Tannishblog

And you thought Christmas was a long way off…

Only 1161 days left.

I Can’t wait

Jordon’s King Abdullah II confirms, for the delectation of the American Media, that Al-Qaeda is indeed behind the hotel blasts that killed 57 people last Wednesday. How such an esteemed monarch can be privy to the minds and deeds of underworld sociopaths is beyond me. Jordon, long an ally of America, now makes statements which can be interpreted to bolster our administration’s sagging legacy in the War on Terror. ™

I can’t avoid suspicion, here. How much did it cost George Warmonger Bush to get the King to announce their certainty? Reports I’ve been reading about the so-called leader of Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, is that he’s dead. Many in Iraq, especially in his hometown of Zarqa, believe as much. Yet for months American propaganda has worked hard to create another larger-than-life boogeyman with the same name.

If he is already dead, then is would be easy for the Busheviks to trot out “proof” of his demise when politically expedient – and not a moment sooner. We cannot seem to get our iron grieves on Osama Bin Laden - remember him? - instead we create a new goon, one that is, as Monty Python would have it, “mostly dead”, and pin the anarchy America has created in the region on him. Then when the time is as ripe as a corporate coffer, the Bushheads can show the closed coffin of their alleged demon.

Nice and tidy except for one troubling detail: Americans don’t believe the hype anymore. The Boy Who Cried Terrorist, cried out a few to many times, as he treads a podium made of 2000 dead American servicemen and –women. We just won’t buy it. Hearing the same from a foreign King firmly in the grasp of our administration is not going to sway us, either.

The NY Times reports on Our Favorite Shrubbery and his Veteran’s Day speech in front of yet another coerced audience in Pennsylvania. Military bases offer a cheap and effective way for our Lamest Duck Ever to reinforce the carefully spun “macho” image of a hands-on, DIY president, or they’re the only places where the administration can assure, with reasonable confidence, no one with an “Impeach Bush” sweatshirt will interrupt the proceedings. Chances of a terrorist attack on a military base are lower, too.

Our Wind-up Monkey-in-Chief said the following:

“The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges,” Mr. Bush said. “These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them.”

He’s beating the same drum as ever: disagreement is treasonous, well-documented accusations are “Baseless” and somehow, Iraq becomes the ultimate evil, possessing power to “destroy our way of life.” That last floors me; I’ve been paying attention lately, but…When did that happen? How did Iraq, after two bloody years of systematic destruction, collateral damage bordering on genocide, and routine torture at the hands of American military somehow become so powerful as to undermine the “American Way™?” As a side note, I’d still like the media to report on who sells Iraq their weapons and munitions.

Finally, the stab at Democratic senators fooled into voting for the war. What I’ve been hoping for from my party-of-choice is an admonition of guilt, an apology. What the Democrats should present to the people of the United States is a letter of wrongdoing, admitting the error of their waysin regard to voting for the war. A statement they were guilty of believing presidential spin, innocent of the depths Dick Cheney would go to achieve his personal agendas of war profiteering, and unaware of how desperately the Neo-cons lived for war, American military supremicism, and imperialism. A simple “I’m sorry. We were wrong” goes a long way in life; especially when America will not get the same from the Republicans. I, for one would forgive a congressional representative who admits error and vows corrective action. They’re only human.

So much for the obligatory sound byte on taxpayer dollars, acted out before a captive audience disallowed free expression. So much for the threadbare platitudes, offered un-asked for and unwanted, by a wannabe GI Joe known for such verbal gems as “Mission Accomplished,” and “Bring ‘em on!” This trick is so tired not even the newspapers can resuscitate it. Let George believe we’re listening, he’ll feel better about himself.

When will he realize that dog won’t hunt?

If I could write a letter to the president, it may look something like this:

Thank You Mr. Bush, for killing thousands of innocents, for lowering the quality of life for thousands more injured in you war-for-profit, for presiding over economic stagnation and the looting of the National Treasury. For the unfortunate dead, their suffering is over. In some ways, they’re the lucky ones.

For their families, for the maimed, and the families of the maimed, the rest of their lives shaped by your policies. As hundred of wounded veterans return home to a bankrupt nation, they face struggles affording the lifestyles they left behind, forcing their parent and spouses to shoulder burdens of care, compensation. These vets will bring home less money, if at all, adversely affecting the lives of their children, limiting the future choices of education and opportunity, perhaps for decade to come. Such is you presidential legacy, Mr. Bush.

Further, I would thank you for helping the Democratic Party regain its footing after the sound beating they’ve taken in past years. Your policies have almost single-handedly reinvigorated them. Thanks. They needed it. Finally, I would thank you for setting the precedent of becoming the Worst President Ever. This can only act to strengthen America, as we shed new light upon the festering sore of extremist ideology. No one could have done more to steer our nation back to the center, where it belongs, and I thank you.

From a constituent who has voted against you - Twice.

Pat Robertson is talking out his backside again. From this article in WaPo, he is quoted as saying via his mealy mouthpiece, the “700 Club,” in response to a vote in a Pennsylvania city ousting a school board that backed “intelligent design” curriculum:

“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God — you just rejected Him from your city,” Robertson said on his daily television show, “The 700 Club.”
“And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not be there,” he said.

Now, if anybody could claim to know God, it’s Pat Robertson. Being on a first name basis with the Big Guy did nothing for Pat’s bid for president back in the day, but one never can tell. If you can take the word of Mr. Robinson - and you should, who knows Him better? - God is just as petty and spiteful as his human pets. We are, after all, made in his image (or, is He made in ours, I never quite get that.) Clearly, judging by the words quoted above, the City of Dover, PA. should be vaporized by some cosmic calamity any day now…

Property values should plummet after this news gets out. The outbound freeways will jamb, mass riots, the whole bit. Don’t forget to tune up your Tivo to catch all the footage.

According to the plethora of Democratic Newsletters I receive, the Folks Dyed Blue won a major coup on Tuesday. I didn’t notice. As far as I recall, Illinois had no elections this week. Either that, or the local party was held in the basement somewhere. With chicagoland as blue as it is, this is unlikely.

But the glowing reports are overstated - imagine that! - as only, what, two governorships will change their wallpaper? One thing I’ve longed suspected is proved, however, that the Democrats in New York City have all moved to the New Jersey suburbs. How else would you explain Bloomberg’s triumph? Okay, money. And perhaps a little closet racism thrown in? Could it be that the longstanding Irish and Italians families, not known for intermingling, disapprove of having an Hispanic as mayor? A Jew would be better, no?

Did I say that?

But I digress: The Blueman Party is in marginally better shape, but not enough to crow about. Much more works needs doing. Giving money to your local party is good, but giving time is better. For me, in Cook county, Illinois, helping the local Democratic Party is like opening up a crystal shop in Waterford, Ireland. But many areas need supporters who give more than our of their pockets. Go for it; the time has never been riper for change.

This NY Times editorial moves like a fight scene from the 1960’s batman series:

BAM! POW! BANG!

Take that, Hedgerow-man! (Hehehehe Great Fun!)

Or, we could cue Bob Dylan: “The times they are a’changin’…”

Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, feted George and Laura Bush at his residence for an outdoor Brazilian-style barbecue. The menu included several premium cuts of beef, as well as lamb, oxtail and cheese. Brazil’s beef exports have been hurt recently due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that has led more than 50 countries to suspend their imports. By serving Brazilian beef to Mr. Bush, Mr. da Silva was saying that there is no cause for the rest of the world to be alarmed.

It’s Okay for George to eat tainted beef, he already has foot-in-mouth disease.

This guy’s got more balls than Buckminster Fuller.

I would quip that Tom DeLay is Satan, but Lucifer would be too smart to get caught; Tom obviously is not. I have no doubt, however, that Tom DeLay is evil. He’s becoming this nation’s icon of political underhandedness, intimidation and character assassination. He wins by playing dirty, and I’m sure in his crusty, black shriveled heart, he revels in it.

According to WaPo, he’s treating his legal defense as yet another campaign. Read that to mean he’s plying a multi-tiered strategy to raise funds, destroy the character (perhaps even the career) of his competition, and appeal to his staunchest supporters to help spread the manure. To Wit:

Other politicians caught in a legal bind have tried to make a similar case that they were victims of prosecutorial excess or partisan attack. But few have done it to the degree of DeLay and his allies, who have launched an aggressive campaign to portray the former House majority leader as both a victim of a vendetta and an irreplaceable champion of conservatism.

Right. Let that settle a bit: Tom De-freaking-Lay is a victim. “I was just minding my own business, when…” If this whole drama didn’t threaten to undermine our republic, I would laugh; but it’s too serious a matter. What kind of Dawn of the Dead republicans are still able to swallow that crap?

By so doing, DeLay’s team hopes to accomplish three critical goals: undermine the stature of his Democratic prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, in the minds of potential Texas jurors; win over DeLay’s suburban Houston constituents before a potentially difficult reelection campaign; and retain his political base in Washington before a planned return to power.

Power: It’s that last word that motivates him. While he holds out his cup to some of the nation’s richest sociopaths, whining all the time about how downtrodden he is, both of the knives up his sleeves are slick with gore. His constituents, bowlegged and unwashed, gun-toting beer-spillers, are all too involved in bar fights to bother thinking about the issues. To them, anyone nicknamed “The Hammer” has got to be macho enough to support.

The official line is the charges against DeLay are “egregious” (meaning offensive for those DeLay constituents), but somehow the concepts of money-laundering and conspiracy, illegally funneling corporate money into a public campaign are not seen as offensive. Forgive my tender sensibilities, but allowing big business to purchase a senate majority is quite “egregious” to me. This is not “of the people” democracy in action.

To take a play from the Texan book of Western Justice, I say we find a very tall, strong tree and hang the bastard, let him swing there until the buzzard are fed. Apologies to those who find this offensive.

No ideology is worth the death of so many young people. Paul Fusco photoblogs his impressions of military funerals.

Nod to: Alternate Brain