Repugs Unclear on the Concept of Patriotism (a Rant)

In a move that positively reeks of Karl Rove, George W. Bush is on the attack again.

He's back to playing Commander in Chief -- donning flight gear and addressing crowds of military personnel who, presumably, would risk court martial if they expressed anything other than sincere admiration.

(You know things have gotten bad when you have to limit your personal appearances to places where a) no one else speaks English, or b) you personally outrank everyone in the audience.)

Bush is accusing Iraq war critics of attempting to rewrite history -- saying, essentially, they had access to the same information he did, and thus were just as stupid in supporting the war.

The fact that the Demos' support was based largely on lies supplied by the Cheney Cabal -- coupled with a lot of post-9/11 cover-your-ass flag waving -- strangely fails to get mentioned.

The truth is that the White House is really trying to rewrite mathematics -- the 60 percent of Americans who believe Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq and is steering this country straight off a cliff. That's six out of ten citizens, or as George would likely say, very nearly a majority.

Around half of Americans believe this administration has undergone an ethics bypass, which probably happened around the same time Cheney had his last remaining internal organ replaced with battery acid and barbed wire.

The Bush administration only knows how to do two things -- PR campaigns and smear campaigns -- usually both at the same time. This is what passes for "strong leadership." And now they are dragging out the oldest trick in the scoundrel's playbook: calling opponents of the Iraq war "unpatriotic."

There is plenty of unpatriotism going around, but it's coming from the opposite direction.

• Lying to the American public about the reasons for going to war -- because you knew the truth won't sell -- is unpatriotic.
  
  
• Fabricating and/or suppressing evidence and then blaming "intelligence failures" for your fraudulent war is unpatriotic.
  
  
• Detaining suspects for months in secret without charging them with a crime is unpatriotic.
  
  
• Spying on US citizens who had the temerity to disagree with the White House is unpatriotic.
  
  
• Allowing your cronies to siphon off billions in taxpayer dollars while 40 percent of Americans can't afford health insurance is unpatriotic.
  
  
• Letting hundreds of victims die in a flood because the troops who were supposed to help them were off fighting a fraudulent war is unpatriotic.
  
  
• Exposing a CIA agent as political retribution while allowing foreign spies to infiltrate your own offices is unpatriotic.

And that's the short list.

Even Fox News isn't buying it. Bush's own party is smelling the blood in the air and looking for ways to carve out "peace with honor." The Veep was right when he said the insurrection was in its last throes, only he was talking about the wrong insurrectionists -- it's the Republican insurrection in DC that is gasping for air.

It's time for Georgie to pick up his toy soldiers and crawl home to Crawford. We need to help him get there.