Early for such cynicism, I know--updated with more idiocy

First, this from the NY Times showing that our President had no intent of actually being honest about the war.

"But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times."

snip

The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.

Yeppers. What would President Jesus do? He would trot out someone to lie for him. And did. Very nice.

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Joyce Appleby and Gary Hart suggest that The Founders Never Imagined a Bush Administration:

"Bush has insisted that there can be no limits to the power of the commander-in-chief in time of war. More recently the president has claimed that laws relating to domestic spying and the torture of detainees do not apply to him. His interpretation has produced a devilish conundrum.

President Bush has given Commander-in-Chief Bush unlimited wartime authority. But the 'war on terror' is more a metaphor than a fact. Terrorism is a method, not an ideology; terrorists are criminals, not warriors. No peace treaty can possibly bring an end to the fight against far-flung terrorists. The emergency powers of the president during this 'war' can now extend indefinitely, at the pleasure of the president and at great threat to the liberties and rights guaranteed us under the Constitution."

The only point they don't make is that Karl Rove created a huge Bible-waving facade to distract the people from growing tyranny. Nothing to see here--just a Godly man praying. Move along. No concentration of power--just a man reading Oswald Chambers.

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Speaking of giant Bible-waving facades, the Wash post has more on Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff. My favorite part is how they created something called the US Family Network--ostensibly to promote family oriented legislation. And, let's not forget how the Dobson crowd has been milking this idea that conservatives like family, while the godless liberals don't--so creating a lobby like this is a natural. And that is exactly how Delay and others used it. In mailings to their marks constituents, DeLay would talk about the huge inflence the USFN had in Washington and encourage contributions to it. The organization actually had a tiny staff and did very little lobbying. Instead, it funneled money to other issues and people. Kind of like money laundering. Hmm.

Second favorite part:

"'If an individual called DeLay's appointments secretary saying they wanted to talk to DeLay about overregulation, the appointment secretary would say go speak to Buckham,' one former aide said. Buckham, an evangelical minister, also continued to serve as DeLay's spiritual adviser and prayed frequently with him, the former aides said."

See? His spiritual advisor prayed with him frequently. Of course, his "spiritual advisor" also collected over a third of all the money supposedly going to help families.

Sigh. I don't know quite what to say.

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Shaun at Upper Left has this running post with changing headlines:

"It has been 988 days since Karl Rove violated his obligations under Standard Form 312 without the White House taking "corrective action."

Rove. Treason. Betrayal."

I am thinking of starting one about Bush's signing statements. Maybe:

"George Bush still thinks that he doesn't have to obey laws passed by congress.

Bush: torture, war, and tyranny."

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Sigh. Even more idiocy. Evidently No Child Left behind has actually meant that schools are forced to narrow their focus to just math and reading. History, art, music, and even science are being ignored or cut in the effort to keep the funding. I am still waiting for a real teacher to defend this act. I have heard that conservative Bush teachers hate it too--they just blame it on liberals.

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And finally (maybe) this. Turns out that (hat tip to Think Progress for both these last two links, btw) the Ohio anti-gay constitutional amendment is causing exactly what critics feared. It is making it hard, if not impossible, to prosecute Domestic violence law for unmarried couples.