Dig Faster! Clap Harder!

The man with the $3,000 dollar Trek Fuel mountain bike--and a 747 and SUV to haul it around (how's THAT for "the common touch?")--boldly spoke about the Iraq war--after fleeing to Idaho:

President Bush says he has listened to but disagrees with Iraq war critics who want U.S. troops brought home immediately, saying to pull out now would hurt that country's fledgling democracy and the United States too.

Here's the "fledgling democracy" in action:

At least four people have been killed as supporters of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr and a rival Shia group clashed in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf.
Violence was said to have flared when Mr Sadr's Mehdi Army re-opened offices near Najaf's Imam Ali shrine.

Iraq's transport minister and a number of MPs were reported to have suspended their membership of Iraq's cabinet in protest at events in Najaf.

Mr Sadr's followers staged two revolts against US troops in 2004.

Note that it was Sadrists who killed Cindy Sheehan's son in 2004--and, if I remember right, at one time Moqtada was yet another one Shrubelroy wanted "dead or alive."

You know, come to think of it, being wanted "dead or alive" by Shrubusto must be the pinnacle of any aspiring fundamentalist Islamic nutjob...being as how not a single one on THAT list ever gets frog-marched, much less taken out (then again, "taken out" has so MANY meanings, according to the Christian variety of nutjob--I dunno, maybe it means "taken out" to a nice restaurant for a decent meal).

Anyway, Sadr is now at least nominally an ally--but evidently not exactly addicted to democracy (even as Bush, to cite Digby again, is behaving as if HE'S back on the sauce--and who knows what else, as he continues to evince zero understanding of anything remotely resembling reality...

Finally, Billmon, in his latest post, updated his penultimate one--SLOWLY pointing out, perhaps for the benefit of a few mouthbreathers, that what was deemed a "poignant" moment in the 2005 SOTU involving Janet Norwood and Safia Taleb al-Souhail turned out to--not surprisingly--to be just another empty gesture from Team Bush:

So, to drive the point of my last post home a little harder, let me summarize:

The White House propaganda maestros used an Iraqi women's rights activist as a living prop at Shrub's state of the union address earlier this year, whipping wing nut war hawks and media dingdongs alike into a frenzy of teary-eyed patriotism. They also arranged for her to stand immediately in front of the mother of a Marine killed in action in Iraq -- setting the scene for a "spontaneous" hug that reduced a national television audience to quivering lumps of sentimental jello and left Joe Klein spitting phlegm-coated bile at the Democratic Party.

Now, that very same activist is telling the world the Americans just sold her, and her Iraqi sisters, down the river to a bunch of medieval mullahs with Made-in-Tehran labels on the insides of their turbins.

Will her betrayal simply be pushed down the media memory hole with yesterday's garbage? Are we really that far gone?

Yeah, I remember Bobby Jindal as one of those smug asshole Reps proffering a purple finger...well, Mr. Jindal, why don't you take that finger and shove it (which, unlike the Iraqi elections, might actually accomplish something).