Uber Alles

I'm taking my monthly jaunt to Mexico through the rest of the week, so I'll probably not be blogging (for the 5 or so people who actually read this drivel). It was a beautiful weekend here in Indiana and I spent as much time outside landscaping as I possibly could, so I feel kind of politically cleansed. I didn't watch Condi Rice, or Meet the Press, or any of the other get-your-ire-up shit that I normally do. I dug holes and got incredibly sunburned and lost about five pounds of that post hernia surgery weight that I had put on (another five and I'll be buff again.)
I've been perusing the blogsphere as usual this morning, but I can't quite get fired up enough to rip anything particularly insightful so I'll leave it at that.

Maybe a few Negra Modelo's and some real taco's will put the spirit back into me. Nothing like seeing a two class society like Mexico to put the good ole rage back in place. I once remarked to a friend after returning to US after a long stay in a nice villa in central Mexico that the rich people there have it particularly nice, 8 bucks a day to buy someone's labor for anything and constant reinforcement for how superior you are. Kick backs and bribery are a way of life and business there (starting to sound like I'm describing the GOP convention, doesn't it).

I really don't care about whether Bush was joking about not being able to find WMD's. I think anyone predisposed to tar him will tar him for it and those who would forgive a gay relationship with the prince of darkness will look the other way as well.

What I do find amusing is that after doggedly refuting that WMD's didn't exist even after the Kay report came out, that the President doesn't see that his credibility in this regard is totally blown. There were those who still held onto his and Cheney's insistence that even though David Kay said that they weren't going to find any weapons that they were still probably there.

I guess the slide show was his way of letting these people down easy--hah, hah... I meant that we should invade Iraq because Saddam's really, really, really, really bad, I mean much worse than you probably think, and the Iraqi's well they might not seem grateful now, but give them a few months and they will be welcoming us with parades and flowers like we said they would. People who are sticklers for the truth are tainted and unpatriotic--everyone knows that, that's why there are so many of these lying crooks quitting our administration and saying bad things about us. They all sound the same, cause they are all telling the same lies, no doubt a liberal conspiracy to impeach the integrity of the president.

I love the retreat into morality that the supporters of this have gone into. There were tons of reasons to go into Iraq, WMD's were just a side show. If they weren't actively sponsoring the terrorists they at least look and sound an awful lot like those guys, right? Look how grateful those people are.

Those heathens needed liberating and it is incumbent on the US to provide liberation and rebuilding help to those who need it (unless you are Tutsi, Congolese or other such oil poor chattel). The great healing of the middle east is at hand folks, let there be no mistake and evidence to the contrary be damned.

I knew that Richard Clarke was going to do some damage to Bush yesterday. I had absolutely no idea about the depth and completely damning nature of that damage though. The fact that the White House is in full battle, spin, nuance and flat out lie mode points to how damaging they see his revelations.
If all the Republicans can come up with is that he is waffling (where have we heard that line of attack before? hmmm.) and trying to sell books, then they really have been caught red handed. I kind of fear for Clarke's life now, no kidding. Fox news released a patched together, scurrilous transcript (see Talking Points Memo). How can this even be legal? It shows how utterly desperate that they are, hell maybe no one will notice. Rush will spout it back to the faithful and Condi will repeat it (shameless liar) and it will enter into the cult fiction circle of the trashy right wing media/blog sphere.

Richard Clarke road in on a pale horse yesterday and laid waste to the core of Bush's presidency. Whether the American people will see that is the real question. The core on the right has their heads buried up to their ankles in the sand right now, so it to those who still have not made up their minds, and those who are not lock step and blind on the right that we must now put our faith in. It is a long time until November, but the Bush camp is bloodied and reeling right now. Here's to hoping that this is their Waterloo.

Hearing Clarke's opening testimony today, saying that the government and he personally had failed the American people, silhouetted poignantly how no one and I mean no one, in the Bush admin has taken the personal blame for a single thing that has happened in this country since they came into power.

If nothing else that should stand in stark contrast to the mealy mouthed excuse peddling and blame shifting that Powell and Co. spewed yesterday.

Clarke stopped the Buck just stopped for the first time in three years and it didn't come even close to where it should have and that is the real tragedy of our current Government. That is what people are really Hungary for, that is why they always demonized Clinton.

Please, someone stand up and say 'hey, I screwed up and am willing to live with the consequences." Give the American people some shred of integrity that they can go to the mat for. The ability to convey forgiveness is the ultimate power that can be bestowed on a person and our politicians absolutely refuse to allow us that.

Most of this country has suffered some form of trauma over the past three years, whether it was from terror, war, or the economy. The fact that there is no sense of shared sacrifice of accountability weakens the whole fiber of our society. The Right likes to couch this feeling in terms of 'moral drift', the Left in 'inequity', but it is neither, it is the erosion of the sense of shared burden, shared reward. All we get from our leaders is, have more money in your pocket, don't worry about where it is coming from. People are dying, but they aren't you or your children so don't worry be happy, enjoy the tax rebate, hope it makes up for your lost salary. Go on, go buy yourself something pretty, do it for America.

Had to take a break for a while and reassess my writing priorities. But I'm back to blogging, at least lightly for a while.

It has been utterly amazing and predictable, this discussion about whether Bush did anything about terror prior to 9/11 and his assertion that he was 'all up in it'. Both are utterly ridiculous.

It is obvious that Bush came into the White House intent on doing things as differently from Clinton as he possibly could. I'm absolutely positive that Clarke's account of what happened is mostly accurate, but I am also sure that there is a tilt in the he said/she said nature of the back and forth.

Anyone who believes that Bush was taking terrorism seriously and had a 'plan' to take out Al Queda before 9/11 must also believe in the tooth fairy as do those who think that he was some how complicit in the attack by looking the other way.

I find it more appalling personally that the Bush team will not, under any circumstances admit to anything but full competence and foresight on any issue. Anything that trips them up is or was 'beyond their control' or the work of evil. The President was reveling in his new power, loping taxes and preparing for the 'remoralization' of the nation after the sinful Clinton years. Fighting terrorism wasn't even remotely on his agenda. It was Clarke's job.

I'm in charge of a multi company IT infrastructure, the CEO of the company doesn't give the smallest bit of a shit about what my priorities are for the most part. He knows I exist and that what I do is important to his company, but it isn't until there is a major disaster on the network somewhere that my problems become 'his' priority. My boss comes running to me to see what went wrong so that he can explain it to his boss and the CEO all of a sudden becomes an IT expert for an hour while he explains the problem to some customer who didn't get what he was expecting because of the network problem.

Now the fact that I might have warned my boss that this problem could occur and asked for something to be done about it, doesn't mean that the CEO was willing to give us the budget to fix the problem before it happened, he had other things to worry about that seemed far more important than replacing an expensive router in Mexico or putting in a backup frame relay circuit.

Am I pissed?

Hell yeah, the shit is coming down on me because of something that I had warned them about.

Everyone in the company knows about the bad thing that happened and knows that I had a part in it.
I tell everyone who will listen that the Jackasses up top wouldn't give me money or resources to head off the problem.

They deny that they really ever knew it was a problem, or say that they were working on it, because they found my email about it and remembered that they hadn't done anything about it (if they ever intended to in the first place.)

Everyone's mad, I get my money, fix a bunch of other problems as well, because I am a priority now and deep down the CEO knows he screwed up in the first place and the cycle repeats in a couple of years.

I think that this is exactly what happened in the Government. In fact I'd be willing to bet just about anything on it. Both sides look at the shadows that they cannot see into and see evil. It's just a fucking closet.

This is one seriously great over-the-top rant on a deadly serious issue:

"Give The Breakfast Cereal Industry Immunity from Law Suits!

Call your congressman today and let them know that if Tony the Tiger wants to take a big steaming dump in your breakfast bowl, he should be able to do so without fear that some whining idiot like you will file a lawsuit against him. If Captain Crunch wants to put heroin and crack in your morning meal, the good Captain should be able to do so knowing you can't do a damn thing about it."

"If the gun industry gets immunization from "pending and future lawsuits," I want immunization for my products, too. It's just that simple -- the freedom to screw up your life and then give you the finger."

Follow the links on the site for some quality background information on this legislation (or just sit back and enjoy the flaming sarcasm!)

Hate to say it but this is the US's fault, we are directly and lawfully responsible for security in the captured country and we can't provide even the most basic level of stability and security in that country. Every one of those deaths is at our feet. The very fact that these sites are being guarded by armed militia brings up strains of Somalia. The American forces there have pulled back into their hardened fortresses and are letting the country try to stabilize itself, but I guess with an election coming up here, we have to do what is necessary--heh George.