My head hurts
"Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, distinguished citizens ...and fellow citizens." - the Court-Appointed Ignoramus, f*cking up the opening sentence of the State of the Union, 1/03. Read that and more at Temple Furnace.
"There's a - some of the greatest programs, initiatives come out of our faith-based programs or faith-based churches or synagogues or mosques." ?? 'faith-based churches'??! - the incredible raging nincompoop, Washington, D.C., 1/30/03.
"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein and his willingness to terrorize himself." - f*ck is he talking about????? The obviously rabid Dictator-tot, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1/29/03.
Update: I found this one over at Bartcop*:
"His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy." -- Woody Allen.
*Go over there and check out the pic at the bottom of the page.
January 31, 2003
Quote of the day
"Americans long to have their moral energies roused, really roused, and give their hearts to sacrifice. Franklin Roosevelt did it with his pledge to the Four Freedoms, JFK with his 'ask what you can do for your country' inaugural.
"But Bush just can't get there. In his State of the Union pep rally a smirk of privilege hangs in the air even as he goes for maximum gravitas." - Tina Brown.
I'm late today. All the good news has been taken.
Got some monkey mail last night - to the cretinous fretard bushmoonie who asked how I can be such a 'disrepectful' lesbian bitch: I'm not a lesbian. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Oh, Canada!
OTTAWA: "George Bush is very trigger-happy," Benoît Serré, a Liberal MP, said after a meeting of the party caucus. "The point that makes me upset is that most of those dictators in the last 25 or 30 years were put in place by the Americans. As long as they sell oil and they obey the American position, then they are OK." - the National Post.
W pushes war, but people push back
The number of Americans opposed to war with Iraq is growing faster than anyone in the White House dares to admit. - Nice piece on the protest movement, by Juan Gonzalez at the NY Daily News.
Not so fast...
The Bush administration's plan to open the 19 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling suffered a major blow today, as six Republican senators said they opposed inserting language to give oil companies access to the refuge into a must-pass budget bill.
Six of the Senate's 52 Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona, announced today that they would not go along with a plan to tack ANWR drilling language onto a massive spending bill this spring that would enact the new 2004 budget for the federal government. The senators said drilling in the Alaskan refuge is an important policy issue that should be openly debated, not slipped into an unrelated bill.
"Because the opening of the Arctic refuge to drilling raises a host of policy concerns, including serious environmental ramifications, we do not believe this issue should be injected in the budget process," the lawmakers said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Don Nickles.
In addition to McCain, the letter was signed by Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois and Mike DeWine of Ohio. - link.
....thud...
"And, most importantly, Alma Powell, secretary of Colin Powell, is with us." - Squinty the Boilfaced Doper, Washington, D.C., 1/30/03.
January 30, 2003
Whoa!
The following was actually part of Howie 'Toady' Kurtz's column in the Washington Post - he's quoting an email to Andrew Sullivan:
"'Since breezy theories are all the rage among the punditocracy these days (your slap at the 'intelligentsia' is amusing, given that almost all political and media elites throw themselves at Bush's feet) try this on for size: Those who support Bush, who cram their theories to fit a man of his stature, are simply afraid to admit to any flaw in him because it will bring the whole house of cards tumbling down. So you invent a jut-jawed man of action, determined and resolute with a clear vision of world harmony.
"'But the whispering in your head won't stop: he's a vile and craven little momma's boy, a snooty insider trader and coward who deserted his National Guard post while the great unwashed were still dying in Vietnam, and who rushed off to save his candy [butt] on September 11 and invented a lie about Air Force one being a target while the great unwashed were once again dying under the rubble. But you're too damned afraid to admit it. Sick of it? Too bad."
Apres moi, le fromage*
WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This image of the American president on his Texas ranch has little resonance in Europe. It just does not play well. Outside the United States, critics say George W. Bush has earned himself a reputation for arrogance that is hurting his country.
PIERS MORGAN, EDITOR "THE DAILY MIRROR": I sense a creeping anti-Americanism attached to the Bush administration based around this -- very much this you are either with us or against us mentality. I think people look at him and they think John Wayne. And we like John Wayne, we liked him in cowboy films. We don't like him running the world.
ABDEL BARI, ATWAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, AL QUDS: The Arabs see George W. Bush as arrogant and stupid at the same time. The Arabs liked Bill Clinton. They considered him wiser, reasonable, and a man who use his brains.
RODGERS: Others also say the president's perceived lack of intellectualism has earned him derision.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was caught not really knowing anything about European history or opera or art and so on. And the feeling is that he may be a great governor of Texas, but he shouldn't be in charge of the most powerful country in the world. - from CNN.
*Thanks, Bigwig!
'Did Bush tell 37 lies Tuesday?'
Hey, George...Gotta wonder if you broke a record Tuesday night. A record for inconsistencies, to put it politely.
Other would call it a record for lies. I'm not saying that, but others might. I counted 36 lies...I mean, inconsistencies...when I read a newspaper transcript of your State of the Union speech. In fact, CBS News reported LIE #37 that the inspectors in Iraq would be able to tell if someone was posing as an Iraqi scientist.
As I watched Tuesday night, I thought I caught a half-dozen distortions and even blatant lies just during the first 10 minutes. - Bruce S. Ticker.
Media hand-job
Chris Matthews' of MSNBC's Hardball hit a few homers, especially when interviewing retired Gen. (Stormin') Norman Schwarzkopf, star of Gulf War I: The Sins Of The Father. He told Matthews flatly that another invasion would be about oil and he "didn't believe for one minute" that it was about anything else.
Matthews also mocked Bush's transparent proposal to fund the development of hydrogen-powered cars, as if this president was ever a friend to the environment.
But Matthews was the exception. All in all, the mainstream media fell into line yesterday. Even the New York Times wasted few column inches on domestic matters.
For hard-hitting criticism of the SOTU, the only place to look was the Internet. Which is pretty much the story every day in these times. - from Antonia Zerbisias's column at the Toronto Star.
From the Grain of Salt Department:
Iraq sent spies from Canada to New York and Washington this month to snoop and stir up anti-war demonstrations, according to a government report. Yeah, our government's report. - the NY Daily News.
"Should Bush get Congressional approval before attacking Iraq in defiance of the UN?"*
Poll at CNN.com: Should new congressional approval be required before the U.S. can take military action against Iraq? - vote here!
"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself." - the Incredible AWOL Wonderboob, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1/29/03.
"It is a tragedy what is happening, what Bush is doing in Iraq. What I am condemning is that one power, with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly, is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust." - Nelson Mandela, a real statesman, 1/30/03.
*CarbonDate, at the BC Forum.
Bishop: Bush a belligerent butthead
The top bishop of the Episcopal Church, in a stinging rebuke of American foreign policy, said the United States is rightly "hated and loathed" around the world for its "reprehensible" rhetoric and blind eye toward poverty and suffering.
"I'd like to be able to go somewhere in the world and not have to apologize for being from the United States," presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold 3rd said Friday in an interview with Religion News Service.
Griswold, head of the 2.3 million-member church, blasted the Bush administration for its wartime rhetoric, especially labeling Iran, Iraq and North Korea an "axis of evil."
"Quite apart from the bombs we drop, words are weapons and we have used our language so unwisely, so intemperately, so thoughtlessly ... that I'm not surprised we are hated and loathed everywhere I go," he said. - link.
Now Georgie will have to get Unca Dick to read from Green Eggs and Ham
Chickenshits: the White House said Wednesday it postponed a poetry symposium because of concerns that the event would be politicized. Some poets had said they wanted to protest military action against Iraq.
The symposium on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman was scheduled for Feb. 12. No future date has been announced. - the Guardian.
A Rush to the exits
Though still in its infancy, a letter-writing campaign aimed at advertisers on "The Rush Limbaugh Show," has already claimed a few choice scalps - and hopes to soon have other marketers saying "ditto."
Kicked off last week on the website of a group called Take Back The Media, the effort is generating a growing buzz among online progressives (or, if you prefer, "liberals") - along with hundreds of angry e-mails to companies that sponsor what it calls Limbaugh's "hateful chortling and guffawing." - Woohoo! Congrats, guys! Read more at CBS Marketwatch.
Allies to Bush: 'You're full of sh!t'
Key members on the U.N. Security Council said yesterday that the misadministration had failed to convince them that time had run out for a peaceful resolution to the crisis with Iraq.
At a council meeting a day after the State of the Union speech, 11 of the 15 members – France, Russia and China who all have veto power as well as Germany, Mexico, Chile, Guinea, Cameroon, Syria, Angola and Pakistan - supported giving more time to the weapons inspectors. Only Bulgaria and Spain backed the Bushies and Britain.
Also, the top nuclear inspector in Iraq, Mohamed ElBaradei, stood by the findings that the aluminum tubes the Iraqis had tried to import were for rockets and not for a nuclear program, as the Nookuler Nincompoop lied in his speech Tuesday night.
"We believe the tubes were destined for the conventional rocket program," ElBaradei said. He said the tubes could be modified for uranium enrichment but that the process would be expensive, time-consuming and detectable.
In the SOTU speech, Bush lied again when he said: "Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview."
ElBaradei said it was unlikely his inspectors "could be fooled in the nuclear area on who is a scientist and who is not."
"We know all the scientists from the past and I think our people could easily detect if that person is a scientist or not." - from the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, in Jeb!World...
An employee in Broward County's elections office has told prosecutors that there are more uncounted absentee ballots from September's primary than those found this week in a file cabinet.
The lawyer for the employee said she discovered more than 500 unopened ballots in the office mailroom two days after the election. According to the story she laid out to prosecutors, she notified her supervisor and was told there had been a mix-up and that the votes needed to disappear. - from the Sun-Sentinal.
I want what she's taking
...but then I'd turn into a spoogy dumbass.
"George W. Bush's State of the Union the other night flipped expectations and broke rules. It began as a barge and turned into a ship of state. Suddenly you realized its early slowness was in fact a stateliness, not a flaw but part of a design. It built. It didn't blast its horn and yet as it moved forward you couldn't stop listening.
"For a moment I though of earnest Clark Kent moving, at the moment of maximum danger, to shed his suit, tear open his shirt and reveal the big "S" on his chest." - more ick from the female Howard Fineman, Peggy 'Oozing Hot Hormonal Action' Noonan.
Now that's bipartisanship
The Court-Appointed Impotus ran into GOP and Democratic resistance to his Medicare reform proposal Wednesday, with even White House allies saying they were confused about what the resident intended to propose and a key Republican pledging to block the plan. "What the bleeding hopped-up Jesus is he talking about??" one member of Congress asked. - from here. Mostly.
Well, he is!
The Sun in Baltimore, on Jan. 17, also tossed a cynical barb: "The way [Press Secretary] Ari Fleischer describes how his boss is getting 'sick and tired' of Iraqi games, how his patience is wearing thin, makes it sound as though George W. Bush is a petulant little man stamping his foot." - from Newspaper Editorials Turn Against War, by Ari Berman.
Unca Karl, what happened to the 1st Amendment Zones??
Protesters thronged the streets of Grand Rapids, most of them demonstrating against possible war. There were hundreds outside the hospital where he [Chimpy the Liar] visited with health care workers and a Medicare beneficiary behind closed doors, and hundreds more at several other intersections. They lined virtually the entire route from the hospital to the site of Bush's speech. - link.
January 28, 2003
king-sized circle jerk
skippy has highlights from the Bob "Bobbing for Bush' Woodward strokefest on Larry King Live last night. Turns out the show's callers did the better job interviewing him. One of my favorites:
Phoenix: "How do you defend the assertion that your time with president Bush has jaded your objectivity and that's why you seem to defend and approve of the rah-rah antics of the bush administration?"
Hell, one of them even used the i-word before getting cut off! Sweet!
'The real terrorist'
The belligerent little twit from Texas has singlehandedly has turned the world's greatest democracy into a paranoid police state. He recently killed 5,000 people in Afghanistan without a shred of verifiable evidence, and now is threatening to do it again ... and again and again and again.
No single person in recent history has motivated so many people in so many places to interrupt their daily lives and stand out on some strange street in order to try to save the lives of innocent people they've never met.
Colossal demonstrations took place last weekend in cities all over the United States, from Portland to Tampa to Montpelier. Washington drew 500,000 and San Francisco saw 200,000 (although the pro-war, corporate shill TV networks cynically refuse to confirm those totals). Concerned people protested all over Europe as well, from London to Istanbul, and in Brazil, Japan and New Zealand. There was even a peace demonstration in Antarctica.
Despite all the hysterical mumbo jumbo about unending terror alerts that never seem to materialize and draconian new laws that have gutted America's fabled Bill of Rights, people of the world with the intelligence to analyze events without the aid of cutesy but ignorant commentators on the Fascist News Network (a.k.a. Fox) know that all the pro-war propaganda is just a screen of strident lies. - from John Kaminski's column.
Credibility problem
"George W Bush is in trouble. This is not wishful thinking by Europeans who cannot abide a man they see as a trigger-happy, unilateralist half-wit. It is an assessment of the 43rd president's standing at home, on the day he delivers what is surely one of the most important State of the Union messages in modern times." - the Independant.
"We can be sure that some pundits will acclaim the speech as bold and brilliant; they would do that if he read from The Very Hungry Caterpillar." - Paul Krugman.
"Perhaps all these powerful people just think we're stupid. This seemed to be the belief last Wednesday, when the president pitched his latest economic stimulus for the wealthy while standing in front of a painted facade of "Made in the USA" boxes in a room where the words "Made in China" on hundreds of real boxes had been taped over by presidential volunteers." - Robert Scheer.
"Americans have a word for men like George W Bush and Dick Cheney. In the parlance of Vietnam veterans Mr Bush and his vice-president are "chickenhawks", men who dodged the draft and now cheerfully dispatch young Americans to war. Not without irony they note that the most hawkish and bellicose government in living memory is filled with men who never saw battle themselves. Of the senior members of the US administration, Colin Powell, the secretary of state, is the single exception." - the Glasgow Herald.
"Iraq has done nothing to us. We might as well invade Denmark." - Gore Vidal, to Tweety Matthews.
Hey Wolf, your smeggy panties are showing.
I felt like slapping his fat smirking face last night. At the end of his show, he put up the results of his latest web poll: 'When it comes to Iraq, whom do you trust more: the Bush Administration or the U.N.?' When the numbers came up - 32 percent said the misadministration, 68 percent said they trust the U.N. more - he turned to Lou Dobbs and just about asked "do you believe this shit?!" Lou replied no, and they both had a good laugh. I could've knocked their clueless heads together.
Bunnypants to butter up whore media prior to SOTU
Network anchors and prosti pundits are invited to a 'private, off-the-record lunch' with pResident Evil today, where they'll receive homey, aw-shucks nicknames, 'unpresidented' face time* with the homespun holiness, and fresh supplies of Karl's Anal Lube - now flavored with estrogen! Then they'll rapturously write an unbiased review of the chimp's declaration of war on Iraq and on our economy.
*Their lips, his ____.
Changing the tone in Washington, huh?
Senator James Inhofe, R-Shithead: How do you know they don't have a missile? We know one thing for sure, China has been trading technology and systems with Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, North Korea now for years and years. Indigenously? No they're not going to have one. But they're getting dangerously close to having one. We can all have reason to suspect. Why would they not if they're trading with these countries?
It was your guys back during your president, Bill Clinton's time in 1998...
Paul Begala: He was your president too, we're all Americans.
Inhofe, classless asshole: Well, you make that determination.
- - From Crossfire. Unbelievable. Got news for you, scumbag. Clinton was elected. Twice. Get over that.
WH spokes-tool Ari Fleischer
demonstrates the amount of credibility
Bush has with allies, American people.
Ohhhhhh...kay...
And donut holes may spark lawsuit over resemblance to Resident's cranium.
January 27, 2003
So wtf was the point??
"Colin Powell, on the eve of the UN report, said the United States would go to war against Iraq alone if European allies would not join the fight, regardless of inspections." - from the Washingtoon comPost.
Go nads, go!
In a sudden display of testosterone, Tom 'Isadora' Daschle challenged the Bush misadministration today to show "proof to the world" that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, on the eve of the resident's State of the Union address.
"At a time when we have only just begun to fight the war on terror, the American people deserve to hear why we should put hundreds of thousands of American troops at risk, spend perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars, risk our alliances, and inflame our adversaries to attack Iraq," Daschle said. "Now maybe that crankpot Maru will stop refering to me as 'Isadora.' *
In a joint appearance, Daschle and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi accused Bush of creating a "credibility gap" on purpose, of saying one thing and doing another across a range of issues.
"The administration says that the reason we cannot afford $1.5 billion in homeland security funding, which the Congress passed into law but the president refuses to spend, is that we are constrained by a wartime budget," Pelosi said. "And yet, the president says there is enough money in the wartime budget to create a huge tax cut that benefits the wealthiest in our country. The credibility gap widens." - link.
Heh - with any luck, they've forced the AWOL Wonderboob to rewrite his speech at the last minute, after he's been practicing all week (between game boy sessions)! He'll be f*cked!!
*Not bloody likely. -Eds.
Lots of good stuff up at Zizka's Vanity Site.
January 26, 2003
Link update
Please welcome MWO Watch Watch Watch Watch, Best of the Blogs, Fighting Democrats, and Take Back the Media, where you can get information on the Rush Limbaugh boycott.
C'est le guerre, douchebag
Sniffs Andrew Sullivan: “Anti-Americanism is spreading far and wide. I wonder one thing: do they understand that America actually has self-respect? And that America's power can actually fight back against its enemies?”
I wonder if Sullivan understands that the American government has been hijacked in a bloodless coup d’etat by a small group of radical nationalist thugs who have total contempt for democratic process, long-established rule of law, individual rights, and especially international treaties. Selected by the Supreme Court after an election that ended in a statistical tie and in clear contempt for his own promise to be “a uniter, not a divider,” Bush has ruled from day one as if he had a mandate to undertake the most radical reordering of the government in American history.
Far from being principled conservatives, the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld axis of evil has cynically manipulated one of the greatest tragedies in American history to further a pre-existing corporatist/fundamentalist agenda (carefully hidden from the public while Bush was running for office) to turn back the clock on civil liberties, women’s rights, environmental and arms control agreements and other manifestations of global good citizenship. In the process, they have squandered the enormous goodwill offered by most of the world’s nations in the wake of 9/11 and with it a chance to lead a real and effective coalition to end the specter of radical Islamic terror once and for all.
Our response to the outpouring of sympathy and offers of help from the global community has been bellicose and belligerent attempts to bully our natural allies into supporting an unnecessary and unrelated war in Iraq and to issue a new strategic military plan that serves notice that we intend to dominate the globe, by force if necessary, for now and forever, amen.
Could it be, Andy dear, that they hate not out of envy but because we’ve been behaving like a bunch of arrogant pricks? - borrowed from the highly recommended Best of the Blogs.
Things I did yesterday while I waited for the 'net to come back:
Finally programmed the VCR, which took over an hour because I was testing it with the one tape that I had never rewound.
Watched Men in Black.
Celebrated Robbie Burns day with a can o' haggis, mashed potatoes, and lots of single-malt.
Brined a turkey for today.
Watched The Fellowship of the Ring again.
Caught most of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers on ch 13. Fun fact: the brothers really do sing "a man can't sleep when he sleeps with sheep."
Sat through most of South Pacific but hit perkiness overload around midnight, went to bed.
"If Bill Clinton were still in the White House, I suspect it'd be a very different story."
London: In a recently televised satire here titled "Between Iraq and a Hard Place," George W. Bush is depicted as an idiot who can't seem to grasp why Saddam Hussein isn't cooperating with the U.S. timetable for war. American democracy is defined as "where there are two candidates and the one with the most votes loses," and Britain's role in the forthcoming military campaign is starkly simple:
"What is it that the Americans want from us?" asks a British official.
"From us?" replies an army general. "Dead bodies."
Other signs of the swing in mood: efforts by the tabloid Daily Mirror to build circulation with an all-out campaign against an attack on Iraq; the sold-out success of "The Madness of George Dubya," a north London theatrical satire that depicts a child-like president in pajamas with a giant teddy bear; and the continuing bestseller status of Michael Moore's book "Stupid White Men," a blistering critique of the United States.
"Being critical of U.S. policy does not constitute a prejudice," said Godfrey Hodgson, a veteran journalist and author. "A vast majority of the British people are favorable to the United States, but a substantial majority are opposed to George W. Bush." - from the Washington Post.
The internet is still clogged today, worse than Dick Cheney's arteries after a typical bunker breakfast.
January 25, 2003
My fella Amer'cans, the state of our union is crap. But you can count on unca Dick in his secret underground bunker/Hooters franchise an' me toodlin' around in my bombproof golfcart at Rancho Boguso to protect America from terr'rist groups, outlaw regimes, an' those damn pesky obstructionating Democrats in the Senate.
As long as Rummy doesn't pull a Jack D. Ripper.
We're havin' a heat wave, a tropical heat wave...it's 25 degrees and sunny. Woohoo!
Fun Weather Fact: Today, 25 January, is St Paul's Day (the day Saul was zapped by the Lord), once a compulsory holiday. It was thought the weather today determines the character of the coming year: fair weather betided a prosperous year; snow or rain, an unfruitful one; clouds, high livestock mortality; and wind meant war.
So what's the weather like in DC today?
Is it too early to start drinking?
And here I was getting all set to blame the department of Homeland Security.
CNN is reporting that a computer worm is slowing down Internet access today. Symantec, the antivirus vendor, estimated that at least 22,000 systems were affected worldwide.
"Traffic itself seems to have leveled off a little bit," said Oliver Friedrichs, senior manager with Symantec Security Response. The attacking software, technically known as a worm, was overwhelming Internet traffic-directing devices known as routers.
"The Internet is still usable, but we're definitely receiving reports from some of our customers who have had it affect their routers specifically," Friedrichs said.
Puh. Just barely usable. It's moving slower than Duh-bya through a first-grade primer.
What the misAdministration knew about the North Korean nuclear program - and when.
Last June, four months before the current crisis over North Korea became public, the CIA delivered a comprehensive analysis of North Korea's nuclear ambitions to Bush and his top advisers. The document made the case that North Korea had been violating international law - and agreements with South Korea and the United States - by secretly obtaining the means to produce weapons-grade uranium.
But the C.I.A. report remained unpublicized throughout the summer and early fall, as the Administration concentrated on laying the groundwork for a war with Iraq. Many officials in the Administration's own arms-control offices were unaware of the report. "It was held very tightly," an official said. "Compartmentalization is used to protect sensitive sources who can get killed if their information is made known, but it's also used for controlling sensitive information for political reasons." - Seymour Hersh.
Heart-ons
Make your own candy valentine, here! Some examples:
January 24, 2003
My favorite Ted Barlow lightbulb joke:
Q: How many Howard Finemans does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: His predecessor would have hosted all-night bull sessions on the intricacies of indoor lighting, But unlike Bill Clinton, Bush has little patience for the intellectual jousting of policy wonks. Comfortable in his own skin, he is sure of one thing: the lightbulb must be changed. Those who know him best predict he will address the crisis with the same quiet intensity he brings to his afternoon games of computer solitaire.
Just over two years ago, an untested governor of Texas became president of a deeply divided America. Today, a leader of almost mythic proportions, George W. Bush is poised to lift the nation out of darkness. His journey is our journey. His story is our story. The story of all fifty-something white males with incomes over $200,000 a year.
'stunned by the sheer stupidity'
Outgoing South Korean president Kim Dae Jung took an swipe at Napoleon Bonehead's refusal to negotiate with the North Korean leader:
"Sometimes we need to talk to the other party, even if we dislike the other party," he said, repeating versions of the phrase three times. "There's no other way but to engage North Korea in dialogue. It's reality whether we like it or not."
and in a related comment,
"...imagine the right's hoots of derision if a Democratic president had to rely on a Republican governor spontaneously acting to save the president from the folly of his own policy." - Robert Kuttner.
I could while away the hours
Conferrin' with the flowers
Consultin' with the rain.
And my head I'd be scratchin' while my thoughts were busy hatchin'
If I only had a brain.
The 'blitz Wolf' poll of the moment
Do you think Iraq can deliver on the threat made by Saddam Hussein's son (war would make 9/11 look like "real picnic")? Now at CNN.com. Looks like after a few days of getting the truth via his poll results, tonight Wolf is throwing in the towel and talking with John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted" (is he going to ask him about Osama?) and discussing Super Bowl commercials with Pat O'Brien of "Access Hollywood."
Then he's going to go home and get real drunk.
Things George W. Bush Likes About Europe
Like America, only whiter.
Italy's shaped like an oil derrick.
Their Disneyland is almost as good as the one brother Jeb took him to see.
Most people in Europe can't name all of the U.S. state capitals either.
Whatever it means, his new nickname "L'imbecile Americain" has a fancy-kinda ring to it!
"European" sounds like "You're a-peein." Guffaw.
Those people are willing to pay five dollars a gallon for gas - you gotta love that.
- From Top5.com. It would be kind of funny if I wasn't so pissed off.
"I'm tellin' my dad!!"
"Terrorists are a hundred times more likely to obtain a weapon of mass destruction from Pakistan than from Iraq," one senior European official said, not permitting a reporter to identify even his nationality because tensions with Washington are so high. "North Korea is far more likely to sell whatever it's got. But can we say this in public? Can we have a real debate about priorities? Not with George Bush." - The New York Times.
For petessake! Somebody's got to slap the sorry shit out of both the EU and pReznit Stupid!! WTF are they afraid of, another temper tantrum? So what's one more! It might knock some sense into him! Gah.
"Colin Powell says if we do invade Iraq we won't be alone. We have the support of 100% of the world's major oil companies." - Leno.
U.S. Claim on Iraqi Nuclear Program Is Called Into Question
"As the U.N. inspections continue, some weapons experts said the aluminum tubes saga could undermine the credibility of claims about Iraq's arsenal. To date, the Bush administration has declined to release photos or other specific evidence to bolster its contention that Iraq is actively seeking to acquire new biological, chemical and nuclear arms, and the means to deliver them.
"'If the U.S. government puts out bad information it runs a risk of undermining the good information it possesses,' said David Albright, a former IAEA weapons inspector who has investigated Iraq's past nuclear programs extensively. 'In this case, I fear that the information was put out there for a short-term political goal: to convince people that Saddam Hussein is close to acquiring nuclear weapons.'"
Blogtopians were saying this months ago, but now it's official. The International Atomic Energy Agency will be presenting their report to the UN Security Council next week. - from the Washingtoon comPost. Like it'll make any difference.
"President Bush wants it very clear that the war with Iraq is not about oil. It's about gasoline." - Leno.
'war within weeks'
The Guardian is reporting this morning that Squinty McPipeline is determined to go to war with Saddam Hussein in the next few weeks, without UN backing if necessary, according to authoritative sources in Washington and London.
The Yellow Puddle of Texas is "to turn up the heat" in his state of the union address on Tuesday, but will not actually declare war until he puts pet Tony Blair through his hoops at Camp David next Friday.
"The pressure comes from pResident Bush and it is felt all the way down," a European official said. "They're talking about weeks, not months. Months is a banned word now."
"Bush says the Iraq situation is a rerun of a bad movie. Yeah, there's a Bush in the White House; the economy is going to hell, and we're going to war over oil." - Leno.
January 23, 2003
Worst...president...ever
Ca. reporter meets White House correspondent/heroine Helen Thomas:
She seemed to have sympathy and affection for everyone but George W. Bush, a man who she said is rising on a wave of 9/11 fear - fear of looking unpatriotic, fear of asking questions, just fear. “We have,” she said, “lost our way.”
Thomas believes we have chosen to promote democracy with bombs instead of largess while Congress “defaults,” Democrats cower and a president controls all three branches of government in the name of corporations and the religious right.
“This is the worst president ever,” she said. “He is the worst president in all of American history.” - link. Word.
Why didn't you smack bowtie-boy with this a few times last night, Begala??
Democrats.com is asking "isn't it time for the NY Times and the rest of the corporate media to tell the truth about Bush and abortion? First, on policy and personnel issues Bush is an anti-abortion extremist. Second, Bush is an utter hypocrite because - according to the usually reliable Larry Flynt - his own girlfriend had an abortion in Texas when it was still illegal before 1973. This is a story all of the White House reporters knows, but no one will report."
...............fume..............
Prosecutors find 100 uncounted ballots in Elections Supervisor Oliphant's Office
Hi Jeb! State prosecutors have found a tray of unopened absentee ballots that the Broward County elections office never counted during the September primary. The ballots were postmarked as early as a week before the election and appeared to contain all the necessary information to have been deemed valid votes, sources said. Prosecutors found about 100 ballots in a mail tray inside a file cabinet at Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant's Fort Lauderdale office during a search late Tuesday afternoon. - link.
Update
Jerry Thacker has withdrawn his name under pressure after characterizing AIDS as the "gay plague." - link.
Things that make you go 'hmmmmmmmmm...'
U.S. Jobless Claims Rise by 18,000: The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose by 18,000 last week, story here.
Prove it, you unpatriotic traitorous commies! The Wall Street Journal last week quoted oil industry officials saying that the Bush administration is eager to rehabilitate the Iraqi oil industry. According to the officials, Mr Cheney's staff held a meeting in October with Exxon Mobil Corporation, ChevronTexaco Corporation, ConcocoPhilips, Halliburton, but both the US administration and the companies deny it. - From The Guardian.
Affirmative asshole: Even with all the tutoring he received, for example, Bush's mediocre grades at Andover and his SAT scores would not have qualified him for Yale were it not for the historical affirmative action policy for whites known as "legacy admissions," whereby the scions of alumni are let into the most prestigious Ivy League colleges through the back door. - Robert Scheer.
"Christ can rescue the homosexual." Compassionate conservative Bush selected Jerry Thacker, a Pennsylvania marketing consultant who has characterized AIDS as the "gay plague" and called homosexuality a "deathstyle," to serve on the Presidential Advisory Commission on HIV and AIDS. Thacker is a graduate of Bob Jones University and was a "member of the university faculty for seven years." - The San Francisco Chronicle.
"When Iraq is liberated, you will be treated, tried, and persecuted as a war criminal." - the Oaf of Office, Washington, DC, 1/22/03.
NBC-WSJ Poll Shows Bush Under 50% In 2004 Matchup With Kerry
This just in, at drudgereport: A new NBC/WSJ poll shows: 41% "will probably vote for President Bush" if he runs for reelection in 2004; 34% will "probably vote for the Democratic candidate"; 3% will "vote for another party's candidate"; 16% said it "depends on who his opponent is"; 6% were not sure. -- 48% would vote for Bush; 31% would vote for John Kerry; 4% said it depends; 3% said neither/other; 14% were not sure. -- 51% would vote for Bush; 32% would vote for Richard Gephardt; 3% said it depends; 6% said neither/other; 8% were not sure. -- 50% would vote for Bush; 34% would vote for Joe Lieberman; 3% said it depends; 5% said neither/other; 8% were not sure.
Hey - Saddam is evil and must be destroyed!
“Bush league war”
Still living in a happy little fantasy land, where a benevolent, morally-clear statesman - handpicked by Jesus - works to make our world a better place? Read this and then tell me Rummy and pResident Evil don't sound absolutely insane:
"This is not Desert Storm,” one of the Joint Chiefs told Rumseld. “We don’t have the backing of other Middle Eastern nations. We don’t have the backing of any of our allies except Britain and we’re advocating a policy that says we will invade another nation that is not currently attacking us or invading any of our allies.”
An angry Rumsfeld, who backs Bush without question, is said to have told the Joint Chiefs to get in line or find other jobs. Bush is also said to be “extremely angry” at what he perceives as growing Pentagon opposition to his role as Commander in Chief.
“The President considers this nation to be at war,” a White House source says, "and, as such, considers any opposition to his policies to be no less than an act of treason.”
Sources say the White House has ordered the FBI and CIA to “find and document” links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
“The implication is clear,” grumbles one longtime FBI agent. “Find a link, any link, no matter how vague or unproven, and then use that link to justify action against Iraq.” - Doug Thompson, at Capitol Hill Blue.
Good God.
January 22, 2003
NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll: Bwwwaaaaaahaha!!
"President Bush’s popularity ratings - once among the highest of any president in the past 60 years - are eroding across the board, according to a new NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll. Bush is losing ground in several key areas, including foreign policy, the economy and his handling of the war on terrorism.
"The poll of 1,025 adults, sampled for opinions between Jan. 19 and 21, showed the president’s approval numbers moving steadily downward over the past seven weeks.
"The data indicate that Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with important aspects of Bush’s performance in the Oval Office. The president’s overall approval rating slipped to 54 percent, down from December’s 62 percent." Read the whole glorious thing, at MSNBC.
U.S. Promises to Hold Iraqi Oil 'In Trust'
....no matter how long it takes!
Colin Powell promised that a U.S. military occupation would hold Iraq's oilfields "in trust" for the Iraqi people. In an interview with U.S. newspapers on Tuesday, released by the State Department on Wednesday, Powell said the BFEE oil cartel Bush administration was studying different models for managing the Iraqi oil industry if the United States invades. "If we are the occupying power, it will be held for the benefit of the Iraqi people and it will be operated for the benefit of the Iraqi people," he said.
What a boob.
Meanwhile, in Dick 'dick' Cheney's secret bunker/steakhouse, high-fives and toasts were being exchanged amid shouts of 'suckas!' and 'hey - aren't we all Iraqis?!'
Link update
Please welcome Interesting Times and Ted Barlow.
Edinburgh update
When I was there in September I took some of those ghost tours through part of the vaults in the underground city - very spooky.
The following is from a piece in the UK News:
The entrance to a labyrinth of medieval streets in the Scottish capital Edinburgh have been reopened nearly 400 years after the area closed because of an outbreak of the plague.
Workmen knocked a hole through the floor of the city chambers on Tuesday to uncover a historic staircase that forms the entrance to Mary King's Close, a tourist attraction due to open in April after extensive redevelopment.
Local folklore says city officials shut down the close when the Black Death struck in the mid-17th century, leaving 400 plague sufferers to die.
Attractions include a house regarded to be one of the best existing examples of a 17th century Scottish home. Researchers have found historical documents detailing how families lived in the close during Edinburgh's 17th century plague epidemic.
"It (the close) looks at life throughout the centuries for the people in Edinburgh and we have brought to life accurate and historical information from that time," a spokeswoman for the project told Reuters.
The horrors of the plague and talk that the close was haunted made it a no-go area for many of the city's residents.
Around 100 years after the plague struck, the Royal Exchange, now the city chambers, was built over the area, leaving a network of medieval streets and narrow walkways untouched.
I couldn't believe Dumbya was calling people "major-league assholes" when he was running for president...
Repugs and their little whores in the media were having a field day earlier when Sen. John Edwards was caught chewing gum on C-Span.
"I couldn't believe John Edwards is running for President chewing gum on the stage on CSPAN!" one prat of a TV producer told drudge. A clearly disgusted Colin Powell was heard to mutter "at least he can sit and chew gum at the same time - and without choking."
I'm pretending this seed is your tiny little brain, you smirking empty war-head...
Chimpy McChickenhawk had a temper tantrum yesterday when most of the planet basically told him "fat chance, fratboy." Watch out, everyone: the shit is about to hit the fan.
Bad rerun
What will the BFEE's Gulf-of-Tonkin be? An anonymous anthrax letter to the Kurds?
In the face of mounting doubts about the war at home and downright hostility abroad, Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld sorely need some provocation they can either point to or invent.
The new Bush doctrine claiming the imperial right to wage pre-emptive war is so shameless that the administration may well launch the bombers with no fig leaf at all. But you can bet it will continue to look hard for any possible pretext. - Adam Hochschild.
Moral clarity
For every person protesting on the streets of Tokyo, Islamabad, Cairo, Damascus, Moscow, London, Washington and elsewhere, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others who share their worries. The momentum of these demonstrations is certain to build in the coming weeks. Consensus is also proving elusive among Britain's traditional allies. The widely distrusted George Bush is a particular handicap in Europe; a majority of Germans, for example, finds him more frightening than Saddam. - from an editorial in the Guardian.
January 21, 2003
Unca Dick, where's my crayolas?
pReznit Poopypants is taking his box of crayons thick Sharpie pen to the first draft of his handlers' State of the Union address (scheduled for January 28), determined to justify war with Iraq while outlining a domestic policy agenda geared toward re-election, CNN is reporting.
"The president believes that State of the Unions should be about big things. This State of the Union will describe his vision of what role the United States should play in the world, how to bring help to the American people who need help and compassion, and how to strengthen the economy," White House spokes-tool Ari Fleischer said with a straight face, apparently addressing a group of kindergartners.
An early draft clearly outlines Drinky McHappycrack's bold, morally clear, statesmanlike proposals, if you ignore the doodles of Dick Gephardt being strafed by fighter jets: Saddam is hiding weapons of mass destruction, has ties to terrorist groups and is an imminent threat to the United States.
He also will try to explain why he is preparing for war against a dictator who may not have a nuclear weapon while sticking to diplomacy in North Korea, which has at least one nuclear bomb and could soon make more.
SOTU Fun: Count how many times he says "nookuler"!
CNN & Time bury another poll
Democrats.com is reporting that CNN and Time are again scrubbing their own polls that show just how bad Napoleon Bonehead's job approval ratings are (they've dropped to 53%, just 1% above the LOWEST approval figure for his entire residency. Compare that to Bill Clinton's second-term job approval ratings, which only dropped to 52% right after the Monica Lewinsky story broke in January 1998, and the following week jumped 16% to 68% {http://www.pollingreport.com/clinton-.htm}). Karl Rove doesn't want America to know the truth - that Bush has pissed away all of the support from 9/11 - but he couldn't stop James Carville last night, who managed to rant about it and bitchslap Bob Novak at the same time.
...and the NY Times lies about Bush's popularity
What a tool: NY Times political propagandist correspondent Adam Nagourney writes, "Bush is riding high as he prepares for his re-election campaign. He is a popular Republican president in an increasingly Republican country." This is an utter, disgusting, pandering bald-faced lie. Bush is not "riding high" - he spent the weekend hiding from hundreds of thousands of protesters by going to Camp David. He is not "popular" - check out this past weekend's poll numbers. This is not "an increasingly Republican country," since Al Gore beat Bush by 540,000 votes while getting the second largest number of votes in American history. Democrats.com supplies Nagourney's e-mail - adamnag@nytimes.com - in case anyone would like to ask him what his price was, or how it feels to be a whore for the GOP.
Quote of the day
"Who appointed the idiot Bush as the world's police officer?" - Iraqi envoy Ali Hassan al-Majeed, 1/20/03.
France gives finger to Fratboy F*cktard
I love this blurb by the Washingtoon comPost: U.S. Schedule Put at Risk By U.N. Debate. How dare they try to delay our holy oil war for the sake of caution and reason! Don't they know Squinty the Squatter's poll numbers are dropping?!
France promised a "major diplomatic fight" yesterday, including use of its veto power, to prevent the U.N. Security Council from passing a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.
France's opposition to a war, emphatically delivered by Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, is a major blow for the misadministration, which is pouring tens of thousands of troops into the Persian Gulf in preparation for a military conflict this spring.
With Russia, China, and Germany willing to wait on the inspection process, only BFEE poodle Tony Blair is siding with the bushies. Even Colin Powell sounded as though his family was being held hostage by Karl Rove, somewhere beneath Dick 'dick' Cheney's undisclosed secret bunker/steakhouse.
"We must be careful not to take unilateral steps that might threaten the unity of the entire coalition. In this context we are strictly in favor of a political settlement of the situation revolving around Iraq," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said at the UN.
Powell replied: "We cannot fail to take the action that may be necessary because we are afraid of what others might do. We cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficult choices that are ahead of us."
But the French wouldn't have any of it. France would never "associate ourselves with military intervention that is not supported by the international community," de Villepin said. "We think that military intervention would be the worst possible solution." So f*ck you.
January 20, 2003
Bloghopping
Kevin at Hep to the Jive watches Joe Millionaire - so you don't have to.
Great pics of empty warheads at MediaWhoresOnline and SK Bubba.
Beer Mary explains why she's got issues.
Ellen may be able to help you with your questions regarding butt-plugs, at AMCGLTD.com.
Hesiod lists The Top Ten Causus Belli Discovered by Hans Blix, at Counterspin Central.
Skippy writes a damn fine letter to Lou Dobbs.
The Aaron Brown take-down at Blah3!
Martin Luther King, Junior's I Have A Dream speech is posted at the Storm.
Quote of the day
"It seems that people are finally beginning to figure out that the smirking dingbat masquerading as leader of the free world only supports a leg up for rich, stupid C students when it comes to college admissions. And who is coming to his defense? Why none other than Condolleeza Rice, the ultra-right, doctrinaire idiot who sold out our national security to political considerations - completely dropping the ball on Al Qaeda despite Sandy Berger's warnings." - Pundit Pap.
Canadians Clobber Coward of Crawford
Bush impatiently insisted last week that "time is running out." But for what?
With the Iraqis on their knees, offering no resistance to U.N. inspectors, it's hard to imagine what time pressures are posing problems here - other than the U.S. election timetable. (Doesn't that infernal Hans Blix realize Bush needs a war victory to launch his re-election bid? What the hell is Blix thinking, dragging these inspections out like this?)
Some of those keenest for war in the Bush administration - including Bush, vice-president Dick Cheney, senior officials Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle - never served in Vietnam. Sometimes called "chickenhawks," they make up for their shyness about going into battle themselves with their enthusiasm for others doing so. (Bush avoided Vietnam by joining the National Guard, and then failing to show up for guard duty for months at a time.)
But with the massive U.S. assault about to be unleashed on enfeebled Iraq, the Pentagon may have finally found a way to wage a war so safe (for U.S. soldiers) that even a young George Bush wouldn't have been scared to participate. - from an editorial in the Toronto Star.
Smoke this
Smirky the Crack Chimp's "smoking gun" strategy for launching war against Iraq has utterly failed, because the discovery of 11 empty chemical weapons shells convinced the world that inspections are working. This has made the Busheviks insane: "Some administration officials say they have lost control of the public relations aspects of the inspection process."
The misadministration, concerned that a "smoking gun" may never be found, is starting to panic. They're 'urgently assembling an argument that Iraq's withholding of weapons information, and its refusal to make scientists freely available, should persuade our allies to back the use of force against Saddam Hussein.' Yes, that's right: any obstruction by Iraq in interviewing scientists bribed by the bushies is likely to be considered a cause for war.
A leading Arab-language newspaper in London, Al Sharq Al Awsat, reported in December that based on "Iraqi sources" and charges by Iraqi diplomats, it was apparent that at least three top Iraqi weapons experts had been "subjected to pressures and offered financial incentives" to defect or "cooperate" with American intelligence officials. - the NY Times (with thanks to democrats.com).
Update: Iraq said today it was encouraging its scientists to be interviewed privately by U.N. inspectors as part of an effort to do more to help inspectors verify that Iraq is complying with U.N. disarmament demands.
Hall of Shame
The award today goes to CNN, for obediently assuming the position and blatantly airing WH propaganda when they knew all along it was totally bogus. Their breaking nooze alerts! last week regarding the CHEMICAL WARHEADS FOUND IN IRAQ!! were disgraceful. Anyone with internet access already knew the shells were empty. They win the "WTF, You F*cking Dickheads?!" red-ass-of-ignominy prize for last week.
Extra Credit: Aaron Brown whining over the what's-up-with-CNN? letters he's been getting. Pussy.
Alassea Séregon, writing from Drivensno, West Rime -
It was one of those weekends. Bitterly cold - it may have gotten as high as 15 degrees - so of course all the power went out. The dogs and cats quickly got dibs on all the sunny spots, damn them, so we had to trudge out back and dig out armfuls of kindling from the frozen woodpiles so we could start a fire. Luckily we have a fireplace. I basically sat there the rest of the weekend, drinking coffee, smoking cigars, and once the power came back watched The Fellowship of the Ring - wow. I mean, wow! The passage through the Mines of Moria was one of the most intense scenes ever. Saruman needed some serious buttkicking. And I want one of those elf tree-houses.
What's your Elvish name? Find out here.
A Stirring in the Nation
"Mr. Bush and his war cabinet would be wise to see the demonstrators as a clear sign that noticeable numbers of Americans no longer feel obliged to salute the administration's plans because of the shock of Sept. 11 and that many harbor serious doubts about his march toward war. The protesters are raising some nuanced questions in the name of patriotism about the premises, cost and aftermath of the war the president is contemplating. Millions of Americans who did not march share the concerns and have yet to hear Mr. Bush make a persuasive case that combat operations are the only way to respond to Saddam Hussein." - NY Times Editorial.
"They couldn't ignore us this time."
"To be truly patriotic in America today," a vet named Tom said, "you must be against wasting our guys in a stupid war for oil and empire. This is not about national security, this is about a group of chickenhawks who have no idea what war is and wanting to use our military for their personal interests." - Regis T. Sabol writes about Saturday's huge demonstration in DC, at Intervention Magazine.
pReznit Pinhead's poll numbers plummet
The AWOL Warmongering Wonderboob's job approval plunged to a pitiful 53 percent in a new CNN/Time poll released over the weekend, and to an equally putrid 56 percent in a Newsweek poll.
By 60 percent to 35, people in the Newsweek poll (released Saturday) said they would prefer that the misadministration back down, shut the f*ck up, and give the U.N. weapons inspectors a chance. - link.
January 18, 2003
It's really cold!!!
Last night on Crossfire
James Carville: Tell me what merit got George W. Bush into Yale? Affirmative action -- he says we've got to do everything merit based. What merit got him into Yale?
Susan Molinari: There was a point that he, in fact, had decent grades.
Audience: ....wild laughter, hooting....
Thousands rally to protest BFEE's war
Protesters rallied by the thousands in the bitter cold of Washington on Saturday and in capitals worldwide in a passionate show of dissent against war with Iraq. The cry "No blood for oil" echoed from America's National Mall to the streets of Pakistan. Some of the demonstrations planned around the country for this weekend:
Arizona: In Tucson, 40 groups have a march and rally.
California: San Francisco rally, starting 11 a.m. at the foot of Market Street at Embarcadero, march to Civic Center Plaza.
Florida: Rallies in Tampa, St. Augustine and Venice. Tampa marchers plan to go to main gate of MacDill Air Force Base, headquarters of Central Command.
Iowa: 11 a.m. march in Des Moines from Grandview College to the Statehouse, followed by rally.
Massachusetts: Vigil and rally in Cambridge, 10 a.m. to noon.
Minnesota: 9 p.m. candlelight vigil at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.
Missouri: St. Louis rally, march and interfaith service Monday, starting 10 a.m. at the Old Court House.
Nevada: In Las Vegas, noon rally from the Bellagio fountains to the Tropicana and back. In Reno, rally at the University of Nevada.
New York: In Albany, a candlelight march at 4:30 p.m. Friday from the Capitol. Schenectady march Saturday.
Oregon: 1 p.m. rally and march in Portland, with about 50 groups participating.
Vermont: March and rally in Montpelier.
In Lansing, Mich., several hundred people met at a church before marching 20 blocks to the state Capitol. "It's just great enthusiasm here, and a great spirit of peacemaking," said the Rev. Fred Thelen from Cristo Rey Catholic Church. Signs said: "Peace is Patriotic" and "Iraqis are not evil."
Demonstrators also staged peace rallies worldwide. 5,000 people marched through downtown Tokyo, carrying toy guns filled with flowers and wearing face masks that parodied Bush. The crowd, made up largely of students and laborers, was orderly. More than 400 New Zealanders demonstrated in Christchurch. In Moscow, a few hundred people agitated outside the U.S. Embassy in a protest organized by a branch of the Communist Party. People turned their backs to the building, and signs called the United States a "Global Cannibal."
Three dozen bushmoonie freepers people turned out by the Vietnam War Memorial to show support for Bush's policy on Iraq. - links here and here.
January 17, 2003
After two days of computer problems, I think I'm finally back online.
"it would all be so much easier if Clinton were still in the White House"
Why the British don't trust Hopalong Headcase.
The perception persists that the Prime Minister is being sucked into conflict on the slipstream of an American President driven by a thirst for oil and revenge on behalf of his daddy.
Across British public opinion, George Bush is seen as the global village idiot. This is a one-dimensional caricature of the man - albeit a caricature that he has rather encouraged. The point is that the cartoon cowboy image is now pretty indelibly stuck.
The broad British view of George Bush is that he is Ronald Reagan without the brains. One of the Prime Minister's own advisers on foreign policy privately describes the American President as "cretinous". - Andrew Rawnsley, of The Observer.
Bush Racking Up "Frequent Liar Miles"
Strategy of "lie and rely" relies on media to disseminate Dubya’s deceptions.
Throughout Campaign 2000, candidate Bush test-piloted “lie and rely.” He lied to a Dallas Morning News reporter to keep hidden a drunk-driving conviction. He lied repeatedly to the national media about his own and Al Gore’s economic plans. Did so in speeches and again in the debates.
The lies traveled far and wide. Amazingly, they remained airborne even after repeated puncturing by New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman. From that experience, Bush learned an invaluable lesson: So long as the airwaves remain loyal, “lie and rely” can override isolated, ink-based exposure. - Dennis Hans, at The Scoop.
Calendar quote for the day
"The Bob Jones policy on interracial dating, I mean I spoke out on interracial dating. I spoke out against that. I spoke out against interracial dating. I mean, I support inter - the policy of interracial dating." - our Churchillian statesman, the Crackwacky Wonderboob, 2/25/00 (from the They Misunderestimated Me! calendar).
Today's top stories, concerning Emperor Snippy:
Consumer Sentiment Slips Again in January - link.
Trade Deficit Surges to a Record High - link.
Factories Quiet, Consumers Glum - link.
Stocks Skid; Techs Drag Market Lower - link.
Blix Not Worried About Found Weapons - link.
Protesters Rally Against War on Iraq - link.
Iraq Mends Russia Ties with New Oil Deals - link.
S.Korea's Roh Urges U.S. to Talk to North on Crisis - link.
Poll: Americans Need Convincing on War - link.
Turkey: Can Give Only Limited Help to Iraq War - link.
then there were these:
Bush Proposes Limit on Malpractice Damages - link.
Bush Lawyers Urge Top Court to Back White Students - link.
The hard-working Squinty McSquirtypants will be spending the weekend hiding out at Camp David.
I'm sure Faux Nooze is painting a much rosier picture for him. Still, Karl's panties have to be getting awfully sweaty these days.
January 15, 2003
Hull breach!
Russell Mokhiber: Ari, two things. Last week Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said that soldiers drafted to service in the military, "added no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services." The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation called this an egregious slur and a great insult to the memory, sacrifice and valor of those who lost their lives in Vietnam. One Vietnam vet, Thomas Gohan (phonetic), of Rochester, New York, said this, as a draftee who spent a year of his life in Vietnam: "I would like to suggest that perhaps my inferior service to our country wouldn't have been necessary if those proud, flag-waving patriots like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the cowards had come forward to enlist. I would like to see Secretary Rumsfeld repeat his speech in front of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Memorial Day."
Does the President agree with Secretary Rumsfeld that soldiers drafted to service added no value to the United States armed service?
Ari 'the Liar' Fleischer: Russell, Russell, Russell, while I'm honored that you chose -- in the face of a Rumsfeld briefing at the same time as mine -- to come here, I'm sure that if you took the entire text of what Secretary Rumsfeld said to Secretary Rumsfeld and asked him, and shared with him the entire context of what Secretary Rumsfeld said, you would have thought twice about taking any one statement. I think if you look at everything Secretary Rumsfeld said, you'd have a very, very different picture. ...Connie.
Russell Mokhiber: Can I have a second question?
Ari: No. Connie.
and this:
Terry Moran: You said the President is against racial preferences because they're divisive. Is he against other preferences that colleges and universities routinely grant that people see as unfair? Like the one he got?
Ari: I understand -- I understand all the interest and the specific questions dealing with the review of the University of Michigan case --
Terry Moran: That is not what I'm asking.
Ari:: -- and the implications that come from whatever decision is made. I'm not going to go beyond --
Terry Moran: I'm asking a question about fairness.
Ari: -- I'm not going to go beyond where I've gone, because -- be able to base it on reason and judge for yourself once you see what the President has concluded and why he's concluded it. And he'll share his thoughts.
Terry Moran: But the general question about his feeling about fairness in America. When he was 18, he got into Yale University, which had and still has a policy of granting very special preferences to children of graduates, like him. Is that preference okay, to give him a leg up, but other preferences are not?
Right on schedule, part 2 -
Plague samples reported stolen from Texas lab.
Samples of bubonic plague were stolen from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the theft was reported to Texas Tech police Tuesday night. - go figure.
Prisoners are still sh!t ouf of luck
Pledging to build a culture that respects life, the hypocritical Drinky McDeathrow is declaring a National Sanctity of Human Life Day.
"As we seek to improve quality of life, overcome illness and promote vital medical research, my administration will continue to honor our country's founding ideals of equal dignity and equal rights for every American," Bush said Tuesday, in a document that enacts no change in policy or program.
"By working together to protect the weak, the imperfect and the unwanted, we affirm a culture of hope and help ensure a brighter future for all."
The former governor of Texas heralded the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act he signed last year, which amends the legal definitions of "person," "human being," "child" and "individual" to include any fetus that survives an abortion procedure. link. His former girlfriend, whom he forced as a teenager to have his unborn child aborted, could not be reached for comment.
'Karl! They're on to us!'
Did ABC censor a crowd’s disapproval of George H. Bush? The father of the AWOL, warmongering nincompoop currently in the WH delivered a taped message at the American Music Awards on Monday night, and sources who were there told MSNBC that the crowd booed him.
When the band Alabama received the Award of Merit, the face of Bush-the-only-slightly-smarter appeared on screen. “I’m very proud to be part of tonight’s tribute honoring one of the most highly successful bands country music has ever known,” said the former, actually-elected president, but his image was met with a loud chorus of boos.
The boos from the crowd, however, were not audible in the broadcast, leading some to believe that they were deleted by censors. “To be honest, I can’t tell you,” a spokesman for ABC said, who referred the question to a spokesman for the production company.
“I don’t know and I can’t tell you,” said a spokesman for the production company, who referred questions back to ABC. - msnbc.
"I think Bush is doing an excellent job...of turning this country into the Germany of the 1930's." - DemoUnderground reader fed2dneck, in response to a poll at msnbc.
Quote of the morning
"I trust Bush with my daughter, but I trust Clinton with my job." - Craig Patterson, St Louis ironworker/patriot (link).
Right on schedule -
Bush's poll numbers drop, anthrax "detected" in DC.
The Federal Reserve yesterday reported a positive initial test for anthrax at the center that checks incoming mail for such threats, the U.S. Postal Service said.
"This appears to be a very isolated incident and it is not clear at all specifically what, if any, piece of mail this came from," said Tom Day, vice president of engineering for the U.S. Postal Service. - link.
Faux nooze
Foreign journalists disillusioned, affronted by state of US media.
"...CNN, America's premier showcase for international news, struck the Serbian journalists as jingoistic, amateurish, shallow, and speculation-crazy, especially when compared to the generally calm and thoughtful BBC. As for the Fox News Channel, its daily fare sounded suspiciously like the rabidly nationalistic, pro-Milosevic propaganda the Serbs are still trying to flush out of the system here." - Russ Baker's Blunt Words About the Soft Press.
January 14, 2003
You broke it, you bought it
Europe will not willingly pay for the reconstruction of Iraq if the US does not obtain United Nations authority for war, Chris Patten, the EU external relations commissioner, has warned.
Signalling a slightly more confident tone over a crisis which has deeply divided the union, Mr Patten said it would be hard to persuade Europeans to pick up the tab if pResident Bush acted unilaterally to disarm Saddam Hussein.
"I would find it much more difficult to get the approval of member states and the European parliament if the military intervention that had occasioned the need for development aid did not have a UN mandate," he said yesterday. "We would be forced to say 'f*ck you - bend over' to the American taxpayers, but I'm sure they've heard that often enough from their own government these past two years." - from the Guardian. Mostly.
Spin cycle
Update on that Time poll:
Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?
North Korea: 10.8 %
Iraq: 18.9 %
The United States: 70.3 %
Total Votes Cast: 57066
NOTE: This is an unscientific, informal survey for the interest and enjoyment of TIME.com users and may not be indicative of popular opinion.
Ohhhhhhhh - kay......
"an intemperate child"
It's truly frightening when facts don't matter as a nation prepares for war. Once the bombing begins, any search for truth will end. Now is the time to question a pattern of egregious distortion of the facts on the part of a White House that apparently feels it needs a war to retain its fading popularity. - Read more of Robert Scheer's column here.
No brainer
"...the thing that struck me, and most of the voting public, about Dubya, wasn't that he was a "masterful leader" so much as that he was an "embarrassing fool". A cartoonish, empty-headed serial idiot with a resume made up entirely of draft dodging, tequila shots, and gifts from daddy and a political platform composed entirely of lies, impossible promises, and stunningly, shockingly, record-breakingly empty rhetoric. And don't tell me that this is some liberal propaganda - I watched the debates, I watched every step of the way, I watched you babbling on with a smirk on your face like some 4th grader giving the class his book report on a book he didn't even read. Every time you spoke it was a breakthrough in the field of stupidity, opening up unexplored vistas of idiocy beyond anyone's wildest imaginings." - Andrew Northrup.
"We don't need no stinkin' UN!"
Tony Blair said yesterday he would refuse to allow the United Nations to veto military action to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, which at this point don't seem to exist anywhere but in the tiny little minds of pReznit Poopypants and his pet poodle. Oh, and Don 'Huge Warboner' Rumsfeld, who, upon hearing of Mr Blair's statement, soiled not only the ceiling of his office, but most of his toy-soldier diorama, ruining the desert-like effect.
Blair also suggested a war could be launched even if the inspectors found no evidence, on the basis that Saddam had 'obstructed their work.' - link. Yeah - just try using that excuse in everyday life.
Is it too late to start beating the crap out of Joe Lieberman?
WH blowing smoke up our a$$?
Bartcop has the answer:
"The problem with guns that are hidden is you can't see their smoke. We know for a fact that there are weapons there." - Ari 'the Liar' Fleischer .
"Ari, I can solve this. Just have Poppy Bush and Whistle Dick Cheney show us the Carlyle and Halliburton invoices that have Saddam's signature and we'll believe he has them. " - Bartcop .
Bunnypants given the finger in latest poll
Number of bushmoonies, uninformed still too high.
Emperor Snippy's job approval rating has dropped below 60% for the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, in the latest USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll. The drop of 5 points in one week brings him to 58%, which some hack at the AP is calling "still solid overall." Excuse me, but that's not even considered solid for a bowel movement.
Bush's rating on handling the economy slipped to 48%, the lowest of his presidency. His approval rating on foreign affairs was 53%, the lowest since Sept. 11. And though 59% said he was paying the right amount of attention to terrorism, 55% said he wasn't paying enough attention to the economy. - link. Huh - CNN's site doesn't mention it at all.
When asked which issues would be most important in their vote for president in 2004, 52 percent said economic conditions and 32 percent said terrorism. A third said they would definitely vote to re-elect him, a third said they might or might not vote for him and a third said they would not. - link. Baaaaaaaaaaaaa.
January 13, 2003
On the heels of Bend, Oregon's proposed ordinance, the WH plans to ban "highly objectionable" questions during Ari 'the Liar' Fleischer's press conferences and Smirky the Crack Chimp's Rovian recitations from the Rose Garden. From now on, only pre-approved inquiries regarding W's sublime masculinity and bold moral clarity will be allowed in these venues.
Blog A Day Tour?
(Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Nope, we're not at the end of the Amish Tech Support 2003 Blog A Day Tour yet, so here's another post from Laurence Simon on a blog that isn't his...)
They've seen the carnage and wreckage from Israel when mad suicide bombers release flames and shrapnel, and the people of Bend, Oregon are taking matters in to their own hands in the War on Terror. They want to ban chemical weapons of a sort from their own buses:
Proposed new city rules would ban spitting, smoking, skateboarding, and stinking on city buses.If only the Japanese had such an ordinance before those terrorists released the Sarin gas in the subways.
The regulations ban anyone who "emanates a grossly repulsive odor that is unavoidable by other Bend Extended Area Transit customers" from being in the bus station or on a bus.
"It's an effort to keep the riding experience as pleasant and safe as possible," said city attorney Jim Forbes. He noted that the city already has an ordinance prohibiting people from releasing "highly objectionable odors" from their property.
"Excuse me, but there's a highly objectionable odor coming from your property. Would you mind opening that canister with the skull and crossbones on it outside?"
Thanks for reading today's Amish Tech Support 2003 Blog A Day Tour entry. If you're interested in volunteering your own site for a stop on the Tour, feel free to follow the link back to Amish Tech Support and let Laurence Simon know you want him to post on your site.)
Fargo, Russia
A Russian man who murdered his friend in a drunken argument and then minced and flavored his body for a meal was jailed for 12 years.
Yevgeny Usanov stabbed his victim through the heart in the central Russian town of Saratov. He cut up the body, wrapped it in bay leaves and fed it through a mincer.
"These culinary preparations were done with only one aim -- to eat the victim," prosecutor Natalya Rubanova told the court. It was not clear whether the man ate his friend before he was arrested. - link.
MWO announces their 2002 Media Whore of the Year ! And in a related story:
"a devastating indictment of the state of American newspapers"
'With war looming it is no good the American public looking to its newspapers for an independent voice. For, says Matthew Engel, the press have now become the president's men. The supposedly liberal American press has become a dog that never bites, hardly barks but really loves rolling over and having its tummy tickled.' - the the Guardian blasts the WH propaganda machine and the smeg-encrusted knee-scabbed dittohead cowards of the US media.
The Top Ten Conservative Idiots is back!
GOP senators 'on the warpath'
'Republican senators complained bitterly of arrogance by the Bush administration, especially the Pentagon, in treatment of Congress along the road to war.
'Two years of growing discontent boiled over during the closed-door meeting at the Library of Congress. White House chief of staff Andrew Card was there to hear grievances from President Bush's Senate base that it is ignored and insulted by the administration, particularly by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in preparing for war against Iraq. According to administration sources, Bush is aware of the problem but has not yet addressed it.' - Bob Novak.
I was seriously thinking of making the pic of the day one of the opening scenes of The Terminator. I have never felt so close to total annihilation in my life.
Right on cue, Karl blames Clinton
But N Korea says 'what a stupid f*cking excuse.'
North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Han Song Ryol, had said the Bush administration's tough policy toward North Korea was motivated primarily by Bush's desire to do the opposite of what his predecessor had done on foreign policy.
Han asserted that Pyongyang had been developing a working relationship with Washington toward the end of the Clinton era - indeed, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited Pyongyang just before President Bill Clinton left office - but then faced a reversal of policy under Bush.
"They think the Bush people have closed the door on them just because Clinton had opened it," said someone involved in the Santa Fe talks. - link.
"I must say, for some people in the administration, I'm beginning to think that blaming Clinton is a substitute for thinking." - Sandy Berger, in disgust, to Wolf 'Toady' Blitzer yesterday on CNN. Amen!
"The Pukes spent all day yesterday blaming the North Korean crisis on Clinton - for negotiating with the Evil Ones. Less than 24 hours later, they do a complete about-face and tell us that if North Korea cooperates, we'll give 'em back their oil." - Antidolt, at the BC Forum.
