thisjuncture

Last Year, Americans Voted For Real HEALTH CARE REFORM For Themselves & Their Families... DAMNIT!

2009-12-12T18:56:00.000-08:00

If families don't get HEALTH CARE REFORM, somebody's gonna get BEAT-UP! Don't mess with 'em...Specifically, OBSTRUCTIONIST Republicans and Insurance-Company-Whore Democrats who are stopping real reform should be removed from office in 2010, if they're up for re-election. In other words, they'll (rightly) get "beat-up" at the polls.
[And Senate whiner Joe Lieberman ought to have his Government Health Care revoked. Filibuster yourself, pathetic little-whiner.]

FOX NEWS is a JOKE...

2009-09-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

Fox News is an insult to the word "News."
Get these Bumper stickers @ Buzzflash, here.

.......DOG DAYS OF SUMMER.......

2009-08-26T23:07:00.001-07:00

THE END OF AN ERA: Ted Kennedy Dies...

2009-08-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

ThinkProgress summarizes this sad day
for the Kennedys and The Country:

Edward M. Kennedy, the “liberal lion” of American politics, passed away this morning after serving in the U.S. Senate for nearly 50 years. President Obama said that the country had lost “the greatest United States Senator of our time,” adding, “For five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. … An important chapter in our history has come to an end.”

NY Times story has more.

I liked the man, Herb.

Even THE WHALES: "SAVE THE PONTIAC!"

2009-06-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

GENERAL MOTORS Files For BANKRUPTCY, Plans To Eliminate Half Its Car Lines... SAVE THE PONTIAC!!!

2009-06-01T19:42:00.000-07:00

NO; No, no... NO!
Amidst positive approval ratings for President Obama, the economy still crumbles from the BUSH/CHENEY train that crashed into, and wrecked our Country...

Today, one-time automotive leader and powerhouse General Motors [GM] filed for BANKRUPTCY. Adding insult to injury, their stock-price CRASHED to levels below what the shares sold for in 1930, during the GREAT DEPRESSION. AND: The company, along with Citigroup, was DELISTED from the Dow... OUCH!

GM is KEEPING their largest Lines: GMC Trucks, and Chevrolet; As well as (wisely): Buick, and Cadillac.

GM is dumping:
[1] The Hummer; which is a no-brainer: Thank God! (Tractors w/ chrome?)

[2] The Saturn; I guess the 1990s just wasn't the time to start a car from scratch.

[3] The Volvo; For which I have no-comment... Except: Aren't Volvoes(pl-sp?) from Sweden, like Abba?

AND FINALLY, THE REASON FOR THIS POST:
[4] GM plans to DUMP their whole line of PONTIACS!
We should not allow this to happen.

PONTIACS are Americana, baby! (Look at their logo, up-top... It's like Star Trek even copied the Pontiac, man!) They're an iconic symbol of America, like Apple Pie, or Hot Dogs. Right? Think about the mid-to-late 70's without Smokey & The Bandit... The Trans-Am? Well, whatever the reason, we hope you'll JOIN US in urging GM to Save The Pontiac!
Sign our Online Petition, here.

Thanks for your help and support, Herb.

No Shortage of Bush/Cheney TORTURE Stories & Revelations... [War Crimes!]

2009-05-07T02:12:00.000-07:00

Definitely the COOLEST PRESIDENT... Since Kennedy, For Sure*

2009-03-24T01:12:00.000-07:00

*...at which point, we certainly would anticipate some fine arguments from our Irish and/or Catholic friends.

President Obama's Three-Legged-Stool vs.Republicans' No-Leg-To-Stand-On

2009-03-02T00:03:00.000-08:00

[Link here, you can watch it...]
Today on ABC’s This Week, Karl Rove slammed the cost of President Obama’s new budget. The Nation’s Katrina Vanden Heuvel quickly fired back at Rove’s newly-discovered sense of fiscal responsibility, observing that Rove and President Bush “helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt”:VANDEN HEUEVEL: But, Mr. Rove –

ROVE: Call me Karl.

VANDEN HEUVEL: It’s laughable for you to talk about fiscal responsibility from someone who helped plunge this nation into trillion dollars of debt, through tax cuts for the very rich and a war we never should have fought. And also starving the beast. Starving government has been a Republican role in terms of government. And, therefore, when George asks why government hasn’t functioned, people have not seen the role of government improving the conditions of their lives for decades.
"Call me Karl?" Ha! Then she calls him a "laughable" FOOL! It would admittedly be funnier if Karl Rove wasn't such a corrupt evil bastard. Thanx Ms. Vanden Heuvel,
for NOT calling him "Karl," Herb.

EXCLUSIVE! The Bush/Cheney 2000 SUPREME COURT FIVE... Original Mugshots! [Hypocrites--impeach!]

2009-02-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

Obsessed? Yeah, yeah, okay. [We're in therapy!]

WE'RE NAMING NAMES...

The Bush/Cheney 2000 SUPREME COURT FIVE
Clarence Thomas,
Antonin Scalia,
William Renquist - deceased,
Sandra Day O'Connor - retired,
Anthony Kennedy.

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT... IMPEACH!
WE'VE BEEN HOLDING A GRUDGE! AND WE ADVOCATE THE CURRENT CONGRESS IMPEACHING ANY/ALL OF THE BUSH/CHENEY SUPREME COURT FIVE THAT ARE STILL ON THE BENCH OF OUR HIGHEST COURT. [And, yeah, SORRY, Roberts and Alito; You're fruit of the poison-tree. Therefore, we find: You're out! (Please clear out your offices within 72 hours...)]

IF WE'RE INVESTIGATING ANY OF THE BUSH/CHENEY LIES, SCHEMES, AND COVER-UPS, WE MAY AS WELL [START AT THE BEGINNING!] INVESTIGATE THE FIRST FRAUD THEY PERPETRATED...

[AND BUSH HAD THE NERVE
TO TALK ABOUT
"FRIVILOUS LAWSUITS"
WHEN HE WAS PRESIDENT.
Uhh... BUSH V. GORE, 2000?]

*There's only two places, on the internets, where you can get the names AND (individual) mugshots of the shameless Bush/Cheney-Supreme Court Five -- here @ the Juncture, and the place we stole the pics from, and we don't remember where that was.
Have a nice day, Herb.

What happened to the G.O.P.?

2009-02-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

THEY'RE: DONE BABY, DONE!

...GONE, BABY, GONE...

Unless you listen to Rush "Fatty" Limbaugh. He says Sarah Palin is the de facto leader of the Republican Party... [Oh goodie, can't wait for 2010?] ... I wonder if that made her happy: It's a compliment, but it's from a slobbering heroin junkie, who also said he wants The United States of America "to fail."~Compliment~~~Fatass Junkie~
That's a tough one, Herb.

OKAY... FINALLY MOVING ON: President Obama in the Oval Office...

2009-01-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

We've got to admit, beyond our obsession w/ the bushies and the damage they wrought... President Obama(!)...

President Obama in the White House Oval Office...
THAT IS PRETTY F**KING COOL!

And a relief too... It's like being able to see sunlight, feel it on your face, and breath deeply, after being in a dark, oxygen-starve mine cave-in -- for the past 6-7 years.Sincerely & thankfully, Herb.

OKAY, HERE'S THAT QUOTE FROM A COUPLE POSTS BACK...

2009-01-21T02:41:00.000-08:00

FOR POSTERITY, THAT APT QUOTE:

"To initiate a war of agression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.

If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us." --Supreme Court Justice Robert S. Jackson, U.S. Prosecutor, Nuremburg--

UH... DOH-!

In case you missed it*, Barrack Obama's Presidential Inauguration is today...

2009-01-20T03:42:00.000-08:00

WE CELEBRATE THE START OF A NEW ERA, AND THE END OF A LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE(BUSH/CHENEY), WITH EVERYONE ELSE!Admittedly, however, we may not be quite as giddy as some, it seems...

* CNN had 18-hours-straight coverage of the (pre-innaugural) Obama/Biden train trip to D.C.,
we thought it a bit excessive.

[BUSH/CHENEY] George W. Bush, WORST U.S. PRESIDENT, EVER!

2009-01-17T14:07:00.000-08:00

...GOOD RIDDANCE...

AS MUCH TO BLAME... & JUST AS GUILTY AS BUSH/CHENEY... (UH... EVERYTHING!) "The Supreme Court Five"

2009-01-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

KENNEDY...........O'CONNOR.........REHNQUIST

SCALIA..............THOMAS

It's expertly formatted; and it all lines up perfectly, on my computer. Here's a clip from the article below, highlighting some of the "problems" the Five caused w/ their judicial-coup-de-etat:

...It can only be understood as a politically partisan decision."

He said the decision went completely counter to the justices' own often-expressed judicial and constitutional philosophies. Sandalow cited three areas where the five justices deviated from their own conservative judicial philosophy.

"First, their previous decisions have emphasized their respect for state judiciaries," said Sandalow. "Second, has been their reluctance to expand the interpretation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. And third, has been their belief that they have no warrant to cure every social ill.

"All three strands of the conservative philosophy they previously expressed are inconsistent with their decision. One can only conclude that they voted as they did because they wanted Bush to be president. And that's very disturbing.

I'll second that... "Very disturbing." And poor old Sandra Day O'Connor, we hear she can't even get to the front door without some "help." Wild Turkey, Herb.

The Five Republican Supreme Court Justices, who STOLE the 2000 Presidential Election, for George W. Bush... THE SUPREME COURT FIVE

2009-01-12T01:42:00.000-08:00

THE SUPREME COURT FIVE:
Kennedy, O'Connor, Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas...

DATELINE: December, 2000; Bush vs. Gore for President...
On December 9, 2000, five members of the U.S. Supreme Court stunned the nation by halting the Florida manual recount. Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, O'Connor, and Kennedy claimed they wished to review its constitutional validity.

With two rounds of Florida election litigation behind them and the presidency hanging in the balance, Americans of all political stripes trusted the U.S. Supreme Court to provide for a satisfactory means of assessing the will of Florida's voters.

When night fell on December 12, that faith was betrayed.

There would be no accurate and complete count of votes in Florida.
**************************
And, then, there's this...
As George W. Bush and his backers descend on Washington for days of celebration and years of governing, other Americans insist on reminding the world of the unprecedented use of political and judicial power that got Bush here.

On Saturday, 554 law professors from 120 law schools signed a full-page New York Times ad protesting the Dec. 9 halting of a Florida recount that had threatened to reverse Bush's tiny lead.

"By stopping the vote count in Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court used its power to act as political partisans, not judges of a court of law," read the ad.

In an interview, one of the law professors deplored the fact that one of his primary teachings to his students over a 40-year career in constitutional law -- that the U.S. Supreme Court acts as a nonpartisan institution despite differing judicial philosophies -- had been rendered null and void by the actions of the five justices who stopped the count.

"Only Bush's political influence was threatened, and correcting that is not a function of the Supreme Court," said Terrance Sandalow, dean emeritus of the University of Michigan Law School.

Sandalow considers himself to be a moderate judicial conservative, having opposed the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling and having supported the appointment of conservative jurist Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

The newspaper ad also stressed the political diversity of signers. The ad stated:

"We are professors of law at 120 American law schools, from every part of our country, of different political beliefs. But we all agree that when a bare majority of the U.S. Supreme Court halted the recount of ballots under Florida law, the five justices were acting as political proponents for candidate Bush, not as judges.

"It is not the job of a federal court to stop votes from being counted. By stopping the recount in the middle, the five justices acted to suppress the facts. Justice [Antonin] Scalia argued that the justices had to interfere even before the Supreme Court heard the Bush team's arguments because the recount might 'cast a cloud upon what [Bush] claims to be the legitimacy of his election.'

"In other words, the conservative justices moved to avoid the 'threat' that Americans might learn that in the recount, [Vice President Al] Gore got more votes than Bush. This is presumably 'irreparable' harm because if the recount proceeded and the truth once became known, it would never again be possible to completely obscure the facts.

"But it is not the job of the courts to polish the image of legitimacy of the Bush presidency by preventing disturbing facts from being confirmed. Suppressing the facts to make the Bush government seem more legitimate is the job of propagandists, not judges.

"By taking power from the voters, the Supreme Court has tarnished its own legitimacy. As teachers whose lives have been dedicated to the rule of law, we protest."

Break with Philosophy

In the interview, Sandalow said the Florida decision "cannot be explained by the conservative judicial philosophy of the five -- I want to call them Republican, rather than conservative -- justices. It can only be understood as a politically partisan decision."

He said the decision went completely counter to the justices' own often-expressed judicial and constitutional philosophies. Sandalow cited three areas where the five justices deviated from their own conservative judicial philosophy.

"First, their previous decisions have emphasized their respect for state judiciaries," said Sandalow. "Second, has been their reluctance to expand the interpretation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. And third, has been their belief that they have no warrant to cure every social ill.

"All three strands of the conservative philosophy they previously expressed are inconsistent with their decision. One can only conclude that they voted as they did because they wanted Bush to be president. And that's very disturbing.

"I am hard pressed to think of any Supreme Court case -- ever -- that was decided on partisan grounds, although some students of the Court believe these same justices' recent decision not to allow statistical sampling in the Census comes close."

Like the Bush v. Gore decision, statistical sampling would have undoubtedly helped Democrats whose constituents are consistently undercounted.

The Three Points

Sandalow, addressing the first point, said: "The idea that the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land is not true. It is only true with respect to issues of federal law.

"Regarding issues of state law, a state supreme court is the highest authority, and has the final word on the meaning of state law. In Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court Five failed to show deference to the Florida Supreme Court, and three of the five actually reversed the Florida court on the meaning of its own law.

"There are very limited situations when the Supreme Court overrules a state supreme court, but none were involved in this case. And even when the Court does have that power, it can do so only when the state court is extravagantly wrong. And as [justices] Ginsburg and Breyer demonstrated, one cannot say that about this case."

As to the second point, the interpretation of the equal protection clause, Sandalow said, "the decision of the five so-called conservative justices -- and they should be named, William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy -- that the way in which the recount would be counted was a violation of the equal protection clause was unprecedented.

"Although justices [David] Souter and [Stephen] Breyer joined in this judgment, they at least would have allowed the Florida Supreme Court an opportunity to establish uniform counting standards, and would have allowed the count to go forward.

"It's extremely unfortunate and quite unwise to have done this in a politically charged case," said Sandalow. "There have always been issues about vote counting, but we've never had a decision that the failure to have consistent standards is a violation of the equal protection clause.

"To decide so important an equal protection issue in two days without the opportunity to think through their decision was very unwise. And that's especially true because the Constitution gives to Congress the power to decide disputes such as this.

"For that reason alone, they should have left it to the Congress. What troubles me is my fear that these five Republicans inappropriately injected themselves into the case because they feared that Gore would get more votes than Bush."

On the third point, that the Supreme Court does not have the authority to correct every social ill, said Sandalow, the five justices "may have felt that the Florida judges were being excessively partisan, but if that were true, the constitutional remedy is in Congress, not in the Supreme Court.

"Lawsuits are limited in what they address. For instance, the disenfranchisement of African Americans could have been taken into account in Congress, but not in that lawsuit.

The 'Deadline'

"Also, the Court was quite aware that the so-called Dec. 12 deadline was not a mandatory deadline under federal law. The context did not appear to require that the date was to be met at the expense of counting the votes.

"The question whether the Florida legislature intended it to be so under state law should have been left to the Florida Supreme Court. The failure of the five Republican justices to do so was an outrageous usurpation of the Florida Supreme Court's authority."

Finally, said Sandalow,
"Scalia wrote:
that there would be
irreparable harm to Bush if illegal votes were counted. But that's quite wrong. If illegal votes were counted and threatened the stability of the government, that's one thing, but there was never any danger of that.

"Only Bush's political influence was threatened, and correcting that is not a function of the Supreme Court."

Link to: msnbc TV Show Transcripts

2009-01-07T01:56:00.000-08:00

Here, you'll find
TRANSCRIPTS FOR MSNBC PROGRAMS...
Chris Matthews, HARDBALL transcripts;
COUNTDOWN w/ Keith Olberman transcripts;
RACHEL MADDOW SHOW transcripts...

So, if you see/hear something good on an msnbc-show,
like those listed above, you can find the full-text transcript, print it out and stick it in your boss's face, or your wife's, or whatever... Or so I can post 'em here w/ a snappy title. NOTE: It usually takes about a day for a night's-show's transcript to be available...

Happy New Year! ...Things can only get BETTER, post-Bush/Cheney, RIGHT?

2009-01-02T02:33:00.000-08:00

That's reason-enough... to PARTY!!!

The Shame of a Nation: Bush/Cheney... "Bush's Legacy"? Two words: I - RAQ.

2008-12-30T00:24:00.000-08:00

BUSH/CHENEY'S WRONG & MISGUIDED OBSESSION WITH IRAQ ...Thanks: DECEPTION, DISASTER, DEBT, DESTRUCTION...

BUSH/CHENEY - The WORST thing EVER to happen to The United States of America

2008-12-29T05:15:00.000-08:00

[CLICK-PIC for larger version... Read the Bush/Cheney-applicable quote, from a US Supreme Court Justice long-ago... at the Nuremburg(nazi) War-Crimes Trials, It's a must-read.]

THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE'LL SOON BE FREE OF THEIR[BUSH/CHENEY] LIES, DECEPTION, MISJUDGEMENTS & MISTAKES, AND CORPORATE CRONYISM...

OH YEAH: AND THE WORLD PRETTY-MUCH HATES US.
WE NEED TO SHOW THEM, WITH OBAMA, THAT:
BUSH/CHENEY'S AMERICA IS OVER!

BUSH's "LEGACY?" ...WHAT LEGACY?

2008-12-24T01:47:00.001-08:00

BUSH'S LEGACY? HE DOESN'T HAVE ONE...
INCOMPETENCE, AND DEATH, DECEPTION, DESTRUCTION, THE RUINING OF A GREAT COUNTRY? THAT'S A START...

I'll let KEITH OLBERMAN field this one,
on at least a couple counts...
KEITH OLBERMAN:
Number two, nexus of politics and terror-gate.

The president‘s ever changing number of how many domestic acts he prevented is back up to numerous. Officially, that would be four, based on his speech at the War College. “We prevented numerous terrorist attacks, including an attempt to bomb fuel tanks at JFK airport, a plot to blow up airliners bound for the East Coast, a scheme to attack a shopping mall in the Chicago area, and a plan to destroy the tallest sky-scraper in Los Angeles.”It‘s sky scraper, but OK.
The sky scraper was the one where Mr. Bush got the name wrong while announcing it to the world, before he told local authorities in Los Angeles that he was going to tell everybody, setting off mild panic there. The airliners one is the reason you can‘t bring liquid in your carry-on, the British based scheme for which the plotters had not obtained a ticket, nor passport, and chemists laughed at the idea anyway. The mall was the deal in ‘06 where the guy got no further than trying to buy a hand grenade from an undercover FBI agent. And the JFK plot, that was the mutant who thought he could cause an airport to blow up by starting a fire at a fuel pipeline 30 miles away.
So thanks for stopping all these... (BUSH/CHENEY, TOTAL FRAUDS)

Number one, insult the dead-gate

This is a White House talking point still, even though your average three-year-old could disprove it using only an Etch-A-Sketch. Spokesman Tony Fratto, on the air with Fixed News parent John Scott. Scott gave the setup line about how 9/11 was unforeseeable and thus not even slightly Bush‘s responsibility and said, “nobody was thinking that there would be terrorists flying 767s into buildings at that point.”
Mr. Fratto replied, quote, “that‘s true. I mean, no one could have anticipated that kind of attack, or very few people.” Yes, well, it ain‘t true and out of respect for the people who died that day, you damn well better stop saying it. A president‘s daily brief as far back as December 1998 says bin Laden was preparing to hijack U.S. aircraft in hopes of trading hostages for jailed radicals. The August 6th, 2001 (PDB) brief, of course, told President Bush, if he read it, that there were patterns of suspicious activities in this country, consistent with preparations for hijackings.
(BUSH DID NOTHING...)
The FBI agent John O‘Neil repeatedly warned of the prospect of suicide hijackings, basically got drummed out of the Bureau for saying it. The FAA had distributed a CD-Rom early in 2001 to the airlines and the airports warning that terrorists might hijack a plane in order to use it as a weapon. That Mr. Fratto‘s employers might not have been expected to know the exact hour of these attacks does not give him or anyone else the right to perpetuate the lie that 9/11 was impossible to conceive. Clearly, many inside this nation‘s government anticipated it. It was Mr. Bush and his gang who (RECKLESSLY) chose to ignore them...

OH! Yeah... Barack Obama won the big election, by the way...

2008-11-28T01:00:00.000-08:00

THANK GOD!

McCain was pretty cool about it, in his concession speech, getting trounced and turning a bunch of States Democratic.

And Sarah Palin has refused to go back to Alaska and disappear...

She'll be bach!!!

I think: A PARROT COULD PROBABLY RUN ALASKA... A Keith Olberman "Election Comment" on Sarah Palin... [msnbc transcript]

2008-10-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

KEITH OLBERMAN: So tonight, as promised, a Campaign Comment on the continuing adventures of Governor Sarah Palin in the big leagues or "Are You Smarter Than A Third Grader."

[Clips of Palin / Olberman comments]

1) QUESTION: Finally governor we've been trying to engage some local grade-schoolers for the last few elections. We do a feature called ‘questions from the third grade.' Brandon Garcia wants to know, "What does the Vice President do?"

PALIN: "Aw, that's something that Piper would ask me, as a second grader, also. That's a great question, Brandon, and a Vice President has a really great job, because not only are they there to support the President agenda, they're like a team member, the teammate to that President. But also, they're in charge of the United States Senate, so if they want to they can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom. And it's a great job and I look forward to having that job."

Oh! I'm so sorry, Governor! The correct answer can be found in the Constitution of the United States.
Article One, Section Three— "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided." So, the Vice President is not in charge of Jack, Governor, let alone in charge of the Senate. And you are not smarter than a third-grader.
On the one level it is hilarious and entertaining that the Republican nominee cannot correctly answer the question "What Does The Vice President Do?" I mean, that first reference to the Vice President comes not 600 words into the Constitution. And the other meaty references are pretty simple:
Article Two, Section One —"In case of the removal of the President from Office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President."
There's the 20th Amendment— you're done on January 20th and the 25th Amendment —if the President's incapacitated, you're the acting Pres. It's so simple, really, one could memorize those four points pretty easily wouldn't take long.

Brandon Garcia could do it in the third grade. So, on the one level, this is pretty damn silly. The Sarah Palin material, as Tina Fey might be able to say, just writes itself. As it does, it makes stupid mistakes, but it still writes itself.
Except there are two very serious aspects to this. Governor, do you really think you'd be "in charge of the United States Senate?" Do you really want to suggest that you think if you "want to" you "can really get in there with the Senators and make a lot of good policy changes?"
We're just wrapping up eight years of a Vice President who had no clue what his damned job consisted of, couldn't even correctly find his governmental branch with both hands.
The last thing anybody in this country wants, Republican or Democrat, is another Buccaneer in there, making it up as they go along, and, in your case, presuming you can stride in to the Senate and change policy if you want to! Besides which, Governor, exactly how on earth could you not have the correct answer by now?
It's not like this is the first time you've been asked about the Vice Presidency and gone all Miss South Carolina on us.

2) LARRY KUDLOW: Is this police-flap state investigation going to disqualify you from becoming Senator McCain's vice presidential candidate?

PALIN: "As for that VP talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the VP does every day? I'm used to being very productive and working real hard in an administration. We want to make sure that that VP slot would be a fruitful type of position, especially for Alaskans and for the things that we're trying to accomplish up here for the rest of the U.S., before I can even start addressing that question."

That was on the 31st of July on CNBC, Governor. Even giving you the biggest benefit of the doubt, that your later claim that that was just a lame attempt at a joke you couldn't come up with the correct job description on the second try? What am I saying? The third try!

3) GWEN IFILL (OCTOBER 2, 2008): Governor, you said in July that someone would have to explain to you exactly what it is the vice president does every day.

PALIN: "In my comment there, it was a lame attempt at a joke and yours was a lame attempt at a joke, too, I guess, because nobody got it...Of course we know what a vice president does. And that's not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I'm thankful that the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president's policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are."

No! No, Governor, the Constitution does not allow "a bit more authority" "if the vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate..." You would not be some kind of Senatorial Hall Monitor. You would not be a Veto, or a Censor, or a Balance.
And even if you think you would somehow obtain those powers from somebody, don't pretend the Constitution will give them to you!

4) PALIN: "...That, thankfully, our founders were wise enough to say, we have this position and it's Constitutional. Vice presidents will be able to be not only the position flexible, but it's going to be sort of those other duties as assigned by the president. It's a simple thing. I don't think that was a gaff at all in stating what the truth is. And that is we've got flexibility in the position. The president will be directing in a lot of respects what the vice president does. The vice president, of course, is not a member—or a part of the legislative branch, except to oversee the Senate. That alone provides a tremendous amount of flexibility and authority if that vice president so chose to use it."

You're wrong! You've memorized everything else, Governor. You couldn't memorize the job description in three months? Four tries? I mean, I'd like my President and Vice President to have memorized the Constitution, and abide by it. Or at least, I'd like them to know more about the Constitution than I do. Or than Brandon Garcia does. Maybe I'm raising the bar too high but at least wait until you achieve office before trying to seize power extra-Constitutionally!
"The founders" were not George Bush and Dick Cheney! Gimme something to work with here, Governor or go home! And don't forget to take your lovely parting gifts with you. Including the Home Version of The Vice President Game. -END-

SARAH PALIN: Railin' Failin', Flailin', Nailin', Jailin', and Bailin'... (?)

2008-10-15T04:42:00.000-07:00

KEITH OLBERMAN, from MSNBC's "COUNTDOWN":
A "Special Comment" on failin' & flailin' Sarah Palin:

K. Olberman: Last Wednesday, Sheriff's deputies arrived at the home of a woman in Akron, Ohio named Addie Polk, in order to evict her. After 38 years in that house, Ms. Polk had fallen behind on paying the mortgage. It was so bad that the company that held that mortgage, Fannie Mae, had foreclosed.
In fact, it was far worse than anybody knew. Addie Polk couldn't bear it any more. So, rather than be evicted, she shot herself in the chest.
Evidently she will survive... Addie Polk is 90 years old.
In the self-pronounced area of expertise of the Governor of Alaska—energy—the real experts of both parties are at a loss to figure out any way, even'drill, baby, drill', that might lower gas prices before 2018. We are at war in two countries and a lame duck President with no reason to check his own imbalance still has dreams of one more.
And a 90-year-old woman, trapped in the middle of a financial meltdown, shoots herself and she's still in better shape than the economy. Yet, the Governor of Alaska wants to talk about somebody Barack Obama doesn't know very well, and what this somebody Barack Obama doesn't know very well, did, during the year Obama was eight and the Governor of Alaska was in pre-Kindergarten.
And she wants to talk about Reverend Jeremiah Wright. And she doesn't object to being introduced with a reference to Barack Obama's middle name. Well, this is my suggestion. In much the same way we, America, in the corporate persona of Fannie Mae, have forgiven poor Addie Polk of Akron, Ohio.
We, America, also need to forgive poor Sarah Palin of Wasilla, Alaska. They are both in situations that are beyond their ability to cope. They are both stuck in a crucible caused by forces they cannot comprehend. They are both unable to understand what they are doing.
After stumbling through a clumsier version of it at Englewood, Colorado, the Governor of Alaska said Saturday at Carson, California:
"Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.”
She later defended the remark by adding this was an "association that has been known but hasn't been talked about.”
Governor, Conservative groups have thus far spent ten million dollars this year trying to make something, anything, out of the brief interaction on a charity board between Sen. Obama, and a rehabilitated former domestic radical from the '60s and not even Conservatives have been stupid enough to buy the snake oil, that this was either a close relationship or a nefarious one.
But of course, you know better, Governor. You're smarter than the rest of us. A reporter asks you a horrible gotcha question like'which newspapers do you read' and it takes you four days to come up with an answer, and somehow it's the reporter's fault.
The reporter asks you to name one Supreme Court ruling with which you disagree other than Roe vs. Wade and even though you'd commented on just such a case from Alaska no less not three months ago your eyes turn into a big neon sign reading "Vacancy” and you insist it's because that evil media asked the wrong question.
So you're the genius Governor, and it's your supporters and the undecided voters who are the dopes who are now going to believe the same mickey-mouse crap that Sen. Clinton couldn't get to stick, and Sean Hannity couldn't get to stick, just because it's you adding that word "terrorist” and that phrase "palling around” and dropping the "g” in pal-ling.
And of course, Governor, those same dopes, and we media morons, we are not smart enough to ask about that pesky Alaskan Independence Party, and why you recorded a speech for its convention last March, and why your husband remained a registered member of it until 2002, even though it was founded by a man named Joe Vogler who wanted Alaska to secede from the United States. The way the South seceded, precipitating the Civil War.
The same Joe Vogler who once said:
"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government, and I won't be buried under their damn flag.”
And who also said:
"I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions.”
Shoot, Governor, them's strong words, hah? Did he wink as he said 'em? You betcha! So, where does Joe Vogler rank on the scales of "terrorists who would target their own country?" Your opponent's guy Ayers wound up on a volunteer anti-poverty committee in Chicago.
But your guy Vogler wound up founding a group that wanted to rip one of the stars off the American flag! Well, ok, Governor, Vogler's more your husband's guy. So it's your husband who's been "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”
But I'm assuming you've been "palling around” with your husband. But, gee willikers, Governor, you know what's best. You're not one of these Washington insiders who would notice that though that's a straight line connecting you, your husband, and this Alaskan secessionist, you're*standing under a banner with the campaign slogan "Country First” and if somebody out there puts two and two together they might just ask, "which Country dja mean? The Country of Alaska?”
"The heels are on,” you said with another smile. "The gloves are off.”
Well, if you're telling William Kristol you want to talk about Jeremiah Wright fer sure! So, Governor you don't mind addressing whether this Pastor Muthee is a terrorist? Do you? We've told you before about Pastor Thomas Muthee.
He's the preacher who visited the Wasilla Assembly of God church a couple of times while the Governor was there, ironically enough, just about as many times as Bill Ayres has met Barack Obama and, see, there was this one time where Pastor Muthee actually laid hands on the Governor.
And I'm sure that sounds like just some crazy anecdote, except there's videotape. And of course the Governor talked about this moment, the laying on of hands, just last summer.
It was in October, 2005, as the video indicates, when Muthee put his hands on Sarah Palin's back and said, "make a way for Sarah, even in the political arena. Make a way, my God. Bring finances her way, even if for the campaign in the name of Jesus.
"Every form of witchcraft, it will be rebuked in the name of Jesus. Father, make her way now. "
And the Governor said that "bold” approach of Pastor Muthee was one of the reasons she became Governor and she gives him just oodles of credit for puttin' her on the path.
The problem for the governor is that in 1999 The Christian Science Monitor reported that Pastor Muthee had gotten his start a decade earlier in Kenya, in the Nairobi suburb of Kiambu.
Kimabu was crime-ridden. So this character Muthee showed up, and announced it was the fault of this woman in town who he had decided was a witch. And Muthee gave the witch a choice: either be saved, or get out of town.
And the woman initially chose none of the above, but this became less than a viable option when Muthee got 200 of the townspeople together and they decided, heck, you know, Muthee's right, she probably is a witch, and the next thing you know the police are raiding her house and reportedly shooting her snake because if she was a witch, the snake had to be a demon, and then the woman left town and everybody said crime went down and most of the bars closed and this is not only how Pastor Muthee got started but he's proud of it and he tells the story in his testimonial videotapes and people in that church in Wasilla where he laid hands on the Governor knew all about it.
And they think it was just a Joe-Six-Pack, Hockey Mom kinda thing to do, to let a guy who branded some woman in Kenya a witch, demand that God make some different woman the Governor of Alaska!
Governor, what would you call someone who arrives in a suburb, blames a resident for the local crime, organizes a mob to threaten the woman, convinces the authorities to go and raid her home, and then chases her out of the suburb?
C'mon Governor, just give us one answer that has something to do with the question you were just asked. That's right you'd call him a terrorist. And since it was in his own country, that would make himmmm? Yes, very good, a domestic terrorist.
So, you, Governor, you've been "palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.” Say it ain't so, Gov! Say it ain't so! Of course it is.
The Governor of Alaska ignores Addie Polk and the American tragedy that is a 90-year old woman shooting herself out of shame and panic and who knows what else. Over the mortgage!
Instead the Governor of Alaska wants to start calling people terrorists and insisting of Sen. Obama that quote "this is not a man who sees America like you and I see America” and whose rhetoric like that, and the "pallin' around with terrorists” line were rightly described by the Associated Press yesterday as a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing kind of way of slipping racism into the equation, because it's a nifty trick to remind the white folk that (psst) Obama is black.
But overriding this sleaziness and dog-gone it, the Governor of Alaska has got to be the sleaziest politician working the stage at the moment, there is the sheer blessed stupidity of letting herself become the bomb-thrower when her own life is full of domestic terrorists.
Governor? Bill Ayres? Your hubby was in this secessionist hate group for which you recorded a video.
Governor? Jeremiah Wright? That pastor you credit with helping you become Governor, is either a con man or a psycho who believes he can tell which woman in the village is the witch, and which woman is the governor.
And Governor, there's also "The U.S. Council On World Freedom.” You should ask Sen. McCain about that outfit and why he had to scat away from it 22 years ago.
Or, ask him why yesterday his own brother Joe referred to Northern Virginia as quote "communist country.” Or you could ask him about Pastors John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Or about why Sen. McCain said about introducing Jeremiah Wright into this campaign, "there's no place for that kind of campaigning, the American people don't want it, period.”
Or don't ask. You know best. You're the one selling the patent medicine. Those of us out here, we're just the suckers pulling out our greenbacks. Go on talking about this man Ayers and trying to link Obama to that word "terrorist.”
But be prepared for others to ask you about your pastor and terrorism. And for still others to ask you about the First Dude and terrorism. But not me, Governor.
I forgive you. You are about as guilty here as poor Ms. Addie Polk in Akron. And I hope that after what you've done to yourself, you recover as well as she seems to be doing, and that you too get to go back and live in your own home again.
Because if you think the terrorism con, and the racism sting are going to do anything but bury you and Sen, McCain, you need to pick up one of those how-many-ever newspapers you reed and check the headlines to find out what people are really worried about right now.
Otherwise, when you said "the heels are on, the gloves are off,” you got as close to telling the truth as you've ever gotten, and without really knowing it.
Because, for you and Sen. McCain, Governor, it's not the gloves that just came off.
Obviously—it's the wheels.
(K. Olberman) --END--

Jesus Christ! ...God... Damnit!

2008-10-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

PRESIDENT SARAH PALIN, The 45th President of The United States Of America

2008-09-19T04:11:00.000-07:00

HEY BABY...
Okay, damnit! It's NOT funny. We're not talkin' about a freakin' Student Council election here. [But if we were: How 'bout that Katie Couric, EH? ...Eh?]
PRESIDENT SARAH PALIN, The 45th President
of The United States Of America?
REALLY? ...Yep!

John McCain's asking us to have A LOT of FAITH in his HEALTH, presumably for the next EIGHT YEARS! Considering: his HISTORY OF CANCER, old-age, and seemingly current onset of Alzheimers, dementia, or some other loss of his mental faculties... (See his speeches/interviews -- for the last couple weeks or months: Johnny's lost-it! 'Makes hardly any sense at-all!!)

McCain obviously picked Palin TO WIN THE ELECTION! Not TO BE PRESIDENT!! Think about it... [McCain doesn't care; He'll be dead!!!] So, I guess the joke's on Us: the voters, taxpayers, the Troops! NOT FUNNY!

No, we are NOT back, Herb.

Can a Company SUE a Man for RUINING their PRODUCT's appeal in the marketplace?

2008-08-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

"WAR PIGS" What? ...It's a song by Black Sabbath... Golly! What did you think it was in reference to?

2008-06-04T03:36:00.000-07:00

[Clickpic(tm), for larger version]

Karl Rove IGNORES yet another SUBPOENA from Congress to testify on the INSIDIOUS CIA Leak Scandal he coordinated...

2008-05-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

IT COULD (FINALLY) HAPPEN, FOLKS!
NOBODY, IN THE WHOLE WORLD, SHOULD TO BE IN JAIL, OR PRISON, MORE THAN KARL ROVE...
OKAY, MAYBE CHENEY, BUT--

& SINCE BUSH'S CORRUPTED & PATHETIC JUSTICE DEPT. (REALLY:) REFUSES TO ENFORCE CONGRESS'S SUBPOENAS, FOR BUSH'S HACK-FRIENDS AND CRONIES -- LIKE ROVE -- LIKE THEY WOULD IF YOU (OR ME) IGNORED A SUBPOENA, CONGRESS -- SPECIFICALLY JOHN CONYERS -- MAY HAVE TO INVOKE A PROVISION IN THE LAW WHICH ALLOWS CONGRESS, VIA THE SEARGENT-AT-ARMS, TO ARREST SOMEONE AND JAIL THEM IN THE BASEMENT OF THE CAPITOL-BUILDING & TRY THEM ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS. COOL!
AND CONYERS, WHO CHAIRS THE HOUSE-JUDICIARY-COMMITTEE HAS INDICATED HE MAY JUST DO THAT!!
NEAT, NEAT, NEAT!!!

Former W.H. PRESS SECRETARY, Scott McLellan writes a book... CONFIRMS EVERYTHING! (Scotty's tryin' to wash the BLOOD off HIS HANDS.)

2008-05-29T01:34:00.001-07:00

CONFIRMED:
The bush-tax-cuts -- were a scam, for rich people.
The bush-administration exploited 9/11 (after ignoring multiple warnings, and essentially allowing it to happen.)
The bush-administration LIES about everything...
The bush/cheney invasion and occupation of Iraq was A TOTAL FRAUD! "WMD" was a ruse, to make it seem like Iraq was part of the war-on-terror.
They use FEAR and PROPAGANDA constantly, and govern like they are in a PERMANENT CAMPAIGN: Lies, spin, deception... favors-to-friend$, MONEY & FRAUD.
ABUSE OF POWER!

Obama said "bitter?" WHAT THE PROBLEM IS?

2008-04-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

The patsy Bush/Cheney got to Approve their Crimes... WHO?

2008-04-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

"TORTURE'S O-TAY, BOSS!"
Torture-memo guy... John Hu, or something like that.
He wrote (for Ashcroft's Justice Dept.?)
the Torture-is-okay memo(s) in 2002/2003, stretching logic and standing American values on-their-head to say Bush/Cheney can commit WAR CRIMES without consequence... because we're... at war.
[Seriously, that was essentially his lame reasoning.]

George W. Bush is DRIVEN by the prospect of HANDING-OFF HIS IRAQ DISASTER to the NEXT PRESIDENT...

2008-03-31T02:51:00.000-07:00

John McCain: Four More Years of Bush/Cheney's IRAQ Occupation Without End... With NO Other MISSION!

2008-03-28T16:08:00.001-07:00

Anonymous BUSH ADMINISTRATION Official, on the U.S. ECONOMY: "It's not as bad as Rwanda."

2008-03-28T16:08:00.000-07:00

Oh, how far we have come...

Dick Cheney, EVIL BASTARD!

2008-03-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

More from the GREASY NETHERWORLD OF LIES, DEATH, and OIL PROFITS(!), otherwise known as Vice President Dick Cheney:

Across the country today, memorial services will be held to honor the 4,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq, a tragic milestone in President Bush’s “surge” effort.

But the White House is trying to gloss over the troop death marker. President Bush held no public events on the issue today, although he briefly thanked the “courageous people willing to serve” while at the State Department today.

In an interview with ABC News today, Vice President Cheney expressed gross callousness about the 4,000 dead troops, implying that the troops volunteered for duty. (w/ EDITS)Who, in Cheney’s eyes, is hurting even more than the troops and their families? George W. Bush:The president carries the biggest burden, obviously. (OBVIOUSLY... DUH!) He’s the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm’s way for the rest of us... (THE ALL-VOLUNTEER MILITARY WORKED WELL, UP UNTIL BUSH/CHENEY INVADED IRAQ... RECRUITMENT IS WAY, WAY DOWN.)
Our brave soldiers didn't sign-up to sacrifice everything for Dick Cheney's halliburton/neocon-dream and mismanaged clusterf**k that Iraq was, and is. The Bush administration, remember, had to lie to the public and Congress to weasel enough support to invade Iraq... And: that's why Our "volunteer military" that Dick Cheney seems to covet, is not gonna be very-big or any-good, pretty soon. That paragraph makes sense! It's you...

FIVE YEARS LATER: Bush/Cheney's Ill-Advised Invasion & OCCUPATION OF IRAQ... Based on LIES; w/ No Mission!

2008-03-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

Invading + occupying IRAQ,
Without a mission has cost
4,000 DEAD AMERICANS...
Bush/Cheney - FAILED LEADERS!
That's: four-thousand dead, in Iraq.

Scooter Libby DISBARRED, Cannot Practice Law. That's a start...

2008-03-22T00:40:00.000-07:00

From Think Progress...
Former vice presidential chief of staff Scooter Libby has been disbarred, according to Washington, D.C. radio station WTOP. “A three-judge panel on the DC Court of Appeals stripped Libby of his ability to practice law after he was found guilty last year of obstructing the investigation in the CIA leak investigation,” according to the station. President Bush commuted Libby’s sentence in July 2007.
The TRAITOR still gets off easy...
But DISBARMENT by his fellow lawyers is appropriate, since he LIED TO THE COURTS UNDER OATH;p OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE. Now, even if Georgie, as anticipated, pardons him when leaving office, Scooter Libby can't be a lawyer... ["token?"] Good, Herb.

DELUSIONAL is a word which aptly describes Vice President DICK CHENEY. (Severely clinically delusional)

2008-03-18T00:44:00.000-07:00

DICK CHENEY IS INSANE:BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavor" in a visit to Iraq that was overshadowed by a suicide bombing that killed at least 25 people...
He should live his life out, what's left of it, destitute; with his otherwise "compensation" going to the soldiers, families, and Iraqi civilians whose lives he has so joyfully RUINED!

Bush and Cheney should NOT ne allowed, after they leave office, to earn Dollar one from any investment, employment, or other endeavor which profits/profited from the STUPID OCCUPATION-WAR OF CHOICE THAT BUSH/CHENEY SO SHAMELESSLY LIED US, OUR TROOPS, AND THE WORLD INTO. [Serenity NOW, SERENITY NOW.]

Someone paid TRAITOR Karl Rove $40,000.00 to give a (worthless) SPEECH? WHY? What were they thinking?

2008-03-12T02:14:00.000-07:00

KARL ROVE, IN A SPEECH TO UNIVERSITY OF IOWA GRADUATES, WAS BOOED, HECKLED, AND CHASED OUT-OF-TOWN BY IRATE TOWNFOLK WIELDING TORCHES & PITCHFORKS:
Karl Rove, former senior aide to President Bush, spoke to a hostile crowd at the University of Iowa yesterday evening. Students and local citizens protested his appearance at the university and “staged a mock trial” for Rove inside the student union before the speech.

During the lecture, Rove lashed out at hostile questioners, telling one man his comment showed “a simple, stupid mind” and chastised what he said were “stupid statements” from the audience. Rove also said that former Amb. Joseph Wilson “lied” about his 2002 trip to Niger and accused an audience member of “perpetuating libel” on the U.S. military for asking about the real number of deaths in the Iraq war:

After Rove said most Western intelligence agencies agreed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction prior to the war, Durham said, “When I had dinner with Joe Wilson, that’s not what he said.”

“With all do respect, Joe Wilson lied about his [intelligence gathering] trip to Africa,” Rove responded, drawing more boos. […]

When an audience member asked him about the “true” body count in Iraq, Rove accused the individual of “perpetuating libel on the military of the United States by accusing them of killing innocent Iraqis.”

Responding to a question about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson’s outing, Rove, seemingly joking, added:

I haven’t been indicted yet, but I fully expect to be by the end of the year.

The University paid Rove $40,000 for the speech and had to agree to limit “recording equipment and flash photography” to “the first five minutes of the lecture.” At the end of the talk, an audience member shouted at Rove: “Can we have our $40,000 back?” Rove replied: “No, you can’t.”

Perhaps Rove needs to keep the $40,000 in expectation of substantial legal fees.

Former Speaker Dennis "Fatty" Hastert's House Seat Goes TO A DEMOCRAT!

2008-03-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

THIS IS A BIG WIN -- FOR THE D's: DENNIS HASTERT'S UBER-CONSERVATIVE DISTRICT; HASTERT -- FAT PIG, KING-OF-PORK -- WHILE HOUSE SPEAKER, FATTENED-UP A LOT OF "PEOPLE" (Cronies, Contributors, Corporations; + His Fatass Self!) IN HIS DISTRICT. THE G.O.P. OWNS THAT DISTICT --Right?-- DOH!!
THEY JUST ELECTED A DEMOCRAT!!!Bill Foster — a Democratic candidate who is a physicist — defeated Republican dairy owner Jim Oberweis in a special election to claim the Illinois congressional seat... (LONG-HELD BY) former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R)...
*************************************************************
More, from The Chicago Tribune (w/ EDITS):
"Foster takes seat from GOP... Democrat to succeed Hastert in Republican stronghold"In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a sign of trouble for Republicans this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a far west suburban congressional seat long held by former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Rookie candidate Bill Foster scored a comfortable victory over Republican dairyman Jim Oberweis...
(IN "FATTY" HASTERT'S longstanding
G.O.P.-locked Congressional district!)
I have nothing to add, Herb.

BUSH is holding a BONG...

2008-03-09T04:09:00.000-07:00

Bush lets-his-hair-down, and shoots the shyite w/ reporters...
Wait a minute! Is Bush doing the-weed on Air Force One?
Shame on him...FLASHBACK, January 2001: Judicial coup-de-tat ("Supreme Court Five") steals the 2000 Presidential election for Bush/Cheney...

As Richard Nixon said: "They stole the election, fair-and-square!"

Condoleeza Rice (is incompetent!) DID NOTHING, after being WARNED REPEATEDLY in 2001 of TERR'IST THREATS!

2008-03-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

Condi Rice: NATIONAL SECURITY DISASTER!
CONDI RICE DID NOT ADVISE THE PRESIDENT before 9/11... She DID NOTHING after being WARNED repeatedly!

Richard Clarke, showed that he had bombarded Rice with messages about terrorist threats” before 9/11, Shenon writes. Some examples:
“Bin Ladin Public Profile
May Presage Attack”
(May 3)
“Terrorist Groups Said Co-operating
on US Hostage Plot”
(May 23)
“Bin Ladin’s Networks’
Plans Advancing”
(May 26)
“Bin Ladin Attacks
May Be Imminent”
(June 23)
“Bin Ladin and Associates
Making Near-Term Threats”
(June 25)
“Bin Ladin Planning High-
Profile Attacks”
(June 30)
“Planning for Bin Ladin Attacks
Continues, Despite Delays”
(July 2)...
The White House, as usual (obstructing), made sure the "9/11 Commission" didn't discuss the incompetent black-lady, who was "NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR," to President Bush... No wonder the White House refused to allow her to be questioned under-oath!

Condi Rice: "National..." "Security," "Advisor;" warnings... NOTHING!!!

RECORD HIGH OIL PRICES continue... Thanks BUSH/CHENEY!

2008-03-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

COMMANDER BUNNYPANTS, STRIKES AGAIN...$4.00 a gallon gas, coming soon... Brought to you by Bush/Cheney... Their FAILED SCHEMES, SELLOFFS & CORRUPT-CRONY POLICIES (www.huffingtonpost.com:)
"Bush actually campaigned in 2000 criticizing Clinton's energy policy for "high oil prices" -- when we were at less than $30 a barrel..." [!!!]

"President" George W. Bush is a LYING-MORON, HYPOCRITE CRYBABY-FAILURE...

FROM 2000, When gas cost $1 a gallon...
Bush was quick to draw a connection between the rising cost of oil and what he said was the Clinton administration's lack of a comprehensive energy policy.

"Today America has no energy policy," he said (in 2000). "...fuel prices rose..."

Bush said he hopes his energy policy will strike a chord with Michigan voters. Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics, said yesterday that Michigan voters definitely have oil prices on their minds."It's important because of the automobile industry, because of gas prices. There's been a lot of concern about the rising cost of operating automobiles," Ballenger said.

Oi! ...Oy (vey)? Oh my goodness, Herb.

[This post was inspired by a Daily Show segment w/ Jon Stewart; on Comedy Central; Check your local listings.]

The Iraq Invoice: $3,000,000,000,000 (That's Three-Trillion Dollars*), for Bush/Cheney's IRAQ MISADVENTURE!

2008-03-05T01:49:00.000-08:00

*That's: three-thousand trucks, each loaded w/ $1-Billion!**

**That's $500.00 for EVERY PERSON ALIVE ON EARTH... For Bush/Cheney's Occupation of Iraq -- Neocon friggin' DISASTER!

FROM THINKPROGRESS, THE BILL:Matt Yglesias notes, “Few people seem to appreciate it, but it’s quite literally true that al-Qaeda’s strategy is to cripple the U.S. economy by dragging us into quagmires abroad.” Arianna Huffington writes, “The thing about $3,000,000,000,000 is that, at a certain point, it becomes hard to ignore.”
Bush and Cheney: WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING!!!

And now we're SCRUDE!

In other news...
President Bush to "endorse"
Senator McCain (R-AZ), tomorrow...
POOR JOHN!!!

Domestic American Enemy #1, The George W. Bush Administration?

2008-02-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

Hillary Clinton* plays the "Turban Card," passing around to the press an OLD PHOTO of Obama, wearing a TURBAN at the Afghan Embassy or somewhere...

2008-02-26T18:20:00.000-08:00

*The HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN, as of tonight, has not been able to deny a role in the release of the picture; 'Even rumors of Hill' conspiring with Matt @ Drudge Report. Hmmph!

Texas Governor George W. Bush... Boldly Going Where NO MAN Has Gone Before... (Okay, scratch "boldly")

2008-02-26T06:47:00.000-08:00

UNCONSCIONABLE: Former Gitmo Prosecutor: Pentagon Official Said "We Can't Have Acquittals"

2008-02-23T02:49:00.001-08:00

Paul Kiel @ TPM Muckraker:
Former Gitmo Prosecutor:
Pentagon Official Said "We Can't Have Acquittals"
(EVEN IF ANY TOWEL-HEADS INNOCENT?)
At this point, it's not even controversial to say that the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay are a sham. The current chief judge there has written that the military tribunals have “credibility problems." And the former chief prosecutor, after resigning, publicly criticized the system as "deeply politicized."

Now that former prosecutor, Col. Morris Davis, has given more evidence of that politicization in an interview with The Nation after the six Gitmo detainees were charged. Davis says that in an August, 2005 meeting with William Haynes, then the Pentagon's general counsel, Haynes seemed to completely discount the possibility of the military tribunals acquitting any of the detainees. Now, of course, Haynes has been installed as the official overseeing the whole process, both the prosecutors and the defense. From The Nation:

"[Haynes] said these trials will be the Nuremberg of our time," recalled Davis, referring to the Nazi tribunals in 1945, considered the model of procedural rights in the prosecution of war crimes. In response, Davis said he noted that at Nuremberg there had been some acquittals, something that had lent great credibility to the proceedings.

"I said to him that if we come up short and there are some acquittals in our cases, it will at least validate the process," Davis continued. "At which point, [Haynes's] eyes got wide and he said:
'Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals.
If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals, we've got to have convictions.'" ...

That's the Pentagon attorney who's been put in charge of the "military tribunals." Why even hold the tribunals? We could just execute the enemy-combatants, and save a bunch of time, stress, and money. [Dead men tell no tales! 'Of innocence, torture, or anything else that might make Georgie wet his pants (or look bad)!]

From a Constitutional/legal standpoint, that line is truly shocking. Truly! It's not surprising, I suppose from the Bushies. They don't give a sh!t about the law, or the rights of other... people! Not when protecting their own asses, and perpetuating their multitude of lies is involved. I think that might be a: Definition of "evil."

Barrack Obama: Oh, My... God.

2008-02-19T21:50:00.000-08:00

Barrack Obama BLOWS OUT Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, Washington, + Hawaii*... and more[?], tonight in the Democratic Primary Contest. It puts him ahead of her in Delegates, pledged or whatever, and bolsters Obama's "joe-mentum" further.
Bye Hill'! 'Bill!!
I dunno! I don't think I really like this two-party "primary" system, or scheme -- or whatever -- we have to go thru.
Can we start over? Or... Can Al (Arnold? No!) jump in, later?

*Obama BEAT Hillary, 3-to-1, in Hawaii:
HAWAII: Obama 76% ; Clinton 24%

PRESIDENT'S DAY?

2008-02-18T20:47:00.001-08:00

************************************
2/19, UPDATED: Commending the staff, here at the Juncture: For this post, (original-art) pic, and title, and nothing else... We really hit it out of the park, with this post! [Submitted to the Academy, this day...]

We did it for Madison, Monroe, Taft & Lincoln, JFK and the rest, who certainly roll-in-their-graves whenever they realize/remember that somehow, some way, George Junior - the fratboy-kid from Texas - is in their company; 'ever more...
Poor bastards, Herb.

Bush wants retroactive-telecom-immunity to conceal/immunize (his!) THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION's, and not the phone companies', ILLEGAL ACTIVTIES

2008-02-18T01:27:00.000-08:00

BILL KRISTOL IS AN IDIOT...

Think Progress, on
Bush's illegal spying...
Then neocon Bill Kristol
saying something stupid:
[W/ SOME EDITS.]
The Bush administration secretly conducted spying in violation of the Constitution and the law [ILLEGALLY] for four years before The New York Times disclosed it in 2005. For years, the White House lied about these activities to the American public. For example, in 2004, Bush claimed that “a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way.” At least one telco refused to comply with the Bush administration’s request because it knew the actions were illegal.

Even now, the administration continues to lie about the consequences of the Protect America Act expiration. Just yesterday, Bush stated that it will now “be harder for our government to keep you safe from terrorist attack.” But as an expert from the Cato Institute admits, this statement isn’t true: “There’s no reason to think our nation will be in any more danger in 2008 than it was in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006.”
*******
Bill Kristol:
It’s ‘Unbelievable’ That Congress Won’t Give
Bush ‘The Benefit Of The Doubt’ On Spying...

Today on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol mourned that an “emboldened” Congress refused to give telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for cooperating with the administration’s warrantless wiretapping.

Kristol said it was “unbelievable” for lawmakers to question the judgment of administration officials. [WHAT?] Instead, he argued, Congress should just give them the “benefit of the doubt”:
I think it’s kind of unbelievable, frankly. It’s a judgment call. [IT'S NOT A JUDGMENT CALL.] We don’t know. [WE'VE SEEN IT ALL, BILL, WE KNOW!] Not to give the administration the benefit of the doubt when they have career people, military people, intelligence people like Mike McConnell and Mike Hayden, and the attorney general, Mike Mukasey — I mean, these are not political hacks. [BUSH CRONIES, HACKS, LIARS] These are not ideological people.

When they say this is important for our national security, the Congress — to block
this legislation I find pretty amazing.
It's not complicated, at all, Mr. Kristol.
It's not "amazing;" and it's not "unbelievable."
Giving Bush/Cheney the "benefit-of-the-doubt," however, would be: unbelievably stupid!
[Moron! ...Dee-de-dee!]

So... I rest my case, ladies and gentlemen:
BILL KRISTOL IS AN IDIOT.
Goodnight, Herb.

MSNBC's KEITH OLBERMANN Comments: "...YOU ARE A LIAR, MR. BUSH."

2008-02-15T17:34:00.001-08:00

KEITH OLBERMANN, FROM MSNBC:

Mr. Bush, you say that our ability to track terrorist threats will be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger. Yet you have weakened that ability!

You have subjected us, your citizens, to that greater danger! This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough for even you to understand.

For the moment, at least, thanks to some true patriots in the House, and your own stubbornness, you have tabled telecom immunity, and the FISA act.

You. By your own terms and your definitions, you have just sided with the terrorists. You’ve got to have this law, or we’re all going to die. But, practically speaking, you vetoed this law.

It is bad enough, sir, that you were demanding an ex post facto law that could still clear the AT&Ts and the Verizons from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.

But when you demanded it again during the State of the Union address, you wouldn’t even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared.
“The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America.”

Believed? Don’t you know? Don’t you even have the guts Dick Cheney showed in admitting they did collaborate with you? Does this endless presidency of loopholes and fine print extend even here? If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business, come out and say it! There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.

You’re a fascist — get them to print you a T-shirt with fascist on it! What else is this but fascism? Did you see Mark Klein on this newscast last November?

Mark Klein was the AT&T whistleblower who explained in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood IT desk how he personally attached all AT&T circuits, everything, carrying every one of your phone calls, every one of your e-mails, every bit of your Web browsing into a secure room, room No. 641-A at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.

Not some of it, not just the international part of it, certainly not just the stuff some spy, a spy both patriotic and telepathic, might be able to divine had been sent or spoken by or to a terrorist.

Everything! Every time you looked at a naked picture. Every time you bid on eBay. Every time you phoned in a donation to a Democrat. “My thought was,” Mr. Klein told us last November, “George Orwell’s ‘1984.’ And here I am, forced to connect the Big Brother machine.”

And if there’s one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, it is that he is — you are — a liar.

“This Saturday at midnight,” you said Thursday, “legislation authorizing intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications will expire. If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying and what they are planning will be compromised.” You said that “the lives of countless Americans depend” on your getting your way.

This is crap. And you sling it with an audacity and a speed unrivaled by even the greatest political felons of our history.

Richard Clarke — you might remember him, sir: He was one of the counterterror pros you inherited from President Clinton, before you ran the professionals out of government in favor of your unreality-based reality — Richard Clarke wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire.

“If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.”

You are a liar, Mr. Bush. And after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar.

And your minions like John Boehner, your Republican congressional crash dummies who just happen to decide to walk out of Congress when a podium-full of microphones await them, they should just keep walking, out of Congress and, if possible, out of the country.

For they and you, sir, have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

The lot of you are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle managers of some banana republic to whom “freedom” is an ironic brand name, a word you reach for when you want to get away with its opposite.

Thus, Mr. Bush, your panoramic invasion of privacy is dressed up as “protecting America.”

Thus, Mr. Bush, your indiscriminate domestic spying becomes the focused monitoring only of “terrorist communications.”

Thus, Mr. Bush, what you and the telecom giants have done isn’t unlawful; it’s just the kind of perfectly legal, passionately patriotic thing for which you happen to need immunity!

Richard Clarke is on the money, as usual.
That the president was willing to veto this eavesdropping means there is no threat to the legitimate counterterror efforts under way.

As Sen. Edward Kennedy reminded us in December:

“The president has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA.

“But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity.

“No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the president at his word, he’s willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.”

And that literally cannot be. Even Mr. Bush could not overtly take a step that actually aids the terrorists. I am not talking about ethics here. I am talking about blame. If the president seems to be throwing the baby out with the bath water, it means we can safely conclude there is no baby.

Because if there were, sir, now that you have vetoed an extension of this eavesdropping, if some terrorist attack were to follow, you would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists. You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people. You would not merely be guilty of stupidity. You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir.

You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.

And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again — it is that you are never responsible.

As recently ago as 2006, we spoke words like these with trepidation.

The idea that even the most cynical and untrustworthy of politicians in our history, George W. Bush, would use the literal form of terrorism against his own people was dangerous territory. It seemed to tempt fate, to heighten fear.

We will not fear any longer. We will not fear the international terrorists, and we will thwart them. We will not fear the recognition of the manipulation of our yearning for safety, and we will call it what it is: terrorism. We will not fear identifying the vulgar hypocrites in our government, and we will name them. And we will not fear George W. Bush. Nor will we fear because George W. Bush wants us to fear. -END-

Breaking... Entertainment News: The WRITER'S STRIKE IS OVER

2008-02-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

L.A. Times has story...
Finally, (no offense,) Jon Stewart can stop flopping-around-like-a-fish-on-a-boat-deck improvising... Back to The Daily Show! And new Colbert Reports, too. And other stuff as well, I imagine, Herb.

DICK CHENEY, to the dead, the wounded, the families, the displaced, the destroyed, "GO F@*K YOURSELVES!"

2008-02-08T03:39:00.000-08:00

ON IRAQ, RECENTLY:
"Damn right, we'd do it all again," Dick Cheney said.
...THINK ABOUT THAT!

"DAMN RIGHT!"
You're "damn right" Dick Cheney would do it again (Iraq). He'd DESTROY IT ALL AGAIN. FAIL, again!!! RUIN Our military, and WRECK all those American/Iraqi families' lives, again! HELL YEAH! "Damn right, he would do it all again:" ABUSE his office & LIE to the world about WHY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people MUST DIE needlessly... For his hare-brained (neocon) theory. For oil? 'For his gain, his wealth; and his, amusement.

Damn right, God damnit!

DICK CHENEY callously dismisses all the LIVES HIS FAILED-IRAQ-(DREAM)-OCCUPATION-WAR HAS RUINED: 'The dead, the wounded, the families, the displaced, the orphaned, the destroyed, the innocent, and the forgotten... "GO FUCK YOURSELVES!"

DICK CHENEY, TO THE WORLD:"GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

BUZZFLASH LINKS TO
THIS, FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN,
AS FOLLOWS...

Dick Cheney: 'Damn right' we'd do it all again. Good grief. The Democrats, Any Democrat, Must Win the White House in November or Democracy and Civilized Standards of Behavior are Doomed!

We concur, at the very least, with Buzzflash's level of DISGUST Re: Dick Cheney. DICK CHENEY IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE, & AN INTERNATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT! Somebody should be "minding" the DICK! You know? Like a babysitter, Herb.

Mitt QUIT Romney QUIT today...

2008-02-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney funded his Republican Primary Campaign, largely with about $60 Million of HIS OWN (FAMILY's) money... OUCH!!!

Can you say, "lifestyle changes," honey?

EXXON: GLUTTONY & GREED, INC.! Bush/Cheney: Thanx for NOTHING! "OILMEN?" ...Whatever...

2008-02-02T03:23:00.000-08:00

BUZZFLASH links to New York Times story, thusly:

Bush and Cheney
Now Can Really Say
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED":
Exxon Mobil Profit Sets Record Again. The company reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices.

Chevron too -- record profits!
Yeah... All of 'em,
AS IT TURNS OUT...
[BP, Shell & Connoco
round out the Top 5]

President Bush IS the INTELLIGENCE GAP in the American Government... America, the country, SUFFERS...

2008-02-01T01:42:00.000-08:00

From Roll Call:

President Bush “utterly dismissed international opinion polls showing declining approval of the United States.” “When it comes to, where do you want to live, many people [say], ‘I’d like to live in the United States,’” Bush proclaimed.

Bush also told (Roll Call), “absolutely, we are stronger” now than in 2001...

Unbeleivable...
George W. Bush is America's "intelligence gap."

'Bubble, much? It explains a lot, though, the abject ignorance Bush reveals there. Nevertheless... It's still embarrassing, Herb.

CAN ANYBODY MAKE IT STOP? I'M STARTING TO FEEL SICK...

2008-01-31T15:57:00.000-08:00

PRESIDENT BUSH gave a predictably lame STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS...

2008-01-28T18:44:00.001-08:00

During his State Of The Union address tonight,
George W. Bush (inadvertently?) described
his presidency in these words...
BUSH: "THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMAN LIFE..."
when he was talking, not about himself & Dick Cheney, or Iraq; but about... stem-cell abortions, or something.

Bush's SOTU speech
su-hucked, as usual.
'Didn't make sense!

It was like ~ the Greatest Hits of Bush's "presidency," featuring all BUSH's THIS-IS-HOW-I-SEE-IT favorites.

He ended with a sort-of scolding to Congress about "trusting the people," ...and how important it was for them (politicians) to "TRUST THE PEOPLE," without addressing why:CONGRESS & "THE PEOPLE" CANNOT TRUST GEORGE W. BUSH, OR ANYBODY IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.
Good-point, I made... [LYING is really the only thing we can TRUST the Bush White House to do!
Thank You, Herb.

Karl Rove was gonna speak at some high-school... STUDENTS & STAFF DON'T WANT HIM THERE, PROTESTING! [Update: REJECTED!]

2008-01-27T03:19:00.000-08:00

UPDATE:
ROVE WAS CANCELLED!
END UPDATE.

Students Plan to Protest Rove Speech.
Students at the prestigious prep school Choate Rosemary Hall are protesting the choice of Karl Rove as their commencement speaker.

AP reports that some students “plan to walk out, while “others are trying to bring comedian Stephen Colbert to campus for an alternate speech.”

The campus newspaper has also written an editorial urging the school to reject Rove.
God Bless The Children!

Karl Rove ruined the Country:
These kids & their teachers don't want a TRAITOR giving a speech to them. Karl Rove is a LIAR and a total FRAUD... Who cares, what he has to say? (Tell it to the Corrections Officer, b!tch!) He stole a couple elections, ruined our reputation, and perverted the Federal Government to serve Republicans (only). SELFISH PIG!

Graduation's a day of celebration; Why should the kids be TORTURED?

Who's booking speakers, damnit?

Q: How does President Bush know what's happening "on-the-ground"?

2008-01-25T17:53:00.000-08:00

A:

President Bush: In-touch, with the problems facing average Americans? ['From a safe distance; And after the "storm."] Classic Bush, Herb.

PS: Do they give any award[s] for:
BIGGEST PUSSY IN THE WORLD?

'Wonder if the US President
has ever won before (Bush).

Bush/Cheney LIED Iraq LIES... LIARS: George W. Bush & Dick Cheney [Bush Administration/Bush White House]

2008-01-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

I had another picture...*

*See post below.

Bush/Cheney Told A THOUSAND LIES ABOUT IRAQ - After 9/11...

2008-01-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

Via Keith Olberman, where we saw it first: A NEW
STUDY ADDS-UP BUSH ADMINISTRATION IRAQ-LIES

"George W Bush, White House
Told 935 Lies after September 11"US President George W Bush and other top officials (i.e., DICK CHENEY, CONDI RICE, DON RUMSFELD, etc.) issued almost one thousand false statements about the national security threat from Iraq following the September 11 attacks, according to a study by two not-for-profit organisations.

The Associated Press reports the study, published on the website of the Centre for Public Integrity, concluded the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanised public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretences”.

According to the study, 935 false statements were issued by the White House in the two years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks...
I'm rounding it up to a thousand, for Monk...
Adrian Monk, Herb.

IMPEACH, DAMNIT!

Fred Thompson, Republicans' Great White Hope, DROPS-OUT of Primary Race... QUITTER!

2008-01-22T18:41:00.000-08:00

Wh-- Uh; What?

"Different Fred?"
"Different show."

WHO CARES*?
Not rhetorically,
seriously: Who cares?

Fred-happy -- Fred-sad.

UPDATE: [See Right: pic]
*Rather than "who-cares,"
I shoulda probably said...
"WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?"!
LOOK AT THOSE TWO PICS!

I can't imagine Law & Order wanting him, back? Anymore than the Republicans wanted him... Poor bastard:
He's outta work, now (too).

John Edwards, upset that Clinton/Obama catfight is all that's covered in the media... [WE AGREE.]

2008-01-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

Via the Guardian UK:"Edwards claims media overlooking his campaign..."
I hope the media doesn't CREATE the monster they're obsessed with: A Democratic Primary race between just Hillary Clinton [scary!] & Barrack Obama [18 yrs-old?].

WHY ? ...WHO KNOWS: Inexplicably, KARL ROVE isn't in JAIL yet.

2008-01-17T01:46:00.000-08:00

The bastard hasn't even been arrested (yet).
'Wonder what they're waitin' fer, Herb.

ADDENDUM: WELL, AT LEAST:

"...at least four years’ worth of Rove e-mails are “missing.”"

Maybe that kinda sh!t flies, in Texas; but you can't just destroy all the evidence, when you've STOLEN, CORRUPTED, RUINED & PERVERTED just about EVERYTHING in our National government... from The White House, while working for the President.
There's laws 'gainst that, Fatty!
Am I right? Thank you.

Eight Long Years: BUSH/CHENEY, Thanks for NOTHING! "What Are We Gonna Do Now?" [Clampdown]

2008-01-16T18:42:00.000-08:00

Oh? OH INDEED! Bush/Cheney Are The WORST DISASTER EVER to Hit The U.S.! The Bush Administration.

2008-01-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

COUNTRY ON WRONG TRACK:Three in four Americans think the country is off on the wrong track, matching the highest number recorded in the twenty-five years since CBS News began asking the question.
Only 19% (Alzheimer's + Dementia population?) say it is headed in the right direction, matching the all-time low reached last June.
I don't even think the U.S. is ON the "WRONG TRACK."
I'm not saying we're on the right track. I'm saying the BUSH ADMINISTRATION is OFF
THE TRACK, altogether.

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS OFF THE WRONG TRACK. They're completely lost... there are no more "tracks," trails, pathways, roads, or anything else. Nothing left, where these guys've dragged us...
Over the cliff, Herb

G0D D@MNIT!

2008-01-10T23:59:00.001-08:00

Nothing pisses-me-off more, than-
Bush/Cheney killing all the poor-
innocents (animals, people, et. al.)
with their greed for oil-policies

*******DEATH & DESTRUCTION*******
Environmental-policy that's KILLED the
Planet, for OIL to enrich themselves;
Chose endless war(s) that RUINED our
Military & DESTROYED our reputation.
**************NO FUTURE*************

(Federal) POLITICAL CROOKS, When Found GUILTY, Should be Sentenced to LIFE In A New Orleans Prison Camp -- REBUILDING THE CITY!

2008-01-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Rebuilding the poor-areas of New Orleans -- like the Ninth Ward -- and Low Income Housing destroyed by Hurricane Katrina... For a Dollar-a-day --
IF they're productive!
[They're bein' punished.]

And G*dD@mnit, I don't wanna hear any
WHINING about poor-health,
or old-age, or anything...

You're gonna work a ten-hour day
like the rest of us!!!
(Six on Sunday.)

What were you ol' bastards thinkin', anyways? "War profits"? That's so Un-Ameerican -- GET BACK TO WORK, OLD MAN!

The SCANDAL-PLAGUED BUSH/CHENEY ADMINISTRATION*... This'll be the last "list" we post; for awhile. [Promise]

2008-01-07T02:12:00.000-08:00

*Or, alternatively**:
THE SCANDAL-ADMINISTERED
BUSH/CHENEY PLAGUE...
**Or, dyxlessically:
"The Bush-Cheney Plague!"

From the Halls of
TPM-Muckraker, Enjoy:

Indicted / Convicted/ Pled Guilty
* Eric G. Andell - deputy undersecretary in charge of newly created Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (previously senior adviser to Secretary of Education Rod Paige) - pleaded guilty to one count of conflict of interest for using government travel for personal causes and was sentenced to one year of probation, 100 hours of community service, and fined $5,000.

* Claude Allen - Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy- resigned, pled guilty to shoplifting from Target stores.

* Lester Crawford - Commissioner, FDA - resigned in late September 2005 after only two months on the job. On October 17th, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts, making a false writing and conflict of interest. On February 27, 2007, Crawford was sentenced to to three years of probation and was fined $90,000.

* Brian Doyle - Deputy Press Secretary, Department of Homeland Security - Resigned in wake of child sex scandal. Doyle was arrested on April 4th, 2006 and pleaded no contest on September 19, 2006 to seven counts of use of a computer to seduce a child and sixteen counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor. On November 17th, 2006 Brian Doyle was sentenced to five years in state prison and ten years of probation. He will also need to register as a sex offender.

* Steven Griles - Deputy Secretary at the Interior Department - is the highest-ranked administration official yet convicted in the Jack Abramoff scandal. In March 2007, Griles pleaded guilty to lying about his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Sentenced to 10 months incarceration.

* John T. Korsmo – Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board from 2002 to 2004 – pleaded guilty in 2005 to lying to the Senate and an inspector general. He swore he had no idea how a list of presidents for FHFB-regulated banks were invited to a fundraiser for his friend's congressional campaign. On the invites, Korsmo was listed as the "Special Guest." Got 18 months of probation and a $5,000 fine.

* Scooter Libby - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - resigned after being indicted for lying to a grand jury and investigators in connection with the investigation stemming from the leak of Valerie Wilson’s covert CIA operative's identity. Convicted on four of five counts, making him the highest-ranking White House official to be convicted of a felony since the Iran-contra scandal. Sentenced to thirty months imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. On July 2nd, after a judge decided that Libby would remain in prison during the appeals process, President Bush commuted Libby's sentence by removing the thirty months in prison.

* David Safavian - former head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget - convicted of lying to ethics officials and Senate investigators about his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. On October 27, 2006, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He is currently appealing the ruling.

* Robert Stein - former comptroller and funding officer for the now disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority, Southern Central Region in Al-Hillah, Iraq - pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, possession of a machine gun, and being a felon in possession of a fire arm. On January 30, 2007 Stein was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to forfeit $3.6 million.

* Roger Stillwell - desk officer, Interior Department - pleaded guilty to failing to report Redskins tickets and free dinners from Jack Abramoff.

Resigned Due to Investigation, Pending Investigation or Allegations of Impropriety
* Philip Cooney - chief of staff, White House Council on Environmental Quality - a former oil industry lawyer with no scientific expertise, Cooney resigned after it was revealed he had watered down reports on global warming.

* George Deutsch - press aide, NASA - resigned amid allegations he prevented the agency's top climate scientist from speaking publicly about global warming.

* Michael Elston - chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty - announced his resignation on June 15, 2007. Despite allegations that he’d threatened at least four of the eight fired US Attorneys, McNulty said Elston had served the Justice Department "with distinction for nearly eight years."

* Kyle Dustin “Dusty” Foggo - appointed executive director of the CIA, the agency’s third-highest post, in October 2004 - resigned and was ultimately indicted on bribery charges related to the Duke Cunningham scandal.

* Alberto Gonzales - former Attorney General - resigned without explanation amidst investigations of the firings of U.S. Attorneys, the politicization of the Justice Department, warrantless surveillance, and the torture and mistreatment of detainees.

* Monica Goodling - former Justice Department liaison to the White House and senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - resigned on April 7, 2007 amidst the investigation of the firings of U.S. Attorneys.

* Michelle Larson Korsmo - deputy chief of staff, Department of Labor - Helped her husband (see John Korsmo, above) with his donor scam. Quietly left her Labor plum job in February 2004, about two weeks before news broke that she and her husband were the targets of a criminal probe.

* Howard "Cookie" Krongard - former State Department inspector general -- accused of not properly investigating State Department contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan; of retaliating against whistleblowers in his own office; and of not telling the truth about his knowledge of his brother's ties with Blackwater, a State Department contractor. Faced with a possible perjury investigation, Howard Krongard resigned on December 7, 2007.

* Julie Macdonald - former deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks at the Interior Department - resigned in May 2007 after an "inspector general's report found she had improperly leaked information to private organizations, bullied staff scientists and broken federal rules." The Department of the Interior is investigating many of her decisions regarding endangered species; so far seven have been overturned.

* Paul McNulty - Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Justice – resigned, after questions about his involvement in the U.S. attorney firings and his testimony to Congress about the firings.

* Richard Perle - Chairman, Defense Policy Board - resigned from Pentagon advisory panel amid conflict-of-interest charges.

* Susan Ralston - assistant, White House - resigned amidst revelations that she had accepted thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff without compensating him, counter to White House ethics rules.

* Janet Rehnquist - inspector general, Department of Health and Human Services - resigned on June 1, 2003 in the face of an investigation into her alleged efforts to block a politically dangerous probe on behalf of the Bush family.

* James Roche - secretary, U.S. Air Force - resigned in the wake of the Boeing tanker lease scandal, after it was revealed he had rather crudely pushed for Boeing to win a $23 billion contract.

* Kyle Sampson -former chief of staff for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - resigned amidst the investigation of the firings of U.S. Attorneys.

* Joseph Schmitz - Inspector General, Defense - Resigned amid charges he personally intervened to protect top political appointees.

* Bradley Schlozman - resigned from his third and final post with the Justice Department after accusations of actively politicizing the department. He's currently under investigation by the Department's inspector general.

* Thomas Scully - Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - shortly after Scully resigned in 2003, an investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general found that Scully had pressured the agency's actuary to underestimate the full cost of the Medicare reform bill by approximately $100 billion until after Congress passed the bill into law. Scully was also hit with conflict of interest charges by the U.S. attorney's office for billing CMS for expenses incurred during a job search while he still headed the agency. He settled those charges by paying $9,782.

* David Smith - deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks, Interior Department - resigned on July 21, 2006 after shooting a buffalo and accepting its skeletal remains and meat as an illegal gratuity. He eventually paid over $3,000 for the dead buffalo, but only after the internal inquiry had commenced. The Department of Interior inspector general also noted in a May 16, 2006 report that Smith's involvement in the designation of Houston as a port of entry for imported wildlife in order to benefit a friend was inappropriate.

* John Tanner - Voting Rights Section Chief, Justice Department - resigned in December of 2007 and moved to the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices. Already under suspicion for aiding efforts to politicize the voting section, the bumbling proponent of voter identification laws angered lawmakers with his comments that such laws actually discriminate against white voters because "minorities die first". Even more impressive was his apology for the comment. The DoJ's Office of Professional Responsibility is currently investigating his travel habits and those of his deputy.

* Sara Taylor - Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs at the White House, where she was Karl Rove´s top aide - resigned amidst the U.S. attorneys investigation and other probes of Rove´s alleged politicization of the government.

* Ken Tomlinson - Board Chairman, Corporation for Public Broadcasting; member, Broadcasting Board of Governors - resigned at the release of an inspector general report concluding he had broken laws in spending CPB money to hire politically connected consultants to search for "bias" without consulting the board. At BBG, a separate investigation found he was running a "horse racing operation" out of his office, and continuing to hire politically-wired individuals to do "consulting" work for him. After being nominated and serving another term, he finally stepped down from that spot earlier this year.

* Carl Truscott - Director, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau - resigned. A report by the Justice Department's inspector general found that Truscott wasted tens of thousands of dollars on luxuries, wasted millions on whimsical management decisions and violated ethics rules by ordering employees to help his nephew with a high school video project.

* Paul Wolfowitz - World Bank President - resigned in May 2007 after a committee report found that he broke ethics rules by giving his girlfriend a substantial raise.

Nomination Failed Due to Scandal
* Linda Chavez - nominated, Secretary of Labor - withdrew her nomination in January 2001 amidst revelations that an illegal immigrant lived in her home and worked for her in the early 1990s. Chavez blamed what she said were the "search-and-destroy" politics of Washington.

* Timothy Flanigan - nominated, Deputy Attorney General (also Alberto Gonzales’ top deputy at the White House) - withdrew his nomination in October 2005 amidst revelations that he'd worked closely with lobbyist Jack Abramoff when he was General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco, which was a client of Abramoff's.

* Bernard Kerik - nominated, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security - withdrew his nomination amidst a host of corruption allegations. Eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor relating to improper gifts totaling tens of thousands of dollars while he was a New York City official in the late 1990's. Subsequently, on November 8, 2007; Kerik was indicted on sixteen counts for bribery, tax fraud, and false statements with a maximum sentence of 142 years and more than $5 million in fines. Kerik has pleaded not guilty...

* William Mercer - the former associate deputy attorney general and US Attorney for Montana - withdrew his nomination to be the permanent number three official at the Department of Justice on June 22, 2007 due to his role in the U.S. attorney firings.

* Hans von Spakovsky - Commissioner, FEC - nomination to another term after his recess appointment failed due to allegations that he'd worked at the Justice Department to suppress minority voter turnout.
Under Investigation But Still in Office

* Stuart Bowen - Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) - was once admired for his successes while investigating allegations of waste and fraud in Iraq, but now employee allegations have prompted four government investigations into the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).

* Lurita Doan - Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration - still in office, despite investigations by both the Office of Special Counsel and the House oversight committee that found that Doan had "crossed the line" by suggesting that the GSA use its resources to help Republicans get elected.

* Alfonso Jackson - Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - following reports that Jackson told a business group in April 2006 that he once canceled a contract after the contractor criticized President Bush, an investigation by the HUD inspector general found that while Jackson told his deputies to favor Bush supporters, there was "no direct proof that a contract was actually awarded or rescinded because of political affiliation." A second, criminal investigation was triggered in part by Jackson's claim before Congress in May 2007 that "I don't touch contracts." That probe, now before a federal grand jury, has turned up evidence that Jackson may indeed have touched contracts - and steered them towards friends. -END-

The End. (This post.)

How exciting: The IOWA CAUCUSES Are Coming! WOW... The Iowa Caucuses!!

2008-01-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

SERIOUSLY... Thank You! 'What I thougtht, Herb.

MEANWHILE...
@ The White House;
& The Justice Dept.;
& The Pentagon...
The CIA, The FBI,
& The VP's Office:

These DUMMIES are the DUMBEST of the DUMB!!! ...Bush/Cheney's LAME LEGAL ARGUMENTS

2008-01-01T23:01:00.000-08:00

Legal Fictions...

"The Bush Administration's
Dumbest Legal Arguments of
the year."

By Dahlia Lithwick
:::The Bush Administration's Stupidest
Legal Arguments of 2007.

10. The NSA's eavesdropping was limited in scope.
NOT AT ALL. Recent revelations suggest the program was launched earlier than we'd been led to believe, scooped up more information than we were led to believe,
and was not at all narrowly tailored,
as we'd been led to believe...
Surprised? Me neither.

9. Scooter Libby's sentence was commuted because it was excessive.
Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, was found guilty of perjury and obstructing justice in connection with the outing of Valerie Plame. In July, before Libby had served out a day of his prison sentence, President Bush commuted his sentence, insisting the 30-month prison sentence was "excessive." In fact, under the federal sentencing guidelines, Libby's sentence was perfectly appropriate and consistent with positions advocated by Bush's own Justice Department earlier this year.

8. The vice president's office is not a
part of the executive branch.
We also learned in July that over the repeated objections of the National Archives, Vice President Dick Cheney exempted his office from Executive Order 12958, designed to safeguard classified national security information. In declining such oversight in 2004, Cheney advanced the astounding legal proposition that the Office of the Vice President is not an "entity within the executive branch" and hence is not subject to presidential executive orders. When, in January 2007, the Information Security Oversight Office asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resolve the dispute, Cheney recommended the executive order be amended to abolish the Information Security Oversight Office altogether. In a new interview with Mike Isikoff at Newsweek, the director of the ISOO stated that his fight with Cheney's office was a "contributing" factor in his decision to quit after 34 years.

7. The Guantanamo Bay detainees enjoy more legal rights than any prisoners of war in history.
This has been one of the catchiest refrains of the war on terror, right up there with the claim that the prisoners there are well-fed and cared for. The government brief in the December Supreme Court appeal on the rights of these detainees to contest their detentions proudly proclaimed that the "detainees now enjoy greater procedural protections and statutory rights to challenge their wartime detentions than any other captured enemy combatants in the history of war." That certainly sounds plausible. But as my colleague Emily Bazelon detailed here in Slate, a vast gaggle of historians, constitutional scholars, and retired military officers vehemently dispute that characterization of the legal processes afforded the detainees. The argument that Guantanamo prisoners have greater rights than they would otherwise be afforded relies on deep distortions of both fact and law.

6. Water-boarding may not be torture.
Water-boarding is torture. It's torture under the Geneva Conventions and has been treated as a war crime in the United States for decades. The answer to the question of its legality should be as simple as the answer to whether boiling prisoners in oil is legal. But in his confirmation hearings to become U.S. attorney general, Michael Mukasey could not bring himself to agree. He claimed not to have been "read into" the interrogation program and to be incapable of speculating about hypothetical techniques. He added that he did not want to place U.S. officials "in personal legal jeopardy" and that such remarks might "provide our enemies with a window into the limits or contours of any interrogation program." Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., seems to be catching on to what it means when senior legal advisers find themselves incapable of calling water-boarding torture.

5. Everyone who has ever spoken to the president about anything is barred from congressional testimony by executive privilege.
This little gem of an argument was cooked up by the White House last July when the Senate judiciary committee sought the testimony of former White House political director Sara Taylor, as well as that of former White House counsel Harriet Miers, in connection with the firing of nine U.S. attorneys for partisan ideological reasons. Taylor was subpoenaed in June and, according to her lawyers, she wanted to testify but was barred by White House counsel Fred Fielding's judgment that the president could compel her to assert executive privilege and forbid her testimony. As Bruce Fein argued in Slate, that dramatic over-reading of the privilege would both preclude congressional oversight of any sort and muzzle anyone who'd ever communicated with the president, regardless of their wish to talk.

4. Nine U.S. attorneys were fired by nobody, but for good reason.
Of course, the great legal story of 2007 was the unprecedented firing of nine U.S. attorneys who either declined to prosecute Democrats or were too successful in prosecuting Republicans. After months of congressional hearings, subpoenas, and investigations, the mastermind behind the plan to replace these prosecutors with "loyal Bushies" has yet to be determined. The decision is instead blamed on a "process" wherein unnamed senior department officials came to a "consensus" decision. No one is willing to name names, even though the firings were ostensibly legal, because, in the words of the president himself, these prosecutors all "serve at the pleasure of the president" and can be fired for any reason. Nevertheless, the firing of the nine U.S. attorneys—many of whom had stellar records and job reviews—remains shrouded in secrecy, although at least according to everyone who's testified, they were all fired for good reasons (which also cannot be articulated).

3. Alberto Gonzales.
I am forced to put the former attorney general into his own category only because were I to attempt to round up his best legal whoppers of the calendar year, it would overwhelm the rest of the list. As Paul Kiel over at Talking Points Memo so aptly put it earlier this year, Gonzales was and is clearly "the lying-est attorney general in recent history." Kiel went on to catalog Gonzales' six most egregious legal lies of the year, but I'll focus here on just two. First, his claim at a March press conference that he "was not involved in seeing any memos, was not involved in any discussions about what was going on" with respect to the U.S. attorney firings. This was debunked shortly thereafter when Kyle Sampson testified that Gonzales was frequently updated throughout the process. Second, his April testimony that he had not "talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven't wanted to interfere with this investigation and department investigations," which was promptly contradicted by Monica Goodling's testimony about his efforts to coordinate his version of the story with hers.

2. State secrets.
Again, it's virtually impossible to cite the single most egregious assertion by the Bush administration of the state-secrets privilege, because there are so many to choose from. This doctrine once barred the introduction into court of specific evidence that might compromise national security, but in the hands of the Bush administration, it has ballooned into a doctrine of blanket immunity for any conduct the administration wishes to hide. The privilege was invoked in 2007 to block testimony about its torture and extraordinary rendition program, its warrantless surveillance program, and to defend the notion of telecom immunity for colluding in government eavesdropping, among other things. No longer an evidentiary rule, the state-secrets privilege has become one of the administration's surest mechanisms for shielding its most egregious activities.

1. The United States does not torture.
First there was the 2002 torture memo. That was withdrawn. Then there was the December 2004 statement that declared torture "abhorrent." But then there was the new secret 2005 torture memo. But members of Congress were fully briefed about that. Except that they were not. There was Abu Ghraib. There were the destroyed CIA tapes. So you see, the United States does not torture. Except for when it does. -END-

GOOD STUFF;, BUT IT'S AN AWFUL LOTTA WORDS*. My fault, it's all there... No edits. Peace & Love, Herb.

*UPDATE: I spiced it up w/ a few pictures... Now it's good!

...2008...

2008-01-01T02:50:00.000-08:00

Bill Kristol is an IDIOT. WHY does he NOW work for The New York Times?

2007-12-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

Via Think Progress, we find out the New York Times has hired neoconservative failure Bill Kristol as a columnist. What? He has been 100% WRONG about everything!

Kristol's the "Neocon" IDIOT who made SO MANY PEOPLE in Washington D.C. [and @ Fox News] SO STUPID & WRONG about Iraq, the Middle East, our military, WAR, strategy, politics, diplomacy, etc., and et. al. -- people like Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Bolton, Perle and the rest of the "cakewalk" Neoconservatives.

He planted the seeds of almost all DICK CHENEY'S GENIUS IDEAS ABOUT WAR, and Iraq. He's an A.E.I. founder and a PNAC-ker. Bill Kristol's father invented[?] "neoconservatism"... (Irving Kristol; See here.)

He should be seen as a FOOL, a national pariah, a SCOURGE to be TARRED & FEATHERED, and PELTED w/ VEGETABLES + ROTTEN FRUIT... But nope! The New York Times sees fit to HIRE HIM as an OPINION COLUMNIST? "What the problem is?" Take your pick...

Kristol’s lies, distortions, and hawkish proposals are notorious. A sampling of the views that New York Times readers may now be reading on a weekly basis:
– Iran halting its nuclear weapons program is “another feather in the cap for Iraq invasion.”

– The U.S. should “put everything” behind Iraq escalation so we can bomb Iran and Syria...

– “Sober, serious” people want over 100,000 troops in Iraq when Bush leaves office.*

– Let’s “stretch our Army and Marines” for “another year or so” in Iraq.

– A presidential pardon for Scooter Libby would remove the “cloud hanging over his White House and over the war.” **

– College men are “very happy” that Plan B will now be sold over-the-counter because they can have “a wild night” and “the burden is off them.” ...

– Al Gore “got the Nobel Peace Prize for bloviating about global warming.”

* Sober, serious people think that dude should be @ Fox News; or better-yet in jail, for somethin'. NEOCONSERVATIVES ARE IRRELEVANT, RIGHT? THEY SHOULD BE SHUNNED BY SOCIETY; NOT HIRED BY THE "OLD GREY LADY!" The "paper of record?" I dunno, Herb.

** My favorite: Pardoning Scooter Libby "would remove the cloud hanging over" Bush/Cheney and their FAILED, LOST, and DISASTROUS IRAQ WAR... The "cloud." Hah hah ha ha! Bill, it's not a cloud... It's a hurricane; it's a tsunami; it's a disaster, it is a black hole. Jesus!

.............DAYS GONE BY.............

2007-12-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

Auld Lang Syne
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o’
kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a
weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine;
But seas between us
broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand
my trusty friend!
And give us
a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right
good-will draught,
for auld lang syne...
"Auld Lang Syne" is a song by Robert Burns (1759–1796), although... older folk songs, use the same phrase, and may well have inspired Burns.

In any case, it is one of the better-known songs in English-speaking countries, and it is often sung at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day. Like many other frequently sung songs, the melody is better remembered than the words, which are often sung incorrectly, and seldom in full.

The song's (Scots) title may be translated into English literally as 'old long since', or more idiomatically 'long long ago', or 'days gone by'...
*****************************************
*****************************************
*****************************************
Part of This Juncture's popular
series, "The Songs We Sing".
Available soon in paperback!
Stay tuned... HNY, Herb.

PRESIDENT BUSH IS A MORON!

2007-12-28T23:29:00.000-08:00

TOP-10 STUPIDEST THINGS PRESIDENT BUSH SAID; IN THE LAST YEAR:The Dumbest Things
President Bush Said in 2007

10. "And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it."
--interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007.

9. "I fully understand those who say you can't win this thing militarily. That's exactly what the United States military says, that you can't win this military."
--on the need for political progress in Iraq, Washington, D.C., Oct. 17, 2007

8. "One of my concerns is that
the health care not be as good as it can possibly be."
--on military benefits, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007

7. "Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."
--addressing Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the APEC Summit... / ...Later, in the same speech: "As John Howard accurately noted when he went to thank the Austrian troops there last year..."
--referring to Australian troops as "Austrian troops," Sept. 7, 2007

6. "My relationship with this good man is where I've been focused, and that's where my concentration is. And I don't regret any other aspect of it. And so I -- we filled a lot of space together."
--on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington, D.C., May 17, 2007

5. "You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- 1976."
--to Queen Elizabeth, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2007.

4. "The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear -- I'm a Commander Guy."
--deciding he is no longer just "The Decider," Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007.

3. "Information is moving -- you know,
nightly news is one way, of course, but it's also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets."
--Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007

2. "There are some similarities, of course (between Iraq and Vietnam). Death is terrible."
--Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007

1. "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured."
--on the No Child Left... Act,
Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007.
[~Compiled by -
Daniel Kurtzman]
I'm reserving comment, for now, on the list of "BUSHISMS." But I thought it might be
a fun way to... wrap-up* the year.

Peace & Love, Herb.

*NO, PUN INTENDED!

THANK GOD: For Harry Reid (this time), and God Bless Jim Webb!

2007-12-27T22:59:00.000-08:00

NO MORE BUSH RECESS-APPOINTMENTS?

Senate Leader Harry Reid, and Senator Jim Webb deserve A LOT OF CREDIT FOR PREVENTING BUSH FROM MAKING ANY MORE "RECESS APPOINTMENTS," of incompetent/hack/criminals like he has APPOINTED before [Like John Bolton("Klondike Magoo")]. Reid, strategist, and Jim Webb, Junior Senator from VA, a military-veteran -- the guy who shows up during Holidays/Vacations/Etc., when the Senate is NOT IN SESSION -
- STOPPING BUSH!
WE THANK YOU BOTH!

A nine-second session gaveled in and out by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., prevented Bush from appointing as an assistant attorney general a nominee roundly rejected by majority Democrats. Without the pro forma session, the Senate would be technically adjourned, allowing the president to install officials without Senate confirmation...

That's SO COOL. I guess you need to be in the Majority to do that? Don't ask me I am on vacation, Herb.

HAPPY HOLY DAYS*!!!

2007-12-27T19:46:00.000-08:00

*Includes the Church of the Happy New Year!
"HAPPY HOLIDAYS", Herb.

BUSH/CHENEY? Scandals?? Shiii!!! ...'just to name a few:

2007-12-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

Top Ten SCANDALS of 2007?

2007-12-17T12:19:00.000-08:00

CREW has released a new report detailing
the “2007 Top Ten Ethics Scandals“:1- No new enforcement mechanisms for congressional ethics;

2- Ted Stevens still sitting on Senate Appropriations;

3- Senate Ethics Committee looking into Sen. Craig, but not Sen. Vitter;

4- Millions of missing White House emails still unaccounted for;

5- Rep. Murtha’s abuse of the earmarking process remains unchecked;

6- Lurita Doan remains chief of GSA despite illegal conduct;

7- White House covering up its role in the firings of the U.S. Attorneys;

8- No Child Left Behind funds directed to Bush fundraisers who provide inadequate reading materials for kids;

9- Court decision regarding search of Jefferson’s office limits ability of DOJ to investigate other corrupt lawmakers; and

10- FEMA knowingly let Katrina victims live in hazardous trailers.
REALLY? ...REALLY?

Really? Because I think I could come up with 20 Bush/Cheney scandals off the top-of-my-head in five minutes, that'd out-scandal that Top Ten... Dang-git! Okay?

Give me a couple days, Herb.

DICK CHENEY... FREEZE!

2007-12-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

JOE BIDEN WRITES THE WHITE HOUSE A NOTE:...Please confirm that
the directive to preserve documents applied to the Executive Office of the President, including the National Security Council, in addition to immediate White House staff. In light of the Office of the Vice President’s record of fatuous arguments that it is not subject to the authority of the President, please also confirm that the directive included the Office of the Vice President and that the Office of the Vice President intends to comply.
God! At least Joey B's... workin'. At least, Herb.

...George W. BUSH/CHENEY, Dick! [1999 thru 2009] Do NOT Pass "GO" ...Go Directly TO JAIL!

2007-12-12T02:01:00.000-08:00

THE BUSH-CHENEY DISASTER...[Spellchecking] That's a Herb-original; thank you!

[Note: may resemble something Howard Fineman said on Countdown, but -- like a fine whiskey, or rum --
much more refined, palatable.]

Keith Olberman is the ONLY News Anchor who SPEAKS THE TRUTH

2007-12-09T01:58:00.000-08:00

It's a lotta words, but worth reading!
In full, from MSNBC's COUNTDOWN,
A "Special Comment," from KEITH OLBERMAN:Finally, as promised, a Special Comment about the President's cataclysmic deception about Iran.
---
There are few choices more terrifying than the one Mr.. Bush has left us with tonight.
We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole -- or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked -- at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so -- whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.
A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.
After Ms Perino's announcement from the White House late last night, the timeline is inescapable and clear.
In August the President was told by his hand-picked Major Domo of intelligence Mike McConnell, a flinty, high-strung-looking, worrying-warrior who will always see more clouds than silver linings, that what "everybody thought" about Iran might be, in essence, crap.
Yet on October 17th the President said of Iran and its president Ahmadinejad:
"I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War Three, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge to make a nuclear weapon."
And as he said that, Mr.. Bush knew that at bare minimum there was a strong chance that his rhetoric was nothing more than words with which to scare the Iranians.
Or was it, Sir, to scare the Americans?
Does Iran not really fit into the equation here? Have you just scribbled it into the fill-in-the-blank on the same template you used, to scare us about Iraq?
In August, any commander-in-chief still able-minded or uncorrupted or both, Sir, would have invoked the quality the job most requires: mental flexibility.
A bright man, or an honest man, would have realized no later than the McConnell briefing that the only true danger about Iran was the damage that could be done by an unhinged, irrational Chicken Little of a president, shooting his mouth off, backed up by only his own hysteria and his own delusions of omniscience.
Not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr. Bush.
The Chicken Little of presidents is the one, Sir, that you see in the mirror.
And the mind reels at the thought of a Vice President fully briefed on the revised Intel as long as two weeks ago -- briefed on the fact that Iran abandoned its pursuit of this imminent threat four years ago -- who never bothered to mention it to his boss.
It is nearly forgotten today, but throughout much of Ronald Reagan's presidency it was widely believed that he was little more than a front-man for some never-viewed, behind-the-scenes, string-puller.
Today, as evidenced by this latest remarkable, historic malfeasance, it is inescapable, that Dick Cheney is either this president's evil ventriloquist, or he thinks he is.
What servant of any of the 42 previous presidents could possibly withhold information of this urgency and gravity, and wind up back at his desk the next morning, instead of winding up before a Congressional investigation -- or a criminal one?
Mr. Bush -- if you can still hear us -- if you did not previously agree to this scenario in which Dick Cheney is the actual detective and you're Remington Steele -- you must disenthrall yourself: Mr. Cheney has usurped your constitutional powers, cut you out of the information loop, and led you down the path to an unprecedented presidency in which the facts are optional, the Intel is valued less than the hunch, and the assistant runs the store.
The problem is, Sir, your assistant is robbing you -- and your country -- blind.
Not merely in monetary terms, Mr.. Bush, but more importantly of the traditions and righteousness for which we have stood, at great risk, for centuries: Honesty, Law, Moral Force.
Mr.. Cheney has helped, Sir, to make your Administration into the kind our ancestors saw in the 1860's and 1870's and 1880's -- the ones that abandoned Reconstruction, and sent this country marching backwards into the pit of American Apartheid.
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland...
Presidents who will be remembered only in a blur of failure, Mr.. Bush.
Presidents who will be remembered only as functions of those who opposed them -- the opponents whom history proved right.
Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland... Bush.
Would that we could let this President off the hook by seeing him only as marionette or moron.
But a study of the mutation of his language about Iran proves that though he may not be very good at it, he is, himself, still a manipulative, Machiavellian, snake-oil salesman.
The Bushian etymology was tracked by Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post's website.
It is staggering.
March 31st: "Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon..."
June 5th: Iran's "pursuit of nuclear weapons..."
June 19th: "consequences to the Iranian government if they continue to pursue a nuclear weapon..."
July 12th: "the same regime in Iran that is pursuing nuclear weapons..."
August 6th: "this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon..."
Notice a pattern?
Trying to develop, build or pursue a nuclear weapon.
Then, sometime between August 6th and August 9th, those terms are suddenly swapped out, so subtly that only in retrospect can we see that somebody has warned the President, not only that he has gone out too far on the limb of terror -- but there may not even be a tree there...
McConnell, or someone, must have briefed him then.
August 9th: "They have expressed their desire to be able to enrich uranium, which we believe is a step toward having a nuclear weapons program..."
August 28th: "Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons..."
October 4th: "you should not have the know-how on how to make a (nuclear) weapon..."
October 17th: "until they suspend and/or make it clear that they, that their statements aren't real, yeah, I believe they want to have the **capacity**, the **knowledge**, in order to make a nuclear weapon."
Before August 9th, it's: Trying to develop, build or pursue a nuclear weapon.
After August 9th, it's: Desire, pursuit, want...knowledge technology know-how to enrich uranium.
And we are to believe, Mr.. Bush, that the National Intelligence Estimate this week talks of the Iranians suspending their nuclear weapons program in 2003...
And you talked of the Iranians suspending their nuclear weapons program on October 17th...
And that's just a coincidence?
---
And we are to believe, Mr.. Bush, that nobody told you any of this until last week?
Your insistence that you were not briefed on the NIE until last week might be legally true -- something like "what the definition of is is -- but with the subject matter being not interns but the threat of nuclear war.
Legally, it might save you from some war crimes trial... but ethically, it is a lie.
It is indefensible.
You have been yelling threats into a phone for nearly four months, after the guy on the other end had already hung up.
You, Mr.. Bush, are a bald-faced liar.
--
And more over, you have just revealed that John Bolton, and Norman Podhoretz, and the Wall Street Journal Editorial board, are also bald-faced liars.
We are to believe that the Intel Community, or maybe the State Department, cooked the raw intelligence about Iran, falsely diminished the Iranian nuclear threat, to make you look bad?
And you proceeded to let them make you look bad?
---
You not only knew all of this about Iran, in early August...
But you also knew... it was... accurate.
And instead of sharing this good news with the people you have obviously forgotten you represent...
You merely fine-tuned your terrorizing of those people, to legally cover your own backside...
While you filled the factual gap with sadistic visions of -- as you phrased it on August 28th: a quote "nuclear holocaust" -- and, as you phrased it on October 17th, quote: "World War Three."
---
My comments, Mr. Bush, are often dismissed as simple repetitions of the phrase "George Bush has no business being president."
Well, guess what?
Tonight: hanged by your own words... convicted by your own deliberate lies...
You, sir, have no business... being president.

Disgraced Political Hack KARL ROVE IS SPREADING BALD-FACED LIES [Shamelessly lying about W.H. timing Iraq-vote w/ 2002 elections!]

2007-12-03T00:04:00.000-08:00

FROM THINKPROGRESS.ORG, PASTED IN-FULL BELOW [w/ edits]... BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT -- THE MAN IS A PROVEN LIAR, & LACKS ANY CREDIBILITY...:On the Charlie Rose show a little over a week ago, former Bush political adviser Karl Rove attempted to re-write the history of the Iraq war, claiming that “the administration was opposed” to holding the pre-war Iraq vote just ahead of the 2002 elections. “We didn’t think it belonged within the confines of the election,” Rove told Rose. [BS: Rove made sure Bush pressed for the vote, so they could SMEAR Congressmen opposed to it -- Like calling veteran-amputee Senator Max Cleland un-American, or a traitor, or whatever... IT WAS ALL ROVE'S IDEA, PLANNING, AND TIMING!]

As ThinkProgress has documented, key leaders in both the House and the Senate were asking Bush in 2002 to delay the Iraq war vote, but were rebuffed when Bush told then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) that “we just have to do this now.” On MSNBC yesterday, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card disputed Rove’s account, saying “that’s not the way it worked.”
In the Washington Post this morning, Rove’s revisionist history is further discredited by then-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who says flatly that Rove is wrong:
Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary at the time, said Daschle had pressed Bush over the summer to bring the matter to Congress but for consultation, not necessarily a vote. Bush decided to seek a vote authorizing force, Fleischer said. “It was definitely the Bush administration that set it in motion and determined the timing, not the Congress,” he said. “I think Karl in this instance just has his facts wrong.”
Despite the fact that multiple members of the administration have now disputed his account, Rove is still clinging to his false claims. In an interview with the Post yesterday, he said it was “disingenuous” for “Democrats to suggest they didn’t want to vote on it before the election”:
Rove repeated his assertion in an interview yesterday, pointing to comments made by Democrats in 2002 that they wanted a vote. “For Democrats to suggest they didn’t want to vote on it before the election is disingenuous,” he said. The vote schedule, he said, was set by lawmakers. “We don’t control that.”
As the Politico’s John Bresnahan, who covered Congress in 2002, wrote yesterday, “Rove’s assertion that Congress was pushing for a quick vote on the use-of-force resolution is just not credible at all.”

THE END? HARDLY, HERB.

UPDATE 12/5: Karl Rove is truly DELUSIONAL...
In an interview with the Washington Times yesterday, Rove also threatened that “nobody can risk looking disrespectful to the president without paying a price...” [Tee-hee. Hee-hee-hah!]

BLAME BUSH/CHENEY: A pint of BEER at a BRITISH TAVERN now will cost you $21... For a BLOODY PINT!!!

2007-11-28T18:46:00.000-08:00

$21.00 is the average -- of three pubs in each of three different London districts... I don't know: It's not really a "scientific" study. My "brother" Nigel was in charge, and he went w/ mates Ian & Lester out (boozin'" w/ some American money... and... If you don't believe me, just go over there wit' yo' stinkin' Dollars... Have fun!
So much for cheap Heineken in Amnsterdam too. Damnit! What's a nomad 'posed to do? Shy!te, Hank.

A Good Daily Summary from Thinkprogress... More: Bush Administration Bad-Policy Wreckage

2007-11-27T20:01:00.000-08:00

See ThinkProgress, [HERE], for links
to the individual stories. In each case,
BLAME BUSH/CHENEY (Puppet/Pig, respectively.):While President Bush is attending a Mideast conference in Annapolis this morning, “he won’t remain there for long.” He “plans to head back to the White House after delivering his opening speech to the diplomats and dignitaries at the U.S. Naval Academy.” White House aides said he wasn’t planning to offer new American proposals to resolve the conflict.

The WSJ’s Bret Stephens recalls, when the House Speaker visited Syrian President Bashar Assad back in April, “President Bush denounced her for sending ‘mixed signals’ that ‘lead the Assad government to believe they are part of the mainstream of the international community, when in fact they are a state sponsor of terror.’” Today, Assad will sit with Condoleezza Rice.

At least 1.4 million homeowners will lose their properties to foreclosure in 2008 while “the property value of U.S. homes will fall by $1.2 trillion,” says a new report by the the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Council for the New American City. The report predicts “deep economic impact from ongoing housing market problems.”

In an attempt to put to rest concerns over his ignorance about FISA reform legislation, Time magazine columnist Joe Klein writes, “I have neither the time nor legal background to figure out who’s right.” Glenn Greenwald responds by noting “the extreme lack of professionalism and corruption required” for Klein to say he “isn’t interested in bothering to find out (and isn’t even capable of determining) if anything he wrote was accurate.”

USA Today’s DeWayne Wikham writes, “While there is still little evidence to suggest that Bush was knowingly involved in this coverup [of the Plame outing], the evidence against Cheney is piling up. … This trail of lies and deception has put Cheney on the same path that led to Nixon’s impeachment."
"Vice President" Cheney, dick, went to the hospital yesterday, and Doctors confirmed what many have long-suspected: the man has NO HEART, and is COLD-BLOODED. I made-up the last part only...
ALL THE REST IS TRUE! Your not having a nightmare: these guys are still SQUATTING in The White House ruining everything. The "Dollar," is now officially: "Toast!" I could go on, but I'm gonna go vomit instead... G'night, Herb.

Good job JUNIOR... You've RUINED damned-near EVERYTHING!

2007-11-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

Gobble... GOBBLE, gobble...

2007-11-22T17:03:00.000-08:00

Worse than Nixon? HELL YEAH!

2007-11-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

These guys make Richard Nixon look like...
Mary Poppins?

CROOKS,
LIARS,
CHEATS,
COWARDS,
And Traitors;

Scott McLellan, the White House Spokesperson["liar"], admits in an upcoming book, that he lied at the podium when he assured the American public that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were NOT INVOLVED in leaking the name of Joe Wilson's CIA-agent wife to douchebag-gossip-writer Robert Novak -- for spite. Turns out Bush, Cheney, Rove and Libby were ALL INVOLVED, and all of 'em CONSPIRED to COVER UP THEIR TREASONOUS CONDUCT... [Now he tells us, right?]

Fascist pigs. Bush is an idiot. Cheney is evil. And they're all a bunch of COWARDS -- Going after a guy's wife, just 'cause the guy exposes your fake war-rationale as a bag o' lies? Jesus!

Shouldn't some of these BASTARD TRAITORS be in jail? NO!

They should ALL be in PRISON! ...'Betraying the Country!

"VIOLENCE DOWN IN IRAQ?" I Wonder WHY. ...Try: ETHNIC-CLEANSING + A REFUGEE CRISIS.

2007-11-20T07:19:00.000-08:00

It's not like a measure of success, exactly... but CNN's report, "Violence in Iraq Down Sharply," or something; made it sound like Bush/Cheney's "surge" was a stroke-of-genius; again: "or something." Bush/Cheney's little Occupation of Iraq, "war," has been an unmitigated DISASTER... for the region, and the rest-of-us... Bring on the $4/Gallon gasoline...

"Violence Down Sharply?"
CNN... Please!!!
They're all DEAD; or starving on the Syrian/Jordanian border(s).

Street-crime was down (locally) in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, following the Summer of 1945, too. I wonder why, Herb.

ATTENTION WORLD: I, Herbert Walker, SWEAR TO GOD: This Is NOT The Best America Has to Offer! (USA) ...no relation [at all].

2007-11-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

Whoa! Look again at those two scary specimens... If that, in the end, is -- as the media would have us believe -- the best our TWO-PARTY electoral-system can do, on a national level, then WE NEED A NEW NATIONAL ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, damnit! Like a whole new system; Scrap the old one and start over... No? Okay then, Herb.

Dick Cheney's Cowardly, Lazy, & Sadistic Passion for Shooting Tame Animals

2007-11-15T00:25:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Dick Cheney POSING as a "hunter," as if the birds he kills with are able to fly, or something. Bah ha ha ha... Hah ha hah!
Dick Cheney's Sadistic Passion for Shooting Tame Animals
...Birds raised for canned hunts at gun clubs and in state "recreational" areas are grown in packed pens -- think factory farmed chickens -- and fitted with goggles so they won't peck each other to death from the (overcrowded pens they are raised in, never-even seeing the Sun or the sky). When (these "birds" are) released for put-and-take (fake) hunters like (Dick!) Cheney, pen-raised birds can barely walk or fly, or see, thanks to the goggles...
(For more, see: canned bird "hunting," animal cruelty)

Remember when Dick shot a fellow "hunter," in his party, in the face -- and then didn't tell anybody at the White House? Well, he wasn't really "hunting." He was at some canned-bird-kill, like those mentioned above.

Dick Cheney, pussy extrordinaire: They rode in a convoy of air-conditioned gas guzzling SUVs; then the first truck would stop in a clearing, and dump these pen-raised Quail out in the field; then Dick & friends would step out of their truck and shoot the stunned, retarded, clueless, and DEFENSELESS birds -- really just lumps of breathing feathers -- dumped on the ground right in front of them.

We've Joined Stephen Colbert's 2007 "Wrist-Strong Tour*," North American Leg

2007-11-13T00:12:00.000-08:00

We've broken our Ulna (wristbone) so posting will (continue to) be light for a few weeks... We at This Juncture recommend [spell check?] the websites listed to the right. It's all bad, still...

We appologize for missing Veteran's Day. God Bless The Troops!
Food for Naught:Happy Holidays ["What?"], Herb.

*If Stephen Colbert can break his wrist, and talk about it repeatedly on his TV show (as if anyone cared), we figured we could/would do the same... Ouch!ADDENDUM: Ladies & Gentlemen, meet the "Ulna,"
in it's (Glorious!) anatomical context,OUCH!

President Bush... "HYPOCRITE? Or Projectionist? ("Projector?")

2007-11-04T02:12:00.000-08:00

BUSH VETOES WATER BILL, BUT CONGRESS HAS THE VOTES TO OVERRIDE HIM...
L.A. Times article (EDITED)In a statement accompanying his veto, Bush said, "This bill lacks fiscal discipline."
(PRESIDENT BUSH, WHO'S BANKRUPTED THE COUNTRY WITH HIS TAX-CUTS & HIS IRAQ "WAR", DIDN'T SEEM TO BE JOKING...)

On Capitol Hill, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said, "I am 100% confident that we can override this veto." (CONSUMATE WHORE-PATRON, DISGRACED[?] SENATOR DAVID VITTER IS ARRARENTLY ALLOWED TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF SOMONE... "WE?" I GUESS 'CAUSE HE'S FROM LOISIANA, WHO BUSH/CHENEY DROWNED, IT'S A-OKAY!)

The defiant bipartisan response to the veto underscores the difficulty the president faces in his new zeal to hold down federal spending, especially when it affects highly visible (WATER) construction projects cherished by lawmakers... ("LAME DUCK?" BLAME; SUCK!)
:::
"This is not fiscally responsible," (BUSH) said...
(HE WASN'T TALKING ABOUT IRAQ...
AND DIDN'T APPEAR TO BE JOKING.)
The water bill authorizes projects, but the funds must be provided through the separate appropriations process.

Bush complained that some of the projects fall outside the main mission of the Army Corps of Engineers: "facilitating commercial navigation, reducing the risk of damage from floods and storms, and restoring aquatic ecosystems."
END

BARRACK OBAMA, Too Black To Be Elected President?

2007-10-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

No G@dDamnit! HE'S TOO YOUNG!!

Juan Cole speaks on The DISASTROUS Bush/Cheney Foreign Policy

2007-10-27T16:20:00.000-07:00

Via Americablog, QUOTE:
(The [clearly] ill-advised & consistently-incompetent Bush/Cheney "administration"*) has long viewed Turkey and Pakistan as the bookends of its greater Middle East policy, two staunch allies as the anchors of policy.

In the past few weeks, of course, tensions in these two nations have reached new highs, with Turkey furious about terrorist attacks originating in Iraqi Kurdistan and Pakistan's increasingly precarious political situation punctuated by a massive attack against former prime minister Bhutto.

Overall, (Middle East expert Juan Cole paints) a disturbing and scary picture of an administration that is invested in the Iraq war to the complete exclusion of any strategic approach:
Like a drunken millionaire gambling away a fortune at a Las Vegas casino, the Bush
administration squandered all the assets it began with by invading Iraq and unleashing chaos in the Gulf. The secular Baath Party in Iraq was replaced by Shiite fundamentalists, Sunni Salafi fundamentalists and Kurdish separatists. The pressure the Bush administration put on the Pakistani military government to combat Muslim militants in that country weakened the legitimacy of Musharraf, whom the Pakistani public increasingly viewed as an oppressive American puppet. Iraqi Kurdistan's willingness to give safe haven to the PKK alienated Turkey from both the new Iraqi government and its American patrons. Search-and-destroy missions in Afghanistan have predictably turned increasing numbers of Pushtun villagers against the United States, NATO and Karzai.
There's really nothing else to say...
ENDQUOTE. THE END...

*My only contribution to this post, parenthetical, as usual, Herb.

BUSH wants another FIFTY BILLION Dollars to continue RUINING OUR REPUTATION, DESTROYING OUR ARMY and LOSING THE WARS he LIED us into?

2007-10-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press
Monday, 22 October 2007...
WASHINGTON - President Bush will ask Congress for another $46 Billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and finance other national security needs, The Associated Press has learned.

The figure, which Bush was expected to announce later Monday at the White House, brings to $196.4 Billion the total requested by the administration for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere for the (past year).
:::
To date, Congress has already provided more than $455 Billion for the Iraq war, with stepped-up military operations running about $12 Billion a month. The war has claimed the lives of more than 3,830 members of the U.S. military...
...And about a million Iraqis*; And some ten million displaced/homeless refugees in neighboring countries*;
Destabilizing the world -- it ain't cheap...
We all pay taxes (except the very-wealthy). President Bush spends 'em: 1) all of 'em & more, 2) on stuff nobody wants, 3) and as a bonus, he ruins EVERYTHING... Then Bush VETOES Children's Healthcare ["S-CHIP"?]?? [???] Seee below, for California Representative Pete Stark's meltdown over the INSANE BUSH/REPUBLICAN PRIORITIES...Oh, and the press sucks! Too. Thank you, Herb