CONTEMPT OF US.

It is now clear that only prerecorded voices looping gibberish are speaking for the U.S. Executive branch. I can only conclude that we all have access to privileged information and our government officials do not.

Administration spokesmen sound like nothing so much as Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, Saddam Hussein's last Information Minister, who called a press conference as American tanks rumbled by outside, announcing there were no American troops in Baghdad. In fact, the Americans were committing suicide by the hundreds at the city's gates. Comical Ali, they called him.

Our government's latest slapstick communication, as reported in this NY Times editorial, a faceless minion answered Senator Hillary Clinton's direct question to Defense Secretary Gates about planning for troop withdrawal with this drivel:

“...premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq.”

No wonder even loyal Republican lawmakers are looking green around the gills. Never mind Contempt of Congress. This is Contempt of Country.

They're not an attractive bunch, I admit, but I believe Congress is the only branch of government that may be able to turn this brain-dead administration around. Keep up the pressure on your representative to keep the heat on the Bush administration to change Iraq policy. www.house.gov - www.senate.gov -- just enter your state or Zip code to find your Senator or Representative.

It also occurs to me that a general slowdown by the bureaucracy could help stop this nonsense. I call upon all loyal career professionals in our national civil service to stand up to the political appointees and for the people. I'm not sure we can wait another eighteen months to change direction.

FEET TO THE FIRE.

I just wrote emails to my Senators, to make sure they keep the pressure on the Bush Administration to change direction in Iraq. Despite the smoke the President and his lieutenants--not to mention his generals--blow about how much progress they're making with the "just started" surge, they still act as if everybody's asking them to pull out of Iraq tomorrow or the next day. That's never been the case, and it's time we got the message through to Bush and Cheney that we're not buying that. We need to see a real change in direction, in the interest of our security and the health of our troops. You don't have to have top secret clearance to sense that we're in World War III (Pakistan, London, to name two current fronts outside of Iraq) and we're tied down in Iraq. Not that sending conventional brigades on classic invasions is going to work against this enemy. Republican, Democrat, or whatever, write your representatives today.