Defend Our Mistakes Tour '06

The Bush Administration continued its "Defend Our Mistakes Tour" this week, revamped for 2006, shuttling Dubya, Dick and others to various think-tank podiums to re-spin old rhetoric. Rather than saying anything new or truthful, they seemed to be hoping that the people who bought their lies several years ago would buy the same lies again if repeated often enough.

But their policy blunders have been so large and their ethical lapses so profound that nobody seems to be listening anymore, except a few crony reporters. The administration’s almost-daily press conferences amount to a new tragedy, as they divert valuable time and energy from the business of governing, a business in which Bush and his hapless crew are proven failures.

So the big issues facing the nation go unattended by our so-called leaders: A healthcare system verging disaster; a massive, bloated federal deficit; a destructive trade imbalance and currency devaluation; a widening gap between the wealthy and the rest of us; a federal bureaucracy staffed with inept cronies, business lackeys and industry insiders intent upon eviscerating the very powers their agencies wield.

But hey, Bush is good at clearing brush. At least we know he’s not a total sissy. Just a stubborn, hapless bungler with a broken moral compass.

We also have fresh evidence that the powerful people who support the Republican Mistake Machine are dangerous lunatics. With the public memory of his last grotesque comment fading, American Mullah Pat Robertson recently declared that Ariel Sharon’s stroke was proof that Sharon was being punished by the Lord for "defiling God’s land."

Between the phony religious values of the Bush gang and the delusional superstitions of Robertson and other fanatics, it’s easy to see their concept of God as small, flawed, juvenile, imperfect and pitiful, more a reflection of their own narrow, fearful human ignorance than an accurate depiction of the true nature of the Universe or its animating spirit.

The sooner we reject inept officials and crazy preachers the sooner our nation will choose reality over fantasy and fix the very real problems we face. Otherwise, we are guaranteed more of the same--and the same has been an unmitigated disaster of late.

Happy New Year…