Bush Leaving office - Bring it On!!

Every channel carrying this last press conference, oh please, say its so that this is the very last one.

Bush said, during his presidency "We Had Fun"

Well, somehow Mr. Bush, the rest of the country, Not so much.

"I am disappointed by the tone in Washington DC".

Well, Mr. Bush, so am I. But you, not I,  are the one responsible for creating that tone.

Remember the rightwing outrage when the Clinton's left the White House and moved into a house in NY -- where the Secret Service spent a few $$$ on security upgrades??

Wonder why the rightwingnutters are silent about this?

Read on:::

Everyone remember Crawford? It's that little town in Texas that George Dubya moved into during his candidacy for president to seem like an average Joe(like Joe the plumber!). You know, the kind of guy you can get drunk and shoot some shit with. Crawford is where all of those stupid photo-ops of Bush taking a chainsaw to a tree are filmed. As I perused the selection on Hulu the other night(I'm a broke ass), I stumbled upon "Crawford".  

In these post-modern times, soothsaying just ain’t what it used to be. Throughout the civilized world, people have abandoned their ancestors’ primitive ways. They no longer trek for weeks to beseech cave-dwelling shamans for guidance. They no longer look to the skies for signs and wonders. They no longer ask the Magic Eight-Ball for answers during televised political debates. Okay, maybe some still do that.

But it’s undeniable that belief in the predictive power of omens and portents is on the wane in the civilized world. Except in the U.S. of A, that is (are we still civilized?). Hereabouts, the "reality-based" community has been whipped, bullied and cowed into submission by nihilists who believe in nothing, save their own godlike power to manufacture any reality useful to them, one that keeps the people too poor, stupid and afraid to question the New World Order’s secret first principle, reprinted here for the first time:

Rules Are For (You) Suckers

Apologies in advance for writing about something other than Obama, Biden, or trashing McCain. But one of the biggest themes, perhaps even the main theme of the Convention so far has been tying McSame/McBush to the current Prezdint.

Listening to NPR last night, I hear a shocking number. Today marks the last day our poor, overworked leader will spend on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, TX. Here is the kicker:

In his 7 1/2 years in office, President Bush has visited his vacation home a total of SEVENTY FIVE TIMES.

Hee hee. We always knew he'd never stay there as the political necessity would disappear. From video smuggled out of a private fundraiser:

Then, making light of the foreclosure crisis, he said: "And then we got a housing issue... not in Houston, and evidently not in Dallas, because Laura's over there trying to buy a house. [great laughter] I like Crawford but unfortunately after eight years of sacrifice, I am apparently no longer the decision maker."

How cute. He thought he was the decision maker when it was really Karl Rove who told him to get that campaign prop in Crawford.

To everyone lucky enough to be in Austin this week for the convention, another event has been added to the calendar. DNC Chairman Howard Dean will begin a nationwide voter registration drive with a rally at Netroots Nation to be held Thursday at 12:00, directly across from the convention center.

This is the kickoff event for Register for Change, a cross country bus tour designed to "build on the overwhelming enthusiasm and voter turnout seen during the primaries" and is a part of "the 50-state strategy and Senator Obama's commitment to running a 50 state campaign."

From Texas, the tour heads to New Orleans - a city that experienced the failings of Republican leadership in Washington firsthand - and then to Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Hattiesburg and Jackson, Mississippi. The second swing, July 25-26, will make stops in North Carolina and Georgia - two untraditional battleground states where voter registration efforts will help lead Barack Obama to victory in November. The tour will hit states in every part of the country, culminating in a swing through the Midwest on its way to the Democratic Convention in Denver.

And if you have any problem finding the rally, just look for the bus...

Update: For those of you who were wondering, yes, it is a bio-diesel bus.

As you probably know by now, Howard Dean kicks off a Democratic Party Voter Registration Blitz across the South starting this week in --ironically-- Crawford, Texas.

This is a great opportunity to show all naysayers that Dr. Dean's 50 State Strategy was the right prescription for Democratic Party success.

FOR PREVENTING U.S. ALLIES IN IRAQ FROM BECOMING A BURDEN TO THEIR NEIGHBORS AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PRESIDENT AND THE GOOD PEOPLE OF CRAWFORD, TEXAS

(with apologies to Messrs Swift and Olbermann)

IT IS a melancholy object to think this weekend about the President and his family celebrating his daughter’s wedding in Crawford, Texas, when close to 5 million Iraqis have been displaced by violence in their country, thanks to his invasion and occupation of Iraq.

More than 2.4 million Iraqis have been forced to vacate their homes, and approximately 2.5 million have fled to Syria, Jordan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey and Gulf States, unable to enter the countries of their liberators in Europe and America.  Thus, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, these Iraqis are forced to leave their homes and country, and beg for sustenance for their helpless families.  

Meanwhile, Crawford, Texas, in the present deplorable state of our kingdom, fights for its own survival as "the Home of George W. Bush."

Our film MASHED POTATOES wins Short Documentary Award at Ozone Film Festival.  Film by Annie Spell and Music by Brian Stoltz.

MASHED POTATOES documents the occupation of the Texas bar ditches by antiwar activists outside of Crawford near the Presidential Ranch in August 2005.  

Recorded in it’s entirety by one of the attorneys who was on the scene primarily to defend the rights of those directly involved in the uprising, the film captures that aspect of the event which could only be uncovered by one working deep within the organization managing the month long rebellion.

The main stream media missed the true story of Camp Casey.  

MASHED POTATOES serves it up here for history.  

The Crawford Transcript which was published by El Pais has attracted attention from news outlets all around the world (Reuters, among many others). I wrote about it here. While many have talked about the fact that George W. Bush planned to attack Iraq with or without a second Security Council resolution, it looks like a majority of journalists are focusing on the fact that Bush admitted that Saddam Hussein was willing to go into exile, thus, presumably, making the whole war unnecessary.

There’s another aspect of that transcript that I’d like to point out now, in light of a recent vote in Congress. In describing the kind of resolution they would seek from the United Nations Security Council, Bush said this:

Bush: ... We see the resolution written in such a way that it does not contain any mandatory elements, does not mention the use of force and that finds that Saddam Hussein has not been able to comply with his obligations. Many people could vote for a resolution like that. It would be something similar to the one they got for Kosovo [June 10, 1999].

http://im1.shutterfly.com/...

MASHED POTATOES

Running Time 41 min.

Film by Annie Spell

Music by Brian Stoltz

Just one day after the Iraqi government received failing marks in President Bush's surge interim progress report, Americans learned that the Iraqi parliament is proceeding with its plans to take off the month of August.  But while the American people may be up in arms, President Bush's amen corner is predictably silent.  After all, given Bush's own record-setting penchant for vacationing during crises here at home, Republicans are understandably reticent to criticize the absentee government in Baghdad.

I've been thinking that I'd be sooooo glad when January 2009 comes around and W makes his way home to Crawford.  Wouldn't it be cool to greet him with a "Finally...you're out of Fucking Office" Parade and carnival?

So why not start planning now?

President Bull today announced the purchase of a Dubai residence closely resembling the 1600 Pennsylvania ave we're all so familiar with. He, along with his VP, and staff have decided the move was the safest thing to do, what with the nerve center of the military also taking up residence there. The move receives the approval of the 20% hard core Bullish and as everyone knows, 20% is 50% of the voting public, a mandate in anyone's book.

President Bull also used the internets as a good excuse to get out of DC. "I can run America in my pajamas nowadays." he boasts. "We now have a global economy and it's best to go where the money is, according to the other of my favorite philosophers."  He brushed away the other 80% of America's worries by affirming his decision to keep his ranch in Crawford once Texas drops it silly extradition laws. "We have non-stop flights from Dubai to Crawford all during the month of August anyway" He said, "and my ranch has a nifty private runway".

The Democratic congress has unanimously agreed to the move after being told by their corporate sponsers it would make them look UN-American to object.

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http://www.youtube.com/...
daniel-rueffert.com

Bush headed for the ranch in Crawford, TX, today "to rethink Iraq policy" before making the speech that keeps getting put off.

He's been on the "listening tour", heard from the ISG, met with the generals, interviewed Sunni and Shiite leaders (at least the ones who agree with him and could come to Washington), met with new Congressional leaders... whew! Now he has to think about it.

[Update: cmanaster REALLY wants to spend more money. Who are we to refuse?]

This is an amusing little story. (Or big story, perhaps.) The Lone Star Iconoclast, a weekly independent paper in George Bush's hideout of Crawford, Texas, has published an interview with FL-24 candidate Clint Curtis. The article covers Clint's past history with the mesmerizingly corrupt Tom Feeney (R-Abramoff) when they were both associated with Yang Enterprises, Clint's political challenge to Feeney, the Vote Now 2006 parallel election site, and Clint's great progressive stands on other issues. It's a positive article that showcases Clint's integrity and desire for real change in Congress. Please read!

Curing Corruption: Whistleblower-Turned-Candidate Fights For Office

Just more blatherings of mine in Extended....

Do YOU remember Lester Crawford? well why would you- after all he was FDA commissioner for about 2 seconds.  But he managed to blatantly lie to investigators during his short stint as head of one of the most influential regulatory bodies in the country.  

So I remember the Republicans having a field day when Clinton went through his impeachment...what is that saying about people in glass houses?  

Now, my mother always taught me not to point fingers and as liberal thinkers, we should resist the temptation to do the same but I do think that we need to let people know and especially the swing voters in the states this november that we won't stand for this behavior and if we are going to appoint people to really make important decisions, we are going to at least go through a basic ethics screen which I think a ten year old can do on google.