April 13, 2007
Wearing Thin
I was just composing a list of all the acts that are no longer considered crimes by this administration, you know, kidnapping, torture, treason, murder, destruction of presidential records, (that's as far as I went) --it would have been a dry and bitter entry-- when the universe intervened and delivered Godel Metric's scenario instead, which I have taken the liberty of copying in full for your reading pleasure, if that's the word.:
The last 4 years haven't so much been about screwups as about seeing just how much they can fuck with us and continue to get away with it."OK, this'll be good. A plant in the White House press room asking fake questions."
"Make him a gay prostitute!"
[twitters]
"How about a Congressman sending obscene IMs to House pages from the floor during a vote?"
[raucous laughter]
"Head of a major church gets outed by his gay hooker meth dealer?"
"Funny, but the gay joke is getting old. At some point it's going to seem bigoted."
"How about we accuse the Democrats of gay-bashing when they go after the Congressman?"
"Brilliant!"
"Have Trent Lott congratulate Strom Thurmond on his presidential political platform."
"Let's put the guy running the Arabian Horse Judging Association in charge of FEMA."
"What if there's a natural disaster or something?"
"That's just situational irony!"
"Let's invade a country and then staff the entire reconstruction agency with Young Republicans."
"Maybe a Presidential advisor could get fired for shoplifting."
"Wait! How about this? We send all of our emails through a totally illegal outside server, and then if the Democrats ask for them, we tell them we 'accidentally' deleted everything!"
[more laughter]
"So, would an 18-day gap in the emails be too obvious of a Watergate reference?"
"Wait, wait, here's a good one: the Vice President accidentally shoots his best friend in the face, then the friend apologizes to him and his family."
"What? That doesn't even make any sense."
"It's absurdist humor!"
"Hey, let's put one of the Iran-Contra guys in charge of the Homeland Security Agency."
"OK, OK, everyone. Let's calm down now and get back to business, all right?"
"Apparently this new scandal is now being referred to as DogAte." an anonymous comment from "sweetmister" on Metafilter.
Glenn Greenwald documents what seems to be the DogAte Pattern, and Jack Cafferty broadcasts it.
Photo note: From the Feinstein American Flag Collection