George Bush

Seems the Republicans are losing on the "character" and "values" issues. The pastor and spiritual advisor to the Bush family, the very man who presided at Jenna Bush's wedding recently, has harshly criticized Republican John McCain for his lack of values and poor character and has endorsed Barack Obama.

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church gave the official benedictions at Bush's inauguration in 2001 and 2005. Although a controversial figure for his first inaugural benediction in 2001 that explicitly excluded non-Christians, and for his inspiration of Bush's "faith based initiatives," there is no question that he is in touch with what Republicans mean when they discuss values and character.

Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell just publicly denounced John McCain's morals and has endorsed Barack Obama.

This seems to have been precipitated by the furor about John Edwards' affair, leading Caldwell to point out John McCain's own infidelities. It was also precipitated by John McCain's offering up of his wife to a topless and rather obscene (keyword: banana) pagent at the Sturgis bike rally last week. I guess John McCain's behavior is not pleasing Christians interested in true values rather than mere words.

Got a message from my brother. He saw the run on the IndyMac Bank in Duarte, California.

Let me introduce this with dueling headlines. From the Pasadena Star-News:

IndyMac appears close to collapse: US regulators may not be ready to protect bank

And from the LA Times:

IndyMac denies that it's close to collapse: "Depositors have been pulling money from the Pasadena-based thrift, whose share price is down 90% this year."

Today, my brother saw a crowd at the Duarte IndyMac Bank desperately trying to get their savings out. Many elderly people were claiming that they are being offered dollar for dollar on the first $100,000...after that only fifty cents on the dollar.

Did you know that Republicans are so embarassed by Bush that you can actually get ARRESTED for holding up a sign that says: "McCain = Bush"? It's true. A 61-year old librarian, Carol Kreck, held up a "McCain = Bush" sign when McCain showed up at a Denver "Town Hall Meeting." She was threatened with arrest.

It's all on YouTube:

Now not only are McCain's policies nearly identical with Bush's, so the sign is true, but given that Bush is a Republican president, why is the McCain campaign so embarassed to be equated with Bush?

After all, there was the hug:

And there was the birthday cake McCain and Bush shared while Americans were dying in the aftermath of Katrina:

So, in solidarity with Carol Kreck, I offer you the "McCain = Bush" T-shirt:

Image by Pantone801, found at Flickr.com

This is so mindboggling it defies commentary. Up until the 1st of July of 2008, Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the United States.

Bush Removes Nelson Mandela from Terror Watch List
By VOA News
01 July 2008

U.S. President George Bush Tuesday signed a bill that allows Nelson Mandela to enter the United States without special clearance.

The measure officially removes Mr. Mandela and his African National Congress from a U.S. terror watch list.

The former South African president may now visit the United States without the U.S. secretary of state having to certify that he is not a terrorist.

Mr. Mandela was placed on the list because of his work with the African National Congress (ANC), which fought to end white minority rule in South Africa.

Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his work with the ANC to fight apartheid rule in South Africa.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner turns 90 on July 18.

Un.

Be.

lievable.

As the flood waters recede in the Midwest, it becomes increasingly clear that this was yet ANOTHER preventable disaster that the Republicans let happen. McCain is one of many Republicans who fought tooth and nail to prevent flood control measures in the Midwest.

First, some general background. On June 8th, 2008, NPR ran a report on the decline of America's flood control dams (you can listen with Openplayer, I think). There has been a jump of 33% in the number of dams that are considered unsafe. Consider that as you ponder the impact of these floods.

Now, more specifically, the Des Moines Register carried a piece on how Republicans, despite warnings from 1993 on, refused in 2007 to fund a much-needed upgrade to the levees protecting Des Moines. Many other similar upgrades were part of the same bill. McCain fiercely opposed the bill and Bush eventually vetoed it when Democrats passed it. From the Des Moines Register:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain opposed legislation last year that included money for flood control in Des Moines, which shows he is wrong to push for reforms to the congressional earmark system, a Democratic lawmaker charged Thursday.

I have been covering to some degree the terrible flooding in the Midwest and describing how the levees breaking, leading to the flooding of towns and cities in Wisconsin and Iowa, are a direct result of deliberate Republican neglect of America's infrastructure. Republicans prefer giving your tax money to Halliburton, Exxon and Blackwater than using that money to fix our roads, bridges and levees. This morning on NPR I heard as many as two dozen levees are in danger of breaking as flood waters flow downstream along the Mississippi. A huge chunk of the Midwest has been affected. These levees should have been maintained! This began as a natural disaster, but Republican neglect of the levees is responsible for the scale of the disaster...just like in New Orleans.

Democrats vote for funding to maintain our infrastructure. Republicans vote against that funding. That means, when Republicans are in control, our levees, roads and bridges decay, leading to disaster. But the dedication of Democrats and the neglect by Republicans goes deeper than that.

As the floodwaters rose in the Midwst, Barack Obama grabbed a shovel and helped:

Where was McCain? Where was Bush?

I have already discussed at some length the dismal and DELIBERATE Republican failures to maintain America's infrastructure. The Republican Party has a stated policy of "Drowning American in a Bathtub," essentially reducing government to nothing. This is how Republican guru Grover Norquist put it:

"Cutting the government in half in one generation is both an ambitious and reasonable goal," Norquist stated in May 2000. "If we work hard we will accomplish this and more by 2025. Then the conservative movement can set a new goal. I have a recommendation: To cut government in half again by 2050"

We saw the direct and tragic result of that Republican "Drown America" policy in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, in closed and collapsed bridges in Minnesota, and now...floods in Iowa this month (June 7th).

Although I have done versions of this before, this was inspired by a Daily Kos Diary:

This is what happened Monday, Aug. 29, 2005...the day Katrina hit, John McCain's 69th birthday...the day America realized that Republicans don't give a shit about Americans.

Hurricane Katrina:

I remember the radar images from the weather channel the night before landfall. I remember distincly watching it and thinking, "My god...that's going to be bad." I also remember thinking that the government had better be ready to get people out and to deal with the situation.

I was right...it was going to be really, really bad. I mean THIS bad:

While Mississippi and Louisiana were getting slammed by Hurricane Katrina and Americans were dying, THIS is what Bush and McCain were doing:

From CurrentTV comes this amazing footage from WITHIN Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans:

It is now five years since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. Five years since Bush gloated that we had won...and yet almost every day brings more casualties. We are STILL mired in Iraq, still have no exit strategy. And Osama bin Laden, who has never set foot in Iraq, remains free and his al-Qaeda terrorist organization is stronger than ever.

Bush has failed.

And John McCain has vowed to continue Bush's Iraq Quagmire for as long as 100 years. Yes...he said he would be fine with continuing this failure for 100 years. Let's look at McCain's views of Bush's failed Iraq Quagmire: (thanks to MoveOn.org)

* John McCain recently said, "No one has supported President Bush on Iraq more than I have."1 He was Bush's strongest ally in the march to war in Iraq. McCain consistently repeated the same misjudgments made by Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and President Bush. More than 4,000 American troops have lost their lives because of these misjudgments.2
* McCain says we could be in Iraq for 100 years, and has consistently opposed any plan to withdraw troops from Iraq.3 He'd rather dump billions more in Iraq than invest it in our economy back home.

John McCain can't seem to make up his mind what he thinks about the economy. Sometimes he seems to say the Bush economy is just splendorifous, don't worry, be happy. Other times he gets his serious face and tells us straight talk about things being tough. But you can't have it both ways, Mr. John McBush. You can't say times are tough without recognizing the dismal failures of the Bush economy.

The DNC is calling him on his economic confusion:

And Marc Ambinder discusses some details of the issue at the Atlantic.com.

John McCain seems to think America really is better off than it was 8 years ago. I don't know about you but no one I know is better off. In fact with unemployment, inflation, banks struggling, record level bankruptcy, decaying infrastructure, a second recession in 8 years, and a record deficit, it is hard to see how anyone who isn't CEO of Halliburton or Exxon could see these times as anywhere comparable to the low inflation, low unemployment boom times of the Clinton years.

UPDATE: Sometimes a story is too good to be true. Even though this story sounds plausible, turns out http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/kinsley.asp ">it's been debunked on Snopes.com.

While John McCain is eagerly embracing Bush and vowing to continue Bush's failed policies, it may be a good idea to remember what Ronald Reagan thought of the Little Bush:

"A moment I've been dreading. George brought his n'er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida; the one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I'll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they'll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work."

From the REAGAN DIARIES------entry dated May 17, 1986.

So this is the guy we had shoved down our throats and who John McCain wants to emulate?

Time for the voters to reject the failed Bush/McCain poli

As oil and wheat prices skyrocket, banks quite literally teeter on the brink of collapse, our soldiers keep dying, and the US deficit keeps on climbing, we may sometimes forget the monumental blunder that got us into this mess: the invasion of Iraq.

This is the number one drain on our economy, the number one reason for high prices and the number one reason the international alliance that supported American after 9/11 now barely speaks to us.

The Iraq Blunder is one of the biggest blunders ever in American History...and yet the George Bush/John McCain/Joe Lieberman axis of blunders STILL thinks we should be occupying Iraq for eternity.

But the one, single question that no Republican has ever been able to answer is just why did we ever invade in the first place. Why did we invade, what are our goals, what is our exit strategy? No answer from Bush. No answer from McCain. No answer from Lieberman.

No answer because there IS no answer. Every single excuse they ever gave us for invading Iraq proved to be a lie. I was one of those who, at the time they were making their case to the world for invasion, was dead certain they were lying. My knowledge of history and politics, everything I knew about the Middle East and Islam told me their excuses were lies. Those of us who saw through their lies were proven right. This morning I was reminded of this, on the eve of the 5th year anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq Blunder, that I was right.

Remember when the senior, elected Bush told America not to worry about the economy? He told us "Don't worry, be happy." That was the old Bush economic policy. Ignore the recession, ignore people's suffering, ignore the issue.

Well, his son is no better. He is also telling America not to worry about the economy.

Wheat, oil, milk, and corn prices all are reaching unheard of highs, making it harder than ever for working class and middle class Americans to make ends meet. Hedge funds are on the brink of failing. Bankruptcies are at new highs, leading to emergency bailouts of banks like Bear Stearns and fears that those banks could fail. The deficit is at an all time high. About the only things going down are wages, employment and the value of the dollar. We have those twin threats of inflation AND recession, a combination we used to call stagflation, though people seem scared to actually utter that word. Simply put, the economy sucks and Americans are hurting.

So today George W. Bush decided to reassure us about the economy. Don't worry about it, we are told. Everything's fine.

The Big Bush, Little Gerogie Bush, and Jeb Bush have all given John McCain their approval. Could there be a worse endorsement?

The Bush family have brought us two of the least popular Presidents in American history.

The Bush family helped arm Saddam Hussein before declaring him our enemy. They have brought us two Iraq wars, the most recent has turned into a quagmire sucking our soldiers and dollars down with no end in sight and no exit stratgy and no strategic purpose.

The Bush family helped arm al-Qaeda, then stupidly ignored warnings of an impending attack, allowing al-Qaeda to hit us hard. And they have failed to stop al-Qaeda even AFTER they attacked us.

The Bush family has brought us some of the worst economic times since the Great Depression, giving us no fewer than three rescessions with little recovery under their watch. Job growth under the Bush family has been rock bottom.

The Bush family represents nothing but failed domestic policy, failed foreign policy and deficits, deficits, deficits. About the only people who still like the Bush family are their good friends in Saudi Arabia: the Royal Saud family and their close allies, the bin Laden family.

The Republican Party is offering America a Third Bush Term. As John McCain nearly swept Super Tuesday, the "vision" the Republican Party is offering America came into focus. John McCain is offering four more years of failed Bush policies. It is as simple as that.

I think this was best illustrated when we remember what Bush and McCain were doing while America watched in horror the destruction of New Orleans when the levees broke after Katrina:

People were stranded and DYING as McCain and Bush parited it up for McCain's birthday. To me this is the ultimate symbol of what both Bush and McCain are all about: eating their cake while Americans are abandoned, left to die, forgotten by the Republican Party.

John McCain may be something of a Faustian figure. Once the true independent, anti-Bush voice within the Republican Party, McCain decided to make a bargain with Bush, selling his soul to get the nomination. Now he is no longer that voice of independence, no longer a voice of reason. He is the voice through which Bush can continue to push policies that have already failed years ago.

McCain has vowed to continue the Iraq quagmire. In fact he wants it to go on forever, or at least for 1000 years, to use his own words. To an America already tired of this useless war, this is absurd. Why must we remain mired in the Iraq quagmire for decades to come when the real enemy, Osama bin Laden, has been let off the hook by Bush...and apparently now McCain. The voice of America has been loud and clear: Mr. Bush, END THIS WAR! McCain has not heard the voice of America. He has only heard Bush's voice. John McCain has vowed to continue the Iraq war and was the architect of the so-called surge that has failed to bring the quagmire to an end.

The calendar maker of the GOP has got to be rounded up and ... ahem ... dealt with. He or she must have missed the memo that no one at the GOP wants the party to be associated with George Bush.

Yet here we are with a calendar in which his face appears 23 times, five of those with his wife and her Joker lips. Condoleezza, Alberto and Karl are conspicuously absent.

The most interesting inclusion, and proof that the calendar maker hates the GOP, is Dick Cheney. The Lord of Darkness makes an appearance in October, the month known for the cryptopagan American celebration of spooks, goblins and demons.

Now that is snark.

The photograph is hilarious and creepy at the same time. Who knew Dick Cheney's face --not him-- had the ability to smile. What is he smiling about or at, we don't know. It can't be the heavens --we know puppies died in the making of that smirk.

A smirk that is hilarious because ... I don't know why but this Dick Cheney kind of reminds me of Bill Gates, the Prince of Darkness. The L. O. D. is looking a little geeky, in a Silicon Valley meets Redmond sort of way.

Apologies to all the hackers hurt in the making of that comparison. I do think it's what makes that picture creepily funny.

H/T to Matt Ortega.

Well, I've said it several times before, but Bush and the corrupt, extreme right wingers of today will be the death of the Republican Party. Well, it seems this is coming a step closer as Bush's approval rating drops in ALL states. There is now not one single state in the Union where Bush's approval rating is above 50%. Not...one...single...state.

(click to enlarge)

You can also read more about it on Daily Kos.

Utah, Idaho and Wyoming are still the states that cling the most to liking Bush, but even in those tenatiously Republican states Bush has dropped below 50%...and remember that Republicans are having trouble getting elected EVEN in Idaho and Wyoming.

I believe we NEED two reasonable, competing political parties presenting two REASONABLE visions for America. It is how we have always functioned. So I don't celebrate Bush's destruction of the Republican Party. People like Gingrich, DeLay, Bush and Cheney have made the Republican Party so extremist that the vast majority of mainstream Americans now distrust and dislike the Republican Party, and people are leaving it in droves.

Bush is coming a'campaigning to New Jersey, and Democrats are planning on "welcoming" the corrupt, dictatorial bastard with a protest. I am particularly encouraging anyone who can make it because I resent the sleaze ball ever since he sat dumbly by while NYC was attacked and has spent the years since exploiting 9/11 while at the same time publicly saying he doesn't care about catching Osama bin Laden. So, for our New Jersey readers:

I have written in the past how Republican Sentor Bill Frist, in a tacit admission that we have largely lost in Afghanistan, was suggesting that we ask the Taliban to join us in governing Afghanistan. Yep...we want those al-Qaeda allied religious extremists to save our asses in Afghanistan.

Then I reported that the Iraqi government, the people we put into power, are so desperate to find someone who can help restore stability to Iraq that they are recruiting former Baathists (that's Saddam Hussein's party and the party that runs Syria) to rejoin the government. Since America can't stabilize Iraq, it seems that Iraqis want a return of Baathists to power.

Now it seems like the Iraqi government isn't alone in desperately seeking Baathists. According to Yahoo News India, US and Iraqi officials both confirm that we are asking Baathists to return to power. But we aren't just recruiting ANY old Baathists. We are recruiting members of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi intelligence service, those people who CARRIED OUT the torture and human rights abuses under Hussein.

So, to all those Republicans who keep telling us that the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation will bring us victory, I once again have to ask just what the hell kind of "victory" are they talking about.

Queen Elizabeth II is currently engaging in the most low-key state visit imaginable; Her host is one George Bush in the city of Washington.

There are many ironies here. The Queen's own Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is set to depart from office on May 9th; and if the American people had any say in the matter, Her host would likely leave office before that date. Unfortunately, we do not have that option; and so, there's a spectacle in our White House, wherein the arguably most admired world leader has dinner with the most despised.

Bush and his wife, Laura, were waiting on the driveway on a near-perfect spring day as the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, arrived by limousine. The two couples briefly shook hands before moving on to the formal welcome.

A brilliantly blue sky framed the colorful ceremony where red, white and blue bunting was draped over the fencelines on the South Lawn. The United States Air Force Band led a grand military procession onto the lawn.

The Queen is known for Her absolutely impeccable manners; Her Husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, less so. I find myself wondering if the old man will mention to his host that the Duke has a grandson currently on his way to George Bush's war in Iraq. That's the unspoken subtext of this visit. George and Laura Bush, of course, can make no similar claim. The Duke might also mention that he actually served in the Royal Navy, and that his sons did as well; draft-dodging is frowned upon in the House of Windsor. Keep an eye on the Duke; he's worth watching on this occasion.

Prince Harry is going to Iraq.

I am no big fan of Royalty, and Brit Royalty in particular seem a bit silly. But right now, America, with a VP and most of the Republican Party that are chickenhawks, and a President that is not only a chickenhawk but went AWOL from his cushy non-combat position daddy Bush landed him, I have to tip my hat to the British Royal Family. They put themselves on the line where their nation's aggression goes...and they always have.

From BBC news:

Prince Harry will be deployed to Iraq with his regiment, the head of the British army has said...

Clarence House and the MoD confirmed the prince would be sent to Iraq with his regiment, the Blues and Royals, saying he would take on a "normal troop commander's role" rather than a desk job.

Wow...a nation whose leaders actually SERVED in war. Bush crawled away in a drunken stupor and pissed himself (or a police car) rather than serve. Wait...let's see how Bush really served his country:

Just about the entire Republican Party leadership are chickenhawks who never dreamed of serving their nation. At least Democrats elected a whole slew of combat veterans in 2006 to show that we respect and admire our troops.

In light of all the IMPEACHMENT events happening all around the country, I will be here tomorrow from 11am to 1pm to chat about IMPEACHMENT.

This from Democrats.com email :

UPDATE - CNN story just posted here, with full transcript of statement.
***********

Still watching the live news conference on CNN and thinking it should be required viewing in every school worldwide -- that is, if we do mean to create and preserve real environments that sustain human life by right instead of might.

"Fighting back was simply not an option."
When one is "not equipped for a fight" and reason fails in the face of unhearing, blinded, singleminded Borg-like purpose with superior numbers and ammunition, then Reason itself becomes an unreasonable response forcibly redefined against your will, becoming not an academic exercise but a raw first-rung survival skill, a matter of figuring out who is fit to survive and what it will take.

"We realized that our efforts to reason with these people were not making any headway. Nor were we able to calm some of the individuals down.
It was at this point that we realized that had we resisted there would have been a major fight, one we could not have won, with consequences that would have had major strategic impact. We made a conscious decision to not engage the Iranians and do as they asked.

And even that kind of Raw Reason falters without intelligence, sound information for making wise decisions, and being allowed untwisted, unmanipulated communication within one's one group of fellows and with the real world. Reason stripped, blindfolded and shoved up against the wall to hear the sound of guns being cocked.

Bush travels to Latin America and is greeted by this: (from BBC News)

In Brazil, more than 10,000 protesters (according to BBC news) turned out in the capital of Sao Paulo to protest the arrival of America's appointed President, Georgoe Bush. I wonder if our good friend, Francis Holland, is participating :-)

This is a time when world opinion is solidly against America. This is dramatically show by a recent poll that showed that people view America as marginally MORE destabilizing a force than North Korea and only slightly less destabilizing than Iran. To the world, America is part of the Axis of Evil.

This is played out in Latin America as well. In Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, strongly anti-American, socialist presidents have been elected by democratic vote and are extremely popular. Throughout Latin America, including in Brazil, Peru and Chile, leftist governments have been voted into office. In Nicaragua Daniel Ortega, the boogie man of the Reagan era, has been elected President.

We are not popular in the world, not even in our own backyard. Brazil President Lula's own party is protesting Bush's arrival!

Candidates and supporters who believe we can win the presidency on a wave of apologies should learn the lessons of history.

Cross-posted at MyDD.

NEW YORK - Democrat

John Edwards said Tuesday that honesty and openness were essential qualities for a president, and that he was proud to acknowledge his 2002 vote authorizing the invasion of

Iraq was a mistake . . .

"If you asked me what I think the most important personal characteristics of the next president are, I would say honesty, openness and decency," he said. "There's not a single voter in America who doesn't understand that their president is human, and their president will sometimes makes mistakes." Yahoo.News

In the September 30, 2004 debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry, the word "mistake" arose 13 times in the context of Iraq, offering Bush ample opportunity to admit that he had made at least one mistake.  Kerry admitted to having made significant mistakes while George Bush admitted to none.

BUSH: My opponent says help is on the way, but . . . it's certainly hard to tell it when he voted against the $87-billion supplemental to provide equipment for our troops, and then said he actually did vote for it before he voted against it.

Not what a commander in chief does when you're trying to lead troops.