Nightmare

Cheers and Jeers:
by Bill in Portland Maine
Fri Jul 27, 2007 at 04:35:31 AM PDT
From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

"Alberto Gonzales is saying, basically, there are problems of which he cannot speak, for which he is responsible yet not to blame, and that he is the only one who can clean up the mess that he can neither confirm or deny exists. Let me try to put this in schoolyard terms, if I may: He has smelt it, and while he cannot confirm that he in fact also dealt it, he refuses to deny it on the grounds that it might incriminate him for supplying it." ---Jon Stewart -

"Sean Hannity knows that there is no greater threat to America today than Bill Clinton 15 years ago." ---Stephen Colbert -

"The doctors [who gave President Bush a colonoscopy] found five polyps. And I was thinking: well, hell, maybe we should send these guys out to find bin Laden." ---David Letterman -

"I finally saw 'Sicko.' But enough about Michael Vick..." ---Jay Leno -

"A Christian group that claims it can cure homosexuality is starting a program to help gay Broadway stars become straight. The program is called, A Total Waste of Time." ---Conan O'Brien -

Bill O'Reilly: [Daily Kos is] like the Ku Klux Klan. It's like the Nazi party. Stephen Colbert: Exactly! The Ku Klux Klan and the Nazis were both notorious for allowing people to express unpopular views in an open and free forum. ---The Colbert Report
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That September Report on Iraq? It's Not the Only One. By Robin Wright

The White House may have killed attempts to revive the much-heralded Iraq Study Group, but the Bush administration will still face a tough, independent evaluation of the progress in Iraq - from one of its own agencies.
In a little-noticed addition to legislation requiring the July and September assessments on Iraq from the White House, Congress mandated a third report from the agency that has quietly done the most work to track the missteps, miscalculations, misspent funds and shortfalls of both the United States and Iraq since the 2003 invasion: the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO's international affairs team has had far more experience in Iraq than the study group led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former congressman Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) or any of the other independent panels that have weighed in on Iraq. Indeed, the study group consulted the GAO team in preparing its report. Over the past four years, the GAO has issued 91 reports on Iraq, on topics including the mismanagement of Iraq's oil industry and problems in its new army.
The GAO team is back in Iraq this week doing research to make its own assessment of the 18 benchmarks covered by the administration's reports.
The 15-person team includes an array of specialists, lawyers, economists, foreign policy experts and statisticians. Most have been working on Iraq since June 2003, when the first GAO reports were mandated. They work on a day-to-day basis with the departments of State and Defense, but the GAO makes independent assessments.
The GAO report is due Sept. 1 - two weeks before the administration's document. So it may set a standard that makes it harder for the administration to attach caveats to its answers, as outside analysts say it did in the July report.
The administration's assessments are more nuanced, with grading based on whether Iraq is making "satisfactory progress" or "unsatisfactory progress" on the 18 political, military and economic benchmarks. The GAO is mandated to give a more straightforward "yes" or "no" on whether the benchmarks have been achieved, said Joseph A. Christoff, director of the GAO's International Affairs and Trade Team, which will write the report.
Christoff anticipates blunt critiques in the GAO report, based on benchmarks his team has long been monitoring as part of its oversight of Iraq.
On Iraq's military, for example, the administration's July report said Iraq is making "satisfactory progress" on providing three brigades for the new U.S.-led Baghdad security plan.
But Christoff said the GAO is probing deeper. "For us, it's not just an issue of showing up, but showing up with equipment and logistical support so they can move on their own, and then being effective," he said.
The Iraqi military has serious shortcomings, including, according to a Pentagon report, a no-show rate of one-third to one-half on any given day, Christoff said. "Celebrating 360,000 trained and equipped forces says nothing about their loyalty or effectiveness," he said.
On Iraqi politics, a pending law to equitably distribute Iraq's oil income has come to symbolize attempts to address the needs of all ethnic and sectarian communities. The July report acknowledges that the Iraqi government has made "unsatisfactory progress" in passing legislation but says it is too early to tell what will be enacted and rejects any revision of U.S. plans or strategy.
Christoff questions whether that conclusion is giving the Iraqis the benefit of the doubt. Only one of four pieces of legislation required on Iraq's oil sector is now before the parliament, and it addresses only who will be responsible for distributing oil, not how revenue will be shared among the communities, he said. A second bill on revenue-sharing is being debated in the cabinet. But two other basic laws - on creating a national oil company and restructuring the oil ministry - have not been drafted, he said.
"So much has to be done that it will be difficult to meet this benchmark, even by September," Christoff said.
On Iraq's economy, the July report said Baghdad is progressing satisfactorily in allocating $10 billion for development to its ministries and provinces, much of it for electricity and oil industry infrastructure. But Christoff is again skeptical. "If the past is any indication, it will also be very difficult to meet this benchmark," he said.
The need for development in the two sectors is critical. The oil-rich country last year spent $2.6 billion to import gasoline, diesel fuel for electricity and kerosene for cooking, because it cannot refine enough oil, Christoff said. Also, U.S. officials acknowledge, Iraq managed to allocate only about a quarter of the $10 billion in development funds during the first six months of 2007 - much of which has not been spent.
"When you look at what is needed and what the goals are, there's a huge gap," Christoff said. And the gap between the administration's and the GAO's assessments on these central issues is likely to be reflected in other benchmarks, he said.
The GAO team is due back Aug. 4, after which it will begin writing its report.
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It's a nightmare a looooong one.
Comeuppance?
Will this long presidency of George W. Bush ever be over?
Chris Durang

Living through it is starting to seem like some ghastly, upsetting novel in which the hero is the country, and the president is this disturbing, pig-headed, oblivious villain who makes things worse and worse and worse.
And as with a fictional villain, I find I have a longing that he get his comeuppance -- that his villainy is codified and he's finally held accountable for what he's done.
But will that ever happen?
I need the relief of truth and justice triumphing that I experience in books and movies.
Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, after endless and stubborn cruelty against his men, is finally confronted by out-and-out mutiny by his angry officers and crew, and is set out in a little boat in the middle of the ocean. Goodbye!
Or another captain, Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, is removed from duty by his officers after his domineering incompetence and instability causes him to freeze in the middle of a serious storm. But then he challenges the officers in court and nearly succeeds in having them all court-martialed until that longed-for moment when he starts to unravel on the stand, obsessively going on about who did or didn't steal strawberries from the mess hall, all the while nervously fingering those three metal balls in his hand. And the entire courtroom falls silent, staring at him, finally seeing his craziness. I need a moment like that.
Or I need Edna May Oliver to show up and put Bush in his place, as she did with the evil Mr. Murdstone when he came to reclaim young David Copperfield to his sadistic clutches in the 1935 David Copperfield. In that film, Ms. Oliver (a treasure of a 30s character actress) listens calmly to the supercilious adult murmurings of Mr. Murdstone and his sister, and then she stands up and says she doesn't believe a word they say, and she will not hand David over to them; and she picks up a broom and chases them out of her house and down the road. And then she and Davey and her strange but benign friend Mr. Dick join hands and dance a little jig of joy. I need a moment like that too.
But will we ever have such a moment?
Of course, impeachment is the constitutional remedy.
And I understand that maybe some of the Democrats are right, and the country doesn't have the stomach for it. The people want progress, not punishment (maybe). And I also know how unlikely it is that enough Republicans (or any) would join a call for impeachment. The Republicans seem hell-bent on enabling and defending this president no matter what; a few are changing, one by one, but it's VERY slow.
But, Lord, if ever a case called for impeachment, it is this one.