Politics: August 2007 Archives

All Louisiana wants is to be treated fairly. But that hasn't happened....

We are Americans who have suffered a great tragedy. We have worked tirelessly for two years to revive this beloved place and reconstruct our lives. And we ought to get no less help from our government than any other victims of this disaster.

- Editorial entitled Treat Us Fairly, Mr. President, in today's Times-Picayune

It has been two years since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. Covered at the Times-Picayune and NPR, with links to other media here.

The recovery is going slow and Bush is still selling empty promises. No big surprise there.

I don't have much to add to this other than I've been there a couple times recently and on each visit I keep hoping for monumental improvement.

I, and those who actually live there, are still waiting.

Well, Alberto Gonzales resigned this morning. That's one less member of Bush's Legion of Doom still employed. So, the bastard that loves to torture people and twist our justice system for dirty political ends is now headed back to Texas instead of being hauled off in chains. Seriously folks, what is it going to take for us to wake up and make these fascists felons?

He didn't give a reason for leaving in his speech (analysis here, then again Rumsfeld's resignation letter didn't even mention the word "Iraq". Lots of heads in the sand there in the Executive Office.

Speaking of ignoring the obvious, Bush swears his didn't know that we aren't putting up much of an effort to hunt for bin Laden, despite the fact that I'm sure I've linked to stories about our anemic search at least a couple times. I mean, I know I'm smarter than George Bush, but I shouldn't know more about our nation's efforts than he does. You know? Guess all he keeps up on are what brown people are reading, who they are talking to, and what version of God they're praying to. Catching the figurehead of a fundamentalist psycho cult just doesn't seem to jibe with him. Seeing as, you know, he actually consults with heads of fundamentalist psycho cults.

The Governor of Puerto Rico recently pushed for the withdrawal of US troops in front of a crowd of thousands of National Guardsmen at the 129th National Guard Association general conference. He received a standing ovation.

And so it goes.

Hell, I'm McLovin it. By the way, go see "Superbad". If you aren't convinced, read this review. Then go see "Superbad" and thank me later.

That said, I'm not covering movies or McDonalds today. Basically, I'm just hitting the highlights of recent Obama news. Yeah, I'm still pulling for him, and, no, nothing recently has convinced me otherwise, though when did Joe Biden get funny?

The recent news cycle started, of course, when Barack said he would insert troops into Pakistan to fight terrorists there since the current government isn't. He got a lot of flak for this, but take a moment to dissect it. We have a general in charge there running a military dictatorship, who was friendly with the Taliban. The alternative is an fundamentalist Islamic state that would be highly pro-al-Qaeda. Hell, they've got Musharraf to cut deals with the terrorists and fundies hiding bin Laden.

Don't get me wrong. Bin Laden is just a figurehead; but wouldn't it be nice to see a platoon of Wisconsin guardsmen surrounding his shot up corpse? I'd feel some sense of accomplishment.

Obama has had to defend some of his positions against his fellow Democrats. But hell, world opinion is on his side, as are some conservatives. Then again, the latter's leaders have only had the "let's bomb the brown people" strategy to go with so anything sounds better to them.

Today, he called for us to ease up on how we allow Florida Cubans to interact with their folks back in Cuba. Bush has been punishing families to pick a fight with Castro and Obama wants to change that. And seriously, the old guy is gonna die any day now; do you really want the US government coming off like more of a pack of tools than we already have since the late 50's.

Inexperienced? Maybe. Doesn't mean he doesn't have some good ideas.

More on retiring Republicans who need time to atone for their sins before meeting their maker. Personally, they probably should have started earlier.

The Commerce and Treasury departments apparently diverted public funds to help pay for Republican candidates' campaigns. So yeah, it seems the government HAS become part of the GOP. Think I could avoid paying taxes because I'm not a Republican? It is only fair. I don't want to pay to have racists, bigots, and Rapture bunnies elected.

More concerns about Congress bending over willingly and giving Bush more power to spy. Oh gee, maybe someone should have thought about that before giving it to him. Oh wait, the courts had already ruled it illegal. Twice.

And hey, we've freaked out the Russians enough that they are reinstituting bomber patrols.

So, Karl Rove is resigning. Apparently he decided that he'd done enough evil without oversight and accountability and didn't even want to fight the spineless back of idiots that the Dems have in Congress. You know, turning politics even dirtier than ever before, starting an illegal war, shitting on the Constitution, and being the best and only friend of a moronic faux-Texas asshat must be wearing on the soul.

That said, I'm sure he's not done been a nefarious prick. But for now, good riddance to bad garbage.

Of course, he's playing himself off as some kind of martyr being pursued by people who - gasp! - expect him to be responsible for his dirty deeds. Oh no! Really?

An unfortunately short list of his failures.

That said, Bush is not alone in the world without his admirers. While we know he's joking when he states he's spreading democracy, he recently picked up a new fan: Evil Dictator Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The Asshole of Africa recently signed a new domestic spying law into effect, using Bush's plans as a template and example.

Great, we're now held up as an example by Third World scumbags. Thanks Bush!

Meanwhile, Al "Torture is Fun!" Gonzales is in Iraq helping them design their legal system. Yet another milestone towards democracy!

Bush keeps talking about his "culture of life", which is odd coming from a guy who killed a woman even the Pope forgave and started a war that has killed thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

As Texas comes near to executing its 400th inmate in the modern era, a look at how religion and "hang 'em high" Old West mentality has made Texas Murder Inc. A few more factoids here.

A Texas church scrapped plans at the last minute to have a funeral service for a former Navy member. Gee, turns out he was gay. Too bad, he's not one of God's children in their eyes.

Now THAT is supporting the troops fundamentalist style.

Meanwhile the White House is trying to block a move to give our veterans more educational support. Considering my brother is 24, still in college, and can't get his GI Bill bennies as it is, you know where I stand on this. And he only pulled one tour. Think of some of those other guys and gals.

Oh wait, one more insult to injury. Some of our foreign-born servicemen, who signed up partially to earn their citizenship, have to worry about more than car bombs and suicidal religious fanatics: their government is deporting their families even as they "fight them there so we don't have to here." Some support, huh?

"The good news is that we have a volunteer Army and that's the way we're going to keep it."

- Mitt Romney, on why his five sons are not in the military, despite him being a warmongering zealot and supporter of Bush's war

Never mind the fact that their names are Tag, Biff, Zip, Bud and Lex. Seriously. Nevermind the fact that they dad never served either. Where the hell does Romney get off blowing off family members of servicemen in Iraq with such bullshit answers as to why he willingly and fanatically supports other people's children being put in harm's way in Iraq when he has the equivalent of a basketball starting roster sitting on the sidelines. No, wait. Sitting on the sidelines implies they actually suited up. The Romney boys aren't even in the stadium.

Next up...

"I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. ... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."

- Rudy Giuliani, scumbag, on how he's even more of a 9/11 hero than the firefighters or rescue workers who actually worked in the rubble

Not much to say here beyond this: why the hell doesn't someone call out this jerk about how awful of a mayor he was and why pimping 9/11 for political gain is the mark of a cretin?

Get this. Bush yesterday ranted like mad against the idea of raising the price of gas 2 cents to help pay for infrastructure repairs so we don't - for example - have more bridges falling apart.

He says Congress should be more careful how it spends the money it already collects for this work. And I'm not saying he's wrong on that. Government waste is always going to be an issue.

That said, what a hypocritical piece of crap he is. The price of gas when Bush got into office was about $1.40 or so. Prices are now about $2.88, down from over 3 bucks earlier in the summer.

So....

Bush hates the idea of a 2 cent tax to keep America on a sound infrastructure foundation, but is totally cool with more than doubling the price of gas due to his Arab oil hand-holding despots and criminal fat bastard US oil execs ripping off American citizens. Not to mention his hand in this scam by starting an illegal war because, well, he felt like it.

Republican priorities folks. If you haven't learned it now, you just aren't paying attention.

Incidentally, Bush is on vacation. So is Congress, but only after it sucked up to Bush and let him spy on Americans some more. And while our soldiers roast in 130 degree heat, the Iraqi parliament is on vacation too and the White House is apparently cool with that idea. Hell, Maliki is hanging out in Iran again, though Bush took a nanosecond to condemn the Iran-Iraq lovefest before heading off to daddy's house.

And, though I don't think anyone really deserves a kid like George W. Bush, I had to laugh over the sappy BS about Bush Sr. You know, if you'd raised your kid right, maybe he wouldn't be this way.

Speaking of asshats, meet Robert Murray, who owns the mine in Utah that collapsed this week. What a jackass.

The Army is spending more on bonuses and offering more bennies to new recruits. I feel bad for them in a way.

That said, here's a reservist trying to fight off being shipped out for the fifth time. Yeah, a reservist. Good luck to him too.

The continuing problems of Katrina survivors and their government trailer parks.

And one last story from Ray about a Rush Limbaugh fan who lives in his car outside his house and craps in his yard. Classic.