A Spine!

The House Dems have done it! Today they showed they have spines in two actions: first they approved contemt citations for Bolton and Miers.for refusing to produce documents and testify in the US Attorney firing case. Then, as The Washington Post posted Bush, GOP Rebuke House Democrats on Surveillance Bill on its on-line edition 6:30 p.m., ET,. they recessed for the week, allowing the Protect Americans Act, the current FISA bill to expire, resisting the pressure from the GOP and President Bush to add telecom immunity to their version of the new bill.

House Democrats left Washington today for a week-long recess without taking action on a terrorist surveillance bill set to expire Friday night, drawing theatrical protests from congressional Republicans and a sharp rebuke from President Bush***

Democrats are refusing to budge, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that while key committee chairmen would stay in Washington to keep working on the issue, the rest of the House would be going home today.***

"the chamber will go into symbolic "pro forma" sessions rather than adjourn for the week. Senate Democrats have used similar sessions to prevent Bush from making controversial executive branch nominations during that chamber's recesses.

Since the Senate passed its own version of the surveillance law Tuesday, House Democrats have engaged in a fierce internal debate over how to proceed. They have become stuck on the question of whether to provide immunity to telecommunications companies that provided help to the government in surveillance operations.

Hill Republicans and Bush want the House to simply pass the Senate bill, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said yesterday his chamber is "not a lap dog of the president or the United States Senate any more than they are of us."

And Pelosi reiterated that point today and accused Bush of "fearmongering" on the issue.

"President Bush tells the American people he has nothing to offer but fear," she said.

***

House Democrats are getting support for their decision from across the Capitol. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sent Bush a letter today saying that Democrats "stand ready to negotiate a final bill,"

***"I regret your reckless attempt to manufacture a crisis over the reauthorization of foreign surveillance laws," Reid wrote. "Instead of needlessly frightening the country, you should work with Congress in a calm, constructive way to provide our intelligence professionals with all needed tools while respecting the privacy of law-abiding Americans."

The President has said that if this bill wasn't passed by Friday, the country would be defenseless against terrorists. And yet, he is the one who has stated that he will veto it if it is sent to him without retroactive immunity for the telecoms. That sounds, in my opinion, like either he is, once again, playing the fear card and trying to bully Congress into doing what he wants them to do or it is Bush who is willing to leave the American people unprotected. Either he knows very well that all current surveillance can go on for one year even without a new law and that the original 1978 FISA bill gives him all of the power he needs for lawful surveillance or he is more interested in protecting the telecom companies that helped him break the law and ignore the Fourth Amendment than in protecting the citizens of this country.

Once again, the eternal conundrum I face about Bush. Is he stupid or evil? And which is the more frightening prospect?

Image courtesy of Quadlings.com

Return on Success

From Bush's Thursday night speech:

The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is "return on success." The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home.” And in all we do, I will ensure that our commanders on the ground have the troops and flexibility they need to defeat the enemy.

What this says to me is that until they succeed, they don't get to come home. And if success is impossible? If it is not possible to defeat this enemy? Where is he going to get the troops? More stop-loss actions? Longer rotations with shorter breaks? A draft?

What if this mess simply can't be solved by anything this man knows how to do?

I remember reading that generals don't like to have a president who hasn't seen combat, because he is too willing to throw the troops into unnecessary wars. And of the officials who had anything to do with this war, only Colin Powell had combat experience, and Colin Powell didn't think this war was such a good idea.

THE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

“I tried to avoid this war,” Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. “I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.”

Powell has become increasingly outspoken about the level of violence in Iraq, which he believes is in a state of civil war. “The civil war will ultimately be resolved by a test of arms,” he said. “It’s not going to be pretty to watch, but I don’t know any way to avoid it. It is happening now.”

He added: “It is not a civil war that can be put down or solved by the armed forces of the United States.” All the military could do, Powell suggested, was put “a heavier lid on this pot of boiling sectarian stew”.***According to Powell, the US cannot “blow a whistle one morning” and have all American forces just leave.***Powell believes that a reduction in US forces will have to be accompanied by talks with Syria and Iran. “You have to talk to the people you dislike most in this dangerous world.”

The general and former joint chiefs of staff added: “Shi’ites will ultimately prevail because they are 60% of the population and their militias can be pretty violent. They will prevail also because they are determined not to be ruled again by the Sunnis.

“The Sunnis are struggling for power and survival and it’s going to be resolved by a test of arms. It’s going to be very ugly.”

I don't know what we are going to do now. Powell is right, we can't just pull the troops out. Our invasion made this mess. We have to work on cleaning it up. But, I also don't think that continuing to do what we have been doing is going to make it better. Some say that Iraq is going to fall apart when we leave, no matter what we do, and no matter when that is. And if that's so, perhaps we should leave now rather than see how many more dead Iraqis and coalition forces we can rack up. Before we have sold our grandchildren into indentured servatude to pay for this major bollix.

I think I agree with Powell that we need to bring Syria and Iran into it. Perhaps all of the Arab and Persian countries. And the UN. Things might be less explosive with UN Peace Keepers on the ground instead of an occupying force.

Sleep In One Day

So, I slept late and when I got up, what had happened?

Karl Rove has resigned. Halla-flippin'-luja! Perhaps if I do this more often, more of them will leave? Cheney? Cheney's sociopathic sock puppet? Alberto G.?

Of course, it does make one wonder. Was this the deal before Libby didn't testify? One get out of jail free card and Rove has to leave?

Is it in the hopes of preventing prosecution?

Is it a ploy, and Rove will be directing things from his living room? Able to do things it's too dangerous to do from the White House?

Is he really leaving to go to work for the next bully boy they intend to stick us with?

Is there something wrong with me that I don't simply take this at face value? How stupid would I have to be to actually believe that this is the whole story?

And, what a crock, "Obviously it's a big loss to us, said deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino. "He is a great colleague, good friend and a brilliant mind."

Well, it isn't obvious to me that this toad has a brilliant mind. Can a mind be brilliant when the light never shines in it? Sly, yes. Sneaky, yes. Crafty, devious, foxy, Machiavellian, manipulative, scheming, calculating, dastardly, mendacious, nefarious, unscrupulous, and villainous. All the dark arts are obviously well understood. But there seems to be no notion of simple humanity. And it would be an insult to any animal one tried to compare him to.

Well, let's celebrate folks, and keep an eye peeled for his fey hand in the 2008 elections.

Update: from Julie's comment
"I also submit that you might remove the word 'foxy' from the toad, as an insult to foxes. Oh, wait, that's an insult to toads. Still funny."

July 2?

On the 231st anniversary of the passage by Congress of Richard Henry Lee's Resolution, which had been written by Thomas Jefferson as the Declaration of Independence? This is the day Bush chose to issue a press release that he has commuted Scooter Libby's sentence?

The weekend that we celebrate the declaration by our founders that they were separating their fortunes from the tyranny of England. That they were creating a new nation, founded in the belief that all men are created equal, with none above the law. This is the day that he chose?

The act doesn't surprise us. And, the fact that he issued the press release in the middle of this very long Independence Day weekend is really to be expected. But, somehow, the choice of this particular day?

Do you suppose that he knows what he's doing? Or is it some dark force with a cruel sense of humor that fixes it so that he is always pissing in the chalice?

Signposts to Sanity

An occasional feature where your lovin' Granny points you at somebody else's really good stuff



For those of us who may feel that we are not exercising enough, and that it is impossible to exercise too much, please go over to see Sandy Szwarc at Junkfood Science and read about the downside of high impact exercise. The fact that people in their 40s are having joint replacement surgery because they thought they were doing something that was good for them, and perhaps forced themselves to do so under the idea that "no pain, no gain" is sobering.

And while you are at it, check out her article on the neurological harm that is too common with weight loss surgery.

And just to round things out, Cooking Up Fears not only deals with the hype about the danger of Teflon cookware, it also has a lovely rundown on how fears are created and exploited -- a thing we can all use understanding of.

And in a variation of the theme of harm masqurading as good, do go over to CommonDreams.com and read The Sport of King George by David Michael Green for an in-depth look at supporting the troops.

And here we have an editorial cartoon from the Juneau Empire, March 16, 2007. Gotta love it.

Hubris

Don't national leaders read Shakespeare any longer? Do they never worry about Nemesis?

I have spent the last six years on a see-saw. One side is "the world is going to hell in a hand basket and the people in power don't care" and the other side is "you can't fool all of the people all of the time". One side up, I watch this horrible war and the erosion of the Constitution and the loss of civility in our country and our country's loss of international respect and people listening to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and people like Alberto Gonzales and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and G.W. Bush occupying positions of power and despair of what world we are leaving our grandchildren.

Other side up and I celebrate all of the liberal bloggers and internet news sources, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Keith Olbermann, who see what is happening and are not afraid to say it. I see that some of the scum are being driven from office. and I have hope that the American people are seeing what is happening and will act to stop it.

Part of the problem with trying to maintain optimism is that, although Mussolini was hung and Hitler shot himself, before they came to their bad ends, they did more harm than can ever be calculated. The thought of just how much harm can be done by our current authoritarian leaders is truly frightening.

In that one up position on the see saw, I look at how rapidly things are unraveling at present. One scandal after another, with barely enough time to catch my breath. Some of these things we have been reading about, from Echidne to Salon.com, for years now. As they hit the main stream media, people who get their news in more traditional ways are finally seeing. (Of course, those people who rely on Fox News still aren't getting the truth, but you can fool some of the people all of the time, after all.)

Scooter Libby, and the not-so-surprising evidence that outing Valerie Plame came from the White House and that this administration is more interested in punishing critics than in protecting the country. Building 18, and the awareness that the White House doesn't care enough about the troops to equip or train them properly before sending them into their fourth or fifth rotation, and it doesn't care enough about them to house the wounded in vermin free quarters. The announcement that the new pumps put into New Orleans didn't work when they were installed last year and still haven't been repaired. (And how, I ask, do we have newly manufactured pumps that need repair?) Plans for Halliburton to gather together its ill gotten gains and move operations to Dubai, where they will no longer have to even pretend to pay taxes or follow regulations but will continue to overcharge and under produce on no-bid contracts.

The firing of the US Attorneys, allowing us to see exactly how politicized the Justice Department has been. As if Alberto Gonzales deciding that the Geneva Conventions are quaint, that it isn't torture unless it feels like you are dying or your organs are failing, that the Constitution is wrong and we don't have checks and balances but rather a unitary presidency, that the Constitution doesn't guarantee the right of Habeas Corpus isn't enough, he now fires US Attorneys with excellent performance evaluations who either don't investigate enough Democrats, don't leak to the press that they are investigating Democrats, or do too good a job investigating Republicans.

People thought we were conspiracy theorists when we believed that the GOP has been stealing elections since at least 2000 and were concerned about the 2006 election might be next. And now we find out that purging voter lists and not supplying enough voting machines to Democratic districts and redistricting Texas to create more GOP House seats and pushing through laws to require picture ID to vote in states where many Democrats (such as tribal elders) don't drive and would be gravely pressed to obtain a picture ID and voting machines that are manufactured by GOP supporters and are simplicity itself to hack and have no paper trail is not the end of it. Harriet Meir* Karl Rove wanted to fire 93 Republican US Attorneys and replace them with men who would be more willing to investigate Democrats and leak about it right before elections. Alberto Gonzales settled for eight.

It is amazing just how far into the muck that hubris will drag a person. The idea that he is above the law and somehow special and entitled to do and take what he wants has led Bush into an amazing path of self destruction. Finally, Nemesis looms over his shoulder and may just take him down.

So, enjoy. I'm getting off my see saw, modeling my behavior on The Man With No Name and pulling up a chair on the boardwalk in front of the saloon, and watching the show.

* Let no one say I allow a fall gal to stay a fall gal when I learn better.

Just Tooo Delicious

I found this at Commone Dreams go and read the entire article if you wish. It is all too wonderful!

Published on Friday, March 9, 2007 by the Associated Press
Priests to Purify Sacred Mayan Site of 'Bad Spirits' After Bush Visit
by Juan Carlos Llorca

GUATEMALA CITY -- Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.***The ruins of Iximche, 30 miles west of the capital of Guatemala City. "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.***Tiney said the "spirit guides of the Mayan community" decided it would be necessary to cleanse the sacred site of "bad spirits" after Bush's visit so that their ancestors could rest in peace.

At last, someone figures out what to do about Bush. Cleans the spiritual muck of his footprints from the very earth itself!

Two more posts today!

Is That Pesky Boy Crying Wolf Again?

In the 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush named Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the "Axis of Evil" -- and right then I knew he intended to invade all three. Well, one down and look what's happening now.

How stupid do they think we are? Here they are, telling us that now the intel says that the leadership of Iran is furnishing a new explosive device to Iraqi insurgents. And, shades of Colin Powell and his white powder at the U.N., they have a picture of the new device.

To quote Jill at Brilliant At Breakfast,

Funny how Iran prints the information on its bombs in ENGLISH, isn't it?

The day is going to come when it is a real threat and no one is going to believe them. Hell, that day could be today. Is hyping the threat so often that it ceases to raise concern a form of aiding and abetting the enemy?

Putting Abram Shulsky, the guy who was in charge of gathering intel that Cheney viewed as reliable for Iraq, in charge of gathering intel on Iran, is a touch too deja vu for me. Sending several aircraft carrier groups in to the Gulf is a touch too provocative for me. I just don't trust this administration. I do realize that Congress is not going to authorize a war with Iran, but if one can be started while disguised as dealing with problems in Iraq, Bush doesn't need further authorization.

It isn't that I doubt that Iran is helping the insurgents. It isn't that I think that Iran is the good guys. It is that, and this both breaks my heart and infuriates me to be able to say in all truth -- that I do know that I can't trust my own government these days. Iran may, and probably does, lie. But Bush absolutely does lie. Has lied. Wants this war. Is. Not. Trustworthy.

In A Nutshell follows.

Bush gropes German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Is there a woman anywhere on earth who doesn't understand Chancellor Merkel's response?

You really don't need to know anything else, do you, about his opinion of women?

To quote my great-niece Monique, "It creeps me out!" Indeed, it just creeps me out!