Bushcorp Writhes in Its Own 'Last Throes'

After three long years of misleading Americans on the Iraq invasion and occupation, George Bush and his administration have destroyed whatever trust we had placed in them. No doubt as they writhe in their last bitter throes before combusting into ignominy, Bush and his loyalists will redouble their efforts to obstruct the tides of truth and bury the mountains of lies that have destroyed their administration's credibility. That's the nature of the Bush gang.

Such cowardly strategies have long since lost their effectiveness, however. No one paying attention to the surrounding world retains a scintilla of trust in the words or the competence of George Bush. The long-sufferance of the American people has been exhausted. Bush and his gang of co-conspirators stand exposed and they must be held accountable. That's the nature of democracy.

In Iraq, the promised WMD's evaporated into the desert haze, the flowers that were supposed to greet our soldiers were obliterated by our bombs, and the barrels of purple ink failed to resurrect the tens of thousands of Iraqi lives "liberated" from earth's physical realm.

Granted, all those terrified Iraqi children were not "slaughtered by their own leader." So are we expected to applaud the war president who saved them with his own deadly brand of freedom? What a comfort to their families that must be! What an outrage to the rest of the world. And what a recruiting tool for terrorists.

Since Heirmann G. Dubya Bush pranced across the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln two years ago and declared "Mission Accomplished," his march to victory in Iraq has turned more corners than Air Force One's flight pattern of 9/11.

Dick Cheney, his VP and COO, rounding yet another corner to imminent glory, claimed recently that the Iraq insurgency is in its last throes. He offered no prediction as to how long a last throe lasts: maybe five years... ten years... generations? In an extended interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer Thursday, the Dick's body double rattled off a smug definition of "throes," but refused the opportunity to define "last."

Here's a hint, Mr. Smirkoff, for you to lug back to your hidden cave and gnaw on with the side or your lying mouth that still works -- we're building permanent military bases in Iraq. And Halliburton, with a $25 billion market cap, has seen its stock price quadruple since the summer of 2002. Does that help you get a handle on reality?

Later in the week, Dubya's right arm and bosom buddy Karl Rove sloshed an overflowing White House jar of slop onto a delighted crowd of New York scatologists:

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war. Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Karl the Pit Rover gushed full-throated onto the conservative throng.

Nasty try, Karl and Dick and all the other reverberators of the P-NAC "batty-whacked" club -- Project for the New American Century -- but Americans are no longer as confused as you may think. Every time you secretly sneak another dead American back into the country from Iraq, someone takes notice. The bodies are mounting. Their spirits cry out for justice.

The American people deserve leaders we can trust. George Bush and his administration have failed in honesty and integrity and competency. We must hold them accountable. Now. 2008 is several years too late.


Ex-GOP co-chairman will be new CPB president

Now we know for certain, the whole funding debate on public broadcasting was a sham. The new president and chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was announced Thursday. A real shocker, too -- the former Republican Party co-chairwoman from 1997-2001, Patricia S. Harrison.

Later the same day, the Republican-controlled House voted to restore $100 million that had been cut from the corporation's $400 million budget last week by the House Appropriations Committee. Double shock, huh.

Ms. Harrison has no experience in broadcasting, but since when does competence matter to this admimistration? She knows the party line.

Republicans appear determined to turn public broadcasting into another of their propaganda tools. Whatever happens in future elections, they'll have their own judiciary and, now, their own radio and television network, all paid for by the American taxpayers.

To Klondike Kate...

A friend of mine lost the love of her life Saturday.

Klondike Kate's Aurora

Kuz'n Kate, though you are in Alaska and I am in Florida -- about as far apart as we can be within the same country --
my heart is with you.

Your spirit has touched many of us
in far flung places of the earth,
and now each ray of light returns to you with added strength.
May the power of love and light sustain you.

End the War on Iraq!

Sept. 24-26, 2005
Massive Mobilization in Washington, D.C.

Hold Bush & Congress Accountable for the Deaths, the Destruction, the Lies, and the Toll on Our Communities

Three Days of Action for Peace and Justice in Washington, D.C.

Saturday, Sept. 24 - Massive March, Rally & Festival
Sunday, Sept. 25 - Interfaith Service, Grassroots Training
Monday, Sept. 26 - Lobby Day and Mass Nonviolent Direct Action and Civil Disobedience

Recruiting Woes and Gay Soldiers

Critics of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are gaining new allies because military recruiters are unable to meet enlistment goals.

Yet the White House and Pentagon continue to support an unjust and myopic policy that denies basic rights to one group of Americans and weakens the military in carrying out its mission.

In a new report, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network reports, "many highly trained specialists �including combat engineers and linguists� are being discharged involuntarily while the Pentagon is facing extreme challenges in recruiting and retaining troops.

"The military continues to sacrifice national security and military readiness in favor of simple prejudice," said SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn.

A West Point professor, Lt. Col. Allen Bishop, in a recent Army Times article, assailed the military policy on gays as contradictory to fundamental American principles and urged Congress to repeal the ban.

"Despite our government's claim of liberty for all, we leave homosexuals out," he wrote. "If the American military sees and is allowed to see itself as the protector of some but not all Americans, democracy fails."

Apparently the public agrees. A Boston Globe poll released in May 2005 shows that nearly 80 percent of Americans believe gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military, and other surveys over the past two years show similar support.

Former soldiers are suing in federal court to end the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and several Democrats in Congress, joined by a few Republicans, have joined forces to co-sponsor a bill ending the policy.

Further reading...

• MSNBC: Efforts Grow To End Ban on Openly Gay Soldiers
• 365gay.com: Renewed Questions of Gays in Military
• Stanford Law School: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue

Republicans Show Their True Colors - Again

The confirmation of former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sends a clear message to the country: the Republican Party is a party of extremists.

Forget party unity, deeply held beliefs, advise and consent, filibusters and nuclear options, the "gang of 14 moderates" and the entire circus that is Washington, D. C. The 53 senators who handed Pryor a lifetime seat on the appellate bench are not moderates; they are not even conservatives. And they certainly are not supporters of the U. S. Constitution.

They are extremists who oppose basic human rights. Their vote proves it.

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese criticized what he said was Pryor's "demonstrated track record of bias against the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans."

"As Alabama's attorney general, Pryor consistently demonstrated bias against GLBT Americans, linking the state website to anti-gay advocacy groups. In an amicus (“friend of the court") brief filed in the Lawrence vs. Texas case, Pryor compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia. Last year, after receiving a recess appointment to the 11th Circuit, Pryor cast the deciding vote to deny rehearing a challenge to Florida's anti-gay adoption law." -- Human Rights Campaign

Glenn Sugameli, senior legislative counsel at Earthjustice, called Pryor an activist judge "who stood alone among the 50 state attorneys general in challenging the constitutionality of significant portions of the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act." -- Environment News Service

In the words of Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron, "Underscoring the president's drive to pack the courts with agenda-driven, partisan activists, Bill Pryor's record has something to offend nearly every constituency."

"He has been an outspoken opponent of worker and consumer rights, reproductive rights, environmental protections, the separation of church and state, gay and lesbian rights, and the rights of the accused," Aron said.

"He has also been a staunch advocate for big tobacco, states' rights and the gun lobby. His elevation to a lifetime seat is a blow to rights and protections for ordinary Americans," Aron added. -- townhall.com

Pryor's nomination and confirmation were praised, however, by religious leaders including James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, and Jan LaRue, chief counsel for Concerned Women for America.

"Hopefully the Democrats have learned that their devious attacks on Judge Pryor's 'deeply held beliefs' were exposed as a mean-spirited attempt to impose an unconstitutional religious test on a public official. The 'No Judges of Faith Need Apply' mentality should never rear its discriminatory head again in the U.S. Senate," said LaRue (following Pryor's confirmation vote). -- townhall.com

Only three Republican senators broke rank with the party of extremists to oppose Pryor's confirmation -- Lincoln Chafee, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

So much for the moderation of leading senators like John McCain and Chuck Hagel, men adept at playing footsie with the media to project a fanciful image. Fogedaboudit: when the party calls, they always tumble together into the big brass bed with all the self-righteous members of the far right.

No surprise, though. The overwhelming majority of Republicans in Congress are joined at the hip with George W. Bush, William Pryor and James Dobson. Any lingering doubt was demolished by the Pryor vote.

That's a message all of us, including Republicans, ignore at our peril.

White House Briefing

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com

The Increasingly Unpopular President

When President Bush says "polls go up, and polls go down," he's about half right. Two new public-opinion surveys show Bush's poll numbers are dropping into solidly negative territory.

And a Reality Check

"We'll support Iraqis as they take the lead in providing their own security. Our strategy is clear: We're training Iraqi forces so they can take the fight to the enemy, so they can defend their country. And then our troops will come home with the honor they have earned."
- George Bush

"I know the party line. You know, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, five-star generals, four-star generals, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld: The Iraqis will be ready in whatever time period. . . . But from the ground, I can say with certainty they won't be ready before I leave. And I know I'll be back in Iraq, probably in three or four years. And I don't think they'll be ready then."
- Lt. Kenrick Cato, training officer in Iraq

Downing Street Memo Watch

"... the Downing Street memo accurately foresees the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the administration's attempts to link Saddam to al-Qaida and weapons of mass destruction -- links that were found after the invasion not to exist. The memo's observation that U.S. intelligence would be shaped to policy might be mistaken, but the administration did wind up using flawed analysis to justify its war policy to the American people...."
- Houston Chronicle editorial

Cavuto Redux

" 'Is it any wonder that the President will sit down for an interview with Fox News?' one reporter asked at the Atlantic event last night. '[The White House] couldn't come up with easier questions themselves.' "
- Garrett M. Graff

Read the complete column here.. White House Briefing

Abusing the Constitution...

"Back in the year 2005, when it had only 27 amendments, the U.S. Constitution was an austere and revered instrument.

"Now it's 2022, and with ratification of the 78th Amendment, the Constitution is something else.

"Apparently state and federal laws are never enough, not when the cameras are rolling. America just had to amend the Constitution over and over.

"Consider the issue that got the trend on a roll. By 2005 most states across the country had banned gay marriage. An act of Congress had insulated each from what any other state did. But that didn't prevent Republicans from pushing for a constitutional amendment to ban -– no, to double-ban -– gay marriage.

"Though largely pointless and redundant, the Federal Marriage Amendment became an indomitable force. After all, anyone who supported it was 'protecting the sanctity of marriage' and anyone who opposed it was 'denigrating the institution of marriage' or 'advocating bestiality' outright.

"In the years to come the same rhetorical dynamic would be applied to a host of other spurious amendments. Their approval would make the U.S. Constitution less of an austere statement of basic principals and more of a reactionary national blog."

More here... John Young at Waco Tribune-Herald

Pineapple guava

Pineapple Guava, from the yard

Politics as Business

"Chris Cox is the right man to carry on this important work."
- George Bush (upon naming Rep. Cox to head the Securities and Exchange Commission)

"There is a reason that fiscal restraint is a traditionally conservative value. Big government requires big spending and, therefore, a comfort level in taking and using the fruits of other people's labor. It is a comfort level found in socialism, not conservatism."
- Christopher Cox

"The people at the top of America's money pyramid have so prospered in recent years that they have pulled far ahead of the rest of the population."
- New York Times, Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind


Changes To Federal Formula Causing Financial-aid Crunch For Families Paying College Bills

"The Times found that families with the same earnings and assets as they had in 2000 would typically have to pay an extra $1,749 before clearing the eligibility bar for financial aid in 2005, after adjusting for inflation.

"'For some of those students, it's the difference between enrolling and not enrolling.'" Seamus Harreys, dean of student financial services at Northeastern.

"The department's estimates for inflation were, in fact, far enough off that it has now revised the formula it will use for the 2006-2007 school year, much to the benefit of families with assets."
-New York Times, Financial Aid Crunch