Is it "Assassination" if they're out of office?

Call it the first trial of George the II, South Africa temporarily declared war criminal George W. Bush dead. 'Twas not the case though.

BBC - For three seconds ETV News ran a moving banner headline across the screen saying "George Bush is dead".[More...]

Just a case of turn about and fair play and what not...

From the time capsule:

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Bush kills Mandela

Just when you thought Bush had done everything possible to demonstrate the depths of his stupidity, the Decider held a press conference today and declared that anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela (who currently lives in Johannesburg) was dead! [More...]

Farewell. I mean, F*%# @ff

Juvenile? Perhaps. I thought of throwing a shoe, but it might have actually hit the television and done some damage.

I spent most of the morning holed up by myself watching the Inauguration coverage. A friend emailed asking if i were in DC. I replied back, "No, i'm in my PJ's."

Reflections...

• Bush: You got off scott free. I think you should swing for your crimes, just like Saddam. And give back the money your family and your Saudi friends stole.
• Cheney: You just creep me out. You've been compared before to the evil Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. Thanks for completing the picture. Did you hurt your back shredding documents? Lift with your legs, dumbass! I think you deserve life in Gitmo. You're going to have to cough up all the cash you and your fellow war profiteers at Halliburton ripped off. But you might get a stipend for your future work as a guinea pig for "enhanced interrogation techniques."
• Kuccinich: Nice seat. And thanks again for mine at the convention.
• Warren: We don't all worship your gods. Your invocation was an offensive performance.
• Aretha: My dad would have loved seeing you today.
• Biden and Stevens: Palpable happiness.
• Roberts: What was up with that "oaf of office"? Just because Obama didn't vote for you (and i'm sure verse-visa), that's no reason to flub your part.
• Obama: Quinessential, cool.
• Poem: Meh...
• Benediction: Oh no you din't!

"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right." - Rev. Joseph Lowery (full text)

My big brother came just before the playing of the national anthem. We stood together and then flew the colors. Then i took him out for a pint at the Hedge House. (Cheap pints on Tuesdays!)

We were back in time for the split screen of the Obama motorcade and the Adams public flogging. I was surprised he gave up his Inauguration plans (i'm sure they would have included nice seats and and a couple big balls) and kind of wish he had put this off a day.

Worst President EVAR!

Over 70% respond "Stinky" but 1 out of 5 still like Bush. (All hail the American Taliban!)

(CBS) President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent... Mr. Bush's final approval rating is the lowest final rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70 years ago. [More...]

Kremer vs. Kremer vs. Truth

Trust me, you can't afford Rob Kremer's brand of "fiscal conservatism."

Would you buy a used car from this guy?

One of Rob Kremer's day jobs is that of political fundraiser for Oregon's con- Right. In mid-February of last year he founded the "Con - Majority Project" PAC. He writes the following there:
(What? Me worry about facts?)

Rob Kremer is Founder and President of the Oregon Education Coalition, which has been active in the school policy debate since 1998. In the 1999 Legislative Session, Rob led the effort to pass Oregon’s charter school law. Since then, he has directly involved [sic] in helping start more than three dozen charter schools, including the four Arthur Academy Charter Schools, of which he is co-founder.

Indeed, rarely is the question asked, "Is our right wingnuts proofreading?" Him speak pretty some day.*

Rob also writes a blog where the front page shines insight into his paranoia regarding / obsession with "socialism." From the anti-Socialist himself:

Portland, Oregon is occupied territory. It was invaded years ago by a non-native species of political animal from back east who took over our political and cultural institutions in order to try out their utopian socialist dreams on our great state. This blog will chronicle the insurgency that is trying to free Oregon from the occupiers' grip by shining a bright light on their most egregious schemes.

It sounds scary, but to read his blog, it's mostly funny (pages)... and a little bit sad.

And completing his trifectic strangle-hold on Socialism, Rob Kremer has his own Hannity & Colmesesque radio show on KXL, Kremer & Abrams. (And not that Marc Abrams is anything like that soggy milquetoast Alan Colmes used to be!) Today, former US Senate candidate Steve Novick was sitting in for Abrams (who was visiting his fiancé in California) so i tuned in for a bit.

The bones of 4228 US service personnel to pick...

In an old twist on tired attempts to justify George W. Bush's war crime, Kremer (a self described fiscal conservative) threw out some pretty outlandish numbers in order to assert that despite the money pit of a fiasco which is the Iraq debacle, it still pencils out to be cheaper than the pre-invasion monitoring protocols carried out against the Saddam regime since George H. W. Bush suckered the Butcher from Baghdad into invading Kuwait back in 1990 and the Great Coalition kicked the Iraqis back out the following year.

According to Kremer, a decade of simply monitoring Iraq as we had been doing (successfully as it turned out) would have cost us $700 Billion. Yes, this is a huge exaggeration. Nevertheless, Mr. Kremer, the champion of education who demonstrates questionable verbal skills (see above) also fails at math.

The Dick Cheney administration (a subsidary of Halliburton) had already conned a feckless Congress into authorizing a half trillion dollars by the 5th anniversary of Shock and Awe. With a present "burn rate" of $10-14 Billion a month, the direct costs to the US taxpayers will hit one Trillion dollars by the end of this year.

In case you need help with the arithmetic, Rob, that's $300 Billion more than your fiscally conservative solution. Even for Republican fat cats, that's an an Obama sized chunk of change.

As i mentioned before, Rob Kremer exaggerates the cost of containment when it came to Saddam, the paper lion. As near as i can tell, he derives his fanciful financial figure from a February 2006 study done by Steven J. Davis, et. al. The authors admit that the actual annual "cost of containment" had been $14.5 Billion per year. Based upon a series of dire assumptions (including another successful terrorist attack inside the US) they calculated that the cost of mere monitoring (along with the occasional air strike) might range from $350-700 Billion.

"We model the possibility that an effective containment policy might require the mounting of costly threats and might lead to a limited war or a full-scale regime-changing war against Iraq at a later date. We also consider the possibility that the survival of a hostile Iraqi regime raises the probability of a major terrorist attack on the United States."

In other words, they added to the real cost of containment the probability that the US would invade Iraq regardless (evidently adopting the Donald Rumsfeld Invasion Lite™ numbers), and they added in a doomsday scenario to boot. Naturally, Kremer only quoted the upper end figure. (By the way, higher end estimates for the total cost of the Iraq war exceed $3 Trillion. ("The government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years." - HuffPo, May 11, 2008. More...)

What's more, the authors of the $700 Billion containment theory published a follow up in March, 2008. In it, they revise their numbers and refute Rob Kremer:

"The Iraq intervention has proved to be much costlier for the United States than our baseline estimate for the cost of containment (roughly 300 billon 2003 dollars) and at least as costly as the most pessimistic containment scenario we considered..." [More: pdf]

Perhaps these scholars weren't even the source for Kremer's right wing talking point. (But i prefer not to think that he just pulled the $700 figure out of his imagination.) In the end his math, his logic (and of course, his politics) fail.

Near the end of the show Kremer claimed that person for person, public transit is costlier than private means of transportation. I can't wait to learn how he's cooking up these numbers. Mmmmm... Hot pot of Republican bullshit, comin' right up!

*[Disclaimer: Even though i am not paid to publish this blog, i accept any and all pot/kettle accusations for the multitude of typos and out right spelling errors in my own writing. In my defense, i believe i am experiencing adult onset dyslexia.]

Obama opposes gay marriage, says he likes Bush

Either President-elect Obama is faking Right, or we're about to let another corrupt Republican President get off scott free.

BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio (CNN) -- After two years of traveling around the country and criticizing President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he "always thought [Bush] was a good guy." [More...]

Shut up and go home

And get a good lawyer.

Prosecute.

Convict.

Execute.

Saudi Grand Mufti likes pre-teen muff

The Bush crime family has been in bed with the Saudis for decades. For the life of me, i will never understand how George II became and remains the paragon of virtue for evangelical Christians.

Bandar Bush and Condi Rice look on as Kings George and Abdullah kiss.

It's an injustice to NOT marry girls aged 10, says Saudi cleric By Daily Mail Reporter Ten-year-old girls are ready for marriage, according to Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric. Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, the country's grand mufti, told Al Hayat newspaper that those saying ten or 12-year-old girls are too young to marry are being 'unfair' to them. [More...]

US to produce propaganda for Iraqi TV

While Congress was distracted handing over $700 Billion to former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson, this mere million dollar waste went unnoticed.

U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, October 3, 2008; Page A01 The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government. [More...]

Brother, can you spare $700 Billion?

George Bush is sending his Treasury Secretary to Capitol Hill hat in hand (and he also has a 3 page bill that will cost you a TRILLION dollars.

The text in full...

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY

TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS

Section 1. Short Title.

This Act may be cited as ____________________.

Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Authority to Purchase.--The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.

(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:

(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;

(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;

(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;

(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and

(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.

Sec. 3. Considerations.

In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for--

(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and

(2) protecting the taxpayer.

Sec. 4. Reports to Congress.

Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.

Sec. 5. Rights; Management; Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Exercise of Rights.--The Secretary may, at any time, exercise any rights received in connection with mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act.

(b) Management of Mortgage-Related Assets.--The Secretary shall have authority to manage mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act, including revenues and portfolio risks therefrom.

(c) Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.--The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act.

(d) Application of Sunset to Mortgage-Related Assets.--The authority of the Secretary to hold any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act before the termination date in section 9, or to purchase or fund the purchase of a mortgage-related asset under a commitment entered into before the termination date in section 9, is not subject to the provisions of section 9.

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

Sec. 7. Funding.

For the purpose of the authorities granted in this Act, and for the costs of administering those authorities, the Secretary may use the proceeds of the sale of any securities issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and the purposes for which securities may be issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, are extended to include actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses. Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed appropriated at the time of such expenditure.

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.

The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate two years from the date of enactment of this Act.

Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.

Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.

Sec. 11. Credit Reform.

The costs of purchases of mortgage-related assets made under section 2(a) of this Act shall be determined as provided under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, as applicable.

Sec. 12. Definitions.

For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) Mortgage-Related Assets.--The term “mortgage-related assets” means residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008.

(2) Secretary.--The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Treasury.

(3) United States.--The term “United States” means the States, territories, and possessions of the United States and the District of Columbia.

Curious George Goes to China

I'm sure you've already seen the photos; on TV, in the papers and on the interwebs.

President George W. Bush has a thing for beach volleyball (and whiskey too, from the looks of it).


"I'd invade that"
From the FARK caption contest

And so the call went out. Caption this moment in history. Below... my favorites culled from the web...

----------- caption this photo -----------

"You ladies ever hear of somethin' called a menage a trois? Trois means three; one, two three. There's three of us, get it? I could even get Laura to join in and make it a menage a quatro."

"Lemme brush home plate off for ya...PLAY BALL!"

"If Cheney says that I can."

"Heh heh, if they won't impeach me for tappin' their phones, I know I can get away with tappin' that!"

"Now watch this drive!"

"There's an old saying in Texas, hit that once, shame on... shame on me. Hit that twice, can't hit that 'gain"

"Now, if only I had exit strategy only then would I hit it"



"I'm from homeland security and it looks like you are going to need a body cavity search."

"If you lose the point, I spank you. If you win the point, you spank me."

"Sure I'll do your back... this is my imaginary bottle of suntan lotion right here."

"Lookie I can make a doggie shadow puppet on your back! He goes Bow WOW, Grrrr Ruff Ruff!! Ooo, scared myself there. I call him Commander Barkie, he tells me what decisions to make.

Do they have shadow puppetin as an event? Mabey if I owned them they would! Say who do I have to invade to own the olympics."

"Quick, someone tap that ass! No, no - the one behind her."

"They misunderestimated me. My answer is bring them on."

"I'll buy that for a dollar!"

"It's not undignified if the President does it."

"This is George Bush and i approve of this ass"

"This is going in my last 'State Of The Onion' address."

"I'd shock and awe that." [Henk, henk...]

"Good thing I have my Weapon of Ass Destruction"

Walsh: "Mr. President, I don't think making shadow dogs on her backside is what Misty meant when she asked if you liked 'doggy style'"

"Right, just like that. Now you put the Constitution on the ground right beneath you, and relax your bowels."

A visual display of President Bush's new domestic policy... "Bend over and take it America!"

----------- And it get's better -----------

"I'm genna have to check fer dubbya emm deez, Miss."

WWBCD?

(What Would Bill Clinton Do?)

"I'd bail out that Fanny...Mac"

"It's good to be the king!"

(Non)impeachment Hearings

See also: Blumenauer impeachment vigil [Week 53 /Week 54]






















See also: Blumenauer impeachment vigil [Week 53 /Week 54]

Bring 'em on.

Bring 'em home!

Michael "Waterboarding is OK with Me" Mukasey

Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the Federal official most responsible for law enforcement in our country, is still unable to go on record admitting that waterboarding constitutes torture.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- "Any answer I give could have the effect of articulating publicly -- and to our adversaries -- the limits and contours of generally worded laws that define the limits of a highly classified interrogation program," Mukasey said.

Mukasey's nomination to replaced disgraced Attorney General and Bush crony Alberto Gonzales was all but sunk last November when in his confirmation hearings, he refused to state if waterboarding constituted and illegal method of interrogation, in other words, "torture." That's when Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sided with pro-torture Republicans to send Mukasey's name to the full Senate for approval. He passed the Judiciary Committee on a narrow vote of (11-9).

Local Boy makes Good

Wins us back our Rights!

Two months after the 2004 Madrid train bombings, local attorney Brandon Mayfield (a Moslem convert) was arrested by the FBI without charge. Held for over two weeks with limited access to legal counsel, he was at first held at in the county jail under a false name. Mayfield was later transferred to an unidentified location.

During his illegal detention, the government searched the family home, took DNA samples and removed several items. After Spanish authorities refuted the "evidence" used by the American government, Mayfield was released with an apology. Not satisfied, Mayfield also sued to get his (and our) rights back. Today, we won.

PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) - A federal judge ruled Wednesday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

Bush kills Mandela

Just when you thought Bush had done everything possible to demonstrate the depths of his stupidity, the Decider held a press conference today and declared that anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela (who currently lives in Johannesburg) was dead!

“I thought an interesting comment was made — somebody said to me, I heard somebody say, 'Now, where’s Mandela?' ... Well ... Mandela’s dead ... because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas.”

Think Progress has the video. It will make your head hurt. Mandela was previously held for dead by CNN in the run up to the Iraq war.

In today's news conference, Bush tried to fend off rumors of an economic downturn by engaging in a little grade inflation of his own. When asked to rate the risk of a recession, our CEO President responded:

“I think you need to talk to an economist. I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low... and being fisky... fiscally responsible with the people's money.”

Bush was actually a "C-" student of Economics, what people at Yale politely refer to as a "gentleman's C." Apologies in advance if you spat out anything on to your computer screens.

No More BUSHIT!

I'm holdin' a shitload a'hot air.

The Commander in Thief addressed the nation tonight, demonstrating his improved sight reading skills. Sadly though, he still fails when it comes to math. Americans voted the Democrats to power in 2006 in part to send some adult supervision to DC and end the $1 billion/week boondoggle which is the Iraq Occupation (sponsored in part by Halliburton, Inc.). Bush's response was to stretch our military to the breaking point by sending in an addition 30,000 troops. The rationale was to give the Iraqi government time to get its Shiite together. Instead, Baghdad's parliament went on vacation. As a return on our investment, we saw continued civilian carnage and a rise in US casualties.

US Deaths By Month:

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2006	62	55	31	76	69	61	43	65	72	106	70	112
2007	83	81	81	104	126	101	79	84	?	?	?	???

View Graph: U.S. Fatalities By Month

For Bush, these statistics speak of "success."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a televised speech to the nation, Bush said he would reduce U.S. force strength by 5,700 troops by Christmas and, by next July, reduce the number of combat brigades from 20 to 15 -- a decrease of roughly 21,500 troops overall.

In other words, we'll be back to square one where we were before the "surge" at a cost of another 1,500 dead Americans.

Surge gets failing grade

In voting to continue the costly occupation of Iraq, the "Democratically" controlled Congress issued 18 benchmarks for our new Iraqi allies. The report card is in.

Pass = 3
Incomplete = 4
No Pass = 11

(CNN) "Overall, key legislation has not been passed, violence remains high, and it is unclear whether the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion in reconstruction funds," according to testimony from David M. Walker, comptroller general, to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But it did offer grounds for hope.

"These results do not diminish the courageous efforts of coalition forces and progress that has been made in several areas, including Anbar Province," Walker said in comments released Tuesday.

Once again we see, when all else fails, cloak your self in the courage of the troops.

BOHICA!

Friday Dump

Dick Cheney to ASSume Presidency. No Shit!

In a last ditch effort to find weapons of mass destruction, President George W. Bush will undergo a colonoscopy during a weekend retreat at Camp David, said White Wash spokesman Tony Snowjob, whose own colon is not only cancer free, but WMD free as well. Vice President Dick Cheney will serve as acting President, a post slightly lower than the one he currently holds.

Film at 11. /// hat tip to my brother Marko, for the latter article!
.

1933-1984

Hey! 1933 called. Adolf wants his brown shirts back.

Chris Weigant over at the Huffington Post has leaked portions of a secret White House manual on crowd control. Here's a sample:

The formation of "rally squads" is a common way to prepare for demonstrators by countering their message. This tactic involves utilizing small groups of volunteers to spread favorable messages using large hand held signs, placards, or perhaps a long sheet banner, and placing them in strategic areas around the site.

This isn't fiction. It's a page out of the Nazis' play book, where the popular slogan among Hitler's bands of brown shirted thugs proclaimed, “Terror must be broken by terror.”

These squads should be instructed always to look for demonstrators. The rally squad's task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors [sic] (USA!, USA!, USA!). As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site. The rally squads can include, but are not limited to, college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/ sororities.

The Brown Shirts were fond of saying, “all opposition must be stamped into the ground.” Is it really that far of a leap from "Free Speech Zones" (those corrals of demonstrators kept out of sight from Bush which shred the First Amendment) to the gulag of Guantanamo where POW's are being held without any rights at all.

Hermann Göring, commander of Hitler's Luftwaffe, made the following admission in the course of his trial in Nuremberg:

“Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”

Tell me if you've seen this movie already.

Speak No Evil

"In my line of work you gotta keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kinda catapult the propaganda." - Dubya, May 24, 2005

Just as the Chinese began taking heat for all the tainted products coming out of their land (pet food, poison protein, tooth paste, etc.) comes this story of the steamed buns devoid of meat and filled with flavored cardboard instead (mmmmm. humbow flavor. mmmmm.)

Well, the journalist who broke the story has been arrested and has officially recanted, claiming now he made up the story. Word to the wise, comrades... our Great Decider will crush dissent as well. Don't forget he just made it illegal to undermine his efforts to "win" in Iraq.