Be Choosy. Chew Chew-Z

Today's GAO report is only the latest interesting development in what has been a week of them.

This morning's AP story covering the premature release of the report strongly implies that General Accounting Office personnel leaked it to forestall the administration's revising and editing of it before the public got wind of it. "The political wrangling came days before the report was to be officially released and while most lawmakers were still out of town for the August recess, reflecting the high stakes involved for both sides in the Iraq war debate," the story by Anne Flaherty says.

To put it another way, GAO personnel wanted to make sure that reality trumps the spin generated by Bush-Cheney's habitual fantasy.

"Reality," said the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, "is the one thing that, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away."

Earthlings who people some of Dick's novels have been transplanted to hostile extraterrestrial environments, and chew exotic drugs like Can-D and Chew-Z in order to escape their bleak reality, which unfortunately always returns when the drug wears off.

The boy king and his vice-Lucifer have been hitting the Can-D pretty hard for years now, but there are signs that the comedown and hangover are imminent, and assumptions that the war will continue until this pair of inebriates leaves office are up for revision.

There is now an antiwar movement inside the government and, apparently, inside the Pentagon as well. From a McClatchy News story yesterday: "In a sign that top commanders are divided over what course to pursue in Iraq, the Pentagon said Wednesday that it won't make a single, unified recommendation to President Bush during next month's strategy assessment, but instead will allow top commanders to make individual presentations."

We already know that General Petraeus is going to deliver a report that panders to Bush's Can-D-induced hallucinations, but the McClatchy story reveals without going into detail that a significant number among the top brass in the DoD are no longer willing to play that game. They're planning to get real, or in other words, come out against the war.

Add to that the growing opposition to the war in Bush's own party, especially among high-profile senators like Warner and Lugar, and what we're describing is a tight circle closing around the Oval Office.

Up until a few days ago I thought Bush and his Rasputin would get their way, and that nothing could prevent their continuing the war unobstructed at least until January 20, 2009. But their position is beginning to look bleak, and a combination of forces may conspire to pull the rug out from under them, and confiscate their stash of Can-D.

"Earth to George and Dick; it's time for you guys to come down."