idiots with power

Ah the brothers Cannon. One continues to carry water for emasculated president and smear Democrats without cause or truth. The other just got himself on the Deseret News editorial board. When the Church gets all defensive about its ties to the Republican party, I think they need to look this one in the face. Why is a Church-owned publication hiring a state party chairman, whose brother is a partisan member of Congress, as an editor?

Anyway, lets go to the idiot quotations.

"As I read the report, it says the president is right," he [Rep. Chris Cannon] said. "Basically, it says the president is a smart guy."
He said the commission rejected a quick withdrawal from Iraq, aiming for 2008, but allowing for changes in conditions on the ground. [Source: Tribune

Utah Democrats claims to have found the first intrusion of Joe on behalf of Chris:

It looks like a pretty little graphic, but what stands out, for anyone with an IQ above room temperature, are Bernick's obviously false and deliberately misleading numbers in the UT-CD3 race. Take a look:

[Bob] Bernick states in the article:

"Burridge spent only $7,000. For his whole race, Cannon spent $1.16 million, a record re-election total for him."

Now, while I recognize that Bernick indicated in the graphic that the dollar figures used in the graphic for Burridge (and Pete Ashdown) features an asterisk noting that the totals are taken from the amount of money the candidates had at State Convention (May 2006) in 3 point font.

For more than a month now, before Bernick gifted this goofy, ill-considered gem to his new boss, anyone could have easily found public FEC information that as of October 18th Burridge had raised $55,000 and had spent approximately $47,000

I don't think this is as sinister. I think Bernick just asked Joe how much his brother spent and how much Burridge spent, never bothering to look it up online himself in 5 seconds. Plus, I think Burridge looks better to have done so well with so little ($7,000) than the slightly more he raised.

"I think what you can expect is, you're not going to get a shill for the Republican Party". said Joe. Sure, that is what a public expects from its editors...but that's not what it is going to get from the bunch that say the ISG report said the president was right.

Anyone who can read besides liars like Tony Snow say that the report is a repudiation of the President's policy. But then again, Chris can't do either apparently.

"You are probably going to have an impeachment proceeding with [Rep. John] Conyers leading Judiciary and you are going to have a raft of . . . legislative inquiries by [Rep.] Henry Waxman," Rep. Chris Cannon predicted on election night.
Cannon said he would be the administration's "go-to guy" to defend President Bush against the mob.
In just a month, he has turned 180 degrees.
The moderate Democrats who gave their party control will force the new majority to govern from the middle, Cannon now says, abandoning his slash-and-burn scenario.

Speaking of the Iraq Study Group, I am tired of these blue ribbon commissions dictating US policy on big issues. If these old folks really know what to do, why not have them actually in a President's administration or in Congress? Why do we even bother to have either if all they are supposed to do, according to the Washington Establishment, is to follow whatever they say.

Have our actual leaders become so incompetent that they can't think for themselves and need people to tell them what to do who aren't staffers? Not to mention the fact that the ISG report is not at all useful or informative. Where were these people in 2002 or 2003 when the war started, or in 2004 when we could have salvaged more?

I may be young and unexperienced in the ways of the world, but with my undergraduate degree in International Relations, somehow I knew before all the wise men of the think tanks and writers of serious books that a) Saddam wasn't a threat, b) he didn't have any serious WMD's, c) Bush would screw up the country post-invasion, d) all of his "experts" were idiotic ideologes.

Maybe you feel differently, but I am tired of giving morons all this power. Why do we allow people like Chris and Joe Cannon to give us the news and write our laws? Why do we allow establishment types without constitutional authority, to write legislation that "has to" be passed? Why is "bipartisanship" so sacred if one side is so dedicated to covering the butt of their partisans? Does this really have to be the way things are in Washington? A Clark would change this. Hillary has become part of the establishment. McCain is the epitome of this wrong-headed thinking (the ISG heads even basically endorsed McCain '08 by perpetuating his imaginary 30K more troops will solve everything "alternative"). Romney is a Janis-faced politician who will say anything to get people to vote for him. [Right wingers, don't worry, he was never serious when he was kissing up to the Log Cabin Republicans.] Obama says he is about change, but he might really be a consensus behind the scenes guy after all. Edwards wants to be president and loved so much, he may get follow High Broderism as well.

I say, let's dethrown these idiots with power and prevent future idiots from power and those who may listen to idiots from having power as well.