Finally, finally someone in the Washington press corps has the guts to say it.

I guess it takes the MSNBC funny man from Keith Olbermann’s show to nail Bush but good. I watched the press conference with king George the 43rd this morning partly in agony, when I wasn’t laughing out loud, before and after most of the talking heads stumbled all over themselves trying to trump everyone else in saying Obama’s candidacy is over due to the comments of the Rev. Wright.

Dana Milbank in his “Washington Sketch” column was able to make light of Bush’s attempt at word sorcery and nail him to the wall at the same time. Too bad there’s no local columnists anywhere who are willing to do the same thing, except, er, here on the Web.

This is so good for a change I’m going to post a significant portion for your enjoyment and/or enlightenment, in case you happen to be an Alabamian who believes Mike Royer’s account of Bush blaming Congress on the local NBC affiliate had any resemblance to reality. Maybe you’ve never read the Washington Post. Here’s a sample.

The incredible shrinking presidency of George Walker Bush hit a new milestone yesterday: The commander in chief turned to sorcery.

“You know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I’d be waving it,” Bush informed Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times in a Rose Garden news conference. She had asked him about the recession, which everybody seems to be acknowledging but Bush.

Further, the wizard of the West Wing said he would use his supernatural powers, if he had them, to conjure up lower gas prices. “I think that if there was a magic wand and say, ‘Okay, drop price,’ I’d do that,” said the illusionist.

Abracadabra! Watch the president pull a rabbit out of a hat! …

Well, not this time. “There is no magic wand to wave right now,” Bush finally confessed…

But the president had something else up his sleeve. He used his appearance before the White House press corps to perform one of the oldest tricks in the book: blaming Congress. He faulted lawmakers 16 times in his opening statement alone….

“Congress has repeatedly blocked efforts,” he protested. “Congress continues to block provisions. . . . Congress needs to clear away obstacles. . . . Congress is considering a massive, bloated farm bill. . . . Congress needs to do more. . . . I ask Congress to do its part.”

(Some of) the reporters in the audience didn’t fall for the blame-Congress sleight-of-hand.

“Gas prices have gone up, foreclosures have gone up, there have been layoffs, news just this morning that consumer confidence is down yet again,” recited the Associated Press’s Jennifer Loven. “Isn’t it time to think about doing more?”

“Were you premature in saying that the U.S. economy is not in a recession?” needled Jeremy Pelofsky of Reuters.

“Americans believe we are in a recession,” pointed out American Urban Radio’s April Ryan. “What will it take for you to say those words, that we are in a recession?”

The illusionist swirled his cape and turned that into a question about Congress.

“I mean, you know, the words on how to define the economy don’t reflect the anxiety the American people feel,” (Bush) ventured.

Rubbing his nose, he continued: “The average person doesn’t really care what we call it. . . . These are difficult times. And the American people know it, and they want to know whether or not Congress knows it.”

***
But diversions would get Bush only so far. After the White House called the news conference, but half an hour before Bush stepped from the Oval Office, the Conference Board announced that consumer confidence fell in April to its lowest point since the Iraq invasion in 2003. That started a new sell-off on Wall Street, where investors await today’s report on economic growth in the first quarter.

“Are you concerned that they will show us to officially be in a recession?” Stolberg asked Bush.

“I think they’ll show that we’re - it’s a very slow economy,” he replied.

The Washington Post’s Dan Eggen tried to put Bush in one of his least favorite places - the psychoanalyst’s couch.

“You’ve expressed frustration with Congress,” he pointed out. “Are you frustrated? Are you angry? And do you have any real hope of being able to work with this Congress this year?”

Bush looked around, as if puzzled. “I believe that they’re letting the American people down, is what I believe,” he answered.

A chief way in which Congress is letting the American people down, the president said, is by refusing to approve oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (what a dumbass).

“They’ve repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR,” he said, depriving the nation of “27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel every day.” This was one of the oldest tricks under Bush’s cloak - he has been making the ANWR case, unsuccessfully, for eight years — and his delivery was a bit rusty. “Repeatedly” came out as “repleatedly,” and “27 million gallons” became “27 millions of gallons.”

Reporters quickly pointed out that, whatever the merits of oil exploration in ANWR, it is a long-term proposal that won’t help this summer’s gas prices. “Opening up ANWR is not long-term,” Bush objected. “It’s intermediate-term.”

So now the president is reduced to arguing the difference between long-term and intermediate-term. His is a slow and torturous disappearing act.

Bush: The Escape Artist?

Who cares what some reverend told the Washington press corps. Bush is the real idiot in the room who has done considerable damage to his country and committed crimes against the Constitution and humanity for which he should be tried and convicted.

The Post also has this story for Wednesday’s paper (my improved headline).

Bush Tries to Recycle Tired, Failed Policies

(The New York Times basically continues to kiss Bush’s ass in their coverage today, even though their correspondent was on the butt end of the attempted hit by the prez. Why they take it dog only knows.)

Wouldn’t we all be having so much more fun if we had an impeachment trial to look forward to this summer?

That would certainly divert the media away from Obama’s former paster. I mean who cares?

Wouldn’t it be great if we could abide by the United States Constitution and get god out of our political campaigns - and our government policy discussions?

What does it have to do with rising gas and food prices?

The war in Iraq and our looted treasury?

Rebuilding New Orleans or unsafe products from China, where almost everything is now made - rather than here?

Would someone please tell the American people on their dog damned television screens that what Bush has done is not working? Cannot work?

Does Obama have any answers? Will he do a better job? Will Hillary or McCain?

I don’t know, but I know this Bush government has got to go, and the sooner the better.

Wouldn’t we all be having so much more fun if we had an impeachment trial to look forward to this summer?

The U.S. news media can’t get enough of the prostitution scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, but the same media won’t give a minute to a serious debate over the impeachable war crimes of George W. Bush. In this guest essay, Rabbi Michael Lerner looks at the perverse state of America’s ethics.

For the full story, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced criminal contempt resolutions today against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers for failing to answer Congressional subpoenaes under a broad claim of executive privilege.

Conyers also filed a resolution asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. to file a civil suit against the White House and authorize the House Judiciary Committee to go to court, represented by the House general counsel, acting as an available alternative should Attorney General Michael Mukasey follow through on his threat not to enforce the criminal citation.

The House rules committee is expected to meet and begin work on both of these resolutions this afternoon, according to the TPMMucker.

Conyers Resolutions on U.S. Attorney Subpoenas

Rob Kall of OpEdNews.com Asks John Conyers About Impeachment. Conyers is still reluctant to bring up impeachment because the vote might fail, he says. And then Fox News and the Republicans would call Conyers names, and there’s an election coming up, etc., according to Democrats.com.

But when pressed, as seen in this video, he says it’s “not off the table.”

Progressive’s Fail to Fund Alternative Media

by Robert Parry
Editor, ConsortiumNews.Com

When senior Democrats, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, explain why impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is off the table, they cite their fears of hostility from the American news media.

On Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” on Dec. 20, Conyers said the U.S. news media has become such a problem that any Democratic attempt to hold the President and Vice President accountable might end up achieving the opposite result.

“There is a very stark reality that with the corporatization of the media, we could end up with turning people, who should be documented in history as making many profound errors and violating the Constitution, from villains into victims,” the Michigan Democrat said.

In Conyers’s view, it’s kind of Watergate in reverse. Instead of the old Washington press corps holding President Richard Nixon’s feet to the fire for his Watergate abuses, today’s careerist news media would treat the idea of accountability for Bush and Cheney like some kooky conspiracy theory.

While one can dismiss Conyers’s explanation as just another lame excuse from the timid Democratic leadership, there is an underlying reality here.

He’s probably right that the Washington press corps would hoot any serious impeachment drive against Bush and Cheney off the political stage.

The current right-tilted asymmetry of the American news media has made it difficult if not impossible to achieve any sustained accountability for any of the Bush-Cheney offenses. For instance, the Washington Post, which led the charge on Watergate, now leads the defense of Bush/Cheney for their role in exposing CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Getting Worse

Another hard truth is that this U.S. media imbalance continues to worsen.

Day in/day out, year in/year out, the American Right pours billions and billions of dollars into its media apparatus, with Fox News starting a second network and Rupert Murdoch adding the Wall Street Journal to his empire, not to mention an endless array of well-financed outlets in radio, magazines, newspapers and the Internet.

Meanwhile, many American progressives and liberal foundations remain locked in a dogmatic resistance to investing seriously in media.

When I talk with wealthy progressives, they act as if building honest media is someone else’s responsibility.

They tell me that they want to put their money into either direct-action projects (like feeding the poor or buying up endangered wetlands) or into supporting regulatory efforts (like restricting money in politics or trying to reestablish government rules about media size and content).

While those endeavors might have some merit, the tragedy is that the progressives are passing up a great opportunity to use new openings created by the Internet to build powerful media institutions that can generate truthful information and establish some balance in the information reaching the public.

Fund Raising Appeal

Parry sent this column out today in his own fund raising appeal. He does some good work and we often run his stories and link to his work.

But here at the Locust Fork News and Journal, we have a different strategy.

We’re not going out asking people directly to give us money, although donations are welcome.

We are simply going around trying to educate progressive people and groups on how blog advertising is a better way to get their message out than continuing to support traditional, corporate conservative news outlets and hoping that they will somehow change overnight and cover issues in a way that would be seen as satisfactory to an educated and yes liberal audience.

Now that the FCC has changed the media ownership rules in their favor, the coverage by the corporate press and network news outlets is only going to get worse as they spend less money generating original news and investigative stories. The drive for more local news is a marketing ploy to titilate a few people interested in more coverage of local sports and such.

That is not the role of the press as defined by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The role of the press in a Democratic Society is to watchdog government. That means the Bush administration nationally and the Riley administration in Alabama, and it doesn’t mean running their press releases and taking their pictures at ribbon cuttings. It means asking real, tough questions and approaching information with skepticism.

We are about to turn the corner on our strategy. We have a major redesign in the works with some full-time, year-around sponsors poised to come onboard. We see the continued conglomeration of the news as an opportunity for alternative voices to find a wider audience. So stay tuned if you want to see the next evolution of the Web Press in action.