Read some of the live blogging here at DocuDharma and at Daily Kos. As I told her, 73rd Virgin won the prize with her characterization of Petraeus as a “shiny, shiny hero!” That ought to be our new catchphrase, I think.
But it doesn’t matter to me, the hearings, what the shiny, shiny hero said. Nor does it matter to me what our elected Democratic representatives in the House and Senate said. It’s all too surreal for me, all too surreal.
I think I’ve gotten to the point where rhetoric has become meaningless to me, be it in the media or from our government. All I focus on now is what they do — what they say is so predictable as to be … well … surreal.
Mister Bush and his gang of crooks are utterly predictable. We all know what they are going to do — try to continue the War in Iraq as long as they can, make it so the next President has a mess on his/her hands. They can’t change their ways any more and they wouldn’t even if they could.
And from our own side we’ll hear about the investigations, find more and more muck to rake, hear more and more speeches, some so good they’ll be plastered all over the blogosphere in print or video, some so bad they’ll be plastered all over the blogosphere in print or video (plus snarky insults and outraged insults).
So it’s Surreal America to me. In my world it’s obvious beyond a shadow of a doubt this war is done, finished, over. It’s time to bring the troops home. There is not a shred of a reason to do otherwise. Not only have we failed, we have virtually destroyed a country which did not attack us. Over a million refugees. Hundreds of thousands of civilians dead. A region in ruins.
And sure, I know there will be the sober analyses and up or down quality reporting from the traditional media, the blogs will rip apart all the lies and expose them for what they are, the politicians will be strong or weak, smart or foolish.
At this point the only thing that means anything to me in Surreal America is action. What will our representatives actually do? Will they vote to withhold funding from Mister Bush unless there is strong language that the funds should be used only for withdrawal? Will they hold in contempt Meirs and Rove? Will they enforce their own oversight?
Because everything else is just a surreal game and it holds my interest around as much as a bad comic book.
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… I don’t like “dharmists” or “docudharmists” to describe posters here. We could get all Buddhist and call ourselves gurus. Or lamas. Or maybe get all Bugs Bunny and call ourselves docs.
We really ought to figure that out soon, imo. It’s probably more important than all the bloviation of this diary.
Are you daft? *g*
We, the people, are now an annoyance to be forced into remote free speech zones, outsourced, downsized and used only to go through the motions of voting so that the performance can be used to cover up the real electronic vote manipulations.
The selected officials should at least be honest enough to change their titles from representative to chosen.
courtesy wonkette…
http://wonkette.com/…
Maybe we should start a “surreal moment of the day.” Here’s mine:
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, was attacked by six capitol police today, when he was stopped from entering the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, where General Petreaus gave testimony today to a joint hearing for the House Arms Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee on the war in Iraq. He says he was not admitted to the room because he was wearing a button that said “I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ.” During the arrest he was tackled to the ground and broke his leg.
Video is here.
by Tweety today, Tweety asked him what he would do to satisfy the voters who elected him to help end the war. Webb said he would continue to pressure to end the war carefully (read, no time soon). In his eyes there was detectable fear, like a ungulate in the bright lights of an oncoming train. This was the surreal moment for me among many today.
I want the Webb who gave the Dem response after Bush’s State of the Union earlier this year. That Webb said, “Get moving Bush or we’ll show you the way.” That Webb wasn’t present when addressed with Tweety’s question today.
general doofus has to wear a jacket too big for him to fit all his little doo-dads. he’s a shiny, shiny hero, because he seems impressive, and bush can hide behind him.
i think there is also a surreal irony in how the sectarian (‘partisan’) ideology of the iraqi government is what’s stopping bushie’s effort to make any demonstrable progress. dont get me wrong, i dont believe for a minute that gwb cares whether iraq ever has a strong central government, nor do i think he has any idea how to structure one.
but for the republicans, top to bottom, to have to blame their lack of progress in iraq on sectarian (‘partisan’) rifts….with a straight face…tickles my absurdity bone. it’s transcendent.
it’s crazy isn’t it? a guy gets tackled by the police and his leg gets broken and we’re not going nuts about it…
… where is John Kerry or President Clinton or Al Gore or John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama???? When something like this happens, how come they don’t get up and start screaming
it’s not just the republicans… it’s all of them … we can stay stuck here or move on… try to assess what to do and how to do it… the longer we hold onto the Dems as our only and best chance… the deeper in the hole we get and the harder and harder it will be to get out
!
What a nin-cow-poop!
in a Dali painting:
[http://www.dali-gall…]
I read any new Iraq analysis by beginning the dragging of my intellect through the thick manure of the Iraq samsara with a giant sigh. There is nothing new under this frying sun! Nothing left in this equation to happen now but action. I surrender to the fact that those in charge of this fiasco can fairly easily keep up the mendacity at least until this spring though.
(Rhymes with Yodas, it does)
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try. ~Yoda
T&P has T&Pers, you could have DDers.
doing it all over again to Iran.
And the MSM is going along for the ride gleefully.
Why not blame the 40 THOUSAND young Americans signing up for duty in Iraq each year, knowing full well what a hellish, dirty war it is?
Why not blame the 99% of the people who refuse to go out in the streets and bang on pots until the war stops?
Why not blame the 99% who are dutifully paying their taxes to fuel our murder and torture machine?
Bushism is NOT surreal – it is an accurate reflection of a corrupt society that believes a credit card war may yet steal enough oil to keep the SUVs running forever.
Bush is America. America has become rotten. Americans approve of torture and murder to defend our “national interests” in the Mideast. Apart from a few very brave people, like Cindy Sheehan, we are all “good Germans” now.