George Bush

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.