Month: January 2008

Pony, Bitches!14 Comments

Bush Stank Contaminates Pickles

Heh. AnotherPew Poll: Laura Bush, once almost universally liked, has seen her favorability ratings slip along with her husband’s over the past three years. Currently, a slim majority of Americans (54%) say they have a favorable impression of the First Lady, down from 70% in August of 2004. The number saying they have an unfavorable view of Laura Bush has risen from 18% to 29% over the same time period. While trending downward, views of Laura Bush have changed less dramatically than have views of her husband over the past five years. The poll, conducted Dec. 19-30 among 1,430 adults … Continue reading Bush Stank Contaminates Pickles

Congress6 Comments

Dodd to Senate: SACK UP

Read the whole thing. I’ve been trying for an hour to pick out the best bit, and I can’t. I can only wish I’d heard it, because holy shit, does this guy ever blow the doors off when he’s on a hot streak: We’ve let outrage upon outrage upon outrage slide with nothing more than a promise to stop the next one. There is only one issue here. Only one. The law issue. Attack the president’s contempt for the law at any point, and it will be wounded at all points. That’s why I’m here today. I am speaking for … Continue reading Dodd to Senate: SACK UP

Of Interest3 Comments

I’ve Been Going Through Jacob Withdrawal

Allison Hantschel

It’s not that I think I’m too good to watch American Idol or anything. I mean, I watch Survivor and love every stupid catty minute of it. I watch a Robin Hood show in which Little John wears jeans and they have Maid Marian dressed in, like, a cardigan she bought at H&M last week. I am not immune to the charms of cheese, and most of the movies I really love are absolute crap (American Pie II, no joke: “He happened to notice there’s an abundance of weiner here.”). It’s that I tried to watch American Idol and it … Continue reading I’ve Been Going Through Jacob Withdrawal

Stupid Republican Tricks5 Comments

Columnwhoring: GOP edition

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Fail: As titular head of the GOP for his two presidential terms, George W. Bush held three disparate constituencies together by promising them all their dreams tied up in pretty red bows. To the religious right, that gay marriage would be banned by a Constitutional amendment and that his Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. To the neoconservative Middle-East interventionists, largely brought to the table by his father and Dick Cheney, that he would remake the region in the image of American democracy by force, if necessary. To the pragmatic pro-business types, who … Continue reading Columnwhoring: GOP edition

Pony, Bitches!2 Comments

Miserable Failure

Chimpy’s job approval rating in the latestPew Poll is stuck at 31%; most Americans view the Bush Assministration as aMiserable Failure. As he begins his final year in office, President Bush’s standing with the public continues to worsen. While his overall job approval ratings are holding steady, the balance of opinion is roughly two-to-one negative (31% approve, 59% disapprove). And the number of Americans – including many within the president’s own party – who see the failures of his administration outweighing the accomplishments continues to rise, and a record high number say this year’s State of the Union address is … Continue reading Miserable Failure

Uncategorized3 Comments

Jindal faces charges of violating ethics laws

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal who ran on a platform of ethics reform hassome ethics problems… BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal is facing charges of violating ethics laws for failure to properly disclose more than $100,000 in Republican Party assistance to his gubernatorial campaign. The Louisiana Board of Ethics has ordered a public hearing to determine whether Jindal and his campaign committee violated the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws. Melissa Sellers, Jindal’s spokeswoman, confirmed the charges and said the campaign plans to pay a $2,500 fine. She said the campaign has already amended the disclosure report in question to reflect … Continue reading Jindal faces charges of violating ethics laws

Economy2 Comments

The D-Word

Holy Crap!™ Sales of existing homes fell in December, closing out a horrible year for housing in which sales of single-family homes plunged by the largest amount in 25 years. The median home price dropped for the entire year, the first time that has occurred in four decades. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 2.2 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units. For the year, sales of single-family homes were down by 13 percent, the biggest drop since a 17.7 percent plunge in 1982. The … Continue reading The D-Word

Holden's Obsession with the Gaggle4 Comments

Today On Holden’s Obsession With [Yesterday’s] Gaggle

How ToDestroy The Constitution In Six Months

Q Senator Reid wants the President to support a one-month extension of FISA. Is he okay with that?

MS. PERINO: Well, the Senate has had six months in order to work on this bill.

[snip]

Q Yes. In theory, what is so odious about keeping the current law in place until all sides can hash out the various differences?

MS. PERINO: Well, look, there’s been six months to hash out the differences. Actually, we’ve been — there’s been a whole year-and-a-half worth of hashing out the differences on this bill.

Dana Says Math Is Hard

Q Can we finish with the budget deficits —

MS. PERINO: The economy? Okay.

Q — since we’re on that? What do you think of this new CBO estimate that shows the slowing economy having a pretty dramatic effect on increasing the debt?

MS. PERINO: Well, I don’t know how they come to their — all of the numbers at CBO. It’s a little bit — math is not my strong suit.

Question Of The day

Q Does it not worry you that the legacy of this administration is going to be hundreds of billions of dollars of extra debt?

Continue reading “Today On Holden’s Obsession With [Yesterday’s] Gaggle”

Political Crack2 Comments

The Two Percent Solution

Just 2% of Americans say the State of the Union is“Excellent”. As President George W. Bush is fine tuning his last State of the Union address, American adults do not think much of the current state of the country. Four out of five Americans (81%) think that the current state of the country is fair or poor while just 19 percent think it is excellent or good. In fact, just two percent of Americans think the state of the country is excellent. Last year at this time, three in ten (31%) thought the state of the country was excellent or … Continue reading The Two Percent Solution

Uncategorized2 Comments

Kicked Off The Island

Allison Hantschel

From Holden: Apparently the press is to blame for the fact that three detanees who had been locked up for years wihtout being charged or having their day in court committed suicide at GITMO. In the aftermath of the three suicides at the notorious Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba last Saturday, reporters with the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald were ordered by the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to leave the island today. A third reporter and a photographer with the Charlotte Observer were given the option of staying until Saturday but, E&P has learned, were … Continue reading Kicked Off The Island

Terrorism8 Comments

When Do We Invade Trinidad?

Allison Hantschel

After all, they attacked us: NEW YORK – Federal authorities said a plot by a suspected Muslim terrorist cell to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport, its fuel tanks and a jet fuel artery could have caused “unthinkable” devastation. But while pipeline and security experts agreed that such an attack would have crippled America’s economy, particularly the airline industry, they said it probably would not have led to significant loss of life as intended. Authorities announced Saturday they had broken up the suspected terrorist cell, arresting three men, one of them a former member of Guyana’s parliament. A fourth … Continue reading When Do We Invade Trinidad?

Political Crack1 Comment

Columnwhoring: Post-Hangover To-Do List

Link: I’m already making a list so my hangover-fogged brain won’t have to store up everything that will need doing. On that list so far: An independent investigation and accounting of any and all violations of the civil liberties of Americans in the name of fighting terrorism, including warrantless wiretap surveillance of citizens’ phone calls, and punishment for those who broke the law, be they elected officials or telecom companies. Publication of the results so we all know what was done, by who, to whom, and why, given that we cannot learn from mistakes if we don’t even know entirely … Continue reading Columnwhoring: Post-Hangover To-Do List

Diary8 Comments

Grow Your Own Help

Gross: As Roy notes, the threats of being alone and unloved are a favorite tactic of culture warriors trying to bully the rest of us into following their paranoid values system. On the alone and unloved front, I have to point out, with as much tact as I can muster, that while Rod Dreher and Phillip Longman, who he quotes extensively, might be in a situation where they have to make people to get anyone to care about them, their dilemma is not shared by the entire nation. Many people are able to get friends and loved ones on a … Continue reading Grow Your Own Help

Uncategorized1 Comment

Right Now, Bitches, Right Now

Blow the horn. Time to put a stop to it, Senators. Time, past time, to stop acting like you don’t get what this is about. Time to stop fucking around. Time to stand up. Time to do this, past time, long past time, should have done it years ago. This has never been okay, it never will be okay, and unless you really, really, really aggressively work to not give a shit, it’s not okay right now, so get off your asses. If there’s one thing the past seven years have proved to me, it’s that nobody does anything without … Continue reading Right Now, Bitches, Right Now

Political Crack8 Comments

An Army Of Dumb

Way tobreak the army, Chimpy! The percent of Army recruits with a high school diploma dropped last year, continuing a trend that has worsened since the start of the Iraq war, according to a report released Tuesday. National Priorities Project, a research group that analyzes federal data, found that nearly 71 percent of Army recruits graduated from high school in the 2007 budget year. It based its findings on data it obtained from the Defense Department through a Freedom of Information Act request. [snip] The Army’s goal is 90 percent high school graduates, which it hasn’t met since 2004. Each … Continue reading An Army Of Dumb

Your President Speaks1 Comment

Your President Speaks!

Today, at theWhite House. There’s A Spirit There’s a spirit of — that is — that says we need to take a fundamentally strong economy and help it deal with the uncertainties with a pro-growth package. Goods And Services With A Tarrif On It These trade agreements that we’re about to vote on — there are goods coming from their countries coming to our country relatively tariff free; our goods and services going to their country with a tariff on it. Cerebral Vortex It certainly doesn’t make any sense to say in a country like Colombia, your goods can come … Continue reading Your President Speaks!

Holden's Obsession with the Gaggle5 Comments

Today On Holden’s Obsession With The Gaggle

Thank God The President’s Advisors AreAdvising Him

Q Does he have any reaction to Harry Reid’s comment that Harry Reid thinks that the economy is sliding into recession?

MS. PERINO: Well, the President’s advisors are advising him that they are not forecasting a recession. But certainly there’s been a slowdown in the economy.

[snip]

Q Dana, does the President regret not backing or officially backing an economic stimulus package sooner?

MS. PERINO: Well, the President’s advisors advised him along the way. They get all sorts of incoming economic data. And at the appropriate time, they told the President they thought that was when action needed to be taken, and the President wasted no time in saying, well, then, let’s move forward.

[snip]

Q The description, Dana — about this economy, is again what from the economic advisors?

MS. PERINO: The economic advisors believe that the fundamentals of the economy are healthy, but that in the short run we were facing a potential downturn.

There’s A Hole In The Bucket

Q Thank you. Dana, how can the President give a great financial boost to help the ailing economy when it’s being held down by $9 billion a month to pay for the Iraq war? How is he going to really bring that together?

MS. PERINO: You know, we’ve been at war, as you know, since September 11th — the day after September 11th, when the President decided we were going to take the fight to the enemy. And during the past several years, both in Afghanistan and Iraq, during all — during those years that we’ve been at war, this economy has been very strong.

[snip]

The President does not apologize for spending money on national security. Going forward, what the President wants to do in this short-term package is to make sure that we get enough money moving in the economy so that we can avoid the potential risks of a downturn.

Q I’m not saying apologize, but that is a fact, that on your books, if you’re saying — you have a checkbook, you’re writing out your checks for the $9 billion a month — I mean, you still have other things — when you say you want to give incentives to businesses, financially I guess, and tax relief to consumers — how do you balance those books out to get this shot in the arm?

MS. PERINO: I think I would flip it around and say, I think that members of Congress might be able to find some of their pet projects and their earmarks that they could eliminate that could help with this package.

Continue reading “Today On Holden’s Obsession With The Gaggle”

Hurricane Katrina & Federal Flood2 Comments

FEMA to take lead in future disaster responses

FEMA will take the lead role and the National Response Plan is replaced with the National Response Framework.From WWL… In the first overhaul of the nation’s emergency response system since Hurricane Katrina, government officials announced Tuesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will once again take the lead role in disaster response and that it will use an amenable, computer-driven doctrine to coordinate federal, state, and local resources. The so-called “National Response Framework” announced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is a 90-page electronic document that can be changed by local emergency officials if they find kinks in its guidelines … Continue reading FEMA to take lead in future disaster responses

Hurricane Katrina & Federal Flood1 Comment

WaPo: “FEMA Flip Flops Again on Trailers”

So now FEMAwill buy back the trailers they sold… FEMA was forced to put trailers on the market, selling them to anyone for 40 cents on the dollar. Yesterday, however, the emergency agency offered to buy them back, for their original purchase price, because of concerns that the trailers are tainted with formaldehyde. The agency said it is making the offer because of concerns about “possible adverse health effects” associated with the trailers. More than 10,800 trailers were sold to the public by theGeneral Services Administration from July 2006 until the program was suspended in July 2007, FEMA officials said. … Continue reading WaPo: “FEMA Flip Flops Again on Trailers”

Of Interest3 Comments

What A Pro-Choice World Looks Like

Shark-Fu writing inSalon: I was born one month after Roe and have lived my entire life in a nation at war with itself. As an activist in my local community, I can see that the battle is not academic but alive and hot and hard-fought on all sides. So today, on the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a nation united in support of choice. I imagine young people being taught comprehensive sex education and growing up empowered to make decisions about their sexual health. I see a … Continue reading What A Pro-Choice World Looks Like

Uncategorized2 Comments

Rick Perry: Deep Denial Permeates The Closet

Allison Hantschel

From Holden: My home state’s Governor Rick “Goodhair” Perry is fighting for the Republican gubernatorial nomination by attacking the scourge of gay marriage. Governor Rick Perry has reached out to 10,000 Texans by e-mail asking for their support of a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. [snip] Perry’s e-mail, sent Tuesday, says, “That marriage is the union between a man and a woman is a truth known to each one of us already, and any attempt to allow same-sex marriages is a detriment to the family unit and hurts our state and nation.” … Continue reading Rick Perry: Deep Denial Permeates The Closet