HAIL DUBYUS!

An Illustrated Guide to Mendacity and Folly in the Imperium Americanum

Meep Meep!

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(AP) Bush strikes back at Dems on security “Maneuvering for election-year advantage, President Bush is striking back at Democrats who have trumpeted government findings that the Iraq war has helped recruit more terrorists, saying the opposition party is one of ‘obstruction and endless second-guessing.'”

(Reuters) Democrats want to “cut and run” from Iraq, Bush says

(AP) White House refuses to release full NIE “The White House refused Wednesday to release the rest of a secret intelligence assessment that depicts a growing terrorist threat, as the Bush administration tried to quell election-season criticism that its anti-terror policies are seriously off track.”

Yup, it’s true, if Wile E. Coyote cuts and runs, he’ll never catch Road Runner. But… he’ll never catch Road Runner if he “stays the course.” All he’ll get for trying is falls off cliffs and self-immolations and explosions. Complex situations like Iraq very RARELY have an either-or solution and if it is naive of anyone to believe anything about Iraq (President Bush on Tuesday said it is naive and a mistake to think that the war with Iraq has worsened terrorism), it is naive to believe that staying the course or cutting and running are the only two options. WE BROKE IRAQ. We have the obligation to get it back on its feet. But instead of doing anything real, like getting the electricity working, we frittered away our honeymoon period trying to create a stock market and other secondary items. Hell, even the police academy we built for them is dookie–literally “It was intended to showcase U.S. rebuilding efforts in Iraq, but instead Baghdad’s new police academy was declared a health hazard by U.S. inspectors who found human waste dripping from the ceilings.” Our continued presence there does little but increase the terrorist threat because we are doing nothing right. Right now, the best thing we could probably do is remove our troops instantly and dump the money we’d spend on them on the Iraqi government and let them figure out how to spend it. Even if they took half of it home with them, they couldn’t waste it worse than we are right now.

Let’s Not Even Go There, Said Condi …So They Didn’t

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(60 minutes) Condi: Katie Couric gets to see the many sides of Secretary of State Condoleezza Oh Katie, Katie, there’s such a thing as a softball interview, but damn, this was a nerfball one. Did you even entertain the idea of challenging her on…ummmm…anything? By far, the most interesting interview of the weekend was the one where Bill Clinton handed Chris Wallace his ass on a platter. (WashPost) Chris Wallace, Caught Off Balance?

(AP) Clinton, Fox anchor battle in interview

(AP) Rice challenges Clinton on terror fight

Right now, the rightwing spin machine is both trying to portray Clinton as some kind of raving madman and a liar. Quite frankly, after the number of lies they’ve told about him, I’m surprised he hasn’t decked anyone yet. The lunacy charge is of course an attempt to deflect opinion from the substance of what Clinton said. As for Rice’s weaselly rebuttal, see this article on Media Matters: AP, CNN uncritically reported Rice’s misleading response to Clinton interview

I’d also like to point out once again Keith Olbermann’s COUNTDOWN, the only mainstream media venue that is not jumping on the Party line and trying to give credit and blame where it is due. Clinton wasn’t blameless, but he recognized the threat of Al-Qaeda during his administration and tried to deal with it. The Republican dogpack accused him at the time of trying to deflect attention from that most important of all issues, whether or not he got a blowjob from an intern. The American people at the time, to their credit, responded, who gives a f***? Nonetheless, Clinton wasn’t able to do much about the extremist threat and attempted the handoff to the new administration and got rebuffed…they had more important issues like tax cuts and stem cell lines and missile defense systems to protect us from the now non-existent threat of the Soviet Union. Despite Condi Rice’s claim that they were not presented a plan, they were given an assessment of the dangers of extremist terrorism and a list of actions needed to address those dangers. If that ain’t a plan, I don’t know what is. Olbermann is covering each of these points in detail this week and furthermore has an interview with Bill Clinton that took place right after the Chris Wallace one, so check out the Countdown site for all this…

Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts Of Men? This Whole Administration Does–First Hand!

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(AP) Many hopefuls keep Bush ties under wraps “Bush has yet to hold a single traditional campaign-style rally for one of his party’s hopefuls this election cycle…of six fundraisers Bush is headlining this week, all but one [~] for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley [~] are private, by agreement between the White House and the campaigns…this year, in the same time period between July and the end of September, nearly two-thirds of Bush’s political events are scheduled to be closed, held in private homes…” Invitation only, be sure to have your checkbook and Republican Party card in hand and be prepared to sign the loyalty pledge on entering.

In the meantime, people far more knowledgable than I have looked over the “compromise” between the mavericks and Bush about legalizing torture. Check The Nation The Pro-Torture Pact, The Washington Post, The Abuse Can Continue: Senators won’t authorize torture, but they won’t prevent it, either. and this press release from Amnesty International Amnesty International ‘Deeply Disturbed’ by New Detainee Legislation Everyone got what they wanted–Bush looks like he compromised when he didn’t, and McCain, Graham and Warner got their names in the paper making believe they were righteous. The farce goes on.

And not that I’m old enough to have heard it first run (unless my parents had it on before I was even in short pants hehehe) but my favorite oldtime radio program is, as if you couldn’t guess, THE SHADOW! Too bad the Alec Baldwin movie had such a LOUSY script…I wonder why there’s this modernizing cliche of providing the characters with a back story and then getting it ALL WRONG!

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