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Friday, September 21, 2007
Olbermann on Bush
Here's a surprise -- Olbermann doesn't like Bush so very much. Video and transcript at Crooks and Liars:
But a shot at General Petraeus — about whom you conveniently ignore it is you who reduced him from four-star hero to a political hack — that merits this pissy juvenile blast at the Democrats on national television?Your hypocrisy is so vast, sir, that if we could somehow use it to fill the ranks in Iraq you could realize your dream — and keep us fighting there until the year 3000.
The line between the military and the civilian government is not to be crossed.
Labels: Bush, Olbermann, Petraeus
6 comments
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Something to mention in his prime time speech
President Bush addresses a skeptical nation tonight. I don't know if he was planning to tout the draft oil revenue agreement, but I assume that's off the table now. Not just because the agreement fell apart in the last 24 hours, but because one of Bush's own guys might have helped bring it down:
The Shia and Sunni leaders believe the Kurds are opting for a sort of oil secession that puts them outside the whole concept of a law to share the country's oil resources. And the Hunt [Oil] deal is apparently the straw that broke the camel's back, shall we say. But remember, [Ray L.] Hunt ... is also a pal of the president's. Indeed, President Bush has twice appointed Hunt to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. So while the president is striving to get the Iraqis to meet these benchmarks one of his own pals -- and more importantly, political appointees -- is busy helping to tear the whole thing apart.
Labels: Bush, Iraq, oil revenues, Ray Hunt
1 comments
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Sign the President's e-Card
President Bush is turning 61. You can sign an eCard for him here. Looks like you have to make a donation to sign the card, so that's me out.
0 comments
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
If he had Libby Mae on staff this sort of thing wouldn't happen
Salon has an article about John Prendergast, an Africa expert who was on the National Security Council under Bill Clinton until W took over and is now at the International Crisis Group think tank. He is now a very high profile activist trying to rally support to end the crisis in Darfur and is described as "the man who explains Africa to Americans".
0 commentsPrendergast winces when people remind him of it and says he actually doesn't want to be in the limelight. But somehow it happens again and again. Following his forced departure from the U.S. National Security Council, he attended a White House ceremony. Afterward, President Bush came to him, and they spoke at length. It was an interesting conversation, Prendergast says, though he was a bit surprised that the president wanted to talk to him. It wasn't until later that he found out why: Bush had mistaken him for Bono, the rock star.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Partial credit
Lest it be said we never have any thing positive to say about Republicans in general or Bush in particular I would like to point out that this week he has proposed doubling the amount the US gives to fight AIDS globally and has also released a plan for dealing with climate change. I think he is being genuine in his efforts to fight AIDS and will give him full credit for doing so, tho I'm sorry so much of the money is devoted to promoting abstinence alone as a method of prevention as many conservatives do. (What is it with those people and sex?) On climate change I think it is mostly lip service prior to an upcoming conference in Europe. I doubt he will pursue any serious efforts on the global warming front but I would be happy to be proved wrong.
Labels: AIDS, Bush, Global Warming
2 comments
Thursday, May 31, 2007
No report as to whether he also flung poo
This doesn't sound very reassuring:
Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."
Well he has sure set up Iraq for something, all right.
0 comments
Saturday, May 12, 2007
A little lower and to the right
According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president in our pollWe are approaching Crazification territory here:
John: Hey, Bush is now at 37% approval. I feel much less like Kevin McCarthy screaming in traffic. But I wonder what his base is --
Tyrone: 27%.
John: ... you said that immediately, and with some authority.
Tyrone: Obama vs. Alan Keyes. Keyes was from out of state, so you can eliminate any established political base; both candidates were black, so you can factor out racism; and Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgment. Hell, even like 5% of Democrats voted for him. That's crazy behaviour. I think you have to assume a 27% Crazification Factor in any population.
John: Objectively crazy or crazy vis-a-vis my own inertial reference frame for rational behaviour? I mean, are you creating the Theory of Special Crazification or General Crazification?
Tyrone: Hadn't thought about it. Let's split the difference. Half just have worldviews which lead them to disagree with what you consider rationality even though they arrive at their positions through rational means, and the other half are the core of the Crazification -- either genuinely crazy; or so woefully misinformed about how the world works, the bases for their decision making is so flawed they may as well be crazy.
John: You realize this leads to there being over 30 million crazy people in the US?
Tyrone: Does that seem wrong?
John: ... a bit low, actually.
Tyrone: (shrugs) Probably right, then. Speaking of Obama, I need to get t-shirts printed up to sell.
John: I can do that on the web. What do they say?
Tyrone: Don't You Dare Kill Obama
John: How about Don't You Dare Kill Obama (... and we know you're thinking about it)
Tyrone: Niiiiice.
John: Or You Kill Obama and WE WILL BURN SHIT DOWN
Tyrone: Even better. Nobody wants their shit burned down.
John: Glad to help.
Tyrone: I'm having you taken off the list for when the revolution comes.
John: ... there's really a list --
Tyrone: Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
Labels: Bush, crazification, polls
0 comments
Thursday, May 03, 2007
He didn't really, did he?
I've been a bit too busy for stuff like, you know, research, reading, blogging. But I was listening to the radio in the car yesterday and I swear that Bush actually said, "I'm the commander guy." Someone please tell me I'm letting my "Bush is an idiot" bias get the better of me. 0 comments
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Who's in charge of rhetoric in this party, anyway?
Hardliners in the Bush administration (hey, talking about W sounds more like talking about the old Soviet Union everyday!) have an effective sound bite when they say Democrats are "voting for defeat" in Iraq. It's a lie, of course, but that doesn't mean it doesn't help them. Democrats are always pretty lame in the soundbite department and I wish they would come up with a good counter for for this latest propaganda. Here's my suggestion: Every time the Republicans trot out this lie Democrats should counter with the claim that Bush doesn't want to win the war, he just wants to delay withdrawal until he's out of office. Every additional soldier who dies does so only so Bush can save face. OK, it's two lines long which is one more than a real soundbite is supposed to have but I still think it can work if we repeat it often enough. It even has the benefit of most likely being true. Joe Biden made this point months ago but no one really followed up on it. But the secret to this sort of thing is repetition. Have enough different people in enough different forums saying this and we can really leverage the public's already healthy distrust of W to increase the pressure to end the war, or at least our involvement in it.
1 comments
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Ho hum, another day in Bushworld
The headline says it all:
OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of IndustryThis should no longer come as a surprise to anyone. Not even the fools back in 2000 who claimed there "wasn't a dimes worth of difference between the two major parties."
Labels: Bush, regulation
0 comments
Good god what did our nation do to deserve this jerk?
I know that simply referring to the nation's leader as a petulant asshole is in no way an insightful commentary and does nothing to advance any cause I might favor but is there any other way to react to the man these days?
Speaking somberly on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving on a trip to New York, Bush said he was willing to meet with Democratic leaders "as many times as it takes to resolve our differences," but he signaled no intention to compromise with them on the funding bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So "resolve our differences" means do just what the president wants. Is there any reason to talk to, or even listen to, this man any more? And I don't mean that rhetorically, either. Would anything be made worse if Democrats announced that the president was no longer someone capable of engaging in honest, or even competent, dialog and simply refused to meet with him? Best of all would be having the mainstream press decide there was no longer any reason to cover someone so vacuous and dishonest. Best case scenario has him hitting the bottle again out of frustration that no one even pretends he matters any more. Double plus good best case has him suffering a breakdown and put on 24 hour suicide watch for his remaining days in office. After that let Laura look after him and I don't give a shit what happens to him.
4 comments
Monday, April 16, 2007
Virginia Tech killings
A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia. "The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said
Well played George, always make sure you keep your political base appeased as quickly as possible. Asshole.
0 comments
Monday, April 02, 2007
George Bush has his head stuck ...
Actually, The Onion fills in that blank differently than I anticipated. Good on them.
Labels: Bush
0 comments
Monday, March 26, 2007
Maybe the Ivies opted for American Idol contestants instead
It looks like Bush is doing three commencement addresses this year; Kendall Campus of Miami Dade College in Miami, Fla., St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa. and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Is it just me or does it seem like a fairly meager line-up for the leader of the free world? Kind of like Spinal Tap skipping Boston to concentrate on more college towns. (Have any of his aides told him Rolling Rock moved its brewing operation out of Latrobe recently?)
0 comments
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Resignations: Bush administration in chaos
Good god, but it's hard to tell the players without a program these days. There are so many serious, substantive scandals swirling around the administration, that the resignations are piling up. The army surgeon general has resigned because of ill-treatment of injured American soldiers:
[Lieutenant-General Kevin Kiley] is the third victim of a row that has been rumbling since a detailed exposure in the Washington Post last month of the shoddy conditions wounded soldiers were living in at the military's supposed showcase hospital, the Walter Reed, in Washington.
And Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzalez's number 2 at Justice, has now resigned in the wake of the lying to Congress about U.S. attorneys scandal:
Perhaps as telling, according to the new Times article, Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales's Chief of Staff and the guy who was actually in charge of drawing up the list [of attorneys to fire]... well, he resigned today.
The Washington Post reported:
By avoiding Senate confirmation, Sampson added, "we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House."
How's that "less political costs to the White House" plan working out for you now, Mr. Sampson?
0 comments
Saturday, March 10, 2007
What Bush has in common with Iran
Here's one thing Bush has in common with Ahmadinejad: they both hate unions:
Police in Iran arrested trade unionists in an unsuccessful attempt to stop thousands of teachers protesting against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's economic policies outside Iran's parliament, the Guardian has learned.
Officers swooped on the homes of six union leaders on Wednesday. The detention of key figures in teachers' organisations failed to stop the following day's rally, which drew an estimated 7,000 demonstrators. The leaders were later released after interrogation. Their arrests appeared to betray official anxiety that the protest - for teachers' pay to be brought into line with other state workers - could provoke discontent against Mr Ahmadinejad's government, which is being blamed for rising inflation and high unemployment.
I think any signs of economic discontent in Iran weigh against the necessity for war.
0 comments
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Quote of the day
From Shakespeare by way of Dick Cavett
Would that it were. 0 commentsFor weeks the word “cause” has rolled around in my head, attached to an elusive quote. I found it. It’s from Shakespeare’s “Henry V” (as distinct, I suppose, from Paris Hilton’s “Henry V”) and it’s the part where the king, in disguise and unrecognized, sits at a fire listening to some of his men discuss the next day’s battle and what it means to be fighting in a good cause. One says, “But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all, ‘We died at such a place,’ … their wives left poor behind … their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle. … Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it.”
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Who served up all that turkey then?
George W. Bush, answering a question from ABC's Martha Raddatz about whether there's a civil war in Iraq: "It's hard for me, living in this beautiful White House, to give you a firsthand assessment. I haven't been there. You have. I haven't."He should check his old luggage tags. He's been there at least twice.
Labels: Bush, idiot, Iraq, travel
0 comments
Friday, February 09, 2007
The Bush legacy: Russia increasing its nuclear arsenal
Four years after agreeing to steep reductions in its nuclear arsenal, Russia is now announcing an expansion in its ballistic missile program:
Russia's hawkish defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, revealed an ambitious plan for a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and possibly a fleet of aircraft carriers. Moscow also intended to revamp its early warning radar system. This major overhaul of Russia's military infrastructure would cost $189bn (£97bn) over eight years, he said, adding that he wanted to exceed the Soviet army in "combat readiness".
...In his speech to Russia's parliament, Mr Ivanov announced that the military would get 17 ballistic missiles this year, compared with an average of four in recent years. The plan envisages the deployment of 34 new silo-based Topol-M missiles and control units, as well as another 50 such missiles mounted on mobile launchers by 2015, he said. Russia has already deployed more than 40 silo-based Topol-Ms.
...The modernisation of the armed forces has been made possible by Russia's spectacular economic resurgence based on oil and gas revenues. After the Soviet Union's demise, Russia's vast military economy collapsed. The squeeze continued in the 1990s, but since 2000 spending has gone up, with this year's budget of $31bn almost four times the amount spent in 2001.
Russian defence analysts point out, however, that defence spending is still well below that of the mid-1980s Soviet Union, and only a 20th of the US's current military budget.
Russian defense spending is up greatly over the last 5 years. This doesn't mean we need to spend more. To the contrary, we ought to spend less. At $6 billion a week for the occupation of Iraq, we spend more on our military in Iraq in a long month than Russia spends on its entire military for the year.
Even more, we are provoking increased Russian military spending and (in part) providing the capital for the expansion. We provoke Russian spending primarily by installing anti-ballistic missile defenses on Russia's front lawn. We provide the capital with our enormous appetite for oil and gas. We don't buy much directly from Russia, but American consumption drives world prices. High energy prices allow Russia to build more nuclear weapons to point at American cities.
Labels: Bush, nuclear weapons, Russia
0 comments
Friday, January 26, 2007
He's not MY commander in chief
This is a great editorial.
I had never thought of it before but we have strayed way too far from the Constitution in our use of the term "Commander in Chief". In short, the President is NOT our commander in chief unless we are in the military. Members of the military are accountable to their commander but the president is accountable to the citizens of the nation. To allow the indiscriminate description of the president as the commander in chief is to cede far too much authority to any holder of the office, let alone the chimp there now.When Abraham Lincoln took actions based on military considerations, he gave himself the proper title, “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” That title is rarely — more like never — heard today. It is just “commander in chief,” or even “commander in chief of the United States.” This reflects the increasing militarization of our politics. The citizenry at large is now thought of as under military discipline.
Labels: Bush, chimp, commander in chief, Constitution, military
0 comments
