Lest we forget, there's a whole lot of problems besides Abramoff

We can hope that the New Normal is smacked down to size by outcomes from the Abramoff debacle, but the U.S. is still at the mercy of these Bushling initiatives:

In Iraq, people continue to die in a land in utter turmoil. Boy, thank God for elections.

VP Cheney is still lying through his teeth. Wow, Cub Scouts, did you know that the VP has made a career out of being honest?

P Bush is, according to leading conservative Andrew Sullivan, no better at doling out the truth. Andrew has it spot on, as they say over there. Quotable:

"But when you could have done all of that [NSA warrantless wiretaps] in line with precedent and under existing law, why take this moment to push the constitutional envelope? Why undermine public trust and bipartisan consensus when you gain nothing but making an old point in an ancient, bitter argument?

"The added irony is that Bush’s unilateral expansion of presidential power has backfired. His insistence on the right to torture detainees deeply wounded American moral standing, outraged allies, set back democratisation in Iraq, and yielded useless intelligence. Moreover, the president was forced into a humiliating defeat in December when Congress insisted that detainees be treated humanely.

"Congress refused in the same month to extend the Patriot Act and will re-examine the issue in the next few weeks. Many Republicans are troubled by some of the powers now granted to the president in a war that has no formal end-point and no formal enemy.

"On the bright side, of course, Rummy and Cheney get to stick their fingers in a few judges’ and senators’ and liberals’ eyes.

"They’ve waited three decades to get their revenge on all those Vietnam peacenik hippies; and they’ll be damned if they give an inch now. Who says old men don’t bear grudges? And who says they don’t eventually get to carry them out?"

Real mature, guys.

And deadly for America. Real patriots, guys.

Note to VP Cheney: If breaking the law with NSA (and what else?) has stopped all kinds of terrorist attacks, where are all the suspects? Oh, yeah, I forgot.

That's legal, right? Oh yeah, I forgot, Condi said so, just before we moved the prisons real fast as soon as the world found out. And how do you get these tough guys to talk? Oh, I remember. Just "enhance" the interrogation techniques. Gosh, America is sooo special.