Republicans are The Problem

Last week’s major political failures had a common denominator--the Republican party. On a variety of fronts, they fell down and confirmed themselves as phony, weak-willed, money-grubbing cons.

Did anything substantive emerge on immigration legislation? No. The divided GOP leadership seems to have pushed the subject under the rug.

Did anything meaningful occur on ethics and lobbying reform? No. The latest attempt to re-write the rules produced a pitiful, hollowed out joke-of-a-proposal.

Did anything prudent happen with spending legislation? No. The latest budget was another pork-filled, election-year bonanza.

Did anything arise from the price-of-oil hysteria on Capitol Hill? No. The President announced that he would not support raising taxes on oil companies, and his party henchmen on Capitol Hill tried, yet again, to slip a provision into the half-baked oil crisis proposal to allow drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.

Did anything happen on the oversight front? No. The second part of the investigation of the rush to invade Iraq--looking at whether the Bush gang fixed intel to support their policy--remained in limbo despite a growing chorus of complaints. Nothing is likely to happen until after the mid-term elections, of course.

All these failures of leadership (or successes of corporate lobbying and coverup) can be traced directly to the door of the GOP.

Americans increasingly don’t like the direction the country is heading. And if they’re smart, they’ll connect our miserable course not just to an incompetent President, but to an unethical, inept and worthless Republican Congress.

It’s becoming easy to see. If you don’t want more business-as-usual, don’t vote for a Republican.

Avoiding 9/11 Movies

I’ve not going to see any of the 9/11 movies about to be released. Here’s why:

They’re all about making money.

The trailer for the movie “Flight 93” features director Paul Greengrass mugging for the camera as he tells of his earnest, heartfelt desire to make a movie about the worst day in many American’s lives. But films only get made in Hollywood because they stand to generate dollars. And you can bet Greengrass is earning a hefty sum for this venture. As if to hide the fact, the trailer actually ends with an appeal for audience members to donate to a fund for victims, implying that Universal, the distributor, is also donating. Oh?

How much are they donating? And how much of his probable millions is Greengrass donating? I don’t buy it for a second. With all due respect to the families of the victims, I wouldn’t want my loved ones turned into two-dimensional caricatures by the Hollywood story machine.

Ridiculous, bloviating pundit Heather Higgins, Chairperson of the Radical Right anti-feminist think-tank Independent Women’s Forum, shrieked on the Bill Maher show that the stories of the victims of 9/11 need to be told--because the victims are heroes. And this sentiment has been echoed by many supporters of the upcoming films.

But if the stories of the victims are so important, why not hire one of the Burns brothers to do a thorough documentary? A movie dramatization is going to use the faces of actors and the words of writers to approximate what happened, and that’s not good enough for me. I don’t want to hear phony, over-dramatized dialog. I don't want faces of actors associated with those important events. I’m not interested in the guesswork of screenwriters, particularly because I am one. I know the difference between fact and fiction, and it’s significant.

I worked on the 100th floor of the World Trade Center for 2.5 years, and knew more than a few victims of the attack. I personally don’t want the feelings of that day dredged up and stoked by the likes of Greengrass or Oliver Stone. They are excellent filmmakers, but their theories and imaginings of what happened and what was said on 9/11 are of no interest to me, and only serve to cheapen and commercialize the truth of my own experience. I already know what happened.

No thanks. I’m not putting my money into the pockets of filmmakers who, at the end of the day, want to profit from this tragedy. I’m a fan of capitalism and have nothing against people working to feed their children. But in this case, I can’t help but be disgusted by the profit motive behind these movies. This is a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

Dummy Rummy

President Bush instructed us this week that he is “a decider,” and apparently never changes course after a decision is made, no matter how poor or disastrous his judgment.

And since he feels that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been doing a good job, he has decided to ignore the growing calls for Rummy’s ouster.

But that hasn’t kept Rummy from mounting a media campaign to counter the spate of recently retired military generals urging his firing.

Rummy recently assured the press of his commitment to his office, of the long hours he keeps and the large number of meetings taken with military leaders in the last year. A commitment to the nation and the urgency he feels to fight terrorism are all he believes he needs.

But Rumsfeld doesn’t seem to understand or accept that nobody doubts his work ethic or his desire to serve. They doubt his judgment.

And with good reason. In direct opposition to supporters like extreme conservative Bill Bennett, who asserted on CNN that the mistakes made in Iraq were not Rummy’s fault, it has become clear that the decision to invade Iraq with a “light force”, the decision to ignore long-standing invasion planning, the decision to go in without a plan for securing the peace, and the decision to disband the Iraqi army were ALL made or authorized by Rumsfeld.

These grotesque and tragic blunders, which were made against the judgment of many top military leaders, were neither trivial nor forgivable, and go directly to the question of competence. By his actions, Rumsfeld has proven that he does not have the stuff necessary to lead our nation’s military.

That he remains the Secretary of Defense is a testament not to his effectiveness but to the political calculations of President Bush and his advisors, who would rather keep a loser in office than risk looking like failures themselves. But their chance to save face has long passed. And the tragic incompetence of Donald Rumsfeld remains.

Religion Opposed to Other Fictions

The Catholic group Opus Dei, linked to the Vatican and cast as the villain in Dan Brown’s book and film The Da Vinci Code, posted a statement asking Sony to attatch a disclaimer to the film reminding viewers that “this is a work of fiction, and that any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence.”

In the spirit of full disclosure, the disclaimer might be appropriate.

But it also seems an appropriate disclaimer to add to the Bible.

As a deluge of scholarly science confirms, the Bible is less a book of history than a book of fable. Aside from the grotesque, ridiculous, barbarous and contradictory proclamations of the Old Testament, the more important (to Christians) New Testament adds to the vague story of a Jew named Jesus a host of after-the-fact miracles aimed at coercing belief, including the claim that his mother was a virgin, that he walked on water, that he rose from the dead, etc. Similar marvels and parlor tricks were attributed to an army of so-called prophets across the ages as followers tried to persuade others to join their sect, and many of their stories have become the stuff of myth, legend and fairy tale.

In addition, the gospels chosen to be included in the Bible were selected from a broad array of gospel writings of the period, many of which were contradictory. The selection gave inappropriate, unwarranted and seemingly arbitrary value to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John at the expense of the others, Judas and Mary, for example. The fact is, all were just hearsay--stories passed down and embellished over the decades, each containing views and biases reflecting the culture of their all-too-human authors. In other words, more fiction than fact.

To be sure, anyone who chooses to live in accordance with the apparent principals and values of Jesus has seemingly chosen an excellent role model. But anyone who believes that the Bible is historical fact stands on no firmer ground than someone who believes the Da Vinci Code is fact.

And anyone who believes that the creator of the universe somehow wrote the Bible--with all its contradictions and bizarre, magical nonsense--is dangerously out of touch with reality, reason, science and sanity.

If you’re going to put a disclaimer on Dan Brown’s film, put it on the Bible, too.

Rummy, A Dangerous Signal

Several more Generals have come forward to add their names to the growing list of current and retired military leaders calling for the removal of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, but their informed concern seems to be falling on deaf ears at the White House. According to Administration spokespeople:

Getting rid of Rumsfeld won’t solve the problems in Iraq.

So, the man whose horrible judgment, wrong assumptions and incompetence created an untenable security nightmare in Iraq should stay at his post because we need his help to fix the situation. With his kind of help, who needs terrorists?

Of course, Radical Republicans desperately insist that replacing Rummy will:

Send a dangerous signal to the enemy.

But they’ve misused that disingenuous line repeatedly to attack almost every criticism of their Administration. It’s just a bogus, moronic dodge.

Here’s the simple truth:

Nothing sends a more dangerous signal to our enemies than U.S. government officials who are inept, corrupt, unethical, immoral, hypocritical and/or dangerously incompetent. Which sadly covers a large portion of the current Executive Branch.

The American people are slowly waking to the fact that the Bush Administration--and Rumsfeld--are tragic failures at governing, but hey, we get what we vote for. At least November will give us an opportunity to wrest control from the bankrupt party of Strong and Wrong, who are clearly incapable of fixing the many disasters of their own making.

Leaking Lying Loser

As Senator Joe Biden wisely noted on the Bill Maher show last Friday, the American people are on to President Bush. They’ve learned to pay close attention to his deceptive words, carefully chosen by a Rove-picked team of spinmeisters to imply truths that are actually falsehoods and assert facts that are actually fictions, deflecting responsibility and blame with picayune legalese.

A perfect example: In light of Bush’s authorization to leak select parts of the National Intelligence Estimate, an angry White House press corps demanded an explanation from spokesman Scott McClellan, who could only repeat (and repeat) that the President’s authorization constituted an immediate declassification--his Presidential prerogative--and that criticism of such was an example of cynical partisan politics.

But McClellan failed to explain why the timing of the leaks didn’t constitute the most egregious example of partisan politics on the part of the President. To believe McClellan, you’d have to believe that those critical, nasty Liberal Democrats were trying to destroy America while Saintly Patriotic Republican Bush was trying to share vital information without any political calculation or desire to smear outspoken critics.

What rubbish. And the voting public agrees.

McClellan may actually believe that Bush can do no wrong and should be given, five-plus years into his Presidency, the blind trust of a conquering hero. But most of the rest of us aren’t that stupid. Bush lost his presumption of trust a long time ago. Not even the media can keep up with all the scandals, misjudgments, indictments, strategic errors, failed policies and failures-in-the-making of this disastrous Administration.

Recent items include:

1) Republicans convicted of vote-tampering in New Hampshire had multiple direct communications with the White House immediately prior to their illegal conduct.

2) Bush and company knew the Iraq uranium story had been discredited but used it anyway, then lied that they were unaware it had been discredited.

3) Despite three recently retired military generals calling for the ouster of Secretary Rumsfeld, Bush responded recently that he was satisfied with Rummy.

Satisfied with incompetence, apparently.

Which just goes to show that only the incompetent are satisfied with incompetence. And thus far, most of the Republican faithful still claim to be satisfied with President Bush. This November, say bye bye…

Softball with Matthews and Delay

After watching Chris Matthew's weak interview with Tom Delay today, I was compelled to write Matthews a letter...

Dear Chris,

You’re playing softball with Republicans again. Your interview with disgraced soon-to-be former Congressman Delay was pathetic. You had a chance to grill Delay about his ties to Jack Abramoff but you didn’t. You could have asked him why his leader, President Bush, had done such a horrible job of adhering to traditional Conservative policies, such as fiscal responsibility and keeping the government out of people’s privacy. You could have asked Delay if Republicans should be held responsible for the public’s growing horror at the massive debt buildup, including bill after bill filled with pork overseen by Delay. You could have asked Delay if Republicans should be held responsible for the unforgivable strategic errors in Iraq, such as inadequate troop levels leading to the looting of munitions that are now being used to kill our soldiers. You could have asked Delay if Bush should be impeached if wiretapping citizens without warrants is ever found to be illegal. You could have asked him if the lies told by Bush to the media about his wiretapping--declaring that it requires warrants when he knew he was wiretapping without them--should require some sort of penalty. You could have asked Delay why it is okay that his party not press the auto industry to tighten emission standards. You could have asked Delay if it is okay for Republicans to out a CIA operative to settle a grudge. You could have asked why his Christian superstitions should be imposed on all Americans through legislation, as he has so often suggested. You could have asked him why he rarely says the word “Democrat” without the label “Liberal” preceding it. In fact, you could have described him as a Radical Republican just as easily as he described Barney Frank as a Liberal Democrat. You could have insisted that he was withdrawing from Congress because he knew he couldn’t win again.

But hey, I guess Tom’s your buddy. And friendship trumps journalism these days. How else can you get more big interviews if you insist on asking the tough questions?

Pathetic.

Watch Tim Russert’s recent interview with John McCain if you want to know how it is done.

McBush

Senator John McCain spent a tense half-an-hour on Meet The Press Sunday getting grilled by Tim Russert about past comments including a dislike of George Bush, an opposition to tax cuts for the wealthy and a disdain for intolerant religious zealots like Jerry Falwell. McCain glossed over, and in some cases actually denied, the clear implications of those prior statements. His about-face was total and unambiguous.

McCain's attempt to re-define his presidential persona stank, appearing inauthentic and calculated. And it was underscored by ridiculous video of him and Bush hugging and mugging on a campaign platform four years after the Bush people savagely smeared him.

In the spirit of a world-class Flip-Flopper, McCain has abandoned his integrity to curry favor with the Bush base, the same people he had open and legitimate disdain for in the past.

Whatever respect has accrued from his reputation as a maverick is now evaporating. And trying to become a converted team player is only going to damage his image if he is trying to join the cellar-dwelling Team Bush, arguably the worst and most disliked administration in a lifetime.

Why hitch his horse to a sinking wagon? He feels he can't steal the nomination from Bill Frist unless he panders to the GOP base. Too bad for McCain. It makes him look like a fool, like a person who would rather spin, gloss and deny his real opinions than stick to his values to win a race.

We've had enough dishonesty in recent years. It is no longer working for President Bush, and it won’t work for McCain either.