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July 29, 2005
Bush and GOP to cut airport security workers
This is absolutely staggering. I have no words or funny images to underscore how absurd this is.
Airline passengers will face longer airport security lines starting this fall if Congress goes through with plans to cut up to 13% of the nation's checkpoint screeners, a top Transportation Security Administration official said Thursday.
More from USA Today here.
04:23 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
One mother's war
This is absolutely sickening.
Seems an Ohio military mom got in trouble for questioning a website over their presentation of the war.
I think every single last one of us has the right to question this war (we are, after all, paying for it) but how dare they question this woman's patriotism. If you or anyone in your family is in the line of fire, you have every right to ask, "Why" and every right to get a decent answer.
In fact, I think we're all still waiting on that answer.
12:59 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By
Costco Rocks! Analysts Suck!
Another entry for the bulging files of corporate greed.
The New York Times has an article detailing how Costco has become the #1 warehouse store in the nation by offering lower prices for quality goods, while at the same time treating their employees like, you know, human beings (paying them a living wage, giving them health benefits, letting them unionize, etc.). But some analysts think they should do things differently.
Emme Kozloff, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, faulted Mr. Sinegal (Costco's CEO) as being too generous to employees, noting that when analysts complained that Costco's workers were paying just 4 percent toward their health costs, he raised that percentage only to 8 percent, when the retail average is 25 percent."He has been too benevolent," she said. "He's right that a happy employee is a productive long-term employee, but he could force employees to pick up a little more of the burden."
Make no mistake about it, this is the same attitude that begat Koslowski, Lay and the gang and gave us the entire corporate climate right now which says that no amount of profit is ever enough...and no amount of screwing your employees and customers will go unrewarded so long as the investors are raking it in.
Check out the full article here.
Then let's all go open Costco accounts this weekend and spend a bundle. I'll just need to figure out where to store a years supply of Apple Jacks.
08:51 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By
Santorum hates birth control, so that means...
Rick Santorum told CN8 news that he "personally" doesn't support birth control and that it's "harmful to women". However, man-on-dog? No comment.
Quicktime here.
08:50 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
July 28, 2005
The...struggle...against...something snappy
The Christian Science Monitor has a great piece on the "rebranding" of the Bush fave-catch phrase: "The war on terror." Believe it or not, BushCo is FINALLY ready to let that slogan go. And they're replacing it with:
(drumroll)
The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism.
Read the whole horrifying piece.
03:28 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Tucker Carlson says "fuck!"
Harry Shearer at the Huffington Post brings us this behind-the-scenes video of Tucker Carlson attempting to record a promo for his awesome show.
Quicktime here.
03:08 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Judy Miller: Future Halliburton Employee?
Ariana Huffington has a great post on former journalist Judy Miller and the NYT's inability to call Judy the partisan intelligence maniupulator that she, based on the evidence, is. Ariana makes a convincing case that Judy's not sitting in jail because Judy's protecting a source, she's sitting in jail because she, Judy Miller, is a source.
Here's a snippet:
It's July 6, 2003, and Joe Wilson's now famous op-ed piece appears in the Times, raising the idea that the Bush administration has "manipulate[d]" and "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." Miller, who has been pushing this manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times for months, goes ballistic. Someone is using the pages of her own paper to call into question the justification for the war -- and, indirectly, much of her reporting. The idea that intelligence was being fixed goes to the heart of Miller's credibility. So she calls her friends in the intelligence community and asks, Who is this guy? She finds out he's married to a CIA agent. She then passes on the info about Mrs. Wilson to Scooter Libby (Newsday has identified a meeting Miller had on July 8 in Washington with an "unnamed government official"). Maybe Miller tells Rove too -- or Libby does. The White House hatchet men turn around and tell Novak and Cooper. The story gets out.This is why Miller doesn't want to reveal her "source" at the White House -- because she was the source.
Now, if you were the head of Halliburton, wouldn't you hire someone who would lie, repeatedly, in order to help out Dick Cheney? Not to mention that the lies led to a war which netted billions for Halliburton.
Read the whole piece on Ariana's blog.
03:01 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
What IS the Federalist Society anyway?
Molly Ivins does her usually spot-on due diligence today and comes up with some doozies about John Roberts favorite "society."
Here's a preview:
The society has argued for the abolition of the Securities and Exchange Commission, severely limiting the Environmental Protection Agency, and rolling back gender equity laws (Title IX) and voting rights law. Its publications have criticized teaching evolution and attacked the principle of separation of church and state.
Read the whole column at Truthout.
01:51 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
July 27, 2005
Yo Bushie! 41 percent!
Quinnipiac has the bad news, ya' moron.
07:16 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Sieg heil, Rick Santorum
Happy Young Christian Rick tried to boot a Jewish reporter from a conference call.
Brett Lieberman, who writes for this newspaper from Washington, D.C., heard about the call and dialed in, even though neither he nor The Patriot-News fits the bill.
[snip]
Then [Santorum] said, "It's sort of sad that they [the Democrats] would use religion and this tragic time for purely partisan, blatantly political purposes."
'Cause, you know, Santorum would never do that.
Then, all of a sudden, Lieberman voiced a question.
"Senator," he said, "what I'm hearing from a lot of victims' groups ..."
Santorum interrupted. "Is this Brett Lieberman?"
When Lieberman said yes, Santorum demanded to know what he was doing on a conference call for Catholic press.
"You're not going to be on this call, and you're not going to ask a question," Santorum ordered.
Found via Santorum Exposed. Snip and parentheticals mine.
10:03 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
July 26, 2005
Be afraid
The best political weapon is the weapon of terror.
Who said those words? Not Rove or Cheney. Not Rummy or Rice. Certainly not the Chief Executive Monkey or his mouthpiece, Scotty Mac. But whether they said them or not, they certainly live by them. The GOP and BushCo have built their great power on the backs of fear.
So, who said those words?
Well, Heinrich Himmler of course.
Let's hope that the current American Reich meets with dissolution in the way Heinrich's reich did.
06:38 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Lance For President
Time reports that Lance Armstrong is thinking about a future in politics. And if his quote today in USA Today is any indication, Lance is a Texan that liberals and progressives would embrace with open arms. Here's what Lance said:
“Funding [for cancer research] is tough to come by these days,” he says. “The biggest downside to a war in Iraq is what you could do with that money. What does a war in Iraq cost a week? A billion? Maybe a billion a day? The budget for the National Cancer Institute is four billion. That has to change. It needs to become a priority again.“Polls say people are much more afraid of cancer than of a plane flying into their house or a bomb or any other form of terrorism. It is a priority for the American public.”
Smart, good at math, a true hero, and a household name. Do you really think Bill Frist or Jeb Bush would have a chance? What are we waiting for? Somebody start the "Draft Lance" website (and for President, please, not for the governor of a state where the Lieutenant Governor has more power).
Thanks to ThinkProgress for the heads up.
06:05 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Missing Black Women Don't Rate
Nancy Grace can't seem to find the precious time in her busy CNN or Court TV schedules to report on a missing woman who just happens to not be white.
The whole story is at the All Spin Zone.
Check it out, and, while you're at it, drop Nancy a line and ask her why she isn't talking non-stop about Latoyia Figueroa the way she has about Natalee Holloway.
05:46 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Saddam: Better for Women
Under Saddam's government, women had more rights than in most Arab nations. That's all changing now that "freedom is on the march."
From the NYT:
One of the critical passages is in Article 14 of the chapter, a sweeping measure that would require court cases dealing with matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance to be judged according to the law practiced by the family's sect or religion.Under that measure, Shiite women in Iraq, no matter what their age, generally could not marry without their families' permission. Under some interpretations of Shariah, men could attain a divorce simply by stating their intention three times in their wives' presence.
Article 14 would replace a body of Iraqi law that has for decades been considered one of the most progressive in the Middle East in protecting the rights of women, giving them the freedom to choose a husband and requiring divorce cases to be decided by a judge.
Of course, Mr. Bush is probably thinks these kinds of laws are cool.
02:49 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Lying About Whores - A Bush Family Tradition
Some of you may remember when Neil Bush lied about those whores in Thailand.
Now his unelectable brother is doing his own whore-lying. Courtesy of BushWatch.
"[Castro] welcomes sex tourism," Bush told a room of law enforcement officials in Florida, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Here's how he bragged about the industry," Bush said. "This is his quote: 'Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world.'"As it turns out, Bush had lifted that quotation not from an actual Castro speech but rather from a 2001 essay written by then Dartmouth University undergraduate Charles Trumbull. In the essay, Trumbull did appear to quote a Castro speech about prostitution. Sadly, the student made the quotation up.
Maybe Charles Trumbull can be recruited to help tell lies about when Bush found out that his "Brain" was leaking to the media and lying to the grand jury!
01:28 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
July 25, 2005
Scotty Mac wants Bush to be dictator
Scott McClellan today via dKos:
We want to make sure that there is nothing that restricts the President's authority to be able to do what he needs to do to protect the American people and prevent attacks from happening in the first place, and bring to justice those who seek to murder innocent civilians.
The whole exchange in context below the fold. Hint on context... Scott's referring to torture.
Q Last Thursday the White House threatened to veto the defense bill if it includes standards for the humane treatment of prisoners, drafted by Republican Senator John McCain. And also on Thursday the Pentagon refused to comply with a court order to release photos and videos of prisoner abuse in Iraq. Don't these documented cases of abuse suggest that the U.S. military should adopt higher standards for the humane treatment of prisoners?
MR. McCLELLAN: A couple things, and I appreciate the question. We did put out a position paper that is available for you to look at, talking about some of our concerns when it comes to the defense authorization bill that the Senate is moving forward on. We certainly would have concerns if there are amendments that some people seek that would interfere with the President's ability to effectively conduct the global war on terrorism. And there are some amendments that people have suggested that we believe might be unnecessary or duplicative. We want to make sure that there is nothing that restricts the President's authority to be able to do what he needs to do to protect the American people and prevent attacks from happening in the first place, and bring to justice those who seek to murder innocent civilians.Now, in terms of issues relating to allegations of abuse of detainees, this administration has taken those allegations very seriously. That's why we have moved forward to hold people accountable, and we have made sure that justice is served to those who were involved in any wrongdoing. But there are laws and treaty obligations that are in place and that we follow. And the Department of Defense has made it very clear that when it comes to detainees, that they treat them in a humane fashion. And that's consistent --
Q But they're not being treated humanely.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- with what our laws and obligations call for.
09:58 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
What the hell is this? Part Two
Featuring (left-to-right) Presidents Lincoln, Hooplehead, and Washington, it's called Pray for Peace and it's legit. I saw this hanging on a wall in a diner last night and spent most of dinner trying to figure out if it was a joke.
It's no joke. Just sad.
06:18 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By Bob Cesca
What the hell is this?
From Catholic.net. Is this a joke? A wicked satire?
Nope. Real.
It's from the web publishers who penned such articles as God's Megaphone and the jam-band-meets-Christ hybrid Jesusphish.
Sadly, once "Umbert" is birthed he's destined to lead a life of guilt, self-doubt, and potential molestation. Poor Catholic fetus Umbert.
(Thanks to Josh Dobbin's site for the link.)
03:56 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Banana Head: No presidential run in '08
Senator Rick Santorum: Well, I will be honest with you. I have six children ages 4-14. And the idea of coming off a race of the intensity that I am engaged in at this point and turning around and running another two year campaign for president is not something that I believe is in the best interest of my family, which I say in the book, and I believe in my heart it's my principal responsibility. I can't speak for other politicians but I can speak for me, and my intention is not to run in 2008.
From the Washington Post.
02:06 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
