Blame game

Wow. Talk about stumbling into idiocy.

The Senate deal for immigration reform falls apart last week. Between Frist playing the racist Republican base and suddenly self-thinking GOP minions trying to gain advantage every which way, the party in power couldn't get the bill passed. The House GOP goal was more geared for 1930s Germany than 21st century America, but no one seemed to give a damn about that.

No, despite a racist House and a disunited majority in the Senate, Bush is blaming the Democrats for the deal falling apart. That's like blaming the dog for your kid driving through the garage door.

That's alright though. I'm used to Bush blaming everyone but himself and his quasi-loyal usurpers. A couple weeks ago he was blaming Saddam for all the violence in Iraq. Okay, sure the guy is a total wretch, and he definitely is responsible for holding down the majority Shi'a population. So, maybe Bush-head has a point.

However....

The US invaded Iraq and allowed looting to happen, allowed the economy to fail, bungled diplomatic efforts, and railroaded elections to attempt to put their puppets in power. It was Bush, not Saddam, that invited all the terrorists in the world to "bring it on" and come into Iraq to play shooting gallery games with our soldiers' lives.

I'm not about to apologize for a mass murderer, but I seriously doubt anyone with more than a wet sponge in their head is going to believe that Bush, who is in charge of the occupying army, is blameless for the violence in Iraq. And I doubt that you can really pin this all on Saddam, a known secular anti-fundamentalist, who - incidentally - has been locked up in military custody for the past couple years, is the mastermind behind a religious Shi'ite majority revolution that is fighting a religious Sunni terrorist-backed civil war in his own homeland.

Once again, you are an idiot if you believe this man at all.

Retired Gen. Anthony Zinni, former CENTCOM commander, has rightfully been pointing out that the media has been somehow blamed for all the bad news in Iraq. If you have the time, watch CBS' Lara Logan try to dispell this meme a few weeks ago (video here).

Even spokesfiend Scott McClellan is blaming the media for the administration's use of reports of roving Iraqi weapons vans. You know, information so "credible" they forced Colin Powell to present it to the UN as fact.

More on military matters. A couple of stories about how retired generals are speaking out against Rumsfeld as current officers apparently face demotion and forced retirement if they do it themselves. More info on this here.

How does the military learn how to interface with Iraqis on the street? Why, by playing video games! Interested? Here's a story about the game "Tactical Iraqi". Hey, if it keeps soldiers alive and helps with the hearts-and-minds thing, why not?

One more. Here's the story of a Marine reservist who was held up on his way home from fighting terrorist because...HE WAS ON A TERRORIST WATCH LIST! Now folks, only BushCo could bring such tragic farce into being. Though, if you have to emphasize with the Gestapo, consider this: he was trained in US military weapons and tactics, he was in a military theatre, he did have a tan, and, of course, Dan Brown is probably a cover name for a incoming terrorist.

Not that I believe a word of any of that.

As for the rest of us, apparently 54% of us ""don't trust" Bush to handle the situation in Iran. Now THAT'S foreign policy skill in action.

To wrap up, a story on the NSA's infiltration of AT&T. Oh joy, government spies and a recombined communications giant. A laughable story about the follies of creationist education, and how it confuses schoolchildren. "Wait momma, I thought mythology class was only on Sundays?"

I've been spending a lot of time visiting Lifehacker lately. Among some of my recent favorite articleslinks are How to sleep on an airplane plus news on Google Calendar, including a link to keyboard commands. Plus links to useful utilities like cl1p.net, which I used just yesterday to help with some support issues I've had on call.