. Nothing I've been able to do thus far feels like enough. Hell, even though they really only want guest housing close to the Southeast, I've signed my home up for temporary housing for refugees.

And the anger inside me for the lack of planning for the poor blacks or perhaps the poor in general, the staggering sums of money that go to this "security" program or that but which pays no attention to the kind of insecurity delivered by a natural disaster.

Decisions like telling everyone to go to the SuperDome long after it was closed to new people, or telling them to go to the Convention Center when no one was there to lead or feed or bus them to a new location, like not noticing that more than a third of the city had NO ability to evacuate.

The decision the other day to suspend rescue efforts and turn the attention to looting. Then, today, with Bush and the governor of Louisiana saying "Zero tolerance" and "shoot to kill" even if the looting was of people breaking into storefronts to get water and food.

But, I've got to get back here. And I apologize for my absence. Your thoughts, as always, interest me.

Don't We All Feel So Much Better?

The president cut short his vacation so he could fly back to Washington so he could visit New Orleans which is actually really much closer to Crawford than Washington is.

Sounds like a Bush move.

Some of Those Pushing John Roberts as Supreme Court Pick Are Pretty Questionable Themselves

Think Progress brings us an example.

Ronald Rotunda is the law professor who argues that Judge John Roberts didn’t do anything wrong when he “heard arguments about the Bush administration’s policy [on military commissions in Guantanamo] as he was discussing a Supreme Court appointment in private conversations with the White House.”

Yesterday we revealed that Rotunda — who is presenting himself as a neutral legal ethicist — was, until very recently, a paid military advisor to the Department of Defense on military commissions.

It turns out Rotunda is one legal ethicist with a history of questionable conduct. From Newsweek, 9/16/1991:

How does a law professor get appointed to the federal bench? Cozying up to the White House can’t hurt. University of Illinois professor Ron Rotunda submitted his name for a spot last spring. He didn’t get the job — but he’s now part of the PR machine for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. A legal ethics expert, he’s phoned reporters, published op-ed pieces and, at the behest of White House counsel C. Boyden Gray, written an essay absolving Thomas of unethical conduct in a controversial case.

Public Not Inclined to Believe Bushie Rhetoric on Chavez and Venezuela

Fascinating:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Since when did Venezuela become a threat?" asked U.S. radio sports talk show host Tony Kornheiser.
"Since gas went over $3," his co-host joked, referring to soaring U.S. prices and the fact Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East.

The Bush administration has accused leftist President Hugo Chavez of seeking to destabilize Latin American governments and doing too little to combat drug traffickers and Marxist rebels operating around its border with U.S. ally Colombia.

But Washington's campaign to raise the alarm over a major U.S. oil supplier has failed to resonate among members of congress, editorial writers, think-tank analysts and the public.
In the void, Pat Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate and key supporter of President George W. Bush, called last week for Chavez to be assassinated for exporting communism and Muslim extremism.

As wild as his charges appeared, the attack came against the backdrop of largely unsubstantiated Bush administration accusations and Chavez said they represented the view of the right-wing U.S. elite.

"The Bush administration has tried to make Venezuela seem like a spooky, murky place," said Larry Birns of the Washington based think-tank the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. "But they have cried wolf too often. Without serious evidence, you can't take their accusations seriously."
The Bush administration distanced

E&P: Press Wants to Know

Related to that previous post about Mitt Romney, Editor and Publisher says periodicals across the US are starting to ask "Will you encourage your kids to sign up?" question of pro-war supporters. Funny, few of the pro-war supporters seem willing to have their kids go.

Massachusetts' Romney: Backs Iraq War, Won't Encourage Sons to Enlist

From the Boston Herald:

Gov. Mitt Romney, who has comforted the grieving loved ones of soldiers killed in Iraq and promoted National Guard recruitment, yesterday said he has not urged his own sons to enlist - and isn't sure whether they would.
The Herald posed the question as Romney - a potential 2008 White House contender and backer of President Bush's Iraq policy -was honored by the Massachusetts National Guard after he signed a bill extending pay for state workers on active duty.
``No, I have not urged my own children to enlist.I don't know the status of my childrens' potentially enlisting in the Guard and Reserve,`` Romney said, his voice tinged with anger.
Massachusetts residents can enlist in the National Guard up to age 39.Romney's five sons range in age from 24 to 35. Neither the Romney children nor the governor have served in the military, Romney spokeswoman Julie Teer said.
More than 1,100 guardsmen and women from Massachusetts are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, a guard spokeswoman said.According to federal statistics, 28 Massachusetts soldiers have been killed so far.
``I don't think you should be so `rah-rah' for a war that you aren't willing to send your own family members to,'' said Rose Gonzalez, 30, of Somerville, whose mother, a state employee, was deployed to Iraq in January.``If he thinks the war is so just and so important and we shouldn't pull out, then he should encourage his own sons to go.``

Rove's (Stinking, Dirty) Role

From the Boston Globe (but read it all):

SOME WHITE House sympathizers have attempted to portray Karl Rove's role in the Valerie Plame scandal as that of a statesman, seeking to provide President Bush with the best information possible on Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions so that Bush could set policy based on facts. This has been met with deserved skepticism. Rove's career, even before he became Bush's deputy chief of staff, is rich with reasons to think his motives in helping to identify Plame as a CIA agent were far darker.

After all, Plame's identity was revealed in a Robert Novak column on July 14, 2003, just eight days after her husband, Joseph Wilson, had embarrassed Bush over his Iraq war rationale. And Rove had talked with Novak on July 9.

As John Roberts, the Supreme Court nominee and federal appeals court judge, wrote last month in another context, the fact that ''sometimes dogs do eat homework" is no reason to ignore more-logical explanations.

Rove's record has been consistent. Over 35 years, he has been a master of dirty tricks, divisiveness, innuendo, manipulation, character assassination, and roiling partisanship.

"The Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation"

From the wonderful Frank Rich:

We have long since lost count of all the historic turning points and fast-evaporating victories hyped by this president. The toppling of Saddam's statue, "Mission Accomplished," the transfer of sovereignty and the purple fingers all blur into a hallucinatory loop of delusion. One such red-letter day, some may dimly recall, was the adoption of the previous, interim constitution in March 2004, also proclaimed a "historic milestone" by Mr. Bush. Within a month after that fabulous victory, the insurgency boiled over into the war we have today, taking, among many others, the life of Casey Sheehan.

It's Casey Sheehan's mother, not those haggling in Baghdad's Green Zone, who really changed the landscape in the war this month. Not because of her bumper-sticker politics or the slick left-wing political operatives who have turned her into a circus, but because the original, stubborn fact of her grief brought back the dead the administration had tried for so long to lock out of sight. With a shove from Pat Robertson, her 15 minutes are now up, but even Mr. Robertson's antics revealed buyer's remorse about Iraq; his stated motivation for taking out Hugo Chávez by assassination was to avoid "another $200 billion war" to remove a dictator.

In the wake of Ms. Sheehan's protest, the facts on the ground in America have changed almost everywhere. The president, for one, has been forced to make what for him is the ultimate sacrifice: jettisoning chunks of vacation to defend the war in any bunker he can find in Utah or Idaho. In the first speech of this offensive, he even felt compelled to take the uncharacteristic step of citing the number of American dead in public (though the number was already out of date by at least five casualties by day's end). For the second, the White House recruited its own mom, Tammy Pruett, for the president to showcase as an antidote to Ms. Sheehan. But in a reversion to the president's hide-the-fallen habit, the chosen mother was not one who had lost a child in Iraq.

John Warner: Hit Rumsfeld with the Tough Questions

From The Times:

With lawmakers facing tough questions at home about the war in Iraq, Senator John W. Warner, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says he intends to summon Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld quickly for a hearing when Congress returns next week.

Mr. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is one of the most important Congressional voices on military policy, said mounting numbers of dead and wounded Americans, the contentious process of drafting an Iraqi constitution and the economic cost of the war were adding up to new anxiety in Congress.

"The level of concern is, I think, gradually rising," Mr. Warner said in an interview on Friday. "Our nation has given so much to the Iraqi people, and what are they giving us in return?"

I agree with Warner that it's waaaaay past time to ask Rummy the tough questions, but I disagree that we've "give so much to the Iraqi people" unless you mean death, destruction, and an end to vital life services like potable water, dependable electricity, and medical care.

Democracy, Bush-Style

Afghan women can't partipate in elections. Now, thanks to this bloody (and oh, it shall be that all right) constitution Bush insisted upon, neither will Iraqi women.

It's an excellent example of Mr. Bush's idea of democracy.

Extremist Christian Coup d'Etat!

Originally from the LA Times and again, it's the nuts all flocking to South Carolina (sorry, Jane).

To prove that he's not on vacation...

Bush jumped in to warn the citizens of New Orleans to evacuate.

You know, something a much lower level peon is supposed to do.

I was waiting for him to add, "Now don't you be thinkin' this weird, wacky weather has anythin' to do with Global Warming 'cos like I've told you before, we need hundreds of more studies all showin' us now the global warmin' exists - maybe all performed by Halliburton subsidiariies which would make Dickey Boy real happy - before we start thinkin' it's real. Intelligent design wouldn't never 'ave created a bad thing like Global Warmin'."

The "Pretend Iraq Constitution"

Billmon at The Whiskey Bar makes some excellent points.

Bush's Poll Numbers - Worse Than Nixon's at Height of Watergate Scandal

Attaturk at Rising-Hegemon details the bad news. Go read.

And before someone drops a note asking if I don't secretly enjoy Bush's approval rating close to negative numbers, the accurate answer is that I do not. It's at the very least an embarrassment. But almost every American (except a small few collection of Bush favorites) is doing so much worse for every day they spent under George. The rest of the war suffers terribly, too.

He's destroying the economy, the military, public education, health, civil and constitutional rights, and just about everything we hold dear.

Judy Miller

Anyone else happen to catch the Women's Wear Daily piece (I have to admit, I've never read WWD before - not my cup of tea) on how Judy Miller's having the time of her life in prison because all these important people are coming to see her? How all the rules get bent for her? How special meals are brought in for her?

Also, the article questioned whether Miller took jail to hide less nice things from coming to the surface about her. The latter, I believe wholeheartedly.

How Well Do You Know Your Religious Nutcases?

Mimus Pauly at Skippy International points us to the Falwell-Robertson-and yes, even Osama Bin Laden aptitude test found here.

The General Gives Senator "Man on Dog" Santorum Some Much-Needed Advice

Read here.

Walter Reed

For all the talk yesterday about closing Walter Reed hospital yesterday, not one damned journalist or pundit asked the question, "Why are our military folks - active service and vets - waiting so damned long to get any treatment if one of the primary hospitals in this country is no longer needed?"

The happy horseshit cycle is running on triple time on this issue.

What? Did Halliburton offer to build Rummy a new hospital that will cost 4-8 times the planned budget to build? Overcosts are (quite literally) where Halliburton makes its best money. They brag about it.

To Keep Your Bush White House Lie Scoreboard Straight

Now, after telling us specifically Bush was off on a vacation, now they deny he has ever been on vacation. Remember all the pictures of him catching fish, and taking two-three hour bike rides, and taking books along (some without pictures, too)? Yeah, so do I.

They also deny that these never planned and then suddenly, planned overnight, trips to "friendly" communities to profile moms who just love having their soldier kids killed in this fool war were scheduled all the time and are not just a response to the growing crowd Cindy Sheehan is drawing to the ranch where he's NOT on vacatin.

The Iraq (Dis)Accords

What's your take on them?

I feel like it would be disastrous if the Iraq Constitution with many of its current provisions would be horrific if it passes. The Bushies, however, have no problem with the power trips and the destruction of women's rights under this new document; they just don't want Iraq to become an Islamic theocracy.

I mean, we can't have Iraq becoming as extremist in religious doctrine as the Lakuud's have made Israel or the Dobson/Falwell/Robertson contingent's eagerness to turn the US into an extreme righty Christian theocracy.

"It's the Pelvic Thru-ust That Really Drives You Insa-aa-aaa-aaa-aaa-aane. Let's Do the Time Warp Again."

Clearly, Rocky Horror Picture Show is on TV.

Damn, I still love that movie.

Note to Pat Robertson:

Both killing and lying are commandments not to be broken. Tsk tsk tsk.

And you call yourself a Christian.

Blogger the Cannibal

It's consuming posts again.

!@^%!*@$

Uh....

I hate Mondays in general, but today I learned my agent quit (or whatever exactly happened, no one has said except by form letter) my literary firm.

You'd think maybe someone at the agency would be in touch to say, "Don't worry" or "We'll line you up with someone else." But no.

I've got five books in process (three in production) and we were just starting to look for more work. But.. uh... I don't want a new agent. I liked my last one. And I don't like that my agency hasn't called or written.

It's the first situation in a long while that made me tempted to smoke away my anxiety. I don't like alcohol and I'm probably a little old to take up heroin, crystal meth, or even Vicodin. (I need the opposite of dope: I need smart.)

The Iraqi Constitution

Under the new Iraqi Constitution, in a point (unlike some others) that doesn't bother the Bushies one bit, Iraqi women will become the low-value chattel they are in most Arab/Islamic nations.

Iraq, to my knowledge, is the only nation of its type that has permitted women far more freedom to be close to, if not fully on par with, males. This was because it was a secular nation.

While granted, I'm not very big on religious zealots of any flavor, I find it sadly hysterical that our government, so busy embracing rightest Christian rhetoric and so supportive of Israeli's move toward a near total theocracy, is so upset with Iraq making its constitutional fall far more in line with an Islamic nation.

Sadly, among the world's religions today, I think it would be nearly impossible to have a progressive nation that is NOT secular at its root. Again, that's not to deny the belief in and devotion to a god of whatever name but the government itself has to beyond the reach of religion. This is why the US has been going so horribly backwards for several years,

Now, we're ready to pretend the Scopes trial never happened, that women didn't get the vote, that Roe vs Wade does not exist in the law books, and that the recall of civil rights (in the service of a "greater good") is just a great idea. And while we're at it, we're eager to end the American public school system because for that to operate, it also must be secular.

The Concept of American Civil War, Redux

CK and Daily Read have made some excellent points on why a civil war is less likely in this land than some are starting to think. I encourage you to jump in and make your points.

Question of the Day

Is it possible - in any way conceivable that the deep, deep, deep divisions in our country now, all the shouting outrage on all of the many sides of the so-called two sided debate between the right and the left could lead us as a nation to another civil war?

This is something I have been pondering for a few days. In that time, what seemed like a very strange idea has somehow seemed far more possible. And, even worse than our first Civil War, the "other side" in this war will seem far more crass, far more desirous of "the dark ages" than those who argued for the right to own people of a different skin color.

Answer This Question

Why is it Mr. Bush has never been in one of America's largest, best-known cities, San Francisco:

And yes, the question is largely rhetorical and even without reading this post about it, I assume I knw. But lordy!

Speaking of Mr. Bush, Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey

This, from the WaPo:

It would have taken half an hour or less, and it might have lowered the temperature on a month's worth of searing publicity.

When Cindy Sheehan showed up outside President Bush's ranch on the fourth full day of his five-week working vacation to talk about a son who had been killed in Iraq, he declined to meet with her -- a decision that has been widely second-guessed, even by some Republicans. The way that choice was made, and the reasons for it, provide a vivid illustration of several hallmarks of Bush's style, including his insistence on protocol, his concern with precedent, his resistance to intrusions and his aversion to hand-wringing.

According to the accounts of several advisers, Bush and his aides concluded that it would be a mistake to yield to Sheehan's demand for a second meeting with Bush to discuss the death of her son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq at the age of 24 last year when his Army battalion was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. The president had made it clear, going back at least to a California railroad swing during his 2000 campaign, that he does not care to meet with protesters or to reward them.

White House officials maintain that Sheehan may have discredited herself with statements about impeachment, her insistence on a withdrawal from Iraq, her mixing of her cause with that of the Palestinians, and her accusation that Bush "killed" her son. If Sheehan has lost credibility with the public, the "peace mom" might turn out to be only a summer sensation.

But if Sheehan winds up providing the catalyst for a muscular antiwar movement, Bush's handling of the matter will turn out to be not only characteristic but also consequential.
Before leaving Thursday after her mother had a stroke in California, Sheehan had spent 13 days camped out in Crawford and had galvanized liberal activists at a time when a spate of U.S. troops had just died in Iraq, Iraqi leaders were flagging in their effort to complete their constitution, and polls were showing a notable souring of the public view of the war. The resulting "Camp Casey" has provided the biggest platform for the left since last year's release of Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Escaping Crawford

It's almost amusing to see the president inventing reasons to flee Crawford because the size of Camp Casey (the one started by Cindy Sheehan) is growing every day.

The Bankruptcy Rush

Thank you, President Bush, for the most ever bankruptcies in American history! You must be so proud.

Another Book Recommendation: "Steal This Vote"

Paul Krugman has me very interested in the book, "Steal this Vote" that shows exactly how the 2000 vote was stolen when Gore was the winner.

Anyone read it yet?

So What's on Your Mind This Weekend?

I'm taking a slight - very slight - breather from a work schedule from hell - and very interested to hear what's bothering or delighting some of you.

For August, supposedly the "lightest" news month, a hell of a lot is going on, although not much of it is making it to the surface. For example, until Nightline did a story on it the other night, I had no idea of the massive "cheat" that the NRA pushed through the legislature that not only protects gun manufacturers from lawsuits, but retroactively ends any cases that are already winding their way through the court system. America, bought and sold while we just pay the taxes and struggle to survive.

Goodbye, Hunter S. Thompson

Yes, he died - some say suicide, some question - several months ago, but his ashes are being sent into space today.

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"

Excellent book. Get a copy. Read it. Encourage others to do so. It puts our military industrial complex, diplomacy, and other outlets in a whole new perspective.

Our Military: Mercenaries Or?

A few folks - one notably - have posted about our military being a mercenary entity. And that person in particular has some perspective on the matter, I feel, because he's done something I have not: he's fought in a bloody war that we invented (that notable one before Iraq).

While I agree that our leaders use our forces as mercenaries, I don't think the young men and women who sign up understand it as such. Hell, it's taken me til nearly mid-life to understand that terrible fact myself. We're force-fed on noble stories of WWI and WWII, we glorify heroes of the war - and I'm not even saying we should not.

But it's way past time for an open discussion - not on TV but in every American kitchen, every diner and barbershop and standing in the aisles at Costco - about how we use and abuse our military for our leaders' nefarious purposes. Not just gripe either - we need to decide what WE can do about it, change it, demand that our military gets used for real purposes of protection and not for cooked wars and not to protect the overseas holdings of American companies who increasingly pay NO taxes here.

The Attacks Against Cindy Sheehan Continue

Even though Cindy has had to leave her vigil to attend to her stroke-ridden mother, the right attacks her viciously.

As Rush Limbaugh said the other day, "Everybody loses something.. like a wallet."

Then, of course, Rush denied his comments about her loss of her son in Iraq being nothing, even pulling the transcript of his show where he stated it. But Keith Olbermann snagged a copy before they pulled it, and expects to post it at Bloggerman this weekend.

Blogger is Eating Posts Again

Apparently it likes posts served with healthy portions of sarcasm and horrified disbelief.


grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The President: "I Gotta Get On with My Life'

This is why he can't meet with Cindy Sheehan. On Saturday, he couldn't meet with her because he had a 2-hour bike trip planned and - after all - the American people, he said, want their president physically fit.

Actually, I think they'd be happy if he weighed 400 lbs if only he stopped lying into wars, our of civil liberties, and giving constant tax breaks to the wealthy - individuals and corps like Halliburton.

Now the John Roberts' Paper Trail from the Reagan Library are Reported Lost

Anyone check Karl Rove's rat hole?

Really Strange Plane Crash

This Greek airliner crash is definitely one for the books.

Looking Stupid and Vain?

CNN asks: Should Mr. Bush take less time off?

Crooks and Liars has the unintentionally hysterical video.

Lots of Christian Americans and Others See No Justice - Nor God - in Justice Sunday

The Tennessean writes up the many events held yesterday to counter this right-wing hate fest.

Thank You, Frank

Frank Rich has done it again in yesterday's Times column.

A little appetizer, if you will (sorry, I'm all out of Pinot Noir):

A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him. The approval rate for Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq plunged to 34 percent in last weekend's Newsweek poll - a match for the 32 percent that approved L.B.J.'s handling of Vietnam in early March 1968. (The two presidents' overall approval ratings have also converged: 41 percent for Johnson then, 42 percent for Bush now.) On March 31, 1968, as L.B.J.'s ratings plummeted further, he announced he wouldn't seek re-election, commencing our long extrication from that quagmire.

But our current Texas president has even outdone his predecessor; Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. Neither bonuses nor fudged standards nor the faking of high school diplomas has solved the recruitment shortfall. Now Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that the armed forces are so eager for bodies they will flout "don't ask, don't tell" and hang on to gay soldiers who tell, even if they tell the press.

The president's cable cadre is in disarray as well. At Fox News Bill O'Reilly is trashing Donald Rumsfeld for his incompetence, and Ann Coulter is chiding Mr. O'Reilly for being a defeatist. In an emblematic gesture akin to waving a white flag, Robert Novak walked off a CNN set and possibly out of a job rather than answer questions about his role in smearing the man who helped expose the administration's prewar inflation of Saddam W.M.D.'s. (On this sinking ship, it's hard to know which rat to root for.)

As if the right-wing pundit crackup isn't unsettling enough, Mr. Bush's top war strategists, starting with Mr. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, have of late tried to rebrand the war in Iraq as what the defense secretary calls "a global struggle against violent extremism." A struggle is what you have with your landlord. When the war's über-managers start using euphemisms for a conflict this lethal, it's a clear sign that the battle to keep the Iraq war afloat with the American public is lost.

Well, He Can Ride a Bike (Sometimes)

Now if he could only chew bubblegum and stop destroying the world.

Of course, his comment about fitness needed for clear thinking seems oh... just a tad hysterical considering the man's logic. I'd hate to think how badly he'd be running things if the bike riding didn't provide him with much needed ::cough:: clarity.

Somebody Apparently Forgot to Feed the Server Rats Today

Blogger has disappeared several of my posts today.

Just assume that it was my most brilliant ones, OK?

Tiananmen Ranch, Bush Style

James Moore has a powerful entry up on Huffington Post which starts like this:

A close friend of mine went cycling with President Bush on Crawford Ranch last year and described a focused, relentlessly aggressive man on a mountain bike. Bush hammered out a hilly 18 mile course and left behind the guests and secret service agents trying to keep pace with his frenetic pedaling. There was nothing but him and the bike and the road and the pound of his heart. Good athletes are like this. Decent presidents are not.

Most endurance athletes discover that their minds, stimulated by endorphins released through exercise, tend to wander across a landscape of subjects. And when you find one that is engaging or significant, solutions and sensitivities unknown are suddenly discovered. That's why I wonder how the president can hit the trails of Prairie Chapel or even linger over his morning coffee and not be fixed on the unrelenting grief and resolve of Cindy Sheehan. She is becoming the symbol of our American Tiananmen.

The Gaza Pullout: A Single Step is Not a Solution

Today, the forced pullout of settlers from some far-flung illegal settlements has begun, but as the Democracy Now program ably pointed out today, this is hardly the great step toward peace that people make it out to be.

Most Israelis are said to believe that the end of the most far-flung of these settlements is not a step towards peace and may be nothing more than a consolidation of settlers into other, better areas. They understand that this does not end the occupation, and its the Israeli occupation of the Palestinians that is at the heart of all of this. But most Israelis never approved of these settlements, which were mostly populated by religious zealots who came from other countries (many have big homes here in the US), funded in part by our tax dollars, and paid these folks huge stipends to stay there even though it worked against any effort at peace.

Bush's Crazy Neighbor Fires Shots Around Camp Sheehan

From Editor and Publisher:

Showing the value of its nearly round-the-clock coverage, the Lone Star Iconoclast, a weekly in Crawford, Texas, reported this morning from the scene that shots had been fired near the Cindy Sheehan antiwar encampment near the Bush ranch, which has drawn national attention.Apparently they were fired by a local landowner none too pleased with the protest in his neighborhood.

Earlier this week, the Houston Chronicle talked to the neghbor, Larry Mattlage. Sitting on a tractor across the road, Mattlage said he supported the right to protest but that the demonstrators should not be allowed to stay for prolonged periods. "In the morning I usually wake up and see the morning sun," he said. "Now I wake up to stuff hanging in trees." Here is today's Iconoclast report, as phoned in by its staffer, Deborah Mathews, on the scene:***Let me read you the schedule posted on a tree: "9:15 camp meeting; 10 a.m. inter-faith service, 10:30 a.m., "Food-Not-Bombs Breakfast at Peace House," and....Wait! Someone is firing a gun. (pause).

He fired it into the air about five times. He appears to be a local inside the fence line on private property. Now he has thrown what looks like a shotgun into the front seat of a pickup, and he's stomping off out of sight. I wonder where he went.Now he's coming back out. I'm out here standing on the road. He's got a no parking sign in his hand, walking toward his fence. I'm going to go try to talk to him. I've got to hang up.

(three minutes later)I went over and talked to the man. He is Larry Mattlage, who says he is on his property and just posted a no-parking sign. "We're going to start doing our war and it's going to be underneath the law," he told me. "Whatever it takes. So y'all go find another place to do whatever you do. 'Cause this is our front yard and back yard."

Brits: Thanks But No Thanks to US' Invitation to Join Them in Fucking Up Iran Next

Well, at least the Brits don't suffer from Mad Cow(boy) Disease.

Another (In)Justice Sunday

And they get wilder each time.

Marine of the Year Arrested for Attempted Murder

A lot of the men and women coming home are facing substantial problems, perhaps even relatively moreso than other actions like Vietnam.

It's Not Nice to Lie to the FBI

But that's what the Village Voice says Karl Rove did.

Tsk.Tsk.Tsk.

Bush: Can't Meet with Gold Star Mother so He "Can Go On With (His) Life"

You mean it interrupts with nap time?

And did you catch the announcement of the new White House executive chef, who had to be very good at both Mexican food and cheeseburgers? I can't understand why Americans think Mr. Bush is out of touch with the issues of normal Americans.

And the GOP is running to defend Mr. Bush and castigate Mrs. Sheehan. Mr. Bush, who has not attended the funeral of a single serviceman.

Those Who Sacrifice Most Attacked the Hardest?

Notice a theme here?

Cindy Sheehan loses her son in Iraq, questions the war and this president, and the right jumps on her faster than a new payload of crude oil.

The Ohio ex-marine who fought in Iraq runs in a GOP jurisdiction for state position and the right goes after him like he's some vile nutcase.

We see this again and again. And we let the right get away with - again and again - trying to rip the heart out of those who have suffered and lost because of Iraq and feel they have the same right of free speech as the Limbaughs.

Damn sickening.

Conspiracy, She Wrote

I enjoyed reading everyone's comments in the Conspiracy thread, including Xavier's which I thought was very well-reasoned.

There's one (conspiracy concept) making the rounds lately that's troubling just because you could just about imagine it going down. It also seems to be at least in part based on a piece in American Conservative magazine (yeah, I read it sometimes - it makes more sense than a Tucker Carlson or a Bob Novak) re: Dick Cheney's new obsession with going after Iran.

Anyone heard this one?

Next month, quite possibly very close to the 9/11 anniversary, there will be a major assault on some US property (not necessarily homeland but definitely something we feel strongly about). Immediately, this administration will announce it is the work of Iran, and suggesting that perhaps Iran was in with Saddam on 9/11/01. We'll go to war with Iran at this time.

A programmer at my local radio station has been telling this one, trying to distribute it to as many as possible so that a) if something does happen, perhaps 3 people will remember the prediction, and b) to perhaps deter the Bushies from going forth.

Yet I've been hearing variations on this same possibility for a couple of months now, and from some of the mighty-righty discussion areas.

Personally, I really hope this is all nutso conspiracy because the ramification of it, should these events come to pass, is just too horrific to consider.

The Arnold

So now it's coming out - as it did BEFORE Schwarzenegger was elected in "Cally-foh-knee-ah" - that he has been having a longstanding affair with an actress-not-quite. However, the scandal here seems to be less about the extramarital squeeze and more about the fact that the Arnold appears to have made an extremely lucrative deal with a tabloid - the same tabloid owned by the folks who ran those "muscle men" mags Arnold was making a huge monetary sum from - to hide the info about the mistress.

The thing is, this is just sleaze. Far worse is the fact that Arnold came into office promising reform from special interests only to cater to the special interests even more than his predecessor. He's been doing a pretty bad job of a position (governor) he may not be able to spell.

So forgive me if I yawn at another sanctimonious, lying, two-timing "family values" Republican porking someone other than his wife. How about getting rid of him for all the legitimate reasons?

Anniversary

Sunday was not only the anniversary of the signing of the Social Security Act, but also of VJ day. For Mr. Bush, however, it was just another day on vacation.

Budgetary Delusion Goes Unchallenged

Yesterday, the mainstream media fell over itself reporing that the federal deficit had actually dropped faster and farther than anyone could have predicted.

Even if you didn't need a road map to know this was wrong, consider this. On Thursday, I believe it was, Mr. Bush signed a transportation bill that is notoriously pork-packed even in town for pork-packing is legendary.

A nearly 300 billion dollar transportation bill means that every man, woman, child and oh yes, even "snowflake baby" has to fork over about a thousand dollards EACH. That's before interest, pricing problems, product overruns, etc and the fact that any job that requires transportation costs as part of it - like this one will - is going to hemorrhage money.

So please, tell us again how the deficit is dropping at record levels.

Today's Anniversary

This is the day 70 years ago when Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Social Security into law.

Now, less than three-quarters 0f a century later, we have a president hell-bent on destroying it.

Conspiracy: Part 2

Now comes my serious question - and I'd like to hear from as many of us as are willing to share. Please feel as free to post anonymously. I think it's more important to discuss this than worry about who said what.

But here's the question, which itself is a two-parter: do you believe there has been a substantial amount of federal lies about 9/11 and what actually happened? And if you do think so, does the doubt you have included serious questions about whether 9/11 was designed right here in the US, and possibly, real close to 1600 Pennsylvania Av?

A Two-Parter - Part One: Background

Vince from Spazzzdic Musings shared an email with me - I won't detail it here because if Vince wants to post it, he will - that brought up the issue of conspiracy theories and 9/11.

Right after 9/11 happened, more than a few people quietly raised the question with me, "Do you think everything we saw and heard was real?" Oh, the death and destruction was certainly real; no one is questioning that. But even on the day it happened, some things did not exactly seem quite right. The notably few stories - just a few - ever published about a plane flying so low before it hit the Pentagon. The big screen they put up around the Pentagon attack position. The pictures of the aftermath that did not quite look like a plane hit it. And a casual remark by one Pentagon worker who stated that the funny thing was that the expanse of grass in front of the point of impact showed no wheel marks - and we learned it had to have touched the ground before it hit.

Then there was the plane that went down in Pennsylania. The early reports it was shot down that the government then pretended it did not say. The strangeness of the debris field. The government's fierce lie about the reason the plane went down was because the "Let's Roll" team subdued the hijackers and brought the plane down so it wouldn't go into the White House (that destination also turned out to be a lie) even when evidence showed that this was not quite what happened.

Then there's the whole issue of the literally hundreds of different security measures that ALL had to fail that day to allow all of those missions to succeed. Then the incredible reluctance by the Bushies to allow a citizen's investigation, followed by his appointment of Kissinger - Mr Top Secret t0 head the panel when it was already known Kissinger had conflicts of interest.

My mind had changed substantially from my strong refusals to believe 9/11 was anything more than the horror it appeared to be. I do not know how much was faked - not faked in the sense of it not happening, although I question the Pentago situation strongly but faked in the sense of the the government's version of "facts" - but I know 9/11's true story of who was behind it is not something we currently know. Perhaps we never will, and that is almost more terrible than the loss and terror of that day itself.

It literally breaks my heart - and this is not hyperbole on my part - to believe our government was complicit in the deaths of so many people, but I do now believe that. Too much makes no sense. And there would have be no need to massively control the media, as the Bushies did, unless you needed the media to shut up about anything that wasn't kosher.

But here is what I know believe:

There are a group of people within the US - and almost certainly within the top echelons of our government - who knew about 9/11 beforehand, helped orchestrate the failures of security systems on that day, and have carefully controlled the story, the message after the fact.

Also, 9/11 had to happen to have what the Bushies needed: an American so terrified they would go along with anything, so terrified they would suspect their neighbors, meet any notes of dissent with death threats and forced silence, ignore what the US was doing to others. Since 9/11, these same persons have used fears about another attack to manipulate everything from budget and the supposed checks and balances of Capitol Hill, to our responses; they've cooked war, bankrupted the country, removed freedoms promised to us by the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

I R Bak

You can tell I was an English major, I'm sure.

But, after a week of total screwball insanity, I think you'll be seeing more of me again (you poor, poor people). Yet, on a good note, we're seeing less of Bush as he hides away from a 140 lb Gold Star mother whose son died in Mr. Bush's cooked war, Cindy Sheehan, whom the right is seeing fit to attack like she's Osama bin Laden's henchman.

Classless, classless people.

So the New Head of the Saud Family

is the same guy Bush held hands with for half an hour in the spring, walking through a field of Texas flowers. How lovely.

John Roberts

Hearing - or thankfully, just reading (her voice is annoying) - Ann Coulter write about why John Roberts is a bad choice for the Supreme Court isn't enough to get me to like him. And mind you, I think there's a strategy afloat to have vocal conservative nut cases target Roberts to try to get more centrist minded people to think he's not so bad.

Roberts' wife's involvement in Feminists for Life, or some such nonsense, is bothersome in a way that is important. Roberts and his wife only married a handful of years ago, both nearly into middle age; her activities predate their marriage and he no doubt factored them into their marriage.

But the WH's refusal to release more papertrail on Roberts bothers me most. What don't they want us to see?

Wait. I'm wrong. What bothers me most is that we'll get Roberts regardless of how any of us feels, and polls show as Americans are more concerned with Bush's integrity and honesty, they are increasingly concerned with anyone he promotes as "the best choice."

My Apologies

Folks- I am so sorry I've been absent the past few days and likely to be absent for most of a few more. Work is nightmarish and that's not the only thing on my plate right now. But I know I owe responses to comments for too long, and emails, and I promise to get to it.

But please, feel free to post some comments of things on your own and commence your own discussions. I'll pop in as I can and - hopefully- by the weekend, you'll see me far more active.