GEORGE BUSH = TURKEY

(Excerpt)

This year the little chicks turned out to be two toms and a hen. As always, they are incredibly curious and unafraid of humans and most often want to see what we are up to. They even venture onto the porch and peer in the window if we are not outside. [They will also defecate on the same porch.]

The toms stood as close to us as they could, puffing out their feathers and displaying their fans. Taking an audible gulp of air they inflated that part of their breast where I like to put my sage stuffing. Heads bright blue with that ridiculous caruncle hanging from their foreheads over one or the other side of their beaks, they were the picture of pompous pride. And they wanted us to see it.

Not so different from George Bush in the Rose Garden, I remarked to my beloved. Puffing up, strutting to the podium and acting so important, but really, just an inflated turkey after all.

The announcement last week of the nomination of Harriet Miers for Supreme Court justice was just another example of the growing incompetence of this administration. It seems the bubble world of George Bush is becoming increasingly smaller as he is faced with continuing challenges and outcomes of his bad decisions.

Battered by Katrina, he had to pick a second Supreme Court nominee right on the heels of John Roberts. He or she had to be able to placate his radical right wing supporters, but maybe George is not up to the fight that would bring. One wonders if he has been feeling a little vulnerable in the wake of his flailing Iraq debacle, Afghanistan and the never-ending War on Terror, to say nothing of his retreat on Social Security and plans to continue with tax cuts to the rich while continuing to cut services to the poor, and still spend over a billion a week on the military.


So, like a little boy trying to figure out a way to not get into trouble, he picks one of his close allies, his own personal attorney! He tells us "I know her heart" (wink, wink) and that "she won't change her views" and that "you'll like the way she rules" (wink, wink.) This is supposed to placate his right-wing base while confounding everyone else, because the woman has absolutely no experience as a judge; what she has done is spend decades taking care of George! And to put the icing on the cake, anything she has done working for him is off-limits because of the unparalleled in history secrecy of this administration.

Or maybe George is like a little boy who is taking a difficult test he did not study for because he was so busy playing. As he started out he seemed to be really trying to think of good answers to the questions, but now he has been trying so hard he is getting frustrated because he really is clueless about the right answers. So now he is just choosing wildly, putting anything down, and belligerently daring anyone to prove him wrong.

Most disgusting of all is what we hear from James Dobson of Focus on the Family fame. He got on the radio and internet to assure the religious conservatives that Harriet Miers is a good pick. He says Karl Rove called him and told him some things he can not tell anyone, but (wink, wink) it's all good.

The turkeys on the farm are funny. We get a kick out of them and put up with the little bit of damage they do and the messes they make in part because they are entertaining and in part because we know we will get some good out of them in the end.

Is that how the powerful rich in this world view George? Who cares what he does with the justices as long as he keeps gutting the part of democracy that works for the good of the whole and keeps strengthening the part where the rich get richer?

We are going to butcher the turkeys in the next few weeks. George Bush will be gone too one day. All the arrogant puffing up and strutting in the world is not going to save our turkeys. In like manner George will be cast aside as soon as he is no longer useful to those who are using him today.

It is sad though that he is making such a big mess for us to clean up.