business knows best

Our Prezdent continues to leave his environmental legacy:

The draft rules also would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats.

energy crisis surprises

Or not... It was pretty much guaranteed that this was coming:

"With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, tomorrow he will explicitly call on Congress to also pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling," Perino said.

Because everyone knows that an uncertain fix that's not likely to pay off (if it does) in the short term will fix the supply-and-demand problems. My favorite phrase in the piece? "Sensible standards of environmental protection."

taking the brain down a notch

I just turned off Countdown with Keith Olberman and flipped to a DVR recording of Patty Griffin from Artists Den. The four-day week seems long and taxing, and frankly I'm sick of the chatter about Obama vs. Clinton and McLellan's take-down of the administration. After all, I don't think even hardcore Clinton supporters will be surprised at this point to see Obama win—rather than be handed—the nomination.

As for the former press secretary, well, that's a fresher, more interesting topic at the moment. I'm inclined to think that the administration misunderestimated Mr. McLellan as much as the rest of us did. His answers were so often ham-handed obfuscations or obvious smokescreens that it became easy to think he was just hung out as the fall guy. The doughy, mild fall guy. Worse for the administration, however, is the fact that they must have thought that his Texas-rooted loyalty would hold with him even after he'd been thrown under the bus.

Of course he hadn't developed any opinions in all of those meetings. Of course his all-access pass (rooted in his Texas history) hadn't afforded him the chance to speak the truth to power. Of course their very own press-bury dough boy would never turn on them and pull back the curtains the way others had. And if he did, no one would listen to him, right? Hell, even publishers didn't believe he would deliver any real dirt.

And, my oh my, they were all wrong. Instead, what we get is the boy pointing at the emperor with no clothes, Toto pulling down the curtain. We get an honest-to-god take down of the administration. It's not the first (nor is it likely to be the last) take down of this crew, but somehow this one stings more. They can't say—as they did with Clarke and others—that he wasn't privy to everything. They can't say that he was just an outsider—this man took it on the chin every day for his old friends. All they're left with are ad hominem attacks (also, not a first) on him as a disgruntled former employee.

As nice as it is to see the curtain pulled back, however, this book is just one in a series, a series that isn't likely to end any time soon. We've heard all of it before in different ways, from different perspectives. We will hear it again, the tale of the distastrous Bush years. Sadly, none of it will change the past eight years.

When I was in Ireland, Paris and elsewhere in 2001, people repeatedly asked me why we elected Bush. I said I'd voted for Gore, and that a majority had, in fact, voted for Gore. (How that translated to Bush becoming president was a more difficult explanation.) The Europeans saw then what 49% of Americans didn't see—that Bush was an ignorant play-cowboy. They saw what friends (including Brian and Amy over at Incertus) and I saw as we watched the tide turn in late 2000. We hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as we feared. And now, in the echo of Mclellan's voice and many other voices, it is clear that every fear we had has come true in spades.

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On a side note, I have a marketing suggestion for John McCain as he runs for Bush's third term. He should ask—over and over—whether we are better now than we were eight years ago. Building a platform on this should guarantee him the votes of the 27% who still support Bush.

teh stupids!

The tag on this post at Wonkette reads "Fiction Writing Rendered Useless." Yep. Pretty much. The callow stupidity of our president will never ever fail to boggle my mind.

Environmental "Standards" or not...

So, a week ago, the administration--er, excuse me, the EPA told told 17 states that they couldn't set their own air quality standards. Or at least, they told the states that they couldn't set requirements that were more stringent than federal standards. I mean, god forbid states look out for their interests when they don't feel the federal government is doing a good enough job. And it's not like states' rights and republicanism were ever the foundation of the Republican party or anything like that. Nope. At least not when such alternative regulations might conflict with bizness interests.

Anyway, that's what makes it extra-fascinating to find out that the EPA might have been tainted by contacts from Cheney's office. And that they might have to fess up to what really is behind their efforts to stop states and citizens from actually taking the initiative on making a change in our approach to the environment.

Stay tuned for the report that significant portions of the documentation has been redacted for "National Security Purposes" or that some low-level official "inadvertently" deleted the records.

Tuesday political notes

So, apparently the Bush administration is continuing in its quest to discredit its own intelligence sources. (There's a joke in there somewhere.) Though our own intelligence estimate--produced in 2005, mind you--has revealed the findings that Iran stopped development of nuclear weapons four years ago, we are supposed to fear them because they have the knowledge. Yes, we should be afraid of this because it's not as if any yahoo with a library card or an internet connection couldn't drum up the knowledge (that's the word a hoarse-voiced Bush actually used in the news conference today).

At some point, the bullshit meter has to break, doesn't it?


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Huckabee. Huckabee?

This is the same guy who freaked out me and a lot of my friends in Arkansas. This is the same guy who was responsible for freaking out people who were already used to screwed up state politics. Good on him for losing all that weight, but you'll never convince me that he gained any real knowledge or wisdom.

Then again, it's not as if anyone among the Republican candidates has done much to warrant my respect.

immunity absurdity

I'm glad the Democrats are making some noise about the absurd decision to grant "limited-use" immunity to the Blackwater mercenaries. I just wish for some reason to believe that their bluster will actually come to any result. Unfortunately, Bush&Co are brilliant at both crafting messages to relegate critics to crank status and doing whatever they damn well please.

At this point, the whole administration has become a tragicomedy of Shakespearean proportions. From faked FEMA news conferences to faked photo ops to the decision to protect mercenaries who randomly killed people to the ability to ignore calls for increased information, this administration has made a joke of our country and citizenry. As public servants, they have done nothing more than fuel their own machiavellian ambitions, and whoever takes over the reins will be left with more messes than we can possibly imagine.

And we owe most of it to the Supreme Court, a court that was less Conservative than the court we inherit.

From the "You've got to be kidding me" annals

a.k.a. the "Why is the government spending our money on this shit?" annals...

I bring you Ghostbusters 2007, the terrorism edition. Then again, this is also the edition where the ghost/terrorist is, in fact, a gingerbread ninja.

Thanks, guys. Our infrastructure is falling apart. Our schools are underfunded. Our health "care" system is a delivers better profits than care. Our environment is degrading. But at least we have a Terrorist Busters logo.

Thanks again.

news like this scares me

So a B-52 flies from North Dakota to Louisiana and it's not news, right? Right. Unless it's carrying nuclear weapons. To the base used to stage Middle East operations. And someone sees fit to leak the news.

Seriously, though, the possibility that Bush&Co might try to go through with an attack on Iran is disturbing--and all-too-plausible. Jon Stewart began making the point a few years ago that we just happened to have started wars on either side of Iran. Given the hubris of our Dear Leaders, it is not a hard leap to believe that there is a long-term strategy in place for using Afghanistan and Iraq as staging grounds; such a premise is also vaguely believable since there clearly has never been an exit strategy, and another war would continue to justify a long-term occupation.

Regardless, the possibility of stepping up our military engagement is too frightening to imagine. And the thought of adding nuclear weapons to the equation... Oy.

the sinking ship

Bush is a lame duck president who reportedly does not want to act like a lame duck president. Increasingly, though, his presidency looks like a sinking ship, and the rats are leaving. In the past two weeks, we've had two official announcements of resignations–Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales–and an unofficial announcement–Tony Snow. Though these may not be the highest level in actual hierarchy, they are remarkably high in the odd calculus of this administration. The man who made Bush's political career, the man who defended Bush's political career, and the man who was brought in to be the TV-ready face of the administration. Other top, long-time trustees who are still in place–Condi Rice, as a prime example, and Cheney–have been absent from the cameras and the headlines long enough to seem absent. In the headlines, in other words, Bush is alone now.

I don't pretend to understand the political or personal calculations behind these moves. I do wonder whether the Bush clan has anything to do with this. After all, it is widely rumored that Barbara, Laura, and others are extraordinarily angry with what has happened over the last few years. Moreover, the fact that the senior Bush was interviewed by the New York Times about his frustration and disappointment only a few weeks before the current run of resignations makes me wonder if the dynasty isn't playing a significant role in this shake-up. Then again, Junior's actions over the years have been an almost-Shakespearean drama of the son trying to show up the father.

Regardless, I want to believe that this regime is turning into a game of Last Man Standing in the face of a true comeuppance, but I'm also cynical enough to believe that they have a few more tricks up their sleeves.

NPR madness and Iraq

This afternoon on All Things Considered, an Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel was interviewed. He talked about how grateful the Iraqis were--in spite of the difficulties of getting them to finish their police training consistently. He explained his rosy view of things by putting it in historical perspective... historical perspective as long as you only believe that Iraqi history begins with Saddam Hussein's regime. Sadly, as long as our government and the supposed watchdogs of the media continue to foment this myopic view of a complicated regional history (The amalgamation of fractious regions into a manufactured "country," eh? The problematic British occupation in the early twentieth century, eh?), we will continue down the path of lies, half-truths, and fatal inanities.

Scuttling Scooter

I raised the question the other day, "How much more damage can these guys do in the next eighteen months?" The answer came back, "A lot."

Of course, it is semantically better that Bush commuted Libby's sentence rather than just pardoning him outright. A nice little rhetorical trick, actually. Doing so, however, is just another maddening reminder of how ethically bankrupt the administration really is. The U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously rejected his request for an appeal, but Bush certainly found his way around those "activist judges," didn't he?

Then again, since Cheney is really the one who is running things, why should I even be surprised. Kagro X on Daily Kos takes us back to where all of the ills of this administration seem to start: the end of the Nixon administration. Hell, just keep reading the rest of Daily Kos for coverage. It's good. And sad.

SCOTUS madness

The GOP couldn't hold their majority in the Senate and Congress, and Bush is at historic lows in the approval ratings. We as a country--and the world at large--are stuck with the bad choices that have been made in our names. But it seems clear that the longest lasting and potentially most damaging legacy is also the one that cannot be undone: the Supreme Court.

As the decisions roll in, it is clear that the Bush&Co have succeeded in establishing a court that will protect neocon interests in the near and long terms. From civil rights to environmental protections to the rights of consumers to hold corporations accountable to many, many other issues, the five justices most beholden to the Bush dynasty--Scalia, Alito, Roberts, Kennedy, and Thomas--threaten to hold progressive interests hostage for generations.

This, I suppose is the sad and sick irony of Bush's original appointment by the SCOTUS. And it's going to haunt us for a long, long time.

Good News/Bad News

First, the good:

Administration officials and Congressional leaders said that the lobbyist, Michael E. Baroody, decided to step aside after it became clear that his nomination would be rejected by the Senate commerce committee.

The fox has decided not to go into the chicken coop. No wolf among the sheep. Then again, it will be interesting to see whether he is given a recess appointment in a few weeks.

Second, the bad:

The decision by the Democratic majority to strip the measure of a timetable for troop withdrawal has raised the prospect that it could be approved mainly by Republicans with scattered Democrat support. The idea that many Democrats would be left on the losing side in a consequential vote has exposed a sharp divide within the party, drawn scorn from antiwar groups, confused the public and frustrated the party rank and file.

But in recounting the leadership’s thinking, senior Democrats and other officials said that by early this week they had concluded there was no alternative but to give ground to President Bush despite their view that he had mishandled the war and needed to be put under tighter Congressional rein.

Capitulation?!?! Is this what we fucking fought for in the last election? Is it possible that they are so cowed by a president who can barely muster a thirty percent approval rating? Is it possible that they are so afraid of Fox News and CNN that they will give in when they finally gained the majority? What kind of Kool Aid are Bush&Co giving them? Do we live in Topsy-Turvy Land?

parody, ahoy

This is awesome. I am always impressed when someone has the time and thorough sense of humor to carry a good parody through on so many levels.

More from the annals of consumer safety sold to the highest bidder

So what is it, I mean, what is it really with the Bush&Co selling off every piece of the government to business interests. The examples are too numerous to list, but the latest one is every bit as galling. Daddytypes also links through to The Consumerist on this one. None of this should be surprising, of course, given the idiots running things, but this one galls particularly. They are putting a man in charge of consumer safety who has developed a record of complete disdain and disregard for consumers, parents, children, society. These people are pathetic.