Mandate? Political Capital?

Just one more notch in W's Loser Belt. The Emperor is losing his clothes and his brain [Rove] is about to be indicted. 'Mercuns will finally see what a loser this guy is.

New CIA Report Rebukes Bush Administration On Iraq

They got it wrong on the weapons but were right in the post Saddam termoil. The report was commissioned by George Tenet, and is only one of three to be de-classified. I wonder how bad the other two are that they don't want anyone to know? Best line in the article:

"Doubts about the intelligence received little attention, 'hastening the conversion of heavily qualified judgments into accepted fact'".

This is where we need to call people out. Bad intelligence, used as fact, got us into this mess.

Read the USA Article here.

CIA Leak Probe Widens

Karl Rove, President Bush's senior political adviser, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, are in deep shit. Not only did they out a CIA operative, a felony, but they used all their powers and connections, including the President, to lie for them. Not just a little lie, complete denial of any involvement. And when they were lying, they knew they were lying. This is not a new revelation.

So you say, if they lied this time, did they lie any other times? BINGO! They do it all the time. I'm not saying politicians are innocent, they all lie. Both sides. But when your lies are used to start a war that kills some many people and trashes our good faith we've built over generations, not to mention the cost, it's huge.

Now the prosecutor is looking into how wide the deception was. It goes deeper into this administration. You can read the WSJ article and learn more.

Chris Matthews On Hardball

Chris Matthews on his show Hardball breaks down the Rove/Yellowcake/Plame scandal. More people should start to put the timeline in the mainstream media. The lies are all there to be documented. Bush lying about intelligence in Niger reporting Iraq's purchasing of yellow cake Uranium, Cheney repeating this lie over and over again. Rove and Scotter Libby trying to kill the messenger by outing Plame and the consistent lying by the White House that they had nothing to do with it.

This is not a small matter. These lies were used to start a war. This is not a situation where they can say "at the time we made the decision for war, these are the 'facts' we used". They were false back then! They all knew they were lies, too. Bush, Cheney, Rove and I bet even Colin Powell knew they were lying. So sad that their base does not care one bit about it.

Check the Hardball videohere.

Rove, DeLay and Frist. What Do They Have In Common?

They are all indicted. Good job. The second term unraveling in full effect. Republicans are getting their due. They are corrupt. They never accept blame. This is our leadership? Go down in flames!!!

Let's make them pay in the '06 elections.

Andrew Sullivan On Bush

Andrew Sullivan on Bill Maher's HBO show the other night.

"I trusted him. I endorsed him in 2000. I trusted him that there were stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I trusted him that he was a conservative president that would restrain spending...I trusted him when he went into Iraq and said 'We've got to get this right,' and he'd send enough troops to actually get it right - and he didn't."

"I'm never going to trust this guy again."

The conservatives are finally waking up. The life-long loser who rode the backs of Jesus freaks is exposed as a fraud.

Crony Jobs For Bush Has New Website

Ever wonder how Bush's friends with absolutely no experience end up as the head of FEMA? How the search for the best replacement for the Supreme Court ends up up being an arm's length away? Look no further, there is a website for you! Don't let being a f*ck up stop you, it didn't stop W.

Check it here here.

DeLay Is A DeLiar

DeLay has to step aside as he was indicted today.. Very symbolic that the House Majority leader is a crook. And also very fitting of the "evildoing" of the Republican party. The damage is done, unfortunately. Read on:

Wednesday's indictment stems from a plan DeLay helped set in motion in 2001 to help Republicans win control of the Texas House in the 2002 elections for the first time since Reconstruction.

A state political action committee he created, Texans for a Republican Majority, was indicted earlier this month on charges of accepting corporate contributions for use in state legislative races. Texas law prohibits corporate money from being used to advocate the election or defeat of candidates; it is allowed only for administrative expenses.

With GOP control of the Texas legislature, DeLay then engineered a redistricting plan that enabled the GOP take six Texas seats in the U.S. House away from Democrats — including one lawmaker switching parties — in 2004 and build its majority in Congress.

The CEO President who is a retard and his friend Tom DeLay who will help usher out this ridiculous administration, the times they are a-changin'. That's evolution.

It's Just Too Easy

Look how the retard uses a phone. Is it any wonder we are screwed? That's probably the way he gets his updates regarding national security and his domestic agenda. I think a two year old could use a Fisher-Price phone with more success.

Add "can't use phone" to his long list of things he can't do. Already on the list? Can't serve country, can't tell truth, can't speak and can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

Bush Agenda To Reimburse Religious Groups For Katrina Aid

So this is where your tax dollars are going. When people volunteer, which I thought was for free, you now get paid if you're a faith-based group.

After weeks of prodding by Republican lawmakers and the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have opened their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

FEMA officials said it would mark the first time that the government has made large-scale payments to religious groups for helping to cope with a domestic natural disaster.

How many mosques will get paid? How many temples? What about separation of church and state? Bush will do anything to get his Jesus Freak base to support him.

Read the WaPo article on it.

Frist Stock Scandal vs. Clinton's Whitewater Scandal

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) sold all of his, his wife, and his children's stock in a HCA, a company his father started, just two weeks before earnings were reported and the stock tanked. Insider information? Maybe, but we know Frist is a liar because he denied knowing whether he owned HCA stock in his trust, despite his trustee contacting him at least three times in 2002, informing him of transfers of HCA stock into his trust. Moreover, Senate ethics rules require the manager of a blind trust to inform the owner if all of an asset is sold which it was. The guy lied, he made money off insider trading, then lied about it again.

Think back to when Hillary and Bill Clinton were involved with Whitewater and their alledged dealings. They set up an investigation into that that lasted years and cost millions of dollars, all to get nothing. Think about Martha Stewart. They fried her in no time for lying to a prosecutor. If lying gets you jail time, I think Frist should be heading to the cooler very soon. But it won't. Republicans don't care about white collar crime. Do you think Bush's buddy Ken Lay at Enron will ever see jail time?

LexisNexis article here on how the media ignored the story.

Cheney Suppressed Able Danger Testimony

So Dr. Evil himself, Dick Cheney is the one, not Rumsfeld who suppressed the testimony regarding Able Danger [see previous posts]. Cheney is the most evil man I can think of. So genius of him to have the chimp distract everyone so he can screw the country behind the scenes.

You can check it here.

Gore Won 2000 Election

President Jimmy Carter laid it out the other day at American University.

There is "no doubt in my mind that Gore won the election," the erstwhile President declared, saying the 2000 election process "failed abysmally."

Problem with Americans is that we accept lies. We were lied to about the 2000 election, we were lied to about WMD. We are so passive, it becomes unbearable to change the reality of not getting the truth. It would shock us to hear the truth.

rel·a·tiv·ism   (rl-t-vzm)
n. Philosophy

A theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.

We have this problem as a society. Our values are relative to lies. We shape our policy on lies. From the war, to the environment, to global warming, to Medicaid, the list goes on. We are living on Republican lies.

Let's end them in '06!

He's Flip-Flopped Again

Keeping with his tendency to not keep on point, Bush is back on the sauce. He's flip-flopped on booze and coke in the past. No wonder he's back on. He's f*cked the entire world, time to celebrate! A life-long spoiled Prep School douche would have it no other way.

The National Enquirer has the full scoop.

Hurricane Rita...

Where is Bush going to go on vacation before this one hits land so he can show up four days late?

Are We Brave, Are We Free?

The Pentagon has blocked testimony in the investigation regarding Able Danger, a program that identified Mohamed Atta, pre-9/11. Why we can't find out more information on a guy responsible for an event that the Republicans have used over and over again seems absurd. Even Arlen Specter can't believe it. What are they afraid of? We can't handle the truth? You know this is another example of shielding themselves from more blame, which would further show how much Bush and Co. screwed things up.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it had blocked several military officers and intelligence analysts from testifying at an open Congressional hearing about a highly classified intelligence program that, the officers have said, identified a ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks as a potential terrorist a year before the attacks.

Two military officers - an active-duty captain in the Navy and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve - have recently said publicly that they were involved with Able Danger and that the program's analysts identified Mohamed Atta, the Egyptian-born ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, by name as a potential terrorist by early 2000.

The Pentagon had said that it interviewed three other people who were involved with Able Danger and who said that they, too, recalled the identification of Mr. Atta as a terrorist suspect. Mr. Specter said his staff had talked to all five of the potential witnesses and found that "credibility has been established" for all of them.

Full NYT article here.

Attention Jesus Freaks

I'm sick and tired of Christians living in the Old Testament. They want the Ten Commandments in the Courts. They use words like evildoer. They cite lines like "eye for an eye", which by the way is not an entitlement but a limit as to what you can do. Why don't they pay attention to the life of Jesus and the thousands of kind acts he did, his compassion, his empathy.

These are the eight beatitudes taken from the Sermon on the Mount. This is what Jesus said.
* Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
* Blessed are the meek: for they shall posses the land.
* Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
* Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
* Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
* Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
* Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
* Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The current state of so-called Christians does not really mirror what Jesus was all about.

Study more if you want.

The World Can't Wait, Drive Out The Bush Regime

The World Can't Wait. Looks like some people are picking November 2, 2005, the one year anniversary of Bush's most recent stolen election, to send a message. A massive demonstration is plannned for New York City. You can check for more details on their website here.

Even The Comic Book Guy Knows

Newsweek will point out again how the truth of a situation was withheld from the dumb guy. He is briefed like a child because he can't handle the truth. It hurts his head. Bush has let my city's Towers be destroyed by not taking Osama seriously, and now he has let the Gulf Coast be destroyed by not taking FEMA seriously.

Both times our Nation's security have taken a backseat. Both times the Bush Administration has acted like you could not have predicted these things from happening. Their foresight is 100% wrong. On 9/11, on New Orleans, on stem cells, on global warming, on WMD, on Iraq, on Social Security, on John Bolton for the UN, and the list goes on.

This country is great because of its' citizens, not its' government. Just think if we had better leadership. Vote Blue in '06.

Ain't It The Truth

So true, but maybe his reborn "Faith", the one for boozers and coke heads allows it.

Mick Jagger Sounds Off, This Time Tony Blair

I know it's only Sir Mick, but it's a sign that the mainstream is catching up with the progressives regarding Iraq. For too long we accepted the lies, now we must hold them accountable. Even Mick bought the initial decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power - but was "shocked" when it was revealed a dossier detailing Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction was exaggerated by the British Government, reports ContactMusic .

He says, "At the time of the Iraq invasion, I was ambivalent; getting rid of Top of Saddam Hussein was a gift for humanity and I thought that there was a coherent plan to put Iraq back on its feet. (But it) shocked me to know that Blair already knew that the weapons of mass destruction were simply an excuse and that there was nothing planned for the day after (the invasion)."

Jagger also fears much for the future of Iraq - still the site of much conflict two years after Hussein's regime was toppled.

He adds, "If we do not take intelligent steps, a part of Iraq will end up becoming an Islamic republic, a puppet of Tehran."

I know right wingers have their Toby Keith and putting boots up peoples' asses, but atleast Mick has a point worth debating.

How Bush Blew It

Bureaucratic timidity. Bad phone lines. And a failure of imagination. Why the government was so slow to respond to catastrophe.

That's the first line from the Newsweek article. The line that struck me was the lack of imagination on this day of all days, September 11. It is the same thing they said about planes being used to hit buildings. The ultimate hack Condi Rice repeated over and over again the lie that no one could have imagined the hijackers using planes as bombs. Now the same goes for New Orleans. They ignore real problems all the time.

Another line from the article hit home for me:

"Bush can be petulent about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded by people who agree with him."

Now if you are not aware of this problem, that's one thing. But you can't knowingly have yes men around you, and then say you didn't know because they were afraid to tell you the truth. How evil is that? Just think how much is withheld from Bush when he's out there stumping for Social Security or Medicaid. He's fixed the numbers regarding budgets, he's fixed data regarding global warming, he has time and time again silenced the truth in favor of pushing his corporate "agenda".

Just look at Iraq. Bush accepted all the data from his yes men, started a bogus war, and then says he started the war because the facts he had at the time said there was WMD. And we all go along with it. Remember, there were millions of people who before we went to Iraq, opposed this war. We were lied to. The Bush Administration made up their story, had the only person we trusted, Colin Powell, sell it, and we now have to hold them all responsible. I wish Colin would come clean, once and far all.

The Right Wing power grab has to end. We have given in for too long and given up too much. This is not America.

Newsweek article is here.

Why Can't We Pick Up The Dead Bodies?

A simple question. When there are dead bodies, it always seems first and foremost, the most respectable thing to do. When 9/11 happened, they didn't leave dead bodies lying around as they searched for survivors. After Oklahoma City they did the same. Even when there are gunfights going on, it always seems they try to get the dead. The military does it.

Why is it that it takes days to pick up the bodies after Katrina? Racism is not the only answer, or classism. Do they have no place to put them? Do people not know how to pick up a dead body? Is leaving them where they are helping them find other survivors? What is the upside to not collecting them? Where's our humanity?

We pick up roadkill faster.

And as we try to bring our version of democracy to places like Iraq, these are the images that the world sees. Doesn't this undermind our troops? How can refute that our indifference and lack of planning pre- and post-disaster makes it harder for our troops to do their jobs?

Our calling card is slashing plans presented by experts, not having enough troops to do the job and letting civilians suffer, all the while protecting oil and big business.

Bush's #1 Fear Realized

No it's not Osama, it's not Al Qaeda, it's not gays getting married, it's not his massive tax cuts getting turned down, it's not his image turned to sh*t as a leader in time of crisis. Bush now has to take care of poor people. And for a sustained amount of time. Showing compassion for his fellow man, black and poor ones, too, will make his head explode. He can't walk away from this one like he did his military service. His search for WMD. He can't fade like he did for his Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage. Or his plan to put man on Mars. No, this long term commitment to helping the lower class of the South will do him in.

Look for the "President's Head Explodes" headline soon.

Government Rewards Business Buddies

Wired article on Bush cronies making money off Katrina.

"Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast. "

This is not to say that companies who are in that business should not be involved, it's to highlight the fact that people in power are there because of their ties to big business. They serve their connections to corporations before they think of the people in need of help. How fast did they figure out how to get oil from our reserves in Alaska and from European reserves? Much faster than they got food and water to the people in New Orleans.

When you point out to Bush fans how much you hate Cheney and his former company Halliburton, they never see it objectively. They see his Vice Presidency and his being former CEO of Halliburton as two independent coincidences. Why would one have anything to do with the other? And once they can not see that connection, all other subsequent connections between governental decisions and the corporations that fund them go uncontested. Thus, no anger.

Just like the way they view "handouts". Welfare to a Republican is the ultimate waste in goevernment. Why just give away money? But a no-bid contract to a company the VP used to run, that is a necessity. Or a tax break for the rich or trying to get rid of estate taxes, these are needed to spark our economy. But keeping the economy going by looking after everyone, especially the less fortunate, that is waste. You can only sustain long term improvements in our socity by taking care of everyone, not just the top 10%, who by the way, are pretty good at taking care of themselves.

Impeach Bush or Recall The Bush Election

Bill Maher makes a point for a California-style recall of Bush. With a Republican Congress you know this will never happen but it's worth keeping this idea in the minds of Americans. We must keep the pressure on our elected officials to have accountability. When Bush's idea of a smaller government means smaller only for poor people with fewer funds for the less fortunate and money for key projects like levee upkeep, it becomes clearer more than ever that he takes care of the rich with a fervor, yet screws the poor every chance he can. The government is the biggest it's ever been, more intrusive into our personal lives, more pro big corporations, more debt ridden than ever: so much for smaller government.

"On your watch we've lost almost all our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Tade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the city of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky"

A much watch snippet, you can see some streaming video of Bill Maher's HBO show here.

You can see more about Bill's show on HBO here.

Cheney Told To "Go F*ck Yourself" On Air

via Crooks and Liars.

Vice President Dick Cheney, in Gulfport, Mississippi on a tour of the Katrina hurricane zone was cursed out as he answered questions from reporters. Raw Story has the transcript: 

Off camera, a protester shouts, "Go f--k yourself, Mr. Cheney. Go f--k yourself."  The camera remains on Cheney while we hear scuffling in the background.

CNN's reporter asks Cheney, "Are you getting a lot of that Mr. Vice President?"

Cheney replies, "First time I've heard it., Must be a friend of John..., er, ah - never mind."

It may have been the first time he's heard, but it's not the first time it's been said. Believe me.

Watch it here here.

Blame Game

Why is the Bush administartion so adamant about not pointing fingers regarding the New Orleans Clusterf*ck? No "blame game" is in the right-wing echo chamber already. Now is not the time bullshit.

These are same people after the 9/11 attacks, who within hours, started to blame Iraq and wanted to go to war from September 12, 2001 on. They had no problem putting blame back then. Why the complete 180? Now all of a sudden they want to take time to assess the situation. Had they taken time to assess New Orleans, and Iraq too, beforehand, just think how different everything would be. The levees would have been taken care of in the Big Easy and thousands of lives would have been saved in the Middle East.

Anytime you're supposed to take your time, they rush in. When you have to rush in, they take their time. Complete disconnect.

Why is it that Joe Torre gets more blame for leaving in pitcher Tanyon Sturtz too long during a Yankee game then George Bush does for appointing a hack as the head of FEMA, systematically screwing over poor people, underfunding New Orleans year after year, and then not even showing up until three days after the storm?

Picture Is Worth....

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Banner Of The Day

It seems too easy, but it's true.

Better On Inflicting Pain Then Feeling It

NY Times' Thomas Friedman has a great op-ed today about Osama and Katrina and how the Bush administration's radically uncompassionate conservative agenda - on taxes, stem cells, the environment and foreign treaties - has exposed them.

"Well, if 9/11 is one bookend of the Bush administration, Katrina may be the other. If 9/11 put the wind at President Bush's back, Katrina's put the wind in his face. If the Bush-Cheney team seemed to be the right guys to deal with Osama, they seem exactly the wrong guys to deal with Katrina - and all the rot and misplaced priorities it's exposed here at home.

These are people so much better at inflicting pain than feeling it, so much better at taking things apart than putting them together, so much better at defending "intelligent design" as a theology than practicing it as a policy."

We are living is a distorted America. A bloated Republican Fear Factory. Keep us in power, we will protect you. The other guy will let you die because he's a wimp. It was all guff. They had nothing to back it up. Friedman adds:

"Besides ripping away the roofs of New Orleans, Katrina ripped away the argument that we can cut taxes, properly educate our kids, compete with India and China, succeed in Iraq, keep improving the U.S. infrastructure, and take care of a catastrophic emergency - without putting ourselves totally into the debt of Beijing."

This hurricane is already at $51 Billion. We keep collecting less and less taxes from businesses and more and more from average Americans. We keep spending money in Iraq. Bush talks about sacrifice but he wants to get rid of the Estate Tax which only really effects the top1% of the richest people. Where is their sacrifice?

The one thing you can count on is Bush will not stop catering to his base so don't expect any changes in his policies. He'll protect the oil industry, he'll never hold his people accountable, and look for FEMA to get a few medals in the near future.

You can read Friedman's article here.

Think Progress Timeline For Katrina

Think Progress has a great timeline for the events surrounding Katrina. You can decide for yourself. This is not a blame game, that would imply that someone is being mis-cast of the devil. This is a you-f*cked-it-now-fix-it game. Just like in Iraq, where planning and policy were flawed, Bush is trying to blame the locals. You put people in an extended hellish do-or-die situation and then blame them for not being country clubbers.

Look for yourself.

Death Toll

At what number are Americans going to get pissed?

5,000? 10,000?, 20,000? 40,000?

I also like how the White House creates Homeland Security to enhance communication between departments, and then blames lack of communication for problems with responding to Katrina. You can't have it both ways. You can't create the largest, the most expensive, most beaurocratic department in the Government to deal with this problem and then pass the buck back on locals. You f*cked up. Deal with it.

The GOP Are So Wrong

Gen. Myers, the ball-less commander who let's the civilians in the Pentagon tell him what to do, said New Orleans "dodged a bullet". I gues that's why Bush stayed on holiday and Cheney is still no where to be seen. Your GOP leaders are so lame and you know it.

See what the world thinks...

I Notice No One In New Orleans Says To Shoot

It's always these wimps in the safety of another state, and some another state of mind, that they say to shoot people for looting. They would never say it in New Orleans because they would get their punk-ass mouth slapped. I notice no one on the scene who is living in the horror calls for people to be shot. But some douche bag from the Wall Street Journal calls for shooting people. Why don't you get your fat ass from New Jersey and say it down in Louisianna.

For a place that has no electricity, no water and no food, I think the locals are doing a great job. They are just like the Iraqis. They are the brave ones. They are the ones that define courage.

And if you want to keep the Iraq analogy for a second, we should send in a fraction of the help and troops necesssary and see if they are greeted like liberators. That's what Rumsfeld and Co did in Iraq.

Americans can see firsthand how Bush policy of cutting needed programs and services f*cked up the world. We fucked the Iraqis, now we f*cked oursleves.

The buck stops with your President.

See The Trend?

Yet again, the man underwhelms me. And what's f*cked up is his people thinks he's f*cking John Wayne, American bad-ass. If ever there was a dumb-ass rich white guy that rode some serious coattails, it's W.

Bush and his Republicans are no longer living in reality. They take credit for shit like Muammar al-Qaddafi
cracking under UK pressure and Syria giving up Lebanon in a post-Yasser Arafat Middle East, shit that is so on the periphery, but when something happens at home, like Katrina or 9/11, or shit overseas like prison abuse or Iraq intel sucking balls, they play dumb. Why is this the norm?

This country moves forward inspite of it's leadership. Just think if someone was at the top not wasting our time and money on wars, tax breaks for rich people, gay marriage amendments, and completely caving in to corporate donors and lobbyists. Name me one American who wanted a new bankruptcy bill?

Americans made the US great for over 200+ years, we can't just give up now. Vote in '06!

Banner Of The Day

So are we safer? There have been 500+ National Disasters since 1995. All but two were natural disasters, 9/11 and Oklahoma City. So if the overwhelming odds are that we are going to have a disaster with Mother Nature, are we really surprised when something like Katrina happens?

And when you look at terrorism, we have more homegrown terrorists than internationals. We had the Unabomber, we have the Anthrax Guy, we had the '96 Olympics Bomber, we had the Tylenol Guy from years ago, not to mention the countless serial killers, abducters and psychopaths who bring communities plenty of terror. We as Americans don't have to look to the Middle East, but the Bush Propaganda Machine wants you to think by being in Iraq with 130,000+ troops and 90,000 private contractors, you are somehow safer. The $300,000,000,000 Bush has spent in Iraq didn't save one life, one school, one church, one business or one person from suffering in New Orleans.

Failure is one thing, it happens. Complete denial is unaccpetable. Homeland Security is the new oxymoron, up there with Military Intelligence.

Keith Olbermann Tells It Like It Is

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann writes a great article on how New Orleans will haunt the GOP. You know if Kerry were President they would be placing the blame squarely on him. From killing civilians in Iraq to killing civilians in Katrina's wake, both through poor planning, this is Bush's legacy. Here's an exerpt via Hoffmania.com.

"But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.
     
It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water."

Remember in '06, we need to make a change.

Read Keith's article here.

Two Points To Think About

Two points to think about:

1. It's called the National Guard. It's not the International Guard. It's supposed to guard our Nation! I'm sure when most people sign up, they think they are doing the one weekend a month deal. They can still be the local policeman or fireman, have a family, enjoy life. If they knew they would be in Iraq for long peroids of time, who knows what they might have done. But it's quite apparent in New Orleans that those National Guard who double as policemen and firemen were surely missed and a lot of Americans suffered and continue to suffer.

2. If the Department of Homeland Security acted this bad when it knew a storm was coming and had time to prepare, what will they do if a surprise attack went down? They are the largest and most ill-run segment of our government, they consume a massive budget, they take away our individual rights, thery have a lame color-coded terror alert system [which should have "Code Brown" added because they are deep shit] and it all makes sense that this is Bush's legacy. Michael Chertoff will probably step down as Secretary of Homeland Security when all the bad news starts hitting the fan, George should take the hint and do the same.

Kanye West Takes Bush To Task

Kanye West, fresh off his front page story on Time Magazine, is letting the world know how blacks are being treated down in New Orleans. "George Bush doesn't care about black people," he said last night on NBC's benefit concert. He said the effort was slow and deliberate and for his truth he was quickly shut off and the cameras switched to another presenter.

Before he was silenced, he added, "We already realized a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way, and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us." He was referring to shoot-on-sight orders issued to National Guard troops in New Orleans. Do you see a pattern here? Creating a chaotic situation and then start shooting civilians because the chaos you created is forcing an everyman-for-themselves atmosphere. It's sick.

Now matter how you look at it, from any angle, the people of Louisiana and Mississsippi were fucked. And they remained fucked days later. This death toll will dwarf 9/11 so they can finally put that intelligence blunder that Bush oversaw to bed and they can finally focus on this domestic cluster-fuck that Bush oversaw. This is the watershed moment we have been waiting for, the tipping point is now.

Expecting the Right or the media to really get this is wishful thinking. The Republicans will never admit they did anything wrong and the media will begrudgingly follow this story because there is not a runanway white bride or little blond girl missing.

Thank god there is oil down there or they would be completely fucked.

Kanye sets it on blast.

Another Catastrophic Success For Bush

I'm sure he will shy away from all the accolades of another Bush success story, but what can you say? George has managed to duplicate the impossible. He has impossed the same hellish nightmare on yet another set of innocent people. He cut his teeth with the Afghans, really got his mojo working with the Iraqis, but he really put his ducks in a row for New Orleans. I mean, it wasn't just one event, one cutback, one nod to the oil industry, one enviromentally poor decision, and it sure was not indifference to poor and black people. It was all of them combined.

I hope all you Red State Southerners who think you had a good ol' boy in the White realize now once and for all: Bush does not care about you. He played you like a chump with his horse shit foreign policy. You thought you would be safer because he was bombing civilians in Iraq. Well guess what? You were completely wrong! Not just kind of wrong, completely wrong. How does your safety feel now? All our US resources are in Iraq getting destroyed.

Maybe now you can go get yourself reborn again because your false prophet screwed you. And where is Cheney in all of this? Your leaders are laughable and your pride in them is shameful.

Problem With Ownership Society

The concept of ownership society has to be looked at more closely. This is not just the notion that a person can mortage themselves into owning a home. Big deal. What goes beyond this Republican feelgood bullshit is that you don't just own you house, you own everything. You own the bad things, too. If your house is in a bad neighborhood, you own the crime. Bad school district, you own it. What about if you get hurt? You own that medical debt, too.

Making the idea of owning something, and this somehow gives you esteem, is not the answer. Some people are not meant to own homes. They don't need the risk or want the commitment. For those who do not have health insurance, about 48,000,000+ Americans and growing, they do not want high health costs. By never looking at the problems and making everyone take on what they have, society is sherking what it really needs to be doing. Taking care of the less fortunate, looking out for kids, trying to rope in high medical costs, providing opportunities. This is just another way to put a positive spin on the rich getting richer scenario. Of course they like this, they have the ways and means to monitor investments, pay for hospital costs, to plan for the future.

It is idealistic but not realistic to promote this ownership society. It puts too much pressure on individuals and puts the small guy in harms way. The wealthy can swing these conditions, the little man, and that's you so don't think you're rich, gets left holding the major burden. When the shit hits the fan, you'll finally see my point. You'll own it, too.

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When will America wake up? We don't need to keep making excuses for this douche bag. He sucks, let's face it. You may be a Republican, you maye hate Clinton. Whatever. A blowjob is nothing compared to way way George is fucking the entire country. Compassionate Conservative? Soul-less dickhead is more like it.

Enough Is Enough

Republicans are on a witch hunt for scientists who support that climate changes are getting worse. Some jack-off from the fossil fuel lobby is making it hard on scientists and guess what, he's from Texas. Not to jump to any conclusions, but it all makes sense. What also makes sense is how I always see great articles like this in British newspapers. I swear, if it were not for the BBC, the Guardian and even the BBC News on TV, half of the major stories about the US would go uncovered.

What do we achieve by letting corporations win? What do we achieve by teaching faith as fact? What do we achieve by attacking someone's patriotism? Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and Bible stories only apply to people who follow the Bible.
They are just used to cloud and obfuscate the real problems. They are used to divide.

When you see $4 gas because violent storms, which are a sign of global warming, wipe out places like Katrina did, the oil industry will still report record revenues. This only backs up the Republicans version of the Golden Rule: Whoever has the gold, rules.

Look At His G Chord, Like Him, He's Off One Fret

Kind of symbolic in more ways than one. Not only is the douche bag fiddling while New Orleans drowns Nero steez, he's trying to play a G chord but he's off one fret. Just like he's pretending to be a guitar player, he's pretending to be a president. I'm sure the good people of Louisiana are thanking W for the 4000+ National Guard that are in Iraq right now instead of helping out in their home state.

Thanks to Americablog for the pictures.

Bush F*cking Over Africa

"To impose a dogma-driven policy that is fundamentally flawed is doing damage to Africa" states Stephen Lewis, the UN secretary general's special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa. Our Pretzel-dent, Mr. Faith-Based, is letting the funding that supplies condoms and other HIV/AIDS treatments dwindle in much of Africa. Bush is using his quasi-religious reasoning here. People are suffering, but rather than help them, he would preach to them about abstinence. Somehow that makes his white, conservative, Pro-Life contingent in America happy. These "WWJD" bracelet wearing jack-offs have no true soul or empathy that comes within 1/1,000,000,000th of what J. Christ would be doing if he were around. But does this really differ from Bush's other attempts at bringing death and suffering to innocent people around the world. Iraq? Darfur? Even here in the US.

In Bush's world where Jesus is a blonde, blue-eyed English speaking Republican, Africa just doen't matter. Imposing his reborn Fundamentalist ideals that cater to ex-cokeheads and booze-hounds on a continent as diverse as Africa makes sense to W. He thought Africa was a country, afterall. Why would we expect anything beyond a second-graders knowledge from this guy.

Read the article here.

Buchanan Calls For Impeachment

Every now and then Pat Buchanan takes a step out of line from the hypocritical right echo chamber and calls out the Pretzel-dent. His issue this time is illegal immigration and he thinks his right wing buddies in Congress should throw in a bill to impeach W to let him know he's not doing his job. Imagine that, calling him out for not doing his job? Hey Pat, take your pick! Not protecting borders is what Bush does best, here and in Iraq. Why should he change now, stay the course. He is the master of denying reality. He drives a car into a brick wall and brags he didn't blink. Asshole.

Maybe Pat can clue George into the fact that his "agenda" is really corporations backing changes to laws to benefit big business. How many Americans were hoping those bankruptcy laws would change? John Q. Public definitely wanted the "fresh start" program wiped away. Right?

Read Buchanan's article here.

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Great article by Maureen Dowd.

Support the TRUTH, get rid of Bush.

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With more the half the country agreeing that the war needs to end and our occupation has made things worse, we can no longer be framed as some bitter out-of-touch peaceniks. What we have been saying all along is now finally the majority. And guess what? It is only going to get harder for Bush and Co. to pro-long this war without confronting the people. Make the '06 elections your way of letting them know. You made this bed, now sleep in it.

Military Base Closings, What Does It Mean?

Since the US spends so much on it's military [it's the largest segment of our economy] and we "at war", why are there so many bases closing these days? If the spending is increasing or atleast staying the same and the bases are shrinking, who is taking up the places once held by hometown bases? I guess it would be private firms taking their places. Just like in Iraq where there are almost as many private security forces as there are US Military forces, the private sector is more and more responsible for feeding, building, protecting and fighting on behalf of the government. It's not just Halliburton these days that are riding the gravy train.

So ask yourself this. If the private sector is getting more and more funding from the government and the politicians get money from these companies, isn't it in the interests of all involved to have a conflict to keep everyone happy? No conflict means no need to buy weapons, no need to rebuild what we've destroyed, no profits for the military complex.

I know this all sounds pie in the sky but Cheney saw first hand as Secretary of Defense in 1991 how much money you can make in war. In the Middle East of all places. So he leaves his political career behind and goes to run Halliburton, not merely work for, to really learn the biz. Low and behold he ends up VP and has a jones to start a war with Iraq from the get go. The Pentagoons are well up for involving more contractors than ever and before you know it, we're $300 billion in the hole for a made up war. Is it that simple? Maybe not. But you can't overlook it either.

It's a vicious circle. Like the old ad about the guy who does more cocaine so he can work harder, so he make more money, so he can afford more cocaine, so he can work harder, etc. And since Bush is a coke user, it's that much more meaningful. We need to stop this vicious cycle of leading with our military. Might does not make right. This use of force will only set up the next need for use of force, but that's whay they wanted all along.

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Cindy Versus George, The Bigger Picture

"I've met with a lot of [military] families. She doesn't represent the view of a lot of families I have met with."
-typical Bush response.

Does this really hold up? Talking to military families in a time when it's all-volunteer service people is a little construed. Of course they are going to do the patriotic route and not criticize. That's the military way. Do what you're told. But this point is arguable and I don't want to go down that road. What this really represents is the way the President does not refute what the accusations are, merely he tries to knock down who is saying it. And seeing how Bush will never meet or talk with anyone who had views different from his, I'm sure of the military families he has met with, they were all pre-screened as to follow the script. Not meeting with Cindy Sheehan is more than Bush meeting with one woman near his Texas ranch, it's the bigger picture of Bush not wanting to deal with opposing views and have to explan and defend his actions. Cindy = America. George has to confront America. I'm not in the military and I've not lost a loved one in Iraq, but she speaks for me.

So what Bush should really be saying is, "Of the pro-George Bush pre-screened families I've met with, the script they read back to me does represent what Cindy and more than half the country feels". As long as the reality he surrounds himself with is detached from the real world, why worry about dissenting views from the majority. And this bullshit about not wanting to meet with people on vaction as to set a bad precedent, what about ending your vacation early to help out Terry Schiavo? You blow, George.

Keep on keepin' on, Cindy.

Douche Bag Pat Robertson Issues Fatwah

So this is all not about Christians versus Muslims, right? When all these people say throw out the Geneva Convention because you don't have to act civilized with a bunch of head choppin' crazies, the right wing base gives it a big thumbs up. It's democracy, western-style, that they need forced on them. But now Jesus Freak Pat Robertson says it's OK to go against Commandment #6 as given to us by God and go all "gansta gansta" on Hugo Chavez of oil rich democracy Venezuela. You see, if Suadi Arabia sponsors terrorism and sends it around the world as Wahhabist rhetoric, you bring them to Crawford and hold their hand. If you're outspoken against Bush and his goons, you get the gas face like Hugo did.

I'm not saying Hugo is the greatest guy, but ask yourself this: If 14 of the 19 bombers on 9/11 were from Venezuela, would Chicken George have leveled Caracas by now or what?

"Sweet Neo-Con" Lyrics by the Rolling Stones

Got these off www.rawstory.com. This is the new Rolling Stones tune. I'm sure the same dumb-ass people who slagged off Bruce Springsteen for getting some balls will be doing the same thing to Mick, Keef and co. And seeing how their lapdog PM got them into this mess, they have every right to sing this song. Maybe not the greatest [atleast better than McCartney's snorer about freedom a few years back], it's more about the seachange in public opinion about the foolishness of Bush and the Penta-goons. I look forward to cranking this over and over.

“You ride around your white castle, On your little white horse / You lie to your people, and blame it on your war of course
You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite / You call yourself a patriot, well I think you’re full of shit."

"Oh, sweet Neo Con, What path have you led them on? Oh, sweet Neo Con, Is it time for the atom bomb?"

"You parade around in costume, Expecting to be believed / But as the body bags stack up, We believe we’ve been deceived."
The horror you’ve unleashed, Will backfire with more grief / When will you ever learn, Sweet Neo Con, as the world burns?"

"Oh, sweet Neo Con, What path have you led them on? Oh, sweet Neo Con, Is it time for the atom bomb? Oh, sweet Neo Con, What path have you led them on? Oh, sweet Neo Con, Is it time to drop the bomb?"

Additional verses:

"How come you’re so wrong? My sweet neo-con, where’s the money gone, in the Pentagon."

"It’s liberty for all, democracy’s our style, unless you are against us, then it’s prison without trial."