24 Mar 08 Bush POD, albeit a bit late

I know Easter is here and gone, but how could I not post this photo (via FP)?

President George W. Bush greeted his new Secretary of the Treasury stating, “I guarantee he won’t count all his eggs before he throws glass stones, heh heh.”

OK that was lame, but it was the best I could do. I don’t know what is better though, Bush with the Easter Bunny or Bush with the pardoned turkey.

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Tags: George Bush, pictures

02 Mar 08 Brokeback Crawford

Looks like Bush has a new pal now that Tony Blair is on holiday.

Tags: BPOD, George Bush

28 Jan 08 SOTU

Think Progress has the absolute best SOTU thread(s) going. Facts right up against Bush’s empty rhetoric.

Read it.
Read it.
Read it.
Read it.
Read it.
Read it.
Read it.

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28 Jan 08 Countdown to Bush’s final SOTU

My favorite part of the SOTU, counting the sit applause, left applause, right applause and standing ovations. There are countless drinking games, which is really the only thing the SOTU seems to be good for these days.

And for the Sergeant-at-Arms to get his 15 seconds of fame each year.

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26 Jan 08 President Bush’s pre-SOTU radio address

This is the transcript of President Bush’s radio address given on Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008:

PRESIDENT: Good morning. On Monday night, I will address the American people about the state of our union. I will report that over the last seven years, we’ve made great progress on important issues at home and abroad. I will also report that we have unfinished business before us, and we must work together to get it done.

In my speech, I will lay out a full plate of issues for Congress to address in the year ahead. Two of these issues require immediate attention.

First is the economy. I know many of you are worried about the risk of an economic downturn, because of the instability in the housing and financial markets. You should know that while economic growth has slowed in recent months, the foundation for long-term growth remains solid. And I believe that with swift action, we can give our economy the boost it needs to continue expanding and creating new jobs for our citizens.

On Thursday, my Administration reached a bipartisan agreement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner on an economic growth package. This package will deliver direct tax relief to hardworking Americans. It will also include incentives for businesses — including small businesses — to make new investments this year. I ask the House and Senate to enact this package into law as soon as possible. And while I understand the desire to add provisions from both the left and the right, it would be a mistake to undermine this important bipartisan agreement. By working together, we can provide our economy with a shot in the arm when we need it most.

The other urgent issue before Congress is a matter of national security. Congress needs to provide our intelligence professionals with the tools and flexibility they need to protect America from attack. In August, Congress passed a bill that strengthened our ability to monitor terrorist communications. The problem is that Congress set this law to expire on February 1st. That is next Friday. If this law expires, it will become harder to figure out what our enemies are doing to infiltrate our country, harder for us to uncover terrorist plots, and harder to prevent attacks on the American people.

Congress is now considering a bipartisan bill that will allow our professionals to maintain the vital flow of intelligence on terrorist threats. It would protect the freedoms of Americans, while making sure we do not extend those same protections to terrorists overseas. It would provide liability protection to companies now facing billion-dollar lawsuits because they are believed to have assisted in efforts to defend our Nation following the 9/11 attacks. I call on Congress to pass this legislation quickly. We need to know who our enemies are and what they are plotting. And we cannot afford to wait until after an attack to put the pieces together.

When I go before Congress on Monday, I will speak more about how we can keep our economy strong and our people safe. I am confident that we can work together to meet our responsibilities in these areas — and leave our children a stronger and more prosperous America.

Thank you for listening.

Keep our economy strong? Um, don’t you mean make our economy strong. You’ve pretty much sunk us in the toilet dude. No place left to go but up.

I’m working Monday so I can’t watch the SOTU but I’ll catch the updates and highlights the next day.

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Tags: George Bush, politics

23 Aug 07 David Shuster on Bush’s Vietnam Analogy.

Ready…aim…fire!

Showing once again that President Bush has a marginal grasp of both history and metaphors.

The best part:

April 13th, 2004
Interviewer: How do you feel about the Vietnam analogy?

Bush: I feel the analogy is false…and it sends the wrong message to our troops.

Do Bush and Cheney forget that the things they say are actually recorded and archived?

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Tags: George Bush, Iraq War, punditry

06 Aug 07 Two bits:

So Big Brother has even more permission to spy on you and the DOD lost over 190,000 weapons meant for Iraqi security forces. Nice. How in the hell do you lose 190,000 weapons? It’s not exactly a set of car keys. In the annals of history the Iraq War should be renamed Murphy’s War, because that seems to be only law that is enforced there. All that can go wrong, will (and has).

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19 Jul 07 Bill Moyers Journal: Impeachment

Bill Moyers Journal, Tough Talk on Impeachment

I’ve never been big on the “Let’s impeach the president/vice-president!” rally cry. I feel that most people that say it don’t actually know what it means to impeach a president and why. No doubt the impeachment of Bill Clinton did something to trivialize the idea of the act, considering the circumstances.

While I don’t like King George or Darth Cheney, an impeachment is a very serious and drawn-out process. Look at how long it took to NOT find Clinton guilty, and it cost $40 million to boot. Think about how long it would take to investigate Bush and Cheney for the plethora of transgressions they are no doubt guilty of. I’m not citing that as a reason to not impeach them, just to put a little bit of perspective on the idea. The problem I’ve always found with people calling for impeachment is that they never cite real crimes, credible reasons or make a compelling argument for doing it; they merely don’t like the administration and the war they’ve gotten the U.S. into. Well that’s all well and good, but is it really worth dragging this country into a costly legal war against two men who not only have deep, deep pockets but also carry heavy influence in many circles? Is it worth distracting this country for who knows how long and keeping it from other problems and issues that need to be addressed long after they are gone? And for what, to feel a sense of retribution or even revenge?

No one has ever answered those questions intelligently when talk of impeachment raises its gnarled head, until now. I must say that I have seen the light.

In Bill Moyers Journal, Tough Talk on Impeachment, Moyers sits down with Constitutional Law expert Bruce Fein and Nation contributor, author and political journalist John Nichols. Their reserved and lucid round-table discussion offers a compelling insight into not only what it means to impeach a president, but why we should do so to this one (and the vice-president). If you’ve got 24-minutes I urge you to watch it.

I don’t want to go into too much detail because then what would be the point of sitting through the thing? If you’ve ever been on the fence about this whole impeachment thing or think that it is just a bunch of political grand-standing, please watch. It gave me yet another perspective on why this presidency and administration as a whole are one of the worst in history and should go down in history as such (though that probably won’t happen*).

This presidency will indeed set a precedent, the question is whether it will be one of caution for future presidents or encouragement for future imperialists.

*see Lies My Teacher Told Me

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17 Jul 07 Bush in the Box

Bush Surprises Senate Aides With Unexpected Interruption of White House Meeting

President Bush shocked Capitol Hill staffers and Republican leaders Monday when he crashed a meeting at the White House to deliver a blunt message that he wasn’t backing down on Iraq and Republicans need to understand that.

“It was stunning,” said one GOP aide who attended the meeting. “We couldn’t believe he came in.”

“We kept looking at each other, amazed he came in,” said another Republican aide.

Bush was described as folksy, adamant and mildly profane as he interrupted the meeting between senior White House communications staffers Tony Snow and Ed Gillespie and GOP leaders. His message: the policy on Iraq isn’t changing. He is not backing down and no one on Capitol Hill should be confused into thinking he is letting up.

The interruption precedes what is expected to be an all-nighter in the Senate on Tuesday, ordered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as a way to protest GOP blocking tactics on moves to compel U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Reid said Iraq is the most important issue facing the United States and attempts to block legislation calling for troops to be withdrawn from Iraq will be met with a hardball response.

Sheesh, somebody call the waaaaaaahmbulance, little Bushy is having a tantrum. I guess he really is the decider, even if he is deciding to not listen to a damn thing the country or Congress says.

Wow.

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