Three Presidents Agree

NBC recorded an informal meeting of the three ex-Presidents - Obama, Bush, and Clinton - at Arlington National Cemetery on the afternoon of Inauguration Day, and you'll like what they said:

 

-----

Notes from the Revolution, 6/2/20

. . . a revolution of hearts and minds . . .

"I Am Your Law and Order President"

No, these are not scenes from a third-rate TV movie.
It's not a meme.  This is really happening.
Click to enlarge.

"Trump Must Be Removed":  George Will, the dean of conservative pundits, a fine writer and a brilliant one, has written a masterfully scathing denunciation of Trump and his "invertebrate" enablers in Congress, published in the Washington Post yesterday. Excerpt:

This unraveling presidency began with the Crybaby-in-Chief banging his spoon on his highchair tray to protest a photograph — a photograph — showing that his inauguration crowd the day before had been smaller than the one four years previous. Since then, this weak person’s idea of a strong person, this chest-pounding advertisement of his own gnawing insecurities, this low-rent Lear raging on his Twitter-heath has proven that the phrase malignant buffoon is not an oxymoron.

Presidents . . . can set the tone of American society, which is regrettably soft wax on which presidents leave their marks. The president’s provocations — his coarsening of public discourse that lowers the threshold for acting out by people as mentally crippled as he — do not excuse the violent few. They must be punished. He must be removed.

Social causation is difficult to demonstrate, particularly between one person’s words and other persons’ deeds. However: The person voters hired in 2016 to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” stood on July 28, 2017, in front of uniformed police and urged them “please don’t be too nice” when handling suspected offenders. His hope was fulfilled for 8 minutes and 46 seconds on Minneapolis pavement. . . .

Those who think our unhinged president’s recent mania about a murder two decades ago that never happened represents his moral nadir have missed the lesson of his life: There is no such thing as rock bottom. So, assume that the worst is yet to come.

In stark contrast to the fake president in the White House, former President George W. Bush has published a beautiful, inspiring appeal to the nation on his official website. Excerpt:

Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. Yet we have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen. It is time for America to examine our tragic failures – and as we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths. . . .

America’s greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity. The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union. The answers to American problems are found by living up to American ideals — to the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by God with certain rights. We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice. . . . We can only see the reality of America's need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised.

That is exactly where we now stand. Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means. Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress. But we also know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice. The rule of law ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system. And achieving justice for all is the duty of all.

This will require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort. We serve our neighbors best when we try to understand their experience. We love our neighbors as ourselves when we treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion. There is a better way — the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice. I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.

This is exactly how a real President should speak, and what he should say.  I don't know how you fellas feel, but Mr. Bush has just redeemed himself in my eyes.


Former Vice President Biden spoke bluntly at the Philadelphia City Hall this morning about Trump's grandstanding photo-op:

The president held up the Bible at St. John's Church yesterday. I just wish he opened it once in a while instead of brandishing it. If he opened it, he could have learned something: that we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves. It's really hard work, but it's the work of America.

Amen to that.

How Small Our Differences

Former president George W. Bush released this timely nonpartisan message to the nation on Saturday via Twitter:

Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat.  In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants.  We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God.  We rise or fall together - and we are determined to rise.

The Legacy of 9/11 and the Limits of American Power

Your Head Trucker very much admires the forthright clear-headedness of conservative Catholic, Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Army colonel, and Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich, whose discussion of the Syrian crisis with Phil Donohue I posted last Sunday.  Here, in a highly pertinent clip from 2008, Bacevich incisively dissects the hubris and failure of the Bush response to 9/11, which continues to shape today's events in the Middle East and American foreign policy, even under President Obama:



Bacevich continues his provocative argument in this clip about his 2009 book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism:



If you are interested in hearing a fuller exposition of his views - and I wish every member of Congress and of the Obama Administration could be required to do so - you can watch this dialogue between Bacevich and Massachusetts School of Law Dean Lawrence Velvel:




For what it's worth, former KGB officer and Russian President Vladimir Putin has written about American exceptionalism too, in a New York Times op-ed that was published today - and though Putin's remarks, coming from a foreign head of state engaged in a diplomatic contest with our government, must be weighed on a different scale from those of Bacevich, it is perhaps instructive to compare the two points of view. A rhetorically adroit excerpt:

It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.” . . .

If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust. It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues.

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

Notice how smoothly he has turned the tables on us, with the oblique reference to our founding philosophy in the Declaration of Independence. Putin's remarks may or may not be insincere, but they do offer a window into how we are perceived abroad - a corrective to our own admiring gaze in the mirror, perhaps.

And isn't that one of the big things we castigated Bush and his cronies for - being utterly indifferent, if not actually blind and deaf, to America's standing and reputation in the eyes of the world? Putin is not an entirely trustworthy writer, but there is much food for thought here, if the bright boys in Obama's West Wing can digest it.

Apology from Texas

Honk to Joe.My.God. for this gem:



And the quote from the late, great Molly Ivins is right on the money. Here it is in context from her 2005 book, Who Let the Dogs In?: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known:

Who knew Dubya Bush would be this bad? I realize there is nothing more annoying than someone who says, "I told you so." But dammit, the next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be in the White House, would you please pay attention? . . . Things could be worse. The current governor of Texas is a lot dumber than the last one, and he could run for president.

And lo and behold, it's happened.  Trust me and Molly, guys: you totally do not want to see true-believer, God's-anointed Perry ruling the country.

As a reader commented on Andrew Sullian's blog the other day, Perry is "George Bush on steroids." And that's about the sum of it.

Mission Accomplished: Smelling Like a Rose

"Bush Jesus": 
Notice the halo effect produced by the radar dome behind his head.

The canonization process of St. George of Guantanamo has begun.  Read and weep:

Justice drops inquiry into destruction of torture videos

Miami Herald:  The former director of the CIA's secret operations branch won't be charged with the destruction of 92 videotapes showing the use of waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. . . .

In interview, Bush defends Iraq war and waterboarding

Washington Post:  In his first major interview since leaving office, former president George W. Bush defended the most controversial aspects of his tenure - including the use of waterboarding against terrorism suspects and the invasion of Iraq. . . .

George Bush's torture admission is a dismal moment for democracy

The Guardian:  Although it comes as no surprise, George Bush's straight admission that he personally authorised waterboarding – an act of torture and a crime under US and international law – marks a dismal moment for western democracies and the rule of law. When again will the US be able to direct others to meet their human rights standards? Certainly not before it takes steps to bring its own house in order.

Unlike the UK's coalition government, which has announced a judicial inquiry on allegations of British involvement in torture, Barack Obama's administration has apparently ended the practice – but has done nothing to investigate the circumstances in which it was used by the Bush administration.

Bush claims that the use of waterboarding on Abu Zubaydah "saved lives", including British ones. There is not a shred of evidence to support that claim, one that falls into the same category as the bogus intelligence relied on to justify war in Iraq.

Indeed, waterboarding and Iraq appear to be interconnected, as torture-induced information was relied upon to justify the invasion. Torture may produce information, but it doesn't produce reliable information, as every experienced interrogator I have spoken with repeatedly tells me – on both sides of the Atlantic. It produces the information that the subject believes the interrogator wants to hear. . . .

He would do better to take on board those with first-hand experience of what the embrace of torture might mean for Americans abroad, who recognise that its use by the US will justify its use against the US.

Hundreds leave Bush book-signing in Dallas empty-handed

Fort Worth Star-Telegram:  Hundreds of people left the bookstore in North Dallas where former President George W. Bush was autographing copies of his book, Decision Points, without getting a signed book Tuesday. Borders books officials by 10 a.m. had told those in the back of the line that they likely wouldn't be able to see the 43rd president, and get a signed copy of his book, but many stayed just in case.

Tricia Ditmore, 49, of Grand Prairie was among those who left empty-handed. "I wanted to see him and shake his hand," she said, as tears welled up in her eyes. "I wanted to tell him that we supported him - that he was loved and supported. I don't know if he knows. I hope other people told him that."

About 1,000 people were able to meet the former president, and take home signed copies of his book. Among the lucky ones were Terry and Tammy Jones of Justin. They were first in line, having camped out at the store in Preston Royal since about 2 p.m. Monday. After they bought four books autographed by Bush, and briefly met the former president, they couldn't stop smiling. "He shook my hand and he kissed Tammy's hand," Terry Jones said.

Said Tammy Jones: "I waited 18 hours for two seconds and a kiss on my hand. I'm never washing this hand again."


No comment from your Head Trucker.  What can any decent person say?

Cooperating with Evil

Three horribly tortured bodies.  Shipped back to their families with their throats cut out.  A string of patently obvious lies and cover-ups.  A story the mainstream media won't fucking report.  A war crime the Obama administration won't investigate and will never prosecute.

Think about all this next time you sing, ". . . o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

Sullivan:

Many branches of government must have been involved in such an act of torture or negligence or both, and the subsequent cover-up - from the FBI, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA, and JSOC. The cover-up appears to have been continued by the Obama administration - a staggering surrender to pragmatism that is in fact a cooptation of evil.

This deserves to be the biggest story on the torture issue since Abu Ghraib - because it threatens to tear down the wall of lies and denial that have protected Americans from facing what the last administration actually did. Notice that these torture sessions - so severe they killed three prisoners - were conducted in June 2006. Long after the original crisis was over. Long after we have been told real torture sessions occurred. They were part of an ongoing torture program whose methods were so extreme that the Pentagon has already conceded that over a dozen prisoners had been tortured to death and up to a hundred US authorized deaths-by-torture are alleged by many human rights groups.

This case deserves a thorough and complete and exhaustive inquiry and investigation. I no longer believe that any entity in the US government can be trusted with such a task. The investigation must be able to go right to the very top of the torture program and do so with no political influence whatsoever. The investigation must be conducted by an independent prosecutor - Patrick Fitzgerald comes to mind - or by the Red Cross or an international body. It must go up the chain of command to the very top to find the real people who are responsible for this war crime and three homicides.

Among those who need to be subpoenaed are the former president and vice-president of the United States.

I grew up believing America was the guardian of the Free World.

But quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Fox/GOP Inaugurates Goddess Worship

Hear, O America, Sarah is our God, and Glenn Beck is her prophet. . . . 



"I think a voter first needs to sincerely know who that candidate is, to see what their track record is, and to see if they have lost their soul along the way."  Sarah Palin.

Andrew Sullivan:

The Ailes launch of a new political-media party is being framed around Palin as a "reluctant to serve" outsider, a new Washington combined with Esther. Hence her resignation is a reason to support her! It proves that she was too pure, too Godly, to survive the worldly political corruption that infects everything in Satan's capital city, Washington. And that's why the elites will do everything to destroy her - not because they have some idea that a political leader should not be a congenital liar or ignorant of fifth grade history or devoid of any relevant experience - but because they are on the side of Satan.

Ailes' new political-media party is fueled by Beck's integration into the paranoid far right, aided by O'Reilly's fading but still significant grip on ageing Reagan-Democrats, and galvanized by Hannity's nightly unvarnished propaganda and endless demonization of all things not-Republican. But until Ailes found Palin - a figure who instantly short-circuits rational thinking in those who support and oppose her, he had not yet found the sub-rational rallying point.

Now he does: the fusion of Fox Barbie-doll beauty, marinated in evangelical Christianity, mouthing every cliche that survives from the Reagan era until it has no relation at all to reality, propelled by what former Christianist Frank Shaeffer has called "the deepening inferiority complex suffered by the evangelical/fundamentalist community."

This FNC/RNC merger is another threat to reasoned discourse in public life, because it is a showman's concoction of very powerful emotional elements: resentment, sex, religion, anger. It creates its own reality. "We Do Not Torture"; everyone in Gitmo was the "Worst of the Worst"; the stimulus lowered growth; all the debt is Obama's fault; Obama is a Muslim and non-American; the White House is stacked with the Islamist/socialist enemy within; if we had not bailed out the banks, we would be roaring back from the recession; Obama wants to ignore the war in order to effect a radical transformation of America into some kind of scary version of France and Waziristan. And on and on. I'm not exaggerating. Listen to these maniacs.

The last idea was fomented by Dick Cheney. And they are waiting for their moment: another terrorist attack that they will blame on the deliberate negligence of Barack Obama. Then the Dolchstoss card, played only faintly so far by Cheney and Giuliani, will be played with a crudeness and radicalism that could well be explosive. You think they won't pull that trigger? Dream on.

This new political-media conglomerate endorses a supreme executive unrestrained in his or her conduct of the war against Islam (for that is the real import of the Giuliani complaint), and empowered to seize anyone anywhere and torture them in the name of national security. It is also critically connected to the settlement movement in the West Bank - for Palin's vision of more and more Jewish population expanding outwards in that region is part of the plan for the End-Times. Hence its belief in waging war on Iran.

Non-believing people have a hard time swallowing all this. It seems so wacko. Religious people who have had any experience of fundamentalism in their lives know it all too well.

Forget the RNC, Michael Steele or John Boehner. Ignore Romney.The new RNC is FNC. Roger Ailes is creating a new political entity that could redefine the right in America for a generation, and if it gets to power, will make the two terms of George W. Bush look like a golden era. No one in the GOP can stop this. Because Ailes now has their entire base in his hands. What he frames they will believe. When McCain surrendered to Palin, it was his last - and unintended - blow to a sane or responsible conservatism.

Jesse Ventura Slams Bush, Cheney

Macho man Jesse Ventura - Vietnam vet, Navy SEAL, and former Governor of Minnesota - tells it like it is on torture and the Bush regime:

Give me Dick Cheney, a waterboard, and one hour, and I'll make him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

Sullivan on "elected tyranny"

Permanent, universal and secret powers to detain and torture people using the full force of state power strike me as inimical to the Western experiment in human history, or indeed to any society that prizes freedom. The fact that arguably the leading conservative intellectual in Washington, Charles Krauthammer, has openly supported the power of the president to torture solely on his own discretion and minimally if it could save one single life reveals how much contempt the current right has for individual liberty. This argument, mind you, is not even made retroactively; it is being made proactively - and the Bradbury memo outlines an ongoing permanent torture apparatus at a president's disposal.

There comes a point, in other words, when the executive's legitimate power to act in an emergency to save lives morphs into a de facto re-making of the constitution to grant the presidency the powers of a pre-modern monarch - subject solely to the voters' four year "moment of accountability."

To my mind, this is an elected tyranny. And the first Americans would gladly have lost a few cities - and countless lives - to resist it.

Sullivan also posts this picture of John Walker Lindh, and quotes from a reader's email:

The first American to get Abu-Ghraibed, long before Americans knew they were capable of such an exotic verb. The first to inspire Donald Rumsfeld to issue the order "Take the gloves off," and the first to be on the order's receiving end. The first to be denied medical treatment, the first photographed naked and bound, the first taunted while blindfolded, the first--certainly the first--to have SHITHEAD scrawled on his blindfold, the first whose digital photos made their way round the world as souvenirs, the first denied access to the Red Cross, the first to be ushered into a legal limbo created ex nihilo by the administration's notions of executive power...

John Walker Lindh was blindfolded and duct-taped naked to a stretcher in Afghanistan. He was being held in a shipping container, and he had a bullet in his thigh, and by the time an FBI agent interrogated him, the bullet had been in his thigh for nearly two weeks and the wound was starting to stink. "Of course, there are no lawyers here," the agent told him, and two days after he gave his statement, he was moved to a ship in the Arabian Sea and the bullet was finally extracted.

The point here is not whether Lindh, or anyone else held by American forces, did something deserving of prosecution and punishment; it's up to the courts to decide that by means of a fair and open trial. Rather, the point is all about barbaric punishments and torture, which are both illegal under our own laws as well as revolting to a civilized mind; AND the unlimited, unrestrained power of the government to apply any or all of the above to you or me - in secret, without limit - at any time, for any reason, on the mere whim of the President.

Violence in wartime or peacetime must be met with force, and lethal force if necessary; and evildoers must be punished. But, as every schoolchild on a playground knows, there is a sadistic streak always lurking in the shadows of human nature, ready to lash out if absolute power gives it an opening. That is why we have a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, and a long tradition of the rule of law, not of men, and not of kings who answer to no one and recognize no limit on their powers.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and all that criminal crew unleashed that beast, in the name of us all; if we do not utterly repudiate and exorcise that shameful thing from the halls of the Republic, a new Dark Age will surely come, and a worse one than has ever been known, "made more dark and more sinister by the lights of a perverted science" - to use Churchill's famous phrase.

Don't think it can't happen here. Don't think it can't happen to you. It very easily can, as a little reading of history will show. "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" - a phrase of Jefferson's often quoted by military minded folks, has a particular relevance to our own day, after Bush and his cronies have proved what depths of moral degredation people of their ilk are capable of reaching when they attain the heights of power.

Why Is This Man Laughing?

Caption this.

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong. More great BIG Inaugural pics at the Denver Post photoblog here.)

Two Planes

Or two plane crashes, I should say to be more exact. A very good contrast was made on one of my Truckbuddies' blogs the other day, which I can't re-find now (you know who you are, holler at me), but it made the point about the 9/11 disaster near the start of Bush's presidency, with all the death and destruction; and then as Bush was getting ready for his farewell speech at the end of his presidency, the miraculous, non-disaster, everybody-saved crash last week on the Hudson River. Pure coincidence, of course; but what a metaphor to contemplate.

Check out this video of the crash and rescue on David Mixner's site, and notice how very, very quickly the rescue boats got there. Disaster averted, rejoicing not mourning; please God let this be a symbol of the next 8 years for America.

Tanks in My Memory

A last farewell to W. It's definitely NSFW, but priceless.

(Honk to Joe.My.God.)

Back to the Future

Will Ferrell hit the nail on the head 8 years ago. I promised myself I wasn't gonna write another Bush post, but this is too good not to share with you guys. Was he right on or what?

Video Recaps Full Episodes Webisodes

(Honk to Andrew Sullivan)

Afternoon Drive: The End of Bush

A few years back, I heard an acquaintance of mine, an old cowboy and a lifelong Democrat, say about Bush: "Hell, he's not a Texan, he's just from Texas."

Just thought I'd let you boys know that not everyone in the Lone Star State has been making that mistake all these years. Some of us do know the difference between the front end of a horse and the other end.

In tribute to the eminent departure of the 43rd President from the national scene, thought I'd play you one of my all-time favorites: "Baby, Things Change" by Dwight Yoakam. Seems real fitting, don't it.

Myself, I can't wait for Tuesday - and CHANGE - to get here. I 'spect you feel the same way. Y'all have a good one now.

Bush's Farewell Address

Of course, you can google up the whole thing at any number of news sites, but thought I'd excerpt the very best of it for Blue Truck readers here:

And so my fellow Americans, for the final time, good night.

Oh man, seems like we've been waiting forever to hear those words, doesn't it?


Time Capsule: On the off chance that somebody a hundred years from now will discover this blog in some archive, just for the historical record why don't we all contribute our favorite reason(s) why Bush is the Worst President Ever. Of course, schoolkids in the next century will have grown up hearing that all their lives, but they might wonder just why that was so. Let's make a record before history dims the stinking memory, what do you say?

Email your list to me at bluetruckredstate@gmail.com, and I'll compile and post them all.

Update: Here's Rachel Maddow on Bush's good-bye. "Still delusional after all these years." Which shows again why it's important to keep the historical record straight to counter all the spin Bush and his cadre will try to insert in it, to cover up all the crimes and misdemeanors of the last eight years.

Today's Laugh

David Mixner reports:

Bush continues his mistakes. The White House sent out a Happy Hanukkah card with a "Christmas Tree" on it. Can't you just hear him say to Laura, "You mean they don't celebrate Christmas???" The Republicans must be wondering, "where's Joe Lieberman when you need him?"

Bush Congratulates Obama

Bush pledges "my complete cooperation" to Senator Obama . . . whose election is "a dream fulfilled - we move forward as one nation":

Nothing in his presidency became him like the leaving it--Macbeth, Act I, Scene IV (with apologies to Shakespeare).

I did not expect to ever say this, but for the first time in seven years I am proud of Mr. Bush: his remarks are those of a gentleman and a patriot.

As were those of Mr. McCain, whose gracious concession speech the other night was perfection: calm, respectful, and conciliatory.

Neither man expressed the slightest qualm about the ascension of the first African-American president; nor the slightest fear about the safety and welfare of the nation.

Instead, both looked forward to a bright and happy future for this republic under Mr. Obama's leadership.

I am SO PROUD of my country. We all belong now. Let freedom ring. God bless America!

Republican Betrayal

The news that the House of Representatives failed to pass the so-called bailout bill today came as a real shock to me and, I don't doubt, to many other Americans. It just took my breath away.

It was sunk by those Republicans to whom "the free market" is for all practical purposes synonomous with "the will of God." No socialism in America, oh no! We'll watch the whole country crash and burn first, before we betray our oh-so-sacred principles!

In fact, they have betrayed the country, exactly as their Republican grandfathers did in 1929 and the years following: standing firm on their free-market faith while all around them the country sank deeper and deeper into economic misery. And when Roosevelt finally got into office in 1933, they fought his every move tooth and nail, crying socialism all the way.

But as my little grandmother used to say, a sweet, humble soul to whom economics would have been as mysterious as astrophysics, "If it hadn't been for Roosevelt, we'd have all perished to death."

Which gets right to the heart of the matter: pure, unrestrained greed is lethal to the economy and the nation; Roosevelt saved the people from the excesses of the free market, and for that he was beloved by many millions who suffered economic cruelty at the hands of the self-righteous, and highly self-interested, Republican capitalists.

I'm no economist, but I know enough to say that you can't have a completely free or a completely regulated market; a happy medium must be found for the greatest good of the greatest number. The New Deal, it seems to me, was by and large that happy medium until the jackbooted Republicans of the Reagan-Bush-Bush era trampled it underfoot and made the world safe for avarice.

It was chilling to watch the televised press conferences today in the aftermath of the House debacle, with an inset displaying the Dow sinking lower and lower by the minute: down 777 points by close of business. I watched it sink a hundred points with my own eyes, in only 15 minutes of viewing.

Of course, the renegade Republicans who 86'd today's bill are the same who have gone along so blithely with Bush's imperial decrees and power grabs in the past; today they suddenly found the testicular fortitude to defy the President, not to mention the leaders of their own party. But stupidly, they have taken the wrong stand at the wrong time.

Of course, they tried to blame it on the Democrats, and Nancy Pelosi's "partisan" speech before the vote; but good ol' Barney Frank had a brilliant riposte to that.

McCain is also claiming that he charged up to Washington last week and rewrote the first version of the bill and protected the taxpayers, yada yada yada; or at least that's the slick impression his statements and those of his supporters make: rewriting history so soon. The fact is, House Dems and Repubs had a compromise bill already agreed on, and the votes lined up, before he got to Washington; his presence at the White House conference last Thursday emboldened the renegades to drop a bomb on the compromise.

So here we are. I realize that all may yet be well, though with the Jewish holidays, no bill will be passed before next weekend in the best case. But if this country really has slipped off a precipice today, I do hope history records that McCain and the pure-T-free-market Republicans are the ones who gave it the last shove into the darkness.

Bush is the new Hoover. The New York Times editorializes on today's events:

After nearly eight years of voting in virtual lock step with President Bush on everything from tax cuts to torture, House Republicans decided on Monday to break ranks on the survival of the nation’s financial system.

The rejected bailout bill that was on the floor after a weekend of hard negotiating was objectionable in many ways, but it was a Republican-generated bill and was improved from the administration’s original version. Sixty percent of House Democrats voted for the bill, enough to easily pass the measure if the Republicans had not decided to put on their display of pique and disarray.

The question now is whether the stock-market plunge that followed the House’s failure to lead — and a renewed credit freeze — will be enough to get the 133 Republicans who voted against the measure to change their minds. And, more important, whether the damage that the no vote has inflicted is readily reversible.

Republican no votes were rooted less in analysis or principle than in political posturing and ideological rigidity. The House minority leader, John Boehner, conceded as much: “While we were able to move the bill drastically to the right, it wasn’t good enough for our members.”

It’s not clear what would be good enough for the Republicans since there was very little talk of substance on Monday after the bill died on the floor of the House. Instead, the Republicans tried to blame a speech before the vote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who connected the current crisis to the fiscal and economic mismanagement of the Bush years. It may not have been the perfect moment to say that, but it was true.

Republicans were also upset that serial bailouts represent a rejection of free-market principles. They do. That’s because the free market in finance, unregulated and unsupervised, has failed. And, in its failure, it is inflicting greater damage on an already weak economy.

No amount of amendments to the bailout package will change the administration’s disastrous economic record or erase the manifest failure of the Republicans’ free-markets-above-all ideology.

Fasten your seat belt. I've a feeling it's going to be a bumpy ride.

A Bush Plan to "Rule from the Grave"?

The Votemaster at electoral-vote.com makes a disturbing speculation on McCain's bolt to Washington, and the whole snatch-and-grab bailout tactic:

If nothing else, McCain's sudden move got his falling polls and the lobbying of his campaign manager off the front pages. Score a win for McCain today. But he's betting the farm that the American people won't see this as a campaign stunt.

The NY Times also has an analytic article on the politics of this. The view there is that Republican members of Congress know very well that throwing $700 billion at Wall St. in a big hurry with no oversight is not popular with the voters. On the other hand, they don't want to buck their own President who still has a modicum of popularity with the the Republican rank and file. They are hoping McCain can bail them out. Democrats don't want to be seen as obstructionists, but they also see the bailout for what it really is: a ploy to spend so much money that a future President Obama's hands would be tied for lack of money. In effect this move is Bush's attempt to "rule from the grave" by severely constraining what the next President can do. Oddly, it might constrain McCain more than Bush since he (McCain) has spending plans, too. Obama could propose a massive tax increase for the rich claiming Bush's folly forced him to do it. When you read that this "crisis" is about economics, don't believe a word of it. It is 100% politics, pure and simple. Yes, something needs to be done, but if the markets know that Congress is working on it, they will wait a few weeks before dissolving in a puddle.

Bush and his puppetmaster CheneyRove know Obama is going to win, even if McLame and Miss Wasilla don't. So--we contrive to neatly tie Obama's hands for the next 4 years economically, and any other way we can, right?

Don't think they would never dream of doing such a thing--these are the people who made torture an official policy of the United States Government, for chrissakes. Who as a previous video post proves, want to prolong the war in Iraq for political advantage at home. Who have shown themselves in all kinds of ways to be the most morally corrupt administration ever in the history of America.

Jeezus, what a time to be living in. God help us all.