When George Bush Leaves office can we let him leave the way he came in?

Yep. Who are we to disturb eight years of hatred and ignorance?

Good morning and thanks for the post, Attaturk.

Let’s see……..70+% of GDP is consumer spending so drive down wages for all but about 1% of the population. Why, that’s BRILLIANT economic policy. People think that didn’t work? WTF?

Mr.Cbl

I have a suggestion as to where Obama can stick these numbers….

Good morning, Attaturk.

And 9% overall believe the economy is better!

Better: 9% are demented or like to screw with polls (or both, but most likely the latter).

Three out of four Americans, including large numbers of Republicans, blame President Bush’s economic policies for making the country worse off during the last eight years, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released today, reflecting a sharp increase in public pessimism during the last year.

The irony is that the Chimp was not the originator of the policies that have decimated this country’s economy. Reagan was, and the same policies were continued in principle, if not in measure, by his father and Bill Clinton. They’ve just come home to roost under Bush. The Chimp’s poll numbers relating his truly atrocious “original” policies are better. The order of the day appears to be: I don’t give a fig if it doesn’t affect me directly.

Good morning, pups. It’s Collins, Cohen and Kristof today. La Collins’ column is titled “United We Campaign,” and she says that the hard-core Hillary supporters have not yet achieved total unification bliss. Perhaps it’s just that their heroine hasn’t had a chance to reprogram each one individually. Mr. Cohen tells us “Why Obama Should Visit a Mosque,” and says that fear-mongering about Islam is a global industry. Barack Obama has a unique power to break the cycle, not least by emboldening moderate Muslims to denounce terror. With all due respect, Mr. Cohen, you don’t live on this side of the pond and you have no idea how barking mad some of our voters are… Mr. Kristof writes about “Books, Not Bombs,” and says helping young Iraqi refugees is in our national interest, for we’ll regret our myopia if we allow them to grow up uneducated and unemployable, festering in their societies.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got waffles with maple syrup today. W. will leave office (in 208 days) the same way he came in — he’ll still be a smirking frat boy with a chip on his shoulder. Have a grand day.

Oh, my. Richard W. Stevenson, NYT political editor and deputy Washington bureau chief, will be answering questions from readers June 23-27. (Sorry about the late notification, but I just saw this.) If you go to the article here you can either still submit questions or read his latest answers.

I have to say, I have lost any enthusiasm I had for barak obama.

I obviousyl don’t want mccain but we clearly made a mistake with obama

hillary would have been just as bad or worse, she didn’t show up for the fisa vote either

there have been times when I have just given up, obama is doing that to me right now, I doubt I will get any enthusiasm for him again, I also notice I have not defended posts against him on the internets

I really do not know what to do, feeling quite betrayed

The economy is better for the top 1%. Must have trickled down to another 8%.

There hasn’t been a progressive alternative for many many years. Progressives are stuck with who ever the Democrats select. Until their is a real progressive movement it will always be a choice of a lesser of two “evils”.

You and me both. I guess we should all have suspected that he was/is a whore for the MIC

I’ve got waffles with maple syrup today

Waffles are perfect for this political climate.

And….MSMBC just reported that the Pentagon needs $100 BILLION to replace and repair it’s military equipment. Heckuvajob Georgie.

Me too. I had supported Edwards as he did not take moni bribes from corporations but it seems that oshama is perfectly willing to sell out at the first opportunity. When I called his office yeaterday his people did not seem to give one sweet damn about me not giving a donation. Fuck the little people is their mantra. In some ways I hope he loses to McCain just to show the idiot Dems that they should not abandon those that brought them to the dance. Yep they are all pigs but I may well vote for McCain ’cause it will not make a whit of difference.

Now I read that Bayh would entertain the VP slot. Just perfect another DLC, right wing, neo-con, bluedog Dem. Fucking lovely.

During the primary season I said more times than I can count that I’ll vote for which ever democratic candidate wins the nomination. But I thought the eventual winner would remain a dem after the nomination was determined. Little did I know that Obama would run to the right so quickly. Now he’s saying that he disagrees with the Supreme Court decision to ban the death penalty in cases of child rape. I’ve never seen a candidate change identities so quickly. Or maybe it was just wishful thinkng on my part. I still hope he wins but I also hope his fund-raising numbers plummet this month.

morning perris.

here’s what i’m thinking i’ll do – consider obama and the entire democratic congressional leadership part of the problem and focus on those dems (and repubs, whenever there are any) who at the very least defend the basic governance issues (bill of rights, habeas, balance and separation of powers, rule of law not men, equality before the law, a free and oppositional press and open, transparent and responsive process) and international law (war only as a means of self-defense, no torture ever, the geneva conventions, un declaration on human rights…).

we have some critical issues to address (health care, climate crisis, economy, energy crisis….) and this, imo, requires a framework of finding solutions if we are not to resort to dictatorship. and imo, obama is putting himself forward as the “benign” dictator. that’s unacceptable to me.

Now he’s saying that he disagrees with the Supreme Court decision to ban the death penalty in cases of child rape

My spouse has been working in Domestic and child abuse for two and a half decades and she applauded the SCOTUS ruling yesterday saying. “If you have the death penalty the perpetraitor may as well kill the victim”. oshama is determined to show that he is more right wing that atilla the hun.

My own rep (Mike Arcuri) was excellent till now. But he was wrong on FISA and even more alarmingly, he’s one of the co-sponsors of that bill supporting a military blockade of Iran. But so is Wexler. I can’t figure it out. I’d love to see this addressed. Why would Wexler support this?

for me, i don’t think it’s about the disappointment of not having a progressive candidate. i never saw either clinton to obama as progressive.

the issue is that not only was obama unwilling to defend basic constitutional protections for citizens, he supported efforts by the congressional dem leadership to destroy them. obama is the con law expert – he knew what he was doing.

So am I to assume that you favour the death penalty?

but I may well vote for McCain ’cause it will not make a whit of difference

If you give the least hint of a scintilla of a crap about Iraq you may want to reconsider that.

he’s one of the co-sponsors of that bill supporting a military blockade of Iran. But so is Wexler. I can’t figure it out. I’d love to see this addressed. Why would Wexler support this?

good news. you’re going to get to ask him at book salon:

Fire-Breathing Liberal: How I Learned to Survive (and Thrive) in the Contact Sport of Congress
Author: Representative Robert Wexler
Sunday June 29,2008 5:00pm Eastern

he not only corrupted himself, he made it impossible for a filibuster to succoeed by endorsing the bill

I have no idea what to do, more better democrats as you say is the long term plan but this bill obama has signed on to is indeed the last nail in the coffin for our constitution

we are no longer America

House Judiciary Committee Hearing
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
Hearing on: From the Department of Justice to Guantanamo Bay: Administration Lawyers and Administration Interrogation Rules, Part III

Witnesses:
David Addington
Chief of Staff
Vice President of the United States
Christopher Schroeder
Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies at Duke University
John Yoo
Professor
Boalt Hall School of Law
University of California at Berkeley

The Addington–Yoo Hearing, Gavel-to-gavel

On Thursday, June 26, the House Judiciary Committee will conduct hearings into the legal genesis of the Bush Administration’s torture policies. Featured witnesses will be David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, and University of California–Berkeley law professor John C. Yoo, who as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, was the principal draftsman of the torture memoranda. The Bay Area’s KPFA (94.1 FM in Berkeley) and participating Pacifica Network stations will be carrying the hearing live, gavel-to-gavel, starting at 9:00 a.m. Eastern (6:00 a.m. Pacific) time. Pacifica’s Larry Bensky and Harper’s legal affairs contributor Scott Horton will be co-anchoring the broadcast, which can be monitored through a streaming webcast.

we are no longer America

i know.

some, maybe a lot, of it was always an illusion, but we seem to have given up on the values that we thought of as American too.

morning!

I know nomolos can speak for himself; but I read his reply as quite the opposite. If a child rapist believes he’s going to get the death penalty for raping the child, he’s more likely to kill the child as well. No testimony against him from the victim, and no increase possible in penalty.

very interesting discussion right now on Washington Journal
on the nuance of the decision from a victim’s rights attorney not in favor of the decision

Nope. Under no circumstances do I support state sponsored murder…. and that includes war.

And oshama will change that situation?

Correct.

When you only mentioned your spouse applauding the decision it caused me to wonder and I agree with your characterization of Obama.

I don’t remember the name of the documentary. It was about the electronic voting machines during the 2000 election. There was a line from the movie that sums it up (or at least it did 8yrs ago when we still believed):

“We are not the country we think we are.”

With McCain you’re fracking well GUARANTEED to stay. And probably go on to Iran. With Obama you have a chance.

Just a tad touchy today. Found out yesterday my oldest tiger, 19yo Min, has a very aggressive oral cancer. With or without treatment she’d have less than a month, most of it in pain. Friday is going to be a horrible day for us.

(((SouthernDragon! and your dear tiger!))) So hard to lose a good friend.

I took the question as relating to the US economy as a whole, not to an individual’s situation. But, I may be wrong.

Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s heartbreaking. (((SouthernDragon))) {{{tiger}}}

{{{{SoutherDragon}}}} Oh dear. 19 years is a long long time to grow to love our little friends. We have just gotten two more kittens four years after our last one died. It took that length of time to even contemplate getting more.

Good Morning Attaturk and Firedogs,

oh ((((Southern Dragon and Family)))) so very sorry

With Obama you have a chance.

not so sure i think that any more. :(

(((SouthernDragon and MIn)))

Of all the places in the world this is just about the last one where I EVER thought I would hear people saying “well, then, I’m going to go and vote for McCain.” Whatever. Suit yourselves…

Oshama will do whatever his controllers from the MIC tell him to. He has already demonstrated that with his statements on NAFTA, free trade, FISA and who knows what else. The man is a DLC. liarman acolyte.

(((SouthernDragon)))

Min and Yang were like sisters. They spent all of Yang’s 14 years together and to lose them 7 weeks apart is just a little overwhelming. The vet’s office has two kittens they’re trying to adopt out and thinks I should take them. Kind of bizarre but I understand their rationale. Like you, I’m not ready to take that on. I can tell by the behaviour of the other tigers that they know something’s not as it should be. Anybody who thinks cats aren’t smart isn’t paying attention. They are also so intuitive it’s scary.

new thread!

Welcome to Bush’s third term. I wish you joy of McCain. I’m going to shut up now because I’m too annoyed to be polite any more.

whoa! i never said i would vote for mccain, and no one else has either.

I did say that I may well vote for McCain.

Hmmm, even Canada :(

‘Drivers who get behind the wheel while high on drugs will face roadside testing and they could be ordered to surrender urine, blood or saliva samples at the police station under a controversial new law that takes effect one week from today.’
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=10258

‘If Toronto Police officers are assigned to the city’s schools they will be armed and in uniform, Chief Bill Blair says.

In response to media reports saying officers would likely be wearing “blue slacks and golf shirts,” Blair told the Sun this morning “my officers wear uniforms” and “my police officers are armed.” ‘

http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=10255

my apologies then.

but i didn’t.

this is going to be a tough one….

Well Tazers will keep those day care kids in line

If you want to register a protest vote, vote Green. Why give any aid and comfort to fascists?

I will not vote for any democrat that toes the DLC line. I will probably write in Chavez. However if oshama continues with his right wing trend I may well end up voting for McCain as it will make no damn difference.

Nope. I will not vote for green. I will never forget nadir

Actually, you strongly implied it. See your own comment at #14, which I quoted at #22.

As I said, and repeat, I may well vote for McCain not I will vote for McCain

i didn’t vote for nader – but why the hard feelings? he was right about most things – far more than gore (who was major dlc at the time).

He was financed by the republican party for chrysake. A quick google will give you multiple sources. He was/is a dupe.

Here’s something else that will be ignored.

and fdl has run microsoft ads – so what if that where he got $, he wasn’t advocating any R policies, just the opposite.

Good morning, all;

While the disappointment (if not total disgust) with Obama is papable, understandable and justifiable, let us consider that an Obama Presidency would be progress of a sort.

Allow me to explain.

On the one foot, Obama seems intent upon proving that in politics, as in the operation of a septic tank, the scum rises to the top, on the other foot, we realize that, scum-wise, Obama is neither much better nor much worse, in the broadest terms, than his last two opponents. (Although I suspect McCain capable of much more evil than Clinton and Obama combined, but that is ‘relative’ and not saying much, which is really reassurring.)

What an Obama Presidency would do is to bring America into the modern era in which not only white males may disgust us totally, but those of any color, creed or religion (except muslims and, of course, atheists) and soon, I am certain, of either gender, may plunder and pillage the hopes and aspirations of ‘the people’ and further rend that quaint and apparently useless relic of our political infancy, the Constitution, whenever it suits their purpose …

Certainly THAT is something.

The American Presidency should be an ‘equal oportunity’ for all and Obama shall have been the one, symbolically, to make it so.

So?

The audacity of meager hope still shines brightly and we are a better people for it …

Remember: there is always ‘next time’ (which will seem reminiscent, somehow, of ‘last time’) and, since our electoral process will not change, and indeed, apparently, cannot be changed, at least we shall have a broader (superficially) assortment of scum to choose from.

Personally (once again), I shall vote for Obama, but, as I never considered him a progressive, and have only hoped that, having young daughters, Obama might care about their world, I fully expect to be raising hell with him throughout his term, just as I’d have done with Clinton.

Change IS coming and all the King’s men cannot stop it …

It is just going to be much more painful than it need have been. And we have almost ALL of ‘our’ politicians to thank for that truth.

You mean have the Supreme Court remove him from office? That would be sweet…

Sure, you referance Tupac, but TwoPAC got no support. Where’s the justice in that! Huh? Huh? A hat tip would have been nice.