A Shit Sandwich

Friday Update: 42 45 Iraqis Killed, 29 33 Wounded

Sometimes you take a big bite, sometimes you take a little bite . . . sometimes you miss the bread entirely.

If this is the sort of competence that we get from Democratic campaigns then I refuse to expect much from the next administration. In a different time I would be weighing my options, but as long as the present management hangs on you would have to waterboard me to vote Republican. A shit sandwich looks quite edible when the alternative is a drano enema.

--Balloon Juice's Tim F.

To save you the trouble, the first link is the silly Hillary not tipping non-story that interests me about as much as cleaning up my back yard after the puppies get done. The second is Obama's failure to reject the Versailles Courtiers' framing of projected Social Security underfunding as some sort of crisis -- also about as interesting as drying paint.

While indicative of something or other, and a fine piece of literary allusion -- Geez Tim, overreact much?

But thanks for reminding me of that old joke about life being like a shit sandwich.

Far more interesting, at least from the point of view of anyone struggling to figure out what's really going on in the Potomac Village, is the strategery behind Harry Reid making legislative sausage -- a gesture to us liberals (and everybody else that isn't marching to PrezNitWit 24%'s tune) that is almost certain to fail to do what's advertised (stopping the war); in exchange for letting Mukasey slip through and probably selling us out to the Telecos.

To my way of seeing things, a shit sandwich consists of a Bush enabling, entrenched incumbent senator who probably has no interest in continuing in office after their 70th or 80th birthdays in 2012 -- their next opportunity to be run out of office by someone who isn't really a conservative -- wrapped between two slices of the Democratic Party.

UPDATE: I just can't get the taste out of my mouth.

Democrats (those luminaries Reid and Pelosi) decided to drop the renewable energy standard out of the energy bill and drop the tax title (see Toby Barlow's "News Alert: If You Love Renewable Energy, It's Time to Freak Out" 11/09/07). No tax title means no extension of the investment tax credit for wind nor solar, adding up to precisely zero for renewable energy in the energy bill. Bravo!

You know that lingering flavor you get when you burp a bit of vomit in the back of your throat? Yeah, that taste.

They Think We're Stupid

Thursday: 2 US Soldiers, 47 Iraqis Killed; 33 Iraqis Wounded

Okay, I'll try to "Respect the Dodd," but Greenwald has a point.

Every time Congressional Democrats failed this year to stop the Bush administration (i.e., every time they "tried"), the excuse they gave was that they "need 60 votes in the Senate" in order to get anything done. Each time Senate Republicans blocked Democratic legislation, the media helpfully explained not that Republicans were obstructing via filibuster, but rather that, in the Senate, there is a general "60-vote requirement" for everything.

It isn't just the Mukasey nomination, but damn near everything.

Okay, Congress finally overturned a Bush veto -- saving precious pork projects for the home team. But this isn't a matter of ignoring versus pandering to the "base" of the Democratic party. 95% of people who call themselves Democrats and a 60% majority of Republicans, along with 68% of Independents have absolutely HAD IT with this spoiled brat of a President in my all important Swing State of Ohio. Those numbers track nationally and Ohio traditionally polls more conservative than average.

You don't indulge a spoiled child when they throw a tantrum -- you ignore it, send him to his room or give him a time-out. If they're really out of control, you spank them. You certainly don't make excuses for him.

But that's what the Democrats, at least enough of them to make a mockery of the word discipline, always seem to do when going up against George W. Bush.

And what do they tell us, what excuses do they make? "The alternative is worse." Or, "The timing isn't right." Or most cowardly of all, "the GOP will use this against us in the next election."

I don't buy this whatsoever. We hate what Bush is doing, hate Congress even more for not stopping him, and yet they fear opposing him because, what? We'll hate them even more? Is that even possible? Could they be more cowardly?

I think the Democratic Party, at least the leadership, is suffering from decades of abuse at the hands of the GOP, who've made sport of abusing them. They're acting irrational, and against the public will (which will get them unelected faster than anything) because they're suffering from a collective post traumatic stress disorder.

Shake it off! Quit running scared. And just stop thinking that you can fool us. We're Democrats because we aren't dumb enough to believe what the GOP has been trying to bamboozle the public with for the last 40 years -- so we aren't buying your bullshit either.

But even more distressing is being smart enough to really know the Democrats are not cowards, and fully understand their motivation for risking the perpetuation of this myth:

The answer is simple: they're not poll-driven cowards; they're cynical electioneering manipulators. -- Spoons

Of all the ranting and raving I've seen on the Intertoobz, from the snarky to the in depth policy analysis -- and even the psycho/sociological examinations of right versus left, nobody has hit it out of the park with a out-of-the-box perception like ThereIsNoSpoon's take on the current political dynamics inside the Capital Building.

In fact, to act at all in such a way that would demonstrate they have real power, would be to take responsibility for the absolute mess this country is currently in--from housing troubles to currency collapses to global warming issues to foreign policy disasters to a host of other troubles.

On the other hand, to fan the flames of public resentment against the current holders of power for perceived wrongs is nothing short of electoral gold. Republicans were brilliant about doing this for years in their role as a minority opposition party: they would successfully trash Democrats while offering no coherent solutions of their own beyond a culture of "I've got mine; screw you." It was only when forced to actually attempt to govern that Republicans ended up sowing the seeds of their own demise.

An important and utterly perverse corollary of these two premises is that, so long as we have an unpopular Republican president and a Democratic legislature, the Executive must be seen as overwhelmingly powerful compared to the Legislative for Democrats to win. So long as the public believes that Bush is driving the train and the Democrats are itching but unable to get into the driver's seat, the public will be so angry by November 2008 that they will toss Bush and anyone associated with him out of the driver's seat and put Democrats in charge. Thus, so long as Democrats keep their eye on electoral victory rather than on their oath of office, Article I of the Constitution is doomed to near irrelevance if not extinction.

Hopefully, that's just in the short term. Frankly, it makes me want to start from scratch. But if it works -- and the reelection of Bush in '04 suggests it is -- then the Republicans are right: We are stupid.

And as long as the Versailles Press goes along with the program, most of America will be none the wiser.

Iran: NO EVIDENCE OF BOMB PROGRAM

Sunday: 83 Iraqis Killed, 53 Wounded

Four years of inspections -- nothing.

IRAN DOES NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.

IRAN DOES NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM.

IRAN DOES NOT HAVE ANY NUCLEAR WEAPON RELATED PROGRAM ACTIVITIES.
And even if they do have some suspicious blueprints, it ain't worth going to war over -- period.

. . . experts in and out of government say there's no conclusive evidence that Tehran has an active nuclear-weapons program.

***

''Iran is seeking a nuclear capability . . . that some people fear might lead to a nuclear-weapons capability,'' [Undersecretary of State Nicholas] Burns said in an interview Oct. 25 on PBS.

"I don't think that anyone right today thinks they're working on a bomb,'' said another U.S. official, who requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

Got that kids? You can almost hear the "but...but...but" from the rightwing warmongers. Ignore them.

When they say, "but Iran want's the bomb," ignore them. Tell them you want the bomb too. In fact, tell them that you want the bomb and want to be Attorney General too, because like Mukasey, you aren't Alberto Gonzales either.

Two simple words must return to the debate about any war that Dick Cheney or George W. Bush suggest -- "Prove It."

Pakistan always was a bigger problem than Iran when it came to WMD's -- and is an even bigger worry today. You'd never know that from the Administration's tepid response to Musharraf imposing Martial Law. In fact, one could reasonably conclude Bush gave Musharraf the green light. But of course, until someone breaks into Cheney's man-sized safe, we'll never be able to prove that.

Stay tuned, because unlike the rest of the Versailles Press, "McClatchy Newspapers will examine key questions surrounding the Bush administration's confrontation with Iran."


End Of Post

Feingold: No on Mukasey

There is hope for the country after all.

Via Josh:

I will vote against the nomination of Judge Mukasey to be the next Attorney General. This was a difficult decision, as Judge Mukasey has many impressive qualities. He is intelligent and experienced and appears to understand the need to depoliticize the Department of Justice and restore its credibility and reputation.

At this point in our history, however, the country also needs an Attorney General who will tell the President that he cannot ignore the laws passed by Congress. Unfortunately, Judge Mukasey was unwilling to reject the extreme and dangerous theories of executive power that this administration has put forward.

The nation's top law enforcement officer must be able to stand up to a chief executive who thinks he is above the law. The rule of law is too important to our country's history and to its future to compromise on that bedrock principle.

You had me going there for a minute, Russ. There are lines that cannot be crossed for political expediency. Now, if we can get the schmucks to change their minds, we're in business.

Laying It On Thick

Saturday: 2 US Soldiers, 29 Iraqis Killed; 41 Iraqis Wounded
Juan Cole reports one of the Americans killed was female
and observes the minimal British casualties in Basra:
"It turns out, if you don't have troops in a place,
attacks on them fall dramatically."

Larry Johnson doesn't mince words:

"I had always assumed that Jews who survived the Holocaust or the relatives of those who were murdered under the Nazi plan would understand the importance of standing against tyrants and torturers. And for the most part that has been true. But now we are confronted with the spectacle of two prominent Jewish American legislators who are enabling a President who has authorized torture. They have no shame."

(H.T.: Avedon)

Yep, I think that's what was bothering me. Add Lieberman and even Russ Feingold to the list. Lieberman because he sold his soul a couple of years ago. Russ, because he even has to think about this issue.

Unadulterated inhumanity is what once separated us from anything approaching Nazi Germany. When you don't take a stand against something as basic as torture, you lose your humanity.

Leave it to Digby to reach into my brain and send my thought into the intertoobz with so much more alacrity than I could hope to muster.

I think the debate is over, folks. Every time they normalize state sanctioned sadism, from tasering to waterboarding, we are one step closer to fully accepting a police state. That's how they do it. It never happens over night. It happens one taboo at a time.

We are a torture culture, immoral, vulgar and profane. We actually think it's fun. If college boys and reporters can laugh about it, how bad can it be? Thanks Dick and George.

Don't Torture Me, Bro........

A Spine Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

Thursday: 64 Iraqis Killed, 28 Wounded

I'll believe it when I see it.

Dems will block Mukasey nomination unless they get an answer from the AG nominee on whether waterboarding is torture.

In a completely unrelated episode, in another wing of the Capitol Building, in what must be an alternate universe...

In a little-noticed speech Tuesday at the Georgetown Law Center, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said telecom immunity would be "grossly irresponsible" until Congress knows what conduct is being immunized.

Clearly a disease has infested some of the Democratic Congressional Leadership. I'm hoping it turns into a fever, but I fear it's just a cold. This will be the way they save face for passing more funding for the damn war.