Old Fashioned Patriot

Kerry did well in Iowa and New Hampshire because of his stand on the war. His vote to give the megalomaniac sitting in Al Gore's office the power to start bombing and his later repudiation of that vote makes perfect sense. His stand mirrors the sad state of America today. He was for killing Arabs unless too many of our own died.

I couldn't be bothered to watch Dennis Miller tonight but I thought, hey! it is Super Bowl Weekend wouldn't it be funny if Dennis had the Oxymoron on tonight to talk about football "color" commentators? What would they say?

Dennis: I don't think today's TV football commentators are very good but the media wants them to succeed.
Rush: I agree, most of them are former players and are probably too loaded up on pain killers like Oxycontin to make any sense.
Dennis: Right, after all, what they say is either obvious or wrong so who cares what they say?

Dean's former campaign manager also sold Dean his TV ads that apparently suck? Can Dean ask for his money back?

Congress keeps throwing money at the admininstration to solve problems? Dick Cheney keeps giving it to his company Halliburton in no bid, cost plus contracts? Can we ask for our money back?

Dean is screwed but as far as Cheney, doesn't the US have laws against conflict of interest? Aren't there rules and regulations against no bid contracts and cost plus contracts? Oh, wait, I forgot. 9/11 changed everything

pResident Bush without the Fox "News" filter.

The Brits have Mr. Hutton and we have have Mr. Kay. Hutton says Bush's poodle didn't lie and the BBC made unfounded charges. Mr. Kay doesn't think Cheney sexed up the intelligence either.

I think these "investigators" should get out more often. They are both closer to Inspector Clouseau than Inspector Morse. I malign Clouseau with the comparison, he actually caught the culprits after bumbling around.

Yo, Hutton, did you read this?

Yo, Kay, did you read this?

Dennis Miller is set to premiere tonight. A drinking game, if you don't mind a massive hangover for three days, is to take a shot every time he jokes reads Republican spin points about Clinton. Dennis... such a 90's guy... At what is apparently not a swipe at Bush, he will have a chimp as a regular.
If CNBC really wants this show to take on Fox - they should position it against Hannity & Colmes and rename Miller's show Chump & Chimp. The chimp is the funny one.

I asked for an Impeach Bush Meetup a while back. I guess enough folks finally asked for one to make it happen. Thanks, skippy, for the heads up.

Dean's Scream looks pretty good when you keep it in perspective.

Linda gives an excellent review of the NH debate. You would think that the bought and paid for news media would notice their audience share has dropped off since they went hard right...

Demagogue points out a move is afoot to rejigger the start of the Bush recession in March 2001 to November of 2000. It looks like Republicans, once again, are going to blame their foibles on Clinton. Yeah, the party of personal responsibility... Right.

Will Rush agree to plead guilty to prescription drug related activities? Lowering the bar isn't just for men in padded flightsuits anymore.

His article for The Nation has an extremely important question. What right does the United States have to tell people that they cannot be allowed to rule themselves? Wasn't installing democracy the other "real" reason besides looking for weapons of mass destruction related program activities that could hit England in 45 minutes?

When Bush called for tort reform in the State of the Union address he failed to mention that he filed a frivolous lawsuit not so long ago.

Bush wants the 9/11 commission to report before they are done or wants them to report after the election. Why is the drunken cheerleader afraid of a full investigation into 9/11? Did he sit doing nothing for 20 minutes after being told about the attacks because it was in the script? Wouldn't someone "strong on defense" want to know what went wrong?

Instead of the pointy haired boss, let's track the smirking, wannabee dictator.

Fool me once! Fool me 4 times!

Great party game! Hit the redraw button for each new card! Be sure and stop at the bakery and pick up some yellow cake!

Update: I won SOTU Buzzword Bingo in the first 3 minutes... damn, is that liar predictable.

The press will report Bush's State of the Union speech as historic, inspirational, magnificent but they will fail to mention that every bullet point in last year's speech was a lie.

"Fool me once..."

Over at Mostly Links , Ben has a very interesting list of links to Nazi History.

One of them was They Thought There Were Free which has this hauntingly familiar scenario:

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if he people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. "

The site which charges people to learn about search engine manipulation is now the top hit for "google miserable failure" which he ranted against. Probably because I did it without buying any of his stuff.

When told by Bush's SS and the police to move into so-called "Free Speech Zones" they refused to budge.

Will Cheney's hunting buddy recuse himself from Cheney's case when it comes before the Supreme Court?

I guess Scalia wishes to finish turning this once venerable building into Cheney's caddy shack. *


* Google Bomb Alert! Paste <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov" target="caddy">Cheney's caddy shack</a> into your blog when you wish to refer to this travesty of justice.

Chief Justice Rehnquist gripes about judicial pay increases being meager.

"Unfortunately, Congress failed this year to raise judicial salaries significantly."

Welcome to Bush's America, baby! Don't you hate it when chickens come home to roost?

When Mr Bush went to pay respects pose for a photo-op at the grave of slain civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, Jr, the mostly black crowd in attendance were put behind buses!

It's deja vu all over again!

Update: Buzzflash noticed civil rights activists being told to take a back seat as well.

From horse: The NPR Ombudsman has apologized for dismissing emails from people who read blogs. It is times like this that give me some hope about the media doing their jobs rather than just reprinting Bush press releases.

Update: Not a huge stride but at least I didn't have to post Dear NPR Ombudsman - I have a complaint about the NPR Ombudsman again.

I wish the candidates understood that the circular firing squad doesn't work.

The Dems have lots of candidates so we have lots of themes we could try... one or two should definitely stick.

What each of the candidates should be saying about the others

Dean: Yes, he is angry, and by God, who wouldn't be after the mess Bush has put us in.

Clark: Yes, he is inexperienced in running for office but what has Bush's experience got us? An unwinnable war and a massive deficit and rampant unemployment.

Kucinich: Yes, he has opposed Bush on every single one of Bush's failed initiatives. Your point is?

Kerry: Yes, his wife is rich but unlike Bush he has compassion for people who have to work for a living. Unlike Bush the National Air Guard deserter, Kerry served his country in that other quagmire.

Gephardt: Like Bush, Gephardt was in the Air National Guard. Unlike Bush, Gephardt served his full duty.

Sharpton: Sharpton's quotes are not only funny but they also make sense; unlike Bush's fumble mouth remarks.

Edwards: Edwards gets it. Under Bush there are two Americas. One that does the work and one that gets the money - otherwise known as Halliburton.

Lieberman: The man who won the Vice Presidency in 2000 puts Dick Cheney to shame.

The phrase "Bush 2004" mistakenly points to the unlected moron's site. I hope all truth seekers will correct this in their blogroll for the real Bush 2004 site.

Self Important SearchEngineWatch thinks that Google is the miserable failure. I guess he is mad because I could get the search results that are the most relevant without buying any of his reports.

The Guardian reports that Google is going to replace George Bush's biography as the most relevant result for "miserable failure." The story says, "Google's engineers are to put an end to the embarrassment George W Bush has been suffering at the hands of the search engine."

And it is up to the voters to end the embarassment Americans have been suffering at the hands of George Bush.

No one! Absolutely no one! is to say that
Dean
Clark
Gephardt
Lieberman
Sharpton
Kucinich
Kerry
Mosely-Braun
Edwards
are unelectable/can't beat Bush

Why?

Remember?

A salted pretzel almost took him out!

(It's getting to be Super Bowl season, isn't it? )

More economic recovery news from the Bush maladministration. USDA Sees International Bans Cutting U.S. Beef Exports By 90 Percent. The remaining 10 percent isn't looking too hot either because it is with Canada. Canada is getting miffed that the US is blaming its Mad Cow case on Canada and might retaliate against a US ban on Canadian beef with a Canadian ban on US beef.

Like all of Bush's lies, he says one thing and then does another. If you are in his photo-op, watch out!

An army of U.S. veterans more than twice the size of Operation Iraqi Freedom have lost their health insurance benefits since Bush took office. As many as half a million vets are homeless. Seven VA hospitals are being closed as part of an effort to "restructure" the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Hey, Republican Heckler Dale Ungerer! Why isn't Bush being neighborly to American veterans?

Nedra Pickler says it went like this:

George Bush is not my neighbor," Dean replied.

"Yes, he is," Ungerer said, to which Dean responded: "You sit down. You've had your say and now I'm going to have my say."

Reuters reports it differently:
Dean, whose rivals have suggested his impulsiveness, outspokenness and temperament make him less than ready for the White House but have been unable to provoke him in a dozen or more debates and forums, began by calmly replying: "George Bush is not my neighbor."

But when Ungerer stood and tried to interrupt, Dean shouted: "You sit down. You had your say. Now I'm going to have my say."
Updates:
At the Washington Post, Dan Balz and John F. Harris snarl:

After Dean told Ungerer that Bush was "not my neighbor," Ungerer began to offer his own response. Dean hissed, "You've had your say, and now I'm going to have mine."


The New York Times is able to stick to observable facts without coloring it:
Dr. Dean declared, "George Bush is not my neighbor." As Mr. Ungerer, stood up, Dr. Dean said, "You sit down. You've had your say, and now I'm going to have my say."

Update to the update

WaPo's online version changed from hissed to said.

Some think the Reuters version is more biased because it continues the "Mad Dean" meme but so does Nedra's. The difference is Reuters said Dean started out calmly, Ungerer tried to interrupt him (NY Times filled in the detail that he stood up to do so) and Dean shouted at him to "Sit down." I think Nedra's is more biased because she makes no mention that the Republican heckler was trying to interrupt Dean before being told to sit down.

It upsets the Republicans to hear it but someone who lived under Hitler finds a large number of parallels. From truthout.org, "So far, I've seen nothing to eliminate the possibility that Bush is on the same course as Hitler. And I've seen far too many analogies to dismiss the possibility."

George "Find me in Crawford or at a Fundraiser" Bush exhorts federal employees to work harder.

Found out from Buzzflash
The Gods Must Be Crazy

This CNN article about The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush has this quote about the twins:

"They have not appeared engaged in any of the pressing issues their generation will inherit, nor shown empathy for the struggles facing their mother and their father," Gerhart says. "They don't show their faces at the White House often."

Those acorns didn't fall far from the tree...

Halliburton no bid cost plus contracts are the antithesis of free markets.

But when adwords (Google's successful attempt to monetize search terms) agrees then you have people voting with their mouse clicks.

The Miserable Failure search brings up the Anybody But Bush advertisement with a very high relevancy. (Ha to all those who thought I was polluting and/or misleading Google. This is the free market in action.)

I would hate to see them whore themselves for free. Calvin Woodward, trading on his last name which resembles a famous reporter's name says in his "news" article (not labeled as editorial), "For a brief time in their debate Sunday, Democrats seemed to be hewing to a New Year's resolution to stick more carefully to the facts on taxes, the budget and more. But old habits die hard." If this was on an Op-Ed piece where Dildo Can Vow War said it was his opinion then it would only be obectionable because of his intellectual laziness. When Woodward's laziness promotes it to "fact" then that is a different matter.

Via Atrios. (of course)

Two English bishops criticize Bush and Blair.

Blair makes secret trip to Iraq. Bush's photo-op turkey was not available for comment.

I highly recommend CounterPunch's article Bush Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis. Its author and I are of the opinion that Bush is a war criminal.

Where else can you find statements like:

The United States doesn't even pretend to respect the Geneva Conventions these days.

A Basketful of Puppies guarantees that this will be Soon-to-be underreported fact of the week:
Six cases of mistaken identity were behind the pre-Christmas grounding of six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles over terrorism fears, a police official said Friday.

Surprised? Doesn't the Fatherland Security Department use the same data mining software that Florida used in the 2000 elections?

Via Vast Left Wing Conspiracy

Top Bush Scandals of 2003, Part I: Iraq
My favorite? #19. Come to think of it, they are so many Bush scandals and crimes we will probably be reduced to that old joke about the stand up comedian convention where they don't tell jokes - they just refer to them by number.

Bush losing his base? American Policy Center says

Due to this and many other issues on which so-called "conservative" Republicans have faltered, we feel the time is now for an independent conservative voice.

They point to ConservativeBattleOnline.com which has articles that probably keep Karl "Frog March" Rove up at night.

poetic grimoire & notions mentioned this article about a high tech job fair in Silicon Valley. Good news? No. They are recruiting for a huge hiring boom in India as American companies prepare to ship jobs overseas.

The White House should charge Rank Rove Bot with breaking the law.

Why?

Well, according to all apparent sources, Robert Novak has broken the law.

Ok, forget for a moment that Bob NoFacts is one of the Republican's favorite "reporters". Robert Novak's purported outing of a CIA operative is against the law. Phillip Agee, who outed many CIA agents, stopped after Poppy Bush's favorite law passed. This is the crux of the problem.

If Phil or me (the mad Google Bomber) had outed Plame there is no doubt that BushCo would have prosecuted us to the fullest extent of the law. Period. End of story. Throw away the key.

Robert Novak outed a CIA agent with no fear of being arrested. I think Bobby No Facts needs to be prosecuted not only because he allegedly broke the law but because his defense will be the First Amendment. Mr. Agee and I (who would have been prosecuted by Ashcroft for outing Plame) need to know, probably by Supreme Court edict, which is supreme? A "reporter" protecting his sources or Daddy Bush's favorite law?

Phil and I need to know because if we did what Bobby No Facts allegedly did we would be prosecuted.

In summary, Bob Novak should be charged under Papa Bush's law. Bobby should claim first amendment protection. I await the Supreme Court's decision - Poppy or Shrubya?

Tom "Mad Cow" Delay has a new website. It is Freedom Is Slavery or http://www.freedom.gov/ for short.

The home page is missing the immortal:

War Is Peace
Freedom Is Slavery
Ignorance Is Strength

but I am sure that is just a temporary oversight.

It does, however, have a section on "Why America Is Safer Now" which has articles about Iraq like

• A TRIP TO IRAQ REVEALS THE NEED FOR U.S. AID
• A Decade of Deception and Defiance - amazing how Bush's 3 years feels like 10
• Mayada's story: Dragged from her Iraqi print shop for a crime she didn't commit, Mayada Al-Askari was terrified when she was taken to Baladiyat, the notorious prison and headquarters of Saddam Hussein's secret police. (Editor: link leads to Gitmo. George: In more ways than one)

but there are no articles on how America is safer and fails to mention (thanks, Nedra Pickler!) how America is more at risk after Bush's illegal invasion.

London has plays you will never see on an American stage. Vaara of Silt mentioned a play The Madness of George Dubya which now has a sequel running until Jan 10,2004. It is A Weapon Inspector Calls.

The top hit for googleracing "miserable failure" is Shrubya !

George Bush comes up in second for "liar" and comes up third for "idiot"

Hey! He hit the trifecta! Of course, I am not referring to Bush's tasteless joke at the expense of 9/11 victims.

Atrios mentions the War on Tourism which got me to thinking about this past holiday season. Why did the flights full of relatives coming to America for Christmas get turned back? Why were tourists intentionally frightened about Las Vegas during one of its peak seasons? Why was New York, top tourist spot for New Year, touted as a place to avoid?

Was it "chatter" overheard on satellite phones? Or was it the Resident had too much eggnog during a Cabinet meeting and slurred the words, "I want to escalate the war on terrorism." and it came out as "war on turrism"?

Wampum notes the rider that pharmaceutical lackey Bill Frist inserted into the Fatherland Security Bill and takes the WSJ to task for its inaccuracies in its editorial about the autism epidemic.