John Dean pulls no punches:

President George W. Bush's presidency is a disaster - one that's still unfolding. In a mid-2004 column, I argued that, at that point, Bush had already demonstrated that he possessed the least attractive and most troubling traits among those that political scientist James Dave Barber has cataloged in his study of Presidents' personality types.

Now, in early 2006, Bush has continued to sink lower in his public approval ratings, as the result of a series of events that have sapped the public of confidence in its President, and for which he is directly responsible. This Administration goes through scandals like a compulsive eater does candy bars; the wrapper is barely off one before we've moved on to another.

Currently, President Bush is busy reshuffling his staff to reinvigorate his presidency. But if Dr. Barber's work holds true for this president -- as it has for others - the hiring and firing of subordinates will not touch the core problems that have plagued Bush's tenure.

That is because the problems belong to the President - not his staff. And they are problems that go to character, not to strategy.

[snip]

Interestingly, the category of presidents who proved troublesome under Barber's analysis is that of those who turned out to be active/negatives. Barber placed Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in this class.

In my prior column, I found that the evidence is overwhelming that George W. Bush is another active/negative president, and the past two years, since making that initial finding, have only further confirmed my conclusion.

Because active/negative presidencies do not end well, it is instructive to look at where Bush's may be heading.

[snip]

Bush has never understood what presidential scholar Richard Neustadt discovered many years ago: In a democracy, the only real power the presidency commands is the power to persuade. Presidents have their bully pulpit, and the full attention of the news media, 24/7. In addition, they are given the benefit of the doubt when they go to the American people to ask for their support. But as effective as this power can be, it can be equally devastating when it languishes unused - or when a president pretends not to need to use it, as Bush has done.

Apparently, Bush does not realize that to lead he must continually renew his approval with the public. He is not, as he thinks, the decider. The public is the decider.

Bush is following the classic mistaken pattern of active/negative presidents: As Barber explained, they issue order after order, without public support, until they eventually dissipate the real powers they have -- until "nothing [is] left but the shell of the office." Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon all followed this pattern.

Active/negative presidents are risk-takers. (Consider the colossal risk Bush took with the Iraq invasion). And once they have taken a position, they lock on to failed courses of action and insist on rigidly holding steady, even when new facts indicate that flexibility is required.

The source of their rigidity is that they've become emotionally attached to their own positions; to change them, in their minds, would be to change their personal identity, their very essence. That, they are not willing to do at any cost.

[snip]

As the 2006 midterm elections approach, this active/negative president can be expected to take further risks. If anyone doubts that Bush, Cheney, Rove and their confidants are planning an "October Surprise" to prevent the Republicans from losing control of Congress, then he or she has not been observing this presidency very closely.

What will that surprise be? It's the most closely held secret of the Administration.

How risky will it be? Bush is a whatever-it-takes risk-taker, the consequences be damned.

[snip]

But more likely, Bush may mount a unilateral attack on Iran's nuclear facilities - hoping to rev up his popularity. (It's a risky strategy: A unilateral hit on Iran may both trigger devastating Iran-sponsored terrorist attacks in Iraq, with high death tolls, and increase international dislike of Bush for his bypass of the U.N. But as an active/negative President, Bush hardly shies away from risk.) Another rabbit-out-of-the-hat possibility: the capture of Osama bin Laden.

If there is no "October Surprise," I would be shocked. And if it is not a high-risk undertaking, it would be a first. Without such a gambit, and the public always falls for them, Bush is going to lose control of Congress. Should that happen, his presidency will have effectively ended, and he will spend the last two years of it defending all the mistakes he has made during the first six, and covering up the errors of his ways.

There is, however, the possibility of another terrorist attack, and if one occurred, Americans would again rally around the president - wrongly so, since this is a presidency that lives on fear-mongering about terror, but does little to truly address it. The possibility that we might both suffer an attack, and see a boost to Bush come from it, is truly a terrifying thought.

If I didn't know better, I would say that John Dean is obliquely alluding to a possibility that George W. Bush may very well allow another terrorist attack to take place on our soil -- solely so that Republicans may remain in power and thereby salvage what little is left of his presidency. Given that in this administration political power trumps everything, I can easily see this bunch doing just that. It's just strange to hear even a veiled insinuation about this coming from a rational operator like John Dean.

I'm not sure I agree that another attack would produce a "rally 'round the flag" response and bump Bush's approval ratings up to 90% again. This is not 2001, when we had very little history with this president. We have now seen how he botches everything he touches -- from post-9/11 security reforms to the unwillingness to go after Bin Laden with any kind of zeal to the disaster in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath to $3.00 gasoline to the gutting of the American job base -- and I think another attack would just underscore just HOW much George W. Bush has ruined a once-great nation in a relatively short period of time.

What another attack WOULD do is give Bush an opportunity to declare martial law and cancel the elections altogether -- thus eliminating his risk entirely.

More unhappy red state teens:

RIVERTON, Kan. - Five high school students were expected in court Friday on charges that they fully intended to go on a shooting spree at their high school — a plot officials said was foiled when one of them discussed it on a Web site.

The boys, ranging in age from 16 to 18, were arrested Thursday, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, just hours before they planned to shoot fellow students and school employees in what may have been a response to bullying, authorities said.

“What the resounding theme is: They were actually going to do this,” Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Norman said Thursday.

The teens planned to wear black trench coats and disable the school’s camera system before starting the attack between noon and 1 p.m. Thursday, Norman said. Sheriff’s deputies found guns, ammunition, knives and coded messages in the bedroom of one suspect and documents about firearms and references to Armageddon in two suspects’ school lockers.

Media monitoring alert: the plot was uncovered after a woman who had chatted with one of the suspects on MySpace reported him to the authorities. Watch for the blame to be placed on MySpace itself as the source of the problem, and NO speculation as to why, when this happens, it's almost ALWAYS in good, God-fearin' Bible-thumpin' communities -- and why kids who are being bullied in these areas feel they have no other choice.

Welcome back to the 1970's:

Pumps ran dry at scattered gas stations as fuel terminals and stations struggled to adapt to ethanol in fuel mixes, causing some customers to hark back to widespread gasoline shortages of the past.

Catherine Rossi, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said she knew of eight stations in the Philadelphia region that were out of fuel on Thursday.

"There is truly a dearth of supply in the Philly and New York markets today," said Wayne Hummel of Liberty Petroleum L.L.C.

Four of the 40 stations Liberty supplies in the Philadelphia region ran out of fuel in the last two days as its tanker trucks made futile trips from terminal to terminal, Hummel said.

Jai Kulkarni, owner of a Kwik Farms convenience store and a Lukoil station, said he was out of gas for about four hours on Wednesday, losing about $200 an hour in sales.

At the station Thursday, Vinnie Zambuto, 31, of Coatesville, said he never saw a gas station run dry before he encountered one last week.

But Zambuto said he had heard tales from his parents of gas shortages of the 1970s, and hoped the current supply stumbles would be short-lived.

[snip]

Refiners are switching to fuel formulations containing corn-based ethanol, prompted by the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005, and ethanol's affinity for water requires extensive work both at fuel terminals and the service stations themselves.

Retailers must clean their tanks, remove all water and install extremely fine filters on their pumps. Terminals have to clean tanks to store the ethanol and install equipment to blend it with the gasoline.

Independent gasoline distributors said few terminals had gasoline on Thursday. A Pacific Energy Partners L.P. terminal that did was filling trucks in only two of its five lanes, with waiting times of four hours. "We are doing our best to activate the others," said Jennifer Shigei, a company spokeswoman.

Refiners declined to go into detail about the supply situation, but Shannon Breuer, a spokeswoman for Sunoco Inc., said the company was "focused on being a reliable supplier" and was confident any problems would be short-term.

AAA warned that supply disruptions could continue for the next few weeks, however, as terminals and stations deal with the new blends, and that could drive soaring pump prices still higher.

The shortages come on a day when there is also a new record for oil prices.
On Friday, oil prices briefly jumped to $73 a barrel for the first time.
At pumps around the nation, a gallon of gas is up 30 cents over the last
month, CBS News reports.

The average gasoline price has already jumped 22 percent to $2.85 a gallon in the Philadelphia area since the latest upturn early in March, and 18 percent to $2.71 in southern New Jersey in the past month, AAA said.

We cannot expect any kind of leadership on alternative energy from the Bush Administration. The government is run by people who get richer every time the price of gasoline goes higher. The U.S. had the opportunity to really do something about fuel economy and about alternative sources of energy back in the 1970's, when Jimmy Carter made attempts to get such research going -- only to have Reagan scrap such efforts upon taking office.

We are reaping what we sowed. And this is only the beginning. Just wait till Bush nukes Iran just in time for the November elections. You think $3.00 gasoline is expensive? You ain't seen nothing yet.

UPDATE: Watch out when they start blaming ethanol. A study done for California by the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights found that:

...corporate markups and profiteering are responsible for spring price spikes, not rising crude costs or the national switchover to higher-cost ethanol, as the oil industry claims.

Independent petroleum consultant Tim Hamilton analyzed gasoline price increases from January to April to find that:

• Increases in the "spot" market price of crude oil -- which is the highest price a major oil company would pay for crude oil -- accounted for only 12 cents per gallon. California's percentage sales tax increased fuel prices by another four cents per gallon. More than 40 cents of the 60-cent increase in gasoline prices over 3 1/2 months is attributable to increased refinery and marketing profit margins for the oil companies;


• Neither the MTBE phaseout nor the substitution of ethanol is a serious part of the increase. If the MTBE phaseout or ethanol blending specifically increased costs for oil companies in California, other states in the West using conventional unblended gasoline should be much less affected. Yet Washington State, which uses only conventional gasoline and has similar refinery capacity and crude oil sources, mirrored California's increase;


• The profit increase of 42 cents, on top of record profits last year, means California gasoline will cost consumers approximately $546 million more in April 2006 than in April of last year.

"Oil companies are opportunistically using the rising world price for crude oil as an excuse to excessively raise gasoline prices and pump up their profits, even though the spot market price for crude has gone up far more slowly than gasoline prices," said FTCR President Jamie Court. "In addition, the spot price is higher than most oil companies pay, since they either harvest their own crude or pay more stable and often much lower contract prices."

Ezra Klein weighs in with more thoughts on the appalling practice of "Purity Balls" (insert your own testicles joke here) among a certain breed of drooling, creepy, pedophilic, patriarchal sicko masquerading as Godly Men:

At least debutante balls, with their innate patriarchy and glorification of everything superficial and useless (even beauty pageants have an interview portion!), don't explicitly hand over control of the child's virginity to the father. They're held to mark the community's judgment that the girl is ready to lose her virginity to a nice boy of corresponding class. Purity balls, in contrast, feature young girls, far too inexperienced (and prepubescent) to know what they're giving up, promising abstinence while their fathers pledge guardianship of that abstinence. The sexual contract, previously confined to the daughter, her partners, and God, is extended to the father, ensuring that any independent sexual decisions of the daughter will entail the overt rejection of a parent. What an excellent way to promote family values, open communication, and healthy self images.

And Digby quotes a testimonial from an Actual Attendee^® at one of these affairs:

"How can you measure the value of your eleven year old looking up into your eyes (as you clumsily learn the fox-trot together) with innocent, uncontainable joy, saying, 'Daddy, I'm so excited!' wrote Wesley Tullis in a letter describing his grateful participation. 'I have been involved with the Father-Daughter Ball for two years with my daughters, Sarah and Anna. It is impossible to convey what I have seen in their sweet spirits, their delicate, forming souls, as their daddy takes them out for their first, big dance. Their whole being absorbs my loving attention, resulting in a radiant sense of self-worth and identity. Think of it from their perspective: My daddy thinks I'm beautiful in my own unique way. My daddy is treating me with respect and honor. My daddy has taken time to be silly, and even made a fool of himself, learning how to dance. My daddy really loves me!"

Yes, and daddies who go into their eleven-year-olds bedrooms late at night when Mommy is asleep and tell them not to tell anyone what they're doing similar want their daughters to think it's because "my daddy really loves me!"

Somehow I think this guy is going to be among the first to sign up for this when the virgin bride he's advertising for produces a daughter for him:

A sign that 45-year-old Michael Thelemann posted in his yard Sunday said that he'll pay $1,000 for a virgin bride between the ages of 12 and 24.

"I feel like I'm living down the street from a pedophile," said neighbor Christy Sternadel. "We want him out of this neighborhood. Who asks for a 12-year-old virgin bride?"

As of Wednesday, no one had taken up Thelemann on his offer, but he had heard several negative comments from neighbors, which he said he didn't understand. He said his grandmother married "a much older man" at age 14.

"I'm just somebody who is getting up there in years, and I'm looking for a born-again, God-fearing virgin between the ages of 12 and 24 who can bear me children," said Thelemann, who was divorced in 1989. "What's the problem? I just think I have some wicked neighbors."

Hat tip for this last one: ShakesSis)

If you don't listen to Randi Rhodes, you probably haven't heard about this:

The DIVINE STRAKE full scale test is planned to be a large-yield, buried burst detonated at the Nevada Test Site. Divine Strake would appear to be associated with the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator RNEP, or possibly the B61-11 Earth-Penetrating Weapon, a fact that is obscured in most press coverage. Divine Strake is a high-explosive (HE) test sponsored by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). The test is a detonation of a 700 ton buried heavy AN/FO charge above a tunnel structure. The main purpose of the test is to study ground shock effects on deeply buried tunnel structures. Of secondary interest is the airblast produced by a buried charge and its modification as it propagates over the local terrain. Scheduled for the summer of 2006, as of 01 April 2006 the test was planned for 02 June 2006.

DIVINE STRAKE is one of several "DIVINE" efforts under the Hard and Deeply Buried Target Defeat (HDBTD) program. DIVINE WARHAWK consists of deep underground operational tunnel facility defeat demonstrations using advanced weapons at the White Sands Missile Range. DIVINE HELCAT was a 2004 reconstitution exercise to determine reconstitution time for the C3I tunnel facility at Nevada Test Site (NTS). Also in 2004 planning began for DIVINE HATES, which is a WMD production and storage tunnel complex functional defeat effort.

DTRA's FY2006 budget request including furnding to "Conduct the Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration(s) (ACTD) Full-Scale tunnel defeat demonstration using high explosives to simulate a low yield nuclear weapon ground shock environment at Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site. Deliver validated analysis and planning tools to conduct the end-to-end use of nuclear planning tools to characterize and "weaponeer" the full-scale Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration(s) (ACTD) event. ... The Tunnel Target Defeat Advanced Concept and Technology Demonstration(s) (ACTD) will develop a planning tool that will improve the warfighter’s confidence in selecting the smallest nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage. The focus of the demonstration is to reduce the uncertainties in target characterization and weapon effect/target response. Target characterization uncertainties include those related to determining the target function, layout, operational status, and the geological and geotechnical features. Weapons effects/tunnel response uncertainties are associated with predicting ground shock and tunnel response in layered and jointed media."

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) proposes to provide a test bed to be used by DTRA to conduct a single large scale, open air explosive detonation in Area 16 of the NTS. The proposed detonation, known as DIVINE STRAKE, would occur tentatively in mid 2006 above the existing U16b Tunnel Complex. DIVINE STRAKE would supply a relevant full scale simulation demonstration with a tunnel complex to create a post test underground environment sustaining light to severe damage.

The logical next step, in this portion of the HDBT program is the Proposed Action: a full scale test bed for final validation of the modeling effort. The explosive yield (700 tons (635 metric tons) of ANFO emulsion) was selected based on modeling predictions of the amount of ANFO that would be needed to cause the appropriate extent of damage to the underground facility, and on information gained from the small and intermediate scale tests. A larger amount of ANFO emulsion is not needed for the Proposed Action, and a smaller amount would not be adequate to significantly damage the full scale tunnel facility.

While the Proposed Action is not directly linked to the test and evaluation of any specific weapon system, one objective is to evaluate damage to a tunnel facility from a large yield surface detonation. A second objective is to provide field test ground motion and tunnel damage data for the improvement and/or validation of ground motion and underground facility damage computer codes.

In order to successfully conduct a project to obtain the desired results, DTRA requires a site or facility that accurately simulates a HDBT. Tunnel U16b at the NTS provides an existing facility that fulfills the needs of DTRA. The U16b tunnel is in a geological setting that simulates the characteristics of important potential, global adversarial targets. This U16b site was carefully chosen after reviewing the geological properties of a number of other locations on U.S. Government range complexes and other controlled land areas. For this reason, DTRA requested approval by NNSA to conduct an open air high explosive detonation at the U16b Tunnel.

A large scale, open air detonation such as DIVINE STRAKE is consistent with the mission of the NTS, and the remote location of the NTS ensures that impacts to the public would be minimal. Public Affairs announcements would notify the public prior to the detonation. The Proposed Action of the Large Scale, Open Air Explosive Detonation, DIVINE STRAKE, at the Nevada Test Site is designed to meet the purpose and need for NTS's large size, remote location, and extensive infrastructure offer a practical technology development site for the Proposed Action.

That's right, folks -- the Lunatic-in-Chief is planning a test detonation of what in Iran will be a nuclear bunker-buster right here in the US, in Nevada, on June 2nd. In case you thought that nuking Iran was just saber-rattling.

Here's a link to Randi Rhodes talking about this on Lou Dobbs yesterday (choose Windows Media Player or Real Player). Take particular note of wingnut-by-choice Mark Simone laughing at this prospect. It's downright chilling.

Now lest you think that I'm mindlessly cheerleading for Randi Rhodes, let me go on record as vehemently disagreeing with her on one topic discussed in this piece of video, and that is her defense of the spineless Democrats who refuse to stand up and take a stand for what's right -- solely because they are in the minority. In recent days, I've had an e-mail conversation with Paul Aronsohn, the Bergen County Democratic Organization's pick to run against our wingnut representative, Scott Garrett, on just this topic. For all that I'm working with his opponent, Camille Abate, I don't think Aronsohn is a bad guy. I think his heart is in the right place, but I think he's dead wrong about there being some kind of magic that will occur if Democrats manage to take a House minority this November.

There is absolutely no reason why the Democrats can't keep hammering away at this madman in the White House -- even if they lose. Randi defends the Democrats on the grounds that they are afraid of being smeared. Well, in politics these days, that goes with the territory. Fight back or get out of the playground. The Mets show up for all 162 games, even when they get their asses kicked. They do NOT say "We can't take the division so let's just not bother." On this, Randi is wrong. On the necessity of the media to get their heads out of the vaginas of Natalee Holloway and the victim of the Duke rape case victim and get their asses to Nevada on June 2nd, she's spot-on right.

(Hat tip: "RenaRF" at Daily Kos.)

I don't go to moves as much as I used to.

For seven years, I wrote movie reviews, first for a now-defunct site, then for my own eponymously-named site, then ModFab and I set up Mixed Reviews, the ghost of which still exists. I can't pinpoint exactly why writing reviews on a regular basis became such a chore, but it happened sometime during the middle of last year. It's not that I didn't see movies, it's just that I'd get home and find I had nothing to say about them. Then things like my job and taking care of the house and this here blog would take over, and Batman Begins would just have to live without me writing about it.

I still haven't done my report from Full Frame, a documentary film festival which richly deserves one (and I will get to that, because while I didn't see as many docs as I'd wanted, the ones I saw were worthwhile). And other than that, I haven't set foot in a theatre yet this year.

Some of it is that the movies really do suck more than they used to. Some of it is living in a world where a pretentious, obvious piece of claptrap like Crash beats out Brokeback Mountain AND Good Night and Good Luck AND Capote for Best Picture. Mostly, though, it's just time -- and as the art of film editing seems to become ever less important, with filmmmakers insisting that More is Better, I often find that there are better things to do with precious weekend time than sit in a movie theatre watching some 2-1/2 hour story that could be told perfectly well in an hour and a half.

Perhaps if everything played at the Rialto, and if the Route 4 traffic to get there on a Saturday weren't so nightmarish, I might think differently, because the Rialto is a fun place to see a movie. Seemingly frozen in 1946, with seats desperately in need of new cushions, inexpensive concessions that include gourmet coffee and Droste chocolates, and popcorn you can hear and smell popping during the movie, the Rialto is what going to the movies used to be. But for the most part, theatres tend to be either soulless megaplexes or mediocre venues with high school kids masquerading as projectionists. The megaplexes are great for seeing movies like V for Vendetta, but which have the attendant problems of high prices and far too many morons who refuse to turn off their cell phones. The other kind of theatre is more prevalent in my area -- older theatres in 1960's era strip malls and downtown areas, all of them owned by Clearview; theatres that are increasing their prices without an attendant rise in quality. The Clearview entry in my home town CONSISTENTLY botches the projection. I'm no cinephile, but I do like it when the projection isn't backwards on the screen and when the boom mikes are out of the frame and when the sound is intelligible.

It's not that there aren't civilized theatres dotting the landscape, even outside of New York, where for my money, the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas are the best theatre around. The Varsity in Chapel Hill, NC is an arthouse theatre that is very similar to the Rialto in terms of ambiance. The Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC is both an arthouse theatre and music venue -- AND hosts Full Frame. And one visit was enough to make me a fan of the Ambler, in Ambler, PA.

But such venues are few and far between, alas.

But I was reading Premiere this morning -- a magazine which has offered me so many $5.00 renewals that my subscription now runs until November 2012 -- and read an article about the Savoy, an arthouse theatre in Montpelier, Vermont. The Savoy is an arthouse theatre featuring a video store downstairs and occasional special events and speakers. The theatre serves as a kind of community center for the progressive environs of Montpelier in which ministers will recommend documentaries they feel are important and activists will canvass in the lobby. For someone like me, this sounds like what heaven must be like, if there is one.

Do you have a favorite mom 'n' pop movie theatre? If so, post a link in the comments, and we'll set up a theatreroll in the sidebar.

Mark Morford pegs Bush perfectly:

It's just like playing blackjack in Vegas.

Invariably, sitting right next to you is some guy, eyes shifty and body twitchy and making weird sounds with his mouth and smelling vaguely of sawdust and horse manure and dead dreams, with a huge pile of chips he is quickly turning into a very small pile of chips.

He is suffering. He is playing terribly, grumbling, sneering at the dealer, talking to the cards like they were his personal slutty harem, complaining to his very angry God who is apparently no longer coming through for him. He is getting desperate. He is sweating, glancing around, wondering where all his drunken fraternity friends scurried off to.

Soon he is down to his last chips. He makes one final stab, but his final bet tanks. He is out, the pile is gone.

He then does what every miserable, lunkheaded gambler does at this point: In a fit of alcoholic rage and demonic encouragement, he says, "Screw it" -- and digs into his pocket, pulls out his last remaining crumpled $1,000 bill and slaps it down on the table in one big final gesture meant to turn his fortunes around all at once, damn the wife at home and forget a decent meal and forget every ironclad rule of gambling because damn it the gods owe him and he's long overdue for a change in fortune. Yes. Right. Sure he is.

Sure enough, the lug loses his big Hail Mary bet. He is broke. He cannot believe it. He curses the table, curses the whore cards, swears at the dealer for not treating him better, slams the rest of his drink and his face contorts and his hands shake and he stumbles off into the night, railing against his lousy luck, the gods, all of humanity. Same ol' situation, happening all over Vegas. And, of course, Washington, D.C.

Now, here he is, sitting right next to all the other countries at the Big Table, representing America, it's little Dubya Bush, stewing in his own juices, his poll numbers hovering right near Nixon levels, mumbling to himself, smelling vaguely of sawdust and horse manure and dead Social Security overhaul plans.

He is pockmarked by scandal, buffeted by storms of disapproval and infighting and nascent impeachment. He authorized the leak of classified security information merely to smear an Iraq war critic, he lied about WMD and lied about Saddam and lied about making the United States safer and lied about, well, just about everything, on top of launching the worst and most violent and most expensive, unwinnable war since Vietnam.

His pile of betting capital is down to a tiny lump, nothing like back when he had the table rigged and all the pit bosses worked for him and the pile was as big as a roomful of Texas cow pies. But now, fortune is frowning. In fact, fortune is white-hot furious at being so viciously molested, spit upon, raped lo these many years. The truth is coming out: Bush has now lost far, far more bets than he ever won.

What's to be done? Why, do what any grumbling, furious, confused, underqualified alcoholic gambler does: reach down deep and say, "To hell with the nation and to hell with the odds and to hell with the rest of the planet," and pull out one more desperate, crumpled war from deep in your pants, slap it on the table and hear the world moan.

But this time, try to make it serious. Do not rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Do not rule out another massive air strike, ground troops, special forces, a strategy so intense it makes Iraq look like a jog in the park. Think of yourself as creating a masterful legacy, going down in history as the guy who "saved" the world from Iran's nukes while protecting American oil interests. Yes? Can you smell the oily sanctimony in the air? Is God speaking to you again, telling you to damn the torpedoes and kill more Muslims? You are the chosen one, after all.

Morford may be known for occasionally using hyperbole, but as the current occupant of the White House gets ever closer to fulfilling his dream of exploding the biggest nuclear penis in the world in Iran, his use of metaphor here is spot-on. We are currently being led by a lunatic, one with messianic delusions to boot. And someone -- Congress, SOMEONE -- doesn't stop him soon, we are all doomed to fall to his madness. Because this guy WILL take the whole world down with him if he has to. Because if there's anything George W. Bush will not tolerate, it's a legacy of being not only the Bush family Designated Family Shithead, but the Designated Shithead of the Entire World.

Scott McClellan has resigned.

The article says Karl Rove is "giving up oversight of policy development to focus more on politics with the approach of the fall midterm elections."

Not a surprise, but fasten your seat belts. On second thought, maybe not. It's not as if the Democrats are going to put up a fight or anything.....

The other night I really tried to watch NOW on PBS. The show was about the South Dakota abortion ban, and I really did want to see it. But as soon as I saw the appalling and disturbing rictus of Leslie Unruh, who obviously had some sex in her life that she regrets, saying that she's trying to ban abortion in order to give women their freedom back, I was shrieking at the TV set and looking at things to throw, and Mr. Brilliant said to me, "Are you SURE you want to watch this?" And I realized that at age 50, that kind of rage could result in heart attacks and massive destruction of personal property -- including the bedroom TV, which we are not in a position to replace.

Others, however, had more intestinal fortitude and caught the whole thing. Meanwhile, the good producers of NOW, perhaps understanding the dilemma of someone like myself, have posted a transcript of the program, which becomes even more appalling than the little bit of it that I saw.

Here are the kind of people who want to ban abortion:

HINOJOSA:
...ABSTINENCE ONLY EDUCATION IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST MOVEMENTS IN SEX ED IN THE COUNTRY TODAY. THE BASIC IDEA IS THAT INSTEAD OF TEACHING KIDS ABOUT SAFE SEXUAL PRACTICES, YOUNG PEOPLE ARE TAUGHT HOW TO ABSTAIN FROM SEX COMPLETELY UNTIL MARRIAGE.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS PUMPED HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO THESE PROGRAMS AROUND THE COUNTRY.

AND GUESS WHO'S ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S TOP ABSTINENCE-ONLY ACTIVISTS? LESLEE UNRUH. SHE ALSO RUNS 'THE ABSTINENCE CLEARINGHOUSE' – AN ORGANIZATION THAT PROMOTES ABSTINENCE PROGRAMS AROUND THE COUNTRY. AND THE WORLD.

HINOJOSA:
So do you believe that young women, in schools in South Dakota, should be taught about contraception?

UNRUH:
I don't think that kids have to be taught about how to-- load a gun-- if they're not gonna use a gun. I think that kids need to be taught and explained about how not to be involved in sexual activity. Contraceptive devices fail. And I think that that's what they need to know about.

HINOJOSA:
THIS IS ONE OF THE CENTRAL TEACHINGS OF THE ABSTINENCE ONLY MOVEMENT: IF YOU'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT CONTRACEPTION, IT'S ONLY TO HIGHLIGHT HOW IT FAILS.

REP. HUNT:
You cannot talk about sexual abstinence without talking about contraceptives and without talking about condoms because you gotta show how bad the condoms are in order to show how good the sexual abstinence is.

HINOJOSA:
BUT DOES ABSTINENCE-ONLY EDUCATION WORK? WELL THE SCIENCE IS LIMITED, IN ONE RECENT STUDY OF STUDENTS WHO TOOK 'VIRGINITY PLEDGES' RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT THE PLEDGES DID HELP KIDS DELAY THEIR FIRST SEXUAL INTERCOURSE BY ABOUT 18 MONTHS.

BUT THE REALITY IS, NEARLY 90% OF THOSE KIDS ENDED UP HAVING PRE-MARITAL SEX. AND WHEN THEY DID, THEY WERE A LOT LESS LIKELY TO USE CONTRACEPTION.

LAST FRIDAY NIGHT, YOUNG GIRLS FROM AROUND SOUTH DAKOTA CAME TO SIOUX FALLS FOR A SPRING BALL. THIS ONE IS CALLED "THE PURITY BALL" IT'S A YEARLY EVENT RUN BY LESLEE UNRUH'S ABSTINENCE CLEARINGHOUSE.

THE IDEA IS THAT THESE YOUNG WOMEN COME WITH THEIR FATHERS. TO CELEBRATE THEIR SEXUAL PURITY.

UNRUH:
We think that its imp for fathers to the be the first ones to look into their daughters eyes and To tell her that her purity is special, and its ok to wait until marriage.

HINOJOSA:
IT MIGHT HAVE ALL THE TRAPPINGS OF A REGULAR PROM... BUT THIS ONE ENDS A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY.

GIRLS RECITING PLEDGE:
"I make a promise this day to God...

HINOJOSA:
THE YOUNG WOMEN HERE ALL MAKE A PROMISE TO THEIR FATHERS THAT THEY WONT' HAVE SEX UNTIL THE DAY THEY GET MARRIED.

GIRLS RECITING PLEDGE:
...to remain sexually pure...until the day I give myself as a wedding gift to my husband. ... I know that God requires this of me.. that he loves me. and that he will reward me for my faithfulness.

STOESZ:
According to their view of the world, if women just remained chaste, if they remain virgins until marriage and then if they had sex only with their husbands and they did so only when they wanted to have children, they wouldn't have this problem to begin with. So, it's their fault. Abstinence is the answer in their view. From their point of view, it's all about abstinence all the time.

Pledging to DADDY to remain pure? Yeesh. I don't know about how you feel reading this, but as soon as I finish writing it, I'm going to take a shower.

Digby:

You have to see it to believe it. They are all dressed up like prom goers, the dads in tuxes and the daughters in evening gowns looking all grown up. They dance, they laugh, they giggle. And then father and daughter stand up, holding each others hands, staring into each others' eyes and the girls make these vows as if in a wedding ceremony.

As I watch it occurs to me that this is why they don't have an exception for rape and incest. It's one of the creepiest things I've ever seen.

You will notice that there's no "mother-son" ceremony in which boys pledge to their mothers to stay pure until they give themselves as a gift to their wives. There is a Victorian impulse at work here that has nothing to do with fetuses. This is about women being autonomous, independent, sexual humans.

But that's always been why the so-called abstinence movement makes no sense to me -- because there IS a double-standard. There IS no similar ceremony for boys. There IS nothing in the culture of these people that reveres purity among males the way it does among females. Once again, boys are socialized to SEEK sex while girls are socialized to REFUSE sex. It's institutionalizing a game that shortchanges everyone. I hate tell these people, but you simply CANNOT raise girls to hate their bodies, to hate their own sexuality, to squelch their sexuality at all costs until some guy says some hocus-pocus over them that makes them the property of some guy who presumably the same father who was slobbering hungrily over their virginity at so-called "purity balls" picked for them -- and then suddenly expect them to have fulfilling sex lives. Of course, none of this is ABOUT having a fulfilling sex life; it's about submitting humbly to the master (husband), but never once enjoying it.

I have a number of books written in the early years of the 20th century by eugenicists and other "professionals" that go into excruciating detail about the importance of female purity and the dangers of sensualism. In the next few days, I'll reprint some excerpts from them -- they sound so much like these so-called Guardians of Female Morality it's downright frightening.

This guy has ZERO credibility on the subject of math and science education:

President Bush told Montgomery County students yesterday that math and science are "cool subjects" and warned that the country would lose jobs overseas unless more funding is devoted to the disciplines.

"It's important to understand, if children don't have those skill sets needed to compete with a child from India or a child from China, the new jobs will be going there," he said.

Earth to Planet Bush: The jobs have ALREADY gone over there.

Speaking at the Parkland Magnet School for Aerospace Technology in Rockville, Bush renewed his push for what the White House is calling the "American Competitiveness Initiative," a 10-year, $136 billion plan to improve instruction and research in math and science that was introduced during his State of the Union address.

The initiative includes a program to train 70,000 high school teachers to lead advanced placement math and science courses and would boost federal funding for scientific research. The biggest cost of the plan next year would be a $4.6 billion research and development tax credit for private industry, making permanent one that expired last year.

"We better do something about the fact that we're falling behind in math and science today," he said. "Now is the time to act."

However, here's the kind of science George W. Bush thinks should be taught:

President Bush said Monday he believes schools should discuss "intelligent design" alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.

During a round-table interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers, Bush declined to go into detail on his personal views of the origin of life. But he said students should learn about both theories, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," Bush said. "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."

...and here's how Bush regards the importance of education when he's NOT talking to students:

• elimination of Perkins loans


• freezing of Pell Grants at fiscal year 2003 levels in the face of skyrocketing college costs


• cuts to the Federal Work-Study program


• increase of interest rates on Stafford loans and Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS).


• no new funding for the Title I program for low-income students. Title I accounts for about half of federal spending to implement the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.
  


• scrapping of 42 education programs

As recently as 2004, the Bush Administration was PRAISING the trend toward outsourcing:

The movement of U.S. factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said yesterday.

The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the health of the U.S. economy.

So here we have a president who thinks that so-called "intelligent design theory" should be taught as real science (even as a fossil demonstrating the transition of animals from water to land plugs a HUGE hole in the ID advocates' view that holes in the fossil record give their view credence), and whose budgets have put us in trillions of dollars of debt, telling kids to study math and science.

When I was a kid, we used to rebel against parents who smoked and told us not to, who told us not to eat junk and then gorged on ice cream, who advocated the "Do as I say, not as I do" method of role modeling. Here we have a president playing on the fact that students don't follow budget policy to advocate studies that even he doesn't believe in.

Carl Bernstein, in Vanity Fair:

Senate Hearings on Bush, Now

orse than Watergate? High crimes and misdemeanors justifying the impeachment of George W. Bush, as increasing numbers of Democrats in Washington hope, and, sotto voce, increasing numbers of Republicans—including some of the president's top lieutenants—now fear? Leaders of both parties are acutely aware of the vehemence of anti-Bush sentiment in the country, expressed especially in the increasing number of Americans—nearing fifty percent in some polls—who say they would favor impeachment if the president were proved to have deliberately lied to justify going to war in Iraq.

John Dean, the Watergate conspirator who ultimately shattered the Watergate conspiracy, rendered his precipitous (or perhaps prescient) impeachment verdict on Bush two years ago in the affirmative, without so much as a question mark in choosing the title of his book Worse than Watergate. On March 31, some three decades after he testified at the seminal hearings of the Senate Watergate Committee, Dean reiterated his dark view of Bush's presidency in a congressional hearing that shed more noise than light, and more partisan rancor than genuine inquiry. The ostensible subject: whether Bush should be censured for unconstitutional conduct in ordering electronic surveillance of Americans without a warrant.

Raising the worse-than-Watergate question and demanding unequivocally that Congress seek to answer it is, in fact, overdue and more than justified by ample evidence stacked up from Baghdad back to New Orleans and, of increasing relevance, inside a special prosecutor's office in downtown Washington.

In terms of imminent, meaningful action by the Congress, however, the question of whether the president should be impeached (or, less severely, censured) remains premature. More important, it is essential that the Senate vote—hopefully before the November elections, and with overwhelming support from both parties—to undertake a full investigation of the conduct of the presidency of George W. Bush, along the lines of the Senate Watergate Committee's investigation during the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.

How much evidence is there to justify such action?

Uh, enough to vividly demonstrate the word "shitload." Go see how Bernstein lays it all out.

It should be known to everyone now that the Washington Times is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

For years now, John Gorenfeld has been digging into the lunacy of this so-called reverend, including the coronation of this nutball as the Messiah that took place in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in 2004.

Now, hot on the heels of the Department of Health and Human Services' decision that squelching ANY sexually stimulating activity outside of marriage must be the goal of all abstinence education, comes Gorenfeld's exposé of Rev. Moon's view of sexuality -- a view that rivals that of the "Rev." Fred Phelps for sheer lunacy:

Moon's warning to America is that we must have sex the way he entreats us, in the positions he has designated, or else forfeit our "love organs," as he dubs them, to the dark lord Satan.

We all know the Right wants to decide what we can't do in the bedroom. But no one ever seems to ask what the Right wants us to do instead.

"After the act of love," read the instructions from the Rev. Moon's conservative Family Federation, "both spouses should wipe their sexual areas with the Holy Handkerchief. [Note from me: Insert your own Holy Hand Grenade joke here.] Hang the handkerchief[s] to dry naturally and keep them eternally. They must be kept individually labeled and should never be laundered and mixed up."

[snip]

There is, as Moon sees it, a profound sex crisis in America. "Satan," the Times publisher said in 2004, "is clinging to our sexual organs." Women are a "line of prostitutes," who should be punished for selfishness. "The concave organ [vagina] should be sealed with concrete."

"The women are the problem in history," he said in 2004. "Women who don't want to have children should cut away their breasts, bottoms and love organ because the purpose for those was first for the children. If they don't fulfill that purpose, then they are not needed."

"Woman's sexual organ is like the open mouth of a snake filled with poison," he said in 1996. Men don't get off any easier. Keep pliers in your pocket, he says, "and when you go to the bathroom, once a day, pinch your love organ. Cut the skin a little bit as a warning."

Moon has even a darker vision for gay men. Moon told an audience he'd like to see them removed in a "purge on God's orders.... Gays will be eliminated, the three Israels will unite. If not, then they will be burned. We do not know what kind of world God will bring, but this is what happens. It will be greater than the Communist purge but at God's orders." (No wonder the Times style guide puts "gay" in quotes.)

[snip]

Meanwhile, under George W. Bush's Healthy Marriage Initiative and abstinence-only grants, his pastors have won nearly $1 million in public funding. Moon's abstinence-only education group Free Teens USA, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, instructs school kids in New Jersey: "It's not just your body, it's your whole lineage forever." In a lesson plan featured online, a "family tree" exercise appears to be inspired by Moon's teachings. And to teach that loving carelessly is vile, youths are asked to drink from a cup of spit, according to a lesson plan featured online.

So let's say you've married a spouse chosen for you by the creator of the Washington Times at one of his 2,000-couple stadium weddings. You've gone through a Moon-ordained period of sexlessness, but now the time has come to get down to business for the first time with your new husband or wife.

Not so fast. At some date prior to the lovemaking, Moon's "indemnity stick ceremony" is used to paddle Satan's spirit from your lover-to-be. The evil spirit is present, according to one church testimony, because "men and women misused each other's sexual parts, for selfish purposes, [and] it gave birth to this resentment ... So we receive three hits of the stick."

According to the Family Federation website, Satan will not be purged until newlyweds carry out his "Three Day Ceremony" in specified sex positions, in Holy Gowns, in front of his photograph. You're to meet at a location that's "as holy a place as possible" -- one of Moon's churches is OK. You should have a number of items on hand, according to the instructions available online, including a Holy Handkerchief, a church-supplied cloth, and a photo of the Washington Times publisher and conservative benefactor with his wife, Hak Ja Moon. By now you have embraced them as your True Parents, maybe even replacing your biological mom and dad. Next the room must be sanctified to ward off any potential Satanic comeback, with prayers, a candle and the sprinkling of holy salt.

Over three nights, there must be three acts of sex. The first night, the woman is on top. The second night proceeds much the same as the first. But this time there is emphasis on the idea the man-on-bottom has progressed to "Growth Stage Adam."

Night three: time for the "man to restore dominion." Missionary position.

Moon appears to recognize that not all men will be able to sustain an erection during this procedure.

"The act of love should be a complete act (penetration and ejaculation)," the anonymous authors make clear. "In the event that it is difficult to achieve this, strive to achieve as much penetration as possible and continue with the remainder of the ceremony.

"For the act of love, it is all right to caress each other. Insertion must be accomplished. The couple should continue the act of love until ejaculation, but if it is difficult to reach ejaculation, the act may be stopped at that point. However, insertion itself must be accomplished. If insertion is not possible because the husband does not have an erection, the wife must take her husband's sexual organ in her hand and guide it into her sexual part in order to successfully do the ceremony. If the act of love is not fulfilled and it is delayed, it must be fulfilled within 24 hours starting from the beginning of the ceremony. It is not permitted to use a condom or any other apparatus during the act of love."

George W. Bush received a donation from Moon of $250,000 in 2004 for his re-inauguration -- a donation laundered through the Washington Television Center, a Moon-controlled organization.

He's George W. Bush, and he approves of Rev. Sun Myung Moon's message.

Kristof:

Giant squids flee in horror as reservoirs of methane frozen at the bottom of the ocean begin to thaw, releasing bubbles that rise to the surface. Soon the ocean surface is churning and burping gas like a billion overfed infants, transforming the composition of our atmosphere.

That's a scene from a new horror movie I'm envisioning, called "Killer Ocean." I'm hoping it might play in the White House and Congress, because it depicts one of the more bizarre and frightening ways in which global warming could devastate our planet — what scientists have dubbed the "methane burp."

Since President Bush is complacent about conventional risks from climate change, such as the prospect that those of us in Manhattan will end up knee-deep in the Atlantic, let's try fear-mongering.

Methane is a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. And thousands of gigatons of methane, equivalent to the total amount of coal in the world, lie deep within the oceans in the form of ice-like solids called methane hydrates.

The big question is whether global warming — temperatures have risen about one degree Fahrenheit over the last 30 years — will thaw some of these methane hydrates. If so, the methane might be released as a gargantuan oceanic burp. Once in the atmosphere, that methane would accelerate the greenhouse effect and warm the earth and raise sea levels even more.

"The juiciest disaster-movie scenario would be a release of enough methane to significantly change the atmospheric concentration," suggests the excellent discussion of methane hydrates by scholars at www.realclimate.org.

One reason for concern about a methane hydrate apocalypse is that something like it may have happened several times in the past. For example, 251 million years ago, there was a catastrophe known as the Permian extinction that came close to wiping out life on earth.

Nobody is sure what caused the Permian extinction, but one theory is that it was methane burps.

And as long as I'm fear-mongering, there was also a better understood warming 55 million years ago, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. That was a period when temperatures shot up by 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the tropics and by about 15 degrees in polar areas, and many scientists think it was caused by the melting of methane hydrates.

"The PETM event 55 million years ago is probably the most likely example of their impact, though there are smaller events dotted through the record," says Gavin Schmidt, a NASA expert on climate change. He emphasizes the uncertainties, but adds that since we are likely to enter a climate that hasn't been seen for a few million years, it's reasonable to worry about methane hydrates.

[snip]

The White House has used scientific uncertainty as an excuse for its paralysis. But our leaders are supposed to devise policies to protect us even from threats that are difficult to assess precisely — and climate change should be considered even more menacing than a nuclear-armed Iran.

Moreover, uncertainty cuts both ways. The best guess of climate experts is that the seas will rise by two feet by 2100, but if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt, then that alone would raise the seas by 20 feet.

Frankly, it's the well-known risks of rising temperatures and sea levels — more than worry about a cataclysmic methane burp — that should drive us to curb carbon emissions.

But our political system doesn't seem able to grapple with scientific issues like climate. Our only hope for firm action would be a major U.S.-led global initiative to curb carbon, and the Bush administration has already dropped the ball on that.

The best reason for action on global warming remains the basic imperative to safeguard our planet in the face of uncertainty, and our leaders are failing wretchedly in that responsibility. If we need an apocalypse to concentrate our minds, then just imagine our descendants sitting on the top of Mount Ararat beside their ark, cursing us for triggering a methane burp.

This government is run by some extremely sick people.

ThinkProgress reports on the new funding opportunity for the Community-Based Abstinence Education Program at the Department of Health and Human Services.

At first blush, it seems like typical boilerplate teen abstinence bullshit:

The purpose of these programs is to educate young people and create an environment within communities that supports teen decisions to postpone sexual activity until marriage. Acceptable applications will be designed to provide abstinence-until-marriage education as defined by Section 510(b)(2) of the Title V Social Security Act, for adolescents aged 12 through 18.

...but if you read on (scroll down to "Additional Guidance Regarding Curriculum Content"), you see exactly what they're advocating:

Abstinence curricula must have a clear definition of sexual abstinence which must be consistent with the following: "Abstinence means voluntarily choosing not to engage in sexual activity until marriage. Sexual activity refers to any type of genital contact or sexual stimulation between two persons including, but not limited to, sexual intercourse."

The curriculum must have a clear message regarding the importance of student abstinence from sexual activity until marriage and must emphasize that the best life outcomes are more likely obtained if an individual abstains until marriage.
The term "resources" must refer to all materials to be used in the submitted curriculum.

Throughout the entire curriculum, the term "marriage" must be defined as "only a legal union between one man and one woman as a husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife." (Consistent with Federal law)

That means no kissing, no hugging, no touching over the bra, under the bra, no mutual masturbation, no nothing -- not until some pedophile in a dress says some hocus-pocus over you and says it's OK. And if you're gay? Tough shit, sayeth the United States Government. Keep your hands outside the blankets at all times.

Wilhelm Reich, in The Mass Psychology of Fascism:

If one studies the history of sexual suppression one finds taht it does not exist at the early stages of culture formation. Therefore it can not be the prerequisite of culture. Rather, it appears at a relatively late state of culture, at the time of the development of authoritarian patriarchy and of class distinctions. At that stage, the sexual insterests of all begin to serve the profit interests of a minority. This process has assumeed an organizational form in the institutions of patriarchal marriage and patriarchal family. With the suppression of sexuality the emotions undergo a change: a sex-negating religion begins to develop which gradually builds up its own sex-political organization, the church in all its forms, which has no other goal than that of eradicating sexual pleasure. This has as its sociological reason the exploitation of human work which sets in at this stage.

[snip]

Character-analytic investigation of people of any age, nationality or social stratum, shows that the interlacing of the socio-economic with the sexual structure, as well as the structural reproduction of society, takes place in the first four or five years of life, and in the authoritarian family. The church only continues this function later on. In this way, the authoritarian state develops its enormous interest in the authoritarian family: the family is the factory of its structure and ideology.

[snip]

In brief, the goal of sexual suppression is that of producing an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation. At first, the child has to adjust to the structure of the authoritarian miniature state, the family; this makes it capable of later subordination to the general authoritarian system. The formation of the authoritarian structure takes place through anchoring of sexual inhibition and sexual anxiety.

[snip]

Sexual repression aids political reaction not only through this process which makes the individual passive and unpolitical, but also by creating in his structure an interest in actively supporting the authoritarian order. The suppression of natural sexual gratification leads to various kinds of substitute gratifications. Natural aggression, for example, becomes brutal sadism which is an essential mass-psychological factor in imperialistic wars.

[snip]

Now we understand a basic element in the "retroaction of ideology on the economic base." Sexual inhibition alters the structure of the economically suppressed individual in such a manner that he feels, thinks, and acts against his own material interests.

(Full text in PDF format here; scroll down to pp. 22-26.)

In case you had any doubts as to what this is all REALLY about.

OK, so it's the Hudson Valley, NY Times-Record, not the Washington Post, but it's still a mainstream newspaper -- and this columnist dares to put in print what everyone should know by now: the president is off his nut:

All right. I'm now officially scared.

Having just read Seymour Hersh's article about Bush's Iran plan, it appears that we no longer have a case of the good guys versus the bad guys.

What we have here is the bad guy versus the bad guy - two madmen playing an international game of chicken, ratcheting up the rhetoric to appeal to their fundamentalist followers.

There's no doubt that Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is mad in the head. In fact, it might help you remember his name if you pronounce it "Ah'm mad in ee head."

He's got a uranium enrichment program going on so he can build nuclear power plants. But since he's crazy, there's a lot of worldwide concern that he's going to build a nuclear bomb while he's at it.

The U.N. atomic watchdog agency, which paid him a little visit last week, says there's no evidence that he's working on weapons. Even so, the world is feeling a little squirmy about letting Ah'm Mad In Ee Head carry on with his nuclear program. Everyone keeps asking him to quit it, but he's dug in his heels.

So that's one madman on the loose.

The other one - our very own nut job in the White House - is licking his chops over what he perceives as a stubborn challenge from Iran's president.

In last week's New Yorker magazine, Hersh provided a detailed look at Bush's response to Ah'm Mad In Ee Head. According to Hersh's sources, Bush wants Ah'm Mad In Ee Head to defy U.N. demands to quit playing with uranium.

You know why? Because our own madman wants to trot out one of our own nukes and bomb Iran's madman out of business - along with a few hundred thousand other Iranians, of course.

As one congressman told Hersh, "The most worrisome thing is that Bush has a messianic vision." Bush is waging a holy war. He's on a crusade. And so is Ah'm Mad In Ee Head.

One nut-job fundamentalist Christian plus one nut-job fundamentalist Muslim equals one nut-job Holy War.

The administration's talking heads deny this, of course. They say Hersh is in "fantasyland." That's funny. It's exactly what they said about Hersh when he broke the story about U.S. soldiers torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib.

And so the rest of the world's people are as scared of George Bush as they are of Ah'm Mad In Ee Head. This unelected president of ours has systematically been dehumanizing Arabs. He's imprisoned them without charges. He's tortured them. He's killed them. And now he wants to nuke them.

He's like a child with a serious case of ADHD. He's lost interest in Iraq and is looking for a new toy to break. Iraq, after all, has turned out badly, so he's doing what he always does when he makes a mess of something - he's turning his attention elsewhere and starting a whole new mess.

Go read the whole thing.

The understatement of the year:

Actress Jane Fonda said Monday she would like to tour the country and speak out against American involvement in Iraq, but she is leaving it to others because her controversial history of Vietnam war protests leaves her with "too much baggage."

Speaking on ABC's "Good Morning America," Fonda said that during a recent national book tour, war opponents - including some Vietnam veterans - asked her to speak out.

"I wanted to do a tour like I did during the Vietnam war, a tour of the country" Fonda said.

"But then Cindy Sheehan filled in the gap, and she is better at this than I am. I carry too much baggage."

I guess it's appropriately inappropriate to heave a deep sigh of relief now that the bizarre spectacle that is Easter is over, and we can finally get on with the important business of spring, which largely consists of succumbing to the siren song of the New York Mets, who are putting together the most dominant start in their history. Sure, their 9-2 start and four game lead over the Great White Whale that for the last 13 years has been the Atlanta Braves is going to be sorely tested with an upcoming west coast road trip and home series with the Ogres of the Peachtree City. But one can still enjoy their early success, however fleeting, just as one can enjoy the tulips that flower for seemingly a day and a half before becoming sad, naked stems nestled among leaves that must sit there, looking forlorn, until they wither and can be pulled out to make room for the inevitable impatiens that are a requirement of New Jersey suburban life.

The beauty and ridiculousness of New York baseball fandom is that we think our teams should never, ever lose. On Sunday morning, after the Mets lost to Milwaukee on Saturday, the sports pundits were Monday morning quarterbacking the Kris Benson trade, wondering if maybe we should have gritted our teeth and put up with Anna Benson's wingnut rants and coochie dancing rather than endure Jorge Julio on the mound. But by Sunday night, Mrs. Benson had once again been relegated to the skank dustheap on which she belongs, thanks to the Mets fulfilling Willie Randolph's Saturday prediction that "tomorrow we start a new streak."

I myself spent much of yesterday wearing my copywriter hat (I'm always preparing for the layoffs that I hope will never happen) and writing scripts for Camille Abate's campaign ads before preparing a lovely dinner of Smithfield glazed ham, macaroni and cheese, and mixed vegetables sauteed with garlic and olive oil. (Every Jew/pagan ought to have a ham on Easter, don't you think?)

Mr. Brilliant, however, who puts even less credence in the Religions of the Fertile Crescent than I do, spent the day watching much of the Jeeb-o-rama that constitutes cable TV programming on Easter Sunday. There's only so much of that stuff I can stand, for all that A&E's Mysteries of the Bible series tries to take a scholarly approach to all things Biblical (and offers up that cute rabbi in the bargain). But while this series, and the many others like it, sustain a studied detachment when dealing with the Old Testament, as soon as the Stuff of Christianity comes on, all bets are off. One episode we watched last night, just before watching the Outing of Vito Spatafore on The Sopranos, dealt with the concept of Hell. You know that all pretenses of scholarliness have been dropped when a supposedly serious program about Christian doctrine shows clips from Angel on My Shoulder and calls it a factual portrayal of the reality of Hell.

Now, I've tried to look at Christianity and see if there maybe is something there that speaks to me. I figure, you can't do what I do relative to Christianity unless you've sat quietly and at least TRIED to let it into your heart. Believe me, I've done that. And every time, what I always come up with is "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

If Christianity speaks to you, more power to you. It keeps you from doing things like reading about the Mayan Calendar and wondering, if the world is going to end on December 21, 2012, why on earth am I bothering to save for retirement? But for me it just doesn't work.

I got to thinking about Jesus yesterday in the context of former Phillies catcher Darren Daulton, of all people. Yesterday morning, we were watching Real Sports on HBO, which featured a segment on Whether Darren Daulton Is Crazy. As a player, Daulton was one of those handsome-in-a-dumbfuck-kind-of-way, firepluggy guys, with the most flattering mullet haircut of all time. Egotistical, but with the goods to back it up, he and Lenny Dykstra were the stocky Tweedledum and Tweedledee of the short-lived heyday of early 1990's Phillies baseball.

Daulton today believes he can time-travel, says that dark forces were propelling his second wife, Nicole, away from him, and claims to have had many out-of-body experiences:

"I didn't have my first out-of-body experience until I was 35," he says. Curiously, the epiphany occurred at one of baseball's holiest shrines -- Wrigley Field. "I hit a line-drive just inside the third base line to help win a game," he recalls. "The strange thing was I didn't hit that ball. I never hit balls inside the third base line!"

He left the ballpark in tears. "I told my wife, 'It wasn't me who swung that bat! It wasn't me!'" he says. "She thought I was Looney Tunes." She's not alone.

[snip]

Home alone in Tampa, Daulton spends much of his spare time typing up his mystical musings. The notes read like they were dictated by the True Believers who hitched a ride with Comet Hale-Bopp. "Reality is created and guarded by numeric patterns that overlap and awaken human consciousness, like a giant matrix or hologram," writes the .245 lifetime hitter. "They are created by sacred geometry -- numbers, the language of the universe, codes of awakening -- such as 11:11, which represent twin strands of DNA about to return to balance. Eleven equals BALANCE."

During the Dutch Enlightenment, No. 11 has been as significant as it was in Spinal Tap. "I'll wake up at night and look at the clock and it's 11:11," he says. "I'll turn on the TV and see a baseball game tied at 11 in the 11th inning. I'll look out the window and see a car passing with 1111 on the license plate. The car will turn into a driveway with 1111 on the mailbox."

Eventually, Daulton would like to compile these synchronicities in a book and call it If They Only Knew! He took the title from clubhouse banter of the 1993 Phillies, the National League pennant winners. "Some wild things happened on that team that the fans never heard about," he says. If they only knew! was the mantra of his wildest teammates, Lenny Dykstra and John Kruk.

The book would recount the day Daulton literally stepped through time. It would detail his ability to become a sort of otherworldly Willard Scott -- at times, he says, the weather changes with his moods. "At one point everyone was against me, kind of like I'd struck out with the bases loaded," he says. "Whenever my thoughts got totally negative, it would automatically rain."

If They Only Knew! would also reveal the secrets of the pyramids, which Daulton insists are strategically placed all over the galaxy: the moon, Mars...

Vegas?

"What goes above, also goes below," Daulton says, cryptically.

He believes the Mayan temples were built not by the Mayans, who were merely caretakers, but by a lost civilization. Possibly the Atlanteans, who allegedly disappeared beneath the waves. Possibly space aliens.

Daulton can ramble in mind-numbing detail about Dark Forces, the illusion of substance, the limitations of linear time. "The universe is made of vibrating energy," he says. "When energy vibrates fast enough on our 3-D plane, matter becomes invisible. Everything you see is vibrating at a certain level. A dirt clod, a rock..."

Even a rosin bag?

"Sure. A rosin bag is just a mirage of innumerable particles constantly speeding up or slowing down. But the Fourth and Fifth Dimensions remain unseen by most people. Their vibrations are at a lower frequency." Whether those vibrations are "good" is perhaps something only the Beach Boys can divine.

Earth, Daulton believes, is entering a quadrant of space in which the "vibrational energy" will increase dramatically. "The Mayan calendar stops at Dec. 21, 2012 -- the date the Mayans believed the world would end," he says. "On that day, at 11:11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, those who are ready to ascend will vanish from this plane of existence, like the crew of the Enterprise in Star Trek."

Daulton hopes to beat the rush. "I can't wait to disappear," he says. "I'd disappear today if I could."

At first blush, one would be inclined to say that Daulton exhibits classic signs of schizophrenia -- the false perceptions, the hearing of voices, the false beliefs or misinterpretations of events and their significance without even considering other explanations, and preoccupations. When asked about mathematician John Nash, profiled in the film A Beautiful Mind, who WAS a diagnosed schizophrenic, Daulton insists that Nash is as normal as anyone else -- including himself, but that he just occupies a different plane of reality.

Now, I'm a lot more open to the possibilities of Stuff Out There That Can't Be Explained than most people, even if only because I'm not able to stuff my head into a nice little box labelled "Judaism" or "Christianity" or any other organized cosmology that tries to make sense of it all. But even I was inclined to think that Daulton is at this point a few French fries short of a Happy Meal.

I work in a mental health facility, and one of the many varied things I do is create web screen versions of case report forms for studies on Schizophrenia. So I spend eight or more hours a day in a place steeped in psychiatry and in medical/rational explanations for everything. And maybe Daulton IS manifesting some kind of adult-onset Schizophrenia.

Or maybe he isn't.

Because then I started thinking about Joshua of Nazareth and other prophets -- the highly charismatic people throughout history who have claimed to have connections with the divine. And it occurred to me that if Jesus were alive today, he would probably be carted off to a locked ward someplace and fed a whole bunch of Risperidone or some other anti-psychotic, and if he stopped talking about the only way to the Father is through him, maybe they'd let him out, but only if he promised to keep taking his meds.

So how do we KNOW that Darren Daulton is crazy? Because someone told us that his beliefs and behaviors are symptoms of a mental illness? And similarly, how do Christians KNOW that Jesus was in fact the literal son of God. Because someone told them so?

The fact of the matter is that we JUST DON'T KNOW. No one knows why we're here, or what happens to us after we die, because we aren't here to tell anyone. Mysteries of the Bible can run clips of old movies where Satan is Claude Rains in a suit and has an obviously gay sidekick and call it an accurate depiction of Hell, but we still don't know.

Christianity has dealt with these mysteries by branding those who have tried to explain them as somehow divinely inspired -- hence the Gospels (at least the ones that were allowed into the Christian canon) and the acceptance of Dante's Inferno as literal truth instead of fictional literature. But none of this changes the fact that we just don't know.

Some of us deal with it by choosing to believe a particular faith. It certainly makes life easier, to just blindly believe something for which you have no empirical evidence. At least Darren Daulton claims he's experienced the things he believes. I've always been skeptical of just how much even True Believers actually believe, though, as evidenced by the stubborn refusal of mourners at Christian funerals to be joyful at their loved one's ascension to heaven, and the Evangelicals' insistence that their faith be validated by being adopted by everyone else in the world.

The most difficult part of being human is in dealing with our own insignificance, the idea that we are formed out of essentially nothing, live out these lives thinking that we matter in the larger sphere of things, then die and go back to being nothing. Some people in the course of human history are going to have explanations that are a lot more comforting than what I've just outlined. Some of those are going to be able to accompany those explanations with a highly-developed charisma and placement in time that is receptive to those ideas. We call those people "prophets." Whether they are divine or crazy is something we can never know.

I'm glad someone remembered about this:

To the Editor:

Re "Final Struggles on 9/11 Plane Fill Courtroom" (front page, April 13):

The voices on the recording of the last moments of United Airlines Flight 93 were horrifying. Too bad the man on trial is not Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for these murders, rather than a pathetic, suicidal loser who had nothing to do with 9/11.

It could well have been Osama bin Laden in the dock, had George W. Bush made stopping and capturing the leader of Al Qaeda a higher priority, rather than conquering Iraq, which also had nothing to do with 9/11.

Mitchell Zimmerman
Palo Alto, Calif., April 13, 2006

Again, no one is saying that Moussaoui is a good guy. But the way the Administration has inflated him into The Guy Who Could Have Stopped 9/11 is just ridiculous. When people like FBI Agent Coleen Rowley were jumping up and down, trying to get someone to pay attention to the fact that guys were taking flying lessons but didn't want to learn how to take off or land and when the President was receiving a PDB saying "Al Qaeda Determined to Strike in U.S.", the idea that this sad, sick little guy could have stopped the attack if he'd just spilled the beans is ridiculous. The whole Moussaoui circus is designed to take attention away from the fact that Osama Bin Laden is not only still out there, but now the Bush Administration's attention has been taken even further away, to the shiny new bauble that is the prospect of nuking Iran.

How anyone can still believe that any election involving the Republican Party isn't going to be fraught with chicanery is beyond me. If the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, with their "broken" DRE voting machines in which smartcards were replaced mid-day, voters told that their polling place was closed, minority voters waiting 10 hours to vote only to be told that the election was over, and other forms of intimidation, thuggery, and ineptitude, didn't convince people, perhaps the phone-jamming cromes of the Republicans in New Hampshire will.

Adam Cohen draws the parallels with Watergate:

In 2002, there was a hard-fought Senate race between Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the Democrat, and John Sununu, the Republican. On Election Day, Democratic workers arrived at five get-out-the-vote offices to find their phone lines jammed. It turned out that the jamming was being done by an Idaho telemarketing firm that was being paid by a Virginia consulting group. The fee for the jamming, reportedly $15,600, was paid by New Hampshire Republicans.

The executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party and the president of the Virginia consulting group pleaded guilty for their part in the scheme. James Tobin, who was the New England political director for the Republican National Committee, went to trial and was convicted of telephone harassment last December.

Now, Jack Abramoff and his Indian tribe clients have joined the cast of characters, and some records of phone calls to the White House have turned up, though the significance of both of these revelations is hotly disputed. The evidence that the phone-jamming scandal goes higher than Mr. Tobin remains scant. But the watchdogs are right about this: the news media, prosecutors and the general public should demand more information about what happened.

The parallels drawn with Watergate are a good place to start:

1. The return of the "second-rate burglary." The New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal is being dismissed as small-time, state-level misconduct, but it occurred at a critical moment in a tough election.

In November 2002, Republicans were intent on winning a Senate majority so they would control the White House and both houses of Congress. They saw the Sununu-Shaheen race as pivotal. On Election Day morning, the phone lines were jammed at the Democratic offices and at a get-out-the-vote operation run by a firefighters' union. The police were called, and the lines were eventually freed up. The election wasn't as close as expected. Mr. Sununu won, and Republicans retook the Senate.

2. The return of the high-priced lawyer. Aficionados of the Watergate connection like to point out that one of the first clues that the Watergate burglars were not ordinary small-time crooks was the presence of a slick lawyer in an expensive suit at their first court appearance. In the New Hampshire case, Mr. Tobin was represented by Williams & Connolly, a pre-eminent white-collar criminal law firm. The legal bills, which published estimates have put at more than $2.5 million, were paid by the Republican National Committee.

[snip]

3. The return of "follow the money." (As if it ever left.) New Hampshire Democrats pored over the filings of the New Hampshire Republican Party and found three contributions for $5,000 each, all shortly before the election. One was from Americans for a Republican Majority, Tom DeLay's political action committee. The other two were from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, tribes that were clients of Jack Abramoff. Those checks add up almost exactly to the cost of the phone jamming.

4. Does anybody get to ask: "What did they know, and when did they know it?" Democrats would, of course, like to connect the jamming to the White House, and this month they found a possible link. The Senate Majority Project, a pro-Democratic campaign group, examined the phone records that came out in Mr. Tobin's case and found that he made dozens of calls to the White House's office of political affairs right when he was executing the phone-jamming scheme. Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman who was the White House political director at the time, insists that close contact of this kind between political operatives is the norm on Election Day, and that none of the calls mentioned the jamming.

Of course Republicans will call what happened "simply tough campaigning", as they do with ALL of their thuggish tactics. But how much of a schmuck do you have to be to believe that if the White House political director received calls while this was going on, NONE of the conversations even MENTIONED what was going on?

This White House has been able to get away with pleading ignorance for far too long: We didn't know what Abramoff was doing. We didn't know that the intelligence was bad. We didn't know what was going on in New Hampshire. We didn't know. No one told us. We were kept in the dark.

This Republican party wants to have it both ways -- they want to be this supremely well-oiled, highly-disciplined machine, but when it's tame to be accountable, they want to appear as disorganized and inept as, well, as the Democrats.

That shouldn't be allowed to fly. We have an important midterm election coming up this November, and I for one anticipate more of the kinds of tactics that have worked for Republicans since 2000, such as the South Caroline Senate race in 2002, when Sen. Max Cleland, who had a 12-point lead going into Election Day, lost by six points to chickenhawk Saxby Chambliss -- just one of many oddities of the LAST midterm election to be run by the Bush Junta.