Old Fashioned Patriot

Wherein I link to the more popular blog to show off my ability to be the first to name the Republican's 2008 Presidential Candidate: Abu Gonzalez. The noise machine is building up his "cred" to keep us safer from terrarists while also mending fences with the Hispanic vote. In other words, the Republicans can piss off the latinos this election cycle because they can expect nearly every chicano to vote for President Gonzalez. He might have to have Trent Lott for "gravitas" (and the old white guy vote) but the media will buy anything as long as they have access.

Bush Says Report on Bank Data Was Disgraceful - says the New York Times should stick to reporting names of undercover CIA agents.

Look! Over there! A flag burning amendment! Oh, wait it's not an amendment for flag burning. I guess it is an anti-flag burning amendment! Except no one is going around burning anti-flags (or, come to think of it, flags)

I guess it should be called a flag anti-burning amendment but that doesn't really sing, does it?

watertiger gets more comments in one post than I get all year. Jealous on my part? Yes. Undeserved on her part? No.

rocketboom explains net neutrality with the fetching amanda congdon on a bumpy information unimproved road.

Ooo. Bleeding heart liberals worried about Bush and Gonzalez spying on Americans? Let's announce we caught Americans trying to blow up Sears Tower with shoe bombs.

In one of the first acts, the court papers say, the conspirators gave the informer their shoe sizes so he could buy them military boots.

When military boots are outlawed only outlaws terrorists will have military boots!

Japan, noticing they would be left holding the bag when Britain and Australia walk away will also announce Mission Accomplished and leave.

skippy wonders how bad is he?
Little Boots might be the next Herbert Hoover.

George H.W. Bush - 1 term and 1 recession.

George W. Bush - 2 terms* and 2 recessions.

Moral of the story: Bush = Recession.

*Whether George W. Bush actually won those terms is hotly disputed.

Karl Rove not charged for treasonous crime that everyone knows he did. It appears that the Bush junta has made itself above the law. Democrats and Republicans in Congress are rolling over. The American experiment of a nation of laws and not of men is over.

I see Congress has increased the fines for public indecency that you can charge violators of community moral codes. This is great. I hope the fines can also take into account the amount of damage done.

I am not sure how Janet Jackson's nipple did hundreds of thousands of dollars of damages but I will aver to your judgement on this matter. I am not sure how Howard Stern's potty mouth and lurid fascinations have caused millions of dollars of damages but I will aver to your judgement. I write to you not about those deeds of indecency that you have already calculated the damages for but about the indeceny you haven't calculated fines for.

When it comes to indecency there are many legalistic standards one can use and there are hundreds of law books and regulations to define and attempt to explain indecency. I am a simple man so I find it easier to think of indecency in terms of the Ten Commandments and/or the Seven Deadly Sins.

While the FCC has been quick to act on Janet Jackson's and Howard Stern's transgressions (although I wonder why tearing Janet's bodice off is an act of indecency by the black woman whose top was torn off rather than an act of indecency by the white man who did the tearing - I will leave puzzles like that to my betters) I have been wondering why the FCC has been slow to condemn George Bush's indecent behavior.

I realize not everyone thinks George Bush has broadcast indecent behavior on television. I also realize that the indecent behavior has to be broadcast or else the FCC doesn't have jurisdiction so I thought I would call out some examples of George Bush's indecent behavior on TV. This is not criticism of the FCC, I know you have been busy examining tapes of Janet Jackson's breast so you may have been too busy to notice George Bush's indecent behavior on TV regarding Iraq and New Orleans.

If one uses the Seven Deadly Sins as guideposts for indecent behavior then George Bush has been a bad boy. If one uses the Ten Commandments as guideposts for indecent behavior than, sadly, George Bush has also been a bad boy. Lastly, and certainly not leastly, George Bush's indecency has been costly. While it is beyond me to calculate the devastation caused by the sight of Janet Jackson's nipple, I can add up the actual monetary damages caused by George Bush's public acts of indecency on TV. I don't know if the FCC can consider actual damages when calculating fines but it is my fervent hope that Gov. Bush has to pay out of his own pocket at least as much as Janet Jackson (who did not rip her own top off) and maybe even as much as Howard Stern (who does have a potty mouth).

Onto the specifics then. How has George Bush been indecent on TV? Let's start with the Seven Deadly Sins. I would pay particular attention to Avarice, Sloth and Wrath.

• Avarice - aka Greed. Giving no bid, cost plus contracts to your Daddy's company and your friends' companies is greedy. These contracts are often announced on TV and serve as a bad example for our nation's youth.
  
• Sloth - aka laziness. When there are thousands of people dying in New Orleans who are relying on your steadfast, decisive leadership it appears lazy to go play the guitar with a muscian instead. Likewise, when warned that someone is going to attack the country you have sworn to protect, going on a month long vacation before your one year anniversary on the job does seem to be the ultimate in sloth. This last one may not come under your purview because the warning was not broadcast at the time it was issued. However, the vacation was extensively covered on TV.
  
• Wrath - aka inappropriate and/or misplaced feelings of anger. Bin Laden, Bush's friend, attacked America and killed lots of innocent Americans. Bush directed this anger to someone who had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and one of Bin Laden's many enemies - Saddam Hussein.

So - violating three of the seven deadly sins isn't indencent enough? How about violating two of the Ten Commandments? Is that indecent enough? More specifically, shall we look at "Thou Shall Not Bear False Witness" and "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (with an eye to the Biblical exclusion of "an eye for an eye", of course.)

Let's look at the false witness thingie first. Bush was on TV saying Saddam had WMD when he been told that was doubtful. (Sidenote, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell's dad Colin Powell also lied on international TV that we knew where the WMD was. Subsequent events proved we did not.) Speaking of which, this whole false witness thingie doesn't look good for Bush as a manager. His subordinates keep saying things they know to be false. For example, Dr. Rice's "No one could have imagined..." collection.

Thou shalt not kill. The Bible does have some provisos and escape clauses so this commandment has been liberalized to mean thou shalt not kill innocent bystanders. George Bush's record on this hasn't been too good. Shock and Awe. Hurricane Katrina. Shock and Awe is a sin of commission and Katrina was at best a sin of omission. Both of these events were highly televised putting them squarely into the FCC's jurisdiction. In fact, the television crews were in New Orleans a full five days ahead of the rescue crews...

Forgive me as I belabor these points. In my defense, this missive is a miniscule fraction of the words written about Janet Jackson's nipple that someone else exposed. Speaking of which, while Janet Jackson was fined a considerable amount for being the victim of something the FCC perceived as a crime the larger question is what is an appropriate fine for televised indecency when there is monetary damages as well? The morale high ground would seem that the fine should cover real damages in addition to punitive damages.

What has George Bush's televised indecencies cost us? Shall we consider the trillion dollars (or more) that Iraq will cost? Shall we consider the trillion dollars or more that New Orleans will cost? Shall we consider the thousands of American lives lost in New Orleans? Shall we consider the thousands of American lives lost in Iraq? Shall we consider the hundreds of thousands of American lives shattered by casualties in Iraq? Shall we consider the 100,000 civilians murdered in Iraq? Shall we consider the millions of Iraqis' lives shattered by casualties in Iraq?

I certainly hope George Bush has to pay as least as much for his indecency as Howard Stern had to pay for his potty mouth.

Why is Bush so afraid of these men locked up in Gitmo that they can't have their day in court? Shouldn't Bush's illegal wiretapping have enough evidence to convict them? Accuse, try and convict before carrying out the death penalty or life sentences on these prisoners.

Republicans slash funding for port security. One wonders if Bush's Arab pals got to run the ports would the money have been left intact? You remember Dubai and their role in financing the 9/11 attacks, don't you? Why is it Bush wants to give them stuff?

From the Once Again, I Am Like The News Only Sooner Department. I posted this at skippy's in April. Reichert defeat fits into Democrats' national strategy.

Doing a 9/11 style non-investigation where the US Army cleared itself of wrong doing appears to have angered all of Iraq. Bush said he was a uniter....

New York anti-terror funds slashed.
Seattle anti-terror funds slashed.
Boston anti-terror funds slashed.
California, Bay Area anti-terror funds slashed.

Memphis anti-terror funds increased.
Orlando anti-terror funds increased.
Fort Lauderdale anti-terror funds increased.

Hint: It appears Republicans have gone wild.

Sun to lay off 5,000 American workers.

Give us what we want and then we will start talks about what we want is being hailed by the European Union? Iran will jump at that offer?

Now if she had only been airlifted to Aruba then the producers at CNN would have wet their pants.