October 2008: Invasion of The Liberal Bodysnatchers...

...A scenario which must already have happened—if we are to believe this mailer—Yes, indeedy; that reads—

McCain-Palin Solutions for our Families

• Increase funding for stem cell research
• Address climate change
• Fight wasteful spending

Inside the leaflet is this, convincingly all caps:

JOHN MCCAIN AND SARAH PALIN WILL WORK WITH DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS FOR SENSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEMS FACING AMERICAN FAMILIES... LEADERSHIP THAT REACHES ACROSS PARTY LINES.

Everywhere else, reality is on display.

There's this bit of failed stage management, as one of McCain's camera-unsafe volunteers speaks up.

Yet another volunteer with psychological projection issues sets out to prove The Blacks [and no doubt, Mooslims] are persecuting Republicans—by displaying self-inflicted wounds. One little detail she overlooked: letters read backward, because she used a mirror to create them.

watertiger on the Palin rally crowds: here, here, and here—

It's freakin' Gam-a-vision™. Sweet mother of Hades, women will never be taken seriously in American politics ever again.

watertiger also critiques Palin's outfit, which seems to be on backwards.

The Republicans dream up a Joe Sixpack figure, in "Joe" the "Plumber": not really a plumber, and with a possible Charles Keating family connection... Workers being a non-subject, until Republicans need to fake some populism. And no matter how obvious and lame the stage managing, the media dutifully grab the narrative and run with it.

And "Joe" says that Obama does a "tap dance... almost as good as Sammy Davis, Jr."—is there a more obvious tell than that? The guy is in his 30s—and all by himself he thinks up dog whistle comparisons with Sammy Davis, Jr.? Something tells me a person closer to the candidate's age is feeding "Joe" his lines.

Brad at Sadly, No offers a suggestion for the Obama campaign: the perfect working class icon for countering the phony "Joe."

Among the comments:

Leon Trotsky, Exile-in-Mexico—

Joe the Unlicensed Scab Plumber Taking Good Jobs Away From Legal Working Men And Has Avoided Paying What Fucking Taxes He Already Owes So Should Shut His Face About Some Hypothetical Tax Increase...

Hm, doesn't have the same zing.

Dragon-King Wangchuck—

Here’s a better counter to Joe Wurzelbacher:
Under Obama’s plan, Joe would be getting a tax cut even if he made six times as much as he did in 2006:

Court records from a divorce show Mr. Wurzelbacher made $40,000 in 2006.

Also from that Toledo Blade article:

He is also not registered to operate as a plumber in Ohio, which means he's not a plumber.

...

Mr. Wurzelbacher’s notoriety has raised the ire of Tom Joseph, business manager for Local 50 of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters, and Service Mechanics, who claimed that Mr. Wurzelbacher didn't undergo any apprenticeship training.

So not even a Plumber in Training, he's a Plumber's Assisstant.

"Joe": the plumber's helper...


The effort to demonize Obama as a "community organizer" is funny, even if obvious code for, "poor darkskins forming mob: be afraid!"

This all jogged my mind about "De Organizer"—a 1940 opera by James P. Johnson and Langston Hughes. After its debut, the piece was performed only a couple of times, then believed to be lost. The score was rediscovered a few years ago, and productions since then include one I've seen.

Plot and characters are unfortunately wooden, but the gist is that a group of southern sharecroppers want to form a union and fight their oppressive conditions, so they send for an organizer, to show them the way. There is a strong messianic* tone: the poor, downtrodden farmers await arrival of De Organizer, who will transform their lives by revealing the path to justice.

When I saw this show (late in 2002), we had been through a mere two years of Bush, just over one year of living in a Homeland, and had not yet invaded Iraq.

As the opera ended and cast exited, my reaction to the 60+ year old libretto was, "Hey, I'm still waiting for De Organizer to show up and straighten things out!" It got some bitter laughs from people sitting in earshot.

* It's a good thing this opera is too obscure for the noise machine to connect it to Obama...

The only contemporary recordings of music from the opera were two arrangements of "Hungry Blues," both sung by Anna Robinson. The tune is catchy and lyrics are pointed; an MP3 is here, on Ben Greenberg's very worthwhile blog—named after the song.

Ben is the son of Paul Arthur Greenberg, in the 1960s a special assistant to Martin Luther King Jr. and the SCLC. A civil rights and labor lawyer, with jazz world connections—I don't know if the two ever met, but Greenberg would have been a man after the heart of Studs Terkel, who's just died at 96.

The country has lost its great oral historian of American life. Studs talked to people of all kinds about living through the Depression; about the American Obsession (the two books specifically on race here and here); and about the subjects of so many other books, written over a lifetime of asking questions and listening to what people had to say.

Which—speaking of media plant "Joe"—included talking to people about work.

And talking to real people about how they've experienced the American Dream.

October 2007: Scream, Electorate, Scream!

As Rumsfeld arrives in Paris, a torture suit is filed by European human rights groups and the Center for Constitutional Rights. From CCR's press release—

We filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor on October 25, 2007 charging Rumsfeld with ordering and authorizing torture. Rumsfeld was in Paris for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine, and left through a door connecting to the U.S. embassy to avoid journalists and human rights attorneys outside. Under French law, there is a duty to prosecute and investigate such complaints when the torturer is on French soil. The Paris case is particularly relevant because eight former Guantánamo detainees live in France.

In Paris, watertiger notes: What they didn't count on was his cunning plan to escape!

A seasonally appropriate move by Rumsfeld. As is his next, when he is seen lying low in The Netherlands...

Among other Republican observances of the season, watertiger spots: "Trick or treat for Unitary Executive!"

Not particularly connected to Halloween–Republicans go as bullies every day–but gruesome nevertheless, is the stalking of Graeme Frost and family, after the disabled 12-year old testifies before Congress, prior to the children's health care vote.

Tim Grieve, does the math on this bit of hypocrisy–

When [Tony] Snow announced in August that he was leaving his job as White House press secretary, he said he was doing so because he "ran out of money." Snow made $168,000 at the White House and presumably received health insurance as a federal employee.

...

The clear implication: The $168,000 Snow was making at the White House wasn't enough to handle month-to-month expenses for Snow, his wife and their three kids.

So how about that 12-year-old? His family of six -- one kid bigger than Snow's -- has an annual income of about $45,000. Without SCHIP -- and without health insurance subsidized by an employer -- the family's only route to medical insurance for the kids would have been to buy it themselves on the open market, if they could have gotten it; they apparently tried but were refused because of preexisting conditions.

And about the Republicans' deeming the Frosts fair game–Oh, no. The Republicans would never use children as props–says watertiger, who compiles just a few examples of Bush's photographic child exploitation.

Also from the Family Values Party–

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho, defying the wishes of many in his own Republican Party, said Thursday that he would remain in the Senate through next year despite a court ruling against him in Minnesota, where he had sought to rescind his guilty plea stemming from an undercover sex sting.

While Craig is an easy, obvious target, driftglass concludes that—

Beneath the gales of laughter, what Republican Senator Craig has been mostly is pathetic. A frail human caught up in his own frantic flight from himself, tripping and falling into the spotlight because his pants were tangled up around his ankles.

Under other circumstances, he would just be sad. Under other circumstances, I would feel genuinely sorry for the guy.

But these are not other circumstances, because Republican Senator Craig has spent his professional life choosing to lend his voice to this nation’s chorus of hateful, vicious, self-righteous scum.

...in the end, Republican Senator Craig’s only real mistake when busted was not thinking fast enough on his feet to claim – loudly and con mucho outrage – that he was just looking for WMDs in the potty.

Craig's only mistake, says driftglass, was to Lie Small—when, "Had he Lied Big, stuck his chin out, and stridently accused anyone who questioned him of being an America-hating traitor, he would not today be a figure of ridicule and farce." Had he done that—

Instead of being a national punchline, at this very moment, in an off-ramp men’s room outside of Tacoma, he’d be heroically conducting Operation Raging Beefhammer with some new best friend.

While proudly sporting his freshly-minted Presidential Medal of Freedom.

October 2006: To Hell In A Basket

[Telltale school colors
have been removed]
We're in the thick of the annual fund-raising season at work. There are multiple bake sales, raffles, auctions, contests—all pushed non-stop, until December.

The annual sale of indulgences begins—with labels saying, "I AM WEARING JEANS BECAUSE I HAVE DONATED $1 TO OUR CHARITY" now available. The secretaries slap these on their blouses so they can violate the dress code on Fridays.

It's true that anonymous contributions to the Suggestion Box have asked, "why do we have to observe a dress code in the first place, if it can be tossed out when people cough up $1?" Publicly, everyone is very, very enthusiastic, as management is very, very big on all this.

In December, the final take is divided among families of indigent patients at the University's hospital.

I would prefer to live in a civilized culture where people have health care and living wages.

But bake sales for the poor gets the seal of approval of our trailer park Republicans. Who like to believe, "we take care of our own: don't need no gubmint"—except for funding their jobs at a public institution...

One of the most beloved events of the season is the basket raffle. Work units come up with some theme and assemble a gift basket. The results are photographed and posted for employees to choose which baskets to buy chances for.

This time around, we have the creation above, with the donors' description—

"Homeland Security basket, Be Ready for ANY Emergency"
Camp Lantern & batteries, Faraday flashlight, candles, waterproof matches, portable camp shower (wash off chemicals from a chemical attack), first aid kit, Swiss army knife (to open the bottle of wine in an emergency), canned goods, can opener, water, Twinkies, chocolate bars, clothing bag (change your clothing in case of chemical attack), hand & toe warmers, photo album (keep pictures of your loved ones in case of emergency), playing cards, waterproof UNO cards, bottle of wine, “personal protection” (* and *, of course, [*school colors], and Glow in the Dark for power outages), and a fleece [Department logo] blanket.

Clever Sister asks,

"personal protection"? Condoms?

Robert Parry, on the Military Commissions Act: History should record October 17, 2006, as the reverse of July 4, 1776.

Marjorie Cohn brings up some past campaigns against dissent and perceived threats, from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to McCarthyism. And—

In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens in Korematsu v. United States. Justice Robert Jackson warned in his dissent that the ruling would "lie about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need."

That day has come with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It provides the basis for the President to round-up both aliens and U.S. citizens he determines have given material support to terrorists. Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of undesirables.

The closeness of Halloween to Election Day may lead to some obvious metaphors, but they're unavoidable in the last few years.

Clever Sister sends an article published in the UK, Republicans say top Democrats support 'group of gay paedophiles'. Andrew Gumbel reports that in races around the country—

Republicans aren't going after their Democratic challengers much on Iraq, or the war on terror, or nuclear proliferation. Instead, members of President Bush's party are accusing their adversaries of being apologists for gay sex between adults and children.

This latest tactic is to try connecting Dems to NAMBLA. One of Gumbel's examples—

In California, a struggling Republican congressman called John Doolittle has argued that since his opponent, Charlie Brown, is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and since the ACLU has in the past defended Nambla's free-speech rights, he is tainted by association. "It is astounding," Mr Doolittle said in a recent press release, "that anyone could defend a group dedicated to aiding and abetting paedophiles." (Mr Doolittle failed to mention that he once acted as a character witness for a friend convicted of sexually assaulting six of his patients.)

Michael Winship's take on this and other slimy tactics—Election '06: I Know Pornography When I See It. From Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox's courageous ads in support of pro-stem cell research candidates, to the NAMBLA charges, to absurdities like

...the...ad accusing New York State Democratic congressional candidate Michael Arcuri of spending tax dollars by calling a fantasy chat line from a New York City hotel. Apparently, an aide -- not even Arcuri himself -- was calling the state Division of Criminal Justice and misdialed the prefix code. The billing records are pretty clear. Cost to the state: $1.25. Humor value: priceless.

Winship concludes—

You want to know what real pornography is? It's the vice president's disingenuous comments about waterboarding and other forms of torture. It's American servicemen and women placed in harm's way by tragic miscalculation. It's an Iraq so deadly people are afraid to leave their homes for fear of abduction or murder...

It's kickbacks and bribes and naysaying scientific research on stem cells and global warming. It's attacking the lame, the halt and the needy and making the lie as American as apple pie.

watertiger creates a hideous jack o'lantern. And notes of another Republican–

Well, he's certainly hellbent on damaging the psyche of the next generation.

October 2005: Fright Fest

Versions of this object suddenly hang from the women's room cubicles at work. On the inside of the cubicle doors—to instill seasonal cheer, while serving as a reminder of being observed here, too, it appears.

When she sees aggressively ugly made-in-China decorative objects, Clever Sister will say, "now that was made by the Falun Gong prisoners—it's a cry for help!"

At noon on the 18th, I watch Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant, Dr. G. Zuss, and two women from his research staff leave the premises. They're off to a Boss' Day lunch! I can see it in Jesus' BAA's face, which glows even more feverishly than usual. She undoubtedly arranged this, in her ceaseless pursuit of Rapture™ preparedness points.

An Irish journalist has been very naughty toward he who presumes he is Boss Of The Whole World. Carol Coleman describes in great detail White House minions' pre-taping orchestration of her ten minutes with Bush. Including the offer of a possible interview with Laura, held out to ensure Coleman's good behavior.

That offer is withdrawn after Coleman tries cutting through Bush's talking points with, "...there is a feeling that the world has become a more dangerous place because you have taken the focus off Al-Qaeda and diverted into Iraq. Do you not see that the world is a more dangerous place?"

The event going off White House script as it does, an official complaint is lodged with the Irish embassy.

In another British reporting effort—BBC: God told me to invade Iraq, Bush tells Palestinian ministers.

About that so very holy war, Greg Palast describes a behind-the-scenes battle in which the State Department plus oil industry power brokers conquered Pentagon neoconservatives. Causing a "switch to an OPEC-friendly policy for Iraq...driven by Dick Cheney himself." Palast concludes that—

...Cheney, far from "putting the squeeze on OPEC," has taken his de facto seat there, assenting by silence to the oil monopoly's piratical price gouging. But hasn't OPEC's stratospheric crude prices choked the life out of America's auto industry and bankrupted half a dozen airlines? In the Vice-President's bunker the elimination of jobs of Democratic-leaning union members is likely seen as a bonus for the good deed of boosting oil industry profits far above the ozone layer.

Staggering amounts of death and destruction always being a small price to be paid—by other people.

And of course civil liberties have been a casualty all along—beginning with the initial election that had to be stolen for this gang to take power. There are always new examples, small and large.

A North Carolina high school student's assignment to take photos illustrating the Bill of Rights gets him a visit from the Secret Service.

And James Yee's book is just out. In this Democracy Now interview, Yee tells how, as a Muslim chaplain in 2001, the army relied on him to educate soldiers being sent to Muslim countries. And how much his superiors respected his ability to bridge the culture gap.

After being stationed in Guatanamo, Yee witnessed conditions for prisoners deteriorate over his time there. And, he began to hear reports of Muslim personnel being detained when they returned to the U.S.

Which is what would happen to Yee. He was taken to the naval brig where the American "enemy combatants" Jose Padilla and Yaser Hamdi were also held. In the manner familiar from this, Yee was transported to the brig wearing sensory deprivation devices, then held in isolation for 76 days.

Ultimately, all phony charges were dropped. Yee–

But what’s important is why did they bring those accusations against me? Clearly, to divert attention away from what the real issue was, what the real problem was, that the U.S. military, the U.S. government, made this huge mistake. They wanted to divert attention away from that and discredit me, because they knew, ultimately, I had raised many concerns and complaints about the treatment of detainees to the command.

In other domestic horrors, it's only a couple of months since Katrina, but they've been profitable ones for some. Naomi Klein on Purging the Poor. And Bob Herbert on Bush's photo ops: Bush's Pledge? The Joke's on the Poor.

Rosa Parks, R.I.P. With all her generation had to fight against, there were parts of the media that sometimes felt moved to point to things considered shameful.

October 2004: A Nightmare On Pennsylvania Avenue

2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes...
With what's at stake in the coming election, a couple brave members of our Department try talking sense into Cruella and Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant.

Since one of these is faculty, Cruella puts on a show of listening, while the guy—who really is quite conservative—talks reality about Bush.

Another time, I hear a youngish guy talking to Cruella. I haven't seen him before, but know he is Not Faculty. He's quite soft spoken and I pick up almost nothing, except an occasional, "Bush" ... until Cruella explodes, "Of course you'll LIE! You're A DEMOCRAT!"

I've been biting my tongue for months—yet another reason to curse the length of American campaign seasons! Now, I can't take it any more. I get up, walk across the room, and say with as innocent an expression as I can muster, "Cruella, are we supposed to talk about politics at work?"

She blasts back: "Oh, we talk about it all the time!"

She pauses, as something occurs to her. Then: "Don't tell me I hired a LIBERAL?!"

I smile, say nothing, then: "Oh my gawd, I CAN'T BELIEVE WE HIRED A LIBERAL!!"

Me (slowly, patiently): "Cruella, what do you think 'liberal' means?"

Now, in all the years I will know her: ask a question, and she will unhesitatingly blurt out some load of bullshit. The less she knows about a subject, the more confident she is of her bullshit—of course, this personality identifies with Bush, or with any thug who never admits to being wrong.

But just this once, on being asked to explain what a "liberal" is, Cruella slows down and hedges enough to show she has no idea of how to even bullshit an answer: "Now... that's a... tricky definition ..."

Rescued as Ghengis walks through the door, she turns to him: "WE HIRED A LIBERAL!"

Ghengis jerks his head toward her: "In my office!" She follows him there, and the door closes.

For an uncomfortable moment I imagine they are discussing what to do about the LIBERAL in their midst. But I calm down, knowing they have bigger fish, so must be working on plans for the frying.

By now, the visitor has turned his attention to Jesus' BAA. Soon to be heard saying, "We did too find so many WMD in Iraq!"

It's painful to witness the know-nothingism on display. If there were ever a reckoning for Bush, et al, these people will be like the Germans who still say, "The only thing Hitler ever did wrong was to lose the war."

Meanwhile, their fine, upstanding party engages in stuff like this—

Terry Anderson, a Democrat running for a state Senate seat and a former hostage in Lebanon, walked out of a debate with the Republican incumbent, Senator Joy Padgett... over Ms. Padgett's use of a photograph of him with an official of the Hezbollah terrorist group. Mr. Anderson said that the photograph in a Padgett brochure suggested that he was soft on terrorism, when in fact the picture was taken when he returned to Lebanon to confront the terrorists who held him captive from 1985 to 1991.

This in Ohio—which in terms of national election-rigging efforts is shaping up to be the Republicans' latest version of 2000 Florida.

Columbus-based Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, on Twelve ways Bush is now stealing the Ohio vote—

The Republican "November Surprise" to steal the 2004 election is in full force here in Ohio. With polls showing a dead heat, the GOP is staging an all-out attack on a fair vote count in the Buckeye State.

Fitrakis and Wasserman outline some highly creative techniques for infringing on the voting rights of "the wrong people."

Methods ranging from this—

Under an archaic Ohio law, both the Republican and Democratic Parties, or any slate of five candidates, may embed official election challengers inside polling places. The New York Times reported on Oct. 23 that the Republican Party intends to place thousands of lawyers and other GOP faithfuls inside the polls to challenge voters. Republican insiders confide here that the key goal is to jam lines and frustrate new voters... This is certain to be a major tactic in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County and other Democratic strongholds. The GOP is not planning to challenge voters in Republican districts.

To this—

Secretary of State Blackwell ruled that any voter registration form on other than 80-pound weight bond paper would not be accepted. This is an old law left over from pre-scanning days. Many voters who had registered on lighter paper, had their registration returned, even though the forms had been officially sanctioned by local election boards.

Because—

No Republican has ever won the presidency without carrying Ohio. This year the GOP seems determined to win it, no matter what they have do to the electoral process.

The more intense the activity, the more likelihood of slipping up, and some GOP e-mail traffic becomes public—

OCTOBER, 2004: Recently, we at GeorgeWBush.org happened to notice that our mail server had a default "catch-all" mailbox, which for the past several months had been quietly gathering any and all e-mails addressed to [INSERT-ANYTHING-HERE]@georgewbush.org. We felt the need to share.

GeorgeWBush.org being another project of the whitehouse.org team.

Attached to two of the E-mails are spreadsheets labeled, "caging." These files contain names and addresses of Jacksonsville,FL residents of predominately black areas—evidence of plans to target these voters and keep them "caged," through election day challenges.

In the years to come, the caging planners will be rewarded with high positions in government, and in that criminal enterprise, the Republican Party.

This year, it's up to We The [wrong] People to spend every possible moment before deadlines registering new voters—in hope that increased numbers can outweigh the vote suppression efforts.

And it's up to us to convince everyone we know to vote Democratic.

A month ago, Clever Sister forwarded the plea she sent to an ex-pat friend who prides himself on not voting. Besides outlining just how bad things here have become in four years, CS sends thorough directions on overseas registration, absentee voting, and all possible voting options and sources of information.

Among her entreaties—

Bush stole the election by only 537 votes in Florida!
Every vote counts this year.
SO your vote could be the one that rids us of Bush.

In spite of the media spin & news blackout
NBC owned by GE
FOX very right wing
CNN Time Warner
50% of the country gets it & wants Bush out...

We spend every free hour working to defeat Bush –
don't let the polls fool you: they are bullshit!
They don't call people with cell phones, people with caller ID don't answer - they only call elderly republicans!

And I've been typing my fingers to the bone, trying to get through to a friend I've known since 6th grade. From all I know of her history, I would expect her to be turned off by the pitch to the authoritarian personality. But then again, decades of right-wing propaganda and corporate media consolidation have done their work.

It all leaves my friend, like so many, as easily misled—all her time is taken up by work and family problems. She isn't exposed to "news" until her husband tunes in Fox. She believes that she was able to repair the car and squeak by one more year because Bush gave her a "tax rebate." And, there's no convincing her the latter is actually an "advance," to be repaid many times over in the future.

And she keeps bringing up what her has husband told her: that gunshots were fired at a Bush campaign office. CS tracks that down as being reported only in TN: by local papers saying, by the way, there was a bank robbery in progress across the street!

That's all it takes to create a legend to terrify my friend, distracting her from the fact that she has a draft-age son. So I keep trying anything—excessive caps and all—to get her attention:

I met Max Cleland briefly at a rally a couple months ago. He's a Viet vet/TRIPLE AMPUTEE who was head of Vets' Admin, then senator from Georgia. He lost his Senate race in 2002 after Rove ran ads calling him unpatriotic & comparing him to Osama! He was very popular in Georgia, & the election was conducted on touch screens controlled by a Republican company, so it's probable that he actually won.

But I mention it because this gang slimes anyone they run against, and they MAKE UP EVERYTHING! There's absolutely no relation to reality, but they lie over & over until a lot of the public believes it.

I was just reading a long article about past campaigns by Rove, & the tactics he uses over & over (including a phony recount in '94). One time, Rove printed up smear literature against HIS OWN candidate, to make it look like the other side was pulling dirty tricks!

They're getting away with sending inadequately equipped troops to be sitting ducks. All the years Kerry's been in Congress, vets from all over the country (not just his own state) knew they could go to him when they had problems with the VA, & he's always helped them. But how many people who won't admit that Bush is exploiting the military will fall for the lies about Kerry? They have to paint him as opposite of what he is: someone who knows what war is like, deeply cares about vets, & wouldn't go looking for unnecessary wars.

And on that last point—there's new confirmation of what's seemed apparent all along—

Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.

"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade?. If I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."
...

According to Herskowitz, George W. Bush's beliefs on Iraq were based in part on a notion dating back to the Reagan White House - ascribed in part to now-vice president Dick Cheney, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee under Reagan. "Start a small war. Pick a country where there is justification you can jump on, go ahead and invade."