The unraveling of the Putsch junta seems to be proceeding in earnest now.

It seems like another jarring revelation, another major setback, more bad news seems to be coming out on an hourly basis. It's nearly impossible to keep track.

Today, the junta wasn't even trying to deal with the ramifications of Woodward's new book. The central figure in the book is Colin Powell, who was brutally frank in discussing his doubts and reservations about the whole Iraq adventure going back to November of 2001. They sent Condi out to protest some of the milder charges contained in Woodward's book, but let's face it: nobody is listening to her any more. The fiasco at the 9/11 commission pretty much finished off her credibility. Woodward's book comes on the heels of the statement by the British ambassador to America that Putsch was plotting to attack Iraq days after 9/11. That in turn comes days after Clarke's testimony before the 9/11 panel, which in turn came on the heels of his book, which contained damaging information, which in turn came right after Kevin Phillips' book which cast severe doubt, not only on Putsch's priorities, but his very loyalty to America.

This was conjoined with the news that when Putsch formally decided to do what he had decided to do right along and attack Iraq, he told the Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar on January 11th, 2003, of his decision several hours before he told his own Secretary of State. Hours later, the story broke that he had reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia to manipulate oil prices, driving them up, and bringing them back down only in the months immediately before the November election, in order to ensure favorable economic conditions for Putsch to run in.

That comes pretty close to treason. Is Putsch an American, or a Saudi Arabian subject?

Putsch's performance at the press conference could only be described as pathetic, and many of his followers watched it with jaws hanging slack in dismay. This was far worse than the Tim Russert interview, and reminded people that even the "eve of war" press conference, in which a compliant press threw him nothing but carefully prearranged softballs tested him to the limit.

Just today - one day, a day in the life of - the following occurred.

Putsch announced that John Negroponte would be the ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte was the man who persuaded the UN not to defend Iraq in any way from the American attack and rape. He's about as popular in Iraq as Richard Allan Davis is with the Polly Klaas family and for similar reasons. Incidently, Negroponte, who probably facilitated crimes against humanity in the Honduras, isn't well loved there, either, and within hours of his posting, Honduras announced they were pulling their troops out of Iraq immediately. Who can blame them? Putsch wants a sickening slimeball like Negroponte to be responsible for calming Iraq down? This, in turn, came less than 48 hours after Spain, number three in the lyrically-named "coalition of the willing," announced they were done dicking around with Iraq and were pulling out now. The fools on the American right can't even pull their usual stunt of accusing the Spaniards of cowardice, since it came just hours after Spain flatly rejected Osama bin Laden's offer to keep his terror activities south of the Mediterranean if they would just say the word that they would stop opposing him.

As for recent events in Iraq, retired Marine General Zinni summed it up nicely when he said, "Heads should roll." I'm guessing he was considering heads in the West Wing and Oval Office.

They are digging mass graves in Fallujah, and stopping the need for mass graves was the one remaining rationale the junta had for going into Iraq. WMDs had already proved to be an embarrassing lie. "Fighting terrorism" was a joke. Stopping the evil-doer Saddam from "killing his own people" (something he did with the knowledge and approval of Putsch's daddy back when the US was his staunch ally) was the one remaining justification that hadn't been wholly shredded by consequent events. Now they are digging mass graves for the thousands killed by indiscriminate American retaliation against an entire city for the actions of a handful of resisters. The US, according to reports, has filled two entire soccer fields with men, women and children killed by barrages of blind rage against the city.

Even as the GOP plans their September convention in New York City in order to exploit the deaths of 9/11, another book has come out, by one David Ray Griffin, called "The New Pearl Harbor." There's been hundreds of books questioning what really happened on that awful day, and they range from fairly sobering investigations that raise serious questions to absolute paranoid twaddle, and I plan to read his book (now sitting a foot from my keyboard) over the next few days in order to decide for myself where this one lies. But it's getting extraordinary attention, due in large measure to the academic chops of Griffin himself, Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology, and a noted author who emphatically does not delve into paranoid loony-toon bullshit. His book (I'm told) doesn't have much that isn't contained in many of the hundreds of other books already out, but is more meticulously researched and better argued, as one might expect from a theologian. The problem with conspiracy theories is that they attract conspiracy theorists, and unfortunately, a lot of "exposé" books about 9/11 tended to come from people who thought the Bush family and the Queen of England were secretly extraterrestrial lizards, or who saw it as part of an Illuminati thing. It doesn't mean they were wrong, just that they could not make a convincing case. Folks familiar with Dan Akroyd's role in the movie "Sneakers" will reflect that the fact that he was proven to be right didn't help his credibility in the slightest.

With Griffin, this doesn't apply. The guy is clearly not a paranoid loon. And people are starting to pay a lot more attention, especially in the wake of the 9/11 panel hearings. Suddenly, Republicans in the street are asking why the fighter jets weren't scrambled that morning.

Israel assassinated the new leader of Hamas, and the only thing the White House could think of to say was "The United States is gravely concerned for regional peace and stability." The United States might well be, but the administration certainly is not. The King of Jordan promptly cancelled a meeting planned for two days later at the White House. When was the last time the King of Jordan, normally a strong ally, stiffed the White House like that? The answer, of course, is never. This came right on the heels of Putsch's blatant betrayal of the Palestinian people, a capitulation to the vicious and murderous Sharon of Israel.

Criticism of Putsch is now coming from all sides, including that most polite and non-aggressive of Democrats, Dick Gephardt. Gephardt was reported in St. Louis papers as saying "He is bankrupting the country and he doesn't even want to talk about it. He's got to go!" and, "I am more frightened about our country and the problems we face around the world than I've ever been. He's not leading the world. John Kerry will." Gephardt went on to flatly state that Putsch was not up to the job of president, something that was apparent to everyone at this week's press conference.

Even the right wing smear machine is having trouble gaining traction. After $60 million in campaign ads and endless lies about Kerry (such as the "Heintz outsourced 57 factories" hoax), not only did their candidate actually lose ground in the polls (now trailing Kerry by about five points) but people, including the Kerrys, were actually--laughing--at them. Senator Kerry sneered that he had no interest in having chickenhawks like Rove and Cheney lecture him on patriotism, while his wife delivered a profoundly subtle slap down of the vicious trash of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. As reported in the Boston Globe: "So far, the entire Bush campaign has consisted of a series of pathetic misfires and smear jobs without a single constructive plan or proposal to offer the voters. So now, as Bush's numbers drop like stones, they are going after Kerry's wife with the hysterical viciousness of desperation. But in targeting Heinz, they picked on the wrong lady!" ... "Just let them,' she says in a soft voice. 'When you raise your kids, you say, 'What you say is who you are,'" http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/04/16/heinz_kerry_seen_a s_secret_weapon

The wheels are definitely coming off the Putsch junta wagon.

But is it in time to save America?

Topplebush.com
Posted: April 21, 2004