"Integrity" and "Honesty"

Bush delivered his Speech last night with more mastery and well-hidden duplicity than ever before. The use of the Iraqi activist, Safia Taleb al-Suhail, and the parents of the dead Marine, Byron Norwood, was the sort of stage and image management you can only get from pros playing the game at the height of their abilities. As far as content goes, there was nothing included to sway the opponents of the Administration. I took notes and intended to comment on all the purple-tinged silliness and snarkiness shown in reply. But, to be honest, it was a wholly unimportant moment in this era of very important moments and I don't care to analyze any more of it today. Anything you need to know about this speech and Dubya's prior efforts can be better illustrated using the wonder that is "The State of the Union Parsing Tool" (thanks for the link, Chris). As suggested to me to best kickstart the logic of the goofy wordsmithing typically seen in SOTUs, try entering the following couplets:

"osama" and "saddam"
"teacher" and "education"
"evil" and "terror"

The results are appallingly entertaining.

Other items that make me much more uncomfortable and need to not be swept under today's news cycle:

One of the Bush press plants (Jeff Gannon) has been outed for being a shady, partisan shill by the Boston Globe. Lots of ugly stories have come from his no-standing byline (he gets "daily passes" to the White House Press room not the standard "hard pass" given to actual journalists). And his funding comes from a delegate to the Texas GOP with other internet fundraising ventures still in play. TalonNews.com - a worthless GOP glorified blog that deserves more scrutiny. As the Globe piece points out, no other bloggers have been given press passes, even on a "daily" basis. Given the recent Armstrong Williams revelations, more examples of press manipulations by the Bushies just look all the more insulting to those of us that care about an active and independent press. Gannon should be outta da Pool for good. That, of course, is unlikely.

In today's blast from past scandals file, the previously disgraced Elliott Abrams (convicted in 1991 of lying to Congress with regard to his Iran-Contra testimony) got yet another promotion from Dubya. Yes, now Abrams will be Deputy National Security Adviser with, and I'm not making this up, "a focus on promoting global democracy and human rights." The good news for him is that he won't need to be confirmed by Congress. Not that this Congress would let a little thing like a felony conviction work against a man's pursuit of tyranny elsewhere in the world.

Oh, and the House Republicans ousted their Ethics Committee Chair, Joel Hefley (R-CO), for past attempts to reign in Tom Delay. The new chair, Richard Hastings (R-Wash.), was hand-chosen by Denny Hastert and can be expected to be much less diligent about investigations. Leaving Hastings free, one must assume, to pursue the other primary missions of the Ethics Committee. Such as creating other primary missions for a Committee solely meant to monitor the actions of Representatives. According to the WashintonPost:

Hefley said in an interview yesterday that he believes he was removed because he was too independent. He said there is "a bad perception out there that there was a purge in the committee and that people were put in that would protect our side of the aisle better than I did. Nobody should be there to protect anybody," he said. "They should be there to protect the integrity of the institution."

I'd love to hear someone try to explain a rational reason for Delay and Hastert's manipulation of the House in this manner. Or if you've got comments on the SOTU, SupaDupa Bowl picks, or general rants, let me know.