Shrub: Trust Me--Have I Ever Steered You Wrong?


I've blogged it and photoshopped it, but I'll say it again: Shrub's always reminded me--in the worst ways--of a stereotypical used car salesman (or, as my sister creatively put it, "used war salesman"). Maybe not quite as bright or quick, but willing to smirk his way through pretty much everything, as the latest headlines suggest re: Port quo Pro:

President Bush on Thursday defended his administration's decision to allow a company from an Arab country to operate six major U.S. ports, saying, "People don't need to worry about security."

"This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America," Bush told reporters during a Cabinet meeting.

Aside from the poor choice of words, I was reminded of Bush's initial post 9/11 reaction, the "shop till you drop and travel to the moon" speech he offered for public consumption--while we now know, behind the curtain, cynicism and greed kicked into overdrive.

Well, that's not terribly surprising--after all, could anyone else besides Team Bush even CONSIDER taking something as horrific as 9/11 and making it tantamount to a badge of honor? Then again, they had the corporate media either nodding their collective heads in sort of a zombie-like ritual...or conveniently tossing things down the memory hole.

Unfortunately for Shrub, the memory hole might swallow up plenty of stuff, but, like the radiation surrounding its celestial counterpart, some traces remain just outside the event horizon...and, one can always hope that since Shrub and company--literally (the part about "company," that is)--are getting exposed for the greedy-bastard-lying-sacks-of-shit they are when it comes to matters of national security/importance, the otherwise zombie-press corps might decide to, oh, I don't know, take a critical look at the rest of their sorry-assed agenda.

For instance, take Iraq--please. Actually, in all seriousness, once again, things have turned dramatically for the worse, with over a hundred more people killed in the aftermath of the Askariya shrine bombing in Samarra (Riverbend has a new post up worth reading). Seven US soldiers were also killed in two separate IED attacks. Oh, and on the home front, I'm pretty sure--sadly--that this is still the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the soldiers they sent over there:

Army officials have recommended a court-martial for a Purple Heart recipient accused of stabbing his young wife 71 times with knives and a meat cleaver.

I don't doubt we'll see more of this sort of thing--or worse.

To paraphrase Orrin Hatch--nobody, that is, nobody with a brain--doubts that the administration response to Hurricane Katrina--and Hurrican Rita--was as lamebrained as their strategery for post war Iraq ("bring 'em on!"). Meanwhile, Team Bush continues to finance their way through it all by going in debt to...the People's Republic of China. Nice work.

Consider the things Shrub has botched: 9/11, capturing bin Laden, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Medicare drug plan, the economy, the response to the hurricanes, the constitutional system of checks and balances...and now they tell us to trust them with their decision on port management...

I'll trust them about as much as I trust Big Time with a firearm.