The Soft Lob

In a ball game, a soft lob is an easy pitch. When politicians do press conferences, reporters who are friendly to the interviewee will toss out a "soft lob" question. Something easy to answer or something that will make their friend look good.

Other times, politicians need a way to try out an idea. They may toss out a "soft lob" question on something like, oh, lets just say, "Hey, maybe George Bush should have a third term as President," and see if folks laugh themselves silly. However should anyone not laugh themselves silly and actually think the idea deserves some merit, then maybe, just maybe, where there's a will, there's a way.

No, I'm not just whistling Dixie folks. I think we have been soft lobbed. How successful the pitch was, still remains to be seen.

Now mind you this "Continuity Presidency" issue started out as a hoax published by "The Register" on April Fool's day this year so I know after a few Google searches you'll be saying that Deborah's off her gourd and taking a hoax way to seriously. The premise of the articles hoax is that Bush prepared a special memo and somehow secretly had passed into a law a measure that circumvents the 22nd Amendment and allows a President to serve more than two terms.

To make matters worse, some folks mixed this up with some legislation that did actually get passed which is fondly called by our fear mongering press the "Doomsday Bill". The Doomsday Legislation only re-orders the House of Representatives should another 9/11 type event come along and take out at least 100 members of the house. However as far as we know, this does not effect the Presidential Line of Succession or elections in progress in time of disaster or attack.

So since this is a proven hoax, why should we care about it?

Well, I laughed it off as well, until Rockey Vaccarella came along. Rockey Rockey is the guy who drove his "FEMA" trailer from Louisiana to D.C. to tell George Bush what a great job he and FEMA have done so far helping the Katrina Victims. Rockey not only thinks they did a great job but he has another wish for George Bush as well:

You know, I wish you had another four years, man. If we had this President for another four years, I think we'd be great. But we're going to move on.

It was not the mainstream media mind you but the bloggers they disavow as unreliable who asked the real deal questions: Why would a guy still broke from the hurricane and living in a trailer spend a ton of money on gas to drive his FEMA trailer to Washington. Also, isn't it illegal to move a FEMA trailer and most of them are said to be too flimsy to be lived in, let alone driven that far. Also, how did he actually get to meet George Bush and why was W suddenly at the White House when he was supposed to be at his ranch in Crawford, Texas doing his annual hide out from Cindy Sheehan?

After a bit of digging it was a blogger who found out that Rockey Vaccarella is more than likely a GOP plant. He's definitely a registered Republican and has run for state office as such. Vacacarella had a trip agenda that just happened to have his "spontaneous" meeting with W penciled in before he ever started out on his "landmark" journey in his FEMA trailer "replica". It's an "honorary" FEMA trailer because the trailer, like Rockey is not the real deal. Mr. Rockey Grassroots supporter of Bush was really an Astroturf planned and staged photo-op just like the aircraft carrier landing, the fake Thanksgiving Turkey, and the Jackson Square speech after Hurricane Katrina.

And that brings me back to the soft lob. Did they go to all this trouble just for a Katrina Anniversary photo-op? Nah, that's gravy on the potatoes but I think the soft lob was really an attempt to see if there is anyone out there who will entertain the notion of George W. Bush as President for another term should a "national emergency" unfold. I'm pretty sure that this article from April 3 is a bit of hysteria from the Register Article, it does make a great point that a third, even fourth term is not unprecedented in U.S. History.

I know I'm hard on King George and Co. on this blog. The fact that I don't like W much should be apparent. However when his administration goes to these lengths to purposely deceive us, how can we possibly support them? Why should we believe them when the Bush admin says they wouldn't even think of pursuing a third term?