Are the wheels finally starting to come off?

Are the wheels finally starting to come off the Bush/Cheney Administration? Consider some recent developments:
Donald Rumsfeld, trying to give a pep talk to soldiers in Kuwait was subjected to a number of most embarrassing questions, like when is the stop loss program going to stop, why don’t the troops have sufficient armored vehicles, and others. Rumsfeld’s answers were not very satisfactory: “We had to go to war with the army we have, not the army we want.” Why, after three years of Rumsfeld’s direction, don’t we have the army we want? “Armored Humvees are now being manufactured at the rate of 400 a month.” Why weren’t they manufactured before we attacked? Rumsfeld has to be the most incompetent Secretary of Defense ever. It is also significant that John McCain, a hawk if ever there was one, is refusing to support Rumsfeld.

Five thousand five hundred troops are refusing to go to Iraq. Eight soldiers are suing the U.S. over the stop loss program. Some soldiers are taking refuge in Canada and arguing they won’t go to Iraq because it is an illegal “war.” Which, of course, it is. A number of troops in Iraq refused to go on a mission because they did not have the proper equipment and it would have been suicidal. They are going relatively unpunished.

Rumsfeld may be going to be charged with war crimes in Germany, as apparently Germany has the best laws that might be utilized for this purpose. As there is little doubt that he is actually guilty of war crimes this could be a most interesting situation.

The Ohio voting scandal deepens day by day. Although most critics say they are not trying to overturn the results, it is quite possible that Kerry may be shown to have been the actual winner. In any case, it is becoming clear that there was an orchestrated attempt by the Republicans to deny African American votes. Up to two million!

A former computer programmer in Florida has sworn under oath that he was asked by a Republican Congressman to develop software to make sure the Republicans would come out ahead on voting machines.

The neocons, especially Richard Perle, are trying to blame Colin Powell for the mess in Iraq. This is such a blatantly transparent attempt I doubt that even his own mother would fall for it.

A Pentagon report on the situation in Iraq says quite clearly that we are losing the “war” there. It goes on to say that Muslims do not despise our freedom but, rather, our policies. Can this possibly come as a surprise to anyone with a brain larger than a pea? It also suggests that our obviously partisan support for Israel is one of the worst problems. Dah!

While Bush/Cheney keep telling us everything is going well in Iraq it is perfectly obvious to everyone else in the world, and in the U.S. itself, that things are not going at all well. In fact, things are worse now than ever.

There remain the unsettled problems of Lay/Enron, Cheney’s secret energy meetings, the Plame affair, still unanswered questions about 9/11, war profiteering, social security, the national debt, how we will ever get out of Iraq, and on and on.

Heard anyone talking about a draft lately? I suspect that if Bush/Cheney and the neocons tried to institute a draft at this moment in time the entire country would explode in such a burst of anger and outrage they might find themselves seeking refuge in Paraguay or some such place. You have to admit, these are trying but interesting times. Try to be of good cheer, after all the holiday season is upon us.