politricks and other distractions

Botox That Forehead

You know, if they shot some botulism into this man's forehead, he'd no longer have either a foreign or a domestic policy. Right now, the wrinkles are all he's got.

But he's a BOY, so he doesn't have the guts to inject poison into his face. Ha!

Honestly, one of the hardest parts about living in the Pacific Time Zone is that sometimes you have to endure things like a presidential press conference before your first cup of coffee. Today was one of those.

Dubya's performance grade: B+. I thought he really handled the hour well. The lies are now so ingrained he doesn't have to work so hard for them anymore. And he's learned his lesson about calling on Lebanese women. She may be short, but she's smarter than you, Boo-Boo.

That was a lovely moment:

QUESTION (Helen Thomas): I'd like to ask you, Mr. President -- your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime.

Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, your Cabinet officers, former Cabinet officers, intelligence people and so forth -- but what's your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil, the quest for oil. It hasn't been Israel or anything else. What was it?

BUSH: I think your premise, in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- that I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect.

QUESTION: And...

BUSH: Hold on for a second, please. Excuse me. Excuse me.
No president wants war. Everything you may have heard is that, but it's just simply not true.

BUSH: My attitude about the defense of this country changed in September the 11th. When we got attacked, I vowed then and there to use every asset at my disposal to protect the American people.

Our foreign policy changed on that day. You know, we used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life.

And I'm never going to forget it. And I'm never going to forget the vow I made to the American people, that we will do everything in our power to protect our people.

Part of that meant to make sure that we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy, and that's why I went into Iraq.

(CROSSTALK)

BUSH: Hold on for a second. Excuse me for a second, please. Excuse me for a second. They did. The Taliban provided safe haven for Al Qaida.

BUSH: That's where Al Qaida trained and that's where...

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

BUSH: Helen, excuse me. That's where -- Afghanistan provided safe haven for Al Qaida. That's where they trained, that's where they plotted, that's where they planned the attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans.

I also saw a threat in Iraq. I was hoping to solve this problem diplomatically. That's why I went to the Security Council. That's why it was important to pass 1441, which was unanimously passed.

And the world said, "Disarm, disclose or face serious consequences." And therefore, we worked with the world. We worked to make sure that Saddam Hussein heard the message of the world.
And when he chose to deny the inspectors, when he chose not to disclose, then I had the difficult decision to make to remove him. And we did. And the world is safer for it.

QUESTION: Thank you, sir. Secretary Rumsfeld...

BUSH: You're welcome. I didn't really regret it. I kind of semi-regretted it.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

BUSH: That's right. Anyway, your performance at the Gridiron was just brilliant, unlike Holland's (ph) which was a little weak.

(LAUGHTER)

Under the related topic of "incompetence" and "malfeasance:"

From the Washington Post:

Congress Raises Ceiling for Borrowing
$100 Billion Is Spent Without Offsetting Cuts

By Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff WritersFriday, March 17, 2006

Congress raised the limit on the federal government's borrowing by $781 billion yesterday, and then lawmakers voted to spend well over $100 billion on the war in Iraq, hurricane relief, education, health care, transportation and heating assistance for the poor without making offsetting budget cuts.

On vote after vote in the House and Senate, lawmakers demonstrated the growing gap between their political promises to rein in spending and their need to respond to emergencies and protect politically popular programs. The votes followed last weekend's GOP leadership meeting in Memphis, at which virtually every speaker called on the party to renew its commitment to fiscal discipline and to control federal spending and the deficit....

With no brakes on spending and no moves afoot to raise taxes, the federal debt is now raising at an unprecedented clip. The government bumped up against its $8.18 trillion statutory debt ceiling last month, forcing the Treasury to borrow from employee pension funds to keep the government operating. After weeks of pleading from Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, the Senate took the politically unpalatable but economically critical step of raising the ceiling for borrowing to $8.96 trillion. Under House rules, the debt limit was raised last year without a vote when lawmakers approved a budget.

It was the fourth debt-ceiling increase in the past five years, after boosts of $450 billion in 2002, a record $984 billion in 2003 and $800 billion in 2004. The statutory debt limit has now risen by more than $3 trillion since Bush took office.

"This should be a wake-up call for every member of the Senate, every member of Congress, and a wake-up call for the president of the United States," said Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. "The question is: Are we staying on this course to keep running up the debt, debt on top of debt, increasingly financed by foreigners, or are we going to change course?"

****

During his performance today, Dubya talked about how his failed misadventure in Iraq was his way of spending his political capital. EVEN AS A CYNICAL COMMUNICATIONS PERSON, I find it offensive to hear anyone brag about spending something as ephemeral and ... egotistically driven as his political capital.

But recent estimates I heard said that his war has cost every man, woman and child in America $30,000 so far. In Oregon, that's a year's salary. I don't vote for that. I CHOOSE NO. How can I make that count? Who's with me?

If the Dems have half a brain, they'll start touting such numbers. Find ways to crunch them like Republicans do, to turn them to your advantage. On the liberal side, at least you know you have God and "What's Right" in your corner. Right? Who would Jesus bomb? Whose student loans would he destroy to trade for his political capital? Which natural monument would Christ strip mine? Which child would he tear from his meth addict mother's arms? Which child would he bring into this world saddled with debts he'll spend his whole life paying, that were squandered before he was born? Which schizophrenic would he be happy to leave sleeping on the street?

If the Dems can't paint the picture this black and white, they are truly lost and it's time to get a third party going. Hell, the Dems can't win the way they've been working for quite some time now, so what if we annul Hillary's soon-to-be-failed bid for the Presidency? Ahhh, the Oprah moments yet to come! Or we could just bring back Bill.

I'm thinking our slogan should be this:


We're secure when our children are fed and educated.
We're secure when people can live on just one job per person.
We're secure when different kinds of people accept one another.
We're secure when our elderly don't live in poverty.
We're secure when our air, land and water are clean and our most beautiful places aren't held hostage to industry.
We're secure when we can believe in any god we want -- or none -- without harassment.
We're secure when women have rights, especially those over their very bodies.
We're secure when compassion rules the day, not financial or political power.
We're secure when our budget matches our priorities and are fulfilled through competent leadership and judgment.
We're secure when our elected officials work for the people who vote for them, not for the corporations that fund their campaigns.

I guess you could call that my Ten Security Commandments.

And now, as Jon Stewart would way, your moment of Zen:

Dubya: "That's why I said in my second inauguration address: The goal of this country ought to be to end tyranny in the 21st century. I meant it. I said that for the sake of peace."

I keep being reminded of Donald Rumsfeld during the Shock and Awe campaign, talking about "the most compassionate bombing in the history of the world."

Why, oh why don't I think they know what the hell they're talking about?

posted by dcnative @ 9:48 PM