Author: Trish
Who or What are Bush Lackeys Afraid Of?
Are they unwilling to speak out because they’re afraid of Bush? Or is it Cheney? Or Rover? Or all three?
A surprising amount of the contacts were from Bushites, saying, “Oh please, God help us!â€
When Matthew Dowd, Bush’s 2004 campaign strategist, recently expressed regret for helping the Idiot in Chief get re-elected, he got mail. A lot of it was from people on the left, like us, saying “What did you expect?” A lot of it was from people on the right saying, “How could you?”
But a surprising amount of the contacts were from Bushites, saying, “Oh please, God help us!”“I got a ton of messages from people in the administration who said we totally agree with you, we just can’t say it,” he said. “I got messages from people in Congress, Republicans, saying we agree with you but can’t say that because of what would happen to us.”
Whoa. What would happen to them? Oh wait a minute, let me ask former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
At issue was an interview this month in The New York Times in which Mr. Dowd called for withdrawing troops from Iraq and criticized the president for not fulfilling his promise to bridge the partisan divide in Washington.
Once a member of the Bush campaign brain trust, Mr. Dowd found himself on the outs, roundly pilloried for speaking out. It’s a rare look at what happens after the media spotlight shines suddenly on someone in the political world.
“All those people who say, ‘Why can’t people speak their minds, why can’t people stand up to power?’ And when somebody does, there’s a whole group of people who don’t really want that on both sides, the far left and the far right,” he said.
Fair enough. I promise not to criticize former Bush insiders who now wish they hadn’t supported him if they all promise to go somewhere and shut the hell up.
Contributions to Democrats Blow Republicans Out of the Water
Democratic presidential candidates raised $27 million more than Republicans, according to their first-quarter ’07 financial filings.
And John McCain looks worse on paper than anyone guessed.
SNL-related donations: Chevy Chase gave $4,600 to Clinton. Eddie Murphy kicked in $2,300 to Obama. Adam Sandler gave $2,100 to Giuliani. Lorne Michaels dished out $1,000 to McCain.
Obama…nearly tied Clinton in total donations, having raised $25.8 million compared to Clinton’s $26 million — an astounding achievement for a political novice going up against such a veteran…
…Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who hopes to be the first Mormon elected president, received more donations from Utah, $2.8 million, than from the state he used to govern, whose residents gave him $2.3 million.
…Rudy Giuiani, the former mayor of New York, raised $14 million, but it came from fewer donors than any other major candidate, indicating access to big-money donors but not widespread support.
Writing for ABC, Jake Tapper and David Chalian analyzed the financial reports as they went along, but saved the most loaded labels for Democrats, referring to Sen. Barack Obama as an “insurgent” candidate (OMIGOD) and Sen. Hillary Clinton as the “frontrunner.” Huh?
They also spared John McCain no illusions.
One of the key indicators of whether or not a campaign is being managed efficiently is the “burn rate” — the percentage of the money raised that the campaign spent during the same time period.
McCain is the big loser in this category. His campaign hemorrhaged money by spending 64 percent of what it raised in the first quarter…and assumed a stunning amount (to the tune of $1.8 million) of debt…
McCain’s one bright spot on the GOP side is that he can boast of significantly more donors — roughly 50,000 people contributed to his campaign — than his Republican rivals, perhaps indicating a broader base of support.
Clinton also had roughly 60,000 donors and Edwards had north of 40,000.
A fascinating footnote to the first quarter filings was how people associated with NBC’s Saturday Night Live gave.
Old-school star Chevy Chase gave $4,600 to Clinton. Eddie Murphy kicked in $2,300 to Obama. Adam Sandler gave $2,100 to Giuliani. And their former boss, SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels, dished out $1,000 to McCain.
At least Michaels is as cheap as he is wrong.
Cheney Finally Got That Quail
Air Force Two carrying Vice President Dick Cheney struck a bird as the plane neared O’Hare International Airport on Friday.
The aircraft landed safely. Mechanics checked the plane while Cheney spoke at the Heritage Foundation’s annual leadership conference, but the incident did not delay his departure from the airport to return to Washington.
“A bird hit the right engine of the plane upon landing,” said Megan McGinn, a spokeswoman for Cheney. “He was told after he delivered his remarks.”
Remembering Ryan Skipper One Month After His Murder
Vigils will be held around the state of Florida and in Washington tomorrow to remember Ryan Keith Skipper.
Ryan was brutally murdered one month ago — stabbed 20 times, his body tossed on the side of the road. In life, Ryan was an open, fun, caring young man with enough energy to manage a retail store full-time while pursuing a degree in computer technology and fixing computers for his many, many friends on the side.
He was also gay. And this last fact is likely the reason Ryan was killed.
The vigils are not, as their organizers remind us, a time to protest. They are instead a time to honor Ryan’s life, which his friends and family are determined to remember for more than its end. I recently talked to Ryan’s brother, Damien Skipper, to find out what the handsome and friendly 25-year-old was like.
The vigils are a time to honor Ryan’s life, which his friends and family are determined to remember for more than its end
“We grew up between Auburndale and Winter Haven. We were both born in Winter Haven Hospital…and we lived in Polk County our whole lives until I went away to college.
Ryan stayed in Polk County and he’s gone to school. He went to Polk Community [College] for awhile and basically he’s carried a job since he graduated from high school. All of his friends are there and I tried a few to get him to move out of Polk County, just because of — not that I ever conceived or could conceive something like this happening — but I just told him that I thought it would be nicer if he lived in a metro area.
Ryan was a handsome and intelligent young man and he’s incredibly honest and he is a true friend to anyone who knew him and I’ll stick with the cliche that everyone has been saying, which is that if you knew Ryan you loved him. He was just that type of person. I don’t think there’s anything in his past that anyone would ever be ashamed of. Ryan, just like all of us, was imperfect. That doesn’t mean anything negative, it just means that we can all strive for perfection but none of us will reach it.
And so I remember Ryan as…I said this at his eulogy. I remember going to the hospital with my father and seeing Ryan and just knowing from that day that he’s my little brother. I’m his big brother and it’s my duty to kind of show him the ropes and protect him and just, you know, make sure that he lived a great life. And he did.
And it’s unfortunate that someone decided they could take that away from us, take that away from him.
Two men were arrested for Ryan’s murder, which is being investigated as a hate crime. They are jailed without bond, and will be until their trials.
Tomorrow we will remember Ryan, a brother and son, friend and student and coworker, who was taken from us. If we protest tomorrow, let it be against hate and intolerance, violence and ignorance, savagery and loss.
Florida Republicans Attempt to Shove Jeb Down Gators’ Throats
Everybody wants a piece of Jeb Bush this week.
Jeb’s legacy for Florida’s public education system was to attempt to underhandedly undercut and underfund it
First, a group of Florida legislators announced they would right what they see as a terrible wrong against the former governor. University of Florida faculty members recently declined to make Jeb an honorary alumni of the school, which, if we might mention in passing, just took the NCAA basketball championship for the second year in a row, along with the national football championship.
So you couldn’t blame Jeb if he wanted to be a Gator.
Calling a recent snub of Jeb Bush an insult, state lawmakers demanded Tuesday that the University of Florida find a new way to honor the former governor. Their solution: Rename the UF College of Education after the Republican governor…
”I don’t think anyone would disagree that Jeb Bush had a passion for education,” said Rep. David Rivera [R – Miami], who sponsored the proposal. Rivera acknowledged the decision by the UF faculty sparked his decision to push the legislation, which would require putting Bush’s name on the building and changing all maps, brochures and college catalogs.
Actually, quite a number of people disagree, many of them at the University of Florida. Jeb’s legacy for Florida’s public education system was to undercut and underfund it in an underhanded attempt to divert public dollars to private institutions.
One editorial said Rivera’s end run does no honor to young Bush.
There’s an old saying that the politics in academia are so nasty because the stakes are so small. Apparently, the same can be said about the Legislature…
Aside from the fact that it’s seldom a good idea to name a public edifice after a living politician (who knows what the future holds?), this bit of legislative mischief mocks both the Bush “legacy” and the integrity of campus-based decision making.
Not to mention that Jeb is an asshole. But don’t worry, others want him.
Jeb Finds a New Way to Destroy Medicare
Say you’re one of the country’s biggest hospital chains and you were recently fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the Securities and Exchange Commission for bilking Medicare. What do you do to turn your image around?
How about appointing Jeb Bush to your board of directors? After all, Jeb spent considerable time while governor of Florida attempting to privatize Medicare, cut elderly people out of reimbursement, and generally destroy the program. It’s a slam dunk!
Jeb’s previous health care experience consists of camping on the deathbed of Terri Schiavo and second-guessing her medical team
In his first publicized business activity since leaving office in January, former Gov. Jeb Bush is joining the board of Tenet Healthcare, the national hospital chain that’s working to clean up its image and performance since dealing with widespread allegations of fraud.
…The money-losing chain, which owns and operates 62 hospitals in 12 states, has been struggling to emerge from a series of legal and financial problems. Earlier this month, it paid $10 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Medicare fraud allegations. Last year, it reached an agreement with the federal government to pay $900 million to settle allegations of Medicare fraud.
Jeb, whose previous health care experience consists of camping on the deathbed of Terri Schiavo and second-guessing her medical team, thinks it’s a great idea.
”It’s in the healthcare industry, which is something I know something about,” Bush said…”And it’s a place that over the next few years there’ll be some unsettled water. I prefer to go to some place where I can add value, rather than go to a place where things are going really well.”
You picked a winner there, buddy. And in a move he will one day explain to his maker, Bob Kerrey backs the appointment.
Former Sen. J. Robert Kerrey, a Democrat from Nebraska and chairman of the Tenet board’s nominating committee, said in a prepared statement: “I believe [Bush’s] decision to join us reflects the real strides the company has made in recent years to build a solid foundation for future growth based on integrity and quality.”
Not to mention big bucks.
Three Fired U.S. Attorneys Signed Letter Critical of Justice Department Last Year
When 17 U.S. attorneys questioned the Justice Department last year about why it wasn’t using a shared law enforcement database, they didn’t know that three of them would soon be among eight fired.
In a letter dated Aug. 30, 2006, the federal prosecutors questioned why the department had not taken a greater “leadership role.” Three of the U.S. attorneys were later fired.
Amid the many revelations that will no doubt come from the investigation of the Bush administration pogrom of U.S. attorneys was this one.
And, as Sen. Bill Nelson (D – Fla.) pointed out this week, the department still isn’t following the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation to share information with other law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism.
“We learned the hard way from 9-11 that coordinated information-sharing is imperative,” Nelson wrote Wednesday to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.
The Florida Democrat’s request concerns a crime database called the Law Enforcement Information Exchange, or Linx…
Nelson’s letter follows the discovery of a pointed, written exchange last year between McNulty and a group of U.S. attorneys.
In a letter dated Aug. 30, 2006, the federal prosecutors questioned why the department had not taken a greater “leadership role” in promoting Linx. It was signed by 17 U.S. attorneys.
…Nelson and others in Congress have expressed concern over the exchange in 2006 — noting three of the U.S. attorneys who signed the letter to McNulty later were fired.
But — predictably — firing the critics didn’t solve the problem. And just as clearly, the Bush Justice Department is adrift in quibbles, incompetence, and heads up butts.
The 17 U.S. attorneys advocated an expansion of the system beyond its seven targeted regions, but doing so would require an agency other than the Department of Defense — which runs the program — to take the lead, said Mike Dorsey, head of the Linx program.
Dorsey said Thursday that the Justice Department has been supportive of the Linx program but attributed rifts about its future to debates on funding, control and turf wars.
Quotes du Jour
“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”
“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”
“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”
“There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.”
“During my three years in Vietnam, I certainly heard plenty of last words by dying American footsoldiers. Not one of them, however, had illusions that he had somehow accomplished something worthwhile in the process of making the Supreme Sacrifice.”
“All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber.”
— Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – April 11, 2007), author
Mysteries of Uncle Ben Still Unsolved
Perhaps you’re bored. Perhaps you need some meat and rice recipes. Or, more likely, you forgot the meaning of the word, “horseshit,” and need a refresher.
Was he married to Aunt Jemima? Is he Rastus from the Cream of Wheat box’s father?
If so, visit the all-new headquarters of Uncle Ben. Yes, the smiling black chef we all grew up with is now — thanks to marketing people spending too much time in a room alone with just each other — chairman of the board of Uncle Ben’s Rice.
The execution on this is just too awful.
What you’ll gather from the virtual tour of Uncle Ben’s desk, which is beneath his smiling (teeth hidden) portrait in a bow tie and suit, is that Uncle Ben is quite a guy. He travels the world collecting rice lore, photos, and recipes. He addresses national nutrition boards and makes speeches in Washington. The only thing the man doesn’t do is have a last name. So much for erasing the icon’s previous image.
Was he married to Aunt Jemima? Is he Rastus from the Cream of Wheat box’s father? You won’t find out here. This is just straight-up crap from the minds of Mars Food. Makes me cringe to be a marketing person.
