A Blah presidency

To combine metaphors used to describe the California recall, it’s like a car wreck you can’t help but look at, and then 37 clowns (as of yesterday) all tumble out of the car. On CNN today, I saw a split-screen of Gary Coleman and Schwarzenegger.

Actually, I have a lot in common with Der Arnold. Like him, my most difficult decision was getting a bikini wax in 1978.

Speaking of plastic action figures.

Darrell Issa, who spent $1.7m of his own money on the recall, has pulled out of the race, crying like a little girl. (That last phrase was meant to be read in a Hans und Franz accent). Turned out he was less plausible as a candidate than Gary Coleman or that guy practicing sumo wrestling, by himself, in a big diaper in his backyard. To buy the lousy t-shirt (“I spent $1.7 million to attack democracy and all I got was...”), click here.

Speaking of recalls, Charles Taylor has named his successor, his current vice president, whose name is...drum roll please... Moses Blah.

In response to the possible legalization of import of (legal) drugs from Canada, Pfizer has decided to put Canadian pharmacies on a leash, only selling them the amount of drugs Pfizer thinks suitable for Canadian use only.

I said 2 days ago that the theme of the week is Bush admin deception across the board. Al Gore made a speech yesterday on that very subject. He said that on Iraq, taxes and the budget, and global warming (which he called “climate change,” which is the term the Bushies use--they are banned from using the phrase “global warming”), the president seems to have been pursuing policies chosen in advance of the facts -- policies designed to benefit friends and supporters -- and has used tactics that deprived the American people of any opportunity to effectively subject his arguments to the kind of informed scrutiny that is essential in our system of checks and balances." He says he’s thought long and hard about this and has concluded that the problem is not Bush’s advisers, but Bush himself. He has, amazingly enough, concluded that Bush should be replaced by a Democrat next year. But he repeated that he will not run for president but will endorse one of the nine candidates. In a first sign of unity, all 9 said, Gee Al, thanks but no thanks.

And more on the systematic deception theme: a report I haven’t read, but it’s at www.politicsandscience.org. Evidently there have also been recent editorials in Science, Nature, The Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

The Post belatedly realizes just how often and by how many top admin officials the Niger uranium lie was uttered. You’d think a Lexis-Nexis or Google search would have turned up all these examples two months ago.