In other words...

The last time Bush had a press conference, one of Al Franken's staffers noticed that the Prez likes to say "in other words" between two sentences, where the two sentences say exactly the same thing. Does that make sense? Check it, this is from last night's press conference:

-And Congress has ensured that their benefits will rise faster than the rate of inflation. In other words, there's a lot of us getting ready to retire who will be living longer and receiving greater benefits than the previous generation. -He's been serving our country for, I think, 20 years. He has been confirmed by the United States Senate four times. In other words, he's been up before the Senate before and they've analyzed his talents and his capabilities and they've confirmed him. -You can manage your assets. You can go from bonds and stocks to only bonds as you get older. In other words, we're giving people flexibility to own their own asset. -One of the questions I like to ask is, are they able to recruit. In other words, you hear -- you see these killers will target recruiting stations, and I've always wondered whether or not that has had an effect on the ability for the Iraqis to draw their fellow citizens into the armed forces. -The other question that -- one of the other issues that is important is the equipping issue, and the equipment is now moving quite well. In other words, troops are becoming equipped. -And my message to the Prime Minister and our message throughout government to the Iraqis is, keep stability; don't disrupt the training that has gone on -- don't politicize your military -- in other words, have them there to help secure the people. -And then I said we'd get them out, and we've done that. In other words, the withdrawals that I said would happen, have happened. -And when Kim Jong-il would make a move that would scare people, everybody would say, America, go fix it. I felt it -- it didn't work. In other words, the bilateral approach didn't work. The man said he was going to do something and he didn't do it, for starters. -In 2027, for those listening, we'll be obligated to pay $200 billion more dollars a year than we take in, in order to make sure the baby boomers get the benefits they've been promised. In other words, this is a serious problem, and the American people expect us to put our politics aside and get it done. -There's a budget agreement, and I'm grateful for that. In other words, we are making progress. -If you're a small business owner and you have to pay higher gas prices and you're -- likely you may not hire a new worker. In other words, higher gas prices, as I have said, is like a tax on the -- on the small business job creators. -That's why as a part of the No Child Left Behind Act we had money available for remedial education. In other words, we said we're going to measure, and when we detect someone who needs extra help, that person will get extra help. -One other point on Social Security that people have got to understand is that it's -- the system of today is not fair for a person whose spouse has died early. In other words, if you're a two-working family like families are here in America, and -- two people working in your family, and the spouse dies early -- before 62, for example -- all of the money that the spouse has put into the system is held there, and then when the other spouse retires, he or she gets to choose the benefits from his or her own work, or the other spouse's benefits, which is ever higher but not both. See what I'm saying?

Oy. Dubya makes me absolutely dizzy sometimes.

Oy...another Drudge "Exclusive"

This time, it's about that murderous thug, Randi Rhodes.

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX WED APRIL 27, 2005 09:01:25 ET XXXXX AIR AMERICA RADIO INVESTIGATED AFTER BUSH 'GUNSHOTS' **Exclusive**The red-hot rhetoric over Social Security on liberal talkradio network AIR AMERICA has caught the attention of the Secret Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!

The announcer: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]."

The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show."What is with all the killing?" Rhodes said, laughing, after the clip aired.

"Even joking about shooting the president is a crime, let alone doing it on national radio... we are taking this very seriously," a government source explained. Developing...

I just listened to the clip in question. It starts off with a southern-sounding gentlemen talking about the AAARP, The American Association of Armed Retired People. The "spoiled child" in question refers to the southerner's ACTUAL child, not the fucking spoiled child we have as President.

Drudge is the lamest drama queen ever. Perhaps his fedora got jammed up his pooper. If anything comes of this, then I expect ALL previous inferences (no matter how vague)to be investigated, like the time Ann Coulter was trying to decide whether to "impeach or assisinate" Bill Clinton.

Whores.

Beat your meat on the street, Mr. President

From Big Gay Matt's site:

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE APRIL 26, 2005 14:20:17 BUSH ASKS ABOUT 'SPLASH DAY' President Bush raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he asked locals in Galveston, Texas: "Do you still have Splash Day?" "Splash Day" is the annual "adult oriented enormous beach party" celebration on the Gulf Coast. BUSH: Do you still have Splash Day? (LAUGHTER) BUSH: You have to be a baby boomer to know what I'm talking about. (LAUGHTER) BUSH: I'm not saying whether I came or not on Splash Day. I'm just saying, Do you have Splash Day? (LAUGHTER) Bush was unaware "Splash Day" is now a fully gay and lesbian event on the beaches. Developing...

I had to capture his exclusive before it disappears and goes absolutely nowhere, like most of his special reports. I do like the way he made sure we knew it was fully gay as opposed to just kinda-gay, which is the way Miss Drudge prefers to live his life. From the Times UK:

David Brock, a former right-wing journalist, claimed in his book Blinded by the Right that Drudge was gay, yet supported a party that these critics see as “homophobic”. “So are you a gay right-wing Republican?” I ask. “No, I’m not gay. I was nearly married a few years ago. And no, I’m not a right-wing Republican,” he replies without batting an eye. “I’m a conservative and want to pay less taxes. And I did vote Republican at the last election. But I’m more of a populist.”

Time-wasting, gay reads about The Man in Miami:

I-go-to-gay-bars-but-I'm-not-gay-core Disco naps in the fabulously decorated Log Cabin Nasty Fags and Drudge's Sludge "...club music is the classical music of our age." He really is an asshat of the worst variety. Self-loathing homos like this eventually combust, right? I'll leave you with a few words of wisdom from Le Drudge:

"I think more people died of AIDS during Clinton than during either Reagan or Bush," he continues. "I don't think there's anything a president can do [about AIDS], especially a president who is encouraging oral sex.... If we all just have our pants down, if we follow our urges in everything we do, society is going to go down.

Beat Beat Beat

Packin' that Texxxas heat...

OIL : The Lubrication of Love and Life
Prince Abdullah meets the Texas everygirl! Thanks to the folks at Wonkette for pointing me in the right direction.

Don't you impugn MY integrity...

Tomorrow should be chock full of MSM goodies to keep everyone busy. Here's a head start on some of the sexier stories. Marines From Iraq Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men

In returning home, the leaders and Marine infantrymen have chosen to break an institutional code of silence and tell their story, one they say was punctuated not only by a lack of armor, but also by a shortage of men and planning that further hampered their efforts in battle, destroyed morale and ruined the careers of some of their fiercest warriors.

Secret Service Records Raise New Questions About Discredited Conservative Reporter

Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities. On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out.

Unexpectedly, Capitol Hill Democrats Stand Firm (Analysis)

Democrats were supposed to enter the 109th Congress meek and cowed, demoralized by November's election losses and ready to cut deals with Republicans who threatened further campaigns against "obstructionists." But House and Senate Democrats have turned that conventional wisdom on its head. They have stymied President Bush's Social Security plan and held fast against judicial nominees they consider unqualified. To protest a GOP rule change, they have kept the House ethics committee from meeting. And they have slowed -- and possibly derailed -- Bush's nomination of John R. Bolton to become ambassador to the United Nations.

DeLay Airfare Was Charged To Lobbyist's Credit Card (day-old news)

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. DeLay, who is now House majority leader, has said that his expenses on this trip were paid by a nonprofit organization and that the financial arrangements for it were proper. He has also said he had no way of knowing that any lobbyist might have financially supported the trip, either directly or through reimbursements to the nonprofit organization. The documents obtained by The Washington Post, including receipts for his hotel stays in Scotland and London and billings for his golfing during the trip at the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland, substantiate for the first time that some of DeLay's expenses on the trip were billed to charge cards used by the two lobbyists. The invoice for DeLay's plane fare lists the name of what was then Abramoff's lobbying firm, Preston Gates & Ellis.

Fuck you, Bill Frist

The whole "nuclear option" debate is ridiculous. The two douchebags that Bush wants to move through to the federal appellate court were blocked once for before for reasons NOT associated with partisan politics OR minority discrimination. Well, I just assumed that since they were both women (and one of them is black!!) they'd just sail through. Justice Sunday takes place this weekend. According to the Family Research Council:

FRC has launched a new effort to ensure that the U.S. Senate fulfills its constitutional responsibilities and holds up-or-down votes on President Bush's judicial nominees."We join with millions of our fellow Americans in asking our senators to call the roll. The liberal Senate minority's cat-and-mouse game with judicial nominees must stop."

430 American religious leaders are opposed to this manipulation of faith. I'm opposed to the general douchebaggery that is emanating from the Republican party these days.

Oy. Is it too late to move to...

The Catholic church has a new Captain Infallible. German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI today. I can't quite remember where I heard that name... Wasn't he an apologist for child molesting priests? Wasn't he the yahoo that said "homosexuality is an intrinsic evil that will destroy our world society?" Wasn't he the Cardinal that sent a letter to US bishops clarifying "principles of worthiness" for people about to receive communion? Wasn't he the guy that specified that pro-choice Catholics should be denied the sacrament?

AP - He specifically mentioned "the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws," a reference widely understood to mean Democratic candidate Kerry, a Catholic who has defended abortion rights.

As a non-practicing, liberal Catholic, I get testy when abortion is the sole issue upon which people make their political decisions. It's so fucking ridiculous. Though I used to be a regular church attendee, I can't think of one, single time when any of my priests injected politics into the mass. This was an extraordinary opportunity for the Church to turn around and head in a more positive direction, yet they opted for the hard-line mirror of John Paul II. He was instrumental in the recent, mobilized Catholic movement to put an end to capital punishment, but seriously.... I get this feeling he wont be anything like Pope JP2, who constantly questioned both the left and the right, challenging world leaders from a consistent moral point of view. Let's hope B16 doesn't spent the rest of his days condemning women's issues and homos. I smite thee!

Familiarity blurs nuance, eh?

I've not updated all weekend. So much to say...and I never said it. Trent Lott had a mini-conference outside of the ABC studios after making the Sunday-talker rounds on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. I couldn't stomach the entire broadcast, but I did stick around long enough to hear him bitch and whine about Democrats trying to block judicial nominations of "highly qualified women and minorities." There is NO BASIS for the fillibuster, he said. He only mentioned two people: Janice Brown and Priscilla Owens. PRISCILLA OWENS: Alberto Gonzales, the Torture Czar, if you will, called one of her dissents on the Texas Supreme Court "an unconscionable act of judicial activism." She's been criticized as being on the "far right" of the Texas court, even further to the right than Bush's own appointees to that court when he was gov'ner. She supported the elimination of buffer zones around reproductive health care clinics in Houston. The list goes on and on... JANICE BROWN: According to a study by People For the American Way, Janice Brown is "to the Right of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia." Yikes. The fine folks over at Black Commentator stated back in 2003, that "her nomination is an insult, not a bow, to African American sentiments." There ya go. Oh, and there's much, much more on this lady as well... Meanwhile, on Face the Nation (CBS), Chuck Rangel (D-New York) ripped David Drier (R-California) a new one while they were discussing everyone's favorite slimeball, Tom DeLay.

The way you treat Democrats with this drunkenness of power...the only satisfaction we get is that you treat moderate Republicans the same way. Tom DeLay is called "The Hammer." He loves it. He says that his supporters should have arms and that he taks no prisoners. This attacks the integrity, not just of the Congress, but (sic) how we look with foreign countries.

More later.

Goodies

When I was in high school, I was a total band geek and it was pretty exciting, albeit kinda lame, but we always thought we were cooler than the choir dorks. Check out THESE folks, still living the wacky choir-bus lifestyle and rockin' the Nintendo tunes...acapella! Seriously, the video is incredible if you play a lot of old-school video games and smoke a lot of W E E D. Choir Dorks

Well, she tried...

Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced an amendment in the Senate that would provide $2 billion for vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. The "Murray Amendment" (tacked on to the $80 billion war supplemental) was defeated earlier today. All but one Republican (Arlen Specter) voted against the troops. Question: On the Motion (Motion to Waive Sec. 402, S. Con. Res. 95 (108th) "Emergency designation" Re: Murray Amdt. No. 344, As Modified ) Vote Number: 89 Vote Date: April 12, 2005, 03:26 PM Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Motion Rejected Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 344 to to H.R. 1268 (Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005 ) Statement of Purpose: To provide $1,975,183,000 for medical care for veterans. Vote Counts: YEAs 46 NAYs 54

Strike up the band!

For millions of Iraqis and Americans, it is a day they will never forget. The toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad will be recorded, alongside the fall of the Berlin Wall, as one of the great moments in the history of liberty.---George W. Bush April 12, 2005

Umm...if my memory serves me right, the toppling of the statue was NOT a spontaneous reaction by those wacky, liberated Iraqis. One of our Marines decided the statue should come down, then an Army psychological operations (PSYOPS) turned the whole thing into a red, white and blue propaganda moment.

When Saddam Fell: How the Press was Misled From Day One

Equating this bullshit with the fall of the Berlin Wall is blatantly dishonest, especially since the U.S. military has confirmed that it was staged. Plus, the Berlin Wall didn't fall because a couple of Hummers hooked on to either side of it tore it down...RONALD REAGAN did it with his bare hands, remember?

Danny Goldberg is Douchebag

XM and Air America Radio Announce Long Term Agreement; XM to be Official Satellite Radio Network of Air America

I'm sooooo glad I didn't buy a Sirius radio for myself before my big move back to Texas. According to the press release, XM will be calling its new station "Air America Radio," despite the fact that they wont be carrying all of AAR's original programming. They're including The Ed Shultz Show and the Alan Colmes Show, which means Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy will either be on delay, or hours will be cut from their broadcast. I call shenanigans! Fuck you, Danny Goldberg!

Oy.

Check out this thankful Iraqi throng thanking us for our liberation efforts!! I knew they'd finally get it. The war was a little rocky in the beginning, but thanks to Bush and Co. everything's roses. Only 29 people died today. Praise Allah, none of them were Americans.

Skip the 'until death' part...

Thank you's are in order for Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) for leading the fight to stop pesticide-testing on infants.

Sens. Barbara Boxer of California and Bill Nelson of Florida said they would place a ``hold'' on the White House's nomination of acting EPA administrator Stephen Johnson unless he canceled the $9 million program.
The Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study would have paid families $970 to videotape how spraying insecticides in their homes affected infants over two years.

If the current administration wasn't such a joke, this wouldn't have even been an issue. Nevertheless, drop your U.S. Senators a lil' love note.
In other news:

WASHINGTON, April 8 - Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts. Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples.

My only Pope post...I swear

There are rare moments when I'm proud of my Church, whatever that means these days. I think the fact that millions of people from all over the world can come together like they did for the Pope's funeral is incredible. Period.
God bless Giovanni Paulo.
He and I disagreed on a lot of things, but I'm still a Catholic, and I don't think I'll ever get past that. The guilt got me, I suppose.
I'm a sucker for ceremony and ritual.
That can't be a good thing...

Whoa.

Dennis "Danger" Madalone was the stunt co-ordinator for The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. He has also appeared in numerous small roles on TNG and DS9. Lately, he's started to dabble in the fine art of patriotic ballad-rockery. He has a new song out that he's calling the New American Rock Anthem. Check out the VIDEO! WARNING: There's a whole lot of unneccessary rocky-cliff shots and he's wearing a USA basketball jersey whilst holding an American flag-rag. I hope Charlie Daniels doesn't see this...

Oh my goodness!

This is just TOO RIDICULOUS.Watch David Blaine rip his heart out from his chest!!
Carson Daly's "dude, dude... aw dude" is priceless.
Also, check out SPLOID, the neo-Drudge site. It's NYPost-ee, without the drool marks.

Documenting the horseshit

The afternoon news is on!! It's 6 in the PM here in Seattle and for some reason, Alan Colmes is in a tuxedo on FOX and over on MSNBC Tucker Carlson is talking to this one guy that knew a chick who met the Pope this one time.
Ooohhhh, Hannity's teasing us with promises of NEW Jane Fonda protest tapes. He'll be talking to Ollie North after the break.
...and we're back. J.C. Watts (R-OK) is trying to defend Tom DeLay, and on the split screen, we can see a shot of the Radio and Television Correspondents Association's annual dinner. I guess that explains Colmes' black and white getup. Apparently we're waiting on Dick Cheney's speech, because it's really important.
This is too painful. I should read a book or something.
Oh, I'd like to extend a big Fuck You to whomever decided Condi Rice should go to the Pope's funeral while Jimmy Carter was snubbed.

Russian Monies!

James Wolcott is becoming one of my favorite daily reads. He filters out the crap and posts informative, juicy bits that can be swallowed whole:

Saturation Droning Posted by James Wolcott
Just a minor note on the slow-drip media deathwatch of Pope John Paul II. I've been hopping from cable channel to channel for hours while working--keeping the TV sound low--and it's been a procession of priest, priest, priest, priest, priest, priest--wall-to-wall white collars. Not a nun in sight, and barely a prominent Catholic laywoman. Some of the conversation touches on the ordination of women, the role of women in the church, the Pope's stand on abortion, but the conversation has been conducted almost exclusively among men. It's like that recent God panel on Meet the Press that consisted of five men theologizing, with Jon Meacham of Newsweek mewing the most awful pious twaddle, at one point using Bush and Dante in the same sentence with a straight face.
Another thing. After all the eulogizing the media have been doing over the last 24 hours, what will be left to say once the Pope actually dies? They've talked his death to death before having the decency to let him expire first.

D'you suppose his body stinks by now? No offense, but maybe that's why everyone pictured in the background of the corpse-pics look so horrified... He wasn't embalmed!!! His viewin' slab is refrigerated, I hear.

Smell my finger

Tomorrow's news, today! From the Washinton Post:

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements. DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.

From the New York Times:

The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay's political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay's home state, Texas. Most of the payments to his wife, Christine A. DeLay, and his only child, Dani DeLay Ferro, were described in the disclosure forms as "fund-raising fees," "campaign management" or "payroll," with no additional details about how they earned the money. The payments appear toreflect what Mr. DeLay's aides say is the central role played by the majority leader's wife and daughter in his political career.

Again...eat it.

Fuzzy Math & Sticky Digits

The fine folks over at Editor & Publisher ran a story on Bush's sinking approval ratings. At this point in his second term, his rating has dropped to the lowest level of ANY president since World War II.

Bush's current rating is 45%. The next lowest was Reagan with 56% in March 1985.

Go figure. I guess Dubya isn't as infallible as the Pope, whose death he's desperately trying to work into his current, shit-stained public image.

Here are the approval ratings for presidents as recorded by Gallup in the March following their re-election:

Truman, 1949: 57%.

Eisenhower, 1957: 65%.

Johnson, 1965: 69%.

Nixon, 1973: 57%.

Reagan, 1985: 56%.

Clinton, 1997: 59% .

Bush, 2005: 45% .

Eat it.

In local (Hidalgo Co, TX) news, Judge Ed Aparicio was found dead in his home yesterday. A single gunshot wound to the head ended his life. He'd been the target of FBI investigations into allegations that he accepted bribes from attorneys. He was never indicted.

After unexpectedly missing a trial the day before his death, he faxed this note of resignation to the local media:

"The demands of my position as your Judge have unfortunately taken a toll on my personal life. I am resigning from the bench to dedicate more time and energy to my family and to personal family matters that require immediate attention," the release stated. "I wish to thank the citizens of Hidalgo County for their support during my three terms as Judge. I trust that they will understand that stepping down from the bench is an important step to take at this time."

Though not official, it seems this is being ruled as a suicide. It smells fishy to me.

Just another Texan dirtbag...

Senator Links (Judicial) Violence To 'Political' Decisions John Cornyn R - TX "I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. . . . And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence. Certainly without any justification, but a concern that I have." Three cheers for domestic terrorism, y'all! John Conyers (D-MI) Responds: "This apparent effort to rationalize violence against judges is deplorable. On its face, while it contains doubletalk that simultaneously offers a justification for such violence and then claims not to, the fundamental core of the statement seems to be that judges have somehow brought this violence on themselves. This also carries an implicit threat: that if judges do not do what the far right wants them to do (thus becoming the "judicial activists" the far right claims to deplore), the violence may well continue." More later.

Snake Handlin' Fool

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior..."

OK, so Tom DeLay's not-so-thinly-veiled threat to the judiciary was heard 'round the world on April Fool''s Day, but did anyone catch what Cheney said yesterday? Though not directly admonishing The Hammer's remarks, he did say he was opposed to retribution against any of the Schiavo judges. I don't get the DeLay thing anymore. He's obviously corrupt from his little, pointy head down to his little, pointy boots, yet the R's are afraid to take him down and avoid the debacle of his imminent indictment. Some Texan yahoo that showed up at a DeLay speaking event had these kind words to say of the 2nd highest ranking member of the U.S. House:

"He's not guilty of the things they say he's guilty of. And he may have done some treaveling or this, that and the other, but he can explain where he's been. He's a loyal, true Christian man," she said. "We love him just like he was our brother."

OH....i get it now, he's a Christian, so everything's just roses. Check out Think Progress' DeLay report. It smells gross.

1920 - 2005

Handsome is as handsome does.

Happy President's Day!

There's something SO RIGHT about this jackass today. I can't seem to put my finger on it, despite the fact that it's his official day to shine.