The rats are leaving

Geez, you go away for a couple of days and all hell breaks loose. With Abramhof and Scanlon agreeing to cooperate and perhaps implicate as many as 60 others, and Senators and Congressmen falling all over themselves to return tainted Abramhof money, it is obvious that the rats are deserting the sinking ship of state. It is not clear exactly how far this will go but those in the know think it will be the worst scandal in decades. It is pretty clear that DeLay is finished. Hallelujah! There will no doubt be others as well.

Bush held a meeting to which he invited all the ex Secretaries of State, Defense, and so on. He claims he wants their input on the situation in Iraq. Too bad he didn't think of this before he recklessly and immorally ordered the attack on a helpless nation that was not a threat whatsoever. Bush is the worst war criminal since Hitler. He says he heard things he liked and things he didn't like. He's trying to demonstrate now that he doesn't really live in a bubble. Sorry Georgie, too late.

It's not enough that he ordered spying on Americans without warrants, and insists he will go on doing so, he now says he doesn't have to live up to the McCain amendment on torture. If he wants to torture he will. Can no one get through to him enough so that he can understand that he has delusions of dictatorial grandeur? He is either completely uninformed about what he is doing or he is crazy as a loon. It is plain and simply not the case that being at "war" (which we aren't) allows him dictatorial powers. If he has his sycophants that want to tell him otherwise, like Yoo and Gonzales or whomever, well and good, but it just ain't so. Of course if no one is willing to do anything about it perhaps he will get away with it (and most of us will have to ask for political asylum elsewhere).

Now he has also decided that he doesn't need Congressional approval for his appointments. He has just made 17 "recess" appointments which allows him to bypass any oversight. And he has predictably appointed political cronies to positions for which they are mostly unqualified. Julie Myers is perhaps the most blatant of these crony appointments but they are all bad. This must be the most incestous administration ever.

In spite of the fact that today there were more than 130 killed in Iraq, including at least 5 more American troops, Bush continues to insist that things are going well and we are making "progress." Rumsfeld, the senile old goat who goes on pretending to be Secretary of Defense, also insists that things are going well, the troops really like what they are doing, the Iraqis are "coming around," and so on and on.

And finally, in a few days, the Alito confirmation will come up. Personally, I cannot understand why they allow this to go forward at this time, pending the possible impeachment or resignation of Bush/Cheney. Furthermore, as it now appears that Alito is somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan, and seems to believe in a dictatorial presidency, to say nothing about opposing abortion and being overly favorable to corporations, it would seem this will be a very divisive confirmation (which I don't think Bush/Cheney really need at the moment). But what do they care? It promises to be an interesting year. Don't expect even one single positive thing to come out of our government for the next three years (unless Bush/Cheney can be prevailed upon to resign). As long as the Republican Party continues to support and defend them, they are equally criminal. And don't expect anything out of the cowardly Democratic "leadership," other than more silence and inactivity. I'm sorry to have to say it, but we need nothing short of a cultural revolution.