damn it

no roasted rove.

damn it.

keep the home fires burning

it's so great to see all the crashing and burning. all the masks coming off. even the weird americans on the far right having problems with really weird americans in the white house.

by the way, when youre submitting blogs, do all you guys also have blank fields for "title", "link" and the big text box? if so, you can put a URL into that link field and it will automatically link to whatever URL youre recommending in your comments.

thanks for blogging, greggo. good luck with your benefit thing.

when I think I have seen it all.....

I keep thinking that I can't be shocked by the shit that comes out of this administration, then along comes reports like this.

http://tinyurl.com/73am7

Oh yes, we have a gentler kinder president....christian too rumor has it. RIGHT

how much would you pay?

for front row seats to see the upcoming instant classic...

CHENEY ON THE CHAIN GANG

the epic tale of a black hearted Montanaoan in his mindless mission to undermine credibility...his own and that of the american people. just when he thought no one could see the sins of his sordid past, the betrayal of american intelligence, the for us - against us mindset that pitted his black hattedness against america itself...

down comes the curtain ashcroft draped over Liberty and down comes her swift sword through the legion of undead known as the bush administration. lucky are those who jumped ship in disgust during the first four years cause now it's time to pay the piper.

now it's time to drive the rest of the rats from the sacred ship of state into deep boiling seas of come uppins and against the shore of all such washed up enemies of the republic. and up goes a fresh betsy ross and the freedom and justice for which it Truly stands.

frontline rocks

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/

how can rumsfeld not swing for what he's done? no wonder he's kept such a low profile the last few years. why hasnt bush been proudly saying, "Now ya'll need ta give my little Rummy boy some love. His philosophy toward torture is the same as mine and will be the same 20 years from now"?

let me see your papers...and I dont mean Please!

I cant believe the "pledge allegiance to george" thing. I mean I Can but I mean I cant believe how neroesque this guy is. he IS nero. he isolates himself from Everyone who doesnt adore him. he condemns and exacts revenge on all who arent with him.

and he does so to such an extreme it colors everthing...every echo and artifact of this strange, groteque regime. I can only pray the vast majority of the population will see him for what he is by the time he leaves office. and that he will never achieve the diplomatic status of carter or clinton or even his hideously deceptive old man...heinous old spymaster.

I'm under no delusion that bush II's karma will catch up with him so fast or that even, as a society, there will be a public outcry to repeal the republican revolution for the bitter abhorrent might makes right abomination its been from the beginning.

I know better than to assume that the worse it gets, the sooner better days will return. didnt happen with nixon, didnt happen with reagan, why would bush be any different. it will take another massive union movement to bring us back to domestic sanity and I dont see that happening for another 2-3 decades.

we'll probably see the rich-poor gap widen more and more for many, many years...more and more poor dropping out...I dont know...the whole hellish human sacrifice procession is progressing at an alarming rate. anyone else have their crystal ball handy and wanna weigh in on our sorry fate?

corporate support

anyone else see the article in the morning news that displayed the decline in retirement health care in corporate america. when bush 41 took office in 88, 60% of american corporations provided employee health benefits in retirement. during his 4 years, that dropped to 32%, almost half.

clinton didnt do much to turn that around as if congress was in the mood to get back in the biz of regulation after 12 years of the free marketeers bogusly propogandizing that there was even such thing as a "free" market. but at least the situation started to reverse itself till bush 43 resumed the screwing of employees. now it's back down to just above 30% and any reasonable analysis shows a zero sum at some point.

which brings us to the weird part. when the the article talked about what employees need to do, there was absolutely no mention of trying to get lawmakers to help, to think in terms of organizing against getting screwed, no union contact info. there was nothing about whether there was even screwing going on. it was simply accepted that benefits that were there before arent there now and it wont be long before they'll be nothing but a memory.

so, they ended with how much the average retiree will have to save to get by...assuming nothing catastrophic. hey, maybe I'm wrong about this. who ever heard of anyone getting sick after they retire? I mean, as long as you take your vitamins and eat fish once a week, you should be fine, right?

what's next? child labor? how much more Victorian, pre-union work place policies are we going to go back to ? ? ? totally insane.

gettin' ready...

lately i've seen soldiers walking around austin...

on the street, at the mall, sometimes in pairs, sometimes alone...

a good friend of mine who trained and once considered a career with the forestry service just told me that all mid-level managers and up must now swear an 'oath' to the president. the president mind you...

national parks are a good place to hide.

people are looking at these things and saying 'what the fuck is going on here?'

i'll tell you what's going on.

why do you think bush wants his personal attorney on the supreme court?

get prepared to present your papers before curfew...

rhymes with 'bird flu'...

38% and falling

I heartily approve.

have you googled "failure" yet?

seems like that was there a few
years ago and here it is again.

maybe jesus is firing back.

bushline

bushline
Originally uploaded by kcorbet.

hello? katrina who? rita??? I cant, uh, uh...youre in a bad cell. call back later.

who the fuck knows?

sometimes I wonder how ominous the Whatcha Don't Know factor is with these guys...the leads And supporting cast. we can see how some of the shit will haunt us for years to come, here and around the world, politically, socially, any yardstick you care to pull outta the basket.

again, I didnt hear Roberts say anything that made me think Thumbs Down and Miers seems relatively harmless. Now.

what it comes down to is, given the track record, how can we possibly trust W's judgement on ANYTHING???

I mean, we have a saying here in Texas. "Fool me once, uh, uh..."

speaking of which, how bout a few more bushisms:

"We discussed the way forward in Iraq, discussed the importance of a democracy in the greater Middle East in order to leave behind a peaceful tomorrow."

"It's in our country's interests to find those who would do harm to us and get them out of harm's way."

"But Iraq has - have got people there that are willing to kill and they're hard-nosed killers and we will work with the Iraqis to secure their future."

(while surveying Katrina damage from air force one) "It's totally wiped out... devastating. It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground."

"My thoughts are we're going to get somebody who knows what they're talking about when it comes to rebuilding cities."

good idea, george. and a refreshing change in judgement.

The Miers Connundrum

Well, the Harriet Miers situation has got me in a bit of a quandry.
Sure, she's got a whole shitload of credentials that I' m not too crazy about...not the least of which is the house legal whore to our own Guvner turned national fuckup.
But...the mere fact she's got people like Brownback in a dither leads me to wonder if this might not be the lesser of many many evils.
On a more personal note, I have met her twice. She used to frequent LaMadeleine by SMU in the early 90s and was looked upon quite fondly by many of the alterna-activists who held court there. Hell, if they like her....
Whats really going to be interesting is how the Rove mess plays out. Just what did he promise those senators?
A trip to the Harriet Dairyette for a sack of fresh votes, I reckon.

come back, shane

The President, Condeleeza Rice and Dick Cheney are flying on Air Force One. George looks at Condi, chuckles and says, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy." 

Condeleeza shrugs her shoulders and says, "Well, I could throw ten $100 bills out the window and make 10 people very happy." 

Cheney says, "Of course then, I could throw one-hundred $10 bills out the window and make a hundred people very happy." 

Overhearing the conversation from the cockpit, the pilot glances at the ground 32,000 feet below and says to his co-pilot,  "Hell, I could throw all three of them bozos out the window and make 57.3 million people friggin ecstatic." 

who do you believe?

(click on the title to see the entire ny times article)

bush: "But let's be clear," Mr. Bush continued. "It is cowardice that seeks to kill children and the elderly with car bombs, and cuts the throat of a bound captive, and targets worshipers leaving a mosque. It is courage that liberated more than 50 million people. It is courage that keeps an untiring vigil against the enemies of a rising democracy, and it is courage in the cause of freedom that once again will destroy the enemies of freedom. "

(how much courage does it take for the most advanced military on earth to attack weak little iraq? just another in our shameful history. grenada, panama, afghanistan, iraq. george...if you wanna prove your so-called courage, invade china or germany...oh, wait, we already did that...and we're still fucking there...sheesh.)

pelosi (d-calif): "The president's statement that Iraq is the central front on the war on terror is a mistake," she said. The Bush administration "has totally mismanaged the war in Iraq" and "now he's trying to justify his actions with a series of excuses that are not reasons for us to be there."


what is it about the undeveloped personalities of certain conservative politicians who still look at life through the filter of a B-Western? the bad guys are always yeller and aint nobody gonna cross my line in the sand.

please. does anyone believe bush or any of his buddies would strap on a bomb with the intention of blowing himself up for his beliefs? I dont know...I dont see bush smithereening himself for jesus or for any of his freedom and democracy diatribe. unless maybe he could do it with a bag of exploding pretzels.

how deep the hole?

as bush continues to kill off potential republican voters wherever he can...in international wars against nobody in particular and through domestic ineptness, he seems to think he can make everything okay by making more and more mistakes.

"uh, well, if 2 wrongs dont make a right, how many does it take exactly?"

or "hey, seems like if I dig deep enough I'll find a way outta this dang hole."

so, his approval rating keeps going down and what is he trying to get congress to do? "let's pay for my little war on nobody and the shit left by whatever that big rain was or whatever by cutting food help for the poor, slashing environmental conservation (you mean, like those wetlands around N.O. that might have saved the day during katrina?) and, hey, lets really piss off the farmers by cutting their programs while theyre grappling with the one thing that makes a farm go...fuel for their machines."

meanwhile, we're pouring hundreds of millions into airfields in iraq and afghanistan. now isnt That special? saudi arabia tossed us out so we cant build bases there. very likely iraq will send us packing once they get off the ropes. of course the sunnis keep saying they're not playing along as long as we're there. prognosis: we build a state of the art air base that we'll have to abandon in the next few years anyway. what the fuck...another $150 million for what may become a camel lot.

sorry. I'm not implying theyre still driving camels over there, but I couldnt pass up the pun.

what's clear is the bush priorities are marching forward like a light house in the middle of the desert.

"SHE'S NOT GONNA CHANGE!"

not the issue, george. we wanna know what she IS, not that she'll be the same in 20 years.

same as WHAT, dog?!

it's a girl!

but she has zero bench time, george.

yeah, but she's been such a pal.

what the hell, george. we're talking about the SUPREME COURT here. this crap reminds me so much of a seinfeld scene where george is talking with jerry about possible career directions.

I like history. maybe I could teach history in college.

well, you usually have to have a degree in something before you can teach it.

maybe I could be a newscaster.

they usually give those jobs to broadcast journalists.

yeah. hey, I could be the color guy in the football booth.

well, again, they usually give those jobs to broadcasters and former football players.

that really isnt fair, is it?


I guess no one ever told dubyah about the connection between experience and expertise. what am I sayin? obviously, he never had to worry about such details to get where he's been.

personally, I cant imagine booking one of my teaching buddies to play a jazz gig if they dont know how. fuck. I used to ask my musician buddies to teach music history class till I saw how rare it is that they actually know how to teach. I mean...some can...some. but I no longer assume someone can do something just because I LIKE them and think theyre cool.

bushisms

"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program."
- George W. Bush

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
- George W. Bush

"Uhh Gosh, I.. don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those, uhh, exaggerations."
- George W. Bush, 10/13/2004
"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- George W. Bush, 3/13/2002
"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- George W. Bush, 9/13/2001

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking of new ways to harm our country and our people.. and neither do we."
- George W. Bush

"There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily.. are a different color than white can self-govern."
- George W. Bush

axisposter

axisposter
Originally uploaded by kcorbet.

army grunts

anyone else bugged by the recruiting ads these days?

I see these things and wonder who's falling for this crap. I can only hope the 2000 dead and countless maimed will eventually decrease the overly-testosteroned gene pool.

to all potentially great artists, leaders and scientists watching these ads who may not live cause theyre being tossed on the bonfire of dubyah's pointless posse, I say "go back, little spermies! go back! it's a blow job!"

con du lisa

I wonder if condi would even disagree with bennett's statement. if she is so brainwashed that she will willingly do and say the most outrageous things in support of bush's insanity, she either is A. so disconnected with reality as to have no sense of personal integrity or B. believes loyalty is the only priority and, therefore, has no sense of personal integrity whatsoever.

the parallels with corporate america are too obvious. the first thing you have to get upclose and comfy with is all lies great and small. the first thing out of your mouth when you arrive is "so nice to meet you" to someone you may well not trust from the get go. and everyday thereafter there is someone or some thing you can never be honest and open about.

this white house, the big house and westinghouse all share a common pressure...know when to lie and know when to keep your mouth shut. there is no truth beyond. if you cant live every moment on those terms, youre not long for the good ship lollypop.

how can that not be desensitizing? how can you so completely give up how you feel about what happens "at work"? I couldnt do it and will never put myself in that position again.

I doubt condi gave old boy bennett a second thought. I'm guessing he could have said, "if you wanna stop crime lynch all the jigaboo chucker boys and order in lunch" and condi's smile would have remained unchanged.

she wouldnt have been able to advance to her current place of notority otherwise. but I dont care. of all the vermin in the bush house of horrors, she never fails to boil my blood. some say she may be the first woman president. the way I feel about bush is like eating ice cream to the way I'd feel about her in the oral office.