brainrow

The most generous man in Washington, D.C., must be the CNN reporter who writes that Bush’s legacy is a mixed bag:

It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times — a tale of two legacies as President Bush prepares to ring in the final year of his presidency.

I’m not nearly as generous as that guy. If I were to say that Bush’s legacy is mixed, I would mean it’s a mix of honest incompetence and deliberate malice, and I slipped “honest incompetence” in there only because I’m in a giving mood this time of year — most of the time I think the Bush administration is pure malice.

So, Merry Christmas to Ed Henry, the soul of generosity. Merry Christmas to you, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and all the administration. May this Christmas bring each of you exactly what you deserve.

Uh oh…

At an afternoon news conference, D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said security concerns prevented them from saying exactly where or how the fire started.

Maybe I’m just paranoid… Security concerns? Really?

But a source with knowledge of the fire said the flames began in a utility closet off Vice President Cheney’s ceremonial office on the second floor. The flames were confined to the closet, but a significant amount of smoke raced through the building, the source said.

Some reports say the fire apparently started in an electrical closet or telephone room.

An electrical closet — yeah, that makes sense.

Today’s fire at the Executive Office Building next door to the White House suggests that sometimes, shredding the evidence just isn’t enough.

Via Keith Olbermann’s Countdown: Colin Powell is interviewed by GQ magazine. The interviewer asked about the threats of World War II and the Cold War, and how they compare to today’s threats:

Q: Isn’t the new global threat we face even more dangerous?

A: What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?

Ooh! I know! I know! It’s George W. Bush, right?

Where were you when we needed you, Colin?

Garrison Keillor explains a particular strain that still runs through American political life:

My ancestors were Puritans from England. They arrived here in 1648 in the hope of finding greater restrictions than were permissible under English law at that time. —Garrison Keillor

(Via A Blog Around The Clock.)

Eolake Stobblehouse considers the dead horse problem:

Dakota Native American tribal wisdom, passed on from generation to generation, says:

“When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount and get a different horse.”

Governments, he says, employ “more modern strategies,” including:

Buying a stronger whip. …

Appointing a committee to study the horse. …

Lowering the standards so that the dead horse can be included. …

Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed. …

Providing additional funding and / or training to increase dead horse’s performance. …

Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

This reminds me of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…

Many prominent Republicans are calling on a fellow Republican, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, to resign. Craig’s seat has been considered a safe GOP seat for years, but Republican strategists worry the party might lose the seat next year if they put a candidate tainted with hypocrisy and scandal on the ballot.

I think they’re making a serious mistake. Where is the modern Republican Party going to find a candidate untainted by hypocrisy and scandal?

And with Larry Craig out of the Senate, who will push for the Congressional investigation we need: How many undercover cops do we have lurking in public restrooms, trying to ruin some gay guy? Is this our best use of law-enforcement resources?

George W. Bush went to New Orleans today for a number of photo-ops as part of the “America in Ruins” tour. Bush marked the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting the city with two minutes of silence and two years of neglect.

(Okay, I made up the “two minutes of silence” thing.)

Update: Cartoonist Mike Luckovich says Bush brought a hopeful message to New Orleans.

I’m sure to go to Heaven
‘Cause I’ve done my time in Hell

Bush League Mitt Romney knows there’s more than one way to serve your country, and Fox News plays its part to get the vital message out:

Aasif Mandvi on life on the front lines — the Home Front:

Ever since Mitt Romney joined in attacking Barack Obama for saying, “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets, and President Musharraf will not act, we will,” I’ve been trying to think up a descriptive nickname for ol’ Mitt.

But I’m in a rut. Maybe because his name reminds me of, say, a catcher’s mitt, all my ideas seem to have some sort of baseball theme.

I thought of Mitt “The Ump” Romney, because he’s declared al Qaeda Safe! Safe! in Pakistan, unless President Musharraf takes them out. But it’s not a good nickname, because an ump also calls strikes, and Mitt won’t do that.

I thought of “Miss Mitt” Romney, as in “a swing and a miss,” but Mitt won’t take a swing. That led me to “Checked Swing” Mitt Romney, but a checked swing usually indicates a sharp hitter laying off a bad pitch. Swinging on a good pitch only with a signal from some guy in the stands — that’s a different kind of thing.

Right now I’m thinking “Bush League” Mitt Romney.

Mitt is the guy who said he didn’t want to close Gitmo, he wanted to double it. If he’s not going after al Qaeda leadership, who’s he planning to put down there? People who make fun of him, I’ll bet.

Bush League. Yeah.

Thirty-three years ago today, Richard M. Nixon announced that he would resign as President of the United States. He left office the following day.

In a comment from last month, Keith Olbermann asked Bush and Cheney to follow Nixon’s example.

In his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy said, “Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.”

Nowadays a lot of politicans of both parties seem utterly terrified at the idea of sitting down with people we don’t agree with.

I guess they’re afraid that when they sat down with Fidel Castro, for example, they would instantly be powerless to say anything but “Yes, master! What is your bidding?”

Really, if those politicians are such pushovers, I don’t want them negotiating with our friends, let alone our enemies. Get ’em out of politics altogether, I say.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. —The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Last year I complained a lot about the “Rubber-Stamp Republicans” in Congress who could never say no to George W. Bush or Dick Cheney, even if it meant trampling on the Constitution.

Well, let me take a moment to recognize all the Republicans in Congress who voted against granting new powers of warrantless wiretapping to the Attorney General:

Rep. Tim Johnson, of Illinois, and Rep. Walter Jones, of North Carolina.

That’s it.

Not one Republican Senator voted against the bill. These two were the only Republicans in the House who voted against it. Thank you, gentlemen.

There were nine other Republicans in the House of Representatives who didn’t cast a vote on the issue, including Republican presidential candidates Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo. Six Republican Senators didn’t vote on the issue, including Republican presidential candidate John McCain. I don’t know whether those members abstained out of respect for the Constitution, or for some other reason. I know they were missing when the Constitution needed friends to “preserve, protect and defend” it.

But I’ve said enough about Rubber-Stamp Republicans. My anger now is for Rubber-Stamp Democrats — sixteen in the Senate, forty-one in the House — who voted to give a new blank check to George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales.

From the House of Representatives:

Jason Altmire, John Barrow, Melissa Bean, Dan Boren, Leonard Boswell, Allen Boyd, Christopher Carney, Ben Chandler, Jim Cooper, Jim Costa, Bud Cramer, Henry Cuellar, Lincoln Davis, Artur Davis, Joe Donnelly, Chet Edwards, Brad Ellsworth, Bob Etheridge, Bart Gordon, Brian Higgins, Baron Hill, Nicholas Lampson, Daniel Lipinski, Jim Marshall, Jim Matheson, Mike McIntyre, Charles Melancon, Harry Mitchell, Collin Peterson, Earl Pomeroy, Ciro Rodriguez, Mike Ross, John Salazar, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Heath Shuler, Vic Snyder, Zachary Space, John Tanner, Gene Taylor, Timothy Walz, Charles Wilson.

From the Senate:

Evan Bayh, Thomas Carper, Bob Casey, Kent Conrad, Dianne Feinstein, Daniel Inouye, Amy Klobuchar, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Claire McCaskill, Barbara Mikulski, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, Kenneth Salazar, Jim Webb.

It’s a Hall of Shame.

During the YouTube debate a few weeks ago, Barack Obama said that, yes, he would be willing to meet with the leaders of so-called “rogue nations.”

Well, that got Hillary Clinton jumping up and down, and soon she was joined by other Democratic candidates, then by some pundits, then by some Republican presidential candidates — all jumping up and down, all claiming that Obama was inexperienced, foolish, and naive.

You see, for more than fifty years, through Republican administrations and Democratic administrations, it has been the policy of the United States to turn a diplomatic cold shoulder to North Korea. For nearly fifty years, we have applied the same bi-partisan policy to Fidel Castro’s Cuba. For almost thirty years, we’ve given the same cold shoulder to Iran. (Well, except for selling them weapons during the Reagan Administration and using the profits to undermine the democratically-elected government of Nicaragua.)

How has this policy worked out? Well, Kim Jong Il remains firmly entrenched in North Korea, having recently test fired his first nuclear weapons. Fidel Castro is still in charge in Cuba, threatened more by old age than American disapproval. And Iran is still racing to develop their own nuclear weapons and permanently shift the balance of power in the Middle East.

Who’s foolish? Who’s naive?

In a speech last week, Obama said:

If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets, and President Musharraf will not act, we will.

Then, in a radio interview, Obama let it slip that he wouldn’t use nuclear weapons against terrorists hiding among civilians.

Once again, Obama’s critics jumped up and down and said he was inexperienced and foolish and naive. How dare he rule out nuclear weapons? The nukes, and the possibility that we’ll use them on a whim, are why we’re feared around the world. If they’re also part of why we’re hated around the world, well, that’s the price you pay for fifty years and more of highly sophisticated strategic thinking, that’s all.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney said:

I had to laugh at what I saw Barack Obama do. I mean, in one week he went from saying he’s gonna sit down for tea with our enemies, but then he’s gonna bomb our allies. I mean, he’s gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove.

That’s tellin’ him, Mitt! That’s the way to play to the base! And we’ll keep reminding the American people that you, an experienced, wise and sophisticated person, will never act against al Qaeda without getting Musharraf’s permission first.

Sorry, Hillary. Sorry, Mitt. Sorry, all you sophisticated candidates and pundits. I’m going with the naive guy. He makes more sense than all the rest of you put together.

George W. Bush mugs for the cameras in front of the wreckage of a collapsed highway bridge in Minneapolis. Bush’s visit to the site, days after the White House declared the collapse a “state responsibility,” was the latest in a series of “America in Ruins” photo-ops that have become the hallmark of his presidency.