Month: January 2006

Poll: 76% Think Bush Should Disclose Abramoff Contacts

Jon Ponder

Our photos: President Bush told reporters yesterday that photos of him with disgraced Republican operative Jack Abramoff were “irrelevant.”

Not that it matters to His Munificence, but according to a new Washington Post/ABC poll, the citizenry does not agree:

The survey found that three in four–76 percent–of all Americans said Bush should disclose contacts between aides and Abramoff while 18 percent disagreed. Two in three Republicans joined with eight in 10 Democrats and political independents in favoring disclosure, according to the poll.

Even two-thirds of Bush worshippers want the contacts released. That in itself is astounding.

Even two-thirds of Bush worshippers want the contacts released. That in itself is astounding.

One point that begs mentioning: The photos do not belong to George W. Bush or even the White House. They were paid for by you and me, and the little people out there who pay taxes.

Only an aristocrat would claim privilege over taxpayer funded photos.

Another point: Can you imagine what would have happened if the Clinton White House had claimed privilege over photos of Bill and Monica?! What howl there would have been from the Congress and the traditional media.

Today, they’re so cowed by Bush and his imperial pretensions that there is barely a whimper.

Cowardly Bush Terrified of Octogenerian Reporter

Jon Ponder

President Scared to Take a Question from Helen Thomas

According to DrudgeReport.com, at his impromptu “news” conference yesterday, President George W. Bush was scared shitless of columnist Helen Thomas, 85, and refused to call on her, even though she was seated in the front row:

President Bush today again avoided taking a question from White House doyenne Helen Thomas during his 45-minute press conference, even though he took questions from every reporter around her front-row, center seat.

“He’s a coward,” Thomas said afterward. “He’s supposed to be this macho guy. He’ll take on Osama bin Laden, but he won’t take me on.”

Thomas, who worked as the UPI White House reporter for 57 years and is now a columnist, raised her hand every time the president was concluding an answer to a reporter’s question, but he never called on her.

She had a few questions in mind, though. “I wanted to ask about Iraq: ‘You said you didn’t go in for oil or for Israel or for WMDs. so why did you go in?’ ”

With Hiring of Bill Bennett CNN Continues Goose-Step March to the Right

Buck Banks

Crazy like Fox: With the announcement that it has replaced pundit-troll Robert Novak with super-moralist Bill Bennet, CNN is continuing its slouch toward Wingnutland. The radio talk-show host and former Reagan and Bush One administration flunky is the latest conservative pundit hired by CNN, following its recent signing of radio talk-show host Glenn Beck.

The press release contained an strange sentence:

Bennett will be one of CNN’s political commentators as part of the network’s continuing effort to bring a broad range of perspectives to its viewers.

The only perspective Bennett brings is Bennett’s, unfortnately. In the June 2003 issue of Washington Monthly, Joshua Green’s article, “Bookie of Virtue,” painted a portrait of Bennett as an Old Testament preacher of morality and dictator of mores, and a bit of flame at the slots:

For more than 20 years, as a writer, speaker, government official, and political operative, Bennett has been a commanding general in the culture wars. As Ronald Reagan’s chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, he was the scourge of academic permissiveness. Later, as Reagan’s secretary of education, he excoriated schools and students for failing to set and meet high standards. As drug czar under George H.W. Bush, he applied a get-tough approach to drug use, arguing that individuals have a moral responsibility to own up to their addiction.

But while bashing wife-swapping and the “Rikki Lake Show,” Bennett was conspicuously quiet on the topic of gambling, for good reason, according to Green:

Bennett has been a high-roller since at least the early 1990s. A review of one 18-month stretch of gambling showed him visiting casinos, often for two or three days at a time (and enjoying a line of credit of at least $200,000 at several of them). Bennett likes to be discreet. “He’ll usually call a host and let us know when he’s coming,” says one source. “We can limo him in. He prefers the high-limit room, where he’s less likely to be seen and where he can play the $500-a-pull slots. He usually plays very late at night or early in the morning–usually between midnight and 6 a.m.” The documents show that in one two-month period, Bennett wired more than $1.4 million to cover losses.

Bennett claims his style of gambling is “moral”:

“I play fairly high stakes. I adhere to the law. I don’t play the ‘milk money.’ I don’t put my family at risk, and I don’t owe anyone anything.”

Well, that’s a comfort, and something viewers should keep in mind as Bennett carries on about how the rest of us should behave and whose values we should emulate. Seems to me that CNN is taking a big gamble, not only on Bennett and Glenn and the new rightism of its broadcasts, but that its viewers want more Fox and less balance in their TV punditry.

In Florida, You Can Get Your Gun, Bait, and Voter’s Registration in One Easy Stop

Trish

Those wacky Florida legislators, with their favorite lobby the National Rifle Association, are at it again. The same folks who proposed “Bring Your Gun to Work Day” and passed “Shoot First” legislation that allows anyone in Florida who feels threatened to blast away, have really capped it this time. So to speak.

Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, tried to broaden the bill to include beauty shops and day care centers.

Now they want to force gun and bait shops to perform voter registration. Hmmm…I wonder what kind of voters they’ll sign up? St. Petersburg Times:

Some shop owners say the mandatory requirement would be a burden while some Democrats accused Republicans of trolling for votes.

Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, tried to broaden the bill to include beauty shops and day care centers. But [bill sponsor Rep. Greg] Evers rejected the move.

Greg and his NRA pals must have stayed up all night cooking up this one. The idea is that since places like Wal-mart sell hunting and fishing licenses, they are quasi-government institutions. Therefore they must offer more government services, like voter registration and filing your homestead exemption. Actually, you can’t file your homestead exemption but you can renew your license tag. Well, no, you can’t renew your license tag but you can pay your property taxes. Sorry, no, you can’t pay your property taxes but you can register to vote. I knew it was something.

Supporters say this is just one more way to spread democracy. Sun Sentinel:

Pollsters say hunters and anglers are more likely to support Republican candidates. And the measure would take effect just months before Florida voters elect the state’s next governor.

Pure coincidence, no doubt. And if you’re worried about how gun shop owners will be prevented from influencing potential voters about what party to register for or what amendment to support, don’t. These smart guys have already thought of that and it sounds like a surefire (no pun) plan.

The proposal would prohibit businesses from helping a customer fill out an application or collecting completed ones, but it does not call for the state to monitor the process.

Just trust us.

Pensito Review: Off the Wires

Buck Banks

Mexican Serial Murderer Captured
MEXICO CITY – A suspect arrested while fleeing from a home where an elderly woman was slain is probably the serial murderer known as the “Mataviejitas,” or “Little Old Lady Killer,” police said. That nickname ought to serve him well on Cellblock C.

Lawyer: Saddam Wants to Sue Bush, Blair
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein’s chief lawyer said Thursday that the deposed Iraqi president wants President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair tried on allegations of committing war crimes. Doesn’t everybody?


Mexico Says Drug Smugglers in Border Tiff
MEXICO CITY – The men dressed in military garb who crossed the border and confronted Texas law officers this week were drug smugglers, not Mexican soldiers, officials said Wednesday, illustrating Mexico’s thorny problem with criminals who masquerade as security forces. Said a Mexican police commander:”Badges? We do need those stinking badges!”


U.S. Envoy Says India Nuke Deal Could Die
NEW DELHI – The U.S. ambassador to India said Wednesday that a nuclear deal between India and the United States could “die” if New Delhi supports Iran during a U.N. atomic watchdog agency meeting. Customer service call centers is one thing, but a nuclear deal — is there nothing we won’t outsource to India?

Putin Downplays British Spying Scandal
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that the discovery of an alleged spy ring run by British diplomats also accused of funneling funds to non-governmental organizations proved the government was right to impose new restrictions on NGOs. He also vowed to remove all fake electronic rocks from Gorky Park.

Santorum Loses It, Compares Supporting Him with Military Service

Jon Ponder

“And yet we have brave men and women who are willing to step forward because they know what’s at stake. They’re willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. What I’m asking all of you tonight is not to put on a uniform. Put on a bumper sticker. Is it that much to ask? Is it that much to ask to step up and serve your country?”

— Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), addressing supporters last week

Next President Will Inherit Bush’s Dictatorial Powers – Even If She’s a Dem

Jon Ponder

Short-sighted: President Bush has his supporters so frightened of terror that they are not thinking clearly. Worshippers of Mr. Bush are overlooking the fact that if President Bush is allowed to eavesdrop without warrants, torture suspects and demand our Google searches, and to ignore Congress and the courts, the next president will feel entitled to do the same — whoever she may be.

It’s the Incompetence, Stupid!

Jon Ponder

The Way of Rove is to destroy the credibility of your opponent’s perceived strengths — now known as “Swiftboating.” In 2004, I believed the way to topple the Bush Administration was to go after Bush’s true weakness: His incompetence:

Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it’s hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president’s defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his war in Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina and his Medicare drug plan, will have to grapple with how one president could so cosmically botch so many big things — particularly when most of them were the president’s own initiatives.

In numbing profusion, the newspapers are filled with litanies of screw-ups. Yesterday’s New York Times brought news of the first official assessment of our reconstruction efforts in Iraq, in which the government’s special inspector general depicted a policy beset, as Times reporter James Glanz put it, “by gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting [and] secrecy.” At one point, rebuilding efforts were divided, bewilderingly and counterproductively, between the Army Corps of Engineers and, for projects involving water, the Navy. That’s when you’d think a president would make clear in no uncertain terms that bureaucratic turf battles would not be allowed to impede Iraq’s reconstruction. But then, the president had no guiding vision for how to rebuild Iraq — indeed, he went to war believing that such an undertaking really wouldn’t require much in the way of American treasure and American lives.

Bush’s War On Terror Needs to End

Buck Banks

Unjust justifications: As George Bush ramps up his campaign to justify the National Security Agency’s illegal spying on Americans, the language he uses emphasizes terrorism and war. He says (repeatedly) that the United States is engaged in a “war on terror,” and that justifies any illegal activities the government wants to commit, and damn the Consititution and the Congress.

In Europe they also have terrorism, but they approach it not in the language of war, but as a crime, the purview of the police. We don’t hear the inflamed rhetoric of war from the British government, we just hear in the news that they have rounded up almost 50 people associated with the London tube bombings. The police investigate and arrest the criminals. They don’t trod on the civil rights of innocent citizens or send suspected terrorists to so-called dark sites in Romania. They lock them up in the Hammersmith Palais and let the British justice system take its course.

When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, then-President Bill Clinton did not declare war on terror. The FBI hunted down McVeigh and arrested him. He was tried, convicted and, in 2001, executed for killing 167 people and wounding hundreds more. No “rendition” was carried out. No illegal detention was employed. No fake charges were filed before a secret tribunal.

But come September 11, 2001, and George Bush declares war on terrorism and gets his carta blanca to do as he pleases and damn the Consititution and Congress. That ushers in the era of Gitmo, Korans down the toilet, water-boarding, renditions, secret torture chambers and Lyndie English’s special brand of sadism. It’s Bush’s Inquisition, complete with secret trials and confessions extracted through torture and intimidation. With Dick Cheney as his Torquemada, Bush has pursued his War of Terror with a vigor matched only by his zeal in giving tax breaks to the rich.

The War on Terror is about as effective as our vaunted War on Drugs. Employing the language of war on both of these imaginary fronts enables the government to ignore any civil rights or inconvenient laws that impede the search for terrorists or drug users/sellers. It enables the Defense Department to get involved in domestic police actions that violate the posse comitatus injunction against using the military to fight domestic crime.

George Bush is a criminal. He has broken the law — needlessly, it would appear. His hubris enables him to break the law and justify the act by invoking some nonexistent presidential powers. Bush is a criminal and should be impeached, and the War on Terror ended.

Protestor to A.G. Gonzalez: ‘Tap This’

Jon Ponder

Tap ThisYou gotta love it:

A member of the audience with the words ‘Tap This’ taped on her jeans walks out of the room as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, not pictured, speaks at Georgetown University Law School Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006. Answering the Bush administration’s critics, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that warrantless surveillance is critical to prevent another terrorist attack within the United States. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Hat tip to ELW!