Abandon all hope?

It is very tempting for me to say "abandon all hope ye who live in the United States." I might say this because as usual nothing positive seems to happen anymore. I saw one article today that suggests liberals are rethinking the filibuster compromise. A little late I would say. Democrats can't seem to understand that whenever they compromise with Republicans the Republicans win. Judge Owens was confirmed, and now Judge Brown is also confirmed, and the third one (Pryor, I think the name is) will doubtless also be confirmed. All three were previously blocked by Democrats who apparently weren't very serious about it.

The DeLay ethics investigation is apparently not going to happen for at least another year. Delay DeLay seems to be the strategy. And DeLay is going to try to shift the focus from himself onto all others who might have taken illegal trips, etc. He might even get away with it, given the fact that Republicans think sleaze is good, and if you look up sleaze in the dictionary you will no doubt see a picture of Tom (the hammer) DeLay.

Then there is Bolton. Pretty obviously the worst nominee for the UN Ambassadorship you could imagine. A bully, liar, spy, and Republican toady. But as these are virtues in the eyes of Republicans he may well survive and be confirmed. Personally I don't think so as I don't believe Dick the Slimy as attained full dictatorial power quite yet (but he is certainly on his way). Sadly, even if he is not confirmed it will not be because he is an utter sleazeball but, rather, because the Cheney administration will not give up the information the Senate is entitled to.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who will probably be the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, replacing Negroponte, has said the U.S. has not done well in convincing the Iraqis that the U.S. is not trying to control their oil and is not going to build permanent bases in their country. Imagine! Why do you suppose they are not convinced of our obviously good intentions? Why, indeed?

It never struck me before when watching Bush, probably because whenever he appears I almost immediately turn off the TV, but today I saw a brief segment when he was being interviewed with Blair and it occurred to me that the best description I could muster was "weasel." He looks and acts exactly like a weasel. Perhaps that is not surprising as he is a weasel. If not, both he and Blair are the most flagrant liars that ever lived. If they say they did not plan to attack Iraq and used their armies only as a last resort they are lying - big time. They tell the same lies over and over. Iraq was violating the UN dictates. Pardon me, they weren't. Besides which, Israel has violated far more UN dictates than Iraq ever did and nothing ever happens to them (except more and more support from the US and Britain for their immoral genocidal behavior). And don't tell me I am anti-semitic. I don't care if they are Jews or not, they have not acted honorably, not once since Israel was established.

But we can't give up all hope quite yet. I was told today that if you provide your email address to someone-or-other you will be immediately informed of the Michael Jackson decision. Oh, happy days!