The fact that each of the speakers at the RNC, Thompson, Leiberman, McCain and Palin (et al.) went on and on about the problems of America but never, ever mentioned the Bush administration or any of the principals who have master-minded the mess we’re in.Of course, they want to distance themselves from Bush/Cheney and company – Bush delivered his speech from the White House; Cheney was in the Caucasus shilling for Big Oil – that’s easy to figure.
The amazing thing is the deceitful, callous panache, if you will, that was displayed by those hard-working spin-meisters who crafted the speeches at the RNC. Any writer will tell you that would be incredibly difficult to be able to bring up the Iraq debacle, the faltering economy, record home foreclosures, rising unemployment, the power of lobbyists, and so on, pushing all of the right ‘hot buttons’ for voters without ever mentioning or alluding to the fact that all of these problems lay directly at the door of the Bush administrations and the GOP.
Granted that the Dems – inept, complacent bunch of craven goldbricks that they are, with few exceptions – have done next to nothing since gaining control of Congress but rubber stamp the decrees from the Imperial Palace at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but the big problems were well out of the gate by then.
And then to top it all off with calling McCain/Palin a pair of Mavericks and a ticket for Change! Wow! Mavericks that run with the herd and change that won’t actually change anything.Amazing chutzpa!
However much commentators like Jon Stewart – primary jester to the court of George the Deuce – might deride Richard Cheney for his secrecy, his man-sized safe, his cool arrogance, or his flippant disregard for the Constitution, let it never be said that our current co-president is inconsistent when prioritizing his tasks.
While a substantial number of high-ranking Republicans juggled their time between wringing their hands in trembling hope that Mother Nature would spare them a repeat of the excoriation of the Bush administration’s lack of concern (empathy, being the current talking-point), the rank incompetence of FEMA and the resultant PR debacle associated with the Hurricane Katrina calamity three years ago, and staging the over-blown, over-funded pep rally in the Twin Cities, VP Cheney was buttering some bread in the former Soviet states in the Caspian Sea area.
"President Bush has sent me here with a clear and simple message to the people of Azerbaijan and the entire region: The United States has deep and abiding interests in your well-being and security.", Mr Cheney stated, as if anyone at this point actually believes that he serves at the behest of Mr Bush.
Azerbaijan, which borders Georgia and Iran and sits along the Caspian Sea, is an oil- and gas-rich nation and a key U.S. ally in the region. Why this tiny nation should be considered a ‘key U.S. ally in the region’ might be a question worth a journalist’s time to ask but no explanation beyond ‘oil and gas-rich nation’ seems to be required or expected from Mr Cheney.
To double-under-score the true meaning of America’s ‘deep and abiding interest’ in ‘Azerbaijan and the entire region’ of the Caspian, Cheney held meetings with Azerbaijan representatives of oil giants, British Petroleum and Chevron. Perhaps this was a modest effort by the VP to earn the reported one million dollars paid him annually by Halliburton as their beloved former CEO. Only after getting the more important business of oil and gas production out of the way did ‘Our Man Dick’ squeeze in a meeting with Azerbaijani president, Ilham Aliyev.
Apparently thinking no one would notice with the stories of the nonsensical spectacle of the RNC and a hurricane threatening the Big Easy dominating the ‘news’, Cheney took this occasion to pontificate, "One of the basic foundations of security and peace is respect for national borders, a principle that is endangered today.” That the Co-president managed to utter this without emitting an ironic chortle or displaying a facial twitch or eye-wink that might indicate he was pulling our collective leg was not reported by those journalists in attendance.
That non sequitur aside, Cheney went on to proclaim “The United States strongly believes that together with the nations of Europe, including Turkey, we must work with Azerbaijan and other countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia on the additional routes for energy exports that ensure the free flow of resources.”
Without follow-up queries from competent journalists, one cannot be certain what Mr Cheney is implying but one can reasonably assume that he envisions an imperial, NATO-like organization, dominated by the USA, which spans from the Atlantic to the Caspian and beyond. One might also be lead to assume that the people living in the region are of less concern to him than ensuring ‘the free flow of resources’, presumably to western corporations with which Mr Cheney might have association.
Cheney's trip began as U.S. government sources confirmed the Bush administration plans for a $1 billion aid package for Georgia. An observer might wonder how the American taxpayers, suffering growing unemployment, a stagnating economy, record home foreclosures, a devalued dollar, rising inflation and a continually deteriorating infrastructure feel about tossing another billion US into the rat-hole of ‘foreign aid’ to an enfeebled nation of less than five million people.
It should also be noted that the ‘Straight-talking Maverick’, multi-millionaire John McCain has, as his presidential campaign’s chief foreign policy adviser, lobbyist Randy Scheunemann. Mr Scheunemann is working on the McCain campaign while on hiatus from his DC-based lobbying firm, Orion Strategies. Insofar as McCain has a whole raft of lobbyists working on his campaign, Mr Scheunemann’s involvement isn’t note-worthy in and of itself. What is notable, however, is that one of the most prominent clients of Orion Strategies is the nation of Georgia. (Yes, that one.) It must be considered less than a coincidence that Mr Scheunemann’s Orion Strategies was hired to ‘grease the wheels’ for the admission of Georgia to NATO, another one of the Bush/Cheney pet projects.
So, let the Republican hoity-toity attend to extravagantly mundane party business and feign empty displays of concern for an impending reprise of a natural calamity, all Americans and, indeed, the citizens of the world can rest assured that Richard Cheney has his priorities in order; perverted as that order may appear to those with a sense of justice or decency.
ADDENDUM:
After writing and posting this article - which was based on a CNN on-line article - I read at Kommersant.com, a Russian site that Cheney's meeting with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Georgia did not go smoothly - meaning that Cheney did not get his way. He wanted both countries to cut Russia out of the supply line for gas and oil.
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan had Cheney cool his heels before meeting with him. Their meeting did not go as Cheney intended despite (or due to) the fact that he and Aliyev have known each other since Cheney was at Halliburton and Aliyev was VP of SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company. Cheney was so miffed at being told 'No!'by Aliyev (and by being met at the airport by personages of lesser rank than the VP himself) that he even refused to attend a banquet in his honor.
Looks like the bloom is off the rose, Dick, old boy.
Also! This just in from Democracy Now!
US Provided Combat Training to Georgian Commandos Prior to Assault
The Financial Times reports the US military provided combat training to eighty Georgian special forces commandos only months prior to Georgia’s army assault in South Ossetia in August. The training was provided by senior US soldiers and two private military contractors—MPRI and American Systems, both based in Virginia.The revelation could add fuel to accusations by Russia that the US had orchestrated the war in the Georgian enclave.
So. maybe that Putin fellow is not exactly blowing smoke about the US playing high-stakes chess in the Caspian.
Borrowing the technology of 'Being John Malcovic', the author is able to provide annotation for Bush's speech to the RNC as heard through the mind of the 'Decider'.
And now, Ladies and Germs, give a warm Republican welcome to the 'Decider', the Commando-in-Chief, the President of the United States of America (for at least another fiscal quarter), GEORGE W. BUSH!
(Cue ‘Applause’…)
I know what it takes to be president.
(Unfortunately, I don’t have what it takes to be a good one.)
In these past eight years, I’ve sat at the Resolute desk
(That’s the one next to the water-cooler outside Cheney’s office.)
and reviewed the daily intelligence briefings, the threat assessments and the reports from our commanders on the front lines.
(Well, I didn’t actually ‘review’ cuz, y’know, I just hate to read but Dick or that nice Addington fella told me the gist of it.)
I’ve stood in the ruins of buildings knocked down by killers
(the ones in Jew York City and the ones in Iraq, too.)
and promised the survivors I would never let them down.
(I just hope that don’t hold me to it cuz I’ve got more brush to clear down on the ranch and that thing in Afghani-whatever ain’t going so well, Condi says.)
I know the hard choices that fall solely to a president.
(And I’m batting pretty close to 1.000 on getting them all wrong but ‘Hey’ you gotta swing for the fences, right? Or why step up to the plate? (I love a good baseball metaphor, don’t you?))
John McCain’s life has prepared him to make those choices.
(For me, it was my close ties with the Saudi Royal family and my personal ‘hot line’ to Jesus.)
He is ready to lead this nation.
(Down the primrose path, for four more years of economic ruin for the middle- class and the poor (who ever they are, I forget…) and prob’ly a couple more cool, never-ending conflicts to show the world we’re still #1 at ‘standing tall’ and kickin’ ass!)
From the day of his commissioning,
(when he barely passed the flight training – something we have in common!)
John McCain was a respected naval officer
(whose father and grandfather were admirals, so those tars and avi-a-tors had damned well better respect him.)
who made decisions on which the lives of others depended.
(Mostly of course it was decisions like when to drop bombs on the Vietnamese peasants and the like; y’know - ‘Life and Death’.)
As an elected public servant,
(of the wonderfully generous lobbyists of Big Oil and my other buddies)
he earned the respect of colleagues in both parties
(who are also deep in the pockets of Big Oil and my other buddies)
as a man to follow when there’s a tough call to make.
(F’rinstance when he has to figure out which of his mansions he wants to spend the weekend at.)
John McCain’s life is a story of service above self.
(Or is that ‘the service of story to self’? Whatever… But the ‘official’ story of John’s life 40 years ago is the story we’re selling here so even if all the facts don’t fit, Karl says that’s no matter seeing as Americans’re such a stupid bunch.)
Forty years ago in an enemy prison camp,
(I’ll never understand why those folks took being bombed and slaughtered so personally…)
Lieutenant Commander McCain was offered release ahead of others who had been held longer.
(Cuz they thought he was some kinda royalty or something, I guess, his father being an Admiral an' all.)
His wounds were so severe that anyone would have understood if he had accepted.
(Let’s see, about that time, I was outside Houston in the Air National Guard - when I wasn’t AWOL! Heh-heh)
John refused.
(I guess that just goes to show you there IS a difference between the two of us.)
For that selfless decision, he suffered nearly five more years of beatings and isolation.
(Let’s see, yeah, I was on my way to Harvard Law School. They sure were surprised to see a ‘C’ student sitting in class! Just goes to show, ‘It ain’t what you know but WHO you know.’ So, there, Obama-jama.)
When he was released, his arms had been broken, but not his honor.
(Prob’ly best not to mention that his nickname was ‘the Songbird’; he was hurtin’, after all. Just wish some of those Al Qaeda boys in Gitmo would start singin’…)
Fellow citizens,
(Not all of you, just the rich, connected ones, okay?)
if the Hanoi Hilton
(Always flash on that crotch-shot of Paris when I say that…)
could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country,
(Like, y’know, staying alive and that sort of stuff.)
you can be sure the ‘Angry Left’ never will.
(I’ll never understand why they’re so pissed. Why don’t they like me? I’m a pretty regular guy for a spoiled rich kid who’s led the country to ruin three different ways to Sunday. But that’s mostly Dick and Donnie’s doing, y’know. And that Addington guy and Paul and, and Condi.. and….)
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - On Friday four American citizens attempted to make a “citizens arrest” of Karl Rove, former top aide to President George W. Bush. They were arrested themselves, instead. Rove, one of the recognized members of the Neo-Con ‘brain-trust’, has thumbed his nose at a Congressional subpoena by repeatedly refusing to appear before the committee. Rove left the country the very day of his second scheduled appearance and did not have the common courtesy to notify the committee of his intentions. Contempt of Congress and and issuance of a warrant for his arrest is being considered by the committee.
“It should be Karl Rove in that van. (the paddy-wagon) War Criminal!” one of a dozen protesters shouted as the four were put into a police van outside a Des Moines country club where Rove spoke at a private state Republican party fundraiser.
Chet Guinn, a retired Methodist Minister, was among those led away.
“To be silent when major crimes are being committed against all humanity makes us accomplices,” Gwinn told reporters just before his arrest, which took place when protesters stepped past the gate to the private country club.
GOP Reps. Smith, Sensenbrenner, Coble, Gallegly, Goodlatte, Chabot, and Cannon after much deliberation put the Constitution and rule of law before politics.
Rep. Lamar Smith stated, “As much as one might wish to avoid this process, we must resist the temptation to close our eyes and pass by. The president's actions must be evaluated for one simple reason: the truth counts.”
John McCain, the Presumptive (or is that ‘consumptive’?) Nominee of the Republican Party (PNRP) in an interview with Chris Wallace on Faux News was asked to respond to a comment regarding his continued ties to lobbyists made by David Axelrod, a reporter, media consultant and advisor to Senator Obama.
Chris Wallace asked, “David Axelrod said you talked in your speech today about changing the way Washington does business but your campaign is run by two of the biggest lobbyists in Washington. How do you respond to that?”
Johnny Mac’s response?
First, he met the query with the stunned silence of disbelief. He sat frozen like a deer in the headlights for three full counts – a seeming eternity in the rapid-fire, sound-bite orgy that is Faux Gnus’s typical pace.
Then the ‘Straight-talker’ stammered his answer.
“I’d, uh, duh, look, uh-uh-uh, those uh, they are not lobbyists but, uh, the f-f-fact is Americans care about my vision and plan of action for the future – that I can unite the country, that I can take on the challenges (gasp) that are facing them now which are enormous and that’s what elections are going to be about and I’ll look forward to a great debate – a great debate across this country between myself and Senator Obama… he has a very, very liberal, mm-mm, down-the-line Democrat voting record… I have a record of working with all Americans, uh… to bring this nation back to its future greatness and I believe we will.”
Say wha’?
The first caller who can properly diagram that sentence wins a chronic migraine. That last bit of time-traveling sophistry,”… to bring this nation back to its future greatness…” makes the malapropisms of Dan Quayle pale in comparison.
Alright, run-on, syntactically fractured, solecistic sentence structure aside, McCain’s answer to Chris Wallace’s question was a flat-out-and-out, bald-faced lie.
Does Johnny Mac think he can hoodwink the American people by muttering such a crass falsehood between clenched teeth and then slime his way out of an ethical corner by blabbering on with jingoistic campaign boiler-plate? Does he think all Americans are that stupid and uninformed or just the viewers of Faux Gnus?
As is well-documented and relatively well-publicized, McCain’s inner circle is chock full o’ lobbyists of the kind he claims to shun:
Charlie Black, Chief Campaign Advisor,
Doug Goodyear, Convention CEO,
Rick Davis, Campaign Manager,
Randy Scheunemann, Top Foreign Policy Advisor
Frank Donatelli, RNC Deputy Chairman, Campaign liaison
According to McCainSource.com, Johnny, the straight-talker has 134 lobbyists running his campaign and raising money for him. (Remember how he nearly ran out of money during the republican primaries when up against the deep pockets of Mitt Romney, et al?He solved that cash-flow problem it seems.) A complete list of the lobbyists and the clients they have represented can be read here: http://mccainsource.com/corruption?id=0006
Need more proof that ‘Straight-talking McCain’ got caught telling a whopper? Google the growing number of stories about his Lobby-gate Scandal for yourself.
McCain has sold his soul to the denizens of K Street and their keepers. The ‘Maverick’ has been broken, branded and hobbled.
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