It Doesn’t Matter

Now that the Prez has stamped his little foot in a fit of pique and vetoed the first Iraq spending bill, legislators are looking for ways to draft a second bill that would meet with White House approval. The Washington Post reported this morning, “House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) indicated that the next bill will include benchmarks for Iraq -- such as passing a law to share oil revenue, quelling religious violence and disarming sectarian militias -- to keep its government on course. Failure to meet benchmarks could cost Baghdad billions of dollars in nonmilitary aid, and the administration would be required to report to Congress every 30 days on the military and political situation in Iraq.” All that bullshit about benchmarks and requiring Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government in Iraq to do this that and the other is window dressing. It allows Bush to say he stuck by his guns and now he will fund the troops. But changing the language in the proposed bill has no meaning in the real world. In September, General Petraeus is going to take a look at the progress made by Maliki, which is negatory, and he will say the latest strategy is not working. It must be in our hardwiring, this business of telling lies to justify horrendous mistakes. How many marriages have taken place when either the bride or the groom or both have already realized it was a mistake? But so much money had been spent, and the church had been booked, and the hall had been hired and the dresses had been bought. Look at all the Popes who have ratified nonsense in the Roman Catholic Church canons in order to claim Popes are never wrong when everyone in the world knows Popes are almost never right. Although Reverend Al Sharpton has done everything he can to rehabilitate his image, to this day he has never apologized or admitted he told monstrous lies in the Tawana Brawley case 20 years ago. Brawley was a 15-year-old black girl who claimed she was raped and smeared with feces by six white men. Her false claims were supported by Sharpton even after they were proven to be lies by a grand jury. Sharpton and Brawley’s attorneys Alton H. Maddox and C. Vernon Mason were sued for slander and had to pay $345,000 in damages. There are those who claim New Jersey Governor James McGreevey made the choice to come out as a gay man and resign as Governor rather than face up to charges of malfeasance and corruption in his administration. Now that McGreevey has just renounced Roman Catholicism and embraced the Episcopal Church and will shortly enter General Seminary to become a priest, I favor the view that he is gay and corrupt and therefore perfectly suited to his new vocation. However, I digress. George W. Bush and his cronies really do not believe their war in Iraq is a righteous war. But they would rather continue to kill thousands of people than admit they are and have been wrong from the gitgo. This ridiculous charade that is taking place in Congress is of no consequence. It doesn’t matter how the terms of the bill are couched. The troops will start to be withdrawn in October. Bush will leave office disgraced. And a host of Republicans will be voted out of office in 2008.