Kavanaugh Proved Himself Unfit for The Supreme Court or Any Court

Between traveling to Charlottesville for an alumni committee meeting yesterday morning and then a Hampton Arts fundraiser gala last evening, I never had an opportunity to post.  I did listen to non-stop political coverage while driving to Charlottesville Friday evening and then returning to Hampton. The conclusion I reached even before we find out what the farcical one week FBI "investigation" reveals is that Brett Kavanaugh is unfit for a position on the Supreme Court or, in my view, any court.   First, I truly suspect that he is guilty of the allegations against him.  Second, he's already lied repeatedly in testimony before the Senate - and not just about sexual assault allegations.  Perhaps most disturbing, during his hearing on Thursday afternoon, Kavanaugh confirmed that he utterly lacks the temperament and disposition and lack of bias so needed by judges on the bench.  Had a woman, gay or minority nominee acted as petulant and aggressive during what is basically a job interview - which, therefore, involves NO issue of due process - they would have been immediately deem unqualified.  Sadly, that same standard doesn't apply to spoiled, rich white males in the eyes of the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  A column in the Washington Post looks at all of these failings of Kavanaugh.  Here are excerpts: 

The unprecedented Supreme Court confirmation process for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has surfaced three problems (at least).

The question of whether he sexually assaulted women in high school and college is the main event, and the FBI is now investigating, according to The Post, Deborah Ramirez’s claim that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her during a party at Yale University when he was allegedly drunk.
The second is genuine concern as to whether he was telling the truth and the whole truth under oath — with regard to his acquaintances, sexual innuendos in his yearbook and, most of all, his drinking. These are small matters, his defenders insist; but, whether big or small, his slippery responses have spawned a cottage industry in ferreting out them all. I have no doubt some enterprising attorney will document and then submit an account to the Bar, to the new Democratic majority (if they win a majority in at least one house and look ready to pursue impeachment) and even to the FBI.
However, here I want to focus on what may be the most significant issue — whether Kavanaugh’s “big reveal” that he is an angry partisan who thinks Democrats conspired to get him — now disqualifies him to sit on any court, let alone the Supreme Court.
The “politicization” of the court, as many call it, didn’t start with Kavanaugh. . . . . the GOP became a right-wing, radical party that eschewed long-held principles such as truth, humility, decorum and respect. Republicans radicalized, and with no filibuster to sift out the political operatives from the judges, we get Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but should not Kavanaugh recuse himself from every case involving a left-leaning group that is part of the conspiracy he decried?
As he yelled at Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was not hard to imagine that he would be less than evenhanded if they were a party in litigation. “With his unprecedented attacks on Democrats and liberals, Kavanaugh must now likely broadly recuse himself from matters including those groups,” says ethics guru Norman Eisen. “It may wipe out a substantial portion of his docket should he be confirmed. We have a rule of thumb in government ethics: When recusals are so broad that the nominee can’t do his job, then maybe he shouldn’t be confirmed to the position. It is time to consider that question here.”
“[T]here is a very strong argument that Kavanaugh’s intemperate screed attacking liberal groups and spinning conspiracy theories when he testified on Thursday afternoon now requires him to recuse in any case where such groups appear before the Court of Appeals on which he sits.” Tribe continues, “For him to remain on a three-judge panel that sits in judgment on any legal claim affecting such a group would obviously create at least the appearance of a conflict of interest and probably an actual conflict.”
In other words, we would be expecting a fierce partisan to recuse himself (for excessive partisanship), so the high court wouldn’t appear to be simply a political machine. That’s a poor bet, and even if Kavanaugh recused himself from some cases, each and every Supreme Court decision would come with an asterisk. The Supreme Court’s legitimacy, already fraying, would be decimated. The more than half of the country that didn’t vote for Donald Trump understandably would think the court’s 5-to-4 decisions stemmed from political bias.
In 2006, when Kavanaugh was up for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the American Bar Association became concerned that he was unduly rigid and impervious to persuasion. That prompted the ABA to reduce his rating from “well qualified” to “qualified.” . . . had Kavanaugh had a scene like the one we saw Thursday the ABA would have rated him “unqualified.” It should reexamine its rating based on new evidence.
Putting a judge on the Supreme Court who expressed hatred and resentment toward a wide swath of the Democratic Party would shred whatever is left of the court’s intellectual integrity.
It’s inconceivable someone so biased, someone who vowed revenge (“What goes around, comes around,” he shouted), could be elevated to the Supreme Court.

Biased and bigoted judges discredit and undermine the legitimacy of the courts.  Worse yet, they harm litigants when they ignore the facts and constitutional principles in favor of their own prejudices.  A host of litigants would have no chance of justice if Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Court.  If the man had honor and decency, he would withdraw his nomination. Of course, he will not since he has no honor or decency.

Trump's Presidency Is a Joke, But It's Not a Laughing Matter

I make no effort to veil my contempt for Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer on this blog, or those who voted for him be it due to greed, racism, religious extremism or projection on Washington rather than a focus on one's own bad choices.  In the short time he has been in office, the damage done to America's reputation and the regulatory scheme to protect the public and the environment has been enormous.  Add to this the growing desire of journalists to expose possible treason by  Der Trumpenführer and his minions, and the foul narcissist has much to worry about.  Yet, like most who view themselves to above the law and smarter than everyone else, Trump will tell himself that all is well.  A piece in Vanity Fair looks at Trump's disastrous term to date and why decent, patriotic Americans need to be highly worried.  Here are excerpts:

It can reasonably be said that our dear leader is now the most ridiculed man on the planet. In fact, he may well be the most ridiculed man in history. For a preening narcissist who takes himself terribly seriously, being the butt of the joke heard round the world has got to hurt. The handpicked assortment of craven nitwits and supplicants that he has surrounded himself with have valiantly tried to insulate him from the derision. But they’re only human. . . . . Hats off to them for their tenacity, but no amount of spin is going to change the fact that the Trump White House, like the company its inhabitant has run for the past four decades, continues to be a shambolic mess.

Trump’s one brief moment of acting presidential—when he read off a teleprompter for 60 minutes and 10 seconds during his address to Congress—served only to show just how low the bar for presidential behavior has plummeted since January. Watching TV commentators applaud him for containing himself for a little over an hour was like hearing a parent praise a difficult child for not pooping in his pants during a pre-school interview. 

Trump may be a joke, but the chaos and destructive forces around him are not. If he can cause this much havoc during his first few months in office, imagine what the country and the world will look like at the end of four years. Watch him when he walks into a crowd of people. There is a slight grimace, a tightening of the mouth that to me indicates a hesitation, perhaps based on fear. The thing is, if Trump has made any sort of arrangement with the Russians—Kremlin, oligarchs, F.S.B., Mob, or any combination of the four—to drop the Obama-era sanctions in return for past favors, the hoo-ha surrounding his Russian connections now makes that almost impossible to deliver. Whatever support he has received from the Russians over the years presumably came with promises of a payback. If Trump can’t follow through on this, he might be in serious trouble. 

That Trump’s supporters continue to line up behind him remains a mystery. For the Republican leadership—the Vichy Republicans, as they have been labeled—their collaboration will bear a stiff price down the road. As for the president’s followers out in the country, their air, their water, their national parks, their pensions, and their health care are all in jeopardy from planned legislation and from regulatory rollbacks already in place. I can understand the desire to effect dramatic change in Washington, but this is like being frustrated with your doctor and calling in the man who sold you aluminum siding to handle your physical.

Trump’s war with the press may have enjoyed favorable short-term results with his acolytes, but this is a skirmish he simply cannot win. Sprawling, complex stories like Watergate—or Kremlingate, for that matter—are anything but straightforward affairs, and for the reporters trying to make sense of things, it is akin to assembling a jigsaw puzzle in the dark. It takes time, but eventually the puzzle comes together. And as it was more than four decades ago, you’ve got two great news organizations, The New York Times and The Washington Post, in complete rut over who will get the goods first. The Post wants to reclaim the position it had after it toppled a president, in the wake of Watergate. And the Times is out to make sure that the Post doesn’t have a repeat. When the dust settles, the real history will begin. There might be the occasional hack willing to trot out some semi-fictional hagiography on this administration. But, in the end, proper historians and serious journalists will descend in droves to mop up the lies, the half-truths, and the criminality. Trump’s legacy and that of his family could end up in tatters. The self-lauded Trump brand may well wind up as toxic as the once self-lauded brand of another New York-Palm Beach family: the Madoffs.

I hope the author is right and either the Times, the Post or some other new outlet gets the goods on Trump and set the wheels in motion for Trump and his surrogates and henchmen to be convicted of treason and sentenced accordingly.  It would be icing on the cake if some of the GOP Congressional leadership went down along with them. 

The Deep Denialism of Trump and His Followers

On occasion I have wondered how the knowledge of the Roman Empire was lost and Europe descended into the Dark Ages.  Part of it was a rejection of knowledge that conflicted with beliefs, the Roman Catholic Church leading the way in banning inconvenient facts. Another part of it was opportunistic leaders, both religious and secular, who benefited from an ignorant and more easily led populace.  Frighteningly, were are seeing a recurrence of these phenomenon in the person of Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Fuhrer, and his ignorance embracing followers who prefer to accept "alternate facts" when the truth and reality undercut their beliefs and prejudices. It's as if they live in an alternate universe that is protected by propaganda outlets like Breitbart and Fox News that maintain a bubble detached from objective reality.  A piece in The New Yorker looks at the disturbing trend and the danger it poses.  Here are highlights:

[T]this White House, unlike any other, has already crossed the threshold into a space where facts appear to mean nothing.

Eventually, the President’s daily policy outrages, his caustic insults, and his childish Twitter rants will fade into history. But it will take years to gauge the impact of having a habitual liar as President. When words like “science” and “progress” become unmoored from their meaning, the effects are incalculable. And let’s not kid ourselves: those words today are under assault with a ferocity we have not seen for hundreds of years.

The United States is now a country with dozens of unofficial government “resistance” Twitter accounts.

What happens to a society that accepts denialism as a way of life? Nearly a decade ago, I published a book about the growing number of people who, when confronted with an unpleasant reality, chose to embrace a more comfortable lie. Denialism—whether it stems from suspicions about vaccines, dread of G.M.O.s, or even confusion about climate science—is often rooted in fear. . . . . Reason, patience, and education don’t always work. But they go further in confronting those fears than self-satisfied condescension.

But we are now led, in an age of unimaginable scientific achievement, by the most narcissistic and thoughtless denialist ever to have entered public life. His denialism is not based in fear, it’s based in arrogance. And it must not be forgotten that denialism kills. Climate change, which Trump has denied and dismissed, has already had a grave impact on the world’s poorest people. Far from making America safer, Trump’s immigration plan will cause clear harm, not least to American soldiers.

How many of our country’s schoolteachers must consider, every day, whether to explain to their students that the President is a liar? The alternative—simply accepting those lies—would be devastating. It would change our language and change us, if we let it.

On April 22nd, Earth Day, scientists will march on Washington to show their fealty to facts. There are people, in science and out of it, who are opposed to the idea of theoretically detached researchers showing themselves to be political in this way. They might better ask in what world would Americans have to stage a march to honor reality. Unfortunately, that world is now upon us. Facts deserve our support. And lies do not.

Experts in Authoritarianism: Worried About Trump and GOP Failure to Rein Him In

While I have "friends" who voted for Trump and the GOP who refuse to open their eyes to Trump's troubling behavior and authoritarianism, political scientists and experts on authoritarian regimes of the past are having no difficulty in recognizing warning signs from Trump - and the GOP as well since that party now seems only too willing to close its eyes to violations of the U.S. Constitution so long as the party's extreme reverse Robin Hood policies can be rammed through.  One piece in Think Progress looks at the warning signs already on display and suggests that the time to organize is NOW.  Another in The New Republic looks at the sinister agenda behind Trump's and his sycophants continuous lies.  Here are excerpts from the Think Progress piece:

President Donald Trump has only had a few days to govern so far.  In that time, he staged a press conference where his press secretary blatantly lied to the media, told the National Park Service not to tweet, and met with an American intelligence agency in an “uncomfortable” meeting. One of his senior advisers introduced the worrying concept that the Trump administration’s lies will be considered “alternative facts.”

ThinkProgress surveyed a group of political theorists and scholars of authoritarianism and asked them to evaluate the new president. Trump is already trying to rule in the style of a populist authoritarian, they said.

Sheri Berman, a political scientist at Barnard College, said that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s invocation of “alternative facts” was particularly alarming.

“It’s one thing to bash journalists but when you start talking about facts not being facts, and bar people from access to information, major red flags are going up,” said Berman.

“There is no doubt he is an authoritarian, which is completely logical because he has always worked in a structure in which he has absolute power and to me that is clear in his understanding that he sees politics as a business,” said Cas Mudde, an associate professor at the University of Georgia. “He sees democracy as ‘I have won, so I can do whatever I want or whatever I think is best for the country and I’m allowed to do that because I’m the CEO of America, Inc.’”

Trump has exhibited certain personality traits shared by authoritarian rulers, including a tendency toward nepotism, a fragile ego, and an unwillingness to gracefully accept criticism. But he will have a hard time consolidating power, so long as there remains political opposition, a free press, and checks and balances in government. Experts in authoritarianism said his movement also lacks the organization that would allow it to fully supplant existing institutions.

Totalitarian regimes of the past, like Communists in the Soviet Union or the Nazis in Germany, rose to power after incredible organization and could call upon hundreds of thousands of members. Despite already having an intricate structure in place, “even they achieved a totalitarian regime after a long time,” Mudde said.  “While I worry about autocratic tendencies, I don’t see ideology or structure for anything that is comparable to fascism.”

But there are certain moves Trump could make that would suggest a line had been crossed. “If he started passing laws or trying to use his influence to hinder CNN’s ability to report or broadcast [that would cross a line],” Berman said.

Other triggers would include using the government to “pass laws that impinge on certain citizens of ethnic or religious backgrounds,” said Berman. “Characteristics that are not just un-American, but antithetical to precepts of liberal democracy.”

Vigilance is important going forward, as Trump’s ascension to the presidency shows that a considerable portion of Republicans accepted the more radical aspects of his candidacy.
The toleration, or in some cases radicalization, of the GOP establishment is more threatening than Trump’s presidency on its own, said Ben-Ghiat.

“Formally, we have checks and balances. I’m of the school that those things are not going to stop him,” Ben-Ghiat said. “We put all the blame on Trump but the GOP has seen in him a kind of vehicle to get certain radical things they want done and [to push] a certain cultural shift in the nation.”

“The only thing between Trump and autocratic and illiberal democratic rule might be the GOP and I’m not sure how much that is going to do for us,” Mudde said. “I don’t think there is reason to panic. There is reason to organize.”

As noted, The New Republic looks at the rationale behind the incessant lies flowing from the mouth of Trump and his morally bankrupt surrogates.  Here are highlights:

The purpose of the Trump administration’s lies is not necessarily to deceive, but to separate the believers from the disbelievers—for the purpose of rewarding the former and punishing the latter. As chess champion Garry Kasparov, an expert in authoritarianism as an outspoken opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, tweeted on Saturday: Obvious lies serve a purpose for an administration. They watch who challenges them and who loyally repeats them. The people must watch, too.

[T]he Trump administration can blatantly lie, knowing that his base trusts him more than the “dishonest media.” And that’s exactly what Trump did in his CIA speech, which was rife with deceptions and examples of a narcissistic will to reshape the truth.  . . . . the president went on a tangent about Time.
 “I have been on their cover, like, 14 or 15 times,” he said. “I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine. . . . . . (The all-time record is held by Richard Nixon, who appeared on 55 Time covers.) Aside from these lies and factual mistakes, Trump’s speech was genuinely weird on a number of a counts. His intended purpose was to mend fences with the agency, with which he’s feuded over their conclusion that Russia interfered in the election to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. Yet he did very little to reassure CIA staff, only briefly acknowledging their sacrifice and service by alluding to a wall commemorating agents who died in line of duty.

Rather, Trump was in full campaign mode, attacking the media (“among the most dishonest human beings on Earth”) and praising himself (“they say, ‘is Donald Trump an intellectual?’ Trust me, I’m like a smart person”). He also indicated the U.S. might reinvade Iraq for imperial plunder. While Trump’s antics might have impressed his fans watching from home, they seem to have done little to assuage worries in the agency. The New Yorker interviewed a variety of intelligence experts, including John MacGaffin, a high-ranking veteran of the agency. “What self-centered, irrational decision process got him to this travesty?” MacGaffin told the magazine. “Most importantly, how will that process serve us when the issues he must address are dangerous and incredibly complex? This is scary stuff!” Trump’s self-centered decision process is authoritarianism, and it’s anything but irrational. He campaigned in an authoritarian style, with rallies where he riled up large crowds to jeer at the press and protesters. One of the defining tactics of his campaign was disinformation, coupled with accusations of the same against the media. That hasn’t changed now that Trump is president.  The president will wage a rhetorical war against the media, with the intent of delegitimizing one of the few institutions that can hold him accountable, and he will wage it with his most effective weapon: Lies, damned lies, and false statistics. 

Adolph Hitler and the Nazi regime employed similar tactics yet my "friends" see no cause for alarm. Sadly, I suspect they'd have made great guards at Nazi death camps given their willingness to believe and appeals to hate and bigotry.

Jeb Bush: He Takes Mideast Advice From George W. Bush

Republicans and pundits who are in denial - or who are downing gallons of "Kool-Aid" - try to pretend that Jeb Bush - Jebbie on this blog - is a "moderate.  Jebbie, of course, seeks to fan this myth and disingenuously claims that he is "his own man." .  But on occasion Jebbie slips up and makes statements that let the real truth shine out.  A case in point?  Statements Jebbie made to a group of New York financiers on Tuesday when he admitted that on Middle East policy, he turns to his older brother and former President George W. Bush.  The same George W. Bush who told lies to take America to war in Iraq, who ignored warnings of an attack in the weeks before 9-11, and bankrupted the country and squandered away the budget surplus achieved under Bill Clinton's presidency.  This admission ought to totally disqualify Jebbie for any office - even dog catcher.  Talking Points Memo looks at this frightening admission.  Here are highlights:

Likely presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) told a group of New York financiers on Tuesday that when it comes to Middle East policy, he turns to his older brother and former President George W. Bush, according to the Washington Post.

“If you want to know who I listen to for advice, it’s him,” Jeb Bush said, the Post reported, citing four anonymous attendees of the meeting.

The event was a closed-door affair, reportedly organized by hedge fund manager and Republican Party mega-donor Paul Singer. The paper noted that it was not a fundraiser.

A Bush spokesperson addressed the comment to the Post.  “Governor Bush has said before that his brother is the greatest ally to Israel in presidential history, he admires his stalwart support for our ally, and that is in line with his commitment to standing with Israel in the face of great threats to their security and our own,” the spokesperson said on Thursday.

Last month, George W. Bush reportedly said he would be staying out of the spotlight should his brother run for President.

But a few days later, George W. Bush knocked President Obama's Middle East policy at an event hosted by another mega donor, Sheldon Adelson — particularly the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran and Obama's handling of the Islamic State group in Iraq. His remarks were leaked by Bloomberg News.

George W. Bush was wrong on virtually every aspect of America's Middle East policy.  If Jebbie is turning to his idiot brother for advise, sane and rational people should be running screaming from Jebbie's unannounced presidential campaign. 

Vladimir Putin - Delusional Liar or Victim of His Own Propaganda?

Throughout the days of the Third Reich,  Adolph Hitler and his henchmen disseminated propaganda that was totally unrelated to reality.  In the early days, the propaganda involved claims of protecting ethnic Germans outside of Germany - even though the real intention was one of conquest - and in the waning days the propaganda claimed that there were German victories even as the allied forces closed in on Berlin from all sides.  Amazingly, Hitler after a while seemed to believe his own propaganda even though it consisted of obvious lies to sane individuals both inside and outside of Germany.  Today, we see amazing parallels as Vladimir Putin claims that Russia is sending "humanitarian aid" to eastern Ukraine even though this alleged humanitarian aid includes helicopters, surface-to-air missile systems, and possible anti-aircraft weapons systems.    So the question is: is Putin a bald face liar or is he so insane that he believes his own lies and thinks everyone else is equally insane.   Here are highlights from Business Insider:

According to The Interpreter, this weapon [see image above] is possibly a 9K22 Tunguska battery, which had been mounted onto a Kamaz truck. Tunguskas are anti-aircraft weapons that can fire both missiles and 30mm guns. They are capable of shooting down low-altitude aircraft, although the gun can also be used against ground troops. 

The Tunguska probably isn't the only anti-aircraft weapon traveling with the convoy . . . . Russian military helicopters have been flying alongside the convoy as well.

The Russian convoy has raised a number of red flags, even aside from this heavy contingent of guns and armor. The convoy has failed to abide by conditions put in place by both Ukraine and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) — the convoy is traveling under the ICRC flag, yet the organization has not been able to verify the contents of the trucks.

"At the moment it is not an International Red Cross convoy, inasmuch as we haven't had sight of the material, we haven't had certain information regarding the content, and the volume of aid that it contains," ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

The convoy has also veered away from an agreed-upon border crossing under the control of the Ukrainian government, and is instead traveling toward rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

According to The Interpreter, the convoy is close to the same border crossing that the Russians are believed to have used to transport the Buk missile system that was used to shoot down MH17 in July.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned on Monday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was a "high probability" and that it would take place under the "guise of a humanitarian operation."

Russia, which sees Russian-speakers in the east under threat from a government it considers chauvinistic, said any suggestion of a link between the convoy and an invasion plan was absurd.

Beyond the military supplies tailing the convoy, Russia still has an estimated 20,000 troops along its border with eastern Ukraine. In total, Russia may have upward of 45,000 soldiers encircling Ukraine, if Russian soldiers in Crimea and Belarus are taken into account. 

Top CIA Official: Order to Forge Iraq-9/11 Letter Came From White House

I truly believe that some day most Americans will be horrified by what we will learn went on in the Bush/Cheney regime both in terms of outright lawlessness and conduct worthy of the Nazis or Bolsheviks. Emperor Palpatine Cheney - who will never come back from the "dark side" - has consistently shown an utter contempt for the U. S. Constitution, international treaties and the rule of law. Both he and the Chimperator I believe are guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors meriting impeachment, not to mention possible war crimes likely meriting execution should all the truth ever come out. Their regime will be a nasty stain on America's image for many years to come. It is imperative that the truth be exposed - something that will not happen under a McCain presidency - so that history will know the level of evil that has been a hallmark of this regime. Here are highlights from RawStory that look at the deliberate fabrication of a document that was used to take the country to war based on lies. Thousands of Americans and Iraqis have died because of the disgusting dishonesty of Bush and Cheney:

*

A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency's former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.

*

On Tuesday, the White House released a statement on Richer's behalf. In it, Richer declared, "I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document ... as outlined in Mr. Suskind's book." The denial, however, directly contradicts Richer's own remarks in the transcript.

*

"But he didn't say that specifically," Richer added. "I would naturally--I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president." "But there wasn't anything in the writing that you remember saying the vice president," Suskind continued. "Nope," Richer said. "It just had the White House stationery." "Exactly right."

*

The bogus memo claimed that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had received training in Baghdad but also discussed the arrival of a "shipment" from Niger, which the Administration claimed had supplied Iraq with yellowcake uranium -- based on yet another forged document whose source remains uncertain.

*

Today, The American Conservative also published a report saying that the forgery was actually produced by then-Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans, citing an unnamed intelligence source. The source reportedly added that Suskind’s overall claim “is correct."

Bush the Cretin

Maureen Dowd has a humorous but true look at the latest journey of the USA's number one embarrassment - The Chimperator - as he makes one last tour of Europe before leaving office (and in my dreams standing trial for war crimes). The man truly seems to let go of more of what little native intelligence he once had with each passing day. H eseems to live in a totally delusion world of his own invention. Objective facts and reality just do not exist for him. Is it due to drugs, being back on the booze, a nervous breakdown or what? - it's impossible to say, but he is definitely the shrinking man who becomes increasingly less and less in touch with reality. Here are a few column highlights from the NYT:
*

Even as the Supreme Court slapped him back for the third time on the suffocation of civil liberties at Guantánamo, President Bush gave the keynote speech of his European farewell tour extolling the virtues of liberty. He celebrated European unity at the very instant it was falling apart, thanks to an Irish donnybrook.

*

Paris responded with a yawn. (Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to say.) A Bush organizer asked people sitting in the back of the hall to move to the front, so the empty seats would not be visible on TV. The image of the U.S. abroad has improved slightly, according to a new Pew poll, but only in anticipation of seeing the back of this president.

*

In a way, W. is very different from the cocky, know-nothing, chip-on-his-shoulder “Bully Bush” I followed on his maiden European tour in 2002. His disdain for Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder, and theirs for him, was bristlingly clear. He told the bemused French that he’d heard tell from Jacques about their “fantastic food,” and he lectured the bewildered Germans, as though they were thick on the subject, that Saddam was evil because he “gassed his own people.”

*

On the illicit rush to war, W. ne regrette rien. He reiterated a rhetorical sop to those who yearn for a scintilla of remorse, telling The Times of London that his gunslinging talk made him seem like a “guy really anxious for war,” and that phrases like “dead or alive” and “bring them on” “indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace.”

*
The Bushes have a hard time with the connective tissue between words and actions. In this case, the words, while dime-store Western, were not the problem. The actions were the problem. W. was really anxious for war. He felt that if he could change Middle East history, he could jump out of his father’s shadow forever.

New documents shed light on Pat Tillman's death

As you will recall, when Pat Tillman's death was announced, the regime of Chimperator Bush tried to use it as a PR event and, as it turns out, totally lied about the true circumstances (I know - Bush lie, what a shocker). Here is some of the latest information to come to light:

The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators. Ultimately, the Pentagon did conduct a criminal investigation, and asked Tillman's comrades whether he was disliked by his men and whether they had any reason to believe he was deliberately killed. The Pentagon eventually ruled that Tillman's death at the hands of his comrades was a friendly-fire accident.

The medical examiners' suspicions were outlined in 2,300 pages of testimony released to the AP this week by the Defense Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.Among other information contained in the documents:

• In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."

• Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.

• The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman's death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn't recall details of his actions.

• No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene -- no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.

The Pentagon and the Bush administration have been criticized in recent months for lying about the circumstances of Tillman's death. The military initially told the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by enemy fire. Only weeks later did the Pentagon acknowledge he was gunned down by fellow Rangers. With questions lingering about how high in the Bush administration the deception reached, Congress is preparing for yet another hearing next week.

Disingenuous Bush Warns Anew of Terror Threat

Let me see - a new low in the polls, particularly among independent voters - and magically, the same old terro mantra gets trotted out yet again. The Chimperator must believe the rest of us are as stupid as he is. Based on the poll numbers, it looks like most folks are catching on to the fact that nothing this man says can be deemed to be true. Here's portions of the latest BS spin from the AP:

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- President Bush, trying to justify the Iraq war, cited intelligence reports Tuesday he said showed a link between al-Qaida's operation in Iraq and the terror group that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Democrats dismissed Bush's argument.

"The merger between al-Qaida and its Iraqi affiliate is an alliance of killers and that is why the finest military in the world is on their trail," Bush said at Charleston Air Force Base, a launching point for cargo and military personnel headed to Iraq.

Citing security details he declassified for his speech, Bush described al-Qaida's burgeoning operation in Iraq as a direct threat to the United States. Bush accused critics in Congress of misleading the American public by suggesting otherwise.

"The president's claim that the war in Iraq is protecting us from al-Qaida is as misguided and dangerous as the conclusions that drove us to Iraq in the first place," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "The fact is that our continued flawed strategy in Iraq is emboldening and unifying al-Qaida, both in that country and elsewhere."

Bush conveniently miss the fact that his disaster in Iraq has made that country into a prime training and recruiting ground for al-Qaida, something it was NOT before he and Darth Vader Cheney got the USA into a reprise of Vietnam.

JAMES DOBSON - THE FACE OF HATE AND UNTRUTH

James Dobson’s top ten (and knowingly false) reasons for opposing “gay marriage,” with my responses:

1. The legalization of homosexual marriage will quickly destroy the traditional family. Noting evidence from Scandinavian countries where the existence of homosexual “marriage” destroys real marriage, Dobson cites three reasons “gay marriage” will undermine the family: “First, when the State sanctions homosexual relationships and gives them its blessing, the younger generation becomes confused about sexual identity and quickly loses its understanding of lifelong commitments, emotional bonding, sexual purity, the role of children in a family, and from a spiritual perspective, the ‘sanctity’ of marriage. Second, the introduction of legalized gay ‘marriages’ will lead inexorably to polygamy and other alternatives to one man/one woman unions. …
ACTUALLY, LEGITIMATE RESEARCH HAS SHOWN THAT, CONTRARY TO DOBSON’S CLAIMS, THE MARRIAGE RATES IN COUNTRIES WITH LEGALLY RECOGNIZED GAY UNIONS HAVE INCREASED, NOT DECREASED.

2. Children will suffer most. “The implications for children in a world of decaying families are profound. … More than a thousand studies have concluded that kids do best when they are raised by loving and committed mothers and fathers.”
ACTUALLY, LEGITIMATE STUDIES HAVE SHOWN THAT CHILDREN WITH GAY PARENTS DEVELOPMENTLY DO AS WELL AS THOSE RAISED IN BY HETEROSEXUAL COUPLES. THE KEY IS A STABLE TWO PARENT RELATIONSHIP – SEXUAL ORIENTATION IS IRRELEVANT.

3. Public schools in every state will embrace homosexuality. “With the legalization of homosexual ‘marriage,’ every public school in the nation will be required to teach this perversion as the moral equivalent of traditional marriage between a man and a woman.”
THE REALITY IS THAT DOBSON DISLIKES ANYONE WHO IS DIFFERENT THAN HE IS. HENCE, BESIDES GAYS, HIS ORGANIZATION OPPOSES IMMIGRANTS, HISPANICS, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, AND IS MOSTLY POPULATED BY WHITES.

4. Adoption laws will be instantly obsolete. “From the moment that homosexual ‘marriage’ becomes legal, courts will not be able to favor a traditional couple of one man and one woman in matters of adoption.”
FALSE AGAIN. MOREOVER, MANY GAYS IN FACT ADOPT CHILDREN NOT OTHERWISE EASILY PLACED – E.G., SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN AND/OR MINORITY CHILDREN. DOBSON APPARENTLY WOULD PREFER THAT CHILDREN BE SHUFFLED ENDLESSLY FROM ONE FOSTER HOME TO THE NEXT.

5. Foster-care programs will be impacted dramatically. “Foster-care parents will be required to undergo ‘sensitivity training’ to rid themselves of bias in favor of heterosexuality, and will have to affirm homosexuality in children and teens. Moral training, at least as it applies to sexuality, will be forbidden.”
SINCE ALL LEGITIMATE MEDICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATIONS AGREE THAT HOMOSEXUALITY IS NOT AND ILLNESS AND THAT “CURE” AND “CHANGE” PROGRAMS ARE DANGEROUS, DOBSON PREFERS THAT GAY CHILDREN AND YOUTH BE SUBJECTED TO MENTAL ABUSE AND TAUGHT SELF-HATE.

6. The health care system will stagger and perhaps collapse. “This could be the straw that breaks the back of the insurance industry in Western nations, as millions of new dependents become eligible for coverage.”
FIRST, THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT THAT GAYS ARE A VERY TINY PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION. SO WHAT’S THE HUGE WORRY. MOREOVER, DOBSON ACTS AS IF ALL DOMESTIC PARTNERS ARE CURRENTLY COMPLETELY UNINSURED. THE REALITY IS THAT AS WITH ANY “FAMILY” COVERAGE, THE HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS WILL INCREASE IF ONE’S PARTNER IS ADDED TO COVERAGE (JUST LIKE YOU PAY A HIGHER PREMIUM ON YOUR STRAIGHT SPOUSE).

7. Social Security will be severely stressed. “Again, with millions of new eligible dependents, what will happen to the Social Security system that is already facing bankruptcy? If it does collapse, what will that mean for elderly people who must rely totally on that meager support? Who is thinking through these draconian possibilities as we careen toward ‘a brave new world’?”
EXCUSE ME. AREN’T MOST OF US ALREADY COVERED BY SOCIAL SECURITY? BESIDES, WHY SHOLD A STRAIGHT SPOUSE WHO IS PAST THE AGE OF PROCREATION GET SPECIAL RIGHTS OVER A GAY SPOUSE.

8. Religious freedom will almost certainly be jeopardized. “Canada is leading the way on this revolutionary path. I could cite dozens of examples indicating that religious freedom in that country is dying. Indeed, on April 28, 2004, the Parliament passed bill C 250, which effectively criminalized speech or writings that criticize homosexuality. Anything deemed to be ‘homophobic’ can be punished by six months in prison or by other severe penalties.”
NOT TRUE. ONLY SPEECH DEEMED TO INCITE OTHERS TO VIOLENCE.

9. Other nations are watching our march toward homosexual ‘marriage’ and will follow our lead.
“Marriage among homosexuals will spread throughout the world, just as pornography did after the Nixon Commission declared obscene material ‘beneficial’ to mankind.”
ACTUALLY, THE DEVELOPED WORLD IS AHEAD OF THE USA ON THIS POINT. MOST OF WESTERN EUROPE AND EVEN CUBA AND PARTS OF MEXICO AND SOUTH AMERICA HAVE DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP LAWS. ACTUALLY, THE USA IS NOW LESS COMPETITIVE WITH SOME OTHER COUNTRIES WHEN IT COMES TO ATTRACTING THE BEST AND BRIGHTESS WHO MAY BE AFRAID OF THE THEOCRACY DOBSON WANTS.

10. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will be severely curtailed. “The family has been God’s primary vehicle for evangelism since the beginning. Its most important assignment has been the propagation of the human race and the handing down of the faith to our children.”

READ YOUR BIBLES. ST. PAUL AND CHRIST ACTUALLY RECOMMENDED THAT ONE NOT MARRY (PAUL ADVISED MARRIAGE ONLY FOR THOSE WHO LACKED ADEQUATE SEXUAL SELF CONTROL). MOREOVER, CONTRARY TO SOCIAL NORMS OF THE TIME, JESUS NEVER MARRIED AND HIS APOSTILES LEFT THEIR JOBS AND FAMILIES TO FOLLOW CHRIST. A BOOK I JUST READ, “THE MAN WHO JESUS LOVED” HAS A GREAT REVIEW OF HOW JESUS AND ST. PAUL WERE NOT THE PROPONENTS OF MARRIAGE AND FAM,ILY AS DOBSON CLAIMS.