Dear Joan:

They are drowning old white guys unless they stop being the bosses subordinates.

The nature of the President is such that unless overwhelmed by a broad revolt within the subordinated Republican Party, he will maintain a steady course until the end of his administration while seeking to place blame for his failure upon others and using whatever means necessary to transfer public rage for his failures upon Democrats or other citizens who might demand accountability.

Lives will be sacrificed, societies ruined and treasuries looted in the name of the Leviathan that he chases within his insular enclave.

It would be wise for the party leadership to pronounce his administration dead and commence caucus hearings under the guidance of the Republican National Committee (RNC) to plan for the reconstruction and reformation to come after the 2008 elections.

Use a strategy used so well by the Iraqis, let him proclaim victory but slowly walk him down the lane to capitulation. All the damage done can be identified and forums for reconstruction initiated. Just start that attitude among the members, now.

Start with their own milestones. Bring in the military to a caucus or hearings to restore principles for conduct of war and solicit their recommendation for force reconstruction. Do the same with diplomacy. Hold hearings on intelligence improvements. Keep peeling away at the president's follies now that he is without his rasputin

Treat the White House as death’s caretakers and stick to revival, restoration and reconnection.

It could act like a fire break against the impending public outrage.

British troops have pulled out of the southern regions of Iraq and are holding up in a fortress near an airfield for quick evacuation. The President holds his strategic conference in an isolated airfield in a region far from Baghdad secured by tribal alliances formerly of the opposition. It would appear that this war has developed trajectories that we are not watching. Our debate may be a distraction while we are losing control of the initiative which seems to have shifted to the Iranian allies.

Ironically it is not the Senator's toe tapping environment, or even the pornographic pictures from Abu Ghraib, or the military general dejour who will point to progress and ask for more of our heirs and money, or a president who doesn't recall a bit of history or an intelligence report, or a secretary who plays classical music and speaks in mythical expressions as a way to curry favor for the foreign blood letting, or families of new power who will take money from any source and perform as required while always denying so, or military officers who no longer value the trust that comes with their commissions as they go to war or courtsmartial, or networks executives who allow lending or religious preditors an entrance medium - all done without a shred of regret or accountability, it is maybe that we have let ourselves go into the black hole from which even a Mother Teresa could not recover. We who are without a god haven't yet developed the courage to rely upon our souls. Yet!

Joan;

As has played out in the Gonzales mud drag and now in the Senator Idaho Potatohead opera, there is a continual tragedy/ comedy of very hollow men who can cause great damage without accountability. Toe tapping, indeed, not "that there is anything wrong" with that.

It would seem that we have degenerated into a society of continuously shouting advocates whose debate is not joined by a common thread of value or ethical foundation.

I am sure you must find it excruciating to deal with it nightly in the commentator hollywood square on MSNBC.

But thank you for withstanding it.

Dear Joan:

Maybe we focus too much upon the Administration which is best discribed as the caretaker of a dead delusion. It is a vacuum when it comes to any vision concerning our national security or our intentions for what we hand to posterity outside a possible picure of a White House wedding, a staggering national debt and a globe full of annoyed friends and encouraged enemies.

Much of what runs Iraq, be it either from major forms of Islam or allied to whatever monarchy or theocracy or cell, has realized that opportunity exists in tag team dancing with the blind and lethally desperate mouse even if it is currently wrecking the neighborhood.

It is a real reality tragedy in which the same loser, always the mouse, voluntarily remains week after week and each winner gets a rotating chance for gaining profit from inflicted pain or successful fraud.

The best that can be said concerning the 300K now being spent on friendly elephants is that it is being removed from the winner's profit and not available, unless renewed thru supplemental appropriations, to fund cells or arms and elephant ivory traders.

Joan:

Billions of dollars have disappeared from the treasuries in Iraq. They are being recycled, I am sure. So much of Iraq's cash wealth has been looted; but, its most lucrative wealth of oil reserves and the control of public utilities remain up for grabs among our various and ever changing friends and enemies. As has happened since the first days after 911 and continues, this Administration is being danced and storied thru the chapters of 1001 Arabian nights. Sinbad left Baghdad nine times on voyages for fame and fortune. How many times has Allawi departed to deposit what he carried out and to seed future extractions?

Barbour's is an enabler who is working the disasters at home (Katrina) and away (Iraq) quite nicely also.