Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 895 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

Why? Because they have other priorities. They are too busy partying down in Georgetown to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, they are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809 2826

Total coalition forces dead: 239
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1879
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1327
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1289
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347
Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 262
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 108.

It is still 829 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration -- unless we impeach the whole sorry lot of the corrupt and criminal bastards.

Vote Democratic next Tuesday!

Bus Driver Fired for Flipping Bush the Bird

It happened last June when Baby Doc came to my home state to raise money from wealthy Repugnicans in the affluent suburban Seattle East Side. The motorcade went past some stopped school buses with waving children and one disgruntled bus driver, who just happened to register her displeasure with Fearless Leader in the time-honored one-finger salute.

From there the story get confused, but it appears that Washington's own Dave Reichert (R-Tattletale) snitched on the driver to the Issaquah school board and things spiraled out of control, to the point where the driver ended up getting fired for it.

The bus driver has filed suit for unlawful termination, but leaving aside all that "was it appropriate in front of the children" nonsense, I find it more than a little ironic that this bus driver was discharged for using a gesture that Baby Doc himself is famous for.

For example, see this video.

And there are more examples, if you care to seek them out.

Mind you, this is from a man who promised he would bring "dignity" back to the White House.

A Cheap Shot? Yeah, Maybe. So What?

Okay, maybe it was a cheap shot. But it was a good one nonetheless. An actual constituent of Virginia's George Allen (R-Macaca) named Michael Stark had the temerity to ask the blowhard senator at a campaign stop "Why did you spit on your first wife, George?" For his efforts, he was roughed up by several Allen bodyguards thugs supporters who grabbed him in a choke hold and wrestled him to the ground.

Okay, so it's a first cousin to "have you stopped beating your wife", and in the words of Allen's first wife, a "baseless cheap shot", but is anyone really willing to go to the mat on it being baseless? After all, Allen and wife number one, acting in collusion, petitioned to have the divorce records sealed.

And that, in itself, ought to raise some red flags with the media.

But leave it to the SCLM: They just waltzed on by -- "lah de dah, doo-de-dah, nothing more to see here" -- only to pounce on the dirty tricks campaign launched by the Allen camp when the publicized the allegedly salacious excerpts of several of Jim Webb's novels. (BTW, the wingnuts have got a lot of fucking nerve on that score--I don't see them publicizing any of that steamy girl-on-girl sex from Lynn Cheney's Lesbian Love Sisters stories).

Anyway, back to Mike Stark. He is a resident of Virginia and he had a right to ask his senator a question; Allen's thugs went way overboard in their overreaction to the question. After all, at this point in the campaign Allen ought to be prepared for anything.

But it just goes to show you: The Rethugs can dish it out but they sure can't take it.

The Day After Halloween

It seems like year after year we get fewer and fewer trick-or-treaters coming to the door. It might be the "Trespassers Will be Violated" signs, it might be the moat filled with piranhas, it might even be the lightly-tethered pit bull next to the porch.

But this year I had absolutely NO Halloween visitors. As a result, I was late to work this morning because I had to swing by the nursing home to drop off that basket of apples with razor blades...

The Self-Correcting Blogosphere

I originally had posted a "Shut the Fuck Up" post here about Kerry and his screwed up joke about students and Iraq.

I've had second thoughts and decided that I was a little ... abrupt... in condemning the senator for his remarks.

I still don't like him very much, and I'm still steamed about him not fighting back against the Swifties and for rolling over in Ohio, but I'm not going to let that cloud my judgment.

At least he's giving it -- and dishing it out hard -- to the Rethugs, and that's nothing but good.

So (as my wife will attest) as much as I don't like to do it, I'm saying "I take it back".

From Our "Pot Calls Kettle Black" Department

Prezdint Numbnutz today stated that the Democrats "lack a plan to win" in Iraq.

So, Baby Doc, how's that plan of yours working out? The 100th US serviceman to die in October checked out earlier today, and that total will assuredly go even higher before the month is officially over.

That's Bushco "stay the course" philosophy at work. Even though Tony Snowjob claimed that Baby Doc said it "only" eight times. Too bad the White House isn't capable of doing its own Google search, since Keith Olberman came up with nearly 30 instances -- and showed all of them -- of the little fucker chanting Stay the Course, Stay the Course.

Not that any of the fuckers in the Baby Doc Maladminstration can even articulate what "winning" in Iraq would look like.

Here's a hint: It's not going to be pretty, what with over 14 thousand of sophisticated weapons missing and unlikely to be recovered. "Winning" will like consist of slinking out under cover of darkness, abandoning a ruined country to a vicious religious war.

Global Warming: Suddenly it's Sexy Again

And all it took was a sobering look at the economic consequences. Nothing shakes up the powerful interests like a potential loss of profits. And our cousins across the pond in the UK are starting to beat the drums.

Jesus, it only took, what, 30+ years of the environmental movement's harping about it for it suddenly to catch on? And now only because of the sacred and almighty bottom line.

It's hard to imagine a more short-sighted and selfish bunch of louts that the captains of industry in this country -- and in most of the rest of the world, sadly -- but here's hoping that even they will get that sudden flash of inspiration, stop looking just at the Long Green, and start considering the Real Green.

And here's hoping that it's not too late.

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 888 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

Why? Because they have other priorities. They are too busy partying down in Georgetown to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

Why can't they be like their royal counterparts in the UK? The Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerre de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War), Prince William, direct heir to the throne, has entered Sandhurst (Britain's West Point), and little brother Prince Harry graduated from Sandhurst in April and could be on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant.

The son of Senator John McCain has enlisted in the US Marine Corps. That means that as soon as he's done with his training, he's going to be on his way to The Sandbox. Now there's a role model right in their own political party for Jenna and Not-Jenna. Will they follow him?

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, they are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

The No-Brainer

So who the fuck is Scott Hennen? He's got a mini-watt AM morning show in tiny Fargo, ND (where I am sure he is no competition for Fargo's liberal mouthpiece, Big Eddie Schultz), with the uncanny ability to get some big-name rethugs on his show. Probably because he's such a sycophantic rightwing suckass.

So I guess it's not all that unusual for someone like Crashcart Cheney to appear on Hennen's show. But when Cheney said that water torture was a "no brainer", it suddenly became international news.

So what does the White House do? It says Cheney didn't say it. And, sure enough, he didn't actually use the terms "water torture" or "waterboarding" -- instead he and Hennen were talking about a little "dunk in water". Now there's the classic distinction without a difference.

Read the official transcript and see for yourself whether he's advocating torture or advocating a gentle and humane interrogation technique designed to facilitate further dialogue.

What I'd like to see is Cheney being gently and humanely interrogated using a little "dunk in water" as a technique to facilitate some dialogue. Then I think we'd see our Vice-President-for-Torture singing a different tune.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788 2809

Total coalition forces dead: 238
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1872
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1320
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1282
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347
Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 255
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 101.

It is still 836 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration -- unless we impeach the whole sorry lot of the corrupt and criminal bastards.

Vote Democratic in November!

The Border Fence

Talk about your ill-concieved ill-thought-out ideas. This article from the Ft Worth Star Telegram puts it all into perspective.

Ranchers, farmers and businessmen all along the Rio Grande River that forms the border between Mexico and Texas are upset about the fence. And with good reason. They are afraid that the fence will keep them away from the life-giving water of the river, and will keep out the Mexican citizens who currently cross the border to spend money in the local communities. And then return home, BTW.

But it's an election year, and the good ole boys in Congress get to go home and pretend they are doing something about illegal immigration.

Any schoolboy could have told you that a 700 mile fence on a 2,000 mile border would be a joke anyway. If you go for a walk in the woods and you come to a log in your way, what do you do?

Right. You go over it if you can, or you go around it if you can't. It ain't rocket surgery.

More on the Fox Fakery

It's funny watching all the wingnut media types fall all over themselves to support their hero, the Florida Windbag, when he attacked Michael J. Fox as "faking" his illness.

Michael Reagan started yapping about Fox "politicizing" the issue, and when nominal liberal Colmes called him on it, pointing out that his own stepmother, Nancy, was quick to support stem cell research when the Gipper came down with the Big A, good old Mikey snapped back that she was wrong, she was "exploited" by the opposition, as was his own brother, Ron Jr.

Jesus, the lengths these fuckers won't go to. Check out the News Hounds story on the Hannity and Colmes show that featured this repartee.

What Happens to Has-Beens

Who could have predicted that an election in middle-American Missouri could generate this kind of heat? But Amendment 2 concerning stem cell research is getting some serious national play.

Following the Michael J. Fox commercial, Emmy-whining washed-up television actress Patricia Heaton has made a commercial for the other side. She happens to belong to an Orwellian-named organization called Feminists for Life, whose motto is "Refuse to Choose" -- whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean.

Anyway, she's joined a coterie of other quasi-celebrity wingnuts, including that blood-dripping guy from the Mel Gibson Christ movie and some sports stars to make a commercial for the other side in the flaming debate over Missouri's Amendment 2, which would legalize -- in a very specifically limited way -- so-called embryonic stem cell research.

But you can bet that if Heaton, Jesus or any of those self-important sports guys suddenly came down with a disease that could be helped by that stem cell research, their "deeply held moral conviction" would vanish faster than a cheeseburger in front of Denny Hastert.

Just When You Think You've Heard it All...

It just keeps getting better and better.

Now the bloviating windbag Rush "Oxy from Miami" Limbaugh is accusing Michael J. Fox, who is suffering from Parkinsons Disease, of "faking it" with all that shimmying and shaking around.

He might as well have said that Fox could get a job at the local paint store or the neighborhood Starbucks...

Jesus, what the fuck is it with these rightwing blowhards? I suppose if a quadruple amputee with Altzheimer's and terminal diabetes came out in favor of embyronic stem cell research, Fatboy would mock him/her. Faking it. Not REALLY sick.

It is probably too much to hope for from a universe that is random, but a Just Karma would provide that Rush and his allies in the wingnuttery would be stricken with some disease that could be cured only using embryonic stem cell research...

I propose that anyone who so vocally, so vehemently opposes stem cell research be forever banned from receiving any and all benefit that may result from that research.

I also propose that each and every one of the blowhards on the right who are SO fucking morally opposed to this research sign a disclaimer that if their lives are at stake they categorically refuse any treatment or cure that is based on embryonic stem cell research.

How many takers are we going to see? I'm betting NONE.

Playing the Race Card in Tennessee

The Rethugs wonder out loud why Baby Doc's ratings among African-Americans is hovering around 2% (and that's with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4%!). Well, maybe the new party campaign ads swarming the airwaves in Tennessee are an indicator.

US Rep Harold Ford, a Democrat who also happens to be black, is making a run for the US Senate in Tennessee. If elected, he would be the first African-American senator from the south since Reconstruction. Which is to say, the first elected African-American senator from the south.

So what does the Rethug party do about this unfortunate turn of events? It comes up with a series of ads featuring nubile young white women hinting all over the place that they want to have hot interracial sex with Ford.

Jesus.

Well, we all just cain't have thet kinda shit. Tennessee is, after all, the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan and no self-respectin' southern man is gonna let hisself be misrepresented by one o' them nigra boys, 'specially one who would choose to sully -- sully Ah say! -- the fair blossom of southern womanhood...

It would be to the credit of Ford's opponent, Bob Corker, that he's taken steps to distance himself from the ads, except can you name any southern politician who would actually come out and admit that he was a racist who hates black people? Not even David Duke would do that.

So this is one of those races to watch next month. And watch how desperate the power-hungry Rethugs get between now and election day.

Falling on His Sword

A senior US diplomat, one Alberto Ferndandez, who happens to be fluent in Arabic, made a statement on Al Jazeera television that US foreign policy in Iraq displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity".

Now he's had to take it all back and apologize. Looks like his overlords at the State Department made him feel the sting of the lash, and he had to trot out a quasi-apology.

Fernandez says now that he "seriously misspoke" when he used the phrase containing the "a" word and the "s" word.

That kind of reminds me of the good ole Nixon days, when he trotted his press secretary, Ron Ziegler, out to say that a previous statement was "inoperative"...

I can just imagine the outrage at State when they learned that one of their own spoke his own mind and told the truth. And Fernandez undoubtedly still wants to keep his career, which is why he had to fall on his sword.

But that apology isn't really fooling anyone, is it?

Weekly "Bush Twins in Uniform" Watch

It has now been 881 days since Jenna and Not-Jenna Bush, the slacker offspring of Preznit Numnutz, graduated from college and they are still not in the uniform of the US armed services.

Why? Because they have other priorities. They are too busy partying down in Georgetown to show their support for the war by enlisting their chickenhawk-child selves into the military service, that's why.

Why can't they be like their royal counterparts in the UK? The Royal Family, unlike the Bush Crime Family, has a centuries-long tradition of honorable military service. Prince Andrew was a combat helicopter pilot in La Guerre de las Malvinas (aka the Falklands War), Prince William, direct heir to the throne, has entered Sandhurst (Britain's West Point), and little brother Prince Harry graduated from Sandhurst in April and could be on his way to Iraq as a cavalry lieutenant.

The son of Senator John McCain has enlisted in the US Marine Corps. That means that as soon as he's done with his training, he's going to be on his way to The Sandbox. Now there's a role model right in their own political party for Jenna and Not-Jenna. Will they follow him?

Be sure to check out The Yellow Elephant blog, which asks the question "It's their war; why aren't they fighting it?"

BTW, they are also still not pregnant with their own Snowflake Babies. If they can't join the service, the least they could do would be to get themselves impregnated with a couple of blastocytes that would otherwise go into the garbage. Remember what Farnsworth always says: Baste 'em, don't waste 'em.

Friday by the Numbers

Total American dead in the Iraq Illegal Occupation: 2500 2513 2532 2540 2546 2558 2571 2585 2597 2605 2619 2641 2710 2737 2758 2788
THIRTY in ONE WEEK!!!
Total coalition forces dead: 237
Total Iraqi Dead: 600,000+

Number of days since Baby Doc said he'd get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive": 1865
Number of days since the illegal occupation of Iraq began: 1313
Number of days since "Mission Accomplished": 1275
Number of days between Pearl Harbor and the end of WWII: Only 1347
Number of days that the the Vice President has NOT shot a man in the face: 248
Number of days that the Bush Twins are still not pregnant with baste-'em-or-waste-'em Snowflake babies: 94.

It is still 843 days until the end of the BFEE Maladministration -- unless we impeach the whole sorry lot of the corrupt and criminal bastards.

Vote Democratic in November!

Parallels to Vietnam? Say it Ain't So...

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Baby Doc finally admitted -- grudgingly -- that there might be some parallels between Iraq and Vietnam.

And, in what has to be the most incisive foreign policy analysis so far this century, Baby Doc is quoted as saying:

My gut tells me that they have all along been trying to inflict enough damage that we'd leave... And the leaders of al-Qaeda have made that very clear. They believe that if they can create enough chaos, the American people will grow sick and tired of the Iraqi effort and will cause [the] government to withdraw.

Gee, ya think?

Little late to the party, there, Georgie? Haven't a whole bunch of us who actually were in Vietnam been saying this all along? Didn't all of your cabinet members and advisors who were in Vietnam warn you about ... uh... never mind.

Plus, I'm growing weary of harping on this all the time, but this Google News Search reveals once more that the vast majority of the news media reporting on this story are outside of the United States.