The Kabuki Dance continues....

For those of you not familiar with the term (or, more accurately Art Form) here's a short lesson:

Kabuki, like other traditional forms of drama in Japan as well as in other cultures around the world, was (and sometimes still is) performed in full-day programs. Rather than attending a single play for 2–5 hours, as one might do in a modern Western-style theater, one would "escape" from the day-to-day world, devoting a full day to entertainment in the theater district. Though some plays, particularly the historical jidaimono, might go on for an entire day, most plays were shorter and would be arranged, in full or in part, alongside other plays in order to produce a full-day program

and what makes it relevant is:

Nearly every full-length play would be performed in five acts, the first one corresponding to jo, an auspicious and slow opening which introduces the audience to the characters and the plot. The next three acts would correspond to ha, speeding events up, culminating almost always in a great moment of drama or tragedy in the third act and possibly a battle in the second and/or fourth acts. The final act, corresponding to kyu, is almost always very short, providing a quick and satisfying conclusion.[13]

more detailed info can be found here

How much like traditional Kabuki theatre the Bush Administration has become.....every issue is a folk-tale in five acts; each act as predictable and conspicuously staged as the first.

And, unfortunately, all the issues end just like traditional Kabuki..."is almost always very short, providing a quick and safisfying conclusion..." satisfying for Bush anyway...and almost always because Democrats collapse spinelessly in front of his faux macho-posturing and even worse pseudo-patriotism...(jingoism? probably)

So here we go again...

Act I: the great buildup of expectations for the Patraeus Report

Act II: Dog-and-Poney Shows for sympathetic and uncritical journalist to Iraq to show progress which is really just another Potemkin Village (like we talked about yesterday)

Act III: A staged extravaganza worthy of the late, great Cecil B. Demille of Bush in the Combat Zone praising the progress and slyly hinting that "some" troops can come home...staged, as always, with a background of smiling, happy US troops standing behind their "beloved" commander in Chief....(we know from the White House "advance" guide that those troops are chosen from only the most "highly enthusiastic" Bush supporters)

Act IV:......ahhhhhhhhh..... that's the Battle with Congress.... and we all know that it will end with

Act V....a swift and satisfying conclusion ....for Bush.

I'm getting tired of this.....

Once, just once, I'd like to see our Democratic Congress stand up to Bush...face him down and

fercryinoutloud....

win one for a change.