Busy lil' buggers

While the attention of American media is riveted on Palin/Gustav/Hanna/McGrumpy, the Bush regime is trying to cement its noxious place in American history, according to the NY Times:

Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Bush’s advisers assert that many Americans may have forgotten that. So they want Congress to say so and “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”

They're not afraid we forgot what happened - they're just afraid we forgot the right way to think about what happened.

“This seems like a final push by the administration before they go out the door,” said Suzanne Spaulding, a former lawyer for the Central Intelligence Agency and an expert on national security law. The cumulative effect of the actions, Ms. Spaulding said, is to “put the onus on the next administration” — particularly a Barack Obama administration — to justify undoing what Mr. Bush has done.

[snip]

The language recalls a resolution, known as the Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed by Congress on Sept. 14, 2001. It authorized the president to “use all necessary and appropriate force” against those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks to prevent future strikes. That authorization, still in effect, was initially viewed by many members of Congress who voted for it as the go-ahead for the administration to invade Afghanistan and overthrow the Taliban, which had given sanctuary to Mr. bin Laden.

They're setting this up as a last bastion for the warmongers - either Obama wins and they assume he'll have to appear "weak" by negating the cool manly macho torture/fear/bombing regime they've created, or McCain wins with a pre-made justification for continuing Bush's militaristic foreign policy.

And we once again see what a great asset Mukaskey has been for Bush:

“As Sept. 11, 2001, recedes into the past, there are some people who have come to think of it as kind of a singular event and of there being nothing else out there,” Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey told House lawmakers in July. “In a way, we are the victims of our own success, our own success being that another attack has been prevented.”

That's the head of the Justice Department speaking - evidently "justice" means something totally alien to these guys.

I guess Justice is blind except for her steely-eyed gaze of rage at the head-cutting Islamomooninboshinazis. Well, we tried to warn folks about Mukaskey.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis gets a front-row seat at the right wing's reaction to the free press. I dunno, maybe the reason we haven't heard about hijinks like this this year is that the journalists can't get anywhere near the RNC without getting a face-full of pepper spray.