a long overdue rant.

For a start, our esteemed president has totally screwed the US military.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready, mostly because of equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday.

"I am further behind or in an even more dire situation than the active Army, but we both have the same symptoms, I just have a higher fever," [Lt. Gen. H. Steven] Blum said.

A quick google search of the Bush/Gore debate back in 2000, gives us this little gem:

GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Our military is low on parts, pay and morale. If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the army would have to report "not ready for duty, sir."

If there's typically four brigades in a division, this makes Bush approximately four times as much of a douchebag as Gore. And Gore was kind of a douchebag back then. (ceteris paribus... Bush was probably lying back in 2000).

And for what? Well, according that bastion of liberalism, the Wall Street Journal, we've turned Iraq into a kleptocracy. A massive version of Arbusto perhaps.

The corruption that has plagued Iraq's reconstruction -- described by U.S. officials as the "second insurgency" -- is worsening, complicating American reconstruction efforts and shattering public confidence in the Baghdad government, according to a new report by a Bush administration watchdog agency.

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen said in his quarterly audit that the Iraqi government estimates that corruption costs the country at least $4 billion a year, a staggering sum for a war-ravaged country that remains heavily dependent on foreign aid.

By the way, that's your tax dollars we're throwing away there. Actually, to be more accurate, it's your grandchildren's - because the White House is so deluded that they consider a $300 billion deficit (ex-Iraq costs at $250 million a day) to be good fiscal housekeeping.

And the architect of this clusterfuck is the person that a good 35% of America still thinks is responsible enough to introduce legislation like this:

A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.

The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. The two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said.

Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.

Someone needs to buy George W. Bush a bag of Rold Gold, because I'm not sure the country can handle another two years of this.

Comments

[Rick Brown]

Really? Care to expand on that? Tell us what made Gore a "douche bag" other than numbnuts in the media that couldn't stand him (and we know those intrepid reporters are always right;)
Right now I'd give my left nut to have that douche bag in the oval office other than (I won't denegrate douche bags any further) what we now have.

[dave_yarmouth]

i've always the 'follow the money' approach is a pretty handy way of trying to make sense of BushCo's crimes and misdemeanors; if you can figure out who profits from a given debacle, it goes a long way to explaining the causes of it. One thing i've never adequately figured out for myself: if Bush et al, through mismanagement and misuse, manage to turn the ground units of the US Army into the equivilant of the Red Army circa 1991, worn out, understrength and mostly ineffective, who stands to benefit, and why? i almost can't believe that he's doing it by accident - and that's saying something here.

[jkas]

I actually don't have anything against Gore - expecially now that Bush is demonstrably one of the worst candidates to hold the presidency. But 1) he was just terrible in the 2000 debates. 2) in 1999 I was a Green Party activist 3) I like to be rude when describing people.

A good rule of thumb is never to attribute to malice, that can be explained by incompetence....