Buh-Bye to the Minister of Propaganda

Awww…it's such a shame to see the Minister of Propaganda…Scott McClellan announcing his decision to resign.

Our Heroic Leader…The Decider….the President had this to say about Scottie, via NBC News:

Bush said McClellan had “a challenging assignment.”

“I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity,” the president said. “It’s going to be hard to replace Scott, but nevertheless he made the decision and I accepted it. One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days.”

Do they allow rocking chairs in a federal penitentiary? Oh…sorry – wishful thinking.

McClellan came back on the plane to the press cabin and shook hands all around. Someone said it was a sad moment, and McClellan replied, “It is sad on some level.” He said he would accompany Bush on a trip to California this weekend and remain on the job for a couple more weeks until a replacement is named.

He said he had been thinking seriously about leaving in the past few weeks since Andrew Card announced he was leaving as chief of staff.

“With a new chief of staff coming on board,” McClellan said, “it was a good time to make this decision. And three years would have been an awfully long time in this position.

“I’ve been at this for a long time and I didn’t need much encouragement to make this decision, even though you all kept tempting me.”

Aww, Scottie. What will we do without you? Can another press secretary stick so stubbornly to the tired talking points as you have? Will any other press secretary match you for sheer bullheadedness and repetition. Can anyone else do as well as you in repeating the "Blah, blah, blah…9/11….blah, blah…we were attacked…blah, blah….terror, terror…blah, blah….9/11…blah, blah…." bullsh*t without breaking into gales of laughter at the ridiculousness of it all.

I think that guy who worked for Saddam is available…you know, the one who told us American troops were surrendering outside Baghdad, even though we could all see – via CNN – that the Americans were in the city already. He'd be a perfect fit for your job – after all, he already has experience working with a lunatic.

More from firedoglake, and Fineman, on the WH's new deck-chair arrangement, including Rove's move away from policymaking. Crooks and Liars has audio of the montage Al Franken put together to say buh-bye to Scottie here. 

Insanity

I keep reading about the refusal of the Bush administration to take nuclear weapons off the table in regards to Iran, and like everyone else on the right side of the sanity line, I have to ask, "Have they lost their frickin' minds?!"

How in the name of Pete does a President – the so-called 'Leader of the Free World' – not have the sense to know that planning to use a nuclear weapon of any kind against another nation is simply asking to be bombed and radiated into oblivion by them, or by their friends?

Should we make 'The Day After' and 'War Games' mandatory viewing for Presidential candidates so they too can learn the risks of unleashing a nuclear holocaust on the world?

I'll be honest, 'The Day After' scared the living hell out of me as a teenager. I had nightmares for months, and not just about the way Steve Gutenberg looked at the end! (Though that was horrifying as well!)

I remember calculating the distance from my home to the three closest 'likely' targets of nuclear attack – New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. I lived within a 350-mile radius of NYC and Philly, so immediate death was unlikely. I realized that my family, friends, and I would probably live a few weeks or less before dying of radiation poisoning. Oh. joy.

'War Games' gave us the visual of Mutual Assured Destruction. No matter who starts it, no matter what variant used, it can only end one way. Death. If you're 'lucky', you'll be one of those vaporized before you know what's hit you. The unlucky ones will survive the initial impact and fireball, only to die later from fallout and/or the nuclear winter.

As the computer, Joshua, says, "The only way to win is not to play."  

A Brother Sighting…sort of

While the rest of the family was freezing back home, my youngest brother has spent the last two months in Hawaii (curse him!) Despite hating him for telling us about the tropical weather he was enjoying as we in PA celebrated a high of 50 degrees, we have missed him.

 

So, it was with real pleasure that I caught a glimpse of him in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin this morning! 

 

 

 

 

Josh is the one on the right. He and his co-workers will be back home on Friday evening.