Month: July 2008
European Cars Get 50 MPG
My friend 82-year-old friend Renee (pronounced REE-nee, like it rhymes with “genie”) doing her part in the median of US-1 in St. Augustine
Bush Administration Blames Bill Clinton for Deficit
It’s not just me and you who don’t have enough money to go around. The Bush administration has pushed the government to the point of bankruptcy too. Starting Oct. 1, when the 2009 fiscal year begins, we are toast.
We have just got to get somebody smart in the Oval Office again. America can’t survive another mean-spirited, half-wit puppet president.
The White House on Monday predicted a record deficit of $490 billion for the 2009 budget year, a senior government official told CNN.
The deficit would amount to roughly 3.5 percent of the nation’s $14 trillion economy.
The official pointed to a faltering economy and the bipartisan $170 billion stimulus package that passed earlier this year for the record deficit.
As one economist said at the time of the stimulus proposal,
Let’s drop the euphemism of “stimulus package” and call this agreement by its proper name: “deficit spending.”
The Bush administration has been the borrow and spend ticket since it came to power. When, in the history of the world, has a government simultaneously cut taxes (for the rich) and funded war? There’s a reason the answer to that question is: never.
President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year.
The Bush administration has spent heavily on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and faces a large budget shortfall in tax revenue because of Bush’s tax cuts and a souring economy.
So who do they blame for the current state of affairs? Give yourself a gold star if you answered, “Bill Clinton.”
…the senior administration official says the budgetary problems stem from what is believed to be inadequate defense, intelligence and homeland security resources that were handed down from Clinton.
Oh please.
[Democratic North Dakota Sen. Kent] Conrad, who chairs the Senate’s budget committee, accused the president of “squandering” the surplus he inherited from President Bill Clinton and said the increased debt the government has taken on to cover the deficit has undermined the value of the dollar and hurt the overall economy.
“If they gave out Olympic medals for fiscal irresponsibility, President Bush would take the gold, silver and bronze,” Conrad said. “With his eight years in office, he will have had the five highest deficits ever recorded. And the highest of those deficits is now projected to come in 2009, as he leaves office.”
And speaking of Bush leaving office, I have a confession to make. I used to think, back when the Republican primary was ongoing, that it might not be so bad if John McCain were their nominee. I looked at the nut jobs he was running against, plus I accepted some of the “maverick,” decent guy crapola that I now see is completely false.
Even worse, watching McCain campaign the past month or so, I truly, truly believe he is as dumb as the Current Occupant. We have just got to get somebody smart in the Oval Office again. America can’t survive another mean-spirited, half-wit puppet president.
Quote du Jour
The environmental crisis is somber evidence of an insidious fraud hidden in the vaunted productivity and wealth of modern, technology-based society.
— Barry Commoner (1917- ), American biologist, college professor, and eco-socialist
Impeachment Hearing: Bush Dead-Enders Make One Last Stand
Rep. Steven King (R-Iowa) |
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) |
Prospects are so bad for Republicans in the Senate that Sen. Mitch McConnell, their embattled leader, has given them free reign to vote against the party and, certainly, their unpopular president, if it will help them save their seats in November.
All in all, it was as sad and sickening a display by the Republicans as we have seen since they lost control of Congress.
In stark contrast, at the impeachment hearing last Friday — which was officially titled “Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitation” — Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee put on a show of the sort of blind loyalty to George Bush that has put the GOP in these dire circumstances to begin with.
In stark contrast, Republicans in the House are apparently determined to follow Bush in lockstep over the cliff (to mix multiple metaphors), or at least that’s the impression they gave at the impeachment hearing last Friday — which was officially titled “Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitation” — when GOP Judiciary Committee members put on a show of the sort of blind loyalty to George Bush that put their party in its dire predicament in the first place.
One by one, these pols — all of them the sort of Republicans who give white guys a bad name — took turns lashing out at the proceedings and trying to spin Bush’s crimes as insignificant and morally relative to other president’s misdeeds. At worst, it was a disgusting display of complicit politicians trying to save their own skins by fending off any pursuit of justice for Bush. At best, they came off a bit comically, like vampires in movies clawing and snarling at sunlight just seconds before they meet their doom.
Speaking of horror, a prime example of growling and back-biting — not mention outright lying on the record — was the performance of Rep. Steve King of Iowa (who is not related to the novelist Stephen King).
Button Links Obama and Larry “Wide Stance” Craig
Barack Obama’s campaign hasn’t done well with buttons this year.
First, it was a racist button sold at the Texas Republican convention.
Now, a design mix-up has produced a button with Idaho Democratic Senate candidate Larry LaRocco’s name and Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig’s face. Craig, you might recall, earned the nickname, “Wide Stance” after claiming that condition would explain his inability to keep his feet inside his own bathroom cubicle at the airport.
The buttons weren’t produced by the Obama or LaRocco campaigns, but by a third-party maker of Democratic memorabilia. We predict this one will be an instant collector’s item.
Of all the Idaho Larrys to confuse LaRocco with, why this one? Obviously the designer wasn’t thinking straight. *
Meanwhile, MoveOn will give you one Obama button (without Larry Craig) in exchange for your email address. If you want more, you have to buy them.
* Yeah, that’s a pun.
Pimping Out America’s Coastlines: McCain Gives the Speech, Oil Companies Give Him the Bucks
Straight talkin’ maverick John McCain has a knack for sniffing out money. First he married it, now he’s trying to sell out America’s coastlines for it.
And it’s working.
Campaign finance reform expert: “This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money.”
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban…
McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club…
“The timing was significant,” said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain’s oil industry contributions. “This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money.”
How do McCain’s handlers react to charges he’s a sleezy, spineless, Bush knock-off, money whore?
Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any suggestion that McCain weighed fundraising into his calculation on drilling policy “completely absurd.”
…”John McCain takes positions because he thinks it’s the right thing to do for America,” Rogers said…
Oil and gas executives have not traditionally been a major source of campaign money for McCain.
But they are now. Mission accomplished!
What Obama’s Note Said
AP photo of Obama at the Western WallA rabbi is outraged that someone stole the prayer Sen. Barack Obama stuffed into a crack of Jerusalem’s Western Wall. We agree, but we’re still curious about what the note said.
…as soon as [Obama] doffed the requisite skullcap and left, a snoop pulled a folded piece of paper from a crevice in the ancient wall and offered it to the mass-circulation Maariv. The newspaper’s decision to publish it Friday, under the headline “Obama’s note,” provoked a storm of criticism in Israel over an intrusion into his relationship with God…
Shmuel Rabinovitz, the rabbi who manages Judaism’s holiest site, was furious.
“The notes placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker,” he told Army Radio. “It is forbidden to read them or make any use of them.”
A very good policy, we agree. Stealing Obama’s note was a total invasion of privacy.
O.K., so what did it say?
“Lord — Protect my family and me,” the unsigned note said. “Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.”
If you were hoping Obama’s prayer included asking God’s help or forgiveness for anything nefarious, you’re no doubt disappointed. But it might not even be his note.
Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki, traveling with the candidate in London, declined to confirm or deny the note was the senator’s. The Associated Press reported, however, that the handwriting in the photograph published by Maariv appeared to match Obama’s inscription Wednesday in the guest book at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.
The note was written on stationery of the King David Hotel, where Obama stayed during his visit this week.
All righty then.
But you know, except for the pride and despair part it’s pretty close to what I — and probably most of us — pray.
Mouthing Maverickosity is Losing Its Effectiveness
John McCain is trying to reclaim his inner maverick, boasting that he doesn’t give a rat’s pa-tootey what people think. He’s all about being bold, being right, being…non-poll-driven.
All week long, McCain has been pushing hard on the notion the current surge strategy in Iraq was a crucial test in judgment.
McCain says all the same stuff we’ve been tuning out for seven years and counting, and expects it to resonate anewIn 2007, McCain said, “We both knew the safe political choice was to support some sort of retreat.”
“Many observers said my approach would end my hopes of becoming President,” he said. “My choice was not smart politics. It didn’t test well in focus groups. It ignored all the polls…”
McCain says history proved him right.
“In Iraq, we are no longer on the doorstep of defeat but instead are on the road to victory,” McCain said.
Yeah, we’re pursuing the path to prevailing, not punching in the gate code to privation; we are riding the train to triumph, not ringing the doorbell to reversal. Or something like that.
The striking thing here is how much McCain mimics his model. When 10 million Americans took to the streets to protest George Bush’s planned invasion of Iraq, the president quite openly said he didn’t care what his constituents thought.
“Size of protest — it’s like deciding, well, I’m going to decide policy based upon a focus group,” Mr. Bush said in response to a reporter’s question at the White House.
And we couldn’t do that, now could we? It turned out that was precisely how the Decider did it, but it took some research to prove it.
Bush’s principal pollster, Jan van Lohuizen, and his focus-group guru, Fred Steeper, are the best-kept secrets in Washington. Both are respected but low-key, proficient but tight-lipped, and, unlike such larger-than-life Clinton pollsters as Dick Morris and Mark Penn, happy to remain anonymous. They toil in the background, poll-testing the words and phrases the president uses to sell his policies to an often-skeptical public…
McCain grows more like George Bush, the man he tries to emulate at every opportunity, who stole the 2000 election from him with a combination of superior messaging and slurs, every day. He says all the same stuff we’ve been tuning out for seven years and counting, and expects it to resonate anew. For some, it does just that. McCain seems to be betting that the easily fooled still outnumber the weary wary. After all these years of Bush, I think he’s wrong.
This Time The Nigerians Have Gone Too Far
I’m used to receiving scam spam from Nigerian con men who must think I have rocks for brains. Occasionally, they’ll show some glimmer of creativity by putting a different spin on the same old scam. But this time they went too far — they tried to get me to believe that FBI Director Robert Mueller was personally handling my Nigerian case so I won’t get scammed. Really:
ROBERT MUELLER III
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) WASHINGTON D.C
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNETWe believe this notification meets you in a very good state of mind and health. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Washington, D.C in conjunction with some other relevant Investigation Agencies here in the United states of America have recently been informed through our Global Intelligence Monitoring Network that you presently have a transaction going on with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as regards your over-due contract/inheritance funds which was fully endorsed in your favor accordingly.
In addition, be informed that we recently had a meeting with the Minister of Finance in Nigeria, in the person of Hon. Dr. Usman Shamsudeen, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo and Mr. John O. Aboh along with some of the top officials of the ministry regarding your case and they made us to understand that your file has been held in abase depending on when you personally come for the claim. They also made us to understand that the only problem they are facing right now is that some unscrupulous element are using this project as an avenue to scam innocent people off their hard earned money by impersonating the Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
We were also informed of a lady with the name Mrs. Joan C. Bailey from OHIO who has already contacted them and also presented all the necessary documentations evidencing your claim purported to have been signed personally by you prior to the release of your part payment valued at about US$8,000,000.00 (Eight Million United States Dollars), but the Central Bank office did the wise thing by insisting on hearing from you personally before they go ahead on wiring your fund to the Bank information which was forwarded to them by the above named Lady so that the main reason why they contacted us is to assist them in making the investigations.
We were further informed that we should warn our dear citizens who must have been informed of this payment which was awarded to them from the Central Bank of Nigeria, to be very careful prior to these irregularities so that they don’t fall victims to this ugly circumstance. And should in case you are already dealing with anybody or office claiming to be from the Central Bank of Nigeria, you are further advised to STOP further contact with them in your best interest and then contact immediately the real office of the Minister of Finance and office of the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria only with the below information accordingly:
NAME: Hon. Dr. Usman Shamsudeen
EMAIL: honshamsudeenusman@minister.com
Governor’s Email: private2profsoludo@accountant.comNOTE: In your best interest, any message that doesn’t come from any of the above email addresses should not be replied and should be disregarded accordingly for security reasons. Meanwhile, we will advise that you contact the Honorable Minister or the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria immediately with the above email addresses and request that they attend to your payment file as directed, so as to enable you receive your contract/Inheritance fund accordingly.
To this effect, you are required to reconfirm and authenticate your given particulars below for certainty and onward processing and release of your funds as we may not be held liable for any wrong payment.
YOUR FULL NAME AND ADDRESS:
YOUR PHONE AND FAX NUMBER:All modalities have already been worked out even before you were contacted and note that we will be monitoring all your dealings with them as you proceed so you don’t have anything to worry about. All we require from you henceforth is an update so as to enable us be on track with you and the Central Bank of Nigeria. Without wasting much time, we will want you to contact them immediately with the above email addresses so as to enable them attend to your case accordingly without any further delay as time is already running out.
In case you need any more information in regard to this notification, feel free to get back to us so that we can brief you more as we are here to guide you during and after this project has been completely perfected and you have received your contract/Inheritance fund as stated.
Thank you very much for your anticipated co-operation in advance as we earnestly await your urgent response to this matter.
Best Regards,
Robert S. Mueller III
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C.
Thanks, Bob!
