Little Alberto Gonzales and His Letters of Cachet

I'm not surprised that Congress sold us out--16 Democrats, and the undead Republicans-- and passed an unexamined bill permitting the Attorney General to listen to private conversations without a court order, without oversight, even-- this is what's giving the phone companies the cold sweats-- without any written records at all. All Alberto has to do is pick up the phone. Oaths were made to be broken, and it may be the senators were under some terrible compulsion. Perhaps their families were threatened. Maybe they were tortured, or theirs arms twisted psychologically. Maybe (this is hard to fathom) the Bush administration is smarter than they are, and tricked them into passing the bill like a three card monte dealer suckers you in to looking for the Queen. Maybe they were bribed with allurments of money, or power, or the opportunities for sex that appear when you have enough money or power. No, it was none of those; they handed this kind of power to the least trustworthy president in American history so they could go home on time.

Somebody (Algren?) said once he weren't surprised that Chicago officials could be bought, but he was always amazed at how cheaply they could be bought. Lillian Hellman, whatever her flaws, observed that the people in Hollywood who sold each other out during the Blacklist didn't do it because their families were threatened or they were in any danger themselves; they did it to hold onto their swimming pools and second cars.

So now the Bush administration has been given the power of letters of cachet, something not seen west of the Iron Curtain since the French Revolution. The most notorious lettres de cachet, the ones that inspire stories about the Man in the Iron Mask and fed thousands of innocent prisoners to the Bastille or the guillotine, allowed the government to arrest and sentence any citizen without trial and without an opportunity of defense. The lack of oversight invited abuse. It was how the wealthy, the connected and the ambitious disposed of unwanted individuals. This was the Age of Reason, after all, and they needed something more efficent than accusations of witchcraft.

The lambs with easy consciences all say, let them listen, I've got nothing to hide, let them use torture on people who must already be guilty, let them open secret prisons in Eastern Europe and Guantanamo Bay, nobody I know goes there. I think this might be the definition of "streetwise" and "square": the naif thinks, It Can't Happen to Me, It Can't Happen Here. The hipster knows that all it takes is one wrong turn, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he could be next, that anyone could be next, that the next person who falls into the government's threshing machine might be you.

My Impeachment Letter, Mark One: "Every little bit helps." said the mouse, as he peed in the ocean...

John Conyers over in the 14th Michigan District says he would consider House impeachment proceedings if he had three more Congressmen ask him to do so. There are Democratic operatives so mercenary as to put impeachment off the table in order to have Bush as a punching bag in 2008. There's a lot of exhaustion from being run ragged by the patented Rove Truth-Is-What-I Make-It Machine, a feeling that impeachment wouldn't be worth the time and money spent over the next year and six months. (While we're being honest, if we start pulling troops out of Iraq today, it will still be more than a year before we're out... and thirty years before the Supreme Court shifts.)

Kalamazoo, a little island of progressive politics in Southwest Michigan, is outvoted by five other more conservative counties in the 6th Congressional District. We are "represented" by Republican Fred Upton of the Whirlpool Uptons, who blessedly avoids making a fool of himself on the national airwaves, stays in office by voting the party line, keeping the Dutch-German farmers indifferent and mollifying the Dick Cheney Republicans of Portage. Mostly he stays under the radar and doesn't piss anybody off. Fred voted to impeach the dastardly Clinton, but wouldn't vote for impeachment now if you caught Cheney with his arm up a live boy or a dead girl. What the hell, I wrote him a letter anyway:

Hon. Fred Upton
Washington D.C. Office
2183 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

In 1988, you voted for the impeachment of William Clinton on what I presume were well-considered, lawful reasons. I am writing you today to urge the same level of patriotism and regard for our country as regards the impeachment of Vice-President Richard Cheney, and the possible impeachment of President George W. Bush.

I am sure you are all too well acquainted with the domestic complaints against both the President and Vice-President. These might be debated point by point, and I suspect you and I would fall on different sides of the same issues.

However, both sides of the political aisle must acknowledge the extralegal actions of Vice-President Richard Cheney and President George W. Bush as regards the president’s role as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and the appropriation of unrestrained power by Vice President Cheney. It seems clear from both the public and private record that the leaders of this administration have presumed imperial powers as regards making war and the expenditure of lives and treasure.

These constitute high crimes, misdemeanors, and abuse of Constitutional authority. The Constitution, Sir, is not going to defend itself. It is your unfortunate duty, thrust upon us by time and circumstance, to acknowledge these extraordinary circumstances and to vote for articles of impeachment when they are brought up by the House Judiciary Committee.

Sincerely,
etc.

They Won't Quit. They CAN'T Quit.

So the Senate's going to pull an all nighter; it seems the least they can do, considering the sleepless nights imposed on Iraquis and the untenable position of our troops. The Democrats proposed a pull out starting in 120 days. The Republicans threatened a filibuster. The Democrats, in a bit of jiu jitu, said, fine,let’s sit up all night and talk about it.

The Texans think this is silly, a "slumber party": aid and comfort to the enemy, support our troops, wait until September, you know the drill. Does anyone else feel that the Arabs and the Texans truly deserve each other? The odious Lieberman, standing tall with Mitch McConnell and McCain, thinks this is a terrible idea, all this fussin', 'sides, all this commotion might upset Marse' George. At least one of the soldiers thinks the members of Congress ought to serve a rotation: "they don't have to do anything, they just come hang out with me and go home at the times I go home, and come stay here 15 months with me." Update: The timetable didn't get the 60 votes needed to pass, but it did win 52 votes, up from 39 votes a non-binding withdrawl resolution got last year.

John Mc Cain, bless his heart, keeps talkin’ ‘bout the "chaos": “Failure will lead to chaos, withdrawal will lead to chaos.... I believe that a withdrawal, or a date for withdrawal, will lead to chaos in the region.” The chaos is already here, John. They've already followed us home: George Bush's invasion of Iraq was a recruiting bonanza for al-Qaeda. Sigh... always the last to know.

Carl Levin, one of our senators from Michigan since forever, just wants this open-ended commitment to end: "What we have is a glass called Iraq that has a hole in the bottom, and whatever we put into Iraq, goes right through that hole." I've been puzzled by the dead enders like William Kristol or the mad monk Norman Podhoretz . I'm infuriated by the administration's willingness to keep throwing good lives after bad.

But they will not, they cannot, stop the war in Iraq. All the twenty-years olds in the world will not be enough to feed that maw. To quit would be to admit that everything they've done, and the dollars and the lives they spent, were a waste. We will be in this war until the grownups take the wheel away from the crazies, and then for the next thirty years, Bush and Kristol and the rest will blame the grownups for "losing" Iraq, because we weren't willing to spend a thousand lives more.

John Edwards Is Off the List. So Is his Hair.

John Edwards ought to have lost any credibility as a Democratic presidential candidate when he paid $400 for a haircut. There are other, more solid reasons: Edwards' vote on the war, and his inability to man up about enabling Bush and killing thousands are more serious signs of his disconnect with reality. But people understand haircuts. I have a relative who works as a "celebrity" hair stylist in a major city, doing quite nicely, thank you, and to actually experience the mental canyon between those in the upper income brackets and most Americans makes the class war a concrete reality.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, "the richest 1 percent of American households held one-third of all wealth in the U.S. economy, and took in 14 percent of the national income". The right wing economists who built this economy with Milton Friedman complain about the implied rebuke: how is that YOUR problem? Does it really harm anyone that CEOs make 400 times as much as the people on the shop floor, instead of 20 times as much? By even mentioning the income gap, are we not (gasp; pause for the image of Dick Cheney dressed as Aunt Pittypat, fanning himself and calling for his salts) fomenting class warfare? Is this not simple selfishness and resentment on the part of the poor?

Isn't it pretty to think so? Larry Bartels of Princeton actually did the numbers, counting the voting record of the Senate between 1989 and 1994. "In almost every instance, senators appear to be considerably more responsive to the opinions of affluent constituents than to the opinions of middle-class constituents, while the opinions of constituents in the bottom third of the income distribution have no apparent statistical effect on their senators’ roll call votes." And this was during a time when so-called Wall Street "Democrats" controlled the Congress. Work by Lawrence Jacobs of the University of Minnesota and Benjamin Page at Northwestern shows that the same income gap shapes the votes of politicians in international affairs... who loses their job, and who gets sent to war.

If bloggers are the new pamphleteers, we need to keep pestering the candidates until someone (Barack Obama, who still talks as if he's actually read the Constitution and thought about it, would seem the natural choice) starts talking about this in public, and presents the research, and doesn't let the media parrot the latest quote from the corporate candidates about "class warfare."

SOMEBODY GET THAT IN WRITING!

"My attitude about this is that there is a great opportunity for us to show the country that REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ARE EQUALLY AS PATRIOTIC and equally concerned about the future, and that we can work together."

G.W. Bush, November 10, 2006

AND YO' MAMA, TOO.

Sometimes Mean Is All You've Got

Karl Rove, known to the president as Turd Blossom, is not especially worried about the midterm election. He even claims to have done the math to predict "a Republican House and a Republican Senate"; that is, in spite of all the public expressions of disgust, that disgust won't actually translate into votes for Democrats.

I hope he's wrong, but won't be surprised if there are no substantial changes in the governance of our country. The reporters of the popular press no longer think, they swarm like schools of small fish, and they've got themselves convinced that the Democrats are going to win the House, take the Senate, and act as a control on Boy King George.

I'm expecting a few seats to change hands, but not nearly enough to inspire a sea change. The Democrats will congratulate themselves on election night, and on the following morning there will bitter accusations from the losers, but when the dust clears, there will still be quislings voting with the president.

We need a two-thirds majority to override presidential vetoes and restore habeas corpus. I'm not sure we'll get that.

So Rove smiles his Uriah Heep smile and fingers the lettering on his "I LOVE DIEBOLD BECAUSE DIEBOLD LOVES ME" gift mug. The nation is in peril and a majority of Americans despise this administration, but when you're an ugly wet rat trapped in a corner, all you've got left is mean-- and Rove and the Bush family have never been wanting for meanness of spirit.

[See Also Put Not Your Faith in Foley]

My Time Has Come

"Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world", muttered Shelley, probably while peering through an absinthe fog and wearing Mary Wollstonecraft-Godwin's teenaged thighs for earmuffs. Such things may fill a man with hubris and make him think he can go sailing in a thunderstorm or walk on water.

Until today, I have avoided the call to the dusty arena of politics. My hat was never in the ring. If nominated, I would not serve, if elected, I would move and change my name to Osbert Fleadick. Anyone who wants power over other human beings probably shouldn't be trusted with power.

An unfeeling public would almost certainly reject my plan to bring back the buffalo west of the Mississippi and restore the forests east of the Mississipi to pre-1850 numbers. They say a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic to the Mississippi in the trees without ever touching the ground. Swimming the river, he could travel on the backs of the buffalo herds to the Rocky Mountains, again without touching the ground.

I admit there were provisions in my platform that some found troubling. The call to re-establish grizzly bears to their former range "because Americans need a large dangerous animal in their environment to knock the snot-nose out of them" could probably have been phrased differently. The red states aren't ready to vote for a candidate who's come out in FAVOR of pornography, and the blue states don't see the need to purge all advertising agencies with a guillotine set up on Madison Avenue.

But now my time has come!

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Michael Wynne wants to test "nonlethal" microwave devices on American citizens, to see if they really ARE non-lethal. "If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," says Wynne. "... if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."

Never mind the world press, Wynne. The first concern will be my foot up your ass, as soon as the tremors wear off.

Candidate for governor Richard "Dick" DeVos ("Dick DeVos before he dicks you") wants Creationism-- excuse me, "intelligent design" taught in science class to "expose our students to more ideas, not less."

Ideas that once would have been derided as stark raving batshit are now in the mainstream. A once skeptical media, afraid of being "partisan" (that's what happens when you whore after advertisers or sell out to a conglomerate) now reports this stuff with a straight face.

America! I have heard your call!

America! I'm putting my loony shoulder to the wheel!

The War We're Going to Inherit

Here at Water Street Coffee Joint in Kalamazoo, the rally posters all call for the complete withdrawal of Americans from Iraq. I hate this war. I was against it before it started. I call for the discarded limbs from this war to clutch at the bedclothes and crawl over George W. Bush in his sleep.
And yet, and yet-- it horrifies me to say this-- the call for immmediate withdrawl strikes me as naive, self-righteous and every bit as monstrous as the initial attack. Having trashed the place, ruined their infrastructure and shot their grandma, we now say to the Iraquis, "aw man, we're sorry we wrecked your house..." and then leave? This is the morality of drunken frat boys, and wasn't that who got us into Iraq in the first place?
Damn him to a hell of nightmares for leaving us in this position. There have to be a few Democrats who are wondering, damn, are we SURE we want to win this next election? We may never get the pee smell out of the cushions in the White House.

The Clintons and Leiberman

Friends are puzzled that Bill Clinton would stump for Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary in Connecticut. The Clintons-- althought I prefer them to the current regime-- have always been DNRs, or Damn Near Republicans. Bill's charm and the repulsiveness of the competition blinds a lot of people to that fact.
I personally like the guy, but politically both Clintons ought to have their asses kicked from here to Harry Truman for their compromises-- excerpt that the American fascists on the right are so much worse. i just hate to see Clinton enabling the Republican enbablers like Leiberman, who was a mistake as a VP nomination and is a mistake today.
Clinton, i imagine, would answer that high principles don't do you much good if you can't get elected, but there's a line where the price you pay in compromise is not equal to the return, and both Bill and Hillary have crossed that line more than once. That happens when you confuse your own re-election with your political goals.
What "achievement" of the Clinton years was so great that it was worth the compromises with Wall Street, with the military industrial complex? None. They produced a heath care plan that was unreadable and impossible to pass. They diddled with Bin Laden and never quite "went all the way" in the hunt out of political concerns.
The blinders of nostalgia and the horrors of the current administration have obscured what a compromiser and placater Bill Clinton actually was-- perhaps acting out his "child of an alcoholic" role just as much as Bush acts out his "dry, mean drunk" on the world stage. I fear the Clintons will be remembered for selfishness and ambition more than principle.

"LET US TEACH DENNIS HASTERT THE MEANING OF FEAR..."

Okay, I used to feel sorry for Dennis Hastert, becoming Speaker of the House on the heels of a couple of REAL assholes.. but now he SO dearly needs to have his ass kicked from here to Sunday. This is me, advocating violence against a duly elected representative of the hapless people of Illinois. Getting in Hastert's personal space for just one good John Ford movie punch on the sweet spot would be worth going to jail, if only to let that hypocritical bastard feel for just... one... MOMENT the fear felt by true sons of the Constitution and the rest of the freedom loving world ever since the 2000 coup in Florida.

Are you having fun, now, Dennis? We've all had time to think about it and read the investigative journalism, and it WAS a coup, and the Constitution IS under attack. Forget about the Supreme Court rush job by the undearly departed Chief Justice and Sandra Day O'Connor's morning after remorse, forget about Florida and Ohio's Secretaries of State... Let's remember that riot, and the physical coercion of vote tabulators by Republican staffers flown in from Washington. Remember that, Dennis? Remember the 2004 highjinks in Ohio, where the Democratic districts suffered a mysterious shortage of voting machines, and university students had an EIGHT HOUR WAIT TO VOTE? Since then, we've had suspension of habeas corpus, harassment of dissidents, a pre-emptive invasion, at least 50,000 little kids and grandmas dead by violence and a billion dollar war that has doubled the number of terrorists gunning for American innocents... and NOW you speak up, now that the jackboot is getting mud on the carpet of the office next door? NOW you decided to speak up, you Fat Fuck?

It's like that scene in "DieHard" when one of the bad guys lands with a !Crumpf! on the hood of the cop car. Now imagine Dennis Hastert in the role of the drowsy cop. Imagine the ACLU as Bruce Willis, looking down from the window and yelling to Hastert: "WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL!!!"

Now that the royalist presidency is permitting search and seizure of congressional offices, Dennis Hastert has suddenly discovered that there's a Constitution, and something called Separation of Powers...? MotherFUCKER. No, too harsh. His own mother's womb is embarassed to have given birth to an equivocating traitor to the ideals of the United States.

Okay, I won't hit him with my fist. Besides, if men really struck each other like they do in a John Ford comedy, they'd break their hands and walk around whimpering for a week. But I'm gardening today, and there's a big heavy bag of cow flop out by the road with Hastert's name on it, and if the son of a bitch comes within 100 feet of my furious digging, the Speaker of the House is going to wind up smelling like the BULLSHIT that he's been eating with a spoon like it was sugar for Lo These Many Months.

Hey, yesterday I intimidated a comic book geek in a "Sin City" shirt who was complaining loudly in the bookstore about "Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's diDACtic lectures against [snide voice] 'cruelty to animals.'" Guess I'm on a roll. It's not that I've suddenly become an advocate for bullying the complacent-- I've spent my life in satyagraha-esque spiritual struggle AGAINST bullies. But in both these cases-- Dennis Hastert learning his civics lesson too late, and the comic book geek who didn't mind seeing someone ELSE suffer-- we have individuals who have always jested at scars because they never felt a wound, who have failed to develop empathy until they themselves were on the receiving end of a threat.

Ain't It Funny how the comic book geek and his pal quickly backpedaled and allowed as how they were VERY against animal cruelty, and how the brave little Pirate (a character in Morrison and Quitely's book) deserved a better fate, Yessir they were just on their way to send money to the Humane Society. All I did was move very close to them and ask, "What's... wrong... with... Being... Kind.. to Bunnies?" in my best imitation of a tyrannosaur idly chewing on a piece of sheet metal.

And Ain't It Funny how fast these congressmen have discovered the rights of the accused, now that THEY'RE the ones threatened with Guilt by Accusation???

Better late than never? I hope they choke on Alberto Gonzales's mealy-mouthed smile.

HARRY TAYLOR SPEAKS TRUTH TO POWER; POWER ANSWERS THE FIRST QUESTION, IGNORES THE REST

[Excerpt from the official White House transcript of an exchange between 61-year old Charlotte real estate broker Harry Taylor and G.W. Bush at Central Piedmont Community College,
in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday, April 4, 2006.]

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, squeaky wheels. There's three of you up there. Is this like a chorus? (Laughter.) Would you please decide among yourselves?

Harry Taylor: I've got the mike.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, yes, very good. (Laughter and applause.) Good move.

Harry Taylor: You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are --

THE PRESIDENT: I'm not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what's your question?

Harry Taylor: Okay, I don't have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I -- in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and --

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec -- let him speak.

Harry Taylor: And I would hope -- I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself. And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I'm saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.

THE PRESIDENT: It is, yes. (Applause.)

Harry Taylor: And I know that this doesn't come welcome to most of the people in this room, but I do appreciate that.

THE PRESIDENT: Appreciate --

Harry Taylor: I don't have a question, but I just wanted to make that comment to you.

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate it, thank you. Let me --

Harry Taylor: Can I ask a question?

THE PRESIDENT: I'm going to start off with what you first said, if you don't mind, you said that I tap your phones -- I think that's what you said. You tapped your phone -- I tapped your phones. Yes. No, that's right. Yes, no, let me finish.

I'd like to describe that decision I made about protecting this country. You can come to whatever conclusion you want. The conclusion is I'm not going to apologize for what I did on the terrorist surveillance program, and I'll tell you why. We were accused in Washington, D.C. of not connecting the dots, that we didn't do everything we could to protect you or others from the attack. And so I called in the people responsible for helping to protect the American people and the homeland. I said, is there anything more we could do.

And there -- out of this national -- NSA came the recommendation that it would make sense for us to listen to a call outside the country, inside the country from al Qaeda or suspected al Qaeda in order to have real-time information from which to possibly prevent an attack. I thought that made sense, so long as it was constitutional. Now, you may not agree with the constitutional assessment given to me by lawyers -- and we've got plenty of them in Washington -- but they made this assessment that it was constitutional for me to make that decision.

I then, sir, took that decision to members of the United States Congress from both political parties and briefed them on the decision that was made in order to protect the American people. And so members of both parties, both chambers, were fully aware of a program intended to know whether or not al Qaeda was calling in or calling out of the country. It seems like -- to make sense, if we're at war, we ought to be using tools necessary within the Constitution, on a very limited basis, a program that's reviewed constantly to protect us.

Now, you and I have a different -- of agreement on what is needed to be protected. But you said, would I apologize for that? The answer -- answer is, absolutely not. (Applause.)

Q Mr. President, I was raised on a ranch in New Mexico. And my heroes have always been cowboys.

THE PRESIDENT: There you go. Thank you, yes. (Laughter.) I'm not sure I qualify as a cowboy. (Laughter.)

See Also:
THE HICKERBILLY ANTICHRIST,
FEINGOLD TO DEMOCRATS: L'AUDACE! L'AUDACE! ET TOUJOURS L'AUDACE!!!,
PLAY THE GAME: GEORGE BUSH OR ED WOOD?,
AMERICA THE CHICKENSHIT,
EVEN A BROKEN CLOCK IS RIGHT TWICE A DAY,
YOU... MY SWEET IMPEACHABLE YOU...

FEINGOLD TO DEMOCRATS: L'AUDACE! L'AUDACE! ET TOUJOURS L'AUDACE!!!

An AP article tells us that Feingold's and Conyers' talk about censure and impeachment is raising their populararity with Democratic voters, but not with party functionaries.

The theory is that too much talk about censure will incite the Republican faithful to swarm to Bush's defense. News flash: the Republican faithful would swarm to Bush's defense if he were caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl. The censure proposal is supposed to hurt, not help, the Democrats in the House and Senate election. It distracts from Bush's other troubles, it delights the RNC. Don't make them mad, the Leiberman Democrats say, or rather, whine, as if Feingold was angry at Bush for lying about a friendly blowjob instead of merely subverting the Constitution, killing thousands, suspending habeas corpus, ordering warrantless searches, legalizing torture and driving the nation into a ditch.

One wonders at what point the Democratic Party WOULD speak up for the Constitution and the preservation of the Republic.

Feingold responds in the article: "I welcome their attempt to make a campaign issue of the question of whether there will be accountability for the president's breaking the law," he said. "They will remind people every minute that the president thumbed his nose at the law."

What are the Democrats waiting for? Will they take a stand only when they have a majority? This cowardice masquerading as caution is worse than contemptuous. L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!

See also: Will Someone Please Give Him a Blowjob so We Can Impeach Him? , Weimar America, Democrats Looking for Their Lost Balls , and others

SEND ORWELL to CONGRESS! BOOKS for BOZOS! CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME

From an unsigned editorial in the Oakland Tribune December 23rd:

".... We think it's time for Congress to heed the warning of George Orwell.
"To that end, we're asking for your help: Mail us or drop off your tattered copies of "1984." When we get 537 of them, we'll send them to every member of the House of Representatives and Senate and to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Feel free to inscribe the book with a note, reminding these fine people that we Americans take the threat to our liberties seriously. Remind Congress that it makes no sense to fight a war for democracy in a foreign land while allowing our democratic principles to erode at home.
"Remind President Bush that ours is a country of checks and balances, not unbridled power. Perhaps our nation's leaders can find some truth in this fiction and more carefully ponder the road we're traveling.
"Bring or mail your books to the Oakland Tribune, 401 13th St., Oakland CA 94612. Doors are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m."

I finally replaced my rummage sale, falling apart copy of "1984" (BTW, anybody know how to underline or italicize text on Blogspot?) with a newer paperback. It shouldn't be that much trouble to do this directly.
Poor George Orwell/Eric Blair must keep spinning in his unquiet grave. Everyone wants to claim him. This is relatively easy to do, if you only read the parts that you want. Myself, I'm including him in The Lungers' Hall of Fame, a sort of Valhalla where I'll play cards with Blair, Doc Holliday, Dashiell Hammett, O'Neill, Proust, Mimi and Camille, and all the other tuberculars and asthmatics of history. Why do we cough so much? Because the world is suffocating us.

Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day

"It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war."
In his own perverse way, the Dry Drunk President, a man who has lived his life by rewriting history, is correct.
It goes without saying that the Bush administration manipulated the facts. And the Democrats voted for the invasion of Iraq because they were afraid of being called cowards. Two thousand American soldiers and who knows how many Iraqui civilians are dead in horrible ways because Hillary Clinton and Joe Leiberman didn't want to be called wimps by Dick Cheney, and we all know how scary he can be. It's this generation's take on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Democratic senators are every bit as culpable as the Bush administration in the Iraqui mistake. Al Qaeda operatives must kiss George Bush's picture every day as their greatest recruiter.
But let's not have Democrats claim they were drunk or horny or naive when Shrub "tricked" them with "intelligence". They knew they were giving the car keys to a lame-brain and they couldn't resist his dare. Soldiers implicitly volunteered to surround Tora Bora and were sent to Mesopotamia instead.
"Misled the American people"? The American people can't find Iraq and Afghanistan on a map. That's why we have a Senate, to be a deliberative body that says "slow down, let's get the facts and think about this." The Republican Party will be roasting on their own special spits in Hell, but the Democratic Party held its nose, closed its eyes and hoped for the best in what they knew was a Very Bad Idea. God forbid a Fox anchor should call them names.
Anyone with a scintilla of critical intelligence could see that Powell's presentation was half-assed and not enough to go to war. Anyone with the least bit of experience, observation and intuition could see right through Chalabi and the rest.
Any con man will tell you that you can't con a pigeon without a greedy and eager pigeon.

Democrats Finally Looking for Their Lost Balls

Meanwhile, Bill "Cat Killer" Frist (R-Tenn.), feels he's been "slapped in the face" by Harry Reid's call for a closed session of the Senate. "From now on, for the next year and a half, I can't trust Sen. Reid." Frist being Frist, it's all about him, and not a word about getting to the truth about the invasion of Iraq.

"I demand on behalf of the American people that we understand why these investigations aren't being conducted," the sneaky bastard said. And the news services, as easy to distract as a kitten, led their stories with Frist's sputtering instead of Reid's reasoned argument for forcing the investigation. More later...

MEMO FROM: Jesus of Nazareth/ TO: Congressional Torture Caucus

Somebody over in Congress finally read the Constitution, or had lunch with Robert Byrd, or maybe their kid came home from civics class and explained it to them. At any rate, they have rediscovered checks and balances and have started to grow some balls.

The McCain amendment S.AMDT.1977 forbids the torture of "persons under the detention, custody, or control of the United States Government." It was attached to a major spending bill, but the current president has announced he will veto it. (I'm pleased that Michigan's own Carl Levin was one of the co-sponsors. I'm very fond of ol' Carl; I ran around with a lot of Jewish kids in high school and Senator Levin reminds me of everyone's dad or uncle.)

There were, of course, abstentions (feelthy people, pah! -- we will speak no more of them) and nine senators who voted against the amendment. In alphabetical order, they are:

Wayne Allard, Colorado (odd choice for a former veterinarian with pretty mountains on his website)
Kit Bond, Missouri (Sen. Bond has a son in the Marines-- I pray the lieutenant's never captured and finds the shoe on the other foot)
Tom Coburn, Oklahoma (Oklahoma stands united for torture! And him an OB/GYN man who delivered babies. It's wonderful how the moral sense can compartmentalize itself)
Thad Cochran, Mississippi (awards from National Wildlife Federation and The Nature Conservancy-- here's a fellow I can talk to)
John Cornyn, Texas (lists his favorite book as "Bonfire of the Vanities" and favorite film as "Jerry Maguire"; thinks his "most embarrassing moment occurred when I muffed the opening pitch at a Round Rock Express baseball game"... we're frickin' doomed)
James Inhofe, Oklahoma (posing with young soldiers who behind the grins are thinking, "If I'm ever captured, this bastard is going to get my nuts cut off.")
Pat Roberts, Kansas (Senate Intelligence Chairman, also on Select Committee on Ethics; and yes, his ethics are "select")
Jeff Sessions, Alabama (Alabama; no surprises there)
Ted Stevens, Alaska (Ted's been a madman for years now, and I see no reason for him to change)

Several bloggers are calling them "The Nazgul", a literary nickname for the nine dark riders and servants of Sauron from "The Lord of the Rings."

I'm curious as to whether or not these fellows openly adhere to the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth, aka Jesus the Christ, who was himself a victim of torture. I assume they do identify themselves as "Christian", when asked, that being the most popular answer for politicians these days. (I'm looking for a quote from Mark Twain, wherein the devil says to a smug fellow, "The trouble with you is, you think you're the best people here, whereas you're really just the most numerous.") I'm not speaking from any high moral ground-- I indulge myself with elaborate revenge and torture fantasies for people who hurt animals or little kids, bullies in general-- but I'm not making laws. Even from the coldest perspective imaginable, I thought they got the memo Torture Doesn't Work as an intelligence gathering tool. Satisfying, yes, but productive, no. This is an old Victorian notion in fiction, that you've converted the bad guy by making him cry. By the time you're finished venting your anger, the other side has changed their plans and the information you got from the torture victim is out of date. It doesn't change people's minds, either... you can bomb the shit out of someone's home town and blow up any number of old ladies and kindergartners, and all it does is make the citizens even more determined to fight you. Did Abu Ghraib (new even more offensive photos coming soon, I hear) accomplish anything beyond increasing anti-American feeling? How the hell did we blow the lead, the world sympathy we had on September 12?

Has it occured to anyone that the Nazgul Nine might be Al-Qaeda sleeper agents?