Dude

No, this will not stand. This aggression will not stand, man. The Dude abides.

[The pronouncement of President George H. W. Bush prior to the first Gulf War as redefined in "The Big Lebowski" and now apropos of his son, who claims he no longer imbibes but, nonetheless, neither does he seem to abide.]

Grinch

This Just In from the Grinch Who Stole Christmas — He’s giving it back, because he just can’t stand it anymore, living with all these simple-minded busybodies minding everybody else’s business but their own. No smoking. No lederhosen. No trans fat. No what? You know what. No WMDs. No brains. No balls. No sense. No blessed oblige. No choice. No shit. And now it's dawning on the president that waging a mercenary war in the Middle East is not quite as simple as clearing brush in Texas, although it may be just about as simple minded. Unless, of course, it's all a venal cover for the oligarchy's hidden agenda, to distract us from their national larceny, which would really piss off the Grinch.

Kink

America's Red Ink

Sunday, December 24, 2006; B06

The largest employer in the world announced on Dec. 15 that it lost about $450 billion in fiscal 2006. Its auditor found that its financial statements were unreliable and that its controls were inadequate for the 10th straight year. On top of that, the entity's total liabilities and unfunded commitments rose to about $50 trillion, up from $20 trillion in just six years.

If this announcement related to a private company, the news would have been on the front page of major newspapers. Unfortunately, such was not the case -- even though the entity is the U.S. government.

To put the figures in perspective, $50 trillion is $440,000 per American household and is more than nine times as much as the median household income.

The only way elected officials will be able to make the tough choices necessary to put our nation on a more prudent and sustainable long-term fiscal path is if opinion leaders state the facts and speak the truth to the American people.

The Government Accountability Office is working with the Concord Coalition, the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation and others to help educate the public about the facts in a professional, nonpartisan way. We hope the media and other opinion leaders do their part to save the future for our children and grandchildren.

DAVID M. WALKER
Comptroller General of the United States
Government Accountability Office
Washington

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Dowd

Yes, Maureen Dowd, when you’re hot, you’re hot, and when you’re right, you’re right [“Maureen Dowd Links Bush to O.J.: If a Civil War Fits, You Can't Acquit,” Editor & Publisher, November 24, 2006 11:35 PM ET]. And any idiot in the president’s class at Yale could have called this one even back when he first invaded Iraq and declared victory. All the hocus pocus postulated since then by experts in government and in the press begs what now could be construed as the administration’s real agenda, whether hidden or not under the cloak of democracy. Although you could say it has always been a little oily, of course, an even more cynical view would be that, behind all the president’s naïve and arrogant blunders, if he did it, the whole idea really was to plunge the entire Middle East into civil war simply to keep them busy killing each other rather than us (aside from our troops of course), and in the end, somehow gain a controlling interest in the oil over there, not to mention a small fortune for Halliburton. But in the meantime, a whole new generation of jihadists seems to have been inflamed with even more zeal and resources. And who has enabled this? No “if” about it.