Fun With Dick and Cheney

Not My Favorite Guy, But He's Out There!

From Raw Story - click here to read more...

In a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall on Saturday, Senator John Kerry accused President Bush and his supporters of stifling dissent.

"I have come here today to reaffirm that it was right to dissent in 1971 from a war that was wrong," said Kerry. "And to affirm that it is both a right and an obligation for Americans today to disagree with a President who is wrong, a policy that is wrong, and a war in Iraq that weakens the nation."

Political Joke

Pedro

It was the first day of school and a new student named Pedro Martinez, the son of a Mexican restaurateur, entered the fourth grade.

The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history.

"Who said 'Give me Liberty, or give me Death?' "
She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Pedro, who had his hand up.

"Patrick Henry, 1775."

"Very good!" apprised the teacher. "Now, who said, "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth?"

Again, no response except from Pedro: "Abraham Lincoln, 1863."

The teacher snapped at the class, "Class, you should be ashamed! Pedro, who is new to our country, knows more about its history than you
do!"

She heard a loud whisper: "Screw the Mexicans!"

"Who said that?" she demanded.

Pedro put his hand up. "Jim Bowie, 1836."

At that point, a student in the back said, "I'm gonna puke."

The teacher glared and asked, "All right! Now, who said that?"

Again, Pedro answered, "George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991."

Now furious, another student yelled, "Oh yeah? Suck this!"

Pedro jumped out of his chair waving his hand and shouting to the teacher, "Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!"

Now, with almost a mob hysteria, teacher said, "You little shit. If you say anything else, I'll kill you'!"

Pedro frantically yelled at the top of his voice,
"Gary Condit to Chandra Levy, 2001."

The teacher fainted, and as the class gathered around her on the floor, someone said, "Oh shit, we're in BIG trouble now!"

Pedro whispered, "Saddam Hussein, 2003."

Finally someone throws a eraser at Pedro, someone shouted "Duck"!

Teacher asked "Who said that?"

Pedro: Dick Cheney 2006!

Political Cartoons

Secretary Rice Guilty of Treason?

From The Washington Post - click here to read more...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaked national defense information to a pro-Israel lobbyist in the same manner that landed a lower-level Pentagon official a 12-year prison sentence, the lobbyist's lawyer said Friday.

Prosecutors disputed the claim.

The allegations against Rice came as a federal judge granted a defense request to issue subpoenas sought by the defense for Rice and three other government officials in the trial of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. The two are former lobbyists with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who are charged with receiving and disclosing national defense information.

Defense lawyers are asking a judge to dismiss the charges because, among other things, they believe it seeks to criminalize the type of backchannel exchanges between government officials, lobbyists and the press that are part and parcel of how Washington works.

During Friday's hearing, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said he is considering dismissing the government's entire case because the law used to prosecute Rosen and Weissman may be unconstitutionally vague and broad and infringe on freedom of speech.

Rosen's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the testimony of Rice and others is needed to show that some of the top officials in U.S. government approved of disclosing sensitive information to the defendants and that the leaks may have been authorized.

Republican Tomfoolery

{Click any image for a larger view}

From The Washington Times - click here to read more...

Fire departments are using Homeland Security grants to buy gym equipment, sponsor puppet and clown shows, and turn first responders into fitness trainers.
The spending choices are allowable under the guidelines of the Assistance to Firefighters grant administered by the Homeland Security Department, which has awarded nearly 250 grants since February totaling more than $25 million out of the current spending pot of $545 million.

Iraq War: A Lost Cause?

From Foriegn Policy In Focus - click here to read more...

Three years after U.S. forces captured Baghdad, Iraqis are suffering from unprecedented violence and misery. Although Saddam Hussein was indeed one of the world's most brutal tyrants, the no-fly zones and arms embargo in place for more than a dozen years prior to his ouster had severely weakened his capacity to do violence against his own people. Today, the level of violent deaths is not only far higher than during his final years in power, but the sheer randomness of the violence has left millions of Iraqis in a state of perpetual terror. At least 30,000 Iraqi civilians have died, most of them at the hands of U.S. forces but increasingly from terrorist groups and Iraqi government death squads. Thousands more soldiers and police have also been killed. Violent crime, including kidnapping, rape, and armed robbery, is at record levels. There is a proliferation of small arms, and private militias are growing rapidly. A Lebanon-type multifaceted civil war, only on a much wider and deadlier scale, grows more likely with time.

Everyone is Bailing on the President...

From Harper's Magazine - click here to read more...

With the war in Iraq an utter debacle and public opinion turned against the White House, anger within the armed forces towards Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Administration is growing, and the Pentagon is fighting back (see "Pentagon Memo Aims to Counter Rumsfeld Critics " in the April 16 New York Times). But what's been little noted thus far is what looks to be a similar revolt brewing at the CIA. An ex-senior agency officer who keeps in contact with his former peers told me that there is a "a big swing" in anti-Bush sentiment at Langley. "I've been stunned by what I'm hearing," he said. "There are people who fear that indictments and subpoenas could be coming down, and they don't want to get caught up in it."

This former senior officer said there "seems to be a quiet conspiracy by rational people" at the agency to avoid involvement in some of the particularly nasty tactics being employed by the administration, especially "renditions"-the practice whereby the CIA sends terrorist suspects abroad to be questioned in Egypt, Syria, Uzbekistan, and other nations where the regimes are not squeamish about torturing detainees. My source, hardly a softie on the topic of terrorism, said of the split at the CIA: "There's an SS group within the agency that's willing to do anything and there's a Wehrmacht group that is saying, 'I'm not gonna touch this stuff'."

Some Cheney Funnies

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Will the Courts Save the Day?

From Raw Story - click here to read more...

Five major civil rights organizations and six business leaders announced their support for a suit filed against President Bush to stop the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretap program today, RAW STORY has learned.
Last year, it became known that the NSA has been intercepting the phone and e-mail communications of Americans without first obtaining judicial approval. Many believe this to be in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union also believes the program violates consitutional free speech and privacy rights. The group has filed suit in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, seeking a declaration that the NSA spying is illegal, and an immediate and permanent halt to the program.

In a friend-of-the-court brief , the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, United for Peace and Justice, and the Japanese Americans Citizens League linked warrantless spying with past surveillance of similar groups. A congressional investigation in the 1970s exposed widespread civil rights era abuse.

In their own brief , leaders in the business community pushed the importance of confidential and secure communications and trust in democratic values to economic growth. They contend that the NSA is also engaging in wholesale datamining by sifting through millions of calls and e-mails of ordinary Americans. International trade, the business signers argue, requires trading partners' trust in the security of electronic communication.

Winning the War On Terror?

From American Progress - click here to visit their website...

Even the Bush administration "has now admitted that the insurgency [in Afghanistan] is growing and becoming more effective ." Attacks "have increased in lethality, with increased use of tactics seen in Iraq , including suicide bombings, which...have quadrupled in the past year, and improvised explosive devises, whose use has doubled." (This trend was on full display just last week .) Some experts attribute the spike in violence to "a vast canvas of weakly governed and unprotected territory in which drug traffickers, feuding tribesmen and opportunistic criminals -- as well as Taliban gunmen on motorbikes and mysterious suicide bombers -- operate with increasing ease." Last year "1,600 people, including 91 U.S. troops, were killed ...more than double the total in 2004." Violence is expected to increase further as "insurgents will try to test the NATO forces that are moving in to take over from more seasoned US military troops.

The Bush Administration - A Summary

Click on the image for a larger view.

The following came in one of those forwarded emails. I thought it provided a pretty good summary of the state of affairs in the U.S. today, so I post it here...

We have a president, an administration, and a Congress which lie to us to justify their criminal actions, both at home and abroad. President Bush approved secret electronic surveillance and spying on American citizens without a judicial warrant. Under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Security Act, such activity is illegal.

The president says he has the right, as "commander-in-chief in a time of war," to act in such a manner to protect national security and the American people against terrorists.

The president says we are in a state of war but Congress never declared war. The president has told us to go on with our daily lives, "go shopping" to help the economy and leave the rest to him. Does a state of war exist because our president says so? With whom are we at war? Has anyone ever heard of Wag the Dog?

Bush says that if he calls a prisoner an "enemy combatant" he doesn't have to follow the Geneva Conventions or give that prisoner due process under the law, even if that prisoner is an American. The use of torture, approved at the highest levels of this administration, has been used on our "enemy combatants." Only the lowest-level operatives have ever been held accountable.

Bush also says he can sign a law passed by Congress and then issue a "signing statement," which says that he will make the determination of how that law is interpreted and applied. The president must believe that he is above the law and beyond checks and balances. Congress is complicit by not challenging this unbridled presidential power grab.

I defy any citizen to give an instance when this administration put forth an initiative, policy or program which put the public good ahead of that of big business or the wealthy. When issues of energy, health care, the environment, taxation, education, consumer protection, business regulation or going to war come up there is an industry insider helping this administration and Congress to formulate the legislation that will be most favorable to that specific interest.

We have been sold out by a government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation. Unregulated capitalism is the antithesis of true democracy because it puts corporate profit ahead of what is good for society as a whole. Is a totalitarian, corporate, fascist state in our future? Wake up, America.

Author unknown - To protect the party who is guilty of excersising their democratic right by speaking freely - how sad.

Failure to Plan

President Bush has Failed to Plan for the Future!

From ABC News- click here to read more...

In a letter released today, Ben Bernanke, the nation's new Fed Chief, said the surge in energy prices has already "significantly reduced" the spending power of consumers and businesses, shaving "between one-half and 1 percent" off the gross domestic product.

In other words, high energy prices have cost the economy up to $125 billion a year.

"Bottom line -the combination of higher oil prices and higher short-term interest rates all but guarantee a slower-growing economy in 2006," according to J.P. Morgan's chief economist Anthony Chan.

Republicans Under Fire

From Carl Bernstein as published in Vanity Fair - click here to read more...

The first fundamental question that needs to be answered by and about the president, the vice president, and their political and national-security aides, from Donald Rumsfeld to Condoleezza Rice, to Karl Rove, to Michael Chertoff, to Colin Powell, to George Tenet, to Paul Wolfowitz, to Andrew Card (and a dozen others), is whether lying, disinformation, misinformation, and manipulation of information have been a basic matter of policy-used to overwhelm dissent; to hide troublesome truths and inconvenient data from the press, public, and Congress; and to defend the president and his actions when he and they have gone awry or utterly failed.

From the Wonkette Blog - click here to visit the site...

Earlier today, President Bush defended Donald Rumsfeld in the following terms : "I hear the voices and I read the front page and I hear the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."

We were struck by this curious turn of phrase: "I'm the decider." In the words of one correspondent: "Not sure I've ever heard an ADULT refer to themselves as the 'DECIDER' before."

We agree. The comment sounded childish to our ears - a return of the "petulant kid" side of Bush's personality (which has been less in evidence since his reelection).

If President Bush wants to stick with this "jungle gym" approach to public communications, Tomato Nation has this helpful glossary of kidspeak. Reviewing it shows that many of the Administration's key initiatives can be explained and analyzed using playground terminology:

Eeny meeny miney moe: Where to strike next?
Iran? North Korea?
Cooties: Jack Abramoff? Who's he?
Do overs: the liberation of Baghdad .
No backsies: support for a guest worker program.

In the News

Holding the U.S. Back

From the Boston Globe - click here to read more...

FIVE YEARS ago, President Bush announced that funding from the National Institutes of Health could not be used to develop stem-cell lines made from newly donated embryos, a decision that has hobbled US researchers. His action spurred conservative members of Congress to introduce legislation that would criminalize both research with human embryonic stem cells and their future therapeutic use. If passed, the measure will send scientists, patients, and physicians to jail for up to 10 years and fine them $1 million. Competing legislation designed to overturn the ban was written a year later. Both measures passed the House and are now before the Senate. Bush has promised to veto any law that would override his policy.

The consequences of the Bush policy are profound and unambiguous. NIH officials admit the agency has ceded leadership in the field. Scientists no longer undertake hegiras to Washington to learn about important advances in stem- cell biology. Instead, countries where the research is encouraged have stepped into the breach, making new lines at an astonishing rate.

Reward Your Friends.

From the Daytona Beach News Journal - click here to read more...

If there were such a thing as a fair tax code there wouldn't be such a thing as tax gimmickry -- surtaxes to ensure that the wealthiest pay their share or special tax breaks targeted at particular constituencies. The Alternative Minimum Tax, for example, wouldn't have to exist. Nor would such obvious favors to the wealthy as the cap on the tax rate on most investment income, now at 15 percent.

The AMT not only exists. It's on course to collect, in 10 years, more money than the "regular" tax code will. That sounds more frightening than it really is. The disproportion is due in large part to the successive tax cuts enacted in President Bush's first four years, which reduced government revenue -- as a share of the economy -- to a 50-year low. Cut regular taxes enough, and an "alternative" tax enacted to ensure that the wealthy pay their share is bound to be affected.

Well-Deserved Honors

From The Guardian - click here to read more...

A New York Times investigation exposing how George Bush ordered domestic wiretapping without court oversight shared a Pulitzer prize for national reporting yesterday, in an honours list dominated by national security and corruption.

The investigation by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, which was published in December, set off a firestorm.

Dana Priest of the Washington Post was recognised for reporting on CIA renditions and the secret prison network.

Please Mr. President, Consider the Children!

From PHYSORG.COM - click here to read more...

Thirteen of the nation’s most prominent physicists have written a letter to President Bush, calling U.S. plans to reportedly use nuclear weapons against Iran “gravely irresponsible” and warning that such action would have “disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and the world.”

The physicists include five Nobel laureates, a recipient of the National Medal of Science and three past presidents of the American Physical Society, the nation’s preeminent professional society for physicists.

Assessing the Bush Presidency...

Even the British PM Thinks Bush is Just Crazy Enough to Bomb Iran

From the Scotsmen - click here to read more...

TONY Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday.

Amid increasing tension over Tehran's attempts to develop a military nuclear capacity, the Prime Minister has laid bare the limits of his support for President Bush, who is believed to be considering an assault on Iran, Foreign Office sources revealed.

Putting the Nation at Risk with Stupidity

From US News and World Reoports - click here to read more...

Things aren't getting any easier for President Bush. Even his good-old-boy personality, which once was so appealing to so many Americans, seems to be wearing thin. His underlying problem, pollsters say, is that growing numbers of Americans question his competence and credibility. Only 38 percent of Americans approve of Bush's job performance, and--just as important--only 39 percent have positive feelings about him, according to an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll. "What you're seeing is a negative cycle," says a senior GOP strategist, "with bad news feeding on bad news, and it's having an effect."

Medals for Mediocrity (or Worse)

From Yahoo News - click here to red the whole article...

The Iranians are, at the moment, only as powerful as President Bush and his unhinged secretary of defense say they are. If Bush and Donald Rumsfeld did not exist, the bad boys of Iran would have to invent them.

On this Bush's watch, we have invaded a country --yes, a lousy country with a bloody dictator -- for reasons we still can't explain. Worse: We are not winning; we are only occupying. Much of the world, which was with us morally after Sept. 11, 2001, has turned against us in the years since as we stained ourselves in ways large and small; the whole world is watching American blunder and torture.

We are borrowing from the world to spill our treasure, or our grandchildren's, into the sands of Araby. Our volunteer military is already stretched beyond its capability in Iraq; recruitment is in trouble, with even a third of West Point graduates quitting after their mandatory five years of service.

Dishonor for the U.S. in the News

Living in a Christian Controlled Country...

He was good enough to die for us, but not good enough to be recognized...

From The Napa Valley Register - click here to read more...

FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) -- Nevada National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart gave his life for his country when the Chinook helicopter he was in was shot down in Afghanistan.But those wishing to honor Stewart, who should have his name on the memorial wall at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, would have a difficult time doing so.The space reserved for Stewart is vacant. Stewart was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which is not recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Fighting Back at Last!

From SFGate.com - click here to read more...

Objecting to what they called increasing government control of what people watch on television, four TV broadcast networks and their affiliates filed court challenges to a Federal Communications Commission ruling that found several programs "indecent" because of language.

ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox, along with their network affiliate associations and the Hearst-Argyle Television group of stations, filed notices of appeal in various federal courts, including in Washington, D.C., and New York. Some were filed late Thursday and the rest Friday morning.

Broadcasters have complained that federal enforcement of indecency rules is vague and inconsistent. Millions of dollars in fines have been levied based on the rules.

We're winning the war in Iraq?

From the BBC.com - click here to read more...

At least 65,000 Iraqis have fled their homes as a result of sectarian violence and intimidation, according to new figures from the Iraqi government.

And the rate at which Iraqis are being displaced is increasing.

Figures given to the BBC by the Ministry for Displacement and Migration show a doubling in the last two weeks of the number of Iraqis forced to move.