GOP Fantasy World

Speaking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Senator John McCain blasted the recently passed Senate bill setting a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. McCain claimed that the Bush troop surge was working, stridently insisting that Baghdad was now safe for Westerners to roam. When challenged on this claim by Blitzer, McCain adopted what has become a typical conservative stance—I know more than you, you stupid idiot.

But McCain was horribly wrong.

As reporters on the ground in Baghdad continue to point out, the city remains absolutely lethal for Westerners to travel and very little has changed. Some sectarian death squads have moved to outlying areas, but car bombs continue unabated, disappearances are rampant and revenge killings still the norm.

McCain displayed an all-too-familiar Republican mindset. Ignore reality and make up "facts" to fit a wishful fantasy. When challenged, act outraged and indignant...

I wish Baghdad were safer…so I’ll claim that it is.
I wish Global Warming weren’t happening…so I’ll claim it’s a hoax.
I wish we didn’t torture prisoners…so I’ll simply deny it.
I wish we didn’t fire US Attorneys to obstruct justice…so I’ll make up an excuse.
I wish Iraq had something to do with 9/11…so I’ll pretend it did.
I wish Evolution weren’t a scientific fact…so I’ll call it an unproven theory.
I wish Dick Cheney didn't smear Joe Wilson...so I'll lie about it.
I wish we didn’t staff departments with inept cronies…so I’ll ignore their failures.

“Heck of a job, Brownie!”

Republicans used the horror and widespread fear generated by 9/11 to take Americans on a fantasy ride, painting the world in simplified, black-and-white terms while providing rosy, wishful justifications for forcibly remaking the Middle East in our own image.

But their dream has become a nightmare. Six years of lies, distortions, manipulations, failures and scandals have created an atmosphere of distrust and intense scrutiny. When politicians like George Bush, Alberto Gonzales or John McCain make pompous, self-serving and wishful claims, the press and public no longer give them the benefit of the doubt. But Republicans have yet to learn the lesson.

McCain’s statement to Blitzer was either a bold-faced lie or a mistake born of unforgivable ignorance. Either way, Americans are sick of it. Until Republicans prove they have a handle on reality and stop peddling fantasies and half-truths, Americans will punish them in the media and at the ballot box.

Today, Senator John McCain looked like a fool, not a President. And it’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine him or any other reality-challenged Republican becoming the next President. We should all be so lucky.

- JT Compton

No Retreat, No Humility

President Bush clearly plans to go down swinging. Even though he’s getting bludgeoned on multiple fronts, he won’t back down. His party’s house is on fire, but he and many of his true believers refuse to leave.

And even though Alberto Gonzales fired US Attorneys for purely political purposes, lied to at least one Senator about the process, attempted to lie to the media about the rationale and changed his story multiple times, Bush refuses to get rid of him or even chastise him.

Speaking to the press, Bush attacked the critics of Gonzales, saying cynically that “there’s a lot of politics in this town.” But Bush is apparently blind to the total politicization of many branches of government by his own team. A strong argument can be made that no presidency has been more politically divisive nor injected politics where it has never been tolerated before than the Bush Administration.

Another flagrant example of Bush’s hypocrisy came during his press conference today attacking the bill recently passed by the House restricting spending in Iraq and setting a timetable for withdrawal. Bush promised a veto and pointed out that it was passed by a narrow margin, implying that the House has only a shaky mandate for change. But Bush was elected by the slimmest margin in history and conducted himself as if his mandate came from a landslide.

(He and GOP pundits don’t want congress to influence war strategy, but they fail to understand that the public would rather congress micro-manage the war than Bush continue to mismanage the war.)

Going further, Bush ridiculed the House bill for containing “too much pork.” But every single spending bill he signed while Congress was under Republican control contained vast and unprecedented pork. He never once complained.

This type of grotesque, deceitful hubris was also displayed recently on the Daily Show, where UN Ambassador John Bolton made an appearance. His attitude toward host Jon Stewart could best be summarized as, “I know more than you do about every subject under the sun, so shut up and let me explain things.” His arrogance was repulsive, and consistent with the attitude of the Bush administration. And his comments demonstrated shocking ignorance, especially concerning historical facts about the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

Take as another example disgraced and indicted ex-Congressman Tom DeLay, who appeared recently on Meet The Press. Neither cowed nor contrite, his new book is entitled “No Retreat, No Surrender.” Like Bush, DeLay is constitutionally incapable of taking responsibility for, or even acknowledging, mistakes or blunders. Listening to him, the President and GOP have done absolutely nothing wrong in the past six years and the 2006 elections were just an aberration.

Such astonishing hubris, lack of insight and absence of humility are the fatal flaws that guarantee the demise of the failed neo-conservative experiment. And even though that demise is well under way, people like Bush, Cheney, Bolton, DeLay and their myopic faithful are incapable of grasping the fact. They plan to go down swinging. And go down they will. In 2008, the GOP will suffer a TKO. Not only will the next president be a liberal, but the Senate may garner a veto-proof sixty or more Democrats when the dust finally settles.

Until then, Bush and his arrogant, incompetent Administration will apparently continue to obstruct justice, thwart the Constitution, lie to the public, mismanage the war and rage against agents of change elected by the public. What a sad disgrace.

- JT Compton

Utah Taliban

Another reminder that the Radical Right is the Christian version of the Taliban—Utah just passed strict new rules governing how clubs in public schools can be formed and run. Officially described as an effort to provide uniformity in administration, the rules are actually a thinly veiled attack on gay-straight alliance clubs that have proliferated in recent years.

A ban on any discussion of human sexuality within clubs tells us all we need to know about the intention of the law’s authors, especially because it includes in its defition “presenting or discussing information relating to the use of contraceptive devices.” Reasonable people can differ on abortion, but those who want to curtail the use of contraceptives by others, much less curtail the mere mention of contraception, are neither reasonable nor moral--they are nothing less than cruel, judgmental tyrants.

As ever, puritanical fundamentalists feel that the human body and human sexuality are dirty and sinful, especially when used by non-believers for pleasure rather than procreation. They apparently see our physical bodies not as beautiful temples made by God but as foul instruments of the devil, and thus should never be a topic of conversation, a subject of art or an avenue of pleasure.

"If nobody talks about it, it won't exist!"

Mired in ancient superstition, repression and ignorance, the forces of religious tyranny are horrified by modernity, especially when it comes to scientific realities that subvert or contradict the magic of their beliefs. Though study after study concludes that homosexuality is an orientation mostly hard-wired at or before birth, the thought that God may have created people gay goes against the fundamentalist interpretation of scripture and the brittle notions of manhood and womanhood that their "faith" requires. How sad.

How sad that a large segment of our nation clings to superstitions from the past with no tolerance for other possibilities. How sad that they would rather condemn and judge rather than live and let live. How sad that they feel so threatened by gays, presumably in direct proportion to their own sexual insecurities and deformations. How sad that it’s not enough for them to abstain from certain behaviors—they have to force the rest of the world to live they way they see fit.

My question continues to be: How long before "true believers" in this country resort to the same tactics and methods as the Taliban in Afghanistan? How long before they start using violence to achieve their goals using God as an excuse?

At the end of the day, they don’t care about the Constitution or our cherished notions of Liberty. They care about a compilation of scrolls and "testaments" written by men thousands of years ago containing wildly conflicting and often magical fables, claiming such were written by the creator of the universe and are perfect and infallible accounts of history. Remind you of anyone?

It reminds me of the fundamentalists in the Middle East.

If American fundamentalists had their way, American women might be required to wear only skirts. They might not have an equal say in matters of family. They might not have equal protection under the law. They might be stoned to death for adultery. And so on.

American fundamentalists are scary. And every day, they try to push their superstitions on the rest of us. This week, they gained some ground in Utah. Next week, who knows.

Gonzo Must Go

In a press conference this week regarding the firing by the Justice Department of eight regional U.S. Attorneys for what appear to be purely political reasons, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez conceded that “mistakes were made.” But like so many others serving at the pleasure of President Bush, the mistakes belonged to somebody other than Gonzalez.

Rather than take direct responsibility, Gonzo reminded the press of his humble origins, apparently in a preemptive attempt to thwart calls for his resignation. But those calls came anyway, from both sides of the political spectrum.

As with the Valerie Plame outing, Republican operatives and pundits assert that Gonzalez and his Justice Department broke no laws, which has become the Bush Administration’s dividing line between right and wrong.

If a law wasn’t broken, it couldn’t be wrong!

But the Bush team cannot grasp something the press has lost sight of - ethics.

Outing a CIA agent to smear an administration critic may not have been illegal, but it was clearly unethical. As well, firing US Attorneys because they act independently of executive branch influence is an unethical outrage. For this reason alone, Gonzalez should be fired.

Recall that Gonzalez is same the administration official who provided legal cover for the Bush team to torture detainees. He’s also the official who argued that the widespread, warrant-less wiretapping of American phones was legal, when most knew it wasn’t.

Gonzalez has never been open nor forthcoming in front of Congress, opting to stonewall and evade questions that go to the heart of our constitutional liberties. Like strict constructionists on the Supreme Court, Gonzalez interprets some laws strictly and ignores others to suit the purposes of his masters.

Sadly, because he has been a loyal Bush crony for decades it seems highly unlikely that the Great Decider will deign to get rid of him. To President Bush, loyalty overrides everything, including incompetence and unethical behavior.

Whether it’s Alberto Gonzalez, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft, Karl Rove, or any number of other bad actors in the Executive Branch, the common denominator is Dick Cheney and his imperial, hawkish, ideologically driven policies. Bush has the starring role, but Cheney is clearly the director, and everyone else follows his lead, even if it leads them off a cliff.

Congress may not be able to force Gonzalez to resign, but only by impeaching Dick Cheney for the Plame incident will they ever have a prayer of changing the course of this Administration.

Ultimately, the Bush Administration may follow the letter of the law but they’ve done everything humanly possible to trash and sully the spirit of the law. That Alberto Gonzalez has played a supporting role is particularly troubling, and yet another Bush-era disgrace.

- JT Compton

Do As They Say, Not As They Do

Which is the bigger group—fundamentalist preachers and politicians who have cheated on their wives or those who haven’t?

Revelations that Radical Right politician Newt Gingrich cheated on his wife at the same time he was trying get President Clinton impeached for lying about cheating on Hilary simply confirms that the hypocrisy of arrogant, self-righteous, moralizing religious crusaders knows no bounds.

They talk the talk, but they don’t even crawl the walk.

Take the Bush Administration. No other presidency in my lifetime has paid such lip service to values, as if God himself anointed them custodians of human virtue. And yet their actions have demonstrated quite the opposite, exposing dishonesty, hubris, vengeance, cronyism, myopia, bias, indifference and incompetence. Their tenure is so disgraced, discredited and toxic that they can no longer point a finger at anyone lest ten come pointing back.

And what of Republican power brokers? Abramoff in jail, Libby guilty, DeLay on trial, Reed disgraced, Norquist exposed. It’s tough to recall a more corrupt, cancerous group of thugs in the history of the Beltway.

And what of fundamentalist Christian leaders? Beyond the notorious dealings of Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Jones and David Koresh, we have the recent scandal of Evangelical leader Ted Haggard having drug-fueled sex with a gay escort. And let’s not forget Pat Robertson’s long history of shocking and abominable public statements.

Which brings me to The Lost Tomb of Jesus, a recent Discovery channel docu-drama about a group of ossuaries (bone caskets) found near Jerusalem that may contain the remains of the family of Jesus of Nazareth, including his wife and son.

Before it even aired I could hear shrieks and moans coming from the fundamentalist right, terrified and angered at a potential assault on the rigid pillars of their orthodoxy. And sure enough, the Discovery channel decided to produce a special "discussion" segment after the show—maybe bowing to pressure—to give "other perspectives," knowing the network was going to get a lot of heat from religious fanatics.

But the panel of theological experts did less to undermine the facts of the documentary than to undermine the topsy-turvy nature of their own "faith." Few things are easier than spotting inconsistencies in the statements of religious professionals, and this show was no exception. One of the panelists, Dr. Judy Fentress-Willams of Virginia Theological Institute, made a stark statement about the Lost Tomb of Jesus documentary that I was compelled to respond to. The issue explains itself…

Dear Dr. Fentress-Williams,

On the Discovery Channel's post-"Lost Tomb Of Jesus" panel discussion, you suggested that we bring critical thinking (or its equivalent) to our assessment of the show’s content. Frankly, I was surprised.

With all due respect, it seems that critical thinking has played an insignificant role in the history of Christian faith, and certainly plays a minor role in American Christian faith today. I never hear "people of faith" defending fundamentalist beliefs on the basis of reason, rationality or common sense. Indeed, a literal reading of the Bible or any other major religious text flies in the face of reason, rationality and common sense.

If fundamentalists adopt critical thinking, it will certainly lead them to reject "sacred texts" as perfect, infallible historical documents, and to accept as fiction many of their most cherished assertions and miracles. It will likely render the Bible much like Homer’s Odyssey—a story whose seeds are historical fact, but whose fruits are magical, mythical exaggerations and fantasies.

As an American, I will defend-to-the-death the right of any citizen to believe whatever they want. But I also reserve the right to call things as I see them. How is blind faith anything but antithetical to critical thinking? As far as I can see, faith in a literal interpretation of the Bible—or any other religious text—is terrifying in its rejection of reason, rationality and common sense. It produces, by its nature, arrogance, intolerance, judgment and division.

Yes, what is left out of the "Lost Tomb Of Jesus" is significant, but so are the gospels left out of the New Testament. So are the stories, psalms and books left out of the Old Testament. The "Lost Tomb" is part fact, part fiction, part persuasion and part entertainment…and so, to any standard of common sense, is the Bible.

I’m happy to assess the "Lost Tomb Of Jesus" in the light of critical thinking. I only wish fundamentalists of all faiths were willing to assess their beliefs in the same light.

Whenever anyone uses absolutes to proclaim their moral virtue and dictate how the rest of us should live, and especially when they allow double standards, they are really exposing their own fear, insecurity and narrowness—as well as creating the perfect conditions for hypocrisy.

- JT Compton

Liar Libby

Former Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby was found Guilty today on 4 of 5 felony charges including perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements. On the show that bears his name, Lou Dobbs wondered what brought Libby to this sorry verdict, asking legal expert Jeffrey Toobin, “what happened here?” Toobin’s bizarre response: “It’s really baffling.”

No Jeffrey, it’s not baffling at all. It’s quite simple…

Dick Cheney’s lie about enriched uranium going from Niger to Iraq was exposed and challenged by Ambassador Joe Wilson. Dick organized his advisors to smear Wilson. Part of that campaign included implying that Wilson was a sissy because his CIA wife, Valerie Plame, sent him to Niger. Plame’s job as a covert agent at the CIA was thus blown—a potential crime—and an investigation was launched. Cheney was terrified that he might be implicated in the crime or exposed as an unethical thug. So his right-hand-man, Libby, lied to cover the tracks back to Cheney.

And now Libby is facing serious jail time while the Bush administration is reeling from another major scandal.

President Bush today sent a low-level staff member to inform the press that he accepted the verdict of the jury—in other words, he wasn’t planning to exercise his Imperial power to nullify the verdict just yet. But like a defiant grade-schooler unwilling to accept yet another loss, Dick Cheney came to Scooter’s defense. Despite the very foundation of the Vice Presidency crumbling, Tricky Dick II would rather risk further damaging the Presidency of Dubya than come clean about a dirty, rotten scheme of his own making that went public.

And other hard-core, evidence-be-damned conservatives like pundit Ed Rodgers absolutely, categorically refuse to admit to any mistakes, miscalculations or shortcomings of what most of the rest of the world now considers the worst American Presidency in modern history.

Believing that they can do no wrong, that they know better than “the little people” public, and that anyone who disagrees with them is an unpatriotic, Commie Judas, the Cheney dead-enders will only be cowed by the judgment of history. But if an easier political prediction were ever possible, I’m not aware of it: the Bush crew will be seen by history as a nepotistic, ineffective, incompetent, blundering, divisive, scheming, arrogant, secretive, tyrannical, bullying pack of liars.

Sadly, that’s not hyperbole. It’s not even an exaggeration. Their long and growing list of failures and scandals leads firmly, inexorably to that conclusion. Indeed, in six years they’ve accomplished little except to increase the wealth of the wealthy. The only other “accomplishment” they regularly claim is that the nation hasn’t yet been completely destroyed by our enemies. As if they had any significant influence over that fact.

Meanwhile, red-faced Bush conservatives continue to shriek that their lily-white standard bearers are being falsely accused and persecuted, even as their neo-con movement dissolves and the public stands poised to toss them onto the ash-heap of history.

At this stage, nothing could be more absurd than an enraged conservative denying fact after fact. It’s a momentous, shameful disgrace, brought home this week by the conviction of Scooter Libby, liar.

- JT Compton