DeBushification - Truth and Consequences?

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?

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?

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?

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!