Old Fashioned Patriot

What happens when you let failed businessman George W. Bush be in charge of the world's largest military? What happens when you let the kid who tortured frogs decide who to invade for no good reason? What has all this unnecessary death and misery in Iraq resulted in?

Ahmed Chalabi named Iraqi Oil Minister.

Gold Star Moms, what do you think?

Shorter Bush:

If I cut benefits for nearly everyone then nearly everyone will hate Social Security just as much as I do.

From Bush's "Let's Cut Social Security Benefits So I Can Give Lots Of Money To Halliburton and The Carlyle Group Speech" :

Q Sir, you've talked all around the country about the poisonous partisan atmosphere here in Washington. I wonder why do you think that is? And do you personally bear any responsibility in having contributed to this atmosphere?
THE PRESIDENT(sic): I'm sure there are some people that don't like me. You know, Ed, I don't know. I've thought long and hard about it. I was -- I've been disappointed. I felt that people could work -- work together in good faith. It's just a lot of politics in the town. It's kind of a zero-sum attitude. We can't -- we can't cooperate with so-and-so because it may make their party look good, and vice-versa.
...
I'm proud of my party. Our party has been the party of ideas...

Odd, Bush can't even answer a question about excessive partisanship without throwing a jab in there.

skippy remarks on reid's pro moves concerning the republican crybaby option.

Suppose the American public gets tired of Bush and wants to send him a message. Suppose the American public gets tired of DeLay controlling their US Representative and votes DeLay tainted politicians out of office. Suppose that black box voting is negated and the people's will is actually counted. Given those suppositions, if the Democrats manage to take back the House and/or the Senate in 2006 then what?

Will Democrats propose milder environmental protection rollbacks rather than tougher environmental protections? Will Democrats create smaller tax breaks for US corporations to outsource American jobs or eliminate tax breaks to outsource American jobs? Will Democrats fight bankruptcy problems with lighter penalties on Americans with medical problems or would they raise the minimum wage and establish health care for every American whether they can afford a doctor or not?

Will Democrats vote for a little gay discrimination or for equal rights? Will Democrats vote for a little torture or a return of the American jurisprudence system? Will Democrats vote to fight terrorism by trying to kill radical Muslims with bombs dropped on Arab cities or with death sentences for terrorists like McVeigh or bin Laden decided by a jury? Will Democrats vote to make bin Laden a priority or will they continue to pour money down Bush's Iraq rathole?

Sometimes they are like the news only sooner.

Sunday, a Senator called on Bolton to withdraw his name. A week ago I speculated Bolton will withdraw. It isn't magic. Bolton isn't going to get the votes so he would rather look like he withdrew rather than was rejected by his own party.

I do my best work in comments at other people's sites.

DeLay wants to cut funding of judges to influence their decisions. I predict many Republicans, of the Law and Order variety, will rebel against that.

In tonight's interview with Islamic scholar Resa Aslan, Jon Stewart looked like he was doing one of Corddry's interviews. I don't get it. He laughed loudly at every lame Dennis Miller joke last night. Jon was polite to Friedman as he touted his outsource American jobs screed The World Is Flat but Jon wouldn't let Resa Aslan answer a single question without jabbing at him or his religion.

Tonight's Daily Show with guest Dennis Miller stank. Jon Stewart proves he is only human and can bomb. First crack out of Bush suck-up Dennis Miller was a snyde remark about his host. The only honest thing that Dennis "The Meanest" Miller said was he wished he had Stewart's audience.

Stewart, like an abused spouse, laughed at Miller's inanities and insanities. Miller said he wasn't in favor of everything Bush does and then did a riff of around 30 GOP talking points.

That was the worst episode of the Daily Show ever.

Inspired by a post at Blah3, I have created The World's Shortest Blog. I doubt if I will ever have to make another entry in it...

From the invaluable Buzzflash we read :

German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican theologian who was elected Pope Benedict XVI, intervened in the 2004 US election campaign ordering bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters including presidential candidate John Kerry.

No news on whether Pope Republicanus XVI will refuse communion to priests who rape children.

Ironic Times reports Bolton, Under Fire, Softens Stance

Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say

John R. Bolton -- who is seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.

It seems "Mr Kiss Up Kick Down" is about to get a beating.

At the California Democrats' Annual Convention:

"We will say no to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to take $2 billion out of the education budget," Dean said. "Governor, keep your promise to the children of California and fund public schools. We don't need any more corrupt Republicans in office in this country."

I wonder if Jomentum is going to accuse Dean of being too partisan?

Bush, in his zeal to dismantle FDR's legacy, is pretending to be concerned about a $200 billion dollar shortfall 37 years from now. I think he does it to distract people from the $2 trillion deficit he has piled on in the last 5 years.

Just how tangled up in Tom DeLay's House of Scandal is Dave Reichert?

Dave Reichert has taken $10,000 from Tom DeLay's ARMPAC. No surprise that Reichert voted with Tom DeLay 97% of the time between Jan. 3 2005 and March 31 2005.

Strange how a man who devoted his life to law enforcement would get so tangled up with the most corrupt politician in recent memory...

Bush, who failed to protect us on 9/11, failed to prosecute a domestic terrorist to the fullest extent of the law.
What I want to know is if Bush is so tough on terror - why did his administration not seek the death penalty on the Christian terrorist who bombed clinics (and I am not even talking about Rumsfeld who ignores clinics and bombs hospitals.)

So Bush is a wimp on fighting terror and gung-ho when it comes to terrorizing civilians who don't show up at NASCAR. He's a worse wimp than his father.

From First-Draft we get the link to this load of crap from Resident Bush:

Q: Do you think Mr. DeLay has become a liability to your party or your agenda?

THE PRESIDENT (sic): No, I appreciate that. Look, as I've read his comments today, he wants the Ethics Committee to review his case and he's willing to step up and talk to the Ethics Committee about it.

Oh, yeah, I know why DeLay wants to be thrown into that briar patch: DeLay Critic Removed From Ethics Committee

CNN gave Bush's fake news (what we called propaganda when Communist governments did it) the imprimatur of real news because they made money redistributing it for the White House. No wonder it seems like CNN is in bed with Bush and Dick
Cheney.

aWol in America 5500 military personnel have deserted on Bush's watch.

I am glad Al Gore is trying to make a TV network. I am sure you, like me, have suffered cable ennui - 600 channels and nothing to watch. Current "will serve up the most current information on the people, places and happenings of interest to viewers 18-34, a demographic that no longer relates to traditional news." Those 18-34 year old will know what is hip by watching Mr. Tipper Gore's channel? I guess Al is banking on the fact most of his target audience was just born or pre-teens when Tipper went medieval on record companies.

I think he may end up with something like the Honda Element, the car which targeted twenty somethings and ended up being bought by forty somethings. Will Current end up like the Element? An ugly vehicle that missed its market?

I wish Al well and hope he makes billions of dollars from this venture. I just won't bet on it.

Err, actually the Resident's iPod Commission over at Agitprop.

My suggestions?
I Hate Republicans
Idiot Son of an Asshole
and last but certainly not least
Gay Bar

Feeling a pinch with those pennies? AP reports:

For the first two months of this year, the trade deficit is running at an annual rate of $717.2 billion, a full $100 billion above the record imbalance of $617.1 billion set for all of 2004.

Those disastrous Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires might be the most expensive money the wealthy ever got.

Our country has been overtaken by murderous thugs....

Cindy Sheehan has seen the work of these murderous thugs - her son paid the ultimate price for Bush's ultimate lie.

Apparently the political debate nowadays is should secret courts have limited powers or unlimited powers and doesn't address the issue that secret courts are counter to the American ideals of freedom and justice.

The assholes who leaked Valerie Plame's name to punish Joseph Wilson are now trying to make a case against John Kerry for naming a CIA agent.

Pentagon Audit Questions Halliburton Deals

The only thing that is really surprising is the auditor who discovered this hasn't been declared an enemy combatant and rendered to Guantanamo or Afghanistan.

Washington Post, March 18, 2005

The Army could begin drawing down its troop levels in Iraq as soon as next year...

Washington Post, December 8, 2004

...the United States could begin shifting more from combat operations to training Iraqi forces next year, which might lead to a reduction of troops...

Washington Post, October 19, 2003

U.S. military commanders have developed a plan to steadily cut back troop levels in Iraq next year...

This just in:
New York Times, April 11, 2005

...allow the Pentagon to plan for significant troop reductions by early next year...

I remember the hostages being released just as Carter was leaving office and Reagan taking it. I thought what a strange coincidence. It turns out it wasn't coincidence and Reagan and Bush should have been charged with treason.

From Atrios, we learn of Carrion, my love.

The International Federation of Journalists on Friday urged U.S. officials to provide credible evidence American troops did not intentionally kill two television cameramen at a Baghdad hotel in 2003.

Paging Eason Jordan, paging Eason Jordan. In the old days a news organization would have worked to scoop this story rather than bury it...

Resident Bush during a photo op with Kofi Annan July 14, 2003

On Iraq, what steps are being taken to ensure that questionable information, like the Africa uranium material, doesn't come to your desk and wind up in your speeches?

THE PRESIDENT (sic): Well, let me first say that -- I think the intelligence I get is darn good intelligence. And the speeches I have given were backed by good intelligence. And I am absolutely convinced today, like I was convinced when I gave the speeches, that Saddam Hussein developed a program of weapons of mass destruction, and that our country made the right decision.

Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction March 31, 2005

On the brink of war, and in front of the whole world, the United States government asserted that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program, had biological weapons and mobile biological weapon production facilities, and had stockpiled and was producing chemical weapons. All of this was based on the assessments of the U.S. Intelligence Community. And not one bit of it could be confirmed when the war was over.

Funny, Joe Wilson and the CIA agent Bush burned had discovered that the uranium claim was no good. George Tenet had warned him about using the uranium story prior to his presenting the lies in the State of the Union message. Now, the Commission that Bush appointed finds Bush couldn't have known better and it was the intelligence community's fault.

Thune Watch is the place to watch the point man for Social Security Piratizaton. It is probably the place to watch for any GOP talking point because that is the sum total of what Thune is. The GOP talking point.

I saw him at a speech after he was designated the lead on Bush's Social Security piratization scheme and guess what the "Honorable" Senator spent 15 minutes digressing about? Filibustering God's choices for federal judges. The "Honorable" Senator Thune spent 15 minutes spreading the lie that filibusters of judicial nominees started in 2001. He seems to have forgotten President Clinton's judicial nominees that were denied "an up or down vote" and said there was no precedent for the Democrats' actions. Thune is a liar. Straight up. Plain and simple. A goddamn fucking liar who will burn in hell for eternity for lying - take that you goddamn fucking liar.

The "Honorable" Sen. Thune is the point man for Resident Bush's goddamned Social Security Piratization scheme. The "Honorable" Sen. Thune is one of the many lying Republicans damned to eternal damnation for lying because he insists that the Social Security trust fund is in trouble and is non-existent.

The "Honorable" Sen. Thune insists, like many of the other eternally damned Republicans that 2017 is a crisis but this year isn't. The "Honorable" Sen. Thune pretends to be a fiscal conservative but he isn't. This is a sin. You are going to hell, the "Honorable" Sen. Thune because you are pretending to worry about deficits 12 years from now while voting for deficts this year to give rich people a tax cut. Jesus threw assholes like you out of the goddamned fucking temple for sacrilege like that.

If CondiLiar Rice loses in 2008 the "Honorable" Sen. Thune will be the Republicans' point man in 2012 but anybody who works for a living should turn their back on this liar.

Seattle Times:

Emiliano Santiago, an Oregon National Guardsman, finished his eight-year enlistment last June.
But four months later the Army wanted to ship the Pasco resident to Afghanistan and reset his military termination date to Christmas Eve 2031.

Can't he just refuse his physical? It worked for Bush...

Rigorous Intuition points out yet another inappropriate Bush joke. They don't even try to hide it anymore.

John Kromko, a friend of mine from way back when, wrote this article shortly after the "election" on how to ferret out fraud.

I wonder if anyone who lived in Ohio tried this?

Will all those Tom DeLay, Jeb Bush fools and tools who had duct tape over their mouth please put them back on? It may have made Tom Ridge proud that someone was finally buying duct tape but the best part was it made for a nice idiot light for the rest of us to know to avoid you like the plague.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (in Flash - I guess they had to dumb down the technology.) The movie releases April 29th. The race is on. Who will destroy Earth first? Bush or the Vogons?