Former French President Chirac hospitalised after mauling by his clinically depressed poodle
And Stand-Up Comics everywhere are looking up to the heavens and saying "Thank you."
"Kick the darkness till it bleeds daylight." - Bruce Cockburn
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
This is NOT from the Onion
And Stand-Up Comics everywhere are looking up to the heavens and saying "Thank you."
Well, that's hitting the ground running
(CBS/AP) - The Obama administration announced salary freezes for White House employees making over $100,000 a year, placed new limits on lobbyists' White House access and had aides circulate a draft executive order that would close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within a year.
The new lobbying rules will not only ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.
The rules also ban lobbyists from giving gifts of any size to any member of his administration. It wasn't immediately clear whether the ban would include the traditional "previous relationships" clause, allowing gifts from friends or associates with which an employee comes in with strong ties.
This I'll believe when I see it. Bribery and graft (excuse me - "contributions") have become de facto legal on Capitol Hill. He should also use his influence to push for its end in Congress.
Quoth the Bush: "I have political capital, and I intend to spend it." It would be nice to spend it on something that's actually GOOD.
How now, down Dow?
The Dow.
Bush takes office
$10578.20
Bush leaves office:
$7949.09
George W. Bush is the first President since Herbert Hoover to leave office with the market lower than when he took office.
And it's a LOT lower than when he took office.
Bush takes office
$10578.20
Bush leaves office:
$7949.09
George W. Bush is the first President since Herbert Hoover to leave office with the market lower than when he took office.
And it's a LOT lower than when he took office.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
From the Onion:
Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job
November 5, 2008
WASHINGTON—African-American man Barack Obama, 47, was given the least-desirable job in the entire country Tuesday when he was elected president of the United States of America. In his new high-stress, low-reward position, Obama will be charged with such tasks as completely overhauling the nation's broken-down economy, repairing the crumbling infrastructure, and generally having to please more than 300 million Americans and cater to their every whim on a daily basis. As part of his duties, the black man will have to spend four to eight years cleaning up the messes other people left behind. The job comes with such intense scrutiny and so certain a guarantee of failure that only one other person even bothered applying for it. Said scholar and activist Mark L. Denton, "It just goes to show you that, in this country, a black man still can't catch a break."
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Post mortem of the last eight years
What really bothers me about Republicans isn't what they stand for. It's that they don't stand for ANYTHING. They have absolutely no principles and no core beliefs.
See, they sometimes actually say stuff I agree with. But then, when push comes to shove, they don't mean a word of it.
For years, they've been talking about the danger of Big Government, and how we shouldn't trust the Government. I agree totally. We shouldn't trust the Government.
But once they got into power, they threw that right out the window, didn't they?
Once Bush took office, the same people who said we shouldn't trust the Government sat supinely while the Government created "Free Speech Zones" and said that we only had First Amendment rights if we were too far away for the Government to hear what we were saying.
When the Government said that they didn't have to respond to subpoenaes; that they didn't have to answer questions; that they should be allowed to operate in total secrecy and that what they did was none of the American Peoples' business - the people who once said we shouldn't trust the Government went along like docile sheep, and verbally attacked any American who had the nerve to say that we shouldn't trust the Government.
When Bush tried to invest absolutely authority in himself with absurd legal mumbo-jumbo called the "Doctrine of the Unitary Executive," the same people who said that we shouldn't trust the Government said that we must place TOTAL trust in the Government, or we were traitors.
The people who said we shouldn't trust the Government tried to stack the Government top-to-toe with partisan hacks who would do nothing but obey orders like automatons, and who would ask no questions and never differ.
The people who said we shouldn't trust the Government tried to prevent the citizens of the United States from having any say in the Government.
In the next four years, any time Republicans complain about the Government having too much authority, they should be laughed at and ridiculed as the hypocrites that they are.
When the rubber hit the road; when it counted; when it actually might have cost them something, the Republican Party turned out to not believe ANY of the stuff they claimed to believe.
They are the biggest lovers of Big Government and the greatest promoters of Absolute Government Authority in this nation. And they should not be allowed to pretend otherwise.
How the hell do they justify their actions of the last eight years? How can they justify trying to hand over all authority to a SINGLE human being? How can they justify trying to strip the American People of having any say over their own nation? How can they justify trying to turn America into an Authoritarian Regime - a nation in which the Bureaucracy has absolute power and the people have none?
Are they just going to pretend that it didn't happen?
How must it feel to have gutted all your principles for the sake of a failed, unfinished, childish human being like George W. Bush?
See, they sometimes actually say stuff I agree with. But then, when push comes to shove, they don't mean a word of it.
For years, they've been talking about the danger of Big Government, and how we shouldn't trust the Government. I agree totally. We shouldn't trust the Government.
But once they got into power, they threw that right out the window, didn't they?
Once Bush took office, the same people who said we shouldn't trust the Government sat supinely while the Government created "Free Speech Zones" and said that we only had First Amendment rights if we were too far away for the Government to hear what we were saying.
When the Government said that they didn't have to respond to subpoenaes; that they didn't have to answer questions; that they should be allowed to operate in total secrecy and that what they did was none of the American Peoples' business - the people who once said we shouldn't trust the Government went along like docile sheep, and verbally attacked any American who had the nerve to say that we shouldn't trust the Government.
When Bush tried to invest absolutely authority in himself with absurd legal mumbo-jumbo called the "Doctrine of the Unitary Executive," the same people who said that we shouldn't trust the Government said that we must place TOTAL trust in the Government, or we were traitors.
The people who said we shouldn't trust the Government tried to stack the Government top-to-toe with partisan hacks who would do nothing but obey orders like automatons, and who would ask no questions and never differ.
The people who said we shouldn't trust the Government tried to prevent the citizens of the United States from having any say in the Government.
In the next four years, any time Republicans complain about the Government having too much authority, they should be laughed at and ridiculed as the hypocrites that they are.
When the rubber hit the road; when it counted; when it actually might have cost them something, the Republican Party turned out to not believe ANY of the stuff they claimed to believe.
They are the biggest lovers of Big Government and the greatest promoters of Absolute Government Authority in this nation. And they should not be allowed to pretend otherwise.
How the hell do they justify their actions of the last eight years? How can they justify trying to hand over all authority to a SINGLE human being? How can they justify trying to strip the American People of having any say over their own nation? How can they justify trying to turn America into an Authoritarian Regime - a nation in which the Bureaucracy has absolute power and the people have none?
Are they just going to pretend that it didn't happen?
How must it feel to have gutted all your principles for the sake of a failed, unfinished, childish human being like George W. Bush?
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