Look it cannot be seen--it is beyond form.

Listen, it cannot be heard--it is beyond sound.

Grasp, it cannot be held--it is intangible.

These three are indefinable;

Therefore they are joined in one.

From above it is not bright;

From below it is not dark;

An unbroken thread beyond description.

It returns to nothingness.

The form of the formless,

The image of the imageless,

It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.

Stand before it and there is no beginning.

Follow it and there is no end.

Stay with the ancient Tao,

Move with the present.

Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.

Tao Te Ching (Ch-14)

A good practice is to read some reviews of a book first, then go ahead and read the book and then go back and read the critiques.

I just finished a ridiculous popular non fiction comic book (without many pix) entitled: WHAT HAPPENED?  I have some compassion, I really do. I do not normally wish to kick a man when he is down.

I even bow my head in a funeral parlor. I admit it is to get a better look at the prices listed on the caskets, but I have a modicum of  human decency left in me.

Now Scotty is a sympathetic figure. I mean, most of my acquaintances are sure that he lost his lunch money from time to time in middle school, if not sooner, and he certainly did not receive his first good hand job until he was 25 or so.

But you read this comic book and I do no see how you can do anything but lose any and all respect you might have mustered for this guy.

But books are published to make money. Content has little to do with anything really. Take a look at this attempt to sell this tripe from Time Magazine last year:

It's not necessarily surprising that McClellan critiques his former co-workers. But the candor, anger and overall disappointment with which McClellan discusses President Bush and his policies is particularly surprising from someone previously presumed to be the most faithful of aides. On the fifth page of the preface McClellan bluntly writes, "History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided -- that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder." That blunder, he continues, was one propagated by a "political propaganda machine" that misled the public on the reasons for war with Iraq.

I mean that alone was enough to get this cherub on cable and late night talk shows.

A lifelong politico and son of the first female mayor of Austin, Texas, McClellan joined the Bush team in 1999. At the time, he believed the bipartisan Texas governor might be "a leader who could make us believe...[that] we could change the destructive dynamic that dominated [Washington]." He tried his best to brush aside anything that might contradict that belief. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1810019,00.html

What do you mean: He tried to brush aside.....What a bunch of crap. But there was something vaguely familiar about this line.

Well, what tipped it for me was his humanity. And again, it was a character. When I first met the governor, our discussion was really framed -- I'm not surprised that he was a good politician; I was surprised at what a great human being he was, what he cared about. He talked about his family and priority in life. All the other politicians I've met before and worked for were trying to convince me about what great politicians they were. This guy was like: "Let's forget about politics -- how are your kids? What's going on in their lives?" It was just so different and refreshing.

And he was one step ahead of me on life's curve. He's got twin daughters, and I've got two daughters, and they were just a little older. He encountered some of those things that you deal with as a father and a parent that I was grappling with. He kind of helped me think through some of those things and I think most importantly impressed upon me that that should be a priority in my life, thinking about my kids.

And also, he knew that I would do this not because I was some local consultant wanting to put another trophy on the shelf. The president has a pretty healthy skepticism about political consultants in general. He doesn't like them as a breed. It's a pretty healthy attitude. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/architect/interviews/mckinnon.html

Why it's good old Mark McKinnon. Our happy go lucky 'moderate', currently at The Daily Beast castigating those terrible terrible people like smokin' Joe Wilson.  http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-11/send-joe-wilson-home/

I want to just go back a little and remind everyone that w never accomplished a goddamn thing in his life that helped anyone except for himself and his own. EVER.

Some conglomerate got ahold of him and had him sell one of those horrendous packages to some locals involving arenas for ball games.  W got a piece of the Texas Rangers:

When they bought the team, the Rangers were playing in an old minor-league stadium. It didn't have the fancy sky boxes and other amenities that helped make other franchises much more profitable. As a result, the team couldn't compete with other big-city teams for good players. But the new owners weren't willing to finance the construction of a new ballpark . They decided to hit up taxpayers for the money.

First, the new owners threatened to move the team out of Arlington, Texas, sending local officials scurrying to put together a deal they couldn't refuse. Under the resulting agreement, the taxpayers of Arlington would raise $135 million, the bulk of the cost of construction, through a hike in sales taxes. During a campaign to sell the sales tax increase to Arlington voters, then-mayor Richard Greene said the team owners would put $50 million of their own money into the deal up front. It didn't quite work out that way; the owners raised a hefty portion of their down payment from fans, through a one dollar surcharge on tickets.

Sales Tax Hike Approved

The city spent $150,000 on an advertising campaign to persuade voters. Opponents of the deal couldn't compete with glossy brochures, telemarketing calls, and a "Hands Around Arlington Day." On Jan. 19, 1991, citizens of Arlington voted two-to-one to approve a sales-tax increase dedicated to building the new park. http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/pearly/htmls/bush-sec5.html'

It's the same all over the country. We had ours in Minneapolis with the Hubert Humphrey stadium that is now being torn down. You 'own' a team and you make the city pay some gastly amount for an arena they do not need and you just 'pay' the money back by adding fifty cents to every bottle of pop or beer. You get out of paying any real estate taxes or excise taxes yourself. You hold the team for a few years and then sell it for ten times the amount you 'paid' for it. Sometimes you just say 'fuck  you' to the city that financed the entire thing and move the team to another state. It is all a sham. Local politicians give all the money to contractors who fill their campaign coffers or to those contractors who are owned by their uncle Willie.

That is what w did in Arlington, Texas and he ended up with millions in his pocket after investing a relatively small amount of money from one of Daddy's friends.  See http://thewhitedsepulchre.blogspot.com/2009/06/dallas-cowboys-staium-arlington-texas.html

And as Governor of Texas what had this SOB accomplished? Nothing. Go ahead name one goddamn thing he ever did for someone who was not a campaign contributor, relative or friend.  And what is more, Texas Governors have little power anyway,and like to get publicity these days by invoking 'secession' or treason as an issue to get some media coverage.  I mean besides killing a bunch of people and laughing while he did it. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17670

But we are to believe that McKinnon and McClellan were awed by this great national figure. This great mind. This NEW FORCE IN AMERICAN POLITICS. Which tells me that neither tweedle dumb nor tweedle dee ever researched one goddamn thing prior to coming to w's aide.

OR BOTH OF THEM ARE NOTHING BUT GODDAMNABLE LIARS.

Hell, both were selling SATAN in his bid for a second term with no hesitation whatsoever.  McKinnon was one of those in charge of selling SATAN on tv in 2004.

A NEW TYPE OF POLITICS. Who is kidding whom?

Here are just a few excerpts from a book I wasted a few hours with:

But after 9/11, the president and his team took an even closer look at Iraq. They quickly came to view the war on terror as a broad wa on many fronts, militarily and nonmilitarily--potentially including an invasion of Iraq. This is why Bush pulled Rumsfeld aside in a private one on one discussion and instructed him to update the Pentagon's war plans for Iraq.  (127) 

Of course the idiot cites Woodward since Scotty's only duties were to read lies in front of the American People when Card was not willing to and make sure the dog's poo poo was cleaned up on the WH lawn.

Again:  WE ARE GOING INTO IRAQ, FIND A WAY. (January 2001)  I am so sick of these lies. I aint never letting this go. When someone talks about Iraq and 9/11 in the same sentence, I will stop them anyway I can and quote O'Neill and Suskind. 

And do not forget those great words of rummy on September 12, 2001:  WELL I GUESS HE FOUND A WAY!!!

The media wont let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors, I hear Bush say, You know, the truth is I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day and I just don't remember. The overheard comment struck me and has stayed with me to this day--not for what it revealed or concealed about the young George W. Bush, but for what it said about Bush as an older man and political leader, especially as revealed through my later experiences working for him.

I remember thinking to myself: How can that be? How can someone simply not remember whether or not he used an illegal substance like cocaine? It just did not make sense to me. (p. 48-49)

Are you kidding me? HE WAS LYING TO YA SCOTTY. And while you are at it, BEAM ME UP SCOTTY. Damn.

W never told the truth about anything in his entire life, never admitted his wrongs to anyone, never took responsibility for any of his sins of commission or omission his entire life.

It's telling that the Secret Service code name for the press secretary was "Matrix." As McClellan notes, a large part of his job was -- much like the villains in the Keanu Reeves film -- to project the reality the White House wished the world to see, regardless of whether it actually existed. (time)

How much responsibility has McClellan or McKinnon taken for their part in the single worst presidential administration in over one hundred years?