QOTD

Via CT - Sadly, No!: Ben Caught Stealing (Dance Remix):

No matter how brief Ben's Post gig was, it's still going to look good on his (Ctrl)C (Ctrl)V

LMAO!

Poll: Nearly half of Americans favor censure

Poll: Nearly half of Americans favor censure:

The poll — taken of 1,005 adults from March 10 to 13 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points — was but one in a new round of surveys showing not only growing skepticism of Iraq but also distrust of Bush and his ability to do his job. Only 37 percent of those queried by NBC and The Wall Street Journal approve of Bush's job performance, only slightly better than the 33 percent approval rating the president got in a Pew Research Center poll on Wednesday.

Bush fared best in the American Research Group poll Thursday, with a 38 percent approval rating.

But that same polling also found that the president, always unpopular with Democrats, may have lost independent voters for good. Although 42 percent of independents favored censuring Bush, 47 percent of them said they favored impeaching the president.

It's actually worse than that. Of registered voters, 48% think that Doofus should be censured. Someone who had access to the poll internals (I can't find the link) indicated that 12% of those opposed to censure did so because they wanted him impeached instead. Think about that. Sixty percent of (voting) Americans think that the president should be censured or impeached. Given that all of the scant news coverage for Feingold's censure motion has been slanted towards the Rethuglican talking points, and still, just a few days since Sen Feingold introduced the legislation, 48% of voters agree.

I think that is amazing. What is more amazing is that the hen pecked Democrats in DC don't seem to get the message that the country, outside the beltway, is fed up with King George the Incompetent.

Oh, and finally, we have this. When asked for one word that describes Dubya... they came back with the following top four responses:

1. Incompetent
2. Idiot
3. Good
4. Liar

Can we impeach this neer-do-well and his criminally incompetent cronies now, before he destroys what's left of our democracy?

Take that!

Via georgia10 at DKos - U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (emphasis mine):

FEINGOLD: It seems to me appropriate, when the spin machines are
out there and people are using various language, to come out and reiterate my reasons for doing this.

I think that the press decided immediately that somehow this was a bad thing for Democrats and a good thing for conservatives. The
facts don't bear it out. You don't have the polls to prove it. The way my colleagues are responding to me suggests to me they're thinking about this, that they feel that there has to be some accountability.

So the instant decision about what the story is, actually, I think is going to backfire on those who made up the story. I don't get the feeling that I had on Monday about this -- yes, people were concerned -- I'm not getting that.

And if the right wing really believes in this country that -- Rush Limbaugh and others -- that they can somehow turn the president's reputation around by saying, 'You're darn right he violated the law,
and it's a good thing,' I think they're just as confused as they are about their Iraq politics. People aren't buying it anymore.

So not only do I not regret it, I felt an absolute obligation to do it.

This guy rocks!

SNAFU

Via the HuffPo - Bush delegates most issues, focuses only on Iraq, '06 campaign (emphasis mine):

President Bush has decided to stay out of the lion's share of decisions made by his administration.

Sources close to the administration said that over the last year, Mr. Bush has chosen to focus on two issues, leaving the rest to be decided by Cabinet members and senior aides. They said the issues are Iraq and the Republican congressional campaign in the 2006 elections.

Lots of important issues that deal with national security are never brought to the president because he doesn't want to deal with them,' a source familiar with the White House said. 'In some cases, this has resulted in chaos.'

The White House has acknowledged that Mr. Bush was not informed of the administration’s decision to approve a $6.85 billion takeover by the United Arab Emirates of a British firm that operates at least six major ports in the United States. The decision triggered a public firestorm and strong bipartisan opposition on Capitol Hill. This prompted the Dubai-owned company last week to bail on its bid to operate terminals in U.S. ports.

Vice President Dick Cheney also was not informed of the approval of the port takeover by the state-owned Dubai Ports World. The process was administered by the Treasury Department-aligned Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which sparked opposition from most of the Republican leadership in Congress.

Can we please have a real President, and not one who can't be bothered to do his %^$#@! job!!! His job is NOT to worry about the '06 elections... it is to worry about why it is that everyone that works for him is a complete incompetent.

Oh, this'll fix the sit'n in Iraq... Booyah!

Don't forget your road guard vest before you come to Iraq... - SOCNET: The SpecialOperations.com Bulletin Boards:

Hey guys, I shit you not....I got that tonight and sat back and was like.....WTF? There are assholes trying to provoke a civil war, the media is escalating things, the military is down playing things, shit is wearing out, money for this bottomless hole is in question, Iran next door is flicking their nose at us and stability is non-existant.....and this is what the hell they are worried about at the high command??????

Bush admin incompetence continues unabated

Yet another case they may lose in the WOT.

Jeralyn at TalkLeft writes: Prosecutorial Misconduct Halts Moussaoui Trial:

In a shocking development, prosecutors in the trial of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui told the court this morning that a Government attorney had violated the Court's ban on speaking with witnesses. The Judge has recessed the trial and may dismiss the death penalty case against Moussaoui as a result.

Iraq through the prism of Vietnam

Iraq through the prism of Vietnam:

Those who say Iraq is nothing like Vietnam have another guess coming, says retired Gen. William Odom. He lists striking similarities and asserts that only after it pulls out of Iraq can the U.S. hope for international support to deal with anti-Western forces.

By William E. Odom
diane@hudson.org

The Vietnam War experience can’t tell us anything about the war in Iraq – or so it is said. If you believe that, trying looking through this lens, and you may change your mind.

File this under: No Sh*t Sherlock... anyone who hadn't been drinking the Rovian Kool Aid recognized this within a couple Month's of Dubya's "Mission Accomplished" photo-op.

Many, including Doofus's daddy's most trusted advisors forwaw this long before the first troops set foot into Iraq.

Only those who had been fooled into the belief that Saddam had some direct involvement in 9/11 by the most mendacious administration in U.S. history, and who have n't been to an intervention yet think that this debacle has made us safer.

Can we impeach the war criminals now?

Big Brother is Watching

Via Andrew Sullivan - J. Francis Lehman: That 'harmless' and 'neccessary' Patriot Act:

They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.

And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable.

And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn't call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn't try to sneak a machine gun through customs.

They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast.

[...]

They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking.

They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted.

How much do you want to bet that the NSA was eaves-dropping on their phones and email for a while, just to make sure that they weren't terrorists.

Could this be one of the triggers that gives the NSA "reasonable suspicion" (as opposed to "probable cause" as defined by the "it's just a piece of paper" Fourth Amendment) that one might be a terrorist?

Reminds me of one of those "if ..., you might be a red-neck..." jokes.

If you pay down your credit card balance... you might be a terrorist.

Feeling safer, yet?

How much would you like to bet that the credit card company gets to keep charging interest on the debt while your payment is held in suspense for scrutiny by Big Brother?

Think about that a moment.

I can't believe we are even having this discussion

'War on Terror' Trials Could Allow Evidence Obtained Through Torture:

US military officers, breaking with domestic and international legal precedent, said that 'war on terror' military tribunals at the Guantanamo naval base could allow evidence obtained through torture.

US does not torture, Bush insists:

US President George W Bush has defended his government's treatment of detainees after a media allegation that the CIA ran secret jails in eastern Europe.

"We do not torture," Mr Bush told reporters during a visit to Panama.

He said enemies were plotting to hurt the US and his government would pursue them, but would do so "under the law".

Of course, as with everything that spews forth from Chimpy's twisted, smirking, maw; it is a bald-faced lie.

Then, in today's WaPo, we find this gem:

Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.

Bush: We doan need no steenkin' law agin torture. I can do what ever the f%#! I want.

Can I have my country back, please?

Impeach the war criminals. Do it now.

White House: Mendacity Central

NATIONAL JOURNAL: What Bush Was Told About Iraq (03/02/2006):

Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources.

Will the constant stream of news reports that the President, Vice President and their minions have issued nothing but lies ever cease?

Impeach the lying war criminals. Do it now.

Grasping at straws

Think Progress - Fox News: Iraq Civil War “Made Up By The Media?”:

Fox News continues it’s crackerjack analysis of sectarian strife in Iraq. Previously, it explored whether “an all-out civil war in Iraq” could be “a good thing.”

Now they have an new theory.

The White House spin-meisters are grasping at straws. They have run out of ideas on how to spin the unspinable: the rapidly, yet inexorably, deteriorating situation in Iraq. Dear Leader's legacy: lighting the fire of democracy in the Middle East, gone up in flames of a civil war that was all too predictable.

Some smart-alec in Karl Rove's office gets a brainstorm: Hey! Let's blame the "libruhl media" for making this all up! Quick! Hit the speed-dial for Roger Ailes! To the Bat Cave!

Losers.

Impeach the war criminals.