Category: The Dubya Era

Dominance without Hegemony.

The Washington Post offers yet another story on the GOP belief in their upcoming electoral dominance. (It is counterpoised with an article on the lost and wayward Dems.) Didn’t we hear all this before, after the 1994 midterms? What goes around comes around, and while Dubya’s support may be a mile wide, it’s also an inch deep, particularly when you consider that 3 out of 4 Americans didn’t vote for him in 2000. Whether it be Weaponsgate, corporate malfeasance, handouts to the rich, intemperate buffoons, or, much more likely, just the simple fact of the Dubya dip, the GOP is strutting about on feet of clay.

Hey, Dubya, I’ve found a “revisionist historian” for ya…

You must be joking. She’s been nutty for years, of course, but now Ann Coulter has really lost it. According to excerpts of her new bile-filled book on Drudge, Coulter has now taken to defending McCarthyism. According to Coulter, the “myth of ‘McCarthyism’ is the greatest Orwellian fraud of our times…Liberals are fanatical liars, then as now. Everything you think you know about McCarthy is a hegemonic lie…Liberals denounced McCarthy because they were afraid of getting caught, so they fought back like animals.” Wow. It’s pointless to even waste time on this book, I know. Still, this is ignorant on so many levels. Were Eisenhower, the Army, and the Senate all “liberals”? My advice to anyone out there interested in McCarthyism: consult a real historian on the subject. You’ll find that, contrary to Coulter’s swill, McCarthy had enemies – and supporters – on both sides of the ideological spectrum. If the conservative press wants to maintain any credibility at all, they’re going to have to renounce this garbage and soon, ’cause this is just off the deep end.

Willful Disbelief.

Salon examines the reasons for Dubya’s continued public support despite the WMD shenanigans. “Just imagine how much shock and complaining there would be if we learned that ‘American Idol’ had been rigged. But Bush and his comrades can use deceptive means to launch a war and to pass trillion-dollar tax cuts that bust the bank — and then skate away.” In related news, the New Republic offers a concise overview of the story to date.

Lie Down with Dogs…

Rejecting any attempt at rapprochement with Congress on the subject of judicial nominations, Dubya tries to ram a former Starr Chamber aide down the Democrats’ throats. To his credit, it sounds like this fellow Kavanaugh was against including salacious details in the Starr report, but he still comes off as yet another Clinton-hater on the IC’s payroll. And we really don’t need any more freak show conservative witch-hunters on the bench.

Burning Evidence.

As they do with all potentially threatening data, the Dubya White House tries to sweep global warming under the rug by removing key portions of the EPA’s “State of the Environment” report. “The editing eliminated references to many studies concluding that warming is at least partly caused by rising concentrations of smokestack and tail-pipe emissions and could threaten health and ecosystems…In its place, administration officials added a reference to a new study, partly financed by the American Petroleum Institute, questioning that conclusion.” Brilliant. Perhaps I should add the Bugblatter Beast of Traal to Dubya’s advisor pic, since it seems to be his MO they’re constantly following in these cases.

The First Estate.


Ever beholden to their wealthy masters, the House GOP try once again to permanently eliminate the estate tax. Thankfully, this probably won’t pass the Senate, but you’d think someone on the Republican side of the House would remember the days of true conservatism and start thinking about balancing the budget, rather than granting further handouts to the filthy rich. A long shot, I know, particularly when you take a gander at the GOP economic team these days. (Ah, fun with Photoshop.)

Card-Carrying Conservatism.

While the Democratic party as a whole continues to seem as divided and stymied by the Dubya dip as they do Weaponsgate, several of the candidates lash out on their own, including John Edwards, who calls the Dubya tax cuts the “most radical and dangerous economic theory to hit our shores since Socialism.” I’d think Eugene Debs is probably turning over in his grave at the comparison.

“I think we can ride this out.”

With the Weaponsgate furor still simmering (Dean has now called for an investigation), Dubya and his cronies try to confuse cause and effect in Iraq…apparently it no longer matters if WMDs are found or not, because Saddam was a bad man. In other words, the Bushie plan is, as per usual, to keep spouting the same propaganda until people start overlooking their leap in logic. Hmm…well, it seemed to work for the Iraq-9/11 connection, didn’t it?