WTF Is It Now?!?

Hey, it's Ari!



CHIMPY McDUMBASS'S NURSEMAIDS JUST DON'T GET IT
Responding to criticism from Republicans in Congress and nationwide that pResident Evil has not acted aggressively enough against corporate corruption, White House officials moved on several fronts today to demonstrate they're serious, goldarnit, before Bunnypants skips off to Rancho Boguso for a one-month vacation.

First, they took credit for the arrest of executives charged with looting one of the nation's largest cable television companies (What, like Ari 'the Liar" Fleischer charged into the boardroom a la Elliot Ness, waving a .45?). They told Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to cancel yet another trip out of the country and focus on the domestic economy, dammit. And while they insisted that Reznit Clueless was not changing any of his plans to visit 12 cities in August from his Texas pig farm, White House officials said they expected him to stress economic security as frequently as national security and said they were still examining what themes he would strike. Maybe the poor cows at the Lazy W will have some thoughts on the matter.

The maneuvering appears to reflect a deepening anxiety within the White House and the Republican Party that candidates seeking election in November could be in peril in the wake of accusations that the party is too close to big business.

Never mind the fact that taking an entire month off while people are so jittery over the stock market, while we're 'at war', while the anthrax killer is still at large, while a lot of people are now having to face putting off their retirement while CEO crooks are still free to build their $35 million mansions seems a bit insensitive. And while Ari says Bunnypants will be 'commenting on the economy' on his little tour, he'll actually be campaigning and fundraising for repug candidates. - Snipped from the NY Times.



QUOTE:
"He is a lifelong beneficiary of crony capitalism, as were his father and grandfather before him. He has no quarrel with that system and is blind to its defects. He cannot raise his hand against what Teddy Roosevelt called the 'malefactors of great wealth,' because they’re his backers, his colleagues, his friends and his family." - From "Bush’s Tangled Past Is Relevant Today" by Joe Conason, at the NY Observer.



HAVE SOME CHEESE WITH THAT WHINE
Key Senate Democrats are weighing hearings on the past business dealings of Laura's Little Liar and Dick 'Chicanery' Cheney unless they are more forthcoming about their roles as executives of two Texas-based corporations.

Sens. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.) and Carl Levin (Mich.), the two top ranking Democrats on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, say they want more information on Bunnypants' questionable activities as a director of Harken Energy Corp. and Cheney’s highly paid position as chief executive of Halliburton Co.

Sen. Levin, who chairs the Government Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said if Emperor Snippy and Bunker Boy Cheney do not make public documents that shed light on their private-sector activities, Congress might have to step in.

“I think they need to turn over all the documents that relate to the issue,” Levin said. If they do not, he said: “It seems to me there is a potential, at least for Halliburton, of possible hearings.” However, Levin said he would not make a final decision until after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has had more time to probe the company (The SEC launched an "investigation" of Halliburton in May).

Congressional hearings that deal with the prior business activities of a sitting president and vice president are extremely rare. However, the Republican led Senate-conducted extensive hearings on President and Mrs. Clinton’s business dealings, known as Whitewater.

Repugs are already foaming at the mouth: Tom DeLay (R-Insane) denounced Democrats on Wednesday for practicing "the politics of economic destruction." Oh, there's a good one. Nice soundbite, you miserable, hypocritical weasel. Boo-f*cking-hoo. - From here and here.



"I'M GOING ON VACATION - LOSERS!!"
The Moron of Midland and his top handlers have decided to take a page from the Vietnam War era in their handling of the current stock market turmoil and economic jitters: they declared victory and went home.

In interviews Wednesday, senior administration officials made clear the White House thinks it has done all it can - and should - to calm the markets and buoy the economy. All that's left is to convince people the results are a victory, something Bunnypants' economic team fanned out to do in a burst of speeches, interviews and TV appearances.

However, in arguing, in effect, that the steps he has already taken are enough, Squinty McSquirtypants runs the risk of appearing to be headed down the same path as his father, whose popularity after the Persian Gulf War vanished when the economy soured in the early 1990s, leaving him vulnerable to political attack by Bill Clinton. - Snipped from Peter G. Gosselin's column in the Los Angeles Times. That plus lots more good stuff here .