If Harriet Miers had a track record in a field of experience relevant to the lifetime job she's nominated for, there would be no need to "get to know her." If her nomination is due to her "heart" or her sycophantish (sycophantine?) personality, then the administration has no choice but to have her talked up like a starlet in the running for an award. Whatever else it is, the Supreme Court is a deliberative body that requires a level of scholarship that is not apparent in Miers' resume.

Miers' attachment to Duh-bya is a frightening thing - remember the Cheney-Scalia duck hunt? There's enough caballing going on at the upper levels of our government without adding to it. After all, we know about the relationship in advance this time - Harriet gets to stay in a trailer at the Bush pile in Crawford already. If she gets confirmed, they might let her come into the house.

One other obstacle to Bush's expectation of reconnecting with the American people (although he's never connected with a maority of them at all - part of his "winning" percentage must include a lot of people who voted for him as the lesser of two evils, or out of fear that militsnt Muslims would be on their doorsteps unless a Republican was in the White House) is the Bush bubble. Will he continue to campaign for his sorry policies in rooms full of only people who have declared their support for him? Will the media continue to cover these staged events as news? Will the public get mesmerized by the endless repetition of "stay the course, more sacrifice, etc" in Iraq and accept it?

Bush hasn't said it lately, but his mantra of the presidency being hard work is true. And he was no more prepared than Harriet Miers for the job he was elevated to. He just likes the "Hail to the Chief" and "Mission Accomplished" moments. Otherwise, he'd rather be cutting brush. (which he CAN do without needing to be rescued.)

Bob Woodward has every reason to put George "Gulag" Bush's interests ahead of his readers', his newspaper's and the public's interests - they feed him and make him wealthy. But, as my spouse is fond of saying - "If you lay down with pigs, you get up smelling like them." Woodward has wallowed in the Bush pen (and trough) for too long.

If the Plame leak was an organized one, the White House agents are savvy enough to put their leaks out carefully and to let each other know to which reporters the beans have been spilled so it doesn't look like an organized attempt - imagine if Matt Cooper had the same information leaked to him by 5 different staffers. It would look like an attempt to discredit someone. Woodward is not even a reporter, as his editor admits - he's just the White House stenographer. He wasn't expected by the White House to rush out and write an article about Valerie Plame like the others were. But he could have confirmed a tip for a Walter Pincus or another reporter, if asked, because of his connections.

There's a manure smell about the whole thing. The WP should dump Woodward and let him go take Scott McClellan's place.

I hope Gale Norton is one of the indictees. With everything else that's going on in DC, no one has been paying much attention to the Dept. of the Interior and our newest James Watt.

Cindy Sheehan started with a simple, clear and compelling demand of George "Gulag" Bush: what was the noble cause for which her son died? After endless rounds of the same speech from GW without any sign of "progress" from Iraq, Americans were starting to be ready to hear that question and want an answer.

When Katrina hit and W had another pet goat moment, followed by rhetoric about progress in New Orleans while reality was more accessible than in Iraq, I think the light bulb finally lit up. Thus the collective emperor sans clothes moment.

Hurricane Katrina might be natural selection at work?

Television programming is generally awful. For kids it replaces creative and ingelligent activities and encourages obesity, callousness towards violence, insensitivity towards other people, consumerism, stupidity and a host of other unpleasant and anti-social habits and traits.

There's an easy solution -turn the darned thing off. Those who don't like it, for whatever reason, don't have to participate in TV culture.

Why is it that so many people on the right want hands off of corporations and obscene profits, but want to regulate other people's personal lives? Why is it that these same "folks" won't support access to health care for all, including mental health care, but demand that their own vision of cultural health and religious values be imposed on those who don't share them?

So the Republicans' logic on the reach of GW's presidential authority is that Bush can mount an unprovoked invasion on a sovereign nation, then justify every action he takes thereafter because our nation is at war.

Newspapers, television "news" and individual reporters have been giving this regime a pass for far too long, and are now lining up to boost the gulager-in-chief's popularity at a time when calls for impeachment and a restoration of a level of sanity should be ringing across the land.

Does anyone know if Finland is still taking in disaffected Americans? And can I bring my pets?

Happy Holidays!

By giving W a free pass for four years, the media allowed this king to mount his throne. There should be mass demonstrations in the streets, but the public has been inured to the dangers of this administration like a frog in hot water - and the media is back to swallowing Bush's line that "there will be progress in Iraq in 2006."

Those who have a tale to tell should be getting it out there, to the point that even the Republicans have to take notice - and ACTION!