Russian Submariners safe and dry

I'd like to think that the deadly 'post'-Cold War lesson that 118 sailors aboard Kursk died to teach us was learned, but I doubt it. This was a science vessel on a training mission. Kursk was a nuclear battle platform. Would the Russians accept or even allow our help if another one went down today?

( For a refresher, my August 25th, 2002 editorial about the Kursk disaster )

'The Salvador Option'

Bush is now in his legacy term, and he's looking to his idols for ideas. Now, he turns to Ronald Reagan, who, for some insane reason, is remembered for winning the Cold War, and apparently dying for all of our sins.

How will history judge George Bush? He's lost a lot of jobs, just like Reagan. He's done illegal shit, just like Reagan. Now, his top military advisors are considering using in Iraq the same Reagan tactics that worked so well in El Salvador. You know, death squads, dissapearing people, gunning down nuns.

Dateline, 2024: Former President George W. Bush has died peacefully at his home in Crawford Texas. President Bush is remembered as one of America's greatest presidents, winning election in 2000 and 2004 by margins wide enough to secure mandates. He won the war on homosexuality, and defeated the Middle East by decisively eradicating anyone who even looked funny at an American. Stay tuned for 24-hour coverage of the funeral proceedings here on Fox-1. Tune in to Fox-2 for a complete history of President Bush, or watch reactions from his family on Fox-3. Former President Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, will make a brief statement from Guantanamo Bay, where she is being held in exile after the execution of her parents as enemies of the state. This can be viewed on Fox-4. Reactions to the criminal hijacking on Fox-5 by Howard Dean and Barack Obama, leaders of the terrorist Freedom for America organization, can be viewed on Fox-6 later this afternoon. Be well, citizens! This is your Fair And Balanced news channel.

-pb

Even I, someone who has not exactly had her eyes closed to Clinton-era buffoonery, did not imagine that the most corrupt administration in the history of the country would find a way to keep having scandals while out of office.

“Most Corrupt Administration in the History of the Country” That’s a pretty big assessment, when you consider that Richard Nixon resigned before impeachment proceedings that would most certainly have removed him from office, and he was preceded by Vice President Spiro Agnew, who resigned over allegations of corruption. Agnew was replaced by Gerald Ford, who tripped over himself pardoning Nixon for stuff he ‘might have done’. And let’s not forget Reagan’s treasonous arm-selling deals. That’s right, I took a shot at Ronald Reagan, again. If Clinton is still fair game, then Ronnie is, too.

The undisputed facts are these: Clinton's national security adviser removed documents with the highest possible security classification from the National Archives, took them home with him, and disposed of some of the documents.

Yes, but what is not positive is whether he had authorization to do so, and why. He also didn’t take the only copies, either. If Reagan era politics are any indicator, Sandy Berger will have a talk show soon.

The New York Times' response was to hysterically accuse the Bush administration of corruption. In a front-page story the week the story broke, the Times accused the Bush administration of leaking the news of the Berger investigation for cynical political reasons – based on the Times' careful accretion of no facts whatsoever.

Facts? How about the wag-the-dog timing of every damn thing this administration has ‘leaked’ to the press over the past four years? Howard Dean is about the only political figure willing to call it like it is. Democratic National Convention coming? Trot out John Ashcroft to tell the world that the Terrorists are coming (When? I dunno. Where? I dunno. How? I dunno.) Kerry made a good speech? Have Tom Ridge scream about three year old intel on Al-Qaeda plans. Polls slipping? Tell Pakistan to catch a terrorist or two. Things getting hot in the kitchen? Pull out an advisor and burn him at the stake (and it’s not the first time!) The Times is just reporting the plainly obvious.

[Democrats] think if Dick Cheney uses a word with the letter "H," it's a secret code from the pope proving a conspiracy with Halliburton.

No, but we’re pretty sure that Dick Cheney using a word with an “F” is more hypocritical than Theresa Heinz Kerry telling an annoying reporter to “shove it”.

the Bush administration's interests were not served by the leak of the Berger investigation this early in the campaign.

Oh, so this early on, making one of Kerry’s advisors out to be a traitor of epic proportions has no positive impact for Bush. Right. So, conversely, Kerry should just talk about how interesting Indonesian economics are until, say, September. Yeah, right. We Americans may not have the longest attention span, but we’re not that bad.

As the Democrats have taught us, the best time to release damaging information about your opponent – say, a 30-year-old DUI – is about 72 hours before the election.

Yeah, but they missed the Coke-Nose days, although they wasted no time attacking Bush’s lack-of-service record. Incidentally, as soon as those records were found, they were destroyed. Media backlash? Far, far less than the press given to Sandy Berger. Gotta love that liberal media!

Tending to support the theory that the Kerry campaign leaked the story is the fact that the Bush White House has known about Berger for months; Kerry was told of the investigation only the week the story was leaked.

This makes so little sense, I think I’ve lost a few brain cells just reading it. Why would Kerry hang his own advisor? Why not scoot him off to the side? Kerry had an edge in the polls when this came out. Watch that dog wag!

The people who should be on their knees thanking God that W is president are the National Archives employees who caught Sandy Burglar. If Clinton were still president, instead of a serious criminal investigation, we'd get six months of attacks on the poor National Archives employees as trailer trash, sluts, gold-diggers, etc., etc.

Are these National Archives employees government workers? Because, Ann thinks they’re useless anyway. So, perhaps it’s not their fault they didn’t do their jobs? Or maybe they did, and Berger had authorization.

Given the Democratic scandals, their presidential candidates might consider the following litmus-test question before hiring their campaign staff: ‘Have you ever put anything into your shorts, or taken anything out of your shorts, that could negatively affect this campaign?’

That’s funny. I love the part about “Democratic scandals”. What about Coke-Nose and his crooked family? What about Strom Thurmond’s closet skeleton? What about Newt Gingrich banging his secretary on his desk? What about Rush Limbaugh’s little pill problem? Jack Ryan, anyone? The list goes on and on. Democrats are the party of the people, and people are admittedly fallible. Republicans claim to be from the ‘moral’ end of the spectrum, and they screw up even worse. Which is more hypocritical?

-pb

It's Thursday, and that means it's time for my weekly dissection of the Party Propaganda spewed forth from the narrow mind of Ann Coulter. With Ronald Reagan’s passing this week, I knew we were in for a treat of epic proportions. So here goes!

More enraging than their revisionist history of Reagan, is liberals' revisionist history about themselves. Now liberals claim they liked Reagan at the time. This is extremely believable -- aren't we all fond of someone who regularly exposes us as liars, cowards and hypocrites? It's just human nature.

Now, I'll admit that I'm more than sick of even NPR going on and on about Reagan, but I’ve heard enough vitriol from the left to assure Ms. Coulter that no, we didn’t like him all this time, and no, we're not fond of him. As for the 'revisionist history' claim, well, you never hear NeoCons talking about eight years of steady economic growth under Clinton, now do you? Nope, you only hear about Oval Office fellatio, cigars, and Osama slipping away. So, isn't it only fair that the left talk about Iran-Contra, Nicaraguan death squads, the rape of the Department of Education, and "We begin bombing in five minutes"?

As for winning the Cold War, well, tell that to the 118 sailors aboard the Kursk. I’m sure they'd love to hear how the Russian War Machine was so far past the Berlin Wall that they begged on hands and feet for Western help retrieving a downed nuclear sub. Oh, yeah. That didn't happen, because the Cold War is, essentially, still going on. The faces are different, we can visit all of Germany, and no one calls anyone 'Comrade', but it’s still the same attitude.

The rest of the article is basically 'revisionist history' through Conservative blinders that I, for the most part, already dispelled in my second paragraph. So I won't bore you with details. I will sum up with my analysis of Ms. Coulter's last quote:

Because Reagan lived, the world is a better place.

Tell that to anyone and everyone who has been, is being, or ever will be tortured by the Bush Junta. It's because of Reagan's influence and his shifting the Republicans into the fascist far right that Bush has basically been able to seize unconstitutional power for himself. Reagan's administration handed out death to innocents for eight years. That is, and will be, his continuing legacy.

It's certainly not morning in America.

-pb