In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Bill O'Reilly Wants You To Shut Up
'And it is our duty as loyal Americans to shut up once the fighting begins, unless—unless facts prove the operation wrong, as was the case in Vietnam.'
—Feb. 27, 2003
I guess it is okay to say something now, as facts have proven the operation wrong, thanks for the permission Bill! Okay here it goes: Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL) was not well thought out, helped terrorists, and weaken America's moral, international, and political standing. Thanks Bush.
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Yahoo! News - Bush's chef falls for French TV gag -- but finds it not to his taste
PARIS (AFP) - It seems US President George W. Bush is not the only person in the White House who draws the line at the French sense of humour. His chef, Walter Scheib, also found the Gauls galling after being the target of a gag for French TV.
According to Le Parisien daily, Scheib was approached by a woman pretending to be French President Jacques Chirac's wife Bernadette with a request: Would he consider switching presidential pads to make hamburgers and pizzas for Jacques?
The answer, despite the brouhaha over "Freedom Fries", French wine boycotts and the small issue of working for a man Scheib's current boss has little time for, was "yes", the newspaper said.
But when he found out it was all a set-up for a popular Candid Camera-style programme called "On a Tout Essaye" (We've Tried Everything), Scheib grew furious.
He reportedly contacted the White House, which in turn called Chirac's office to demand that the embarrassing scene be cut from the TV show.
The newspaper said it appeared that the public network France 2 decided to bow to the request and avoid a diplomatic incident, but that the US administration had such a sour taste in its mouth it was asking for a formal apology from French officials.
I'll just let that full article speak for itself.
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A nice piece from BuzzFlash on how the pentagon and its PR arm (Faux News) have fun with statistics.
How FOXNews, Owned by Rupert Murdoch and Managed by Republican Operative Roger Ailes, Tries to Trivialize The Deaths of Our American Soldiers - A BuzzFlash News Analysis
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Heroes
First Gulf War Victims Seek Damages
NEW YORK - Blaming corporations for fueling former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program, victims of the first Gulf War filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking compensation for illnesses affecting more than 100,000 soldiers.
"Anyone with eyes and ears knew Saddam was killing people with poison gas in the 1980s," lawyer Gary B. Pitts said outside federal court. "These companies have to be held accountable or they'll do this same thing in the future with some other tyrant."
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Hey Maryland! Are you reading this?
Voting machine controversy
Columbus - The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.
O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington.
The letter went out the day before Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, also a Republican, was set to qualify Diebold as one of three firms eligible to sell upgraded electronic voting machines to Ohio counties in time for the 2004 election.
Maryland and Georgia and elsewhere, remember O'Dell is committed to bringing your state's electorial votes to Bush as well no matter which way you happen to vote.
For more Diebold / voting machines, click here.
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Bush Family Update- Thursday, August 28, 2003 -
With our constant picking on Jeb and George, I felt bad that we weren’t picking on the S&L wonder boy: Neil Bush more (poor Marvin doesn’t get mentioned again). Well according to Fu**ked Company, Neil’s little company “Ignite Learning” seems to have just missed its second payroll in a roll. This is also the 8th time this year they missed payroll. Well besides Neil’s Ignite getting a lot of business from the state of Florida (I wonder why?), I really don’t know much about it.
So I went to their website, and checked out their wares a bit and came across this:
Jefferson didn’t think of himself as an antifederalist:
If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore I protest to you I am not of the party of federalists. But I am much farther from that of the Antifederalists.
The Antifederalists weren’t happy with the constitution and tried to stop its ratification, but when it was they were instrumental in getting the bill of rights passed, so in that part Jefferson definityly might of hung out with them, but I don’t see that making him an antifederalist.
Here’s what I found on important Antifederalists :
A loose alliance of politicians and citizens in 1787-88 who supported strong state governments and opposed ratification of the Constitution. Antifederalists agreed that the proposed Constitution would give the national government too much power. They felt that the state governments would become too weak and the national government too removed from local conditions, resulting in a loss of freedom. Some Antifederalists opposed the Constitution because it did not have a bill of rights; others, remembering their experience as British colonists, opposed the federal government's having the power to tax. Leading Antifederalists included Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Monroe of Virginia, Samuel Adams and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, Robert Yates and George Clinton of New York, and Samuel Chase of Maryland. Despite their defeat, they prevailed in the matter of securing a set of amendments guaranteeing individual liberties; Congress framed the Bill of Rights in 1789, and all states had ratified them by 1791.
Anyway, I’m just saying that maybe having our kids educated by members of the Bush family isn’t a great idea. I mean it seems to me that graphic above is calling Jefferson a liar.
Here’s another graphic from their website:
Well now we know that Bush is a Federalist and not a Republican, I guess Neil can be informative.
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Future Halliburton worker:
Baghdad parents name baby boy after Bush
As the woman did the interview, little George Bush screamed in his crib.
So end the interview and let her be with the baby! We don't George Bush to grow up feeling unloved, if so he might jump from drinking and partying to fundamentalism in both politics and religion trying to fill the need for love. Its been known to happen.
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What's the Bush administration doing right now behind your back?
Is it downgrading the air you breath? (E.P.A. Relaxes Clean Air Rules for Power Plants)
or
Is it laughing all the way to the bank? (Halliburton's Deals Greater Than Thought)
Both actually. Thanks for asking.
from the second article:
Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.
Oh, by the way, Cheney is still paid a million a year from Halliburton. Just thought I'd mentioned it, as he doesn't mention it very often.
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Bush has never attended even one funeral of a single US soldier killed in Iraq
Why was Bush unable to rise to the occassion on 9/11, while Rudy Guliani (a man who's politics I'm not extremely fond of) did?
We've discussed this before, the fact that on 9/11 with America searching for a human voice that felt the pain we all did, but was speaking calmly, reasurringly, and providing us all hope for the future; we found it in Rudy. Even his nemesis former mayor Koch said of Rudy that day that on that day he was perfect, he was flawless. What was in Rudy that wasn't in Bush (who that day went from reading about goats to hiding in planes)? Obviously Guliani has lived a live that was much of his own making, which Bush has not, he hasn't had that experience. And that is something sad that some rich children experience, a lack of genuine experience. Nothing, nothing is of there own making. In the end it makes them less human. And Rudy was human that day. A strong human. Despite my cynicism, it seems humans aren't all that bad.
In the weeks that followed 9/11 I remember seeing (or reading) an interview with Rudy in which he said that one of the things the troubled him personally was that with so many police officer and fire fighter funerals occuring he wasn't able to attend each one. Something he had done since becoming Mayor. What respect and humanity that shows.
Bush is playing golf right now, I think.
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Who's the Real Howard Dean?
Well it looks like the media is SLOWLY waking up to the fact that Dean isn't who they thought he was. He's not a leftist. He never said he was.
Indeed, virtually everyone who has worked with Dean believes he would be a demon at reducing the federal deficit. While balancing the budget and keeping defense expenditures intact, that would leave precious little room for new liberal programs. What it more likely would leave are a lot of dashed expectations among the crowd that so fervently wants the doctor to be in.
No, unlike the media, the progressives and others have been paying attention. Besides Healthcare he isn't even promising any new "liberal programs." His promise and the hope people have in him is not that he will do all they want to be done to the government. Desires and wishes for that have to wait. What he will do is bring us back from a frightening cliff side that Whistle Ass and Ashcroft and Rummy are hell bent on jumping over. It'll take a lot of effort and a lot of work just to make America America again. People are willing to wait for more progressive ideals because when push comes to shove everyone is a realist. There is no hope nor future for American if Bush wins relection (well there is, of course, but it'll be really bad for an even longer stretch). The expectation is that Bush will be gone. No one's expectations will be dashed save for a media that wrote off Dean as a left wing Beserklyite without having ever looked at his record.
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The year is 2007. George W. Bush has been dramatically changing the face of America in this second term. Without the pretext of a second "election" holding him back he has reformed this nation as no other President has.- Wednesday, August 27, 2003 -
After the passing of the Constitutional Amendment declaring Christianity the official religion of the realm, the Department of Education was effectively disbanded and much of its duties (as well as HUD's) into the new Cabinet level department: The Department of Homeland Morality.
But things aren't that different. Children still go to school, school's still have science fairs. For you living in 2003 you can catch a glimpse of this future by looking at the recent past:
OBJECTIVE: Creation Education: Creation Science Fair 2001
Elementary School Level
1st Place: "My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)"
Cassidy Turnbull (grade 5) presented her uncle, Steve. She also showed photographs of monkeys and invited fairgoers to note the differences between her uncle and the monkeys. She tried to feed her uncle bananas, but he declined to eat them. Cassidy has conclusively shown that her uncle is no monkey.
Interesting to note here, her first experiment was with our President but there were too many similarities between him and monkeys so that was dropped and her uncle was chosen as a subject.
Middle School Level
2nd Place: "Women Were Designed For Homemaking"
Jonathan Goode (grade 7) applied findings from many fields of science to support his conclusion that God designed women for homemaking: physics shows that women have a lower center of gravity than men, making them more suited to carrying groceries and laundry baskets; biology shows that women were designed to carry un-born babies in their wombs and to feed born babies milk, making them the natural choice for child rearing; social sciences show that the wages for women workers are lower than for normal workers, meaning that they are unable to work as well and thus earn equal pay; and exegetics shows that God created Eve as a companion for Adam, not as a co-worker.
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PETER COYOTE'S LETTER TO SEN. BARBARA BOXER
Oh goody a celebrity has an opinion. But hey, his opinion is about something we mention here an awful lot here on TCS: Electronic Voting Machines. And I loved him in E.T.
Parts of his letter:
Dear Barbara,
I'm writing to you about a situation of the greatest urgency. Last year, I narrated a film called "Unprecedented" by American journalist Greg Palast (currently writing for the London Guardian). This film documents the illegal expunging of 54,000 black and overwhelmingly Democratic voters from the Florida rolls just before the presidential election. We interviewed the computer company that did the work, filmed their explanations of the instructions they received and their admissions that they knew that their instructions would produce massive error. That figure has now been revised to 91,000.
Jeb Bush was sued, and was supposed to have returned these voters to the rolls, and did not, which explains his last re-election. The Republicans have something far worse in mind for the next presidential election and Democrats need to be prepared.
The recent elections of Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel, the loss in Georgia of Max Cleland, wildly popular Vietnam vet, and the victory of Alabama Governor Bob Riley, along with a handful of other Republican victories, (all predicted to have been losers by straw polls which our nation has refined to a high-art) points to an ominous source: corporate- programmed, computer-controlled, modem-capable voting machines, recording and tabulating ballots.
You'd think in an open democracy that the government--- answerable to all its citizens, rather than a handful of corporate officers and stockholders---would program, repair, and control the voting machines.
You'd think the computers that handle our cherished ballots would be open and their software and programming available for public scrutiny.
You'd think there would be a paper trail of the vote, which could be followed and audited if a there was evidence of voting fraud or if exit polls disagreed with computerized vote counts. You'd be wrong.
The Washington, DC publication The Hill has confirmed that former conservative radio talk-show host and now Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel was the head of, and continues to own part interest in, the company that owns the company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska.
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Lights, Camera, Exploitation
Thanks to Atrios. Set your VCR's folks, the end of Bush takes form of a TV film. We've mentioned this before, but now we've got an air date: Showtime: September 7.
I don't have cable, anyone care to tape it for me?
n the end 9-11 turned out to be a made-for-TV movie, or rather, the basis for one—a shameless propaganda vehicle for our superstar president George W. Bush.
The upcoming Showtime feature DC 9/11: Time of Crisis is a signal advance in the instant, ongoing fictionalization of American history, complete with the president fulminating most presidentially against "tinhorn terrorists," decisively employing the word problematic in a complete sentence, selling a rationale for preemptive war, and presciently laying out American foreign policy for the next 18 months. "We start with bin Laden," Bush (played by Timothy Bottoms) tells his cabinet. "That's what the American people expect. . . . So let's build a coalition for that job. Later, we can shape different coalitions for different tasks."
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After hearing that Bush just loves that Dicatorship "joke," I thought it'd be good if the TCS Store offered a new bumper sticker:
Leadership is not Dictatorship
Bush gets confused sometimes I think.
Available for your car as a bumper sticker, or at half width for your school books or cubicle.
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Bush 'Compassion' Agenda: A Liability in '04?
President Bush is running for re-election as a "compassionate conservative" who has sought to bring a new Republican approach to poverty and other social ills. Indeed, his campaign Web site is lush with a "compassion photo gallery" showing him reading to schoolchildren, helping out at a soup kitchen and visiting an AIDS treatment center in Africa.
Oh by the way, despite my post of a couple of days ago, it looks like there is one white kid and some Asians, I don't know if I missed that or if they updated the site because those photos had started to get some puplicity. Anyway, this article has some amaizng pieces:
"After three years, he's failed the test," said one prominent early supporter, the Rev. Jim Wallis, leader of Call to Renewal, a network of churches that fights poverty.
Mr. Wallis said Mr. Bush had told him as president-elect that "I don't understand how poor people think," and appealed to him for help by calling himself "a white Republican guy who doesn't get it, but I'd like to." Now, Mr. Wallis said, "his policy has not come even close to matching his words."
Yeah how do poor people think? I let Karl Rove think for me, I hear some people think with their own head. Heh Heh, back in college days my girl friend said I thought with a different body part. Heh. I miss college. I miss beer. Damn being an adult sucks... hey is there any footage of us blowing something up? That'll make me feel better.
Sorry... channeling Bush there for a second.
Okay but here is where it gets scary: "Even the president is not omnipotent," Mr. Bolten [White House budget director and formerly Mr. Bush's chief domestic policy adviser] said of the House opposition to the AmeriCorps money. "Would that he were. He often says that life would be a lot easier if it were a dictatorship. But it's not, and he's glad it's a democracy."
I glad Mr. Bolten feels the need to let America know that its President is glad America is a democracy. No really. That's important. Thanks for the warm fussies Mr. Bolten. Glad that Bush is willing to take the hard road of democracy, despite knowing that a dictatorshp would be easier. What a man.
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Group plans Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn recall effort
The Republican party in the 2001 century: You don't vote for us the first time, we'll turn your state into a sad circus just like California.
Sad little children.
The committee is composed of Republicans and members of ultraconservative parties.
Ultraconservatives in Nevada. Yeah, you want to hand your state over to them, trust me. That'll be a good time. Your gun is loaded right?
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Clark Alleges White House Pushed CNN to Fire Him
Sounds like Bush: "What some one who knows what he is talking about has been allowed to provide commentary to a cable news channel?!? Get him out of there!"
Okay, I'm not sure if that is a real quote, I made it up... but it could be.
But this is another sign of a problem with Bush: He treasures above all else loyalty, like his Dad. But Whistle Ass sees dissent as a sign of disloyalty, even if the dissent is a voicing of a differing opinion. Bush does not hire, or soon lets resign anyone who might have these differing opinions. What you end up with is people who advise you afraid to tell the truth.
In the end you end up like Saddam in that you are honestly surprised when an obvious (to everyone else) defeat occurs. Saddam was honestly surprised he lost the war, all his advisors said he'd win. Let's make Bush surprised in November, 2004.
Sounds like Bush: "But Karl, you said I'd have four more years?!? Why are the movers here."
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Fair & Balanced by Brian Flemming
Maybe Brian Flemming is jumping on the Fair and Balanced band wagon (well of course he is), but hey, this guy wrote Bat Boy: The Musical, so this piece might be good.
We posted about Flemming before. We was running for Governor of California. He supported Bustamante who at the time was not running. Flemming's entire platform was that if elected he'd resign so Bustamante would be Governor. Well when Bustamante announced, Flemming ended his campaign. So though I've never seen Bat Boy: The Musical, I can say that as a candidate he was right on.
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Senator Robert Byrd
Unprepared for Peace in Iraq
As the situation in Iraq continues to spiral out of control, an anxious nation watches. Despite assurances to the American people that our troops would be welcomed with open arms as liberators, U.S. soldiers are increasingly being met with guns and car bombs. The bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad has clearly exposed our vacant policy in Iraq. The American people are told to be patient, that winning the peace will take time. Meanwhile, the frustration of the Iraqi people grows by the day, as does their anger. The inability of the United States even to restore basic amenities further fuels the fire.
...
What has become tragically clear is that the United States has no strong plan for turning Iraq over to the Iraqi people and is quickly losing even its ability to maintain order. The administration is stumbling through the dark, hoping by luck to find the lighted path to peace and stability.
Despite the best hopes for an Iraqi democracy, the Iraqi people and the world see only the worst fears of occupation. Instead of inspiring steps toward self-government, we witness hit-and-run murders of U.S. soldiers, terrorist attacks and sabotage. Our military action in Iraq has forged a caldron of contempt for America, a dangerous brew that may poison the efforts of peace throughout the Middle East and result in the rapid invigoration of worldwide terrorism.
The president's stubborn insistence that much of the world be shut out of real participation in the rebuilding effort in Iraq is obviously costing lives. In addition, it is costing the United States credibility in Iraq and around the globe. We promised to improve the quality of life, yet so far we have failed to deliver. As a result, increasing numbers of Iraqis see the United States only as occupier, not liberator.
Instead of giving the young people of Iraq a reason to turn away from the violence of terrorism, we have, through failures and unkept promises, fed the seeds of discontent. The inability of the United States to secure the peace in Iraq virtually guarantees al Qaeda a fertile field of new recruits.
Is this the scenario: Terror hits america, Bush gets popularity power and ability to do war with anyone, makes war, creates more terrorists, terror hits american, Bush stays in power? Gets more powerful?
At what point did such cynicism seem like legitimate questioning?
Thank you Senator Byrd, your pork bellied past (and KKK in his distant youth) is fading and your stature of a defender of America grows.
Oh and Byrd ends with a reminder of what Candidate Bush said, which makes me think of the great Bush vs. Bush debate:
A hallmark of true leadership is the ability to admit when one is wrong and to learn from errors. Candidate George W. Bush spoke about the need for humility from a great and powerful nation. He said, "Let us reject the blinders of isolationism, just as we refuse the crown of empire. Let us not dominate others with our power -- or betray them with our indifference. And let us have an American foreign policy that reflects American character. The modesty of true strength. The humility of real greatness." It is time for the Bush administration to swallow its false pride and return to that philosophy of humility before it is too late.
I know Bush will never listen to Byrd, maybe he'll at least listen to himself.
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People get excited about Hope.- Tuesday, August 26, 2003 -
This is what 5,000 Dean supporters look like:
There were 15,000 in Seattle and 10,000 in NYC last night.
People get excited about a person who speaks about getting America back on the right track.
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Scary take on electronic voting
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Agent Orange found in some Vietnamese food
Don't care? What if I said it was in American Vietnamese restaurants? Aha, now you care, but um, no, your original assumption was right, this is in Vietnam.
The point of posting this?
Just that War's have long long long lasting effects, both good and bad, and no matter how much you planned (or didn't) it has effects you could not predict (true, in Iraq a lot of people did predict that this would happen, but those weren't the planners).
Unfortunately wars do need to happen sometimes. But really really really, they should be a last resort.
The Iraq War was ill-thought out, and we're going to have to deal with it for decades to come. Thanks Whistle Ass.
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Gospel singer writes, records Eric Rudolph ballad
What is wrong with muslims, why are they celebrating terrorists? Why don't they denouce them? You don't see christians doing that!
Oh, but you do. Eric Rudolph is an American terrorist, just as the Anthrax killer is, but unlike the Anthrax guy, he's been caught, but it took years, and he was just in North Carolina, makes you wonder how close we are to catching Saddam doesn't it.
Anyway, Eric is a Christian terrorist, and as such, besides some support in his home town, he's now getting a song.
The song was debuted Aug. 15, on the courthouse steps in Murphy, N.C., the tiny western North Carolina hamlet where Rudolph five-year run from the law ended on May 30.
"Right or wrong in what he's done, his race is over, now only in his mind are the sweet fields of clover / Rudolph has run, and where has he trod, now he faces Caesar but his final judge is God" the lyrics boomed over a loudspeaker set up on the courthouse steps.
...
At least one radio station in Western North Carolina is interested in the song.
"We need to jump on that big time," said Vann Campbell, of WRKR 1320 AM in Murphy.
"His song is really neutral. It's not overly judgmental and it doesn't make (Rudolph) out to be a hero."
For Collett [song writer], the most exciting thing about the song so far was getting to meet Murphy's mayor, Bill Hughes, and Jeffrey Postell, the rookie police officer who became famous for cornering America's most wanted domestic terror suspect at a Dumpster behind a local supermarket.
"The mayor and his wife and Jeff Postell went to lunch with us," Collett said. "We played the song with a loudspeaker for the whole town, and they just really enjoyed it. We had a good time."
Hey, the Osama songs are selling well in Pakistan, are we still appalled?
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Not Up to Code? Embellishing the Flag, Then the Web Site
The Washington Post catches up to what blogs have been writing about for a while (writing on the flag), and seems to have even noticed the rather odd phtos on bush's website:
Nobody ever said compassionate conservatives are colorblind. On the Bush '04 campaign's new Web site, there is a "photo gallery" feature for each of the president's policy priorities. In the "compassion" photo gallery, 16 of the 20 shots feature Bush with non-white faces (the other four are studies of Bush). By contrast, all 16 of the photos in the "environment" gallery display what appear to be white complexions.
They also notice that Bush is breaking federal law (no big news I'm sure, but I didn't know about this particular one):
The main eyebrow-raiser is the posting on the official White House Web site of speeches by Bush and Vice President Cheney at fundraisers for their reelection campaign. The government Web site, www.whitehouse.gov, displays, for example, Bush's speech to a Bush-Cheney luncheon last week in Oregon, in which Bush pronounced the event "a record fundraiser," and the previous week's fundraiser in California, in which he said, "We're laying the foundation for next year's campaign."
Foul, judges Larry Noble, the executive director of the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. "It's inappropriate. It's a government Web site. It's the use of government property for political work, which is illegal. They have to be careful."
The Democrats' all-purpose gumshoe, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee, protested that "a government Web site paid for by taxpayer funds is being used to disseminate partisan, political information." Particularly irksome to Waxman was a Cheney speech on the White House site joking that those present "probably paid a little more to get in than I did," and noting that "every dollar we raised was important."
An analysis by Waxman's lawyers argued that Bush and Cheney, when they appear at fundraisers, are giving "not official speeches, bur rather political speeches." According to the U.S. Code (31 U.S.C 1301(a)), "appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made," which means only for official -- not political -- purposes. By posting campaign speeches on the Web site, White House staffers could be violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political actions by government employees. If the White House considers the fundraising speeches "official," the lawyers argue, they could be violating anti-bribery statutes.
White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said the administration believes no laws have been violated.
Well is Ashley says that that's the case, well then I guess we should all just move on.
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GAO Cites Corporate Shaping of Energy Plan
But it couldn't cite much else because Cheney made sure no one helped the GAO do won't Congress asked it to it.
The task force was one of Bush's highest priorities after his inauguration and was launched on his 10th day in office. None of the group's meetings was open to the public, and participants told GAO investigators they "could not recollect whether official rosters or minutes were kept," the report said.
Looks like forgetfulness is going to be as a popular excuse for Bush's folks as it was for Reagan's folks. We do know they discussed Iraq.
Among the previously disclosed meetings were private sessions for Kenneth L. Lay, then the chairman of Enron Corp., the Texas energy trading company that collapsed in the nation's largest accounting scandal. Lay was given a 30-minute meeting with Cheney and a conference with a top aide for the task force.
David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States and head of the GAO, said in an interview that the standoff over the task force documents called into question the existence of "a reasonable degree of transparency and an appropriate degree of accountability in government."
Walker said the energy investigation was the first instance since he took office in November 1998 in which the GAO was unable to do its job and produce a report according to generally accepted government auditing standards.
"The Congress and the American people had the right to know the limited amount of information we were seeking," Walker said.
The White House issued no substantive response. Jennifer Millerwise, Cheney's spokeswoman, said the White House hopes "that everyone will now focus as strongly as the administration has on the substance of meeting America's energy needs."
The Bush Administration: "We may or may not have done something bad, but we won't tell you. So now that that is settled, let's drill for some oil."
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Check out the new title. (I'm on a Whistle Ass kick)- Monday, August 25, 2003 -
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GeorgeWBush.com :: Compassion Photo Album
I always wondered what pResident Whistle Ass meant by "compassionate conservatism." Now thanks to his web site, I know.
It means hanging out with black folk. It doesn't mean concern for the poor, it means, to him, concern for African Americans. Wow, it is a good thing there aren't any poor white folks, or they'd probably wonder where their compassion is. I can just see the poor white folk sitting in front of their tornado ruined trailer home: "I need a hug too Whistle Ass."
Honestly, what is the message of this page? Rich White George is so compassionate that he will be seen with African Americans that don't have names like Powell and Rice. There is no way to see this page without being insulted. Does he think the poor of Idaho or West Virginia (yes, I'm unfairly generalizing and implying white folks) don't need compassion, or does he really think there are no poor white folks or asian, or latino, that poverty and crime are African American Issues.
Look at those photos and join me in "ugh." But doesn't Mr. Whistle Ass look proud of himself in those photos. Like the day he helped an old lady cross the street while on the way to the bar (back in his "wild" youth).
Update:
I showed a friend that page and she said "how is he going to get any black votes with that??" And that is the point the photo album and the whole compassionate conservative schtick is for his rich white friends. You see on the original project plan for the web site the name for that photo album was "white guilt section." "Look I voted for Bush, and he's smiling at black people, I therefore am a good person." Thus everyone is happy. Its not like Bush is expecting any more than 1 or 2 African American votes anyway (Rice is definitely a go, but Bush isn't too sure about Powell).
- rob 6:23 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Fox News Drops Lawsuit Against Al Franken
"It's time to return Al Franken to the obscurity that he's normally accustomed to," Fox News spokeswoman Irena Steffen said.
I thought Fox News was just slanted news done by neo-cons, now I realize it is Murdoch's big sand box and that he's a brat and someone called him on it, and now he is in a snit.
There there poor little Faux News, litte pResident Whistle Ass still likes you.
- rob 5:41 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Whistle Ass
News: Obit request spurs national outpouring
The story of an American Hero:
The story of Sally Baron, a Stoughton woman whose obituary asked that memorial funds go toward the removal of President Bush, was catching hold across the country as her family held memorial services Friday.
Dozens of people from around the United States have written to The Capital Times saying they will make donations to various organizations in her name, and the request was aired on national TV Thursday night.
Baron's story is also being hotly discussed on online bulletin boards, among both liberals and conservatives.
Baron "has become a sort of poster girl for all of us who despise George Bush," wrote Nancy Tonies of Appleton.
Baron raised six children, one of whom died of leukemia at age 21, in the timber and mining country of Iron County. Her husband was crushed and nearly killed in a 1969 mining accident and died seven years ago, shortly before Baron moved to Stoughton.
Her family described how their mother - a waitress, cook and factory assembly worker - was furious with Bush for what she saw as a stolen election and dishonest statements. Baron's favorite nickname for Bush, which she used to shout at the TV, was "whistle ass."
I've got to remember that. I will try to refer to him that way from now on. pResident was fun, but Whistle Ass is so down home American.
- rob 4:25 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Look's like last weeks list was great too.
The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 122
1. George W. Bush
It's becoming a ritual of sorts: disaster strikes the Northeast, and George W. Bush is nowhere to be found. Obviously the power outages which swept several states and parts of Canada last week were nowhere near as bad as the September 11 terrorist attacks, but millions of people could probably have used a bit of support from their 'leader' - who was unfortunately too busy raising money for his 2004 election campaign in San Diego. When George finally did manage to tear himself away and get in front of a microphone (hours after he was allegedly reported as saying that the unprecedented blackout was 'just a domestic problem' that 'didn't require White House input') he told the assembled reporters, 'Of course, we'll have time to look at it and determine whether or not our grid needs to be modernized. I happen to think it does, and have said so all along.' Oh really? Then why, back in 2001, did the Bush White House lobby congressional Republicans to vote down three times a Democratic proposal which would have provided $350 million to improve the nation's power grid - a proposal which, at the time, Tom DeLay called 'pure demagoguery?' Perhaps it's because Our Great Leader is so busy groping people like Ken Lay for cash that he doesn't have much time to care about the real needs of the American people."
- rob 4:16 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Four 9/11 Moms Battle Bush
Bush's biggest weakness is the international/domestic horror of 9/11. The more that comes out, the worse he looks.
After the formal meeting, senior agents in the room faced a grilling by Kristen Breitweiser, a 9/11 widow whose cohorts are three other widowed moms from New Jersey.
"I don’t understand, with all the warnings about the possibilities of Al Qaeda using planes as weapons, and the Phoenix Memo from one of your own agents warning that Osama bin Laden was sending operatives to this country for flight-school training, why didn’t you check out flight schools before Sept. 11?"
"Do you know how many flight schools there are in the U.S.? Thousands," a senior agent protested. "We couldn’t have investigated them all and found these few guys."
"Wait, you just told me there were too many flight schools and that prohibited you from investigating them before 9/11," Kristen persisted. "How is it that a few hours after the attacks, the nation is brought to its knees, and miraculously F.B.I. agents showed up at Embry-Riddle flight school in Florida where some of the terrorists trained?"
"We got lucky," was the reply.
Kristen then asked the agent how the F.B.I. had known exactly which A.T.M. in Portland, Me., would yield a videotape of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the attacks. The agent got some facts confused, then changed his story. When Kristen wouldn’t be pacified by evasive answers, the senior agent parried, "What are you getting at?"
"I think you had open investigations before Sept. 11 on some of the people responsible for the terrorist attacks," she said.
"We did not," the agent said unequivocally.
A month later, on the morning of July 24, before the scathing Congressional report on intelligence failures was released, Kristen and the three other moms from New Jersey with whom she’d been in league sat impassively at a briefing by staff director Eleanor Hill: In fact, they learned, the F.B.I. had open investigations on 14 individuals who had contact with the hijackers while they were in the United States.
It just doesn't look good. I don't think it was Bush, but I am starting to think someone in the administration was putting the pieces together and didn't mind if it happened. Who would allow such horror to happen because he held the believe that there would be a larger "good" outcome? (a stronger Bush administration, war in the middle east, anger at muslims, etc.) A religious nut. Like Ashcroft, or one of his people.
Okay, maybe catching up with the news is putting me in a real bad mood.
- rob 3:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 123
On a roll this week:
2. George W. Bush
Thank goodness Our Great Leader is in charge of our national security and bringing world peace. He's doing such a great job so far. You only have to look at last week's bombing of the UN building in Iraq (which killed 23 people including the UN's top envoy in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello) to see what kind of progress we're making. With surprising speed, the Pentagon rushed out the explanation that al Qaeda were responsible for the bombing (see - we told you that al Qaeda was in Iraq!!) - although recent news reports suggest that in fact the bombing could have been an inside job pulled off by members of Saddam's former security service. Meanwhile, on the same day as the UN blast in Iraq a suicide bomber killed 18 people in Israel, whisking Bush's largely symbolic road map out the window and blowing it onto the shoulder. And where was Bush while all this was going on? Well, during the recent blackout of the northeast Our Great Leader had to tear himself away from a fundraiser to address the nation. This week he was unfortunately in the middle of a round of golf, which he had to abandon to take a phone call from Kofi Annan. Incidentally, Mr. Annan immediately cut short his vacation to deal with the crisis. But nothing was going to come between George W. Bush and his vacation, which resumed shortly after the phone call. Ah, George must have thought after hanging up and sinking into his easy chair, mission accomplished.
3. Bill Janklow
Bill Janklow is the only congressman from (and former governor of) South Dakota, and is what we like to think of as a "typical Republican" - a conservative who tells people to do what he says, not what he does. For example, speaking in favor of mandatory drug sentencing in his 1999 State of the State address, he offered this analogy: "Bill Janklow speeds when he drives - shouldn't but he does. When he gets the ticket, he pays for it, but if someone told me I was going to jail for two days for speeding, my driving habits would change." Perhaps somebody should have told Bill Janklow that he was going to jail for two days instead of simply fining him for 12 speeding tickets in 11 counties between 1990 and 1994. Because if his driving habits had changed, he might not have been doing 75mph in a 55mph zone before he blew through a stop sign, hitting and killing a motorcyclist last week. Sadly it's a bit late now. But perhaps the possibility of a second-degree manslaughter charge will change Bill's driving habits. After all, it's hard to speed when you're behind bars.
4. Fox News
"There are hard cases and there are easy cases," said the judge in the Fox News Fair and Balanced case against Al Franken. "This is an easy case. This case is wholly without merit, both factually and legally." This appears to be the end for one of the most ridiculous lawsuits in recent memory. (Why in the heck would a news organization be trying to chip away at the first amendment? You decide.) Interestingly, we hear that Fox News have recently been running ads on their network for Hannity & Colmes, featuring Dennis Miller. The ads reportedly contain the line, "It's Miller Time." So what's going on here? Was Fox News's lawsuit really a principled defense of the trademark holder's sacred rights? Or are they just a hypocritical right-wing propaganda outlet that's full of shit? We report, you... oh, never mind.
- rob 3:37 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The unPatriotic Act
If the deficit is Bush's Number 1 domestic weakness (as I say below), than the patriot act is a strong number two. No one likes it.
Conservative backlash
A grass-roots drive to resist the attorney general's broad expansion of police powers in the name of fighting terrorism has picked up so much support in the American heartland it threatens not only repeal of the legislation but political damage to President Bush as well.
...
So the attorney general is out stumping in the presidential battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, as well as the first caucus state of Iowa, trying to sell the Patriot Act as vital to the war on terrorism while a Justice Department Web site seeks to dispel "myths" put out by critics.
This spin control performance is offensive both in its message and its tactics. Mr. Ashcroft, who bullied Congress into granting law enforcement agencies sweeping new powers while the nation was still traumatized by the Sept. 11 attacks, is once again using fear to get his way.
Most outrageously, he asserts that the nation is "safer" now because of the broader police powers and that "if we knew then what we know now, we would have passed the Patriot Act six months before Sept. 11."
Well, perhaps -- if the FBI, so hidebound, so risk-averse and so technologically outmoded that it ignored many clues within its grasp, would somehow have been transformed. But the new police powers in the Patriot Act don't fix any of that.
And the NYTimes should have an essay with this title in October, 2001, but better late then never: An Unpatriotic Act
One member of Congress, Representative John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat, has charged that Mr. Ashcroft's lobbying campaign, in which United States attorneys have been asked to participate, may violate the law prohibiting members of the executive branch from engaging in grass-roots lobbying for or against Congressional legislation. Legal or not, the campaign seeks to shore up a deeply flawed piece of legislation. The Patriot Act is the Bush administration's attempt to make the country safe on the cheap. Rather than do the hard work of coming up with effective port security and air cargo checks, and other programs targeted at actual threats, the administration has taken aim at civil liberties.
The administration is clearly worried, as opposition to the excesses of the Patriot Act grows across the country and the political spectrum. Instead of spin-doctoring the problem, Mr. Ashcroft should work with the law's critics to develop a law that respects Americans' fundamental rights.
- rob 1:46 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Missing Iraqi General in Kuwait after CIA aided Denmark escape.
On March 22 The BT newspaper first reported that the CIA may have been behind a move to spirit Khazraji, believed to be the highest ranking officer to have defected from Iraq, to Saudi Arabia.
The ex-CIA official who wrote the report, Vincent Cannistraro, has declined to comment on the document.
Khazraji, who has been charged with war crimes for alleged chemical weapon attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s, went missing from his house arrest in Denmark on March 15.
Yeah, let's put him in charge. We liked Iraq in the eighties. We could listen to Flock of Seagulls, gass some Kurds, and get all nostalgic.
- rob 1:25 PM - [PermaLink] -
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An Unending Succession
Bush has no real love of democracy, so this doesn't surprise me:
AFEW WEEKS AGO, when the ailing president of Azerbaijan arranged to have power transferred to his son, a U.S. State Department spokesman was asked for comment. You might think that a pro-democracy administration would have some choice words for an authoritarian regime preparing to become the first hereditary fiefdom among post-Soviet republics. But the spokesman proclaimed the handoff "fully consistent with the Azerbaijani constitution" and had nothing more to say.
Of course the article goes on, and one gets a more sinking feeling in their stomach as you realize, "Bush really doesn't care about freedom."
Maybe anyone working for President Bush feels awkward discussing matters of father-son succession. Or maybe, as opposition politicians in the region are wont to suspect, the oil-industry veterans in the Bush administration don't want to offend their old pals at the helm of oil-rich Azerbaijan, who have been so welcoming of Western investment.
- rob 1:23 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Tell Bush to recall himself
It won't do anything, but it might just feel better to sign the petition. Here's their introduction:
Republicans in California have initiated a recall against the governor, giving three reasons for their effort:
1. The state's budget has gone from a sizeable surplus to a substantial deficit in a few short years.
2. Gov. Davis did not tell the truth to voters about the state's budget and economic situation.
3. The state's economy remains in dismal shape, and the chief executive of the state is ultimately responsible for it's welfare.
If we apply these standards to a governor, then they must also be applicable to a president. The next recall effort is long overdue: a Bush recall campaign.
The deficit is Bush's largest domestic weak spot (not the present ongoing recession... that'll be bouncing back by next year, this deficit is with us for a decadce at least). Finally people are starting to notice: Wall Street Seeks Clearer Deficit Signal
The Congressional Budget Office will release new budget forecasts Tuesday that will put next year's red ink near $500 billion.
But don't worry:
Bush: "we've got a plan to reduce the deficit in half in five years," alluding to administration budget projections that the deficit will shrink by half without any policy changes.
Bush's pResidency has been an expansion of the central power of the government, an increase in police powers under the Patriot act, and a government the conduct's its business in secrecy, so of course he'd channel the soviet unions love of 5 year projections without any thought behind them.
- rob 1:17 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Did Anything happen last week?
- rob 1:11 PM - [PermaLink] -
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