Bush Slight of Hand

One of the most frustrating things for those of us who pay attention is the tendency of the media to treat each aspect of Bush deception as a seperate story - Plamegate, the Downing Street Memo, failure to find WMDs, the need to "stay the course," torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, lack of due process for prisoners at Gitmo, huge contracts for companies with ties to the administration despite clear evidence of failure to perform (as well as actual fraud), and the continuing effort to conflate the war in Iraq with a meaningful response to 9/11.

The truth is that all of these "stories" are parts of the same saga - the illegal, immoral, and ultimately insane, effort to impose an immature idea of America's will on the rest of the world. It is all of a piece. Without the Neocon agenda - clearly enunciated in such published documents as this from the Project for a New American Century, we would not be engaged in this losing situation. And make no mistake, it is a losing proposition. We cannot "win" in Iraq any more than we could have won in Viet Nam. First of all, we have no objective criteria that could be used to indicate success. What if the "insurgents" quit killing people tomorrow? Would that indicate success? How long would we have to wait to know that we had "won"? What would be happening in the meantime? If we left and all hell broke loose would we have lost? Would that be any different from what is happening today? If we stayed despite the lack of insurgent activity could we justify it? How would we? Why would we?

Since we have never been honest about why we are there, we can't really be honest about what it would take for us to leave. When a majority of Americans realize the essential dishonesty of this whole enterprise it will collapse in a horrible moment of truth - and we will all look bad - just as we did leaving Viet Nam. The longer it takes to get to that point, the worse the aftermath will be.

The Bushies are likely to be left looking like the most incompetent and corrupt figures in all of American history. The rest of us who allowed these assholes to stay in power as long as they have will not fare much better. If it's true that people get the government they deserve we are really much worse than I could have imagined.

Bush Ignores Real Security Threats

So what are the real threats to America's future? How about an oil crisis that paralyzes the economy and puts all nation's against one another in a desperate attempt to keep the lights on? One higly respected energy expert believes that is possible in the near future. Matt Simmons, in his new book _Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy_ presents a case for a coming emergency based on the inablity of oil production to keep up with demand:

Oil prices could rocket to $100 within six months, plunging the world into an unprecedented fuel crisis, controversial Texan oil analyst Matt Simmons has warned.
After crude surged through $60 a barrel last week, nervous investors were pinning their hopes on a build-up in US oil-stocks to depress prices in the coming months.

But Simmons believes surging demand will keep prices bubbling well above $50. 'We could be at $100 by this winter. We have the biggest risk we have ever had of demand exceeding supply. We are now just about to face up to the biggest crisis we have ever had,' he said.

And how has George W. Bush faced what even he admits is a serious problem of dependence on foreign oil? By invading a country that was a major oil exporter and in the process creating such chaos that oil production in Iraq has fallen to half of the low pre-invasion levels.

Ya gotta remember that our CEO Pres was a failure at every oil business he started and a success only as a baseball owner - and even then only thanks to political connections. His cronies can't save him - or the country - this time.

A War Criminal Apologizes

Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State for Richard Nixon, apologized today for a decades old gaffe, calling Indira Gandhi a bitch. For his conivence in the illegal bombing compaign of Laos and Cambodia, and support of genocide in East Timor, not a word of apology. This is the reality of our political theater - public figures feel compelled to issue apologies when they are caught saying harsh things about "important" people - but can massacre peasants with impunity.