Does anybody REALLY read this guy?

I had never heard of Jonah Goldberg until his column suddenly appeared in my local scratchsheet, yet another right wing commentator on an editorial page already over-burdened with them (which the wingnut residents of my town pillory regularly in the letter pages for being too liberal). I read his column once and was immediately outraged. It reeked of narcissism, and a toxic dose of neocon arrogance. It is now shunned, along with Cal Thomas, and Bill "Never-met-a-lie-I-didn't-like" O'Reilly.

I just don't get it. How can someone with better than half-a-brain continue to be an apologist for the worst presidency in American history, an administration with a pathological aversion to the truth that has done more to trash the ideals of this nation than any of its predecessors, an administration whose arrogance and incompetence would be laughable were it not for the fact that hundreds of thousands of innocents have died because of them?

Justin Raimundo said it pretty well on his blog: "Jonah Goldberg's facile punditry masks a truly nasty nature seems beyond dispute: after all, here is someone who made his reputation, such as it is, retailing sex tapes surreptitiously recorded, "leaking" a trail of slime that eventually slipped up a President. A more fitting symbol of the Clinton era conservative movement – a gaggle of remarkably unattractive character assassins, bereft of ideas and fixated on filth – would be hard to imagine."

And Juan Cole hoisted the fool by his petard a few years ago when Jolly Jonah was still one of the Iraq invasion's biggest cheerleaders. But what really gets my goat is the sense that Goldberg pontificates without any direct, firsthand experience of most of the things he writes about. Or, to quote a reader of Mr. Cole's: "He looks to be of military age. Ask him why his sorry ass isn't in the kill zone."

How does he sleep?

The Country of Dick*

Just as George W. Bush has redefined the American presidency as a monarchy, so has Dick Cheney re-defined the Vice Presidency as the power behind the throne of the idiot king. Prime Minister Cheney, he of the perpetual sneer and black heart has declared himself a government unto himself. As reported in the Washington Post yesterday, Blackheart Dick's office has refused for 4 years to comply with an executive order demanding that classified information is handled according to the rule of law. The Dick went so far as to propose that the Information Security Oversight Office of the National Archives and Records Administration served with confirming compliance with the executive order be abolished this year when his office was once again pressed for the reports.

The penchant for secrecy of the Cheney/Bush administration has been unmatched in American history. The American public has been denied the right to know who was involved in Dickie's energy task force (which set energy policy for this craven administration), where Cheney travelled on private funds, and, most recently, the Secret Service logs of visitors to his fortress-like residential compound in Arlington.

Who does this nasty little brute think he is? His is the true face of the Bush Presidency, and it is extraordinary to me that this creep's favorable ratings hover near single digits while Dubya's maintain at 25%. Is that quarter of the American public so god damned stupid that they can't connect The Prime Minister to the King?

That's a rhetorical question.

*I thank Randi Rhodes for the concept of the "the Country of Dick."

Judicial Watch Releases New FBI Documents: Osama bin Laden May Have Chartered Saudi Flight Out of U.S. after 9/11

Washington, DC) -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released new documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) related to the “expeditious departure” of Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden family, from the United States following the 9/11 attacks. According to one of the formerly confidential documents, dated 9/21/2001, terrorist Osama bin Laden may have chartered one of the Saudi flights.

Read the whole story.

President Schmuck

I realized that some accidental visitors to this blog may take offense at my referring to the President of the United States as as a "sad, sick, silver-spoon loser." I meant to say "sad, sick, silverspoon, emotionally stunted, shallow, INSENSITIVE asshole." Why? Read this:

Several mothers who have lost children at war in Iraq took part in a new talk show on National Public Radio.

One of them, Elaine Johnson, recounted a meeting that she had with President Bush in which he gave her a presidential coin and told her and five other families: "Don’t go sell it on eBay.”

An excerpt from the interview on NPR's Tell Me More can be heard here.

Read more here.

President Wackjob

Need any more convincing?

Georgie Anne Geyer wrote recently in the Dallas Morning News about President Bush’s strange behavior during a recent meeting with “[f]riends of his from Texas” who were shocked to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated “I am the president!” He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of “our country’s destiny.”

Read more about this sad, sick, silver-spoon loser's meltdown here.

US Attorney Resigns After Greg Palast Delivers Emails to John Conyers

Tim Griffin, formerly right hand man to Karl Rove, resigned Thursday as US Attorney for Arkansas hours after BBC Television ‘Newsnight’ reported that Congressman John Conyers requested the network’s evidence on Griffin’s involvement in ‘caging voters.’ Greg Palast, reporting for BBC Newsnight, obtained a series of confidential emails from the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign. In these emails, Griffin, then the GOP Deputy Communications Director, transmitted so-called ‘caging lists’ of voters to state party leaders.

Experts have concluded the caging lists were designed for a mass challenge of voters’ right to cast ballots. The caging lists were heavily weighted with minority voters including homeless individuals, students and soldiers sent overseas.

Read more at Greg Palast's web site.