This Spygate debate, with the verbal ride- around- the- ranch over 911 / brave new world imperatives, is the latest entrant into the scandal of the week slam dance occurring in the mosh pit of DC. For Mr. and Mrs. Peoria, it is yet another invitation to play Pin the Tail on the Donkey whereby the average American is spun 'round and 'round, in a dizzy rendition leaving the confused citizen vaguely associating some democrats with the jackasses central to the game.
More on the Flip...
Ponzi Scheme Scandal of the Week
What is shocking about their rationale for all this (the urgency of domestic surveillance) is an implicit admission under their charge of four+ years: We are no safer. Are the Neo Cons admitting that
after they have had over four plus years at this, the mushroom cloud may
still be imminent? The only argument that should be put to the country suggesting that the stakes are so high that there may not be enough time to wait is this: There may not be enough time to wait on the President and Vice President to serve our interests.
The Cheneyites, and don't forget that Bush is merely Cheney's vehicle to power, have found perfect accommodations in unwarranted NSA domestic sigint: The real windfall from such intelligence lies in the virtually boundless commercial, market, and political advantages gained from letting these creeps on the line. Despite the fact that the so called congressional briefings originally took place in Cheney's Office, Cheney skillfully has George out in front. As for Bush and his political staff, even this scandal works. It surely works for Rove personally and as the Presidents handler: It takes the heat away from a pending indictment of the Presidential Advisor, and allows Bush to be cast again as the push the envelope president in a post 911 world. It works for Cheney as well. Like Rove, Cheney benefits in that he is allowed to relieve himself of the CIA Leak Scrutiny, at least temporarily. It has the added gratification for Cheney that in this leak, Cheney is pissing right on the CIA.
Nonetheless, this mess with the sweet refrain of 911 sung in the background works for the Republicans as they play hard ass tough guys rather than the reality of their chickenhawk record: These neo-kooks are crooked contractors running a phony, misguided war that has in fact made us no safer at home and only served to line their pockets. They are looting the Treasury and bankrupting our economy. They have been utter disasters on the home front and AWOL in the clutch. Although with this president its rare to use a word literally, Bush has presided over escalating warfare on the middle class and the abandonment of the poor.
Cheney is seeking shelter within the DOD Intel apparatus and NSA and moving with all speed to liquidate the CIA. Cheney and Rumsfeld's roots in DOD are long standing with respect to historic turf wars over Defense Intel appropriations between DIA, NRO, NGO vs CIA. The dirty, albeit not-so-secret in intelligence is that is virtually- and sometimes actually- a license to print money behind closed doors. The real problem in intelligence is that there are so few sympathetic characters within the Community. Loose reigns on the disbursements of black budget contractual operations has sprung for unauthorized prêt a porter and Goss-amor wings for more than a few ex officers of the Company. It pales in comparison with the trillions of dollars coursing through the DOD in the last nearly forty years. Through all this going back to at least the 1970's, there has been Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, whether in office or not.
DOD Plunder
With most crime there are often a few simple, basic motives. Money. Power. Prestige.
Jealousy. Revenge. Predatory Survival. In the final analysis, these will be the same basic motivations driving the much vaunted Mr. Cheney. As Cheney, Rumsfeld and others have supped at the Defense Troth for going on forty years they have always feared in the back of their minds: Some how it would all catch up to them. Maybe the Russians would win the war. Maybe we would win the peace. Maybe someday the gravy train would end. Maybe some bastard not easily marginalized in the chain of command, or some piss and vinegar type in DOJ would have something on `em.
In his Stalinesque rise to the top, Cheney has ridden on the coat-tails of men whose ambitions were mostly motivated by the prestige associated with power and service. This can be fairly said of his service under Rumsfeld, Ford, and Reagan. In this regard, though Cheney and Rumsfeld both partook of Pentagon Plenty, they perhaps dined at different tables. Rumsfeld is more narrowly self satisfied. Rumsfeld is motivated mostly by the power and influence. Cheney, by morphology, is a glutton at the power lunch. No small part of Cheney's motivations are money, revenge, jealousy and self aggrandizement. The flat affect of Cheney's persona famously mistaken for gravitas is truly a dissociative mask now barely concealing his sadistic nature. Cheney was known to be a mean drunk, with a few notable indiscretions logged by early rivals. Such persons would know that Cheney's conspiratorial bent is no mere latency or aberration any more than if he were a latent homosexual.
Career civil servants of the former Soviet Union who ended up with billions in State resources were viewed cynically and characterized criminally by the West. We viewed our Russian brethren as a people beaten down by the state. Such people were captive to corrupt regimes that thwarted laws for their own ends. We were told the average Soviet was a victim of state disinformation, deception and propaganda, poor education and functional illiteracy. So much for confessing to the sins of others, let us take the splinter out of our own eyes, shall we? A few questions are in order in the U.S.
Who is Richard Cheney? How has he really amassed his Influence, Power, and Fortune? By this I don't mean the cliché big shot in government through revolving door to private sector blah blah blah aint it a shame kinda crap. I mean the blow by blow, know where the bodies are buried with pictures kinda stuff. There are of course a few people who know this information aside from Cheney and person's directly involved. The most threatening of these from Cheney's point of view are CIA.
What would you rather talk about if you are Cheney? A little NSA wiretapping and Constitutional Crisis is fine especially if dumbass is takin' the heat..
What I think we are seeing is perhaps a Ponzi Scheme of Political Scandals/ Catastophes in which one is layered ever on top of another to perpetually avoid paying up.
Iraqi Civil War
As terrible as all this IS, there is another more troubling issue in the reality lag time continuum known as the Bush Era: WE ALREADY ARE in the middle of a Civil War in Iraq. This will not change regardless of the delusional spin, organizational musical chairs, getting better message, or cheerleading the purple thumbed pom-pom girls of recent Iraqi vote fame. This is reality: we can not afford as a nation to be embroiled in a ground war without end in the Middle East as our economic security (which, after all, has been the basis of our military superiority) is sold wholesale in the Pacific Rim.
Encore?
What would you rather talk about if you are Cheney?
What I think we are seeing is perhaps a Ponzi Scheme of Political Scandals/ Catastophes in which one is layered ever on top of another to perpetually avoid paying up.
The good news for Cheney is that the reality and use of the term "Iraqi Civil War" will commence next week and just begin catching on when the Next- Big- Thing comes along. It looks like it may be a doozy... Can you say : IRAN???.