Bush Would Veto New Iraq Bill

In another sign that Bush is truly not willing to work with Dems, unless they do exactly as he says, the White House has said the President would veto a bill that could restrict funding.

Tony Snow announced to the White House press corp that should the House Democrats pass the new funding bill they are crafting, the President would veto it. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Snow said of the bill: “There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill.”

While the administration claims they want to “work out a deal” it’s fairly obvious that a deal means a funding bill with no restrictions, and no withdrawal date. Essentially a deal means whatever is mandated by the White House is the only thing we will accept.

This wouldn’t be nearly as galling if the White House didn’t continue to act as though they are trying to be conciliatory and the Big Bad Democrats are being the hard headed bores.

Under the Democrats new plan, the bill would pay for the war through September, but half of the funds would be dependent on Bush reporting on goals and any breakthroughs accomplished in Iraq. Congress would then vote on whether or not to allow the rest of the funds to be released.

The Bush administration has long claimed they would be willing to work with Democrats, they have yet to act as though they have any interest in negotiating, or working with any Democrat outside of Zell Miller.

I’m The Commander Guy!

Well, President Bush has invented another name for himself.  On the heels of being “The Decider”, the president christened himself The Commander Guy a few days ago, when talking about  why he was vetoing a war funding bill that had provisions that would force a troop withdrawal from Iraq by October of this year.

The truly chilling thing is that I’m not so sure that this is  a new name, as much as he forgot what he’s called.  Is it possible he forgot it’s called Commander in Chief, but was able to remember the Commander part so he shortened the rest to “Guy”.

In honor of yet another verbal gaffe by the leader of the free world, I did a little research, and  found the 25 best Bushisms.  Some of them are funny, some are just downright disturbing, and as an added bonus, I’ve inlcuded the number one stupidest thing said by Laura Bush at the end.

25. “I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right.” —Rome, Italy, July 22, 2001

24. “We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates.” —Washington, D.C. Oct. 4, 2001

23. “People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in’s house and say I love you.” —Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

22. “I wish you’d have given me this written question ahead of time so I could plan for it…I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with answer, but it hadn’t yet….I don’t want to sound like I have made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.” —President George W. Bush, after being asked to name the biggest mistake he had made, Washington, D.C., April 3, 2004

21. “The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway.” —explaining why high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy, Annandale, Va., Aug. 9, 2004

20. “My plan reduces the national debt, and fast. So fast, in fact, that economists worry that we’re going to run out of debt to retire.” —radio address, Feb. 24, 2001

19. “You know, when I was one time campaigning in Chicago, a reporter said, ‘Would you ever have a deficit?’ I said, ‘I can’t imagine it, but there would be one if we had a war, or a national emergency, or a recession.’ Never did I dream we’d get the trifecta.” —Houston, Texas, June 14, 2002 

18. “See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.” —Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003

17. “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” —State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003, making a claim that administration officials knew at the time to be false

16. “In Iraq, no doubt about it, it’s tough. It’s hard work. It’s incredibly hard.” —repeating the phrases “hard work,” “working hard,” “hard choices,” and other “hard”-based verbiage 22 times in his first debate with Sen. John Kerry

15. “The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him.” —Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

14. “I don’t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don’t care. It’s not that important. It’s not our priority.” —Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

13. “But all in all, it’s been a fabulous year for Laura and me.” —summing up his first year in office, three months after the 9/11 attacks, Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2001

12. “I try to go for longer runs, but it’s tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track. It’s sad that I can’t run longer. It’s one of the saddest things about the presidency.” —interview with “Runners World,” Aug. 2002

11. “Can we win? I don’t think you can win it.” —after being asked whether the war on terror was winnable, “Today” show interview, Aug. 30, 2004

10. “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.” —Washington, D.C. June 18, 2002

9. “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.” —to a group of Amish he met with privately, July 9, 2004

8. “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” —speaking underneath a “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, May 1, 2003

7. “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories … And we’ll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong, we found them.” —Washington, D.C., May 30, 2003

6. “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!” —President George W. Bush, joking about his administration’s failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents’ Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004

5. “If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” —Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

4. “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” —Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002 (Watch video)

3. “Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” —Poplar Bluff, Mo., Sept. 6, 2004 (Watch video)

2. “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” —Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Watch video)

1. “My answer is bring them on.” —on Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003 1a. “Noone has suffered more than George and I” —Laura Bush when asked about the suffering that has been caused by the Iraq War, April 30th, 2007

Poor Paul

Remember that old song by the Coasters entitled “Charlie Brown”? Well it appears that Paul Wolfowitz has pulled some lyrics right from that classic tune. Why is everybody always picking on me? Today the World Bank president is attempting to claim that this whole fiasco is actually a smear campaign started by the World Bank, in an effort to get him to resign.

Now, let me start off by saying, I would have no problem if that were the case. I’ve thought this was about as obvious a show of cronyism as you can get when he was appointed, he proved to be an incompetent deputy secretary of defense, leading a charge to war for inaccurate or flat out bogus claims, and he basically got a promotion.

However what makes this latest claim mystifying is the fact that Wolfowitz apologized for inappropriately giving his girlfriend a huge pay bump three weeks ago. It simply blows my mind that people who are in, or WERE in the Bush Administration think that we as a people are either so dumb, we don’t know how to work a video camera, a tape recorder, or a wordprocessor, or are too lazy to fact check their claims.

What makes me absolutely crazy is that these people, who have been in charge, and had absolute power for so long, they think that any claim they make will simply be accepted at face value. My personal favorite was when Wolfy claimed that when he took steps to get his girlfriend a pay raise, he did so not realizing that it wasn’t ethical, because he was new to the organization. Paul, unless you’re new to the world, not just the World Bank, it should be fairly obvious that using your newfound influence to get your lover a pay raise is a no-no.

But you’re right, the World Bank is picking on you. You’re the innocent bystander who got run over by bunch of meanies. Poor Paul.

Wolfowitz on His Way out, But Not Before He Gets His

Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is allegedly working to secure a $400,000 bonus due to him on June 1 before he resigns his position, according to the blog The Washington Note. Let me say that again, Wolfowitz thinks he’s due a BONUS for drawing the exact kind of negative press that can cripple an organization like this. Hubris doesn’t begin to describe these people.

And I’m getting sick and tired of people working with these criminals and nare-do-wells to make the transition smoother. Why in the name of god, would you not just say. Paul, you screwed up royally, you got caught. When people in a position such as yours, (which includes launching a corruption probe, irony of ironies) are found out to be incompetent, criminal, or just plain shady, you get the boot. Had you not given your girlfriend a raise and promotion, without any proof or documentation that she deserved it, you wouldn’t be in this mess. Time to pay the piper Paul. Get the hell out of here!

You aren’t getting a performance budget, and it’s incredibly odd that you would ask for one. As someone else on another website said. This could be the definition of extortion, “I’ll stop hurting you, and your business, as soon as you pay me” Perhaps if the World Bank really wanted to show him how to play the game, they should file charges, with the promise that they’ll be dropped, the minute he vacates his office.

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Will He? Or Won’t He?

In what is becoming the most compelling story of a less than dry campaign cycle, new rumors have emerged that Al Gore may run for President in 2008. There have been claims that friends of the former Vice-President are secretly putting together a campaign team, or at least, putting a claim on two former members of Gore’s campaign team. Tim Shipman of the British newspaper, the Telegraph has stated that Gore’s friends are also putting together a “shadow team” that would be able to run a campaign on short notice, and on a shortened campaign schedule.
Adding more intrigue is the fact that Gore’s current staff is doing it’s best to stamp out the rumors. Gore spokesperson Kalee Kreider has issued a release saying, “There is not a secret campaign operation in Nashville or any other part of the country to mobilize a campaign…other than that which the former Vice President has stated, to mobilize the American people to address the climate crisis.” Additionally, former Gore adviser Michael Feldman said the talk is “Pure fantasy.”
If it’s true that Gore has no desire to run again, he’s not helping his staff put out the fires. During his acceptance speech at the Oscars, where he won an award for best documentary for “An Inconvenient Truth” Gore began to formally announce something, but the music usually used to “play a person off” started up, over the top of him. After the event, Gore played it off as a joke, but there are some conspiracy theorists who claim the crew had no idea he was going to do it.
Personally, I’m not sure I want Gore to run. He could certainly energize a democratic base that is torn between Barack Obama, and Hilary Clinton. He could also further polarize an already polarized America, and could inadvertently energize a republican swath of voters that cannot get excited about their candidates, but could get very excited about defeating one of Bill Clinton’s proteges. He’s had a bit of egg on his face after it was announced that the Global Warming warrior’s own mansion was eating up electricity like the Cookie Monster eats baked goods, and the right would almost certainly label him a sore loser, after demanding recount after recount in Florida. (even though there was damn good reason to do so) And of course the old stories that he claimed things he never actually claimed would be dusted off by the likes of Fox News, and passed off as fact, just as they were the last time. No, now that I type all this out, I don’t think I want Gore to run, the more I think about it, the more I believe an Al Gore campaign in ‘08 would almost surely hand the Right Wing the Whitehouse for at least another 4 years, and that’s something this country desperately needs to avoid.

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Tony Blair to Step Down May 9th

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that he will end his 10 year reign on May 9th. More interesting than the what, is the why. Apparently the abrupt announcement is at least in part due to a desire to preempt any charges in the “Cash For Honours” scandal that has started to envelope an already embattled leader.
There has been no love lost between Blair and the British people over the last few years. He has been seen as nothing more than a puppet for the Bush Administration, with the big difference being that lately Blair has admitted serious mistakes had been made in the run-up to the Iraq war.

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Cheney to Face Articles Of Impeachment

Uber Liberal, Dennis Kucinich has informed the Democratic leadership that he plans to file the impeachment papers later this week. While there’s very little chance Cheney would get impeached, maybe, just maybe, this will get Cheney to shut his f-ing blowhole for a bit. Between his claims that Iraq had ties to Al Q, to accusing Dems of lack of patriotism everytime they question the “Great Decider” he needs to be knocked down a peg.

Here’s the Story

Yes, and Asians Can Make a Radio Out of Anything

Yesterday, Republican Presidential hopeful, Tommy Thompson had a “Macaca moment” when addressing a group of Jewish political activists. During the speech Thompson; whose earlier claim to fame was approving political propaganda that was disguised as news stories and distributed to television channels around the country; said that “I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money,” Thompson told the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition…..”

Thompson later apologized for the remark, while simultaneously claiming there was nothing wrong with it in the way that only politicians can do. “”I didn’t (by) any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances,” Thompson added, “what I was referring to … is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You’ve been outstanding business people and I compliment you for that.”

You know, if these people would just admit that the racism, or in this case anti-Semitism that bubble to the top was how they actually felt, they might get more votes. There are plenty of people in this country that have an irrational fear of anyone who isn’t exactly like them, and they’d vote for a man like Tommy Thompson, or George Allen. Now not only has Thompson probably lost the votes of anyone who doesn’t believe anti-Semitism is the way to go, but he’s lost the votes of the mouth breathers, who thought he was their man.

 

But….No one could have foreseen this! My Government told me so!

Former intelligence officials confirmed to the Associated Press Monday a Le Monde newspaper report that France’s foreign intelligent service had heard about an al Qaeda plot which was “likely to involve a US airplane.” The French paper had also reported that France informed the Central Intelligence Agency prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Of course this means that basically every other intelligence agency in the world sensed something was coming, EXCEPT the CIA. But yeah, George Tenet deserved a medal

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This Just In…Richard Perle is a Gigantic Douchebag

I’m going to skip right past the whole, “avoiding disaster” comment, cuz that’s just too easy. Now, as far as equateing Iraq to buying insurance. Perhaps it’s different in the Perle household, but I don’t buy car insurance so that I can immediately ram it into other cars, nor would I buy home owner’s insurance in order to immediately burn the house down. That would actually be illegal

Hmmmmm…. maybe Mr. Perle was actually issuing a vague mea culpa, admitting that the Bush Administration committed an international crime? Nah that can’t be it, they won’t admit they caused this disaster.

On a separate note, why do legitimate news organizations allow these A-holes to come on and make these claims without any sort of corroborating evidence? If Perle is going to continue to claim there was a connection between Saddam and Osama, make him freaking prove it!

From Raw Story:

Richard Perle, the American Enterprise Institute fellow who helped build the case for the Iraq War prior to the US invasion in 2003, appeared on CNN’s ‘Late Edition’ with Wolf Blizter last night and continued to cling to the existence of links between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al Qaida terrorists.

While admitting Hussein’s government had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, Perle continued to point to a “direct connection” between the two.

“There is evidence of a connect between al Qaida and Saddam Hussein’s intelligence,” he insisted.

Perle also dismissed concerns that no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq after the war as evidence that the war was unjustified. Instead, he described the decision to invade as reasonable because it was a “management of risk.”

“It’s a little bit like saying it was wrong to buy insurance last year because your house didn’t burn down or you didn’t have an automobile accident. You buy insurance to hedge against disastrous things happening,” he claimed.