Will the Bush crew fold their tents, and go away quietly? No, never, they have their hands on the levers, and they like it that way.

From 9/11 And The Sport of God
Let's take a brief detour to Ohio and I'll show you what I am talking about. In recent weeks a movement called the Ohio Restoration Project has been launched to identify and train thousands of "Patriot Pastors" to get out the conservative religious vote next year. According to press reports, the leader of the movement - the senior pastor of a large church in suburban Columbus - casts the 2006 elections as an apocalyptic clash between "the forces of righteousness and the hordes of hell." The fear and loathing in his message is palpable: He denounces public schools that won't teach creationism, require teachers to read the Bible in class, or allow children to pray. He rails against the "secular jihadists" who have "hijacked" America and prevent school kids from learning that Hitler was "an avid evolutionist." He links abortion to children who murder their parents. He blasts the "pagan left" for trying to redefine marriage. He declares that "homosexual rights" will bring "a flood of demonic oppression." On his church website you read that "Reclaiming the teaching of our Christian heritage among America's youth is paramount to a sense of national destiny that God has invested into this nation."

What will John Howard get up to, while he is in the US?

From Howard boosts foreign aid to $3.5bn
Mr Howard signalled yesterday he was prepared to spend more to alleviate global poverty, while stressing that he wanted to ensure funds were not abused by corrupt or inefficient governments.

An efficiency tip for the Little Tory, our own committed theocratic reconstructionist. Take the 10% of our aid budget that rightfully belongs to Dick Cheney, write out the personal cheque, and slip it to him during this trip to the US.

The purpose of the tour must be to receive orders from The Leader, in his hour of need.  Howard, Costello, Downer, et al, would be eager to do the right thing, and help GWB out of the doodoo.

From 9/11, 7/7 and 8/30 by Juan Cole.

... Al-Qaeda simply hasn't been a priority for Bush. His first priority, all along, has been cutting taxes on his rich friends. The American public is so innumerate that they cannot seem to figure out that if you exclude from taxes another 5 percent of a man's income who pulls down $10 billion, you are talking about $500 million on which he doesn't have to pay taxes every year. But if you exclude the same percentage from taxes for someone making $20,000 a year (and there are a lot of those), then you are only saving her from paying taxes on $1000 a year. That the government could cut taxes on the low-income earners, and not cut them on the super-rich, doesn't seem to occur to the middle class that is so eager for a few crumbs from Bush that they are willing to sell their birthright to government services. Because Bush cut taxes so deeply, and therefore reduced government income and produced a big chronic deficit, he had to steal money for Iraq from various places. The government he appointed to run Iraq for a year (which never had any legal charter) essentially stole Iraq's petroleum income to use on its projects. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for. It is well documented that Bush stole money from Louisiana ear-marked for improving the levees at New Orleans, and also that he sent Louisiana national guardsmen to Iraq. ...
... In four years, Roosevelt and allies defeated Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. In four years, Bush hasn't managed even to corner Bin Laden and a few hundred scruffy terrorists; or to extract himself from the deserts of Iraq; or to put the government's finances in good order so that it can deal with crises like Katrina. ...

The 'terror, terror, everywhere' cry is wearing thin. Time to fall back on an old standby, the nuclear threat. Sorry, Gus. GWB won't be leaving office without a good go at dropping a big one on a useful target, like DPRK.

China more or less keeps a tight leash on DPRK. China just celebrated the 60-year anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. Koizumi is playing with his option of another annual visit to Yasukuni shrine. If Koizumi is voted back, he will have the choice of whether to stir up China, or not. If he goes back to the shrine, in an official capacity, China will react. If the PRC government allows the demonstrations to get a grip on the national psyche, threats will flow back and forth between China and Japan. Japan may discover the need to do something constructive with its stockpile of plutonium. If Japan looks like developing its own nukes, China may leave it to DPRK to fire the bullets. China will need to know its own nuclear weapons programs are progressing. And this is where Lex Downer comes in handy. Lex will encourage the sale of our uranium to China, probably under a long-term fixed contract.

From The unthinkable: A nuclear-armed Japan
The crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, based around plutonium reprocessing, strengthened the position of those in Japan advocating nuclear weapons development. This was acknowledged by no less than the US ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer: "If you had a nuclear North Korea, it just introduces a whole different dynamic ... That increases the pressure on both South Korea and Japan to consider going nuclear themselves." (Tokyo, June 2005). While such a declaration is intended to put pressure on China to act more forcefully with its ally in Pyongyang, it is also highly significant in terms of US policy toward Japan.

George, Tom, Lex - three good pals in their own sandpit.

Fool me once?

This is just in from Cincinnati ….. 

 

The Centre for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent strain of Sexually Transmitted Disease. This disease is contracted through dangerous & high risk behaviour. 

 

The disease is called Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him").  

 

Many victims have contracted it after having been screwed for the past 5 years, in spite of having taken measures to protect themselves from this especially troublesome disease. Cognitive sequelae of individuals infected with Gonorrhea Lectim include, but are not limited to:  

 

·                     anti-social personality disorder traits;

·                     inability to tell the truth;

·                     delusions of grandeur with a distinct messianic flavour;

·                     chronic mangling of the English language;

·                     extreme cognitive dissonance;

·                     inability to incorporate new information;

·                     pronounced xenophobia;

·                     inability to accept responsibility for actions;

·                     exceptional cowardice masked by acts of misplaced bravado;

·                     uncontrolled facial smirking;

·                     ignorance of geography & history;

·                     tendencies toward creating evangelical theocracies; &

·                     a strong propensity for categorical, all-or-nothing behaviour. 

 

The disease is sweeping Washington DC, trailer parks & the red states.  

 

Naturalists & epidemiologists are amazed & baffled that this malignant disease originated only a few years ago from a small bush in Texas.

 

From the Washington Post...
Former Cheney Aide: Bush Authorized Iraq Intelligence Leak
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 6, 2006; 4:54 PM

A former top aide to Vice President Cheney told a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity that President Bush authorized him to disclose classified intelligence information about Iraq as a way of rebutting criticism from the agent's husband, according to court papers filed by prosecutors.

However, the former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, testified that although he gave a reporter sensitive information from a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) in a July 2003 conversation with the president's approval, he did not disclose the CIA employment of Valerie Plame.

Read more at the Washington Post

-------------

Gus feels there is a cartoon in that... since the secret NIE information was total porky to counteract the truth (brought to light by the husband of the CIA agent) about the non-existence of Nigerian nuclear supplies to Saddam... We think the president should be impeached for telling fibs to suit his little wars... or treated witth imprinsonment for Gonorrhea Lectim (pronounced "gonna re-elect him") that gave him this inability to tell the truth... Has Condi caught the early form of the bug?

From the New York Times

At Least 71 Die as Bombers Hit Mosque in Baghdad

By EDWARD WONG
Published: April 7, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 7 — Three suicide bombers, including at least one woman, exploded in a sea of Friday worshippers at the main mosque of the most powerful Shiite political party in Iraq, killing at least 71 people and injuring at least 140.

Shiite and Sunni leaders called for restraint, fearful that the attack would unleash a wave of sectarian violence like the one that left hundreds dead following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in February.

The attack came as the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in an interview with the BBC that, if a unified government is not formed soon, a sectarian war could erupt in Iraq and that such a war could engulf the entire Middle East.

Read more at the New York Times
---------------------
Gus laments that a lesser person than Bonsai — if we could find one — could certainly do a better job than the midget that he is... Sad, sad... There was a better albeit more difficult but less bloody solution to Problem Saddam and terrorism... Is it too late to fix our triumvirate's mess? Every violent death is our responsibility for having voted the warmongers in power...

The cartoon that leads this line of blog is too tragic to be funny...

From the New York Times

White House Tries to Quell Anger Over Leak Claim

By DAVID STOUT
Published: April 7, 2006
WASHINGTON, April 7 — The White House tried today to quell the furor over the leaking of sensitive prewar intelligence on Iraq, as President Bush's spokesman insisted that the president had the authority to declassify and release information "in the public interest" and had never done so for political reasons.

The spokesman, Scott McClellan, said a decision was made to declassify and release some information to rebut "irresponsible and unfounded accusations" that the administration had manipulated or misused prewar intelligence to buttress its case for war.

"That was flat-out false," Mr. McClellan said.

----------------------

"We were going to war no-matter-what the intelligence said... so there " Added Gus disguised as Mr. McClellan at the rostrum...

read more at the new York Times...

(Note: the cartoon at the top of this blog may have to be altered slightly to account for the massaging of public opinion with the "Commander in Chief" female syndrome... Not that I am against a woman leading the world —actually I am all in favour for it — but Condi?... No thanks...)

Yes Gus.

Bush
not only leaked the information to suit his purposes, but he also knew it was false.’ 

If we accept his premise that we are in fact at war (thu war on terruh), then
the disclosure of classified information for political gain must be an act of treason.

From the Washington Post

The Left, Online and Outraged
Liberal Blogger Finds an Outlet and a Community
By David Finkel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 15, 2006; Page A01

SHERMAN OAKS, Calif. -- In the angry life of Maryscott O'Connor, the rage begins as soon as she opens her eyes and realizes that her president is still George W. Bush. The sun has yet to rise and her family is asleep, but no matter; as soon as the realization kicks in, O'Connor, 37, is out of bed and heading toward her computer.

Out there, awaiting her building fury: the Angry Left, where O'Connor's reputation is as one of the angriest of all. "One long, sustained scream" is how she describes the writing she does for various Web logs, as she wonders what she should scream about this day.

Read the whole canoodle at the Washington Post

-----------------
See cartoon at the top of this line and do not apply, please...

From the New York Times

Bush Seeks to Strengthen Ties to Black Voters

By DAVID STOUT
Published: July 20, 2006
WASHINGTON, July 20 — President Bush sought to strengthen his party’s weak ties to black voters today, telling the N.A.A.C.P. he was saddened that the Republican Party — “the party of Abraham Lincoln” — and many African-Americans had become estranged.

Acknowledging that “racism still lingers in America,” Mr. Bush urged the Senate to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a legacy of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency. This afternoon the Senate did just that, voting 98 to 0.

“For nearly 200 years our nation failed the test of extending the blessings of liberty to African-Americans,” Mr. Bush said in his first appearance as president before the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Taken together, the record placed a stain on America’s founding, a stain that we have not yet wiped clean.”

In a speech that had elements of political outreach and personal reflection, Mr. Bush sought to bridge policy differences with black Americans, a group whose voters have provided him only minimal support, and to convince them that their aspirations are his, and his party’s.

“And I understand that many African-Americans distrust my political party,” he said. I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historic ties with the African-American community. For too long, my party wrote off the African-American vote, and many African-Americans wrote off the Republican Party.”

_________________________

Gus translates this long tirade (apologies about the crude but necessary language) :

"Colored people, We've pissed on you, sorry about that... now we desperately need you to vote for us (GOP, the Republican Party)... so we can piss on you some more, but we'll do it more discreetly..."

Can you trust this snake-oil merchant? Remember Katrina?

Bush Seeks to Strengthen Ties to Black Voters? Strengthened The Noose on Black Voters?

Good that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was extended... hum... 98 to 0. Where were the other Senators? On holidays, In Lebanon?

-----------------

Voting Rights:

President Johnson signed the resulting legislation into law on August 6, 1965. Section 2 of the Act, which closely followed the language of the 15th amendment, applied a nationwide prohibition against the denial or abridgment of the right to vote on the literacy tests on a nationwide basis. Among its other provisions, the Act contained special enforcement provisions targeted at those areas of the country where Congress believed the potential for discrimination to be the greatest. Under Section 5, jurisdictions covered by these special provisions could not implement any change affecting voting until the Attorney General or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia determined that the change did not have a discriminatory purpose and would not have a discriminatory effect. In addition, the Attorney General could designate a county covered by these special provisions for the appointment of a federal examiner to review the qualifications of persons who wanted to register to vote. Further, in those counties where a federal examiner was serving, the Attorney General could request that federal observers monitor activities within the county's polling place.

The 1970 and 1975 Amendments
Congress extended Section 5 for five years in 1970 and for seven years in 1975. With these extensions Congress validated the Supreme Court's broad interpretation of the scope of Section 5. During the hearings on these extensions Congress heard extensive testimony concerning the ways in which voting electorates were manipulated through gerrymandering, annexations, adoption of at-large elections, and other structural changes to prevent newly-registered black voters from effectively using the ballot. Congress also heard extensive testimony about voting discrimination that had been suffered by Hispanic, Asian and Native American citizens, and the 1975 amendments added protections from voting discrimination for language minority citizens.

In 1973, the Supreme Court held certain legislative multi-member districts unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment on the ground that they systematically diluted the voting strength of minority citizens in Bexar County, Texas. This decision in White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755 (1973), strongly shaped litigation through the 1970s against at-large systems and gerrymandered redistricting plans. In Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980), however, the Supreme Court required that any constitutional claim of minority vote dilution must include proof of a racially discriminatory purpose, a requirement that was widely seen as making such claims far more difficult to prove.

The 1982 Amendments
Congress renewed in 1982 the special provisions of the Act, triggered by coverage under Section 4 for twenty-five years. Congress also adopted a new standard, which went into effect in 1985, providing how jurisdictions could terminate (or "bail out" from) coverage under the provisions of Section 4. Furthermore, after extensive hearings, Congress amended Section 2 to provide that a plaintiff could establish a violation of the Section without having to prove discriminatory purpose.

etc...

....it matters who has the right to vote in the USA seeing as how the voting machines are all rigged to count only votes for the GOP. 

 

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman

 Maryscott is one of my heros, right up there with John Richardson.

You can read Maryscott at http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=362 

 She titles herself as "A Radical Leftist Liberal Socialist Commie Feminist Pinko from Hell"

 

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman