Republican Bashing, Senator Feingold seeks to censure President Bush
1. Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
2. Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
3. Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with
4. The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against
5. A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but
multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
6. The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches,
while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
(my note: see the end of this post; the last phrase is unfair)
7. If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
8. A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
9. Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism. HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
10. Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
11. A president lying about an extramarital affair is a impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy. (My particular favorite!!!)
12. Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
13. The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
14. Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a
conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
15. Supporting "Executive Privilege" for every Republican ever born, who will be born or who might be born (in perpetuity.)
16. What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.
17. Support for hunters who shoot their friends and blame them for wearing
orange vests similar to those worn by the quail.
Feel free to pass this on. If you don't send it to at least 10 other people, we're likely to be stuck with more Republicans in '06 and '08.
Friends don't let friends vote Republican.
Now from the Smirking Chimp:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=25223&mode=&order=0
Gerald Rellick: 'Bush jokes are no longer funny'
Posted on Monday, March 13 @ 09:39:40 EST
This article has been read 330 times.
There was time when Bush jokes and cartoons were funny. I still maintain a large collection of them myself. But it's difficult to look at them now or those in the papers. It would be like a decent German citizen looking at Hitler cartoons in the Berlin newspapers in 1945, if such were allowed, as Germany was turned into rubble day by day. Bush humor--if there ever was any -- is long gone. It represents a dilemma of sorts for political cartoonists. What more can they do? George Bush is a totally failed president - without doubt the worst president in American history, and he is doing his best--albeit probably unconsciously - to bring the country slowly, but inexorably, to ruin. The Republican Congress is totally spineless, trying nothing more to cling to some concept they call "power," although they too realize at bottom that "Bush is the worst." How does one poke fun at all this dreadfulness? Humor, which always clings precariously to truth, has lost its edge, overpowered by gruesome reality.
I, along with countless other writers have catalogued the Bush failures, his ineptness, his total inability to govern. But to what end? Yes, his poll numbers are in now in the mid 30's, unprecedented for a second term president just reelected. And his vice President, the loathsome Dick Cheney, is somewhere in the vicinity of 18%. As one writer pointed out, this is less than believes in space aliens and ghosts - which is about a third of the population. How can one govern when being totally out of sync with America's values ands standards? Is democracy now on the decline in the U.S.? Have greed, self interest and spin won the day? Has the American public been made fools of by the clever machinations of Karl Rove, the Dr. Frankenstein of American politics, the man who took this half-brained creature, this pseudo-moron, George Bush, and transformed him into president of the U.S.?
I have a writer friend who argues that Bush has reached the end, that he is now road kill. No longer is congress rejecting him, but he believes that the "military elite" will stop Bush before his madness leads to another military debacle. I find little comfort in this view.
What military elite?
Consider the military "men" who have served Bush over the course of his presidency. Colin Powell, Army general, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and Vietnam combat veteran, may well go down in history as America's Neville Chamberlain, a man with the backbone of jello, who as secretary of state couldn't bring himself to stand up for his own convictions to a pathetic weakling, George Bush, but chose, rather, to "obey orders" like a toy soldier. I hope Powell lives long enough to see his disgrace recorded in the history books. Children of the next generation will grow up seeing Powell in the same light as our generation saw Neville Chamberlain upon his return from Munich in 1938 with paper in hand, signed by Herr Hitler, that "peace was at hand." These children will learn of the disgrace of Colin Powell, one of America's greatest failures, as he went before the United Nations in February, 2003, waving his own papers--those from George Tenet -- to present George Bush's drummed-up, bogus case for war with Iraq. It will take some time, but truth and justice will prevail. To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous line, "The arc of history is long but it bends toward [truth and justice]. Colin Powell will die with his cowardice - not his medals -- clutched to his chest.
Look at another Vietnam combat veteran, John McCain, and you see much the same thing, a physical hero who endured years of captivity and torture in a North Vietnamese prison camp, but in the end, just another moral coward, unable to lead, a man who stands for nothing -- nothing, that is, except the insatiable desire to be president. There is not an ass in Washington McCain won't kiss to be president. I saw McCain on Jay Leno a few months ago trying to act like a cool dude. He was truly pathetic. You would really have to be sick to vote for John McCain for president.
And look again at another Vietnam fighter pilot, "top gun" Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Congressman from California, just convicted of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to eight years in federal prison. As a young man he was "full of piss and vinegar," but as a real adult, faced with real responsibilities, he was a total failure. Like George W. Bush, he never grew up. He never learned what real life was all about.
All three "heroes" have at the end of the day disgraced themselves and disgraced their country. What are we to make of this? For one, they are all Republicans. And in one way or another closely associated with George Bush. Is that a coincidence? Perhaps.
Only two members of Congress have ever worn the Congressional Medal of Honor, Sen. Daniel Inyoue of Hawaii and former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, both Democrats.
But it's not hopeless for the GOP in the courage/cowardice category. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is a Vietnam combat veteran, wounded in action. Hagel opposes most of George W.'s Iraq war policies and is considered a serious contender for the presidency.
And on the subject of cowardice, consider this. In a recent hunting escapade, Dick Cheney accidentally shot one of his hunting comrades. There may have been negligence involved, but that is up to the local district attorney to decide. But more importantly, I think, is the nature of the hunt. These were not wild birds. The birds were bred in captivity. They had spent their lives in pens, and then on hunting day, were released for the sole purpose of being killed by Dick Cheney and cohorts for pure sport as they flew into the open sky for their only moments of brief freedom. Whether you are an animal lover or not, there is something disgusting and degrading about this kind of hunt and something less than human about those who participate in it.
All this brings to mind words from Kurt Vonnegut from his book of essays, "Palm Sunday," when he addressed the graduating class of his alma mater, Cornell, in May 1980.
"I pity you people of today for not having truly great leaders to write about---Roosevelt and Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek....Oh, sure, we [may] have another war coming, and another great depression, but where are the leaders this time? All you have is a lot of ordinary people standing around with their thumbs up their ass."
So, America, these are the leaders you elected. You chose them. Now, what are you going to do about it?
Correction from the author:
"I mistakenly stated that Rep. John Murtha of PA is a Republican. He is a Democrat. I apologize for the error."
Gerald S. Rellick, Ph.D., worked in aerospace industry for 22 years. He now teaches in the California Community College system. He can be reached at grellick@hotmail.com.
Source: Thomas Paine's Corner
http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2006/
03/bush-jokes-are-no-longer-funny.html
http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Politics/story?id=1715495&page=1
Feingold Calls for Bush's Censure
Wisconsin Democrat Asks Senate to Rebuke the President for NSA Wiretaps
By ED O'KEEFE
March 12, 2006— - In an exclusive interview on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on the Senate to publicly admonish President Bush for approving domestic wiretaps on American citizens without first seeking a legally required court order.
"This conduct is right in the strike zone of the concept of high crimes and misdemeanors," said Feingold, D-Wis., a three-term senator and potential presidential contender.
He said Bush had, "openly and almost thumbing his nose at the American people," continued the NSA domestic wiretap program.
Bush has long asserted that the so-called 'warrantless wiretaps' are an essential tool in the war on terror.
But in a copy of the censure resolution obtained by ABC News, Feingold asserts the president, "repeatedly misled the public prior to the public disclosure of the National Security Agency surveillance program by indicating his administration was relying on court orders to wiretap suspected terrorists inside the United States."
Feingold cites three instances over a yearlong period in which Bush outlined the necessity of a court order or a judge's permission prior to a domestic wiretap of a U.S. citizen.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., also appearing exclusively on "This Week," defended Bush.
"Russ is just wrong, he is flat wrong, he is dead wrong," Frist said.
The most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll put the president's approval rating at 41 percent, nearly a career low. But that does not necessarily mean Feingold's censure resolution will succeed.
Censure, essentially a public disapproval by the Senate as a whole, has only been applied to one president, Andrew Jackson, in a politically charged move the Senate historian's office describes as an "unprecedented and never-repeated tactic."
Frist called the censure attempt "political" and a "terrible, terrible signal" to enemies of the U.S. abroad. He assured Stephanopoulos that the resolution would never gain traction in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Feingold, best-known for his bipartisan fight for campaign finance reform with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., intends to introduce the resolution this week -- insisting the move is not a political stunt.
"We, as a Congress, have to stand up to a president who acts like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were repealed on Sept 11, [2001]," Feingold said.
Video of Feingold's and Frist's full interviews will be posted at www.thisweek.abcnews.com.
My note on the Combat Pay issue:Fair is Fair: http://www.factcheck.org/article272.html
One of the reasons I am not a Republican is that I believe in basic fairness:
Cutting Combat Pay?
Edwards twice accused the administration of having "lobbied the Congress" to cut the combat pay of troops in Iraq, when in fact the White House never supported such a plan.
Rather, the Defense Department proposed allowing a temporary pay increase for all troops worldwide (even those not in Iraq or Afghanistan) to expire, and promised to maintain current pay levels for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with separate pay raises if necessary.
Army Times reported in its issue for the week ending Aug. 18, 2003 that a Pentagon budget assessment sent to Congress in July called for letting a temporary combat pay raise enacted earlier that year for troops worldwide expire at the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. The result would have been a cut of $75 a month in "imminent danger pay" and $150 a month in "family separation allowances."
But according to an Aug. 15 American Forces Press Service report, David S.C. Chu, defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said the department could raise hardship duty pay or incentive pay. The bottom line: "We are not going to reduce their compensation," Chu said. The Pentagon also said in an Aug. 14 news release : "This is an issue of targeting those most deserving, and certainly people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are in these categories."
posted by Harriet at
3/13/2006 08:03:00 AM
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