Bye Bye

So Larry Craig is resigning(as soon as today), John Warner is retiring but the biggest loser of the bunch Tony Snow has quit for the most absurd reason: His $168,000 salary is not enough.

Tell that to the millions of people who make 1/10th of that.

A little credit and a good idea

I've always said if Bush or any Republican has a good idea I'll give the credit they deserve. Here is a good idea which I hopes passes Congress and the Senate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/31/AR2007083100778.html?hpid=topnews

(mind you I also thought on paper no child left behind was a good idea and we see that's got us nowhere so )

Here is the exact idea

People who have missed mortgage payments are now ineligible for FHA insurance. In the president's plan, they would be eligible if they fall behind only because the amount they are required to pay each month increases, as is now happening with many mortgages issued from 2004 to 2006.

Good for him actually thinking about people for a change. Although I must admit I'm waiting for a catch.

Two Scandals

I'd like to talk about two different Republican sex scandals that are currently affecting the Republican Party involving two of their Senators Larry Craig (R, Id)and David Vitter (R, La).

Both are involving sex, both are actually involving illegal sex.

David Vitter admitted having sex with a prostitute on the Washington D.C. madam and Larry Craig was arrested in a gay sex ring in Minnesota.

That's where the similarties end. For some reason Republicans are demanding Craig resign for his actions but not Vitter for basically doing the same thing.

Could it be the only difference is Craig had gay sex or was attempting to? I mean we know how Republicans feel about gay people which is disgusting as it is but could that's the only difference between the two scandals.

And the worse part is how they claim to be the party of values!

Biggest Failure

It was two years ago where Bush's biggest failure happened. Hurricane Katrina. And I know Robert and Geoffrey Church are going to whine and complain about this post since that's what blind Bush supporters do but this is reality and if this was Clinton or Gore who failed New Orleans they would be saying the exact same thing. That is a promise cause that's how right-wingers work.

I have links elsewhere on this site in my archives but a few reasons why this is Bush's fault include:

Bush had funding removed to build up levees to go toward the other failure in Iraq.

Look what happened as a result.

Bush had someone with no disaster training in charge of FEMA (Mike Brown)

Look what happened as a result

New Orleans was declared a Federal Disaster Before Katrina hit. Meaning since Bush is in charge of the Federal Government he was in charge of things like evacuation.

Look what happened.

And like I said you can claim nothing is his fault but I'm sorry the mess that is still down there is on him.

Fear

I see where Bush is at it again with the following quote

“And Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust,” he told the American Legion veterans group.

“Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran’s regime, to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late,”

First of Bush wouldn't know anything about the holocaust in fact his grandfather helped Hitler rise to power http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1312540,00.html so if anything his family has that history.

Second he is using the exact words he used in the run-up to the Iraq occupation which we know he lied under oath about. So I wonder when the people are going to wise up about this lying ahole?

Love the quote

And it funny how when the right dragged Bill Clinton through a made up trial based on political purposes it's ok but here is the following quote from George Bush on someone who has broken the law for political gain and has been called on it:

Bush: After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Dept. It’s sad. (pause) That we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding from doing important because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.

If Gonzales has been as he said dragged through the mud then he really doesn't live in reality does he? Bush's own party was abaandoning Gonzales and it's sad where only he thinks what he did was ok.

More Trouble in the Bathroom

On the heals of Bob Allen's arrest in Florida for offering $20 bucks to a male undercover cop for sex and then claiming "This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park," as his excuse we have another GOP who can't keep it together in the bathroom as Larry Craig was arrested on June 11th (why are we now being informed of this?) for lewd acts in the bathroom in Minnesota.

Craig did pay a $500 fine and a jail sentence was stayed .

Just a few votes from Craig just to show he's another Right-Wing hypocrite like all the others

Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
* Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
* Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
* Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
* Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016257.php is a link to the Allen story

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/19763-1.html is a link to the Craig story

These are the same people who cried impeachment on Bil Clinton's affair with Lewinsky

When is it ok?

Just wondering if it's ok to talk about this now. I will anyway. Something about the mine owner in Utah, Robert Murray, struck me as odd from the first time they showed his face on tv. He seemed really arrogant to me dispite the tragedy that was then unfolding in his mine in Utah. I thought I was being cynical and maybe he that was just a person being brought into a tragic situation and he didn't know how to respond. Then I found a few things and found I was right with my first impression. For instance:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_6589559

This article showed that a mine Murray owns in Illinois had exactly 2787 violations since 2005. No that's not a typo. This is the most disturbing part of the story:

n the meeting with top MSHA officials, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader, Murray cited his friendship with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the husband of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao who oversees MSHA and demanded Thompson be removed. He was reassigned and later retired.

A: that should automatically prompt an investigation into McConnell because if that is true (mind you I am not saying it is) that makes McConell directly responsible for this tragedy in Utah(I say that because he should have been shut down immediately and it wasn't).

Also not really being discussed much in the media (I saw a blurb on CNN for a minute or so) that three of the people who are missing are illegal aliens. Not American citizens. Someone has some explaining to do.

Death Threats

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-me-drake16.1aug16,1,914198.story?track=rss

You remember before the election I made posts about the IRS removing a church from tax exempt status because a guest pastor made anti-bush comments and the right gathered their wagons in outrage as they like to do. I wonder why no outrage at the following as a pastor in Buena Park used his church to endorsed a Republican candidate and ask his followers to pray for the death of the group called him on that.

I hope the group, the American's United for Separation of Church and State have this guy charged with making death threats and I hope they have extra protection cause we know about the religious right and some steps they are willing to do to support their cause.

Caught in a lie

So I'd like to offer this John McCain quote from allegedly dwkliberal CNN yesterday:

"It's entertaining, in that I was the greatest critic of the initial four year, three and a half years. I came back from my first trip to Iraq and said, This is going to fail. We've got to change the strategy to the one we are using now. But life isn't fair."

Now thinkprogress has the folowing quotes from the war critic he claims to be:

“But I believe, Katie, that the Iraqi people will greet us as liberators.” [NBC, 3/20/03]

“It’s clear that the end is very much in sight.” [ABC, 4/9/03]

“There’s not a history of clashes that are violent between Sunnis and Shiahs. So I think they can probably get along.” [MSNBC, 4/23/03]

“This is a mission accomplished. They know how much influence Saddam Hussein had on the Iraqi people, how much more difficult it made to get their cooperation.” [This Week, ABC, 12/14/03]

“I’m confident we’re on the right course.” [ABC News, 3/7/04]

“I think the initial phases of it were so spectacularly successful that it took us all by surprise.” [CBS, 10/31/04]

“I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren’t making progress, I’d be despondent.” [The Hill, 12/8/05]

You all tell me does that sound like someone who is a critic of the war? Is it any wonder why his campaign is failing miserably. Shame to cause I used to have respect for the "man".

Interesting

I never realized how many people who have resigned/quit the Bush Administration this term. Add Tony Snow to the list cause he said he was resigning soon today. http://www.thinkprogress.org is the source

- White House Senior Political Adviser Karl Rove
- White House Counselor Dan Bartlett
- White House Budget Director Rob Portman
- White House Counsel Harriet Miers
- White House Political Director Sara Taylor
- White House Director of Strategic Initiatives Pete Wehner
- White House Deputy National Security Adviser J.D. Crouch
- Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
- Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer
- Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
- Army Secretary Francis Harvey
- Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman Peter Pace
- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson
- U.N. Ambassador John Bolton
- USAID Director Randall Tobias


Lot of people. I guess Bush wants to go alone

Just some fun

Thought this might be a little fun. A friend of mine sent me this link to an 80's music lyrics quiz. http://www.yetanotherdot.com/asp/80s.html

It's interesting to see how well we remember lyrics

Where to Begin

I don't know where to begin with Karl Rove. First I will say he is a bright mind even though I disagree with everything he did. His ideas have put our country in a tailspin where it might cost his party the presidency and give more control of Congress and Senate to Democrats. Which is of course a good thing.

He is also a man who had his hand in so many of the scandels involving the Bush Administration which is why he is resigning more then likely. I feel though he will end up running another Republican campaign, more then likely Fred Thompson if he runs so he won't be out of work for long.

More Disgust

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20221295/?GT1=10252

Again how the religious right disgusts me. I posted the other day about the religious group was protesting the funerals of the people who died due to the bridge failure because of nothing the people did but they felt Minnesota was too friendly toward gay people now I found something just as bad.

A CHURCH group in Texas canceled a memorial service of a veteran of the first gulf war after finding out he was gay. No other reason.

I'm sorry close minded people like these are why we will never develop as a society. We need to open our hearts toward all people no matter what their race,age,sexual preference is cause in the grand scheme of things what does it really matter what those things are? People like this and the group in Kansas and anyone who feels the hatred need to realize we are a diverse country and need to realize their way is the WORST possible way to view life in general. Hatred needs to go.

Remember you don't necessarily have to hang out with anyone you don't want to BUT just recognize the rights of other people.

Just Curious

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-friday10.s2aug10,0,5646722.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters

The above link is a letter in yesterday's Los Angeles Times. I wanted to talk about it for a bit cause I feel it's completely misleading. The letter writer, Geoffrey C. Church, obviously a conservative, gives baseless attacks on Daily Kos which is a liberal website where the link is on my page.

In the letter he says the Daily Kos is a "vicous, hate-filled blog that routinely spews far-left hyperbole and smear attacks". Now if I were to make a charge like that I would be asked where specifically in the site those are cause I don't see them anywhere. Now Daily Kos is a liberal site but that is the only crime.

All Daily Kos does is present facts. What people say, what they do. Conservatives who yet again don't seem to understand facts can't except how crappy they are and what their pollititions are doing so instead of finding out he just attacks the people who report it.

In his second paragraph Church states how the Democrats won't debate on Fox News. Well knowing how Fox kisses Republicans asses all the time and does nothing BUT attack Democrats would you? After all I don't see Republicans rushing for a debate hosted by Keith Olbermann and they are pulling out of the CNN you tube debate cause they don't wanna talk with real people. He doesn't mention that at all.

And as a typical conservative as Church is he also fails to mention Bill O'Reilly (idiot as I rightfully call him) which allowed on his site a post from a frequent poster saying if Hillary Clinton gets elected he is going to keep his guns loaded. Something taken so seriously the secret service is investigating cause that is a threat if I ever heard one.

Like I said this is a typical conservative who is either oblivious to who is really the haters or is ignoring it. Either way he needs to wake up to reality. Another thing the writer fails to realize is he, just like anyone, can start their own website if they wish and voice their opinions but better have facts to back them up.

No sense

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=252822

This doesn't make sense to me. According to the article the IRS is going tax the fan who caught Barry Bonds record-breaking home run ball based on what it's worth WHETHER HE SELLS IT OR NOT. I'm confused how th IRS can judge a value of something that doesn't have any value unless it's sold. Maybe if there is an accountant or something out there they can explain how that works.

A Theory

Just wondering if anyone thinks this theory is plausible: I've always had a theory that one earthquake in one part of the world can trigger others. Two recent examples:

Last week there was a big earthquake in Japan and a couple of days later there was a quake in the San Francisco Bay area which was smaller.

Yesterday there was a big earthquake in Indonesia and at 1 am there was a 4.6 quake centered here in Chatsworth. Again I'm not a huge fan of coincidence and those are the two most recent examples.

Also why does it seem that earthquakes lately always seem to happen in the middle of the night?

418 Days

So Bush is about to embark on another 1 month vacation (nevermind how a lot of people can't afford any vacations) he has taken more vacations then any other president. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve any vacation but keep in mind two things that happened in previous vacations:

He was advised Ben Lauden determined to strike in the United States in 2001 and oh yeah 9/11 happened.

Katrina hit and the disaster of the federal response cause his appointees couldn't handle it.

Hopefully nothing else will happen nevermind we are in two wars right now.

By the way this only includes time he spent in Crawford not anywhere else like Kennebunkport or Ca. or anywhere.

Let them Rest

I've talked a lot about the tragedy in Minnesota last week (as another potential tragedy is developing in Utah) but leave it to the right-wing psychopaths to take advantage of the situation.

http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2184

This right wing church is going to protest at funerals for the people who died during the bridge collaspe. Seriously. The reason as told by Rev. Phelps: In a press release issued the day after the bridge collapse, the church called for protests at the funerals and outlined its feelings about the relationship between God's plan and the sins of Minneapolis and Minnesota, which it calls the "land of the Sodomite damned."

Damn you. You are going to hell as well as anyone who supports you. The only thing the people who died on the bridge is guilty for is going to where they had to be. You are using this tragedy to promote your right wing agenda where it has no place. You are disgusting as well as what you represent.

And if anyone wants to know why I am so down on the Christian Religion people like this sick freak are why.

Loss of a Los Angeles Legend

It is my sad duty to report a loss of a Los Angeles Legend. Hal Fishman died this morning suprisingly after 1 week being diagnosed with cancer. He has been on KTLA for as long as I can remember and things will not be the same without him. He will be missed. He was 75.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-me-fishman8aug08,1,2545893.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews&track=crosspromo

118 Violations

I'd like to talk about something happening in Southern California a bit. The Los Angeles Angels of disgust, I mean Anaheim. It was disclosed that the Anaheim Stadium had 118 heath code violations mainly dealing with rats and cockroaches.

Why didn't heath officials close the stadium immediately like they would restaurants after all isn't the public who's heath is at significant risk here? Should it not matter who/what is involved? What if people become sick? And the most important since he is the owner where is Arte Moreno and why isn't he being held responsible here?

O'Idiot

So I gotta admit I'm a little torn about Bill O'Idiots column today. You see he talks about something that I am in actual agreement with him about rap music. I am not a big fan. Like anything else that doesn't mean there are exceptions there are a few songs I like but generally I think it's nothing but a lot of garbage. So on that pint I will agree with him as much as it saddens me.

Now here is when he and I part company on the issue. He uses McDonalds using a particular "rap artist" as a spokesperson when his songs have a lot of swearing in them and since McDonalds obviously has a lot of children going they shouldn't use them as a sponsor. Now here is where he and I differ because of a couple of things: I listen to classic rock and a lot of their songs have swearing in them. Most importantly the parents of the children need to be responsible and teach their children not to use the language said in the songs and to teach them right and wrong.

It's not the company's responsibility to teach children.


By the way for pure comic relief Weird Al Yankovic is playing in concert in Los Angeles at the Greek Theater on October 30th.

Stupid

In his column the other day in the Conservative Los Angeles Times Jonah Goldberg suggested that people were too stupid to vote. His words not mine. And actually he's right but not in the sense he was going for suggesting if you vote Democrat you are stupid. People were stupid enough to elect George Bush in office and look at the stupidity we have as a result. Take a look at the covering up for the stupidity the refusal to admit the stupidity and the lies based on the stupidity of the person elected in the White House.

Voting Democrat isn't stupid voting for Bush was.

Questions from the tragedy

Really I see one contradiction from yesterday that I would like to see what happened. Yesterday with the bridge collapse in Minnesota I saw two contradictions:

A) The media reported how the bridge received a 4 rating during the last federal government inspection with 9 being best. And we learn now that 4 means the bridge was "structurally unsafe".

B) The governor of Minnesota said how the bridge passed inspection and there weren't any problems.

Now I want to know who is lying. Someone is with the contradictions. But if the bridge is under control of the federal government we know who is in charge of the federal government and if this is a lapse on their part we know who to blame.

Here is one more comment I have about yesterday: The reason I said don't rule out anything immediately is I think that the Bush Administration thinks that the only form of terrorist attacks is bombs or airplanes. Really all it takes is someone who knows bridges to screw around with the piece that would cause that.

I'm not saying that's the cause in fact I have a few ideas on what might or might not be the cause. Keep in mind I just got home and have been out of the loop on what the media is and is not talking about.

A) Erosion. 40 years along the Mississippi River might cause that.
B) Weather. Minnesota goes through a lot of extremes.
C) Terrorism. See above.
D) Faulty Construction. You know how contractors are
E) The Construction crew on the bridge. Could have done the wrong thing at the wrong time
F) The train that was shown. Maybe that clipped something on the bridge
G) A barge hitting the bridge. Doesn't have to be immediate but something that happened earlier setting off a chain of events.


Just my thoughts.

Cowards

Yet again showing how afraid he is to have his administration members appear before Congress and Senate and testify under oath Karl Rove didn't testify because the coward in chief invoked YET AGAIN executive privilege. When is Congress going to grow a set of balls and invoke contempt of congress to this ahole in the office?

Breaking

Looks like a tragic situation developing in Minneapolis as a bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. CNN is reporting 3 dead but if anyone sees the video I fear the death toll will go up. Homeland Security, ever quick to deflect bad news on the Bush Administration with false threats, says it's not a terrorist attack.