The Fucking Bengals

So. The Bengals lost. They got killed. 38-13. I don't really want to talk about it. Just... there it is. I did win some kind of god damn raffle at the bar, but... whatever. We have a bye this week and then we're playing the 0-3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, so maybe the coaches can figure out why everybody looked like they'd never played football before this past Sunday. Anyway, enough, I'm putting it behind me. It's one game, we're 3-1. I'm happy. Of course, the Ravens beat the Chargers so we're a game behind them now, but whatever. It's a long season. We play them twice. We can still forge our own destiny. Ugh. Moving on.

I would like to rescind all kudos to Senator John Warner and those other losers. The torture bill went through basically unchanged. They altered a couple of phrases in a couple of clauses and called it a day. Politics trumps whats best for the country one more time. So, now we have a bill that lets the President decide who's an enemy combatant and what acts constitute torture. Might he decide that everyone already in custody qualifies and that nothing that we've been doing the last 5 years is torture? Well, if you think about it, it's pretty clear that he already has, and that Congress has just given it the old rubber stamp. I wonder if it's even worth hoping that the Supreme Court will actually read the Constitution, aloud, to President Bush and Congress before shit-canning this new "law". It's too depressing for me to believe that they might actually let this stand, but... there are two Bush Jr. nominees on the Court. Plus Scalia and Thomas... You certainly can't take anything for granted these days.

Well, Bush now has the power to label absolutely anyone as an enemy combatant and to hold anyone he so labels forever. Of course they SAY that the standard for American citizens will be much higher than for foreigners, but they SAY a lot of fucking things that turn out later to be bullshit. So, I'm trying to think of the difference between whatever George Bush is now and a King. Congress will make any law he wants, and he can throw anyone he wants in jail forever, and even if you're not in jail he can spy on you... Is there anything a king can do that George can't?

Oh yes, he can't stay in office for life. We hope. Lone bright spot: The Republicans look like they may lose their shirt in the elections next month. never underestimate the Democrats ability to give back a gift election, but Dubya's approval ratings verge on the legendarily low and every time they start looking like they might creep back up, some new outrage surfaces to send them back to the cellar. Like this week's outrage: A Republican Congressman that was sending House Pages dirty e-mails and instant messages. And the Leadership knew about it. And they didn't do anything. People are calling for Hastert's resignation. Just so we're all clear on this, House Pages are high schoolers, and these particular pages were boys. The one that I've heard mentioned specifically was 16, but he's not the only one. So, a gay, pedophile Republican Congressman. And it's too late to get him off the ballot. He resigned, but his name has to stay on the ballot. If you vote for him, you'll actually be voting for someone else (presumably a non-gay, non-pedophile, although there seems to be no way to be sure) but you'll still have to check the box next to this guy's name. So, I think they might lose that seat.

Matt's worried that they're planning an October Surprise. He mentioned today that they're sending the fleet to the Iranian Coast. An October Invasion of Iran would certainly be a surprise. And ballsy, considering the two other wars they haven't even finished yet, but I'm not sure it would help them in the election. Matt says it may be some military action against Iran short of war. Problem with that though, is that we have troops in Iraq, directly west of Iran, and troops in Afghanistan, directly east of Iran. If we try to pull something flashy for election day, those troops become targets.

Somebody had better let the Iranians in on the fact that our attack (if it comes) will only be a bit of Election Day Theater, because otherwise the Middle East gets a whole lot uglier when the Iranians move in and take a huge chunk of Iraq away from us. I can't even hope that they're dumb enough to try that though, because of everyone that would die, including thousands of our troops, who didn't sign up for this.

And the way things have been going, it's going to be the Republicans that get an October Surprise. Although pretty much the only thing left that hasn't already happened to them is Godzilla rampaging through Detroit and then it coming out that the administration knew that Godzilla was thinking of going to Detroit but nothing was done to stop him because the Secretary of Homeland Security got busted by Dateline NBC trying to molest 11 year old boys and fled to Thailand. So, I'm cautiously optimistic about the elections next month. It would be nice to say goodbye to that douchebag, Lieberman, and all the ACTUAL Republican douchebags in the Congressional Leadership. Cross your fingers.

Big Aristotle don't stop, because Big Aristotle can't stop