Administrativia

One wonders what kind of reach-around Rove had to give Alexander Mooney for this piece of nonsense. Honestly, it would be pathetic if only it wasn't so calculated. As long as Bush and his cronies refuse to take any responsibility for the craptastic results of the last 8 years... To quote Lewis Black: There has to come a point where democrats and republicans look at a piece of footage and say “This is reality”. You can’t watch a video of a kitten getting run over by a Land Rover and say, “I think the cat was trying to commit suicide. I’m going to need at least 3 days to find the note it left.”

Once upon a time, the Republicans came to Houston and held a convention to nominate George Herbert Walker Bush... As Molly Ivins put it, "You have to feel sorry for the good folks of Houston, who were put in the position of being a hostess where the guest of honor just farted in front of everyone." Who could have guessed that the scion of that "guest of honor" would one day preside over the near entire loss of an American city? More than a decade later, the city of Houston showed the world that having a Democrat at the helm meant that the evacuees from New Orleans would be taken care of... We must never forget that Katrina happened because of a president and a party that put cronyism before competence, ideology before principle and politics before people. We cannot let that happen again.

As Shannen Coffin , over at the NRO noted: "... it is a bit of a political Hail Mary pass. Second, that he is one arrogant SOB. McCain is essentially telling the world that he doesn't really need a Vice President." I would go one step further. McSame is basically telling the American electorate that his own political expediency has a higher value than the safety, security and future prosperity of this country. We have had enough of politics trumping principle, cronyism over competency and right-wing ideology before national interests. That is the Bush legacy and mantle that this ersatz "maverick" seeks. Watching and listening to the so-called excitement being ginned up by the Limbaugh-Hannity axis over this ticket, I feel like I'm watching a gambling addict writing that last check to hit the tables... knowing full well, that the money was meant for the mortgage... they just know the next roll will be a hit. No really... this time is for real. Seriously...

Saturday (August 23rd) will mark the third anniversary of the levees breaking in New Orleans after Katrina brought devastation to the Gulf Coast -- killing thousands, displacing hundreds of thousands, and showing the truly awful incompetence of the GOP enabled, crony-filled G.W. Bush administration. (You know he's from Connecticut, don't you?) Where was the Shrub while New Orleans drowned? Sharing a birthday cake with his buddy John McCain who turned 69 that weekend. Heckuva Job!

You just have to laugh. How many days until January 22nd?

I was browsing CNN when one of the recommended stories caught my eye: "Bush Lowers Expectations for G8 Summit"... I did a Google search on the first of those three words and found more than 200,000 results. Obviously not a truly scientific survey, since I don't have access to Lexis-Nexis, but I think it's safe to say that "Bush Lowers Expectations" is probably one of the most apt thematic description of this failure of a presidency. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Bush+Lowers+Expectations

Yeah, I know -- it's all about Obama winning the Democratic nomination today, but lest we forget how we got into the mess we're in...

4,064 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003. 3925 U.S. service members have died since Bush declared "major combat" over and "mission accomplished. 29, 395 U.S. service members have been wounded in battle since the start of this. 1/2 of a trillion dollars have been spent so far... and the Bush administration is asking for another 250 billion for operations this year and into 1Q 2009. Some estimate that the total cost of Bush's folly will top $3 trillion. We don't know how many more will die.

With enough fanfare to break into the he-said / he-said Congressional testimony of Roger Clemens and admitted liar Macnamee, the President signed the so-called economic stimulus package today. Perhaps because I won't be getting a "rebate" (aka, money borrowed against next year's tax return), I'm a little less sanguine about the whole thing. Anecdotally though, I did an informal survey of friends who would be getting a check (eventually, some time in June) -- most would use the money to pay down their credit card. The next largest group would sock it away in savings -- just in case the recession turns down more or gets more drawn out. Only a couple of people are thinking about using the "windfall" for a spending spree. Interestingly, this break-down follows what most tracking polls nationally have found. The upshot? The government is borrowing a little over $150 billion against next year's tax receipts (printing money), of which about 80% will go tow...

As usual, the story behind the Shrub's " favorite painting " -- what he calls "A Charge to Keep" -- doesn't mesh with reality or the truth. Rather than being a picture of a gallant evangelical riding forth to spread Methodism, it's actually an illustration for a Saturday Evening Post story about a horse thief. The kicker and the caption from the Post illustration: "Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught" h/t Rod Dreher / Eyeteeth via