Garlictorial - We’ll Need That Table

Power comes from lying ... Lying big and getting the whole damn world to play along with you ... Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true, you get them by the balls

Senator Roark, from “Sin City - That Yellow Bastard”

We passed that ball-grabbing moment some time ago, and, funny thing, the lies keep coming, but the whole damn world is not playing along. Quite the opposite.

Another spotlight-singeing moment for our Court-Appointed President.

With the history of having the first woman Speaker of the House sitting behind him, and boy, did he milk that. I half expected Ralph Edwards to stroll out to the well of the floor and begin a "This Is Your Life". You have to think that, if not then, at some point during the speech, Nancy Pelosi must have had the twisted thought of reaching over and giving Bush a bop on the head with that giant gavel. Just to shake him up, reminding him to cut the bullshit, that he can't pull that off any longer.

Lame Duck?

That's much too generous. Bush appeared less a Lame Duck last night and more, to touch upon his baseball roots, the journeyman utility fielder, tossed into a lopsided losing game to pitch the last two innings so as to save, and not waste, the real pitchers.

He swatted away at the edges of what will be "his" domestic agenda and a call for bipartisanship. But when you've screwed up and lost a war, and you have poll numbers below 30%, you're not going to have an agenda beyond CYA. The Democratic Congress will, as James Webb said last evening in his Democratic Response, "show him the way".

Bush will have to down a shot, and steady his hand (or, take some classes as The Garlic noted previously), for his "agenda" these last two-years will be the power of the Veto, something that was lost (we didn't see our Chief Executive making jokes, like he did with the WMD's, of trying to find the Veto under his desk) during the six-year, Republican Jihad he enjoyed.

Beleaguered? You bet, in spades.

The audience of Congress, and other invited guests, must have operated under SAG rules, offering a set number of applause and engaging in standing ovations so wearily, as if someone was going to steal their seats if they stood up.

He Really Likes These People

Once again, Bush trudged out those poor, tired 12-million Iraqi voters. They must have leg cramps and dehydration for all the times he keeps running them out to attempt to sell his vision.

Never has so many done so little for their country, which, if you look at what is going on today, two-years later, I doubt it is what they had in mind in order to get their fingers dipped in purple dye.

I would speculate that those poor, tired 12-million Iraqis voted, not for some 5th-Grade Civics class film on Democracy, but for having things like electricity for the whole day, someone to pick up the garbage before it rots and spreads disease, to have schools to send their children to - safely, to be able to walk down to the market for fresh fruits and vegetables and walk home with both legs and arms.

But they have the "Decider" on their side and such tranquility must be longed for, with sacrifice, if you want to buy into the whole "democracy" thing.

Yeah, they elected a government and it's a horserace as to which one is more inept - there's or ours.

Bush keeps reading the 'Democracy" script, and Maliki is on-board with having a Unity Government, just as long as it is a Shiite Unity Government and he can use the death squads to wipe out, or drive out, the Sunnis.

Kinda like what the Republican Party, Tom DeLay and the K Street Project attempted to do, only without the guns, IED's and car bombs.

Historians, Start Your Pens! Let the Rewriting Begin!

"I respect you and the arguments you've made. We went into this largely united -- in our assumptions and in our convictions. And whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure. Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work."

United ...In our assumptions?

We weren't "united" and there weren't any "assumptions" beyond how wrong going into Iraq would be.

We were beaten over the head with fear and threats, with WMD's and mushroom clouds and the only convictions in play were, if you questioned Bush and the administration, you were seized upon as giving comfort to our enemies, or worse, labeled an appeaser.

He's running out of rope on how he can spin this thing. Even members of his own party, in the Congress and Senate are fleeing from this man. Perhaps, to coordinate with the announcement of Hillary Clinton to run for President, the only road left will be, somehow, to start laying down more lies to blame the Clinton Administration, not just for terrorism, as ABC attempted to do, but for the Iraq Occupation as well.

But There's A Better Plan ... Brownshirts!

Last year, in his SOTU, Bush called on scientists and inventors to step forward, for last years' Energy Initiative.

This year, I had to do a double take when he spewed out this line;

"A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. And it would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time."

There's a historical reference for Bush's call for a "volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps", and they're called Brownshirts.

Surprisingly, the heated heads of the post-speech talkfest didn't mention this.

Is Bush calling on the continued privatization of the military, or, is he looking to create his own, private storm troopers?.

"...Hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them ..."

We're not talking about having civilians fill in for the National Guard, which will continue to be hijacked and thrown on the front lines.

This isn't a civilian brigade to fill sandbags, clear trash or direct traffic at disaster sites. Bush wants to give them uniforms and guns and send them out, we assume, to spread the seeds of democracy.

About That Table

Early in the 2006 Midterm campaign, Nancy Pelosi, and others in the Democrat leadership, stated that impeachment was off the table, should, or when, the Democrats regain the majority.

I, along with others, took that as a talking point, or, better stated, to remove a talking point from the Republicans that could be used against Democratic candidates.

Over thirty-years ago, we nearly impeached a president for his blatant breaking of the law and complete disregard for upholding the Constitution he swore to protect. He chose to resign, as opposed to facing that fate.

Be it Bush's Iraq Occupation, or his Domestic Spying, or his intentional misuse of Signing Statements, or his administrations' exposing covert agents (it's only Day 2 of the Libby Trial and the dirt is flying out of the courtroom like a busted Electrolux that's blown a gasket), we again have a president who has broken the law and flaunted the Constitution.

Time for Pelosi and the Democratic Leadership to start shopping for that table and pull the curtain down on this show.

Bush talked about the "nightmare scenario" that would befall us if we don't support his troop escalation and gain "victory" in Iraq.

It's time we also start looking at the "nightmare scenario" if we continue to allow this president to wage war, whether it's a build-up in Iraq, or he heeds the call from the shrinking chorus of neocons and starts carpet-bombing Iran. All the while, giving lip service to the true War On Terror.

Oh yeah, one last thing.

What were the two words that never passed the lips of our Chief Executive last evening?

New Orleans.


Links

President Bush's 2007 State of the Union Address

Democratic Response to the State of the Union Address

William Rivers Pitt's "The Tiniest President"

Edward Copeland's 'Translating The State of the Union