Tony Snow says Bush thinks that we will be in Iraq for decades. Troops will "continue to be needed in the country to deter threats and to help handle potential crises, as they have done in South Korea." "Crisis" is code for "an oil flow disruption to the United States " The war is about oil. Period. Anyone who insists it is about anything but securing one of the last remaining giant pools of oil for the U.S. is either a liar or in denial. What we cannot do is stabilize the country, leave, then hand over the oil to the Chinese. Sometime I wonder if there would now be more support for the war if Bushco was just honest about what they are doing there.
Please don't move to Florida. Though we're surrounded by water we have no water. Our largest source of drinking water, Lake Okeechobee is at record lows and as a bonus is burning.
Signaling the intensity of this once-a-century drought, roiling smoke clouds rose from exposed stretches of the saucerlike 730-square-mile basin midway between the crowded coasts. The plumes came from wildfires sweeping a 12,000-acre stretch of lakebed exposed as the waters retreated and sank about half an inch a day, water officials said.
The flames fed on weeds and grasses that normally provide hiding places for bass, but are now baked by the sun and dehydrated by relentless winds.
Officials at the South Florida Water Management District said the average lake depth on Wednesday matched the record low of 8.97 feet set in a long drought in 2001 and would certainly break the record overnight.
So, please, stay where you are. We have enough golf courses, pools, and water parks for you to enjoy your visit. Just drink bottled water.
This guy can defeat any of the Democrats in a General election. Will he? Don't know. Gore and Thompson are the only people that can keep Hillary out of the White House. Polls be damned. Gore can keep Clinton from being nominated. Obama can not. Thompson will have more independant voter support than Clinton in the general.
The relentless, blind and weirdly undeserved adulation of Obama from the Left and pseudo Left remains a mystery to me - and is largely based in unconscious sexism.
A simple proposal for the Democratic Presidential primaries: treat them like the Olympics.
I'll explain: Iowa and New Hampshire going first is a custom that must end for Democrats. It still makes some sense for the GOP since Iowa, New Hampshire and the GOP have - essentially - the same demographic breakdown. The Democratic party does a disservice to its own core constituencies by allowing overwhelmingly white and rural voters define front runners and dole out "momentum". As is stands now what this has done for years is force Democratic candidates to go to California and New York - two blue states - to beg for money. The money is then spent in Iowa and New Hampshire. In the case of California - the primary had become a pointless election crammed into an endless series of special elections, off year elections, and recalls.
New Hampshire has no God given right to "first in the nation primary" status. If fact, candidates did not stand for election in this primary until 1952. And N.H. did not pass a state law ensuring it would always be first until 1977 - which means 1980 was the first time that NH legally bound itself to be first. The Iowa caucus has an even shorter pedigree. Jimmy Carter finished second to "uncommitted" in 1976 and some how turned that into a victory and momentum.
Because New Hampshire has become so prissy about being first - the entire system is now a mess. Who can blame California and Florida for wanting to be an influential part of the process? They have finally done something about it - moving up their primaries to early February and late January. In 2008, 25 - 30 states will have voted by FEBRUARY 6Th. What does this mean? It could mean a free for all. But it probably means that we will know the nominee in both parties by the morning of February 6th.The general election is in November. We will have an 8 month general election. That's what it means. A simply solution: every four years another section of the country gets to go first. AND NO STATE OR REGION SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO HOLD A PRIMARY BEFORE MAY. So in 2012 New England hold its region wide primary first. In 2016 The Pacific Coast, Alaska and Hawaii go first - and onward through the years and the regions. The other regional primaries follow every 2 weeks. The primaries finish up in July - the conventions in August. The absurdity of New Hampshire getting to go first no matter what and an endless general election mean something has got to give. Imagine a year of Mitt Romney BEFORE the general election. God forbid.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Peculiarities of thinking, odd beliefs, and eccentricities of appearance, behavior, interpersonal style, and thought (e.g., belief in psychic phenomena and having magical powers). or say that T-Rex and Great-Great Grandpa Adam shopped at the Piggly Wiggly together.
I am not joking - from Creationist to Coulter to Cheney - a case can - and should - be made that Conservative has come to equal crazy.
All kinds of new books out there attacking Hillary. OH MY GOD - She's ambitious. I sure as hell hope so. She and Bill had a plan that they would both be president. Tell me of any actor getting his first role who hasn't already rehearsed his Oscar speech. Tell me of someone who wants to stay an office clerk forever and not move up. Show me a writer who hasn't dreamed of a best seller.
This is supposed to be criticism. Bush wasn't ambitious? His family didn't have a plan for either he or Jeb to follow in daddy's footsteps? There are twenty people running for president right now. Show me one of them who isn't ambitious. Then show me another woman running.
Men are assertive. Women are bitches. Get over it. Hillary is going to be our next president like it or not. Like her or not. I don't particularly like Hillary. I wouldn't want to have a beer with her. But I respect her and I know she can do the job.
Send Bill out to restore our standing in the world and let her handle things in Washington.
If only it could happen sooner than January 2008.
And just an aside - watch all the people - Bill Crystal, Rush, O'Reilly etc who have said repeatedly during the Bush administration that it is irresponsible, treasonous and hurting our troops to speak out against the Commander in Chief during war time. Watch and see how they respond to Hillary. Also - make tapes of them so we can shove it in their faces later.
Obviously the most important cost of the wars we're fighting is the death of a soldier.
But there are so many other costs. In today's Washington Post you can read how the NIH is no longer able to fund research because there just isn't the money. From 1998 to 2003 their budget increased every year. Now it's been cut and the money for research is divided up among other priorities.
What does a lack of funding mean? We won't have the breakthroughs in cancer treatments, young scientist will have to go elsewhere to get into research or choose a different career path.
Look at the FDA. How is it possible that our pets have been killed by tainted food? Spinach with e-coli. Tainted peanut butter. Having an administration on the side of big business (no regulation) coupled with no dough equals dangerous food for you.
Does the press focus on this? How can they with a new Bush scandal every week, the continued mess in Iraq and Brittany Spears?
President Clinton is going to have a massive mess to clean up; she's going to have to talk softly and carry a big broom.
Read Andrew J. Bacevich's op-ed in today's Washington Post.
Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.
Among the hundreds of messages that my wife and I have received, two bore directly on this question. Both held me personally culpable, insisting that my public opposition to the war had provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Each said that my son's death came as a direct result of my antiwar writings.
What if Iran helped manipulate the intelligence that got us into Iraq? Devious. Knowing that Bush & Co wanted to "liberate" Iraq (thanks so much all you neo-cons) what if they set him up? Killing two birds with one stone, using an enemy to destroy an enemy. They finally won the Iran/Iraq war using our soldiers.
Who has been the biggest winner in Iraq? Iran.
While we're distracted with Iraq they're busy building nukes. They know we don't have the troops to invade, being in a quagmire and all. Yes, we can bomb but can we get to the actual sites? Probably not. (Believe me I'm praying we don't bomb but with the armada floating out there I'm not hopeful.)
I'm not saying that we didn't have Pearl, Wolfie, Rummy and Cheney all working to set the stage to invade or that Chalabi wasn't on the sidelines lying like a dog but what if Iran used all that to their advantage?
Let's face it, Bush is certainly stupid enough to be manipulated but what if we've been wrong about who was the puppet master?
In case Nancy Pelosi is wondering if she made the right decision in her compromise with Mr. Bush check out the latest poll on the war.
What do we need to do to get some backbone? Hilary and Obama both voted no but only after the measure passed. No profile in courage there.
Senator Reid is not the man we need leading our party in the Senate. Give me Patrick Leahy.
Do the Democrats in congress not realize that, yes widespread corruption was part of the reason they now have a majority, but it was mostly about ending the war?
Perhaps they think that we have short memories and we'll forget or they'll make it up to us.
Unfortunately, on the latter, they're probably right in our ADD world.
"Fue un voto a favor de la libertad, de la igualdad social y del poder de la sociedad civil." "It was a vote in favor of the freedom, of the social equality and the power of the civil society."
President Carter should not have qualified his remarks about President Cuckoo Bananas at all. Bush has been so belligerent, nasty, wrong, deceitful and criminal that THE ONLY PATRIOTIC THIS FOR ANY AMERICAN TO TO AT THIS POINT IT TO CALL HIM WHAT HE IS : A LYING SON OF A BITCH. AND TO DEMAND HIS IMPEACHMENT.
Thank God for Michael Moore. "Sicko" looks to be fascinating. We Americans tolerate the intolerable when it comes to health care. We must have a single payer national health care for all system. Yes, taxes on the rich will have to go up. Yes, the rich can get the hell over it.
Call me horrible but I don't care about illegal immigration. I don't believe it's the biggest issue facing us right now. I think it's a side show.
I'll be interested when we have to sneak into Canada for jobs and healthcare. That will be a story.
Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Watch as the neo-cons push the September deadline until the end of the year and then into next year. It's already happening. "Military historian" Frederick Kagan, from the American Enterprise Institute, was on
Face the Nat
ion this morning and he says we won't really know until the winter whether or not the surge is working. He also said sectarian killings are down by 2/3's in Baghdad. Sure they are when you don't count suicide bombers, ied's or car bombs. That can really lower the rate for you. I weigh 90 pounds, on the International Space Station.
It was lovely to see Bradley Whitford on Real Time just go ahead and call John Fund a liar. "That's a lie" needs to be said often. We cannot allow people like Dr. Kagan to just throw out whatever he wants and because he
sounds
reasonable allow it to stand.
I also dated Matt Dillion in the 80's. Does meeting him once at Danceteria not count as dating? Dammit, you got me.
I've never understood middle class people voting Republican. Why would you vote against your own best interest?
With everything we've learned this past week I cannot understand why anyone in the military would support Bush.
The Democrats proposed a 3.5% pay raise for the troops. Bush said 3% was sufficient. (I suppose food stamps can continue to fill the gap.) The Democrats proposed increasing the pay to $40 per month for surviving family members of a soldier killed in Iraq. Bush said no. According to NBC news there is new body armor called Dragon Skin that is superior to the current body armor worn by the troops. The Defense Department banned it. The Democrats want time lines to force the Iraqi government to get it together and run their country. Bush says no. The Democrats want to bring the troops home. Bush says no and calls an escalation a "surge". When Republicans were in power Walter Reed was allowed to fester. One Republican congressman and his wife saw the squalor and stopped going because it was too upsetting. But did nothing about it because he didn't want to "hurt" the President. The President has extended the tours of soldiers from 12 to 15 months. He sent troops into harms way without proper equipment.
How can any soldier continue to support someone who doesn't support him or her?
In the former Soviet Union there was an old joke that in America any millionaire could grow up to be President.
No kidding.
How much are they worth?
Romney $260 million Guiliani $30 million Edwards $29.5 million McCain $20 million Clinton $10 million Obama $1.2 million
Poor Obama, only $1.2 million.
Romney leads in dough and is already filling the airways here in Florida with his message that he likes to veto. Wow. That's what you want to focus on - you like to veto? But when you have $260 million to throw around why don't you just offer to give us all health insurance? That would win some votes.
Whiner James Dobson won't vote for Rudy or Hillary or Barack - whaaa whaaaa whaaaa. Poor James - he's says he'll "sit the 2008 election" out.
Hey Dobson how about this: WHY DON'T YOU SIT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OUT? Go to another country more in line with your views - like Saudi Arabia or Utah. Everything you stand for is anti-American. Attacking gay people, trying to control women's bodies, insulting and attacking anyone who does not share your constipated, constricted, evil, wrong headed, stupid, small version of "Christianity". What you call a "family" does not reflect what 80 percent of American families look like. You hate American families. You hate Jesus. Your views and opinions are Anti-American. You hate American values. Leave.
Without accountability and responsibility there can be no Rights. If we expect our children to live in a free nation we must impeach Bush and Cheney. My case for impeachment is simple: We owe it to our children, grandchildren, forefathers, and ourselves to bring articles of impeachment against George W. Bush and Richard Cheney to the floor of the House. Lying in order to take our nation into war is - in my book - the definition of treason. We now know that Bush and Cheney lied repeatedly to create a false pretext for war. Thousands of dead solders, Tens of thousands of maimed soldiers, and between 100,000 and 500,000 dead Iraqi civilians are a direct result of these two men and their lying. Do I think Bush/Cheney would be convicted and removed after a trial in the Senate? No. Do I think the House and Senate should reclaim one of the "checks" that The Founders put in the Constitution? Yes.
Ten years ago vicious Republicans defined impeachment down. President Clinton did, in fact, lie under oath about a blow job. However, this is hardy what the founders had in mind when they gave the House the right to impeach. 10 years later the case for impeachment against Bush and Cheney is serious, real and relates directly on the health of the Republic. Creating "facts" to steer the legislative branch and the population into an unwise war is as impeachable as it gets. Washington and Jefferson would be insisting on impeachment and for Bush and Cheney to stand trial in the Senate. We also now know that the Executive branch over road the constitution with warrant less wiretaps. This is illegal, unconstitutional, and impeachable.
We owe it to the Founders and to our decedents to debate impeachment on the floor of the House. and put it to a vote. Without accountability and responsibility there can be no Rights. If we expect our children to live in a free nation we must impeach Bush and Cheney.
You might have said China and the former Soviet Union. You would be wrong.
The new rules require all would-be "milbloggers", as soldier-publishers are called, to submit blog entries to supervising officers before posting them. That turns on its head the existing rules which allowed soldiers to post freely, with the onus on them to register their blogs and to alert officers to any material that might compromise security.
Yesterday the defence department went further and announced it was blocking access "worldwide" to 13 communal websites, including YouTube and MySpace from military computers and networks. General BB Bell said the move was to protect operations from the drain on computer capacity caused by soldiers downloading videos on these sites.
Apparently our government has decided that YouTube is too dangerous for our troops. Looking at videos of how to win at video games, rappers and basketball must be subversive and therefore stopped!
But while the Bush team has been lecturing the Iraqi Shiites to limit de-Baathification in Baghdad, it was carrying out its own de-Democratization in the Justice Department in Washington. We would feel that we had failed in Iraq if we read that Sunnis were being purged from Iraq's Ministry of Justice by Shiite hard-liners loyal to Moktadaal-Sadr - but the moral equivalent of that is exactly what the Bush administration was doing here. What kind of example does that set for Iraqis?
Politics over competence. What I really love is when Republicans say that Democrats who are trying to end the war are playing politics. I suppose we only play, they live politics. Everything Bush does is political.
The Department of Homeland Security is breaking privacy laws by failing to tell the public all the ways it uses personal information to target passengers boarding flights entering or leaving the United States, according to a draft government report.
Yes, they are monitoring anyone who leaves the country and gathering data including credit card numbers. Boy, don't you feel more secure? They never lose laptops with personal information on them.
Unfortunately I could site more examples of how we are losing what it means to be America.
Impeach for the Children. Not really a joke. Our Constitution is being destroyed every day by President Bush. Isn't it worth saving?
Noblese Oblige - to whom much is given much is expected.
Prince Harry is going to Iraq. There are concerns that he will put his unit in danger. What did his unit do? They are Sparticus.
His grandmother didn't start the war but he's going to fight it. Where are the Bush girls?
On our side of the pond a BU professor who has been a critic of the war from the start son died in Iraq.
Boston University professor Andrew J. Bacevich has been a persistent, vocal critic of the Iraq war, calling the conflict a catastrophic failure. This week, the retired Army lieutenant colonel received the grim news that his son had been killed on patrol there.
First Lieutenant Andrew J. Bacevich , 27, of Walpole, died Sunday in Balad of wounds he suffered after a bomb explosion, the military said yesterday. The soldier, who graduated from BU in 2003 with a degree in communications, is the 56th service member from Massachusetts to be killed in Iraq.
Remember one of the early replacement rationales for going to war with Iraq (after no WMD had been found) was that we were creating a democracy in the Middle East which would act as a domino, or perhaps a weed, and spread throughout the region?
Call me kooky but I really don't see the spread of democracy. I see the spread of violence. We're still fighting in Afghanistan. Sure, sure, we could have actually won but Mr. Bush decided to go to Iraq instead. Meanwhile, in Iraq 100 of our soldiers died last month, we're searching for kidnapped soldiers today and refugees continue to flood out of the country. OH, and in a true democratic fashion, following our President's work habits, the Iraqi Parliament wants to take the summer off.
But the good news is that Mr. Bush has managed to piss of the Russians and perhaps usher back the Cold War. Now there's a war we understand.
Earth to G.O.P.: The Gipper Is Dead By FRANK RICH OF course you didn't watch the first Republican presidential debate on MSNBC. Even the party's most loyal base didn't abandon Fox News, where Bill O'Reilly, interviewing the already overexposed George Tenet, drew far more viewers. Yet the few telling video scraps that entered the 24/7 mediasphere did turn the event into an instant "Saturday Night Live" parody without "SNL" having to lift a finger. The row of 10 middle-aged white candidates, David Letterman said, looked like "guys waiting to tee off at a restricted country club."
Since then, panicked Republicans have been either blaming the "Let's Make a Deal" debate format or praying for salvation-by-celebrity in the form of another middle-aged white guy who might enter the race, Fred Thompson. They don't seem to get that there is not another major brand in the country - not Wal-Mart, not G.E., not even Denny's nowadays - that would try to sell a mass product with such a demographically homogeneous sales force. And that's only half the problem. The other half is that the Republicans don't have a product to sell. Aside from tax cuts and a wall on the Mexican border, the only issue that energized the presidential contenders was Ronald Reagan. The debate's most animated moments by far came as they clamored to lip-sync his "optimism," his "morning in America," his "shining city on the hill" and even, in a bizarre John McCain moment out of a Chucky movie, his grin.
The candidates mentioned Reagan's name 19 times, the current White House occupant's once. Much as the Republicans hope that the Gipper can still be a panacea for all their political ills, so they want to believe that if only President Bush would just go away and take his rock-bottom approval rating and equally unpopular war with him, all of their problems would be solved. But it could be argued that the Iraq fiasco, disastrous to American interests as it is, actually masks the magnitude of the destruction this presidency has visited both on the country in general and the G.O.P. in particular.
By my rough, conservative calculation - feel free to add - there have been corruption, incompetence, and contracting or cronyism scandals in these cabinet departments: Defense, Education, Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. I am not counting State, whose deputy secretary, a champion of abstinence-based international AIDS funding, resigned last month in a prostitution scandal, or the General Services Administration, now being investigated for possibly steering federal favors to Republican Congressional candidates in 2006. Or the Office of Management and Budget, whose chief procurement officer was sentenced to prison in the Abramoff fallout. I will, however, toss in a figure that reveals the sheer depth of the overall malfeasance: no fewer than four inspectors general, the official watchdogs charged with investigating improprieties in each department, are themselves under investigation simultaneously - an all-time record.
Wrongdoing of this magnitude does not happen by accident, but it is not necessarily instigated by a Watergate-style criminal conspiracy. When corruption is this pervasive, it can also be a byproduct of a governing philosophy. That's the case here. That Bush-Rove style of governance, the common denominator of all the administration scandals, is the Frankenstein creature that stalks the G.O.P. as it faces 2008. It has become the Republican brand and will remain so, even after this president goes, until courageous Republicans disown it and eradicate it.
It's not the philosophy Mr. Bush campaigned on. Remember the candidate who billed himself as a "different kind of Republican" and a "compassionate conservative"? Karl Rove wanted to build a lasting Republican majority by emulating the tactics of the 1896 candidate, William McKinley, whose victory ushered in G.O.P. dominance that would last until the New Deal some 35 years later. The Rove plan was to add to the party's base, much as McKinley had at the dawn of the industrial era, by attracting new un-Republican-like demographic groups, including Hispanics and African-Americans. Hence, No Child Left Behind, an education program pitched particularly to urban Americans, and a 2000 nominating convention that starred break dancers, gospel singers, Colin Powell and, as an M.C., the only black Republican member of Congress, J. C. Watts.
As always, the salesmanship was brilliant. One smitten liberal columnist imagined in 1999 that Mr. Bush could redefine his party: "If compassion and inclusion are his talismans, education his centerpiece and national unity his promise, we may say a final, welcome goodbye to the wedge issues that have divided Americans by race, ethnicity and religious conviction." Or not. As Matthew Dowd, the disaffected Bush pollster, concluded this spring, the uniter he had so eagerly helped elect turned out to be "not the person" he thought, but instead a divider who wanted to appeal to the "51 percent of the people" who would ensure his hold on power.
But it isn't just the divisive Bush-Rove partisanship that led to scandal. The corruption grew out of the White House's insistence that partisanship - the maintenance of that 51 percent - dictate every governmental action no matter what the effect on the common good. And so the first M.B.A. president ignored every rule of sound management. Loyal ideologues or flunkies were put in crucial positions regardless of their ethics or competence. Government business was outsourced to campaign contributors regardless of their ethics or competence. Even orthodox Republican fiscal prudence was tossed aside so Congressional allies could be bought off with bridges to nowhere.
This was true way before many, let alone Matthew Dowd, were willing to see it. It was true before the Iraq war. In retrospect, the first unimpeachable evidence of the White House's modus operandi was reported by the journalist Ron Suskind, for Esquire, at the end of 2002. Mr. Suskind interviewed an illustrious Bush appointee, the University of Pennsylvania political scientist John DiIulio, who had run the administration's compassionate-flagship, the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Bemoaning an unprecedented "lack of a policy apparatus" in the White House, Mr. DiIulio said: "What you've got is everything - and I mean everything - being run by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."
His words have been borne out repeatedly: by the unqualified political hacks and well-connected no-bid contractors who sabotaged the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq; the politicization of science at the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency; the outsourcing of veterans' care to a crony company at Walter Reed; and the purge of independent United States attorneys at Alberto Gonzales's Justice Department. But even more pertinent, perhaps, to the Republican future is how the Mayberry Machiavellis alienated the precise groups that Mr. Bush had promised to add to his party's base.
By installing a political hack, his 2000 campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh, at the top of FEMA, the president foreordained the hiring of Brownie and the disastrous response to Katrina. At the Education Department, the signature No Child Left Behind program, Reading First, is turning out to be a cesspool of contracting conflicts of interest. It's also at that department that Bush loyalists stood passively by while the student-loan industry scandal exploded; at its center is Nelnet, the single largest corporate campaign contributor to the 2006 G.O.P. Congressional campaign committee. Back at Mr. Gonzales's operation, where revelations of politicization and cover-ups mount daily, it turns out that no black lawyers have been hired in the nearly all-white criminal section of the civil rights division since 2003.
The sole piece of compassionate conservatism that Mr. Bush has tried not to sacrifice to political expedience - nondraconian immigration reform - is also on the ropes, done in by a wave of xenophobia that he has failed to combat. Just how knee-jerk this strain has become could be seen in the MSNBC debate when Chris Matthews asked the candidates if they would consider a constitutional amendment to allow presidential runs by naturalized citizens like their party's star governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (an American since 1983), and its national chairman, Senator Mel Martinez of Florida. Seven out of 10 said no.
We've certainly come a long way from that 2000 Philadelphia convention, with its dream of forging an inclusive, long-lasting G.O.P. majority. Instead of break dancers and a black Republican congressman (there are none now), we've had YouTube classics like Mr. Rove's impersonation of a rapper at a Washington journalists' banquet and George Allen's "macaca" meltdown. Simultaneously, the once-reliable evangelical base is starting to drift as some of its leaders join the battle against global warming and others recognize that they'e been played for fools on "family values" by the G.O.P. establishment that covered up for Mark Foley.
Meanwhile, most of the pressing matters that the public cares passionately about - Iraq, health care, the environment and energy independence - belong for now to the Democrats. Though that party's first debate wasn't exactly an intellectual feast either, actual issues were engaged by presidential hopefuls representing a cross section of American demographics. You don't see Democratic candidates changing the subject to J.F.K. and F.D.R. They are free to start wrestling with the future while the men inheriting the Bush-Rove brand of Republicanism are reduced to harking back to a morning in America on which the sun set in 1989.
Is it global warming in here or is it just me? Let's here it for the firefighters of Los Angeles county Griffith Park -burned on Wednesday and Catalina is on fire right now. The firefighters are doing an amazing job. The fire season in Los Angeles has come very early in 07 - because the rainy season just did not arrive this year...We already have a named tropical storm in the Atlantic. Wild wildfires in Florida, brutal tornadoes...and and and???? Makes a body think...
On Real Time last week Bill Maher had on a woman who was the former speech writer for Dan Quayle. When she said that every president fires federal prosecutors Bill said that was a lie and we cannot continue to allow people to lie about that.
Fair enough.
So every time someone says that the Democrats don't have a plan for Iraq whoever is the talking head for the left has to say, "What about Joe Biden's plan? What about Jack Murtha's plan?" I would then go on to say, "Do you think that this administration has had any plan for Iraq beyond removing Sadaam? Where are the Republican plans past stay the course?"
What about the funding? First off the answer is that why, in the fifth year of the war, do we need supplemental and emergency spending bills to fund the war? Why is funding for the war(s) not included in the budget? Is it a surprise that we're still there? Secondly, the Democrats have funded the war, twice now. But Mr. Bush doesn't like to answer to anyone and wants his money free of any requirements for performance, similar to all of his previous job experiences.
And finally the big lie that it doesn't matter how we got in this war, we're there now and have to deal with it. True on it's face but it does matter how we got in this war. It does matter that we were lied to and deliberately mislead by Bush & Co. It matters that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney should be impeached for lying to us and allowing over 3,300 of our soldiers to be killed in a war of choice.
Those crazy Republicans. Always talking about how Americans need to take personal responsibility.
Mr. Gonzalez testified yesterday and still can't remember a thing. I am curious about Monica Goodling - did she only hire loyal Bushies for career jobs at Justice? Did Bradley Schlozman, in charge of the civil rights division at Justice, have people change their resumes to hide the fact that they were Republicans? If either allegation is true both broke the law.
But according to House Republicans there's nothing to see here. Representative Lamar Smith from Texas said:
“As we have gone forward, the list of accusations has grown, but the evidence of genuine wrongdoing has not.” Mr. Smith added, “If there are no fish in this lake, we should reel in our lines of questions, dock our empty boat and turn to more pressing issues.”
But just what did Mr. Smith say during the Clinton impeachment?
"What is on trial here is the truth and the rule of law. Our failure to bring President Clinton to account for his lying under oath and preventing the courts from administering equal justice under law, will cause a cancer to be present in our society for generations. I want those parents who ask me the questions, to be able to tell their children that even if you are president of the United States, if you lie when sworn "to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth," you will face the consequences of that action, even when you don't accept the responsibility for them."
Lying about a blow job - bad. Lying about firing Federal Prosecuters - not such a big deal. What's more important, after all?
Lou Dobbs is now all over the separation of Church and State. Why? Because churches are speaking out for illegal immigrants. Suddenly, Mr. Dobbs seems to realize that religion plays a role in politics.
Where was Mr. Dobbs in 2004 when it was revealed that the GOP asked Evangelical churches for lists of their members? I could be wrong but I don't remember any extended coverage of that.
Pehaps in 2001 Mr. Dobbs slammed Tom Delay for this?
"In July of 2001, then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay addressed a Capitol Hill gathering sponsored by the Center for Christian Statesmanship and attacked the separation of church and state. DeLay praised President George W. Bush's 'faith-based' initiative, asserting it is a good way of 'standing up and rebuking this notion of separation of church and state that has been imposed upon us over the last 40 or 50 years.'
"He added, 'You see, I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. We have the right and the freedom to exercise our religion no matter what it is anywhere we choose to do it. We have an opportunity to once again get back into the public arena.'"
No, our Mr. Dobbs is a man with a mission to fight illegal immigration. I hope he's willing to pay $20 for a head of lettuce.
Dick Cheney is making an unannounced stop in Baghdad. How can anyone say we've made progress when four years after Mission Accomplished none of our senior leaders can go to Iraq announced?
How can you say there's progress when suicide bombers are now striking in Kurdistan?
It's obvious that all Bush wants to do is hang on until his term ends. He just doesn't want to be the one to say it's over. There is no "Plan B" because there was never a Plan A.
Impeach, impeach, impeach. We need a grown up in the White House who can deal with the facts on the ground.
Listening to Tony Snow today you would think Bush just started the war last month. It is very important to remember that BUSHCHENEYRICERUMMY started this war in March 2003. They have had their chance to win. They did not. America is less safe, weaker, and poorer because Bush chose this unnecessary war, and then lost it. We must set deadlines for the Iraqi Government. Americans are dying and the Iraqi government is going on vacation. "the Iraqi parliament is planning a summer vacation, lasting through July and August." Yes, it's true. That alone is enough for us to begin to pull out ASAP.
WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO PUT IMPEACHMENT ON THE TABLE???? DOES BUSH HAVE TO GET DRUNK AND VOMIT ON THE QUEEN??!!! THE GUY IS A CRIMINAL. As is CHENEY. WE CAN'T SURVIVE ANOTHER YEAR AND 9 MONTHS OF THESE JACKASSES. THAT IS 2 HURRICANE SEASONS, NANCY....BUSH AND CHENEY HAVE GOT TO GO.
I am a Peakster. Basically what that means is I think we've used up half the oil in the world. We are at the peak of oil production on earth right about now... nothing to worry about right? Oh so wrong - understanding Peak Oil has helped me to understand pretty much everything Bushco has done for the last 6 years. The volatility in gas prices are no longer the anomaly - they are the norm. Many experts agree ( and many much smarter people than me have been sounding the alarm on peak oil) this volatility coincides with the "peak" in world wide oil production. And I agree with them, because the predictions "peaksters" make have thus far proven correct.
However, I also believe that oil companies are vacuuming up all the money they can from us - and so far we just keep buying gas - I read things like this from MSNBC: One of the largest refineries, a BPPLC plant in Indiana that processes more than 400,000 barrels of oil per day, will not be operating at full capacity for several months due to unexpected repairs.This refinery repair excuse for ballooning prices every Summer has jumped the shark. Enough already. I do not know exactly why gas prices shot up in the last 3 weeks - oil is still churning between 60 and 65 dollars a barrel. Certainly the continual avoidance of "peak oil" issues in our national media is metaphorically leaving us in the dark - and will soon literally leave many of us in the dark. The fact that we seem to be at world wide oil production peak right now is contributing to high prices. Greed factors in, too. But some media outlet with resources needs to investigate this "unexpected refinery repairs" talking point. I no longer buy it. Not saying it is a lie. I am saying it has become a very convenient excuse for every price bump. I would like to know what these "repairs" entail and why they have been so frequent in the last 6 years. One last note: I also do not want to hear anymore about 1972 or 1981 dollars versus 2007 dollars. The oil price apologists are always quick to note that in "real" dollars (FYI: there is no such thing.) gas is still cheaper than it was in...whenever.... Unless and until "real" wages are taken into account this 1981 dollar B.S.T.P. (bullshit talking point) is - in real life - a lie. If wages have stagnated for a decade, and they have, gas prices are HIGHER than ever in the REAL world. Period.
The new Newsweek Poll is interesting. Points worth making: 1. Bush is tanking like it's 1979. 28% approval. Summer gasoline prices will lower that number even more. 2.Senator Clinton is still far ahead of the other Dems in the race. Less so than Feb. but I bet that number is back on the rise now. 3. Obama has not budged in 3 months. Again proving my "this guy is Howard Dean 2.0" scenario. And regardless of what the Right wing screeches gleefully about Hillary- the GOP WANTS Obama to be the Dem standard bearer. He is more beatable than Clinton. They know it. The numbers will not reflect this ugly truth for a long while - probably never as Obama will certanily be out by February. 4. Why do I think Hillary's numbers numbers going to go back up on the DEM side soon? She lost support to Edwards not Obama - like it or not Edwards support bump had nothing to do with Edwards. The 400 dollar haircut will drag him down. The "I feel pretty video" is a nicer version of "Macaca". It will not go away. 5. As more people stopping thinking "My God! Hillary Clinton!!?!" and start allowing the history making aspects of her campaign to sink in - her support will rise. 6. I am fascinated by how badly Romney fares against all the Dems and GOP. Funny - a liberal state is willing to give a Mormon a shot - but a conservative party is not. 7. Of the Big 3 Dems Clinton runs worst against the GOPs but still wins. Her studied moderate stances that make the Left wing resentment brigade nuts will serve her well in the General election. The independents are queasy about her. She is already campaigning for them - and it will prove to be wise. 8. I still believe Al Gore and Fred Thompson are Clinton's spoilers. Thompson could defeat her outright in the General. The longer Gore waits, the harder it will be for him to upend Clinton. However, should Gore get in, he will obliterate the Obama campaign.
Candy Rice meets with Syrian foreign minister. Dick Cheney non plussed. Nancy Pelosi meets with Syrian President - sociopath V.P. goes ape shit on Rush limp baugh.
The neocons are mentally ill. We need to control them. Impeachment is the answer. Now.
2. In case you forgot since oil has "dropped" to 63 dollars a barrel, before the "driving season" begins (WTF moment: when did driving get its own season?) We still have a big problem with oil on the horizon.
Okay - Bush is a retard or a robot. What is wrong with George W Bush? I saw his "speech" tonight or whatever that snotty nonsense was. Is Bush a robot? How could we as a people let this freak be in charge for so long. Have we ever had a dumber "leader". (No, is the answer) He freakishly repeats shit he has said for 4 years even when he must know he's lying. (Does he? Does he know right from wrong? I really doubt it at this point. ) He seems to be saying "Children, Tinkerbell be dead, and Iraq is a mess but if we clap hard enough the immoral war I lost will become moral and I will be victorious, and Tinkerbell will live!!!" Bush has become the guy in the asylum who thinks he is Napoleon. The rest of us need to remain clear: BUSH CREATED THE WAR FOR NO TRUE REASON, BUSH ABANDONED THE TROOPS, BUSH MISMANAGED THE WAR, BUSH BORROWED MONEY FROM OUR GRANDCHILDREN AND THE CHINESE TO CONTINUE THIS WAR, AND BUSH LOST THIS WAR(special thanks to Rummy).
Liberals knew all long what would happen, we were ignored...oh, and also, we were right.
Why is impeachment off the table? What will it take to get it back on the table? How much damage does Bush/Cheney have to inflict on the Republic before impeachment is "on the table"? It is not until January 20, 2009 that President Clinton takes over from W and his greedy band of sociopaths. For the sake of us all, Senator Clinton should be the SECOND female President, not the first. Put impeachment back on the table.
Hearing today that the Bush administration squelched a proposal to fix the student loan problem in 2001 in favor of industry is no surprise.
Because it's another day, another scandal. You cannot possibly keep track of them all without a spreadsheet.
We have gone from the ferver of trying to get the press to cover the Downing Street Memo and Jeff Gannon to a new revelation everyday of just how corrupt Bush & Co. are.
So, on the fourth anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" it's time to impeach. The Cowboy and the Doughboy need to run out of town. We cannot survive twenty-one more months of these two.
We are on the verge of a recession; the housing numbers today were dismal. The historic highs of the stock market are not based on growth in our ecomony but rather the downfall of the dollar increasing sales in foreign markets. Companies are not re-investing in capital spending but rather stock buy backs to increase their worth. Why do you think P & G is down? Because we cannot afford Tide anymore and have to go with a lower cost alternative.
Based on Bush's track record do we really think he can save us from ruin?
Just wait for $4.00 per gallon gas. It's coming. Then watch the ecomomy tumble.
Tony Snow says Bush thinks that we will be in Iraq for decades. Troops will "continue to be needed in the country to deter threats and to help handle potential crises, as they have done in South Korea." "Crisis" is code for "an oil flow disruption to the United States " The war is about oil. Period. Anyone who insists it is about anything but securing one of the last remaining giant pools of oil for the U.S. is either a liar or in denial. What we cannot do is stabilize the country, leave, then hand over the oil to the Chinese.
