Here's wishing a new year filled with everything they deserve to all DWT readers—not to mention DWT "regulars" Jack A. and Tommy D.
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Creeping into the new year, we're in one of the slowest news cycles of the calendar, and knowing friends have cursed and nodded knowingly when the Washington Post chose to dump its peekaboo-ing, first, into "The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff" and, now, into "The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail" into this news black hole.
If there's any compensation, it's that certain people—Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, to mention two (without even counting their growing legal teams)—are undoubtedly reading these reports with the utmost concentration.
With the new year looming, here's wishing a happy and healthy one to all DWT readers from the whole gang. (DWT himself when last heard from was in Marrakesh, preparing to decamp for someplace called Essaouira—I'll have to crack out the atlas for that one—while the art department was in Atlanta preparing, I suspect, for some serious ringing-in-the-new-year carousing. Isaac has weighed in with his holiday thoughts, and we're all still hoping that Helen will soon have some reflections to share . . . guilt, guilt, guilt.)
For anyone in need of some holiday cheer, I can't do better than to recommend Paul Krugman's "Heck of a Job, Bushie" column from yesterday. (Once again, for the benefit of readers who haven't met the NYT's ransom demand for access to its columnists, I'll try to include the full text in a "comment," below.) If you haven't seen it, the column consisted of a series of ways in which the world today looks mightily different from the way it looked a year ago, as for example: "A year ago, hardly anyone outside Washington had heard of Jack Abramoff, and Tom DeLay's position as House majority leader seemed unassailable."
You can be sure that in 2006 DWT will continue to try to stay on top of the stories that demand attention. Like we've really got to watch for any developments in the case of the purloined Mother Teresa cinnamon bun.
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December 30, 2005
Op-Ed Columnist
Heck of a Job, Bushie
By PAUL KRUGMAN
A year ago, everyone expected President Bush to get his way on Social Security. Pundits warned Democrats that they were making a big political mistake by opposing plans to divert payroll taxes into private accounts.
A year ago, everyone thought Congress would make Mr. Bush's tax cuts permanent, in spite of projections showing that doing so would lead to budget deficits as far as the eye can see. But Congress hasn't acted, and most of the cuts are still scheduled to expire by the end of 2010.
A year ago, Mr. Bush made many Americans feel safe, because they believed that he would be decisive and effective in an emergency. But Mr. Bush was apparently oblivious to the first major domestic emergency since 9/11. According to Newsweek, aides to Mr. Bush finally decided, days after Hurricane Katrina struck, that they had to show him a DVD of TV newscasts to get him to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
A year ago, before "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" became a national punch line, the rising tide of cronyism in government agencies and the rapid replacement of competent professionals with unqualified political appointees attracted hardly any national attention.
A year ago, hardly anyone outside Washington had heard of Jack Abramoff, and Tom DeLay's position as House majority leader seemed unassailable.
A year ago, Dick Cheney, who repeatedly cited discredited evidence linking Saddam to 9/11, and promised that invading Americans would be welcomed as liberators - although he hadn't yet declared that the Iraq insurgency was in its "last throes" - was widely admired for his "gravitas."
A year ago, Howard Dean - who was among the very few prominent figures to question Colin Powell's prewar presentation to the United Nations, and who warned, while hawks were still celebrating the fall of Baghdad, that the occupation of Iraq would be much more difficult than the initial invasion - was considered flaky and unsound.
A year ago, it was clear that before the Iraq war, the administration suppressed information suggesting that Iraq was not, in fact, trying to build nuclear weapons. Yet few people in Washington or in the news media were willing to say that the nation was deliberately misled into war until polls showed that most Americans already believed it.
A year ago, the Washington establishment treated Ayad Allawi as if he were Nelson Mandela. Mr. Allawi's triumphant tour of Washington, back in September 2004, provided a crucial boost to the Bush-Cheney campaign. So did his claim that the insurgents were "desperate." But Mr. Allawi turned out to be another Ahmad Chalabi, a hero of Washington conference rooms and cocktail parties who had few supporters where it mattered, in Iraq.
A year ago, when everyone respectable agreed that we must "stay the course," only a handful of war critics suggested that the U.S. presence in Iraq might be making the violence worse, not better. It would have been hard to imagine the top U.S. commander in Iraq saying, as Gen. George Casey recently did, that a smaller foreign force is better "because it doesn't feed the notion of occupation."
A year ago, Mr. Bush hadn't yet openly reneged on Scott McClellan's 2003 pledge that "if anyone in this administration was involved" in the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity, that person "would no longer be in this administration." Of course, some suspect that Mr. Bush has always known who was involved.
A year ago, we didn't know that Mr. Bush was lying, or at least being deceptive, when he said at an April 2004 event promoting the Patriot Act that "a wiretap requires a court order. ...When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."
A year ago, most Americans thought Mr. Bush was honest.
A year ago, we didn't know for sure that almost all the politicians and pundits who thundered, during the Lewinsky affair, that even the president isn't above the law have changed their minds. But now we know when it comes to presidents who break the law, it's O.K. if you're a Republican.
I suppose this is as good a place on DWT to post this letter to one of the editors at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Peter Bronson, who claimed, just after 9/11 that it was because of people like John Lennon that we're in the mess we're in today! (It comes with a Dolly Parton video as well!) It was sent yesterday.
Dear Peter,
Thought you might like to see this video. Dolly Parton is loved by
music fans of all genres.
I remember that you blasted the writer & creator of this song after 9/11
and then suggested it was because of he and those like him
who led the terrorists to do what they did in NY.
And if I recall well, you had said you were a war protester during those years and that you believed in his message.
Then, somehow, (you didn't explain) you got spun around when you left college
and became the "conservative" that you are now.
That's fine. I and others like me, understand how one does that. We
understand how the media does it's magic.
And you know, In the days of just 3 media channels, people were entirely more civil than today, The media magicians discovered they could make lots of money off of character assassination
Now, thanks in large part to the conservative(?) media outlets who started these nasty
fights to win the Whitehouse, we're left with an uncivil atmosphere. "The swift boat veterans for truth" carnival ( "the swift boat liars for truth"?) has escalated our government and our diverse people into a state of deceiptfulness and recklessness, the likes of which will surely lead to weakness.
A divided country is a weak country. Or so I've heard throughout life.
Now, I'm wondering since I have your attention if you might consider writing an
article about how the neocons took over the conservative party in America.
For some odd reason, I just can't "imagine" a true conservative allowing
their government to pry into their personal affairs with wire taps
without a judge's approval.
(Yes, I understand by law the government can tap without
a judge's approval ... but then must be approved by a judge before 72 hours goes by.)
A true conservative would be in a complete tizzy by now.
And I just can't "imagine" a conservative allowing their government to swell as big and as expensive as it has under this bush regime.
See Peter, here's what happened .... you conservatives allowed neocon
rush liebaugh and sean hateity and the like, to confuse you into thinking
it was liberals who are the culprit of all problems. Truth is, it is THEY who
were cooking up their neocon agenda to shove down the collective rights of all Americans, including you so called, conservatives ... it was they who are the culprits of most problems today.
In other words Peter, you were hoodwinked by the neocons and now they have control of YOUR government and MY government.
There isn't a true conservative in this country who would stand by idly as you have and watch this happen.
A neocon is NOT a conservative no matter how limbaugh and hannity
spin it. And as much as I hate to admit liking anything coming from the vile, michael savage,
at least he understands that the conservatives have lost.
Just "imagine" if ya'll over there on the right hadn't given the neocons your party.
Enjoy the video ... and all sarcasm aside, I do hope you like it and the artist's involved
who gave it to us. And maybe, just maybe, someday, you'll spin back around and join us.
Regards,
Tim Hurst
Ft. Mitchell, Ky.
Air America Radio : - )
http://www.allaccess.com/site/myallaccess/inbox/messages/eblast/DollyPar
ton/2005-12-6_at_2-04PM.html?aID=48230
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