Old Fashioned Patriot

70 articles have the phrase "Bush lied". Up from 0 a month ago.

Four American soldiers died over the weekend. Four Americans, who for various reasons, risked their lives for us.

My Dad was a veteran of WWII. Many of his friends died in the war. He named one of my brothers after his best friend who died while flying a fighter plane. My Dad, unlike me, was a Republican. If he were alive today, I think he would be spitting bullets over what Bush has done to veterans and to the country that my Dad risked his life for.

Unlike Bush, my Dad had to show up for duty. Unlike Bush, my Dad didn't get excused early from duty to go to college and further his career. He gave it his all and it wasn't so Bush's grandfather could be buddies with Hitler or for Shrubya to massacre Arabs for their oil. My Dad risked his life for the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Principles that Bush and Cheney are gleefully tearing up for personal gain.

Shame on you, George Bush. Shame on you, Dick Cheney. Do you two have no decency? Where has your respect for the rule of law gone?

Of course, I won't get credit for it and I recognize that Dr. K is much more widely read and infinitely more believable but

Robin Hood in reverse vs. Reverse Robin Hood (where I unsuccessfuly tried to launch a Google bomb associating Greenspan's pandering to Bush's tax cuts for their rich buddies as class warfare).

I realize I am a D List blogger at best but if you want to know what liberals will be thinking six months from now, watch this space. I called Bush a war criminal last October when most liberals were only willing to call Bush a poor planner or short sighted.

Pax Nortona tells us about The Personality Forge. You can personalize a chat bot. Instead of outsourcing, I have often thought companies could replace highly compensated Vice Presidents with a bot. Turnabout is fair play; after all, VPs want to get rid of American programmers.

The 18½ Minute Gap brings my attention to sad news. Samuel Dash and Archibald Cox passed away this week.Samuel Dash methodically and systematically uncovered Richard Nixon's crimes. Archibald Cox did what was right rather than continue to serve a corrupt White House. They served America well during the previous crisis caused by a megalomaniac in the White House. They are both heroic figures who did what was right. They weighed in on the side of democracy and rule by law over taking the easy road and getting their piece of the action. Who will today's Archibald Cox and Samuel Dash be?

Sometimes the players in a crisis change and sometimes they don't: Robert Novak broke a journalistic commandment on Capital Gang by revealing that Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox leaked information about his investigations to Novak and other reporters in background briefings 25 years ago. (Scroll to the bottom.)

Shorter Friedman: Invading Iraq is like a giant game of pinball and Bush is the Pinball Wizard.

Let me start by saying I am not picking on Catholics. I believe all religions are superstitions or, as Joseph Campbell more politely put it, mythology is other peoples' religions. The strange side effect about this is I often know more about a person's religion than they do. This is probably because they are trained to accept things on faith.

Recently, a few Bishops have announced they would refuse to give Kerry communion. Before building glass cathedrals, these Bishops should have consulted their canonical law before declaring jihad on Kerry. Refusing church attendees communion and other sacraments was known as minor excommunication. The amusing thing is, Catholic priests no longer have this option in their arsenal against evildoers.

As www.newadvent.org cites in their online version of the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia:

...little attention was paid to minor excommunication, and eventually it ceased to exist after the publication of the Constitution "Apostolicæ Sedis". The latter declared that all excommunications latæ sententiæ that it did not mention were abolished, and as it was silent concerning minor excommunication (by its nature an excommunication latæ sententiæ of a special kind), canonists concluded that minor excommunication no longer existed. This conclusion was formally ratified by the Holy Office (6 Jan., 1884, ad 4).

Why do certain Catholic Bishops hate the Holy Office?

It gets worse. As you might guess, there is major excommunication. The Catholic Church, like any club, can and should be allowed to expel members and they have a process to do it. Excommunication is universally feared by Catholics. As it turns out, excommunication isn't the worst punishment the Catholic church can use to prevent certain people from darkening their doors. Anathema is a very public form of excommunication. I guess this was for people who wouldn't take the hint to not show up at church on Sunday.

Let me recap:
Minor Excommunication - You can show up at church but can't take communion*. The Catholic church hasn't recognized Minor Excommunication for over a century. Recently, a few politically motivated, renegade bishops are trying to reinstate it to help Bush's political fortunes. Bush's politcal fortunes are fading due to the Iraq war. A war the Pope warned Bush against starting.

Excommunication - You can't show up at church.

Anathema - You can't show up at church and your priest alerts the community by talking to the news media and to Fox "News".

So, Kerry's detractors, in their quest to join Bush's crusade, are either engaging in a practice no longer permitted by their church or have gone beyond excommunicating Kerry and have decreed him anathema.

Christianity is a religion based on forgiveness. I think these renegade Catholic bishops should be forgiven their transgressions after they say five "Hail, Mary"s and two "Hail Kerry"s.

*Communion: a quaint Christian ritual in which the participants engage in symbolic cannibalism - eating Christ's body and drinking his blood.

P.S. to Catholic Priests, Bishops and Cardinals: Keep your hands off our children.

The "end of occupation" isn't just a fiction; it is a legal fiction. Oil companies' lawyers won't let their companies bid on owning Iraqi's oil fields until it is declared a sovereign state. This is because occupying powes can't sell assets like oil fields. Oil companies seem to be more worried about international law than Bush. This is why the "new" constitution was a big deal, the old one forbade selling ownership of the fields.

The new Iraqi Constitution allows it From Article 25:

(E) Managing the natural resources of Iraq, which belongs to all the people of all the regions and governorates of Iraq, in consultation with the governments of the regions and the administrations of the governorates, and distributing the revenues resulting from their sale ...

(Emphasis added.)

Bartcop points out this AP Article that quotes a poll saying voters prefer Bush over Kerry for flipping burgers and drinking beer at a BBQ. The Quinnipiac Polling Institute thinks it means people are more comfortable with Bush but I think they are misinterpreting the data. I think it shows most people think the only job Bush is qualified for is one at McDonald's and I am not talking about CEO. When looking for Presidential material, let's not consider truthfulness or an ability to balance a budget but look for someone we can get drunk with and maybe get Mad Cow disease.

AARP announced that prescription drug prices are soaring. Prices are rising for seniors faster than inflation. The AARP "leadership" is apparently surprised that when they went to bed with dogs they woke up with fleas.

Saddam Hussein has Weapons of Mass Destruction ready to strike us in 45 minutes.
Saddam Hussein was planning on reconstituting his Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs
Saddam Hussein was engaging in Weapons of Mass Destruction Program Related activities
Saddam Hussein is gone and we will have democracy in Iraq
Saddam Hussein is gone and Iraqis are free of torture and rape rooms
Saddam Hussein is gone and Iraqis are free of rape rooms.
Saddam Hussein is gone and Ahmed Chalabi is ready to lead a free Iraq.

Saddam Hussein is gone era generals are being put in charge of security and we will construct a new prison in Iraq.

(*Soon to be in Bush's autobiography, written by Karen Hughes, in a chapter titled "How I spent hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives without really trying.")

Dr. No. gives Bush the "shock and awe" Shockwave treatment. If you don't like to read newspapers, (are you listening, Whistle Ass?) then it is an easy way to absorb some of the many lies Pretzel Choker Bush has foisted upon America and the world.

Notes from Bush's Cabinet meeting that are apparently still being faxed to Chalabi:

Rove: The Abu Ghraib prison is a terrible photo op. We can't use it and Kerry might use it against us.

Powell: Other countries keep wanting to send observers to Abu Ghraib now that they know about it.

Rumsfeld : People are starting to wonder if Nick Berg was murdered inside Abu Ghraib. We need to make sure they can't find any DNA evidence.

Cheney: More contracts, my precious company needs more no bid, cost plus, no performance guarantee contracts. About 5 billion should do it for this week.

Bush: I have an idea. Let's destroy the old prison and build a new one!

Rice: Mission Accomplished!

Sung to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies.

This is from an astology site in early 2001. It is about Dick Cheney:

Mercury is found in Aquarius not only in Cheney's chart but also in those of Joseph Lieberman and other leaders as well; it indicates a quick and inventive mind (albeit somewhat unemotional) and is the mark of a forward-thinker whose thoughts can verge on extremism.

[snip]

He tends to disagree just for the sake of disagreeing, to set himself apart from others' modes of thought. The problem here, of course, is this method of decision-making renders many of his decisions impractical, as they have no basis in logic or true moral beliefs.

[snip]

As Jupiter also rules Luck, Cheney is most likely lucky with money and other tangible assets and is driven to multiply his resources.

The astrologer was doing pretty well until the next sentence:

This could mean that, as Vice President, Cheney will be instrumental in building and conserving revenue for the United States.

Oops.

Many independent voters found Cheney to be a reassuring presence on Bush's ticket in 2000. Officials said he would be just as important this November because they think Cheney will help Bush make foreign policy experience a selling point.
Washington Post - Jan 26, 2004

Texas Gov. George W. Bush's expected choice, former Defense secretary Dick Cheney, brings to the ticket national stature and the foreign-policy experience Bush lacks.
USA Today - Jul 25, 2000

New Vice President Dick Cheney brought a wealth of foreign policy experience to the GOP ticket in the fall of 2000.
astrozine.astrology.com

What about the Bush/Cheney ticket? Bush, as a sitting wartime president, no longer needs Cheney to provide foreign policy experience and gravitas for a young inexperienced governor.
KHQA - Mar 8, 2004

[Dick Cheney] is a conservative, though like Mr Bush, a moderate one.

His gravitas and foreign affairs experience lay behind his selection, an area which had been perceived as a possible weakness in the Bush campaign.
BBC - Jun 29, 2001


NPR's Peter Kenyon profiles possible Republican vice-presidential nominee Dick Cheney. While critics point to his oil-company connections and previous health problems, Republicans say that Cheney is an established party man with foreign policy experience in Congress and in the executive branch.
Morning Edition - Jul 25, 2000

Bush and Cheney played like fools by Ahmed Chalabi.

The Oxford English Dictionary hasn't added Chalabi yet and it is just as well. It appears that George "Sleazy Leader" Bush was outsmarted by an escaped con.

So the entry for Chalabi as a noun might have to change to

n. An old school con who cons neocons.

Delaying the acceptance speech to get the extra five weeks of spending primary money will backfire.

They will make flip-flop jokes about Kerry wanting the nomination and then not wanting the nomination.
It will be seized on as morally ambiguous by the media and portrayed as worse than anything War Criminal Bush has done.

But the worst, possible outcome is after Kerry wins in a landslide, Bush will file another frivolous lawsuit asking that Kerry's candidacy be declared null and void because of campaign irregularities. It will go to the Supreme Court and Fat Tony will once again install Bush as President over the wishes of the voters.

The Bush 2004 website is not only a great parody of Bush's reselection site, it is now the fourth hit on a google "bush 2004" search.

<a href="http://bush2004.com/">Bush 2004</a>

The funny thing is this link fooled Google ad words into showing a bunch of pro Bush ads on this site..

I hadn't noticed that Cursor was absent from my blogroll. A pure artifact of not alphabetizing the entries. I go there almost everyday.

Just weeks after the prison scandal broke (months after many people in the world knew about it) Bush demands the US get war crime immunity.

The Guardian reports on the wedding massacre. Details no American paper will publish.

I have a new entry for you

Chalabi (cha-la-bee) v. Double crossing a liar and thief by a bigger liar and thief.
Ex. Are you going to chalabi him?

adj. Fooled by being blinded by your own greed.
Ex. That is a chalabi plan.

n. A con man conned by a neocon.
Ex. You are a chalabi!

You might as well quit now. Roger Ailes has the front runner for the 2004 Koufax.

If I get some time, I will send Roger the JavaScript necesary to make it a slideshow.

Bush isn't like Hitler. Bush is more like Goerhing, the second in command. Cheney is more like Hitler. Rove is like Goebbels. Goebbels, by the way, pushed the Hitler as Messiah story. Sound familiar?

Notes On The Atrocities (who doesn't link to us :-( ) notes that one of the spin points against Kerry is he is boring.

I know in our jump cut, 35 seconds is glacial society that boring is supposed to be bad. However, after the last 3 and a half years, I might actually enjoy a boring President. Republicans and Democrats revere Ike. Boring is good.

PS - I know Goerhing was second in command. What makes you think Bush isn't?

I know polite people aren't supposed to compare Bush to Hitler but with all of Bush's backers moaning about Americans having a "Failure of Will" why I am reminded of Triumph of the Will?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Inspector General has launched an investigation into allegations an agency supervisor in Texas violated federal policy and ordered that a suspect cow not be tested for mad cow disease, United Press International has learned.

Meanwhile, Bush stops a company that wants to test every cow at its own expense so that it can resume exports to Japan.


Creekstone Farms to Challenge USDA’s Decision to Decline Private BSE Testing

The Blog of Four notices the FBI is classifying previously public testimony.

The Seattle Weekly has a great article about Bev Harris and how the SS (Secret Service) has been intimidating her.

The FCC Song. Thanks to Buzzflash for the link. No radio station could afford to air it.

As I posted earlier, it wasn't an accident that Bush pressed to have the US exempt from war crime prosecutions. President Criminally Insane George Bush, aka the Texecutioner, had memos from his top lawyer warning him about it.

Reader Spiralsands of Wayward Winds alerts us to the fact that Moore received a 15 minute ovation breaking the record at Cannes. Eugene Hernandez at IndieWire reports it at 20 minutes.

Michael Eisner, already on the ropes for failing to produce hits at Disney, once again demonstrates that he would rather be right right-wing than make money for his shareholders.

Faux News Reporter (FNR): Chemical weapons were found!
Military Guy (MG): Err... a chemical weapon.
FNR : Show us! Show us! We want to see!
MG : Err.. it exploded.
FNR : Oh, no! A weapon of mass destruction exploded! What was destroyed?
MG : Err... Nothing.

You know who I mean, the "independent" commission that blinked when Bush told them there was nothing to see has been busy. They are asking tough questions of New York police and fire fighters.

What kind of questions? Officer Krupke, why didn't you call in the Air Force fighters to escort those jets?

Paul Krugman once again takes Bush to the woodshed:

George Bush reminds me of those characters — and not just because of his early career, in which friends of the family repeatedly bailed out his failing business ventures. Now that he sits in the White House, he's still counting on other people to settle his debts — not to protect the reputation of his family, but to protect the reputation of the country.

Shorter New York Times:

Moore's partisan film attacking Bush was rightly squelched by Disney protecting Bush in a non-partisan way.

Schaitberger, a former Virginia firefighter who leads the IAFF’s efforts in Washington, D.C., and nationally, received several standing ovations during his remarks Friday.

But local Republican party leaders were not so enthusiastic.

I wonder why?

freerepublic.com - a million monkeys have still not turned out a single sonnet.

We knew he was a Miserable Failure quite some time ago. It has just taken awhile for the right wing intellectuals and the SCLM to catch up with us.

aka Editor
aka Stranger
aka American Stranger

try http://americanstranger.blogspot.com/ while he gets his site at www.blah3.com working.

Timshel points out that the Steady Liar in changing times is going to a fundraiser instead of his daughter's college graduation.

My heart goes out to Nick Berg and his family. His gruesome death will get far more attention than the young man ever garnered in life. Unlike our troops and Bush, he did no harm to Iraqis but he suffered for others' actions.

This is the part most Americans will have trouble accepting. The timing and attribution of his death were fortunate to the Bush adminstration. This makes me believe it was a psy-ops to stiffen US resolve into torturing Moslems. If Berg had been kidnapped in the course of his duties, I might have believed the official story but he was kidnapped sometime after his family complained and sued about his unlawful detention by the American controlled Iraqi police. This is the danger of Bush's secret government. We don't know why Berg was detained and we don't know if he made some Bush operative mad enough to decide to kill him for political gain.

That is the Bush legacy. We don't know who he is willing to kill to maintain power.

Rove's centerpiece for getting the base out was the anti-gay marriage amendment. This from the administration that forced Iraqi men into homosexual poses for the camera. I think Rove's centerpiece is going to flop as badly as Flight Suit day did.

Who says Bush doesn't plan ahead? Nearly a year ago he pushed to have the US exempt from war crime prosecution. Recent photos explain why.

Thanks to Buzzflash for finding this gem:

Newspaper solicits pro-Bush letters because it isn't getting enough.

We’ve been getting more letters critical of President Bush than those that support him. We’re not sure why, nor do we want to guess. But in today’s increasingly polarized political environment, we would prefer our offering to put forward a better sense of balance.

Maybe I will send them a letter that is "supportive"

Dear Nimrod,

I don't know why people are critical of Bush. He sure showed those Iraqi prisoners who was in charge!

Sincerely,
Right Wing Moron

Truthout says, "the complete failure of moral leadership at the highest levels."

He recited the Pledge of Allegiance in its original form and got flogged by Republicans (expected) and by Nancy Pelosi (unexpected). It is shameful that they would wish to force him to use the revised and inappropriate version of the Pledge. Why do these jackboots think it is patriotic to insert "under God" into everything? Would they like it?

American, under God, rape rooms in Iraq.
A Steady Liar, under God, for changing times.

Everyone's religion is much better served if we leave the government out of it and it out of government.

Reward courageous behavior!

Al-Jazeera says, "...the administration is said to be wedded to a large role for Adnan Pachachi, the former foreign minister who has guided the process of writing Iraq's transitional constitution."

Why is this significant? The new Iraqi constitution imposed on Iraq by Bush and Cheney allows foreigners to own Iraq oil fields. My bet is the first order of business of the new sovereign Iraq is to sell their oil fields to members of Cheney's secret energy task force.

Adnan Pachachi supported the Iraq invasion of Kuwait. Politics makes strange bedfellows. Or is it the money?

Mrs. Bush applauds her special guest, Dr. Adnan Pachachi at Bush's Fourth Annual Lie Fest, formerly known as the State of the Union message.

Kuwait is still there. Will President Jeb Bush have to launch Gulf War III in 2009 in an an attempt to flip-flop his brother's flip-flop?

Corrente reminds us it is a total failure of leadership.

A <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html" target="gwbio">total failure of leadership</a>.

What if the (Padilla oops I meant) Yee case isn't what it appeared? What if the pictures on Yee's computer weren't Internet porn but pictures of human rights abuses in the American gulag at Guantanamo? What if the Muslim chaplain was going to blow the whistle? Is that why the military charged him with espionage?

Update: A poster at Atrios corrected me that it was Yee not Padilla.

A new batch of torture photos and the Red Cross had been worried about American prison methods before photos were released and had urged corrective action for quite some time. It seems the abuses were condoned at the highest levels. Impeach now!

When asked about Bush's campaign theme casually toss out, "The one that goes 'Steady Failure in Times of Change'?"

The Twitching Tail. Moonbat points out the shenanigans Bush is pulling when it comes to counting farm raised salmon as wild salmon to make the numbers look better.

Bush's moves to hide the cost of his giveaway to drug companies at the expense of senior citizens was probably illegal.

Imeach Now!

The military likes to give an identifying number to everything. Planes, rations, GRound UNiTs, well, evething. Those matching green bags used in the torture of Iraqis look like military issue. That means they have a part number. It means they were bought from somewhere. (Halliburton?) It means torture was US military policy.

I am not a diplomat, a politician or a military man. I do dabble in game theory so I have put together a straw man resolution that will leave only Dick Cheney squealing like a stuck pig.

1. The US declares that the oil fields belong to Iraq and it will not seek privatization.

2. The US declares it will withdraw from cities within the next month and will only provide border protection for Iraq for the next year before withdrawing permanently. The US will abandon all permanent bases it is building in Iraq.

3. All Halliburton and Bechtel contracts are cancelled because Dick Cheney illegally let them out without bids.

4. The money from the cancelled contracts go into three funds to be administered by the UN. One is to pay reparation for war crimes committed by the US under Bush's orders. Another is to be used by Iraqi co-operatives and businesses to rebuild their infrastructure. The third is to fund local and national governments for the next year until their tax and oil revenue comes online.

5. If the UN cannot safely administer the funds in Iraq then it will hold them in escrow until such time that it can.

I think even Sadr would agree to this and it will end up costing Americans less in blood and money than if we continue to follow Bush's tragically flawed course.

The autism epidemic sweeping our nation is ruining the lives of children and their families. We urge a $79 billion appropriation for research and support. Research for the cause and cure of this epidemic and support to supplement school districts' and states' funding for treating this lifelong, incurable disease that will harm 1 out of 100 babies born today.

Iraqi oil fields belong to the Iraqi people and are not to be auctioned off to members of Dick Cheney's Secret Energy Task Force.

George Bush allows mercenaries to have priority over our armed forces when it comes to getting coveted up-armored Humvees. Thanks to the Blog of Four for connecting the dots on how, once again, George Bush has failed America.

This post at Roger Ailes about Jay Leno whoring for Commander Codpiece inspired me to go on a rant of my own:

Jay "Dorito Salesman" Leno has missed some of the obvious jokes.

To Pickler him, "While Jay Leno jokes about Geraldo drawing lines in the sand he fails to mention that Bush okayed Cheney showing the invasion plans of Iraq to Osama bin Laden's largest contributor, Prince Bandar of Saudia Arabia."

or

"While Jay Leno makes fun of Geraldo turning in Anne Frank to the Nazis he fails to mention that George Bush's grandfather financed Hitler's ascension to power."

Sadly, those aren't true Picklers because they are related and they are facts.

I was watching JFK when Jim Garrison's summation included a line about "Brown and Root construction contracts in Viet Nam." Can it be?

Yes, according to Media Monitor.

The NY Times has an article In Iraq, Americans Help the Children to Play

"What they need are the resources and, more importantly, the opportunity to try new things and better themselves," Fyfe, a 26-year-old captain, wrote. "The game of soccer opened a few doors for me, and I'm hoping by helping these kids out, soccer might do the same for them."

Does he think Iraqis don't play soccer? I can think of one soccer field the kids won't be playing on anytime soon. Is that a ball the lucky Iraqi child gets to play with or a bomblet from cluster bombs used recently in Fallujah?

CBS Headline is Bush Blasts Abuse Of Iraqi POWs

but in reality all he said was he was dismayed by the news. This is because of how it will affect his poll numbers.

Gov. Bush also said, "That's not the way we do things in America." Duh. This was in Iraq.

Brits apparently have a similar problem and are launching an investigation. The Republican controlled Congress is doing what?

According to the BBC, MidEast newspapers are full of editorials like this:

"We are certain that Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri and al-Qaeda supporters are the happiest people on earth as they watch the shameful clips because they have given them the best ammunition for recruiting more frustrated young men who are zealous about their religion, creed and honour."

I like how "Bring Them Home Now!" says it,
"The presumed Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces was dispatched by his handlers to conduct this publicity stunt on May 1, 2003..."