"Wha...What's that? We can OVERRIDE a veto???"

As a quick followup to this post, as expected, the House yesterday overrode Bush's veto of a water bill that would provide $22 billion for flooding prevention and wetlands restoration. In addition, a battle seems to be brewing over a $215 billion bill for "health, education, labor, and veterans programs", which the House passed yesterday 269-142 (with 34 votes absent). Bush has threatened to veto this bill, too (for those counting, yesterday's vote had a 61% majority), once again chastising the Democrats for their "spending" (the fact that he can do so with a straight face exceeds all understandings of hypocrisy). Hopefully, this bill will be able to overcome a veto as well, and we can actually spend money on things that actually help the American population (which, to my viewing, is what the State is supposed to do). And while I have little hope that yesterday set some new precedent where Congress overrides vetoes left and right, it's good to know that that small sound we are hearing is a pulse, and that Congress is still alive.

Is it 2009 yet?

Generally, comments on stories like this from the White House almost seem almost futile, aside from the reminder that, as the Onion put it in 2002, "They say people get the government they deserve, but I don't recall knife-raping any retarded nuns".

Yet there are two extremely disturbing things here. The first is, Bush is presently gladly declassifying documents from the last 3 years of our ongoing "war on terror" to say, "look, the terrerrists could attack!", even while historians still can't get access to various documents (the Iran-Contra affair comes to mind) because of "national security". So the administration is giving the message that documents are only to be declassified when they aid the administration in its ongoing, corrupt war, but any actual declassification for historical research is not going to happen. No surprise here, but it's still infuriating.

Secondly, let's pretend that Bush's contention that bin Laden admitted to wanting to set up base in Iraq in 2005 is true (and it very well may not be). That would never have happened had we not still been there in the first place. This isn't a support for Hussein - 2005 was two years after Bush went to war in Iraq. Had we never gone to war, or had we actually had a plan for stability after we got in, then it wouldn't have been so unstable for bin Laden to set up camp in the first place (again, IF we accept this claim as true). But of course, this doesn't matter to Bush - it's just one more in the increasingly awful and baseless attempts to tie bin Laden to Iraq any way the administration can.

How Can We Be Taken Seriously On Terrorism?

The recent release of Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles from a U.S. jail makes me wonder if the Bush Administration even takes themselves seriously anymore on the issue of terrorism.

Posada is a full-blown terrorist. I have a friend who has personally seen declassified CIA documents where operatives say he is crazy and highly recommend cutting all ties with him. He was bragging about blowing up the plane in 1976 that killed 73 people and Havana hotels in the 1990s before he did it. Yet the U.S. (or perhaps I should say the Republican Party) continues to support him both because they want the votes of the Miami Cubans and because they don't actually believe their own anti-terrorism rhetoric. Sure, they support crushing terrorists, but only if those terrorists don't work for U.S. interests. If they do, great!!!

Just Wondering posts an article by journalist Robert Parry explaining Posada's history. Check it out.

During the Cold War, U.S. governments paid very close attention to how the nation was seen by people around the world. We were fighting the Cold War and therefore needed to win over the new nations of the developing world. The Soviet Union was taking advantage of America's racism to influence these nations against us. Therefore, the Kennedy and Johnson administration starting supporting the civil rights movement in no small part for Cold War reasons. The Bush administration has learned nothing from this. They don't care at all what the rest of the world thinks. They only care about the next election cycle.

Most of the world doesn't take us seriously on terrorism anyway. That we allow a terrorist to roam virtually free within our own borders because he targets his hatred against Cuba just ensures that it will take a long time for the world to look to the U.S. for leadership again.