Have you no sense of decency, at long last?

The Bush administration is ramping up the rhetoric. They want Iran next. They'll do whatever it takes to win the November elections, even start another war. Rumsfeld pounded the administration's latest talking points; opponents are appeasers and/or fascists. This is typical thuggish McCarthyism-like projection, perfected by Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al. The world's most dangerous terrorists are operating out of Washington, D.C.
Rummy accuses Democrats of appeasement
SALT LAKE CITY - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday the world faces "a new type of fascism" and warned against repeating the pre-World War II mistake of appeasement.
Rumsfeld alluded to critics of the Bush administration's war policies in terms associated with the failure to stop Nazism in the 1930s, "a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among the Western democracies...it is apparent that many have still not learned history's lessons."

He quoted Winston Churchill as observing that trying to accommodate Hitler was "a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping it would eat you last...I recount this history because once again we face similar challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism," he said.


The US military could handle another war Rumsfeld said, despite deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I get asked from time to time...is the US military sufficiently stressed or strained that it really couldn't deal or cope with a problem in another part of the world...The answer is no, that's not correct. We are capable of dealing with other problems where they occur," he said, answering a question about military options for the nuclear crisis with Iran.
"I feel comfortable"... Rumsfeld warned potential enemies that the United States remained ready to take military action to defend its interests.

A new type of war against fascism.
Rumsfeld spoke to the American Legion as part of a coordinated White House strategy, before the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to take the offensive against administration critics at a time of doubt about the future of Iraq and growing calls to withdraw U.S. troops.
Clip from crooksandliars.com: Video Rumsfeld says war critics are Nazi appeasers
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday the world faces "a new type of fascism" and likened critics of the Bush administration’s war strategy to those who tried to appease the Nazis in the 1930s. In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the administration’s critics as suffering from "moral or intellectual confusion" about what threatens the nation’s security.

Keith Olbermann is a true American patriot. In an extraordinary break from the MSM's lockstep adulation of the Bush administration, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann told the truth. While the rest of the media forces polygamists, pedophiles, missing blondes, terror alerts, planes carrying gels, and miscellaneous distracting propaganda down our throats, a lone voice on mainstream cable news television tells it like it is. Will the rest of the "media" listen? Will they realize our Democracy is threatened while they aid and abet criminals? At long last, will they care?
Keith Olbermann, Special Comment, August 30, 2006, from Crooks and Liars:
Video
(Hat tip-aed)
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May this go down in history as the moment the truth broke free from the Bush administration's massively well coordinated propaganda catapult.

From crooksandliars.com

Keith had some very choice words about Rumsfeld’s "fascism" comments tonight. Watch it, save it and share it.

Olbermann delivered this commentary with fire and passion while highlighting how Rumsfeld’s comments echoes other times in our world’s history when anyone who questioned the administration was coined as a traitor, unpatriotic, communist or any other colorful term. Luckily we pulled out of those times and we will pull out of these times.

Remember - Rumsfeld did not just call the Democrats out yesterday, he called out a majority of this country. This wasn’t only a partisan attack, but more so an attack against the majority of Americans.

The transcript of Keith’s comments :
The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack. Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.
We end the countdown where we began, our #1 story with a special comment on Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday. It demands the deep analysis - and the sober contemplation - of every American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence - indeed, the loyalty of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land; Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants - our employees – with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.
Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; And not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as "his" troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile… it is right - and the power to which it speaks, is wrong. In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld’s speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For, in their time, there was another government faced with true peril - with a growing evil - powerful and remorseless.

That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld’s, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the secret information. It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfeld’s - questioning their intellect and their morality.

That government was England’s, in the 1930’s. It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone to England. It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords. It knew that the hard evidence it had received, which contradicted it’s own policies, it’s own conclusions - it’s own omniscience –needed to be dismissed.

The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth. Most relevant of all - it "knew" that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile - at best morally or intellectually confused. That critic’s name… was Winston Churchill.
Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill. History - and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England - had taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty - and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy excepting the fact that he has the battery plugged in backwards. His government, absolute and exclusive in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis. It is the modern version of the government… of Neville Chamberlain.

But back to today’s Omniscient Ones. That about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely. And as such, all voices count - not just his. Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience - about Osama Bin Laden’s plans five years ago - about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago - about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago - we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their omniscience as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris. Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to flu vaccine shortages, to the entire "Fog of Fear" which continues to envelope this nation - he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies, have - inadvertently or intentionally - profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emperor’s New Clothes.
In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused… the United States of America?

The confusion we - as its citizens - must now address, is stark and forbidding. But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note - with hope in your heart - that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light and we can too.

The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this Administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a "new type of fascism." As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that - though probably not in the way he thought he meant it. This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute… I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow. But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed, "confused" or "immoral."

Thus forgive me for reading Murrow in full:
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty," he said, in 1954. "We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear - one, of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of un-reason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men; Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were - for the moment - unpopular."
And so, good night, and good luck.




LA Times has another take...Pipe Down, Rummy
Rumsfeld's cranky outburst mangles a historical analogy, bad-mouths legitimate critics, and illustrates once again why the defense secretary should resign.

What they fail to mention is that Rumsfeld is one of the leading voices of this administration. He's not going anywhere. He speaks for Bush. Bush is simply the photo op man on point. Cheney and Rumsfeld are the puppet masters with Rove executing the plan. The neocon plan.

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Back to Fundraising

The Chimp has just spent two mighty uncomfortable days trying to appear compassionate in Louisiana and Mississippi. Touted as a second chance for New Orleans, it was more of an opportunity for the thugs to re-write history. He's back doing what he does best apart from vacating...yes, fundraising. Lieboy's fundraising is and always has been paid for by the US taxpayers.
Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, a taxpayers advocacy organization, suggested at least requiring campaigns to cover the actual cost of fueling and providing a crew to Air Force One, which runs to tens of thousands of dollars each hour for the specially retrofitted Boeing 747-200B Bush usually uses. But Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money's impact on politics, said that seems unrealistic. "You would bankrupt the campaign," he said.
Why should WE pay for him to traipse around the country telling us more lies and raising money for the GOP? He tosses in a visit to a shoe factory or convenience store and we pick up the tab for Air Force One and personnel used to rake in money for the GOP. Mark Knoller is one of the few journalists to delve into the cost to the public and the number of record breaking vacation days Liezeeeboy takes, also at our expense. If there's a way to rip us off, these thugs will find it. Asa Hutchinson (former impeachment thug) was a recipient of the neocon dough at today's private luncheon.

While fundraising, Bush will spew the latest GOP meme, that all Democrats are fascists, in a manner reminiscent of their "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" bullshit that coaxed a formerly decent nation into fearfully rabid war fever. The thugs must be so relieved that August is almost over...oh, goodie, here comes the trifecta anniversary; the justification for wars galore, theft until it bleeds, and subjugation of rights in the name of freedom. Their feverish excitement is tangible.
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Catapulting more propaganda.
"My series of speeches, they are not political speeches, they are speeches about the future of this country and they are speeches to make it clear that if we retreat before the job is done, this nation will become in even more jeopardy," Bush said. "These are important times and I would seriously hope people wouldn't politicize these issues that I am going to talk about."

Right, and if anyone believes that I have a bridge to nowhere to sell them...in secret, behind Ted Stevens' back.

President Bush talks with patrons inside Cotham's restaurant on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006 in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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Dana Bashes Democrats

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During coverage of the photo ops of Lieboy, Pickles and entourage in Mississippi, before they'd reached Louisiana, CNN's Dana Bush managed to malign Democrats in the propaganda catapulting of the White House. Bash shamelessly lets the entire Republican party, Bush, Chertoff, Brownie, off the hook for their non-response to the plight of Katrina victims and says Democrats are opportunists "exploiting" Katrina. She's one vowel away from neothug whore. This must be part of her deal with the devil to keep the "Congressional Correspondent" job she's had since March. (Formerly a Whore House Correspondent where she no doubt made good friends.) Working hand in glove with John King, another apologist for the crooks, she conveniently shifted attention away from the THOUSANDS of Gulf Coast residents abandoned by the Bush administration.

DANA BASH: Ask Democrats to name the single biggest event that altered their political fortunes against the Bush White House this election year, and their answer Katrina. Because, as Bill was just pointing out, it took the president's biggest assets away from him: leadership, confidence and the perception that he can keep Americans safe.

So while Democrats are slamming the president's trip to the Gulf Coast this week as nothing more than a photo op, 25 House Democrats are there right along with Mr. Bush to deliver their talking points. The delegation is descending on Louisiana and Mississippi over the next two days to talk about everything from health care to insurance with local residents there. And it should come as no surprise what their theme is. It's right here on this report House and Senate Democrats released last week, and the title is, "Broken Promises: How the President and Republicans Left Survivors' Needs Unmet."

And Republicans, as you can imagine, John, insist Democrats are on shaky political ground, since they -- Democrats run state and local government in Louisiana, which gets a big part of the blame for the slow recovery a year later -- John.

KING: And Dana, as the political debate plays out, is it a debate playing only in the Gulf Coast region, or are the Democrats trying to take this elsewhere?

BASH: Definitely elsewhere. You know, Green Bay, Wisconsin, was nowhere near Katrina's wake, but the Democratic congressional candidate there, Steve Kagan, is airing a TV ad right now, talking about Katrina.

Let's lisen. [sic]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE KAGAN (D), WISCONSIN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Iraq. Katrina, FEMA. Port security. Poor judgment all the way around. It's time for change in Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So never mind the voters in Wisconsin were not directly affected by Katrina. Kagan talked about Katrina in that ad because it fits right into the anti-Washington sentiment that he and other Democrats across the country are trying to exploit by saying Republicans who control Washington are falling down on the job, and it's time for a change.

Fuck you, Dana. Fuck you. Here's the deal, Dana, the entire country was affected by Katrina the same way the entire country has been affected by every illegal act perpetrated upon us by your heroes in the White House. (Although "9/11" occurred on the east coast you have no problem making it a national issue!) The Democrats have EVERY right as representatives of MORE than half of the American population to take issue with the crooked, illegal, racist and cruel activities of the Bush Crooks. How dare you! No, Dana, as the report you quickly mentioned notes, needs in the Gulf Coast have been left UNMET by your Republican buddies who hold ALL the power.

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Disaster Spins Disaster

Sit down please. Listen, thank you all for coming. I'm glad to be back here in Biloxi, and I'm glad Laura came with me. Pathetic. Using his wife as insurance. Chickenhawk Lieboy couldn't face Mississippi or Louisiana without her. This was one of his most awkward and halting "speeches", watching it was almost painful. Transcript Again, he pushed the faith based assistance.The folks back here said they couldn't have rebuilt this house without the church, without volunteer organizations that have stepped up to help. Drowning government in the bathtub again and making Americans in need have to rely on the kindness of strangers.

Lieboy hugs a Lott...

President Bush hugs Tricia Lott, wife of U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., as Laura Bush, right, exchanges hugs with Marsha Barbour, wife of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Monday, Aug. 28, 2006, at Trent Lott National Guard Training Center in Gulfport, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio Solis)
Itinerary
He chatted with community leaders in Mississippi at the Biloxi Schooner Restaurant. He likes to mix food and nasty stuff like work. He and Pickles continued their schmoozefest and spin at "Mother's Next Door" in New Orleans with an uncomfortable looking Nagin.



One bright note from the day, Yes Men acting as fake HUD officials trumped lying HUD officials by stating the opposite of the gubmint's nasty plans for New Orleans.
Fake officials "reopen" New Orleans public housing
A prankster posing as a federal housing official took centre stage at a New Orleans event with the city mayor and the governor of Louisiana, controversially promising to throw open closed public housing to thousands of poor former city residents.
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Strings attached to the limited dough...
Bush on Gulf Coast a year after Katrina
He wasn't bringing any new aid announcements or fresh policy proposals. Instead, the president was hoping the addresses would persuade local residents and doubters elsewhere that he remains committed to seeing the region rebuilt better than before.

On one matter that has become a subject of finger-pointing between Washington and the region, aides said Bush would stress that state and local governments need to do their part to get federal money to victims — an unmistakable jab at leaders in Louisiana and New Orleans, where federal money for citizens to rebuild homes has yet to begin flowing.

So far, Congress has approved $110 billion in hurricane aid. The Bush administration has released $77 billion to the states, reserving the rest for future needs, but $33 billion of that has not yet been spent.

Don Powell, Bush's federal Gulf Coast coordinator, also warned in an interview that no more money would flow to the region until there is proof that what has been approved is being spent well.

"It's now time for the people to demonstrate they're going to use this money wisely," he said in an interview. "We need to see plans, execution."

Just one of the boys...


Huggin' more white folks....NOT in the 9th ward.



The TRUTH!

Comments

They're Baaaack!

Leavin' on a jet plane....

AP - Sun Aug 27, 2:56 PM ET President Bush and first lady Laura Bush wave to reporters before boarding Air Force One in Sanford, Maine, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2006. The Bushes are returning to Washington following a four-day vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

NOT happy to be back


Ah'd rather be vacatin' on mah bahk.


Waving at screened visitors


This kid gets it...


One of their poll numbers, Miss Beazley


-end-

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Smack!

I can dream, can't I? Bushie Boy is recreatin' in Kennebunkport but he'd rather be in Crawford. More privacy. Nobody can get anywhere near him in Texas. Walker Point has pesky folks with zoom lenses around. So, he's taken off site to ride his trike. The wedding he was supposed to attend has drawn protesters so he's not going. The MSM sez, protesters "INTRUDE" on their boy's holiday. Some people think it's RUDE to protest.
He rode his trike at the Massabesic Experimental Forest. In the meantime, Lieboy's advance team of "overzealous staffers" is preparing for the best approach to celebrate the one year anniversary of Katrina. While Chimpy spins his wheels his propaganda hurlers perfect the media spin. It's not about compassion, it's about appearances.
It's a fine line: Speechwriters must craft presidential remarks that recognize devastation and recovery, but that also show an awareness of government failures in responding. Staffers must find locations for his visit that demonstrate progress but do not minimize problems and mistakes. The White House has begun sounding the themes of Bush's Gulf visit, emphasizing that progress has been made, but that perseverance is necessary because rebuilding will take years to complete.

Update:Lieboy made it to the wedding after all. How nice.
Gosh, don't tell me the Gnus folks LIED to us?!!

Seated at center, President Bush talks with his mother Barbara before a wedding ceremony in Kennebunkport, Maine, Saturday afternoon Aug. 26, 2006. President Bush is visiting his parents for the weekend as part of his summer vacation. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
The caption is wrong...that's not Bar, she's further down the row.

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They "allowed" their one photo op, Jenna and Lieboy...but no Pickles, and the press should be satisfied with that so shut up.


Spin, spin....protesters, "ALIGNED" with Cindy Sheehan.
The protesters are aligned with peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who planned to address them by phone. Sheehan, the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq, gained international attention when she shadowed Bush last summer while he vacationed at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll this month found that only about one-third of Americans support Bush's handling of Iraq.The president was spending four days in Kennebunkport on his first visit to the family's retreat in two years and planned to attend the wedding of Walker Stapleton.
...
The president was skipping those events and even planned to stay away from the reception after the Stapleton-Bertocchi nuptials. Aides said the president feared is presence, with his large entourage and rigid security requirements, would be disruptive.

For two days in a row, the president has taken his mountain bike to the Massabesic Experimental Forest, a stretch of woods about a half-hour from the Bush home that is owned by the U.S. Agriculture Department. Accompanied by companions recruited from a bike shop and elsewhere, the president has indulged in early morning rides of about an hour.

Hey, he has one supporter...with her "Help" sign

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Off to Kennebunkport

Some pics just don't need to be shopped.
Until later ;)


U.S. President George W. Bush smiles as he departs the White House in Washington August 24, 2006. Bush is flying to Maine today to spend a long weekend at the family estate on Walker's Point in Kennebunkport. REUTERS/Kevin


President Bush waves as he fishes of the coast of Kennebunkport, Maine, Thursday afternoon Aug. 24, 2006. President Bush is visiting his parents for the weekend as part of his summer vacation. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

It's a family affair


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Hahaha, Karl! You're SO funny and carefree!
Too late, we see Marv.
Is he on his way to get some govt. contracts from big bro?

Presidential advisor Karl Rove, right, covers the face of President Bush's brother Marvin Bush, left, as they walk toward Air Force One and members of the press, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Walking in the middle is J.D. Crouch II, assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Happy again, back to vacatin'!

President Bush waves from Air Force One in Sanford, Maine, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006. Bush is spending four days in Kennebunkport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)


Hey, when did he get the Katherine Harris lookalike SS agent?

President Bush waves to reporters after deplaning Air Force One in Sanford, Maine, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006. An unidentified Secret Service agent walks by at right. Bush is spending four days in Kennebunkport, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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The Rockey Whore Show

The MSM salivated while "reporting" on Rockey Vaccarella's "impromptu" grateful pilgrimage to meet the liar-in-chief. Rove couldn't have hired a better shill. Just an average Katrina victim, "Rock" got an audience with the Decider. Rockey proclaimed on myspace, "I'm towing a FEMA trailer to Washington D.C. on August 18, 2006 in hopes of having dinner with President Bush." Well, that's a lie, he borrowed an RV from a friend. The White House claims they had no idea what his political leanings were. Ahahahahaaaaa. Right. Rockey boy is a Republican making a movie and a buck. More importantly, Rockey provided an opportunity for Lieboy to speechify about what he's supposedly doing to rebuild New Orleans.

Lieboy: "I just had coffee with Rockey Vaccarella. He caught my attention because he decided to come up to Washington, D.C. And Rock is a plain-spoken guy. He's the kind of fellow I feel comfortable talking to. It's an amazing country, isn't it, where.."
Rockey Repuke: It is. You know, it's really amazing when a small man like me can meet the President of the United States. The President is a people person. I knew that from the beginning. I was confident that I could meet President Bush. And my mission was very simple. I wanted to thank President Bush for the millions of FEMA trailers that were brought down there. I just wish the President could have another term in Washington. Another term? Jesus Christ, he hasn't earned the first two. And how could Rockette J. Entrepreneur be so sure he'd be THE one who could meet with Bubble Boy? An unexplained mystery. Millions of trailers? More like thousands and those were inexplicably delayed.
Cindy Sheehan should take note, she needs to drive a fake Hummer to the White House sans armor and maybe she too can meet with the pretzldent. But first, she's going to have to run for office as a Republican.

Media Matters sheds more light.
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In "a wonderful segment," CNN provided forum for Katrina survivor to praise Bush on Katrina, omitted that he's a Republican
Summary: CNN's Kyra Phillips allowed Katrina survivor Rockey Vaccarella to repeatedly praise or deflect blame from President Bush over his handling of Hurricane Katrina, yet failed to note that Vaccarella once ran for local office as a Republican. Phillips also failed to challenge Vaccarella's various attempts to excuse the federal government's slow response.
On the August 23 edition of CNN's Live From..., host Kyra Phillips allowed Katrina survivor Rockey Vaccarella to repeatedly praise or deflect blame from President Bush over his handling of Hurricane Katrina, yet failed to note that Vaccarella once ran for local office as a Republican or challenge Vaccarella's various attempts to excuse the federal government's slow response. As Philadelphia Daily News senior writer Will Bunch has reported, Vaccarella ran in 1999 for the St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, commission as a Republican, according to a October 15, 1999, candidate profile in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. While Phillips noted that Vaccarella "ran for office in the past in St. Bernard Parish," she failed to mention his party affiliation. Later, on The Situation Room, CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux did note his Republican Party affiliation while reporting that the White House denied having known it.
...more, much more, at link.

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Olbermann Connects Fearful Dots

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann did an excellent piece on his "Countdown" show tonight. He connected terror alerts to events that preceded them date by date. We've always thought, "Gee, what a coincidence" and even moreso now. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, or a desperate neocon. The propaganda has been so intense and thick for the last several years, hopefully it's not too late for the rest of America to wake up! It's refreshing to see some integrity and truth on a cable news show. Thanks, Keith Olbermann. Stay off small planes. Hire bodyguards. I'm just sayin'....

truthout.org VIDEO
Keith Olbermann does a stunning job of laying out a five year history of Bush administration Terror Alerts that came at moments when the administration may have wanted to change the subject.

And YouTube, The Nexus of Politics and Terror

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George Bush and the Politics of Terror
By Larry Johnson

Wed Aug 16th, 2006

As George Bush said, "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me --- you can't get fooled again." Or, how about the old saying, "if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it's a duck." Why the snark? Just watch the Keith Olbermann's brilliant presentation - which shows conclusive, indisputable evidence that George Bush and his minions have used bogus terrorist threats to distract public attention from embarrassing political news - and you too will become a member of the reality-based community (thanks to John Amato at Crooks and Liars for posting this up).

Ten. Count em. Ten separate incidents where the Bush administration issued public warnings of imminent attacks that subsequently turned out to be non-existent or misleading. George Bush is the boy who cried Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, Wolf ... and no end is in sight.

Olbermann deserves an Emmy and a Pulitzer for this report. He's done a public service. He has blazed a trail the rest of the media, print and electronic, ought to follow. Just as Edward R. Murrow confronted the red-baiter Senator McCarthy, Olbermann has performed a similar service to America by standing up to the fearmongering of Bush. Please ensure your friends and relatives see this piece.

Larry Johnson has his own blog, NoQuarter: www.NoQuarter.typepad.com

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Bush is an ASSHOLE!

Bush responds to reporters as he conducts a press conference inside the White House Conference Center across the street from the White House. It's not news that he's a lying asshole. He's been a shitty little asshole for his entire adult life, and most of his childhood. Today's press conference however was such a slap in the face to all of us, it had to be said again. He was loud, arrogant and challenging as he yelled his plans at the press. He's pissed. He's really, really angry. His vacation was interrupted and the war he started in Iraq isn't going well. He's clearly on amphetamines, after his last performance they needed him pumped up. He started out with his plans for Lebanon. He moved on to tell lies and distortions about the entire Middle East, punctuated by incredibly lame and sarcastic "jokes". The press laughed. I didn't.

Q:"What did Iraq have to do with the attack on the World Trade Center?"
Bush: "Nothing"
Transcript and webcast (Another must-see!)
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Again, he knew the questions that were going to be asked. Apparently the White House Press Corpse is under strict control and most of them called him Sir, a title to which he is NOT entitled.
Q But are you frustrated, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Frustrated? Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I'm happy. This is -- but war is not a time of joy. These aren't joyous times. These are challenging times, and they're difficult times, and they're straining the psyche of our country. I understand that. You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists. And our question is, do we have the capacity and the desire to spread peace by confronting these terrorists, and supporting those who want to live in liberty? That's the question. And my answer to that question is, we must. We owe it to future generations to do so.

As I watched him I got more and more angry too. This was one of his nastiest performances. Cocky little condescending bastard pursed his putrid skinny lips as bellowed out his lines. Fuck you, Bush! He was snotty to Helen Thomas and told huge lies...nothing new. Not leaving Iraq as long as he's in the White House...well then, get the fuck out of OUR HOUSE, sonofabitch! The world's most dangerous terrorist IS George WWIII Bush. "I hear a lot of talk about civil war. We're not leaving. We leave before the mission is done, the terrorists follow us here. Plan Baghdad." Jesus christ he's insane.

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Campaign Zombie...Pickles!

Nobody really hates Pickles Bush. What's to hate? A woman who by "virtue" of whom she married is First Prop. Her major role for the moment is as a GOP campaigning draw. Dick and Lieboy bring in the BIG donor dough behind closed doors with the fat cats. That leaves Pickles as the big public draw of "the people" for the gentler softer side of compassionate conservatism.
She gives the same speech at each whistle stop. She's in favor of all her husband is doing to us but since she has no power doesn't have to take responsibility for any of it. She's set for the rest of her life. Not a care in the world...all the money she can possibly use...for ever. How DOES she do it? Speechwriters and dressers, some Xanax and Stepford One is ready to roll!
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First lady Laura Bush, left, smiles and waves goodbye to the crowd with GOP Congressional candidate state Sen. Peter Roskam, right, during a fundraiser in Addison, Ill., Monday, Aug. 14, 2006. Roskam is trying to succeed the retiring U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., but is facing a tough campaign against Iraqi war veteran, Democrat Tammy Duckworth. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Transcript
Mrs. Bush's Remarks at a Roskam for Congress Luncheon
You know, politics really is a family business. Everyone gets involved, whether they want to or not. It's just a fact of life. When you love somebody who's running for office, then you want to stand with them and you want to be with them and help them as much as you possibly can. And when you run for office, you know that it will affect your family, that you've subjected your family to criticism that they might not ever hear otherwise if you didn't have the courage to run. You know they'll hear the person they love criticized, because that's just a fact of life in politics. And I think it's really very, very encouraging when we see people who want to be in politics, who are serving for all the right reasons.

Thanks to the men and women in uniform, Afghan women and girls can now be educated. It's hard for us to imagine a country that would actually forbid citizens from being educated. But now, little girls are in school all over Afghanistan.

Our country faces challenges too important to be reduced just to politics.
President Bush has an ambitious agenda for the rest of his time in Washington. To accomplish them, we must have serious national conversations, conducted with civility and respect.

Right Pickles, those little Afghani girls might have a different tale to tell. And of course your asshole "husband" and the bastards all around him are NEVER rude or lacking in any civility as they bomb the shit out of half the world and smear anyone in their way.

Two days later....


First lady Laura Bush is joined at the podium by Republican congressional candidate Chris Wakim, right, during a fundraiser in Fairmont, W.Va. on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006. Wakim is facing Democratic incumbent Rep. Alan Mollohan. (AP Photo/Bob Shaw)
Transcript
Mrs. Bush's Remarks at Chris Wakim for Congress Fundraiser
After spending last week at Crawford with the President, I'm used to the sounds of clearing brush. (Laughter and applause.)You know, politics ends up really being a family business, and every member of the family is involved, whether they want to be or not. And it's a huge benefit for a candidate if his family stands with him.

And thanks to the men and women of the United States military, Afghan women and girls can now be educated. (Applause.) It's hard for us to imagine a country that would forbid half of its citizens from being educated. But now, little girls are in school all over Afghanistan.
America faces challenges too important to be reduced to politics.
keeping our country safe from terrorism

Nice safe speech, repeat again, and again, and again. No nasty audience members to ask horrid questions. Lies, damned lies, and zombified lies. Zzzzzzz!

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Lieboy "Strongly" Disagrees

Pretending he's still working, Bush issued a bizarre speech from Camp David after meeting with his "economic" advisers. No mention of the minimum wage. He gave some fake stats, told a couple of stories and allowed a couple of predictable questions, the last one regarding Judge Taylor's ruling that his eavesdropping program is illegal. At times he appeared bored, exhausted, disgusted, and confused. The White House Transcript doesn't do his jumbled responses justice. A must-see short highlight, You Tube video link, Bush defending warrantless eavesdropping. Either he's on drugs and/or clearly doesn't give a shit and would rather be on vacation. Also on the transcript page a video link to the entire episode.

CNN's Cafferty (video) Says Bush is breaking the law.


Saturday Radio Address transcript
Abbreviated version:
Counterterrorism, defeat terrorists, war on terror, violence and terror, freedom and terror. Terrorists, forces of terror, violent terrorist activity, defeat the terrorists, terrorist attacks, terrorist plot, terrorists remain determined.


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Direct link including amusing Fux Gnus spin at the end.


Creating more uncertainty and turmoil in the Middle East Bush said Lebanon and Iraq have fragile democracies

Can't talk to the press without a posse

And Dick nearby

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Gossip...Jenna Sighting

Is she engaged? What's that on her "ring" finger?
It's very unusual for her to travel with her parental pod units. She doesn't like press scrutiny so this must be an "occasion" of some kind.


President Bush, right to left, first lady Laura Bush, and daughter Jenna Bush, arrive at the White House from Camp David, Md., Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce

But wait...there really IS gossip...
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Jenna Bush Smoked Out
NAMES & FACES
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Jenna's still in town!

First twin Jenna Bush caused quite a late-night stir at downtown bar the Bottom Line on Friday in a black dress and heels. But the big news is . . . she's still here! The 24-year-old is apparently living it up with friends before she heads off to Latin America at the end of the summer; a teaching job awaits her there.

Sources say the blond twin smoked Parliament cigarettes and was in a generous mood -- she passed out a few to strangers. Jenna was "very giggly" with her posse of similar-looking gal pals and stayed out until the wee hours of Saturday morning.


Ooooh, a lovely puff piece here:
Teacher Twin Ready for Takeoff


By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Thursday, June 29, 2006

Jenna Bush , the nation's most famous public-school teacher, is skipping the country and bidding a happy adios to the young-Washington social scene she once ruled. Uh-oh, what do we do now?

Friends say that the blond, younger-by-minutes First Twin has been quietly making plans over recent months to leave D.C. for a teaching job in Latin America, most likely around the end of summer.

The move reflects the growing seriousness of a 24-year-old whose collegiate partying provided endless fun for gossip columnists during her father's first years in office -- yet also offers an escape from the Washington spotlight she and sister Barbara always have seemed to resent. Last week marked her final day at the Mount Pleasant charter school where she taught for a year and a half.

"First-year teaching is one of the most difficult jobs a person can have," said Linda Moore , head of the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School, where Jenna and a fellow instructor oversaw a class of third-graders being taught in both English and Spanish. "She was a wonderful first-year teacher."

The White House, which maintains a strict no-comment policy on All Things Twin, would not elaborate on Jenna's plans or address questions about the cost of providing security for her overseas.

There seems to be little precedent, though, for the spawn of a sitting commander-in-chief to move abroad. Barbara spent at least several weeks doing low-profile volunteer work at a hospital in South Africa last summer, but had returned to the States by the fall. ( Chelsea Clinton 's sojourn at Oxford began several months after her parents left the White House.)

According to Carl Sferrazza Anthony , author of 11 books on first families, "you'd have to go back to a young girl who was really popular in her day: the daughter of Ulysses S. Grant ." Like the Bush twins, Nellie Grant was a social live wire who was a magnet for the paparazzi equivalent of the 1870s. She married a prominent Englishman in a splashy White House ceremony and moved across the pond with him -- but that was well before the Secret Service was assigned to guard presidential families.

Meanwhile, Jenna's departure will mark the end of an era for Washington, which now will be completely Twinless. After several months floating around town, Barbara bailed on D.C. just weeks ago, moving to Manhattan, where she recently landed a job in education programming at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Then again, it's been a while since the twins truly cut loose in public. Underage drinking escapades at Stetson's? That was so first term. Two years ago, Jenna's mere appearance at a Georgetown watering hole was enough to put Smith Point on the map for the young preppy set. But her more recent outings, though slavishly chronicled in this column, have been far more subdued -- weekend dinners at nice restaurants, shopping trips and a Richmond 10K with "Sister."

Could be the early-morning hours of her teaching job, or the influence of longtime boyfriend Henry Hager , who just left his Commerce job to get an MBA at U-Va.'s Darden School. (They'll try to keep their love alive across the Americas.) Or it could just be, you know, growing up. She's slimmer than in her old party snaps, with a sleeker haircut. Friends paint a picture of Jenna as "normal," down-to-earth and approachably nice. While her dark-haired sister went east to Yale and is known to show up at beautiful-people galas, Jenna stayed close to home at the University of Texas. She has told friends she can't stand Washington and the who-do-you-work-for ? mentality of its ambitious young politico class.

"She has a disdain for that whole rat race," said one, "despite the fact that she's the person everyone would want to talk to."

Yesterday, neighbors spotted moving vans outside her home near Georgetown; it's believed she'll spend her final weeks in town crashing with the 'rents on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Oh, I just had to post the whole thing...it's just too luffly. Crashing with the 'rents.

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