For Bush, the hits just keep on coming

I'm sure that the Republicans are screaming "bloody liberal media conspiracy", but it's simply amazing, this last minute stream of bad news for Bush in the final week of the campaign -

1) The U.N. nuclear agency warns of missing explosives (the damage to Bush is done - simply because they didn't listen to the warning and weren't able to immediately explain what happened at Al Qaqaa)

2) Then the IAEA announces that U.S. officials were warned about the vulnerability of explosives stored at the installation after ANOTHER facility was looted - ie, it wasn't just an isolated case of incompetence

3) To the chagrin of the RNC, Giuliani arrogantly announces that the troops in Iraq, not Bush, bore the responsibility for searching for the explosives. This basically caused soldiers to speak up and say that the received no orders to deal with explosives at Al Qaqaa.

4) A reputable study says that there are actually 100,000 fatalities in Iraq, primarily collateral casualties composed of women and children

5) RNC releases a campaign commercial with too obvious "wag the dog" type computer editing, requiring an embarrassing apology. I mean for a team that prides itself on its professionalism, a doctored photograph?

6) Surging violence in Iraq, with 50 newly-recruited Iraqi soldiers slaughtered, and Bush's puppet, Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi publicly blames the United States, rebuking the U.S. with charges of gross negligence.

7) News erupts that the FBI has begun investigating Halliburton Co., formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

8) Voters were reminded in the week before the election - yet another leak - that the cost in dollars is soaring too, with a leak that Bush plans to send Congress a request of up to $75 billion early next year for additional money to finance wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bringing the total to Kerry's $200 billion figure.

9) And apparently, CBS (feeling trumped on the Al Qaqaa explosives issue) will be airing a segment on how the President allowed kids to be shipped overseas without proper body armor, in order to give a tax break to the rich. You can assume that the footage of crippled veterans will be pretty emotionally wrenching.

10) NPR's Daniel Schorr, a senior news analyst, answering charges of a media conspiracy to bury Bush, is accusing the Bush campaign of a massive coverup. He claims that the issues of the missing explosives in Iraq and the full cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been hid via a cover-up, and only became known after being leaked to the press.

That commercial about a pack of wolves was right. Only it was the media getting ready to tear Bush apart. And through it all, Bush is silent on this issues, and keeps repeating that line, "Freedom is on the march!" I predict this line will go down in history next to "Prosperity is just around the corner!"

Poor guy. The only way Bush could win this election, is to steal it... again.