John Bolton

What kind of sick, sick, sick world do we live in when I agree with John Bolton?

As bad as the bloodying of Georgia is, the broader consequences are worse. The United States fiddled while Georgia burned, not even reaching the right rhetorical level in its public statements until three days after the Russian invasion began, and not, at least to date, matching its rhetoric with anything even approximating decisive action. This pattern is the very definition of a paper tiger. Sending Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice to Tbilisi is touching, but hardly reassuring; dispatching humanitarian assistance is nothing more than we would have done if Georgia had been hit by a natural rather than a man-made disaster.

Bush Inspecting the Troops

Does anyone remember the controversy about wearing flip flops at the White House? This puts that whole stupid thing into perspective doesn't it?

For more fun Bush in action shots go here.

If You Can't Trust Pravda...

If you can't trust Pravda who can you trust?

Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper wrote with reference to The National Examiner tabloid that George and Laura Bush were planning a divorce after the presidential election in the USA.

According to the supermarket tabloid, George and Laura Bush hardly ever speak to each other. George feels very unhappy and does not want Laura to leave him. However, the newspaper wrote, Laura is tired of everything; she is determined to live her own life.

The couple still keeps their relationship alive just because they are contractually obliged to stay together during George W. Bush’s presidency; it is not a matter of feelings at all.

And the possible reason for the breakup:

The tabloid dwells upon the reasons which could lead to the possible divorce. The newspaper believes that George . W. Bush has been having an affair with US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. A former employee of the presidential administration told The National Examiner that Laura Bush once spent her night in a hotel to stay away from the White House.

New Bloc Party Video

Here is the new video from Bloc Party called "Mercury":



Of all the new generation of British bands [let's say from Coldplay on], Bloc Party is my favorite. But after watching this video, I am struck by how bad it is. Criticising the United States is such an easy trap to fall into, especially for a band that isn't American. It is so easy to say, "look at them, they're horrible, they're so stupid they would elect a horse/crab thing."

As I once said to my girlfriend who is living in Europe currently, "don't ever let anyone from England make you feel bad about being an American." The level of absolute bullshit and tyranny England unleashed upon this world is staggering for it being such a small country. [And I say this with 1/4 English blood running through my veins]. Here's a short list:

--Invention of concentration camps [Boer War]
--Occupation of Ireland...why isn't Ireland united yet?
--They still have a Queen. What kind of gutless country determines the type of government they will have because it might effect tourism sales?
--No English person should ever say anything about George Bush...because you have your own: Margaret Thatcher. At least we have the foresight to limit Presidents to terms [eight years]...Thatcher got 11. Not to mention Bush's partner in crime Tony Blair.
--You think America's racist, American racism can learn a lot from Enoch Powell.
--An unwritten Constitution...make fun of Americans' phone getting tapped all you want at least we have actual rules that you can see and read. It sort of helps in protecting them.
--Occupation of India, United States, Canada, Egypt, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, etc...

The point is this, is America perfect? Far from it. But the English shouldn't be the ones to criticize.

Happy Birthday George

George Bush's birthday has snuck up on me again and so what do you get the man who has given America so so much? How about a wooden box?:

The staff presented him with a wooden box made from a giant oak tree that fell on the White House lawn in 2007. Some of the wood from the tree, planted by Benjamin Harrison's daughter in 1892, had been sent to Texas to be fashioned into a box about 12-by-18 inches. They filled it with notes and cards from members of his senior staff.

41%

The question always seems to be "are we better off than we were eight years ago?"...Well as you ponder that, read this [my emphasis added]:

"When President George W. Bush went to his first Group of Eight summit in 2001, a dominant issue was the dollar -- the strong dollar, that is. The U.S. currency was on a record-setting streak, and the free-marketeering president wasn't going to stand in the way.

On the eve of Bush's last G-8 appearance, the dollar's gyrations are again in the crossfire. This time, it is a weak currency, upended by slumping growth, a housing recession and record gas prices, that is gnawing away at the world economy.

The dollar's 41 percent drop against the euro during Bush's term writes the economic epitaph of an administration that set out to restore American preeminence. Instead, Bush heads to Japan next week for his final international summit with diminished leverage as Russian and Chinese influence grows"

Number 2

I think naming a sewage treatment plant after George Bush is in poor form...dislike him a little or a lot he still deserves some respect...it's a little embarrassing...not as embarrassing as say this is or this, or this [and remember, this last one was put together to make the President laugh]:

Matlock Meets Lee Harvey Oswald

Blogs are supposed to be great for their immediacy and ability to cover breaking, current controversies.

As evidenced by my popular culture reviews on this blog, I clearly have not gotten that memo. But I press on, undeterred.

"Death Of A President" was a darling of international film critics and the most controversial film of 2006, lambasted by all sides of the U.S. political divide. Hillary Clinton described it as despicable. It was banned by several top U.S. cinema chains.

The source of the controversy is that it revolves around the assassination of President George W. Bush after a Chicago speech in October 2007. Those of you who have even a tenuous grasp on reality will realize that President Bush is alive and was not shot in Chicago in October of last year. The CGI effects are respectable enough to make the footage look realistic enough.

But the fatal flaw to this highly controversial film: it wastes the controversy.

If you are going to make that kind of film, it better be worth it. It needs to be very original and make solid points. Yet this film only glides across its strongest points to be a B-level murder mystery.

The film references President Cheney using his predecessor's death to have Congress unanimously pass PATRIOT Act III to give law enforcement more tools to root out terrorism. But the film never explains what those tools are. Can law enforcement now listen to all phone calls all the time? Can it open your mail? Can law enforcement beat you to within an inch of your life simply because you are an Arab who goes to a mosque every day? Or does PAIII simply streamline processes? We never find out. The fertile ground of how civil liberties are protected (or not) in the wake of cataclysmic events is an extremely minor plot point.

And when the suspected assassin is a Syrian, the film gives us about two minutes on the saber-rattling between the U.S. and Syria as well as President Cheney's infatuation with a Syrian dissident in the U.S. who claims that he saw President Bush's name on a hit list. Any meaningful exploration of the Bush-Cheney foreign policy and its formulations is thrown aside.

For all of its skill and controversy, the film makes a mistake that Matlock never did. This murder mystery breaks one of the cardinal rules of the genre: the real killer has to be someone introduced early on. In every Matlock episode, we met the real killer long before the wise defense lawyer ever got that person up on the stand to confess at the 58 minute mark. This film is like a Matlock episode if you had the Muslim guy as Matlock's defendant, the disaffected veteran as the main suspect to be the real killer and the disaffected veteran's father as the real killer, only we don't even meet the father until the 56 minute mark. That would be an amazingly bad Matlock episode, yet that is what we have here.

Moral of Death of a President: If someone shoots the President, the Muslim guy will get blamed. It is a movie that uses controversy to wallpaper over two-dimensional characters, a lack of originality and a superficial knowledge of the issues. I give it zero stars, not because of the controversy, but because the controversy is wasted on a film unworthy of the attention.

George & Jenna's Dance

President Bush & First Daughter Jenna choose "You Are So Beautiful" to dance to during the father/daughter dance at Jenna's wedding over the weekend...is that a little weird? At least it wasn't "You Light Up My Life" or "Afternoon Delight" as songs not about what you think they are about...

This is a version of the song, sung by the Beach Boys [well a version of the Beach Boys and sung by Dennis Wilson] from their Live at Knebworth, England concert in 1980.

The Beach Boys -- You Are So Beautiful

Nature Boy

You know, every once in a while a story comes along that is too perfect for words. To start watch this:



"Woooooooooooooooo!"



But the more and more I think about this, Ric Flair represents more than just the blondest hair any human has ever had. He is exactly the personification of the person I think of when I hear the words "Bush tax cuts." I kid because I love.

In Support of Bush

No, no, no...not that Bush. This Bush:


I came upon this CD the other day and seeing that it was an import, I thought it was one of those Greatest Hits collections done in the middle of a career to up record sales or maybe get out of a record contract...like this collection [it doesn't even have their cover of "Ms. Jackson" on it!]:
But investigating a little further, the set came out in 2005 which means the good folks at Bush, Inc. are abandoning the Golden State album as not worthy of inclusion in their best work. It is a shame that the song "The People That We Love" [formerly called "Speed Kills"...the title was changed shortly after the album was released and ranks as the 2nd stupidest rock title change that happened following September 11th. The 1st being the changing of Jimmy Eat World's album Bleed American to just Jimmy Eat World.] isn't included as the album would really include everything you would ever need from Bush.

Though "The People That We Love" was cut, they don't blink from including three songs from The Science of Things album, especially the song "Warm Machine" which is my favorite Bush song.

Bush -- Warm Machine
From The Science of Things album.

Bush -- The People That We Love
From Golden State album.

Write Your Own Caption

Echo & The Bunnymen -- Crystal Days
From the Ocean Rain album.

Echo & The Bunnymen -- The Cutter
From the Porcupine album.

Presidential Photo of the Day

President Bush:

Neil Young & Crazy Horse -- Danger Bird
From the Zuma album.

The Liars -- Do As the Birds, Eat the Remains
From the Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack EP.

Secret Service Part III

Part II is here and Part I is here.

Moving away a little bit from the original topic, to just John McCain in general, in the eyes liberals it is a case of "what could have been." In 2000, he was a Republican that we could almost feel comfortable with. In 2004, he was possibly our Vice Presidential candidate for a second or two. And then he went and did this:


His endorsement of President Bush after what his campaign did to him in South Carolina in 2000 is one of those moments that forever changed our attitudes toward him. It's a matter of self dignity. And for McCain it was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" moment. He would have to sacrifice some independent votes but through his support of Bush he would be the heir apparent and hell, maybe even pick up Bush's endorsement. And that's the way it played out at first in terms of the conventional wisdom of the Chris Matthews of the world about McCain in early 2007...but then they actually got around to asking what Republican voters were looking for...it hasn't been McCain but there is time for things to change...and it might start tomorrow with the endorsement from 9/11 Commission Chairperson Tom Kean.

Embrace -- Nature's Law
Embrace -- Sainted
Both tracks are from the This New Day album.

No Recess

This week while I am eating turkey, watching the Packers crush the Lions, and preparing for my 5am shopping spree at Best Buy on Friday, the US Senate will still be in session…well sort of…nobody will be there passing bills and raising taxes but they will be “in session” so President Bush cannot use his recess appointment powers…These are some tactics that any parliamentarian would love.

Nirvana – School (Live)
From the From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah album.

Here is a photo of the muddy banks of the Wishkah River that I took in Aberdeen, Washington (Kurt Cobain's hometown)...the bridge in the photo is the bridge made famous in "Something In The Way."

2/3

With all the hyperbolic talk of President Bush being a dictator or President Bush being like a famous German fascist in the 1930's and 1940's, all it really takes is a unified Congress and Bush becomes irrelevant as we see with the veto overturn vote on the Water Resources Development Act today...

This is as close I could find to a song with "2/3" in the title...

Ryan Adams -- Sweet Lil Gal (23rd/1st)

Ryan Adams has a new EP out, Follow the Lights, that can be purchased here.

Vetos

Given the title of my blog, how could I not love the title of this Washington Post article about President Bush?:

"Bush: I am Relevant"

Jean Knight -- Mr. Big Stuff

Jean was a big Stax Records star and you can pick up Jean Knight's albums here.

Deo Vindice

With Karl Rove leaving the White House last week, there was another round of talk about how President Bush (like Brian Wilson) just wasn't made for these times and that some distant futuristic America will have the technology to "Get Bush."

This reminds me of Mr. Jeffries from my AP U.S. History class in high school and The Great Seal of the Confederacy with the motto "Deo Vindice" which is "God Will Vindicate."

At least with President Bush, we give God a break and force History to be the judge.

Political Anagrams

I've been recently spending a lot of time on the Internet Anagram Server that give you anagrams for whatever name you type in...Here are some of my favorites:

George Bush:
Bugger Shoe

Dick Cheney:
Checked Yin
Chicken Dye
Chick Needy
Dicky Hence

Larry Craig:
Carry Grail

Mitt Romney:
Memory Tint
Metro Minty
Mime Not Try

Hillary Clinton:
A Chi Trill Nylon
A Chin Trill Only
A Corn Thinly Ill

Some names are suprisingly disappointing, such as John McCain and John Edwards.

Atrios At His Best

This is a little dated...from yesterday:

Lay Off Miss Teen S.C.

I don't know if she's dumb as a stone or if she just understandably had a bit of a brain fart. I've got a Ph.D and I probably had moments like that in public. Either way she's just a young woman whose worst moment wasn't appreciably worse than the regular outbursts of our commander in chief. It means nothing. Let it go.