Dowd: Bike-Deep in the Big Muddy

[Pirate Smile]

W. has jumped the couch.

Not fallen off the couch, as he did when he choked on that pretzel.

Jumped it.

According to UrbanDictionary.com, "jump the couch" has now become slang for "a defining moment when you know someone has gone off the deep end. Inspired by Tom Cruise's recent behavior on 'Oprah.' Also see 'jump the shark.' "

-snip-
Iraq, it turns out, is the one branch of American government that the Republicans don't control.

W. had a barbecue for the press on Thursday night. (If only the press had grilled him instead.) He mingled over catfish and potato salad with the reporters, who had to ride past Cindy Sheehan's antiwar encampment to get to the poolside party.

Dan Froomkin wrote on the Washington Post Web site that many of the reporters "fawned over Bush, following him around in packs every time he moved." W. chatted about sports and the twins, still oblivious to the cultural shift that is turning 2005 into 1968.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/opinion/27dowd.html

[Lifelong Protester]

1. Great Article

by Dowd. Now if I can just work 'jump the couch' into my daily conversations...

[Pirate Smile]

2. The last half is great also:

"Eric Lichtblau reported in The Times this week that the administration was dumping the highly respected Lawrence Greenfeld, appointed by President Bush in 2001 to head the Bureau of Justice Statistics, because he refused superiors' orders to delete from a press release an account of how black and Hispanic drivers were treated more aggressively by the police after traffic stops. The Justice Department study showed markedly higher rates of searches and use of force for black and Hispanic drivers, compared with white drivers.

Fearing that the survey would give ammunition to members of Congress who object to using racial and ethnic data in terrorism and law enforcement investigations, Mr. Greenfeld's supervisors buried it online with no press release or briefing for Congress.

Mr. Lichtblau wrote that when Mr. Greenfeld sent the planned press release to the office of his supervisor, Tracy Henke, then an acting assistant attorney general, the section on the treatment of black and Hispanic drivers was crossed out with a notation: "Do we need this?" Ms. Henke herself had added a note: "Make the changes."

Like Condi Rice, Stephen Hadley, John Bolton and others who helped spin reality to suit political ends, Ms. Henke was rewarded by the president. She has been nominated for a senior post in the Homeland Security Department.

I feel safer already."

[Lifelong Protester]

3. Has there ever been

a president more insulated from reality than this guy? I am thinking back, hmmm... Harding? Grant? The difference though is (at least for Grant) is that he was basically clueless and an innocent bystander to his own presidential demise (Harding was a full practitioner of cronyism) but this White House has as its operating policy that NOTHING messes with the truth as THEY SEE IT. And those who help foster and nurture that "truth" are rewarded with higher positions or medals.

[Cha]

4. I absolutely Love this analogy..

"You'd think that by now, watching the meshugas in Iraq, the Bush crowd would have learned some lessons about twisting facts to suit ideology, and punishing those who try to tell the truth. But they're still behaving like Cinderella's evil stepsisters, who cut their feet to fit them into the glass slipper: butchering reality to make the fairy tale come out their way."

I can see ol' cheney's big foot in a bloody glass slipper and bush taking off his stinky ol' cowboy boots ..straining hard to work his smelly feet into Prince Charming's proffered glass slipper.

[Eloriel]

5. I LOVE this line:

Iraq, it turns out, is the one branch of American government that the Republicans don't control.


This one ain't bad either:
W. chatted about sports and the twins, still oblivious to the cultural shift that is turning 2005 into 1968.

[MrTriumph]

6. Where's Sam Donaldson when you need him?

Bush would have dropped his potato (is that correct, Dan Q?) salad if Sam had asked him a REAL QUESTION.