Permanent Devolution

Ray Hopewood '08

2007-07-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

I've met the candidate for the future - the only one worth endorsing!

www.rayhopewood.com

No Sense Abroad?

2007-03-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

So Condi is playing peace maker. Isn't that lovely. Going back again to the middle east, bravely persevering on her mission of salvation for the Israelies and Palestinians. Moving the ball forward on peace and reconciliation and trying to find their way along the road-map. Will someone please revoke this woman's passport? The BushCo Titanic is sinking fast. Not from the hoped-for Democratic iceberg, (see this weeks craven House vote - shame on you Nancy Pelosi! You've stripped away the Congressional oversight touchdown of any Iran bombing for the sake of a cheap political field goal) but from the weight of their own criminality and incompetence and Condi needs to protect her legacy. So what's a put-upon SecState to do when the admin hawks are circling, the opposition wolves are baying, the subpoenas flying, the clock is ticking and the historians are scribbling? Why go to the middle east of course! Makes perfect sense! Run out the clock in Bethlehem instead of Baghdad where at least they can etch on your epitaph - "Condi - at least she tried." What a farce. As if any body with any sense or understanding is listening to this tired old school teacher now. Her understanding of the subtleties of the middle east is about as deep as yours dear reader and not nearly as wide.

We knew this would be the case when she succeeded Uncle Tom Powell. BushCo was never looking for a serious State Department. As is their view on all Federal Agencies - and shown to its full extent now with the Justice Department Scandal- BushCo was all about destroying the government from within by appointing the most incompetent, partisan hacks to essentially run them into the ground so they could then prove how bad the government is and outsource everything to their corporate buddies. National Security, Emergency Management, the Military, Energy, Health Care, Justice and Incarceration, all the functions that BushCo says are key for fighting the terrorists and preserving our liberties he's sold to the highest bidder so that we are effectively unprotected and unguarded if his buddies can't make a profit on it. Hence why the stock market is at record highs and New Orleans is still not rebuilt. Hence why US health care costs the most in the Western world, delivers the least but HMOs and Pharma show record profits. Hence why we keep demanding that Iraqis take control of their own destiny and work with the Americans and why the American outsourcing companies that are actually running things keep throwing them to the wolves and bringing in Jordanians. And now Condi wants to make peace in Palestine.

That train has left the station and she still doesn't know it. Instead of sitting down with all the power-brokers in the region including Iran, including Syria and forcing the corrupt Israeli government to do the same, she scolds Egypt for not delivering Democracy fast enough. If Iraq is any indication of what US-spread democracy is about can you blame them? Once again administration naivete is in full force and can only unleash tragedy. Instead of working with the Saudis and Jordanians to help drive acceptance of King Abdullah's plan - peace and full recognition for Israel in exchange for a pull back to the 1967 borders, she coddles Olmert in Jerusalem and encourages his intransegence. Using her best school-marm persona she flies back and forth scolding these leaders on what they should be doing with no understanding of the context in which they live. Fortunately though her time has passed. No one in the world arena takes her seriously any more. She has blown whatever credibility she had during the Lebanon War this summer. She's just another BushCo hack with her own airplane. Paradoxically, we're now experiencing the greatest tension with Russia - her speciality I'm told - due to BushCo's talent for turning allies into enemies. Maybe we could just ship her to Siberia. Now there's a trip the American taxpayer might find worth paying...

Lying down to Rio?

2007-03-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

For any one keeping score this has not been a good week for BushCo by any stretch of the imagination. 3 scandals, a conviction, and a resignation in waiting. A stock market correction - as predicted by yours truly way back in October - capped off by Chicken George's flight to Latin America to escape the press corp (and setting off riots and mayhem wherever he landed). Why do foreign governments allow him entry knowing that they will inevitably be forced to send out the heavy artillery to protect him? Of course seeing such troop strength being deployed so effectively must surely re-enforce W's conviction in the surge. If it works in Bogota it should work in Baghdad...

But with Fidel on the mend, Hugo on the go-go, not to mention Lula doing the ethanol hula, the continent is potentially moving in the right direction -actually that would be left - from its Yanqui cousin. What we're potentially seeing, in the words of Condi the Irrelevant, are truly the birth pangs of democracy. Not in the middle East but happening now in Latin America. It may not be the powdered wig, 1776 variety, but a very real, market driven, populist democracy and egalitarian distribution of wealth brought about by unprecedented demand for energy - both petroleum, gas and green energy. This is a fascinating turn of events - more so since it is happening under our noses and without any assistance from us. Of course, many of you will say that Chavez is a dictator, that he rules by decree and that he's nationalized several foreign enterprises. I say - Chavez won his election(s), his congress was extremely corrupt and ineffective, he is extremely popular with his people and that the industries he's taken over - utilities btw - he paid fair market value and that it is a violation of sovereignty to have foreigners running your critical telecommunications and electrical infrastructure. He has become a spokesperson for much of the dispossessed in the 3rd world and keeps critical issues on the front burner including global health care, poverty, and education. More importantly, Internet access is widely available, the press is still open, and people can leave the country, and there is a functioning judiciary and a market economy. This of course underscores the egregious violations in our own constitution first perpetrated by John Ashcroft and then compounded by Alberto Gonzalez. Their records would make you think we were the ones living under a banana republic dictatorship.

It's absolutely obscene - from prisoners being held at Gitmo, extraordinary rendition, FBI agents violating wiretapping and habeas corpus, to the firing of Federal Prosecutors for failing to pass the political litmus test. Who's the one defending democracy and who's the one subverting it? We could be listening to reports from Peronist Argentina or Pinochet's Chile but we're not - they're happening right here. With Libby's conviction this week we were shown a spotlight - albeit a small one - but a spotlight nevertheless on how this administration has conducted itself. Using fear, uncertainty and doubt, not to mention all the viciousness and pettiness of fighting sorority sisters, there is nothing too vile that they wouldn't do to keep their grip on power. Most tragically for this country is that they're also hopelessly incompetent - as we keep seeing over and over and over again. And that is precisely why they are so dangerous. They cannot control the events they set in motion which in turn creates its own consequences they cannot foresee and cannot overcome.

All the birds are now coming home to roost - Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, the environment, the economy, all at the same time. Given this administration's abysmal track record with even minor crises anyone taking bets on how well they're going to do over the next 18 months? Caracas is looking pretty good about now...

The Iraqi Falcon?

2007-02-05T22:54:00.000-08:00

Why is anybody at all surprised by what's going on with Cheney? This man learned his politics in which administration? That would be the Nixon administration. The same administration that used all kinds of dirty tricks, wicked deeds, and who knows what levels of lies and deceit to retain power. This was the same administration that could have made peace in Vietnam 2 years before it actually did and lied the entire time about bombing - not North Vietnam - but Cambodia - who it claimed was aiding the Northern insurgents. This is man who's political mid-wife was HR Haldeman, who's wet-nurse was G. Gordon Liddy, and who's nanny was Henry Kissenger. And people are surprised that we're rattling sabers at Iran while we continue to fight a losing war of choice in Iraq. Surprised that Cheney is so far out there that even dyed-in-the-wool Bushies are creating some distance. So why should anybody be surprised that the lies about the Valerie Plame outing leads over the body of Libby the pathetic patsy to Cheney himself?

I'm reminded of the Maltese Falcon, in the final scenes where Sidney Greenstreet is convinced by Humphrey Bogart to give up Elisha Cook Jr. his trusted gunsling, to the police in exchange for the Maltese Falcon "I couldn't be fonder of you than if you were my own son. But lose a son and you can find another, but the Maltese Falcon..." And that's exactly what we have here. And like the Maltese Falcon what we have is a similar cabal of reprobates driven mad by greed and their obsession with power. Condi could even play Mary Astor - she's the real killer in the bunch. Leaves no prints but lot's of blood. Of course that leaves W to play Peter Lorre - and while he doesn't look the part, his internal machinations clearly do. Of course there's no Humphrey Bogart in that lot - unless Chuck Hegel is for real. He seems to be auditioning...Of course the end doesn't bode well. The Falcon is a fake just like the rationale for the War. Shakespeare was partially wrong in this case. History repeats first as tragedy - true, and second not as farce but as cheap melodrama.

Write your congress-people! Impeachment is the only way to stop the madness! Silence equals complicity!

Surge Protection?

2007-01-25T23:01:00.000-08:00

The state of the Union was about as exciting as Oscar night with Tom Hanks in the running. You knew the outcome before the envelope was opened. Bush blathering on about "victory this", "will and determination that", and some half-hearted domestic policy suggestions thrown out like parsley on meat loaf. Pathetic. I'd go on, but there's no point. You know and I know what the situation is, and of course, what the remedy is. So write your congress people. Get impeachment on the front burner before more of our brave children die in what Chuck Hegel rightly calls the meat grinder.

Let's talk instead about the spate of democratic presidential nominations that came out and a potential republican one. Pretty nifty of Obama to scoop Hillary so completely by not only announcing first, but by doing it on the internet. No nasty press questions that way-- just push play and poof! Message sent; message received. In looking to regain lost ground, Hil not only announces on the internet but then proceeds to host her own cyberfireside chats. A kinder gentler Hillary? Nah. She's still not baking cookies and she's not repudiating her war vote either. In perfect Clintonian cadence we got to hear yet again how if the information she had was what the facts on the ground really were she never would have ....blah blah blah. The bottom line is Hillary Clinton would take a poll before she turned over in bed for fear of flipping too far to the left or too far to the right. And if that's not bad enough-- who does she revive to run her campaign? Your favorite and mine-- Terry "Moneybags" McAuliffe! Yes, the man who sold the DNC and lost Al Gore the presidency! The man who anointed Tom Daschle as party leader...the hits just keep on coming! This is the man who rolled over after 9/11 and is in good measure responsible for the ineffectiveness of the democratic response to W and his thugs. Game Set Match.

As for Obama, I have no gripe with him-- except for the fact that he has no experience and has never run anything more complex than a 3-legged race. He's a charismatic, highly intelligent, extremely charming individual who could do more to re-establish American prestige-- at least in Europe-- than most. But face it, he ain't up to the cleanup we've got in front of us. So who does that leave? Edwards has been running since 2004 and could be an interesting candidate in his own right. He's got something to say and is no stranger to life and death decisions. Personally though, I think we've got to get Gore back in the race. He won once; he could certainly do it again. And if anybody's the rightful heir to the Clinton/Gore legacy, it would be, well.......Al Gore. But like Mario Cuomo before him: will he run or just tease?

And what of Chuck Hegel? He of the furrowed brow and Richard Burton looks? Will he run? There have been rumors of a unity ticket. Perhaps the Chuck and Joe (Biden) Show will leave the Sunday morning circuit (much to the chagrin of Wolf, Tim, Bob, George, and Chris) and make a stab for the WH. He's certainly scored big points with many dems, not unlike crazy John McCain did a few years back. But before most dems realized he really was a crazy ass right wing whacko and not just playing one on TV. Of course, Chuck is equally on the debit side of every other issue dems hold dear: a 0 rating from NARAL as an example. So applaud him for his stance on Iraq but he's not one of us no matter how hard we might wish to whitewash his voting record. We won't get fooled again...I hope.

Please write to your congressional representatives. Demand they submit articles of impeachment. If you don't take action, you condone what's being done in your name!

Eyes Wide Shut?

2007-01-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

Another Sunday, another round of talking heads, and of course, another round of spin from the criminals in the White House. After the broasting, our gal Condi received last week at the congressional hearings, she was kept well out of site leaving the spin duties to a very busy Stephen "you've been" Had-Ley (appearing on both Meet the Press & This Week), and Darth Cheney himself on Fox (the media equivalent of Vice's unknown bunker). W, the idiot king himself, goes on tonight on 60 Minutes and to no one's surprise admits nothing, repents nothing and when asked if he'd do it again answers exactly as you'd expect...... "of course". The more stubbornly the administration digs--in and the more congress strikes back, we are rapidly moving to a constitutional showdown of epic proportions. Can congress rein in a renegade president and what will it take to bring things to this pass? The dangerousness of our situation cannot be understated. During the last days of Watergate there was serious concern that Nixon would attempt to stage a coup against the congress and so the oath of military loyalty was re-administered among the troops as a preventative measure. But with more and more belicose posturing against Iran, the administration is clearly pushing its final agenda with greater velocity and desperation.

This should take no one by surprise. After losing the popular vote in 2000, the Bush gang proceeded to govern as if they had won a mandate. The best analysis to date of what's happening was given by Robert Perry in his column on Truth Out entitled "The US-Iran-Iraq-Israeli-Syrian War. ( http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011207L.shtml)

In it, he clearly outlines how the combination of a new deployment of the Navy's fleet in the gulf (unnecessary for managing the situation in Iraq, but critical if he's planning on launching attacks on Syria and Iran) as well as the replacement of Army General Abazaid with Admiral William Fallon as Chief of the Central Command for the Middle East underlines his intention to pre-emptively strike outside of Iraq. In addition, in the international firestorm sure to follow, his placing Negroponte to back up the hapless Condi in the State Dept. as well as putting Zalmay Khalilzad as our UN face also makes perfect sense. In the context of a first strike at Iran's nuclear capabilities, mobilizing 20,000 additional troops now also makes a certain sense-- not to pacify the country as a whole, but to seal off Sadr City and the Shiite militias after the bombs stop falling in Natanz.

The Navy in charge of the Middle East Central Command?!?! I'm reminded of the famous exchange between Humphrey Bogart (Rick) and Conrad Veidt (Major Strassa) in Casablanca:

Major Strassa: So how did you come to be in Casablanca?
Rick: I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Major Strassa: Waters? But Casablanca is a desert?
Rick: I was misinformed.

Acknowledging no oversight but their own, no possibility of their own fallability, pathological stubborness, and a psychotic denial of reality on the ground, the Bush gang is driving the Porshe at 120 mph drunk and blindfolded and it is about to hit the wall. Unfortunately for us-- we're the Porsche. Congress must act and remove them from power with the same velocity and vigor that this gang has acted all along. Half-measures will simply not work any more. Legislative niceties and etiquette are nice but we simply don't have the time. Before more troops are committed, more lives lost, and the Middle East explodes beyond all hope of recovery, Bush and his gang must be ousted. Write your congresssional representatives-- keep the pressure up. They must be stopped and time is getting short. It's only a matter of days before we see him on our TV screens: blinking like a broken traffic light and saying the words that will truly end the "American Century" ...... "Today I ordered the 5th Navy Air Command to bomb the Iranian nuclear faciliites at Natanz."

Slouching Towards Babylon

2007-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

20,000 more troops. 20,000 more brave children in the first blush of youth, potential, and power simply tossed away like so much trash. 20,000 more families torn apart with fear, uncertainty and grief. For what? The enormity of this tragedy is simply beyond the reckoning of any possible justification manufactured by the criminals in the White House. As I wrote back in October either we would have to begin to draw down our forces or a draft would have to be instituted to provide the necessary force concentration, to at a minimum, stabilize the country. For what? Why would the addition of 20,000 more troops - bringing overall troop strength back to where it was a year ago and ineffective then - make a difference now? It wouldn't and it won't. This is neither a strategy or a solution. It is simplistic and it is delusional. And It is in the final analysis, criminal.

The single largest conclusion drawn from this tragedy is that Iraq is not a "country" in the Western sense of the word. Iraq is an artificial creation of the British government which, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire needed to create an administrative entity for this particular part of the middle east. With Kurds in the North, Shias in the South and Sunnis in the West - all with complex webs of mutually hostile tribal and clan alliances. Saddam kept Iraq together by pure brute force. And, even with his depravity Iraq was, prior to UN sanctions, a secular, stable, and safe corner of the middle east. A country with high levels of education, health care, women's emancipation and integration into the professional classes, and a modernized infrastructure. This is now only a fond memory to Iraqis. With the failure of the Iraqi government to control the violence and deliver basic services, Iraqis have reverted to the time tested method for protection - align with your clan and its militia. The middle class exodus from Iraq has been well documented - those that could re-enforce secularism and keep the engines of commerce going have left the country leaving the worst elements of the society in control - the mullahs, the criminals, the thugs. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.

In what is emblematic of this president, rather than elevate his capabiities to the level of the crisis - like Harry Truman or JFK, he approaches the crisis from within the narrow context of his minimal capabilities. He cannot move away from simplistic good-bad formulas and analysis. He cannot synthesize contrary opinions. He cannot adapt to new conditions on the ground. The devastating whirlwind of historic forces he has unleashed are so far beyond his level of understanding and vision that he is now truly at the mercy of events - not their master. While Bush fatuously demands that the Shia led Iraqi government step up and gain control of the situation and stabilize the country - there is no country left to stabilize. Bush's invasion saw to that. It is also not in the Al-Maliki's Government's interest to subdue the civil war because that is what its goals have been all along! An indepedent and ethnically cleansed Southern Shiite state, in control of significant oil reserves and aligned with Iran. The Kurds in the North have been simply running out the clock and waiting for the inevitable collapse so they can declare an independent oil rich Kurdistan. It is the Sunnis - cast out into the wilderness of Western Iraq without any oil or commerce areas that have the most to lose from this break-up and is why the Saudis and Egyptians (and don't forget the Israelis!?!) feel they may need to support their brothers. A third, hostile, fundamentalist Shiite state aligned with Iran is simply unacceptable. Turkey, always hostile to the idea of an independent Kurdistan looks on with increasing agitation and in the event of Indepedence may feel it necessary to invade the territory under the guise of quelching the PPK and other Kurdish seperatist activity. It is into this cauldron of scorpions that George W Bush wants to send 20,000 more our children.

If any Dictator consigned 20,000 of its own people to certain grievous injury or death, (s)he would be branded a pariah by the international community and a monster by history. And that is what we are dealing with now in no uncertain terms. The legacy of the Bush presidency is that of chaos, death, and destruction on a scale unimaginable. There is no turning back, there is no easy solution, only long, hard, and very painful choices for us, for the Iraqis, and for the middle East at large. We lost from the moment our Congress voted to endorse Bush and his war mongers on this absurd and tragic adventure.

Iraq Study Group? How about Detention...

2006-12-13T21:49:00.000-08:00

"Way forward. A new way forward. The way forward to Victory. Victory. Can't have defeat, must have victory." The image of George W. walking the White House halls alone in the middle of the night babbling his inane drivel to the paintings of dead preseidents is almost too much to bear. The Fuehrer is in his bunker and the Red Army is at the Brandenberg Gate. As Bush waits to deliver his "way forward" until after the New Year - maybe Santa will put the plan in his Christmas stocking - he sends more brave Americans to die into the hell pit he created. "Legacy, gotta save my legacy. I'll be dead, up in heaven with the lord, but I'll be vindicated!" Since it's clear that Baker's Dozen hasn't come up with a strategy the Fuehrer approves of, he's going shopping for that 2nd, 3rd, 4th, opinion. At least until he finds one that'll agree with him. That however is going to be a problem as the yes men are growing fewer and farther away. The neocons have deserted him, Wolfowitz is at the world bank, Bremmer's vanished, Tennet's vaporized, Franks' blitzed, Rhummy's kaput, Cheney is sidelined, Moma Karen Hughs is silent, Condi is all he has left - but no one is listening to her any way.

The pictures of Hitler sending the Children's brigade off to the Russian front becomes a more and more obvious comparison to what we're seeing now in the White House. The reports are coming out fast and furious that he now wants to send more troops. More troops, more lives, more violence, more madness. A new way forward. indeed. Because of this maniac the world is at a cross roads unimaginable just 6 years ago. Because of Bush, his mirror image is now in Iran and busy developing nukes of his own. Lebanon is facing civil war - again. And, Afghanistan is falling back to the Taliban and opium with every day. We won't even begin to talk about Pakistan. With a holocaust denial conference in full flower in Tehran, not to mention more speeches about Israel's imminent destruction, the Israelis' trigger fingers are getting itchy. If those planes fly, that's all folks. While the worse-case scenarios had this playing out in the first phases of the Iraq war, it now looks like it just took some time to germinate. I guarantee the results will not look or smell pretty.

Time is the one thing we are now officially out of. While Bush holds out the vain hope that some new plan or miracle will bring some truth to Mission Accomplished, events on the ground are far out-pacing his ability to control them. We are at the mercy of forces that are 1000's of years old, in a political and religious culture he doesn't understand, and we are facing a violence that was simply never part of his plan for "victory".

The way forward for us, as stated in the last post, is one way only - impeachment. He and his whole adminstration must be purged as quickly as possible. Brent Budowsky in The Huffington Post has called for a new POTUS initiative - bring back ALL the former Presidents to create a bipartisan Uber Executive Task force to take over the Executive branch for the remainder of this term. Working in concert with the new congress, all the former Presidents - with their skill, knowledge, and experience - not to mention diplomatic skills (think about it, all the ex-POTUS alive today are superb diplomats - Bush Pere included). We need a sure hand on the rudder of state and I for one can't think of a better solution. We face an unparralled crisis in the world right now and must embrace new possibilities and a new realism if we are going to get through it successfully. Time is not on our side - nor is the maniac roaming the halls of the White House.

Smells Like Victory?

2006-12-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since the Hippo's been tapping the keys and so much has happened since the election! Frank Rich, Keith Olbermann, Paul Krugman, and Matt Lauer(!?!) have been doing an outstanding job keeping us all informed that there just wasn't much to add...

Rhummy Von Doom has gone the way of all spectacular failures, to the ash heap of history - without even a whimper. Truly has any ending ever been more anti-climatic? Of course, you could see it coming when before the election the Last Crusader steadfastly asserted that RVD would be there to the end. Should've seen it coming - a perfectly executed "Heckuva Job Brownie" Judas Kiss. Given the death, destruction, and diminishment incurred by this man's incompetence and stubborn refusal to be guided by "facts" the only thing left for The Last Crusader to do is give him the Medal of Freedom and be done with it - (or maybe remove Wolfowitz at the World Bank and let RVD have a shot - would certainly cement his status as the 21st Century MacNamarra...) Pity we spared a bullet...

So at long last Baker's Dozen has released their findings. Guess what? Invading Iraq was a mistake. Has ever so many people waited so long for so little? Really if the Democrats have been basing their Iraq strategy on what this bunch of old Caucasians (sorry Vernon Jordan) cobbled together, then they're on as safe ground as John Kerry without a script. Yes, they called the baby ugly, and they used the F word - as in failure. But there were no firm demands for retrenchment. No timelines. In fact this report had as much teeth as Sandra Day O'Connor. Of course, the more attention paid to the report the more angry Chicken George becomes. The melt-down is now palpable. The words keep falling from those twitching lips, the fingers snap, the sweat builds, the eyes open, but the magician can't make the body disappear anymore and the audience is getting restless. Victory indeed.

While everyone with sense and an understanding of history has been shouting this truth to the heavens for years, the rest of the country is coming to terms with the fact that labels such as the worst president in history, stupid, incompetent, moron, etc., - pale before the awful truth. George W Bush is responsible for the worst global catastrophe since Hitler. The parallels are stunning - an aimless, ignorant, incurious, reactionary cipher guided by a fanatical belief in his own destiny combined with a messianic mission from god to be accomplished by force of arms and we have a stunning re-occurrence. Add nuclear arms, oil, and Islamic fundamentalism and we now have a situation that could make the slaughter of the 1930's seem like a garden party. George W. Bush single-handedly ended the American Century at the exact moment it seemed ready to go on forever. And now, even he knows it. And that is the scariest thing of all - this man has his hands on the button. What visions of gotterdammerung are running through his diseased mind as the end looms large?

The time has come for the other branches of government to take control as the founding fathers intended. We are facing a catastrophe unparalleled in our short history and so need to take drastic action. This man needs to be removed from power by whatever means available. The bottom line is that victory in any form is no longer possible in Iraq or for that matter, Afghanistan. The time has come for us to take matters in hand and force our representatives to keep us safe from the only threat that really matters right now - George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Alberto Gonzalez, Michael Chertoff, and the whole horrific lot of them. Write your congressman - demand impeachment! We must act now or we're all complicit on what happens next...

Stop the Presses?

2006-11-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

This past week's coverage of the House Democratic leadership election should, once and for all lay to rest the concept of a Liberal Media bias. As reported in most major news organizations - including the NY Times and Washington Post - instead of an orderly leadership selection process, we witnessed a bizarre menage-a-trois between Nancy Peolosi, Jack Murtha, & Steny Hoyer. The MSM painted Speaker Pelosi as some Beltway Borgia feverishly scheming to have the white smoke plume blow for Enforcer Jack, while the Party establishment did an end run around her in favor of Hoyer. This was largely brought about by Enforcer Jack's somewhat checkered past with lobbyists, fake Saudi Princes (ABSCAM) and other forms of typical DC debaucherie. Of course on careful inspection, what becomes obvious is a very simple chain of events that let everybody save face:

1. Speaker Pelosi shows loyalty to Enforcer Jack by nominating and supporting him
2. Dems do their bit and vote in the right man - Hoyer
3. Murtha loses fairly in a floor vote but can continue to function as Pelosi's enforcer since she publicly supported him

End of story, everyone's happy, but not the press who rely on the cliche of disorganized, fratracidel democrats to either appease their corporate media masters or because they're too lazy to do real reporting. Yet again. Can you spell W-M-D?

That's not to say that the Democrats aren't fratracidel - to wit - James "I married a Nazi" Carville and his very public fight with Howard Dean and the DNC. Why anybody would still pay attention to this idiot (Paul Begala too) is simply beyond me. The bottom line is that Dean's 50 state strategy as Joe Conason rightly points out in Salon, worked. The Dems were effectively able to roll-back the GOP in states that were totally written off by the party establishment - including Mr. Carville & Begala. They are now and always will be the attack dogs for the Clinton Party - not the Democratic Party. And if Hillary is going to get the nod, it won't be because the DNC is going to be loud, active, and motivated to support her. So better to try and take out Dr. Dean - again. Remember folks, the scream wasn't leaked by Republicans but by the Party establishment personified by Jimmy the C and Lil' Paulie. So now that the opposition is in the driver's seat the Dems need to take a page from the GOP - create and manage the story - but STOP becoming the story!

All too often Dems focus on their own, limited and independent agendas while foresaking the message of the party. This has got to stop or the GOP will be back with a vengence in '08. It's up to all of us to make sure this does not happen. Monitor the news - where you see the press being lazy and indulging in their penchant for cliche - write them! Make them work for a change and really report. When you see needless sniping between party spokespeople - call them on it. Write their offices, call them, tell them we won't stand for this nonsense anymore. That they need to keep these things and themselves out of the media and focus instead on advancing the party agenda. Enough is enough! Tell the talking heads to shut the f@#* up and help us accomplish something the next 2 years!

We Won?

2006-11-08T08:19:00.000-08:00

We won. Simple words. Short, sweet, and pregnant with meaning. But after the balloons and confetti are cleared and the champagne hangovers start to fade, the words are amended to - Holy shit we won. Anyone who's been following the US political landscape over the last few years has been painfully aware of the viscious reactionary nature of the US electorate. "Values" voters with paleolithic agendas such as anti-gay marriage, anti-stem cell research, anti-evolution, and the full endorsement of a fundamentalist christian agenda. Nothing's changed. And that is the significant detail that we must bear in mind as we go forward to clean up the tragic mess that BushCo and their minions have created. This was a vote against BushCo - not a vote for a progressive agenda. This was a much needed message against incumbants and one party rule - not a repudiation of "family values". Ken Mehlman (RNC Chairman) has already been making the rounds of the AM talk shows putting significant distance between BushCo and real republican Party values in preparation for 2008. You see, the last 6 years have really been an aberration - watch how they spin.

Yes our democracy worked - a day late, a dollar short, but the peaceful transfer of power is being accomplished at the will of the people. The bums have indeed been tossed out. Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House and it looks like we will claim the senate as well. So yes - by all means, let's enjoy the day - the week even. But let's be focused on the fundamental issues still facing the country - a significant plurality of our countrymen refuse to use their native common sense and continue to reject fairness, equality, and science. Iraq is still burning, N Korea and Iran are still churning, and loving people now can't get married in seven more states.

Whoo hoo! We won

Buyer's Remorse?

2006-11-04T12:16:00.000-08:00

Now that the facts on the ground in Iraq have been incontrovertably revealed for the disaster that it is, what's a poor neocon to do? Bascally head for the exits as fast as possible, leaving BushCo to stand alone in the midst of the wreakage. How fascinating. The loudest, most intellectually compelling cheerleaders for this International Katrina have now exited with all the grace and aplomb of a chimpanzee on roller skates. What's especiallty stunning is how personal its all become. Even the most hardcore of the neocons is now castigating the Last Crusader, Dead-Eye Dick, Rummy von Doom, and of course, Madame Mendacity in terms that would have been unimagineable 6 months ago. Would-be triumphalist Oracles such Nial Ferguson, Richard Perle, Ken Adelman, David Frum, Bill Kritsol, and the whole bunch are now cringing Cassandras pulling out their hair while decrying nightmare end of Western civilzation scenarios. Words such as incompetence, dysfunctional, delusional, sychophantic, and bubbled, are now forefront in their public pronouncements.

To wit: Michael Leeden of the AEI: "Ask yourself who the most powerful people in the White House are. They are women who are in love with the president: Laura [Bush], Condi, Harriet Miers, and Karen Hughes." Bush as momma's boy. There's an interesting view of the Swaggerin Sarsaparila Kid.

Or better, from the Prince of Darkness (Richard Perle) himself: "In the administration that I served [he was an assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan], there was a one-sentence description of the decision-making process when consensus could not be reached among disputatious departments: 'The president makes the decision.' [Bush] did not make decisions, in part because the machinery of government that he nominally ran was actually running him. The National Security Council was not serving [Bush] properly. He regarded [then National-Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice] as part of the family."

Adelman himself points to what was the watershed moment for the disillusionment of the neocons: "The most dispiriting and awful moment of the whole administration was the day that Bush gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former C.I.A. director George Tenet, General Tommy Franks, and Coalition Provisional Authority chief Jerry [Paul] Bremer—three of the most incompetent people who've ever served in such key spots. And they get the highest civilian honor a president can bestow on anyone! That was the day I checked out of this administration. It was then I thought, There's no seriousness here, these are not serious people. If he had been serious, the president would have realized that those three are each directly responsible for the disaster of Iraq." Of course I remember this same Ken Adelmen responding with joy on the Sunday talk shows when it was announced that "Jerry" Bremmer was going to be pro-consul for Iraq over the body of Jay Garner. Well so be it. Memory is a funny thing when you're an armchair quarterback eh Kenny boy? Hard to remember which calls you actually made vs. which ones you did in hindsight..

So this is the way their world ends - not just with a bang but whimper too. As Samual Taylor Coleridge said "Experience informs us that the first defence of weak minds is to recriminate." And so we have it - the last "intellectual" gasp of the political Right of the 20th century - spreading morality and virtue through the barrel of a gun - is snuffed out by the Heckuva Job Mayberry Machiavellis in the sands of Iraq. And with the religious Right in total disarray - read Ted Haggard, Mark Foley - might we finally be seeing a severe diminishing of the Right in US politics? Not likely - remember Richard Perle is actually a registered democrat. And with such feckless Dems as Hilary and Joe Lieberman running around, I'd expect the neocons to regroup and wait for the next full moon....sadly, the Fat Lady hasn't sung yet and somebody will have to answer the question: "Who lost Iraq?" and it won't be the neocons doing the answering.

DeBushification - Truth and Consequences?

2006-10-29T09:47:00.000-08:00

As elections draw closer, BushCo's ratings go lower, and Iraq falls deeper into chaos, we could be finally seeing the end of one party fundamentalist/fascist rule in the US. After 6 years of incompetance, cynicism, arrogance, and belligerance, the US voting public may finally have had enough and are now willing to follow another course. Hooray. Better late than never. But given the blatent misrule of BushCo over these past 6 years, why have the Democrats not been able to mount a serious and effective challenge - and more importantly - hold this group to account for Katrina? for sex scandals? for crony capitalism? for massive defecits? for torture? for subverting the constitution? for our collapse of moral authority in the world? for losing Afghanistan? for the debacle of Iraq? If they have been ineffective in opposition, especially with so much fodder - can they now govern effectively? Can they provide the ways and means to clean up the mess and restore our moral authority in the world?

The fundamental task ahead for the Dems must be National Reconciliation - but reconciliation with full retribution. Nancy Pellosi is wrong to guarantee no impeachment or investigations. As every child knows, choice brings responsibility and consequences. Clearly Bush made his choice - as he frequently says, he is the decider, and so he and his supporters must bear the consequences of those decisions. We MUST have full disclosure on our long national nightmare - what happened, when it happened, who knew and when. This is critical - we need a full program of De-Bushification to purge our Security apparatus, our armed forces, and our Government beauracracy from the incompetant political hacks (Heckuva Job Brownie?) who've brought us to this pass. The Dems need to put the Constitution back front and center as the basis for policy - domestic and foreign- and most importantly, bring those who violated it to justice. It is from this amazing document that we derive our moral authority and only by reclaiming it and prosecuting those who besmirched it will we be able to move forward. If we do not clean our own house, we will never be able to fix Iraq, N Korea, Iran, Latin America, etc. It is instructive to note that now that the GOP is feeling the heat, they're the ones clamouring for bi-partisan engagement. Of course when they were dealing with a monopoly of power, bi-partisanship was neither encouraged or desired. Now that it looks like they might be swinging from their heels in the square things look very different indeed. It is time to put an end to such nonsense. BushCo and company have engaged on a radical revision of every tennent this country holds sacred and now must be made to account. Impeachment, bring it on. Investigations, more the better. Subpeonas? Sooner the better. We cannot move forward until we excise the cancer. The faster we do so, the sooner we can get back to business as usual.

So Dems - take note! There can be no more equivocations, finessing, or other intellectual follderroll. You cannot continue to be a party of loosely aligned interest groups bound together by bizarre notions of political correctness. You must be prepared to move swiftly and with purpose if you are to gain the trust of the American people to exercise power. Use the Constitution as your guide and prepare to govern - but govern with the knowledge that half-measures won't work anymore. And that time is growing short...

Market Lobotomy or A Con in Front of Me?

2006-10-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

It's curious times we live in, no doubt. For over 2 weeks now as the news gets worse from Iraq the Dow flirts with historic highs. As we get closer to the day of reckoning for BushCo, oil is at its lowest barrel price in months. Corporate earnings are hitting all time highs as the Last Crusader's popularity hits all time lows. Is this just a coincidence? Is this just BushCo's corporate and Saudi cronies pulling strings to manipulate our vote? Is it, a through-the-glass darkly take on James Carville - It's the Economy Stupid? Not necessarily. Remember, this is Hippo Trotsky you're reading not MoveOn. As we're fond of saying if its a choice beween Machiavelli and stupidity, its almost always the latter.

But - what we do have is the final fruit of the BushCo fascist policies coming to fruition at the exact time it can do the least good in saving them. Think about it - wages are at all time lows, the cost of consumer commodities are at an all time low. Corporate earnings are high and given the war, there's a mini-boom going in defense, communications, and others in the Military Industrial Complex. The combination of tax cuts, corporate welfare, unnecessary warfare, and reliance on Chinese largesse and cheap goods (not to mention some reasonable action by the Fed to halt interest rate hikes) has all come together to give us a little bubble of speculative cheer. Now, had BushCo's illegal war been the success he and his fascist (state capitalists) supporters believed, he would have been crowned the Shah of Iraq by now and we'd have enough oil to keep this shell game running for ever - A thousand year republican Reich was at hand. But alas. He didn't reckon on two things:

1. His war, based on lies, was not winnable
2. His economy, based on debt and corporate welfare, is not sustainable

As the public is finally waking up to the horrors of the war, the chaos from N Korea/Iran and the GOP looks more vulnerable than ever, the economic bubble blown by incompetant BushCo is overheating and getting ready to pop. As long as the war keeps on and fear, uncertainty and doubt in the world is the order of the day, the clean-up will not be pretty or short. Hang on, we're in for a bumpy ride!

Pretzel Logic?

2006-10-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

What becomes more and more obvious to those paying attention is not only how dangerously divorced from reality is the Last Crusader but how truly dangerous his logic is becoming. It's "Fuhrer in the Bunker" time folks. As George Santayana said "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim." Can you say "stay the course?"

In today's press beating he said that "This is a real challenge of the 21st century. I like to tell people we're in an ideological struggle. And it's a struggle between extremists and radicals and people of moderation who want to simply live a peaceful life. And the calling of this country and in this century is whether or not we will help the forces of moderation prevail. That's the fundamental question facing the United States of America beyond my presidency. And you can tell I've made my choice. And I made my choice because the most solemn duty of the American president, in government, is to protect this country from harm."

So let's parse this shall we? First we cannot be in an ideological struggle if we are truly there to help the forces of moderation. Which is it Last Crusader - are we in it to spread democracy as you said last year - a RADICAL doctrine - or to protect the moderates? If its the latter, than pre-emptively attacking their country without cause and possibly killing 600,000 of their people - an EXTREMIST action - puts the lie to that statement. And of course the final lie is the close: He's doing this to protect America from harm. How this follows from his previous statement is beyond me, but how killing close to a million people including American boys and girls is protecting us - when the threat is coming from everywhere we're not - challenges any definition of sanity I'm aware of. The moral and psychic damage George the Chicken Hearted has inflicted on our national character through war, torture, and the trashing of the international order will be devastating for at least a generation. Santayana sums it up best again: "To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman." Hopefully the next election will see the start of bringing BushCo to justice and putting an end to the last Crusade.

October Surprise?

2006-10-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

As we move deeper into the election cycle and the scandals swirl with ever greater fury - Abramoff's abomination, Foley's folly, and of course the mother of all scandals, the BushCo Baghdad Blasphemy brought to the fore courtesy of Bob (paying down past sins) Woodward - we've all been waiting with great trepidation for the Rovian October Surprise. Well guess what? We got one - but not the one BushCo was planning. Seems that while the Last Crusader George the Chicken Hearted, Rummy Von Doom, and Condi, Madame Mendacity were fiddling in Fallujah, Kim Jong-Il wasn't content just to be the latest Atlantic Monthly coverboy. Oh no. He decided that now was the perfect time to lob a big atomic halloween pumpkin at the White House. Surprise! Now that's what I call ring & run!

Now let's see if we've all been paying attention: Bill Clinton engages North Korea, encourages South Korea's Sunshine Policy and nuke development is halted. Republicans blast him for being weak. And he got a blowjob. BushCo rides into town, all talks stop, the South Korean president is publicly rebuked for letting the Sunshine in, and one short State of the Union speech later - voila! 12 nuclear bombs in the hands of one of the most deranged, erratic, and meglomanical leaders of a modern nationstate. Outside of that guy in Iran. Oh wait, he's building one too. And they both fund terrorists for real. Hmm...weapons of mass distruction, funding for terrorists, dangerous leadership - so where does BushCo send our boys and girls? Iraq! But of course we're fighting them there so we don't fight them here. But now that they've got the bomb we better hope we don't fight them anywhere.

We create our own enemies. The laws of physics are quite clear - every action has an equal and opposite reaction. BushCo's actions have brought about his polar opposite in Iran - Ahmadinejad is the fanatical muslim Bush. KJI, not to be outdone is determined to prove he's the baddest man on the planet. Maybe he's the mirror opposite of DeadEye Dick. The worst fears of Oppenheimer have come to pass as the worlds most dangerous weapons are now in the hands of apocalyptic, fanatical, end-gamers: Communist, Muslim, and Christian. Trick or Treat!

Weapon of Mass Consumption?

2006-10-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

Juvenal, the Roman satiric poet is credited with coining the phrase Bread and Circuses to describe the way cynical governments stave off large scale demonstrations of discontent among their populations. With WalMart, (and Target, and CostCo, and HomeDepot), BushCo has its own supersized variant. As we know, real wages have not risen since The Last Crusader George the Chicken Hearted took office. His tax cuts as we also know have benefitted the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans - or his base - as he's fond of saying. However coporate earnings and the Dow are approaching stratospheric levels even as we are witnessing one of the lightest periods of economic expansion. In addition, while unemployment remains reletively high, hours worked have risen here in the US again (the oft quoted US productivity statistic). Not to mention the fact that we're engaged in long war with no end in sight and get to experience the overall corruption and incompetance of the BushCo regime daily. So the question remains - why are people not angry? Why are they not in the streets demanding accountability and The Last Crusader's head on a pike? The answer is simple -- BushCo uses WalMart to buy-off the general population and pay-off his fat cat Cronies. Bread and circuses out of Bentonville!

Think about it - you may be earning less, you may be working more, you may even be unemployed - but you can still buy tons of stuff! Why worry about higher wages when you can still get that flat screen TV? This is why BushCo puts no real pressure on China around its monetary policy, human rights, and Iran - not only because they fund so much of our deficit but because of the cheap Chinese products that stock the shelves that numbs the populace that propels the profits of the corporations that control BushCo which is running the country into the ground. Follow the money and it all comes back to the same thing - a Government run by corporations is Fascist to its core, though unfortunately BushCo can't get the trains to run on time - either here or in Baghdad. As Orson Scott Card has aptly observed "If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side."

BushCo's Blue Dress?

2006-10-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

As the wild waters of PageGate whirl wider round Washington Republicans, you have to ask can this really be the end of BushCo? As Huey Long said, "only a dead girl or live boy will finish me" and it seems we've got several of the latter here. While Chester the Molester Foley goes on his merry way into rehab and the inevitable lawsuits start getting filed (justifiably it should be said), I'm struck by what it says about our country and what we require of our leadership.

As a nation Americans will tolerate anything but S-E-X-ual misconduct of any kind. Truly S-E-X is the original sin of our body politique. We can invade a sovereign nation without cause (Iraq), lose a war we had already won (Afghanistan), let our own people die in a natural catastrophe, lose a major US city, create hitherto undreamed of deficits while continuing to cut taxes of the richest 1% of Americans, make the tragic medical condition of one poor woman a national political travesty (Terrt Schiavo), actually argue about evolution in the 21st century, allow corporate lobbyists to head government agencies, rollback most environmental protections and give radical christian fudamentalists a 6 year stomp on the seperation of church and state, and yet, it will be S-E-Xual misconduct that will finally bring BushCo down. This is not to say that this is a harmless peccadillo between consenting adults - quite the contrary. Foley is a sexual predator who deserves everything the law can possibly throw at him. But the revulsion that is now surfacing against the BushCo regime should have been exhibited so much sooner and for so many more globally important transgressions. I guess it's better late than never. And now that its happened I must admit the Blue Dress looks much better from this side than it did the last time we saw it.

Draft or On-the-Rocks?

2006-10-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

It is of course apparent to anyone following the deepening morass that is Iraq that we are now at a significant crossroad in the conflict. If, as the Last Crusader George the Chicken Hearted says, that the battle against "IslamoFascism" is the defining conflict of the 21st Century and one that that we cannot afford to "lose", than clearly, we must do everything possible to "win".

(Let's be precise once and for all - we are fighting radical islamic fundamentalism. Fascism is the union of corporations with a centralized, authoritarian, nationalist state. The folks we're fighting are against the whole concept of nation state and seek to establish a supranational islamic caliphate. What we have with BushCo is Fascism. Ok?)

If we contine using the strategy and tactics employed thus far we are guaranteed to "lose". We do not have enough troops and the army is streatched too thin to "win" - however winning is defined. So what is to be done? Clearly the elephant in the room is the draft. If we are to win this war, we need troops. The only way to get troops is the draft. But the draft, next to Social Security, is the other 3rd rail of American politics. And we were told after 9/11 that no sacrifices would be required. We would have candy and flowers in Iraq and tax cuts for all. So to actually require sacrifice at this juncture - with support for the war at an all time low and the GOP running scared in a sea of scandals - is simply not an option. Democrats have been villified for cutting and running and granted they have been singularly ineffective in their opposition to the war thus far, but time and event have transpired in such a way as to demand that BushCo and the GOP lay it on the line before a major election. Do they really want to win their war or has it only been about the politics all along? As Robert Foster Bennett said "Stupidity trumps Machiavelli almost every time when you are looking for an explanation." Only the Decider can decide that now...

Day of Atonement?

2006-10-02T15:28:00.000-07:00

So is it a coincidence that we have a series of high profile school shootings, a major Republican sex scandal involving underage pages, George Allen's pathological bigotry (read rebel flag & hangman's noose) and potty mouth, as well as major revelations of incompetance and lies from Condi, the Madame of Mendacity, Rhummy Von Doom, and of course, The Last Crusader himself...George the Chicken Hearted? Of course not. There's a reason why personal debt rates are higher in red states, the divorce rates are higher in red states, teen pregnancies are higher in red states, adultery rates are higher in red states, alcoholism rates are higher in red states, more meth labs are in red states - (those numbers are well documented in the MSM folks) because the wages of hypocrisy are always paid in sin.

People can't entertain two conflicting points of view at the same time and yet, that's exactly what the GOP is asking Americans to do. Uniting while dividing, moralzing in the midst of immoral war, compassionate conservatism, lobbyists in control of major government agencies - it's chillingly Orwellian in its scope and brazeness. The contradictions they've institutionalized puts us at war not only with our enemies, but with our friends, allies, & our own common sense. Hence why everything this administration touches turns to dross & why so many Americans' worst instincts & impulses are suddenly blooming like poppy fields in Afghanistan. The wages of hypocrisy are always paid in sin.

John Quincy Adam's famous quote comes to mind - "Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws."

I'm also reminded of the old joke - "God is coming and boy is She pissed..."