« January 08, 2006 - January 14, 2006 | Main | January 22, 2006 - January 28, 2006 »

January 19, 2006

Today's town hall meeting in Loudon County, Virginia:

Q Good morning, Mr. President, thank you for being here. My son is one of those young men, at 18 years old almost -- I hope I don't cry, but I --

THE PRESIDENT: I hope you don't, too, because I will, as well, and then we -- (laughter.)

Q Okay.

Laughter. Awesome.

Q (Inaudible.) And we're proud of you Mr. President, and your --

THE PRESIDENT: Keep it up, will you? (Laughter.) About time.

Q (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Laughter and applause.) It's always good to have a plant in every audience, you know? (Laughter.)

Well, the ENTIRE audience is planted. But Bubble Boy doesn't need to know that.

BUSH: There's a lot of temptation to change to try to make people want to like you. That's not the job of a leader. The job of a leader is to know where he or she wants to lead and know the principles on which you'll make decisions.

Really? That's -- jeez -- so that's what a leader does, eh? Jon Stewart played a recent clip in which Bush is doing this very same kind of "Civics for Dummies" routine. Stewart said the quote was the lead in the latest issue of "Dumbfucks Monthly." The cover art of the magazine featured a guy eating soap with the caption, "Whoops! I just ate soap!"

07:20 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

This is -- my God this is wrong. Via Atrios:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Have you gone to see [Brokeback Mountain] yet? I’ve seen everything else but that. I just—

DON IMUS: No, I haven’t seen it. Why would I want to see that? [Because clearly straight people shouldn't see movies about gay people lest they turn gay themselves. -BC]

MATTHEWS: I don’t know. No opinion on that. I haven’t seen it either, so—

IMUS: So they were—it was out when I was in New Mexico and—it doesn’t resonate with real cowboys who I know.

MATTHEWS: Yeah—

IMUS: But then, maybe there’s stuff going on on the ranch that I don’t know about. Not on my ranch, but you know—

MATTHEWS: Well, the wonderful Michael Savage, who’s on 570 in DC, who shares a station with you at least, he calls it [laughter]—what’s he call it?—he calls it Bare-back Mount-ing. That’s his name for the movie.

IMUS: Of course, Bernard calls it Fudgepack Mountain...

You know... shit. 50 years ago, they would've said the same thing about a movie about an interracial couple. Grow up, America! Dammit. Historians of the future -- even though they haven't been born yet -- are already laughing at our knuckle-dragging bigotry. Wise up!

03:51 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

January 18, 2006

Really now -- how important is this story considering everything else going on right now?

CNN, which is rapidly becoming Fox Lite, had a lower-third banner on this morning which read "Chocolate-Gate". Uh-huh. Just so you know, CNN is hiring right-wing extremist and very Aryan-looking talk radio asshole Glenn Beck to host his own show. The same idiot who said:

"And that's all we're hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones that we're seeing on television are the scumbags."

Meanwhile, we all completely overlooked a Bush gaff from Monday.

On Monday, Bush viewed the original copy of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and said, "Abraham Lincoln recognized that all men are created equal." Trouble is, Bushie, "all men are created equal" is a quote from the Gettysburg Address and NOT the Emancipation Proclamation. But you know, the president shouldn't need to know this.

And finally, via Atrios, check this out.

08:34 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

January 17, 2006

Bill in Portland Maine on Daily Kos:

The Great Franklin-Bush debate...in 6 rounds:

Bush: America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.
Franklin: All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?

-

Bush Health care reform must begin with Medicare; Medicare is the binding commitment of a caring society. We must renew that commitment by giving seniors access to preventive medicine and new drugs that are transforming health care in America.
Franklin: Well done is better than well said.

-

Bush: There is no "trust fund," just IOUs that I saw firsthand, that future generations will pay---will pay for either in higher taxes, or reduced benefits, or cuts to other critical government programs. The office here in Parkersburg stores those IOUs. They're stacked in a filing cabinet. Imagine---the retirement security for future generations is sitting in a filing cabinet. It's time to strengthen and modernize Social Security for future generations with growing assets that you can control, that you call your own---assets that the government cannot take away.
Franklin: Half a truth is often a great lie.

-

Bush: The fact that somebody leaked this program [of illegally spying on Americans without a warrant] causes great harm to the United States. There's an enemy out there.
Franklin: Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

-

Bush: I'm a uniter, not a divider. I refuse to play the politics of putting people into groups and pitting one group against another.
Franklin: Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest.

-

Bush: I'm not going to change my mind.
Franklin: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise. ... When you're finished changing, you're finished.

The only thing missing is a section in which Bush's operatives covertly smear Ben Franklin's patriotism.

09:13 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

January 16, 2006

Can I say it or will I jinx us all? Ah, what the hell: GORE FOR AMERICA!

Speech highlights here. It's mandatory viewing.

08:45 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

President King Idiot today:

"It seems fitting on Martin Luther King Day that I come and look at the Emancipation Proclamation in its original form. [Seems fitting?] Abraham Lincoln recognized that all men are created equal. [That's all men, Bushie. Not just straight men.] Martin Luther King lived on that admonition to call our country to a higher calling [calling, calling, calling], and today we celebrate the life of an American who called Americans to account when we didn't live up to our ideals." [And he would've had a field day with you, Bush.]

Who agrees that Bush would've swift-boated Dr. King were he alive today?

08:40 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca