A Few Short Shorts

Rummy Blames the Media

In true Boosh like fashion, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today blamed the media for reporting nothing but the "bad news" of the Iraq war. Okay, let's see what should make the headlines. Soldiers killed? (bad news) Haliburton makes another 10 Million? (bad news for some, good news for others) Assassination attempt on former Iraqi leader? (hmmm, don't know, sounds bad to me) Seven more Iraqi Policemen and Army Soldiers learn to load their weapons? (Ahhh, that's the good news Rummy wants reported) I can see Keith Olberman doing an entire hour on that one. Place bullett in chamber, be sure to point weapon away from living creatures...... Sorry Rummy, give us some good news to report and maybe someone will report it. Until then, you are going to have to reap what you have sown. If it has ever been time for a jackass to be fired, now is the time for the Rum-man to be sent packing to the place where they send the likes of him and Andy Rooney when they have outlived their usefulness. Some one needs to explain to Rumsfeld that the Comedy act got tiring, say, about three years ago.

Rare Public Sighting of the Large One, Cheney

Cheney showed his ugly mug last night, where else, but at a Texas fundraiser for none other than Tom DeLay. You have absolutely got to be kidding me. Clearly these people have no shame, but Good Lord, is there not a limit? A pure, unadulterated, scum on scum fest. While DeLay successfully fought off the Conspiracy charge that was filed against him, the Judge decided that a jury of his peers should decide his fate on the much more serious Money Laundering count. And our real President, in his infinite, arrogant wisdom, decides to go raise some funds for Delay's next campaign. Meanwhile, they have set up an internet fund raising apparatus that allows donors to give up to $5,000 for his re-election fund, and up to $50,000 for his defense fund. Is Scooter Libby heading up the internet campaign? I heard he needs a gob. Is this DeLay bastard broke? His defense fund is now up to $1.25 Million Dollars, to fight one count of money laundering. I can get the BEST criminal defense lawyer and BEST investigator (me) in my State to take the case for $50,000, probably $75,000 if it goes to trial. How long do you think before the balance gets laundered into some Republican Congressman's re-election war chest? Hopefully, though, they will hold some money back for the commissary fund to be used while rooming together in the federal pen. At least we know where Cheney has been hiding the last few years, at the Pizza Hut Buffet, by the looks of him. I'll bet he demands a larger share of the commissary money. Twinkies are getting expensive.

Katrina Strikes Again

Let the email wars begin, thus placing the blame for the lack of response to Katrina sqaurely where it belongs, in the lap of the Boosh administration. Turns out that no less than 100 emails were sent from Louisiana and Mississippi asking for, begging for federal assistance, beginning three hours after the hurricane struck. As we know, all requests went unheeded for up to 10 days. It seems that Louisiana Governor Blanco sent one particular email directly to the President, and a few days later got a response asking that she put it in the form of a letter and have it delivered by snail mail, "to properly inform the President of the request so action could be taken." Unbelievable. Should she have sent it to Dirt Bike Trail Stop #4 in Crawford? Or to the White House? I don't recall seeing too many letter carriers swimming their routes in New Orleans, but I could have missed it. A particularly disturbing email came from Mississippi, which stated that they would be out of supplies in three hours, and feared that a riot would ensue. To my knowledge, FEMA has not arrived to that location as of today. The White House response? "We don't want to get into the Blame Game." I would bet not, since THEY ARE THE ONES TO BLAME.

The War on Terror Continues

What a competent crew we have guiding this ship. Khaled al-Masri was vacationing in Europe when he was snatched off the streets by American CIA officials. He was then tortured and interrogated for 5 months about alleged ties to al-Qaida. Problem? He was the wrong guy, the CIA released him, and called it a case of mistaken identity. Al-Masri then decided to sue the US Government and the CIA, boarding a plane to Atlanta to file his case in federal court. Upon arrival, he was ordered to get back on the plane and to return to Germany. It seems that though the CIA has admitted that he is not and never was an al-Qaida operative, nor training to be one, they continue to maintain his name on the "suspected terrorist no-fly list." Getting harder and harder to sue the US Government these days, regardless of how aggregious their conduct.

More CIA Bunglings

The Italian authorities spent thousands of man hours and countless amounts of currency during an investigation targeting an Egyptian cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, better known as Abu Omar. Omar was suspected of being involved in terrorist activities. Then, in March of 2003, the Italians received an urgent message from the CIA saying that Omar had left Rome and fled to the Balkans. Only a year later did the Italian authorities learn the truth. Yes, Omar had left Rome. No, he did not go to the Balkans, and did not leave willingly. Omar had, in fact, been "kidnapped" by the CIA, the same CIA that reported his disappearance. He was then sent to two undisclosed CIA locations before reaching Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured and interrogated. Other than the obvious interference in the Italian investigation, the most interesting part of this story is that for the first time in history, a foreign government has filed criminal charges against 22 US operatives working in counter terrorism. Included in the 22 is the head of the Rome CIA office. As I have stated before, our ability to use sleight of hand to get what we want simply does not work anymore. The world has caught on, and our used car salesman approach to diplomacy is no longer fooling anyone. We have turned this country into an embarassment, the laughingstock of the entire world.

Condi on the Move in Europe

Condi Rice, the traveling freak show, is making the rounds in Europe, trying to convince all who will listen that we do not condone torture. This, in spite of Cheney's attempts to keep anti-torture language out of our rules of engagement. She has stooped to a new low, claiming that we have thwarted many terrorist attempts at harming Europeans. Of course there is no proof of any of this, a grim reminder of the Ashcroft era. An era where, when convenient, he would make some grandstanding announcement of a "major terrorist threat" being uncovered and thwarted. Later, of course, these threats ALL turned out to be either false or had occured years earlier. "Leadership by fear" is the way of the New America, and though American's have been slow to catch on, the Europeans actually want to see some proof of these successes. Rice was raked over the coals by German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, demanding accountability for American actions on several fronts, including the above al-Masri case. Too bad Presidential Administration accountability is not considered necessary by the current US Congress.

Finally, a Prediction

It appears that the Jack Abramoff scandal will do what voters have been unable to do over the last decade or two, clean house in the Congress. As time goes on, you are going to see anywhere from 40-75 House Members and Senators seeking employment outside the cozy confines of the Captiol. This will be the single biggest and all encompassing scandal in the history of our government, taking down members from both sides of the aisle. The sleaze in the air surrounding our government is sickening, and the sleaziest of all is going to take a whole bunch of scumbags down with him. Never thought I'd root for Abramoff, but he might get on my Christmas Card List after all.

Cyclone