Republican Newspeak

Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was indicted today on the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation. Karl Rove has not yet been indicted, but is still under investigation. That is the big story of the day, and no doubt it will be the main story in Washington for the immediate future. The White House is in turmoil, and the Republican Party just keeps getting worse news piled on top of bad news – DeLay’s been indicted, Frist is under investigation, the Harriet Miers embarrassment, Katrina, Iraq, and now this scandal.

This is being written about so extensively today that I don’t know what I can add at this time as far as heaping more criticism on Scooter Libby or the White House for their roles in the CIA leak scandal. However, there is something very interesting that is happening within the Republican Party today in the way they are handling the fallout from this scandal. The word “guilty” has been removed from the Republican dictionary this week in an Orwellian attempt to influence political thought through language. This is what he called Newspeak, and in 1984 it was a very frightening concept. But, in this case there’s no reason to be fearful because it’s more comical than anything. Just look at the way the Republicans are bending over backwards today to avoid using the word “guilty” or any series of words that even implies guilt.

Vice President Dick Cheney: “In our system of government, an accused person is presumed innocent until a contrary finding is made by a jury after an opportunity to answer the charges and a full airing of the facts. Mr. Libby is entitled to that opportunity."

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Out of respect for our system of justice, everyone needs to take a deep breath and not judge those involved until it has been proven they are anything other than innocent.”

Senator Orin Hatch: “The burden lies on Mr. Fitgerald to prove his case, not on Mr. Libby to prove his innocence.”

President Bush: “In our system each individual is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial."

Are they serious? And these aren’t the only examples. They will all be speaking in this manner from now on from the president right on down to Hannity and Limbaugh. This is a Saturday Night Live skit waiting to happen. “…presumed innocent until a contrary finding is made”? “…until it has been proven they are anything other than innocent.”? You have to slow down while you’re reading it because it doesn’t sound natural. Is it really that hard to say a person is innocent until proven guilty? I could swear that’s the way I’ve heard it since 2nd grade, but I guess that is now Oldspeak. The Republican talking points this week obviously centered on modifying the language, and the phrase “until proven guilty” is no longer operable. It is truly fascinating to sit back and watch them operate. I'd say it's pathetic but for the fact that it actually works on some people, so I can't blame them too much for trying.

Powell's Chief of Staff Attacks Bush

In my previous post, as an example of George Bush being our worst president ever, I cited Colin Powell's Chief of Staff, Colonel Larry Wilkerson's comments from a speech the prior day that was reported by The Washington Post. Today, Colonel Wilkerson reaffirmed his comments and delved into greater detail about his utter disgust with the Bush administration in an Op-Ed column he wrote for The L.A. Times.

He describes a secret “cabal” that was set up by Cheney and Rumsfeld to hijack U.S. foreign policy. He depicts an inexperienced president who needed Colin Powell to hold his hand through crisis situations, and who was sometimes left out of the loop of the decisions made by this cabal, and he describes a weak Condoleezza Rice that got steamrolled by Cheney and Rumsfeld.

It’s time for anyone who voted for Bush to bow their heads in shame and own up to the calamity they helped create due to their blind loyalty to a political party as opposed to their country and their own common sense. In November of 2000 it seemed acceptable to them to vote into office a dimwit who everyone knew was not that bright and not that experienced. So many of them bought into the myth that it doesn’t really matter who is the president. And, what is the saddest part is that most everyone knew that on some level he’d be a puppet president. I’ll never forget how many times I heard the justification for voting for Bush, “Well, he’ll have advisors to tell him what to do – his dad and Cheney and people like that.” Advisors? People like that? This means they were perfectly willing to elect an anonymous regime to run the country. That is the definition of blind loyalty.

And, this is exactly what Democrats, and some Independents, feared when we took a look at Bush in 2000. We didn’t know 9-11 was going to happen and things would turn out this bad; but it just seemed illogical and it was a very unsettling feeling to turn over the keys to the most powerful country in the history of the world to an inexperienced, disinterested, simple man just because his name sounded familiar. And, make no mistake about it that is why he got elected. No one would have supported him had his name been George Tree or George Grass.

However, as luck would have it, his name was George Bush, and that coupled with Clinton’s blowjob was enough for too many people. Today we live with the consequences. And, as Colonel Wilkerson describes for us, they have come true the worst fears of those of us who opposed Bush from the beginning. Now that simple, disinterested man sits in The Oval Office while a group of people – who could never/would never have been elected president on their own – subvert our democracy and lead us into danger.

The Worst President In The History of The United States!

Say it with feeling folks because it’s not just a partisan political attack any longer. It’s not hyperbole. It’s not a cheap shot to get ratings. It’s as true as any unquantifiable statement can be.

Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever. Hitler was the most evil dictator in history. Muhammad Ali is “The Greatest Fighter of All Tiiiiiime”. George W. Bush is the worst president in American history. Future generations will know these all to be universally accepted truths. In fact, most of us know it right now – which is a testament to just how awful of a job Bush is doing that we’re able to say this with such certainty even though he’s still a disaster in progress.

I know it’s hard to believe; after all he came to office with hardly any experience. He was unsuccessful in all of his prior business ventures. He showed such little character by using his dad’s connections to avoid being sent to Vietnam, and then he didn’t even fulfill his obligations in the National Guard (and to add insult to injury he struts around like a war hero; and doesn’t that about sum up the whole joke of Bush?). He had no foreign policy experience or interest prior to becoming president and had to be taught foreign policy only after he launched his campaign for president. He self-admittedly doesn’t read the news (we can assume this includes the "internets" as he likes to call it). He’s spent his life surrounding himself with kiss-asses and yes-men, and he can’t even speak well. Ok, so it’s very easy to believe. In fact, the only reason why someone could objectively doubt that he is our worst president is because it just seems too obvious to be true. However, unfortunately for us all, most of the time the truth is that obvious. When the sky turns dark gray and starts rumbling, usually it’s about to rain.

We now have for the third time a high level official from Bush’s first term stepping forward with scathing criticisms of Bush and the usual pack of neo-cons (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc..). Colonel Larry Wilkerson was Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff at the State Department, and he is known to say what Colin Powell would agree with but won’t say publicly himself: that this is the most inept and dangerous administration that our country has ever known.

This is in addition to the testimony already on record against Bush that can no longer be denied. These are not low ranking officials people. This is Colin Powell’s “Scooter Libby” that is launching these attacks. And, it was also Clinton and Bush's Terrorism Czar, Richard Clarke, who attacked the administration previously. And, prior to that, it was Bush’s own cabinet member, Secretary of The Treasury Paul O’Neill that blasted Bush.

They all say – in a nutshell – that the administration was fixated on invading Iraq, regardless of evidence, and that the intelligence was fixed to lead us into an unnecessary war; and one that is going disastrously bad thanks to incompetent decision making by this administration. These are three top level insiders blowing the whistle on what all the circumstantial evidence already pointed to. And, there are also documents which support the same charge, namely The Downing Street Memo which states in black and white that the intelligence was being fixed to justify war. Taken as a whole this evidence is the smoking gun.

And, as if leading the country into an unnecessary war, which has killed almost 2,000 Americans soldiers so far, has been a gift to Bin Laden in his quest to convert jihadists, and has destroyed our stature in the world wasn’t enough, we also know this: Bush is inept at handling a natural disaster in our own country (4 years after 9/11 mind you), he appoints crony’s to some of our most important government jobs including head of FEMA and the Supreme Court, and his puppet master Karl Rove is as dirty a politician as they come and likes to leak classified information to try to silence anyone who points out the lies of the administration. And, on top of all of this, in the one thing conservatives are supposed to be good at – fiscal responsibility – Bush has shown himself to be more fiscally irresponsible than any other president ever. Maybe the title “Worst President In The History of The United States” doesn’t do justice to how poor of a job he’s done.

The prosecution rests.

Reid Must Go

The Independent Wire is endorsing the replacement of Harry Reid as Senate Minority Leader. As rumor has it this site is frequently visited by all top Democratic strategists. The buzz surrounding us inside the beltway is enormous. We predict it won’t be long before right wing bloggers begin to question whether The Independent Wire is actually a well funded propaganda tool of the Democratic Leadership Council. As editor-in-chief I can assure my faithful readers that this is not the case, and we continue to operate independently.

The fact that Harry Reid is the minority leader to begin with speaks volumes about how far the Democrats have fallen, and it’s an example of why they’ve continued to lose elections since 1998. Without knowing the details of all the backroom deals and the power plays inside the senate one can only assume that the Democrats elected Harry Reid out of weakness. This was done in response to the post election polls from the last election which have been misinterpreted. That is the reason the new minority leader is a soft spoken man from a red state who can speak about religion and moral values.

The call to replace Harry Reid at this time is based on his head scratching decision to come out in support of Harriet Miers. Why would the Democrats come out in favor of Bush appointing someone to the Supreme Court whom is rumored to be eternally loyal to him? Are they only thinking of the abortion issue? It’s been suspected that Bush privately doesn’t want to overturn Roe vs. Wade, based on the fact that his mother and wife are both pro-choice. If this is true do the Dems think that Miers wouldn’t vote to overturn Roe and therefore that’s enough for them?

Even the conservatives, who think Miers will vote with them on the abortion issue, are against her because they realize that the Supreme Court is not just about abortion and at the end of the day she is just not qualified for this lifetime appointment. And consider that, abortion aside, she will most likely end up voting the way they want on most other issues. This shows that they take nominations to the Supreme Court more serious than any Democratic senator who would support Miers based on what we know about her so far.

This was such a monumental miscalculation by Harry Reid that the Democrats need to replace him as their minority leader in order to not make the support for Miers a party decision, but rather a Harry Reid decision. Even if Miers will uphold Roe vs. Wade, her presence on the court will be about the same as giving George Bush himself a lifetime appointment to the court, and what Democrat in their right mind would ever consider such a thing? Well, Harry Reid is one, and that is why he must go.

Must Read Post On The Iraq War

Cenk Uygur has done it again. Aside from myself, of course, Cenk might be the best opinion writer out there at this time. He consistently makes reasonable and well thought out arguments based on the facts and logical thinking; and his conclusions are based on this type of reasoning and not his own personal agenda. This post of his should be a must read for anyone who claims to have an opinion on the Iraq War - including all those in the Bush administration; and all the Democrats who love to point out how wrong Bush is, but have yet to really talk about the ugly truth of the situation. And, make no mistake, the truth is ugly; but so what, avoiding the truth is not the answer. That hasn't gotten us anywhere so far, and it's foolish to think that more lies or half-truths is the answer.

Speaking of which, President Bush is about to make a major speech on Iraq and The War on Terror. According to reports he is supposed to offer up new details and strategies that the public is not yet aware of. I'll give him a chance, but I'd be willing to bet almost anything that his version of The Iraq War won't contain any of the facts that Mr. Uygur considers in coming up with his analysis of the situation. If it wasn't so sad it would be funny how so many of us just accept being lied to.

Report Proves Iraq War Affected Katrina Relief Effort

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina we all watched in stunned disbelief, day after day, as the images on our TV's defied all our preconceived beliefs of how strong and powerful our country is supposed to be. After the initial week long shock, things settled down, but then equally as unbelievable was the spin that some people were willing to believe.

I actually had a debate with some Republicans who did not think that the Iraq War slowed down the response time in any significant way. They thought that the affected states still had enough National Guard troops, but it was those local officials who are to blame for not deploying the troops properly. It is a serious problem that we face in this day and age where so many people get their information from biased sources like FoxNews, talk radio, or anonymous emails written by God knows who that get endlessly forwarded.

What is so disheartening is that it takes this article to prove that there were not enough National Guard troops in Louisiana and Mississippi because so many of them were deployed in Iraq. Shouldn't common sense have led all of us to realize that this was probably the case? For the past couple years there have been endless reports about our military being stretched too thin, about too many of the troops in Iraq being National Guard and reserves, about extended tours of duty and in some cases troops being forced to do 2 or 3 tours of duty, about the Army failing to meet their recruitment goals, and the list goes on and on.

To ignore those facts, and in the face of indisbutable images of an entire Gulf Coast region that slipped into chaos for several days, and to not recognize that those National Guard troops being in Iraq was a detriment to the people in the Gulf Coast who needed them to restore order is to not be able to add two plus two. To be unaware of those facts in the first place is to be walking around blind with FoxNews as your seeing eye dog.

From an independent report commissioned by The Secretary of Defense:
"Another major factor in the delayed response to the hurricane aftermath was that the bulk of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard was deployed in Iraq.

"Even though all the states have 'compacts' with each other, pledging to come to the aid of other states, it takes time, money and effort to activate and deploy National Guard troops from other states to fill in".