The ugly Bush stain: Watchdog group's List of Bush Failures edition

By GottaLaff

This list is of Bush failures is astounding, but not unexpected. Here's the background:

The most comprehensive guide to these and other Bush administration failures is a new list compiled by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), a non-profit investigative journalism group which recently "set out to document just how off-track things have gone," assigning thirteen reporters to document the worst failures of the last eight years.

Working from government investigations, news stories, and suggestions from experts and government employees, the team compiled a list of 250 failures, which it then narrowed down to just 128 "that attracted bipartisan criticism and had major impacts on the lives of ordinary Americans."

The results of the investigation, which are summarized at CPI's PaperTrail blog and presented in full at its Broken Government project, are stunning in their scope even for those who have been following the scandals of the last eight years.

Here's the list, in part. No amount of scouring, scrubbing, detoxifying, or sanitizing can compensate for the following:

• 730,000 backlogged patent applications
• 760,000 Social Security disability claims
• 806,000 Veterans Affairs disability claims
• A recurrence of recent losses of hundreds of laptops containing sensitive law enforcement information
• The decision to keep plowing $12.5 billion into a joint civilian-military weather satellite system that is still incomplete and may leave gaps in crucial climate monitoring as older satellites fail
• $300 billion over budget for Defense Department weapons acquisitions
• $100 billion lost every year to corporate offshore tax shelters
• Faulty National Security Administration computer system, which carries a price tag of $4 billion
• The complete failure of a $100 million attempt to create a new system of internal information-sharing for the FBI in the wake of 9/11
• The record $9.91 billion spent on government secrecy in 2007
• The dismissal of all but 17 out of the 1273 whistleblower complaints filed from 2002 to 2008
• Pollution that causes 20,000 deaths a year
• Pollution that puts 60,000 newborns at risk of neurological problems
• A two-thirds dropoff in the cleanup of toxic waste sites
• 2.5 million toxic toys recalled in the summer of 2007

This isn't a stain, it's a cancer.

The ugly Bush stain: Comprehensive list edition

By GottaLaff

I've been posting about the malodorous BushCo's intentional, last-minute ambush, using an onslaught of New Rules as their most recent, desperate weapon against their own "homeland" (let's lose that word forever, please). The residual effects will leave a stubborn stain on this country, but hopefully, not an indelible one. However, some of the stench emanating from this bunch of thugs may be harder to eradicate than we think.

Here's a partial list, via Huffington Post:

• EPA would not regulate a contaminant in drinking water (Kool-Aid from our government to us)
• Mining permits near Grand Canyon and other national parks (blasts from the past)
• Gut the Endangered Species Act (the hell with biodiversity or consideration for creation's creatures. Shoot 'em.)
• Power plants could be exempted from installing pollution controls, allowing an added 70 million tons to be released into our air (what's a little cough among friends and who needs to see anyway?)
• EPA narrows the definition of solid waste (now there is a regulation to savor)
• Less reporting on animal pollution proposed
• Rules for dumping mine debris erased
• EPA lowers air quality standards for lead
• Fisheries rule calls for less public input (the czars had a way with public input, too.)
• Loaded guns possible in National Parks( not if the Park rangers have anything to say about it)
• Public lands may be leased for the development of oil shale (public, not to be confused with proprietary)
• Interior Department rules could limit public environmental comments (so much for the First Amendment)
• EPA lets factory farms decide if they need a permit to discharge animal waste into waterways (or large concentrations of dung dumped into our rivers and streams) [...]

It is hard to imagine the state of mind in our officials that produces this kind of malice. [...]

There are remedies. One, of course, is the will of the new administration to override this treachery and destructiveness. The other is the Congressional Review Act. Items published in the Federal Register before Nov 21st take effect 60 days from that date.
House and Senate leadership has already stipulated that they will use the Review Act in a similar way that a Bush administration action used it to undo a Clinton regulation in 2001. Reversal probably cannot take place without scrupulous effort, but we should all encourage the new administration and Congress to do everything they can to defeat these ruinous regulations. [...]

To write midnight regulations that sabotage human health is to see Charles Dickens scribing away by candlelight, as one of his most rapacious and vile villains rises from the candle flame and defiles humanity and its landscape.

Sanitizing sewage of this magnitude won't be easy. Thank you, BushCo, for relieving yourselves publicly all over a country that has tried to maintain some sense of cleanliness, beauty, and pride, despite your relentless maneuvers. You've done your level best to vulgarize it.

We will now unite to collectively scrub America clean until it sparkles again.

H/t: Chris

KBR gave troops ice tainted with ‘traces of body fluids and putrefied remains'

By GottaLaff

Support the troops:

A former technician who worked for contracting company KBR in Iraq has filed a class-action lawsuit saying the company “exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.” Joshua Eller’s suit includes particularly disturbing charges about KBR’s indifference to proper sanitization and the disposal of human remains:

The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.”

Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.

“Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains,” the lawsuit states. “The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths, to the great distress of the U.S. forces.”

What does it take to throw these putrid little sadistic slugs at KBR into prison, serve them the same quality of food and water as they've given our military, and then finally, throw away the key?

From the Dep't. of Let 'Em Eat Cake-- The Bushes' new upscale Dallas home

By GottaLaff

It's bad enough that Bush's New Rules are some of the most offensive Nose-Thumbing assaults on the U.S. one can imagine, even for him. Now we have Laura's blithely oblivious, insensitive little holiday toss-off:

Laura Bush confirmed that she and the President are buying a house in Dallas, about two hours from his beloved Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas.

She broke the news while unveiling the White House’s patriotic Christmas décor this morning, explaining that her family will be "very careful" with spending this holiday to save up for their real estate purchase.

“We will be moving to Dallas in January and there might be a new house coming along. So I think that's where we'll spend our Christmas money," she added.

So they'll actually have residual Christmas money to spend... after they pick up a new house... which will be near their other house... which is part of an enormous "ranch".

I'm simply tickled to pieces that they're able to go shopping with all that extra leftover cash... in all those stores... that no longer exist... because they went under.

Hey! I bet, if all of us are very frugal and wisely save our pennies, we could buy a house, too! Made out of cardboard. Under a bridge. Location! Location! Location!

The couple is said to be looking in the upscale Highland Park area around Southern Methodist University, where Mrs. Bush attended college, and where the president intends to build his library and a policy institute.

I hope they manage to qualify for a decent loan.

And that they, unlike a former Republican presidential candidate we know, can keep track of the number of homes they own.

Ex - Generals to Urge Obama Action on Torture Issue

By GottaLaff

President Obama has so many wrongs to right:

Barack Obama should act from the moment of his inauguration to restore a U.S. image battered by allegations of torturing terrorism suspects, said a group of retired military leaders planning to press their case with the president-elect's transition team on Wednesday.

"We need to remove the stain, and the stain is on us, as well as on our reputation overseas," said retired Vice Adm. Lee Gunn, former Navy inspector general.

Gunn and about a dozen other retired generals and admirals, who are scheduled to meet Obama's team in Washington, said they plan to offer a list of anti-torture principles, including some that could be implemented immediately.

They include making the Army Field Manual the single standard for all U.S. interrogators. The manual requires humane treatment and forbids practices such as waterboarding -- a form of simulated drowning widely condemned as torture.

Other immediate steps Obama could take are revoking presidential orders allowing the CIA to use harsh treatment, giving the International Red Cross access to all prisoners held by intelligence agencies and declaring a moratorium on taking prisoners to a third country for harsh interrogations.

Despite the fact that these abhorrent practices will finally come to an end, it's beyond gut-wrenching that so many have suffered and/or lost their lives at the hands of our present sadistic, waterboard-happy administration.

RNC keeps up campaign-style attacks on Obama

By GottaLaff

For a party that supported their so-called "uniter-not-divider"-in-chief through two elections, they have a funny way of reaching out to their new president:

With each day’s announcement of another cabinet or White House appointment, the Republican National Committee has been blitzing out critical statements that look no different from the blasts issued throughout the campaign. [...]

Here is how the party has characterized various selections made by Mr. Obama:

¶On Representative Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff: “Barack Obama’s first decision as president-elect undermines his promise to ‘heal the divides.’ Rahm Emanuel is a partisan insider who played a lead role in breaking Washington.”

¶On David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s campaign strategist, as White House senior adviser: “For a president-elect who promised to change the tone in Washington, it’s disappointing that he is filling his White House with partisan bomb-throwers. When people think of ‘change,’ they don’t think of political consultants like David Axelrod.”

¶On Tom Daschle, the former Democratic majority leader in the Senate, as secretary of health and human services: “For voters hoping to see new faces and fewer lobbyist-connections in government, Daschle’s nomination will be another disappointment. Obama promised to change America’s health care system, but his nominee to be secretary is no change agent.”

¶On Eric H. Holder Jr., the former deputy attorney general, as attorney general: “Instead of bringing the bipartisan ‘change’ to Washington that he promised voters, Barack Obama is rewarding yet another one of his political loyalists in Eric Holder. The only person who thinks Eric Holder represents ‘hope’ is Marc Rich,” the convicted financier pardoned by President Bill Clinton with Mr. Holder’s acquiescence.

Now contrast all that with this:

The Obama transition office brushed off the attacks. “We’re busy putting a government together with the best and most qualified people from all sectors of our economy and our country,” said Stephanie Cutter, the transition spokeswoman. “Given the challenges facing this country, the president-elect has made it clear that he plans to govern in bipartisanship, because it will take all of us to get things done. We hope that same spirit is shared by others as well.”

RNC: Righties Never Change.

Joe Lieberman Refuses To Apologize For Campaigning Against Obama

So much for Bayh saying that Joe's redemption lies in an apology! Via TP.

BREAKING: Lieberman will stay on

By GottaLaff

Harry Reid just announced. It wasn't even close, from what he said. Lieberman keeps his chairmanship.

"We need to be unified. We need to be unified as Democrats. We need to be unified as a Senate."

He defies anyone to be as angry as he was, Reid says. But, he doesn't want to "get even". He "feels good" about what they did today and doesn't "apologize to anyone". It's time to move forward.

He'll never understand or approve of what Lieberman did, but he's been one of the more progressive members, he said. He fought of the civil rights movement, says Reid. We need to handle the problems that face our country.

Do I trust him? Yes, I do.

Hey Harry? We don't. Not one bit. Not at all.

Traitor Joe is thanking Reid.

UPDATE:
Traitor Joe says the resolution nails him on his campaign remarks. He's denying some of the statements, saying they are "not true". He regrets "some" of his statements. Time to move on.

Claims what he said at the Republican convention were to explain his support of McCain. Uh huh.

He thinks he can reach across the aisle. He's defending his "independence of mind". But he considers himself to be a good member in standing of the Dem caucus... "that's what the record shows".

He's very enthusiastic, he says. He's excited about the chairmanship. He's relinquishing his seat on the Environment Committee.

Wow, that's some sacrifice.

He and McCain will introduce a new version of their anti-global warming rule.

Reid's New Rule: From now on, each member will be limited to chair one full, and one sub-committee.

See "labels".

VIDEO-- Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller: Miasmic Homophobes

By GottaLaff

The vomit-inducing part comes at about 1:02. Why are these two [see Labels] still employed? They are beneath contempt.

VIDEO-- GOP leader: Rebuild party based on 'sanctity of marriage'

By GottaLaff

This video is from Fox's Fox News Sunday, broadcast November 9, 2008.

Mike Pence is set for the No. 3 spot among Republicans in the House of Representatives, while Rep. Eric Cantor is generally viewed as the heir to the No. 2 position.

When asked by Chris Wallace what "conservative solutions" the GOP would bring to their current minority-party status, Pence said social issues like "the sanctity of marriage" will remain the backbone of the Republican platform.

"You build those conservative solutions, Chris, on the same time-honored principles of limited government, a belief in free markets, in the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage," Pence said.

The Indiana representative cited the ballot measures against gay marriage that passed on Election Day as evidence of the continuing presence of conservative values.

"There were three state referendums on marriage ... all three carried. The vitality of the conservative movement around the country is very real," said Pence.

Maybe they forgot to look at the Youthiness map and the protests in California and Utah.Or maybe they're just stuck in the mud of Republican bigotry and divisiveness that lost them the presidential election.

VIDEO: Fox contributor mocks black reporter's tears during Obama win

By GottaLaff


Video via.

Late night Fox News host Greg Gutfeld makes a living off controversy. But this is low, even for him.

On Tuesday night, Gutfeld talked with correspondent Bill Schulz as the two mocked a video clip of a black ABC reporter breaking into tears as Obama's election to the presidency was announced. [...]

"I so wanna comfort him, right now," sneered Gutfeld. "... Bill, you were convinced he was faking it."

"I am, and I have to say, if that's a television moment, I cry on this show every night!" responded Schulz. "Why don't we get better ratings?"

The show's various cast members laughed.

"Yeah, I do think he was faking it," he continued. "It looked like he was trying to force the tears out and they weren't happening. So he could force the moment, that I come by so naturally ... Every time you hit me!"

Gutfeld laughed and hissed, "Yes! Yes, I know!"

Once again, "real" America reveals itself.

Republican Mailer In Ohio Targets Wright, Says Obama's "Friends" Are "Hostile To America"

By GottaLaff

A quick copy and paste before I rush off to work, and it involves our Cliff:

The Republican Jewish Coalition -- which recently hit Pennsylvania mailboxes with a mailer implying a vote for Obama could produce a second Holocaust -- is now hitting Ohio with a wave of incendiary new mailers that directly target his association with Reverend Wright.

"Barack Obama's friends and advisors: Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Israel, even hostile to America," reads the mailer, adding that his associates harbor "anti-Israel views" that are "dangerous, naive and reckless."

A second mailer attacks Obama on Israel with a picture of the Wailing Wall, a holy site whose use in a political attack could prove offensive to many Jews.

Ironically, both mailers, which are presumably targeted to Jewish voters, landed in the Columbus-area mailbox of Cliff Schecter, the author of the anti-McCain book "The Real McCain." Schecter sent them in to us.

(click on the images to enlarge)

These accuse Obama of supposedly backtracking on his support for an undivided Jerusalem, which is strongly disputed by the Obama camp:

Schecter also says he received a copy of the Pennsylvania missive on the Holocaust, meaning that the Republican Jewish Coalition's campaign is active in multiple states.

See labels.

San Francisco Chronicle busts Newsbusters, the RNC, Drudge, and IWRC* Palin

By GottaLaff

IWRC* Palin, the RNC, Drudge, and Newsbusters just got called out by the S.F. Chronicle. Oh-h, suh-nap!

It's not true.

But the Drudge Report, the Republican National Committee and apparently even GOP VP candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fell for completely fabricated news from a shady website called Newsbusters today suggesting the San Francisco Chronicle has ''hidden'' audio with Sen. Barack Obama regarding his statements on coal.

''Barack Obama explained his plan to the San Francisco Chronicle this year,'' she told a rally in Ohio Sunday. ''He said that sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry.''

She added, ''And you've got to listen to the tape.''

''Why is the audiotape just now surfacing?'' Palin asked the crowd, according to a report from CBS News. Someone in the crowd shouted, ''Liberal media!'

So they... lied? What?! Never! IWRC? But... but... she's one of us, doggone it! Gosh! Do you think, given this whopper, that maybe she... could she have... lied before? Like when she called Obama a socialist? Or said he'd raise taxes? Or... ?

Let's be very clear: the Chronicle did not, and has never, hidden any interview, audio or video, of Obama from its readers.

The truth: the paper's January editorial board session with Obama included comments about coal. The entire interview has been in the public domain, available on line to the public -- and to the McCain campaign -- since early January.

''How can anyone suggest that we hid an interview that we did, immediately put up on the web -- and advertised to our readers,'' said editorial page editor John Diaz Sunday, regarding his hosting of Obama at the session. ''We promoted it like like hell...and I'm sure the Clinton campaign and the McCain campaign scrubbed it. You can still find the whole 48 minutes and 33 seconds on line.''

Can't get clearer than that.

A final note: the shoddy Newsbusters blog has been caught in the past simply fabricating news regarding the Chronicle's coverage. Our paper has demanded corrections for their fiction, but to no avail.

We contacted Bill Riggs, regional press secretary of the Republican National Committee tonight on his emailing of this erroneous report suggesting a ''hidden'' Chronicle audiotape to political reporters. His response: he didn't confirm it, or write the headline. He just sent it out.

He got taken. And so did the rest.

Blatant, sleazy lies. Busted.

*"In What Respect, Charlie?"

The Politics Of Auntie Zeituni: The plot sickens

By GottaLaff

Background here. Timing is everything. Via TPM:

The real story, though, is down in the third paragraph of the AP story ...

Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.

That's about as transparent a red flag as an outfit like the AP is usually willing to give. And there you have it. Quite likely working in concert with the McCain campaign, a Bush administration official is leaking details on an immigration case to try to help McCain three days before the election. It's shades of Bush I's riffling through Bill Clinton's passport files just before the 1992 election in a desperate last minute gambit as they were swirling down the drain.

Late Update: Note too that the story first got leaked to the Times of London, a Murdoch paper with a history of taking planted stories from Republicans for siphoning back into the US media.

Next:

Dear Mr. Chertoff:

I was startled to read in today's Associated Press that a "federal law enforcement official" has leaked information about an immigration case involving a relative of Senator Obama. Even more troubling, the AP reports that it could not "could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved," a very disturbing suggesting indeed. This leak is deplorable and I urge you to take immediate action to investigate and discipline those responsible.

I note that this is not the first leak of law enforcement information apparently designed to influence the coming Presidential election -- in recent weeks law enforcement sources leaked information about an alleged investigation of a community services organization, a leak that the Department of Justice informs me is now under investigation by the Department's Office of the Inspector General and Professional Responsibility.

Such leaks are deeply harmful to the political process, and the American people expect and deserve better from their government and its law enforcement agencies.

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.

See labels.

CNN: The worst political team on television

By GottaLaff

Remember this post from earlier? You ain't seen nothin' close to "unfair and unbalanced" yet:

Today, CNN announced that it will be hosting a one-hour special this weekend called “Election Countdown: View from the Right,” featuring prominent right-wing pundits. However, it doesn’t appear that there will be a corresponding special featuring progressive voices. From the CNN press release:

On Saturday, Nov. 1, at 5 p.m. (ET), CNN political contributor and Christian Broadcasting Network senior correspondent David Brody will host the one-hour special Election Countdown: View from the Right. This roundtable discussion will examine the strength of the McCain-Palin ticket, the priorities for conservatives after the election and top issues on voters’ minds, including national security and the economy. Brody will be joined by Amanda Carpenter, national political reporter for Townhall.com; Brian DeBose, editorial writer for The Washington Times; Stephen Hayes, senior writer for The Weekly Standard; and Kevin Madden, Republican strategist and former press secretary for Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

It must be because there are so few Republican spokesmorons on CNN. They have a gnawing urge to fill the void. That was sarcasm, in case it wasn't obvious enough.

TWPNTOTV!!!* (I've held off saying that since I started blogging)

*THE WORST POLITICAL NEWS TEAM ON TELEVISION!!!