We know Barack Obama has one big fan in Germany

Appropriate touching:


















Inappropriate touching:

"Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency"

Because sometimes there's more truth in humor than in "reporting":


Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

From The Onion ....

Nine more US soldiers, and unknown numbers of Iraqi civilians are dead. Is anyone paying attention to this?

I think it's the lack of coverage these deaths receive that shocks me the most. I mean, I understand the horrible realities of war. I understand that people die. I just don't understand why we as a nation don't care. I mean, why aren't we outraged that photographers are banned from taking pictures of the military coffins?

Are we really that easily distracted? Is it really "if we don't see it, it doesn't exist?" I shudder to think so. Yet, what was the big news in the last week? Bush's farewell tour of Europe, where he did fun things like shoot hoops with kids:

Meanwhile these soldiers died this week, while the press continues to fawn over the recently departed Tim Russert:

Dwayne Kelley
Gregory T. Dalessio
Du Hai Tran

as well as six others, names not yet released.

Of Dwayne Kelley, NewsDay.com reports:

NEWARK, N.J. - A decorated New Jersey state trooper was killed in Iraq while serving on his third tour of duty as an Army reservist, state police announced Wednesday.

Detective Sgt. 1st Class Dwayne Kelley, an Army major, died in the bombing of a Baghdad district council building on Tuesday, state police Capt. Al Della Fave said. Kelley, who spoke Arabic and served in the state police counterterrorism unit, had volunteered for his latest tour, which began in November, Della Fave said.

"He touched many lives throughout the law enforcement and military communities, and he will be deeply missed by us all," said Col. Joseph R. Fuentes, state police superintendent.

h/t to Mock, Paper, Scissors for the Bush photo

"Democracy must not come and go"

Dennis Kucinich continues his fight to hold the Bush Administration accountable for their actions, despite weak leadership from Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush, only to have it "sent to committee," which is the preferred legislative method for killing such legislation. Kucinich says he will re-introduce the articles soon as they are eligible.

Here's Kucinich in an interview with a reporter from the Washington Post:

House votes to provide $162 billion in war funding

It's obscene. Our elected officials in Washington continue to fund this illegal and immoral war, and make it harder for their colleagues to vote against it by tacking on completely un-related funding. From The Raw Story:

A much-delayed Iraq war funding bill sailed through the House on Thursday, along with a doubling of college aid for returning troops and help for the unemployed and Midwestern flood victims.

Republican allies of President Bush provided the winning margin in a 268-155 vote to provide $162 billion to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan well into next year.

Democrats opposed to the war, however, succeeded in using the Iraq funding bill as an engine to drive past White House resistance a sweeping revision to GI Bill college benefits and a 13-week extension of unemployment checks for those whose benefits have run out.

The bill would bring to more than $650 billion the amount provided by Congress for the war in Iraq since it started five years ago. Nearly $200 billion in additional funding has gone to operations in Afghanistan, according to congressional analysts.

It also would give Bush's successor several months to set Iraq policy after taking office in January — and spares lawmakers the need to cast more war funding votes closer to Election Day.

That's my favorite line of the entire story.

Meanwhile, the death toll among both civilians and military continues to rise. In the past month, these Americans have died while carrying out George Bush's War:

Specialist Justin R. Mixon
Specialist Christopher D. McCarthy
Specialist Quincy J. Green
Private 1st Class Joshua E. Waltenbaugh
Sergeant Shane P. Duffy
Specialist Jonathan D. A. Emard
Sergeant Cody R. Legg
Sergeant 1st Class David R. Hurst
Staff Sergeant Tyler E. Pickett
Specialist Thomas F. Duncan III
Sergeant Steve A. McCoy
Sergeant 1st Class Gerard M. Reed
Lance Corporal Javier Perales Jr.
Lance Corporal Kelly E. C. Watters
Private Eugene D. M. Kanakaole
Sergeant John D. Aragon
Private 1st Class Jason Cox

Please click on their names to read more about them. The "US Deaths in Iraq" counter at the top of the page reads 4, 101. These are real people, not just a statistic. Please, never forget that.

And that photo at the top? That's Lance Corporal Kelly Watters, who died on June 11. He was 19 years old.

Congress: No time for Impeachment. "We're busy, busy, busy!"

From today's Washington Post, a brief story on the introduction of Articles of Impeachment of George W. Bush:

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) suggested yesterday that engaging in a lengthy debate over impeaching Bush in the waning days of his administration is not a productive use of the House's time.

Because all day and night, all Congress does is really important stuff. Stuff that is much more important than holding someone accountable for death and destruction done under false and misleading evidence. Congress does this:

S.159 : A bill to redesignate the White Rocks National Recreation Area in the State of Vermont as the "Robert T. Stafford White Rocks National Recreation Area".

H.R.49 : To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1300 North Frontage Road West in Vail, Colorado, as the "Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Post Office Building".

H.R.2309 : To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3916 Milgen Road in Columbus, Georgia, as the "Frank G. Lumpkin, Jr. Post Office Building".

H.R.1808 : To designate the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, as the "Charlie Norwood Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center".

H.R.3315 : To provide that the great hall of the Capitol Visitor Center shall be known as Emancipation Hall.

H.R.2408 : To designate the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as the "Milo C. Huempfner Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic".

See, it turns out there are just loads and loads of Federal buildings out there that ... gasp! don't have names!

So the House of Representatives can't just drop what they're doing to and start dealing with something that starts out like this:

Article I
Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II
Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article III
Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of
Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

They're too busy.

Write your own caption ....

Really. How many horse's asses can we get in one picture?

From the AP: US President George W. Bush, center, applauds as he attends the Lipizzaner riding school with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, left, Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Jansa, right, and his partner Urska Bacovnic, second right, at the end of an EU-US summit in Brdo Pri Kranju, Slovenia, Tuesday, June 10, 2008. U.S. President George W. Bush said Tuesday the U.S. and Europe must rally to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, calling the threat an incredible danger to world peace.

Rep. Kucinich introduces 35 Articles of Impeachment against President Bush: Will the media bother to cover?

Last night, Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush. Congress has 72 hours to table it, send it to committee, pass it, or reject it.

This is important, but did you hear anything about it on your way in to work today? In the morning paper? No? Go read the full text of the articles here: http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf

And then email your congress member. They have 72 hours in which to act upon these articles of impeachment. Find your Congress member's email address here.

Coke? Pepsi? McCain? Bush?

Much like the Coke-Pepsi Challenge, it's really better just to swear off the Republicans, along with the soda. They're all bad for your health. But that doesn't mean you should miss out on taking the challenge here.

If you're in the Towson, Maryland, area next week, you may be interested in this message I received today from MoveOn.org:

Thousands of undecided voters who live near you don't yet realize just how much John McCain is like President Bush.

So, on Wednesday, May 28th, MoveOn members in Towson are asking people on the street to take The Bush-McCain Challenge. It works like the old Pepsi-Coke Challenge—we'll set up a sidewalk table and ask passersby to guess whether a quote or position is Bush's or McCain's. It's surprisingly hard to tell the difference!

Polling shows voters will reject John McCain if they realize how similar he is to George Bush. The Bush-Challenge is a persuasive way to make this point.

Next Wednesday, at more than 300 events around the country, we'll let people see the facts for themselves: McCain is just as bad as Bush, if not worse. A good turnout at this event may also attract local media attention, which will help even more people find out about The Bush-McCain Challenge.

Find out where the challenge is being held in your neighborhood.

He just doesn't get it, does he?

President Bush threw out the opening pitch at the new Nationals baseball stadium yesterday, to the sound of boos and catcalls.Waving and smiling because (a) he is heavily medicated, or (b) he really just doesn't care, Bush strode out to the mound and threw the pitch high and outside.

294 days left, folks.

It's good to be king! Ozone for everyone!

Lest you think George W. Bush is filling all his time these days planning daughter Jenna's wedding, think again. In the latest of a string of embarrassing events seemingly designed to do nothing more than keep him in the news (tap dancing, singing, saying the economy's getting stronger, saying "those soldiers sure are lucky to be on the romantic front lines of war!"), President Bush is now smogging up our parks and forestland:

The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA. EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA's scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents.

Because he knows what is scientifically appropriate. Ha ha ha ha ha!

Seriously, is his plan to just completely run this country into the ground before he leaves office? It's not enough that he has sent thousands of American military personnel to their death, quadrupled the deficit, and made us a pariah in the international community -- now he has to destroy the very air that we breath?

The president's order prompted a scramble by administration officials to rewrite the regulations to avoid a conflict with past EPA statements on the harm caused by ozone.

Solicitor General Paul D. Clement warned administration officials late Tuesday night that the rules contradicted the EPA's past submissions to the Supreme Court, according to sources familiar with the conversation. As a consequence, administration lawyers hustled to craft new legal justifications for the weakened standard.

The dispute involved one of two distinct parts of the EPA's ozone restrictions: the "public welfare" standard, which is designed to protect against long-term harm from high ozone levels. The other part is known as the "public health" standard, which sets a legal limit on how high ozone levels can be at any one time. The two standards were set at the same level Wednesday, but until Bush asked for a change, the EPA had planned to set the "public welfare" standard at a lower level.

My favorite reasoning from the Bush Administration is this:

... Susan E. Dudley urged the EPA to consider the effects of cutting ozone further on "economic values and on personal comfort and well-being..."

But even better is the EPA's response:

[T]he EPA's Marcus Peacock responded in a March 7 memo: "EPA is not aware of any information that ozone has beneficial effects on economic values or on personal comfort and well being."

Overachieving George W. Bush does it again, breaks new record for lowest job approval rating!

That's right, folks! He's done it again! According to a new poll out, George Bush has managed to receive the lowest approval rating of any president, evah!

Among all Americans, 19% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 77% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 14% approve and 79% disapprove.

Congratulations, George! You've done it again! As pointed out by Attytood, even Richard Nixon never managed those numbers:

Nixon, as he was hounded out of office in August 1974, never dipped below the mid-20s.

Here's a nice little compilation I found of some of George's best moments. Makes you proud to be an American, I'll tell ya!

He probably wants you to spend your rebate on heating oil, anyway

From Grist Magazine:

President Bush will sign an economic stimulus bill Wednesday, meaning you may have a check winging your way after tax time. Not included in the bill: funding for clean-energy credits and green jobs, which were dropped from the Senate version after narrowly failing to get enough votes. Undeterred, Democrats in the House of Representatives may introduce separate legislation this week that would extend clean-energy tax credits and slap taxes on big energy companies.

President Bush: It's good to be king!

From the Washington Post this week:

The Cardinal, Amtrak's Chicago-to-New York passenger train, was a tad late getting into D.C. on Friday afternoon. Seems there was a delay in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., because President Bush was lunching with House Republicans at their retreat at the Greenbrier Resort.

On instructions from the Secret Service, which stopped all traffic on the CSX freight line, Amtrak says it held the train -- and its 74 passengers -- not just while Bush's motorcade went by the sprawling resort's entrance, which is near the station, but also throughout his visit. That would be two hours and 10 minutes in all.

The station, according to hotel folks, is 339 yards from the hotel's front desk.

So a major rail line comes to a complete halt for 2 hours while the Emperor president has lunch — three football fields away! Nice. Yes, he must be thinking, "It's good to be king!"

"President Bush spoke bluntly of his battles with substance abuse"

Hahahahaha! You know some copy writer had a good time coming up with that line! Yesterday President Bush came to my hometown to tell a group of alcoholic, drug-addicted ex-cons that they can pray away their woes. From the Baltimore Sun:

"Addiction is hard to overcome," Bush said yesterday at the Jericho program in East Baltimore, which helps former prisoners lead productive lives. "As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life. ... I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem."

Bush was in Baltimore to mark the seventh anniversary of an executive order creating the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

Any addiction, such as alcoholism, is a terrible disease to fight. Understandably, the men were impressed:

"He mentioned that he hadn't had any alcohol since 1986, and that if it wasn't for the man above it wouldn't have been possible," said Williams, who served 18 months of a five-year prison sentence for drug possession.

Too bad Bush was lying. Again.

President Gore supports gay marriage, shouldn't you?

Somewhere — in the alternate universe that is "reality" — Al Gore is the President of the United States. In that universe, we are not fighting a war over oil, we are funding alternative energy sources, and wow: we have civil rights for all Americans! Yes, in that alternate universe we have a president who is not afraid to support gay marriage (I mean, this guy's even comfortable saying the "L" word!).

Please watch:



Here in Maryland, legislation will soon be introduced under the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act. It is important that this bill be passed to ensure my rights to enter a civil marriage contract with my partner, while ensuring your right to maintain whatever misguided beliefs you and your church have about homosexuality. See? It's win/win!

Now, back to your universe and a look at the man some of you chose over President Gore (warning — safe for work, just gross):

Please sir .... can I have some more?

There's an excellent post by Scarecrow at Firedoglake about G.W.'s begging trip to Saudi Arabia. You know the trip he just took:

George: "Can we have more oil, please?" Saudis: "No."

From Scarecrow:

President Bush was in Saudi Arabia yesterday to pursue the linchpin of his Administration's energy policy: He asked the Saudis to produce more oil. Roughly translated, the Saudis said, "No. We will do it only if it's in our interest, not yours."

As Hillary Clinton noted in last night's Democratic debate, Bush has been reduced to pathetically begging the Saudis to sell us more oil at nearly $100 per barrel. The image is even uglier when one realizes that some portion of that record price may consist of risk premia caused by the Administration's own war mongering, including pumping up an obviously ambiguous naval incident with Iran, another of the world's largest oil producers.

Read the rest here.

Tour du Bush: What the world is saying

Sounds like the citizens of Bahrain have been thrilled with George W. Bush's visit:

He’ll probably fly in on a helicopter from some big tub floating in the Gulf, that the Iranians have taken an inexplicable fancy to all of a sudden, land in the naval base in Juffair, shake some hands, visit with some illustrious personages whom he will make sure they understand that Eye-Ran is pretty bad for their survival and that of the wouurld, tell them to expand the bases and use their facilities and airspace to tame the Eye-Ranians, just a bit, like, a couple of 10,000 lbs bombs strategically targeted at military and dangerous areas.

Easy peezy. No one on our side will be hurt.

Like Eye-Rack.

In and out job. And it is predestined and ordained, as the Big Guy told him.

And then his vision of a Destruction Crescent from Palestine to Afghanistan will become reality. An area that thenceforth will become known as Bushistan.

And then there's this message from blogger SoulSearch:

Dear Mr. President,

How would you feel if you had to live in a tent all your life, rummage thru the rubble of your home, watch strangers confiscate your property, and kill you son or daughter for suspecting them of supporting their freedom movements?
Wake up and smell the Palestinian +Iraqi blood spilling everywhere, or is it only OIL up your nostrils?

(Operation Iraqi Liberation = OIL)

Peace,

SoulSearch

Next on the Tour du Bush will be Saudi Arabia, land of women being sentenced to whipping for being raped, and bloggers being arrested for speaking out against the government. With Bush's record of lack of respect for women and free speech, he ought to feel right at home there.

Your Abu Dhabi update

Taking time off from his grueling mission delivering democracy throughout the Mid East, George Bush and his gal pal Condoleeza Rice enjoyed a feast fit for a king. Or at least a crown prince, as in  Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. AP reports:

Bush traded his suit for a casual jacket and took a helicopter as close as he could get to this remote encampment where Abu Dhabi's crown prince, Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, raises horses and prize falcons. His motorcade bumped over sand dunes for the last few miles, ending up at a tent pitched high on a wind-swept crest.

A tent with thick carpets, pillows for lounging, blazing lanterns, and food. Lots and lots of it, from bread with honey to grilled meats and sweets, all served by uniformed staff.

Before the feast with a small group of White House aides and Emirati elite, the crown prince showed the president around. Next to carpets laid on the sand stood small pedestals, each stuck in the sand like a beach umbrella and each holding a magnificent falcon.

Yes, that's what life is like in the desert. Just ask our troops in Iraq. Cake anyone?

Bush Visits His Odious Saudi Friend

Excerpts from an article in The Progressive:

How do you punish the principal global purveyor of fundamentalist Islam, someone who backed the Taliban and continues to harshly suppress political freedoms, women and religious minorities?

If you’re President Bush, you reward him with a state visit, of course!

During his current Middle East trip, Bush is looking in on a rogues’ gallery of U.S. allies, from Bahrain and Egypt to the United Arab Emirates and Israel. But King Abdullah’s Saudi Arabia occupies the pride of place.

“The government places strict limits on freedom of association, assembly, and expression,” writes Human Rights Watch in its roundup of conditions in the kingdom in 2006. “Arbitrary detention, mistreatment and torture of detainees, restrictions on freedom of movement, and lack of official accountability remain serious concerns. Saudi women continue to face serious obstacles to their participation in society.”

All this means that the United States is basically willing to overlook the Saudi regime’s noxious export of Wahhabi fundamentalism around the world and its appalling record at home. A few years ago, Bush accorded King Abdullah the rare honor of hosting him at his Crawford ranch, and is now furthering his friendship by dropping in on his buddy.

What’s a few human rights violations between friends?

Read the entire story here.

And then there's this headline: "Saudi detains activist ahead of Bush visit"

RIYADH • Saudi Arabia has detained another reform activist, a colleague said yesterday, in the latest of a series of measures against government critics ahead of a visit by US President George W Bush.

Mohammed Al Bijadi was detained by state security police in the northern town of Buraida on Wednesday, Matruk Al Faleh said.

Bijadi was previously held for three months over his role in two protests by women over the indefinite detention of their husbands, Faleh said.

Critics say the authorities have exploited their battle with militants to crackdown on democracy campaigners, who face a revolving door of arrest, release and re-arrest.

Oh yeah, there he is 'aspreadin' democracy wherever he goes ....