THE BUSH MOB FOLLIES OF 2007

 

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

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Gather 'round, children! Time now for our end-of-the-year round-up of the unintentional comedy that makes the administration of George W. Bush such a joyous laugh fest to behold! For all of the damage that these foolish and unenlightened people have done to this country, they're certainly providing us with "interesting times" in which to live, aren't they? Gerry Ford was boring. Jimmy Carter was boring. Bush 41 was as boring as they come. These people are anything but! Watching this hideous administration literally implode during the last year has been more fun than words can accurately describe. I'm giddy. Please forgive me.

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2006 ended with all of us contemplating, ominously enough, what the aftermath of the execution of the Butcher of Baghdad might bring. On my New Year's Eve posing on The Rant, I speculated that nothing would change and that the carnage would only get worse in 2007:

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"The only thing that the killing of Saddam Hussein has accomplished is this: Tonight one more lifeless body lies in Iraq."

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Well, it turns out I was wrong on one point and I humbly concede as much. Facts are facts and they must be faced honestly: The death toll in Iraq did in fact go down somewhat in '07, but Saddam's execution had not a thing to do with it (and neither did the so-called "surge"). You see, the body count will always go down when there are three million less people to kill (a million dead civilians thus far, and at least two million refugees this year alone). It's all a simple matter of mathematics. War has a nasty little habit of producing lots of dead people and lots and lots of refugees. Go figure.

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The year started out with so much hope and why not? With the election of the 110th Congress the previous November, we had every reason to be optimistic. Surely, we thought, the opposition party would do right by the country and by year's end, Bush and Cheney would be impeached and the country could begin the long and difficult process of regaining its standing among the international community of nations. Leave it to the worthless, pathetic Democrats in the House and Senate to cave in - on almost every point - to the demands of the most corrupt administration in American History. Every time they had a chance to show even a little courage, they folded up like deck chairs on the Titanic. Many of them cynically felt that the more damage the Bush White House did to the country, the easier it would be for them at the polls next November. The Democratic Party was - without question - the biggest disappointment of 2007. And now they appear to be on the verge of handing their nomination over to Hillary Clinton, the Queen of the focus groups. The party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt has descended into the ideological sewer. I don't regret leaving the Dems almost a decade ago and am now only embarrassed by my twenty-year association with them. They're sickening.

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One of the highlights of the first month of the new year was the First Fool's riotously comical State of the Union address on January 23. Referring to the endless slaughter in Iraq, he said toward the end of the speech (with a straight face, so help me):

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"This is not the fight we entered, but this is the fight we are in.

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As I remarked at the time, "The 'fight we entered' was a fight to rid Saddam Hussein of a weapons of mass destruction program that every thinking person in the United States (all twelve of us) knew wasn't there."

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The following day, in his column in the New York Times, Bob Herbert put it perfectly (as Bob Herbert has a tendency of doing). The address, he said, was "a study in government dysfunction. The audience kept mindlessly applauding - up and down like marionettes - when in fact there was nothing to applaud. The State of the Union is wretched..."

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The following month saw the revelations of the atrocious conditions under which some wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were forced to live. The situation was merely a microcosm of the problems facing the United States as a whole. The painful and awful truth is this: the social infrastructure of this country is deteriorating because the richest two percent of the American taxpayers have been hoarding so huge a piece of our national treasure for over a quarter of a century - a situation that only accelerated under Bush 43. On top of that, the war in Iraq is costing the American people roughly 1.3 billion dollars a week. 2008 will be remembered as the year our entire economy collapsed. Take that to the bank (so to speak).
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Then in the early summer came the Gonzalez testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the revelation that US Attorneys were being fired for not conducting the political persecutions ordered by Karl Rove. In order to avoid a perjury rap, poor, pathetic little Alberto was forced to answer, "I don't remember" or "I can't recall" hundreds of times. It was theater of the absurd at its finest. After what can only be described as the worst performance in front of an investigative body since mobster Frank Costello wrung his sweaty hands before a national TV audience over a half a century before, Bush expressed supreme confidence in his Attorney General. I'm not making this up.

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From that point on, it was straight down hill for these clowns. By mid summer, people were fleeing this White House like rats from a sinking ship. August saw not only the resignation of Bush's beleaguered and incompetent Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, but also the Rasputin-like creature who has come to be known as Bush's Brain: Karl Rove. They all knew that the trillion dollar shithammer was about to come crashing down and they didn't want to be caught anywhere near Washington when that happened. While the corporate media - with a small handful of notable exceptions - continued to act as mere stenographers for these criminals, the blogosphere and courageous political websites like the Huffington Post, MoveOn.Org and AlterNet continued to stand up and speak out. We are the new Edward R. Murrows. We are the Upton Sinclairs of our generation. We are the people who are going to save this country....OK! OK! OK! With a little help from Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman, and Keith Olbermann....Sheeesh!

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An entire can of deadly vicious worms was opened in 2007 and it doesn't look the least bit appetizing for Bush and Cheney. They can spin it any which way they like, but the nasty fact of the matter is this: They're going down. The American people are waking up from the drunken orgy of the last twenty-seven years and are starting to see the real face of the Reagan Revolution - without the makeup and lipstick. What they see is not the lovely and polite girl they thought they brought home last night, but just some crude, painted-up whore with a hideous smirk and a Texas twang. It's not a pretty picture. Nope, not a pretty picture at all.

The middle class, once the driving force of the American economy, is now in danger of extinction. The United States Constitution, the blueprint by which this country was formed, has been assaulted by people who have probably never even read it, let alone understand it. The "American Experiment" might indeed turn out to be a colossal failure. The next twelve months will tell.

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It's a safe bet that the final hours of this administration will see the shredders in the White House and the Executive Office Building working over-time. They may think that they'll be able to escape history's judgement, but that is merely a sign of their unprecedented arrogance. Eventually we'll know the whole truth behind the crimes that were committed by the most overtly criminal presidency in the history of this once-great nation. People are going to start talking - and very soon. Keep your eyes wide for the publication of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book in April. That will be only the first of many. The incredible thing is, we've barely scratched the surface. But of this you may be absolutely certain: We're gonna keep scratchin' - DON'T YOU FORGET IT!

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Happy New Year, Everbody!
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

Happy Christmas

And so, happy Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

John Lennon 1973

This is simply to wish all of you a happy and joyous Christmas.

With the new year almost upon us, it's difficult to ignore the certainty that it will be a tumultuous and difficult one for the entire planet. All the signs are there. And the irony is the fact that we would all be living in paradise if only we so-called "Christians" followed the teachings of the Man whose birth we commemorate today. Instead, the survival of our economy depends on us making an obscene mockery of what should be the highest of holy days. Go figure.

Keep the meaning of this day - which is not only the birth of Jesus Christ, but the very idea of peace on earth, good will toward all people - in your heart and soul. Pray for peace. And remember that it will never come so long as foolish men choose to make their earthly fortunes by providing the world with weapons of death.

Blessed are the peacemakers
For they shall be called Sons of God

Keep your eyes open for the miracles all around you. And remember the simple truth that there is more music to be found in the laughter of a single child than can be found in all of the symphonies ever composed by all of the composers who ever lived.

Have yourselves a beautiful and blessed Christmas....

It's still possible!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

War is over
If you want it
War is over
Now....

Compassionate Conservatism's Big Easy

Louisiana
Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away....

Randy Newman, 1974

The state of Louisiana has always posed somewhat of a sticky problem for the Republican Party. Like most southern states, it has no shortage of unenlightened, racist yahoos who have been perfectly content to swallow the scare tactics and race baiting of "the party of Lincoln" since they signed off on the Nixon Gang's "Southern Strategy" almost forty years ago during the campaign of 1968. Unfortunately for the purposes of the Grand Old Party, however, Louisiana has something which other states in dear ol' Dixie seriously lack: New Orleans.

You see, just because the Big Easy is located south of the Mason Dixon line, it didn't necessarily mean that most of its residents (like most southern voters - let's face some facts here) would be dumb enough to vote against their own best interests and elect a party which only serves at the beck and call of corporate America. Why? Because New Orleans has a lot of black people living there - lots and lots of them. For reasons I've never been able to quite figure out, African Americans (while lacking the same educational opportunities available to most white Americans) are a whole hell of a lot smarter than their white brothers and sisters when it comes to casting their ballot. They know what's in their best interests and, more importantly, what's not. For that very reason, the state of Louisiana - while definitely not a blue state, is decidedly in the purple camp.

Hurricane Katrina offered the Republicans in general and our half-witted president in particular a once in a lifetime chance. Instead of having the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) come in and repair 4,500 units of Public Housing which were damaged in that catastrophe (which is their job; hence the word "Development" in their title), they plan on going in there and destroying them. Again, I must emphasize, the "D" in HUD" does not stand for "Destruction". Just a little point I thought you might want to think about. One more thing I would beg for your consideration: "HUD" spelled backwards is "DUH"! Again, just thought you'd like to know.

HUD wants to demolish the buildings in order for developers to take advantage of tax credits and build new "mixed income" neighborhoods. What they are trying to do here is cover a cake of battery acid with some yummy, sweet tasting vanilla frosting. Critics of this "purge" (can you think of a better word?) say it will force thousands of poor blacks out of the city and (the Bush Mob's secret dream) out of the state - and will severely lower the amount of public housing available. According to plans already on the table, these new neighborhoods will have only 800 units of affordable, public housing - an eighty-two percent reduction in size. And here's the kicker: These people, being homeless and with addresses that will no longer even exist, will be unable to vote - a fact that will make Louisiana a reliable red state. What did they call their policies again? Ah, yes! Now I remember! "Compassionate Conservatism"! Please.

In a piece that was reported on December 21, Kali Akuno, an organizer for a group called, Coalition To Stop The Demolition, told the Associated Press, "It's beyond callous, and can only be seen as an unabashed attempt to eliminate the black population of New Orleans." WELL, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT, KALI! If all of you silly dark-skinned people down there would only start towin' the line for dear ol' Massah, you wouldn't be having this problem! Sheeeesh!

Here's some more "Compassionate Conservatism" for you: In a letter co-authored with three Republican congressmen, Louisiana Senator David Vitter wrote as follows:

"Public housing in New Orleans has for many decades served almost no other purpose than to warehouse [Yes, so help me, he actually used the word, "warehouse"] the city's poor and disenfranchised. That generations of our fellow citizens were allowed to live in government operated and sanctioned slums is offensive and intolerable."

How touching. That it is "offensive and intolerable" there can be little doubt. Do you want to know what is even more "offensive and intolerable? The very idea that an agency of our government could roll right in and destroy the homes of the most vulnerable people among us, leaving them without a place to live. That is not merely "offensive and intolerable"; that is unconscionable. To no one's surprise, the mind-numbing stupidity of Vitter's statement went right over his head. (Shh! Just between you and me, he's not the brightest bulb on the porch. It'll be our little secret!)

This, dear reader, is the real face of the right wing revolution that has held this country's national political dialogue hostage for over a quarter of a century. If you can't see it by now you're either blind or so ideologically retarded, you might qualify for an assisted living program. At a time when American corporate CEO's are giving themselves Christmas bonuses that amount to roughly the total income of the bottom ten percent of wage earners in this once-great nation, people are literally starting to go hungry.

I live in Orange County - sixty miles north of merrie old Manhattan. It is generally regarded as being one of the most affluent regions in the country. Our local paper is the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, NY. It is the same newspaper where the legendary "gonzo" journalist Hunter S. Thompson launched his career way back in the late 1950s. Here is the front page headline of this morning's edition:

The "new hungry" strain local food pantries

The piece, which appeared of pages four and five (beautifully written by Record reporter, Ashley Kelly) told of how Orange and Ulster Counties saw an increase of people in 2006 who fell below the poverty level:

"Food assistance providers are seeing the working poor as well as middle-class families reaching out for help. But as the people continue to pour in, resources are stretched thin....Although the working poor - described as people who have jobs, but struggle with paying the bills - regularly fill their cupboards from local food pantries, an increasing number of middle-class families battling mortgage rate hikes and high fuel prices have joined them, say those who anecdotally see such a trend emerging."

They told us from the very beginning that the prosperity would "trickle down" to the rest of us. It has only trickled up. The war on the middle class, fought subtly and quietly by America's plutocracy for twenty years or so is now in what can only be described as surge mode. The harm that corporate America and their hand maidens in the House and Senate have done to the working people of the United States of America will take - at the very least - a generation to undo. As it now stands from the vantage point of December 2007, there is little reason to be optimistic. The candidates for the GOP presidential nomination are all members of the same incompetent and exclusive club - and the Democrats seem hell-bent on handing over the nomination to their only candidate who is destined to lose next year. The problem with the American people is that while they are finally starting to express the long overdue anger they should have been feeling two decades ago, they are foolishly looking toward their incumbent representatives to fix the mess for them. Like the man said, "That ain't never gonna happen, baby!" They should be looking for new political representation all across the board. It's as complicated and yet as simple as that.

What is now happening in New Orleans is just a blue print of what they have in store for the rest of the country. What has not been given much notice in the main stream (read: Corporate) news media is that the neo-cons are now in the process of privatizing the public school system down there. And why shouldn't they? After all, privatization worked so well in Baghdad, didn't it?

Never mind.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

Good Old Boys
by Randy Newman
Reprise Records 1974

It is only one of the greatest records ever made.

How....umm...."Quaint"

In a recent piece that was published on December 13 on AlterNet, Ray McGovern (No relation to George, honest!) asked the musical question, "Should the United States of America be using forms of torture dating back to the Spanish Inquisition?"

And you thought that the only thing George W. Bush had been torturing all of these years was the English language!!

And now we're finding out that the CIA destroyed videotapes which clearly showed suspects (innocent until proven guilty) receiving "harsh" (read: torturous) interrogations and that the tapes were destroyed in November 0f 2005 - a full five months after a federal judge ordered the White House to to preserve any and all material related to the case. What you have here is a criminal conspiracy so immense, It makes the Watergate affair look like, well, a third-rate burglary.

From CBS NEWS On-line:
"President Bush said he didn't know about the tapes or their destruction until last week...The CIA has not described exactly what was shown on all the tapes. However, among the harsh interrogation techniques the White House approved in 2002 was waterboarding."

Waterboarding is prohibited by the Geneva Convention and is a clear violation of international law. These are the same laws that then White House Council Alberto Gonzalez once described as, "quaint". Isn't that sweet? Here is the question that no politician in his or her right mind dares to answer: If it is perfectly legal for the United States to waterboard their "enemies" (whomever they may be at any particular moment), is it also legal when our American soldiers receive the same treatment? It is a question they won't address because it can not be rationally answered. .

For the record: "Waterboarding" involves strapping some poor bastard down, taping a piece of cloth over his face and pouring torrents of water over him. He then gets the overwhelming sensation that he is drowning. When an investigator asked the CIA to perform the procedure on him, even though he knew he was in no danger of dying, he found the duration of the ordeal extremely unbearable and frightening. His conclusion? Waterboarding is torture. Period. Sixty years ago, several Japanese military commanders were sent to prison for many years for committing the same crime. Some were even executed! You see where I'm headed here, don't you? OK, I'll stop.
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After a three hour, private meeting with CIA Director, Air Force General Michael Hayden (a meeting that left the lawmakers attending it "stunned") Rep. Sylvestre Reyes said that the meeting was "just the first step in what we feel is going to be a long term investigation." The probe will include calling other witnesses including Porter Goss, George "SLAM DUNK" Tenet and John Negroponte, the former Director of National Intelligence who now serves as Deputy Secretary of State. But the one person that Congress is most eager to talk to is Jose Rodriguez, the man who ordered the destruction of the tapes. They expect to meet with him "possibly before Christmas" according to CBS. The official reason for the destruction of the tapes? Rodriguez says that he was concerned for the safety of the interrogators and their families. Please! With all of the video technology available that can easily alter the faces - and even the voices - of anyone? Do they really expect us to believe such nonsense??? Did you ever see an episode of COPS? Did you ever see a late night commercial for Girls Gone Wild? I rest my case.
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Senator Joe Biden has called for an independent investigation into the destruction of the tapes. Unfortunately, he has gotten very little support for his proposal - even from his own party. That's because it appears that key members of the Democratic leadership - Nancy Pelosi included - were briefed on the Bush Mob's interrogation techniques as early as 2002. Many of them are saying that an independent investigation would be "expensive and time consuming" and that Congress should be in charge of the investigation. As the great Bill Cosby once said, "RIGHT!" They're just covering their asses, folks. This is a scandal that is going to take down not just a whole lot of Republicans, but more than a few Democrats as well. As was said in an excellent editorial which appeared this week in the Albany Times Union: "Congress comes with more than a little baggage to this issue. A special prosecutor would not." Let the chips fall where ever they may. Fuck the Democrats.
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The big question is: What did the president know and when did he know it? (Thank you, Howard Baker). According to spokespersons for the First Fool, White House Council Harriot Miers warned Rodriguez not to destroy the tapes. They're saying that Rodriguez "acted on his own". Of course he did. You see what there doing here, don't you? They're giving Bush something called "plausible deniability", an old and treasured chestnut from the Nixon years. In an article that was published in Tuesday's New York Times, officials from CIA (speaking under condition of anonymity) said that the White House (presumably Miers) declined to order them to preserve the tapes. According to one source, "They never told us, 'Hell, no'....If somebody had said, 'You can't destroy them', we would not have destroyed them."
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Here's what's going to happen, campers: Rodriguez will be brought up on charges of criminally destroying evidence. He will be tried, convicted, sentenced and pardoned. Take it to the bank.
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Only a fool could be oblivious to the reasons as to why these videotapes were obliterated: Theses suspects were being tortured. Torture is a war crime. The reason Attorney General Michael Mukasey was unable to define waterboarding as torture during his conformation hearings a couple of months ago was because he knew that by doing so, he would be acknowledging that the President of the United States is a criminal; something that every thinking American (all twelve of us) has known for years. When the chain of command is finally investigated upward, the order to torture these suspects (and remember that's all they are: Suspects) will lead straight to the offices of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney. When that happens, be prepared to face the nasty reality that Bush will be remembered as the first former US president in history to die in federal prison. NOTE TO THE SECRET SERVICE: Of natural causes, of course, dear boys. Heaven forbid!
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UN Human Rights expert, Martin Scheinin, told the news organization, AFP (No, I've never heard of them either) that the destruction of the tapes, "is one more argument that supports the contention that the CIA has been involved in and continues to be involved in the use of interrogation techniques that violate the absolute prohibition against torture." He then went on to say that the behavior of CIA officials during his interview with them only added to his concerns:
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"They were participants in one of my meetings but they failed to answer any single question in a substantive, meaningful way, which only confirmed the suspicions that they have much to hide."
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This week, the Congress put forth a bill that would make waterboardng illegal but on Friday, that bill was stopped in the Senate. Would someone please be kind enough to explain to these assholes that waterboarding is already illegal! It's been illegal for over seventy years now! - Since the nineteen freaking thirties! It was part of an international treaty that the United States signed off on and is constitutionally obligated to obey!
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It's kind of funny, is it not? While water is the essential ingredient to sustain life on this planet, when it comes to the American presidency it is poison. Think about it! Watergate; Whitewater; Waterboarding...It really is a scream when you think about it!
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Every day - in every way - it's getting worse and worse for the disgusting, half-witted little frat boy that so huge a segment of the electorate were foolish enough to send to the White House seven years ago last month. For the relatively few people who sounded the alarm bells from the day he announced his candidacy way back in 1999, these are indeed days of vindication. Have the American people finally learned a lesson that they should have learned a long, long time ago? Don't bet on it.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
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AFTERTHOUGHT:
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"I'm gonna restore honor and integrity to the White House."
George W. Bush 2000
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Don'cha just love it?

Spin, Smoke and Mirrors

It was not a good moment for the despicable little twit, that's for sure. There he was, George W. Bush, looking beaten, haggard and depressed as he stood in front of the White House Press Corps last week and admitted to them and the rest of the world that the Iranian government had more than likely deep-sixed their WMD program as far back as 2003. The poor guy! Now he couldn't kill all of those evil-doing, brown-skinned people in Persia. Bummer!

Now here's the fun part: He knew this as far back as August - or at least he should have known. It was then that the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, walked into the Oval Office and informed the First Fool of this inconvenient little fact. But when asked by NBC's David Gregory why he continued the saber rattling all these months if that had been the case, Bush (with a straight face, I kid you not) said that although McConnell had informed him that US intelligence had new information on the viability of Iran's weapons program, he didn't tell him what that new information was and Bush never bothered to ask him what it was! That is why - for more than three months - he continued to conjure images of a potential World War III: BECAUSE NOT ONE PERSON IN HIS ADMINISTRATION HAD THE WIT TO TELL HIM THAT HIS CLAIMS REGARDING IRAN WERE BOGUS! They actually want you and I to believe this nonsense. So dumbstruck was the White House Press Corps by this admission, none of them had the sense to say to him, "Uhh, well, heck, Mr. President, Why didn't you just ask?" How's that for dark comedy?

Not long afterward, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware remarked that for that to be true, Bush would have to be "one of the most incompetent Presidents in history." Either that or he's the stupidest creature to ever walk on two feet. Take your pick.
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If it wasn't clear to Bush how moronic he looked at that moment, it soon became crystal clear to his handlers. On December 6, Dana Perino was furiously attempting to "clarify" what the idiot-in-chief had actually said: Oh, Mr. McConnell did tell the president that Iran had ended its nuclear program. "I can see where you could see that the president could have been more precise in that language," the poor, befuddled woman inarticulately tried to explain, "But the president was being truthful." Of course he was. Then why did he say that he hadn't been told? Why did he continue to publicly frighten the American people with dire warnings of Iran's potential nuclear arsenal? How stupid do these people think I am?
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Is there anyone out there still foolish enough to believe anything this medicine show of an administration attempts to sell? Anyone? Please stand up and be counted.
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Here's a funny story:
A day or two after the Bush press conference, my doctor-in-law, Dr. Nick Pennings (he's married to my sister Carol) was watching a panel discussion on MSNBC. Someone on the program remarked that we should expect organizations like FOX News to begin a campaign of discrediting the National Intelligence Estimate at any moment. He then changed the channel over to FOX and, sure enough, there was another panel discussion going on with a graphic at the foot of the screen in capital letters which said: "DEBUNKING THE N.I.E." Honestly, folks, you couldn't even contrive this kind of stuff in fiction!
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What has happened here is as clear as can be: Bush knows his attempt to deceive the American people with scare tactics pertaining to Iran's nuclear program has failed miserably. Even the American people weren't going to be dumb enough to go down that road again. His approval rating at the moment is as low as Nixon's were during the height of Watergate. He must know that if he invades or attacks the sovereign nation of Iran without the constitutionally mandated congressional approval, he'll not only be impeached, he'll possibly be tried for war crimes. This was merely a pathetic attempt to save face. Some in the administration are trying to spin the line that this is proof that the Bush method of half-witted, reckless cowboy diplomacy actually works! "See?" they're saying, "We scared 'em good, didn't we?" Please.
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The fact of the matter is that the intelligence community is finally starting to stand up to the Bush Mob. They knew damned good and well where the White House was headed and they were determined that the United States not make the same, dreadful historical blunder they made five years ago when they invaded Iraq. When they released the information to the public that Iran's nuclear program was kaput, Bush had no other choice but to acknowledge it. He and Dick Cheney knew that the charges they were making against that country were utterly false - and yet they were determined to continue their march to war. Just as they did five years ago, Bush and Cheney were trying to hoodwink this nation into another unnecessary conflict. It might very well have meant the deaths of a million or more Innocent people had they succeeded. Fortunately for everyone concerned, this time they were stopped dead in their tracks.
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That's the good news. I hope you're sitting down because now here's the bad news:
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Because this utterly foolish, clueless man was so determined to cut the income tax of an entire class of people and corporations who already had more money than they knew what to do with (the "have mores" or his "base" as he famously called them), he has left the national security of this once-great nation dangerously vulnerable. When the next massive, 9/11 style terrorist attack happens - and it's going to happen; you can take that to the bank - just as they did five years ago with Saddam Hussein, these contemptible, murderous assholes are going to place the blame for the carnage squarely at the feet of (you guessed it) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. So predictable are these homicidal bastards, one doesn't have to be a political scientist to figure any of this out.
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This is going to sound really mean and calumnious on my part but I just have to say it: Watching this disgusting little piece if shit and everyone around him fall of their own, gluttonous weight is the gift that just keeps giving....and giving and giving and giving. When the day finally arrives that he is sentenced to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison (and that's going to happen too - I promise you) I'll be so ecstatic, they'll have to sedate me. Yes, dear and gentle people, the flimsy and pathetic house of marked cards - which was the foundation of this White House - is beginning to crumble all around George W. Bush and the army of human stupidity that comprises the most corrupt and incompetent administration in all of American history. The chickens will soon be coming home to roost with a vengeance too nasty to even contemplate. This administration is about to die a very public, embarrassing and horrible death - AND I'LL BE LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!! It truly will be a wondrous and beautiful thing to behold. Get the pop corn ready.
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Is that a treasonous, un-American thing to say? Not at all. In fact, it is a very patriotic thing to say. The total and complete failure of the Bush administration is the best thing that could possibly happen for citizens of the United States of America. Why? Because your president is corrupt. He is a criminal. You want him to fail. You want him rendered impotent! You don't want him to do any more damage to your beloved country! The damage that he has done thus far is so immense, it will never be accurately assessed - IT IS INCALCULABLE. Your great-great grandchildren, who will never even know your name, will still be paying off the debt - in money and lost honor - rung up by George Dubya Bush during his reign of failure, corruption and absurdity. The complete and utter destruction of the Bush White House is the only thing that will provide America it's ultimate salvation. The only thing.
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So now they desperately have to produce another rationale for attacking Iran. What will it possibly be? My guess is the next terrorist attack on American soil. Even though, as with 9/11, the perps will once again be overwhelmingly Saudi-born, Georgie and Dickie will somehow manage to find a way to pin the blame on Iran in general and Ahmadinejad in particular. They could also conveniently use a second attack as an excuse to cancel the constitution, declare marshal law and "indefinitely suspend" the next presidential election. Does that sound like a stretch? Abject paranoia even? Maybe it does to you but not to me, brother! You see, unlike most Americans I've been paying attention all these years. They've been able to quietly chip away at the Bill of Rights, bit by bit, and most of us haven't even noticed the change. Were you aware of the fact that there is a proposed piece of legislation which is at this very moment being debated in the United States Senate (#1959) that will render the very blog which you are now reading illegal and will turn Tom Degan into a felon just for writing it? The plan to make the Constitution null and void is, at the very least, on the table - count on it.
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Time will tell.
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Tom Degan, future felon
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
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SUGGESTED READING
The End of America:
Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
by Naomi Wolf
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AFTERTHOUGHT:
Dr. Pennings' office is located at:
21 Maple Avenue
Warwick, NY 10990
(845) 986-3311

(shameless plug)