Oil Sands

There's a very ugly-but-true article in today's WaPo about the Alberta oil sands and what the extraction of the oil is doing to the environment. It's disturbing for what it says about the degradation of the environment, and for what it says about Canadians.

For years I've chided my Canadian friends for their willingness to pack up for Cuba any chance they got. Cuba? Sure. It's a top vacation destination - cheap and close and sunny. And the service is great - why wouldn't it be? The serving staff are captives of Castro's delusional communist sweat shop.

Sure, the US has always had some nasty 'friends' in the world - even before Georgie made America the nasty friend that others shied away from. And Canada was the good guy country that invented UN peacekeeping, and could always look down from a perch way up in the moral high ground.

Except when there was a buck to be made in Cuba - with no American competition. Canadians are only too happy to make that economic connection - with tourism and every other possible means of trade.

So it's not that some people are bad, it's that you beat us to them and compete with us for their business. Except in Cuba. Where we rock.

Which brings us to the oil sands. I'm a huge Al Gore fan - always have been, even when he was bashed for being made of wood (which I think he still is) and falsely accused of self-aggrandizement. And he should have fought harder in 2000.

Anyway, Gore's line is 'environmentalism with growth.' You don't have to pollute the world in order to make a buck - quite the contrary. You can make your bucks by creating clean technologies which replace dirty ones.

Back to the oil sands. They're filthy. They're years ahead of the pollution that was expected. They've created toxic ponds that - and this is true - they have to guard with flame throwers to keep migratory birds away. The second largest dam in the world is keeping this sludge in place.

Ugh.

But since it was determined in 2003 that the oil could be extracted at a profit, the production has grown exponentially. Canada is the single largest oil exporter to the US. Canadian oil sands are the second largest reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia.

So, like vacationers pulling on their flip-flops to charge the Cuban beach, Canadian polluters are fouling the atmosphere to turn sand into cash. Kyoto who?

Which is all quite human. When you are not a polluter it's natural to tisk-tisk all those bad rainforest-killers out there. But put that massive prosperity out there, and here comes the sludge.

The saving grace is that since this is Canada, there is a reasonable chance that cleaner technologies and methodologies will be sought and actually put into practice. There is a chance that the current damage will be addressed and fixed (or mitigated).

But at the end of the day, when the choice is pollution or cash - cash always wins.

No Mission

This is what happens. When you send armed forces to invade and occupy foreign people for no reason, terrible things are bound to happen. It seems that some Marines killed a bunch of unarmed civilians in Iraq. John Murtha says it's a worse blow to our efforts to pacify the country than the Abu Ghraib pictures. Maybe so.

But really, what did we expect? The soldiers and Marines fighting, killing, and being killed in Iraq every day are bathed in blood for reasons that nobody can articulate.

And I don't just mean my usual Junta-bashing there. Even glib, smiling Georgie Dubya is totally unable to articulate a real reason for what he's done. Even to his increasingly scant mob of worshippers. They just take it on faith. But what about everybody else?

From what I can gather, the current Iraq justifications fall into two categories. First, the "we were all fooled" stuff. That line says: "we all got the bad info from the bad CIA and all agreed on the Iraq threat, so you can't blame us that it was all made-up."

But, of course, they knew it was a lie. The liars were the Cheney-Rummy monsters who really really really wanted to invade Iraq for some reason that probably has to do with flawed potty training. They pushed the lie. They shredded all intel that was truth telling and promoted all intel that supported their lies.

And the stuff that got to the worthless rubber-stamp Congress was what they had cherry-picked. The lies that taint and shame Colin Powell and destroy his legacy were of his own choosing.

Second line: "aren't you glad he's gone?" Isn't it better to have Saddam out of power? What, do you want to put him back? Wasn't it worth a little effort to depose a genocidal dictator?

Of course, that was never the point. The point is, they couldn't have sold the war based on 'let's get rid of Saddam.' It would never have happened. If that's your taste in foreign policy, what's keeping you our of Sudan? Lots of bad guys there. No oil?

Well, that was never a consideration, right? We're just trying to do good in the world, one invasion at a time.

Obviously there's not a shred of truth or believability to anything coming out of the Junta, especially on the subject of Iraq. And that's fine for our nice (or nasty) political debate here in safe North America.

But what about the Marines and soldiers and Guardsmen in Iraq? They have to kill human beings every day. They have to watch their comrades be wounded and killed every day.

With so thin and meaningless a cause, what sense of mission can they possibly have? And once the mission becomes their own survival, we've lost for good.

That was one of the lessons of Vietnam, which the NeoCons didn't learn because they were too cowardly to go there themselves. They're the type of cowards who send brave people in to pointless battles for their own narrow benefit.

Look: we're in Iraq for Halliburton. We're in there for their contracts, we're in there to keep our defense budget increasing and ensure that no 'peace dividend' ever reaches anybody but the corporate elite. We're in there to maintain a war status for an incompetent administration that knows it can't stand the scrutiny that peace would bring.

We're in there to enrich and empower a few treasonously greedy Americans.

Try selling that to the troops.

Strike!

Yikes. What a way to start a week. This morning the Toronto Transit Commission mechanical workers decided to launch a wildcat strike. That means about 700,000 people can't get to work here. Not me, of course. I'm on the GO train line, so here I am.

I've had an entire month of Mondays. Everything that could possibly go wrong in May has done so. As my few precious readers can attest, the quality and quantity of my posts have declined steadily this year. My work life has become a massive clusterfuck. I'm doing about three people's jobs, and none of them well.

So here we are, under a transit strike, and I'm complaining about my job.

Yeesh.

Resign?

So it is possible. Some of these guys can have priorities other than their immediate aggrandizement and enrichment. Amazing.

Not that I in any way agree with them, but it's shocking to see that there is something they hold as more dear than power. At every turn over the past five years, political expediency has trumped national security, national honour, and the national economy. Nothing has stood before the Rovian will-to-power.

Quick example: all conservatives, even NeoCons, are supposed to believe in smaller government. And yet, under their complete control, the government has grown in size and debt faster and to a larger size than ever before in the nation's history. Why? It's politically expedient to buy voters with government largesse, and the cartel capitalists in charge have been selling government money to their buddies in industry for a penny on the dollar.

Okay, back to the part where they kind of believe in something. The FBI raided the offices on Rep. William Jefferson who's probably a crook and happily - for them - a Democrat. But look out - there are a thousand Republican crooks (and serious political machine traitors) for every lone Democrat bone-head.

Further, the Executive Branch should not be raiding the Legislative Branch if you read that Constitution thingie. So soon-to-be-raided Speaker Dennis Hastert and other soon-to-be-bagged Republican criminals/representatives took up the fight.

And here's where somebody actually believed in something: AG Gonzo and FBI Dude Meuller (and others) threatened to resign if Georgie gave back the stuff they took from Jefferson. Resign!

I mean, nobody resigns anymore. Except all those career CIA leaders when Porter Goss was turning the place into a GOP pep rally.

So what was the resignable point? Gonzo wasn't going to resign when he heard about illegal NSA wiretaps and phone records. He sure didn't get his dander up about torture and secret detention. Those things are all honkey-dory to our Attorney General.

Sorry, I just got one of those shivers.

But he's not all torture and surveillance. Oh, no. There are things 'up with which he shall not put.'

Like Constitutional separation of powers.

This Junta really takes the prize. They believe in nothing but their own limitless power. And Gonzo is willing to fight. For that. Not for upholding the law of the nation. Not for human rights.

But for Georgie's rights. And for the right of the government to do whatever they want whenever they want to do it.

Bagged!

Huzzah! They bagged "Kenny Boy" Lay and, umm, "Scumbag" Skilling! The Enron-sters are going to jail!

Somehow, by some mysterious means, rich dudes with great lawyers (one presumes) didn't just walk away laughing. Of course, not even their ill-gotten wealth will replace the retirement and savings funds that they bilked from millions of working people, but a conviction is a start.

These are the guys who played by Georgie's rules. They are the cartel capitalists who trod with the weight and power of huge dinosaurs through the American economy, but did more damage than any T-Rex.

They worked the economy to their own gain and everyone else's loss. They made money by fixing the game in their own benefit, not by beating the game through hard work or smart dealing.

They are the lesson in conservative economics. That is: market forces are a myth. As long as there are Kenny Boys out there - and there are always more Kenny Boys - there is no free market.

And without 'market forces' driving things, the whole conservative fantasyland falls to pieces. 'Government shouldn't do those things because the market will find a way to do it for profit.'

But there is no 'free market.' There is a fixed market run by NeoCon crooks. If there was to be a fair market anywhere ever, it would be based on government regulations -- strictly enforced - that eliminated lizards like Lay and Skilling.

The best example is the California energy crisis that the company created. They artificially inflated energy prices by starving the market, and then made a killing by selling deliberately over-priced energy.

Meanwhile, NeoCon market fairies were preserving the illusion that the 'market' would sort the problem on its own, when simple government intervention could have stopped the whole thing cold. It's like they held the front door open for the burglars while preventing the cops from stopping them.

They're going to jail now, but only after the fact. They and their ilk have already sucked what they could from the former company and the rest of us.

If only we could learn the lesson...

First!

Well, the worm may have turned in Toronto. The Raptors have the first pick in the NBA draft. They have, in fact, a double first pick because their name came up when they picked the second ping-pong ball. Of course, they didn't actually have another lottery pick, so it was wasted, but still.

So that means we get LeBron James, right? No? Tim Duncan? Melo? Wade? Shaq? Can we at least get Vince Carter back? No, scratch that.

From what I read, this will be a nondescript draft, with no clear choice at #1. The influx of young talent - high schoolers - over the past few years has thinned the college ranks, and this will be the first year that high school kids can't be drafted. Pity.

But there's bound to be some quality in there somewhere, and the new GM, Bryan Colangelo, can contemplate it while watching the last team he put together play in the Western Conference Finals.

The other bit of good times was watching the Bulls grab the #2 pick. No, I'm not a closet Bulls fan, but rather an out-of-the-closet Knicks hater. And that's not really accurate, either. The Knicks are too pathetic to hate. Isaiah Thomas. There's a guy worth hating.

Why? He was a great if amazingly annoying player. He deep-sixed the comeback attempts of his supposed "friend" Magic Johnson and thereby made the world just a little bit colder for HIV sufferers.

But it's been his post-playing career that really made me hate him. He tanked on the Raptors when they were a new franchise, cutting and running when he didn't get enough of an ownership offer. He completely destroyed the half-century-old CBA after he bought the whole thing with promises that he'd put time and effort into its growth.

He coached a 60-win Indy team to 40 win seasons while suffering ugly playoff defeats. He's failed as a coach and as a GM, repeatedly, everywhere.

And yet he keeps getting hired. Now he's the GM of the Knicks who traded his first rounder to the Bulls without lottery protection for a journeyman centre with a heart condition. Oh, yes - and the right to swap #1 picks in next years draft.

And the coach he threw millions of dollars at top lure away from the Pistons? Now he's trying to fire him.

How does this guy get work? Seriously. If he washed your car, you know he'd accidentally snap off the antenna.

And meanwhile, his former back-court partner Joe Dumars has quietly put together the consistently best team in the Eastern Conference. Team-oriented Joe has built an unselfish team who play together as a unit - and win together.

But selfish narcissist Isaiah built a team of me-first prima donnas and finished with the second-worst record in the league. And then didn't get to make the pick.

I'm just waiting for the Georgie to appoint Isaiah head of FEMA. Heckuva job!

Gonzo

Oh, this is rich. So, Mr. AG Gonzo, you gonna prosecute journalists? Of course! After all, there is a law. And we must uphold the law, right? Anything that Congress says, goes.

So what if we're talking about an 89 year old espionage law that's never been applied to journalists before.

And, no doubt, the journalists being targeted will be the ones identified in the warrantless wire taps, or traced through the use of the NSA database of all calls. Just because those things are outrageously illegal, don't let that slow you down.

After all, people who do things like torture inmates in secret illegal prisons and invade people's privacy without probable cause are Patriots. People who report on these things are Threats and Traitors. They need to be Found.

It's too bad we can't bottle and sell up-is-downism. It's certainly the #1 commodity in political discourse right now. Actually, we don't have to sell it because we already have a Halliburton no-bid contract on it.

And that, my friend, is money in the bank.

Hayden

Remember when I shot your dog and threw your whole family out the door of a speeding bus on the highway? Can't we just forget that and move on so I can protect you? It was, after all, only in your best interests.

Oh, sure, your uncle Wally can't walk anymore and you still have all that pain and, I know - you're broke. But I can't do my job if you're going to keep asking me questions like: "are you going to keep shooting me and stealing all my money?" What business is that of yours?

Because that's exactly what Gen. Hayden wants. Just trust him. Sure, CIA is a mess and the whole Iraq debacle is playing itself out, step by step, with the current Iran issues. But if you nosey "press" and "citizens" would just keep your place and stop asking embarrassing questions about what's gone on in the past, we can all move forward to being "safer," meaning "more afraid and subservient and eternally at war."

Isn't that what we all want?

"It's time to move past what seems to me to be an endless picking apart of the archaeology of every past intelligence success or failure," Hayden said. "CIA officers . . . deserve recognition of their efforts, and they also deserve not to have every action analyzed, second-guessed and criticized on the front pages of the morning paper."

Yes, stop nit-picking that "archaeology" that happened on Hayden's watch at NSA - and is still going on. We'd love to, General, really, but all those archaeological bones are still shooting at our kids. The stuff in the 'dig' is listening to our phone calls without warrants.

The CIA has been turned into the political listening machine of a would-be dictatorship. When this greedy power cabal wanted to invade a country that was no threat to us as a give-away to big defense industries, CIA said 'okey-doke.' We need a CIA that just does facts (remember facts? That, my friend, is archaeology). We do not need a CIA that works for one political party and supports one ideology.

You know, an American agency.

Treaty

I was starting to think that I'd picked up an old paper, then I remembered: I was reading a web site. My bad. Still, I had to check the date. No, it's today, that's fine.

"US Proposes New Disarmament Treaty."


I had to do one of those exaggerated Jon Stewart eye rubs on that one. The Junta is proposing a treaty? When has this bunch ever signed a treaty? We haven't signed a treaty with our puppet government in Baghdad, for crying out loud.

Oh, we break treaties. And not just Kyoto. Our former State Department guy for non-proliferation was John "Treaty Breakin" Bolton. He never met a non-proliferation treaty he couldn't break.

The NeoCon philosophy is this: treaties are all bad. Treaties prevent the US from doing any old thing that pops into our heads, and other countries don't feel bound by their treaty obligations so they're free to do whatever they want to do. This is true on an elementary school playground, so it must be true in life. After all, the system of treaties that American statesmen negotiated over 60 years has only prevented major wars and grown our economy - how can they be any good?

So what's changed? If they believe that - and jammed Bolton into the UN job as a recess appointment because the Senate would not confirm him - why negotiate a non-proliferation treaty at all?

The answer, as always, is politics. As the cry of: "war on terror" grows hollow, people are less fearful, and therefore less willing to go along with the rightist plunder of our nation's wealth. What other foreign policy initiative can these idiots point to? Nothing has been done with the UN because of Bolton. Our allies hate us. Our enemies hate us all the more.

So the treasonously mis-managed 'war on terror' is the only thing the Junta can hang its hat on. The world of today is far less safe and orderly than the one the Junta took from Bubba in 2000.

So why not look like we're negotiating a non-proliferation treaty? The chances that these guys will actually accomplish anything is about zilch. But politically, they'll look like they're doing something. So what if it goes against everything they say they believe in? That's certainly nothing new.

But if there was a real American government in place, treaties could have stopped North Korea and Iran from going nuclear. Or maybe not - but they'd at least have had a chance. That's more of a chance than the complete disengagement we've suffered through for the past six years.

Politics is all. Politics is everything. No policy or principle is bigger than politics.

Hate

The Southern Poverty Law Center says hate groups are using the immigration debate to further their evil cause. Moreover, these groups have increased in number by 33% since 2000.

Now, lets see: what was it that happened in 2000? Oh yes, Al Gore's presidential victory was stolen from him. Right. And the guys who got away with it are still in charge.

The rightist's use of race-baiting and hate is not a new revaluation, but it's worth mentioning as the immigration debate continues. In many places around the world, like France and Japan, 'opposition to immigration' and 'hatred of foreigners who don't look like us' is the same thing.

America has always been proud to be the destination of the marginalized and hated. That's how we were built. That's how we thrive.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the polls since the Gingrich "Contract on America" in 1994. A major party has chosen to embrace the politics of division and marginalization to make points with the kinds of voters none of us would ever have in our homes.

The point is this: the conservative mobilization of these yokels has consequences. It's okay to be a "Christian Warrior" and hate others because that's now a voting constituency, not just a marginal hate group.

The Junta truly represents the worst impulses of American life - intolerance, stupidity, shortsightedness, the whole ball of wax.

Truth

It won't help. All the obfuscation about a "middle ground" and subject-changing won't help the Bush-Rove Junta. Their problem is - as it always has been - reality. Reality is what they thought they could adjust to suit themselves from day one. Reality is what arrived early for them on September 11, when their neglect of counter-terrorism resulted in exactly the sort of attack that Clinton had repeatedly prevented. Reality is this: all their policies are wildly unpopular. Period.

So how have they been able to do so much damage in only five years? Lies. As long as you don't know what they're doing and what they want to do in the future, they can tell you what they want you to hear. No sense listing all the failures vs. claims - the list is long and very well known. And that's exactly why nobody likes them.

Americans don't want huge budget deficits, but the Junta's been spending borrowed money as fast as they can get their hands on it. Americans don't want the crust taken from the tables of poor families to go directly into the bank accounts of the rich, but that's exactly what we've got. Failure, lies, incompetence, torture, lawlessness. We, as a nation, don't want any of it.

And they'll still tell you it's not what they're doing, but after five years of the most disastrous governing in the nations history, the lies don't cut it anymore. We know what they want to do, and it's not what we want.
Their greatest enemy is simple truth.

When they can lie and hide, they win. When they're exposed, they lose.
What would have happened in November of 2004 if we'd known about the NSA illegal wiretapping and call logging? "President Kerry."

What else are they doing in our name (to our name) that we don't know about yet? Their "New American Century" is our worst nightmare. They want to build a fascistic American Empire based on fear, run by a dictatorial one-party state. Writing that sentence a few years ago would have felt like lunacy, like a sci-fi novel.

Not any more.

We know too much now. We know that they are all liars. There is no policy or issue that will give them a clean slate. The more they do, the more they show their hand. And it's a hand that Americans reject.

Shortly after 9-11, it was common to debate torture: "what if there was a ticking bomb and you had a guy and he wouldn't talk - do you torture him?" Now the question is: "why are we torturing all these prisoners and why have more than 100 prisoners died in our custody?" That's a very long leap, and even in the days following 9-11 you couldn't get Americans to sign off on it.

But they didn't need permission as long as they had ignorance. It was only after the inadvertent release of the Abu Ghraib pictures that we started to know what was being done.

And as time goes on, we'll know more. When Americans take back the Congress this fall - if the Diebold machines and Old Jim Crow let them - the investigations should be quite revealing.

And that will lead to what Canada saw in the 1980's - a national "leader" with single-digit approval ratings.

But at least Brian Mulroney didn't torture anybody - that we know of.

Immigrants

Don't miss Georgie on TV tonight! He's going to give an address on Immigration. Georgie has a problem on immigration, see, because it's a splinter issue for conservatives. Poor Georgie.

See, some conservatives are raving hate-filled yokels. These voters want those darned Mexicans out of America - now! For them, illegal Mexicans are unsightly. They are just bad apples who didn't play by the rules to get into this great country, and therefore are felons who should be arrested and - I guess we'd have to pay to keep them then. Or else send them back to Messko - but they'd just run back here. Policy is hard!

So, while Cletis works on that a spell, we'll look at the other group of conservatives: the money-baggers. Money says: "are you nuts? These illegals will pick your grapes for like a dime an hour!" There is a vast array of cheap and exploitative US industries that depend on paying below-minimum-wage to desperate immigrants - they do not want to see that border closed.
So what's Georgie to do? The answer is for him to play to his own strength: say one thing and do another.

Nevermind that the real objective of policy is to do the right thing for the country. The objective of the Junta is to do what will keep them in power, and that means play to the 2006 Congressional voters. Georgie and Master Rove think those voters want to close the border - so we'll (say we're going to) close it!

To do that, we'll stretch the amazingly over-stretched National Guard a few miles longer and put a bunch of them on the border. Don't worry that you're militarizing a peaceful border - this is politics! It's much more important than relations with Mexico or Latin/South America who will take offense. Politics over all!

So Georgie talks to Mexico's Fox and tells him it's just a temporary deployment. Which means one of two things: either Georgie is lying to Fox - which is not good foreign policy again - or he's lying to Americans, which is really just par for the course.

Honest immigration policy would allow workers to earn their citizenship over time, and try to bring up the wages in both countries to eliminate the sweat shops on both sides of the border. The worst possible policy is the one that Georgie's hanging his hat on (naturally) which is a 'guest worker program.' Guest workers would be in every way second class and would be a servant class to our wealthy and industry.

We don't stand for that. We stand for "give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." The nation was build on giving immigrants a fair shot at success. Like the very concept of freedom, it's something that Georgie would just as soon do without.

29%

29% Approval. According to the most recent Harris Interactive/WSJ poll, the current occupant of the White House has the approval of 29% of the citizens of the country he's entrusted to lead. Is this, as they say, an "outlier," or is it a deepening trend? Mark me down for 'trend,' because I don't think it's seen the bottom yet.

By digging into the rich, untilled soil deep below 40% and actually mining under 30%, indications are that Americans are starting to 'get it.' Presumably, there is a bedrock of support down there somewhere that represents the Special Ed class of voters who will never disapprove of what their buffoon hero does. But for the rest, the lessons of unchecked NeoCon control are really starting to hit home.

And the hits just keep on coming. Now, it's been revealed by USA Today (since when do they do investigative journalism?) that the NSA has been collecting your phone logs and keeping them - with no cause or warrant. Junta leaders in Congress are typically playing the South Park version of Saddam: "what? Hey, don't worry, guy! Look over there!" And they think they won't pay for that at the polls.

But none of that really matters, because Georgie never had a legitimate claim on the power he abuses, and never wanted one. In 2000 he stole the election outright. In 2004, he stole it through the politics of lies and by suppressing the votes of minorities and likely opponents.

And even if you're holing on to the illusion that he actually won in 2004 (I don't think anyone still believes he won in 2000), nothing he's done in his governance has been for any public good. You would think that he'd have done something positive, even accidentally. But his warped ideology has steered him clear of any positive results.

I'm curious to see if any of the public's growing awareness will stick to the media. I wonder if the backlash will include the question: "why didn't you tell us?" Because the Steven Colbert dictum of "we decide, we announce, you [in the media] type" has been all too true.

But aside from any much-deserved bashing of the press, Georgie has taken to running his own quasi-fascist dictatorship. He doesn't need the public. He doesn't need Congress -they can run against him all they want in the mid-terms. He signs all their silly legislation, and then writes "signing statements" that make it clear that he will ignore all their rules, or, as others call them, "laws."

The only difference between Nixon and Georgie is that there were Americans in Congress who held Nixon accountable. No such problems for Georgie. Congress is compliant and acquiescent, handing over their powers in vast chunks and rubber-stamping any excess… Well, you know.

But 29%? That's new.

29%

29% Approval. According to the most recent Harris Interactive/WSJ poll, the current occupant of the White House has the approval of 29% of the citizens of the country he's entrusted to lead. Is this, as they say, an "outlier," or is it a deepening trend? Mark me down for 'trend,' because I don't think it's seen the bottom yet.

By digging into the rich, untilled soil deep below 40% and actually mining under 30%, indications are that Americans are starting to 'get it.' Presumably, there is a bedrock of support down there somewhere that represents the Special Ed class of voters who will never disapprove of what their buffoon hero does. But for the rest, the lessons of unchecked NeoCon control are really starting to hit home.

And the hits just keep on coming. Now, it's been revealed by USA Today (since when do they do investigative journalism?) that the NSA has been collecting your phone logs and keeping them - with no cause or warrant. Junta leaders in Congress are typically playing the South Park version of Saddam: "what? Hey, don't worry, guy! Look over there!" And they think they won't pay for that at the polls.

But none of that really matters, because Georgie never had a legitimate claim on the power he abuses, and never wanted one. In 2000 he stole the election outright. In 2004, he stole it through the politics of lies and by suppressing the votes of minorities and likely opponents.

And even if you're holing on to the illusion that he actually won in 2004 (I don't think anyone still believes he won in 2000), nothing he's done in his governance has been for any public good. You would think that he'd have done something positive, even accidentally. But his warped ideology has steered him clear of any positive results.

I'm curious to see if any of the public's growing awareness will stick to the media. I wonder if the backlash will include the question: "why didn't you tell us?" Because the Steven Colbert dictum of "we decide, we announce, you [in the media] type" has been all too true.

But aside from any much-deserved bashing of the press, Georgie has taken to running his own quasi-fascist dictatorship. He doesn't need the public. He doesn't need Congress -they can run against him all they want in the mid-terms. He signs all their silly legislation, and then writes "signing statements" that make it clear that he will ignore all their rules, or, as others call them, "laws."

The only difference between Nixon and Georgie is that there were Americans in Congress who held Nixon accountable. No such problems for Georgie. Congress is compliant and acquiescent, handing over their powers in vast chunks and rubber-stamping any excess… Well, you know.

But 29%? That's new.

Politics and Sports

In the days of yore when political discourse was, for lack of a better word, "civil," things were different.

Don't you hate when people say "for lack of a better word?" Whenever I hear that, I always think: "of course there's a better word, you just can't think of it." It's like the whole dictionary failed to live up to the lofty concept that you've generated in your Spock-like head. Let's just go with: "for lack of a better vocabulary."

So, for lack of a better vocabulary, civil discourse in the past was in many ways more civil. Why? A big part of it was that America faced real dangers in the world, and didn't need NeoCons to fabricate them. Real dangers mean really pulling together.

In the period from the Civil War ( I know, "not civil") to the Reagan administration (I refuse to call it an "Era"), politics had a certain set of unwritten rules. Politics had its place, but could never be placed ahead of policy and grave matters like war and peace. Presidents like Eisenhower - a Republican - played politics when they had to, and governed with great seriousness and honestly tried to be the leader of the whole nation. Sounds kind of silly and old would now, doesn't it?

Today, politics are everything. They act as the only cause of aggressive wars, budget-destroying deficits, and power-hungry madmen. What changed?

Glad you asked: Baseball.

Yes, it has been the decline of the former 'national pastime' that has created the ugly NeoConservative politics of today.

Baseball is a sport of goodwill. It's a sport where, even though you might fiercely conduct a game against a hated rival, you probably don't end up hurting anybody.

In baseball (not to sound too much like George Carlin), the majors play 162 games in their regular season. That means that there are very few - if any - games in the season that are 'must-win.' I was just checking the scores, and it seems my Red Sox just dropped another at home to the hated Yankees.

Oh, well. We'll get them next time!

The new national pastime is NFL football. In the football season, the pros play 16 games - less than a tenth of the baseball season. When your rivals come to town, you better damn well beat them. Divisional foes (only three teams) are faced twice a year, everyone else is on the schedule only once. Win now, or else.

In a rivalry game, somebody's getting hurt. Probably multiple somebodies. Most players come into the game hurt to one extent or another, and only get worse as things go on.

Baseball games can go one as long as they need to. The needs of the game are most important - make sure the game is satisfied with enough outs and ups. Football is on the clock. Get it done. It's going to end when it says it ends. No player, coach, or official is more important than the clock.

In baseball, some small-market teams are have-nots, and are out of contention by May. And somehow, that's okay. They used to mock football because the league wanted "parity," a more level playing field where any team could compete with any other team.

It's not widely remembered (or discussed) that 'parity' was a dirty word. People, in baseball mode, wanted the Steelers and the Cowboys to be the Yankees and the Dodgers. Who cares that the same few teams win every year?

Now, we celebrate the fact that any NFL team can win a championship from year to year. It's a good thing that hope can exist in all fans, and legitimately. Teams have gone from 'worst to first' and won improbable Lombardi trophies.

But along with that, expectations have risen. If you're not the Rams or the Patriots, why aren't you? The Panthers and Jaguars were in their respective conference championship game two years after starting up - where are you, Texans?

Football is "winning is the only thing." Win or go find another job. In baseball, managers have hundreds of games to show what they can do. In football you can get canned in single-digits.
Politics today is football. There is no long view for the 162-game marathon, it's just next week - that's all that matters. If a coach told the media he was saving something for later in the season, or taking a long term perspective, he'd be pilloried.

Politics is win now and win at all costs. Nothing is as important as the next election - not civil right, war and peace, lives, hunger, budgets, nothing.

Most of this is driven by the Republican party. They made a strategic decision after Nixon to throw out all the stops. Nixon was presented with the divisive election plan that Georgie uses today, but refused to because it would 'split the country in two.' Imagine.

Conservatives can't win based on ideas. Facts, as Colbert said, "have a liberal bias." The playbook based on making a real effort to solve real problems has been replaced with the NeoCon playbook of lying about reality and then solving the made-up problems, resulting in the real problems becoming much, much worse.

But if it wins the in the short-term, it's a winner.

Resign

Here's a new word: resign. The only proper thing left to do for the Junta is to resign, en masse. Resign, because everything they've touched has gone wrong. Resign, because their belief in radical rightist ideology has brought ruin to a one-great once-proud nation. Resign, because your self-image as white-hat cowboys has been turned on its head by your own weakness and incompetence. You've become the black-hats, and should do the only 'manly' thing left to you: resign.

Oh, I know. Power is the only thing that matters to them, and they still have it. They lied, cheated, and stolen to get it, so why lay it aside now? But what if there was a shred of intellectual honesty in the Junta? What if it were possible to get Elvis Cosello's "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" on loan and have them look into it?

Josh Marshall has suggested that in the near future we will need some sort of 'truth and reconciliation commission' to sort out the lies and crimes of this Junta, and I think he's right. It did wonders for post-Apartheid South Africa.

But let's start now.

Is there a man or woman among the Junta who is honourable enough to face their ignominy? That would be a start.

Unfortunately, disgraceful failure is an in-bred part of their ideology. If they'd had a shred of human decency, they never would have gotten into the torture business to begin with. They'd have never cut food aid to mothers and young children in order to give ten times more money to wealthy individuals and corporations.

The list goes on and on. Including yesterday, when they passed another $70 billion in gifts to the gifted. That's $70 billion more that your kids and grandkids owe to people like the Chinese government. It's a 'gift' in the sense that it does nothing - it helps nobody ($20 each for middle-class families) but the people who require no help - the millionaires who will get $42,000 each.

Economic stimulus? Please. The economy was much healthier and fairer under Bubba's progressive tax rates. Economic recovery has been shallower than historic standards and working people have received no economic benefit as the rich have been permitted to take and keep all the gains.

And the Republican approval ratings just keep getting lower. The only people supporting them are the crazies who will always support them. The rest of the country, which new mouthpiece Tony Snow says 'want to like Georgie,' can find no reason to. Record deficits. Iraq. Katrina. Gasoline. Every aspect of life and policy touched by their ideology has been devastated.

It's time now for any Republican with a single functioning brain cell and even a microscopic shred of dignity to resign.

Anyone? No?

Jobber

Porter "The Jobber" Goss has left the CIA. He did a Brownie-like "Heckuvajob." He was able, in only a short amount of time, to disable and demoralize America's key spy agency to an extent that the old KGB could only dream of. In fact, if the Jobber had only been appointed twenty years ago, the Soviet Union might still exist.

The chief failing of CIA during these Dark Ages since the Junta stole power from Americans has been their acquiescence to political command. An agency conceived by the Great Harry Truman to be an independent truth-telling institution was pressured to ignore al Qaeda before 9-11 and then to change their tune about Saddam before the Iraq invasion. In both cases, it was political pressured which skewed the intel to a deadly degree.

But then the same guys who'd put the screws to them and forced their errors turned on poor CIA. The agency was scapegoated over both fiascos, and a 'reform' guy put in charge. Enter the Jobber.

Look: if you want to 'fix' the CIA, make it more independent and less answerable to politicians. If you want to destroy it, make it a political puppet to support bad policy from right-wing extremists and fire anybody who ever voted for a Democrat. Which is exactly what the Jobber did.

Now, for whatever reason, the Jobber got forced out. My guess is that it was his conflicts with new intel head Negroponte more than any bad blood he stirred up at CIA. It could also have been the 'Hookergate' investigation that's been sniffing around the former Congressman.

Either way, Georgie didn't hesitate to bring in his New Jobber, General Michael Hayden. Looking just a little silly with his podgy cheeks and bright blue Air Force General uniform, Hayden is a perfect choice if you want to hand the whole thing over to Rummy. The one traditionally civilian intel arm of the US government will now be led by a general.

And not just any general. This general was the "brains" behind the illegal NSA wiretap scheme. This was the general who argued with a reporter about privacy protections in the Fourth Amendment - and got it wrong. This is a special general indeed.

"But in the heels of the nomination, the White House was quick to indicate that an old hand was being brought back to help out at CIA:

"In a highly unorthodox move, the White House disclosed the plan shortly after President Bush's formal announcement of Hayden's nomination in the Oval Office, in hopes of reassuring those worried about too much military influence over the intelligence community.

Under the plan, Vice Adm. Albert M. Calland III would be replaced as deputy director by retired CIA official Stephen R. Kappes, who quit in November 2004 in a dispute with then-Director Porter J. Goss.

The move was seen as a direct repudiation of Goss's leadership and as an olive branch to CIA veterans disaffected by his 18-month tenure, during which many other senior officials followed Kappes out the door. The White House was so eager to get out the news of Kappes's likely appointment that it was announced from the lectern in the briefing room, even though the Senate has not yet confirmed Hayden and Kappes was officially described as "the leading contender" for the job."

There you have it. Kappes will come in as #2. A former Marine officer with over twenty years field and leadership experience with the CIA, Kappes resigned when the Jobber started taking the place apart. So for all of you Chicken Littles out there - chill out. The Kappes is coming back.

Which begs the question: why not make the career guy the top guy? The answer in one word: competence. Kappes has it.

And competence is fine for window-dressing and getting past Senate committees, but when you have a really bad policy decision you need to justify in a hurry before people start to "think about it," you need a guy like General Hayden in charge.

You can count on Hayden to pull on that baby-blue uniform and march his ass down to Congress and tell them any old thing you want told. Kappes - not so much.

This will be a slam-dunk confirmation, too, as the Senate politicos will put on a "we're giving Georgie a hard time" face, but they are all still wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Junta. Sure, Georgie is the least popular and least able American president in history, but that doesn't mean he's not still calling the shots.

When George Mitchell left the Senate, he took the last spine and pair of juevos with him.

Reality

Interesting Op-Ed from former Bubba Sec o' State Madeleine Albright in the WaPo this morning. She argues a version of what I've been espousing as progressive Israel policy - don't throw it away just because the NeoCons embraced it. The NeoCons have worked to destroy our post-WWII system of security and alliances, replacing it with a twitchy sort of bullying paranoia.

No, she didn't say that. I did.

What she says is 'don't lose your idealism just because the Bush people have made idealism look so very bad.' She's afraid that whoever is charged with fixing the unbelievable mess of our foreign policy will revert to a 'realism' that will serve today's interests without looking ahead or believing in things like liberty and democracy. A sort of John Bolton approach without the apocalyptic visions.

She rightly points out that the expression of Arab democracy won't look like a congressional election in Wisconsin - Arabs will give voice to their own beliefs, and that's okay.

"If Arab democracy develops, it will do so to advance Arab aspirations based on Arab perceptions of history and justice. The right to vote and hold office is unlikely to soften Arab attitudes toward Israel or to end the potential for terror, just as it has been unable to prevent terrorist cells from organizing in the West. Democracy should, however, create a broader and more open political debate within Arab countries, exposing myths to scrutiny and extreme ideas to rebuttal. Though some may fear such an opening, Americans should welcome it. For if we fail to value free expression, we forget our own history."

We need to eliminate the pie-in-the-sky horse excretions from the Junta, though:

"At the same time, we should keep a rein on our expectations. Bush has said that America "has a calling from beyond the stars" to proclaim liberty throughout the world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice argues that the democratic transformation of the Middle East is the only way to guarantee that men do not fly airplanes into buildings. Such rhetoric is overblown. Just because the denial of political freedom is bad, that doesn't mean that the exercise of freedom will always be to our liking. Democracy is a form of government; it is not a ticket to some heavenly kingdom where all evil is vanquished and everyone agrees with us."

America was founded on idealism, and needs to stay grounded in a realism that reflects our beliefs while working in the real world. That mean, in a practical sense, that while it may seem easier in the short term to torture prisoners, we don't believe in it. So we don't do it. Period.

And we need to continue to support democratic movements in the Middle East. Where I depart from Madeleine is where Hamas is the Palestinian government - there's nothing we can do with that. But that government is only the legitimate expression of the misguided grievances felt by Palestinians. They need some international tough love which will tell them to move on with their lives and make peace. Their perpetually savage grudge-holding only serves to impoverish their own people.

Which brings me back to Israel. As Madeleine said, 'don't toss out this approach to foreign policy just because the current leadership is so utterly hopeless.' When I read progressives nail the Junta on everything from Iraq to tax cuts to Katrina, I say "fight the fight!" But they seem, inevitably, to champion the grievances of Palestinians because the Junta doesn't.

And that's just wrong. Progressives, liberals: don't let the Junta control you like that. Right is right. And what's right - for today - is the wall.

Russia

You know what's a bad idea right now? Pissing off Russia. Of sure, Vlad Putin has been acting like Vlad the Impaler for a few years now, but why notice it today? And why use Dick Cheney, the Dark Prince of capitalism's worst excesses, to deliver the message? Dr. Strangelove was busy?

Like other problems that the Junta faces, our Russia issues are largely self-made. We've made no efforts to curb Putin's anti-democratic program. His aims aren't so different from those of the Rove Junta - buy the press to stifle dissent, let the big money buy into power, and thwart any legitimate democracy in the nation. Rove's more religious about it, but that's just tactics.

So when Putin was amassing his power and Georgie was looking into his soul - it must have been like a mirror - it was all okay. Now, when US international standing is lower than after the War of 1812, we pick on him? After our secret detention facilities and botched 'war on terror' have us looking like the Keystone Kops (with nukes) we're going to send our foul avatar or corruption to call him out?

Really, it's as much as admitting that there's nothing our NeoCon-weakened state can do about Iran. The idea of attacking them has been so profoundly discredited - Georgie's out of moves.

Blow them up? NO! Well, that's it, then.

We certainly can't go through the UN. By sending the bilious John Bolton as the non-confirmed Spanner in the Works, the UN is closed indefinitely. We can't even get China to agree with us - we owe them too much money.

So we send Dick Cheney to start a row with the Russians ahead of the 2006 mid-terms (remember - all actions are for domestic politics). That way, the Junta can get back to the only policy it ever even partial understood: the Cold War. Russia bad! Russia strong!

"For the vice president to say Russia can be a strategic partner is already to imply that it isn't."
And how about the fact that he said that "Russia was not "fated to be an enemy"? Doesn't that imply that it is?

Now, if we could only get them to invade Afghanistan again before November.

NeoCons

You got one there, now we have one here. The government of business and power interests first, last, and always. The NeoCons. Poor and working class people are inferior. Religious extremism is a guidepost. Wealthy individuals and corporations and the only constituents. The interests of power and wealth are more important than the interests of individuals.

Under the new Conservative government, we in Canada have our first "Neo-conservative budget."

How NeoCon is it? They raise income taxes on the poor. How NeoCon is that?
Sure, they tout their $20 billion in tax cuts - but who have they cut? And what will it do to our long national budget surplus?

Canadians are used to Clinton-like growth and prosperity, which the Liberal Party has given us in their 12 years of government. Now, because radical-left Bozo Jack Layton saw a chance for a couple more seats for the NDP and forced a badly-timed election, we have the Moron Party back in government.

That may seem harsh, and then again it may not. But there is this huge experiment in the practical results of NeoCon policies directly south of our border. A border which I'm hoping will one day soon be heavily guarded - on the Canadian side. Because NeoCon policies are nothing less than catastrophically evil and unworkable. It would be one thing if they were simply malevolent; that their diabolical promise of great wealth for all based on eviscerating giveaways to the wealthy did anything but weaken the weak and destroy the middle class.

Nothing they do or think works to any extent. It's the weak-minded result of results-first research. There are two types of NeoCons, and both are deadly to democracy.

The first is the true believer. This type might be a social or economic NeoCon. Both have fanatical devotion to ideas that are in no way based on any measurable fact. Social NeoCons tend to believe that the Bible is literally true and that their interpretation of it is the only valid interpretation. Anything less than full devotion to their megachurch doctrines is a straight ticket to Aych-Eee-Double-Hockey-Sticks.

Economic True Believer NeoCons think that tax cuts actually increase government revenues, even though they have never done anything but drastically increase government debt. They believe in taking all money from all social programs, because there is a blue-sky belief in the ability of anyone, no matter the disadvantages of their background or status, has a fair opportunity against anyone else. So Georgie got to be a failure fifty times over, but rich people bailed him out because he's a Bush - just like rich people will bail out anyone who has a business failure or an illness in the family that kills their finances.

They believe in "trickle-down," even though the only evidence surrounding the concept talks about him much it doesn't work and how it screws the economy.

The other type of NeoCon is the type in power today: the Greedmongers. Greedmongers just want the power to themselves for their own enrichment and to be in as much control as possible.

They feed social/religious NeoCons to get their votes, but they don't believe in anything. They will talks "trickle-down" with the economic NeoCons, but they know that what they're doing is destructive - they just don't care.

They talk democracy but practice fascism. Wealthy people and corporations help them, and so they are helped in return. Life is a transaction. Life itself has no value beyond what can be given to NeoCons in terms of productivity or wealth. We're all just walking piggy banks for the well-born and the corporate bagmen.

But that's not what it's like in Canada. We don't pine for the good old days of slave labour and owing your should to the company store. We don't look wistfully back at "Upstairs Downstairs" and recall that social and economic mobility were once totally out of the question.

We have a real social safety net. And Universal Health Care.

And now, for the first time since Brian Mulroney, we have added a regressive tax.
Fortunately for us, the Harper Conservative government is in the minority, so they dare not do what they want to do - and what they know Canadians do not want. Already, they've imposed government press silence and controlled messaging.

Hopefully Canadians won't be fooled by any Rovian tricks - if for no other reason than the fact that the Liberal Party won't passively accept it all.

But know this: it's started.

Wishes

Do you remember having three wishes? Do you remember wishing you had three wishes? It's a kid's thing, right?

But for progressives, can you wish you had three branches of government? Would that fulfill your wishes? Not three Joe Lieberman branches who would say they were with you but vote for the other side, but three really and for true branches of government that would vote your way every time and you could PUNISH if they didn't?

Well, progressive liberals, forget it. But you backward-ass barely literate don't believe in book-learning neocons - you had six years. How was it?

You had six years of the most crazy-ass tax cutting invade-anybody policies anybody could ever hope for. You had a blank cheque with the full faith and credit of the United States of America behind you. You could do ANYTHING YOU WANTED!

Liberals had that shot once. We solved the Great Depression and won the greatest war in world history. As an after thought, we preserved freedom in South Korea and demarked the borders that the Soviet Union could not cross, laying the groundwork for the American victory in the Cold War.

Plus, we added Social Security and the concept that Americans would not sit idly by and allow our brothers and sisters to starve because of macroeconomic forces beyond their control.

Okay, Georgie and the Junta. Your ups. You've had six years - what have you accomplished? You've pushed the tax burden solidly regressive - so much so that we don't even talk about it anymore. The poor and middle class are getting less than ever from their government while paying more than ever. The affluent and corporations are paying less. Good?

What has been done to help the nation in any way - even your precious wealthy constituents? They'll pay more for disastrous wars than anyone - when the economy tanks it will tank worse for them. You've been treasonously short-sighted. The policies that have been okay because they've only killed the paycheque-to-paycheque crowd will one day kill those who make their fortunes from the paycheque-to-paycheque crowd.

Because the elitist 'trickle-down' garbage that your smart party guys know is pure lies is worse than just a lie - it's an opposite.

The opposite is that it's not by paying huge undeserved dollars to the rich that we all benefit, but rather by paying the bottom up that we prosper. When the poor get their boat floated first we all benefit. But all of us benefiting is not in the neocon playbook. Better that the rich befit less but early than anyone else get ahead.

How else will we get to the slave state that the neocons covet? Too much? Well - what else is at the end of the neocon starve-the-poor plan if not slavery and indentured servitude?

It's certainly not your vote their after - if they want they, they'll just vote for you.

Medicare

Let's say you're a doctor, and you have two patients. One of them has a cold, and one of them has a chronic and severe heart condition. If you took the patient with the cold and gave him massive heart drugs and shocked him with the defibrillator and did radical surgery , would that be wrong? What if you gave the heart patient a big plate of poutine and sent him home? It could be fairly said that you were trying to kill both patients.

And so it is with Medicare and Social Security. Social Security requires a small adjustment to make it last - and be more fair - by raising the limit on income deductions to make the affluent pay more. And Medicare needs big new cash.

And yet, Georgie has pushed to eliminate Social Security while doing nothing to save Medicare. He obviously wants to kill both programs, so it makes perfect sense - radical invasive procedures for the healthy Social Security program, nothing for the dying Medicare.

The impending death of Medicare brings us back to what liberals should be running on: universal health care.
Dancing around Medicare funding does nothing but complicate the issue. It keeps the reactionaries in the game by making it seem like it's all about the numbers. That's all a smokescreen.

Liberals need to stand for something. What better to stand on than Universal Health Care? It's good for the poor and the middle class. The US wastes more money on health administration than anyone ever. Is there a constituency - outside the Junta - for protecting HMO profits? No.

Look: no matter how it polls, it shows what Democrats are supposed to stand for. People don't like any of the policies of the Reaction-ublicans, but they like their feisty attitude. Tax cuts are no more popular than health care, but are the standard for rightists.

Hey Democrats: you're losing elections now. Why not lose on what you believe in?

My fear is that with the plummeting approval ratings of both Georgie and the Congress, Dems will play it safe and no fight a spirited battle to win back the government. That would be a huge mistake.

If you want to beat the champ, you've gotta knock him out. Nothing less will do.