Oink

The family of little Sarah Palin used to sneak across the border from Alaska to Canada to take advantage of their socialized health care system. Which would count as hypocrisy, if Palin could spell the word:

"We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. "And I think now, isn't that ironic?"

If she can spell ironic.

Meanwhile, big ol' Karl Rove is still peddling lies in his new "memoir." The summary (with full details at Media Matters):

1. Rove distorts Senate report to claim Bush didn't "lie us into the war"

2. Rove falsehood: Obama claims "Obamacare would not add to the deficit ... evidence shows just the opposite"

3. Rove revives tired smear that Gore wrongly said "that he had created the Internet"

4. Rove revives Gore-Love Story smear

5. Rove falsehood: Gore said he had "discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster"

6. Rove pals around with falsehood that Ayers was "Obama's great friend"

7. Rove wrong on number of presidents who left office by "assassination or resignation"

Lastly, spawn of Satan herself, Liz Cheney, is even pissing off Conservatives with her newfangled McCarthyist smears:

A group of 19 prominent Bush administration officials and other lawyers launched an offensive Monday, attacking Liz Cheney for a recent ad by her group, Keep America Safe, that questioned the loyalties of Department of Justice lawyers that had represented Guantanamo detainees.

In a statement signed by nine former Bush officials and 10 other lawyers, critics condemned the ads as a "shameful series of attacks...both unjust to the individuals in question and destructive of any attempt to build lasting mechanisms for counterterrorism adjudications."

We'll see again if the Washington press corps takes the Cheney family's dictation on this one.

Of Course

Of course Karl Rove had a direct and illegal hand in the firing of U.S. Attorneys for purely political reasons:

Aides to former President George W. Bush have asserted that the Justice Department took the lead in the dismissals, which set off a political firestorm that lasted months. Mr. Rove played down his role in the firings in a recent interview and in closed testimony last month before Congressional investigators.

But the documents, released by the House Judiciary Committee after a protracted fight over access to White House records and testimony, offer a detailed portrait of a nearly two-year effort, from early 2005 to 2007, by senior White House officials, including Mr. Rove, to dismiss some prosecutors for what appear to be political reasons.

Internal e-mail messages in the spring of 2005 at the White House showed that there was widespread unhappiness with David Iglesias, the United States attorney in New Mexico, because of the perception among top Republicans that he was dragging his feet on voter fraud and corruption investigations involving Democrats.

And of course that means Karl Rove committed perjury. Because he thought -- and surely still thinks -- he'll get away with it.

Will he?

Strapping In

This may be my favorite advertisement ever:



Then there's Matt Taibbi, the hardnosed young journalist who took the self-pitying resignation letter that AIG exec v.p. Jay DeSantis ran in The New York Times and not only shredded it, but has balled up the pieces into bullets and shoved them back down DeSantis' throat:

Only a person with a habitually overinflated sense of self-worth could think he deserves a $700,000 retention bonus, even if it has to be paid by taxpayers, when in reality no one "deserves" that much money. It may be that some people do get paid that much, but most people who make that much money have enough sense to realize their cushy lifestyles are an accident of fate, of birth, of class, not something that is "supported" by some unwritten natural law of compensation.

Hey Jake, it's not like you were curing cancer. You were a fucking commodities trader. Thanks to a completely insane, horribly skewed set of societal values that puts a premium on greed and severely undervalues selflessness, communal spirit and intellectualism -- values that make millionaires out of people like you and leave teachers and nurses, the people who raise your kids and clean your parents' bedpans, comparatively penniless -- you made a lot of money.

Good for you. Consider yourself lucky. But your company went belly-up and broke, almost certainly thanks in part to you, and now you don't get your bonus.

So be a man and deal with it. The rest of us do, when we get bad breaks, and we've had a lot more of them than you. And stop whining. Jesus Christ.

Taibbi's just as much fun to hear in person. Prime time's not quite ready for his truth, but he's so dead on that they're enjoying having him on the show:



But the big game is changing once again thanks to the change agent we elected last fall. Today the President picked his war, the one he said we needed to finish all throughout the campaign, and now it is upon us:

In announcing a plan on Friday that could be his signature foreign policy effort, Mr. Obama said that he would send more troops — some 4,000 — but stipulated that they would not carry out combat missions, and would instead be used to train the Afghan Army and the national police. He left himself open to the possibility of sending more as the situation warrants.

All is could think of was John Cale, whom I saw in London in 1980 performing his biggest "hit" off his career-defining Sabotage/Live album, "Ready for War". At the end of the performance I saw, Reagan ascending, Cale screamed into the microphone until the band dropped their instruments and scurried off, ultimately leaving himself only to stick his head out from behind the curtain one or twice more to scream the anthemic line again.

This performance from a few years later may end more quietly, but it says exactly what I've been thinking ever since our new President announced his War:



Strap in.

Regarding

Regarding the John Edwards affair, as this politician wasn't out selling hypocritical family values or God or any of those non-issues which make it so much more fun for Dems when a Republican is revealed for having done as he does but not as he says, I'd like to quote Bert Cooper, the fictional co-founder of the fictional 1960's advertising agency at the center of AMC's brilliant Mad Men, as he responded to the very truthful accusations by Pete Campbell about Don Draper's true identity:

"Who cares?"

And furthermore:

"This country was built and run by men with worse stories than whatever you've imagined here."

John McCain and his doppleganger Karl Rove are trying to turn this election on a fabrication about Barack Obama they want to shove down our throats and into our psyches, while the guy who blatantly cheated on and dumped his wife for a beer heiress, millionaire McCain's burgeoning bad judgment is revealed to again bode ill, having caused a huge loss of jobs in Ohio, and he's trying to chastise the Obama campaign for mentioning it -- a real issue.

And a real, true, character issue.

McCain is worthless now. Here John Edwards, the only candidate amongst both parties, over 15 of them, who put tackling U.S. poverty at the top of his agenda. Multi-millionaire McCain doesn't care, except in the abstract. When was the last time he left one of his eight houses, got out of his private plane, and actually helped a poor person build a house, maybe on a visit with Jimmy Carter. He's not some benign alternative to Obama -- he's the aging side of the American oligarchy, and if he's their front man this year, so be it -- he'll say anything he has to, allow his Rovian campaign to run any lowlife ad it wants to and say he's proud of it, he'll do his job to keep the lid on investigations, true change..and true growth.

Beyond anything else, this country needs to grow. It can only grow in a sustainable way with change.

Russia just invaded neighboring Georgia. I'd think I'll do as Elizabeth Edwards asked today, extraordinarily quick, forthright and free of self-pity. Her husband isn't running for anything right now. Let private citizens be private.

Years

Another blazing success of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove Administration's War on Terra:

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — Rejecting a prosecution request for a severe sentence, a panel of military officers sentenced the convicted former driver for Osama bin Laden to five and a half years in prison on Thursday. The sentence means that the first detainee convicted after a war crimes trial here could complete his punishment by the end of this year.

The military judge, Capt. Keith J. Allred of the Navy, had already said that he planned to give the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, credit for at least the 61 months he has been held since being charged, out of more than six years in all. That would bring Mr. Hamdan to the end of his criminal sentence in five months. After that his fate is unclear, because the Bush administration says that it can hold detainees here until the end of the war on terror.

Nice job, Republicans, of nailing Osama bin Laden's ex-chauffeur. I'm sure those five months will be worth all the money and brainpower spent on the conviction, although as long as Republican is President and can, like a king, keep him imprisoned indefinitely, at least more of the interrogation story won't come out.

Hey, it's not even Friday yet and there's another GOP politician in a disgraceful sexual scandal:

JEFFERSON CITY -- Missouri state Rep. Scott Muschany, R-Frontenac, was indicted today in connection with a reported sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl on May 17, the day after this year’s Legislative session ended.

The alleged victim is the daughter of a state employee. The girl’s mother and Muschany -– who is married and has two children -- were romantically involved, the woman said.

A Cole County grand jury returned an indictment today charging Muschany with the Class C felony of "deviate sexual assault." The indictment identifies the victim only by initials. It says that on May 17, Muschany "had deviate sexual intercourse" with the girl, "knowing that he did so without" her consent.

Muschany, 42, was booked into the Cole County Jail today at 2:50 and he was released after posting a $5,000 bond. If convicted, Muschany faces a fine of up to $5,000 and a prison term of up to 7 years.

Only seven? Maybe he can take some of Hamdan's six.

What are the Republicans doing right, besides giving Paris Hilton some awesome new material?

They're doing what Obama said:

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq and the U.S. are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed.

Hey, it's fun to mock, but there's a point to it. While grandpa McCain is putting a softer face on the deadly GOP brand, let's not forget that the same Karl Rove driving his vile and lying character smears of Obama has been driving U.S. policy for almost a decade. Let's not forget that the GOP financial and ideological party apparatus, taken over by Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, Dick Cheney et al is essentially corrupt, a criminal enterprise that will take more than this election to wash through the system, if ever. It's the party of blatant hypocrisy, dividing voters with anti-gay rights laws while assaulting young boys or seeking illicit sex in airport bathrooms.

This election is about much, much more than Barack Obama. He's a vessel, sure, he brings youth and intelligence, strategy and tenacity to the Party and hopefully the Republic, and he's the right man at the right time. But this is just as much about clearing the palate, flushing the toilet, lighting sage and Native chants.

They'll try to smear Obama, to bring them down to their level. But that's just not the guy he is.

Just remember who these smearmongers are, Rove to McCain, and how much they've just gone and ruined these last eight years.

Still More Felonies and Lies

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has been indicted in what boils down to endemic bribery, getting him on multiple false statements.

John McCain's TV ad criticizing Obama's Trip and the wounded veterans is a proven lie. He has nothing left to run on but lies and suggestion, and everyone finally knows it. He shouldn't have hired Karl Rove, but John McCain is clearly not capable of not hiring Karl Rove.

He's not even trying not to be GWB II.

Now Can We...?

If, per former Bush Administration Press Secretary Scott McClellan, El Presidente himself authorized the Valerie Plame covert CIA identity leak, can we impeach him now? Per Emptywheel:

Thus far, though, we only had Dick Cheney's word that he had actually asked Bush to declassify this information. We didn't have Bush's confirmation that he had actually declassified the information. In fact, we've had Dick Cheney's claims that he--Dick--had insta-declassified via his super secret pixie dust declassification powers.

But now we've got George Bush, confirming that he, the President of the United States, authorized the leaks of "this information."

Now, though Scottie refers, obliquely, to "this information," he explicitly refers only to the NIE. But as I've described over and over again, it's not just the NIE Bush authorized Dick to order Libby to leak.

Here's McClellan seeming to let this slip on the Today Show. According to him, Bush was fine with having done it, treating Scottie as inner circle, having come from Texas, his mother a GOP stalwart -- until the last election.

What appears to have happened here is that McClellan was young, idealistic, and more the older type Republican, probably more like Bush Senior. He's put in the middle of this thing after Ari Fleischer broke in the job through the selling of the Iraq War and then wisely jumped ship. Fleischer had seen what was being passed around Air Force One the night or so before Cheney set Libby loose to smear Wilson, having run it by the President with a bunch of other slightly less impeachable deception plans, and (a very smart, if misaligned guy) must have gone home to his family after with every Spidey sense in his head going off at once, panic vertigo, got to get out of there before he ends up on a executive prison farm, got to protect myself and my family.

Then, I imagine, as Scottie got these weird moments of revelation, mainly that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby had hung him out to dry, he must have leaked it back to his mom, the old hand politico. Just imagine what that did to her Party alignment -- I could tell you what it would do to mine if one of my boys was played the patsy that way, by people so powerful.

So mom's approval must have given him the courage to put out the book. To let loose the truth, no matter the rusted bullybats of the disparate remaining pieces of what was once Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld's character assassination machine. Just as Paul O'Neill. He did an hour tonight with Olbermann. He hits The Daily Show on Monday. Assuming he stays healthy.

John Dean says this may be prosecutable. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) has been pushing for impeachment hearings for awhile, now has new evidence to pursue. Rove has been subpoenaed, not looking good for weaseling out.
But even if we don't get our impeachment, our public flogging (and with Bush's escape pod ready), maybe we'll get, looking ahead to November, the most important thing of all. Per gpack:

If one thing is clear, it is that McClellan just confirmed that Obama was right from the start - the war should never have been waged. McClellan has destroyed McCain's argument that there is any reason to remain in Iraq. Even Pat Buchannan said that the core principle of the GOP has always been to avoid foreign entanglements. He added that going into Iraq, which he too opposed, is not a conservative ideal. It is the product of neo-conservatives who developed an ideology best described by McClellan as "coercive democracy." Knowing that this idea would not even float in the Republican Party, McClellan presents the story of how it was sold as a lie to the American people.

I'll take it.

Nevada

Okay, so Obama's team spins it as a delegate win, but Hillary wins the popular vote and momentum perception, and it looks like she wins it pretty ugly. And what the hell with Bill Clinton acting as un-Presidential as possible?

Look, I'm all in favor of Obama taking heat and proving his campaign through it. If he can't handle Rovian tactics as channeled by the Clintons, he won't be able to in the General Election. That includes racism both subtle and overt, inexperience claims, lack-of-substance smears (check out his website for all his smart plans), Muslim and Anti-Semitism smears and, the cherry on the sundae, scaring Americans with his middle name, "Hussein".

But if the Clintons (and it sure seems to be a gang-up effort) manage to win by bitterly dividing the Democratic Party, how the hell do they plan to get even their miserly 51% on Election Day?

Nutjob

Mister Bush compares Iraq to Vietnam and misinterprets the anti-colonial Graham Greene classic, The Quiet American. Is he a mo-ron?

Is this the climax of the Karl Rove experience, his whole career with Bush leading to this?

Is this really where Bush or Cheney wants the Stop Iraq War debate to go?

You can watch Bush here. You can watch Ret. Major General Paul Eaton on MSNBC who leads off with "It is a very unfortunate trip back into history," before taking apart Bush's comparison and labeling it bad for, as in not-supportive of, the troops.

The best take-down is by David Shuster. He zeros in on Bush puppet's mangling of the Cambodia chronology -- he pretends the Pol Pot nightmare there happened because we ended the war, while it all began when Nixon starting bombing Cambodia.

You know, like could happen if we start bombing Iran.

Villains

Per Josh Marshall, oh so succinctly:

When you're stuck down at 30% approval and down to your last 18 months in office, an administration really has to pick and choose its battles. Only real matters of principle are worth a fight. And the Bush administration has found one -- resisting state efforts to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program to more middle income families.

Never has this Cheney/Bush/Rove Administration so obviously twirled its mustache. It's like a silent movie landlord -- "I can't pay the rent!" "You must pay the rent!" -- or a live action Snidely Whiplash. The opening grafs in the NY Times article tell the tale:

The Bush administration, continuing its fight to stop states from expanding the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, has adopted new standards that would make it much more difficult for New York, California and others to extend coverage to children in middle-income families.

Administration officials outlined the new standards in a letter sent to state health officials on Friday evening, in the middle of a monthlong Congressional recess. In interviews, they said the changes were intended to return the Children’s Health Insurance Program to its original focus on low-income children and to make sure the program did not become a substitute for private health coverage.

That's it right there. Point-blank admission. They are screwing over America in order to protect the hateful private health insurance business, the one that Michael Moore revealed as a monstrously terrible alternative to national health insurance. Moore showed how Republican President Richard Nixon and his top aide, John Ehlichman, birthed our current corrupt for-profit health insurance industry.

However, I can't pin this on all Republicans. These sons of bitches are even frustrating the wishes of their own Party's governors and Congresspeople

The Children’s Health Insurance Program has strong support from governors of both parties, including Republicans like Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Sonny Perdue of Georgia. When the Senate passed a bill to expand the program this month, 18 Republican senators voted for it, in defiance of a veto threat from Mr. Bush. The House passed a more expansive bill and will try to work out differences with the Senate when Congress reconvenes next month.

To be honest with ourselves, there do have to be Republicans who come across on national health insurance. Screw this nonsense that it leads to an inevitable slide to Socialism, or that anything Socialized is somehow bad for America. But of course, the Republicans in D.C. today are the committed descendants of the Republicans who wanted to destroy Social Security, the largest and most successful social program in the history of our country, from the very beginning, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt guided it into existence.

Roosevelt labeled them for what they still are today: Plutocrats. And he wasn't afraid to take them down:

"Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of [plutocratic] government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent to mankind....

"We['ve] had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.

"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage of their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.

"Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hatred for me--and I welcome their hatred."

He welcomed their hatred. Nice. And his description of the enemy, tell me it couldn't have been written today.

One of the linchpins of Bill Clinton's success as President was expanding social services from the poor to the middle class, creating greater comfort and prosperity. They call that Socialism. They fear it, because it makes people look favorably on government, and then government can provide services that don't allow them to profit themselves. Or exploit, for their own financial an plutocratic gain.

That's why the Bush/Cheney tax cuts were so important. That's why GOP tax cut madman Grover Norquist wants to weaken our Federal government enough to "drown it in the bathtub." That's why they don't give a shit about who's put in charge of FEMA.

Who's children are they trying to force into the private pool:

The poverty level for a family of four is set by the federal government at $20,650 in annual income. Many states have received federal permission to cover children with family incomes exceeding twice the poverty level — $41,300 for a family of four. In New York, which covers children up to 250 percent of the poverty level, the Legislature has passed a bill that would raise the limit to 400 percent— $82,600 for a family of four — but the change is subject to federal approval.

They don't want families of four making $20,000 to $80,000 a year getting public health insurance for their children. We all know how far $20,000, even $80,000 goes these days. That's like food, clothing, cable. That's not exactly benefiting from huge capital gains tax cuts. Who at $20,000 a year is covering his family under an awesome private plan?

So good, George. Make yourself and the GOP the child killers.

You deserve it.

Yeah right

So the man Mister GW Bush nicknamed "Turdblossom" is leaving the partnership (the second to do so, after Rumsfeld) with only President Cheney and Bush remaining. He claims it is to spend more time to his family. He and his boss got all choked up at the public press announcement, not very manly.

If only they'd gotten as choked up over all the people they've killed, all the children they've caused to be killed. (WARNING: Extremely graphic.)

No one for a minute believes that Karl "Turdblossom" Rove is leaving to spend time with his wife and son -- who's in college. He's leaving because he's suspected of criminal activities and, one imagines, those slow wheels of justice behind the scenes are finally rolling his way.

John Edwards got out the first best response: "Goodbye, good riddance." But Karl won't be gone, he'll be working out of the public eye to slime the Democratic Presidential candidate in that scummy, democracy undermining, possibly criminal way he's been doing since he started, back in the dirty trick-filled, Watergate-undermined, 1972 Nixon campaign.

Nor should he disappear, per Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI). They've both got questions for Rove. It'll be a showdown -- so-called "executive privilege" vs. justice.

I wouldn't lay any markers at this time.

The other nickname bestowed upon Rove by his master (puppet?), Mr. Bush, is "Boy Genius," for winning Mr. Bush's only successful elections. Successful as in successfully installing in power an Antichrist driving the world towards Armageddon. It turns out Rove's genius is of the most selfish kind, and has left his supposed "permanent majority" in shambles. No GOP leaders were praising Rove as he left, only Mr. Bush, no doubt the same fate that will befall Alberto Gonzales. Their Party hates them. Scratch that. Loathes them.

He knew how to win elections dirty, but he had no clue how to govern our great nation except to tear it down.

I'd like to think that Rove's departure signals the end of the Bush/Cheney Presidency but as long as those two madmen have their finger on the bomb and the military arrogance to attack Iran, none of us are safe. Until all these historical villains are replaced with new, non-Republican blood, our nation's infrastructure and social well-being are at risk.

My hunch has always been that at the bottom of the traitorously unconstitutional surveillance program has been the actual criminal activity of spying on political opponents for political gain, just like in Watergate but without the tapes and with a network of off-White House GOP email accounts. I expect much of this would have been to best John Kerry and the Democratic Party in the 2004 election. Maybe I'm wrong...but would you be surprised?

Why else are they pulling out all the stops, legal and otherwise, to avoid having to tell the truth?

Something to Hide

Today Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) gave former Karl Rove aide Sara Taylor a civics lesson:

"I took an oath the president, and I take that oath very seriously," Sara Taylor said in answer to a question early in the hearing.
And right after a break, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked her if she was sure about that. "Did you mean, perhaps, you took an oath to the Constitution?"

There you have it, the story of the past 7 years in a nutshell. The Constitution, in the GOP Cheney/Bush/Rove crime organization is for bathroom use. All the rest is just expressions of power for the advancement and protection of the privileged few.

In the clip Ms. Taylor looks crazy, like she's either not been sleeping or hitting some sort of pharmaceutical. Clearly as another of the vacuously ambitious Republican hired henchpeople for the Cheney/Bush/Rove crime family, what we're seeing revealed on the outside is her moral interior, a house of cards in free-fall collapse.

All of this comes from the Federal Prosecutor purge that clearly the highest officials directed. Why else would they have so much to hide? Why else would Mister Bush direct former aide Harriet Miers (the once and never Supreme Court nominee) to not honor her subpoena to appear before the committee tomorrow?

I don't care how long Ms. Miers worked for George "Junior Soprano" Bush. She doesn't work for him now -- he has no authority to stop her from appearing!

Better yet, welcome a clear and immediate impeachable offense -- per a TPM reader, Bush just committed a felony:

18 U.S.C. Sec. 1505 : ... Whoever corruptly ... influences, obstructs, or impedes ... the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress ... [s]hall be fined under this title, [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years ... or both.

For the record, I don't care on what charge President Dick "Tony Soprano" Cheney or Mister Bush are impeached.

After all, they only got Al Capone on tax evasion.

Endgame

Everything is falling into place, in a rather frightening way.

The White House knows, everyone except Bush and probably Cheney and maybe Rove if he's drunk his own Kool-Aid, that the Iraq War has failed. They are failures. And they are just trying to get through their days...good luck with history:

White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities.

The scary part of the NY Times article:

The views of many of the participants in that discussion were unclear, and the officials interviewed could not provide any insight into what Vice President Dick Cheney had been telling President Bush.

All the Republicans in Congress have finally realized that they are screwed as long as Bush holds that office. as long as the War goes on. Andrew Sullivan has a terrific piece in today's Sunday Times, "Emperor Bush Unnerves Republicans". It's worth a read, particularly the second half. Here's the ending:

The only thing Washington loves less than a lame-duck president is a completely unpredictable lame-duck president. They are scared that he could do anything, without real consultation. The Libby decision was made just like the decision to author-ise torture: it was done outside the normal channels of government, blindsiding key aides, and shocking the establishment. If he did this once – and he has done it many times – he could do it again. And so, for all his failure and polling dive, he retains the capacity for surprise. Which is the capacity for relevance.

This is all he’s got left. The mighty power of the presidency, a predilection for sudden action, and absolutely nothing to lose. This lame duck, in other words, could quack or fly without warning. And Washington, for all its increasingly open contempt for him, is rattled by the possibility. They don’t know what’s coming; but they know they’ll have to adjust.

In this, perhaps for the first time, even Republicans are having a familiar experience. They now know what it’s like to be a European with this president. And they are longing for it to be over.

All they ever had was the fear card. And now they're even scaring their own. Nearly 40% of the country favors impeaching Mister Bush. I say impeach Cheney first, guilty with Libby, filthy guilty with everything. But it's still a growing number. He may lie about it, but he's not going to reverse himself. It's all just their corporation. It's in their DNA.

How bad is it in Iraq? After a 250 weekend exploded corpse count, the two main factions of the Iraqi government are BOTH urging their people to arm themselves. That's right: defend your family with firepower. As in: No Rule of Law.

The New York Times said in an extraordinarily long editorial this weekend to be orderly about it but just get out. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) senses it is time to set up a vote on the exit. Meanwhile there's an ex-Karl Rove aide whom the Cheney/Bush Administration is trying to block from testifying in Congress on the politicized Federal Prosecutors crime investigation. There's a potential visit to the Senate Judiciary Committee by successful Libby prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

What makes this all so scary is that there are reports that, if true, up the ante with Iran nuclear development stand-off, about tunneling in mountains, most likely to hide or shelter something big, related and dangerous.

At a time when we need true, intelligent, reliable leadership more than ever, all we may get is World War III. I don't believe any of this would be happening had Al Gore been appointed President rather than Mister Bush.

I've noted a number of times that I expect Bush to leave his term, should that come to pass, radioactive. Even if Cheney gets painted as The Influencer, it's The Decider who will seem like a ghoul, a nightmare figure to haunt the dreams of Iraqi children and ours. His henchmen are already unpopular, even if retired.

But if you want to know how unpopular he has become, check out tourism in Crawford, TX, per The Houston Chronicle:

From a wooden bench in front of a shop selling mementos of "The Western White House," tourist Chuck Yorde wondered aloud why he seemed to be the only visitor in town.

"If his poll numbers were up there above 50-60 percent, this place would probably be a little more jumping," said Yorde, surveying the empty parking spots up and down Lone Star Parkway...

...Shuttered storefronts and eroding retail sales figures show tourism and the Bush memorabilia business are slumping in this once-sleepy farm-and-ranch town of 732 residents.

A for-sale sign is the only thing in the smudged window of the turn-of-the-century, two-story brick building that once housed the Crawford Country Style store. "The numbers just weren't working," said Norma Nelson Crow, who closed the shop at the beginning of the year.

Republicanism. Good for the economy.

Failed State

Heckuva job, tragic Bushie:

Iraq has emerged as the world's second most unstable country, behind Sudan, more than four years after President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, according to a survey released on Monday.

The 2007 Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, said Iraq suffered a third straight year of deterioration in 2006 with diminished results across a range of social, economic, political and military indicators. Iraq ranked fourth last year.

The one thing he, Cheney, Rove and Rumsfeld know how to do: break things. A country. A Constitution.

And yes, by the way, they are indeed criminals.

Republican Failure and Crime Update

My goodness, everywhere you look there's a story today about either how the GOP war policy has screwed America royally while they continue to sow Anti-Constitutional crime and public sphere pollution without end.

Here's the "Slow Vanishing of Iraq". Imagine your country ruined, the places and people you loved destroyed, supposedly for our own good. El Presidente's surge is everything this War has ever been:

Three months into the new U.S. military strategy that has sent tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq, overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased, as attacks have shifted away from Baghdad and Anbar, where American forces are concentrated, only to rise in most other provinces, according to a Pentagon report released yesterday.

And how is the Bush Family sacrificing? Press Secretary Tony Snow says George W. Bush himself fights on the front lines.

No joke.

Snow say Bush is right there with, like, our soldiers who are getting blown up and maimed.

But how about the rest of our nation's current foreign policy?:

High officials of European governments describe U.S. influence as squandered and swiftly eroding (one minister went down a list of Bush administration officials, rating them according to their stupidity), the country's moral authority nil. Lethal power vacuums are emerging from Lebanon to Pakistan, and Europeans are incapable on their own of quelling the fires that burn far closer to them than to the United States through their growing Muslim populations and proximity to the Middle East. They have no illusions that they will be treated seriously as real allies or that there will be a sudden about-face by the Bush administration. Their faint hope -- and it is only a hope -- is that they have already seen the worst and that it is not yet to come. Even worse than Bush, from their perspective, would be another Republican president who continued Bush policies and also appointed neoconservatives. That would toll, if not the end of days, then the decline and fall of the Western alliance except in name only, and an even more rapid acceleration of chaos in the world order.

The whole Sidney Blumenthal article the excerpt is from is worth reading. Entertaining in an epic train wreck sort of way, except it's our train. With Conductor George...and Engineer Cheney.

Beside losing face to Vladimir Putin and contradicting him own statements one day after, Bush's worst crime was sinking German Chancellor Angela Merkel's climate change proposal, a final humiliation for outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair as well.

Al Gore hits it hard:

"It was a disgrace disguised as an achievement," Gore said at an event in Milan, where he praised Merkel for her efforts.

"The eight most powerful nations gathered and were unable to do anything except to say 'We had good conversations and we agreed that we will have more conversations, and we will even have conversations about the possibility of doing something in the future on a voluntary basis perhaps."'

A crime not only against America, but against humanity -- forget worst, most evil President ever.

Back in America, Bush backs his old buddies at signature Texas energy industry swindlers Enron:

In a lawsuit that harks back to the Enron scandal, the Bush administration is at odds with the federal agency that oversees securities markets as well as with state attorneys general and consumer and investor advocates.President Bush personally weighed in with his views before the administration decided not to support investors whose securities fraud case is now before the Supreme Court.

The president’s message was that it’s important to reduce ”unnecessary lawsuits” and that federal securities regulators are in the best position to sue, said Al Hubbard, Bush’s chief economic adviser and director of the National Economic Council.[..]

Crime, crime, crime...Libby!

Yes, a convicted criminal. Lied to the cops. Lied to the really important cops. Judge is sending to jail. Yet all the rightwing scumbags are creating a giant noise machine of pardon, so Bush/Cheney can walk away with it. Yes, just as Darth Cheney was behind the intentional leak blowing CIA Agent Valerie Plame's cover, he's reportedly now pressuring his puppet prince to closer the circle.

And who wants to "careful review" of Libby's case for Presidential pardon?:

Romney has said he refused pardons because he didn't want to overturn a jury.

Asked in last week's debate if he would consider pardoning Libby, Romney said: "It's worth looking at that. I will study it very closely if I'm lucky enough to be president. And I'd keep that option open."

I guess the sunny side of this is that at least we know that Romney will countenance lawbreaking if for raw GOP partisan political purposes before folks get the chance to vote for him -- unlike Bush, who never let on (prior to getting installed by the Supreme Court).

Speaking of the “the most intellectually dishonest human being in the history of politics” there's his fake-flop on a woman's right to control her own body, put out by the McCain campaign after Romney took the lead in some GOP Primary polls, with video that directly contradicts another one of Romney's lies.

Romney, by the way, feels like he has to be an even bigger asshole now to prove he's really Anti-Choice (the "He" is Romney, per a friend):

He said - What do you think you’re doing?

She said - Well, we have to abort the baby because I have these blood clots.

And he said something to the effect of - Well, why do you get off easy when other women have their babies?

And she said - What are you talking about? This is a life threatening situation.

And he said - Well what about the life of the baby?

And she said - I have four other children and I think it would be really irresponsible to continue the pregnancy.

And of course there's Bush's Attorney General, hack of hacks, the man who validates every sleazy lawyer joke you ever heard, illegally working to influence his aide's testimony before she appeared in Congress.

By the way, that whole fired U.S. Attorneys scandal? It really does lead right into Karl Rove's White House office.

Yeah, I know the Dems need to rally again after losing the 2/3 Iraq veto override. Sure, they aren't polling high because of it.

But is it any wonder that American hates this President, his partners-in-crime, henchpersons and the entire Republican Party?

Inaccurate Gonzo

Monica Goodling, under immunity, nails Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' coffin shut.

More details including damning White House involvement from Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) on Kos in what he so accurately calls "Goodling Testimony Revealing (Except to Republicans)":

Third, we learned the White House was intimately involved in the process of terminating the US Attorneys, from the beginning through final sign off, and Ms. Goodling believes Mr. Rove was involved in the process.

Crimes, crimes, crimes.

Today it was announced that Rove's, I mean Bush's General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan committed a huge crime by violating the federal Hatch Act which makes it illegal to use government workers in partisan political activities, like when she did a big presentation where she allegedly asked GSA political appointees during a January briefing how they could "help our candidates" win the next election.

Like an good Republican lawbreaker getting caught, she's attempting character assassination on her accusers.

And Bush's candidate for head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, senior lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers (you know, corporations that hate regulation) Michael E. Baroody, pulled his name from consideration today, avoiding facing a certain Senate vote against him. Reasons why Baroody was a choice only the Bush/Cheney/Rove gang would make:

His nomination began to founder after the disclosure last Wednesday that he would be receiving a $150,000 special payment from the association, and that the severance package was amended by the association in January, shortly after he was identified as the top candidate for the post.

You know, bribery.

But even with all these GOP criminals, the biggest excoriation of the day was Keith Olbermann's merciless shredding of Democratic Congressional cowardice in the face of Bush's veto. I'm assuming the end of this one is the Congressional Republicans lining up behind the weak new bill, while progressive Dems and politically savvy ones vote against it, a squeak by with a divided Dem party.

I can only hope for some ju-jitsu, in the offing, like the bill actually goes down in flames. But it is, indeed, a dark hour.

Leadership. Needed.

Two Lists

The first one is more devastating, the second is good choir preaching.

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

(click on the link for details):

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Then there's this spine-straightener.

Top Ten Lies about Liberals
(click for detail):

10. Liberals destroy American culture and traditions.
9. Liberals have no backbone - don't stand for anything - they're "soft" on principles.
8. Liberals promote World Government.
7. Liberals are soft on crime.
6. Liberals subsidize laziness.
5. Liberals are socialists, extremists, marginal, never mainstream.
4. Liberals tax & spend, promoting Big Government.
3. Liberals are unpatriotic.
2. Liberals are bad for business.
1. Liberals are soft on defense, and weaken America's superiority and stature in the world.

Just remember this is all in the context of El President hitting a new low of 28% approval in the Harris poll just released tonight. Oh, and America is on the side of a firm timetable for withdrawal. They agree with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who's driven the rightwingers batshit crazy by saying the War cannot be won, at least in any conventional sense.

The Democratic House just passed the bill, which I'm guess is the most popular piece of legislation from Congress since 1999 and maybe 1993, and could only get more popular if it strengthened or shortened the "suggested" exit date.

Comparing the Bush/Cheney/Rove Administration to a term Rumsfeld once used for the Iraqi insurgency, Ronald Brownstein in the L.A. Times calls it the dead-ender presidency:

Forget "the decider." Bush has become the dead-ender.

There's nothing to be afraid of.

Time to remake reality -- in reality's own image.

Follies

Keeping it short tonight, just a few links, starting with a primo Tom Tomorrow strip in Salon, impeachable White House scandals then and now (hat tip to Phase).

Then there's this version of Clippy, the animated Microsoft help assistant, vs. Karl Rove's cursor.

Finally, unrelated directly to the "missing" emails but somehow a perfect metaphor for the gang that couldn't shoot straight, a story more jarring due to yesterday's tragedy and one that might not have been so buried in the news on another day:

Two Secret Service officers were injured on Tuesday after a gun held by another Secret Service officer accidentally fired inside the White House gate, according to a spokesman, Darrin Blackford.

Their injuries are non-life threatening, the spokesman said.

One officer suffered a shrapnel wound to the face, and the other was wounded in the leg.

As far as I know the Secret Service is a non-partisan, independent security force...but are we about to find out that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove purged this department as well and installed their hacks?

Tell me you'd be surprised.