A Drinking Game, Bush-wacking, How to Run for President, a Pregnant Lesbian. And, a Depeche Mode Parody.
If we had more troops, if we had spent more money, if we had stayed longer, if only....
I could have written something about Bush's SOTUS* earlier, but it took me a good whole 24 hours to recover from that speech. You see, I played the drinking game while watching. My friends picked words like, Osama, Iraq, terrorists, winning, Madam Speaker, etc. No surprise there. Every time Bush uttered these words, my friends had a drink. I lost, because I agreed to take words that I'd never expected Bush to say, hence I agreed to triple my intake playing the odds. I mean, who'd expect to hear, "Baby Einstein," [mentioned 3 times!], "Dikembe Mutumbo," and .."global warming"! What can I say, I find Bush very predictable but he surprised me on this one.
As for anything else, this president has lost credibility. Much of a president's power comes from his ability to convince, to project his vision, to make people follow him. It's too later for Bush to do that. Even his own hard-core supporters don't know what to believe anymore. In his SOTU speech last year, he said that there would be a reduction in the US troop levels in Iraq by 2007! Now he wants an escalation. Our country is increasingly isolated because of the war! Even the Brits are pulling their troops out while Bush is sending more American soldiers in Iraq! Notice that he doesn't speak of "coalition forces" or of allies anymore.
On another subject, John Kerry made the right choice--to run again in 2008. Not for the presidency, but for the US Senate where he belongs. I have to disclose, that I worked for Kerry's campaign in Ohio in 2004, and I still believe he would have made a much better president than the current one [OK, almost everyone agrees with this statement]. Yet, I also thought that he should not attempt another run for the White House. John may be an awkward politician but he is an asset to the Senate and the country. By the way,we progressives appreciate his stance on the Iraq war issues.
The NYT reports of intrigue and betrayal at the trial of Dickey's former chief of staff, 
Lewis "Scooter" Libby. The case is a bit convoluted but there's got to be something seriously wrong with a Veep who hires someone with the name "Scooter"! Wanna bet that there's a connection between Rove's office [Bush's chief architect] and Jeff Gannon? Oh, and did you hear about Dickey's explosion on CNN when Wolfie asked the Veep about his lesbian daughter having a baby? Obviously, I have no problem with love and loving relationships, and same-sex couples having/adopting children, but it is the hypocrites I despise. I think it's highly hypocritical to say that you approve of what your daughter is doing [having a same-sex "marriage" and a baby] while your government promotes discriminatory policy and a morality fit for the Dark Ages. Same with abortion, health care, and a host of other social issues that adversely affect only the poorest among us.
Update, 1/27. Maureen Dowd of the NYT makes this eloquent and very accurate point:
In a democracy, when you run a campaign that panders to homophobia by attacking gay marriage and then your lesbian daughter writes a book about politics and decides to have a baby with her partner, you cannot tell Wolf Blitzer he’s “out of line” when he gingerly raises the hypocrisy of your position.
"The Revelator"
Bush clip: And for the millions of Americans with no health insurance at all, this deduction would help put a basic private health insurance plan within reach.
Colbert: It's so simple. Most people who couldn't afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes. But...if you give them a deduction from their taxes they don’t owe, they can use the money they're not getting back from what they haven't given to buy the health care they can't afford.
Now, if you have nothing else to do, you can download Giuliani's campaign handbook, here.
Cheers,
*SOTUS: State Of The Union Speech
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