Neil Young: "Let's Impeach the President"
Streaming here.
4.30.2006
For Italy, the Fat Lady Finally Sings
Apparently disappointed that his pal, Dubya, did not send the U.S. Supreme Court over to help him steal the election as it did for Bush in 2000, Silvio Berlusconi is finally set to "concede" defeat and step down on Tuesday.
Hey, Sil, if you'd like to take Georgie with you, we're happy to let you!
"I Am Da Law" - Nyah Nyah
Attaturk brings us this which has my blood B-O-I-L-I-N-G!
What a tinhorn little dictator we have as our "elected" leader:
President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.
Today's Big Rally in DC on Darfur and What We Can Do
Flamingo Jones discusses today's DC rally on Darfur as well as what we can do in light of the U.S. drastically cutting aid to these most needy human beings caught up in the horrific genocide there. Please check it out!
The "State" of American Capitalism
Speaking of American Samizdat (in reference to the Stephen Colbert performance at last night's Correspondents' dinner at the White House), I want to call your attention to Uncle $cam's piece there on American capitalism (a/k/a Predator State).
Worth reading IMHO.
More on Stephen Colbert, WH Correspondents' Dinner, and 60 Minutes
First, I'm told that Stephen Colbert will appear tonight on CBS' 60 Minutes (7 PM EDT).
Second, Crooks and Liars offers a bit of Colbert's hilarious take-off on Bush and Company at last night's White House Correspondents' dinner, with some grand Helen Thomas thrown in for good measure.
Third, News Hounds discusses the bit in some detail - and reverie!
Update: Philip at American Samizdat gives us several more links to catch video recordings of Colbert's biting performance that left George and Laura Bush unsmiling as they hurried for the exit. Here tis:
You can also catch the Colbert speech here, here and here. (It's easier than torrent...)
Our President, Doing What He Does Best: Having a Tantrum, Pretending He's the God-Appointed King, Telling Americans and the World to Fuck Off...
Nice. Just so damned nice.
An open letter to Boy King George from TimBuck2 at Blah3:
I'm proud of you!
Hundreds of thousands dead. Many more to come thanks to your vision of a just crusade for 'FREEDOM' and 'DEMOCRACY' nobody asked for. 'FREEDOM' and 'DEMOCRACY' that you could not and would not provide.
Hiding behind the smug arrogant facade of 'Commander in Chief', this big fucking smokescreen that fools fewer people by the day, you are wreaking havoc simply because you can. You have a deranged mind, the likes we tend to see in tyrants and despots across the globe. Your silly "He's the guy who tried to kill my Dad" kind of excuses and lies won't help to save your sorry ass in The Hague, believe me.
You want a terrorist, one that really is dangerous? Well, here he is, doing what he does best - telling the world to get fucked.
Well, Fuck you.
FUCK YOU, YOU DEPRAVED LITTLE SHIT FOR SCREWING IT UP FOR THE REST OF US; US BEING THE REST OF THE PLANET, WHICH WE HAVE TO SHARE WITH YOU AND YOUR FUCKING TERRORIST CRONIES.
Let us take the next 24 hours to respond in kind and tell you to go fuck yourself. I for one had a guts full of you and had to vent it. Had to tell the world what I think of you and hope many more will follow in the hours to come.
And a One... and a Two... and a Blah Three....
Bush White House Continues to Sell America Piecemeal to Other Lands
From the Financial Times:
The White House yesterday gave its stamp of approval to a $1.2bn (€950m; £659m) takeover by a Dubai-owned company of Doncasters, a privately held British aerospace manufacturer supplying parts for sensitive military vehicles and aircraft.
Scott McClellan, the outgoing White House spokesman, said a review of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the US (Cfius) had found the acquisition would not jeopardise national security and that key members of Congress would be informed of the decision.
"This was a transaction that was thoroughly reviewed and closely scrutinised," said Mr McClellan.
President George W. Bush's blessing of the deal follows last month's backlash against another state-owned Dubai company, Dubai Ports World, which was forced to agree to sell five US port terminals it had acquired this year after Congress said the deal was a threat to national security.
The White House took special care with the Doncasters transaction, in part because Mr Bush and other officials were blamed for not reviewing the DP World deal thoroughly.
A person familiar with White House and United Arab Emirates officials said at the start of the Doncasters Cfius review that both sides were concerned another congressional blow-upmight seriously damage the US's relationship with Dubai, considered an important ally in the "war on terror".
Did the President Lose His Famed Sense of Humor?
I mean, Bush could make fun of missing WMDs himself a couple of years back with soldiers dying over that shit... so why didn't he like it when Stephen Colbert did it?
Ed&Pub takes us to the White House Correspondents' Dinner and the smiles that George and Laura weren't wearing:
WASHINGTON A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.Too fricking bad.
Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the 2700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the help of a Bush impersonator. Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “They are re-arranging the deck chairs--on the Hindenburg.”
Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies, always getting punched in the face—“and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world.”
Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
He noted former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the crowd, as well as " Valerie Plame." Then, pretending to be worried that he had named her, he corrected himself, as Bush aides might do, "Uh, I mean... Joseph Wilson's wife." He asserted that it might be okay, as prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was probably not there.
Colbert also made biting cracks about missing WMDs, “photo ops” on aircraft carriers and at hurricane disasters, and Vice President Cheney shooting people in the face. Observing that Bush sticks to his principles, he said, "When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday."
Also lampooning the press, Colbert complained that he was “surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides—the president’s side and the vice president’s side." He also reflected on the good old days, when the media was still swallowing the WMD story.
Addressing the reporters, he said, "You should spend more time with your families, write that novel you've always wanted to write. You know, the one about the fearless reporter who stands up to the administration. You know-- fiction."
4.29.2006
Afghanistan Still Really Enjoys Mr. Bush's Leadership There, Too
From the Christian Science Monitor (and by no means isolated in its description):
Nearly five years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan's security situation continues to be dragged down by endemic corruption, roving militias, and a growing nexus between narco-warlords and remnants of the Taliban, officials and analysts say.
The melting snows of spring often bring an uptick in violence, as rebels emerge from their mountain redoubts. Yet there are indications of a deepening instability beyond the seasonal surge.
More than 70 foreign troops, mostly Americans, have been killed this past year, making it the deadliest period since the conflict began. Violence, meanwhile, seems to be spreading beyond the volatile south, encroaching on areas formerly considered outside the zones of conflict.
"What is often labeled as Taliban violence is not," says Joanna Nathan, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Kabul. "It's a whole set of fluid alliances, cross- border attacks from Pakistan, drugs, tribal feuds, and of course the Taliban."
What these security issues have in common, she and others say, is the poor governance and official corruption among provincial governors, police chiefs, and others tasked with securing the country and bringing development. The implication: Stabilizing the country increasingly means providing better government.
"The state we're in now is because of the policy decision to co-opt those people who in the past committed human rights abuses. There's a culture of impunity. They continue in many cases to abuse the rights of people under them," says Ms. Nathan, adding that this not only causes violent flare-ups, but creates sympathy for the Taliban. These troubles, she says, are by no means limited to the south. "There are drug problems in the north, tribal problems, sheer criminality."
Force-Fed Fox in the Chicken White House
It just gets more perverse all the freaking time with these people.
From UPI:
WASHINGTON, April 28 (UPI) -- Washington Post reporter Jim VandeHei asked to have the television on Air Force One tuned to CNN instead of Fox News, but his request was initially denied.
"I was told, 'We don't watch CNN here, you can only watch Fox,'" VandeHei said.
"My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?" VandeHei asked White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who is soon to be replaced by former Fox anchor and self-described conservative Tony Snow.
McClellan denied there is an official policy, saying that the four televisions in his office are tuned onto all the major news channels, CNN reported.
"I've never known anyone that's raised a complaint about a request from back here to watch a different channel," McClellan said.
VandeHei replied, "I'm officially raising it, and officially complaining about it."
Gee, Mr. Bush is Right: Oil Companies Aren't Gouging Us: Chevron's Profit Is Only Up 50% So Far
You remember Chevron, right? The oil company where Secretary of Stooge Condi Rice sat on the Board of Directors for more than a decade?
With a profit so far this year of only $55 Billion, I don't know how they will ever survive. Oh wait, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney gave them a HUGE tax break. Maybe they'll be able to hang in there.
Even the Polish Judge Will Give This Olympian a 9 for Effort!
Any spouse can use the family car to try to mow down his or her cheating partner. Remember the wealthy nutjob lady dentist in Texas (ah, so many of them from Texas) who claimed it was all a silly accident when she went back to run over her cheating man three, four extra times?
But the record books like to reward earnest, "out of the box" thinking, such as in this case, where the wife tried to run down her husband while indoors. But hey, I'm sure it was an accident.
Who Needs an NSA, CIA, FBI, Secret Service, or Black Ops When We Have Dick Cheney?
Dick Cheney will decide what anyone can know, thank you very much!
From the San Jose Mercury News Saturday:
As the Bush administration has dramatically accelerated the classification of information as "top secret" or "confidential," one office is refusing to report on its annual activity in classifying documents: the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.Cheney makes J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, and your mother-in-law seem like relaxed, mellow, "whatever happens, happens" types.
A standing executive order, strengthened by President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents. More than 80 agencies have collectively reported to the National Archives that they made 15.6 million decisions in 2004 to classify information, nearly double the number in 2001, but Cheney continues to insist he is exempt.
Explaining why the vice president has withheld even a tally of his office's secrecy when such offices as the National Security Council routinely report theirs, a spokeswoman said Cheney is "not under any duty" to provide it.
That is only one way the Bush administration, from its opening weeks in 2001, has asserted control over information. By keeping secret so many directives and actions, the administration has precluded the public - and often members of Congress - from knowing about some of the most significant decisions and acts of the White House.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the administration has based much of its need for confidentiality on the imperative of protecting national security at a time of war. Yet experts say Bush and his closest advisers demonstrated their proclivity for privacy well before Sept. 11:
Starting in the early weeks of his administration with a move to protect the papers of former presidents, Bush has clamped down on the release of government documents. That includes tougher standards for what the public can obtain under the Freedom of Information Act and the creation of a broad new category of "sensitive but unclassified information."
Not only has the administration reported a dramatic increase in the number of documents deemed "top secret," "secret" or "confidential," the president has authorized the reclassification of information that was public for years. An audit by a National Archives office recently found that the CIA acted in a "clearly inappropriate" way regarding about one-third of the documents it reclassified last year.
The White House has resisted efforts by Congress to gain information, starting with a White House energy task force headed by Cheney and continuing with the president's secret authorization of warrantless surveillance of people inside the United States suspected of communicating with terrorists abroad. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., recently threatened to withhold funding for the surveillance program unless the White House starts providing information.
If You Think You're Sitting There Alone At Your Computer Right Now, Uh.... Maybe Not So Alone After All
But thankfully, it's just you AND John Negroponte, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney, George Bush, and the entire rest of the NSA at your keyboard.
Sounds cozy, yes?
From Technology Review and it's a beaut, too!
Another Bush Hoot-and-a-Half Guaranteed to Make You Sob
According to John in DC at AmericaBlog, President Bush and DuD DoD Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claim the U.S. cannot release Guatanamo Bay prisoners from Gitmo because these prisoners would be oppressed if returned to their native lands.
Snip:
Choke!Uh huh. Yeah, I'm sure George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld are really, REALLY concerned about the human rights of the detainees at Gitmo and THAT'S why they can't release them, because they're SO concerned about their human rights.
Somewhere a Soviet propagandist is smiling.
Wait.. either my kitchen drain is having problems or that sucking noise is my head imploding. Either way, it's gonna be messy, my friends!
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