Day: August 29, 2005

Pat Buchanan Calls for Bush’s Impeachment – Over Laspes on Immigration

Jon Ponder

Thousands of people have died because President George W. Bush either a) lied about the reasons for going to war or b) acted so incompetently as to be criminally negligent or c) both. But that’s not why rightwing idealogue Pat Buchanan believes Mr. Bush should be impeached:

Buchanan [has] quietly suggested House Republicans mull impeaching President Bush … for what he sees as Bush’s “criminal” failure to stem the tide of illegal immigrants…

“We are being invaded,” the reactionary Republican declared in his column Monday, “and the president of the United States is not doing his duty to protect the states against that invasion.”

“Some courageous Republican, to get the attention of this White House, should drop into the hopper a bill of impeachment,” he added, “charging Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against ‘invasion.'”

On the face of it, there’s a much better case for going after Bush over the lies and/or criminal negligence, but if the Gops want to go after the President on immigration, they’re more than welcome to.

Rangel: Cheney Is Ill So Rumsfeld Is Running the Country

Jon Ponder

“…I don’t even think Cheney is awake enough to know what’s going on. Rumsfeld is the guy in Washington to watch. He’s running the country. [Cheney is] a sick man you know.He’s got heart disease, but the disease is not restricted to that part of his body. He grunts a lot, so you never really know what he’s thinking. But the guy that talks a lot is Rumsfeld. And that’s where our nation is getting involved in trillion dollar deficits. “

— Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

You Know You’re In Trouble When the French Military Bails You Out

Buck Banks

In another sign that the Bush admin has blown it in Afghanistan, support for military operations in that country increasingly has come from — ahem — France. You know, the country we called a bunch of pussies because they didn’t support Bush’s application of the theory of Manifest Destiny in Iraq.

According to the Associated Press, the French are big-time propping us up in Kabul and Central Asia:

French fighters have been flying sorties under U.S. command in Afghanistan since Aug. 16, and France also took command this month of an international naval task force on terrorism-related patrols in the seas between the Horn of Africa and Pakistan.

France has kept about 900 troops in Afghanistan since 2003, including 200 Special Forces soldiers fighting alongside the Americans. Its air force periodically has joined the U.S.-led coalition since taking its biggest role in the war’s opening weeks in 2001, when France had 5,500 troops in the region.

“It’s France’s wish to show that we are cooperating in the fight against terror and in support of you in Afghanistan,” said French Air Force Col. Gilles Michel, who oversees his country’s air force role in the theater. “We told the Americans, ‘If you need some assets, we will provide them.'”

Assets? Hey Gilles, how are you guys set for presidents and cabinets over there?

Mindless Idiots Protest Starbucks’ Treatment of Customers as Grown-ups

Trish

Strike a victory against the inane, “But it’s not fair” whining of a public trained to expect two sides (and only two sides) to every issue. Starbucks, which is printing quotes on its cups to get people thinking, isn’t going for it.

Seattle Times:

A national Christian women’s organization is accusing the Seattle-based coffee maker of promoting a homosexual agenda because of a quote by author Armistead Maupin…

Maupin’s quote — one of several dozen in “The Way I See It” promotion — says his only regret about being gay is that he repressed it for so long…

Concerned Women for America, which promotes itself as the antithesis of the National Organization for Women and boasts 8,700 supporters in Washington, says most of those quoted on the coffee cups are liberal.

The group believes corporations have a responsibility to reflect the diversity of their customers by taking a balanced approach — or staying out of divisive social issues altogether.

It’s not all the morons’ fault of course. The MSM decided a long time ago to stop presenting complex issues in all their complicated nuance and instead boil everything down to an argument between two equally simple and one-sided opponents. Now everyone expects that for any Anti-Defamation League member quoted, there will be some idiot who claims the Holocaust never happened given equal time and respect.

“Corporations have deeper pockets and therefore more influence than individuals do,” said Maureen Richardson, state director of Concerned Women for America of Washington.

“I think it’s wiser for them to stay out of these issues so that they don’t offend conservatives and people of faith.”

Richardson…cites possible support by Starbucks for pro-life clinics and the Boy Scouts of America as ways the company might offset its support of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and gay pride.

Yes, by all means, let’s “offset” support for our stance that the world is round by giving equal time to those who feel pretty darn sure it’s flat.

“The Way I See It” campaign does not set out to take a political stand but rather to encourage discourse, Starbucks spokeswoman Audrey Lincoff said…

Lincoff said the company does not characterize the personalities quoted on its coffee cups as liberal or conservative, but rather as a diverse group of artists, musicians, educators, activists and athletes…

The coffee company won’t be pulling the Maupin quote — or any other — from the campaign, but in fact will expand it to feature quotes from regular customers.

Portrait of the Smear Artist as a Young Man

Jon Ponder
Karl Rove is the poster child for political hubris. The Globe profile ends by suggesting he may find his destiny when the special prosecutor in the CIA Leak investigation issues his indictments. We can only hope.

The Boston Globe has a short overview of the career of Karl Rove that is quite telling. What we learn is Rove has always been up to his pudgy ass in dirty tricks – and he always, always, always gets away with it.

Rove’s record has been consistent. Over 35 years, he has been a master of dirty tricks, divisiveness, innuendo, manipulation, character assassination, and roiling partisanship.

He started early. In 1970, when he was 19 and active as a college Republican — though he didn’t graduate from college — Rove pretended to volunteer for a Democratic candidate in Illinois, stole some campaign stationery, and used it to disrupt a campaign event. Later, in Texas, he gave testimony in court that was embarrassing to an opponent of one of Rove’s clients, even though it was not true…

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Sex Offender Hysteria Trumps School Safety

Trish

The fallout continues from hastily passed Florida laws to keep “sex offenders” away from children. The Jessica Lunsford Act, passed after the 9-year-old was kidnapped from her home and killed, requires everyone who could come in contact with children at school campuses to be fingerprinted and background checked by Sept. 1.

Everyone.

South Florida Sun Sentinel:

But most of the 10,000 or more construction workers at Broward County schools still have not been fingerprinted and screened, district officials said.

“I anticipate that 75 percent to 80 percent of our [building] projects will stop,” said Michael Garretson, the School District’s deputy superintendent of facilities…

The delay could stretch into November, meaning projects would take longer and cost millions more to finish than originally negotiated, Garretson said. The district already is under pressure to build hundreds of new classrooms to meet the state’s class-size reduction rules.

Construction workers are active at 211 sites, including most of the district’s 262 schools, Garretson said. Mainly they are repairing roofs and air-conditioning systems, renovating restrooms or fixing mold and mildew damage, he said.

Damage from Hurricane Katrina, which left some schools closed, will be left unmended, and kids will just have to wait until the massive investigation can begin. But since when has education taken a front seat to public hysteria?

The district plans to use Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, McFatter Technical Center in Davie and the downtown K.C. Wright administration building as the sites for fingerprinting.

Broward is buying four fingerprinting machines and hiring eight more clerical employees for the fingerprinting of thousands of workers.

The district is charging construction workers $47 for the service, but it is likely that general contractors will pay the fees and add the charges to the final price of each project.

Let’s just hope none of those workers ever got caught having sex with their high school sweethearts. “Sex offenders” include anyone of majority age (say, 18) prosecuted for having sex, consensual or not, with any minor (say, 17).

Finland Reports Possible Bird Flu in Seagulls

Buck Banks

Finland’s Agriculture Ministry said on Friday it had found a possible outbreak of bird flu in seagulls in the northern town of Oulu, but probably not the highly pathogenic strain that has caused deaths in Asia.

A ministry official said laboratory tests had identified the virus among “sick and dead seagulls” found in a park in Oulu, though it was not clear how many of them were carrying the disease or how serious a strain of flu it was.

“Our view a the moment is that if it is bird flu, it is low pathogenic avian influenza, not the high pathogenic which has been found in Asia,” senior ministry official Riitta Heinonen told Reuters. Final test results will be ready in three weeks.

Low-pathogenic bird flu is not uncommon and can be found in as many as 30 percent of wild birds, experts say.

But monitoring is increasing as fears grow of a global outbreak, especially since the avian virus has spread from Asia into Siberia in eastern Russia and Kazakhstan.
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