Dim Rummy

I Smell a Ratzinger

The 700 Club

Let’s see, anti-war rally 100,000; pro-war rally, 500. Why couldn’t we see these numbers come election time and why the small turnout for our fearless leader? I have a theory. Maybe Karl Rove’s wind-up conservatives (otherwise known as Rove-bots) are worn down from the past few election cycles. It also strikes me that these numbers are oddly familiar. 100,000 ~ 500 100,000 ~ 500 WAIT....George Bush "won" the 2000 election by 500 votes in Florida. He then "won" the 2004 election by 100,000 votes in Ohio. So were the 500 Rove-bots who showed up for Sunday’s pro-war rally the same 500 that gave Bush his 2000 election "victory" in Florida? And were last weekend's 100,000 anti-war protesters the same voters who finally realized Rove operatives changed their John Kerry votes in Ohio last November? (boy are they pissed!) Ok, I know its a stretch but weirder things have happened since 2000. Things we'll undoubtedly never find the real answers to.

My guess, the dwindling mass of still loyal Bushy-backers are either Rove-bots or founding members of Pat Robertson’s 700 Club. You know, that devoutly Christian mercenary group that for a one-time, tax-deductible, contribution will assassinate a foreign leader of your choice.

By the way, check out this video to view an in-depth look at the genius behind George W. Bush.

Do As I Say Not As I Do

Bush Urges Conservation as Retail Gas Prices Rise

"We can all pitch in by being better conservers," Mr. Bush said after being briefed on the situation at the Energy Department.

The Cheese Factor

Extreme conservatism, the suppressing of free expression and corporate media consolidation have created a perfect storm that has sucked the life blood of creativity out of our culture. The result: music, film, art, literature and fashion stuck in the mud. New genres have not evolved and our culture couldn’t be more boring. We need a political and cultural revolution in this country.

I’m often asking myself, “Why is American art and culture so stagnant nowadays?” Music, movies, television, Broadway, fashion, literature and the visual arts all seem to be a mass-produced rehash of things done much better the first time around. Now I’ll admit nothing can be really new. Every story must follow the rule of arc and form originally laid out for the Greek tragedies. Music is limited to 8-note octaves plus flats and sharps. But my experience is that art has always changed and evolved, spawning new genres.

In music, over just a few decades we went from Big Band to Swing, Elvis to Motown, British Invasion to Acid Rock to Hard Rock, Metal, Punk, Disco, R&B, Hip Hop, House, Dance, Pop, Rap and Alternative. What new musical genres or moreover, any artistic genres, can you think of that have cropped up in the last 10 years? It’s like creativity has skidded to a halt. Of all the many things that are wrong with this country right now, this one is probably close to the top of my list. It is art that ultimately expresses who we as a society. If you want to see what's wrong with this country, just look at the art that is being produced. Art today tells me that we are a shallow, empty culture adrift. I feel bad for young people today and what they miss by not living in a creative, energetic, inventive and ever-evolving culture. I am so very glad that my youth was spent during an explosion of artistic creativity in our country!

So why is art so bad today? The best analogy I can think of is what I like to call the “The Cheese Factor.” It goes something like this: Big corporations don’t make cheese, they make pasteurized, processed and homogenized cheese food (Many of these products aren’t even allowed to be called “cheese” by the FDA). Conversely, small dairies in Vermont, Wisconsin, England and Ireland make some of the best cheddar you ever sank your teeth into. Apply this analogy to the music or movie Industry and you see what I mean. Run by huge corporations, with boards and stockholders, they don’t give a hoot about art. They simply want a return on their investment.
This is not to say that something great isn’t occasionally produced in this environment. Star Wars was the product of an imaginative moviemaker constantly fighting for his vision against skeptical and impatient media moguls. The movie was so successful it spawned a new genre and revolutionized the entire industry. It was also a great movie because it was a morality tale that reflected the cultural mood in America just after the end of the Vietnam War.
Great art mirrors life but bad art can mirror life as well. Take the onslaught of reality TV. I can’t fathom people’s fascination with Donald Trump and everyones favorite air-headed party girl Paris Hilton (Donald, you're not hot and Paris, you're fired). Apparently, their greed and narcissism are so extensive they require an ever-larger audience to fill with envy. In any case, reality TV is a perfect mirror of today’s culture. It reflects a society where people infested with greed will eat bugs, wallow in sewage and jump off buildings for a few thousand dollars while voyeuristic audiences watch enthralled.
Other "reality" programs consist of completely phony stories made up by studio writers and produced on a low budget in the guise of “I was there with my handi-cam”. Fake tension, squabbles and drama save this cheap, mass-produced form of entertainment from immediately putting its audience to sleep. Does this not reflect the lies and phony veneer that are the foundation of Bush’s presidency? It is all unpleasantly surreal when reality = fantasy both on TV and in society at large.

One oasis in this cultural desert is the Internet, which I believe, holds great potential. Blogging is to media what microbreweries were to the beer industry. It de-conglomerates the whole endeavor and challenges the Goliaths to get their act together.
Politically, conservative eras have always been synonymous with repressed artistic expression. Most of us, especially those who lived through it, know what a cultural explosion the sixties were. This creativity paralleled one of the most liberal eras in our country. Society and culture do revolve, around and around, hence the word revolution. There is no doubt that another cultural revolution will eventually take place, albeit hopefully not like China’s. In the business world, mega corporations will realize they are too big and unwieldy and will eventually unwind, reversing the Cheese Factor and spawning a better environment for creativity. In fact, once there are no more good mergers left, investment banks will push spin-offs again so they can justify their purpose and continue filling their coffers simply by switching gears.
Similarly, the extreme conservatism in our country has already probably outlived its desirability (if it ever had any). It lately appears that Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with it. Once again, the cultural repression inherent in conservatism will dissipate and after a decade of artistic doldrums I expect (nay, I demand!) an artistic revolution.

But for now I think I’ve said enough and besides, my Cheez Whiz has finished heating in the microwave.

The Tide is Turning

President Bullhorn picked a good weekend to get the hell out of Washington. While he's mugging for cameras and trying to make up for his failures during the recent Katrina disaster, he's also evacuating Washington (without sitting in traffic) and the ugly reminders of his foreign policy disaster that is the Iraq War. A huge anti-war rally is scheduled. I would urge anyone who lives in the Washington D.C. area or wants to have a great weekend really making a difference in this country to head on down (or up)! If you are fleeing Houston, keep driving (albeit slowly) up to D.C..!!Let's show conservadroids how protesting is done! It sure seems that in the midst of the tidal floods lapping the south, the tide is turning around the country. Republican policies are failed policies and once again it is time to have our voices heard and get this country back on track!

Test Your Political Knowledge!

Don't worry...this test is easy!

1. George Bush is to “Mission Accomplished” as

a. Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq
b. George Tenet it to accurate intelligence
c. Dick Cheney is to energy policy
d. Tom Delay is to ethics
e. All of the above

2. FEMA’s Mike Brown is to “Good Job Brownie” as

a. Osama bin Laden is to “Smoke ‘em Out”
b. Karl Rove is to “Any CIA leakers will be Fired”
c. Condi Rice is to “Can I go to the bathroom”?
d. No child left behind is to children left behind
e. All of the above

3. “War on Terror” is to Iraq War as

a. Weapons of mass destruction is to Iraq War
b. Removing tyrannical dictator is to Iraq War
c. “Freedoms on the March” is to Iraq War
d. “We have to keep fighting to honor the dead” is to the Iraq War
e. All of the above

4. Rich people are to tax cuts as

a. Poor people are to wage cuts
b. Middle Americans are to layoffs
c. Old people are to eating cat food
d. Unqualified people are to presidential appointments
e. All of the above

5. Gas prices are to drivers as

a. Fuel bills are to homeowners
b. Buying a home is to everybody
c. Evacuation is to poor people
d. Budget Deficit is to federal government
e. All of the above

6. The American Dream is to immigrants as

a. College education is to most Americans
b. Getting healthcare is to 30 million Americans
c. Getting married is to gay people
d. Retiring comfortably is to U.S. workers
e. All of the above

If you answered anything, you are correct. If you answered "e" to every question, you go to the head of the class.

Disaster Lurking in Your Own Home

Is it just me or does anyone else believe the housing bubble is going to burst in supernova of Technicolor fiasco? It seems as though recent business cycles, like recent natural disasters, are getting increasingly severe and leaving ever more human casualties in their wake. U.S. Homeowners, like the Tsunami victims in Southeast Asia and the Katrina victims in the Southeast U.S., are increasingly unprepared for these major financial corrections.

In many housing markets the price of homes by any measure is unprecedented. Which, in my mind is pretty much the definition of a bubble. Here’s one good example. Currently, in California an average of only 18% of the population can afford a median-priced home. Yes, you read that correctly, 18%. Being that “median” is a type of average, it would logically follow that rational economics would be closer to 50% of the population of any area should be able to afford the “average” home. Granted California is a pricey housing market but it is one of many in the U.S.

There is a solid economic reason for why I and many other experts believe the housing market will decline substantially. If you look at long run historic returns for housing, stocks, currency, art or any other asset you find two things that never change: cyclicality and long-term equilibrium. These are economic laws that act similar to physical laws. In the long run you cannot escape these laws. The long run average yearly increase in home values is somewhere around 4-8%. Some years, home prices fall, most years they go up. In the past five years however, they have increased 50% nationwide (much more in markets like Boston, New York and San Fran). As absolute as the law of gravity, housing prices will eventually regress to their long run average of around 4-8%. Since this will require a reversal of unprecedented recent price increases to be achieved, we are in for one butt ugly real estate bubble explosion.

Why is this disconcerting? Well, as you’ve no doubt heard many times, individual net worth has become increasingly tied to home values. American consumers are maxed out on credit and it is all tied to the equity they have (or don’t have) in their homes. Now some of you may be thinking “but home prices won’t plummet like the stock market and we survived that bubble.” But you are underestimating the debt that people use to buy homes. They don’t usually borrow as much to buy stocks. Leverage increases risk exponentially.

"If your home went down by 30 percent, you'd probably be sitting with a bankruptcy attorney," said Jonathan Golub, United States equity strategist at J. P. Morgan Asset Management in New York. "If your I.B.M. stock goes down by 30 percent, no big deal. So you had $100,000, now you have $70,000. You don't declare bankruptcy; you just don't go out to the movies as much, or you retire a year later."

If home prices plummet, many American’s will become insolvent. The ones that don’t will cut back on consumption dramatically. This will ripple through the economy creating a spiral of business failure, job loss and possible recession. When combined with the unprecedented price of gasoline and heating oil, things are looking extremely worrisome

The bottom line is this; American’s are woefully unprepared for natural disasters and terrorist attacks. But there is an approaching disaster of our own making that is even more likely to derail American lives - and it’s in your own home.

George's Overnight Epiphany

Here are some selected quotes from CNN's website. Now CNN is not exactly liberal media folks. They are probably second only to Fox News as being the primary vehicle for administration spin.

George W. Bush
"As we clear away the debris of a hurricane, let us also clear away the legacy of inequality," the president said. "As we rebuild homes and business, we will renew our promise as a land of equality and decency..."

"...poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality..."

Huh?...does anyone who isn't yet brainwashed really believe Bush has suddenly become an advocate for minorities and the poor? Please.

In perfect counterpoint, here are some more snippets regarding the FEDERAL beauracratic road blocks to the response effort:

• Doctors eager to help sick and injured evacuees were handed mops by federal officials who expressed concern about legal liability.
• Warehouses in New Orleans burned while firefighters were diverted to Atlanta for Federal Emergency Management Agency training sessions on community relations and sexual harassment.
• Dr. Bong Mui and his staff, evacuated with 300 patients after three hellish days at Chalmette Medical Center, arrived at the New Orleans airport, and were amazed to see hundreds of sick people. They offered to help. But, the doctor told CNN, FEMA officials said they were worried about legal liability. "They told us that, you know, you could help us by mopping the floor." And so they mopped, while people died around them. "I started crying," he recalled.
• FEMA halted tractor trailers hauling water to a supply staging area in Alexandria, Louisiana.
• Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security secretary, has offered no explanation as to why he waited three days after the National Hurricane Center predicted a catastrophic hurricane to declare Katrina an incident of "national significance."

These incredible anecdotes speak for themselves. One can only hope Bush's actions start to match his words but we've been down this road before. It would require from him an about face of unprecedented magnitude. A complete 180 on close to a dozen years of neglect, abondonment and hostility toward the neediest Americans. My belief - nothing Bush now says rings true. Once the Katrina fallout blows over he will once again be back to screwing the lower and middle classes of America. Pathological liers seldom have overnight epiphanies. He's trying to save his sorry ass but its too little, too late.

Sir Bushalott

Beware the Blame Game!

There is nothing more pathetically desperate than a conservadroid backed into a corner. Their glazed zombie-like stare is almost sad as they frantically wave dull, stump-like talons viciously at anything that moves. But their little paws are worn dull from a five-year political catfight and now their fur is but mange, matted and caked with New Orleans mud after desperately trying to resuscitate a terminally ill presidency. No, they're going down now, kicking and screaming for sure. One can only wonder what brilliant final words Mother Bush (forever known as "Marie Antoinette" or simply "let-them-eat...Bush") will sputter as the figurative bow of her sons presidency, "Titanic One" sinks below the waters for the last time.

But BEWARE! The desperate last gasp of these wild-eyed conservazombies can be dangerous! Like the defeated Nazis in their last days, today’s fascists will likewise go out in a big, over-the-top uber-drama. They will burn their own Washington Townhouses down, eat their young and destroy what little is left of the civilization that they, in their complete narcissism, believe isn’t worth saving without them.

With that in mind, we liberals must use our superior intelligence during this critical time where the tide has begun turning against the fascists. Above all, we must counter desperate conservative spin at every turn. Remember, as rusty as we are at playing offense, we must keep these lying liers constantly on the defense because it is likewise unfamiliar territory to them!

The Blame Game is real and getting vicious. Via Karl Rove, Bush has a very sophisticated and still well oiled (they still get oil cheap) Gatling gun of lies and character annihilation. A recent example of how this weapon works is the “cover your ass” response to the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. These bastards are trying to blame state and local government for the lack of response to the Gulf disaster. This tactic was a deviously brilliant political contingency that, unlike natural disasters, Bush and Rove actually did plan well. You see, the federal government has fiscally starved state and local governments for years. State and local governments have very limited tax-generating abilities. Municipal governments get most of their revenues from property taxes. This money has to pay for expensive school systems that the federal government no longer helps to pay for. States have limited funds as well. Many states don’t have any income tax and many that do (like mine) have misguided republican governors who have cut state taxes during an economic downturn, following in the footsteps of prior republican dumb-ass Herbert Hoover. Economist John Maynard Keynes convinced FDR this was an economic fiasco over 70 years ago! It is a repeated fiasco today because Bush’s lousy economy results in lower incomes and more people on the dole, creating a vicious circle of lower tax receipts and higher government outlays. The trickle down effect of Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility to state and municipal governments is NOT an accident. This is how Bush has been able to cut taxes to the rich while overspending on his failed war. When the shit hits the fan, which they knew it would, they simply blame the resulting lack of public services on state and local governments. Clever, huh?

Reality Check: The federal government is in charge of disaster relief and states of emergency. Why? Because it is often these poor states (who by the way, voted for this idiot) that are disproportionately hit with disasters they can ill afford to handle. For Bush’s Ministers of Spin to blame state and local government for the Katrina fiasco is both tasteless beyond belief and a blatant whitewashing of their responsibility. It is the frantic cat-scratches of a desperate and failed administration. BEWARE THE BLAME GAME!

End of the Bush Era

Excellent article in Tuesday's Washington Post. I think it is right on point and basically what we've all been thinking (and many of us posting). I've published the article below in it's entirety. Enjoy!

End of the Bush Era
By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005
The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.
Recent months, and especially the past two weeks, have brought home to a steadily growing majority of Americans the truth that President Bush's government doesn't work. His policies are failing, his approach to leadership is detached and self-indulgent, his way of politics has produced a divided, angry and dysfunctional public square. We dare not go on like this.
The Bush Era did not begin when he took office, or even with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It began on Sept. 14, 2001, when Bush declared at the World Trade Center site: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Bush was, indeed, skilled in identifying enemies and rallying a nation already disposed to action. He failed to realize after Sept. 11 that it was not we who were lucky to have him as a leader, but he who was lucky to be president of a great country that understood the importance of standing together in the face of a grave foreign threat. Very nearly all of us rallied behind him.
If Bush had understood that his central task was to forge national unity, as he seemed to shortly after Sept. 11, the country would never have become so polarized. Instead, Bush put patriotism to the service of narrowly ideological policies and an extreme partisanship. He pushed for more tax cuts for his wealthiest supporters and shamelessly used relatively modest details in the bill creating a Department of Homeland Security as partisan cudgels in the 2002 elections.
He invoked our national anger over terrorism to win support for a war in Iraq. But he failed to pay heed to those who warned that the United States would need many more troops and careful planning to see the job through. The president assumed things would turn out fine, on the basis of wildly optimistic assumptions. Careful policymaking and thinking through potential flaws in your approach are not his administration's strong suits.
And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.
The source of Bush's political success was his claim that he could protect Americans. Leadership, strength and security were Bush's calling cards. Over the past two weeks, they were lost in the surging waters of New Orleans.
But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty between 2001 and 2004.
The breaking of the Bush spell opens the way for leaders of both parties to declare their independence from the recent past. It gives forces outside the White House the opportunity to shape a more appropriate national agenda -- for competence and innovation in rebuilding the Katrina region and for new approaches to the problems created over the past 4 1/2 years.
The federal budget, already a mess before Katrina, is now a laughable document. Those who call for yet more tax cuts risk sounding like robots droning automated talking points programmed inside them long ago. Katrina has forced the issue of deep poverty back onto the national agenda after a long absence. Finding a way forward in -- and eventually out of -- Iraq will require creativity from those not implicated in the administration's mistakes. And if ever the phrase "reinventing government" had relevance, it is now that we have observed the performance of a government that allows political hacks to push aside the professionals.
And what of Bush, who has more than three years left in his term? Paradoxically, his best hope lies in recognizing that the Bush Era, as he and we have known it, really is gone. He can decide to help us in the transition to what comes next. Or he can cling stubbornly to his past and thereby doom himself to frustrating irrelevance.

“Mobile” Alabama is Aptly Named

“In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they hope to open 30,000 homes every two weeks, reaching 300,000 within months.”

You’ve heard of Minnesota being the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” well soon, Louisiana will have a greater (or lesser) distinction. Land of a Million Mobile Homes. Today’s New York Times explains FEMA’s plan to plop zillions of Bechtel and Halliburton designed and constructed Trailer Trash Communities in hurricane ravaged areas…because well, heck Bushies really care about the plight of poor displaced blacks in America! Now, I realize that immediate housing following the Katrina disaster is imperative but shouldn’t there be some thought about actual community planning? We all know that once these people are situated in the absolute lowest standard of housing possible, the government will be finished with them. One can only imagine the “Trailer Squalor” that is going to infest the tri-state Gulf region. I mean why are we going to further perpetuate the third world conditions that led to this situation in the first place?

This Will Surprise You!

Firms with White House ties get Katrina contracts
FEMA taps Halliburton subsidiary, Shaw Group, Bechtel for cleanup

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.
One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

Bush administration profiting on death and destruction?? Who'da thunk?? I mean, they seemed like such nice people!!

Rep. Richard H. Baker (R-LA 6th)

This is a Republican Congressman from Baton Rouge. And this is what the New York Times reported he was overheard saying to his lobbyist friends about Huricane Katrina...

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

Feel free to tell this chump what you think. Here is his contact information:

Web Site: baker.house.gov

E-mail: Contact Via 'Write Your Rep.

Washington Office:341 CHOBWashington, D.C. 20515-1806Phone: (202) 225-3901Fax: (202) 225-7313

Main District Office:5555 Hilton Ave., #100Baton Rouge, LA 70808Phone: (225) 929-7711Fax: (225) 929-7688

In a League of Their Own

One has only to look at the disastorously inadequate federal response to the devastatation that has beset the Gulf Coast (imagine if it had been BLUE states!!) in order to observe what is a perfect metaphor for this administration. Similar to the aftermath of 9/11, the response to Hurricane Katrina has been not unlike an episode of The Three Stooges. There is one consolation, however. Added to the upcoming anniversary of Bush's failure to capture Osama bin Laden will be the memories of Hurricane Katrina. Memories less of the disaster itself and more of the preventable deaths, looting, raping and violent anarchy that followed. These memories will still be fresh in voters minds when they throw republicans out of office in 2006 and 2008.

Once again the International community and intelligent observers in our own country are shocked at how a supposedly advanced and developed Superpower could be so woefully ill-prepared and pathetically comical in its response to this disaster. Anger that has been simmering in this country for five years is reaching a boiling point and Katrina has been a valve that has released a small portion the intense anger of this country. An anger born from years of disenfranchisement for many people in the U.S.

The greedy, the rich and the well-connected, the small majority that has disproportionately enjoyed the fruits of this corrupt administration had better move to higher ground because the flood waters are going to rise to levels far beyond that of Louisiana's plain.

People of all political stripes have, for a long time, pointed out the incompetence of George Bush. This crisis in yet another example of a tired and weary nation grappling with the fact that he is simply not up to the task of being President. This administration is in a league of their own. Unfortunately it is 20,000 leagues below a sea of floodwater on the South Coast of Louisiana.

"This is a Bad Man"

Remember the last Presidential Debate when John Kerry used the "L" word to describe the Cheney's gay daughter Mary? Oh my God no, she's not liberal, I meant the other "L" word. Well, remember how "angry" Lynne Cheney was because John Kerry didn't call her - what, a "fruit", "queer", a "carpet muncher"? I believe he said she was normal, healthy, one of God's children and loved by her family (well, as much as evil conservadroids can love anyone). Remember how angry Lynne Cheney was that someone would "use" their daughter like that? I mean how dare he say nice things about her? Never mind the fact that his passionate defense of Mary Cheney was made directly after Bush admitted to not knowing if homosexuality was a disease. But the way Lynne Cheney remembered it, you'd of thought he had burned their house to the ground. You could see the smoke coming out her when she said of John Kerry, "This is a bad man."

Now let's compare this to Cindy Sheehan's observation about George Bush. The following are her remembrances of their first (and I guarantee, only) encounter.

Sheehan met Bush at Fort Lewis, Wash. Her son, Army Spc. Casey A. Sheehan, had been killed in Sadr City in early April 2004, just a few months earlier. She described Bush as insincere and ill-prepared. She said he kept referring to her as "Mom" because he did not remember her name. "He came in inappropriately jovial, like we should be honored that we should be there. He said, 'And who am I honoring today?'"

If the president tried to disarm an obviously prickly Sheehan, he failed. "He has no compassion," she said. "Being with him is like being with a shell. He does not have any compassion. He did not want to look at the pictures we brought of Casey." Sheehan said Bush kept changing the subject.

Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain was with the president that day. He also visited with Sheehan and her family. McCain supports the war. In comparison to Bush, Sheehan said McCain sparkled. "He wanted to hear about Casey and he wanted our story."

I don't think you have to have survived being a POW for six years to have compassion. I don't even think you have to be compassionate to show respect for the mother's of fallen soldiers. I think you have to be truly narcissistic and contemptuous to behave the way Bush did and still does.

He hasn't changed. Bush's speech about the devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi has made it clear that even beyond the fact that he needs to fire his speech writers - it is simply not in the nature of this man to feel or convey empathy for people in desperate need of it. Even Ronald Reagan, whose policies I despised, was able to empathize with people and convey a grandfatherly sense of "everything will be all right" when the moment called for such sentiment.

George Bush lacks this ability. He has always come across as the cocky, arrogant, spoiled rich kid. His words say one thing but his facade always conveys a, "ha-ha-I'm-getting-away-with-it" quality that is hard for anyone who is actually listening to get past. He is a mean, self-centered sonofabitch (sorry Barb) and that is such a part of who he is that all the spinners and strategists cannot hide it. All the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men cannot put back together again what never existed in the first place. Bush (read: Rove) has been able to pull a lot of things over on a lot of people but he's never been able to fake empathy very well. For someone who was determined to be a "wartime President" it is a quality, the lack of which will be the undoing of his ham-fisted rule. We can spend millions of words and hundreds of hours trying to psychologize this shortcoming but I think Lynne Cheney summed it up perfectly when she said, "This is a bad man."