Konniving Karl

The Architect.

You have to give the guy credit for adapting to his environment.
I’m betting he’ll come out of this unscathed, whether he is guilty of something or not.

Last night I was thinking about how proud Clinton would be of the way the Republican party is splitting the hairs on this Plame case, and how the definition of ‘fixed’ is being tortured concerning the Downing Street Memo(s).

This administration has sold the American public a war based on completely false intelligence. We are at war with a country that a) had nothing to do with 9-11 and b) had nothing to do with Osama and his crew. The majority of sane and rational thinking people can plainly see this, yet Bush is still the President of the United States. Astounding that is.

The only connection between Osama and Hussein is their hatred for America. IF there were more credible ties, as Bush has implied, (“The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda, is because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda” – George Bush), wouldn’t the administration show the American people those solid connections? Bush defends his war constantly, using the ‘spread democracy’ and ‘liberation of Iraqi people’ rationale, and no longer mentions Osama. I would think that if there were solid, irrefutable connections, that would be the first thing that would be shown to the American public. I know if I was going to invade a country that I deemed an imminent threat to the United States, I would have my presentation wound pretty tight, after all, the evidence would be obvious would it not? Go here for a bunch of statements on the pro/con of the Osama-Saddam connections. Note when the article was published.

If hatred for America is enough evidence for an invasion, then we have quite a few countries to attack.

If Osama had these direct connections with Saddam, and Osama has been credited with 9-11, (you know that worst terrorist attack ever on American soil?) wouldn’t it stand to reason that Osama bin Laden would be our number one priority? Why Saddam instead?

Osama: religious extremist, lives in caves, non-materialistic, projects god-like image.

Saddam: dictator, lived in opulence in plain view, projects militaristic power image.

All the satellites in the world could not produce any evidence of what Osama was up to regarding 9-11.

Those same satellites were trained on Iraq daily. Colin Powell paraded a bunch of ‘evidence’ before the U.N. when the U.S. was pretending to seek a U.N. resolution to invade Iraq. Evidence that later, Colin Powell said was wrong. Colin Powell resigned.

This is an old story by now and it’s clear to anyone and everyone that can look at these events and timelines. No point in beating this particular issue to death. We are in Iraq, people are dying, we screwed up and will have to do our best to fix it and hope that in the long term all of the little jihadists that being created and recruited due to the Iraqi conflict will not turn into a bunch of Osama’s. If it is not wholly obvious to everyone by now, military means will not solve the war on terror. In fact, it only seems to increase terrorism and terrorist attacks. (oddly enough, see Iraq, and incidentally, I joked with a co-worker right after the London bombings that Bush's approval rating would rise, anybody's guess why that happens)

If Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld and Cheney can pull off going to war in Iraq, then Rove is bullet proof on the Plame case. Already today the blame has shifted onto Novak. It’s all Novak’s fault…ie the liberal media strikes again trying to discredit an honorable man like Rove.

Bush said he would remove anyone in his administration that was the source of the leak. He has also stated he has full confidence in Rove.

Rove’s not going anywhere, even if he is found guilty of something. Republicans practically own the government and Rove helped put them there.

Get real people, Rove will not be removed. I hope I’m wrong as I can be, but we have smelled ducks, heard ducks, tasted ducks from the beginning of Bush’s adventure as president and we are still smelling ducks, hearing ducks, tasting ducks and most likely will continue to dine on this fowl until 2008.

I’m not sure things will change so much in 2008 either. I thought the blatant ineptitude of Bush during his first 4 years would be enough for Bush to NOT be reelected but man was I wrong about that. Even though the election was near a dead heat, a pretty lousy showing for an incumbent, he was reelected by a ‘mandate’. I found that parroting of ‘mandate’ pretty comical.

‘Mandate - A command or an authorization given by a political electorate to its representative.’

I assume that when Bush said ‘mandate’ he did not mean the majority of the American public, he meant a Republican\conservative\religious mandate, his political electorate.

The majority of the American public did not vote for Bush, unless you are one that counts the non-voters as a vote for Bush. Two elections, both shady at best. Bush is still the prez.

Not sure what it will take for the non-voters to get involved. Not sure what ‘side’ they will pick if they do. And let’s be real about that too, our political landscape is about winning, not producing viable results for the good of America and it’s people.

The tactics The Architect has employed work and work beautifully. Politicians are regarded as crooks and liars across the spectrum, regardless of party. Why then should we be surprised that the sleazy underhanded tactics of Rove and company work so well?

The bombings in London underscore some heavy things for Americans to think about. As more details emerge regarding these suicide bombers, it is increasingly apparent that our involvement in Iraq is creating a perfect recruitment center for jihadists against America and a real-time training ground for such recruitments. These otherwise law-abiding peaceful Muslims see their brothers suffering so at the hands of Americans in Iraq and at the hands of Israel in Palestine. These young idealistic Muslims are easy prey for their older idealistic Muslim extremists. These people all have conviction in their faith and to them this is a holy war, a spiritual crusade.

Rove’s comment about therapy and understanding in a way is very accurate. True liberals do not solve conflicts with war, conservatives do. As a jihadist, as a terrorist, who would you rather fight: someone that will give you the fight you’re looking for or someone that will not?

Bush gives them the fight they want. “Bring it on!” “We fight them in Iraq so we won’t have to fight them here.” I’m sure the jihadists are thinking ‘we better get our butts over to Iraq, to make that last stand’. The bombings in London should send a wake up call to that part of the American public that still believe in Bush that Bush’s war in Iraq is not – will not decrease the reasons middle east jihadists and terrorists commit their acts of violence. They love violence, they love death, death is entry into heaven. What better way to martyr one’s self than to take some infidels and babylonians with you?

I find this conviction in faith by Muslims striking when compared to the faith of Christians in the United States. Muslims are willing to die for their convictions, Christians, at least in this country, are not. This is interesting as Christianity preaches heavily on the afterlife, the end times, Revelations and all that. Then, the lion shall lay with the lamb and everybody’s happy. Is that really that different than the 72 virgin thing? Utopia in the afterlife where all desires are met?

“Everybody want to go, up to heaven, but none of them, none of them want to die” (apply thick reggae accent, title and artist please)

Back to my original point before it gets lost in my ramblings, Rove will come out of this free and clear. There’s nothing else this administration could do that’s any worse than it has done already. Nothing. Rove is the architect and Bush and the Republicans will stand by him all the way.

In other news: recidivist beat me to the punch on Le Tour news for today and the weekend so I’ll just add that he’s spot on and I’ll be watching the race. I really hope Rassmussen shakes things up a bit and we have a race, a real race to the end of Le Tour. I would like to see Armstrong win, but I want to see him earn it every step of the way.