It's Not a Bubble Unless I Say It's a Bubble

How about the news from Europe? Condi is over there telling the Republican truth: We don't have prisoners in secret prisons in Europe. Meanwhile, the Europeans are finding out what the truth according to Republicans means: The prisons were shut down shortly after the story of their existence broke. They went to Morocco, according to a Swiss Senator, which is not in Europe so Condi is, at least technically, telling the truth. Senator Marty implicates Poland and Romania and implies that several kidnappings were U. S. grabs of "persons of interest". In this case, the truth shall not make you free, just get you rendered to Morocco.

More proof that Bush is living in a bubble: He calls the Medicare prescription drug plan a good deal. Members of his own party are realizing what a white elephant this drug company welfare package is. To tout the plan, Bush blew off the White House Conference on Aging today to drive to an upscale, gated nursing home to speak to a hand-picked audience of lucid seniors. If he wanted to prove he wasn't in a bubble, he should have gone to Maple Manor, where residents lie in their own excrement until one of the miniscule staff has the time to get them out of it, and told them how good his plan is. Here's my experience with it: Two nights ago I helped my mother sign up on the plan. It took us nearly an hour of phone and internet time to find a plan that requires her to pay about $65.00 per month in premiums and sells her her prescriptions at $435 per quarter. This totals out to $2,520 per year. When you compare it to the full price of $3,400, she's getting a discount of around 25%. Now compare it to what she is actually paying today: $0. There you have compassionate conservatism at work. My parents own their home so they're not faced with the drugs-or-groceries choice the Shrub's hand-picked, gated retirement community audience will never face. Bush should try to sell the plan before someone who is facing that choice.

Four more dead for what in Iraq? The body count is over 32,000 now by figures the White House is now trying to distance itself from. Meanwhile, Scotty McClellan once again indicated the Republican's concern for human life by indicating that the U. S. doesn't count Iraqi dead, the poor misunderstood Prez just picked a number out of the paper. We don't count Iraqis? Why, aren't they worth it? Our military goes out of the way to avoid targeting civilians, Scotty says. Tell that to those burnt by white phosphorous, to the many bombed "safe houses" that turned out to be nothing of the sort, to the victims of our allies' torture camps. Besides, most independent estimates of Iraqi casualties are much higher.