April 4, 2004:  #01  Political Satire/Commentary where satire is always commentary but commentary isn't always satire ™·2004.
Permanent Link   Send to a friend  About author, Jim Wrenn   Subscribe   Google-News list of recent updates  Home   Search.

Sibel Edmonds, Richard Clarke, John Dean-- a Turk, a Smirk and a Jerk; John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Ralph Nader-- Flip, Flop & Flak; George Bush, Dick Cheney, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice-- Di-Cast, Bypass, Spyglass & High-Class.·

    The Turk-- Sibel Edmonds achieves her fifteen minutes of fame by claiming that as a post-9-11 translator of pre-9-11 intelligence data she "discovered" that "months" before 9-11, Bush, et al, had access to "warnings" that al Qaeda would "hijack airliners" to "attack cities" with "skyscrapers."  If the 9-11 attack were to have been a small nuclear bomb smuggled into one of our harbors, it's a virtual certainty that a post-attack review of intelligence data acquired before such attack would include theories, warnings or suspicions of such attack.  As should be self-evident to anyone willing to use common sense, even if one were to assume her allegations to be 100% correct, they are irrelevant to the real issues-- i.e., that defensive strategies against the evil-genius tactics of barbarian fanatics seeking to replace Western Civilization with medieval tyranny cannot be 100% effective.

    The Smirk-- On June 28, 2000, Richard Clarke, told a classified meeting of Rep. Christopher Shays' House National Security Subcommittee that "it was 'silly' to think the government could develop a comprehensive strategy to fight [terrorist] threats."  [Source]   After characterizing the Clinton administration's "strategy" against terrorism as "chasing ... the vermin du jour," Clarke told Shays' subcommittee that he was "confident that he knew where the threats were and had the tools to act accordingly."  Recently, former Gen. Anthony Zinni, who worked with Clarke in the Clinton administration (and who has been a critic of Bush's policy in Iraq), characterized Clarke's views of pre-9-11 strategies as reflecting "a perspective that at times was 'overly simplistic.'" [Source]  As an illustration of Clarke's arrogant impetuousness, Zinni described an incident during the Clinton administration in which Clarke called Zinni "criminal" for refusing to approve Clarke's recommendation for firing cruise missiles at the Afghan city of Kandahar on the basis of "U.S. intelligence suggest[ing] Osama bin Laden was [there]."  Zinni said such missile strike could have caused as many as 15,000 civilian casualties and added that eventually it was determined that bin Laden was "not there" at that time.

    The Jerk (not to be confused with Steve Martin's hilarious movie)-- John Dean, an accomplished liar, is now promoting his new book, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush.  No doubt the dominant media will fawn over it.  Perhaps 60 Minutes will schedule an interview with him and in pre-broadcast publicity identify him as a formerly a "registered Republican."   Dean's perceptions about other people's trustworthiness is about as valuable as a pig's opinion on ham and eggs.

   The Flip-- John Kerry, who (except, perhaps, in battle) cannot distinguish between understanding "nuances" and indecisiveness, said that if he were president, "he would stop pumping oil into the nation's emergency stockpile until prices fell and would pressure OPEC to provide more oil.  [Source]  He seems to understand that small increases in supply can have a significant downward pressure on prices except, of course, such "small" increases as would be provided by drilling in Alaska.  He seems to believe there are things we could do to "pressure" OPEC to increase supply to lower the price except, of course, the lasting, positive impact that a decision to drill in Alaska would have on the oil-futures market, and, hence, on the price of gasoline.

    The Flop-- Bill Clinton, having flopped in his goal to have a legacy as a "great president" (other than in the "minds" of the Entertainment Industry Left), is understandably frustrated by his unsatisfied lust for a way to be able to credibly say, "I told you so" to Bush regarding al Qaeda.  Remember the statesman-like way that George H. W. Bush limited his post-presidency comments when Clinton was president to non-partisan statements?  Clinton, who does not deserve blame for 9-11 any more than does Bush, should have the integrity (for once) to publicly and categorically recite two truths:  (1) If he were to still have been president, he wouldn't have "prevented" 9-11 and (2) he unequivocally believed Saddam Hussein possessed massive stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and would resume work on a nuclear program at his earliest opportunity.  Will he do it?  Of course not.  Instead, he tries to imply that Bush failed to heed Clinton's "warnings" about the need to "get" bin Laden.

    The Flak-- Many people foolishly take at face value the dominant media's interpretation of Ralph Nader's intentions as seeking to expand his third-party base.   Instead, Nader is committed to take, and fire, flak on behalf of John Kerry.  He intends to function as the Vice-Vice-Presidential Candidate for Kerry against Bush and thereby increase his (Nader's) power base within the left wing of the Democratic Party.  

    The Di-Cast-- That George Bush is more pragmatic than ideological is already evident to his base, which is quite upset with what they perceive as his having embraced too much of the liberal agenda in the course of what they consider the fool's errand of seeking bi-partisan compromise with the dominantly left wing of the Democratic Party.  That Bush is di-cast about the di he has cast in the war on terror is what drove his recent flip-flop on whether to assert executive privilege against Condoleeza Rice testifying before the 9-11 Commission.  That's because a tactical issue had become a strategic one.  In many (perhaps most) contexts, an issue on which testimony by presidential staff members is tactical relative to the long-term, strategic separation-of-powers principle of executive privilege.  Once Bush realized that the passions of political cannibalism (ignited by Richard Clarke's and 60 Minutes efforts to hype Clarke's book for CBS' parent company and promote 60 Minutes' view of Bush as hapless) were threatening to undermine the strategy of his war against terrorism, he pragmatically concluded that whether Rice should testify had morphed from a tactical issue into a strategic one.  That the media fail to understand it as such is yet another manifestation of their tendency to underestimate him.

    The ByPass-- The stereotypical view of Dick Cheney among the media and his political opponents is that he's secretly running the government, which enabled him to bypass the hierarchical chain of command within bureaucracies such as the State Department, the Defense Department, the FBI and the CIA.  If such were the case, Bush would have refused to seek to involve the United Nations before toppling Saddam Hussein.

    The SpyGlass-- In the long-ago-vanished world of bi-partisan foreign policy (i.e., pre-Vietnam), a new president's retention of the CIA director of his opposite-party predecessor would induce the opposition party to support, rather than malign, such new president's motives in foreign policy.  Why is it that whenever George Tenet makes a public utterance supportive of Bush, the dominant media rarely (almost never), describes him as "Clinton's CIA Director" or a "registered Democrat"?

    The High-Class-- Condoleeza Rice, a woman of great intellect and accomplishment (indeed, a pre-1982 Democrat like Amb. Jean Kirkpatrick) [FYI], has exhibited more moral poise in response to the savage political cannibalism directed at her by the Bush-haters than most of her critics.  Her admirers have a high degree of confidence that regardless of how her critics view and characterize her forthcoming testimony before the 9-11 Commission, the Rice diet will nurture the intellectual health of the country on the issue of 9-11 and terrorism.  Furthermore, given what we know know about North Korea's nuclear program as well as its rocket program (involving repeated tests of rockets flying over Japan) as well as its having sold (but failed to deliver due to fear of U.S. military action) long-range rockets to Saddam Hussein, it boggles the mind that anyone would view her speech planned for, but not presented on, September 11, 2001, focused on the need to accelerate missile defense programs to render us (and our allies and our military forces deployed around the world) from nuclear blackmail, as manifesting a focus on a threat less serious than terrorism.

Political Cannibalism-- 

Will the final "report" of the 9-11 Commission eschew political cannibalism?  Even if the Commission members nominally purport to do so, partisans on both sides will attack it, or support it, with partisan zeal the likes of which we been witnessing in the course of coverage of its inquiry and proceedings.  One hopes that by next November, however, at least a majority of those who vote will have perceived such partisanship as the political cannibalism that it is.

--Jim Wrenn, Editor at PoliSat.Com.

Daily Update immediately preceding the one above.

Recent Political Satire/Commentary Animations-- Click image to play.  More: Text-Index/Images-Index.

Donate your frequent-flier miles to military personnel to return home from port of reentry on leave:  www.HeroMiles.Org.

·support our troops, support Bush, support Cheney, support victory in Iraq, support victory in Afghanistan,  Clinton Liebrary, http://PoliSat.Com , PoliSatDOTcom, Salute America's Heroes, Fallen Heroes Fund, oppose Gore's Global Warming theory, support milblogs, Michael Yon, Pat Dollard, BlackFive, MilBlogs, MilBlogging, Michael Yon, Mudville Gazette, HotAir.Com, JawaReport, PajamasMedia , VictoryCaucus , VetsForFreedom , FreedomsWatch , DayByDayCartoon , WrennCom.Com , Video , Political Satire, Politics, News, oppose MoveOn.Org, oppose Code Pink, oppose DailyKos, oppose ANSWER, support PoliSat.Com, support WrennCom.Com, ·

First Things First:  Salute America's Heroes · Fallen Heroes Fund · Frequent-Flyer-Miles for Troops · Thanks to Troops · Military News ··  MilBlogs ·   Home · Posts:  Current /Recent · Videos/Toons/Songs:  Latest · Embed-Codes · Text Index · Images Index · Archives:  Old · New · About · Contact · Syndication · Affiliates · News  Sources/Papers/Magazines   Pundits  Blogs   ThinkTanks   What is "property"?   Pantheopians   Global Climate   Asteroids/Comets Hitting Earth--Risks/Predictions    Science   GlobalWeb

Other sites that feature PoliSat.Com's Political Satire/Commentary-- Click here to view our Affiliates page.