drl2Blog

Cancer has been big political news over the last week or so. First came the Edwards’ campaign’s announcement that Mrs. Edwards’ cancer has returned; that news was followed by the revelation that White House spokesman Tony Snow has undergone surgery for a recurrence of colon cancer.

The right-wing punditry, of course, was quick to jump all over Edwards to accuse him of using his wife’s ailment to bolster his campaign, with Rush Limpjaw of course leading the way. Now this is, of course, little better than a hunch, but I’m just guessing that ol’ Rush won’t accuse the White House of trying to use Mr. Snow-job’s medical issue as a means of distraction from current political problems.

No, I’m thinking that the right wingers will be up in arms because “the left is accusing the administration of using Tony Snow’s cancer for political gain!” – regardless of whether or not this actually happens. “Those America-hating liberals are happy to hear that Mr. Snow is sick – they want him to die, that would make them happy!”, we’ll likely be told, though no specific examples of such speech will be provided.

Yes, when liberals like the despicable folks over at Crooks and Liars proclaim,

“And as we sent thoughts and prayers to Elizabeth Edwards, so too, should we send them to Tony Snow and his family, for what they are about to face.”

, Rush will assert, “They’ve added Tony to their prayer list right under Saddam and Osama!”, Sean Hannity will proclaim that they’re feigning sympathy, and Ann Coulter will screech, completely out of context, “Yeeee, hee hee hee hee…. I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”

Earlier this month, the zipper of secrecy slid open and The Dick sprang forth from his undisclosed location. Not content with his continued molestation of our democracy, The Dick launched a world tour to remind his previous conquests in government and media that they were still required to bend over at the time and place of his choosing.

It was during this latest junket that Generalissimo Cheney made a statement that Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats, and, by extension, sane people the world over, were “validating Al-Qaeda” through opposition to the Iraq war.

Yes, we had to overthrow that evil (formerly US supported, WMD-less, Al-Qaeda-opposing) dictator Saddam, who tortured and killed his own people (and not in the civilized American way we’re torturing and killing them now). We had to do this because on 9/11, zero Iraqis hijacked no planes and flew them into no buildings, and if we lacked the courage to invade them and dole out big oil contracts to US companies, they might not do it again… or worse.

Yes, Dick Cheney and his fellow Neandro-cons’ plans to invalidate Al-Qaeda have successfully increased anti-American sentiment the world over, provided a terrorist training ground (conveniently located!), drawn our attention away from the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, left our military overtaxed and under-equipped, and further de-stabilized an already dangerous region. Take that, Osama! Of course, our efforts have cost us thousands of troop casualties, killed tens of thousands of civilians, and put us billions of dollars further into debt. The latter isn’t so bad, though – it further invalidates Al Qaeda because a good chunk of that money is owed to interests in Saudi Arabia (birthplace of such historic figures as Osama bin Laden and most of the guys who actually did cause a little mischief on 9/11).

Now Iran’s (Sunni Al-Qaeda-hating, shiite-dominated) government is threatening to validate the terrorists by potentially someday theoretically maybe building nuclear weapons. So, if a new report by Seymour Hersh is accurate, the Bush administration has adopted the “an enemy of my enemy is my friend” policy which has served America so well in the past (see: Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden).

That’s right: To stir up trouble in Iran and thus protect America from Al-Qaeda-connected terrorist groups, they’re funneling money to Al-Qaeda-connected terrorist groups! Brilliant!

Sarcasm aside, Mr. Cheney, I prefer to assume that your recent appearances are just part of an ongoing effort to cover the utter failure of your ideology and of policies which always had nothing to do with fighting terrorism and everything to do with enriching and empowering yourself and your closest business and political allies. I hope this is just another symptom of your willingness to say and do anything necessary in support of your own flawed agenda.

I hope these things because the alternative is that you went on national television to accuse Nancy Pelosi of validating Al Qaeda while your hands still bore ink-stains from stamping Osama bin Laden’s paycheck and that you truly, deeply believed this accusation to be true and yourself and your followers to be the good guys. If this is the case, Dick, then you have left selfish, twisted ideologue behind and moved into the realm of – to borrow a technical term from clinical psychology – the batshit insane.

Does it seems to anyone else that Bush’s “New Way Forward” is basically the same as the “Old Way Backward”? What we’re doing isn’t working, so let’s do more of it!

Meanwhile soldiers and civilians keep on dying in a war that never should have happened.

So Saddam was hanged last night. Good riddance. I’m sure the right-wingers are trumpeting that the left is saddened by the loss, despite their inability to provide actual examples of such, but that’s right in line with their “liberals hate America”, “Democrats want the terrorists to win” schtick that nobody listens to anymore anyway.

The local paper today said that Saddam is believed to have killed over 290,000 people in 25 years of rule, which puts him pretty far up there on the list of evil dictators, but he looks like a rank amateur compared to the Hitlers, Stalins, and Maos of the world. Still, maybe the US shouldn’t have worked so hard to put a guy like this in power back in the Reagan days. I mean, since we propped him up, provided money, weapons, and the ingredients to make the infamous VX nerve gas he used on the Kurds, doesn’t that make this nation’s past leaders accomplices to these crimes?

What about the current Iraq war? We’re not beheading people in the street, but torture and death are still daily events in much of the country – not to mention the lack of electricity and running water and the return of Islamic extremism that was largely quashed under Saddam’s rule. The estimated civilian casualty count in “liberated” Iraq ranges from “Who cares? They’re brown-skinned heathens anyway” to 600,000+, depending on who you listen to, so clearly Iraq in the throes of Freedom(tm) is a much more dangerous place than it was under its brutal dictator. It took Saddam a quarter century to ruin as many lives as he did; we’ve obviously brought American-style efficiency to the job, because under our benevolent guidance they’re dying at a much faster rate.

When do the war crimes trials for the Neandro-cons begin?

Of all the comments I’ve seen coming from the pundits on this one, my favorite quote was from Jesse Jackson – an unusual occurrence, because for the most part I have a low JJ tolerance.

“”It will not increase our moral authority in the world. … Saddam’s heinous crimes against humanity can never be diminished, but he was our ally while he was doing it. ….. Saddam as a war trophy only deepens the catastrophe to which we are indelibly linked.”