Bush has "nothing else to offer"

Where's Laura now?
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: A Saudi court sentenced a 19-year-old woman victim of gang rape to six months in jail and 200 lashes — more than double than in her initial sentence for being in the car of a man who was not her relative, a newspaper reported Thursday.

UPDATE - 11/23: State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Monday that the administration was "astonished," but had "nothing else to offer".

Where's Laura Bush and her old man now? We all certainly know of the Bush's close, and long-lasting, friendship with the Saudis, so of course, we are surprised they have 'nothing else to offer'.

And in the meantime, while Bush fiddles -- Democrats speak up;

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) states, "I urge President Bush to call on King Abdullah to cancel the ruling and drop all charges against this woman." In a letter to Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) wrote, "I strongly urge the Department of State to condemn this ruling." Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and John Edwards released statements expressing their outrage.

WHAT ELSE NEEDS TO BE SAID?

Frist, DeLay Fend Off Probes Into Ethics





"Heading into a midterm election year, Republicans find themselves with not one, but two congressional leaders — Bill Frist in the Senate and Tom DeLay in the House —fending off questions of ethical improprieties.

The news that federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission are looking into Frist's sale of stock in HCA Inc., the hospital operating company founded by his family, comes as a criminal investigation continues of Jack Abramoff, a high-powered Republican lobbyist, and his ties to DeLay of Texas.

Less than a week ago, a former White House official was arrested in the Abramoff investigation.

For Republicans, the timing couldn't be worse".

HEY, GOT A LIGHT?

Palestinians killed in Gaza Blast

"At least 15 Palestinians have been killed and scores injured in a blast during a parade by the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip.
A truck carrying gunmen and home-made weapons blew up during the rally in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

Israel has denied involvement, while the ruling Palestinian Fatah faction said it held Hamas responsible".

IF ONLY THE PRESS WOULD LIE TO US...

Iraq coming apart, Saudi official warns







...Hey 'Alfie', the 'liberal' press found out about me giving you that waiver on that child-sex stuff..it's gonna take two oil wells now...sure George, give me five, bro...



I keep hearing the Bush administration, Fox News and other rightwing ass-kissing propagandists tell us how great things are going in Iraq. According to them everything is wonderful and if we could only get the 'liberal media' (sic) to just report the truth, everything would be OK. Poor babies.

Those same sheep are surprised now when Bush's buddy, Saud ('Alfie') al-Faisal say's the "main problem is the split between Sunnis and Shiites"! Well goddamn, 'a split between the Sunnis and Shiites'? Who the hell could have ever imagined such a thing happening??!!??

"Iraq is moving toward disintegration, and war there could spread to its neighbors, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Thursday.

All the dynamics there are pushing people away from each other," said Saud, whose nation is predominantly Sunni.

The main problem, Saud told a small group of reporters here, is the split between Sunnis and Shiites in central and southern Iraq. Continued autonomy for non-Arab Kurds in northern Iraq is less of a concern", he said.

SUPPORT THE TROOPS, MY ASS!

Republicans are once again trying to put the screws to the 'troops' while they lie about their support.

Do the country a favor this weekend. When you see a car with a 'W' sticker and 'support the troops' decal, pull the driver out of their car and pummel the shit out of them. It's called justifiable homicide. Do your part!




Protecting tax cuts, GOP proposes cuts to military health care

"In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush and Republicans in Congress have refused to consider rolling back the $336 billion in new tax cuts that the richest 1 percent are slated to get over the next five years. They say we need to pay for reconstruction not by asking the wealthiest to sacrifice just a little bit, but by massive cuts to spending. And now we see what that means: The Navy Times today reports that those cuts "include trimming military quality-of-life programs, including health care." This, while troops are in battle.

The Republicans have put their cutting efforts in military terms, calling it "Operation Offset" - a further insult to the men and women in uniform they are now trying to screw over. The specifics are ugly. They are, for instance, asking troops to "accept reduced health care benefits for their families." Additionally, "the stateside system of elementary and secondary schools for military family members could be closed." In the past, this idea "has faced strong opposition from parents of children attending the schools because public schools [in and around bases] are seen as offering lower-quality education."

None of this, I suppose, is all that surprising. In the past, we've seen tax cuts put before making sure troops have adequate body armor heading into war - a tax/budget decision that very likely increased U.S. casualties. We've also seen Republicans vote down efforts to reduce tax cuts for the very wealthy in order to restore cuts to military family housing. And we've seen tax cuts come as the White House has refused to adequately fund a variety of other programs for troops. The truth is, the GOP has in moments of candor admitted that they care about cutting taxes for the wealthy far more than they care about the troops.

As you may recall, it was Tom DeLay who said before the Iraq invasion "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes." Apparently to the Republicans, nothing is more important in the face of a war AND massive destruction to the homefront than cutting taxes either".


Republicans are shameless..

UNCONSTITUTIONAL

You cannot give federal tax dollars to organizations that discriminate based on religion.

And furthermore, religious organizations that do NOT pay taxes, should NOT be receiving federal tax dollars. That's called the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

It's unfortunate for this country that the Supreme Court is now being filled with more Republican judges that do not have the constitutional integrity needed to overturn this narrow-minded Congress's anti-Constitutional laws.


House OKs Faith As Head Start Hiring Issue
By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer
Thu Sep 22, 6:09 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The House voted Thursday to let Head Start centers consider religion when hiring workers, overshadowing its moves to strengthen the preschool program's academics and finances.

The Republican-led House approved a bill that lets churches and other faith-based preschool centers hire only people who share their religion, yet still receive federal tax dollars.

The House passed the bill 231-184; only 23 Democrats voted for it.

GOP lawmakers, with backing from the White House, contend that preschool centers should not have to give up their religious autonomy in order to receive federal grants.

Bush's Butt Buddies

Bush waives Saudi child sex-slave trafficking sanctions


WASHINGTON - President Bush decided Wednesday to waive any financial sanctions on Saudi Arabia, Washington's closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism, for failing to do enough to stop the modern-day slave trade in prostitutes, child sex workers and forced laborers.

Just one more example of just how hypocritical George Bush truly is. What kind of man would allow Saudi Arabia to continue child 'sex-slave' prostitution so that we don't interrupt our economic relationship?

BLACKWATER DOWN

Do you remember 'Blackwater' from the dog days of Fallujah? Why were mercenaries sent into New Orleans?













"The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina hit. The company known for its private security work guarding senior US diplomats in Iraq beat the federal government and most aid organizations to the scene in another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces "join[ing] the hurricane relief effort." But its men on the ground told a different story.

Some patrolled the streets in SUVs with tinted windows and the Blackwater logo splashed on the back; others sped around the French Quarter in an unmarked car with no license plates. They congregated on the corner of St. James and Bourbon in front of a bar called 711, where Blackwater was establishing a makeshift headquarters. From the balcony above the bar, several Blackwater guys cleared out what had apparently been someone's apartment. They threw mattresses, clothes, shoes and other household items from the balcony to the street below. They draped an American flag from the balcony's railing. More than a dozen troops from the 82nd Airborne Division stood in formation on the street watching the action.

Armed men shuffled in and out of the building as a handful told stories of their past experiences in Iraq. "I worked the security detail of both Bremer and Negroponte," said one of the Blackwater guys, referring to the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and former US Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte. Another complained, while talking on his cell phone, that he was getting only $350 a day plus his per diem. "When they told me New Orleans, I said, 'What country is that in?'" he said. He wore his company ID around his neck in a case with the phrase Operation Iraqi Freedom printed on it.

The men from Blackwater USA arrived in New Orleans right after Katrina hit. The company known for its private security work guarding senior US diplomats in Iraq beat the federal government and most aid organizations to the scene in another devastated Gulf. About 150 heavily armed Blackwater troops dressed in full battle gear spread out into the chaos of New Orleans. Officially, the company boasted of its forces "join[ing] the hurricane relief effort." But its men on the ground told a different story".


...One might ask, given the enormous presence in New Orleans of National Guard, US Army, US Border Patrol, local police from around the country and practically every other government agency with badges, why private security companies are needed, particularly to guard federal projects. "It strikes me...that that may not be the best use of money," said Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

Blackwater's success in procuring federal contracts could well be explained by major-league contributions and family connections to the GOP. According to election records, Blackwater's CEO and co-founder, billionaire Erik Prince, has given tens of thousands to Republicans, including more than $80,000 to the Republican National Committee the month before Bush's victory in 2000. This past June, he gave $2,100 to Senator Rick Santorum's re-election campaign. He has also given to House majority leader Tom DeLay and a slew of other Republican candidates, including Bush/Cheney in 2004. As a young man, Prince interned with President George H.W. Bush, though he complained at the time that he "saw a lot of things I didn't agree with--homosexual groups being invited in, the budget agreement, the Clean Air Act, those kind of bills. I think the Administration has been indifferent to a lot of conservative concerns."

Prince, a staunch right-wing Christian, comes from a powerful Michigan Republican family, and his father, Edgar, was a close friend of former Republican presidential candidate and antichoice leader Gary Bauer. In 1988 the elder Prince helped Bauer start the Family Research Council. Erik Prince's sister, Betsy, once chaired the Michigan Republican Party and is married to Dick DeVos, whose father, billionaire Richard DeVos, is co-founder of the major Republican benefactor Amway. Dick DeVos is also a big-time contributor to the Republican Party and will likely be the GOP candidate for Michigan governor in 2006. Another Blackwater founder, president Gary Jackson, is also a major contributor to Republican campaigns.

After the killing of four Blackwater mercenaries in Falluja in March 2004, Erik Prince hired the Alexander Strategy Group, a PR firm with close ties to GOPers like DeLay. By mid-November the company was reporting 600 percent growth. In February 2005 the company hired Ambassador Cofer Black, former coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department and former director of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, as vice chairman. Just as the hurricane was hitting, Blackwater's parent company, the Prince Group, named Joseph Schmitz, who had just resigned as the Pentagon's Inspector General, as the group's chief operating officer and general counsel.

While juicing up the firm's political connections, Prince has been advocating greater use of private security in international operations, arguing at a symposium at the National Defense Industrial Association earlier this year that firms like his are more efficient than the military. In May Blackwater's Jackson testified before Congress in an effort to gain lucrative Homeland Security contracts to train 2,000 new Border Patrol agents, saying Blackwater understands "the value to the government of one-stop shopping." With President Bush using the Katrina disaster to try to repeal Posse Comitatus (the ban on using US troops in domestic law enforcement) and Blackwater and other security firms clearly initiating a push to install their paramilitaries on US soil, the war is coming home in yet another ominous way.



As one Blackwater mercenary said, "This is a trend. You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations."
...You had better hope not...

THIS IS HILARIOUS!

"… whether they know it or not, the Washington Post is reporting here that we’re winning in Iraq..."

...Limbaugh once again making himself look stupid...











I heard this piece of audio of Rush Limbaugh yesterday on Al Franken's show and it's absolutely hilarious. Franken picked it up from Crooks and Liars.

Limbaugh starts reading an article from the Washington Post that he thinks is written as proof that the U.S. is winning the war in Iraq, only to realize half way through the article that it actually states the opposite.

It's funny as hell to hear him when he get's to the quote above.

For Franken
It's never too late, dittoheads-(and you might even learn the difference between the 'debt' and the 'deficit' someday by listening to Franken instead of Limbaugh)

For the audio, Crook and Liars
audio from Hillbilly Heroin Boy (listen at the end as Limbaugh describes an 'insignificant day of violence' in Afghanistan, too.) The audio is priceless!

I DON'T HAVE A BRIDGE TO SELL YOU

61-meter (200-foot) high bridge over the west channel to Gravina Island




"Alaska's Gravina Island is home to 50 people and more than 350 Sitka black-tailed deer. Under the U.S. highway bill passed last month, this group will get a $223 million bridge taller than the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

The funding is among $1.04 billion that Alaska lawmakers secured for transportation projects, making the state the envy of its neighbors in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The states of Washington and Oregon, with a combined population 15 times that of Alaska's 650,000, each received about $500 million sought by lawmakers for transportation projects in their home states under the bill signed by President George W. Bush on Aug. 10.

Alaska owes its bounty to Congressman Donald Young, a Republican who heads the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation Committee and has told voters he used his position to enhance Alaska's share. A second bridge, spanning 2 miles in Anchorage, to be called ``Don Young's Way,'' got $229 million".

Republicans are excellent at spending and wasting your tax money and telling you it's the Democrats who did it. The only wasteful spending to a Republican is what’s not being spent in his district or state.

Hell, instead of paying $223 million for the bridge that leads, not to 'nowhere', but to 50 poor Eskimos stuck on some God forbidden island, couldn't we give each of them $1 million, have them move off the island and use the remaining $173 million for hurricane Katrina recovery?

Of course, $173 million is chickenfeed. What we should go after is the $300 billion that Bush and the Republicans kicked-back to the pharmaceutical companies when they rammed through their prescription drug program or we could also go after the $15 billion those same criminals kicked-back to the oil industry with their new energy policy. But, best of all, we should tell Iraq to stand on their own two feet and save the $5 billion we're wasting there each month.

There's a lot of room to cut spending and it's on welfare all right-corporate welfare that is. Corporate welfare, the raiding our our treasury to pay off corporate donors to republican criminals. Now, there's where we need to look when Congress talks about cutting spending. That's where the pigs feed.

$tem cell ‘U’

University of Michigan Slaps Narrow-Minded Republican State Legislature

Tired of losing successful scientists and of listening to narrow-minded, phony religious conservatives in the state, the University of Michigan will do things its way.

You can be an ignorant republican all you want but when your ignorance get's in the way of scientific progress, you need to get your stupid asses the fuck out of the way!

Michigan is a solid Blue state. It needs to start acting like it.

"The University struck back against stringent state regulation of stem-cell research and the brain drain of top scientists in the field with yesterday’s announcement of the creation of the new Center for Stem Cell Biology, to be headed by researcher Sean Morrison.

In the face of growing competition from universities in states such as California, Wisconsin and New Jersey — all with their own stem-cell funding initiatives — the University has been attempting to keep its own star stem-cell researchers from being lured away. Researcher Michael Clark is relocating to Stanford.

The fact that the state of Michigan has some of the most restrictive laws governing stem-cell research has not helped. Current state law prohibits the derivation of new stem cell lines from frozen embryos slated to be discarded by in-vitro fertilization clinics or from a technique that places material from the nuclei of stem-cells into an egg cell to induce division.

“The legislative environment in Michigan restricts our ability to derive new (embryonic stem cell) lines,” Morrison said. “It’s a problem I hope we’ll change.”

With the departure of Clark for Stanford, Morrison himself had been approached with offers from several research universities across the country.

“Not to say that things here are perfect — it would be nice if the state laws were changed — but I looked at other (universities), and I didn’t find the same combination of advantages that we have here,” Morrison said.

Stem cells — which can be transformed into specialized cells such as neurons or bile-producing islet cells in the liver — have recently become the new cutting edge of biology research. The hope is that they can be used for therapeutic purposes — for instance, for growing replacement organs — or to help researchers learn about the development of diseases. The most malleable stem cells, however, are currently derived from embryos, a fact that has sparked a national ethical debate.

Several states, responding to federal reluctance to support stem-cell research, have come forward with their own initiatives to fund stem cell investigation. The University’s new Center for Stem Cell Biology is a part of this growing trend".

Up to 9 Americans killed in Iraq

A British soldier climbs out of a burning armored vehicle Monday.




"Nine Americans, including five troops, have been killed by bombs in Iraq during the past two days, U.S. officials in Baghdad said Tuesday.

Four troops, assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, were killed Monday in Ramadi, the U.S. military said. The deaths bring to 1,904 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq.

A soldier with the 18th Military Police Brigade died Tuesday when his vehicle was struck by a bomb about 75 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

A State Department employee and three security contractors were killed Monday by a suicide car bomber in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a U.S. official in Baghdad said".


CNN

IT'S A GOOD THING THEY DON'T FOLLOW THE POLLS

You know why Karl Rove had Dubya give his speech at Jackson Square? He couldn't pull the aircraft carrier up any closer...



"President Bush's vow to rebuild the Gulf Coast did little to help his standing with the public, only 40 percent of whom now approve of his performance in office, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

Just 41 percent of the 818 adults polled between Friday and Monday said they approved of Bush's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while 57 percent disapproved.

And support for his management of the war in Iraq has dropped to 32 percent, with 67 percent telling pollsters they disapproved of how Bush is prosecuting the conflict.

The survey had a sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Fifty-nine percent said they considered the 2003 invasion of Iraq a mistake. That figure is the highest recorded in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll".

More...

I'm sure republicans are back to saying 'polls don't matter', but I think George and Karl got the memo. ..Actually... Karl wrote the memo.

IT'S ALL A BIG CIRCLE

A top Bush Administration official, David Hossein Safavian, who has ties to Tom Delay's criminal buddy, Jack Abramoff, was arrested yesterday; drawing the line of corruption closer to a complete circle around Republicans in the White House and Congress.

"David Hossein Safavian, the Bush administration’s top federal procurement officer in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), was arrested yesterday based on a three-count criminal complaint filed in federal court, according to a Justice Department statement.

The government alleges that Safavian, as chief of staff at the General Services Administration (GSA), helped an unnamed lobbyist acquire GSA-controlled property in and around Washington, D.C.

Sources say the lobbyist is likely Jack Abramoff, who has been indicted by a grand jury in Florida. Safavian and Abramoff worked together at Preston, Gates and the two traveled with Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and others on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002.

Safavian allegedly told a GSA ethics officer and GSA’s inspector general that the lobbyist had no business with GSA before the August 2002 golf trip, the Justice Department statement said.

A spokesperson for Abramoff declined to comment.

Government Executive magazine reported that Safavian resigned last Friday as the head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at OMB".


The Hill

KATRINA BUSH'S FAULT

Katrina Bush, 81, of Plano, Texas was forced to lay-off 12 employees at her small orthodonic supply company this past week - which added to the 'biggest one-week surge in jobless claims in nearly a decade'.





"Hurricane Katrina triggered the biggest one-week surge in jobless claims in nearly a decade, and analysts warn that's probably just the beginning of the bad economic news ahead as the nation starts paying for the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history".

TO HELL WITH FUNDRAISING!

Hey, he's the one who fucked everything up...!




"Clinton launches withering attack on Bush"

Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction."

"What Americans need to understand is that ... every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from other countries to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, and our tax cuts," he said.

"We have never done this before. Never in the history of our republic have we ever financed a conflict, military conflict, by borrowing money from somewhere else."

Clinton added: "We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense."





Ah, Come on, Mr. President, uh, I mean, Bill...let me go first this time...

“They’re Just Birds”

US Christian Right misfires again






. . . 'the penguin is only one'












“If ever the world needed reminding about the oddities of America's Christian Right, its espousal of the film March of the Penguins provides us with a perfect example”.

“...this French nature documentary - with its images of birds blinded by blizzards but still battling to protect their young affirms decent, traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child-rearing...but, "Earth also has Bonobo chimps, whose jaw-dropping sexual athleticism would make Hugh Hefner blush; well-fed cats that cruelly toy with their prey; and praying mantises that eat their spouses”.

"surely the penguin is only one of God's works"





MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

IRANIANS ARE NOT BACKING DOWN

Why wouldn't they feel cocky and confident? They just gained a huge Shiite dominate ally just to their west...





“In an unyielding address before the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday afternoon, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran rebuffed attempts to rein in his country's nuclear program, railing against the United States as an aggressor and restating a compromise proposal that had already been rejected.

Mr. Ahmadinejad repeatedly stressed that Iran would not relinquish its "right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy" and accused the United States of bullying others and attempting to divide the world into "light and dark countries," repeatedly clenching his fist and jabbing his finger in the air for emphasis”.

"Every day they are threatening other nations with nuclear weapons, and they are never inspected," he said. He added that Western countries were "relying on their power and wealth to try to impose a climate of intimidation and injustice over the world," even while portraying themselves as defenders of freedom, democracy and human rights.”

"Mr. Ahmadinejad’s remarks during a visit to Turkey on Thursday caught Washington's attention. There he suggested Iran might share its nuclear technology with other Muslim nations.

Mr. Ahmadinejad said, "Iran is ready to transfer nuclear know-how to the Islamic countries due to their need." On Saturday, he asserted that "the quote was incomplete," but did not explain further".

TOTO PARTED THE CURTAIN

Very good editorial by Frank Rich. Exposes Bush as "Professor Marvel".



George Bush's agenda on Tuesday, 8/30/05, the day after Katrina's landfall, tells me all I need to know about the guy.




"The worst storm in our history proved perfect for exposing this president because in one big blast it illuminated all his failings: the rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of "compassionate conservatism," the lack of concern for the "underprivileged" his mother condescended to at the Astrodome, the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts, the use of spin and photo-ops to camouflage failure and to substitute for action".

"If the era of Great Society big government is over, the era of big government for special interests is proving a fiasco. Especially when it's presided over by a self-styled C.E.O. with a consistent three-decade record of running private and public enterprises alike into a ditch".

INFLUENCE PEDDLING 101

Rod Paige, His Former Top Aides at Education Department Leaders Reunite As Consultants





By BEN FELLER
The Associated Press

Sep. 17, 2005 - Rod Paige and his former top aides at the Education Department have organized a consulting group to offer high-dollar advice on policies they helped create and later enforced, including the controversial No Child Left Behind Act.

Paige, who resigned as education secretary 10 months ago, has agreed to be chairman of New York-based Chartwell Education Group.

The firm, which has begun soliciting business, is seeking clients ranging from state school chiefs to foreign leaders.

It is not unusual for Washington officials to become consultants after leaving government. But this venture involves virtually an entire leadership team from President Bush's first term.