One more, & this one's the best of all

I just had to share one more cartoon with you today. I guess you could say, in the words of crackhead Whitney Houston, "I went and saved the best for last." How's that for a non-sequitur?

Anyway, the cartoon above is about as sage as it gets. When our real president Vice President Dick Cheney wouldn't hesitate to go to Walter Reed for any sort of medical care, as our vice president, then that hospital, along with all other veteran's hospitals in the United States, will have achieved the level of care that should be afforded to all of our returning soldiers and our veterans.

Wait, I take that back. Cheney dodged the draft in the 1960s. Returning soldiers deserve better than anything he's getting.

I read on the Internets today that Dick Cheney may even step down in the wake of the blood clot discovered in his leg. Gee, wouldn't that be a horrible thing. Speculation is beginning to swirl that President Bush wants someone in the #2 spot who can run for president. If it happens, it would be the first time in 34 years that the Senate would have to confirm a new vice president in the middle of a president's term.

Can anyone imagine Bush trying to get someone confirmed in the Senate with the poisoned atmosphere in Washington? (A climate that has the fingerprints of the president and Karl Rove all over it.)

If it happens, Bush would have to pick someone who could be very easily confirmed. Say hello to Vice President Condi Rice, or Colin Powell. The latter would be extremely unlikely; he's walked down the road with this administration before, and he's not about to do it again.

Boxer has Rice for lunch - GOP press hysterical

It didn't take long for the GOP-backed press to start going crazy over the Democratically controlled Congress.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice appeared before the Senate yesterday to answer questions about President Bush's troop surge of over 21,000 troops.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) wasted no time going after Rice:

"Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price," Boxer said. "My kids are too old, and my grandchild is too young."

To Rice, Boxer said, "You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family."

Cue right-wing hysteria, beginning with the Rupert Murdoch-owned and operated New York Post, New York's conservative tabloid rag.

In this morning's paper, the Post took aim at Boxer:

Breathtaking.

Simply breathtaking.

We scarcely know where to begin.

The junior senator from California apparently believes that an accomplished, seasoned diplomat, a renowned scholar and an adviser to two presidents like Condoleezza Rice is not fully qualified to make policy at the highest levels of the American government because she is a single, childless woman.

It's hard to imagine the firestorm that similar comments would have ignited, coming from a Republican to a Democrat, or from a man to a woman, in the United States Senate. (Surely the Associated Press would have put the observation a bit higher than the 18th paragraph of a routine dispatch from Washington.)
But put that aside.

The vapidity - the sheer mindlessness [emphasis in original] - of Sen. Boxer's assertion makes it clear that the next two years are going to be a time of bitterness and rancor, marked by pettiness of spirit and political self-indulgence of a sort not seen in America for a very long time.

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When I got done laughing, I became a bit angry. This "right-wing outrage" smacks of what happened in the 2004 presidential campaign.

When Democratic Nominee John Kerry correctly pointed out that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Republicans all support an amendment to the Constitution to ban gay marriage, Kerry referred to Cheney's gay daughter, Mary - a not so subtle shot at his opponents' hypocrisy.

Lots of phony outrage ensued, including Lynne Cheney proclaiming in front of a crowd of Republican sycophants, "This man [Kerry] is not a good man!" This from a woman, along with her husband, who proclaim themselves to be Christians. Umm Hmm.

Anyway, Senator Boxer did nothing more yesterday than state the obvious - that Rice has no personal sacrifice in this war, just as President Bush and Vice President Cheney don't have any sacrifices, either. Cheney's children are too old, and does anyone think the president's daughters, Jenna and Barbara, are going to serve in the military? RIGHT!

So, that's all Boxer was doing - again, pointing out that the decision makers about this war don't have any personal stake in this war, and that includes Condi Rice.

I would seriously doubt that Senator Boxer believes that "an accomplished, seasoned diplomat, a renowned scholar and an adviser to two presidents like Condoleezza Rice is not fully qualified to make policy at the highest levels of the American government because she is a single, childless woman."

I'd love to have seen the look on the editor(s) at the Post who penned this article. Do they really believe that Boxer believes that?

It's beyond ridiculous.

The American public is overwhelmingly against Bush's Troop Surge, and Boxer took Rice to task on this administration's decision.

Simple as that.

Murdoch is one of the biggest threats to our democracy - along with other media conglomerates.

I'll have more on Murdoch in a bit when I review Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, which I watched last night.

I've already steeled myself to the fact that there will be much more of this pseudo outrage over the next two years.

Get used to it.

North Korea's nuclear. How's that diplomacy goin', Mr. President?

Long Duck Dong. A North Korean taepodong missile heads straight for President Bush's ass, thereby illustrating his diplomatic skills couldn't organize a petting zoo. No word yet on whether the missile's name is under consideration for the unintentional porn hall of fame. (Readers of Maxim Magazine will understand.) North Korea might not do many things right, but hot damn, they sure as hell know how to name a missile!

It appears that North Korea has finally gone nuclear. I say "appears" because, depending on where you get your information, the mammoth blast over the weekend on the Korean peninsula may or may not have been big enough to be nuclear.

(Psst - Mr. President, it's pronounced [nü-klE-&r]. Just a tip.)

But, just the fact that it might be nuclear is a clear sign of the abject failure of the Bush Administration's foreign policy. It seems like just yesterday that Bush was on the campaign trail (in 2000), stupidly boasting that we shouldn't negotiate with North Korea.

As it turns out, yes, the North Koreans violated and reneged on the 1994 deal, but at least under Clinton, we were negotiating and inside the country where we at least had an idea where we are. Hell, now, I probably have about as much information reading newspapers and Google News as the CIA does.

For those of you who think that's a lot of crap, hark back to 9-11 and the days leading up to it to see how effective our intelligence community is. I don't think it's a stretch to say that we aren't too much better off today.

Predictably, Bush gets on TV and says the act "is deplorable." Wow, calm down, Mr. President. It's amazing that he chided and ridiculed Clinton and his team for diplomacy with regards to Iraq, Iran, Israel and North Korea, yet force hasn't done a damn thing, and where we have made progress, it's been through diplomacy.

Still think I'm full of it? Read what Secretary of State Condi Rice had to say regarding Clinton and North Korea on Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room:

RICE:…We have been through bilateral talks with the North Koreans in the 1994 Agreed Framework, it didn't hold. They…

BLITZER: That was a mistake the Clinton administration …

RICE: No. I will not blame anyone for trying. I just know that the 1994 agreement, of course, didn't hold. The North Koreans cheated.

BLITZER: Is there any evidence that what the Clinton administration did helped North Korea build these bombs?

RICE: Oh, I think North Korea has been persistent and has been consistent in pursuing this nuclear weapons program for decades. Now, it is going to have to be fought. And the international community is speaking with one voice very loudly, because the North Koreans crossed an important line when they proclaimed that they had conducted a nuclear test.

The best part about her comments is that Karl Rove and Co. probably had a stroke. Stay "Condi! Stay on message!" they probably barked at her. So, at least with THIS situation, you'd think the GOP would back off blaming Clinton, right? Arrrnt! Enter Arizona Senator and President-wanna be John McCain:



McCain is absolute garbage. What little credibility he had left, in my eyes, just great wings. He's fallen a looong way from the "Straight Talk Express" of 2000. It proves that he will say anything to be president. He's a sickening, despicable piece of garbage.

Thankfully, Hillary Clinton, the Democrat everyone loves to hate (especially Republicans), didn't take that claptrap lying down, issuing a statement that read, in part:

A missile shield alone cannot protect us from the Bush-Cheney Administration’s incompetence in their approach to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, and it is unfortunate that Republicans such as John McCain continue to blindly defend their failed policies for partisan gain rather than exercise true leadership. Five years after 9/11, President Bush has allowed the "Axis of Evil" to spin out of control. Our Iraq policy is a failure. Iran is going nuclear and North Korea is testing nuclear weapons. President Bush’s foreign policy failures have made America less safe, not more so, and it is time for a new direction.

I don't know that I totally believe the Hillary spin, either, but to blame Clinton for a problem that has been brewing for nearly six years under the Bush Administration is absurd.

And don't talk to me about a missile defense shield - the Ronald Reagan pipe dream that is the biggest boondoggle in American taxpayer history. If we didn't need it during the Cold War, we sure as hell don't need it now.

Does anyone honestly think that North Korea is going to launch a nuclear missile at the United States, when we would immediately counter-attack by launching hundreds at them? (And ours are hundreds of times more powerful) It would be suicide, but perhaps the North Koreans are that suicidal. Who knows? I have a hard time believing that even maniacal dictators could be that crazy, but maybe I'm wrong.

We don't need a missile defense shield, despite Republican hysteria and demagogy. What we do need: common sense and sage diplomatic skills - something this administration and assholes like John McCain have in shockingly short supply.