One Possible Theory on the Clinton and Bush-41 Friendship

Are Bill and George Sr. trying to engineer a quiet coup against Chimpie, who they realize is delusional, falling apart emotionally, and putting the nation in even graver danger than most realize?

That theory makes a lot of sense, not that logic makes it true, but if there's any decency and genuine concern for the republic in either of these dudes, perhaps that is exactly what is happening.

Ideas?

I'm Shocked, Shocked, I Tell You!!! Oil Company Execs Lied?

Remember the Cheney secret energy task force in 2001? Remember how Dickie fought tooth and nail to deny access to the documents of its meetings? Well, gee, it seems like all of us conspiracy nutwads were right after all about the composition of the task force and the fact that they had shit that they knew damn well to cover up.

A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress.

The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

Now even though oil lobby butt-boy Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska made sure these liars weren't sworn in when they testified before Congress, there still may be a wet-ass hour for some oil big shots when they learn something about the law.

The executives were not under oath when they testified, so they are not vulnerable to charges of perjury; committee Democrats had protested the decision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) not to swear in the executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation" to Congress.

You see, the evidence is none other than Secret Service records, probably as close to an unimpeachable source as you could want, and it contrasts significantly with the testimony of five oil bigwigs.

Toward the end of the hearing, [New Jersey Senator Frank] Lautenberg asked the five executives: "Did your company or any representatives of your companies participate in Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001?" When there was no response, Lautenberg added: "The meeting . . . "

"No," said Raymond.

"No," said Chevron Chairman David J. O'Reilly.

"We did not, no," Mulva said.

"To be honest, I don't know," said BP America chief executive Ross Pillari, who came to the job in August 2001. "I wasn't here then."

"But your company was here," Lautenberg replied.

"Yes," Pillari said.

Shell Oil president John Hofmeister, who has held his job since earlier this year, answered last. "Not to my knowledge," he said.

Deny, lie, cover-up, then lie some more, denying the reality, finally slipping into cognitive dissonance as the lie becomes truth in self-inflicted Orwellian brainwashing. That's how your Republican-big business fascist axis spins.

Hell to Pay for Many Democrats

They may want to lay it off on Chimpie that they were duped, but the truth is that most of the Democrats who voted for authorization for use of force in Iraq back in 2002 did it because they were and are lily-livered, bottom-feeding, political opportunists who care about one thing above all else--their power. They're no different than their Republican counterparts in this one area. Although they may have a slightly different political ideology, or at least mouth slight variations on the same themes, when it's ball-cuttin' time, they don't examine their hearts, or speak their truth, or do what's right. No, what they do is what makes them morally suspect whether in or out of power--they pander. They pander to the worst and simplest and basest and most craven impulses of the people they serve in order to remain in office. And on this count, they sold us out.

The chief culprits in all this are John Kerry, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton, because of their presidential ambitions and because they constituted the party leadership. While Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich were crying in the wilderness from the get-go that Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, Hadley, et. al. were working the evidence to reach a foregone conclusion, no prominent member of the opposition party had the guts to stand up in their faces and call bullshit on everything that we now know IS bullshit, 2059 dead Americans and tens of thousands of dead Iraqis later. If Kerry or Clinton had stood up and opposed this war crime vehemently, it would not have marginalized them--it would have made them into true leaders, instead of the sorrowful hacks we've already had to suffer from for far too long.

This talk of Hillary Clinton as the inevitable candidate in 2008 makes me sick. I used to like her, because she was smarter than most of the other senators, quick on her feet, and seemed to have a collection of strong principles on which she operated. But her vote on the war resolution was so clearly calculated, so carefully weighed, that it revealed her as an even viler offender of the public trust. And as such, she doesn't deserve this vote.

Their cowardice not only enabled this war, but now is enabling Chimpie to defend his decision because, in his logic, they were as stupid (or corrupt) as he was. And to hear the Dems whine that they were fooled is pathetic. How was anyone fooled? Go look at those tapes of the case for war. Bush, Cheney, Powell, all visibly lying, or at least very, very uncomfortable in what they were saying, because, see, they didn't know at the time how easily the opposition would fold. What glee they must have had to see how easily they could cow their Democratic counterparts into playing along.

My friends and I were protesting a Bush visit in September, 2002, and then protesting against the war in San Francisco before in started in 2003 and then again in 2004, and we went to high schools to counter the recruiters, plus many other actions in print and on the streets, like a 4th of July parade in which a confrontation with Toys for Tots ex-marines revealed just how deeply this ugliness in the American character festers.

But for once, at least, my conscience is clear. Let's hope that the conscience of each of the enabling quislings in the Democratic Party still has some power to redeem them.

Spin This, Wingnuts

Oh, how Chimpie must be screaming up and down the aisle in Air Force One, pulling out hanks of hair and slamming tray-tables in front of quaking staffers. The poll just issued by USA Today is devastatingly negative, and the killer stat has got to be this:

• A 53% majority say they trust what Bush says less than they trusted previous presidents while they were in office. In a specific comparison with President Clinton, those surveyed by 48%-36% say they trust Bush less.

By twelve points, they trust Clinton--Clinton who was impeached, Clinton who lied about Monica Lewinsky's prodigious fellatio technique, Clinton who lied to Hilary, but who never lied us into war, or lied about lying us into war, or who had a chief staffer indicted for lying about outing a CIA agent--more than Chimpie! Amazing!

This is just wonderful, because even though the Republican held House and Senate will not life a finger to hold Chimpie accountable--yet--the American people are finally waking up from their long stupor of hope that people in power will be truthful if they say they are. Psych! All politicians, all leaders, must earn their credibility every fucking day, every fucking day, by being straight with those they serve.

Or else.