Gonzales Testifies Yet Again Before the Senate

Alberto Gonzales, The Best and the Brightest??




What an appalling spectacle! This poor excuse for a lawyer, and worse, for a person who, however inexplicably, managed to pass law school and the bar exam, is so patently incompetent, there simply are no words.

I mean just look at his performance. When asked how he could justify asking then Attorney General Ashcroft to sign a legal document while he was ill and under the influence of mind altering medications, precipitating a frantic call from Ashcroft's wife to acting Attorney General Jim Comey when she heard Gonzales et al were en route, all he could say was that there is nothing in the rules that prohibits doing so and Ashcroft could always have said no.

Or how about his testimony in support of his previous claim that there was no dissension over the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) despite reports of threats of mass resignations in the Justice Department. The real reason for the raid on Ashcroft's hospital room, alleged Gonzales, was not the TSP, but another secret program. Said he, the visit was made at the urging of the so-called Gang of Eight after an emergency meeting, because of concern about this other secret program expiring that night. Only, some of the Gang of Eight have already come out with denials of Gonzales' version, saying that discussion did not happen, the only matter discussed was the TSP. Oh, and by the way, back then the Justice Department sent a document to then House Speaker Dennis Hastert documenting that the matter discussed at the meeting was the TSP. It is, in fact, still in the Speaker’s records. So...nobody as yet recalls this other secret program including the folks at the meeting where it was supposedly discussed, and documents produced at the time identified the subject as the TSP. Hummmhhh...kind of sounds like a bald faced lie, don't you think?

Obviously george bush and his rottweiler cheney believe they can do whatever they damn well please, and keeping this incompetent nincompoop, who can't get his lies straight, pleases them for the moment. If only Congress had the balls to actually take action to restore some of the balance of power and give this guy the boot.

Ah well, I can dream can't I?

Wouldn't it be great if he won???

Intellect or Mass Hypnosis????

So much has happened since my last post. Where to start??? Gonzales? The "surge"? How about the Democratic majority that thus far has been stymied by this Svengali? Through it all I am overwhelmed with my dismay with the American public, which now seems to be aware that something is rotten in Denmark, but still is willing to believe anything bush and his cronies say without requiring substantiation. They are still awed by the office and give him the benefit of the doubt because they don't want to believe the president would lie.

It is startlingly clear to any who would look, that bush and his cronies have lied and manipulated over and over again. Worse, the media, or as I like to call them, the steno pool, until recently has dutifully recorded all the crafted versions of the facts coming out of the administration with nary a challenge, nor even a clarification. Although they regularly characterized what Clinton said while in office, usually in terms of "what he's really saying here is....", the media has been glaringly absent on such analysis of bush, cheney or rove speak. In my darker musings, I have pondered whether the media types have been in bed with the bush folks.

The problem with this is the so called "smart" American public is way too preoccupied with American Idol and Anna Nicole to inform themselves on something so unrelated to their daily lives as the activities of politicians. They are content to allow themselves to be played, to be pandered to, to be manipulated by savvy pols who know just what to say to scare the public into submission. And the compliant media has been the perfect conduit for spreading the propaganda.

I can't help but wonder where we would be if the people and the media made them back up their assertions, no longer accepting the blanket statements just because they came from the president or one of his flunkies. Until that happens, there is really no reason for them to do anything different because what they are doing works. Whenever the public seems to be wondering off the reservation, just say "9/11", "al Kaeda", and "Osama" a couple of times, mention how we're doing this over there so we don't have to do it here, and we all dutifully fall in line.

"Oh judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts. And men have lost their reason."

Supporting Our Troops?

Am I the only one struck by the irony implicit in so many right wingers wrapping themselves in the flag, using the troops as their own sort of personal beaning bat to beat up on anyone who dared come between them and their beloved war? Think about it. Anyone who says its time to end the war is not "supporting the troops". Anyone who complains about the poor prosecution of the war, is "demoralizing the troops" and so on. To listen to them, one would think that they are very concerned about the welfare of our troops, right?

Yet, when one compares the right wing rhetoric with their actions, there is a bit of a disconnect. Those same folks who pay so much lip service to supporting our troops sit quietly by while our troops are allowed to go to war with unarmored Humvees and inadequate body armor. They lose not a moment of sleep even as they ignore the reality that few, if any, of the troops are supplied with helmet liners that are known to prevent the concussive brain injuries that have proven so damaging to the mental functioning of those with these injuries. Click on this link for more information about helmet liners Operation Helmet

Now we learn that for a least the past two years, our brave war injured have been living in squalid conditions while undergoing outpatient treatment at Walter Reed. For more details see Dana Priest's Washington Post article here Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility (free subscription required). These past two plus years, the soldiers' complaints about the conditions have been minimized, or worse yet, ignored until Ms Priest's series blew the lid off the scandal.

Appalling. Wake up America! Use your brains and figure out who really supports the troops.

Sigh....

I miss Al Franken.

Have we had enough of the hypocrisy yet?

Ted Haggard, President
National Assoc. of Evangelicals and Advisor to President Bush


Or as Tom Friedman asked "Just how stupid do they think we are?" As I think about Ted Haggard and his dual life - one part evangelical icon, one part meth user, closet gay man - I am reminded yet again of my weariness of these folks who, from atop their high moral ground, presume to tell the rest of us how to live our lives.

Are you as tired of the sanctimonious, holier-than-thou prattling of the truly saved? Are you weary, as I am, of the religious right and it's many proclamations of moral superiority over the great unwashed (those of us who don't wear our religious beliefs on our shirt sleeves) only to find, yet again, it comes down to "Do as I say do, not as I do"??? (Or put another way, the rules don't really apply to them.)

There is a word for that....It's HYPOCRISY. When all is said and done, they - and we - would be better off if they just concentrated on how they can live a moral and righteous life, leave off the smug, pompous, pious preaching, and leave us to seek our own religious and moral compass.

Please!!!

For more information, read this article from Newsweek: Morality Tale: A Pastor's Fall From Grace

Fingernails on the Chalkboard

Why is it that the man who is arguably the most powerful man in the world - when dickie lets him anyway - is unable to pronounce a simple word that he chooses to use a lot??? It's pronounced new-clear, genius!

Why Do We Keep Listening to These People???

It's so obvious they are trying to manipulate us by scaring us into compliance with their world view. Such a cynical tactic, because it seems as if they are saying "We'll just play to their fears and they will fall in line behind us just like always". Anyway, thought you might find a different take on their line of bull interesting. Take a look at these articles and decide for yourself. They give new context to the comparisons made by the posse members during a media blitz last week.

The True Iraq Appeasers by Peter Galbraith , The Boston Globe.
Iraq-Nazi Analogy Tough to Swallow by Steve Chapman, The Baltimore Sun.
Oh, and by the way, the photo is of Rumsfeld with the guy he characterized as a latter day Hitler.

The Press Conference

Thank you, Fred Kaplan, for putting into words what the fawning (or is it the cowardly?) mainstream media folks failed to address in their coverage. You must read this. Here's the link. What a Moronic Presidential Press Conference!

Okay so I haven't blogged much lately

But, I had my reasons. Pretty much I guess it could be chalked up to my dismay with being outnumbered by the gullible ones in the majority.

And, I have also been very busy lately, too. I practically have a whole new life, and am still wrestling with organizing my time with the new stuff.

Haven't changed my mind about georgie and his henchpeople.....still can't stand them, still don't trust and, thanks to their astoundingly incompetent bungling coupled with their completely misplaced arrogance, they are the last people who should be charged with keeping us safe!

This is our protector?

I just can't believe the incompetence and arrogance of this man...the worst possible combination for a president. He supports this unbelievable deal to allow a United Arab Emirates company to operate ports in some of our largest cities. He is going to use his first veto since he took office to block any effort to suspend the deal. Oh, and by the way, he didn't know about the deal until after the fact. He's gonna keep us safe?? Right!

george The Incompetent

You’ve got to check out this article from the Washington Post. It presents a compelling case on the performance of our president. It's titled "Bush the Incompetent".

For a while now I have been saddened and disappointed in our American public's complacent attitude as this man mischaracterizes, stonewalls, makes end runs around the constitution and mired us in this oh-so-poorly conducted "war". Even after disaster upon disaster happens in Iraq, as the toll on our young men and women continues to grow, we sit around and shrug and say to ourselves "Oh well, however unpleasant, there just isn't an alternative".

And, when the pitifully small percentage of media people who work up the cajones (little shriveled ones) timidly question his statements, the ethics issues that still threaten to overrun his presidency, the debacle after Katrina, the prescription drug plan (the infamous Medicare Part D) that debuted to near catastrophic results on the elderly sick, the stonewalling and all the rest, he knows that he has but to bring out his old reliable "national security" umbrella, and all the worrisome troublemakers go away.

When you really think about it, most people just don't have the time to look into these things on their own, what with the demands of work and family. So they have to evaluate bush based on little or no factual information. They're so busy living their lives, they won't notice the damage being done until the effect shows up on their doorsteps. Of course by then it may be too late.........

If you can find the time, read the article. Here's the link:
Bush the Incompetent

Abramoff Ticking Bomb......

You all know who Jack Abramoff is, right? He's the connected superlobbyist who laid out scads of money and other goodies to the powerful and near powerful in congress in return for certain political favors. Anyway, Jackie boy got caught with his hand in the till, so to speak, and now he is having to pay the piper. He has made a plea deal in which he has reportedly agreed to give up some of his congressional friends who have so often shown their gratitude for his patronage over the past several years. As yet unnamed, these scoundrels must be feeling the heat of impending doom.

In a show of bravura, there's been a slew of denials from the likes of Tom Delay, Dennis Hastert, Byron L. Dorgan, and Robert Ney. Hark back to the similarly heartfelt denials of wrongdoing from former congressman, current prisoner Randy “Duke” Cunningham. As you may recall he maintained his innocence right up until he agreed to a plea bargain that required him to confess all - the yacht, the home sale, taking handfuls and handfuls of money and a dizzying array of goodies in return for political favors. He did confess, tearfully, before the glaring lights of TV news cameras.

One can only look forward to a similar fate for these others who also deny any wrongdoing...

Liberty vs Security

I am kind of appalled at the idea that our security needs to be purchased at the cost of our freedom from government intrusion into our private phone conversations without due process under the law.

And if we dare speak against this blatant usurpation on the part of bush and his advisors, then we are giving aide and succor to the enemy. Neat. Question their right to tap your phone without a court order, or to torture detainees or to lock people away in Guantanamo even when they are found to be innocent of any crime and they run to that nice shield to hide behind. Helping the enemy, helping the enemy, 9/11, 9/11, mushroom cloud, mushroom cloud. Neat.

Who Let the Dog Out? Woof, Woof, Woof, Woof, Woof!

I see the bush administration's trained rottweiler, dick cheney, was brought out to chomp on the leg of critics of the war in Iraq. Same old tactics here. And really, there's nobody better at snarling and chomping than dickie boy.

Remember? He is the one who thinks it's okay to use profanity in the halls of Congress. Who can forget his memorable rejoinder "Go f___ yourself"?

Anyway, he came out snapping and spewing at a GOP gala Wednesday night (11/16). Good idea; if you have no strategy you can point to, you can always bring out the rottweiler to snarl and spit and spew vitriol. Maybe if you're really lucky, people won't notice that you haven't actually answered the charges, because you can't, and just maybe they'll keep on buying those cheap tricks like they did during the campaign.

.....Maybe.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

I'm really sad about Bob Woodward. He was a heroic icon from my youth. Turns out he hasn't been telling us the whole story in more recent times. Now, he says his job is keeping secrets. Really? Could have fooled me. The uninformed among us might think that his job actually is telling the American public the whole story, the truth. I count myself among them. Silly me.

Way back when, he sort of acted like he also thought his job was making sure we consumers of his craft got the unobscured truth. Isn't that what Watergate was all about....highly placed people in government thinking they could act in secret and these two young, wonder-journalists not letting them get away with that???

Woodward has certainly come a long way from those days. He's actually part of the establishment now, maybe he even believes his own press releases, the ones saying what a geat and powerful journalist he is.

........Sigh.

You gotta check out Joe Conason's article in Salon.com on the subject of Woodward. To read the article click on the title below. FYI, to read the article you have to watch a commercial first.
Woodward's Disgrace

Republicans have a Lott to worry about

So, events are becoming very interesting in our nation’s capitol…again….still. Here's Senator Bill Frist busily composing yet another indignant response to perceived Democrat perfidy. Frist is in a snit this time because of the leak to the Washington Post about the purported use of "black site" torture prisons in Europe and elsewhere by the CIA for "special" interrogation procedures. Senator Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, two very upstanding representatives of our government, were in the midst of composing a letter of complaint hinting at Democrat dirty tricks and calling, from atop their high horse, for an investigation into the leaks, when Senator Trent Lott stepped on their line and blabbed that the leak probably came from a Republican senator.

Drat!

The boys had to beat a hasty retreat to the strategy room to plan their next move. They eventually did send the letter calling for an investigation, but their rhetoric was ratcheted down considerably and the whole stunt came off as a rather embarrassing flop.

The word “botched” comes to mind……..

If you’re interested in reading more about this click below:
Another Leak Probe?
Bungling Meant Leak Letter Leaked.

Or if you just want to write and compliment them on their smooth handling of this situation here's their contact info:

Frist, Bill- (R - TN)
509 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3344
Web Form: frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=AboutSenatorFrist.ContactForm

Dennis Hastert (R- IL)
DC Office:
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone (202) 225-2976
Fax (202) 225-0697
Web Form: http://www.house.gov/hastert/write1.shtml

Strange Bedfellows

As I think about this whole business with recently unemployed Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby's indictment, I have the nagging and uneasy feeling that there is an altogether too cozy relationship between the insiders at the White House and the esteemed members of the 4th estate.

I mean, think about all the chit-chat calls going back and forth between Scooter and Karl Rove and Dick Cheney, et al and the media the summer of 2003 that were mentioned in the Fitzgerald news conference. Casual conversations where information is subtlely passed, complete with spin, to the media who either leave out or downplay "inconvenient" information or dutifully publish favorable information, attributing it to "high placed officials" in the administration.

Is this why there was no questioning of the rationale for going to war with Iraq by the usually skeptical media? Because they were cozying up to the administration with these myriad chats "on background"?

So much for probing journalism.

Hubris

Do you want to understand how decisions are made in the bush administration? Decisions that have resulted in the death and maiming of thousands of Americans, not to mention the Iraqi's we're supposed to be saving? What's your best guess on the action plan for matters of import in the executive branch these days? For a clue, read "Without a Doubt" by Ron Suskind in the New York Times magazine Oct 17, 2004 issue.

Having read the article I couldn't stop myself from asking, did they really say that on the record? And did the American public really hear this? Can this be okay with the American public?

Here's a little snippet from the article. The writer is meeting with a senior advisor to bush:

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

Hubris......

If you want to read the article, click on the title below. Its from the October 17, 2004 issue of the New York Times Magazine. The article is written by Ron Suskind:
Without a Doubt

Looks Like We Got What We Conspired to Get....And We Don't Like It!

Last year this country succumbed to a snake oil salesman. This guy used all his craftiness to sell us a bill of goods and we fell for his line of overblown rhetoric (...spread freedom around the world...) hook, line and sinker and voted him back into office. Now we're starting to find out just what we bought ourselves because we were such willing pawns. All it took was a slick appeal to our fears, our prejudices and our uncertainties. All it took was playing to the lowest part of ourselves, and we gave away the store. This man, this george bush has staffed government agencies with his political cronies, putting into place a leadership that is vastly less experienced and less qualified, putting into place people whose most significant qualification for their jobs is their allegiance to w.

We let him back in, we let him put unqualified people in these jobs and watched while the experienced veterans of these agencies have been leaving wholesale, leaving the political hacks in charge. Now the glaring inadequacies of just one of these political appointees is exposed in the face of the most catastrophic natural disaster in our history. There are others. They are quietly gutting agencies that are supposed to protect and keep us safe.

This was the administration that got into office because it convinced an audience willing to abdicate its responsibility to think for itself in favor of a falling for a cheap play on the emotions of a frightened nation, this man managed to convince the voting public that he could protect us better than "the other side". Now we're angry because the government did such a poor job of protecting and rescuing victims in this disaster. But we didn't really ask anything of him, did we? We took what he said at face value and didn't bother to check the facts. When its all said and done, We have only ourselves to blame.

For more details about these political appointments, read these articles (Some require subscription):
All the President's Friends New York Times
Leaders Lacking Disaster Experience - The Washington Post