January 17, 2009
Eight Years in Eight Minutes
Keith Olbermann reviews the Bush years.
Posted by jnfr at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
Moving On
I'm watching the Train Ride to the Inauguration on TV this morning. Feels good. In the meantime, my friend Skip pointed me to this gem.
Posted by jnfr at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2009
Basta!
We've already said 'Goodbye'.
Since you've got to go
Oh you better go now.
Posted by jnfr at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2008
Pro-Torture
Keep in mind that McCain voted against this bill as well.
Bush to veto ban on waterboarding
Harsh tactics help fight terrorism, he says
President Bush is to veto legislation Saturday meant to ban the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics and will argue that the agency needs to use tougher methods than the U.S. military to wrest information from terrorism suspects, administration officials said.
No matter what they say, their actions prove that McCain and Bush are both objectively pro-torture.
Posted by jnfr at 07:45 AM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2008
State of the Approval Ratings
Via the AP, here are Bush's approval ratings at each of the SOTU addresses. I made a nifty chart of them.
Just something to ponder while you listen, or don't listen, to Bush tonight. Less than a year to go!
Posted by jnfr at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2007
Special Comment
"I'm playing for October, November," said President Bush to Mr. Draper.
"To get us in a position where the Presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence," and, he said later, "stay longer."
From Ron Draper's Dead Certain
Posted by jnfr at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2007
Dude, Where's My Karl?
Posted by jnfr at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2007
Door, Ass, Bang
From the Atlantic Monthly's rather prescient article on Karl Rove (subscription required):
Rove has always cast himself not merely as a campaign manager but as someone with a mind for policy and for history’s deeper currents—as someone, in other words, with the wherewithal not just to exploit the political landscape but to reshape it. At the Christian Science Monitor lunch, he appeared poised to do just that. It was already clear that Social Security privatization, a longtime Rove enthusiasm, was the first thing Bush would pursue in his second term. When things are going well for Rove, he adopts a towel-snapping jocularity. He looked supremely sure of his prospects for success.
But within a year the administration was crumbling. Social Security had gone nowhere. Hurricane Katrina, the worsening war in Iraq, and the disastrous nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court shattered the illusion of stern competence that had helped reelect Bush. What surprised everybody was how suddenly it happened; for a while, many devotees of the Cult of Rove seemed not to accept that it had. As recently as last fall, serious journalists were churning out soaring encomiums to Rove and his methods with titles like One Party Country and The Way to Win. In retrospect, everyone should have been focusing less on how those methods were used to win elections and more on why they couldn’t deliver once the elections were over....
Rove and Bush cared about winning, but not about governing, and we're all paying the price for it.
Right back at ya, baby. Personally, I'm still hoping you get nailed for those Hatch Act violations.
UPDATE: Digby has more on the Hatch Act violations and the potential for consequences.
Posted by jnfr at 08:49 AM | Comments (1)
July 25, 2007
More from the Founding Fathers
Does any of this sound familiar?
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good....
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers....
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power....
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:...
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever....
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
We don't need or want another King.
Posted by jnfr at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2007
The Founding Fathers
John Sherffius Jul 23, 2007 |
What would they think about this administration? John Sherffius has an idea.
Posted by jnfr at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)
May 01, 2007
Mission Accomplished - Not
And today? Seems like Bush is having some trouble facing reality.
The Nelson Report -- 30 April 2007
Sometimes insider gossip seems to confirm what all us outsiders think we're seeing, so, for what it's worth...we're hearing that some big money players up from Texas recently paid a visit to their friend in the White House.
The story goes that they got out exactly one question, and the rest of the meeting consisted of The President in an extended whine, a rant, actually, about no one understands him, the critics are all messed up, if only people would see what he's doing things would be OK...etc., etc.
This is called a "bunker mentality" and it's not attractive when a friend does it. When the friend is the President of the United States, it can be downright dangerous. Apparently the Texas friends were suitably appalled, hence the story now in circulation....
What a sad man, and what a terrible situation he's led us into, adrift for another two years with no good options in sight.
Posted by jnfr at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
Bush lies
Recently Bush had a press conference, which is unusual for him, and he called on Helen Thomas, which is even more unusual. While side-stepping her actual question, he declared:BUSH: I think your premise -- in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- is that, you know, I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just -- is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect --
THOMAS: Everything --
BUSH: Hold on for a second, please.
THOMAS: Everything I've heard --
BUSH: Let me -- excuse me, excuse me. No president wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true.
And in the New York Times today, following up on a story in the Brtish press, we find that Bush most definitely did want war, and intended to have a war in Iraq no matter what he had to do to get it.
But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.
"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.
"The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March," Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. "This was when the bombing would begin."...
The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein.
Please let's not pretend any longer that Bush told the truth when he forced this war on Iraq.
Editor & Publisher addresses the memo.
Posted by jnfr at 07:49 AM | Comments (1)