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.