Another Bad Confluence
Events didn’t combine to make George look stupid; they just confirmed he is stupid
© Bryan Zepp Jamieson
9/10/06
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/VRWC/badweek.htm
As big a public relations nightmare “Path to 9/11" has proved to be for
Disney, ABC, and the far right echo chamber, it was actually good news for
Putsch, who was going through what might be described as “the week from hell,”
or maybe “a bad heir day.” “Path” was a welcome distraction.
First, Putsch wanted to show the world that he was willing to be tough on
terrorism, and so he submitted a new military tribunal plan that basically was a
request for Congress to give the crimes against humanity Putsch was already
committing their stamp of approval.
Just to show what a noble and reasonable guy he was, he kind of went “aw
shucks,” and owned up to the fact that he had been committing crimes against
humanity right along and lying to everyone about it.
That George! What a kidder!
Seems that yes, the US had been holding people in gulags overseas. Everyone knew
that, but the admin had been denying it. But now that the US has admitted that
they have concentration camps and hold people without due process or humane
treatment, maybe Congress could just sort of acknowledge that it’s already being
done, and clear some of the red tape out of the way?
Oddly enough, the people George expected to see go along with this didn’t. The
Pentagon was openly appalled, with one Pentagon spokesman telling NPR, “No
nation – no CIVILIZED nation – has a system in which the accused is not
permitted to see the evidence and charges being brought against him.”
Republicans blew off Putsch’s proposal entirely, stating that they would pursue
their own plan – one which DOES incorporate discovery process and due process.
As Iraq continued to disintegrate, due in large part to the American occupation
of the country, the story broke that the admin’s claim from a week before that
civilian casualties were down in Baghdad was in fact a lie. The admin had simply
chosen to stop counting civilians killed by car bombs and roadside bombs, and
instead were only counting those directly shot by opposing factions. In reality
the carnage had reached horrifically high levels and showed no sign of easing.
The Democrats launched a move to fire Donald Rumsfeld. The move was doomed to
failure, of course. There was no way the Republicans were going to bitch-slap
the President like that, two months before an election. But it kept Rumsfeld’s
fatuous expression and incompetent policies in the public eye, and that’s just
where the Democrats wanted him.
Another major embarrassment to the GOP, Katherine Harris, (aka “Cruella de Vil
II”) won her primary despite frantic last minute efforts by her party to get her
to lose. She wound up with 49% of the vote, running against three guys nobody
had ever heard of. So we get to see a lot of Cruella over the next couple of
months, since, like a train wreck or Paris Hilton, you can’t help but start.
In the northeast, the GOP has taken up supporting liberals. In Connecticut, they
blew off their own candidate to rally behind Joe Lieberman, despite the fact
that Holy Joe is pro-choice, pro-civil rights, anti-gun, for national health
care, and even thinks there might be something to this evolution stuff.
Similarly, the party is supporting that rarest of creatures, a liberal
Republican, in Rhode Island. Senator Chaffee would be likely to win in November
and remain a member of the GOP majority. His opponent, a relatively unknown
right winger, would be likely to lose to the Democratic challenger who is a
moderate. Chaffee is a decent guy. I wouldn’t mind seeing him get reelected.
Afghanistan continued to disintegrate, and as it was announced that NATO was
pretty much reduced to holding Kabul and Kandahar – and that only barely – opium
harvests hit a new high. So much for the war on drugs. NATO asked for another
2,000 troops.
In the US, the DEA admitted that after a generation of the “war on drugs,” the
availability and price of cocaine and heroin were pretty much the same as they
were in 1980. Just another glittering right wing accomplishment. Nothing to see
here, folks, just move along.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican governor of Kuh-lee-foh-nya, bitch-slapped
Putsch twice in one day, signing bills to raise the minimum wage to $8/hour and
to reduce CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Just two little reminders of
business George won’t address, is all.
Even as Disney was trying to sell America on the notion that Clinton let Osama
bin Laden get away, OBL released an old videotape of him meeting, supposedly,
with the men who committed the 9/11 hijackings. Just a little friendly reminder
that George let Osama bin Laden get away at Tora Bora, and hasn’t made any
serious effort to find him since.
Then the Musharraf regime in Pakistan came right out and said that if they did
stumble across OBL, believed to have been in Pakistan since Tora Bora, they
wouldn’t arrest him. The following day, under intense pressure from a horrified
White House, Pakistan backtracked on that, but the damage was done. The fact of
the matter is that Putsch and Musharraf, the two great allies in the war on
terror, have no real interest in capturing the man who is supposed to be the
mastermind behind the greatest crime committed on US land.
That’s ok. The administration has Mickey Mouse news to tell the public it’s
Clinton’s fault anyway. So it’s ok that OBL is still free, and thumbing his nose
at the US.
Two weeks after Putsch blurted out at a news conference that Saddam had
“nothing” to do with 9/11, the Senate issued a report confirming that, noting
that Saddam regarded al Qaida as an enemy. Senator Rockefeller even went so far
as to imply that Iraq might be better off had Saddam been left in power. Nothing
amazing to most folks, but for the administration it was a betrayal by their
rubber-stamp congress.
In the meantime, it’s now official: if you STILL believe Saddam had anything to
do with 9/11, you are a certifiable idiot.
The rubber stamp Congress also imploded on the matter of nominating Bolton,
Putsch’s disastrous recess appointment as ambassador to the UN. Senator Chaffee
(yes, the same one mentioned above) balked, saying he had questions about
Bolton’s character, ethics, skills, and ability to work with people. In order to
be an American ambassador, even a Republican one, you really should have at
least one of those four traits, I would think.
Even the admin’s role as guardian of the memory of 9/11 is slipping. Gallup
reported that 36% of Americans think 9/11 was an inside job. David Ray Griffin,
emeritus professor of philosophy of religion and theology at Claremont graduate
university, who flat out accuses Putsch of masterminding the attacks, is playing
to full houses in England. Simultaneously, Steven Jones, the head of the
Scholars 9/11 group, got some mainstream publicity when BYU announced they were
putting him on paid leave because of his papers claiming that the towers were
brought down by controlled implosions installed prior to the plane crashes.
(Well, why DID building seven collapse? No plane hit it). The fact is, more and
more people have questions about what happened on 9/11, and the often bizarre
behavior of the administration since.
Say, maybe Disney could do a miniseries on THAT! Just to keep things fair and
balanced, you understand.
The admin had its usual run of scandals, of course, any of which were bigger
than the Monica Lewinski thing.
Kellogg, Brown & Root, bastard child of Halliburton, got sued, with the
whistle-blower suit alleging they ripped off soldiers again. This one was grubby
and sleazy, even by Halliburton standards. A lavish Superbowl dinner meant for
the troops got diverted to a big party for KBR employees. And of course the
public paid for it. Millions, according to the suit.
The Washington Post, not as subservient as it used to be, printed a leaked memo
of a deliberate effort by the GOP to dig up dirt on Democratic candidates and
make each race and dirty, personal, and nasty as possible. Nothing unusual
there, except that the media is reporting it BEFORE the election for once.
Just to top it off, the head of DataUSA (now Viewpoint USA) got popped for
fabricating poll results. She copped a plea to inventing results for a variety
of right wing candidates, including Putsch. Again, nothing new – the GOP has
been using phony polls for some time. But again, unusual to read about BEFORE an
election, when such a story could actually damage the GOP.
And so ends another week in the glorious reign of King George the Third, the
Second....