Bush: One Last Laugh

It's Friday, we have a new President. Enjoy!

If you need a good laugh, here's what you had to put up with the last 8 years. Bush has a career in comedy if he ever chooses.

Obama: "I Won"

"I won."

-- President Obama, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, in response to Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) on why he's not including more Republican ideas in his economic stimulus plan.

Since when are Republicans good at getting out of the mess they made?

When Bush boasted in 2004, “I’ve got political capital and I intend to spend it”, all his followers rejoiced. Same thing different day. Republicans are defeated, now let the person who was elected by the people run the country.

Source: WSJ

Picture Used For Obama "HOPE" Poster Found

The original picture Shepard Fairey used to make his famous Obama "HOPE" poster has been found.

And look, George Clooney is in it.



Source: Buzzfeed

Gitmo NIMBY? Top Prisoners Already Here

So closing Gitmo raises the question: where do you put the 250 or so detainees?

Transferring them to US prisons seems to scare people, what if they break free? As if that is going to happen. Here is a list of top terrorists we already have in Florence, Colorado and nobody has mentioned them in this discussion:

Zacarias Moussaoui, Conspirator in the September 11, 2001 attacks
Omar Abdel-Rahman, "The Blind Sheik"; involved in 1993 WTC bombing
Richard Colvin Reid, Islamic terrorist, nicknamed the "Shoe Bomber"
Wadih el-Hage, Conspirator in the 1998 US embassy bombings
Mahmud Abouhalima, Islamic Mujahideen leader, 1993 WTC bombing
Jose Padilla, Convicted of aiding terrorists
Mohammed A. Salameh, 1993 WTC bombing

The people of Leavenworth, Kansas are worried how this might effect their reputation if they get the Gitmo prisoners? There's a reason they put maximum security prisons in the middle of nowhere. Don't hold your breath waiting for the MTV Real World series to pick your city. Um, your reputation is secure, no pun intended.

Source: Wiki

Olbermann: Bush Spied 24/7

Bush spied on all of us, all of the time. Former NSA analyst Russell Tice blows his whistle.

If it's not War Crimes, this will surely get people's blood boiling.

Source: MSNBC

Obama Closing Gitmo, Restoring America

Great article at the Washington Monthly on the closing of Gitmo and restoring the rule of law. First off, hears what Obama had to say:

"We are not -- as I said in the inauguration -- going to continue with a false choice between our safety and our ideals," the president said this morning. He added, "The message we are sending around the world is that the US intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly, we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals ... We intend to win this fight, and we intend to win it on our terms."

Even though the Republicans would like to think they have the Muslim equivalent of Jack Bauer, McGuyver and Hannibal Lecter in those 250 detainees, the message it sends to the 1.4 billion actual Muslims out there is so much worse: We tortured people there! More to the point, the whole idea of housing detainees at Gitmo was to put them outside of the American legal system, a practice that was struck down by the Supreme Court. It's illegal.

That's why fighting this on our new restored terms is so important. The Gitmo closing is symbolic. We can't sink to what Al Qaeda can use as recruitment fodder.

Bush's ends justify the means shredding of our Constitution are over.

"Al Qaeda could never have destroyed our commitment to liberty, human rights, and the rule of law by itself. It could only hope that we would respond unthinkingly and do the dirty work ourselves. We obliged them, and in so doing did a lot more damage to ourselves than al Qaeda could ever have dreamed of doing.

It's wonderful to see that that has changed: that we have an administration that will not sacrifice the ideals America always ought to stand for, and will not allow our adversaries to dictate the terms and the terrain on which we will oppose them."

It will take a while to undo all of Bush's mistakes, but this is the direction America needs to be on if it wants to lead.

Bush used all those illegal and illogical tactics and America sunk. Our standing in the world, our values, our economy, our currency, no matter how you slice it, we gave up too much to get back so little.

Source: Steve Benin

The Curious Case Of Forrest Gump

Talent borrows, genius steals. The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is Forrest Gump backwards.

Source: Andrew Sullivan

Amazing Inaugural Pictures

Amazing collection of pictures from Jan 20, 2009. The day the world watched Barack Obama become our 44th President.





Source: Boston Globe

Obama Breaks Bush's 8 Year Absence With Middle East

Bush ignored* the Middle East peace process for 8 years. Obama gets involved on day one:

This morning, the President placed phone calls to four Middle Eastern leaders: President Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Olmert of Israel, King Abdullah of Jordan, and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.

* = ignored means invading 2 Muslim countries while dreaming his Rapture-based End Of Days Zionism will come true.

Source: Politico

Favorite Line From Obama's Address

Favorite line from Obama's Address yesterday:

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers."

"Freedom of religion" and "freedom from religion" are two different things. I'm excited that a demographic as big as non-believers, estimated at 16% of the US population, is being recognized. A better term would be "free-thinkers" because believing is not quite the point. That's what the likes of Jefferson, Franklin and Lincoln were, as well as, Einstein and Darwin.

Conversely, listening to Rick Warren was like listening to a fairy tale story time for infants. All that was missing was the Big Bad Wolf, clicking the heels on your ruby red shoes three times and a giant beanstalk.

Having faith is fine, I choose to have faith in science. My faith has about a millions volumes on it, all current and up to date. No Bronze Age mumbo-jumbo complete with contradictions and obvious metaphors not to be taken literally.

Thankfully a new Age of Reason is before us just in time, no more pious sanctimony or hypocritical devoutness from the Right to blind us.

"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature." - Frank Lloyd Wright

Source: Yahoo

Limbaugh: I Hope Obama Fails

Asked for a 400-word statement explaining his “hope for the Obama presidency”, Rush Limbaugh responded, "I hope Obama fails".

Not his policies.
Not liberalism, in general.
Not Democrats.
Not a specific program.

Just Obama as a person.

Or maybe Obama = change, and he wants change to fail. Change would kill his ratings since the relative year for his human rights adverse audience is about 1952 America.

That is the mindset of the failed conservative Republican these days. While I can list about 100 decisions and policies I can't stand about the Bush Administration dating back to 2000, the Right just wants the whole thing to fail so their massive failure blends in. That's not bitter of them, is it?

Source: Think Progres

Obama Giving Power Back To The Bush

The more options women have, the better off they are:

President Obama will issue an executive order on Thursday reversing the Bush administration policy that bans the use of federal dollars by non-govermental organizations that discuss or provide abortions outside of the United States.

Obama will sign the executive order on the 36th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in all 50 states.

The wording, known as the "Mexico City policy", read, "neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations." Just pretend it doesn't exist. Take the choice out of peoples' hands and make the State decide for them.

Like a lot of Bush ideas, just pretend reality does not exist as you plow headlong into policy decisions. Just sprinkle your faux religion on top, try to dominate the poor, and like a good drunk, try to keep his lady down.

Source: Oliver Willis

Obama Moves To Close Gitmo In One Year

This looks to be happening on Thursday:

Fulfilling a campaign pledge, President Barack Obama is expected to issue an executive order this week directing the eventual closure of the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay military facility in Cuba, which holds approximately 250 inmates the U.S. government defines as enemy combatants.

Why do they always use Hannibal Lecter to describe these inmates? That's assuming they have near genius IQs and tremendous intellect.

They are not about to rip the face of the guards and use it as a mask to sneak out of prison. You don't have to worry about them eating your liver with fava beans and nice chianti.

Not saying they are good guys. They want to kill people, but don't make them into this insurmountable kind of evil. And if they are the worst of the worst, why can't they charge them with anything?

Source: ABC News

749 Front Pages From 73 Countries

The Newseum has 749 front pages from 73 countries covering Barack Obama's inauguration.

Source: Newseum

Obama's First Order: Stop All The Bush Sh*t

Waking up from a bad 8-year dream, it feels great from day one:

In his first act as President, Obama approved a memo by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel which orders all federal agencies to freeze former President Bush's pending regulations until the new administration has a change to review them.

Also, WhiteHouse.gov has re-launched. They even have a blog: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

Source: Raw Story

Obama Inauguration Set Online Record

I'm sure this record won't last too long. Net neutrality is no longer an issue and tech and science will grow steadily under Obama.

Data from CNN.com captured the uniqueness of the online surge. CNN said it provided more than 21.3 million video streams over a nine-hour span up to midafternoon. That blew past the 5.3 million streams provided during all of Election Day. At its peak, CNN.com fed 1.3 million live streams simultaneously, according to Jennifer Martin, a spokeswoman for the site.

Akamai, which helps companies meet demand for their online offerings, worked with media companies like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Viacom to stream live video. It reported a record-breaking day, feeding up seven million video streams at one time.

Source: NYT

The World's Response

What's the old Army TV ad tagline, "the toughest job you're going to love".



Source: HuffPo

Bush: Laters

Watching Executive One take off with Bush inside. See ya.

Are Dr. Jill Biden's boots a bit slutty?



Source: Mother Jones

Chris Rock: Hard To Mock Obama

via CNN:

"[Obama is] just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There's no Will Smith jokes. There's no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? "Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Anniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You're such a loser." What do you say? "Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million." There's nothing to say about Brad Pitt...[With Obama it's] like "Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president." You know, what do you say?," - Chris Rock.

Source: Andrew Sullivan

President Obama

Just enjoy the day. Say it with me, President Obama.

Going to take it easy, not much posting today.

Happy Martin Luther King Jnr Day

43 Reasons Why Bush Is The Worst President Ever

The Top 43 Appointees Who Helped Make Bush The Worst President Ever

A must read at Think Progress. Next stop, the Hague. Here's just the Top 4.

1. Dick Cheney — The worst Dick since Nixon. The man who shot his friend while in office. The “most powerful and controversial vice president.” Until he got the job, people used to actually think it was a bad thing that the vice presidency has historically been a do-nothing position. Asked by PBS’s Jim Lehrer about why people hate him, Cheney rejected the premise, saying, “I don’t buy that.” His top placement in our survey says otherwise.

2. Karl Rove — There wasn’t a scandal in the Bush administration that Rove didn’t have his fingerprints all over — see Plame, Iraq war deception, Gov. Don Siegelman, U.S. Attorney firings, missing e-mails, and more. As senior political adviser and later as deputy chief of staff, “The Architect” was responsible for politicizing nearly every agency of the federal government.

3. Alberto Gonzales — Fundamentally dishonest and woefully incompetent, Gonzales was involved in a series of scandals, first as White House counsel and then as Attorney General. Some of the most notable: pressuring a “feeble” and “barely articulate” Attorney General Ashcroft at his hospital bedside to sign off on Bush’s illegal wiretapping program; approving waterboarding and other torture techniques to be used against detainees; and leading the firing of U.S. Attorneys deemed not sufficiently loyal to Bush.

4. Donald Rumsfeld — After winning praise for leading the U.S. effort in ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001, the former Defense Secretary strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq and then grossly misjudged and mishandled its aftermath. Rumsfeld is also responsible for authorizing the use of torture against terror detainees in U.S. custody; according to a bipartisan Senate report, Rumsfeld “conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees.”

The list could be longer.

Source: ThinkProgress

Jim Jarmusch On Stealing From Everywhere

http://displib.blogspot.com/This is why blogging works.



Source: http://displib.blogspot.com/