Day: February 22, 2006

Poll: Majority Favors Impeaching Bush

Jon Ponder

Bonnie Erbe:

Those blasphemously “liberal” media outlets have once again deprived the American public of widespread coverage of nothing less than startling poll results. The non-partisan polling firm Zogby International last month found that by a margin of 52 percent to 43 percent, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush “if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge’s approval.”

Well, there’s no “if” about it anymore. The president approved warrantless wiretaps in 2002. Two years later, during a campaign appearance in Buffalo, N.Y. he volunteered he’d done nothing of the kind. That’s called breaking the law and lying about it.

Girls Rule, Boys Drool

Pensito Editors

Lawrence Summers stepped down yesterday as President of Harvard University after a stormy five-year tenure. In March of 2005, Summers (former Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration) garnered a no-confidence vote from the Harvard faculty; he faced a second censuring in the wake of the resignation three weeks ago of William C. Kirby, Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences. Like many folks associated with the “college outside of Boston,” Summers has a propensity for talking out of his butt. His most controversial remarks concerned the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering fields:

So my best guess, to provoke you, of what’s behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon, by far, is the general clash between people’s legitimate family desires and employers’ current desire for high power and high intensity, that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination. I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong.

…Blah blah blah, basically what the dude said was that chicks are dumb in math and too busy making babies to hold down a real job.

To this correspondent, even more egregious was Summers’ 2002 dissing of Cornel West (scholar, rapper, and featured player in two-thirds of the Matrix trilogy), who left Harvard’s African-American Studies Department to rock the mike at Princeton after Summers’ suggestion that he devote more time to “traditionally academic pursuits.” Hmmph. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, suckah.

Republicans Form Circular Firing Squad over Ports Deal

Jon Ponder

Ready. Fire! Aim: Bush worshipers are already trying to make opposition to the president’s deal to allow the sale of major East Coast ports to his crony, the Emir of Dubai who owns Dubai Ports World, a Democrats versus Dear Leader fight.

But the opposition to the sale is dominated by Republicans, including:

  • Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who sent an email to supporters yesterday that said, “As of today, I’m requesting briefings on this deal. If the Administration does not put the deal on hold, I will introduce legislation doing so … to ensure that this decision gets a more thorough review. Common sense warrants it; our national security requires it.”
  • House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who said, “We must not allow the possibility of compromising our national security due to lack of review or oversight by the federal government.”
  • Gov. George Pataki of New York
  • Gov. Robert Erlich of Maryland
  • Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
  • Members of the House including Homeland Security chairman Peter King of New York, Mark Foley of Florida and Vito Fosella of New York

It was not a Democrat but Sen. Graham who said,”It’s unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history. Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now?”

Newser News: Kagan and Rush Break Up

Jon Ponder

Ick factor: CNN newsreader Daryn Kagan can now start to reclaim whatever dignity she had before she started dating Rush Limbaugh, according to Lloyd Grove:

I hear that right-wing radio guy Rush Limbaugh and CNN daytime anchor Daryn Kagan — who’ve been dating for nearly two years — are finally kaput. The good news, of course, is that the fabulous Kagan is back on the market.

Insurgents Blow up Baghdad Shrine

Jon Ponder

Sectarian animosity in Iraq escalated yesterday when anti-Shiite forces destroyed the gold-domed shrine of Samarra. The action could ignite full-fledged civil war:

Suspected insurgents blew up the gold-domed shrine in Samarra that houses two important Shiite imams today in an act apparently tailored to stoke sectarian passions between Iraq’s Shiite majority and Sunni minority.

Witnesses near the Askari shrine complex said it was badly damaged in one and possibly two 6:45 a.m. explosions. There was no official word of casualties, but some witnesses said victims might be under the rubble.

Little of the massive gold dome remained, witnesses said. Residents were angrily chanting, “God is great.”