Today is my birthday. At my age, it's not something I think about much, just another day. But no matter your age, it does tend to be a day that has at least one or two moments of contemplation.
I've been through ten Presidents. I watched the Kennedy v. Nixon debate as a child, sitting on the living room carpet. I saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald, live. No You Tube then.
But in all those years, all the moments between now and then, I've never seen or felt what I do today. (More in extended.)
Aside from all the obvious things that answer the question about what's wrong with Bush, I ask the question in a more contemporary sense: What is wrong with Bush and his inability to communicate?
It's hard to believe, yet we have living proof, that a man as inarticulate and stilted and poor at communication as he is could be our president.
Unless reading from a script, we have never had a more challenged Commander-In-Chief. We've all heard it. So many times. Today was just another example. The guy simply can't string two sentences together without sounding like an idiot.
During my long unemployment, I watched a lot of TV (no surprise). Way back after Bush the Lesser was first selected, I noticed what seemed to be more prescription drug ads than I'd seen before. But after George the Lesser's re-election, it sky-rocketed. I started keeping track since seemingly every other commercial was "Ask your doctor." More after the fold.
It's like a wave washing over us, a rip tide that pulls us further out to sea, a deadly undertow -- the Bush Administration is so staggering in its incompetence and ineptitude that we're beginning to lose words for what's happening.
And it all still comes down to Bush. At the end of the day, despite the fact that Cheney runs the White House and Bush can't sneeze without Rove advising him out of which nostril spray shall ensue, left or right according to the lastest polls, despite the fact that Rumsfeld is so scary even Bush defers to him -- at the end of the day, it's Bush.
We're here because one frat boy, elitist, mediocre, dim-bulb son of a mediocre president was born on third base.
They're hypocrites, evil-doers, liars, idiots and more. Who are the worst persons in the world? I started thinking about it and was stunned by how many I could name as the "worst" off the top of my head. I'm sure you can add more. See below the fold.
I'm old. I don't know how to post a picture here and I get confused reading the how-to. But if I could post a picture, it would be one of George W. Bush tumbling over Niagra Falls and drowning.
I'm old and I'm furious. I'm in the demographic campaigns count on. Older, registered voter, homeowner, vote in every election, reasonably informed, open to new ideas, church-goer, white, middle-class -- and I'm furious.
I'm sure it's just a matter of hours or days till we hear that Scotty has joined his mommy's campaign team, but Scott McLellen's resignation -- and rumors of more to come -- made me think about the Once Front Page But Now Forgotten Club. Have you noticed how they just up and disappear? It's as if all the ink devoted to them dried up and became dust once they left the Bush Looney Bin.
Reading ABC's The Note this morning, my internal alarm went off when I got to this:
The New York Post does some investigating and finds that a "high-ranking Pentagon official" dug through Sen. Hillary Clinton's financial filings during the kerfuffle over the Dubai ports deal last month. LINK
"Exactly what Francis was searching for, and who told him to do it, remains a mystery... It's common for reporters and opposition researchers to pore over a lawmaker's personal financial disclosure forms, but exceedingly rare for Defense Department officials to do it."
Here's a new diary to use as a further DK Roll Call since the first one is standing at over 600 posts and is bogging down. Some people on the Open Thread suggested someone do this, so I have. Me:
Kos handle: Kestrel
Age: 52
Current Residence: Marin County, CA
College: SF State Univ., Golden Gate Univ.
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Keying off Kos' front page post of Chris Bowers' work on bringing us up to speed on competitive house races, here's what the second tier (Bowers' part II) candidates (who need our money) are facing:
Recap: "Great work by Chris Bowers today giving us 2006 U.S. House forecasts.
In Part II Bowers focuses on eight races where local conditions look great for our guys, but our candidates trail in the money race. He lists CT-05, IL-06, MN-01, NV-03, PA-08, OH-01, OH-15, and WA-08.
These are eight races for which the blogosphere, the netroots, DFA and MoveOn should seriously consider bundling their donations. These eight pretty much only need money. With one possible exception, they can all except tremendous DCCC support if they start to get money. Combined with the twelve races I listed in the previous post, they would be enough for Democrats to retake Congress. These are races where we could make a big, big difference."
Hillary Clinton's carefully crafted use of the term "plantation" yesterday in describing the Republican Congress signaled to me that her 2008 campaign for president will start to come into sharper focus in the months ahead. So, too, will the positioning of all the others as the jockeying begins.
So why not a look at the possibles and probables? There are 13 on each side.
I'm not into the diary thing, but I can't overlook this. If nothing else, it's a welcome humor break:
From AP: "The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that 'intelligent design' isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States."
Reps. Tom Lantos, Christopher Shays and Barney Frank are sponsoring a bill to make pet rescue possible during evacuations. This was such a horrendous problem during Katrina and many people wouldn't leave because they wouldn't leave their pets. I don't blame them. I wouldn't.
Although I've been in the DKos community for nearly four years, I'm not a diarist and I doubt anyone knows me. But nagging concerns about a military draft motivate me to actually make a diary entry asking for info from those of you with knowledge.
Kos had a post a couple of weeks ago about the recent raising of age limits for military recruits, but it's been awhile since I've seen anything factual about the possibility of a draft in the future as our troops sag and things show no signs of improving. The "bring 'em home" talk goes on and ChimpCo just yesterday floated the notion that withdrawals may start in October 2006. I think that's B/S.
Once again, I ask if anyone can help. My browser crashed, and now that I've got it back, my IE back, refresh and forward icons have disappeared. They have suddenly been replaced by links with IE icons that say Customize Links, Free Hotmail, Windows and Windows Media. I've no idea why or how to get my back, refresh and forward to return. Do any of you know what I need to do? Thank you and my apologies for being off-topic.
Once agin, I ask if anyone can help. My browser crashed, and now that I've got it back, my IE back, refresh and forward icons have disappeared. They have suddenly been replaced by links with IE icons that say Customize Links, Free Hotmail, Windows and Windows Media. I've no idea why or how to get my back, refresh and forward to return. Do any of you know what I need to do? Thank you and my apologies for being off-topic.
Sorry if this is an abuse, but I can't find help elsewhere, the Open Thread is overloaded, and I know a lot of Kossacks are tech-savvy and can help me.
Somehow, I've lost the panel/strip below my task bar on my browser that displays the url of the site I'm visiting. It's just gone so I can't navigate by changing urls. Can anyone tell me how to get it back? Thank you.
Most agree that each Dem presidential candidate has some admirable attributes, but the general feeling (and polling) seems to conclude that none has them all.
What attributes from each of The Nine to you wish you could put together in one candidate? What would you take from each to create the Mega Dem to defeat Bush? The whole package is what counts when it comes to voting; positions, experience, looks, endorsements, style, what have you.
Share your thoughts about creating a Mega Dem from among those running. Mine are:
Mega Dem has Dean's fiery populism and confidence, Clark's gray-haired good looks and military cred, Edwards' folksy style, solid position and fresh face, Sharpton's eloquence and humor, Gephardt's earnestness, Braun's compassion, Kucinich's progressive ideas, and ...
I can't come up with a thing for Kerry or Lieberman. All I think of when I think of these two is Kerry = dour, long face and hair; Lieberman = whining, painful to look at or listen to.
