old Satire Shmatire

These are trying days for the ruling Rights.

Out top ten list includes:

10. Number 2, deputy attorney general nominated for Justice withdraws.

9. Karl Rove testifying again, and in danger of indictment for leaking a CIA operative

8. Tom Delay under 2 count 'em 2 indictments and loses leadership post

7. The right wing-nuts are apoplectic over the supreme court nomination.

6. Chief procurement official is arrested.

5. Katrina continues to cast a long shadow and FEMA is still quite incompetent.

4. Hey a spy in the White House.

3. Torture really isn't good...so says Congress.

2. Iraq body count nears 2000

1. Public support for the Iraq war is waning.

Item 1: Bush baits the press with a "major" speech about the ongoing "War on Terrorism" revealing among other things that the Administration has disrupted 10 major Al Qaeda plots (cross his heart).

Item 2: New York goes on extra extra double orange alert because of a credible specific threat to the Subway system. Listening to CNN they said the FBI discounted the viability of the threat several days ago, but it's true you can't be too careful these days. Are you scared yet?

Item 3: NBC reports a rift on Al Qaeda reporting on an intercepted communique between the top dogs in Iraq and the #2 man holed up with Osama. Great to know these guys are feuding amongst themselves and raising the whole specter of "big" Al Qaeda plans.

Sooooo what do you think of the timing of all these things? One of the time tested proven ways of maintaining support for the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq is to continue to link it to terrorists (now true!, was false) and keep on scaring the crap out of the public.

Ya gotta wonder coincidence or orchestration!

It's hard to stop watching the do-gooder show Extreme Home Makeover. What's not to love about this crew of much too good looking designers picking people in need and building them new homes, or remaking (usually in its entirety) their existing homes. The stories about the deserving people are often heartwarming and heartwrenching for people with too many problems in their lives.

As aptly pointed out in an LA Times article, there is also something quite crass about the weekly parade of deserving families. Shows like this help people and make sure to tell you they help them.

Finally the Bush administration in an attempt to make up for the continuing Katrina response failures, is bringing out the big guns. Laura Bush is going to be appearing on the show helping victims of the hurricane in Biloxi, Miss. I suppose its politics as usual but that word crass just seems so right. I particularly like the descriptions of the event in Biloxi where the producers told all the victims to act surprised when she appeared to hand out water.

This aid brought to you by Sears, Craftsman, ABC, the Whitehouse, and so on and so on.