Beware The Man

Headlines from Dubya’s now numerous “here’s our strategy” for Iraq speeches. Note the dates.

Kudos to the people who put this together. Now all I need is an chart with double-headed arrows pointing at people who know other people inolved in different investigations.

For example, there’s a woman by the name of Susan Ralston, who has had to testify in the Plame leak about allegedly being told by Rove to avoid “logging (that) phone call” to columnist Matt Cooper of TIME, who heard Plame’s name from Rove, first, from what we know in the public record.

But then you find out she was also connected to Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist whose partner pled to bribery of some number of elected officials, and offered his cooperation to the Feds in exchange.

And all of them, as posted earlier, lived in Tom Delay digestive tract. Here’s a spot where Delay calls Abramoff one of his best pals.

No, the chapter of our man’s story that matters most at the moment begins with a toast given by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay during a New Year’s trip they both took to Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands in 1997. “When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made,” DeLay said before an audience of Abramoff’s clients in the islands’ garment industry—whom, upon his return to Washington, he helped win an extended exemption from federal immigration and labor laws.

From those kooks at CNN, here’s how things look in Saipan, thanks to those “extended exemptions from federal immigration and labor laws.”

The good ol’ Catholic Church. Sure, they’ve gotten past their days of Inquistions and Crusades, but what’s up with always being about 2 centuries behind the times? I actually know a gay priest who I would be proud to have as a priest, were I of that mind, and would also not hesitate for one second to let him babysit. HE is what the Church needs; a sterling example of a great human being who has given his life to “God’s work.” I love the guy, if only just as friends.

But, his own institution has no use for him. Morons. And a great example of why I have no use for Catholicism.

It has crept over me in the last several months, as I’ve watched the Powers That Be serially abuse that power, that if the Dems don’t take back at least one House of Congress next year, I’m going to have a hard time believing the Permanent End is not beginning, for the United States position in the world. Tonight, another horrible story about a once proud and dignified man polluted by the political process: Duke Cunningham. This guy was not at some point a thoroughly despicable human being. What happened? I say too much power.

It’s time for people in GOP districts to step up. I’m sorry…this time it isn’t about your Congressman; it’s about POWER. One party has too much, which by definition also means a large share of control over this power resides with the loonies on the fringe, as both of them (the fringes) are most invested in the political debate, emotionally. Dems had a lot of Power once and passed a bunch of favorable campaign legislation; then the GOP got their power and managed to violate about every single Rule of How to Behave with it, while simultaneously illustrating pretty much every large institution’s every single problem with concentrated Power, all in about 10 quick years. This process our Founding Father’s clearly Got.

All we got out of it was a bought and paid for government. Got money? OK, we’ll talk.

Trust me, this is not a partisan statement; Democrats have and will again do the same things given the same stacked deck.

Yep, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee, folks. You don’t have to vote Dem if you hate them reflexively…vote for the third party candidate if there is one, and abstain if there’s not. The Republican party has the smell of Amorphophallus titanum on them. And if you can’t smell it, you don’t know very much about this man. He calls the shots; “the architect,” said the President.

The Onion, once again, put it well: “Topeka Mayor Becomes Highest Ranking Non-Indicted GOP Official.”

But it’s pretty clear from the story that he was really, really guilty.

He announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, but he’s still sitting there casting votes for his District!

Oops, nope, he just resigned. News travels fast out here!

A site with a total costs of government investigating government, that goes back 19 years, sourced to the GAO (Government Accounting Office).

Not only is Fitz smart and unimpeachable, he’s cheap!  I love this guy!

We’ll see how much play this story gets in the States. 

As some of you may or may not know, we’ve hired a lot of ex-military “private contractors” to handle some security issues in Iraq.  Apparently the Brits have, too.  This is the story of what would seem to me to be inevitable when you do that on a large-scale basis.  It’s about these guys playing random “shoot the car” games to pass the time.  The video is already out there, too.

Judge for yourself.

First we had a story from Tom DeFrank of the NY Daily News detailing the POTUS’s anger, at least, with some of his staff. Then came the report that he’s down to talking only to Karen Hughes, his old pal, Laura, his Mom (she’s the mean one) and Condi.  (It was reported widely in the “real” news).  Well, OK, you hunker down when you’re in trouble, but when you’re the President it seems to me you should be getting more input as part of your job.  So, a small quibble there.

There’ve been some tabloid reports about the POTUS drinking again, but the tabloids are only right slightly less than the Mainstream media is, so you have to take that with a grain of salt.

But now this, from probably the most respected investigative reporter left, Sy Hersh of the New Yorker Mag.  I’ve linked a place where the key quotes are detailed…mainly, they portray a guy who is so convinced he’s right he doesn’t care what happens!  Yikes.

Some of the comments are thought-provoking, as well, though as always they tend to drift.

…author of many a funny book and longtime S. Florida native and resident, has a bit of distaste for The Man himself if his writings offer any clue.  I have Sick Puppy and Basket Case, and they’re both really funny good reads.

Anyway, he’s got some words for our VP worth reading in the Miami Herald.

…for their stuff, but somehow the bloggers have been able to cut the “money shots” out and post them to the public.  I don’t know what those laws look like.

Just a plain old ripping.  Start in the diary.