In the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto’s killing, Decider George is still at a loss for action. What can he do about his old buddy and terror-fighter Pervez Musharraf? Apparently nothing.
As the new year quickly approaches, now only a matter of hours, Decider George is relaxing on his no-cattle, big-spread ranch in Crawford, Tex., and probably strumming away on his guitar like he did during Katrina.
Back in Washington, his handlers are quickly trying to forge some kind of reaction to the boiling-over of events in Pakistan. There is no alternative, no secondary approach to the current mess.

• “Plan A still has to work. We all have to appeal to moderate forces to come together and carry the election and create a more solidly based government, then use that as a platform to fight the terrorists.”
  — Washington Post (12/30/07)

Decider George loves his vacations — he can’t get enough of ’em. Since taking office, he has made 69 trips to Crawford for a total of 418 days of vacation time. (thanks:beggarscanbechoosers.com) And ready to beat out Ronald Reagan as the laziest president on record.
And like Forrest Gump’s momma said, Vacation is where you go and never come back.

Even as Pakistan erupts in total shit as national elections are scheduled for next week, news reports reveal election records in several places around the country have been destroyed during chaos and rioting. No way the election will stand, even if held.
Decider George’s ties with Mush-mouth Musharraf make it impossible to have a Plan B as millions of dollars in military aid have been squandered in Pakistan: Al-Quada and the Taliban have re-emerged in strength.
The disastrous war on terror has made a even-more disastrous turn.

And what does Decider George do? Lie about the economy.

• “Some of you worry about your ability to afford health care coverage for your families. Some of you are concerned about meeting your monthly mortgage payments. Some of you worry about the impact of rising energy costs on fueling your cars and heating your homes. You expect your elected leaders in Washington to address these pressures. My resolution for the New Year is this: to work with Congress to keep our economy growing, to keep your tax burden low, and to ensure that the money you send to Washington is spent wisely — or not at all.”
  — Decider George in his weekly radio address Saturday, recorded at his Texas ranch, of freakin’ course!

Yet with the housing slump, the defeat of any kind of health care for uninsured Americans, the shrinking dollar, the $700 billion spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the actual slow down of money spent. Please, don’t count the millions and millions actually lost in Iraq, that’s a war zone; how about Katrina and FEMA, and the quiet billions spent on a real-stupid, long-running war on drugs, and let’s really not deal with the intangibles, like the Constitution and the US legal system. Tons and tons of money just whiffed away.

Decider George is the perfect ‘let them eat cake’ posterchild;

The bullshit doesn’t include dire warnings about the credit paralysis the world’s banks are trying to dislodge.

• “The central banks are rapidly losing control. By not cutting interest rates nearly far enough or fast enough, they are allowing the money markets to dictate policy. We are long past worrying about moral hazard. They still have another couple of months before this starts imploding. Things are very unstable and can move incredibly fast. I don’t think the central banks are going to make a major policy error, but if they do, this could make 1929 look like a walk in the park.”
  — Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, telegraph.co.uk (12/29/07)

Happy New Year!