Massive Sell-Off


Reading about Robert Gates's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee reminds me once again of our MBA preznut's major "accomplishment" prior to joining the legal monopoly of Major League Baseball and his subsequent foray into politics: his tenure at Harken Energy.

I guess the only major difference between the respective situations is that Shrub is still nominally in charge of the Executive Branch...which in this case perhaps makes Gates's statements about losing in Iraq more analogous to the moment when Enron's investors realized that Kenny Boy Lay was a lying sack of shit.

However, a common theme emerges: you've got Shrub--or his good friend Ken Lay--insisting that all was good long after it became painfully evident that instead there was a major malfunction. And their respective refusals to acknowledge reality made the resounding thud from the crash landing that much louder.

Of course, Kenny Boy WAS eventually found guilty...although he managed to run out the clock, as it were. Shrub, on the other hand, has a history of one, getting away with his behavior, and two, testily changing the subject when asked about his business dealings. And, if I remember right, one of his first actions as president was an executive order restricting the release of official documents.

Of course, you can't restrict the release of reality, which has a way of catching up with its most insistent deniers. Gates admits the obvious--we're losing in Iraq. Maybe the media will finally stop playing the role of Bush's bitch and start asking some real questions...although I'm not holding my breath.

And, like with Harken Energy, when it's all said and done, we're likely to be left holding onto a lot of worthless paper. Let's just hope that other factors, like the historic position of the United States relative to the global political economy, make the thud a little less harsh...