Something in this puff piece about Bush the Mighty jumped out at me:

Earlier this month, his annual physical showed the 6-foot, 189-pound president had a resting heart rate of 44 beats per minute, which puts him in the range of elite marathoners. He had 14.5 percent body fat. "I try to go for longer runs, but it's tough around here at the White House on the outdoor track," he told the magazine. "It's sad that I can't run longer. It's one of the saddest things about the presidency."

Now they've started lying about his height. I need a drink.

Bush chides press for 'silly' Iraq obsession By Bill Sammon THE WASHINGTON TIMES

MEDFORD, Ore. — President Bush believes "the press looks silly" for obsessing over Iraq in its coverage of a meeting on a different topic — missile defense — that he held with military advisers this week, said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

"The press yesterday and the day before reached an absurd point of self-inflicted silliness," Mr. Fleischer told reporters aboard Air Force One. "A self-inflicted point of silliness that goes beyond the usual August hype..."


True, they could be obsessing about sharks or blowjobs. Important stuff.

Damn, I didn't know GOP Team Leader had 33 Different Teams!!

Which one should I enroll in?

African American Team
American Indian Team
Arab American Team
Asian American Team
Catholic Team
Conservative Team
Disability Team
Eastern European Team
Education Team
Environment Team
Evangelical Team
Farmer and Rancher Team
Greek American Team
Haitian American Team
High-Tech Team
Hispanic Team
Home School Team
Indian American Team
Irish American Team
Italian Team
Jewish Team
Labor Team
Law Enforcement Team
Lebanese American Team
Muslim Team
Senior Team
Small Business Team
Sportsman Team
Stock Car Team
Student Team
Veteran Team
Woman Team
Young Professional Team

I bet that Arab American and Muslim teams are really fucking popular. They sure do have a big tent!

Labor team? You've got to be kidding..

What team do the Log Cabin Republicans join?



Maybe not so big after all.

I guess a little dose of Malaria knocked the sense back into Tweety. I'm sure he'll be back to waxing moronic about earth tones and sublime masculinity on Hardball soon.

This invasion of Iraq, if it goes off, will join the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Desert One, Beirut and Somalia in the history of U.S. military catastrophes. What will set it apart for all time is the immense - and transparent - political stupidity.

A mission to attack an isolated enemy will isolate us. A mission justified by the fight with terrorism will give birth to millions of terrorist-supporting haters.

Terrorist Granny gets the Riot Squad treatment!!!


go get her guys!!!




caption:


Riot police grab a protester as they clear the streets around an event attended by President Bush in downtown Portland, Ore. on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002. Police used pepper spray to clear hundreds of protesters away from an area near a hotel where Bush was holding a fund-raiser. (AP Photo/John Gress)

Richard Posner, who seems to get stupider every day, had this to say this morning on NPR about the tension between liberty and security.



Judge POSNER: If the country feels it's in danger, yeah, there are going to be abuses and excesses, but that's life.


Not so different from his impassioned defense of Bush v. Gore which amounted to "well, someone had to step in and do something. That's life!"

Bargain prices for Bush/Simon fundraiser.

"DANA POINT – The cost of getting into President George W. Bush's fund- raiser for GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon just got a lot cheaper for some, indicating growing doubts about Simon's ability to win, say political experts from both parties.

The Friday-evening reception at the posh St. Regis resort in Dana Point, which follows a Bush appearance at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, was originally billed as $1,000 per person, with the money going to Simon's campaign. But e-mails sent to GOP activists at the end of last week added cut-rate tickets at $250 each.

"Nobody reduces the price of the tickets unless they're having trouble selling them," said veteran political consultant Harvey Englander, who has worked for numerous local Republicans, including Supervisor Todd Spitzer and former Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer. "They need to sell more tickets. They need the bodies."

Terminus notes that Bush has announced exemptions on steel tariffs:


Incompetence Writ Large. This is priceless. Politically, it's really not a big story, but it shows in livid detail the egg all over Bush's face. Apparently, and not for the first time, Bush has decided to grant exemptions on his steel tariff policy, in order to prevent a trade war with the EU. Well done, Bush. Announce a policy that you don't believe in, that your political base doesn't believe in, and that everyone will immediately view as a naked political ploy. Then, totally capitulate to the EU, which should really get your base energized, and slink off into a corner to have a good cry. Nice one.

Sucks to be a shock jock. Opie and Anthony fired, show cancelled by syndicator. I wonder if they'll stay fired.

Speaking of Kaus, you can see Paul Krugman's response to his latest rant here. Kaus does here what he does a lot - takes a fairly innocent phrase, redefines it, and then throws it back at the writer.

[ahem] Just in case anyone was thinking of switching to Working Assets, which has very competitive rates (domestic and international with plan) and in my experience very friendly customer service, feel free to clink the link at the left..


and...they give you a whole bunch of free ice cream!

Alterman says this:

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that “at the grass roots” among African American voters, there is a growing perception that “Jewish people are attempting to pick our leaders. . . . There is some concern about that. It’s concern about any candidate being targeted by a special-interest group for voting on any one issue.”

I think AIPAC et al are being very stupid by targeting black Congressman who don’t vote “right” on Israel. Congress could not be more pro-Israeli if it were taking orders from my (late) bubbe and zeida. One vote, one voice, here or there makes no difference.

Because it plays into anti-Jew stereotypes, this kind of heavy-handed financial intervention to pick the winner of a largely African American race is actually a boon to anti-Semites of the black and extremist left-wing varieties. (See under: “Louis Farrakhan” and “Alexander Cockburn.”) What AIPAC et al appear to be saying is “We will tolerate no dissent of any kind on Israel in American public life.” They do Israel and America’s Jews no favor.

I agree. In addition, it provides an exploitable wedge issue between the two most consistently democratic-voting racial/ethnic groups.

TAPPED picks on Reynolds for being a literalist.

Actually, him of "Impeach Mineta," is a selective literalist.

Where Ann Coulter leads, the Freepers follow. Over to you Mickey...


One down, Ann!



To: paulklenk

NEW YORK TIMES SUICIDE; LONGTIME REPORTER/EDITOR JUMPS TO HIS DEATH FROM 43RD FLOOR

Women, Minorities and Gays Hardest Hit


[...]

To: cajungirl

Definitely not Raines.

Probably some younger editor who had a revelation this morning, looked back over the damage he had caused this country, and decided to darwin himself before he
could do more

[..]

To: Loyalist

Weeping on floor with inappropriate laughter!!

[...]



To: Lunatic Fringe

The only good liberal is a dead liberal!

38 posted on 8/22/02 10:24 AM Pacific by claptrap

[...]

To: 1bigdictator

My guess: His ties to militant Arab groups was to be exposed.

I'll second that supposition.

[...]


To: Don Munn

Rush just played "It's Raining Men" as bumper music...mean....

72 posted on 8/22/02 10:33 AM Pacific by July 4th


[...]

To: primeval patriot

If that was the case, joking about it isn't appropriate.

Especially since nobody here can recall reading anything he wrote.

Now, had this been Paul Krugman....

111 posted on 8/22/02 10:54 AM Pacific by Dog Gone

[...]

Talkleft has the scary lowdown on "sneak and peek" searches.


For those not familiar with "sneak and peak" searches, Section 213 of the newly enacted Patriot Act allows the police to enter and search a home without telling anyone they have done so, seriously undermining the Fourth Amendment and one’s ability to mount a fourth amendment challenge to the search or any other kind of defense.

Section 213 is not limited to terrorism investigations. It applies to the search and seizure of any property or material pursuant to a search warrant “that constitutes evidence of a criminal offense in violation of the laws of the United States.”

Pandagon has some comments on paperless voting.



This is a big deal folks. As a democratic party hack I'm obviously concerned about what's going on in Florida, but more generally this should be of concern to everyone.

Poor, factually challenged, Mr. Perkins writes this:



Money . . .

Liabilities now total $1.6 billion in the Adelphia restatement.

WorldCom is thought to owe its banks approximately $4.5 billion.

Tyco has lost about 83 percent of its value since December.

Enron total shareholder value lost: $63,101,519,000.

Over the past 27 months, the nation's stock markets have lost about $5.5 trillion in value, or nearly three times what the U.S. government spends annually.

Do you want our government run by corporations? Vote Democratic in November.

That's the text of the latest attack ad rolled out by the party of Terry McAuliffe. The Democratic National Committee chairman plans to air them in selected battleground states and congressional districts throughout the country.


Sound familiar? It would if you'd checked out the great flash ads at Blah3 (on the left under '? campaign' - check out the money ones). The author (at the same link) has this to say:


Note to Mr. Perkins - Hey, Doofus, it's not a DNC ad. It was formulated by the folks at BartCop and built by a guy on his home computer. In your haste to blame something, anything on those nasty, partisan, hypocritical Democrats, you ignored the most basic fact -

The DNC had nothing - NOTHING - to do with those ads.

But that's what you upstanding Republics do, isn't it? Make an assumption and treat it like the gospel.

I'll be waiting for Mr. Perkins to make a retraction. Email to follow.


UPDATE: Blah3 now has its email to Perkins up.

As MWO points out (a good read today, as every day), the quote of the day at Mickey Kaus backed Lucianne.com is:


"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

-Ann Coulter in an interview with the New York Observer.


The use of the word 'only' in this comment is particularly chilling.

Just wanted to add that the below letter was written by 'Baconslab,' and not me.

To: Abba_Abacha@aol.ng
From: dick_cheney@whitehouse.gov
Subject: Please help

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am Mr Dick Cheney a special adviser on Petroleum and economic matters to the Head of State of The United States of America. Because of my strategic position in the former Government, and also being a close confidant of the Head of State, I was able to acquire personally, the Sum of $25,000,000,000.00USD (twenty-five billion United States Dollars) presently lodged in some offshore sham bank owned by his brother Neil.

I made this money largely through "CONSULTANCY FEE" And "Good Faith Fees" paid by the stupid chimp out of the public treasury, it really didn't matter what I wrote on the invoice. I especially loved writing out the "Good Faith" bills. The little monkey would say "this is for Jeezus, right Unka Dick?" and I'd say "yes Dubya, its kinda like a 'free will offering'. LOL. Texas is the 6th largest Producer/Exporter of Crude Petroleum in the world and The Largest Producer/Exporter of fucking morons.

As you are probably aware The United States of America is prone to Political/Economic Instability, HyperInflation, among other problems. I know, things were pretty cool here for the last ten years or so but with this dipshit at the wheel I'm thinking its time to git while the gittin's good. I have therefore resolved to Invest my money abroad, preferably in Real Estate Properties and Sex Toys for safety and optimum returns on Investments.

However, straight transfer of this money into a bank Abroad will present two major problems:

1. The tax incidence will be too high, even with the idiotic tax cut the chimp managed to get through our congress the taxes are too much. My mama didn't raise no fool. I've never paid taxes and I ain't about to start now.

2. This could look really, really bad.

So as a result of my personal greed, which borders on the psychopathic, I've had to find another plan. The solution is to Courier this money in cash abroad, through Courier Service Company here in the USA, the money will be packed in A Diplomatic Bag or Carton tagged Diplomatic luggage Which will be addressed to you. This system is secret and the money is therefore untraceable. It is the System used by most top Government officials in the USA to remove their fortunes to safety abroad.

I have therefore concluded every arrangement with a Courier Company in Wyoming to Courier this money abroad using the courtesy and safety of Diplomatic Bag (TM). All I now need is an honest partner who can receive the money on my behalf and help me to invest as aforementioned.

There is absolutely no risk involved in this transaction as the money will be delivered to you in United States Dollars Bills. Try not to throw your back out dude.

If you are interested in assisting me, please send me an email immediately, as you are to lodge this money in a bank Account and contact me for necessary arrangements for the investment after acknowledgement of the receipt of the money.

For your help and assistance in this deal, you will receive 30% of this money in cash, 10% will be set aside to offset all expenses while the remaining 60% is for me.

Finally, you are to please urgently email your personal phone and fax numbers for an easy communication and for me to instruct the Courier Company to dispatch the money to you before we go into other necessary details.

Expecting to hear from you.

Best regards,

Dick Cheney