a free form line of thinking that just will not quit.
I went to bed an hour ago and just can't seem to fall asleep. I'm tired (probably from lack of sleep last night) but my mind is just racing right now. What's worse is I'm unsettled over all the crap and rhetoric and bullshit of Katrina relief efforts. As much as I hate to agree with Jesse Jackson on anything, I can certainly understand why victims of the hurricane and subsequent abandonment by authorities would be left feeling there's a racial undertone. I'm not saying there is one, but I can certainly see how it starts.
I'm mad at myself for letting all the assholes who blame the victims and give Bush and his dimwitted administration a free pass. But this is just the echo of what's really eating at me. When you get down to it, I'm getting more and more scared for the direction we're heading under a confusing and horrendous president.
Every president is insulated, no doubt. But I can't understand how or why the dunce of the Republican party has so many Kool-Aid drinkers who are too excited to jump in front of any criticism of the shit job he's doing. Perhaps it's because the only thing Dubya recognizes and rewards is loyalty. Nothing more. Nothing less.
What's vexing, though, is he's not even a good leader! While I may not have agreed with some of Reagan's policies, I can certainly see why he had disciples. He was the real deal when it came to leadership. While I can certainly understand why many conservatives hated Clinton's hand-wringing and over-the-top sincerity, I recognize his ability to communicate his ideals while listening to those who opposed him.
George Dubya Bush isn't much of a thinker. He's not much of a communicator (ever watch him speak off-the-cuff with reporters? It's nearly painful to watch). He hasn't a clue about foreign policy. Hell, he's pretty lax about domestic policy! And for a Republican, he sure knows how to create big government and lots of spending.
So what is it about him that makes Republicans so giddy? My only guess is bigtime politics has strayed so far from being about the "best" candidate to the most electable one. That's why you get people like Indiana Senator Evan Bayh roaming around Iowa or New Hampshire running stump lines that have been vetted, tested, sanitized and pollster-ized time and again before he goes live. That's how Bush got where he is. That's why Kerry last year couldn't campaign his way out of a phone booth with a compass, map and a shirpa.
And that's why we're now seeing so many cracks in the Bush White House. This group of loyalists -- the most inner circle, beginning with Karl Rove -- is expert at one task and one task alone: winning elections. They're masterful, truly masterful, at the art of election year politics; well, the dirty side, if you ask me. But that's neither here nor there.
What they're not good at is governing a country. Governing is different charge with much different goals than a run-up to an election and we're seeing that misfiring play out every day. They're all so loyal to Bush that there's no set of checks and balances to keep the place honest. That's why we have talking points re-directing the heat off Condi Rice for having Osama's big plan sitting on her desk the morning the 19 hijackers boarded planes.
That's why we have backwards engineered intelligence to justify a pre-ordained war with Iraq.
And that's why we have the spin meisters working the field to deflect every bit of criticism away from Bush on all these matters. I'm left with only one conclusion: Bush is a big pussy who can't take the heat. How else would you explain his absolutely pathological behavior to never assume responsibility?
You may call me a naysayer all day long. Like I give a shit. You'd be wrong to call me anti-Republican as well. I'm hardly a party zealot to the Democrats. Sure, I'm a liberal guy and will side with the Democrats more times than not. But I also see the value and wisdom of many true Republican ideals. I also feel the best legislation is created when it's a bipartisan effort. That's why guys like Arlen Specter and John McCain have always appealed to me.
But this neoconservative movement -- a weird hybrid of all the bad elements of both Democratic and Republican theories of governing -- has got to go.
Of course, that's contingent upon the Sisyphean task of Democrats getting their shit together before next year's mid-term elections. I have greater hope of monkeys flying out of my butt.
In the meantime, I'd just love for one person in the Bush White House to finally admit that mistakes were made. Being stubbornly loyal, sensitive to criticism and paranoid about your detractors is no way to run a country.
Just ask Richard Nixon.
I'm mad at myself for letting all the assholes who blame the victims and give Bush and his dimwitted administration a free pass. But this is just the echo of what's really eating at me. When you get down to it, I'm getting more and more scared for the direction we're heading under a confusing and horrendous president.
Every president is insulated, no doubt. But I can't understand how or why the dunce of the Republican party has so many Kool-Aid drinkers who are too excited to jump in front of any criticism of the shit job he's doing. Perhaps it's because the only thing Dubya recognizes and rewards is loyalty. Nothing more. Nothing less.
What's vexing, though, is he's not even a good leader! While I may not have agreed with some of Reagan's policies, I can certainly see why he had disciples. He was the real deal when it came to leadership. While I can certainly understand why many conservatives hated Clinton's hand-wringing and over-the-top sincerity, I recognize his ability to communicate his ideals while listening to those who opposed him.
George Dubya Bush isn't much of a thinker. He's not much of a communicator (ever watch him speak off-the-cuff with reporters? It's nearly painful to watch). He hasn't a clue about foreign policy. Hell, he's pretty lax about domestic policy! And for a Republican, he sure knows how to create big government and lots of spending.
So what is it about him that makes Republicans so giddy? My only guess is bigtime politics has strayed so far from being about the "best" candidate to the most electable one. That's why you get people like Indiana Senator Evan Bayh roaming around Iowa or New Hampshire running stump lines that have been vetted, tested, sanitized and pollster-ized time and again before he goes live. That's how Bush got where he is. That's why Kerry last year couldn't campaign his way out of a phone booth with a compass, map and a shirpa.
And that's why we're now seeing so many cracks in the Bush White House. This group of loyalists -- the most inner circle, beginning with Karl Rove -- is expert at one task and one task alone: winning elections. They're masterful, truly masterful, at the art of election year politics; well, the dirty side, if you ask me. But that's neither here nor there.
What they're not good at is governing a country. Governing is different charge with much different goals than a run-up to an election and we're seeing that misfiring play out every day. They're all so loyal to Bush that there's no set of checks and balances to keep the place honest. That's why we have talking points re-directing the heat off Condi Rice for having Osama's big plan sitting on her desk the morning the 19 hijackers boarded planes.
That's why we have backwards engineered intelligence to justify a pre-ordained war with Iraq.
And that's why we have the spin meisters working the field to deflect every bit of criticism away from Bush on all these matters. I'm left with only one conclusion: Bush is a big pussy who can't take the heat. How else would you explain his absolutely pathological behavior to never assume responsibility?
You may call me a naysayer all day long. Like I give a shit. You'd be wrong to call me anti-Republican as well. I'm hardly a party zealot to the Democrats. Sure, I'm a liberal guy and will side with the Democrats more times than not. But I also see the value and wisdom of many true Republican ideals. I also feel the best legislation is created when it's a bipartisan effort. That's why guys like Arlen Specter and John McCain have always appealed to me.
But this neoconservative movement -- a weird hybrid of all the bad elements of both Democratic and Republican theories of governing -- has got to go.
Of course, that's contingent upon the Sisyphean task of Democrats getting their shit together before next year's mid-term elections. I have greater hope of monkeys flying out of my butt.
In the meantime, I'd just love for one person in the Bush White House to finally admit that mistakes were made. Being stubbornly loyal, sensitive to criticism and paranoid about your detractors is no way to run a country.
Just ask Richard Nixon.
