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| Bill's Blog 2007 | Bill's Blog Archives |
Pakistani Wet Dreams Sound familiar? It’s George Bush’s ultimate fantasy come true. Bush must be insanely jealous of Musharraf. While it’s taken Bush seven years, hundreds upon hundreds of signing statements, and dozens of covert dirty deeds (like illegal wiretaps, illegal searches, suspending US citizens rights by calling them “enemy combatants,” claiming wartime powers when Congress has not declared war, etc.) to chip away at the US Constitution, Musharraf eliminated his country’s constitution overnight. While Musharraf fines and jails reporters who criticize him, Bush has to be content with just leaking the name of their wife, who just happens to be an undercover CIA agent. While Musharraf appoints friendly Supreme Court justices whenever he likes, Bush has to wait until one of the current US justices retires. While Musharraf shuts down private television channels, Bush has to send his minions to appear on Fox News so they can mindlessly repeat the administration’s talking points ad nauseam. And of course, just like Bush, Musharraf says that all of his constitutional violations are necessary because of the threat of terrorism. Or, as Bush and Musharraf like to say, THE THREAT OF TERRORISM!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! We must suspend the Constitution! We must take our citizen’s rights away! We must spy on them! We must invade Iraq! Sorry, I got a little carried away there. Were these guys separated at birth, or what? They make such a cute couple, I think I’ll call them Busharraf. The whole Pakistani situation made for some bizarre mind-twisting moments, as well as a few shining examples of the finest hypocrisy that campaign donations and rigged electronic voting machines can buy. One example that almost made my head explode when I thought about it was US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s criticism of Musharraf’s actions. Rice actually said, and I’m not making this up, “The U.S. has made clear it does not support extra-constitutional measures.” OK, just give me a second to get my brain wrapped around this one. The US does not support extra-constitutional measures? Ms. Rice, honey, have you been to Washington DC in the past seven years? Have you met other members of the Bush administration, including but not limited to George W. Bush himself? Are you aware of the things they have done to run the US Constitution through the shredder of their own self-serving political ambitions? No? Perhaps you should spend a little time getting to know the people in your own administration. Maybe I’m missing something here. Maybe when Rice says “extra-constitutional” she means something other than “unconstitutional.” Maybe it’s like a mattress that’s “extra-firm,” which means it’s very, totally, completely firm. Rice could actually be saying that the US doesn’t support measures that are very, totally, completely constitutional. Now that would make sense. And then, as if Rice’s comments weren’t enough, George Bush had to step in and make one of the most mind-bending statements of his presidency. While talking about Musharraf, Bush actually said, and again I’m not making this up, “You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time.” Sweet Jesus in Heaven, please let my head stop spinning. OK. Let’s stop for a moment and think about that statement, but not too hard because we could blow out a frontal lobe and unless you’re planning a political career as a Republican you’re gonna need your lobes sooner or later so you can do some thinkin'. What we have here is George W. Bush, the man who is the United States president and commander in chief of the US armed forces, telling Musharraf that he can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time. Pardon me while I shake my head vigorously and make a sound like “Bbbbbbrrrrrggghhhhgggghhhhhhlllllgggghhhhh!!!!” Yes, the man who is our president and the head of our military really did say “You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time.” You just can’t make this stuff up. Do I laugh? Do I cry? Do I have a gin and tonic? All of the above? Perhaps you’re familiar with hip waders, the high boots (they’re actually more like rubber pants) that fishermen wear so they can wade out into the water? I have a slightly different version that I call “hyp waders,” which I wear whenever I’m up to my ass in hypocrisy, as I am now. Wait a minute! I’ve got it! It’s all starting to make sense! If George W. Bush, the man who is US president and head of the US military, believes you can’t be president and head of the military at that same time, then he believes that he can’t be what he is! Whoa. Talk about your paradigm shifts. This could explain why Bush has been such a God-awful president and commander in chief (other than his ignorance and gross incompetence, those are a given). As president, Bush doesn’t believe he can be commander in chief, so he doesn’t believe he can do the things a commander in chief would do like lead the country in effective and successful military campaigns, and only when absolutely necessary. As commander in chief, Bush doesn’t believe he can do the things a president would do, like obey the US Constitution, respect the legal structure of the US government, and strive to bring peace and prosperity to all Americans. Finally, after all these years, I have found something that George Bush and I have in common – neither one of us believes he can do the job he was elected to do. I’m just glad he finally admitted it! November 2007 Happy
Thanksgiving! October 2007 Assorted
Thoughts and Musings I’m sure the final straw was when the Valerie Plame leak investigation finally led to Karl Rove’s office, and possibly to Rove himself. Did you notice how quickly Rove resigned after members of Congress started talking about calling on him to testify about his role in the leak of Valerie Plame’s name? As soon as the words “Karl Rove” and “subpoena” were used in the same sentence Rove packed his bags and high-tailed it out of Washington. (Excuse me while I cluck like a chicken: Pawk, pawk, pawk pawk pawk.) And how’s that Valerie Plame investigation going? It seems the media has moved on to other less-relevant feeding frenzies like Congressmen playing footsy in public restrooms, and the investigation into who compromised nation security by leaking an undercover CIA agent’s name has all but been forgotten by the short attention span American public. Now what was I talking about? Can anyone tell me why it’s getting so hard to find any kind of vanilla-flavored coffee that’s decaffeinated? Trader Joe’s used to sell it, but they’ve stopped and I haven’t been able to find it anywhere. I’ve tried a vanilla syrup/flavoring but it’s too sweet for me. Lord knows I don’t want to end up sweet! That might take the sharp edge of sarcasm off of my writing. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me where to get decaf vanilla-flavored coffee (grounds, that is, so I can brew my own). Not too long ago George W. Bush managed to read a text that had been prepared for him by people who are actually literate (he likes to call that a “speech”), where he asserted that progress is being made in Iraq. That’s certainly true, it all depends on how you define “progress.” If you define it as getting thousands of Americans killed while draining hundreds of billions of dollars from the US Treasury, then there’s progress by the boatload. But Bush stated that “Iraq’s national leaders are getting some things done,” including “sharing oil revenue with the provinces” and allowing “former Baathists to rejoin Iraq’s military or receive government pensions.” That all sounds well and good, but as reported by the Washington Post, none of those actions have been made into Iraqi law and the deal for sharing oil revenues is collapsing. And in a radio address less than a month before his speech Bush took the opposite stance, complaining that the Iraqi government was failing to address those same issues. Which is it George, are they addressing them or not? I especially like Bush’s statement that “Iraq’s national leaders are getting some things done,” that’s so weasely. They’re getting “some” things done I’m sure, maybe they got a haircut, or got their car washed, or bought a new pair of shoes. Those are definitely “some” things. Bush’s speech once again showed that he (or his speechwriters) continue to be math-challenged. Bush thanked the “36 nations who have troops on the ground in Iraq,” but the most recent report from the State Department says there are only 25 countries who have troops in Iraq. It must be like when Rumsfeld said the Iraq war wouldn’t last more than six months. Six months, six years, apparently it’s all the same when you’re part of the Bush administration. Math is definitely not their strong suit. Nor is governing a country. One of the most blatant examples of Bush’s denial of reality and twisting of the facts was his referral to a recent report issued by a commission that is headed by retired Marine General James Jones. In the report, Jones stated that Iraq’s army “cannot yet meaningfully contribute to denying terrorists safe haven.” The report also described Iraq’s national police force as riddled with sectarianism and corruption and recommended that the force be disbanded. Referring to the report in his speech, Bush stated that “the Iraqi army is becoming more capable.” Don’t you just love how weasly he is? God forbid he should say what they are becoming more capable of! What, they managed to get their boots on the right feet and their shirts buttoned properly? They are becoming more capable of putting on their uniforms? What is it George, what is this mysterious capability of which you speak??? Tell us, please! And just two days after Bush’s speech the Washington Post reported that yet another group has withdrawn from Iraq’s shaky political alliance, the one that Bush says is “getting some things done.” As reported by the Washington Post: The followers of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will withdraw from Iraq's leading political alliance, a spokesman for the group said Saturday. The decision, announced in an 8 p.m. news conference at Sadr's headquarters in the southern city of Najaf, further imperils Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government. Nearly half of the ministers have abandoned their seats in Maliki's cabinet, and the government has made no visible political progress on a series of political benchmarks considered key by the prime minister and the U.S. government. So the political coalition in the Iraqi government is disintegrating, nearly half the ministers have abandoned their seats, and the Iraqi government has made no visible progress on key benchmarks, but George Bush says that “Iraq’s national leaders are getting some things done.” Well, I guess imploding does count as something. I’m sure Bush can feel for the Iraqi prime minister, after all, look at Bush’s own government. His administration members are abandoning their positions (Rumsfeld, Tenet, Gonzales, Rove, etc.) and he’s made no visible political progress on key benchmarks, but he still wants to feel like he’s “getting some things done.” Like clearing brush at his ranch, I suppose, he’s been getting that done. I have to say that I really feel sorry for the Iraqi people. It may have been a good thing to remove the iron hand of Saddam Hussein, but unfortunately the whole operation has been handled by the biggest bunch of incompetent nincompoops to stink up the streets of Washington in a long, long time. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked Congress to approve an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which brings the Bush administration’s 2008 war funding request to $190 billion, the largest amount for any year since the wars began. According to the Congressional Research Service, this will bring the total cost of both conflicts to $800 billion. Some people laughed at me a couple years ago when I predicted the cost of the wars would be well over a trillion dollars, but who’s laughing now? And what did Rumsfeld predict it would cost? I think it was $2 billion. But hey, $2 billion, $1 trillion, it’s all the same when you’re part of the Bush administration! I’m sure Bush and his supporters will pay for the cost of the Iraq war themselves, after all, the war was voluntary so paying for it should be voluntary too. If you voted for that nincompoop, step up to the plate and get out your checkbook! Don’t make me pay for your lack of sound judgment. Speaking of paying for it, did you notice that the Senate recently approved an increase in the limit on the national debt? Thanks to the Bush administration’s conservative fiscal policies (NOT!) the national debt limit has now been raised to $9.82 trillion. That’s the fifth increase in the limit since Bush took office. Why is it that so many “conservative” Republicans criticize liberals and Democrats as following “tax and spend” policies, crying “they’ll raise your taxes,” while those same “conservatives” drag America further and further into the largest debt in the history of our nation? (While hitting the middle class with the biggest “back door” tax increase ever by refusing to do anything about the AMT tax. Something the Democrats in Congress have thus far failed to address as well.) How do they think “spend and bankrupt” policies are better for the country than “tax and spend” policies? Do they really have that much of a selfish “screw the children” mentality (financially, if not physically) that allows them to leave the whole stinking mess for their children to pay for? I just don’t get it. And just to put that $9.82 trillion debt limit into perspective, that works out to about $75,000 for every household in America, and that’s not including all of the interest that’s going to accrue on the debt. Think about your household, can you afford to pay off another $75,000 in debt, plus interest? Ah, there is so much more to write about, but the brain needs a break! It’s my day off and I have other things that need to be done. But I’ll back as soon as I can! August 2007 Executive
Arrogance and Contempt The Senate Judiciary Committee has been investigating the firing of nine U.S. attorneys to determine whether or not they were fired for political reasons (also known as “not abiding by the gospel according to King George”). As part of their investigation the committee has subpoenaed White House chief of staff Joshua Bolton and George Bush’s former legal council, Harriet Miers. King George doesn’t like anyone else telling his people what to do, so he stepped in and ordered Bolton and Miers to refuse to appear before Congress. He then dropped his pants, bent over, wiggled his behind, and in a sneering voice told the Senate Judiciary Committee to pucker up and kiss his lily-white ass. OK, so Bush didn’t really do the “kiss my ass” part (as far as we know), but he may as well have. Once you strip away all the rhetoric about “executive privilege,” “immunity from testimony,” “separation of powers” and all the other blah blah blah nonsense from the White House, what you’re left with is an arrogant jerk who thinks he can do whatever he wants to. And the sad thing is he’s getting away with it. Hey, that gives me an idea. Do you think we can convince Bush to invade America so we can establish democracy here? Just a thought. In response to Bush’s arrogant display of posterior defiance, the House Judiciary Committee has voted to initiate contempt of Congress charges against Bolton and Miers. This might seem like a serious matter to some (namely, those who believe in the rule of law, or the U.S. government’s system of checks and balances which are intended to prevent a tyrannical leader from seizing limitless unchecked power – sound like anyone you know, George?), but it’s already been clearly established that George Bush and the members of his administration have plenty of contempt for the law, the U.S system of government, and the American people. Why should they treat Congress any differently? Frankly, I’d be surprised if they didn’t have loads and loads of steaming, stinking contempt for Congress. And now White House uber-minion (and alleged prince of darkness) Karl Rove has been pulled into the fray. The Senate Judiciary Committee has requested that Rove appear to testify about the U.S. attorney firings, but of course King George couldn’t allow that to happen. Just as in the case of Bolton and Miers, Bush has ordered Rove to refuse to testify on the grounds of executive arrogance … I mean privilege - executive privilege – that’s his excuse. According to our sources, Bush and Rove both waived their behinds at Congress, simultaneously, and told the House to kiss one cheek and the Senate to kiss the other. But seriously, can anyone stop this guy? He does whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and refuses to cooperate with Congress as they try to carry out a criminal investigation. How is it that once upon a time we had a Congress that was able to move forward with the Watergate investigation and impeachment of Richard Nixon, but today we have a president who openly defies Congress by ordering members of his administration to not cooperate with ongoing investigations, and he gets away with it? This is progress? I think not. In other recent news, Bush has made it clear how he feels about protecting the environment and improving the health of poor children (as if there was ever any doubt) by threatening to veto two bills currently being crafted by Congress. The first bill would provide funding to help restore and protect the Everglades, while the second would provide health insurance coverage for low income children. Of course King George can’t have any of that, no-sir-ee. As leader of the “destroy America first” crowd Bush is devoted to doing everything he can to help his rich buddies rape, pillage, and plunder the environment for financial gain. Restoring an American national treasure like the Everglades just isn’t part of Bush’s agenda, it’s obviously much better to spend hundreds of billions of dollars blowing the crap out of some oil-rich Middle Eastern country so he can live out his twisted “war president” fantasies while serving as the puppet of the Project for the New American Century neocons. And unfortunately the poor children of America aren’t going to fare much better if Bush has his way. Bush has threatened to veto legislation recently passed by the Senate that would add 3 million poor children to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The program is designed to help subsidize the cost of insurance for children whose families earn too much to participate in Medicaid but too little to afford private health insurance. The Senate has voted to spend an additional $35 billion on the program while the House has voted to expand it by $50 billion. Both bills include tax increases on tobacco products to help pay for the spending increases. Bush only wants to add $5 billion to the program, and has threatened to veto the House and Senate bills if they increase funding beyond that amount. So, let me make sure I’m clear on this. Spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq is no problem for Bush, nor is giving oil companies nearly $20 billion in tax breaks at a time when they were earning record profits, but spending more than $5 billion to help low-income American children get better healthcare? On noooo, Bush doesn’t want that. America’s poor children will just have to get in line behind Exxon, Chevron, Texaco, Halliburton, and all of Bush’s other rich cronies, and maybe, just maybe, if they’re lucky there might be a few scraps left over for them after Bush’s wealthy buddies finish gorging themselves at the federal money trough. Meanwhile, King George seems to be drifting further and further away from reality and deeper into his world of fantasy, as evidenced by his recent statements about al Qaida in Iraq. Ever since his invasion of Iraq Bush has been desperately trying to make a connection between the al Qaida terrorist attacks of September 11 and Saddam Hussein, even though no credible evidence linking the two has been found. That hasn’t stopped Bush from fantasizing, however. He recently dusted off some of his old rhetoric and gave it a new twist by asserting that al Qaida in Iraq (AQI) is part of the same organization that launched the September 11 attacks. This is in direct contradiction to the statements of top U.S. intelligence officials, including Edward Gistaro, the top analyst for transnational threats, who said that 90% of AQI’s members are Iraqis who joined the organization after Bush invaded their country. In other words, AQI didn’t even exist, and wasn’t a threat to America, until after Bush invaded Iraq and enraged Islamic extremists in that country, inspiring them to take up arms and kill Americans. In other news, Bush held a press conference where he declared his belief that global warming is real, while strongly asserting that rising temperatures are being caused by unicorns. “It’s those damn unicorns and their excessive flatulence,” Bush stated emphatically. “All their unicorn greenhouse gasses are building up the atmospherics and making it hotter. They’re in it with al Qaida in Iraq!” Meanwhile, as Bush spends billions of dollars blowing up bridges in Iraq, our own bridges here in America are falling down. By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the highway bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota that collapsed last week. Over the past several years Bush has made major cuts in federal funding to states for things like bridge maintenance and highway repairs, instead spending hundreds of billions on his war in Iraq. This has forced many states to delay or even cancel important maintenance work. When asked to comment on Bush’s funding priorities a White House spokesperson said that Bush is “dedicated to spending money on blowing up bridges over there, so we don’t have to blow them up here, they just fall down by themselves.” And who could believe that doctors found five polyps in Bush’s colon? That came as a real surprise to me. I mean, the guy’s had his head up his ass for so long you’d think he would have noticed them years ago. When asked to comment on his recent medical procedure, Bush stated that “these polyps were part of the same organization that launched the September 11 terrorist attacks.” He further claimed that “these polyps are also suspected of colluding with the unicorns on the plot to warm the global planet.” According to a White House spokesperson, Bush designated the polyps as “enemy combatants” and sent them to a secret prison where they will be held without charges and tortured. July 2007 Do the Crime, Don’t Do the Time Lewis “Liar” Libby (formerly
known as Lewis “Scooter” Libby), the former aide to vice president Dick Cheney,
received four felony convictions for lying to federal investigators about his role in the
White House leak of Valerie Plame’s name. As you recall, Plame was an undercover CIA
agent when the White House leaked her name shortly after her husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote
an article revealing that one of the claims Bush used to justify his invasion of Iraq was
untrue. Federal investigators have been trying to determine who leaked Plame’s name,
thereby destroying her undercover career with the CIA, and if the leak was in retaliation
for her husband’s article. I can certainly see why Bush was so eager to commute Libby’s jail sentence. After all the lies that Bush has told the last thing he wants to do is allow someone to go to jail for not telling the truth. If Libby were to spend two and a half years in jail for his lies, just imagine the kind of time that Bush might be expected to serve for all of his blatant falsehoods. Consider the fact that the consequences of Bush’s lies are far more serious and have done far more harm to the country than Libby’s lies, and you can see why Bush was so concerned about the possibility of Libby serving jail time. It would have been a dangerous precedent, indeed. To illustrate just how eager Bush was to avoid setting the precedent of a liar going to jail, he ignored the normal process for commuting a sentence, which calls for the justice department to the review the case after the convicted person has reported to prison. So, not only did Bush prevent justice from being carried out, he ignored the established process while doing so! You gotta hand it to that guy, he really doesn’t give a damn about the rules and he doesn’t care who knows it. But he certainly cares about making sure that convicted liars don’t get anywhere near a prison, because he realizes that if justice is ever done and charges are filed against him he’ll be following in their footsteps. All of which reminds me of Dick Cheney’s recent bizarre statement that his office is not part of the executive branch of government. By saying that Cheney was saying that his office is not subject to “the presidential executive order that establishes a uniform, government-wide system for safeguarding classified national security information.” Remember that Lewis “Liar” Libby used to be an aide to Cheney, and Libby was just convicted of lying about his role in the leak of an undercover CIA agent’s name. The names of undercover CIA agents are definitely “classified national security information,” and thanks to Libby’s lies to investigators it looks like Cheney’s office played a role in the leak of that information. One thing is for sure, you don’t need a ruler to connect those dots. By leaking Plame’s name Cheney’s office failed to properly safeguard classified national security information. Libby lied about it and Cheney doesn’t want to take the rap for it, so he’s trying to say that he’s not part of the executive branch and therefore not subject to the executive order that requires him to safeguard classified information. I have to say, it’s really pathetic, the lengths these crooks will go to in order to avoid getting their sorry asses thrown in jail. And we the people allow them to remain in power. What does that say about our society? Nothing good, that’s for sure. But hey, why should I sit here and complain while they have all the fun? I’ve given this whole Bush-Cheney-lawlessness matter a lot of thought, and I think I finally see the light. I finally see that George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their band of neoconservative bandits have ushered in a new era for our once-great nation. Lawlessness is the new law of the land. America is now the land of no truth and no consequences. And it’s not just George Bush and his friends who should enjoy the fruits of this new era. Enjoy your new-found freedom, fellow Americans! No longer are you bound by the archaic laws and penalties of the United States justice system, you now have “Bush liberty,” a special kind of liberty that allows you to do anything you want, consequences be damned! Run red lights, shoplift, rob banks, lie, cheat, and steal to your heart’s content – and don’t worry about going to jail! Jail is for losers, for people like “enemy combatants” and rich heirs of hotel chain owners, not for good old-fashioned red-blooded Americans like Libby, like you, and like me. Heck, you can even violate the Constitution if you want to. Why not, Bush does it all the time. Why should he have all the fun? We should all be able to join in the game. Do you have a neighbor that irritates you? Maybe they mow their lawn early on Sunday mornings while you’re trying to sleep, or park their car so it blocks your driveway, or maybe they listen to their music too loudly? Well, George W. Bush has good news for you, my friend, you don’t have to put up with it any longer. Now you can just designate that irritating neighbor an “enemy combatant,” throw them in a secret prison, and detain them indefinitely. And if you ask Bush’s buddy, Alberto Gonzales, I’ll bet he’ll say it’s OK if you torture them too. Sounds like fun, no? So go forth my fellow Americans and break the law with impunity, with arrogance, with fervor, and with gusto! Break the law with the same reckless abandon as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Let anarchy reign! It’s our patriotic duty to follow the example that has been set by our leaders and thumb our noses, our asses, and any other body parts of our choosing, at the justice system and the rule of law, because in the age of George W. Bush there is one and only one law, and it is – “there are no laws.” Enjoy! June 2007 Judge
Rules Against King George First there was his fighter pilot fantasy, which didn’t work out so well when he failed to show up for his National Guard duty. Then there was the whole baseball team ownership/stadium financing fiasco, the failed oil companies, the mess he made in Texas when he was governor, and his somewhat, shall we say, less-than-stellar performance in the White House. And now he has to face yet another setback in his ongoing quest to live out his King George fantasy. A Virginia appeals court has ruled that Bush does not have the authority to arbitrarily seize civilians and lock them up forever without a trial. What a bummer for poor little King-wannabe George and what a victory for human rights, justice, and what used to be known as “the American way.” (Note that the current status of “the American way” is uncertain, it could be restored to its former glory or it could continue racing to hell in a hand basket. Check back a few years after the 2008 presidential election to see which way it’s gone.) To most reasonably intelligent readers this court’s decision should not come as a surprise. It’s understood by most Americans (present government officials excepted, apparently) that the president is not all-powerful. The president of the United States does not have the authority to cast aside the U.S. Constitution and the justice system and throw civilians in jail indefinitely with no formal charges and no trial. That goes against everything that America has stood for and everything that millions of veterans have fought and died for. It’s the kind of thing that ruthless dictators do, people like Saddam Hussein, and it’s what George W. Bush wants to do too. Here’s an excerpt from a report on the court’s decision: Bush cannot order the indefinite military detention of a Qatari man accused of being an al-Qaeda agent, a US appeals court has ruled. Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the only person being held on US soil as an "enemy combatant", was seized three months after the 9/11 terror attacks. He has been held without charge in a navy prison for almost four years. The ruling is seen as a setback for the Bush administration over its policies on the detention of so-called terror suspects. Marri, who entered the US legally on September 10, 2001 to study at a US university, was arrested in December that year following investigations into the 9/11 attacks. A civilian court in Illinois charged him with offenses including credit card fraud and lying to FBI agents. While the criminal proceedings were progressing, he was transferred on the orders of the president to the military authorities, who have held him in South Carolina since 2003. However, the appeals court in Virginia ruled on Monday that Marri has habeus corpus rights, entitling him to challenge his detention in court, and has ordered his release from military custody. "To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the president calls them 'enemy combatants', would have disastrous consequences for the constitution, and the country," the court opinion said. It’s good to know that someone is defending the U.S. Constitution from attacks by the Bush administration. Do you want to live in a country where the rulers have the power to pull you out of your bed in the middle of the night and make “disappear?” To hand you over to the military to be locked up for the rest of your life with no legal rights, no charges against you, and no trial? If that’s the kind of place you want to live in then pack your bags and get the hell out of America, there are plenty of countries ruled by oppressive dictators that would love to have you. If you don’t want to live in a country like that then you should be working to remove George Bush and his cadre of criminals from power and restore America to a place where human rights, truth, and justice are sacred concepts that are honored and defended by government leaders. What have you done for your country today? What will you do tomorrow? Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution? Constitution?
What Constitution? You may have heard about the recent flap over the possibility of Congress subpoenaing members of the administration to testify about the firing of eight federal prosecutors. Of course Bush and his cronies don’t want to be subpoenaed because that would mean they would be expected to tell the truth. Not that they actually would tell the truth, of course, but the possibility exists and even that frightens them, so they’ve been waging an all-out campaign to reshape the balance of power within the U.S. government by saying that – poof – just like that, Congressional oversight of the executive branch doesn’t exist, just because they say so. Those of you who weren’t asleep or stoned all the way through high school may have heard of a little concept of American government called “checks and balances.” It refers to the fact that the three branches of government share a balance of power, watching over each other in order to keep each other in check so that no one branch becomes too powerful and dominates the other two. It’s a fundamental concept that is integral to our American system of government, and one which George W. Bush and his neoconservative cronies are hell-bent on destroying in their quest to create an all-powerful imperial presidency. In an amazingly brazen attempt to deny over 200 years of history and reshape the structure of the U.S. government to suit their self-serving agenda, the administration sent Tony Snow out to make the rounds of several “news” programs while touting the new party line that checks and balances no longer exist in the U.S government. A sampling of Snow’s comments: On CNN: “There’s another principle, which is Congress doesn’t have the legislative — I mean oversight authority over the White House.” On NBC: “Congress doesn’t have any legitimate oversight and responsibilities to the White House.” On NBC: “First, the White House is under no compulsion to do anything. The legislative branch doesn’t have oversight.” On ABC: “The executive branch is under no compulsion to testify to Congress, because Congress in fact doesn’t have oversight ability.” To the White House Press Corps: “It [Congress] does not have constitutional oversight responsibility over the White House, which is why by our reaching out, we’re doing something that we’re not compelled to do by the Constitution…” Wow, how much more blatant can they be? What’s next, will George Bush call a press conference and declare the U.S. Constitution null and void? Maybe he could tear up a copy of it and throw the pieces to the wind, just for dramatic effect. What’s scary is that’s basically what his administration has been doing for several years now, and they’re getting away with it. How many people would notice, or care, if they just came right out and did it? It’s frightening if you think about how vulnerable the United States is to a takeover from within. The Bush administration has succeeded in keeping attention focused on imaginary external threats (like non-existent WMDs in Iraq and the subsequent unnecessary war) while they have worked to systematically undermine our system of government and bankrupt the treasury. The real threat to our national security comes from within, in the halls of our own government, and yet no one cares enough to take action and remove this cancer that grows in our midst. Referring to the prospect of White House staff members being called upon to testify before Congress, Bush said “If the staff of a president operates in constant fear of being hauled before congressional committees ... the president would not receive candid advice and the American people would be ill-served.” Gosh, we certainly wouldn’t want that, because the American people have been so incredibly well-served by the Bush administration. Or at least the Americans who hold executive positions at oil companies, they’ve been well-served. The rest of us, well, we’ve been pretty much SOL since the day Bush seized power. VP Dick “face shooter” Cheney had to get into the anti-Constitutional act too, by boldly declaring what no sane vice president has ever declared before, that his office is not part of the executive branch of our government. Yes, you read that right. Our vice president, Dick Cheney, actually claims that the office of the vice president is not part of the executive branch of government. Were all the Bush administration officials totally whacked out on acid in high school or what? First there was Condi Rice, who apparently never heard of World War II kamikaze pilots (no one imagined that our enemies might crash airplanes into American targets, goodness no, that’s never happened before, we couldn’t possibly imagine that), and now this. It seems like these guys didn’t learn a damn thing in their high school history or government classes. It is too much to ask to have a vice president who actually understands who he works for? Oh, I forgot, Cheney works for war profiteer Halliburton, silly me. I have to wonder, if Cheney doesn’t think his office is part of the executive branch of government, just what does he think it’s part of? The Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus? The Starfleet Federation? An incredibly boring Cirque du Soleil performance? NAMBLA? It boggles the mind. Here are a few more details of Cheney’s latest delusion, as reported by a national news outlet: Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information Washington, D.C. -- The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch." And this: The Office of Vice President Dick Cheney told an agency within the National Archives that for purposes of securing classified information, the Vice President's office is not an 'entity within the executive branch' according to a letter released Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, you exempted the Office of the Vice President from the presidential executive order that establishes a uniform, government-wide system for safeguarding classified national security information," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the Committee's chairman, wrote in a letter to Cheney. "Your decision to exempt your office from the President's order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk. It is also hard to understand given the history of security breaches involving officials in your office." Waxman noted that Cheney's office had declared itself not affected by an executive order amended by President George W. Bush in 2003 regarding classification and declassification of government materials. "Your position was that your office 'does not believe it is included in the definition of 'agency' as set forth in the Order' and 'does not consider itself an 'entity within the executive branch' that comes into the possession of classified information,'" a National Archives official claims Cheney chief of staff David Addington wrote to him. So not only does Cheney believe he’s not part of the executive branch of government, he also believes he should be exempted from the “uniform, government-wide system for safeguarding classified national security information.” Up next, Dick Cheney holds a press conference and defiantly asserts that he’s not part of the government, he doesn’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else, and he’s free to reveal national security information (like undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name, perhaps?) whenever he damn well feels like it and you can’t do anything about it, so there. And if you don’t like it he invites you to go hunting with him. These are truly strange times we live in … truly strange indeed. May 2007 It’s
Over!!! The End
is Near!!! April 2007 April was a really, really busy month for me. I opted for trying to get some sleep instead of writing. More to come! March 2007 You Want
Patience? I Got Your Patience Right Here The occasion that prompted Bush to open his trap and allow more senseless drivel to pour forth … sorry, that wasn’t very respectful toward the dipshit in the Whitehouse, let me try again. The occasion that prompted Bush to make his appeal for patience was the fourth anniversary of what will certainly go down in history as one of his biggest mistakes, his invasion of Iraq. Pardon me while I have a word with the dumbass-in-chief: George, we’re four years into this disastrous pig-yank of a fiasco and now you’re asking for patience? Let me try to make this as clear I possibly can: THE TIME FOR PATIENCE WAS FOUR YEARS AGO WHEN THE U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTORS WERE RUNNING ALL OVER IRAQ LOOKING FOR WMDs! That was the time for patience, you freaking idiot! That was when you should have been patient and let the inspectors do their jobs, let them show that Iraq did not, in fact, have the WMDs that you kept telling the American people they had. Before you looted the U.S Treasury of half a trillion dollars, before thousands of Americans were killed and hundreds of thousands were wounded, and before you destabilized a volatile region of the world where millions of militant radicals were just looking for proof that America was an imperialist threat so they could hate us even more than they already did. In short, before you dragged America into the fetid cesspool of your bass-ackwards neoconservative New American Century imperialist BS stupidity, THAT was the time for patience. And you blew it, Big Time, Buckwheat, so don’t come to me now asking for patience. I have no more patience for you, George. I would like nothing more than to see you impeached for what you have done, but of course we’d need to impeach your grumpy face-shooting sidekick Cheney first, otherwise we’d end up with him in charge, and I don’t think any of us have the stomach for that. Hard as it is to imagine, I think that would be even worse than having you in the Whitehouse. Cheney would probably invade Canada or something. You see George, I was paying close attention to the events surrounding the Iraq weapons inspections back in 2003 and I saw how your administration kept claiming to know where the alleged WMDs were, yet when the inspectors pressed for details so they could go inspect and confirm the presence of weapons you were never able to supply useful information that led to any WMDs. Every time you claimed that WMDs were in a particular location the inspectors would go there and find nothing. I watched that happen again and again until it got to the point where the people who were paying attention started to see that something was wrong. It started to become apparent that you really had no idea whether or not Saddam had any WMDs or where they might be if he did have them. After a few months it got to the point where it became embarrassing for you and it started undermining your alleged reason for invading Iraq. That’s when you ordered the weapons inspectors out of Iraq. You ordered them out so they wouldn’t embarrass you any more, so they would stop showing the world that you really had no good evidence that Saddam had any WMDs, and that you therefore had no good reason for invading Iraq. That was the time for patience, George, but unfortunately for thousands of brave American soldiers who today lie cold in their graves, you had no patience then, and so I have no patience now. And now I read that only 18% of Iraqi citizens have confidence in U.S. troops, while 50% say that violence against American soldiers is acceptable. Patience? You don’t need patience George, what you need is a big fat reality check upside the head. Let’s see, what else has caught my eye in the news recently? Bush was telling us all how he supported Attorney General Alberto “Torture is Good” Gonzales, just days before the Whitehouse floated the names of possible replacements for him. Do you see a pattern here? Think about Michael Brown at FEMA, who Bush said was doing a heck of a job, and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who Bush staunchly supported just days before he left the Pentagon. When Bush starts talking about how strongly he supports you you’d better start packing your stuff because you probably won’t be around much longer. Speaking of patterns, Bush has been so kind as to extend the “extraordinarily generous offer” (in the words of Tony Snow) of allowing Karl Rove and other top aides to be interviewed by the members of Congress who are investigating the firing of eight federal prosecutors, but he has refused to allow them to testify under oath. Is anyone else having a flashback to the 9/11 Commission investigation, when Bush and Cheney refused to testify under oath? If you’re telling the truth you have nothing to fear by taking an oath. Bush has given all kinds of BS excuses for his refusals, that it will somehow “compromise the office” if Congress actually uses its Constitutionally-given power to subpoena people to testify under oath in an investigation, or that it will somehow set a dangerous precedent (yes, to George W. Bush expecting politicians to tell the truth is a dangerous precedent), but the reality is he and his administration want to be able to lie their sorry asses off and get away with it, plain and simple. You can tell all the fibs you want during an “interview’ and not face any legal repercussions, but lying to Congress under oath, well, that’s a more serious matter. You could actually be held accountable for your lies in that situation, so it’s understandable that Bush and his cohorts want to avoid it at all cost. Republicans in the House were back in their old form last week, bellowing self-righteously about some of the items Democrats added to the latest war spending bill, otherwise known as the “U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health and Iraq Accountability Act,” or as we like to call it, the “Suck the Treasury Dry and Stick our Children With the Bill Because of George Bush’s Stupidity Act.” Democrats added $21 billion in additional spending to the $103 billion that Bush requested to continue funding his war against Truth, Justice, and the American Way, or as he calls it, the “war on terrorism in Iraq.” I have to say that $21 billion is a heck of a lot of money to add to a spending bill when the country is running such a deficit, but at least most of it was apparently for good causes. It will provide assistance to spinach farmers recovering from the effects of the E. coli outbreak, it will help the shrimp industry recover from the Hurricane Katrina and the shellfish industry deal with a disease that is killing off shellfish, and it will provide federal support for peanut storage for another year. Peanut storage? Where did that come from? Must have been the Carter administration. The added spending will also help clean up asbestos at the U.S. Capitol’s special power plant, where working conditions are deplorable according to Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey. House Republicans were quick to criticize the additional spending as “pork,” a topic they certainly know something about. Let’s compare the “pork” added by Democrats, which helps spinach farmers, shrimp fishermen, shellfish fishermen, peanut farmers, and power plant workers, to the pork added by Republicans when they controlled Congress, which handed billions of dollars to big oil companies at a time when they were enjoying the largest profits ever, and when they were making more money than any company in the history of the United States has ever made. Go ahead, compare the two and discuss amongst yourselves. Oh yea, you House Republicans sure are justified in complaining about all that Democratic “pork” that’s helping keep our farmers and fishermen in business and preventing power plant workers from asbestos exposure. It’s a damn shame that money didn’t go to rich executives at Exxon or Halliburton. Damn shame I tell you. I think I’m going to cry about it. I'll cry while I'm riding in my gas-guzzling SUV, smoking a cigar, and crushing poor people beneath my wheels. Can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E? And is there any doubt about where Republicans’ loyalties lie? (Hint: It’s not with you or me or the American people.) The hypocrisy reached a pinnacle when Rep. Sam Johnson (R-of course, from Texas-where else?) said “The sweeteners in this bill are political bribery, and our troops deserve more than this.” Ah, political bribery, now there’s a subject Republicans are more than qualified to talk about. Just ask Jack Abramoff. Disposable Heroes “Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.” And it doesn’t get any better. If you haven’t yet read the whole article take a few minutes to read it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172.html. Pretty damn sad, isn’t it? These brave young men and women risked their lives and sacrificed a large part of themselves for this country, in most cases their lives have been seriously and permanently altered by their terrible ordeals, and this is how they are treated afterward. It’s nothing less than shameful, and it’s unacceptable. In one of the understatements of the century, Army Undersecretary Peter Geren said "We have let some soldiers down.” No crap, Geren. I’m going to promote you to Master General of the Obvious. Reportedly the Whitehouse has said that a failure in leadership lead to the decline of patient care at Walter Reed. I wonder, where could such a failure of leadership have originated? Here are a few news items that might give us a clue, taken from reports by the Center for American Progress (http://www.americanprogress.org/) and information on Democratic Underground (http://www.democraticunderground.com/). This list is by no means complete or up to date, these are just some of the items that I’ve saved over the past couple of years. See if you can figure out where America has leadership problems when it comes to giving our troops what they deserve. And remember that all of these events occurred while George W. Bush was president and the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate. A few selected highlights: Feb. 2006 Feb. 2006 Jan. 2006 Nov. 2005 National Adjutant of the Disabled American Veterans, Arthur Wilson, recently wrote, "[I]nstead of honoring its commitment to those whose service and sacrifice have kept us free and safe, our government has launched a devastating assault on benefits for America's veterans." The frustration results from watching an administration incompetently deal with the need to fund veterans health care and disability services. When President Bush released his annual budget in February 2005, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) said, "If this budget -- and its misguided proposals -- were enacted, it would devastate VA health care." The American Legion offered similar criticism. A few months later, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) warned, "There is a train wreck coming in veterans' health care." Nov. 2005 Nov. 2005 Remember that Buyer was handpicked by criminally-indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) to replace former veterans committee chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who had been extremely vocal about the consistent underfunding of veterans causes. The Disabled American Veterans, the “official voice of America’s service-connected disabled veterans,” just issued a scathing release calling the move “an insult to all who have fought, sacrificed and died to defend the Constitution.” The timing, they said, “could not have been worse.” Oct. 2005 Nov. 2005 Those are just a few examples, and the list goes on and on. I still have to wonder how many of the weapons that Iraqi and Afghan insurgents are using to kill and maim our troops were put into their hands by the actions of the Bush administration. Although I’ve never seen it widely reported in the American press, Bush has opposed international efforts to curb the sale of illegal weapons. At the 2001 UN Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, George Bush’s nominee for UN representative John Bolton told delegates that the Bush administration opposed any effort to restrict civilian access to weapons. By doing this the administration has helped to ensure a steady stream of illegal arms for criminals in areas like Colombia and the Sudan, making it more difficult to reduce the appalling violence in those regions and costing thousands of innocent civilians their lives. It has also made it easier for our enemies, including the insurgents we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, to illegally buy large numbers of weapons to kill and wound our soldiers with. Nice, huh? And to think that these A-holes will get a lifelong taxpayer-funded pension after they leave office. There certainly has been a massive failure of leadership when it comes to properly protecting, equipping, and caring for our troops. More than just a failure of leadership, it has been an outright betrayal, and it goes all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Brad Delp – RIP February 2007 What a Dog Thinks
on a Rainy Day 2007 Off to a Busy
Start January 2007 Goodbye Molly In Molly’s hands the English language was a fine musical instrument and she truly was a great composer of words. I had a lot of respect for Molly because she was someone who really cared about the things she wrote about, deeply and honestly. She cared about people, all of her fellow human beings, and when others were treated unfairly or unjustly she felt their pain. She used her voice to speak for those who didn’t have a voice, those who were used and disposed of by greedy corporations or crushed beneath the wheels of a power-hungry uncaring political machine. In all my years of reading her words not once did I feel that she was writing for herself, to promote herself and make herself into a media personality like so many talk-radio and 24-hour news network hosts do today. No, Molly didn’t write for herself, she wrote for you, and for all the billions of people in the world just like you, people who deserve to be treated fairly, with respect, and with plain old simple human dignity. Molly, you will be missed. I can only hope that if I type long enough, and if I am lucky enough, some small portion of the words I write might approach the standard of excellence that you have left as your legacy.
To Bill's Blog 2006. |
