4 TO 6 MONTHS

It's impossible to keep up at this point. The situation in Iraq deteriorates daily. The Great Pundit Class pontificates without the slightest clue or self-irony about how wrong they have been and continue to be about Iraq. And the so-called experts continue to explain that the situation will change in 4 to 6 months. It's funny that, or it would be if it weren't so tragic, but the ex-military and ex-career diplomats who expound on Iraq have been telling us pretty much the same thing for 2 years now. So at what point does 4 to 6 months really become just 4 to 6 months?

It doesn't help that George the Third has abdicated responsibility for this mess. You can see it in his behavior. He no longer believes that Iraq is his baby. Oh, he keeps spouting the words about how we will win if we don't leave, but what he's really arguing for now is don't leave before he leaves. Let someone else be held responsible for pulling out of Iraq. Let someone else take the blame. After all, George has never taken responsibility for anything he's ever done. He's always had someone else bail out his sorry ass. Or he just leaves before it all goes to hell. All anyone had to do was look at this sorry-assed idiot's past performance and we (the Good Ole US of A) could have been spared this past 6 years.

But we mustn't blame just poor little George. No; there's plenty of blame to go around. We shouldn't forget the Republican Party. No; they are not blameless. They chose party over country. They chose ideology over The US Constitution. They chose extremism over what is Right and True. They wanted so much to be in control, they acted like the corrupt little prigs some people thought they were. They proved all those people correct.

The Democrats, on the other hand, forgot that they needed to grow a pair. For nearly 6 years, they let the lying, thieving Republican Congress and Administration do just that: Lie and Rob us blind. They rolled over for a war that made no sense simply because they were afraid of looking weak, and what happened: they looked even weaker. There is plenty of blame to go around.

Let's not let the idiot right-wingnuts off either. The NeoCons, the TheoCons, the Christianists. No; the US Constitution doesn't exist for these people. Ideology is all. Their latest tactic is to argue that "Well yes, the situation was screwed from the beginning, but let's look to the present and future and show us how to get out of this mess." This is what you will hear for the next two years from these petty, bullying despots. They will scream and shout about how the Democrats can't stabilize Iraq, can't get us out of Iraq without the country falling into chaos (oh, wait; it's already there), that we should vote for their next Authoritarian who promises to save us from ourselves, even while he curtails our liberties. And they will use their constant whining to try to get us to forget that we are in this mess because too many believed them when they first came up with this insanity.

So let us remember all of the insane, inept, incompetent, and just plain wrong who continue to state that their policy is the only policy which makes sense. And let us remember the screeching harpies who shouted "traitor" and "coward" at those of us who had the good sense to actually look at the situation before diving in and ask what were we diving into. Because if we don't remember these criminals, these cowards, these bigots, then we run the risk that two years from now, they will have rehabilitated their reputations enough that we will once again find ourselves ruled by madmen and tyrants, and perhaps then, we won't be able to get out at all.

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?

I had planned to write about the supposed call for bipartisanship by the Republican Leadership (amazing how you suddenly become bipartisan when your side gets thrashed in the last election), but something more important intruded. I was watching television, and right there on my tv was a commercial for Citgo offering people who couldn't afford heating oil a 40% discount. To say the least, it made me take notice. Not just because Hugo Chavez was doing what he said he was going to do (and everyone knows Chavez is the great South American Boogeyman), but because of what we in our own country are not willing to do: we are not willing to help the working poor.

It's ironic that the richest nation ever, richer by far than the British Empire was, does not take care of its own and has to rely on the generosity of Venezuela for heating oil for its less fortunate brethren. Its ironic that a devout Christian President sees no problem with taking away opportunities from those less fortunate than himself, for people who did not get born with the right family connections. Its ironic that devout Evangelicals spend thousands of dollars to advertise against the supposed sin of homosexuality and abortion but do nothing to try to help alleviate the poverty of millions of our fellow citizens. 16% of school-aged children live in poverty, meaning they don't have proper nutrition, proper supervision, or the benefits of stable family life. Yet we wonder why they cannot learn. Republicans and Democrats both demand stricter school policies, better test scores, more accountability by teachers, but what about the accountability of our society for what we do to the working poor and the disenfranchised of our country. What about our accountability?

We talk a good game about equality of opportunity, but where is that really? How do you get an equal chance at the Gold ring when you're hungry, you're cold, you're tired, and you're worried about whether or not you'll survive until the next day? How much potential are we destroying simply through negligence? How many young people out there could possibly chnage our world but will never get the chance because we don't believe in helping our own? Becuase we believe that if you are poor or underfed or cold, it's your fault. Even if you happen to be six years old.

It's the Holidays, and for the next month or so, we'll all pay lipservice to the poor and the disenfranchised. But what happens when the holidays are over? Do we go back to forgetting, or do we actually remember those in need and try to help? Do we let Hugo Chavez be our conscience, or do we finally have a concience of our own?

BRING ON THE GROWN UPS; PART DEUX

Since the Democratic victory in the House and Senate (Thank God!), we hear on a daily basis that George the Third understands the message the Citizenry of the USA is telling him, and that he is listening. Why! The very first thing he did was can Rummy's dimply cellulite ass, so he must be listening. Right?

I'm calling Bullshit! Bush has no intention of trying to correct the shitcan that Iraq has become. As he pointed out while visiting Vietnam, he thinks we're winning unless we pull out. It is obvious to anyone with half-a-brain that the President has none. The sheer stupidity of stating that we are winning just because we are still there is, to say the least, suspect. Unfortunately, Woody Allen's now famous quote that "80% of success is just showing up" is not a strategy for success when it comes to fighting a war.

Couple this with the President's belief that somehow now that the Dems have taken the House and the Senate John Bolton would become a reasonable candidate for US Ambassador to the UN and the renomination of judges who have extreme views and are not afraid to rule in those directions, and you can see that Bush plans not to give up anything. Which brings me to the Grown Ups.

Supposedly, Bush has gone running for guidance to Daddy, and Daddy will fix it all by having his grown up friends save little Georgie. One problem: The grown ups aren't so grown up. It doesn't take much digging to point out that Daddy Bush was the President who was shocked by the cost of milk at the Supermarket. Or that Rumsfeld and Cheney were advisors to Daddy Bush just like they are to little Georgie now. Nothing's changed; just some set pieces have been rearranged.

And let's not forget that the 2000 Election was the Election where the grown ups were going to take charge. Bush was going to bring integrity and honesty back to the White House. The country was going to be led by a CEO President (never mind that the companies he was CEO of all went belly up; never mind that he never did anything without Daddy bailing him out). Instead, what did we get? We got 6 years of spiralling deficits. We got nearly six years of War. We have more poor citizens than when he became President. And we have Fundamentalist Religious Right Hate Groups who believe that the country somehow belongs to them and that they can do whatever the Fuck they want to with it! They can help Little Georgie gut The Constitution, break into our bedrooms, and tell us what to think.

But, as the Mighty MSM tells us, the grown ups are once again in charge in the WH. This is what they told us when Little Georgie was running for election. This is what they tell us now. But think about it: when has the MSM been correct about anything in the last 6 years? Editorially, almost to a man and woman (save Frank Rich and Keith Olbermann; and on occassion Maureen Dowd) they have fed us Republican crap as if it were reality. We went to war in Iraq because no one in the MSM spoke up against it. Little Georgie was elected President a second time because the MSM sat on its hands and pretended to be objective when all they were really being is a bunch of spineless lapdogs! They let John Kerry get smeared and helped spread those smears, all the while shouting that Democrats were doing bad things too. But when push came to shove, the MSM had to reach pretty far down into its sack of shit to find a Democratic smear that wasn't true, while the Republican ones weren't true right off the bat and every Republican mother and her son knew it and didn't care!

During the midterms, the smears didn't stop. It's allright if a Republican does it, is it. And as Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, and the other Beltway Bandits with no sense of shame seem to point out so well, they are quite good at enabling the Republican criminal elite. We heard constantly how the Dems need to show a plan, how they have to have a plan for Iraq, but never did they seem to ask what exactly the Republican plan for Iraq is or was. Never! And it didn't just stop there. On nearly every issue, the Republican position was accepted as being the predominant one, even when opnion polls proved otherwise. Raise the minimum wage, Republican position was no because it would harm small business (like they care about small business). Public position was yes, it needs to be raised. Global Warming; Republican position is is that it doesn't exist; General public, we should deal with it. But the great US punditocracy continues to only sell us the Republican position! And when someone points out that they are pandering to their paymasters, they laugh it off and pretend that it's the Democrats fault.

The truth is is that the grown ups aren't in the White House. The present bunch of advisors are no better than the previous bunch. Their cut fromthe same clothe. Their ideas helped shape the ideas of the idiots who got us into this mess. If it can be believed, Henry Kissinger, the idiot who managed to nearly destroy us in Vietnam, has been advising Little Georgie and the advice has been to stay the course. Do you honestly believe that now that Rummy's gone things will get better? Not until the two morons at the top fo the pile are shitcanned will that happen. We need to have the House and Senate proceed with impeachment hearings as soon as they are able. Until then, we will continue down this ruinous road.