There is a very old story that is set on a freezing treeless plain about 150 years ago during the coldest winter on record in the Ukraine.
A bird, near freezing, lands on a cart path near a steaming pile of manure. Fortuitously, a Ukrainian peasant happens by, sees the freezing bird and places it on top of the steaming manure. The bird is reinvigorated and realizes that it will not freeze to death that day.
After several minutes of warmth from the manure, the bird starts to sing loudly about its good fortune.
A starving wolf hears the bird singing and pounces on the bird and devours it in a single gulp.
The Ukrainian's draw three morals from this tale.
First: He who places you in shit does not necessarily mean you harm.
Second: He who removes you from shit does not necessarily mean you well.
Third: If you are feeling good about things even though you are in shit for goodness sake keep quiet about it.
I have excerpted the following paragraph written by my friend Reese Schonfeld, from a Huffington Post piece that he wrote today. It is about the 9/11 attack.
What's worse is that Cheney, Bush, Condi Rice and George Tenet had been warned about al Qaeda's plans. Richard Clarke, the National Coordinator for Security, warned Condi about Osama face-to-face in January 2001, and had sent memos to the CIA about him and al Qaeda as far back as the Clinton Administration. What's more, in August, two FBI agents, one in Arizona and one in Minnesota had sent warnings to FBI headquarters about suspicious Arab pilots training in American flight schools. The Bush Administration chose to ignore all the intelligence.
Both Cheney and Bush, along with their minions, have in a manner of speaking forgotten that as a result of their eight years in secret and deceptive power, that lots of stuff is being disclosed that took place in secret during their eight years.
The Republican party -- faithful apparently -- does not realize that the Bush eight years had been kept secret as in Maxwell Smarts "cone of silence" and this cover is gone, and these eight years can now be compared to "a glass house" that everyone can see into.
Notwithstanding this, these Republicans are attacking the Obama administration and throwing stones at it as well as all of the Democrats.
When I hear former Vice President Cheney whine about America being less safe under an Obama administration I want to scream! I have often wondered who was in charge of keeping us safe on 9/11/01.
When he double speaks about the issue of our not torturing anyone and then glories in the American lives saved by the results of his aggressive questioning I need to either have a drink or scream.
Sadly, there is only the most tortuous analogy with the Bush minions and the Ukrainian story, but I have wanted to tell it for a very long time.
When I hear the Republicans attack Pelosi as to what she knew and when she knew it, and stuff like that I can only conclude once more that people who live in glass houses should be very careful to clear the ara around their houses of all stones!
I will close this by complaining about the purported journalists who work for all of the manifestations of GE, Disney, Fox, and CBS/Viacom and why they do not speak their truth about the Bush/Cheney transgressions, at least in retrospect.