What's That Smell? - Oh, yeah...

I think that we might be knee-deep in the cesspool of tyranny. With the news that the Cheney pressured enough Republicans to block an investigation into the domestic spying program, I am afraid we more than have our toes in the water.

I actually had hope - the media refused to call it a 'terrorist surveilance program'. There was a precedent, dammit!

It would be like Gerald Ford quietly whispering in the ears of senators "You know that crazy

And, more incredibly, having the senators

agree.

So we allow the curtailed by the current administration-

We allow accusations of treason for straying from the current party line-

Do we need a sign that says "Dictatorship: 5 miles"?

The Real Enemy

After reading Glenn Greenwald's post regarding the post-9/11 tenents of "conservatism" (and the hilarious responses, here and here), I can't help but thinking this completely reframes the debate.

We really aren't against republicans or conservatives as a whole, but rather that fraction of Bush-worshipping, nuke-happy, brown people -hating, completly foaming-at-the-mouth "Americans" who would hide behind "support our troops" bumper stickers, all the while telling you what you can't say, how you should live your life, and why you hate America. And they think they're normal!

This is the real enemy. It's because people like this are actually in charge, or even if they don't think like that, they have enough pull with people who do. It is like a cancer, spreading into the system, clouding the truth with "balance", talking out the other side of their collective mouths. Oh, how they yowl and complain, how quick they are to say the words 'treason" and "sedition", all the while letting the real America slip quietly away under the guise of National Security (the bittersweet irony there).

For the record, conservatism isn't bad, republicans aren't bad. Anybody who can look at what's gone down for the last five years and find something other than complete incompetance, willful ignorance, bald-faced hypocracy, and just plain evil...

Well, they get a guest spot on "Fox", don't they?

Behind Every Evil Man...

Do you think Laura Bush ever looks at her husband, amid all the justified criticisms and rhetoric, amid all the scandals and lies and distortions and, well, crimes, and thinks "What if they're right?!"?

That just once, after Katrina, or after "Mission Acomplished", the logical librarian side of her took over and she had to see the man she married - the same guy who mocked Karla Faye Tucker's plea for clemency - without the First Lady goggles on?

She has to have his back on most issues. It would be a might unseemly if the southern belle were to get all kinds of funny and contradictory ideas in her head. But the logical librarian (which I have to assume still occupies at least some of her brain mass) has to be able to see past the "ethics" of abstinece-only sex education, to the inevitable results:

(From Medical News Today)
"But the program did not affect students' confidence to avoid risky sexual situations, and sexually inexperienced and female students actually reported a decrease in their intent to use condoms in the future. However, no changes in condom use intentions were observed among sexually active or male students. The study also found that the program did not significantly reduce the likelihood that teens would engage in sexual intercourse or to use a condom consistently"
(Italics Mine)

Or Stem Cell research. Or even his choices for The Supreme Court.

I have to assume - and I admit, I've been wrong about this before - that somewhere in her head, a critically thinking, sane human being is screaming in agony when she lets herself look on the horrors her husband has unleashed upon the world - even when she is enlisted to put a semi-human face on them.

Where The Hell Is Osama?

Everytime I think I'm done with the 9/11 attacks, everytime I think "Well, it doesn't matter now, the story is official.", something, something leads me back. It's like a little voice in my head.

Now, besides the usual questions regarding the towers falling into their footprints, the internal steel melting at a point below what it was designed for, and the fall of WTC 7 for no apparent reason, etc...my questions these days revolve around the Osama. His continued freedom, the trial we will never get to see.

On 9/11/01 we get smacked. All manner of "accidents" happen at the same time which result in 3000 people dying (and in, let's face it, horrible ways. You should never have to make the choice between a plunge off the world's tallest building or being burned alive.).

On 9/28/01 Osama denys any role in the attacks.

On 11/12/01 we have him cornered in Afghanistan, which the White House later confirms.

this from the Christian Science Monitor:

'Pir Baksh Bardiwal, the intelligence chief for the Eastern Shura, which controls eastern Afghanistan, says he was astounded that Pentagon planners didn't consider the most obvious exit routes and put down light US infantry to block them.
"The border with Pakistan was the key, but no one paid any attention to it," he said, leaning back in his swivel chair with a short list of the Al Qaeda fighters who were later taken prisoner. "And there were plenty of landing areas for helicopters, had the Americans acted decisively. Al Qaeda escaped right out from under their feet."
The intelligence chief contends that several thousand Pakistani troops who had been placed along the border about Dec. 10 never did their job, nor could they have been expected to, given that the exit routes were not being blocked inside Afghanistan. '
(Italics Mine)

On 12/13/01 The White House releases a tape, on which they say bin Laden confesses.

On 12/20/01 The German televison channel Das Erste disputes the White House translation of the tape, which they say is not only wrong, but "manipulative".

And since then, and usually on important occasions, he sends us messages. Not George Bush. not Tony Blair and the Brits. He sends them to us.

And oddly enough, his continued correspondance fails to remind most of America that George Bush failed in his promise to capture Osama - oh, what were the words? oh yeah..

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01.

Dead or Alive, right?

"Don't Touch That! It's Pure Evil!"

I am beginning to think that Dick Cheney might be the root of all evil. I mean, let's face it. He looks evil. He digs torture, has a little problem with self control. But appearances aside, you have to wonder at the guy's behavior for the last 5 dark years.

It's like watching a magician force his magic trick through - even though you can see the dove moving in his pocket, can see the extra card hidden up his sleeve - the mad magician continues to shout "Look! It's magic, dammit!".

A quick recap:

1) Appointed as assistant to Donald Rumsfeld in the Nixon White House in 1969 in the United States Office of Economic Opportunity.

2) Appointed Secretary of Defense during Bush 1.

3) Becomes a chief executive officer at Halliburton (who's subsidiary, KBR, is a major contractor for the military).

4) Helps write the Project for the New American Century (which pretty much says that America should take what it wants, when it wants, and all that's needed is a major attack on the United States to make people see how right that is).

5) Then , in the spring of 2000, while he's still CEO at Halliburton, leads George Bush's search for a vice president, and in the end decides that he, himself, would be a great choice.

6) Chairs a secret meeting of oil executives, including (maybe) Ken Lay of Enron fame, to (and this is funny) layout the framework for America's energy policy (see entry 4). Is subsequently sued for the names of partipants of this meeting.

7) During the lead up the the Iraq war, frequently visits the CIA headquarters at Langly, offering helpful advise, an occasional "friendly" full-nelson.

8) War ensues. Big Dick's stock in Halliburton goes up 3281%.

Call me cynical, but when this man, this particular man, defends his administration's use of domestic surveillance as necessary and freely given in Congress's Authorization of the Use of Force... (can you shatter a law? I know you can break it, but can you do so much damage that pieces of the law fly off and cause damage to other laws?)... even goes on to say that 9/11 could have been avoided if we had a super secret spy dragnet in place then...

When this man says anything, I ain't buying it.

The Importance Of The Oath

Now, let's pretend that we had a sure-fire way to prevent people from lying, say at a congressional hearing, or even in a court of law. And let's pretend that we would make these people (who could concievably lie) swear an "oath" - let's say on a bible - and it would go something like this:

"I swear to tell the truth so help me God"

Now, you might be thinking "Well! That's good enough for me! Nobody would lie after they've sworn an oath to God! They would go straight to hell!" - But wait! There's more!

In addition to eternal damnation, if they are caught lying, they get to serve jail sentences and pay all manner of fines, and it's really just better in the long run to tell the truth.

So in the cases of the 9/11 Commision, the Valerie Plame case, and even the good 'ol Oil Executives hearing, when they decline to take this "oath" of truth telling, you can pretty much bet that the words that are coming out of their mouths are not exactly the truth.

And when, as the Miami Herald reports, our Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says:

"my answers would be the same whether I was under oath or not,"

You can be sure the results will be pretty much the same.

The Republican War on Everything

Ever wonder exactly what the fear of the truth does to the brains of these people? I mean, what is the effect of being so persistantly wrong? On everything from global warming to the morning after pill to abstinence-only sex "education", Terri Schaivo, hell, really everything.

Is there some kind of psychotic breakdown that makes you believe if you say it - and even create government funded programs to sell it, it makes it true? - oh wait, that's called psychosis, or the complete rejection of reality.

Man, really. There has got to be some point where you say "Look people, every decision we have made, even the ones where we chose not to do anything at all, was wrong. Maybe we should rethink this whole 'running the country' thing. Is there a grown up in the house?".