The "I" word Returns

In his appearance on "Face The Nation" this morning, Jack Murtha responded to Bob Schieffer's suggestion that congress has no choice but to cave in to Bush on war funding with a typically blunt assessment. He mentioned the four ways that an obdurate president can be influenced, the last two of which are funding and impeachment.

"Surely you don't mean that impeachment is on the table?" Shieffer replied--to which Murtha replied (in effect) "I'm just sayin'...."

You go, Jack. I don't believe it was an offhand comment. I think the democratic leadership in Congress has finally realized the extent to which both time and public opinion is on their side. The smart play, after Bush's promised veto, is to run out the clock on funding until the last possible moment (probably in about 60-90 days)--and propose essentially the same legislation.

During that time, support for Bush and the war erodes even further--in no small part because of further abuses of power that will likely be revealed by congressional oversight. If Bush continues to hide behind 'executive privilege' and empty 'I'm the decider' rhetoric', he may well find that lying about a blowjob ain't the only think presidents get spanked for.

And it'll be about bloody goddam time.

Nappy Headed Nonsense

Global Climate Change must be causing some unseasonably cold weather in Hell, too--I actually find myself in agreement with Pat Buchanan.

Not that I share his fondness for Don Imus--I consider them both pointless Neanderthals--but the self-righteous posse that went after Imus managed to combine the hypocrisy of a choirboy-buggering catholic priest, the oily sanctimony of a mega-church 'evangelical' pastor, and a selective attitude toward race that would do credit to any religion's irrationality.

If Imus were half his present age, had a slightly darker complexion, and made the same comments in blank-verse rhyme from the stage of a hip-hop club, would anyone have noticed........or cared?

Slow week...

Between the news cycle slowing down over the Easter holiday and trying to crowd in a little last minute fun time before my 'vacation' ends (read: before I start my latest contract as a corporate geek for hire), I pretty much got nothin'.

Preview of the Bush Endgame

Bush's three recent recess appointments (including Swift Boat Vets backer Sam Fox as Ambassador to Belgium) not only illustrate the full extent of The President's sincerity with regards to 'bipartisanship' or 'working with Congress' (he obviously has none), they also provide a pretty clear picture of what we can expect when the clock finally runs out on this administration.

Bush will take whatever opportunity he can to load the government with as many cronies and neo-con ideologues as possible, in the hope that the next administration will have its hands so full fixing so many messes that a few Bush-era hacks will go overlooked. Expect as well to see the long-anticipated pardon for Scooter Libby.....as well as the one for which (by then) Alberto Gonzales will likely have an equal need.

Apparently, I'm Crazy (again).......

One of the dubious benefits of being alive for more than a couple of decades is that (if you're paying attention), you will learn that history very much does 'repeat itself.'

Case in point: for a number of years, it was impossible to question the 'official story' of the Kennedy assassination, numerous holes in that story notwithstanding.....even though The History Channel, et. al. routinely run programming now that reduces the official story to so much swiss cheese. As a precocious child and adolescent, I acquired my own doubts about the Warren Commission Report--and learned very quickly not to talk about it.

Current doubters of the official story of the events of 09/11/2001 are subjected to even greater scorn and vilification than were early doubters of the Kennedy assassination-- just look at what's happened to Rosie O'Donnnell. She has doubts about the official story, as do I. She goes public with her doubts...and gets measured for a tin-foil hat. I wasn't crazy in 70's (well, not too much), Rosie isn't crazy now (well, not too much). But we are crazy as a culture if it takes another three decades to get past yet another 'official story' that any bright thirteen year old can see for a scam.

For Rosie's own current comments on the matter, click here.

This Week's Sunday Funnies

For me, the 'Sunday Funnies' are the major network talking head shows--Meet The Press, Face The Nation, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. I'm sure that 'Garfield' is endlessly entertaining to some, but I have a hard time finding anything more entertaining that the spectacle of a senior Republican Senator lamely defending the most incompetent attorney general in U.S. history.

The consensus from senators Hatch, Leahy, Schumer, and Spector (sounds more like the law firm from hell than a partial roster of the Senate Judiciary Committee) is that 'Berto Gonzales is either doing a heckuva job, lying to congress, overdue to resign, or has some explaining to do.

Giving that Patrick Leahy is refusing to budge from Gonzales's originally scheduled testimony on April 17th, given that Arlen Spector has already described that testimony as a 'make or break' situation, and given that the specific reason for keeping the scheduled date is to obtain confidential sworn testimony from DOJ employees, I think it's a fair bet that Chuck Schumer's blunt call for a resignation is a far better predictor for events of the next two weeks than Orrin Hatch's faint praise and reiteration of GOP talking points.

My predictions at this point are that:

• Gonzales will resign before being called in to testify.
• Harriet Miers and Karl Rove will privately testify--transcripts, no oaths.
• Karl Rove will subsequently be given a choice between testifying under oath or being charged with lying to congress.

one helluva man.....

My mother and father just stopped by the house to drop off some firewood / BBQ fuel, courtesy of a neighbor of theirs who had to cut down a tree. As Dad and I were getting the wood out of his truck and stacking it in the garage, he remarked that he would be seeing his doctor soon and was anxious to make sure he was OK.

"So, lemmee ask ya a question," I said, as I snagged one of the bigger pieces. "Who loaded this wood?"

"Well, I did-- but Mrs. Macy's son helped," my father told me, as he made a point of grabbing a piece of equal size. "But I had to put all of it in the truck this morning by myself."

"Old man," I said. "There ain't nothin' wrong with you."

Not long after, he and my mother hugged my wife, hugged me, and got back in the truck to drive a hundred fifty miles back to their home in Centerville. They'd come to Houston to visit my mom's younger sister and detoured on the way back to see us. She's 91, he's 87, and I can't even begin to say how much I love them both. I just turned 50, I like to think I look 40 and have been know to let people flatter me by saying I look younger than that. But I can't imagine that I'll be throwing loads of firewood in the back of a pickup or driving a hundred miles for the hell of it when I'm 60, much less 80. I'd pay someone to do it, maybe con someone into it.....but I don't think I'd be doing it myself.

My father is one of those 'greatest generation' types. He and all of my uncles wore uniforms in WWII, while my mother and all of her contemporaries worked, sacrificed, and not infrequently grieved. My dad was an aircraft mechanic who spent the war in Blackpool, England.. The closest he ever came to combat was testing-firing machine guns in a B25 while he watched the sun rise over the Irish Sea from 20,000 feet. One of his brother saw ground combat on Iwo Jima, the other was an engineer in Sicily. Then they came home and built houses and drove trucks and raised families.

My mother and father have been married longer than I have been alive, been there without fail for my sister and myself for our entire lives. They have lived and continue to live lives of simple faith, honor, and dignity. I don't know that I would particularly care to emulate my Dad, I don't know that I could (my own life has been, for the most part, a messy and ironic carnival). But I will always respect him.

And always love him.