Day: April 25, 2006

Bush Talks ‘Like a Soul Tortured with Tourette’s’ — Tony Snow

Jon Ponder

CNN just confirmed that Tony Snow will be named White House spokesman tomorrow. Here’s what Snow wrote in a column about candidate George W. Bush in 2000:

At one point last week, he stunned a friendly audience by barking out absurd and inappropriate words, like a soul tortured with Tourette’s…

Bush … has to persuade people he’s smart. He recently tried to dazzle reporters by discussing the vagaries of Congressional Budget Office economic forecasts, but his recitation of numbers proved so bewildering that not even his aides could produce a comprehensible translation.

The English Language [sic] has become a minefield for the man, whose malaprops make him the political heir not of Ronald Reagan, but Norm Crosby. Who can forget the time he vowed defiantly not to let the opposition put him in cufflinks? (He meant “handcuffs.”)

DHS Wants Access to Social Security Databases to Ferret Out Illegal Aliens

Buck Banks

Cost of security is privacy: The Department of Homeland Security is pushing Congress to pass legislation giving its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division access to Social Security databases so it can identify mismatched and fake SS numbers used by illegal aliens. Remembering the heckuva job DHS did during Hurricane Katrina and the fact that DHS employees have been arrested for trying to pick up 14-year-olds over the Internet, it sounds like a great idea to let them “mine” data from Social Security’s databases. The plan, which some say just cobbles together existing initiatives into a “new” program, was proposed last Thursday.

ICE Administrator Julie Myers said 80,000 incarcerated immigrants were deported last year, and the plan is to increase that number by 10 percent each year for the next two years.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department wants Congress to pass legislation that would let investigators with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency access Social Security Administration databases. According to ICE, millions of workers have given Social Security numbers to their employers that do not match their names, but ICE does not have access to data to investigate this activity.

“One of the key challenges that supports illegal migration is abuse of our Social Security system and the Social Security document,” Chertoff said during a news conference. “We’ve been urging Congress to pass legislation, now before the Senate, that would grant the Department of Homeland Security some carefully crafted access to Social Security no-match data so we can detect those employers who are systematically employing workers, despite the fact that there’s an obvious mismatch between the names and the Social Security numbers in question.”

The overall strategy announced Thursday has three elements: identify and remove criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and other immigration violators in the country; build strong worksite enforcement and compliance programs to deter illegal employment; and uproot criminal infrastructure domestically and abroad that supports illegal immigration, criminal trafficking and document or benefits fraud.

ICE Administrator Julie Myers said her agency also is training prison officers on how to deport illegal immigrants already in custody. She said 80,000 incarcerated immigrants were deported last year, and the plan is to increase that number by 10 percent each year for the next two years.

What a great plan — get rid of all the maids, day laborers and empty the prisons at the same time.

Democratic Weak Spots In the Midterms

Buck Banks

Ripples in the “wave”: While it seems that most commentators have been focused on the opportunities for the Democratic Party to gain House congressional seats in the midterms, Nathan L. Gonzales notes in the Rothenberg Political Report that in the past 50 years, no party has won seats without losing at least one. If that’s the case, argues Gonzales, then rather than the 15 seats the Dems need to gain a majority in the House, they might need 16 or 17 — or maybe 26!

Gonzales notes: “In the last 50 years, no party has been completely shutout in the takeover columns in the House. That means, that even in ‘wave’ elections including 1994, the party bearing the majority of the losses has managed to pick off at least one incumbent or one open seat from the other side.”

‘In the last 50 years, no party has been completely shutout in the takeover columns in the House.’

Here’s Gonzales’ analysis of the weak points in the Democratic Party’s armor in the midterms:

1. Ohio 6 (Open). Democrats hit a severe bump in the road when state Sen. Charlie Wilson (D) failed to garner the 50 valid signatures necessary to qualify for the primary ballot. Now, Wilson is running an expensive write-in campaign in the May 2 primary. State Rep. Chuck Blasdel is the likely GOP nominee, but he is still recovering from a hit he took for owing back-taxes. If Wilson doesn’t get the nomination, Republican prospects improve dramatically. If he is the nominee, it’s a very competitive race.

2. West Virginia 1 (Alan Mollohan). Cong. Mollohan is under pressure from Republicans and now the editorial boards of the New York Times and Washington Post to step down from his role as ranking member of the House Ethics Committee. [Note: Mollohan did step down from the committee on Friday.] Under scrutiny is the dramatic increase in his personal wealth over the last four years and money he directed to a handful of non-profit companies he helped set up, back in the state. State Delegate Chris Wakim (R), a West Point graduate and Gulf War veteran, showed $118,463 in the bank on March 31 and could take advantage if Mollohan’s political situation becomes more dire.

3. Georgia 8 (Jim Marshall). Former Cong. Mac Collins (R) is running a rejuvenated campaign against Democrat Jim Marshall in a redrawn district. Marshall had over $1 million on hand through the first quarter of the year compared to almost $700,000 for Collins. President Bush carried the 8th District in both 2000 (58%) and 2004 (61%).
[…]

Pink: ‘Dear Mr. President’ — Finally, a Song for Our Times

Trish

“Dear Mr. President”

by Pink, featuring the Indigo Girls

Dear Mr. President
Come take a walk with me
Let’s pretend we’re just two people and
You’re not better than me
I’d like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep
What do you feel when you look in the mirror
Are you proud

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why

Dear Mr. President
Were you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
Are you a lonely boy
How can you say
No child is left behind
We’re not dumb and we’re not blind
They’re all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter’s rights away
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You’ve come a long way from whiskey and cocaine

[…]

Poll: One-Third of Americans Are Delusional, Still Support Bush

Jon Ponder
Asked whether “honest and trustworthy” describes the president, 40 percent said yes, down from 56 percent in a survey carried out April 1-2 last year.

As troubling as it is for our national health and security that 32 percent of Americans still support President Bush, it is also disturbing to consider what will happen when these tens of millions of people are finally exposed to the reality of what this administration has done.

I know — right now it appears the deception and skullduggery will never be brought to light. But as we have seen in the past year or so, the old truism is true: Truth will out. One day, perhaps very soon, the smoking gun will be revealed. What will happen then to the psyches of these delusional Americans — especially the ones whose sons and daughters have died in Iraq for no reason — is a big question mark.

One false aspect of the president’s persona is already crumbling:

Asked whether “honest and trustworthy” describes the president, 40 percent said yes, down from 56 percent in a survey carried out April 1-2 last year.

CNN Says Tony Snow Will Take WH Spokesliar Job

Jon Ponder

Hack to flack:

“It would be a change in job title, but not description.”
— Neal Gabler

On “Anderson Cooper 360,” Suzanne Malveaux, CNN’s White House correspondent, is reporting that Tony Snow will accept the job to replace Scott McClellan as the new White House press secretary. The announcement might come in a few days or as early as tomorrow.

Neal Gabler, the man Bill O’Reilly wants fired from “Fox News Watch,” had this to say on Saturday about Tony: “It would be a change in job title, but not description.”