Stoppin' By

Just wanted to take a second to post something and keep this blog active. Last thing anyone needs is a site addy taken over by wingers and making people think I've crossed to the dark side. (It could happen...maybe...well.....it's conceivable. I guess it could only happen in a far-off distant planet where crazed BushBots have taken over all three branches of government, started a war with a non-aggressive country that was no threat, and left an entire city to drown...-oh. Uh...er....hmmm.....)

Anyway...

Be sure to come check out my new and improved blog at:

www.palady.wordpress.com

Thanks!

I've Moved!

See the new set-up at

www.palady.wordpress.com

All the posts from this site have been imported, though I regret that none of the comments were. Seems Haloscan isn't transferable.

You know it's getting bad when...

Even country music stars are mad as hell at King George.

Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, natives of Louisiana and Mississippi respectively, were "close to tears" when the questions turned to Katrina during a Nashville newsconference to promote their Soul2Soul tour.

From ABCnews:

Faith Hill and Tim McGraw -- two stars who usually stay out of politics -- blasted the Hurricane Katrina cleanup effort, with Hill calling the slow
progress in Louisiana and Mississippi "embarrassing" and "humiliating."

The country music artists -- who are natives of the storm ravaged states -- were at times close to tears, and clearly angry when the subject of Katrina came up during a news conference today.

(snip)

"When you have people dying because they're poor and black or poor and white, or because of whatever they are -- if that's a number on a political scale -- then that is the most wrong thing. That erases everything that's great about our country."

McGraw specifically criticized President Bush. "There's no reason why someone can't go down there who's supposed to be the leader of the free world … and say, 'I'm giving you a job to do and I'm not leaving here until it's done. And you're held accountable, and you're held accountable, and you're held accountable. ..."

(snip)

Hill, who grew up in Jackson, Miss., echoed those sentiments. So overwhelmed, she uncharacteristically unleashed an epithet, calling the situation, "Bull- - - -"

"It is a huge, huge problem and it's embarrassing," she said.

"I fear for our country if we can't handle our people [during] a natural disaster. And I can't stand to see it. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out point A to point B. . . . And they can't even skip from point A to point B.

You know, when Faith Hill starts calling "Bullshit" on the President, it's a sign of just how far he's sunk in public opinion since last summer. The 30-percenters are going to have a hard time with the cognitive dissonance this will cause.

Imagine their dilemma: "Faith and Tim say Bush is bad....but Bush is good...but...Tim and Faith say...." BLAM! (sound of heads exploding)

Hurricane Katrina Mississippi Louisiana Bush FEMA Country Music Tim McGraw Faith Hill

Mad King George

I see this picture, and in my head I can hear certain lines from the Lion King's I Just Can't Wait to be King*, with King George singing Simba's lines:

I'm gonna be a mighty king
So enemies beware!
...
I'm brushing up on looking down
I'm working on my ROAR
...
Free to run around all day
Free to do it all my way!
...
Kings don't need advice
From little hornbills for a start
...
Oh, I just can't wait to be king!

*Music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice



Bush The Lion King

Best Tea-Spewing Line This Morning

Thanks Bob Geiger, for the mental image that made me spew hot tea through my nose and has made it necessary for me to change keyboards....again. (Note to self - no liquids while reading Bob or Jesus' General!)

At the massive fibathon held daily at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (also known as the White House press briefing) Press Secretary Scott McClellan danced like Patrick Swayze yesterday when asked about the new South Dakota ban on abortions.

Oh my! Just the thought of Scottie dirty-dancing his way around the White House Press Room......

Santorum 'hearts' lobbyists - again

Sen. Rick Santorum - the soon-to-be-jobless Senator from my home state - has resumed his meetings with lobbyists. You know, the ones he promised in January to stop?

He's like a junkie who promises to go clean and even goes through rehab, but just can't keep away from the bad stuff.

The Washington Post says:

After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.

Santorum, whose ties to Washington lobbyists have been criticized by his Democratic challenger, suspended his biweekly encounters on Jan. 30. His decision came as Democrats named him as their top target in November's Senate races, and after the guilty plea of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff to charges of conspiring to corrupt public officials.

But in the month since his announcement, Santorum has held two meetings attended by the same core group of lobbyists, and has used the sessions to appeal for campaign aid, according to participants. Both of those meetings were convened at the same time as the previous meetings -- 8:30 a.m. -- on the same day of the week -- Tuesday -- and they lasted for about as long as the earlier meetings -- one hour.

*sigh* Ricky, Ricky, Ricky....if you can't help yourself, I guess the voters of Pennsylvania will have to do an intervention and permanently separate you from the big money guys. Come November Ricky, you'll be saved from those big bad lobbyists, and you might have to come home and make your kids go to school in PA. Oh, the horror!

**Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file

Pennsylvania Politics Lobbyists

I'll believe it when I see a veto

Headline on msnbc.com:

House Republicans defy Bush on ports deal

AP - In a congressional election-year repudiation of President Bush, a House panel dominated by Republicans voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to block a Dubai-owned firm from taking control of some U.S port operations. Democrats clamored for a vote in the Senate, too.

By 62-2, the House Appropriations Committee voted to bar DP World, run by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, from holding leases or contracts at U.S. ports. The landslide vote was the strongest signal yet that more than three weeks of White House efforts to stunt congressional opposition to the deal have not been successful.

Are we really supposed to believe that - out of the goodness of their greedy little hearts, I suppose - the Republicans are worried about the security of this country?

These are the same people who just voted to increase the debt ceiling to a record $1.2 trillion and cut veteran's benefits. These are the same people who took lots of money from Jack Abramoff, yet claim they're working on "lobbying reform". (Heck, why not make bribery legal? Get the President to say he authorized it. No problem!)

Some of these folks are starting to sound like Democrats. Like this guy:

“One of the most vulnerable situations facing America is our ports of entry,” said Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee. “Whoever’s responsible for those ports of entry should be American.”

And this one:

“This is a national security issue,” said Rep. Jerry Lewis, the chairman of the House panel, adding that the legislation would “keep America’s ports in American hands.”

Apparently the House has responded to Bush's "Trust me." with a great big "F**k you!" If only we could entertain the hope that it was the first of many, but you know as well as I do, this is just a stunt to make the incumbents look just a little better come November.

Glenn Greenwald has a great post on this: Post-Mortem on the Intelligence Committe Vote

Government Republican Dubai United Arab Emirates Ports National Security

GO Vermont!!

Five Vermont towns - Newfane, Brookfield, Dummerston, Marlboro and Putney - have passed resolutions calling for Rep. Bernie Sanders (Ind.), their sole representative in the House, to file articles of impeachment against the President, according to an Associated Press report.

In five Vermont communities, a centuries-old tradition of residents gathering in town halls to conduct local business became a vehicle to send a message to Washington: Impeach the president.

An impeachment article, approved by a paper ballot 121-29 in Newfane Tuesday, calls on Vermont’s lone member of the U.S. House, independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, to file articles of impeachment against President Bush, alleging he misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.

“It absolutely affects us locally,” said Newfane select board member Dan DeWalt, who drafted the impeachment article. “It’s our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, who are dying” in the war in Iraq.

(snip)

Sanders issued a statement after the Newfane vote saying that although the Bush administration “has been a disaster for our country, and a number of actions that he has taken may very well not have been legal,” given the reality that the Republicans control the House and the Senate, “it would be impractical to talk about impeachment.”

Jim Barnett, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, said Sanders should reject the resolution: “We should not be impeaching presidents just because we disagree with them.”

We shouldn't impeach them over blowjobs either, but that's been done - thanks to a Republican Congress. So why do they have a problem impeaching one who admitted he broke the law several times and intends to continue doing so. Tell me, Mr. Barnett, what's wrong with impeaching one who has ignored and/or gutted the Constitution?

*crickets chirping*

Oh. That only applies to Democratic Presidents. Hmmm. Glad we cleared that up.

This Is What Civil War Looks Like

From the Associated Press:

Gunmen in camouflage uniforms stormed the offices of a private Iraqi security company and kidnapped as many as 50 employees, police said Wednesday, as U.S. and Iraqi patrols discovered 24 bodies in various parts of the capital.

(snip)

An American military patrol found 18 of the bodies — all males — in an abandoned minibus Tuesday night on a road between two notorious mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighborhoods.

The bodies were brought to Yarmouk Hospital and lined up on stretchers for identification. Most had bruising indicating they were strangled and two were shot, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad, who initially thought they had been hanged. Police believed at least two of the men were foreign Arabs.

Police found the bodies of six more men — four of them strangled and two shot — discarded in other parts of the city.

(snip)

One bomb hidden under a parked car detonated as police from the interior minister's protection force were driving through central Baghdad, killing two officers and injuring another, police said. Four bystanders were injured in the blast. The minister was not in the convoy at the time.

Another roadside bomb hit a police patrol in north Baghdad, killing two officers and injuring four others, police said.

A third one missed an American convoy on the northern outskirts of Baghdad and killed two Iraqi boys who were selling gasoline by the roadside, police said. He estimated their age at 10 or 11.

A car bomb targeting another U.S. convoy in north Baghdad injured five civilian bystanders, police said. There was no immediate word of American casualties.

An Iraqi patrol saw four gunmen pull a man from the trunk of a car and shoot him to death in west Baghdad, police reported. They said the patrol tried to intercede, but the gunmen fired at them and fled.

More gunmen pulled over a school bus carrying about 25 high school girls and shot the driver in front of his terrified passengers. The wounded driver was rushed to hospital, police said.

Tell me again....why did we invade Iraq?

Oh right, I remember! WMDs and mushroom clouds. No, that's not it. Umm, to get rid of Saddam? No, I forgot we aren't using that one anymore. Was it to bring democracy? Um, no...that didn't work quite so well. To bring peace and stability to Iraq and the Middle East? Fine job we're doing so far...

Hmmm...guess I ought to call Unka Karl and Gen. Pace to get the latest "It's not a civil war." talking points.

Sounds Familiar...

This sounds a lot like what they were saying about Iraq three years ago. From MSNBC News Services:

Meanwhile, the United States and its European allies said Wednesday that Iran’s intransigence over its nuclear program has left the world no choice but to ask for the Security Council to take action against the Islamic regime.

(snip)

On Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice both warned of dire consequences if Iran continued its nuclear fuel enrichment, while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed that Iranian Revolutionary Guard elements had infiltrated Iraq to cause trouble.

At what point do you think Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld will start telling us that we have to act before the smoking gun is a mushroom cloud?

Iran, for its part, isn't backing down. In fact, they've issued a challenge:

Iran said on Wednesday the United States could feel “harm and pain” if the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Tehran’s nuclear research.

“The United States may have the power to cause harm and pain but it is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the United States wishes to choose that path, let the ball roll,” it said in a statement obtained by Reuters on the sidelines of a U.N. nuclear watchdog board meeting in Vienna.

(snip)

Tehran also said Wednesday it would have to review its oil export policy if world pressure mounted over its disputed atomic work.

Asked whether Iran would use an “oil weapon” as the world’s fourth largest crude oil exporter, Javad Vaeedi, deputy secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Reuters: “We will not (do so now), but if the situation changes, we will have to review our oil policies.”

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, had said on Sunday that Tehran was not keen to use oil as a weapon in its escalating row with the West “but if conditions change it could affect our decision.”

He did not specify what he meant by a change in conditions.

Iran is the fourth biggest oil exporter in the world and the second largest in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. There is broad international concern that isolating Iran could drive up already high oil prices.

Which makes me worry - suppose Iran does cut its oil production, leading to an incredible increase in gasoline prices for Americans (because, like the Prez said, we're addicted to oil). Will Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld consider that an act of war, thus necessitating an American invasion of Iraq?

One which, by the way, we couldn't hope to win - especially with so many of our troops currently mired in Iraq. BushCo would need a draft to create an army large enough - and that dog won't hunt.