George Bush Flips You Off

You've seen it metaphorically...now's your chance to see it literally.

Bushy Bird.

Taped at a production facility during the latter months of his campaign for Governor of Texas.

The thing I love about Republicans is...

...their own love of democracy and FREEDOM of political discussion.

It is amazing to me, in spite of how often I keep having it proved to me, how Republicans have no sense of irony at all.

In particular how we are helping FREEDOM to march all over the globe, but here at home we're working as hard as we can to limit it. I mean, George himself said "there ought to be limits to freedom" when he was trying to shut down a parody website of him and his administration.

And isn't it just the most ironic thing in the world that Republicans are doing voter registration drives and then tearing up the registration cards of those who register as Democrats while at the same time reminding Democrats that we all need to honor the troops who are dying to protect freedom and democracy?

And, you know, we're supposed value and respect above nearly everything else the notion of free political speech. That's supposed to be one of the things our Nation is founded on...the belief that GOD DOES NOT APPOINT OUR KING, WE ELECT OUR PRESIDENT.

Well, let me share with you a story from my neighborhood.

(cue muppets singing "These are the people in your neighborhood...")

Monday night, a local Kerry organizer who is a friend and neighbor of mine, caught two young men stealing a Kerry sign he had put up just three hours earlier near where we both live. The perps had come over from a rather affluent neighborhood to steal Kerry signs from our less affluent neighborhood. I don't mean to imply that this is a class issue, or that I'm calling it class warfare...I'm just reporting, you decide. You know, like they say at FOX.

My friend confronted the one who was holding the stolen sign in his hands before the thief could even get into his friend's getaway Jeep. My friend pulled out his cell phone and told the boys that he was dialing 911. The little scofflaw holding the sign said, "You can't do that--you even came and spoke to us at our school!"

It is true. My friend had been a guest speaker for their high school government class a couple of weeks before and at that time had emphasized the success of the local Kerry supporters in getting yard signs out this year. He'd told the class that they were doing this so that people who might support Kerry would see that they were not alone, despite the myth that our county is overwhelmingly Republican. I guess a penny dropped in the minds of these Teen Age Republicans and they decided to act to counter this strategy.

When the Police Officer arrived on the scene, he questioned both parties separately. He said: "Your stories match, except for one thing. They're saying that you punched one of them, and if you press charges for stealing the sign, they'll press assault charges against you."

Now, you have to know my friend...he's about as likely to haul off and hit a couple of teenage thugs as I am to be invited to go duck hunting with Dick Cheney and Antonin Scalia.

My friend said: "I didn't punch either one of them, and I'm not going to be intimidated into making my decision based on that. One factor to consider would be whether this was an isolated incident or if they've done a lot of this and just got caught this one time. Do you mind searching their Jeep to see if they have more Kerry signs?"

Out came two more signs.

How about that?

Do we really want the kind of freedom Bush supporters like these are trying to promote? Where the only way to keep that freedom safe from your fellow Americans is to call the cops when you find them denying you your constitutional rights and then hope to God you don't get arrested when they lie to the police about your having attacked THEM?

Yes sir, FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH...and wearing brown shirts.

Uh....George...maybe not the best campaign sound bite for you...

Well, if you needed any more evidence that Irony is dead, or at least that Republicans don't understand it, George Bush today criticized Kerry for yesterday's attack on the current administration over that missing 380 tons of high grade explosives.

Here is exactly what the President said:

"A political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as commander in chief," President Bush said. (Bush: Kerry Jumps to Conclusions, by Susan Jones, CNSNews.com, October 27, 2004)

Ummmmm. Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction? Anthrax? Mushroom Clouds? Stockpiles?

Oh, Hell. Never mind, what's the use?

There aren't enough ACE Bandages in the world to keep my head from exploding before election day....DAMN YOU GEORGE BUSH AND YOUR CALCULATED ABSURDITY!!!!!

Chief Justice diverts attention from 380 tons of missing explosives in Iraq

First of all, like everyone commenting on this story says before they start blathering, our hopes and prayers go out to the Chief Justice....I've never prayed so hard for someone I didn't like or respect in my whole life. Honest. But the timing of the announcement sure looks good for Georgie.

I'm not saying the old guy isn't really sick...or that he isn't having surgery, but boy it sure is funny how every time there is a breaking story that doesn't look good for Bush we either get an elevated terrorist alert or some conservative figure does something to get the media to look their way instead.

I mean, "Huge Cache of Explosives Vanished From Site in Iraq" seems like it ought to be a pretty damned important story....and just when it starts getting some traction on CNN, Rehnquist goes into Bethesda for a procedure that even he says isn't going to keep him from being released from the hospital this week, and he'll be back on the bench when court arguments resume next week! (You know, when he might need to help with deciding the election again.)

He's been 80 all year! We already know whoever gets elected is going to get to shape the Supreme Court in any way they want, because 4 are likely to be replaced during the next four years. Why the fuck are we talking about this instead of asking how the fuck 380 TONS of high explosives are MISSING from Iraq?

The Administration was already criticizing the opposition for "making this a political football." Of course this is a political issue!!!! Isn't it Bush who says September 11th and the War on Terror/Saddam Hussein are the defining issues of his presidency and that he is proud of his record...well, dumb fuck, THIS is part of your record. It is also part of your record that you've known these explosives were missing for weeks and pressured the new Iraqi government not to make a big deal about it.

Uh, gosh, I sure hope Rehnquist is OK in that highly secure medical facility where nobody can get access to any relevant details. I'm so worried about overturning Roe v. Wade that I can't spare a single brain cell to worry about 380 tons of explosives, powerful enough to detonate nuclear warheads, that are missing from a former Iraqi military facility supposed to be under American control!

Holy Crap. I mean....Holy Crap. And there are hordes of you out there cheering for George Bush....and nothing will mobilize his base like the notion of the makeup of the Supreme Court.

Bush is in Iowa right now telling America we are SAFER. Is he insane??? Are you, if you're going to vote for him?

When asked about the explosives we get this:

The senior administration official downplayed the importance of the missing explosives, describing them as dangerous material but "stuff you can buy anywhere." The official added that the administration did not see this necessarily as a "proliferation risk."

What??? Well, I guess if Bush can say he just isn't that concerned about Osama bin Laden, I shouldn't be surprised that his Administration isn't concerned about 380 TONS of explosives just walking away from a site our military is guarding in Iraq. Besides...it's just "stuff you can buy anywhere."

STUFF YOU CAN BUY ANYWHERE??????

But that's not the end of their comforting....

"In the grand scheme -- and on a grand scale -- there are hundreds of tons of weapons, munitions, artillery, explosives that are unaccounted for in Iraq," the official said. "And like the Pentagon has said, there is really no way the U.S. military could safeguard all of these weapons depots or find all of these missing materials."

Holy Crap, yeah, that makes me feel pretty safe, George. Thank you for making the world safe(r) from Terrorism.

If that was the official response to this story, small wonder if Rehnquist took it upon himself to divert a little attention from the doofus he put in the White House.

Please, people, for the love of God, don't let them get away with distracting you from important questions. Kerry points out the incompetence of the administration and Steve Schmitt sticks his tongue out and says: "John Kerry has no vision for fighting and winning the war on terror, so he is basing his attack on the headlines he wakes up to each day."

What does that even mean??? At least Kerry reads the newspaper.

Is Schmitt saying to the American People, "Don't be an America Hating Newspaper Reader like John Kerry! Don't base any criticism of Bush on what you might read in the NEWSPAPER! Don't WE tell you what to believe?" I guess they figure if it is good enough for the President, it's good enough for the rest of us.

I need a drink. And another ACE bandage to wrap around my head to keep it from exploding.

If Bush wins, then we deserve what we get. I mean it.

I've got a message for Bush supporters...Read a goddamn newspaper, and watch something besides FOX once in a while.

Jesus Christ.

The separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters. (The PIPA/knowledge Networks Polling Report, October 21st, 2004.)

Read that, and tell me you aren't ashamed of yourselves.

Some of the key findings in that report include:

1. Bush supporters mostly believe Iraq had WMD before the war. (56%!)
   
2. They believe that this was the conclusion of Charles Duelfer in his report. (57%) (Huh?)
   
3. They believe that Saddam was providing material support to Al Qaida, and that evidence of this has been found. A large majority believe that most experts agree with this conclusion and a substantial majority of Bush supporters think this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. (75%!!!) (Again, "Huh?")
   
4. They believe that the Bush Administration still says Iraq had either WMD or an active major weapons program. (82%!!!!) They also believe that the Administration is still saying there was an Al Qaida connection to Iraq. (75%!!!)
   
5. Interestingly, large majorities of Bush supporters said that if Iraq did not have WMD before the war and was not providing material support to Al Qaida, then the invasion was NOT justified. (61% think that if Bush knew there were no WMDs he would not have gone to war.) (Huh? Oh, I guess they can't afford to admit mistakes any more than their candidate. Gooooood. I feel safer already.)
   
6. Only three in ten Bush supporters think the majority of the world oppose the war in Iraq. Bush supporters think the majority of the world wants Bush to be re-elected and they overestimate the amount of Islamic support for the War on Terror.
   
7. The majority of Bush supporters are completely wrong on where they think Bush stands on a range of foreign policy issues. Completely wrong! I'll say it again...COMPLETELY WRONG! Kerry supporters, the study finds, have ACCURATE perceptions of where their guy stands on these issues.

That last one makes you understand a little better why the Republicans flog the flip flop thing so much..."Sure, with Kerry....all you smarty pants newspaper readers, you agree with where he stands today, but he might change tomorrow!"

MUCH better than saying, "Bush isn't for what you think he is, but at least he hasn't changed positions on what you mistakenly think he believes!"

If you're too stupid to find out what your candidate actually stands for, you're probably too stupid to call him on it later, because you won't want to let every one know how stupid you are by admitting your mistake. Just like your boy in the White House.

Conscience? Hell no, because it isn't really you stepping into that voting booth on November 2nd, it is GOD voting THROUGH you. Just ask Alan Keyes.

Do you really think an all powerful omniscient being is going to ignore statistics like these? God didn't have to poll anyone, he already knows that:

69% of Bush supporters think he favors a multi-lateral approach to a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Wrong.

72% of Bush supporters think he favors a multi-lateral approach to a treaty banning land mines. Wrong.

51% of Bush supporters think he favors US participation in the Kyoto Treaty. Wrong.

53% of Bush supporters think he favors US participation in the International Criminal Court. Wrong.

74% of Bush supporters think he favors labor and environmental standards in agreements on trade. Wrong.

The recurring theme emerges: because Bush supporters favor these positions, they infer that Bush does too. Well, you know what they say about what happens when you ASSUME something.

You make an ass out of the whole fucking country you fucking idiots!!!

The only things you imbeciles got right was that 47% of you knew he still wanted to do that missile defense thing without conducting any more research on its effectiveness or feasibility; 57% of you knew he wanted to increase military spending (only 57% of you knew this??? God, you really are idiots!); and a whopping 70% of you knew Bush wants the US and not the UN to have a larger role in rebuilding Iraq.

Gee. With voters like you....I guess it isn't as hard to understand certain aspects of 20th Century European history afterall. If you don't want to know something, there isn't a chance in Hell you're gonna bother finding it out.

Just keep chanting "I believe, George Bush, help my unbelief."

Sure, you gotta have faith...But faith in what?

Holy Crap...Irony MUST be dead....

Remember how, right after September 11th, people kept saying it was the death of irony?

Well it must be dead if James Tobin can say this with a straight face:

"It is disappointing, indeed, to see the opposition party manipulate the court system in a blatant effort to influence the election," Tobin said in his statement.
from: Bush's New England Campaign Chief Resigns, By ERIK STETSON,
Associated Press Writer, Friday October 15, 2004 9:46 PM

Holy Crap!

Was he asleep when the Rehnquist Five handed the presidency and the fate of our nation to George W. Bush?

Talk about activist judges!

And this isn't a situation where the Democrats are lodging a lawsuit in an attempt to influence the current election...Unless you call exposing the truth about the underhanded, dirty, illegal tricks the Republicans used in a previous election an attempt to influence the voter.

Sure, Mr. Tobin, the truth can be pretty damned influential. Maybe the Republicans should try using it sometime.

Isn't the judicial system where you are supposed to turn when you need redress for a wrong and to achieve justice? How can Tobin complain when people do what they are supposed to do?

I can't take it anymore...I'm choking on the absurdity of this administration, their standing in the polls, their tactics, their attitude, their arrogance, their reliance on an uninformed base, and the way damned near half of America wants so desperately to believe any lie they feed us.

It's almost as if the Administration has a secret plan to make the head of every liberal American who actually reads a newspaper explode. This morning watching Meet The Press I could actually feel my head bulging and burping steam like Mt. St. Helens. I must have looked like one of the special effects scenes from Scanners*.

Well, FUCK YOU, GEORGE! I will foil your evil plan!

I'm wrapping my head in an ACE bandage until November 3rd, and crossing my fingers that enough well informed, literate, articulate liberals out there do too! Protect your heads and make sure you vote! Kerry will win if enough of you survive long enough to vote for him!

The other possibility is too terrible to contemplate....millions and millions of headless liberals sitting in front of their televisions with CNN and C-Span playing to blood spattered living rooms while George Bush is re-elected in a landslide.

Talk about scary!

*Scanners is a really good movie you need to be about as old as I am to have watched. Watch it on one of those new fangled tapes that are flat, round, and shiny.

Just a quick post to let you know I'm not dead...Yet

Sorry I haven't posted since the Cheney/Edwards debate...There's been a whole lot going on and plenty to talk about, but I've been too busy to toss my pearls out into the swine pen the last couple of days.

Like, for example, I went to see a new play about John Brown and Robert E. Lee last night. It was great, but I couldn't help thinking that the author might get hauled away as a subversive by Homeland Security, because to me the play was taking a brave stand in saying that America had some fanatically religious terrorists of its own. John Brown was out there cutting people's heads off with broadswords in the name of serving God and abolishing the evil of slavery. It didn't matter if the people he beheaded were actually slave holders, only that they did not oppose slavery. He tried to start a slave rebellion by taking over the federal arsenal and armory. He looked like Bin Laden. He prayed a lot. It was a good play, but man...What a subtext!

It got me to thinking on the way home, as I listened to NPR and the final reports on the WMDs not being there, and how Bush could admit he was wrong about claiming there were WMDs in Iraq but not wrong about going to war over them.

I thought about how the person who has sworn off alcohol through sheer effort of will can't afford to admit a gray area because they might backslide. Then I thought about backsliding Christians and how it all makes perfect sense for a man who bases his politics on his religion to presume that everyone has, or should have, equal amounts of faith. Faith is the certainty that something is true even if it--especially--if it can't be verified. Faith. Bush has faith in Himself, Jesus, and the evil of Hussein's hatred of America in general and the Bush family in particular.

And then I thought about what Jesus said about lust...You know, the line that doomed Jimmy Carter, about if you look at a woman with lust you have committed adultery in your heart. Jimmy Carter, a devout Christian, admitted in a Playboy interview to having had lust in his heart.

And the penny dropped....That's the Bush Doctrine on Hussein. If you lusted after WMD, you have already stockpiled them in your heart...And that is why we went to war, and that is why Jesus would have voted the same way John Kerry did. Because of the Weapons of Mass Destruction hidden in Hussein's heart.

I get it.

Now, I'm going to go shoot myself.

Just kidding.

I'm not killing myself until AFTER the election.

Archie

Cheney and Edwards Elevate "I know you are but what am I?" To New Heights

A few pre-coffee and heart pill thoughts on last night's debate.

Early talking heads were saying Edwards won the debate, which was surprising to me, because in terms of sheer confidence and showmanship, the Dickster seemed top dog...a little like a 6th grader in his last year before middle school taunting the new 4th grader.

Cheney got to pick the format resulting in them sitting at desks, which Cheney is very good at because he's behind a desk a lot on the TV talking head shows and FOX explaining the President's policies and ginning up support for the war with his assertions about Iraq and Al Qaida being in bed together. Edwards is a lot more comfortable with his shirt sleeves rolled up and walking around in front of a crowd.

The seated at a desk format made Edwards look fidgety and Cheney look more natural, even when he was doing that head lolling to the side thing he does that drives me crazy....like a re-animated hanged man. The more aggressively he lies the closer his ear gets to his shoulder, have you ever noticed that?

I was driving the 78 miles between my office and my home, and so I heard it on the radio instead of saw it on TV, and I still disagreed with the pundits. My wife asked me who I thought won and I said, "If you go by style points, Cheney won in a surprising hands down...If you go by truthfulness and logic, it went handily to Edwards."

Cheney kept saying Edwards was the liar and that you could find out for yourself if you went to http://factcheck.com. I did this morning and either Cheney is secretly trying to elect John Kerry or a hacker is redirecting traffic from that site to http://GeorgeSoros.com.

Kind of funny, but if it is a hacker, it is just one more sad way this election seems more like a schoolyard brawl than a reasoned political debate. Wish both sides would grow up a little.

[Note: NPR cleared this up this morning, Cheney got it wrong, the correct website for the non-partisan fact checking is http://www.factcheck.org, although the facts are not exactly pro-Bush. Maybe he thought if he sounded truthful, nobody would bother checking.]

At the end of the day, the PIPA report is the most relevant of all. It is the study about how majorities of Bush supporters incorrectly assumed that Bush favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements (84%), and the US being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the International Criminal Court (66%), the treaty banning land mines (72%), and the Kyoto Treaty on global warming (51%). They were divided between those who knew that Bush favors building a new missile defense system now (44%) and those who incorrectly believe he wishes to do more research until its capabilities are proven (41%). However, majorities were correct that Bush favors increased defense spending (57%) and wants the US, not the UN, to take the stronger role in developing Iraq's new government (70%).

Basically, it says if you are an idiotic lie believing FOX news watcher, you are likely to vote Bush, but if you have been paying attention, you're likely a Kerry supporter.

(See: The PIPA Report)

I've got a link farm for news articles...Check some of them out. If you still want to vote for Bush, fine, but statistics like these should scare the hell out of anyone with a brain. I'd prefer informed-and-still-willing evil to uninformed-can-claim "I didn't know" evil any day of the week.

As to specific debate points, I really didn't understand Cheney's argument that the 90% American casualties number is a Kerry/Edwards distortion because it only took into account the "coalition" casualties, and not Iraqi casualties who are dying in an effort to take back their own country.

If I were Edwards I might have pressed Cheney for a clarification, and asked if his figure of 50% of the casualties he is counting as Iraqi coalition partners include civilians or only the Iraqi police and army...Because I wasn't aware that there were that many to begin with and if what, 500+ have been killed, how many are left and how many are likely to continue volunteering to do that work? (Or are these stats like American Civil War casualties counts that say more Americans died in that war than any other American war because the dead on BOTH sides were Americans? Don't both sides of the fight in Iraq see themselves as taking back their country?)

Cheney's position, as it usually is, was scarier than the one Edwards paints, but Edwards kept saying that Cheny was saying it was being painted as rosey. It is all maddening, really.

The other thing that was interesting were the questions Cheney chose not to rebut, like the special treatment Haliburton gets, Cheney's flip flopping on sanctions for Iran, his company's use of off shore shells to avoid taxes and to conduct business with Iran and Libya, stuff like that.

Anyway, it was interesting...Oh, two other things. One, Edwards needs to be careful using that line about a long resume doesn't equal good judgment...It works on Cheney but then Cheney could easily use the same line about Kerry, and I was surprised he didn't.

Second, when Cheney was saying how good outsourcing is for America a brilliant idea occurred to me. How about using the favorite issue of Republicans, that of school vouchers, in this context: I'd like to advocate Travel Vouchers to send Americans to India and China, or the country of their choice to get the good paying jobs which are being outsourced. Makes perfect sense to me. If we should get vouchers to flee failing schools, how about getting vouchers to flee a failing economy?

Lastly, I loved how Cheney asserted that he NEVER said there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and September 11th, and yet continued to stress the invasion of Iraq was appropriate because we were attacked on September 11th. Even did it again in his closing arguments.

Gotta admire how they don't change positions no matter what...But it does remind me of another prominent world leader from the last century who was still insisting he could win a war even when you could drive by streetcar from the Eastern to the Western front.

Archie

Are they working on the Bush Campaign?

One-Third of Military Reservists Fail to Report for Iraq Duty Capital Hill Blue, Oct 1, 2004

Hmmm....That seems like a lot. If they aren't showing up for duty to go serve in Afghanistan and Iraq, does that mean that they are not likely to vote for Bush in 2004?

Or does it mean that they are following the President's Alabama Guard example and taking time off from their military duty during war time to work on a political campaign?

Just a thought.

Archie

A quick word on last night's debate

I usually watch C-Span for things like this, because I don't want my spin during the debate, I'll take it afterwards when I can't avoid it. C-Span was courageous in, I think, defiantly NOT submitting to the President's "request" that candidates not be filmed while their opponent is speaking. C-Span ran a split screen for the ENTIRE debate.

Bush's "off screen" body language was very revealing. Slamming down waters, rolling his eyes, puffing his cheeks, growling like a junk yard dog...and looking like he barely understood the question, let alone his opponent's answers.

To an objective observer, which I admit I am not, I think it is clear that Kerry won the debate, but the Spinsters immediately started earning their paychecks trying to make us believe the Emperor had a full set of clothes and that Kerry was naked.

Former Mayor Rudy was the worst, because he is an intelligent guy...but he's got a receipt instead of a soul. Karen Hughes claims to have retired from the campaign and gone home to be with family but is at every single speech and I expect will be at every debate...literally mouthing the words of the President as he speaks them. She was saying afterwards on MSNBC that Bush handily won the debate, but she and all the other neo-con talking heads just repeated the same thing Bush kept repeating throughout the debate, the only line he has: "Kerry is too inconsistent to be president."

This flip-flopping bullshit is just a poorly paraphrased redneck version of the slogan his dad used against Clinton, "You can't turn the White House into the Waffle House."

Let's hope it works just as well for the son as it did for the father. Last night was a clear win for Kerry, and if the American People who saw it know shit from shinola they will vote for Kerry in droves.

Unfortunately, there was an actual media effort to keep Republicans from even watching the debate. All the Conservative Radio Voices I listen too, like Neal Boortz, Michael Savage, and even Rush Limbaugh were calling the debate a "joint press conference" and not worth listening to. Their opinion is that if you need to hear a debate at this point to make up your mind who to vote for you are an idiot.

While there may be some truth to that argument, it would be nice to get the people who are such ardent Bushies to see their candidate think and speak "on the fly" since he rarely holds press conferences where he takes questions not submitted in advance, and even when he does he gives 17 minute speeches first so the "liberal news media" pull the coherent quotes from that instead of the idiotic babble he tosses back to softball questions the press corps field him.

Nobody in the Bush Camp wants the majority of their base to see him stammering, yammering, fidgeting at the podium, looking so much shorter than Kerry, getting flushed with anger, and arrogantly asserting he is the smarter of the two.

I know that it worked to some degree.

I have a Republican office mate, an ex-air force Lt. Colonel who constantly says things like, "I'm not crazy about Bush but Kerry scares the hell out of me." (To which I say pithy things like, "They are so close on so many issues, what scares you? That he might actually try to fund No Child Left Behind?" but I digress)

Anyway, my office mate proudly said yesterday that he was taking his kids to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow instead of watching the debate.

For what it's worth, I think Kerry realizes his worst enemy is optimism, and so should the Democrats. Keep up the panic. There's more than enough reason.

Even so, get out there and find every online poll you can and vote that Kerry won the debate. Write letters to your local papers saying Kerry won the debate, and why you honestly think he did. Call talk radio shows and explain why you're not crazy about Kerry but Bush scares the hell out of you. People are sheep...lead them away from the slaughter and back to the nice green fields.

Take the Kerry Challenge

Archie