WTF Is It Now?!?

Looks like we have homes for Elsa and Catrina, and their mom has an appointment with the vet in a couple of weeks. :(




More Moments in Churchilliana

"Whether you're here by birth, or whether you're in America by choice, you contribute to the vitality of our life. And for that, we are grateful." - the Oaf of Office ,Washington, D.C., May 17, 2002. (Thanks to Slate.)



Oh great - there goes the stock market again

After giving the usual barely coherent soundbites in various photo-ops recently, Bunnypants is planning to devote an entire speech on the subject of corporate governance next month, an administration official said.

"The United States expects the highest of ethical behavior and truth and transparency from its corporate leaders," the irony-challenged Aunt Condo later said on CNBC. "The white-collar criminals of such corporations as Enron, Global Crossing, and Halliburton will find there is no place to hide from...was that my beeper? Excuse me..."


Is that a deranged squirrel on your head, or are you just happy to see me?

DINO crook and avant-garde hair model James Traficant faces the House Ethics Committee in a public hearing set for July 15. His 10-count description of 'alleged' congressional violations was released Thursday. They allege the Ohio sleazeball engaged in a "continuing pattern and practice of official misconduct," including acceptance of kickbacks, encouraging the destruction of evidence, defrauding the United States and filing false income tax returns.

The eight-member panel, which includes two fellow Ohio lawmakers, will hear Traficant's defense and then determine whether the charges "have been proven by clear and convincing evidence."

Blah blah blah. I'm sure Traficant will get off lightly, with just some minor noogies - after all, he's one Dem the repukes want to keep around.



It would be so much easier if their names ended with 'Clinton'

Those wacky Bush twins! They were spotted by 'multiple witnesses' in a Washington saloon, 'sucking down Budweisers and chain-smoking cigarettes' until well past midnight - but that's all off the record, of course: sources for the Washington comPost 'expressed concerns that going public about the Bush girls would be bad for their careers.' Yeah, it would be hard to file stories from the gulag. Welcome to the BFEE's Fascistan, assholes.



'the most tasteless and insensitive joke in the annals of the presidency'

Professional stand-up comedians know that Sept. 11 jokes are radioactive. Not even the bravest have tried to turn the deaths of some 3,000 people into a laughing matter. But pResident Bush has forged ahead anyway. Bush has now been telling the same, spectacularly tasteless joke to a variety of mostly Republican audiences as part of his stock stump speech for the better part of four months now.

This is its basic telling: "You know, when I was running for president, in Chicago, somebody said, would you ever have deficit spending? I said, only if we were at war, or only if we had a recession, or only if we had a national emergency. Never did I dream we'd get the trifecta."

According to the transcripts, this joke usually elicits laughter from the mostly GOP crowds to whom Bush tells it. So far, the president has told the joke on the record at least 14 times. Bush apparently decided to make it part of his stump speech, beginning with a GOP luncheon on Feb. 27. The tellings have come more regularly, and have been largely at GOP fund-raising functions.

However, the real problem with the joke is that it's a complete falsehood. Bush never told any audience, or any reporter, in Chicago that he could foresee three conditions under which deficit spending might be necessary. In fact, throughout the entire campaign, Bush had been insistent that budget surpluses would continue. Bush's story, moreover, is fundamentally false as a purely chronological matter: Bush was already facing the certainty of deficit spending at the end of the summer of 2001, well before the attacks of Sept. 11. Some $4 trillion worth of budget surplus vanished over the spring and summer that year, and budget experts sounded the alarm about looming deficits then. The Congressional Budget Office warned Bush on Aug. 29 that Social Security funds would be needed to balance the books, forcing him to abandon a campaign promise not to use the retirement fund for other government spending. Indeed, that is just what Bush proceeded to do in his actual budget, presented in January. According to the CBO, Bush's budget plan would drain every dollar of the $527 billion surplus from the Social Security Trust Fund for the next two fiscal years even while creating a deficit. It would continue to raid the fund for varying amounts each year through 2012. Even with the fund's help, the federal budget is expected to be in deficits through at least 2005.

Most economists peg the source of these nagging deficits on Bush's tax-cut plan, the deepest portions of which loom ahead. The administration sternly denies this. Yet it's clear that while Sept. 11 may have deepened and broadened the budget-deficit problem, the administration was faced with chronic budget deficits no matter what.

And that gets to the heart of the "trifecta" joke, whose entire purpose clearly is to blame the deficit on Sept. 11 and its aftermath. It lets Bush escape any serious questions about either his failure to balance the budget or, particularly, his campaign pledge to use the Social Security Trust Fund to pay down the national debt. The national tragedy gave him unparalleled political cover for his administration's failures - and Bush has displayed no hesitation whatsoever about using it. Indeed, it has become his favorite joke. - - snipped from David Neiwert at MSNBC. Don't forget to vote for this article at their website!



Quote of the Day: 'Now it's official. Bush is Ariel Sharon's bitch.' - Ted Rall