First there was the rash of books from insiders saying how wonderful Bush and everything Bushian was.

Then there were the leftie "but wait a minute" books like Fiasco, and Dick Clarke and so on.

Now that the wheels are all the way off, we are getting a NEW rash of "we knew it all along" books from the insiders.

This administration and everyone who's ever worked in it just makes me sick. I've reached a point where there is just nothing more to say than that.

One small point that no one else seems to have noted: Tenet got the first word out on Al Qaeda's nuclear ambitions/capabilities, with his little tale about Qaeda canceling an operation because they had something much bigger in mind.

Anyone seeing that meme grow on the rightie sites? I can no longer stand to read them even for research purposes.

As I write this, there are nearly 300 comments on this thread, and I can't read all of them, so forgive me if I repeat something said previously (though of the comments I have read, there seems no such approach being taken.)

I've said this so many times, on so many sites including Salon and my own piddling little blog, but here it is again: it is my firm belief that Bush has no intention of vacating the office of the presidency in January 2009.

http://logicalnegativism.blogspot.com/2006/06/hes-not-leaving.html

And articles like Mansfield's, and Yoo's ravings, and many others, are tools in that goal: set up the argument, then spring the act. I'm even beginning to think that Blackwater and other professional soldiering organizations might end up being part of the plan to hold on to the "unitary exec" before the 08 elections.

I know - believe me, I know - that this sounds like tinfoil-hat stuff, and nothing would make me happier than to turn out to be really and unquestionably wrong about this.

But the signs are there at least that the thought has occurred to someone, and that the attempt is likely to be made. All one has to do is look, as GG has in this article. Looking back at the past 6 years, the conclusions I've reached on this are not really all that far afield, now are they?

because it was yet another sign that the republicans STILL don't get it - that they still don't recognize that 06 was not an anomaly, that a significant portion of the voting public actively and forcefully repudiated everything they (the republicans of the Bush era) stand for, and that the more they stand by the mistakes they've made for the past 6 years and promise they'll make them again, the more likely it is that they'll have their asses handed to them again in 08 and beyond.

They can continue to pander to their basest base all they want, and my guess is, they'll end up with the dead-enders in the 25-30% range, and that will be damn near all they'll get. But even at that, none of the candidates with the possible exception of Brownback (and do we really want a President BROWNBACK, fer cryin' out loud?) showed the ideological and wackjob-religious purity that the wingnuts require in their candidates. I'd imagine that the true wingnuts came away from last night's master debate with "none of the above" as their choice.

So yeah, let 'em all rant on like this for 18 more months. It's our only hope for some kind of return to sanity in America. Let them think they still have their fingers on the pulse of the people, and that they understand what America wants.

Then, pull the little lever in the voting booth, and in your mind, imagine it's a flush handle sending them all swirling down the bowl.

BTW, it WAS Fred Thompson who wasn't there and who Joan was suggesting won last night's debate. Just wanted to clear that up for amspeck. A little irony, dontcha know...

First a question: why doesn't Salon allow anchor tags for the insertion of embedded links to examples and explanatory material? They allow other HTML code, why not that one?

To my point:

Read this Tim Grieve story, as you've obviously done if you've gotten this far.

Then read this story about Scott Bloch's and the Office of Special Counsel's "investigation" of three separate WH scandals:

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CREW_OSC_wrong_choice_for_Bush_0424.html

Then read THIS story about the investigation by a WH "panel", whatever that means, into allegations of wrongdoing by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction (you have to add the http etc at the front of the link because we can't embed anchored links.)

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/02/AR2007050202714.html

They're not very difficult dots to connect, really. Every one of the above, and certainly more besides that are going on under the radar (so far), are attempts by this corrupt administration to appear to be doing something to address serious issues and allegations, while in reality - remember reality? - doing all in their power to shield the guilty parties, especially those in the top levels of government, almost certainly including those in the White House and Bush himself.

How much of this filth must we take? I mean really, how long will we be lied to, and OBVIOUSLY lied to, before people take to the streets and scream, finally, loudly and long enough to be heard?

Our government is LYING TO US DAILY about stuff that really matters, not just the piddling crap that all governments lie about, but real, honest to god life and death stuff. Why are we allowing it still?