Even an emerging crisis in the Middle East, one he pledged to resolve just 13 months ago, has not drawn President George W. Bush from his final vacation before leaving office. Despite his personal pledge at Annapolis last year to broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinians before 2009, this weekend Bush sent his spokesmen to comment in his stead. […]
Since departing Washington for Crawford on Friday, President Bush has made no attempt to be seen in public. In fact, he has yet to leave his ranch.
Yesterday in a press briefing delivered from the "Western White House" in Crawford, TX, White House spokestool Johndroe was asked what is on Bush's schedule today. In addition to receiving "updates on the ongoing situation," Johndroe said, "I expect he'll probably ride his bicycle today and spend time with Mrs. Bush." Watch it:
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"I think we've had some serious goofs along the way. The Katrina matter was terrible. The rebuilding of Iraq has been terrible. The handing of the economy has been terrible. History may accord him a higher grade than his contemporaries, but I would give Bush about a C-minus right now if I were grading him." Pat Robertson, being very generous with his grading.
"Only a C-minus? I'd give Meester Booooosh a C-plus, at least..."
If there's anyone more irrelevant than George Bush, it's Pat Robertson, the man that time forgot. But CNN doesn't think so, and gave him 10 minutes on their Situation Room, where we learn that Pat talks to God some more:
MALVEAUX: You had actually predicted in the beginning of the year that we would be in this financial mess. You said in January, "I also believe the lord was saying by 2009, maybe 2010, there's going to be a major stock market crash."You predicted a recession. Why?
ROBERTSON: Well, I don't know why, but that's -- you know, I go away to pray at the end of each year and sort of try to ask for some leading guidance as to what's going to happen and what I'm supposed to be doing. And this came to me last -- the end of last December, that we were going to have a serious downturn.
Ah, Pat Robertson, master economist with Jesus himself whispering in his ear. And getting the timing of the crash all wrong by a half year or more. This is the best insider info The God of Gods can feed to Pat? Seriously, who cares what this demented leprechaun has to say about anything anymore....except for the fools at CNN that are still using their 1990's Rolodex files for guest spots.
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I just can't see why anyone will want to go to George W. Bush's shitty library. I think Bush is creating it because that is just what presidents do these days, but I don't think he gives a crap about making the inner workings of administration a subject of objective study. Oh wait! He cares about that not happening. So Bush is going to create a library that doesn't have any of the key documents that scholars will want to see. Instead, we'll be offered video footage of Barney the dog and presidential turkey pardons and Commander Codpiece in various triumphant poses. I can't think of a better candidate to replace Yucca Mountain than Bush's shitty library.
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The tragic and suspicious death of Karl Rove's election thief in chief should send a clear message to Al Franken and other key liberals: don't be riding in any small private planes. Link
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Barack Obama yesterday appeared to line up behind the Bush administration in support of Israel's attack on Gaza.
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The myth of a Christian Christmas.
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It's no wonder people are surprised that such a nice guy that was a devoted Catholic and owned Four shotguns, two handguns, three unidentified firearms, and a military-style hummer would dress up as Santa, go to a Christmas Eve party, and shoot nine children and adults including his ex-wife and in-laws.
He's being condemned in the press, but, now, Mens Movement activists are touting his story as another example of the sad, sorry plight of the white Christian male.
SonofMichael (Who, not surprisingly, links to a mail-order bride site):
The woman was so greedy that she tried to steal this guys house, money and DOG !!! No way would I let someone take my dog. This is what happens when laws take advantage and abuse men; sooner or later men are going to fight back.
According to the Catholic Church, divorce is a mortal sin, resulting in immediate excommunication, and during the times of church rule, punishable by death except under extreme circumstances.
So instead of focusing on what Bruce Pardo did, we should be asking why the US government didn't beat him to it. This woman was rewarded for divorcing her husband. Yes. In this country, in the United States of America, you may now receive cash compensation for filing for divorce. This is commonly referred to as "alimony payments". Now, if they called it "Reward For Getting Divorced" people would probably not be as accepting of it. But that's what it is.
But woman's eyes were bigger than her stomach, and now she is left with neither. Her body will rot to ashes in the ground and will be consumed by maggots. Mr. Pardo just helped to accelerate the process, and give her an attractive aroma which is pleasing to insect life. After all, we need to be considerate of the insects.
The White House's official reaction to the end of a six-month truce between Hamas and Israel was, in essence, to show a middle finger to the Palestinians and say, "See this? Sit on this and rotate, bitches." Or, as Condoleezza Rice put it, "The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza." Which would be great if Hamas had broken the cease-fire. At best, that's up for debate, although most evidence points to Israel being the first dicks in the cock fight. And, to demonstrate that you can't spell "diplomacy" without a dip, some damn spokestooge for Bush said of Hamas, "These people are nothing but thugs."
Does anyone even remember the ludicrous "road map" to an end to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? Yeah, it was just great to provide a map. Some wheels and an engine would have been better. (And not the engines in the warplanes the U.S. sells to Israel.)
Meanwhile, over there, the ambulances in Gaza are having difficulty transporting the dead and wounded because of the constant barrage of Israeli attacks. Before the attacks, because of its opposition to the Hamas-led government, Israel decided to blockade the Gaza Strip. Writes Johann Hari, "According to Oxfam, only 137 trucks of food were allowed into Gaza this November - to feed 1.5 million people. The UN says poverty has reached an 'unprecedented level.' When I was last in besieged Gaza, I saw hospitals turning away the sick because their machinery and medicine was running out. I met hungry children stumbling around the streets, scavenging for food." So Hamas launched some rockets. A stupid move, but if you're watching your kids dig through garbage to eat, you might just throw rocks at the people making it happen.
And, as ever, Israel's reaction is to drop a freaking avalanche of boulders on the sick, starving rock throwers. Of course, demonstrations took place against Israel all over the Arab world, including in lucky, liberated Iraq. Over there, it's all redemptive blood and death, which is a cycle that can only ensure its continuation.
Meanwhile, over here, this is another not-so-abstract example of just how screwed we've become as a nation, how impotent, how unimportant. We've only got three weeks left of this madness, of being led by these criminally arrogant and incompetent bastards. WTF else could happen? What the fuck else can? At this point, all bets are off on whether or not the nation can survive until January 20. Shit, we should just go around expecting another terrorist attack, a plague ravaging a city, a goddamned black hole swallowing the entire planet. It wouldn't even be surprising.
Seems that Mitch McConnell didn't get the memo about the new post-partisan era in which we're living. The symbolism of homophobe Rick Warren delivering the invocation at the inauguration was supposed to show McConnell that D.C. is a different place now and we all have to get along. Apparently not. (But, surely Warren will call McConnell and the other Republican Senators to get them on board with Obama's agenda, right?)
Post-partisanship only works when both sides do it and we're seeing that isn't going to happen.
I simply can not take one more puff piece on the sad times falling on the wizards of Wall Street. CNN just ran another piece about the closing of a restaurant (Maggie's, I think) that catered to the Wall Street crowd, complete with crying customers and accompanying funeral dirge-like music, and I almost barfed. Making it even more ridiculous, it followed a five minute piece in which we learned that the banking/financial sector is now switching to white shirts from multi-colored shirts- complete with interviews of owners of up-scale British boutiques.
While I am sad about the employees of the restaurant, I really can not take another story about the rough lifestyle changes facing the rich and stupid. I don't care that they are having to sell their summer homes in the Hamptons. I don't care that they now are opting to fly first class instead of using their private jets. Do the folks at CNN and elsewhere not realize how deeply offensive this is to the other 99.5% of the country? You know, the folks who, during the current economic disaster are losing their house, their life savings, and their medical care, not their lunchtime reservations at a Manhattan eatery?
I may have to just shoot my tv.
A U.S. Army War College report warns an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order.
Winning hearts and minds with a good attitude - NOT! A soldier complains about begging Afghan kids and tells one "your country sucks ass."
From the Gulf Times, a little-noticed aspect of the Bush administration's epic fail in Afghanistan. While the Western media is preoccupied with war - violent deaths, the resurgent Taliban and plans for a military Surge - the other Horsemen are even busier.
Do you think watching their babies die of famine and pestilence will help endear Afghans to the prospect of another 20-30,000 well-fed American soldiers in their country? Do you really think spending billions on those troops can possibly keep the lid on, given the statistics above? I know where I think the bulk of any surging should be going on.
And Digby notes some "Progress" in Iraq: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/progress-by-digby-for-all-talk-about.html
Nevermind the 3,000+ Americans who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Or the resulting wars. Or that one of the countries Bush chose to invade had nothing to do with the attacks. Or even the lingering, unanswered questions as to just how exactly the 9/11 attacks were pulled off.
"As Bush prepares to leave office, in my opinion, the presidency of George W. Bush was hijacked as surely as the four planes that crashed on that fateful September morning seven years ago," he continued. "The event of 9-11 pushed all other domestic and foreign policy initiatives off of the table. The demands of Homeland Security replaced the promises of 'Compassionate Conservatism.'"
Campbell worked for the Bush transition team in 2000, and was appointed to the Social Security Administration by the outgoing president.
Ultimately, Campbell believes Bush will be "vindicated" within two decades "for his actions that kept his country and its citizens safe ... Even while they cheered as he moved out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
1 comment:
Thank you Ms. Jen. Every time I just come by to visit and skim, I fall down the rabbit hole and resurface hours later. I really do LOVE your attitude.
Moonmadman
thank you for ALL of the great links
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