Bush Pushes Social Security Reform On the Sly - You'll Pay $700 Billion (For Starters)

What a sneaky bastard Bush is.

No one wanted it - and told him so loudly - so he slips it into the budget anyway at the same time he proposes billions in cuts for Medicare. Lovely man. You must be so proud if you voted for him. ::choke::

Thanks to MissM for the link.

Kenneth Starr, Again Shown a Liar and a Fraud

This was the man Bush I wanted to put on the Supreme Court after he pushed through the disastrous Clarence Thomas. And because Ken Starr didn't get his appointment, because Clinton said he would NOT nominate Starr, we ended up with an investigation that some peg at costing more than $200 million before it was finished that ONLY proved there was dried semen on the blue dress of a consenting adult woman.

I bring you, Ken Starr, liar and fraud.

From CNN:

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California's governor to spare the man's life, prosecutors said Friday.

The jurors denied they thought Michael Morales deserved clemency because some of the testimony at his trial may have been fabricated, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Kenneth Starr is best known as the special prosecutor in the Monica Lewinsky affair during President Bill Clinton's administration.

Pious, sanctimonious, stinking piece of GOP elephant dung.

One You Won't Believe

Something else from The Carpetbagger Report you probably won't believe even after you read:

Before the president delivered remarks on the war on terror in the National Guard Building in DC, Bush received a nice bronze gift.

Presidents are often memorialized in their most famous moments — George Washington crossing the Delaware, Theodore Roosevelt at San Juan Hill.
Now President Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard has been immortalized in bronze. The National Guard Association of the United States yesterday unveiled a bust of a young Lt. George W. Bush.

Now, if only Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard deserved to be immortalized in bronze, the bust might have been more appropriate.

A review of the regulations governing Bush's Guard service during the Vietnam War shows that the White House used an inappropriate — and less stringent — Air Force standard in determining that he had fulfilled his duty.

Because Bush signed a six-year "military service obligation," he was required to attend at least 44 inactive-duty training drills each fiscal year beginning July 1. But Bush's own records show that he fell short of that requirement, attending only 36 drills in the 1972-73 period, and only 12 in the 1973-74 period. The White House has said that Bush's service should be calculated using 12-month periods beginning on his induction date in May 1968. Using this time frame, however, Bush still fails the Air Force obligation standard.

Moreover, White House officials say, Bush should be judged on whether he attended enough drills to count toward retirement. They say he accumulated sufficient points under this grading system. Yet, even using their method, which some military experts say is incorrect, U.S. News 's analysis shows that Bush once again fell short. His military records reveal that he failed to attend enough active-duty training and weekend drills to gain the 50 points necessary to count his final year toward retirement.

The U.S. News analysis also showed that during the final two years of his obligation, Bush did not comply with Air Force regulations that impose a time limit on making up missed drills. What's more, he apparently never made up five months of drills he missed in 1972, contrary to assertions by the administration.

According the WaPo account of yesterday's event, after receiving the bust, the president "seemed no more eager to talk about [his Guard service] yesterday than he did in his 2004 reelection campaign" and "offered virtually no comment on the bust at all." Sore subject?

A Bushie Week in Review

One more before I go struggle with email (again); this from the good folks at The Carpet Bagger:

* In an unprecedented action, the Environmental Protection Agency's own scientific panel challenged the agency's proposed public health standards governing soot and dust. Scientists found that Bush appointees "twisted" or "misrepresented" their recommendations in an "egregious" fashion, and inserted language into EPA reports from trade associations' lobbyists.

* The White House really did expose the identity of an undercover CIA agent.

* The White House unveiled one of the most irresponsible federal budgets anyone has ever seen and intentionally left out most funding for the war.

* State Department officials appointed by Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political operatives who share the White House and Pentagon's distrust of international negotiations and treaties.

* The warrantless-search program Bush uses to capture bad guys isn't actually capturing bad guys.

* The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East accused the administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence and misusing intelligence "to justify decisions already made."

* The administration knew far more, far earlier about Katrina than they've been willing to admit.

* Jack Abramoff had far more, far closer connections to the president than the White House has been willing to admit.

* Scooter Libby told a grand jury that he was authorized by his "superiors," including the Vice President, to disclose classified information to reporters about Iraq's weapons capability in June and July 2003.

* The president boasted about thwarting a terrorist attack in Los Angeles, but a series of experts and administration officials suggest that Bush seriously exaggerated this threat.

Remember, for some administrations, this might be several months' worth of controversies. And yet, it's just another typical week in Bush's America.

Iraq, Iran, Israel, Oil, The Iranian Oil Bourse and Oh Vey!

Posted at Vermont Commons:

GGreat article providing a neat overview of imperialism and the dollar. With more and more rumblings of a new war with Iran, the need to escape the Empire may soon become much more pressing.

March arrives this year as the date for the establishment of the Iranian Oil Bourse, and coincidentally enough, the month by which Israel plans to attack Iran's alleged nuclear weapons facilities. (Note the statement provided by Netanyahu, "...that if Sharon did not act against Iran, 'then when I form the new Israeli government, we’ll do what we did in the past against Saddam’s reactor, which gave us 20 years of tranquillity.'” One certainly wonders what Sharon's recent stroke implicates.)

Anyway. I think I'll take my annual Spring vacation in February this year.

Waldo...

A free wish on what looks to be a nice little meteor shower going on right now to the first person who can answer this little question.

Google can help you answer the first part of it, but you're probably going to need to go Boolean to adequately answer the second.

What does "waldo" mean and who was the first sci-fi author to coin it?

At least eight of you I'm going to be sorely disappointed in if you do not answer correctly.

Now I'm going to go back and fight with my mailbox which won't send, receive, or [bleeping] shutdown for that matter.

Test

1-2-3- and if you're the governor of Cal-eee-foh-knee-ah (yes, you, Arnold) - 7.

The Iranian Oil Bourse

You NEED to know how this can affect us.

At first blush, you might dismiss the Iranian Bourse, the Iranian oil exchange which is set to open next month. But there are a horde of reasons why you should endeavor to learn more.

Not necessarily exclusive yet certainly not helped by our saber rattling at Iran to complete a stretch of land we started with occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iranian Oil Bourse will NOT deal with U.S. dollars. Important? You bet.

Some predict this will send the American dollar into a great freefall than it already is. For all the Bush years, the American dollar has had less and less value.

Some links to the Iranian Oil Bourse discussion can be found here, and here, and here, and here, and here. Please add your own links as you find them. You also may want to look at PeakOil.

This warrants our full attention and now.

Bush
Iran
PeakOil
Terrorism

The Bushies' Latest Lie: We Thwarted a Second 9/11

That's what the Bushies suddenly pulled out of their rumps today. It was effective enough to bump the other news - like that Bush told Tony Blair we were going to squash Iraq regardless of diplomatic efforts in the leadup to Bush Gulf War II and that Scooter Libby (sans crutches) said top White House brass signed off on the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative to the press as a means of attack against former Amb. Joseph (Joe) Wilson - off the radar.

Well, folks, isn't it WAY past time we tell the Bushies to put up or shut up?

Dear Mr. Bush:

PROVE WHAT YOU SAY.

Don't hide behind the NSA and Islamic names and Dick Cheney's bravado.

Show us some proof or shut the you-know-what-up.

You're making this stuff up. You're desperate to scare people. You're a bully AND a coward and it's time a few fools realized this, including you and Cheney.

Signed,
Your Less Than Loving Public, the People You Screw More Aggressively Than Anything Bill Clinton Ever Did With Monica Lewinsky

The Mohammed Cartoons

Can you believe this?

Well, even if you can, I found it the height of hubris for Condi Rice to stand there with her Israeli counterpart to demand the violence stop while Bush - the greatest perpetrator of global violence perhaps ever - said to cut it out as well.

But, when all it said and done, it IS a cartoon. The Bushies would love to stop negative attacks against them. I don't think newspaper cartoons should be censored.

Why did Muslims never appear in the streets in such numbers to protest the Bush actions? I think they have much greater cause for concern there.

Thank You!

I am trying - seemingly futilely - to post Web based email to those of you kind enough to offer a bit of assistance at this time of high expenses that has forced me offline at least temporarily. I'm closer to getting back, and want to thank those of you who have helped. If you haven't gotten a personal mail from me, you should receive one today, Web gods willing.

Offline Appeal

Hi folks:

I come to you hat in hand, and embarrassed.

I've got a handful of issues that can all be resolved when someone pays me, but it looks like that may be weeks more. Namely, I've got a dead phone line with an ice-severed cable leading up to it, two dead computers and a third about to die, which means no computer, no access (except for 20 mile trips to the public library).

So, if you've ever been tempted to drop a few dollars to help sustain a blog, now would be an opportune time. As soon as I get the funds, one way or another, I will return. In the meantime, it will be hit or miss as I can get here.

If you want to donate to the blog fund, my paypal address is katejchase@cut-to-the-chase.net. I would not suggest sending me email, however, because it is too difficult to access everything via public computer.