Never in my life have I witnessed such incredible incompetence in a constitutional scholar. I am referring to John Yoo, Bush’s legal advisor on torture and detainee policy, and his gloriously boneheaded op-ed in the New York Times. Yoo makes this wildly absurd claim: [T]he founders intended that wrongheaded or obsolete legislation and judicial decisions would be checked by presidential … Read More
Ann Richards R.I.P.
The former governor of Texas passed away yesterday. I’ll always remember her as the lady who quipped: “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
On Bush’s Speech Last Night
This commentary in the New York Times nails it: Fending off the chaos that would almost certainly come with civil war would be a reason to stay the course, although it does not inspire the full-throated rhetoric about freedom that Mr. Bush offered last night. But the nation needs to hear a workable plan to stabilize a fractured, disintegrating country … Read More
Anti-Gay Rove Loves His Gay Dead Dad
One of the arguments against gay marriage — and by extension, adoption of children by gay parents — is that it supposedly screws up the kids. That’s what the "pro-family" tightwads say, although they have no research to back up that claim. On the other hand, there is one good case study about the effect of gay parents on kids, … Read More
Bush’s Interview With Katie Couric
He said: "One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." Yup, I’m sure it is. Just like one of the hardest parts of my job is flying to the moon. Impossible, non-sensical things are always hard, Mr. President.
Olbermann On Bush (Again)
Good stuff: It is to our deep national shame—and ultimately it will be to the President’s deep personal regret—that he has followed his Secretary of Defense down the path of trying to tie those loyal Americans who disagree with his policies—or even question their effectiveness or execution—to the Nazis of the past, and the al Qaeda of the present. Today, … Read More
Fist Through A Wall
Yup. Shakespeare’s Sister is dead on here: President Shirky McShrugsalot: “[D]ependence on foreign oil jeopardizes our ability to grow." "Problem is, we get oil from some parts of the world and they simply don’t like us," he said. "The more dependent we are on that type of energy, the less likely it will be that we are able to compete … Read More
GOP Is Soft on Terrorism
Look at this list. It is funding needed to protect ourselves from terrorists. What’s your reaction to the items on this list — A waste of money, or worthwhile spending? Screen Checked Baggage: $91.1 million Screen Carry-On Baggage: $37.8 million Passenger Profiling: $10 million Screener Training: $5.3 million Screen Passengers (portals) and Document Scanners: $1 million Deploying Existing Technology to … Read More
Plamegate Is Bogus?
The WaPo editorial board thinks so: Nevertheless, it now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame’s CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming — falsely, as it turned out — that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated … Read More
Can’t Hide The Truth
Bush kas launched a public relations offensive designed to convince you how swimmingly Iraq is, and how Iraq nay-sayers (which constitute two-thirds of all Americans) are a bunch of terrorist-kissing pansy appeasers. His problem, of course, is that facts impede the lies message that Bush is trying to convey. Here’s a screen capture from CNN earlier today. Bush is giving … Read More
The Ten Commandments As The Basis Of Our Law?
Rep. Katherine Harris, the Republican who oversaw the Florida Presidential elections in 2000, and who is now seeking office herself (and failing badly): Asked whether the U.S. should be a secular country, Harris said: "I think that our laws, I mean, I look at how the law originated, even from Moses, the 10 Commandments. And I don’t believe, that uh … Read More
The “Secret Hold”
It is a very very very rare thing when the right side of the political blogosphere and the left side of the political blogosphere are in total agreement. It’s even rarer when they work together. But that is what has been happening the past few days, and it is fun to watch. The issue is Senate Bill 2590, also known … Read More
Katrina Anniversary
First, some one-year-after-the-fact facts: – Less than half of the city’s pre-storm population of 460,000 has returned, putting the population at roughly what it was in 1880. – Nearly a third of the trash has yet to be picked up. – Sixty percent of homes still lack electricity. – Seventeen percent of the buses are operational. – Half of the … Read More
Restoring Dignity To The White House
Remember how people claimed that Bush would restore dignity to the White House, something supposedly missing from the Clinton years? Well, this is what we got – a frat boy: He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we’re learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence … Read More
Bush Ratings Plummet
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this week found President Bush’s approval rating has dropped to 33%, matching his all time low. "His handling of nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to foreign policy, contributed to the president’s decline around the nation, even in the Republican-friendly South." In the generic congressional poll, Democrats lead Republicans by a whopping 55% to … Read More