The Abuse President

In Talmudic studies, we have what's called a 'memah-nefshach' - a double-sided, double-edged proof for an argument. The abuse scandal (Torturegate? Iraqgate? Bushaspresidentgate?) is such a memah-nefshach.

On one hand, Bush knew about the abuse, and the Army investigation, and the *pictures* soon after the information surfaced and he smirked and looked away in order that the 'nation building' would continue without pesky interruptions.

Or, Bush knew nothing of this information and was misinformed, misled, and undercut by his cabinet and advisers.

Either way, memah-nefshach, Bush should be censured. In the first scenario, he is evil and should actually be impeached. In the second scenario, he is a dangerous incompetent and, hey, impeached.

The administration is trying to take the second tactic (see the Times, Rumsfeld Chastised by President for His Handling of Iraq Scandal) - and looking for a fall guy. Bye bye Rummy; you're in good company - Colin was exiled right after 9/11 and Condi has been placed on the cross to pay for the general Iraq failure.

Vietnam

What gets my goat is that the level of evil untruth in this administration is catastrophic. I was wondering why Bush doesn't realize that he's created a new Vietnam and its probably because he never knew Vietnam took place. He was too busy flying scooter planes around Texas and getting drunk every waking moment to even know that a Great National Tragedy was occurring.

Vietnam started for important, and morally defensible, purposes: to rid the world of Communism. Heck, I'm told even the Rav supported Vietnam because of its anticommunist aim. So Iraq began because of the same 'world-war' perspective with terrorism replacing communism while keeping the same ethic of 'you're with us or against us.'

However in both cases the government is falsifying the troop deaths (Westmoreland, anybody? Not allowing coffins to be photographed??), falsifying the reasons for the war, letting our soldiers get chewed up into bloody chunks through understaffing and under-funding, and most importantly LYING TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC EVERY DAY ABOUT THE WAR!

You'd think that Bob Woodward would have said something about this. It is, l'havdil, the same thing we pro-Israel dudes feel when we see the rise if 1930s style anti-Semitism. We cry "Nazis" - and rightly so - at the extent of worldwide active anti-Semitism. So the baby boomers, who should stop waxing their Hummers and gulping Viagra and look at the news for crying out loud, the baby boomers should remember what Vietnam looked like!

Impeach the Pig

Bill Clinton was nearly impeached for lying in a civil case involving sexual harassment. Every second of his presidency was hard-fought with virulent anti-president groups trying to bring him down for each and every move he made. Politics took on an ugly Frankensteinian animus - a petty, even personal, blood-feud against the President paralyzed the government.

The anti-Clinton troglodytes will still not admit how craven and callow they were for the 8 years of meaningless battle. Heck, any student of American political history knows this crap happens to the most effective of figures. The bland good-ol-boys (like Harding) don't get impeached because why bother; only revolutionaries are bogeyed.

But please, for the love of God, you people who hated Clinton with every pore of your corpuscular mass, can't you see the level of evil of this current government.

A good memah-nefshach can't go to waste!