Rhymes with dishonesty

I remember with fondness when that perpetual liar Alberto Gonzales was chased out of of Washington by a pitchfork-wielding mob of pissed off Americans. It was particularly rewarding given Gonzales is a personal friend of Bush, and any friend of Bush should be an enemy to America. Gonzales, with his permanent smirk and evasive personality, almost made his predecessor, fellow fascist John Ashcroft, look good. Almost.

After Gonzales' humiliating exit, the gears of hope seemed to kick in again for the idealistic talking heads in the media, and suddenly everybody was speculating about how the next guy would probably be way better. It seemed like the dual threat of a Democratic-led Senate and the general feeling that the voters just wouldn't tolerate another Pinocchio-in-a-suit made it likely that the next attorney general wouldn't be so goddamn dishonest. In short, we asked for somebody to bring a sliver of integrity back to the position of the nation's top cop; what we got was Michael Mukasey, a close confidant to Rudy Giuliani who refused to acknowledge that waterboarding is an illegal torture practice.

That was the first sign of trouble. Yet we remained hopeful that maybe, perhaps, it was possible that Mukasey had the ability to make decisions independent of the Bush machine. And golly gee, wouldn't it be nice if, again, he wasn't so fucking dishonest?

Jokes on us! Turns out Mukasey is just another lackey to the administration and its tireless strategy for building a society of fear. During a speech at the Tech Museum in San Jose, it took Mukasey all of 10 seconds to kick up rabid hysteria with the warning that when you download music, the terrorists win:

SAN JOSE (AP) - In remarks to Silicon Valley executives at the Tech Museum of Innovation, Mukasey said the economy and national security of the United States are increasingly threatened by violations involving copyrighted software code, patented inventions and trademarked properties.

Terror groups are taking their cues from organized crime and increasingly funding their operations from counterfeiting and piracy, he said.

Interestingly, Mukasey delivered his remarks -- without providing any tangible evidence, of course -- just a precious day after meeting with top executives from Apple, Adobe and other tech companies. A day before that, he met with executives in the entertainment industry. And a day before that, he delivered his balls on a silver platter to Bush in the Oval Office.

Oh well, I guess there's always the next attorney general. Keep those fingers crossed.