I’ve been tagging del.icio.us links with this phrase today: RhetoricOfFailure. In fact, I bundled it together with a lot of other terms, like “CorruptRepublicans” and “SmirkingBastards” and “anti-truth.” Because every time I read a news item about something that didn’t go so well lately for the current Administration, I tag it and add it to the growing linkslist of failures. . I’ll be adding a new tag to the bundle: “Disengaged.” I just ran across this article from Boing Boing, and began sobbing helplessly at the needless loss of life and property because a bunch of elected and appointed officials…
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It’s Alive! It’s Alive! It’s… not quite dead, but it’s feeling better. Call your Congressdrone: Error may snag $39 billion spending-cut bill – Yahoo! News WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A typographical error in a $39 billion U.S. domestic spending-cut bill signed into law by President George W. Bush on Wednesday could mean another vote on the measure that passed only after Vice President Dick Cheney intervened with a tie-breaking vote. The law, which sparked fury among Democrats and strong opposition from some Republicans in an election year, cuts funds for health care, student loan and other programs. This time, MAYBE, we…
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Right, enough incessant style-twitching and markup-tweaking for a while. Now for a few things that I’ve been turning over in my mind lately, kind of like when you’re out back digging in the garden in early spring, and you turn over a forkful of earth and find a lot of worms and goo. Thursday night, I stopped off at a nearby mega-supermarket to pick up a few items for dinner. I’m always on the lookout for odd experiences there ever since the Screaming Child incident, and generally I am rewarded with minor annoyances; they have far more “scan your own…
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IMproPRieTies: reax Of all the tedious media coverage of reaction to the SOTU I saw, I most respected Renee Montagne’s visit to three New Orleansians in a FEMA trailer in the darkened eastern sector of the city. These people watching the Bone tossed from the House, sailing through the deluxe mediascape, landing with an thud in that dark abandoned wreck of the town. Hearing the President ignore not just the city, but his federal administration’s obscene failure to address the city, and now the failure to address that obscene failure, which is apparently the only way Mr. Bush knows how…
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Lobbying Colors GOP Leadership Contest Boehner, the guy who handed out checks on the House floor from tobacco concerns, has just been elected Majority Leader. A fair chunk of his change was raised from Abramoff-linked Indian tribes. Not that it’s wrong that they’re Indians, it’s that they were working with Abramoff. “We will want people who are clean running the House,” said Rep. Melissa Hart (R-Pa.), a Boehner supporter. So do we, Melissa. So we’ll just have to elect them. Do these people not get it? Do they not realize that the lobbying scandal taints everyone in their leadership? I…
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You now, I heard Our Leader say this the other night, but due to an unfortunate overenthusiasm for Adam Felber’s SOTU Drinking Game, it just skidded on by: “Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator — and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale.” Guess there’s no tax credit for hybrid humans, only hybrid cars. Damn.…
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Naturally, I am drinking Sam Adams for the speech. Fanatical Apathy – The 2006 State of the Union Drinking Game Strong and stronger! [drink] 9/11! [drink] Weapons of mass (murder) [drink] terrorists hate our freedom! [drink] EVIL! He said evil! [drink] Clear plan for victory in Iraq! YAY! [drink] War is difficult. Sounds like “hard work” to me. [drink] We are winning! Woohoo! [drink] Support our troops! Ovation of teh evul minions! [drink] Military making sacrifices. Sounds like “hard work” to me. [drink] (Justifiable ovation for the family of the soldier killed in Fallujah. Support our troops, damn you, by…
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ABC News: Majorities Disapprove of Bush on Ethics Jan. 27, 2006 — A clear majority of Americans now disapprove of President Bush’s handling of ethics in government, and three-quarters say the administration should disclose all contacts between White House officials and disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The administration has declined to release records of Abramoff meetings, saying it will not “engage in a fishing expedition.” But in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, 76 percent said the White House should produce such a list. Even 65 percent of Republicans said so… That’s a good sign. I know most Republicans won’t…
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The Chicago Tribune | The Swamp blog reports that Sen. Barack Obama‘s new task is to be the “face” guy for the Democratic Party’s ethics and reform initiative. I’m pretty happy about this (actually I’m very happy about this) because I think Obama is the best choice for this job, and also because of his standing in the minority party (he jokes that in spite of his high profile, he’s ranked about 99th or so in seniority) he can’t get much legislation passed unless it’s a total bi-partisan no-brainer. UPDATE: His remarks today on “Honest Leadership and Open Government” from…
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IS GEORGE BUSH THE WORST PRESIDENT — EVER? – Yahoo! News Columnist Richard Reeves reports on a recent poll of historians published by The History News Network at George Mason University: This is what those historians said — and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives — about the Bush record: He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process; He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the…