Clueless George, Following Your Money Trail, WMDs and Terrorists Oh My, Russia Redux, MadKane and mousemusings, Seriously.

Poor George Bush, arrogant and clueless, is forever seeing progress in Iraq. The leader of our country is dumber than dirt.

Let's take a look at what George Sr. and Barbara's idiot offspring is calling progress.

The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency in Baghdad and locks down the capitol. 12 American troops dead this week, at least 25 people were found executed in Mosul and 13 others around Iraq. These are just the deaths being reported today. And two Pennsylvania National Guardsmen are being investigated in the killing of another civilian.

I don't know how much more of Bush's progress we or the Iraqis can stand.

Back at home Bush is making progress in his efforts to make sure the American people no longer have any privacy from the federal government.

First it was our phone calls and internet use, now it's our banking records. Bush and his sycophants have such a low regard for us that they are even bragging about it.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A secret CIA-Treasury program to track
financial records of millions of Americans is the latest installment in an
expansion of executive authority in the name of fighting terrorism. The
administration doesn't apologize for President Bush's aggressive take on
presidential powers. Vice President Dick Cheney even boasts about it.

And

Outgoing Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said that the program, in effect since
shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is the thing "I'm proudest of" in his
tenure and insisted that strong safeguards protect the privacy of individual
Americans. "It's really government at its best," Snow said at a news conference.
"It's responsible government. It's effective government."

Are you feeling safer yet? Not everyone is happy with Bush's abuse of presidential powers and total disregard of the Bill of Rights.

"Maybe in the end, the public will be fine with it," said John D. ReVeal, a
lawyer who specializes in financial regulation at the Washington office of
Powell Goldstein LLP. "But it's always bothered me that the public has no idea
about a lot of this. People seem to care if their bank shares information with
an insurance company, for commercial purposes. But they don't seem to mind if
the bank shares information with a government that puts people into Guantanamo
without hearings and so forth."

"It's fair enough to say, we don't want to let the bad guys know that we're
spying on them, and disclose every detail of how that's being done," ReVeal
said. "But it's another thing to pull the wool over Americans' eyes and not
disclose what end runs around the Fourth Amendment we may be doing."

Karl Rove has been busy. His latest misinformation blitz includes WMDs and Miami Terrorists. A. Alexander at Progressive Daily Beacon lays it out for us.

Hmmm...let's see: Election year again and for Rove, Bush, and Republicans
what does that mean? It means that suddenly Iran is supposedly "planting
roadside bombs in Iraq", Rove wants Republicans to talk about Iraq, Iraq,
Iraq...oh, and Iraq. It means gay marriage amendments. It also means a sudden
rash of terrorists hiding in Miami. Most of all, however, it means Bush's
so-called National Intelligence Director, Negroponte, releasing a report
claiming to have found "WMD in Iraq".

That means Rumsfeld making asinine and outright dishonest statements like,
"They are weapons of mass destruction. They are harmful to human beings. And
they have been found."

That means other lying-liar Republicans like Santorum claiming, "We now
have found stockpiles."

About that Miami terrorist ring, it looks like the FBI found seven idiots, set them up and saved them for the Administration's propaganda purposes. It's good that they're off the street, but they were probably more danger to themselves than anyone else. BuzzFlash has it covered.

Earlier today, BuzzFlash suggested that the Bush Administration's claim of
foiling an attempt to destroy the Sears Tower was propaganda
exaggerated to distract and mislead us. While we have not denied there were
indeed rumors and boasts of committing acts of terror, a careful examination of
the facts makes it clear that the Miami group was not as serious a threat as
portrayed in the media. They had no operational ability beyond their mouths.

All this is not to say thay there are no dangers facing this country, it's just that the Bush Administration wants to keep us focused on terrorism. But while we concentrate on the gnats buzzing around, the alligator might eat us.

Contrary to established opinion, the gravest threats to America's national
security are still in Russia. They derive from an unprecedented development that
most US policy-makers have recklessly disregarded, as evidenced by the
undeclared cold war Washington has waged, under both parties, against
post-Communist Russia during the past fifteen years.

While I've never been into poetry, MadKane is one cool site.

Dub's Shriveling Coalition
By Madeleine Begun Kane

George Dubya's Iraq coalition
Is suff'ring from major attrition.
Now Japan will withdraw
From this venture so flawed,
While Bush clings to his pricey, failed mission.

And I want to thank Cindy at mousemusings for noticing and mentioning Redneck Liberal.