More Dick

Please pardon me for all the attention I'm giving to The Dick, but I'm just lovin' watchin' him step on his weenie! The prick thinks he can get away with anything because he has so far, but this one might be his undoing, God willing. Hmmm. That might go a long way towards proving the existence of a wise and beneficial God. Or at least a tacit admission that truth and maybe even karma actually exist despite propaganda to the contrary from this maladministration.

The Austin American-Statesman

America has never seen a vice president like Dick Cheney, and with any luck it will never see another one like him.

That towering arrogance and obsession with secrecy may backfire on the vice president in the end.

It'd be quicker to slip him an exploding cigar. Oh, wait, the CIA already tried that on Castro. How 'bout some acid, the squiggly kind, in his brandy? 5000 mikes oughta do it.

President Bush has to accept much of the blame for Cheney's arrogation of power because he has abetted his vice president's power-grab.

Bush has allowed Cheney to become a power base and establish policies that have lowered America in international esteem.

Bush has allowed Cheney the whip hand on matters from nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court to the torture of detainees at the now-infamous military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Cheney has had control over energy policy, space exploration and much more.

The Bush administration has pushed executive power and privilege to new limits, taken secrecy to new levels and shown disdain for human rights and international treaties. This administration had carved out a place — not a good one — in history before Cheney placed himself beyond both executive and legislative reach.

Now that this uniquely powerful and damaging vice president has produced a new constitutional crisis, the Bush legacy is more assured than ever.

Bush's legacy is most assuredly assured - a weak, incompetent, pitiful little man who allowed himself to be co-opted into ruining the United States for generations to come, if not once and for all. Worst. President. Ever.

W. Learns From Students

MoDo explores what happens when you put a group of extremely intelligent students in the the same room as a dunce.

A group of high school Presidential Scholars visiting the White House on Monday surprised President Bush by slipping him a handwritten letter pleading with him not to let America become known for torture and urging him to stick to the Geneva Conventions with terror detainees.

The president reassured the teenagers that the United States does not torture. Then the vice president unleashed a pack of large dogs on the kids, running them off the White House lawn, before he shut down the Presidential Scholars program and abolished high schools.

Since it's rare that Mr. Bush ever sees groups that have not been prescreened to be nice to him, he made the mistake of opening the letter in front of the students and was surprised to learn that he has made many Americans ashamed by subverting values that the country has always held dear, like abiding by the Constitution and respecting human dignity.

I'm glad someone besides The Dick finally told him something he needed to know, not that it'll make any difference.

Ms. Dowd comments on Sen. Lugar's statements about Bush's War:

Dick Cheney, the president of the Senate, immediately expelled Mr. Lugar and appointed himself the new Senator from Indiana. It was a busy day of Constitutional shape-shifting for the vice president, who had earlier nominated and confirmed himself to the Supreme Court, so that he could roll back judicial decisions tempering his desire for torture galore, and then morphed back into his executive branch role to bar the door to the Oval Office sandbox and prevent Condi and Bob Gates from giving W. the plan he wanted to close down Gitmo.

Once his BFF Rummy was pushed out, Vice mentally absorbed the role of Defense Secretary into his own portfolio. He allows Mr. Gates - that pragmatic meddler from the skeptical world of Daddy Bush - to keep Rummy's chair warm, but the new Pentagon chief is certainly not included in the super-secret paper flow Vice created to always get his own way. And Mr. Cheney never acknowledges the power of any secretary of state, be it Colin or Condi. Diplomacy is for wimps.

Cheney needs to go. Now.

Note to Congress: There's a guy in California and a guy in New York who would just love you to send them to deal with The Dick. Results guaranteed.

Cheneys Evicted from Naval Observatory

From Red Tractor-USA 'The Best News in the Field'

In a rare governmental move, the self-made non-executive Vice President and his wife were summarily evicted from their government-supported residence at the US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC today.

When the presiding Admiral of the Observatory was asked about the Observatory's mission and its relation to the resident of the house, he said "leaving a non-executive branch person in charge of the transit of stars across the meridian during the night would be a definite national security threat. Therefore, we sadly had to evict Dick and Lynn. They were damn good tenants, too."

An additional unwanted event happened just this morning when the GAO ceased Cheney's use of the executive "undisclosed location" bunker. The only temporary home left to the Cheneys, who value their executive-like perks of the office, finds them doing sleepovers in Air Force 2. That lease expires tomorrow and Trump wants his plane back.

The Post-CheneyBush Restoration

A good read at OpEdNews fast-forwards to the future.

(Boston, June 26, 2034) -- Pulitizer Prize-winning historian Isadora Tribe's much-awaited "The Restoration Years: America in the Post-Bush Era" jumped to the top of the best-seller lists almost immediately. The Harvard professor and I spoke in her Cambridge home about the revelations in that volume.

The reason why Bush was adjudged widely as "the worst president ever," even during his tenure, was a direct result of his years of unnecessary wars and chaos, bungling on a monstrous scale, the mangling of the Constitution, ideological extremism, and out-and-out corruption and larceny. In other words, he and his cronies laid waste to the institutions of our democratic republic.

When he was finally gone, nothing less than a thoroughgoing cleansing of the foul-smelling stable was in order. That was "The Restoration" era, years of undoing the great damage his administration has foisted on the country. Restoring our country's commitment to Constitutional rule and to sanity and realism in our foreign policy -- that was the Herculean job of his successors.

I'll be 88 years old when that book comes out. I'm going to get a signed copy.

"Wings of Justice" Award to Steve Gilliard

Wings of Justice

In an age when liberal blogging has become more competitive and many of its practitioners celebrities in their own right, Gilliard sought nothing other than to blog on behalf of fairness and justice.

"For helping to give me, and thousands of other progressives, back our faith in our country and in ourselves," Steve's BuzzFlash nominator notes. "With biting wit and snake-eyed determination, he fought the lies and obfuscation of our duplicitous opponents and never wavered in his love for his country and for his fellow citizens."

In a tribute on TomPaine.com, Gilliard's dedication is duly lauded. "He wrote 237 posts that month by my count -- yes, you read that right. One of the ways he was a pioneer was that he considered blogging his job. His readers were his bosses, and he wasn't going to let them down -- not one single day."

Most bloggers are white. Gilliard was African-American, but his only race was to get to the bottom of the truth.

Steve Gilliard, may God be with you. You've earned your Wings of Justice.

Crash Test Dummies ...

This affects me directly because, as many of you know, I'm a mechanic. When I saw this last night, I could just guess what my day would be like today. No, I won't be fixing any cars, I'll be fielding questions from customers, both on the phone and in person, about the cheap Chinese tires and if they have them on their car.

Federal officials have told a small New Jersey importer to recall 450,000 radial tires for pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans after the company disclosed that its Chinese manufacturer had stopped including a safety feature that prevented the tires from separating.

Tread separation is the same defect that led to the recall of millions of Firestone tires in 2000. At the time, tire failure was linked to an increased risk of rollover of light trucks and S.U.V.’s.

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Gotta love that 'free market' economy. Fuck all you idiots who spout the Rethug line that "regulation hurts business". Horseshit. Look at the airline industry since St. Ronnie of Raygun deregulated it. Look at the mass media, TV and newspapers, and the sorry state they're in thanks to the abolition of the 'fairness doctrine'. 'Free market' means big business can run roughshod over the rights of consumers and employees.

We've seen it with the food we feed ourselves and our pets, in the medicines we use to keep us healthy, and we've seen it in the products we use and the services we contract for. Big business is using us as crash test dummies and it's time for them to be held accountable.

Too bad the Chinese hold most of our foreign debt. They know we can't push them too hard or they'll call in the note in the worst case, but they do have the power to fuck up our economy royally. Think that wasn't by design? It's time to reexamine the place big business has in our society and in the national discourse.

Great thanks to Chris at AMERICAblog.
Cross-posted at F & G.

If she were a liberal ...

Ann Coulter would be living out a refrigerator box under a bridge. X at Creature's:

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It really does boggle the mind that news orgs continue to host this vile shell of what was once a human being as if she were some sort of serious political analyst. Even Chris Matthews' lament that "she sells books" is no excuse.

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How does she get away with the shit she does? It should be an excellent commentary on Fox 'News' that they have her on so many times. It's also a commentary on ABC News that they would even give her a forum, but any network that employs Frank Luntz and Mark Halperin doesn't have too high a bar to jump over.

I look at Coulter, and the crowds she draws, and it troubles me that so many Americans think she's funny, or witty, or actually take her seriously. There are enough nuts out there who would be happy to 'pull a Bobby Kennedy' with Edwards. Just once, and Elizabeth Edwards didn't go far enough, I would like to see her called out for what she is and be held accountable for her words, the way all the rest of us are.

Grunt wisdom ...

From Lurch:

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Nothing makes a people more loyal to a resistance than having their homes destroyed by a foreign occupier. It’s funny; I learned this back in the Viet Nam era. I don’t think many of our military leaders were around, then.

No wonder 80% of Iraqis think it's okay to kill Americans.

'Angler' For Power

Eugene Robinson

It's ironic that the latest outrage from Cheney is his claim to be exempt from a presidential order concerning the handling of classified documents because his office is not actually, or at least not exclusively, a part of the executive branch. Cheney, you see, has spent the past six years pushing the envelope of executive authority, asserting for Bush and himself the right to do pretty much any damn thing they want.

Didn't Cheney claim executive privilege as his reason for keeping secret the process he followed in developing the administration's energy policy, including the names of the people with whom he met?

The Dick reminds me of a friend of mine in the Corps. His name was Murray and he was from Dunedin FL if anyone out there knows him. Anyway, he had the name 'Murray' on the front of his field jacket, and something like 'Wojohowicz' on the back. If he was screwing up and somebody called out "Murray!", he'd turn around, point to the name stencilled on the back and go, "No, not Murray. Wojohowicz, see?". Conversely, if he was doing good and someone called out "Wojohowicz!", he'd turn around, point to the name on the front and go, "No, not Wojohowicz. Murray, see?".

He got away with it, too.

The Dick is pullin' the same cheap shit. He's part of the Executive Branch when it protects him from scrutiny, and not part of the Executive Branch when it subjects him to scrutiny.

Cheney ain't no Marine Lance Corporal. Congress has to come down on his ass like a ton o' bricks. He can't have it both ways.

I heard somewhere that this is just The Dick's attempt to get this bullshit into the court system so there won't be a decision from that molasses-in-January bunch until the clock runs out on the current occupant and they all get to go home unscathed and uncharged with all their crimes.

Students of public administration should have to take a course called "Cheney." How he has amassed and employed his power offers a case study in how government really works -- and how a skillful operator can make a bureaucracy dance. Take Cheney's penchant for secrecy, which seems to border on the maniacal. His office stamps "SECRET" on routine documents, including talking points for officials to use with reporters. He keeps papers pertaining to everyday business in huge Mosler safes. Is this loopy? No, he's just putting into practice the dictum that information is power. Sunshine is for losers.

The vice president, whose Secret Service code name is "Angler," really does know all the angles. And above all, he knows how to survive. His onetime mentor Donald Rumsfeld is gone, his onetime top aide Scooter Libby is on his way to jail, yet Cheney -- defiantly, disastrously, unbelievably -- remains. It will take years to uncover and undo all the damage he has wrought.

No shit, but it needs to be done. In the meantime, remove him physically from his office in the Executive White House. In shackles.

A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney

Sally Quinn

The big question right now among Republicans is how to remove Vice President Cheney from office. Even before this week's blockbuster series in The Post, discontent in Republican ranks was rising.

As the reputed architect of the war in Iraq, Cheney is viewed as toxic, and as the administration's leading proponent of an attack on Iran, he is seen as dangerous. As long as he remains vice president, according to this thinking, he has the potential to drag down every member of the party -- including the presidential nominee -- in next year's elections.

Cheney is scheduled this summer for surgery to replace his pacemaker, which needs new batteries. So if the president is willing, and Republicans are able, they have a convenient reason to replace him: doctor's orders. And I'm sure the the vice president would also like to spend more time with his ever-expanding family.

Be sure to go see who they want to replace him with!

I don't care if they replace him with Pee Wee Herman. Just get him the fuck out of there.

You ain't got the balls ...

Dear Dems,

I've been hoping you'd make a difference. I've been hoping since November. Know what? You all suck. Stop the whining and do something. I listened to you all on the talk shows this weekend, explaining how it is so difficult to rein in the President because you don't have enough votes to override a veto.

That's horseshit. It doesn't matter if Bush vetoes it all.

Listen to me, idiots. The fact you got the bills to the President's desk is enough to show the American people that you're actually trying to do something. That you're actually listening to us. You remember us, the folks who put you there in the first place?

None of you have come out and said, "George Bush and Dick Cheney have turned this country into a tinhorn dictatorhip". All of you who voted for this war because you saw it as a chance to finally grow some nuts are desperately trying to cover yourselves. Grow some today. Go before the people and say you made a mistake for whatever reason. Come clean. You'll feel better and then we can move on.

Or is it that you just don't get it? Do you think this 'collegial relationship' you have with your Republican counterparts is a good thing and you fear upsetting the apple cart? Take a page from the Korean Legislature, throw some punches. This won't wait until January 2009; our nation doesn't have the time. Get off your collective ass and call this situation what it is. At least you'll be on the record on the side of America.

There should be no compromise on Iraq, unless you have some sort of vested interest in our troops staying there. I certainly hope you're not making money off this war like Cheney. There should be no compromise on the U.S. Attorney matter and the subpoenas arising from it. In case you haven't realized yet, 'compromise' with the White House means giving them exactly what they want. (A hint: Google 'Neville Chamberlain' and 'Munich Pact')

It's time to say no. It's time to put a stop to this before we reach a point from where we can never recover. Grow some balls for crying out loud.

Sincerely,

Fixer

PS: I'm going to work now so I can pay the taxes that pay your salaries. So far, I feel like my money is being flushed down the toilet.

It's not working ...

A number of senior Sunni tribal leaders are among 12 people killed in a suicide bombing at a hotel in central Baghdad.

"According to initial reports, six sheikhs are among the dead," Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl said.

The Sunni leaders, from Anbar province, were meeting at the hotel and were the target of the attack, police said.

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The Beeb.

Not just any hotel, mind you. This sucker is in the Green Zone, the most fortified patch of dirt in Iraq.

This guy drove through 2 checkpoints, parked his car, and then walked through another checkpoint to have his person searched. After that, he managed to calmly walk across the lobby to where the Sunni leaders were meeting before detonating himself.

So, tell me how, 4 years after 'Mission Accomplished', this guy got through all that security with a bomb vest? Of course it was an inside job and of course Iraqi security has been compromised.

The 'surge' isn't working, the occupation isn't working, and the only thing that is working is the insurgency, be it al Qaeda or homegrown groups. We can't win and the only thing we can do is get the fuck out.

God, what a moron ...

Your Preznit:

WASHINGTON - It might have been 80 degrees outside but it was snowing inside Ford's Theatre on Sunday, where President Bush attended a taping of an ABC holiday program.

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"President Lincoln had a great appreciation for the performing arts," Bush said. "They offered relief amid the agonies of war, and he would likely be pleased that Ford's Theatre continues to bring together talented performers from across our country, including those with us tonight."

Last show Lincoln went to at the Ford Theatre, he left with with a terminal fucking headache, you dumb fuck.

Great thanks to Maru for the link.

Quote of the Day

Atrios:

... Our elite class is made up of a bunch of self-important children who believe lack of personal accountability for themselves is America's highest ideal.

The Government Is Misleading Us Once Again...

BeggarsCanBeChoosers

"As the U.S. government's official Web portal, USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the Web."

USA.gov's "Federal Executive Branch," section includes information for the public about all the offices and departments that made up the Executive Branch. And right there, under the Executive Office of the President section is a helpful link to the Vice President's official home page.

Dick Cheney needs to get on the phone and inform the U.S. government's own official Web site that it is giving the public misleading information about his office.

The Dick's a lyin' sack o' shit. Given the track record of his supporters it's no wonder he thinks he can get away with it. I am amazed, however, that he thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the other 98% of us.

The USA.gov site does have some useful info about getting a hunting and fishing license. Apparently you don't have to prove you know what you're aiming at.

"Jail to the Chief. He's the Chief and he needs jailing."

Go see "The Top 10 Reasons To Impeach Bush and Cheney". If I c&p 'em they come out all in caps and I'm too lazy to retype 'em.

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

1957 Plymouth Unearthed in Oklahoma
Still meets CAFE standards.

European Aviation Agency Approves Use of Cellphones on Planes
Also approves boomboxes, air horns, cowbells.

Latest Polls Rank Congress Even Lower Than Bush
But way above Cheney.

Report: Teams of Suicide Bombers Headed Here
In time to affect next election.

Army Corps of Engineers: New Orleans Not Ready for Big Storm
Even after two years of non-stop lip service.

CORRECTION

In an historical analysis of how Americans defeated the militarily superior British forces in the Revolutionary War, we quoted an expert at Georgetown University as saying, "Their strength is their mobility. They don't stand and fight." In fact, he was referring to how American forces are now being defeated by local forces in Iraq.

Doo-chay! Doo-chay!

I sincerely wish the same end for The Dick as the first 'Il Duce' - full of bullet holes and hung by his heels in the public square. Dead, discredited, and reviled. Win-win!

The photo brings one question to mind, though: what does the monkey do when the organ grinder ain't around? In some societies, monkeys are referred to as "Bushmeat". Yecchh.

A tip o' the Brain to The Satirical Political Report. And Photoshop!

Stereotypes ...

Tangentially related to the post below, regulars here know how much Mrs. F and I love Paris; enough to plan to retire there. It is 'our city', the place, next to New York, where we feel most at home.

That said, I take a lot of crap from Americans who've neither been there, nor know anyone who has beside me. Most of their comments begin with "those fucking French". I guess we have the conservative propaganda to thank for that. So today I was pleasantly surprised to read a post from someone who has learned some of the same things about Paris and the French that I did a long time ago:

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But there's another, even more unexpected part of Paris I'm getting to know: plenty of warmth and openness, even (especially?) toward Americans. My immediate disclaimer is that I am a young woman, here alone, so of course men are going to be, ahem, warm (that particular stereotype holds water: some French men can be relentless). But well beyond that, I've by now met men and women--in bookstores, at the gym, at author readings, at cafes, and in shops--all over the city who have made my assimilation smoother. Everywhere I go, I always make a concerted effort to speak French, and all the people and groups whom I've met sit and listen serenely, even though it takes me ten minutes (and numerous consultations with my French dictionary and notebook) to stammer out one just sentence. Then they answer me in French--slowly--and I answer back. Viola! Conversation ensues. Another new friend of a friend of a friend, who is French, took me under his wing, inviting me out all the time, and introducing me to his large and lively group of companions here. From my first night out with them, I've gotten emails and phone calls from the various guys and girls with offers to see plays, have coffee, and practice my French.

I think the French camaraderie I'm discovering goes hand in hand, at least in part, with its café culture, prevalent here more than anywhere else I've ever been. Part of that translates from a slower, more relaxed pace of life (c'est possible, even in a big, cosmopolitan city), and the aforementioned deviation from disposability, but most importantly, it offers license for le parisienne to linger in cafes over her café au lait or the vert for as long as she chooses, by herself, or with an acquaintance or four. Each café in Paris has a slew of as many chairs as possible squeezed into one area, most of them facing out toward the street, and people sit in them all day along; everyone has equal access to the energy of passersby, of which there are what seem like hundreds, even on tiny, quiet side streets. (Here, people stroll everywhere, or if not, they hop on their bike or moped, not in their Denali, to get where they need to go.) Paris's café culture supersedes over-the-top imbibing, too: it's about socializing, sitting around comfortably, and relaxing, while drinking wine, or just an espresso or a Coca-Cola. So perhaps another reason I have yet to see a person carrying a to-go cup of coffee is simply that a staple of life here is having most beverages out somewhere, sitting down, preferably with friends, even if it's when you don't have tons of time; in other words, taking (at least) a few minutes to enjoy.

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Paris is a 'live and let live' place. It is a place where any time of the year you can see artists creating their works on the Pont des Arts, mimes at Sacre Cour, and street food vendors at Notre Dame.

As someone who doesn't speak French aside from the normal greetings (Mrs. F handles the complicated stuff), I find the people have been more than patient with me and helpful, far from the stereotypes you hear regularly in this country. A "bon jour" when entering a shop and "au revior" when you leave goes a long way.

Yes, they have their problems too, but we could learn a lot from them.

One thing they do need is a pooper scooper law, but you learn to walk with one eye to the ground.

God, we're idiots ...

Soccerdad has a look at a poll on how much Americans really understand about what's going on around them. Dispappointing as usual for one of these things. At least I'm disapointed. I guess I give us more credit than we deserve.

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Perhaps most alarmingly, 41% of Americans answered 'Yes' to the question "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"

That total is actually up 5 points since September 2004.

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