GIVE THAT BOY A STANDING "YO!"

What is it about Kansas that makes people lose touch with reality and go flying off in all directions? In the current issue of Time, Mike Allen teams up with Michael Duffy, Karen Tumulty, Massimo Calabresi, and Matthew Cooper to give George Bush a rollicking standing "YO!" for his sterling performance at Kansas State University last week.

Under the blaring headline, "Losing the Script and Finding his Voice," Allen goes giddy on us right out of the chute -- applauding Bush's opinion of himself as a Lincolnesque president, a great leader who "did what he thought was right" unhindered by Constitutional constrictions. "That's how this President sees himself," Allen gushed, "and last week he began reminding us, selling himself with more vim and certitude than at any other time since he was re-elected 15 months ago."

Vim? Gee, isn't that special...Allen may see Bush as President Vim, but when I look at him, all I can see is Invader Zim...

Yes, Allen says, Bush "found his voice in an improbable place: at the center of what looked like a serious scandal...a White House-authorized program to tap calls coming into and going out of the U.S. without a warrant if they involved a suspected terrorist..."

Allen and his zany cohorts chose to discuss Bush's illegal and unconstitutional spying on American citizens in the past tense -- nothing more serious than "tapping" a few phones of "suspected" terrorists here and abroad. Allen pointed out that, actually, the "eavesdropping" controversy offered Bush a foothold to "return to the stage as Protector in Chief, the Republicans' award-winning role in the past two elections."

As they say down in Texas, "Yeah, Buddy..." If I remember correctly, Bush won the first election by a single vote, and stole the second election in the biggest vote-fraud scandal in the history of democracy.

These faux journalists obviously did not travel to Kansas for the transformation. They failed to note that, in spite of a wealth of photos, videos and reports proving otherwise, their Dear Leader flatly stated "we do not do torture. No American will be allowed to torture another human being anywhere in the world." They didn't mention that he flatly stated he did not know one of his most generous Pioneer campaign contributors who was also a member of his 2000 presidential transition team.

If you believe that, you don't know Jack...

Strange, since Bush insists he was "elected" to protect the American people and he's ready -- even eager -- to kill the rest of civilization to do it, Allen failed to note the many concerned questions about the rebuilding of Katrina-devastated New Orleans and the American people who are displaced, destroyed -- still missing. It seems that Bush isn't quite "comfortable" yet with how to proceed. "Those plans haven't -- the plan for Louisiana hasn't come forward yet," he said, "and I urge the officials, both state and city, to work together so we can get a sense for how they're going to proceed."

Say whut...?

Is it possible that Time's scribblers don't recall the better-late-than-never promise Bush made in New Orleans while standing "leaderly" in front of a blue chapel floating eerily in the background -- that help was not only on the way, but the government's reconstruction effort would be the greatest such response in the history of the universe? Can't say that's a lie, however, when you consider the corporate profits and frenzied land grab that's going on in the Big Easy...

Allen says Bush sounds sharp and feels better; he's looking ahead, and is on the campaign trail, "conscious of the 2009 finish line." He said Bush is reading "When Trumpets Call," about Teddy Roosevelt's life after the White House and, after calling Barney, the family dog, "the son I never had," Bush wound up by exhorting the students and thousands of soldiers held hostage for 90 minutes to -- "pray, exercise and be optimistic."

I'd swear the Time bunch consumed a jug of that famous Kansas KoolAid before they started writing this fluff piece if I didn't know better. If I hadn't also read the just released 78-page Information Operations Roadmap

WHO WILL TELL THE PEOPLE?

by Sheila Samples

And who will tell the people
that free speech is a ruse;
The corporations run the country
and then they make the news.
Is it media or mind control
heroic victories or crime?
Who will tell the people...
that we are living in these times.
~Song by Willie Nelson

In his essay on "Character" Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "A chief event in life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us." I've had such days, many of them through encounters with Emerson himself, but never have I been startled or even remotely surprised by anything belched out by the Barbie and Ken assembly line of today's corporate mind-control media.

George Orwell wrote that people who neither read nor ask questions will ultimately lose all desire to question "Big Brother." What is so frightening as we descend into the new world order fascism is not that we no longer read -- it's that we no longer can read.

Researchers estimate as many as 30 million Americans -- many of them college graduates -- cannot read. They're unable to comprehend news stories or even instructions. They said they were "stunned," but could offer no explanation for the steep drop in literacy. I don't know what's more depressing -- that Americans can't read or, after studying the phenomenon, researchers lack the critical skills to discern why.

Today, as in Orwell's 1984, the sound and fury of Big Brother's repetitive visual stimuli has apparently crippled our ability to think critically. If it's not on television, it isn't happening. Even then, we can't be sure of what is true until the paid TV "analyst" or pundit with the biggest stash of "Newspeak" talking points wins the debate. When there's no one left to tell the people the truth, Orwell said, "the people will believe what the media tells them they believe."

I had almost come to the sad conclusion that Orwell was right when, late one September night in 2004 as I was surfing for something "soothing" on the radio, the door of my mind was unceremoniously bashed in and I was startled by...

"I'm pissed off -- and I'm Mike Malloy."

Malloy, clean-up guy for Air America Radio (10pm-1am), rode in on the strident vibrations of Pink Floyd's Run Like Hell and, for the next three hours, relentlessly hit both spineless Democrats and Republican "sonszabitches" with the truth about the Bush crime family, pummelled them with the truth about spineless and quivering democrats, bitch-slapped them with the truth about where we're headed if we don't wake up, stand up and speak up...

Then, with a friendly and quiet "watch your back," he was gone. I just sat there, grinning. Maybe we aren't doomed to slip-slide into fascist hell after all. By sheer luck, I had stumbled across a guy with the ability to see the truth and the courage to tell the people...

Who IS this guy?

Mike Malloy is the canary in the political coal mine -- the bane of the Bush administration and of hypocrites of all stripes. He is a liberal gadfly whose light shines so brightly on the truth that even Air America struggles to keep him hidden under its late-night barrel. Far from being a "loose liberal cannon," Malloy has a solid background of writing, reporting, editing and broadcasting. He is a former news writer and editor for both CNN and CNN-international, and a former publisher of Atlanta's Creative Loafing newspaper.

But it was in radio broadcasting in the 90's that Malloy literally came into his own. Malloy has been named "One of the Heavy Hundred" three times by Talkers Magazine, an honor given to only the top 100 radio talk show hosts out of more than 4,000, of which all but a handful are right-wing blustering liars like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, et al.

Malloy has worked for WSB in Atlanta, WLS in Chicago and the now defunct I.E. America Radio Network. So, some may ask -- if Malloy's so damn good, why did WSB, WLS -- let him go? Why is Air America Radio afraid to stick him in prime time so more people can hear the truth?

Because he is so damn good, that's why. Because the truth Malloy tells is raw, straightforward, stripped of all spin -- every word shoved right in the faces of those who have seized power to destroy the democratic safeguards of the U.S. Constitution, to steal elections, to abandon society's most vulnerable, and to slaughter their own citizens as a pretext for war.

But even Air America knows that not everybody can handle the truth, especially in prime time. Malloy can be heard each night on Air America affiliate stations, the Internet, and on XM Satellite Radio, Channel 167. Missed programs are available at the White Rose Society website.

Each night, Malloy exposes the Bush administration for what it is -- a murderous, evil, lying, fascist regime. Each night, I am amazed that he has somehow managed to slip through enemy lines yet again to shout truth to power. He asks no quarter, and gives none, regardless of the consequences.

"I'm like a cork," Malloy says with a laugh, "You can't submerge me. You push me down and I pop up somewhere else. That's a given."

He's uncomfortable with praise, and stresses often that he is there neither to educate nor entertain, but to "get together" with sane people in the evening and talk about the insanity. "I'm not arrogant enough to think I can educate you," he said. "I'm not that condescending, not that patronizing. Take what you want from this program and run with it."

"Truthseekers" get a fast-moving mixture of music selected by Malloy's producer-wife Kathy Bay, occasional interviews, self-incriminating audio clips straight from the mouths of right-wing rat bastards, raisin brain politicians, Simple Scotty McClellan, and President Chuckle Nuts himself. Malloy encourages listeners to call the show, although he warns Republicans they will get bounced if they start slinging Rovian "flying monkey" talking points at him. Most Republican callers, incapable of applying logic to the message, get their butts kicked off the air by the messenger in about five seconds -- seven tops.

Like most progressives, Malloy is disillusioned with the state of the Democratic Party, but maintains he will always be a "traditional" Democrat. Republicans accuse him of being nothing but a "Bush basher" or a "left-wing nutcase," but Malloy's late-night "Paul Revere" cry emanating from Air America comes straight from a man who is angrily committed to ousting the criminals who are hell-bent on destroying all that is good and decent not only in this country, but throughout the world.

Considering the wounds inflicted on this country in the last five years, Malloy has concluded that the Republican Party is now the American Nazi Party, and most of its members are vile deceivers.

"Republicans are liars, cheats, and sneaks; they are deceivers," he said. "They are immoral, and they have no ethical structure whatsoever...If they are Republicans, they are thugs. They have abondoned whatever moral sense they ever had, if any. They support mass murder. They support the destruction of this country."

Malloy is not known for pulling punches when addressing the administration or the Bush Crime Family either. "I hate you to the depths of my soul," he said. "I will hate you when I'm dead. I will hate you a million years after I'm dead...My hate will be a star in the firmament that will shine down on your Republican asses forever. That's how deep my hatred is, because of what you're doing to this country."

A good way to end the day

Malloy is not alone. His counterparts at Air America are all conversant with history and capable of critical thinking. Like Malloy, they struggle each day to tell the people the truth about what the Bush administration is doing to this country. Scores of books have been written pointing out that Bush has arrogantly placed himself above the law and outside the constraints of the U.S. Constitution. He has bestowed upon himself a god-like superiority to decide who deserves to live or die. And Bush kills with malevolent, inhuman brutishness.

Authors sound the alarm that what happened in 1933 in Hitler's Germany and in Orwell's 1984 is descending upon us today because we are losing the will to combat it. The Internet is throbbing with articles on the same subject.

The vigilance required to preserve our freedoms is impossible when we're whipped into submission by terror and convinced to give up a few freedoms we never use anyway, such as questioning those who are waging war to protect us.

But we are no longer vigilant. That's why Malloy and those like him are so important. Over and over, Malloy tells the people that their continued silence will soon crush all of us into a 1984 world so aptly described by Aristotle as being fit for "only the gods and the beasts."

Malloy is a modern-day Tom Paine, who told the people in 1776 that the time had come to break free from oppression. "Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their own families," Paine wrote in Common Sense, his little 47-page pamphlet that ultimately sparked a revolution and gave us our world. But people could read back then...

It's time to take that world back. Last week, Malloy began reading to the people, devoting a short six-minute segment of the show's second hour to Orwell's 1984. He will read the book in its entirety, and has completed Chapter 1 and a portion of Chapter 2. For those few chilling minutes each night Malloy transports us to London and into the dreary world of "Big Brother," a world much like Bush is striving for today -- constant surveillance and total obedience.

Malloy quietly records the slow, but steady eradication of individuality -- of humanity itself -- through fear. The parallels are obvious. Now, as in 1984, in the words of former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher, we must "watch what we say; watch what we do" lest we be found guilty of the heinous offense of "thoughtcrime."

Now, as in 1984, Malloy says there are three things we can take to the bank as Bush's "truth." He encourages people to not only watch Bush's speeches for amusement as he mangles the language while stammering and stumbling through one photo Op after another -- but to listen to the words and phrases Bush repeats endlessly. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. After we accept that, the rest is easy...

Encountering Malloy may startle you; rock your world. You may even go to bed screaming. But hey -- it's a good way to end the day.

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites. Contact her at: rsamples@sirinet.net

A...is for Attention Deficit Disorder, which lets me sleep like a baby after I have slaughtered thousands of innocent women and children for no good reason.

W...is for War, glorious soul-damning pain and suffering for all who oppose me, which is the only way I can achieve a frightening and hideous, unending orgasm.

O...is for Only, as in I am Only here for the killin' ...

L...is for Lacerate, which Unkie Dick says means the same as slash, rip, stab, maim. I like the "L" word best...

My Guernica - Abu Garaib bneal, artist and poet

THE BLAME GAME...

Democrats in the Senate wouldn't block the confirmation of Judge Sam-I-Am Alito even if they could. They don't have the backbone. Democrats were in the majority in 1991 and, after a vicious three-ring-circus that showed the total incompetence and perversion of Clarence Thomas; that showed just how far legislators of all stripes are willing to go if the TV lights are on, to smear, defame and destroy a witness -- especially if that witness is a black woman -- they confirmed Clarence Thomas.

Thomas, who takes his orders from the black-hearted Antonin Scalia, makes Alito look like a liberal. Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for the direction the Supreme Court will move during the next several decades. They have had every opportunity to prevent it and didn't.

Don't give republicans any credit for the makeup of the Supreme Court.

Give democrats the blame.

Ol Yeller

WHO IS THE WHORE OF BABYLON?

By bneal
Poet, artist

Who planned in hardened bunkers regime change for oil?

Who promised food for oil but stole it back?

Who fought with weapons of depleted uranium, poisoning a generation of Arabs?

Who denied “gulf war syndrome” in our own young warriors as they sickened and died, or just sickened and stayed that way?

Who sold her soul to the Corporation and worshipped Outsourcing?

Who condemned to slow death by sanction millions of the “Enemy” young and old?

Who maintained the “no fly zone” by regular bombings of military and “suspected military targets”?

Who sold arms and equipment stamped with the Halliburton logo to the enemy during the sanctions and got richer?

Who ignored warnings and, when attacked, used the deaths of 3,000 to mercilessly lead us into war?

Who disregarded millions of African and South American deaths under many administrations?

Who has busily involved herself in the choosing of Latin American Leaders, almost always supporting the most repressive regime?

Who lied...who lied and lied and lied?

Who sold her soul for oil and power and gave a blow job to the Christ to signal the police?

Who professes the belief in, and a direct line to, the will of God?

Who is God’s partner in ridding the earth of evildoers?

Who disregards the hundreds of thousands dead in Somalia with the consent of Oil Seekers?

Who disregards the millions who die on unsafe highways, or from eating corporate food that lines their arteries as it lines the pockets of the mega food executives?

Who names her laws for the opposite of their intent —- clear skies initiative, leave no child behind?

Who is the Whore of Babylon who sends jobs offshore and brings semi-legal bonded worker immigrants to take the ones who are left?

Who can’t drill for oil in the middle of Somali villages, so cleanses away the dusky dwellers via unruly Janjaweed, meaning "a man with a horse and a gun"?

Who thinks every circumstance is a good reason to dig up wilderness to find oil, to increase tax cuts to the few, the elite, the rich?

Who equates dark skin with being less human and, therefore, their deaths are collateral damage?

Who considers her own young warriors to be frangible instead of beautiful, rare and tragic?

Who would take power without honor and claim God had a hand in it?

Who would steal two elections in a formerly free country and call it a "mandate"?

Who IS the whore of Babylon?

George W. Bush

I Don't Need No Steenkin' Oversight!

In mid-September, George Bush submitted a list of his cronies to the Senate for various positions within the administration. When the Committeee balked at the lack of qualifications of some of them -- especially Julie Myers, neice of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers and wife of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's current chief of staff, John F. Wood -- Bush did what he does best. He flipped Congress the bird and waited until last week to make recess appointments.

Myers, an attorney, was Chertoff's chief of staff when he headed the Justice Department's criminal division, and will now head the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, part of Chertoff's Department of Homeland Security.

Although Myers qualifies as a Bush loyalist, little in her background prepares her for one of the most troubled areas of the entire government. She was an associate attorney under independent counsel Kenneth Starr during his attempt to bring down President Clinton and, in the past four years she has bopped through the departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury and worked for awhile as a special assistant to Bush on personnel issues while waiting for Congress to recess.

Some people are complaining that, unlike other appointments, the head of ICE is required by statute to have a minimum of five years of experience in both law enforcement and management. But hey, some folks say that Homeland Security is so dysfunctional already, especially ICE, that the only way Myers can go is up.

Even the right-leaning National Review, got into the act. A biting editorial pointed out that Myers "... would be the officer chiefly responsible for protecting the nation against terrorist threats once they have succeeded in infiltrating our borders, which are guarded by a different bureaucracy."

The National Review editorial writer also commented, "Her (Myers) nomination highlights the administration’s desire to keep immigration enforcement on a short leash, lest some rogue official embarrass the White House by actually enforcing the immigration law..."

Last week, the Daily Kos published the "List of 17," recess appointees, all of whom will serve until January 2007 when the current Senate term expires:

Floyd Hall, New Jersey -- AMTRAK Reform Board
Enrique J. Sosa, Florida -- AMTRAK Reform Board
Nadine Hogan, Florida -- Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation (Private Representative)
Roger W. Wallace, Texas -- Board of Directors of the Inter-American Foundation (Private Representative)
Gordon England, Texas -- Deputy Secretary of Defense
Benjamin A. Powell, Florida -- General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Ronald E. Meisburg, Virginia -- General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board
Julie L. Myers, Kansas -- Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security (Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
Tracy A. Henke, Missouri -- Executive Director of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, Department of Homeland Security
Arthur F. Rosenfeld, Virginia -- Federal Mediation and Conciliation Director at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
Ellen R. Sauerbrey, Maryland -- Assistant Secretary of State (Population, Refugees, and Migration)
Dorrance Smith, Virginia -- Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
Robert D. Lenhard, Maryland -- Federal Election Commission
Steven T. Walther, Nevada -- Federal Election Commission
Hans Von Spakovsky, Georgia -- Federal Election Commission
Peter N. Kirsanow, Ohio -- National Labor Relations Board
Stephen Goldsmith, Indiana -- Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service

IF I WERE A FICTION WRITER...

It's been a rough week for Israel prime minister Ariel Sharon. He was felled by a massive stroke, underwent at least three major operations to flush the waste from his brain, was declared dead by at least two media outlets, and placed on life support in a medically induced coma. But this morning, it was reported that the "Bulldozer," after being stimulated with pain, suddenly started moving, and "began to breathe on his own..."

Coincidentally, at the same time in the United States, American president Dick Cheney, who has had four heart attacks of his own, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-cleaning angioplasties -- all of which resulted in implanting a mechanical heart -- aneurysms behind both knees and a lame foot, began experiencing acute "shortness of breath" and was rushed to George Washington University hospital in D.C.

Hmmmmm...Just as the Bulldozer starts to breathe on his own, the Bullshitter loses his ability to breathe. If I were a fiction writer, I'd have a ball with that one...

CONTEMPT OR COMPASSION?

Submitted by Ol' Yeller...

I am a democrat by birth and conviction. I have never voted for anyone who wasn't a democrat in my life except in 1980 when I couldn't bring myself to vote for the re-election of Jimmy Carter. Although Carter is a decent, honorable man, he just simply wasn't a good president. However, I didn't vote for the republican Reagan -- I voted for the liberaterian and I don't even remember his name.

I read in the paper recently about the pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in northeastern Oklahoma, who is also an official in the Southern Baptist Convention, who was arrested for a lewd sexual proposition to an undercover policeman. Based on the entire story and the charges which were filed, I assume the pastor was homosexual.

My first reaction was this was just another hypocritical Baptist preacher in the vein of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, i.e., faux preachers who had rather stump for right-wing political candidates on the Sunday talk shows than to fill a pulpit.

Then I saw this pastor's picture in the paper and all my contempt turned to compassion. I had never given it much thought until now, but I guess I take the Catholic approach to homosexuality. I don't believe anyone of normal intelligence could possibly CHOOSE this lifestyle. I think it is chosen for them before they are even born. Although the physical activity with the gay lifestyle certainly goes against everything in my nature, I am not sure anymore that a moral issue is even involved.

I think the religious reaction toward homosexuals is likely contempt. However, I believe the Christian reaction is more likely compassion.

I discovered long ago there is a big difference between religion and Christianity. I would much prefer to practice the latter.

Ol' Yeller

SENATE GETS AN OIL CHANGE...

Where do you get "holy oil" these days? On E-Bay? WalMart? I didn't even know there was a demand for such an item in the 21st Century. But now, thanks to the right good reverend Rob Schenck, one of God's own evangelical Christians and president of Washington's National Clergy Council, the government machine needs an oil change in order to make the right decisions. Can't argue with that. Considering the "right" decisions this government has made in the last five years, it's gonna take jugs of the stuff.

Schenck and two other evangelical ministers -- the good Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, and Grace Nwachukwu, general manager of a group called Faith and Action, were barred last week by Capitol Hill police from the hearing room where Judge Samuel Alito will face the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The three had already smeared the hearing room door when they were stopped short. However, they told the astonished fuzz that they had been in the room the day before and had "adequately" greased down seats where Alito, senators, witnesses, Senate staffers and the press will sit, and they prayed for each of the 13 committee members by name.

They're everywhere. Schenck, just one of many who talk to God, talk for God and give God homework assignments, said that God "certainly needs to be involved" in nomination hearings and He is interested in what goes on, especially because of abortion, public prayer, gay marriage and right-to-life issues topping public debate.

The ministers insisted they weren't taking sides, and they weren't pro-Alito. They added they had "blessed" the same room for Chief Justice John Roberts' hearings last year. And that hearing "went very well," Schenck said.

Some of us wondered why Roberts was so slick he slipped out of the grip of committee members right into the top slot on the Supreme Court without answering a single question.

Now we know.

CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN...

January 5th was the bloodiest day in Iraq since Bush's illegal invasion of that hapless nation in March 2003. Suicide bombers plunged into crowds in restaurants, marketplaces, even a funeral procession -- killing as many as 140, and injuring many more. Eleven US servicemen were killed.

Eleven Americans blown to bits in one fell swoop. One might expect their president to call for a day of mourning, perhaps an hour of prayer, a moment of silence -- or to at least acknowledge such a devastating loss. But no. Not this president. Such an admission might make the lurking plotters and planners out there think he is weak; that his will, his resolve to spread freedom, can be broken.

In a show of strength, Bush responded by suddenly summoning all living secretaries of state and defense to the White House for a skull session and photo op on what to do in the Middle East before he is completely overtaken by even more catastrophic success. To "catapault the propaganda" that he's willing to share the glory, Bush said he would "listen and take to heart" any suggestions offered, even from Democrats.

Except for an exit plan, of course, and any suggestions of how to better equip or protect the "troops" who are thrown into an exploding nightmare where it's every man for himself. Those of us who know that Bush is raving mad, destructively impulsive and totally incompetent suspect he was lining up former heavyweights to give the impression that he had bipartisan support for his folly, and to take the blame when the melt-down comes.

Thirteen former cabinet members showed up to sit through a 40-minute briefing on the successes in Iraq given by Bush, by General George Casey, CENTCOM honcho, and by former Unocal officer, AIPAC co-founder, Afghanistan ambassador now Iraq ambassador Zalmay Khalizad. Bush allowed less than 10 minutes for questions or comments from the 13 members before they were rushed into the Oval Office for a "family" photo, then herded into another room to sit through another briefing by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley. As soon as the cameras were turned off, the meeting was over and Bush, Rice, Cheney and Rumsfeld fled, leaving the former VIPs to find their own way out. It was a pitiful sight, and I can't help thinking it served them right for allowing themselves to be used in such a shoddy way.

This "meeting" was nothing but another PR trick in Bush's announced campaign to whip the public back into line behind his "strategery" for winning the war and to con people into believing he plans to eventually bring what is left of our ground troops home. Patricia Martin, writing in the World Socialist Web Site, said the whole affair was a cynical charade to legitimize the Iraq war.

Martin said, "according to former defense secretary James Schlesinger, a fervent supporter of the Iraq war, Bush from the beginning precluded any discussion of the decision to invade and occupy Iraq, focusing instead on what should be done now to insure success for the US occupation regime." Martin noted Schlesinger's jaded remark, "Needless to say...there was little debate, given the implied ground rules."

Perhaps that is why foreign policy heavy hitters such as Henry Kissinger, state secretary under Nixon and Ford; Caspar Weinberger, defense secretary under Reagon; and Warren Christopher, first state secretary under Clinton, chose not to play Bush's sordid little game and did not attend.
The only sign of life in the meeting, according to the New York Times, was when Madeleine Albright, Clinton state secretary, grew a bit restive after nearly an hour of listening to how well things are going in Iraq, suggested that perhaps Bush's war on Iraq was sucking all the energy out of other issues just as important.

Albright asked Bush "whether he had let nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea spin out of control, and Latin America and China policy suffer by benign neglect." Bush shot back, "I can't let this comment stand," and told Albright testily that his administration "can do more than one thing at a time."

But the good news could be this is Alexander Haig's last chance to be "in charge." Haig will probably jump at it, even though he knows that he and his renowned counterparts are being set up as "patsies" for Bush's great madcap adventure in Iraq. This mess is so big, it's going to take more than a "few bad apples" to cover it up. I can just hear Bush now -- "I asked them what we should do, and they all agreed that I was doing a heckuva job, and we should stay the course. Hey, don't blame me. They had the same information I had..."

But the media mostly loved it. Associated Press writer Jennifer Loven crowed, "He (Bush) gambled that one-time high-level public officials, when personally summoned by the president, would resist temptation to be too critical. He was right."

Loven assured us that Bush got support for his mission -- along with a few concerns -- and the right to claim that he was "reaching out."In his statement to the media, Bush said, "Not everybody around this table agreed with my decision to go into Iraq. I fully understand that. But these are good solid Americans who understand that we've got to succeed now that we're there. I'm most grateful for the suggestions they've given."

One "constructive idea" the secretaries broached, according to the White House, was to make sure that the military, not politicians in Washington, are determining troop levels in Iraq and making other on-the-ground calls. Does anybody doubt that the secretary who came up with this bleak plan was none other than Donald Rumsfeld himself? Which, of course, means that it's business as usual, and the troops won't begin to come home until Rumsfeld says they can...

Meanwhile, the Green Zone in Baghdad finally has all the theaters, restaurants, hotels, swimming pools and golf courses it needs, so Bush is cutting off the promised reconstruction money for Iraq. Except, of course, for the new billion-dollar embassy that will be more secure than the Pentagon. According to the UK Mirror, "The embassy will be guarded by 15ft blast walls and ground-to-air missiles and the main building will have bunkers for use during air offensives."

It gets better. "The grounds will include as many as 300 houses for consular and military officials. And a large-scale barracks will be built for Marines who will protect what will be Washington's biggest and most secure overseas building." The source also said that the Bush administration has plans for four super bases across the country.

It doesn't matter if the crusty old New World Order patsies knew Bush has no intention of leaving Iraq until the last drop of oil is sucked from the region when they wandered out of the White House. Bush doesn't care what they think, so it also doesn't matter whether they advised against it if they did know. All 13 of them in their day were driven by the same greed and lust for resources in the Persian Gulf, coups, assassinations and supporting torture regimes such as that of Saddam Hussein. One -- George Shultz -- was the man behind the Iran-Contra curtain. Another -- James Baker -- orchestrated a stolen election and the ensuing assault on the US Constitution.

That old adage must be true -- when you're in as deep as every single one of them is -- you can't go home again.

Mission Accomplished.

AMERICA -- WAKE THE HELL UP!

I think the Republicans would love to see the Dems run Hillary in 2008 because they know, as do we, that this country -- the world -- is not ready for a U.S. woman president. I am not a bigot, but I have half sense and one eye, and I know that it will be generations, if ever, before Americans will be comfortable with a woman telling them what to do. If you don't believe me, take a trip through Redneck country -- hit the NASCAR circuit -- and see where you land...

However, even if Hillary does manage to run, her stance on the war in a pitiful attempt to garner red-states' votes, as well as her incomprehensible support for Israel, would keep me from voting for her. No man or woman who stoops to serve two masters should ever be at the helm of the U.S. ship of state. That cancels out most members of Congress, both men and women, doesn't it?

I am pretty outraged right now -- any elected official who can slip between silk sheets tonight after returning from a fund-raising gala while giving no thought to our soldiers being blown to bits at that very moment -- can go straight to hell.

Perhaps it is a result of my working for six years for the U.S. Air Force and 24 years for the U.S. Army, but my allegiance has always been, and will be until the day I die, to the men and women in uniform, all of whom I consider my extended "family." Sending them into a depleted-uranium hellhole without the proper weapons, training or equipment and then sending them home in wooden boxes in the belly of airplanes under heaps and piles of luggage isn't my idea of "supporting" the troops. Hiding the human cost of this illegal, immoral, treasonous war by sneaking them home in the dead of night to Dover Air Force Base with no fanfare and no media coverage is just as bad, if not worse.

That ignorant deserter who abandoned his post in a time of war who struts around calling himself a "war president," and "commander-in-chief" has yet to come up against an enemy that can defend itself. Blowing tens of thousands -- hundreds of thousands even - of innocent men, women and children to bits is not my idea of liberation. It is not my idea of democracy. When Bush heads for Iran to liberate its people, he will be shocked and awed to discover that Iran can fight back. And will.

Americans need to wake the hell up now, or they may discover -- too late -- that's exactly where they're headed...

STINKY W's STRATEGERY FOR WAR...

People just gotta understand, see, it's hard work over there. It's real hard work. An' it's hard work over here too. Hard worky work. But guess what? I'm resolved.

My will is strong 'cause I like to lead 'cause I'm a leader. An'..an'...I like to solve problems 'cause I'm a problem solver. Freedom is on the march! Folks just gotta git outta the way -- my way -- an' they gotta realize that I'm working hard an' there are serious consequences if they try to stop me, an' when I say serious consequences I mean serious consequences 'cause I'm a man who's the president and a president better mean what he says an' he better say what he means, no matter how hard the work is.

Hey -- did j'all know I flew over Iraq one time? Yeah, that was between the time we carpet-bombed the shopping mall and nuked that wedding party with DU...haw haw...talk about DU -- Do Unto others...get it? Them buggers want WMD -- I'll give 'em WMD...Made them terriers sit up and take notice. Even from 30,000 feet, I could see we smoked 'em out and got 'em on the run, and we ain't comin' home till we bring all them sapsuckers to justice.

Anyway, after that happened, I told my pilot, "Hi-ho Paint -- let's git whar we ain't!" An' when we headed home to the good ol' USofA, I was resolved -- nosiree, we ain't turning back...

Er...any questions? ... Stretch?