Bush's Big Blunder: Chalabi

Be still my beating heart. It's actual critical reporting about Bush from a major media outlet:

In January, when President Bush delivered his State of the Union speech to Congress celebrating the success of the "pre-emptive" war against Iraq, a controversial Iraqi exile named Ahmad Chalabi sat in a place of honor behind First Lady Laura Bush.

The symbolism was no accident: Despite being a fugitive from Jordan for a conviction in absentia on bank fraud charges, this darling of neoconservative hard-liners was the Pentagon's and White House's favored and well-paid advisor on all things Iraq -- including weapons of mass destruction, ties with al Qaeda and the odds for a post-invasion insurgency. As is now apparent, he and his cronies seemed to have lied spectacularly about it all.

The Reverend Francesca, who usually has the good sense to write about higher matters, decided to temporarily leave the heavenlies and blog in the mundane political muds.

It's a common assumption of the right-wingers that we who oppose their crapola do so because we "just don't understand" how serious it is, or "have forgotten" 9/11. The good Rev. refutes this nonsense without even thinking about it:

"[T]his IS a matter of life and death. Especially for New Yorkers who know that our city (the bullseye on the Muslim extremists' target) has been placed in ever-more-grave peril by the actions (and inactions) of the present administration."

We oppose Bush because we RECOGNIZE the danger, not because we are ignoring it. And because it is obvious that President All-Hat-And-No-Cattle isn't doing a damned thing but INCREASING the danger.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Shame

Jim Rassmann, the guys whose life Kerry saved in Vietnam published an Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal condemning the shameless, dishonourable attacks on John Kerry's actions in Vietnam. It warrants beng read and spread.

I don't even know who these guys are. Does anybody? Apparently some group (a comedy troupe?) figured that the Bushies acted like a bunch of street punks, so let's make it more obvious:

fucknewyork

I had forgotten about this, and atrios reminded me. Despite all the Sturm and Drang about where AWOL-boy was when he was supposed to be reporting for duty, there is no question that he flat lied about his service in his book. Conason:

"George W. Bush lied about his military service record. The lie can be found in his own 1999 campaign autobiography (as written by Karen Hughes), where he dramatically describes his experience as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. On page 34 of A Charge to Keep, Mr. Bush claims that, after learning to fly the F-102 fighter jet, he was turned down for Vietnam duty because "had not logged enough flight hours" to qualify for a combat assignment. Before going on to recall the "challenging moments" that involved close formation drills at night during poor weather, he adds: "I continued flying with my unit for the next several years."

Bush flew for another 22 months - not several years.

John Kerry and the Electras

John Kerry was in a rock-n-roll band when he was in high school back in 1961, and they cut an album. (Which is not fair. I've never cut an album.) And some entrepreneurial person has re-released the thing, and you can order it here. It's straight rock-n-roll, no vocals, like they were trying to do a Ventures sort of a thing. They have sound clips, and it's not all that good, but really not bad, either, especially for high school kids.

The piano player (Jack Radcliffe) actually sounds damned good, and I notice he's still playing. Hey, John, how about inviting him to play at your inauguration? I know, it will be crowded stage, what with Springsteen, Mellencamp and the Dixie Chicks and all, but you can probably find room for an old high-school chum.

"I know what I'm doing when it comes to winning this war." - George W. Bush.

George?

I glad you know what you're doing, because nobody ELSE knows what the fuck you're doing.

"When they say they served with Kerry in Vietnam, what they really mean is that they were in Vietnam at the same time. Kind of like how Snoopy served with the Red Baron." - Jon Stewart, on the "Swift Boat Veterans for Bush."

Blogger Matt Gunn claims to have access to a transcript of an outtake from Fahrenheit 911. If accurate (and I trust Matt implicitly), it's dynamite:

INTERVIEWER: [Y]ou come from intelligence. This is what you did, this is what you know.

REP. GOSS: Uh, that was, uh, 35 years ago.

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

REP. GOSS: It is true I was in CIA from approximately the late 50’s to approximately the early 70’s. And it's true I was a case officer, clandestine services officer and yes, I do understand the core mission of the business. I couldn't get a job with CIA today. I am not qualified. I don't have the language skills. I, you know, my language skills were romance languages and stuff. We're looking for Arabists today. I don't have the cultural background probably. And I certainly don't have the technical skills, uh, as my children remind me every day, 'Dad you got to get better on your computer.’ Uh, so, the things that you need to have, I don't have.

– Rep. Porter Goss, March 3, 2004, Washington, DC

Republican Convention Schedule

New York, NY

6:00 PM Opening Prayer led by the Reverend Jerry Falwell

6:30 PM Pledge of Allegiance

6:35 PM Burning of Bill of Rights (excluding 2nd amendment)

6:45 PM Salute to the Coalition of the Willing

6:46 PM Seminar #1 Getting your kid a military deferment

7:30 PM First Presidential Beer Bong

7:35 PM Serve Freedom Fries

7:40 PM EPA Address #1: "Mercury, it's what's for dinner."

8:00 PM Vote on which country to invade next

8:10 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh

8:15 PM John Ashcroft Lecture: The Homos are after your children

8:30 PM Round table discussion on reproductive rights (men only)

8:50 PM Seminar #2 Corporations: The government of the future

9:00 PM Condi Rice sings "Can't Help Lovin Dat Man"

9:05 PM Second Presidential Beer Bong

9:10 PM EPA Address #2 Trees: The real cause of forest fires

9:30 PM Break for secret meetings

10:00 PM Second prayer led by Cal Thomas

10:15 PM Lecture by Karl Rove: Doublespeak made easy

10:30 PM Rumsfeld demonstration of how to squint and talk macho

10:35 PM Bush demonstration of trademark deer in headlights stare.

10:40 PM John Ashcroft demonstrates new mandatory Kevlar chastity belt

10:45 PM Clarence Thomas reads list of black Republicans

10:46 PM Third Presidential Beer Bong

10:50 PM Seminar #3 "Education: a drain on our nation's economy."

11:10 PM Hilary Clinton Pinata

11:20 PM Second Lecture by John Ashcroft: Evolutionists: The dangerous new cult

11:30 PM Call EMTs to revive Rush Limbaugh again.

11:35 PM Blame Clinton

11:40 PM Laura serves milk and cookies

11:50 PM Closing Prayer led by Sun Myung Moon and Prince Bandar

12: 00 midnight Nomination of George W. Bush as Holy Supreme Planetary Overlord

12:10 AM Presentation of 100 gazillon $'s by Haliburton to Dick Cheney for services rendered (backroom ceremony)

From yesterday:

"Few people know that George W. Bush is the only President to ever authorize federal funding for embryonic stem cell research." - Laura Bush

Laura? "Few people know it" because it isn't true.

From Harvard Magazine:

"President Bill Clinton, after asking his national bioethics advisory commission for a report on human stem cells, issued an executive order clarifying an existing congressional ban on the use of federal funds to create or destroy human embryos.

His order did allow federal funding for research on human stem-cell lines, but not for creating them."

Remember what I said: they lie about EVERYTHING.

An update on the rugby thing, coutesy of This Modern World. Apparently, Bush did play some rugby in college, but it sure wasn't varsity. They've dug up this photo showing that Bush was a total asshole even back then:



The caption is from the original photo in the Yale yearbook.

Grabbing an opponent by the back of the head and punching him in the face.

What a charmer.

You know, I have said before that the astonishing thing about Bush isn't that he lies, but that he lies about EVERYTHING, even if it's trivial. You remember a few months ago, when they actually were petty enough to lie about a kid yawning during one of Dubya's speeches?

Well, corrente picked this up from the Daily News. The guy even lies about playing rugby.

Like a typical punk, his whole life is a quest to prove his pathetic manhood.

"With all the controversy about John Kerry's Vietnam medals and ribbons, who'd have thought that loyal George W. Bush aide Karen Hughes would be the one to catch the President fibbing about a supposed varsity letter? In her new book, "Ten Minutes From Normal," Hughes recounts a conversation with Bush after Russian President Vladimir Putin grilled him on his Yale days.

"President Putin knew you had played rugby, but he didn't have the context. I mean, you just played for one semester in college, right?" Hughes said.

Bush corrected: "I played for a year, and it was the varsity."

Yesterday, a Yale spokeswoman confirmed that there's no such thing as varsity rugby at Yale - not when Bush was an undergrad in the 1960s and not today."

It's sort of bizarre that the right-wingers claim that Kerry is "the most liberal member of the Senate" while at the same time claiming that he's a "total flip-flopper." I mean, if he's "the most liberal member of the Senate" he must be consistently liberal, right? How can he be consistently and reliably liberal, and at the same time be a flip-flopper? Saying that he's one, and then saying that he's the other - isn't that a gigantic flip-flop itself?

But don't expect logic from the Republicans. If a focus groups tells them to say it, they will say it, even if it's total horseshit that makes no sense at all.

It's a sad, sad state of affairs when a comedian (Jon Stewart, of course) is one of the only real journalists around. They have figured that out in Canada. From the Toronto Star:

"The Bush administration continues to massacre the truth with almost no contradiction from the media. Last week, there was Vice-President Dick Cheney, lying again, in a speech in Minnesota, where he repeated the popular Republican refrain of how Kerry and Edwards are the number one and four "most liberal'' members of the Senate.

It's a line that the right has been using to beat up the Kerry-Edwards ticket for weeks — but never had I seen it explained or sourced by anybody on TV. Not, at least, until last Tuesday's Daily Show.

Stewart interviewed the too-slick-for-his-own-good Texan congressman Henry Bonilla, who worked on the Republican's truth squad during the convention. It was his job to counter the Democrat spin."

Here is a clip from the interview that they are talking about.

And Stewart, of course, is right. The standard RNC Talking Point is that Kerry "ranks" as the most liberal member of the Senate, and Edwards "ranks" fourth. But has ANY journalist (except comic Stewart) asked WHERE those rankings come from and WHO, exactly, ranked them?

And if not, why not?

The sheer cynicism takes one's breath away.

"Bush also said high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."

Asked about that comment, Jonathan Beeton, spokesman for Kerry's campaign in Virginia, said "George Bush can speak with authority about really rich people. ... That's his base, so I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. But that doesn't make it right."

T-Shirts for sale. No, I'm not getting a cut.

Shower of Babble

"Sovereignty means that. It's sovereignty."

How bad IS it when reporters are actually openly laughing at the President of the United States? To his face?

Click here to listen to Bush babbling total inanities, and sounding like a six-year-old being unexpectedly called on by the teacher.