Year: 2007

Nearly 1 Mil Evacuated in California – Limbaugh Says Crisis Is ‘Hyped’

Jon Ponder

Local news here in Southern California is reporting that upwards of 1 million people have been evacuated because of the fire storms. Last night, when the number was about half that, Keith Olbermann suggested that this could be the largest forced migration of Americans since the Civil War.

“I am very confident in our ability to do just about anything. You said not on to get overconfident but, I’ll tell you what, the Republican Party is more, gosh, we’re stronger than God Almighty himself.”
— Dittohead caller on Limbaugh’s show yesterday

But yesterday Rush Limbaugh told his easily deluded listeners that the mainstream media is “hyping” the wildfires — and the poor semi-retarded Dittoheads are believing it:

RUSH: No, I’ve been wondering about this, having not been out there. I know how media works. They love this kind of stuff. The worse they can make it sound, the better. The more crisis-prone, the more disaster-certain it is, the more excited by it they are — and I’ve been e-mailing people in Los Angeles. I’ve been e-mailing friends in Southern California. “Are you in trouble from the fires?”

“No, not really. It’s not anywhere near us.”
In fact, a couple people I e-mailed on Sunday didn’t even know about it ’til they got back home Sunday night, even though the fire has been raging through the weekend. You’re right. A lot of people are losing a lot of property here, but the idea that it may not be quite as bad as it is, is an interesting media study.

This is standard Limbaugh. “Global warming can’t real because it’s chilly in my living room. And if I can’t feel it, it is not happening.”

And who’s to blame for the fires — that, as Big Dan pointed out — he says are not happening? Take a guess:

RUSH: [And] these environmental groups, they are to blame for this … They are the ones that are making these fires.

Gotta love this from a caller — a Dittohead who is a Christian but apparently hasn’t gotten the word from church central that you’re not supposed to put mankind above the Almighty:

DITTOHEAD: I am very confident in our ability to do just about anything. You said not on to get overconfident but, I’ll tell you what, the Republican Party is more, gosh, we’re stronger than God Almighty himself.

I’ll bet God is pissed and She will smite this sinner very soon.

H/t: Big Dan

GOP’s Boehner, Who Said U.S. Troop Deaths Were a ‘Small Price’ to Pay, Led Censure Move Against Pete Stark Over Anti-Bush Remark

Jon Ponder

Last month, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the lives of U.S. troops were a small price to pay in the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its intervention in the Iraqi civil war:

Stark was wrong, of course, troops aren’t dying for the president’s amusement. The reality is much worse. They are dying so that Bush and his cronies can control Iraq’s oil.

BLITZER: Mr. Leader, here’s the question. How much longer will U.S. taxpayers have to shell out $2 billion a week or $3 billion a week as some now are suggesting the cost is going to endure? The loss in blood, the Americans who are killed every month, how much longer do you think this commitment, this military commitment is going to require?

BOEHNER: I think General Petraeus outlined it pretty clearly. We’re making success. We need to firm up those successes. We need to continue our effort here because, Wolf, long term, the investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda here, if we’re able to stabilize the Middle East, it’s not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids.

Boehner has never apologized, nor did the Democrats attempt to censure him for denigrating the sacrifice of American soldiers.

Yesterday, however, Boehner led the charge to censure Rep. Pete Stark over these comments:

First of all, I’m just amazed that they can’t figure out — the Republicans are worried that we can’t pay for insuring an additional ten million children. They sure don’t care about finding $200 billion to fight the illegal war in Iraq. Where are you gonna get that money? You gonna tell us lies, like you’re telling us today? Is that how you’re going to fund the war? You don’t have the money to fund the war or children, but you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people, if we could get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement.

Stark was wrong, of course, troops aren’t dying for the president’s amusement. The reality is much worse. They are dying so that Bush and his cronies can control Iraq’s oil.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

As mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more able to allow that those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protection of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations in examples of justice and liberality.

— George Washington (1732-1799) First President of the United States

Did CNN’s Rightwing Nutcase Glenn Beck Say Malibu Liberals Hate America, So Deserve Wild Fires?

Jon Ponder

Most of the 300,000 Evacuees Are from Republican Enclaves

On his radio gabfest yesterday, CNN’s resident rightwing crackpot Glenn Beck implied that because residents of Malibu, Calif., “hate America,” they were therefore unluckily suffering the loss of their homes to wildfires:

I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire [sic] today.

Leaving aside the fact that there isn’t a “forest” within miles of Malibu, just seconds before that outrageous, though half-baked, assertion, Beck made a statement that contradicted what he was about to say:

[We’re] all one America, that just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean you hate America, and I love America. We all love America. We just disagree on how we should function…

He then contradicted himself in the same sentence a second time, saying he was not referring to Democrats but to nefarious people (liberals? terrorists?) who pretend to be Democrats:

There are a few people that hate America. But I don’t think the Democrats are those. I think there are those posing as Democrats that are like that.

Huh? It’s always dicey trying to parse logic from the ravings of an unbalanced mind, but since the fires being reported in the national news yesterday were mostly in the Malibu area, it appears that Beck’s “America haters” are Hollywood liberals who live in Malibu.

Or maybe he was referring to Muslim terrorists who are hiding out in Malibu pretending to be Democrats. (If so, they are rapidly burning through Osama bin Ladin’s fortune.)

Ironically, while the wildfires on Sunday did significant damage to the tiny but wealthy and politically liberal beachfront enclave of Malibu, the widespread and horrendous destruction that is going on now is in the politically conservative areas of inland Los Angeles County, coastal Orange County and throughout northern San Diego County, where around 300,000 people have been evacuated.

This recalls TV preacher and diamond-mine owner Pat Robertson’s prophesy in 1998 that God would destroy Orlando, Fla., with a hurricane because Disney allowed a gay group to host activities in its theme park. Instead, God smote Robertson by hurling Hurricane Bonnie directly at his headquarters in Virginia Beach that August.

Homophobic Allegedly Gay Rightwing Prime Minister Defeated in Polish Elections

Jon Ponder

The Kaczynski Brothers

So it’s not just American conservative homophobic politicians who are self-hating gays. Here’s one in Poland who was ousted by liberals this week:

“It is advisable to establish if Jaroslaw Kaczynski remains in a long-term homosexual relationship and, if so, who his partner is.”
— Head of Polish Secret Service in 1992

Poland’s pro-European Union Civic Platform party beat Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s nationalist conservatives in national elections, according to results Monday.

[Early results] showed [liberal] Civic Platform beating Mr. Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party by nearly 10 percentage points, putting the party in a position to form a government with its preferred partner, the moderate Polish Peasants Party.

Kaczynski was outed by a Polish newspaper last year:

Poland’s second-most important newspaper, Rzeczpolita, published documents-some only recently declassified, and some that were leaked-from the files of the Polish Secret Service that discussed Prime Minister Kaczynski’s homosexuality. As part of an investigation, begun in 1992, of right-wing political parties that, the documents said, “could threaten democracy,” a Secret Service department then headed by Colonel Jan Lesiak reported, “It is advisable to establish if Jaroslaw Kaczynski remains in a long-term homosexual relationship and, if so, who his partner is.”

Kaczynski’s twin brother, Lech, is the president of Poland. The brothers have a record of anti-gay rhetoric and actions:

Within minutes of becoming Prime Minister in July [2006], Jaroslaw Kaczynski attacked gay marriage saying, “We won’t let ourselves say that black is white, we are going to protect this (marriage) foundation of social life.”

… When serving as mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczyznski [the prime minister’s twin brother] attempted to ban Gay Pride marches in 2004 and 2005.

He refused to meet with the parade organizers, saying, “I am not willing to meet perverts.”

The rampant homophobia within the government created a climate of fear and repression in Poland:

Poland’s Catholic, conservative right-wing government has members who are openly anti-gay and the health ministry has created a special committee responsible for “curing” gays, according to local media.

Deputy health minister Marek Grafowski said the ministry was also planning to identify how many people in Poland were gay and work out a set of behavioural guides to assist parents and teachers in recognising warning signs of potential “gay” behaviour.

The police have also been compiling a database on gays and the gay community in Poland which although illegal under EU law…

The prime minister’s identical twin brother, Lech Kaczynski, who is married (to a woman) remains president of Poland. His term expires in 2010.

Bush Tacks ‘Emergency’ $46 Bil onto War Supplemental – Expect Another GOP Rubberstamp

Jon Ponder

Just as surely as the Republican minority in Congress will approve this new $46 billion spike in funding demanded by Pres. Bush for the war in Iraq — an amount that would more than cover the Democrats’ proposed expansion of health insurance coverage for children — the Democrats will get blamed for it:

Setting up another confrontation with congressional Democrats over the war in Iraq, President Bush on Monday sent Congress a $45.9-billion emergency funding request for expenses related to U.S. military campaigns around the world.

The request, which comes on top of $147.5 billion sought by the administration earlier this year, pushes the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to more than $600 billion.

It is a neat trick. Too bad the Dems can’t find a way to counter it.

U.S. Security Contractor in Iraq Can’t Account for $1 Bil in Taxpayer Dollars

Jon Ponder

During the first three years of the war, when the GOP controlled Congress and the White House, there was very little, if any, accountability of the money spent by government contractors in Iraq.

Among the problems identified before the audit was suspended were duplicate payments, the purchase of a never-used $1.8 million X-ray scanner and payments of $387,000 to house DynCorp officials in hotels rather than other available accommodation.

Since the Democrats took over Congress, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has been charged with trying to find out what happened to the billions of dollars the administration and its cronies have squandered, lost or stolen.

Unfortunately, in too many cases, the job has turned out to be impossible:

The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) said it was forced to suspend its audit of the DynCorp contract after administration officials told investigators they had no confidence in their own accounting records.

The inspector general said the agency had not validated the accuracy of invoices received before October 2006 and described bills and supporting documents as being in disarray.

Among the problems identified before the audit was suspended were duplicate payments, the purchase of a never-used $1.8 million X-ray scanner and payments of $387,000 to house DynCorp officials in hotels rather than other available accommodation.

The inspector general blamed the problems on long-standing contract administration problems at the State Department agency responsible for the contract — the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL.

“As a result, INL does not know specifically what it received for most of the $1.2 billion in expenditures under its DynCorp contract for the Iraqi Police Training Program. INL’s prior lack of controls created an environment vulnerable to waste and fraud,” SIGIR said in an interim review.

DynCorp is a private military contractor based in the Washintong suburbs that receives 96 percent of its $2 billion in annual revenues from American taxpayers.

In addition to training the Iraqi police, the company orovide security in Afghanistan and is involved in the poppy eradication program there. It was also deployed in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Lame Duck Bush Team Killing Time By Blogging

Trish

You know blogging has gone mainstream when two members of Bush’s cabinet start doing it.

Yes, I now have something in common with Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Defense. Welcome to the internets tubes, guys!

The men take very different approaches with their blogs.

Leavitt says he writes every blog entry himself, often late at night in hotel rooms when he is traveling. He is concerned that his entries are too long; on Aug. 20, he wrote 2,444 words about his trip to an orphanage in South Africa.

…Chertoff comes up with an idea for a blog entry, then someone in the department writes it, and Chertoff heavily edits it, said Jeff Ostermayer, a department spokesman who oversees the blog.

Mercifully, Chertoff’s picture is not shown on his blog, “Leadership Journal,” which also calls upon guest contributors like W. Ralph Basham, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Kip Hawley, Transportation Security Administration.

Leavitt, possibly a frustrated editor, features no guests but he does offer a confusing list of categories. I guess you have to spend some time on the site to understand the differences between “health” (capitalization Leavitt’s own), “Health Coverage,” “Health Diplomacy,” “Health IT,” and “Personalized Health Care.”

The blogs are not quite like, say, ours. Or most others for that matter.

The public can comment on Chertoff’s and Leavitt’s blogs, but both departments established ground rules that include a ban on personal attacks and vulgar language.

As all you Pensito Reviewers know, the three of us are on the receiving end of our share of personal attacks and vulgarity. And every once in awhile, we’re on the giving end too. But knowing how much time blogging takes the three of us, I have to agree with a comment on one of Chertoff’s posts.

Another comment said, “This is a serious question. How do you have time to blog? Don’t you have a 24-hour-a-day job with very important things to do?”

Not really.

Yet Another Reason to Not Take the Florida Dems Seriously

Buck Banks

I received another weird e-mail from Florida Democratic Party chair Karen Thurman. She started off gloating over Republican national party chair Mel Martinez stepping down after only nine months on the job:

Does the Florida Democratic Party have so much money and resources that it can waste it on a spoof Web site that appears to serve no purpose beyond entertaining members of their own team?

Remember how he had big plans to resurrect the Republican Party and rehabilitate its image? It appears that was an insurmountable task.

But we shouldn’t be surprised. Martinez ignored the Floridians he was elected to represent by siding with President Bush over the people on just about everything.

One of the biggest debacles occurred this week, when Martinez and 14 Republican Representatives from Florida ripped away the promise of medical coverage for half a million uninsured Florida children and millions more children across the country.

Okay, I can understand that, and Thurman’s point is valid. Then she goes on a bit about how the SCHIP was passed on her watch in Congress. Then she begins to level accusations against the Republican Party:

Now the Republicans have put the program and millions of children in grave danger. I believe their decision to block healthcare for children will go down as a major turning point in history. No amount of spin can cover up the simple fact that these Republicans, like Feeney and Keller, chose Bush over Florida’s kids.

This vote demonstrates, in the starkest of terms, why we’re Democrats.

But here Thurman (and the FlaDems) go off the rails:

Rank-and-file, right-wing Republicans are so fed up with their candidates blustering, flip-flopping and backtracking that they’ve become desperate for another option. They need a Real Republican.

We’re giving them one.

What humdinger of an idea is coming? It’s a Web site called Draft Katherine Harris. Clever, huh? It’s ironical!

Yep, in a letter where Thurman asks for a contribution no less than six times, she unveils a Web site plastered over with unflattering photos of former Florida attorney general, erstwhile gubernatorial candidate and certifiable whack-job Katherine Harris that is intended to be humorous. I guess it would be if this were something besides a presidential election.

Does the Florida Democratic Party have so much money and resources that it can waste it on a spoof Web site that appears to serve no purpose beyond entertaining members of their team? I’m certainly no fan of Katherine Harris, but I’m even less a fan of Karen Thurman, whose judgment and leadership are certainly questionable in this instance.

Here you’ve got the state Democratic Party, which has already been put through the wringer by the Republican state legislature (oh, wait, that’s right — it was a Democrat who filed the bill to move the state’s primary to Jan. 29, incurring the wrath of the national party and rendering its primary meaningless) and the Democratic National Committee, paying to design and host a “satirical site” that is neither funny nor in good taste.

Seems to me the only joke around here is the Florida Democratic Party. And it’s not funny, either.

Alberto Gonzales May Be Indicted Next Month

Jon Ponder

Spokane Spokesman Review:

Gonzales hired a high-powered criminal defense lawyer soon after he resigned as attorney general.

The U.S. Inspector General may recommend criminal prosecution of departed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the conclusion of an investigation, possibly as early as next month, [John McKay] the fired former U.S. attorney for Western Washington told a Spokane audience Friday…

McKay said he was summoned to Washington, D.C., in June and questioned for eight hours about possible reasons for his firing by investigators with the Office of Inspector General, who will forward their final report to Congress.

“My best guess is it will be released sometime next month,” and likely will include recommendations for criminal prosecutions of Gonzales and maybe others, McKay said.

Gonzales “lied about” reasons for the firings when questioned under oath in July by the Senate Judiciary Committee and now has hired a lawyer and is refusing to answer questions from the Inspector General, McKay said.

The White House said McKay was fired for poor performance ratings of his office, but the ex-U.S. attorney said he and his office got exemplary reviews just three months before he was fired.

“The chief law enforcement officer for the United States should not lie under oath,” McKay told the bar association.

Gonzales hired a high-powered criminal defense attorney within a few days after he resigned as attorney general.