Politics

The fight between Congress and the Administration is getting uglier every day. About time too. The cynic in me says that only since the FBI started raiding Congressional offices did the previously compliant yes-men [and women] of the Republican majority start to get disturbed by the overtly unconstitutional actions of the Bush regime [“junta”?].

Good old Arlen Specter has finally had it. Dick Cheney, never one to worry about constitutional niceties, has spent quite a bit of time lobbying the Senate Judiciary Committee. He wants to stop any enquiries into the illegal wiretapping program. In other words Cheney was going behind Specter’s back, who finally got annoyed enough to write this letter: The TPM DOCUMENT COLLECTION – Letter from Sen. Arlen Specter to Vice President Cheney

Now this is getting interesting. We might be in for some old fashioned debate at last. And what could be more fun than a whole bunch of Republicans waking up to the damage their party has done to the Constitution, and then having a public spat over the consequences.

Let’s hope that it’s not too late, and that the secret police doesn’t whisk old Arlen away for some re-orientation therapy and a little rest. It would be a shame for him to have one of those purely coincidental heart attacks right about now.

Well credit due where credit is due: killing al-Zarqawi is a major coup for all those involved. The BBC report can be read here: BBC NEWS | News Front Page

al-Zarqawi was an out and out thug. His sole vision was to spread murder and mayhem, and his supporters – his gang – have been resonsible for some really heinous and deplorable acts. He is now history.

I only wish that his death could somehow offset the carnage he wrought, but it cannot. Nor do I think his departure ends the civil war in Iraq.

But the end of the disgusting al-Zarqawi means that the world is a more civilized place today. Congratulations to all those involved!

How come Bush can never do anything right? In the sense of correct of course, in politics he’s always waaaay right. Here’s a little snippet from the New York Times: Bush Says Deportation ‘Ain’t Gonna Work’

Now he’s absolutely correct. It is plainly absurd to think that the US can somehow round up 12 million illegal immigrants and ship them home. We don’t have the money or the manpower to do that. Nor do we have the time. Sending everyone back is another example of the stupidity and shallowness of the right wingers who are trying to use the very real issue of immigration as their latest “red meat” scare tactic. Bush is even right to say there has to be a middle ground. Although I wouldn’t necessarily trust him to be able to identify middle ground even if it hit him in the face! I think what he means is that the arguments and solutions being put forward by pretty much anyone but his loyal base of extremists are the ones from which a sensible and lasting piece of legislation can be crafted.

So far so good in his speech.

Then he went off track: why, oh why, does he have to keep push his religious nonsense in our faces. He says: ”This morning we come together to give our thanks for all our blessings, and recognize our nation’s continuing dependence on divine providence…” What? We continue to rely, no we depend, on divine providence? What utter claptrap!! I thought America was built on the sweat and ingenuity of generations of immigrants. Now he’s telling me that the country depends on “divine providence”. I wonder what that is. I wonder where it comes from. I wonder what would happen if it went away. I wonder if Bush really and honestly believes that hocus pocus. This “divine providence” isn’t doing too good a job in Iraq. But then again I guess there must be an even more inscrutable “diviner providence” with motives in Iraq that the simple “divine providence” cannot trump.

Oh well.

Frankly I think the Tooth Fairy has it in for American foreign policy and has cast a wicked spell on us all. It has to be that not enough American children believe in the powers of the Tooth Fairy so she’s pissed off at us all. Such is the ire of a divinity whose image is eroded by the evil attacks of the secular among us!

Whoops I’d better not say anything about the Tooth Fairy: her true believers might be offended and we wust always respect the well meaning good intentions of the faithful. After all they have such good values.

The good news is that deaths are only slowly climbing. Come on you didn’t really expect any “good news” did you? Thought not. Here’s an update from the BBC: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Violent Baghdad deaths top 6,000

It’s good to see that the BBC still tries hard to get news out of Iraq untained by the niceties of American sensibilities. It seems to me that the news media here do everything they can to sanitize the news so as not to appear biased in some way: heaven forbid that they upset the squeamish stomachs of war mongering crowd who got us into this meaningless mess!