Critical Mass

America, for a short time, is a better place today. Porter Goss, chief supplier of spinnable intelligence to the Bush Administration, resigned as head of the CIA. For a brief period now, the deck chairs on the Hindenburg are in better order. There's only one problem: Bush will appoint his successor. What syncophant will do a heckuva job collecting spinnable intelligence on Iran prior to the nuking? Who will go along with yellowcake lies, false ties between Saddam and Al Qaida, WMDs that had been destroyed and discredited intel in the name of policy over fact? Who will accomplish the mission of misleading the American people? Who's next?

If we could only get Rummy, Cheney, and the Shrub himself to follow suit, I might have some hope. Goss's tenure at the CIA is proof that poor leadership can ruin a good organization. Like the rest of the country following Bush, the CIA will take years to rebuild following the installation of syncophants into leadership position, the squandering of talent and experience in the name of policy and the failures that made CIA a joke both at home and abroad under Goss's misleadership. There is the matter of black prisons, of discreditation, of inability to recruit to an organization of known torturers. It will take long to rebuild the CIA, long after the discredited President who discredited the organization is replaced by someone with some leadership and vision.

Another poll, another low. I believe somewhere there is a critical mass, a point at which salvaging an administation from its own incompetence and lies is impossible. I believe that point has been passed and that Bush is doomed to three years of increasing contempt, eventually reaching Nixonian levels of job approval. He will fade into ignominity, a picture in the encyclopedia followed by a few paragraphs describing corruption, incompetence and lies, a President compared to Grant and Harding for their incompetence and their failures. Bush has reached the point where people reject almost anything he proposes from bitter experience of Iraq, of Katrina, of failure after failure. His compatriots aren't fareing better. Frist's energy proposal was laughed out of existence by conservatives. Rumsfeld speaks to overt hecklers these days, something Bush carefully screens from his carefully selected audiences. Republicans are now involved in Hookergate, a plot to buy the Congress using prostitutes, free, of course. That violates Congressional ethics rules because a hooker of interest to a Congressman surely costs more that $50, the limit of the price of a gift. Of course, Scotty the soon to be ex Mouthpiece says the polls are just a snapshot. Dream on, Scotty. We've had Snow jobs enough already.

Another critical point seems to be approaching, the point at which foreign investors are no longer willing to finance our massive debt, both public and private. The dollar is dropping as investors turn to other currencies. Options are few, we're so far in debt. About the only avenue left to prop up the dollar - raising interest rates - could well lead to a recession, something I'd rather avoid. Yet it seems impossible to avoid. Republican fiscal irresponsibility is as unlikely to end as the American populace's buy-now-pay-later habits. Last time things were this out of balance the dollar devalued by half. Of course, that might prop up some American automakers who are still pushing Suck U V's on an unsuspecting populace unaware that peak oil is more than a price spike. As I've written a number of times, eventually the Chinese will foreclose and it probably won't be a time chosen to be of advantage to us. Bush's economic plan, spend and spend and continue to cut taxes, is as likely to work as his other policies and his batting average is about as bad as his failed sports venture's. Another Bush legacy, bankrupt America.