Something Rotten

There are so many gates opening under this administration I am wondering how they are managing to stay afloat. We have Tillmangate (yes, it always is the cover-up that gets you), and we have Iraqigate (a.k.a. how you say Viet Nam in Arabic), then there is Katrinagate (also known as Heck-of-a-job-Brownie gate), no one could forget Shootergate, and on they go.

Now we have Gonzogate. As all the others go, this one is probably the least offensive inasmuch as no one died or was maimed. But the deceptive and underhanded behavior is still inexcusable and just plain wrong. I have no real beef with Alberto other than I think he is way out of his depth, and while he was doing his job when he got the Shrub out of jury duty (have to protect the client dontcha know) so the DUI would not be revealed, I cannot say I like that he did it. Of course the fact that people have been getting Dubya out of trouble his whole life is the reason we have him where he is today. If his real record including his AWOL, the DUI, his behavior as a frat boy at Yale, among other things, were documented public knowledge we might have been spared the thousands dead in Iraq, the destruction of our reputation around the world, the economic status we now “enjoy” of being a wholly owned subsidiary of other countries like China, and those are only the highlights!

The brief summary of Gonzogate as I understand it is Karl The Architect Rove identified eleven states that could be a problem to the Republicans maintaining (regaining) power in 2008. It is critical therefore that the judicial process in those states be maintained by Bushies – i.e. those friendly to the administration and their cronies. An analysis was done of which U.S. Attorneys were and were not company pawns as determined by the Rove yardstick, and those that were deemed to be most independent (Imagine! An independent minded judiciary!) and less willing to do the bidding of the big boys were removed. These turned out to be eight U.S. Attorneys who also happened to be, conveniently, in eight of the eleven states identified by the Turd Blossom (Bush’s nickname for Rove).

Before I go on, I know there has been a lot of rhetoric by the right wing-nuts that Clinton fired all of his … and that is true. But so did many other presidents fire or request the resignation of all or most political appointees including U.S. Attorneys at the beginning of their first term… Reagan, and Bush 41 are just two examples of that… in fact Harriet She Coulda Been A Contenda Miers advocated just that to Shrub after the 2004 election. Truth is multi-term presidents don’t usually remove appointees en masse since they are their own appointees.

One dismissed attorney was fired for the reason that he was in Arkansas and one of Rove’s proteges wanted to start his political career there and needed the position. While it sucks, I cannot argue with that, it is a feature of the system. But to trash the person being replaced by saying his performance was subpar is unforgivable.

Another replaced (displaced?) attorney was in a state where he was looking into Democratic election fraud, but did not find enough evidence to issue an indictment, certainly not before the upcoming elections which he was being pressured to do – and yup, he’s outta there! Still another attorney had indicted and put away a Republican Congressman for corruption, and was investigating others. The excuse for her was that she wasn’t investigating immigration cases yet her office had something like 50% of their caseload in that arena. And lest we forget the attorney in a state that had a contested Governor’s race in 2004 who could not find sufficient voter fraud to overturn the will of the people allowing the elected Democrat to take office.

Bottom line on these attorneys is they did not pursue Democrats sufficiently (the way perhaps the Republicans went after Clinton?) to please their handlers.

What makes this almost amusing is that people who are slated to testify are all starting to announce in advance they plan to plead the 5^th! What are we dealing with here, Mafia Dons? Actually, maybe that shouldn’t be a question . . . Where there is smoke there is fire, and with this many unwilling to go under oath and tell what went on the apparent guilt is fairly dripping off the White House and DOJ. I’m waiting for the Congressional Committee to offer some immunity so maybe more than just hints of this sludge can hit the fan!

Right Wing vs. Right Thinking

At what point does political attack change from fair or at least acceptable behavior in the cut throat world of politics and opinion? When do we as human beings stop for a moment, brief or otherwise, and think about the commentary and the motivation. I have to ask myself why this type of bad taste is allowed to go on in the world of public media when other things much less toxic are decried and punished.

Today ladies and gentlemen I am talking about the right wing talk show hosts, and in particular one Rush Limbaugh. Ayup, he is at it again. While I have no proof that this man kicks puppies and steals toys from little kids, I would be surprised to find out that he doesn’t. It was bad enough when he made fun of Michael J. Fox at the time of his testifying in front of Congress on Parkinson’s which Mr. Fox has. Not only did he attack him in rhetoric but he imitated the motions he claims Fox was faking for sympathy. He obviously spoke from the total lack of knowledge, decency, humanity, compassion … a position we are well used to hearing from Mr. Rush to Judgment.

We were all saddened, those of us on either side of the political spectrum who have hearts, to hear about the return of Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer, and hearing that it is stage 4. While it is treatable, it is not at this time considered curable. She has a tough road ahead, psychologically and physically. She and her husband John Edwards made what I consider a courageous decision to go on with his presidential bid while she undergoes treatment, stating that this is bigger than just the two of them. She firmly believes that he would be good for the country, and rather than selfishly ask him to stay with her, she committed to campaigning with him as her health permits, and to his commitment to continue seeking the Presidency. Talk about courage, positive attitude, and a certain selflessness.

But, we were then treated to Rush “Oxycontin/Viagra” Limbaugh trashing this announcement by indicating it was done for political reasons. Now folks, while you can say the desire of one party or another wanting to subpoena witnesses from the White House as being politically motivated, or that some people stating they want to bring our soldiers home is politically motivated, but I find it very hard to even contemplate someone announcing stage 4 cancer as politically motivated! He stated that this whole situation including the advance reporting on Politico.com (from an unnamed source) was to jump start Edwards’ campaign with the implication that if the campaign doesn’t get a poll boost he’ll have a set up reason to drop out. While I haven’t seen or heard Rushie state that implication it was left unspoken but fairly obvious from everything else he said.

Why do we as a population continue to support stations that play this kind of destructive programming? Janet Jackson had a “wardrobe malfunction” and whether it was purposeful or not is irrelevant – I do not see how exposing a breast is worse than the vituperative venom spouted by Rush and his ilk. Yet there was a major brouhaha over breast-gate, with fines and outrage, yet this type of attack is left out there, and sadly I bet there are a lot of right wing nuts who agree with him. They all make me nauseous – good thing they aren’t close by or I would probably be tempted to hurl – and then get sued by them for assault.

And while I am in trash Rush mode… why is it that he abused prescription drugs, obtained them illegally in some cases, and received a slap on the wrist and rehab, but a woman who is suffering from cancer, who is legally using marijuana according to the laws of the state in which she lives, is subject to Federal prosecution for trying to save her life!

Why do I feel that believing I live in what was once a free country that stood for equality is erroneous and that in reality I am a cock-eyed optimist to believe that state exists under the current regime. Why are We the People allowing this abhorrent behavior to continue and be supported? And what does that say about us?

Soap Box

This is a two-fer today ;). I just heard a story on the radio about a subject that really gets to me – medical marijuana bans. California and 10 other states have laws on the books permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Federal government however, in its desire to be not only in our bedrooms but have the power of life and death over normal non criminals has decided that they have the right to prosecute medical marijuana users, claiming Federal Interstate Commerce Law trumps State law.

Now, we are talking the GOP administration here – the gang that says they believe in States’ rights, but I guess that only applies to the rights they want states to have. This is supposedly the smaller government party, the party that supposedly supports freedoms so much so they want to bestow it on other nations whether they want it or not, and for sure they support corporate freedom! We have seen what they think of our privacy concerns while they guard theirs even when doing government business examples include but are not limited to: Cheney’s energy task force – who attended and what was decided; Bush’s youthful or other probable drug use; Bush’s military AWOL records; etc.

Today’s debacle is a woman in California who is suffering, perhaps dying, from Brain cancer and other ills. Her doctor has testified that without marijuana every couple of hours to help stimulate her appetite and manage her pain, she would die. The Federal government prosecuted her saying marijuana is against the law, even with a prescription and even when used in compliance with the law of the state in which she lives! She won in state court and lost in Federal on the government’s appeal. This case will go on but in the meantime she has to live in fear of being sent to jail, or not live at all without the drug.

There are so many issues and questions here so I will only start with a few that occur to me immediately (feel free to add your own):

1. What business is it of the Federal government to get between a doctor’s advice and his/her patient’s treatment? (I am not going to touch the issue of choice this time.)
2. If Merck or Pfizer or {insert drug company of your choice} were marketing this for profit, do you think the Federal government would be prosecuting this and other cases?
3. Why is marijuana more dangerous than say morphine, or Vicadin, or Fentanyl, or Oxycodone, among others? For that matter how is it more dangerous than some of the drugs approved by the FDA that are supposedly non narcotic like Vioxx?
4. What gives the Federal government the right to say a patient should not be treated in any way possible to save their life by licensed practitioners – heck by any practitioner if the patient chooses it?

The answer to the first question is obvious – they are control freaks who think they have the market cornered on morality and right vs. wrong. Their beliefs and their convictions are the only things that matter. It’s like the old joke about being a Christian Scientist with appendicitis – only in this case the patient wants treatment and is being denied it by a repressive conservative ill informed government.

The answer the second question is also obvious – if a major drug manufacturer (major donor to the campaign funds dontcha know) were selling marijuana, it would be FDA approved and used without issue. But alas, it’s a plant that anyone can grow successfully. We are talking a free market solution here – open source treatment if you will! No corporate profit then it must be stopped! The answer to question three goes hand in glove with question two. (In this same vein [sic] think about the attitude toward herbal and holistic treatments – I can grow my own Echinacea thank you very much, I don’t need a drug company to compound a chemical and make it into pill form.)

And the answer to question four is also obvious – we are dealing with fanatics. Yes ladies and gentlemen, they are jihadists just not of the Muslim faith. Fanatics have commonality regardless of their fanatical basis – to make others knuckle under and conform to the rules and world as they dictate it. This government is not stoning people in the street for not obeying, but rather they are preventing people from getting humane treatment for illness. They are making this country regressive. And we are the losers, the sufferers, the victims!

Values

While I am a political junky, admittedly, I do have to wonder why we are campaigning for an election that is still a full 18 plus months away. Part of it I guess is because there is no obvious incumbent out there so the field is wide open. Of course that wide open has strings attached – it is wide open to the very rich and/or the extremely good fund raiser/party loyalist and/or those with lots of name recognition (think Hollywood actor). If you do not fit those criteria then I am afraid your chances of election are pretty well in the dumper. The other and perhaps more compelling reason I think is that people are so fed up with the current administration and the direction they are taking the country, that the potential for new leadership is very seductive.

This last week or so has been filled with revelations that truly highlight the current crop of (nominal) conservatives’ real values. I may be incorrect here, but as I recall one of the main themes of the GOP after the Clinton years was to restore dignity, morality, values, to the government. Of course it is obvious that those terms are as defined by them not necessarily to definitions that are commonly accepted or even in the dictionary! So with that, shall we just itemize some of the most recent aberrations?

Family Values:

Fly of Newt (wish I could take credit for that but I saw it on Olbermann) admitted publicly, to of all people but Pastor Family Values himself, Reverend Dobson, that he was having an affair at the time he actively pursued the impeachment of President Clinton for a similar offense. It is notable here that this affair was with a Congressional aid… I guess he is glad it was a woman or he might be in REAL trouble and need three weeks of rehab a la Rev. Ted Haggard. Now lest we should forget that Mr. Family Values Voters Gingrich has been married three (count them – 1, 2, 3) times. And he discussed the divorce with, some say even served the papers on, his first wife while she was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery. Ayup… gotta love the Newtie version of those values.

While we are on the subject – Rudy Giuliani is also on his third wife. One of his wives found out he was divorcing her when he announced it at a press conference. As I recall (my recollection may be a bit faulty but I think I have the essence right), his then wife got to stay in the Mayoral mansion while he – the serving mayor – had to move out. That gives me a feel for what the citizens of NY thought about it.

The point was made by one of the talking heads that the four front-runners for the Republican nomination have 9 marriages between them, and the only candidate who has been married only one time is the Mormon! The front-runners for the Democratic ticket are all married to their first and only spouse.

Mind you I am not trashing divorce here – more the difference between what is said and what is done. It’s the old do as I say (and I really wish they would all get out of my bedroom so I don’t feel it’s important to our future to know what goes on in theirs!) not as I do.

Justice

The forced resignation (read: firing) of eight U.S. Attorneys on December 7 (interesting date choice) for obviously partisan political reasons is getting deserved air play. Before proceeding I want to defuse the right wing talking point that Clinton fired 93 U.S. attorneys when he took office. They key here is he did it upon entering office, as many presidents have done when they take office – these are political appointees and a new party administration frequently cleans house by asking for the resignation of all appointees and then appoints their own people. The eight prosecutors in this case appear to have been dismissed because they did not support the administration’s desires. One in particular was pressured for not prosecuting a Democrat more vigorously at the time of the last election; another was dismissed seemingly for investigating Republican officials. Most appear to have lost their positions not because the administration was doing a house cleaning upon taking office (which would have occurred in 2005) but as retribution to those who did not carry out the political agenda. One was dismissed to make way for a buddy of the Architect (Karl Rove). And overseeing all of this is the Crony General Alberto Gonzalez – who indicated yesterday in one of the shortest press conferences on record (I don’t think anyone even got to ask a question) that some mistakes were made but he’s not resigning. Personally I think Alberto better watch out because the Shrub is on record this week as saying he has complete confidence in the attorney general… didn’t he say that about Rumsfeld right before the election?

And so it begins for the AG… I just saw an article in Newsday stating: “President Bush said Wednesday he is troubled by the Justice Department's misleading explanations to Congress of why it fired eight U.S. attorneys and expected his Attorney General to fix them.” He stands by the firing, he doesn’t stand by the fact they were discovered.

Foot in Mouth

There are just too many to go into here but the highlights include:

1. General Peter Pace saying homosexuality is immoral and is akin to adultery – which, for those who don’t know, is reason for prosecution in the military. He later said he should have confined his comments to policy (ask don’t tell) rather than expressing his personal opinion.
2. General Kiley (now up for retirement) who had the insensitivity to talk about jogging around base and stating that even though he lived across the street from Building 18 – he didn’t see the situation first-hand because he didn’t DO barracks inspections. And perhaps the award winning foot in mouth comment was saying the rodent and cockroach infestation was the fault of the patients for having food in their rooms… can you say “HUH?”

And so it goes . . .

Implausible Deniability

Many years ago the euphemism “drank the Kool-Aid” gained common usage after the Jonestown Massacre of 1978. It made sense indicating anyone who was willing to drink said Kool-Aid would be willing to die for their belief/cause/leader. It is less strict in common usage with the current meaning more that one has bought into the line they are spouting regardless the evidence to the contrary, or perhaps in ignorance of evidence to the contrary.

We should coin a new version of this – something like drank the BushCoCola. Certainly that is a malady that is going around more than normal of late. Along with Cover-Your-Ass-ulosus and lots of others we can think of in this context. I am appalled (though sadly this is nothing new during the last six years) at the goings on that are reported daily in the news media, blogs, talk shows, etc. And worse I am amazed at the number of people who at one time we would have considered to be “thinking adults” who are snarfing the BushCoCola they have drunk.

We have been seeing throughout this last week the appalling conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center outpatient care, and it extends to outpatient care throughout the country, most of which has only been hinted at but not fully reported. Our troops have been sent into this war of choice along with the war that needed to be fought in Afghanistan, and while lives are being saved in ways that were not medically possible in wars past, the post immediate care and conditions are lacking – severely. Yet the commanders, the Generals, by turns said it wasn’t so bad, it was only a few rooms, the infestations were really the fault of the patients who had food in their rooms, yadda yadda yadda. Yup, cover-your-ass-ulosis. And then they blame it on the sergeants… that one is an all time favorite of mine. We saw it in Abu Ghraibe and now it has come to a hospital near you! Whatever happened to Truman’s infamous “the buck stops here?”

And while I don’t want to keep harping on the same issue it has come out that General Kiley who was in charge for the last several years knew about this since 2003 (or before?) and did nothing!!! Black mold folks, with open wounds – an 18^th century housewife wouldn’t have allowed that condition to exist!!!

And another one that got me this last week is Laura Bush, a woman for whom I used to have some respect. While none of us are completely sure what her husband might be drinking, we sure know that she is being fed a diet of BushCoCola. She was speaking about all the good that is going on in Iraq but that the media only reports the one (1) bomb a day that goes off there!!! ONE??? Man whatever she is smoking (besides the tobacco I was surprised to learn she does smoke) I want some! More like 1,000 bombs a day!

Then we arrive at federal prosecutors being removed for non-performance issues (BushCoCola – another case here please)… yet the evidence points to removal because they didn’t live up to the thinking that they would ignore Republican corruption and go after Democratic, whether or not it was verifiable. This situation is made possible by the modification of the law under the (un)Patriot Act allowing the administration to appoint U.S. Attorneys for an indefinite term without Senate confirmation. Can you imagine how ungrateful the eight who were removed are that they didn’t drink the cola and follow orders?? Attorney General Gonzalez, the man who brought us Abu Ghraibe and sanctioned torture, not to mention his interpretation of the non-promise of habeas corpus in the Constitution, says he would NEVER remove a U.S. Attorney for political reasons. (Hello Laura? Can I have some of whatever you’re smoking please?)

I still cannot understand the persistence of our newly elected congressional majority in keeping the I(mpeachment) word off the table. While I know threats don’t work particularly well with this gang, at least knowing it might happen, or is in the works, could cause something good to come or stop something bad.