RANDOM TAKES: October 2005

GOD’S WAR
For the second time it has been reported that the president believes that God directed him to wage war on Iraq. The first came from a Texas confidant who was authorized to write a Bush biography. The second comes from an assembly of Palestinians whom, after the initial shock, must have had difficulty maintaining diplomatic decorum.

ROVE’S LAST APPEAL
For the fourth time, the president’s political mastermind, Karl Rove, will appear before the Grand Jury investigating the White House leak that exposed CIA operative, Valerie Plame Wilson, for political retribution. He will doubtlessly try to explain the discrepancies in his previous testimony. He will fail. History will record that, while curiosity killed the cat, it was arrogance that hammered the nails in the Bush administration coffin. Rove will fall and Cheney will follow. We will then witness whether loyalty rivals arrogance in the White House moral hierarchy.

SUPREME COURT TANGO
George W. Bush speaks of Harriet Miers as if she were a former lover. Are we certain it is not so? Ms Miers, quite striking in her youth, is sixty, single and childless. She has climbed from a Lottery Commission chair as recently as 2000 to the most powerful judicial appointment in the western world. The tale will be told when and if Laura, who killed a former lover in a tragic auto wreck in her youth, and Harriet share the stage. Sparks will fly and the nomination will be imperiled.

FUN WITH PIGGY
Rather than fighting price gouging or windfall oil profits that accompany every disruption in the energy supply (or even a whisper of disruption), the Bush White House is taking the usual approach to its disastrous policies: public relations. The Energy Hog (a new cartoon icon) will give tips on wearing sweaters and changing the heating filter monthly rather than pushing for hybrid cars or solar energy panels. There will be no talk of government responsibility, no push for fuel efficiency standards, no suggestion that the Hummer may not be patriotic after all. The Energy Hog loves big oil and has a seat next to Cheney at the table of almighty influence. There is a striking resemblance.

PRIVATE BAEZ
Who is Roberto Baez of Tampa, Florida? In 2004, at the age of eighteen, he voted for George Bush in his first presidential election. He played sports, went to football games, and had a high school sweetheart. He graduated high school and contemplated an uncertain future. Filled with patriotic pride and the promises of an army recruiter, he enlisted. Private Baez would never vote in another election. He would never marry his high school sweetheart or attend another football game. He would no longer worry about the future. On Wednesday, October 5, Roberto Baez graduated from life on earth. Officially, he became number 1945 on the official list of American casualties in the Iraq War.