NYT and Salon Ask: “Why Paul Wolfowitz?”

But then, Why Condoleeza Rice for Secretary of State? Why Karen Hughes for undersecretary of state? Why John Bolton as ambassador to the UN? Why Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General? They all are inappropriate appointments to unqualified people. Why does the White House keep making these ill-advised appointments? Might as well ask, Why did the Supreme Court ratify a fixed election in 2000? The answer is: Because it can. The New York Times ends today’s editorial by saying that nominating Wolfowitz to head the World Bank is “too critical a post to be used by the president to make another triumphalist political point”. Salon’s Farhad Manjoo says Wolfowitz is “a defense specialist. This is not a qualification to be the head of the World Bank”. So. Everyone knows Wolfowitz is ill-equipped to be the head of the World Bank. And everyone knows Bush is bent on nominating him. Furthermore, everyone knows that not a single world leader is going to buck the US White House and dispute the appointment although not a single world leader wants Wolfowitz to run the World Bank. Who benefits then, in this latest White House “Fuck You” to the world? The White House benefits. They got rid of a big pain in the ass to Rumsfeld and Condi Rice. Plus they got to foist a warmongering fascist who knows nothing about global development and cares nothing about global development on the world. Another coup for the White House bullies. Could they have more fun than this? And while the BushMen are high-fiving each other for another ill-advised and arrogant appointment that demonstrates they can do whatever they want, what else is going on in the White House Third Reich? Well, let’s see, the new FCC Chairman, Kevin Martin is going to bring morality and decency back to radio and TV. He’s still in a church-lady snit over the SuperBowl half-time program when Janet Jackson showed off her surgically enhanced titty. Martin sniffed that the whole gyrating half-time program was “too crude”. You want too crude? I’ll give you too crude. Here’s how crude and ignorant and clueless our leaders have become. In a rare moment of lucidity, Tom Friedman’s NYT Op/Ed piece today lays out exactly how the White House has sold us down the river to China. He says, “the Bush team has not only been steadily eroding America's leverage and room for maneuver vis-à-vis its biggest long-term competitor - China - but it has actually been making us more dependent than ever on Beijing....the Bush team and its Republican-run Congress, have helped China become the second-largest holder of U.S. debt, with a little under $200 billion worth.” Friedman quotes energy economist Philip Verleger, Jr. who says, regarding the recent decision by the GOP-run Congress to allow oil drilling in Alaska, "I am sure China will be thrilled with the Bush decision to drill in Alaska...oil in Alaska cannot easily or efficiently be shipped to our Gulf Coast refineries. The logical markets are on the West Coast of the United States and in Asia. Consumers in China and Japan, not the U.S., will be the real beneficiaries of any big Alaska find.” Is that crude and sleazy and foul enough for you? Well, one thing we know: the BushMen are having a wonderful time. Like the small-minded, gloating, sarcastic, spiteful, gossipy, bitchy, ball-busting sewing-circle ladies that they are, they sure have shown us who wears the pants. Oh you betcha!!!! Just like Nero, Hitler, Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover.