If the whole damn thing weren't so sickening, it'd be laughable. When you think that the Bush/Cheney cabal can't be any more irresponsible or arrogant, they sink to lower depths. That Chalabi stank was obvious to those not wearing blinders. That the Iraqi prison abuse wasn't a few renegade guards was apparent to those not wearing blinders. That the invasion of Iraq was a fraud was obvious to those not wearing blinders. That our Government has been corrupted, disrupted, and near bankrupted by the Bush Cabal is painfully obvious to those not wearing blinders.

Bush has repeatedly stressed that he's for Personal Responsibility, that his group is for Personal Responsibility, that America is about Personal Responsibility. Yet he has demonstrated - repeatedly - the fine art of avoiding Personal Responsibility. Of making promises (June handoff) and kinda, sorta filling them (your country but we control it). Of taking illegal, immoral, or ill-advised actions (invading Iraq) under false pretenses (WMDs) but justifying them by later changing his meanings and motivations (WMD-like, and Hussein was bad - that's why we went in).

The continual lying, hypocrisy, manipulations, half-truths, denials, and appeals for blind belief are beyond analysis. It's tiresome to every week, every day, point out the faults and the lies that our Government foists upon us. For many of us it's obvious. For others they refuse to see because of ignorance or fear or "patriotism" (fanatical loyalty) and so we bang our heads on our desks in frustration.

The result is obvious. America, once proud, is a laughingstock with a leadership not be trusted but instead - backed by a hellacious nuclear arsenal - to be feared. And I fear that if we don't get out of Iraq entirely then America will face more terrorism, more universal hatred than can be imagined.