Andy Card

Well, well the Bush operatives are in the news. How they have the gall to comment on anything after completing a presidential term that will go down as the most corrupt and outrageously incompetent administration ever stretches the limits of reason. Rove continues to put out the same old twisted stuff he always has. One can only hope Senator Leahy's investigation gets going soon so many of these scoundrels can be rounded up and pay for their crimes.

The most laughable of observations comes from Andy Card.

This cad had the audacity to comment on the president working with out a suit coat. The unmitigated simplicity of these folks is laughable if it weren't for their stupidity and the fact that they were actually in charge. If Bush had actually done any real work perhaps he would have taken off his coat and rolled his sleeves. These clowns who lived on perception and nothing but perception think that one's attire is the measure of effectiveness or respect for the office.

Yes, I recall their press releases to point out that W was a man who had great respect for the office. One would have thought he might have valued the constitution. Yes, there were the reports that he liked to start his meetings promptly. The little king also liked everything in order. White shirts were mandatory. Give us break with this pompous do nothing public relations ploy to make people think that this crew of fools were actually working. Yes Scooter Libby was all decked out in his uniform while he sullied the CIA agent. Dick Cheney was always in uniform when he set about to delve into “the dark side.”

What a country? Superficiality ruled the day among these clowns as they went about breaking the law? They talked about saving the country but all they were doing were saving their backsides. Interesting that after this national disaster we need to continue to hear them talk about the way people should go about their business. The funny thing is, given their record, they haven't any ground whatsoever to speak on any subject other than their defense for their actions and then only before a hearing or jury.

Go Where They Are Doing Right

Well, well, surprise. Another gridlock. The wheels of our government have frozen with the outrage of the (dis) loyal opposition. It wasn't so long ago republican members were chastising those who opposed their jingoistic leaning and expenditures as being unpatriotic for not lining up behind the fool in the White House and supporting his forays into war. So what do we call those who ignore the state of our economy for political purposes. I don't know how these republicans have the gumption to claim the moral high ground. To hear them talk you would think that when they held the national purse strings they were stewards of the first order. The truth is the money flew out of our pockets with staggering speed while contractors failed to do the work and Haliburton lined its pocket with overcharges. To top it off, we are learning that what went down in Iraq put to shame Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, and everyone locked up or who was ever locked up for theft. Then, a southern senator brings Christ into the debate as if this unholy reference somehow gives credence to their obstruction. There is absolutely no end to either the hypocrisy or out right sophistry of these two bit political hacks.

This country is in a hole brought on by the incompetent and criminal actions of an administration and its congressional cohorts. For eight years, we were lead by the unknowing into one pit after another. To hear these clowns, one would think that when they were in charge we had record surpluses and all our actions were guided by divine providence, unfortunately the conveyor of good lord's word was a sinister vice president who had no regard for morals, ethics or laws.

One clown after another clown parades in front of us juggling such inept arguments such transparent, temporary and targeted. All the while, they are picking their collective noses and attempting to come up with rhetoric (not ideas) to put that new guy in his place. After all, as stewards, they have done such an exemplary job. Of course, there is a new standard for irony since that what they advocate had no place in the previous cabal.

Of course, Obama didn't help by naming a cadre of cheats and scofflaws. Can we believe Daschle didn't know about compensation laws? It strikes at the heart of our dilemma. Geithner is no prize either. The boy wonder, the brightest kid in the room, didn't know about some basic tax matter. I bet they had some scheming accountant do their taxes. Heck, I bet turbo tax would have gotten them an honest return. The fact is that the high and mighty go about their business unconcerned about anything. Mistakes? Come on!

Now this whole business of health care boils down to the need for some serious study. Unlike the republicans who think that any intervention by government is a death knell to efficiency and effectiveness, I believe the heart of this discussion should begin with the insurance companies. Their compensation packages, the administrative over head, their incestuous relationship with specific members of congress and their practices regarding care -- all need to be investigated. One has to ask how these profiteers ever got hold of our health care system in the first place. The death grip these insurance companies have on the our health care is truly a mystery. Our system is bankrupt because special interests have placed their concerns above the public needs. Daschle was the wrong man for any number of reasons.

The last eight years have been instructive. First, we should know by now that we are not the be all and end all things political. Quite frankly, we don't know how to manage a health care system. We don't know how to provide for the care of our citizens. We are not the leading nation in the delivery of health care. Perhaps we should send someone over to countries where there is an effective health care system and stop relying on people who know nothing but what they have experienced and worse created. There are countries in this world where the citizens enjoy solid cradle to grave care. Let's learn from those who have delivered good health care. It is quite obvious that no one around Washington or Hartford knows anything about it. All these titans and hacks know is how to take money out of the system and prop up those who stand in the way of a comprehensive system. As for the (dis) loyal oppositions all they are doing is conjuring up rhetoric that serves no purpose whatsoever save to get their faces in the meida.

Those Fools on the Hill

Let me be frank, what I know about economics could fit easily on a postage stamp – one side only. But there is one thing I know for sure that after eight years of conservative economic policy you would need to be in coma to miss the deleterious effect it has had on this country and the world. Yet as I pound on my keyboard, there are a gaggle of republicans lawmakers now informing President Obama what is wrong with his plan. You would think that these fools would realize that they have no currency to suggest anything in the way of stimulating the economy.

Yes, the package is big, a trillion is a lot of loot. But lets keep in mind that these self righteous keepers of the public funds are the same crowd that allowed Bush to run up record deficits with excessive tax breaks for the wealthy, to squander nearly a trillion on a trump up war, with billions of dollars literally stolen by contractors with no bid contracts, who allowed Paulson to disburse billions to banks to allow them to keep the same incompetent executives in place, and to declare, as Frank Rich eloquently wrote, any who disagreed with their malfeasance and misfeasance to be less than patriotic. What is truly amazing is how these self styled buffoons have suddenly transformed themselves to guardians of the public interest.

They spout the same tedious arguments over and over again. What is clear that the lot of republican lawmakers are more interested in getting their mugs and voices plastered on whatever media that is available. The bombastic Rush the Lush, got any pills?, continues to lead these parade of fools by the nose. They march to his discordant rantings hoping that somehow people will again ignore reason and close their eyes and open their hearts and minds to their bull.

One needs to wonder where it will all end. The talk of bipartisan politics is, unfortunately, just talk. The scoundrels who have run the country into debt, who have slaughtered young servicemen in the name of freedom while hiding the truth under a veil of security, who have systematically destroyed the credibility of this nation stand as a testament to the loathsomeness of partisan politics. Hopefully, change will gain a foothold and their constituents will see them for what they are and vote them out of office. There is nothing wrong with conservatives, they have a point a view, and it can create a dynamic of compromise. But the fools who have assumed the leadership role in the current debate are nothing but hypocrites who are arrogant to think that no one has a memory of how they systematically ran this country into the ground.

We need to be saved from these fools.

Good Riidance W

It's been awhile since I contributed to this blog. The election sent me into a state of exhaustion. It is the first time that I really thought our political system transcended business as usual. From the thuggery of the 2000 election, which the Supreme Court dirtied its hand by issuing a ruling, to the outright disgrace of an administration that viewed itself beyond the pale of law, these past eight years have been nothing short of a nightmare. With the day rapidly approaching when, at last, we will have a new president, it is time to truly reflect on what this outgoing president means to me. I speak from the lowliest of positions yet the most distinguished in a democracy, a citizen. It is the rights bestowed upon a free man to express his views that makes this nation. With all the fanfare of the babbling talking heads on what this moment means, it is most appropriate to reflect.

The most disconcerting remark made by Bush was his macho statement about the burdens of office. Standing before the press corp, he mocked it by suggesting that those who apply this idea to the office of presidency are merely weak. What a joke!

This man was so over head in responsibility that he failed to understand the fundamental role the president plays in our society. Here is a man who watched his citizens drowned, who sent thousands of young men to their premature death on the strength of false intelligence, who allowed a vice president to violate laws (we needn't go into specific – time and space constraints), whose inept secretary of defense resulted in horrendous injuries to thousands upon thousands, whose financial oversight team couldn't detect a tsunami of trouble. With all that and much more, he mocks the line “the burdens of the office.” Obviously, he never took his responsibilities serious. Unlike, Lincoln who went to Gettysburg and was so taken by deaths, both north and south, that he penned a few lines that will forever be emblazoned in the hearts of anyone who witnesses the horrors of war. Lincoln understood the burdens of his decisions. Though his cause was noble, he still felt the burden of his actions.

No, our playboy, with his silver tooth pick and acquired southern drawl, the scoundrel who got bailed out of every jam, mocks the line because he never understood his role. He never assessed the consequences of his decisions. It was reported that he wanted meetings to start promptly, he wanted proper dress, all that false stuff that means little or nothing. How could he, in his final days, not understand the burden of his office. Maybe he should spend some time with the wounded veterans, or walk through Arlington, or visit New Orleans. Maybe he should get a conscience. Maybe he should look at the wreckage of his past and attempt to make amends though I doubt there is enough time in eternity.

The Cardinal Speaks and I Shutter

Cardinal James Francis Stafford has come out rather strongly against the president elect. Seems that abortion and stem cell research are so destructive to his sense of religion that he feels that Obama campaigned on “extremist  anti-life platform. . . .”

Here we go again. The Catholic church and its acolytes climb up in their high and mighty pulpits to preach from their sanctimonious platforms about what is right and moral. This is a church that actively hid child molesters in its parishes. Worse, even when the wretched sick pedophiles were caught and identified for what they were, they were secretly shipped of to another location and allowed to prey upon the young and innocent. Only when humiliated by the legal process did they take ownership of this sordid and inhumane treatment of its very own.

Who are they to dictate what is a danger to the world? Let's face it, the church has had its hand in many of the problems of the world. As recently as Pius XII there was collision with a repressive Nazi government. How is it that these moral beacons can look at the world in this century and talk of the dangers of birth control and stem cell research? How is it that the Vatican doesn't fully look into the early church and the gospels of Thomas and Mary?

The trouble with the Catholic Church is that it is a closed system ruled by a single person with absolute authority. While one can, if they strictly follow the cannons of the church, find a direct line back to Jesus, the fact is the cannons were in fact written by those whose position it was to reinforce the cannons. Martin Luther's objections to the church were its venal application of cannons that had nothing to do with Christianity. Yet the church, always from the moral high ground, condemns all those who sway from their outdated, if not inhumane cannons. They talk of life without a realization for what life is like for people in this 21st century. One can only look into history and see the ramifications of this influence. The inquisition was conducted by the Church and its priests.

The church clings to its outdated practices and principles because it is ruled by old men who have little but their standing and their outdated practices and principles. It is ironic given the fact that Christ was a radical. He was a man who stood for change, dramatic change in the face of the old outdated practices and principles. The rich history of Christianity doesn't lie in the gilded domes of old men's homes. Historians are uncovering serious questions about translations and other historic documents relating to the teaching of Christ. To restrict one's understanding of a subject is to favor ignorance over knowledge. The reason these old men seem so out of step is because they are dated. It will probably take the church as long to recognize the issues of the 21st century as it did for light to shed the truth on the Dark Ages.

Reflection on the Election

The election of Obama is a seminal moment in the history of the world. In many respects, it signals an inner striving of humanity to find equality and morality. It also tells us for humanity to fully realize its potential it must exist in a free society. Only when the chains of convention are broken can change be realized. Yet while this victory is momentous, this is no time to feel complacent. Our world is far from reaching its true potential. A world wherein all life is honored.

It was amazing to see McCain's concession speech. Where was this man during the election? He was a bit verbose to be sure. Yet in that moment, McCain rose to the occasion. His words were the words of a patriot. His campaign, on the other hand, was rife with discord and rancor and all the ugly aspects of an America whose time had passed. It would seem that he did in fact sell his soul for the nomination. Quite frankly, McCain was in a world foreign even to him. His party still rankles at the mention of Obama. The catcalls that rang out when Obama was mentioned is indicative of a deep seated hatred, a hatred that is blinded by an allegiance to dogma. It is that hatred that was so successfully tapped in previous elections. It is the hatred of exclusion. It is hatred that ties into the basest side of all life forms – a proclivity to sustain one's existence at the expense of another. It is part of the animal nature. To grasp this concept, just look at a robin's diet after a good rain.

A growing world population forces change. Only with an open and free society can the human race realize its potential. We need only look at past and current governments to experience hope or fear. Governments dominated by a single ideology or religion are most susceptible to tyranny. When a position of exclusion is advocated, then any outside of the artificial construct are vulnerable. We need only look a Nazi Germany or a Darfur to see the consequences of exclusion. Countless examples abound. The history of this world is dominated by exclusive armies rendering havoc on those outside its realm. The idea that “might makes right” is borne out of this base instinct.

With this election, we see the hope of millions of downtrodden humans lifted in a single man. That this transformation came about in this country should give us all pause. The fact that so many still cling to ideas that serve no purpose in furthering humanity only indicates that challenge that faces Obama. But through the creation of a climate of inclusion, hopefully those who are clinging to the idea “That my country right or wrong” will come to realize the benefit of a saner more humane world.

In the final analysis, people are not moved by arguments. They are moved by actions. For the world to see change, we need to open our arms so that we may encircle those who are to fearful to venture into a new tomorrow. How best to understand this idea? John Donne said it best so many years ago:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Revisionist History and Impeachment

In the waning days of the Bush Administration, we are seeing but another travesty of incompetence and corruption unfolding. I have long been an advocate for impeachment. It is clear that someone who is so obviously corrupt and immoral can not be entrusted with the power of the presidency. Any single act of outright incompetence or worse corruption would have been enough. And the list is long and only historians will be able to fully document the failures. Some of the more glaring ones are Katrina, Iraq, the Rove/Cheney affair with the leaking of an agent, the firing of the US Attorneys, the corruption of intelligence and the blunders of the Defense Department under Runsfeld. Each and every one of these fiascoes clearly had the finger prints of George W. all over them. Incompetence, malfeasance, misfeasance – call it what you will but any and all were the grounds for impeachment.

As if this litany of failures weren't bad enough to endure, the Times devoted op ed space to some hacks reminiscing about the Bush Presidency. One cannot make this stuff up. In a piece entitled, Loyal to a Fault, a Robert Draper incredulously states “President Bush has paid a price for his human decency.” That comment was made in reference to Katrina. He cites Mr. Bush's loyalty as blinding. What a joke! So if you at the helm and the ship it is heading towards the crags and the first mate says full steam ahead you remain loyal. Unbelievable, that this knucklehead can cite that a virtue. The fact is Browne should never have been in that position; and once it was learned, he was out of his league he should have been fired on the spot. Then there is Ari Fleischer. We all remember him spouting lies and misrepresentations for Bush. He praises Bush's “clear view.” This past operative who graduated to pundit is still selling the kool-aid as relief from an immoral world. Like the maniac down in Jonestown who encouraged his followers to drink the poison elixir, Fleischer promotes the “strength and moral clarity” of Bush. I guess one could with the same logic talk of Speck's singleness of purpose in the face of a relativism regarding protecting the lives of young nursing students.

Here it is folks the last desperate attempts by those who were a party to high crimes and incompetence. These so called pundits are attempting to put spin on an administration that was by any account a dismal failure. But more, the actions taken by the President and his men traverse the line between what is legal and what is moral. Because I carry a bible and go to church doesn't make my actions right. Fleischer talks of the elimination of Saddam Hussein. And I guess he can look beyond the five years of chaos and countless deaths and injuries not to mention the billions of dollars and assume it was justified. Hasn't he heard there were no weapons of mass destruction? And in that coterie of neo cons didn't anyone offer the suggestion that negotiations might have gotten to the bottom of our concerns. These wags are trying to re-write history and their feeble words are laughable.

The real tragedy of this dark dark period of American History is that Congress failed to act. There was some misguided judgment that impeachment hearings would have crippled the government. But when the government is clearly violating the public trust, when an administration is actively involved in criminal behavior, it is the constitutional responsibility of elected representatives to remove the offender from office. For those who declare it wasn't criminal, why then were pardons necessary? And remember there has been no serious investigation of actions taken in the oval office.

The inability of this president to discharge his duties under the constitution was clearly evident time and time again.. Citizens died because of the actions or inactions of this president. Yet the Congress failed to draw up impeachment articles. That the house hadn't stopped this administration in its tracks as soon as it gained a majority will go down as a most egregious error in judgment. It is especially ironic given the precedent set by the high and might Republican congress to pursue Clinton because of some misguided dalliance.

Politicians like to stand on the soap box and lecture. They like to rationalize whatever advised or ill-advised action they may take. Reasons flow from their staff till black can be made white and white can be anything they desire it to be. Curious how moral turpitude can be twisted around illogical and criminal actions by a spokesperson.

Yet in their attempt to be rational and reasonable, the house has let this president continue in office. It is clear that this administration is incapable of governing. And now in the closing months of this historic failure of a president, we begin to see but a further eroding of the protections in environment and labor. Contemplated rule changes would make water less safe, workers more vulnerable, air quality more toxic. We have to ask ourselves why didn't those entrusted with constitutional authority exercise their responsibilities to begin a process whereby the wrongs perpetrated by this administration was brought to a hearing and hopefully stopped in its tracks.

All those strident righteous right wing pols should have been made to make the case for this presidency. Each and every one should have been thrust into a forum that would have made them defend the actions of this president. Never has one man brought such disgrace to the office. The ghosts of thousands of humans cry out from their graves. If this nation is to gain its moral high ground, then, it must ask for an accounting of this man and his cronies. Glibness and buffoonery are not a valid defense, not for a capital offense.