Nobody Could Have Predicted...

After a couple of years of devoting time and energy to this blog, I've found I cannot sustain it without some $ coming in. Now, thanks to the Bush economy, I'm losing my house.

What's up with this? Has anyone "followed the money" to see what sort of influence was applied to force this conversion. I certainly don't feel like shelling out any $ for new TV or a conversion box gizmo even with the supposed government issued coupons or vouchers.

Now that Rush is back in the news with yet another "drug" story, maybe it's time to re-question the original excuses he used to persuade his followers his addiction could have happened to anyone.

Back in 2003, during a golf tournament, Rush claimed he had no physical limitations. Yet, when he admitted to being hooked on pain killers, he claimed it was because of chronic back pain. So, why would he tell an interviewer he had nothing wrong with him physically since this is a built-in excuse for being a shitty golfer. What is more likely is he's being less than honest about his addiction when he claims it's the result of his bad back.

AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIP

July 17, 2003
Pre Round

An interview with:

RUSH LIMBAUGH

Q. How did your game go today?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: Well, this is the third day I've played this week, and it was -- this is nothing to write home about. Last four holes, maybe, I played like I'm capable of. But I was doing things today that I haven't done in two years, topping drives and a number of other things.

But it's good to get a round like this out of the system when it doesn't count. Makes the amateur partners feel really good. So it all turned out for the best.

I mean, my attitude is, I'm just grateful to be here. I'm not a golfer. Thank God I don't make my living at it, and I feel very lucky, very privileged just to be able to participate in something like this.

Q. What was the big bother, was it the number of people watching you?

RUSH LIMBAUGH: You know, I've played the Bob Hope three times and the AT&T twice. It wasn't bad. It's just the game is mental. Once you've mastered the physical aspect, not mastered, but 90 percent of the game, all of the other things being equal is mental, and for some reason, I just was not able to execute my swing today.

And I think it had nothing to do with physical characteristics. There's nothing wrong with me. I think it's just for whatever reason, maybe I was tired, I have no idea what it was. And that's the thing that frustrates me about the game, I'll go play well two rounds, come out and do today and not really know why I did poorly. But that's what makes me an amateur.

Why is it that some blogger with Google can come up with this interview and nobody in the MSM ever mentions it?

Read the Inteview For Yourself

Oddly enough, Rush had a convenient cyst or convenient knee injury to keep him out of the draft during Vietnam. Plus, Rush had convenient excuse for carrying Viagra without a prescription upon his return from the Dominican Republic. Anyone notice a pattern?

One might be wise too to note exactly why the Domincan Republic is a preferred destination by some travelers.

You don't support your country by trying to divide it!

You don't support your country by putting party over country!

Other than shoot off your mouth, what have you done?

Lobbing loaded, softball questions to GWB during press conferences was his stock-in-trade along with being a gay, male prostitute. Someone had to fill his shoes, so to speak. Has a new shill been planted in the White House Press Corp?

Here's Gannon's question that made him stand out:

Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. [Senate Minority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] was talking about soup lines. And [Senator] Hillary Clinton [D-NY] was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you've said you are going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?

Here's the loaded, softball question from today:

What is your reaction to the Moveon.org that mocked General Petraeus as General Betrayus? Said that he cooked the books on Iraq. Secondly, would you like to see democrats, including presidential candidates, repudiate that ad?

Of course, Bush used the opportunity to denigrate the entire democratic party and its members as not supporting the military. What a bunch of whining crybabies the GOP has become. Petraeus is condemned by his own record of rosy projections, political calculation and abject failure. Just how many Iraqi forces are standing up so we can stand down thanks to the training program he was responsible for?

His presentation to Congress should be run through one of those prgrams that professors and teachers use to ferret out plagiarism. It sure would be interesting to see the results.

Way too much reporting on OJ to not have seen some of it. Also, lots of talk about whether he's been treated fairly or given preferential treatment. One thing struck me as odd since it appeared that when taken into custody, OJ hands were not handcuffed together. I've never seen a person whose hands were handcuffed behind his back be able to put one hand in his front pocket. I saw another video where it appeared only one hand was in cuffs, but I can't find it anywhere. Again, not that I care, but it did seem a bit odd.

And don't you think that it's an affront to capitalism to give away a service that someone else charges for?

President Bush said of Gonzales he was a man of integrity, decency and principle. Of course he didn't say competent.

News report state there is a bullet shortage being experienced by domestic law enforcement due to the U.S. military expending 1 billion rounds per year. Granted, there are two occupations and ongoing training, but 1 billion seems like an awful lot of bullets.

1,000,000,000/365 = 2,739,726 per day
2,739,726/24 = 114,155 per hour
114,155/60 = 1,902 per minute
1902/60 = 31 per second, every second

Seriously, that's a shitload of bullets!

Michael Vick arrested for operating dog fighting ring.

On the other hand,

Toughman, Ultimate Fighting, Kage Kombat and other forms of brawling are full of surprises. But the biggest may be that "extreme fighting," a sport once on the verge of being banned, is enjoying increasing regulatory approval and drawing big crowds. USA Today

Yes, I am aware that human fighters have a choice whether to participate which distinguishes the two forms of spectator entertainment but as a matter of perspective...

Check out News For Real for a great primer on how to lie under oath and avoid the consequences.

Imagine a prosecutor who has irrefutable evidence of criminal activity refusing to bring charges for fear of jury nullification after trial. That is, after being presented with 'beyond a reasonable doubt' evidence, the jury acquits the accused regardless of proof that the law was broken by the defendant. That is analogous to senate republicans voting to acquit after presentation of the multitude of crimes of the Bush/Cheney criminal enterprise.

The 2008 ad campaign virtually writes itself if the senate republicans vote along party lines to acquit. For example:

On August 15, 2007 the senate was presented with proof that President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, along with various members of the administration, embarked upon a scheme to promote an illegal invasion of the sovereign country of Iraq using lies, falsehoods, half-truths, cherry-picked information and forged documents. So far, this crime has cost the lives of over 3700 American soldiers, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis at a cost of over a ½ trillion dollars.

Yet when presented with this proof, Mitch McConnell (R-Cabbage Patch), voted for his party instead of his country. His partisanship trumps the rule-of-law. He places his loyalty to George Bush above his loyalty to his party. He has in fact violated his own oath of office to protect the Constitution and follow the laws which define us. If you believe no man is above the law or that no political party is above the law, vote for _____.

So for Pelosi and Conyers to say that impeachment is "off the table" because they would not be able to convict in the Senate may be wrong if the republicans in the senate fear the electoral repercussions of acquittal. There is already considerable speculation that the GOP will lose seats in 2008. Imagine incumbents having to answer to an already angry electorate for failing to punish George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Make the republicans prove they love their country more than the liars occupying the highest office in the land. If they don't, hammer the point home again and again that their loyalties are misguided . Especially if they happened to have also voted to convict Bill Clinton for his transgressions.

Daddy, what's a hooker?

Daddy, what's diaper fetish?

Daddy, is a DC Madam the opposite of an AC Madam.

Daddy, is there any such thing as a AC/DC Madam.

Daddy, who's Lorena Bobbitt and why was that woman in the hideous dress crying?

Daddy, why did a gay, male prostitute visit the White House over 200 times?

Daddy, what's a hippo crit?

Here's an article from Kathleen Parker in Nov. 2001. I wonder if given the relationship with Russia is at its lowest point since the cold war, she might consider a revision.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/kathleen/parker050102.asp

Note: I ran across this 'article' when doing a search on Bush's much lauded instincts. You know, the instincts which were substituted for research, contemplation and reasoned decisions. You know, the instincts which George Will gushed were 'normally impeccable.'

We were promised, among other things, that your administration would be 'transparent' in its governance. You've stated many times that nations such as North Korea and Iran have non-transparent governments and that poses a problem to the U.S., the world and to the citizens of those countries. You've said that transparency is necessary for a functioning democracy. Now, once again, your administration is trying to keep its operations secret by invoking 'executive privilege' to impede a congressional investigation. Once again, the lame need for 'unfettered advice' talking point is being thrown around by your apologists and spokeswhores.

How do you square what you say with what you do?

It's not just a "Culture of Corruption," it's a "Confluence of Corruption." As Ambassador Wilson opined, the corruption is "to the core." Nearly every day brings another outrage. Nearly every day there's evidence that self-interested political considerations and not good governance is the norm and not the exception. We've been told so many lies, so often, and by so many different perpetrators that it's difficult to get a handle on just how pervasive this cancer on American society has become. Yet, the media still refuses to call liars, liars. Yet the media still refuses to call thieves, thieves. Yet the media refuses to call traitors, traitors.

(snark)The war is not lost. In fact, we're making progress. Just give the surge at least one Friedman Unit before declaring the surge ineffective. (/snark)

Which do you prefer?

Do you remember Travelgate. To hear the GOP at the time, it was a major scandal worthy of a congressional committee investigation. Of course, like most scandals during the Clinton era, either it was grossly exaggerated, an outright fabrication or lies by omission but nevertheless producing mountains of feigned outrage. Like the federal prosecutors, the Travel Office staff "serve at the pleasure of the President." How very different the reaction by GOP apologists, however.

To read more and learn some of the facts about the faux scandal go to

http://archives.cjr.org/year/96/2/travelgate.asp

Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.): . . . I believe that this nation sits at a crossroads. One direction points to the higher road of the rule of law. Sometimes hard, sometimes unpleasant, this path relies on truth, justice and the rigorous application of the principle that no man is above the law.

Now, the other road is the path of least resistance. This is where we start making exceptions to our laws based on poll numbers and spin control. This is when we pitch the law completely overboard when the mood fits us, when we ignore the facts in order to cover up the truth.

Shall we follow the rule of law and do our constitutional duty no matter unpleasant, or shall we follow the path of least resistance, close our eyes to the potential lawbreaking, forgive and forget, move on and tear an unfixable hole in our legal system? No man is above the law, and no man is below the law. That's the principle that we all hold very dear in this country.

The president has many responsibilities and many privileges. His chief responsibility is to uphold the laws of this land. He does not have the privilege to break the law. . . . October 9, 1998

I guess, unlike federeal prosecutors, the staff at the White House Travel Office under Clinton did not "serve at the pleasure of the President."

Remember the fake outrage about the firings of staff who plan travel itineraries by dolts like Tom Delay who now dispute the seriousness of the politically motivated and likely illegal conspiracy to fire federal prosecutors.

Thankfully, there are no really important issues to deal with so that Sixty Minutes has the opportunity to do a segment tomorrow night on Simon Cowell of American Idol fame. Now that's what I call hard-hitting, investigative journalism that keeps the American electorate informed.

Have we reached that point where there's an 'appearance of impropriety' from the Bush administration? You know, that promise that was made back in 2000-2001 that they would act like adults unlike the previous adminstration, operate with transparency and be so ethical there would not even be an appearance of impropriety!

Anyone who's followed Bush's appointments to critical positions is accutely aware that job qualifications are often overlooked in favor of partisan cronies such as Michael Brown of FEMA infamy. Now, with the scandal at Walter Reed and the deplorable conditions that wounded vets were forced to endure, perhaps it's time to review the qualifications of Jim Nicholson who Bush appointed to as Secretary of Veteran Affairs in 1994.

ABC has a short bio of Nicholson at the time of the appointment and subsequent unanimous confirmation by the Senate. It's important to note that the Department of Veteran Affairs is the second largest department in the federal government with 220,000 employees and provides various levels of health care services to 25 million veterans. One would assume then that anyone slated to head such a department would have significant experience and background in managing such an agency possibly with some medical background as well.

Jim Nicholson has an impressive resume. He graduated from West Point in 1961 and went to Vietnam where as an Army Ranger he was highly decorated. He was on active duty for 8 years and in the reserve for 22 years finally retiring as a full colonel. He received his masters degree in Public Policy and a law degree from the University of Denver. It is unknown to this author whether he ever took or passed a bar exam or practiced law. When it comes to government service, other than in the military, his job experience seems to be limited to being Ambassador to the Vatican. But, he held one position that would seem to make him abundantly qualified for a position in the Bush administration; Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

This resume, while impressive, does not seem to this author to suggest any experience in managing such a large and critically important department. But hey, I could be wrong.

what's worse…that the Iranian government does know or that they don't know?

This is one of the new White House talking points about supposed Iranian involvement in supplying IED to Iraqi insurgents. This same logic may be applied to another situation as well. Namely, the Plame Gate scandal.

So, did Bush know that a large contingent of his administration was actively trying to discredit Joseph Wilson for challenging a pre-war assertion about yellow-cake uranium from Niger and exposed Wilson's wife's undercover CIA identity in the process or was all he unaware that all this was happening right under his nose?

Simply stated, was he complicit or feckless?

Impeach the cheerleader. Save the world!

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Sir, we've now learned through sworn testimony that at least three members of your administration, other than Scooter Libby, leaked Valerie Plame's identity to the media. None of these three is known to be under investigation. Without commenting on the Libby trial, then, can you tell us whether you authorized any of these three to do that, or were they authorized without your permission?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, thanks, Pete. I'm not going to talk about any of it.

Q They're not under investigation, though?

THE PRESIDENT: Peter, I'm not going to talk about any of it.

Q How about pardons, sir? Many people are asking whether you might pardon --

THE PRESIDENT: Not going to talk about it, Peter. (Laughter.) Would you like to think of another question? Being the kind man that I am, I will recycle you. (Laughter.)
John.

Q Thank you --

THE PRESIDENT: You like that one? "Recycling" him. (Laughter.)

Q That took care of one of my questions, as well, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: If that's the case, sit down. Next question. (Laughter.)

Yeah, that's all pretty amusing. A White House Leak Fest of a CIA officer's identity to cover up all the lies about Iraq just makes me want to split a gut. The only thing more disgusting than the president refusing to answer questions is the press tolerance and/or approval of this behavior. These people make me sick!

IMPEACHMENT NOW!!!!!!!

Why is the liberal media only reporting the bad news about Anna Nicole Smith's death?

For a few good laughs from the biting wit at Ironic Times...

Apparently, there's a news blackout by the major MSM on the Scooter Libby trial. Too bad they didn't show this same 'restraint' when it came the Scott Peterson trial or any, and I mean any, allegation made against Bill Clinton.

Also, February is a 'sweeps' month where advertising revenues are tied to viewership during the month. As has been the practice in the last few years, the networks put on 'better' or more sensational programming than during the rest of the year. Additionally, they employ the deplorable practice of hinting or saying that one of the characters on a show is about to meet his/her untimely demise to appeal to our morbid curiosity of the viewers. This probably bothers me more than it should, but so what.

Lizzie Cheney Took An Ax... by Ed Naha