News from Around the World

You’re so screwed you don’t even know it. Congratulations on being the agent that precipitated the final political collapse of George W. Bush’s disastrous administration. You’re not so much the straw that broke the camel’s back as the white, conservative, Yale-educated circuit court judge that broke the camel’s back.

My gut feeling is Democrats are now fired up, and Republicans are on the defensive. Continued attacks on Arnold’s mendacity and double-dealing here in California, coupled with a nationwide campaign of exposing them as the party of hypocrisy, corruption lies and double-dealing may just bring us a year from tonight to the point where George W. Bush can look forward to the Bill of Impeachment he so richly deserves being voted on him in February 2007.

Brace yourselves for a shocking confession: I know next to nothing about sports. Furthermore, I care next to nothing about sports. The total time my television has been tuned to a sporting event is roughly the equivalent of the time George W. Bush spends reading The Washington Post on any given day. In my lifetime, I have attended exactly three professional baseball games (each time having been coerced into attending by friends), no football games, no soccer games, no hockey games, no basketball games, and no any other type of sporting event you can mention. Are you starting to get the picture that sports plays absolutely no part in my life?

It’s about a year or so late... but now it is on!!! Syria... Look out!!! Today you have been warned... America... I think you just got a Heads-Up today from your President too...

Although U.S. astronauts have visited the moon before, they only spent a few days there, making short forays into the barren landscape. A new Vison for Space Exploration, announced by President George W. Bush in January 2004, calls for the establishment of human outposts on the moon and later, human exploration of Mars. This time, we're going back to stay.

US Presidente bandidos George W. Bush (2nd-R), US Vice Presidente bandidos Dick Cheney (2nd-L), US Secretary of Defense criminalos and bandidos Donald Rumsfeld (R) and National Security Advisor mucho grande bandidos Condoleezza Rice (L) walk out to speak to reportersat Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch in 2004. Former secretary of state Colin Powell's top aide has accused Cheney and Rumsfeld of creating a 'cabal' that has hijacked US foreign policy.

Blog #2: The Bird Flu, specifically known as the H5N1 strain of the virus, has depleted poultry populations in mulitple parts of asia as well as 60 people. Though strains spreading from human-to-human have not been found, scientists are afraid the virus will mutate. This mutation might possibly make the Bird Flu easily transferable between individuals. Scientists predict that, in a worst case scenario, a new strain of the Bird Flu could wipe out millions of people. In the last century three pandemics have occured and scientists warn another is very possible. “Whether or not H5N1 is the virus that will ultimately trigger such a pandemic is unknown to us,” Mike Leavitt told a news conference. “The probability is uncertain. But the warning signs are troubling. Hence we are responding in a robust way.” In retatilliation to the virus, George W. Bush has formed the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza to develop a strategy to preventing the spread of the Bird Flu and other pandemics. According to Leavitt, containment is the best way to currently battle the virus. He has urged countries to help prevent the spread as well. “Now we know in advance what is happening and we have to prepare ourselves. That is our duty,” Leavitt said. I believe as long as countries continue to cooperate in the fight against the bird flu, a quicker solution to this virus as well as other future pandemics can be prevented. With the most recent pandemics experienced, I believe all precautions should be taken. Preventing further spread and increasing study of strains of the bird flu will benefit the future of the Asian countries who are suffering, as well as the rest of the world.

Both Democratic and Republican senators were questioning the qualifications of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, who has never argued a case before the Supreme Court but has been often referred to as President Bush’s “work wife.” UNICEF released a short film that shows an airstrike attack on a village of Smurfs. The U.S. Senate passed a $440 billion defense-spending bill; the bill includes an amendment that places limits on the torture of military prisoners. President George W. Bush promised to veto the bill if it was passed containing the amendment. An Oregon woman was suing her doctor for trying to heal her lower back pain by having sex with her. The doctor was also in trouble for charging the state $5,000 for giving the woman the treatment. A new vaccine that prevents cervical cancer was found to be 100 percent effective. A Cambodian couple was in trouble for biting their 12-year-old daughter so that they might drink her blood, and in Australia a worker at a forensics laboratory was under investigation for stealing parts of human brains so that they could be injected into racehorses in order to make the horses run faster.

Kelo may be an atrocious precedent for the United States, but it is not wise to toss in the name George W. Bush when discussing baseball teams building stadiums using the power of eminent domain.

The biggest difference I can spot is the number of other options the Presidents who nominated the two women had. During the election of 1980, Reagan had pledged to promote women to positions of power in the government, but when Potter Stewart's seat on the Supreme Court opened up he looked around, and there weren't a whole lot of women in the federal judiciary to choose from. Reagan began looking at state court judges instead, for a conservative female, and low and behold, there was SOC. So while SOC wasn't the most qualified "person" Reagan could have picked, she was one of the most qualified women. On the other hand, George W. Bush had a number of highly "qualified" female candidates with judicial experience to choose from: Janice Brown, Edith Jones, Edith Clement, etc. Instead Bush chose Miers.

But lawyers close to the case, who asked not to be identified because it’s ongoing, say Fitzgerald appears to be focusing in part on discrepancies in testimony between Rove and Time reporter Matt Cooper about their conversation of July 11, 2003. In Cooper’s account, Rove told him the wife of White House critic Joseph Wilson worked at the “agency” on WMD issues and was responsible for sending Wilson on a trip to Niger to check out claims that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. But Rove did not disclose this conversation to the FBI when he was first interviewed by agents in the fall of 2003—nor did he mention it during his first grand jury appearance, says one of the lawyers familiar with Rove’s account. (He did not tell President George W. Bush about it either, assuring him that fall only that he was not part of any “scheme” to discredit Wilson by outing his wife, the lawyer says.) But after he testified, Luskin discovered an e-mail Rove had sent that same day—July 11—alerting deputy national-security adviser Stephen Hadley that he had just talked to Cooper, the lawyer says. In the e-mail, Rove said Cooper pushed him on whether the president was being hurt by the Niger controversy. “I didn’t take the bait,” Rove wrote Hadley, adding that he warned Cooper not to get “far out in front on this.” After reviewing the e-mail, Rove then returned to the grand jury last year and reported the Cooper conversation. He testified that the talk was initially about “welfare reform”—a topic mentioned in the e-mail—and that Cooper then changed the subject. Cooper has written that he doesn’t recall a discussion of welfare reform.

The inquiry has ensnared President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. The White House had long maintained that Rove and Libby had nothing to do with the leak but reporters have since named them as sources.

Oct. 3, 2005 issue - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is a bete noire of the Bush administration. He's a populist on the Castro model who wants to steer Latin America firmly to the left. He also rules a key oil-producing country, which gives him unusual leverage. In an interview with NEWSWEEK's Lally Weymouth in New York, he made clear his dislike for President George W. Bush, and noted that he was planning to fly straight to Havana after his U.S. trip. Excerpts:

A United Coalition of Blogs for the Impeachment of George W. Bush

The other day, my roomate was playing a videogame involving a certain spy by the name of Sam Fisher. I’ll assume that everyone knows what I’m talking about and move on. Well, we had a guest in the room, a girl who claims to take a moderate politcal view point. While playing, my roomate got himself into a sticky situation and was forced to shoot one of the terrorists in the head. I didn’t think anything of this, but the girl who was watching said, “That’s terrible.” My roomate turned around and said, “He’s a terrorist!” and then turned around and proceeded to stealthily take out one guy after another. The girl continued to mumble under her breath every time another terrorist was killed. What I fail to understand is this… Why are there people in this country that simpithize with terrorists? I can understand why people don’t like the war in Iraq. I can understand why people don’t like George W. Bush. And, although I don’t agree with either of these two view points, I do repect them. I can not, however, respect the view point that says that ridding this world of terrorists is “terrible".

What happened to balanced budgets? Why happened to personal responsibility? What happened to reduced spending? What happened to smaller government? The list goes on, but you get the idea. The Party has moved away from the very ideals that helped get them elected in the early 1990s, and they certainly have moved away from the ideals that got George W. Bush elected in 2000.

For those of you who missed it - George W. Bush writes a note to Condi Rice:

Earlier this week, the centre-left coalition in Norway had dominated the elections. Labour Party head and soon-to-be-PM (also a former PM), Jens Stoltenberg, told U.S. President George W. Bush that Norway would pull its soldiers out of Iraq - all 20 of them…

Third, the networks and newspapers have been quick to cry racism because so many of the victims were black. This is total nonsense. New Orleans is a mostly black city. Obviously, most of the victims of the storm would be black. No one has been able to point to a single instance in which black victims were mistreated because of their race by whites. In fact, just the opposite has happened. The whole story is of rescues and salvation by people of all races aimed at people of all races. In a gesture never seen before, the whole heart of the nation has taken in poor, bereft black families and sheltered them absolutely without regard to race. This is a mirror of the basic goodness of Americans and the disappearance of racism as an acceptable action basis of American life. It is also a measure of the total absence of racism in the heart of George W. Bush. The media may play this as a story of race versus race, but that is pure incendiary fantasy, and dangerous nonsense.

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 30 -- The Naval Medical Center in San Diego's Balboa Park was shut down to accommodate a visit by President George W. Bush Aug. 30, RAW STORY has learned, forcing patients to cancel chemotherapy treatments and hundreds of scheduled patient visits.

Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown’s already paper-thin resumé appears to have been padded. Time Magazine looked into the past of the man George W. Bush put in charge of the federal government’s response to disasters natural and man-made, and found less there than meets the eye.

The New Orleans refugees would have water, food and at least a place out of the contaminated floodwater to rest by now if Bush had not DISMEMBERED our emergency services institutions. This George W. Bush has destroyed lives this week. His actions are the cause for the deaths of innocent Americans. He has killed them with his weak-minded decisions. He should have to pay with the forfeiture of his usurped job.

The Washington Post said yesterday that the US diplomats consider that the international interest in the file of Syria and Lebanon entered a new phase under unprecedented international Pressures on al-Assad. According to the paper, officials in the US administration consider that the American president George W. Bush seeks relentlessly to recruit the UN to pressure Syria, and for supporting Lebanon to re-construct its political institutions.

Populism is often internally inconsistent: it’s perfectly possible to mount a populist critique of multinationals without, say, supporting multiculturalism. Moreover, the line between left-wing populism and right-wing populism is very blurry. Think of the Hansonites: recruiting around racism and bigotry but fervently opposed to privatisation. Or the examples Thomas Franks gives of the populist support for George W. Bush — the blue-collar Americans who support Bush because he stands up for the values of the little guy against know-it-all academics and East Coast intellectuals.

US president George W. Bush, Ariel Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas are certain the Israeli government did the right thing in uprooting Israel’s civilian presence from the Gaza Strip ahead of the final pullback of troops on Sept. 15. But their gratification is likely to be short-circuited by the rush of events on the ground. Already, Sharon is paying the price for his action. The praise he won from Bush and other world leaders for his courage in going through with evacuations is proving expensive: his Likud has set in train the first steps for his ouster, accusing him of deserting its principles by expelling Israeli communities for nothing at best, a heightened terrorist menace, at worst. His long-time challenger, Binyamin Netanyahu, translates Sharon’s courage and the praise thereof as “a headwind for Palestinian terror.”

You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on George W. Bush's door. If it did, would the president with the unsettling demeanor of a boy king even bother to answer? Mr. Bush is the commander in chief who launched a savage war in Iraq and now spends his days happily riding his bicycle in Texas.

That said, I want answers from George W. Bush. Take a look at these indisputable facts (unlike some of Cindy’s rants these are all proven facts):

President George W. Bush, an avid cyclist, will test his mettle against Lance Armstrong when the cycling superstar visits the president's Texas ranch this weekend.

“They never stop thinking of new ways to harm our Country and our people, and neither do we.” U.S. President George W. Bush

Quoting from the article - The rally was conceived “….to condemn activist judges and heap praise on U.S. President George W. Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court, John Roberts.” I really don’t care to discuss either side of this coin. What I do want to address is the disingenuous nature of these remarks.

Everyone who pays attention knows the history of George W. Bush. He was the wild oldest son of former President, George Herbert Walker Bush. Whether he did cocaine, he won't say. But he has admitted that he was an alcoholic before giving his life to Jesus.

As of this writing, 1,827 Americans have been killed in Iraq -- 1,686 of those deaths have occurred since President George W. Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln under a banner proclaiming, "Mission Accomplished."

More than thirty years ago, George W. Bush had a chance to stand and face America’s enemies, the Vietcong, face to face, man to man. Why didn’t he go? A principled stand against the war? Nope, didn’t mention anything about that. Maybe he was afraid. Was that it?

Whatever the case, his former boss with the Texas Rangers, George Bush, stands behind him completely saying, "He's a friend. He testified in public, and I believed him and I still do." Somehow, coming from the man who told us that Iraq had WMD, had harbored 9/11 terrorists, and was ready to drop a nuclear bomb on us, I'm not surprised by his reaction. If there's one thing George W. Bush knows how to do, it's how to reward his faithful friends when they get into trouble. Who knows, he might have a Supreme Court nomination for Palmeiro after the hitter retires. Or at least an ambassadorship somewhere.

Did George W. Bush give the First Finger salute to the White House Press Corp? Or was he merely giving the thumbs up to his CAFTA Victory?

The second is the idea that the United States has a "mission" or a "calling" to transform the world. During the debate over the annexation of the Philippines, Senator Albert Beveridge declared that God had "marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the redemption of the world." Richard Nixon in the 1960 campaign affirmed that "America came into the world 180 years ago not just to have freedom for ourselves, but to carry it to the whole world." And of course, George W. Bush proclaimed in April 2004 that "as the greatest power on the face of the Earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom. ... That is what we have been called to do, as far as I'm concerned."

President George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice had been pushing for a full restoration of all military ties to Indonesia

George W. Bush seems to be placing personal loyalties and political loyalties over his Presidential obligations and image. Bush promised the American people publicly repeatedly that he would fire anyone responsible at the White House who was involved in revealing the identity of the CIA operative married to former Ambassador Wilson.

>The Rolling Stones will deliver a musical attack on George W. Bush

1. George W. Bush changed his story again, as he’s altered wording ever so slightly to be able to get Rove off the hook. If Rove’s story of being informed by the media holds out at all, Bush can use that to not fire Rove. It’s getting to be relatively he-said, she-said at this point, and this seems the most logical way for the Administration to get out unscathed.

Very interesting shot by Maestra Leibovitz: Ann Richards was Governour of Texas before George W. Bush. She lost. But she didn’t shot him.

President George W. Bush, is: "Since when was God pro-war, and pro-rich?

US President George W. Bush has had a shaky start with his second term and his nation’s restlessness with the Iraq War is increasing day by day; the atrocious war in Chechnya and the imprisonment of Yukos boss have cast dark clouds over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tailored suit of democracy; French President Jacques Chirac’s domestic standing is falling since the resounding ‘no’ to the EU constitution by his nation; political problems are being faced by the German Chancellor too; Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is seeing his claim of being the representative of Asia, thwarted by China whose rising power has bore a fruit in the shape of an invitation to President Hu Jintao for attending the Gleneagles summit. Moreover, the G8 summit is expected to remain bogged down in talks relating to the Iraq War and Iran’s nuclear ambitions thus, putting issues like reassessing the CAP to the backstage.

But then again, there wasa memorandum that came down that suggested the Geneva Conventions were void in Iraq. It didn’t come from the Brigade level, though;it came from fucking George W. Bush’s office. And it’s a lie. That’s why they sat there in front of Congress before they made the author of that memo into the Attorney General of the United States get your head around that and denied that they meant it.

The race was long and a little warm but at least it was flat. Here's Bob after finishing his first marathon and yours truly after beating George W. Bush's best marathon time, finally!

Just now, George W. Bush has arrived in Denmark for a 2-day official visit. In antipication of his visit, the Copenhagen-based Politiken newspaper interviewed a broad spectrum of political commentators, journalists, writers, business people, etc. about what they would tell Bush if they were his hosts (2 July, frontpage and p. 2 of the Culture section). Unsurprisingly, the answers ranged from hostile to fairly enthusiastic, but everyone had a piece of advice for him. I noted some of the advice of Imam Abu Laban from Islamisk Trossamfund (’Islamic Faith Community’) – in my translation:

As reported, Barton wrote a letter to President George W. Bush, saying Cnooc's bid represented a "clear threat" to U.S. national security and should be blocked.

The reason is unknown but is probably to do with the fact Mr Armadillo, is guarenteed to take the next election in storm. As much as “certain” people (to remain unnamed) wish for George W. Bush to continue as president, this is his last term in Office and it is likely Mr Armadillo will take over.

But in contrast to fellow columnist Dick Foreman, I think the recall effort has given our democratic spirit an important boost. While 50,000 people in District 20 voted for Senator Huppenthal in November, 30,000 didn’t vote for him, evenly divided between those voting for Libertarian party candidate Warren Severin and those skipping the contest altogether. If I asked those 80,000 people who the President of the United States was, even the staunchest John Kerry supporter will begrudgingly admit it’s George W. Bush. But if we query Bush supporters who their State Senator is, if it weren’t for the recall, many who voted for Senator Huppenthal wouldn’t remember his name.

George W. Bush’s speech in condensed form: “September 11 happened, so I had to invade the country that had nothing to do with it and posed no threat to the United States.”

After watching George W. Bush's speech tonight, I desperately needed a good shot of levity.

However, in the last chapter of "The Long Emergency" and in interviews you imply that the crash will come fast and hard. Specifically, in an interview you stated that George W. Bush will be impeached before the end of his term due to anger over peak oil consequences. How do you resolve this apparent contradiction? Do you foresee a hard crash or soft landing from the cheap oil fiesta?

With the Downing Street Minutes that unmask his lies, with his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq lost, with his poll numbers tumbling, with Republicans jumping ship, with the economy tanking and with parents shielding their children from his military recruiters, why is George W. Bush still smiling, swaggering and acting like the dictator he hopes to become?

If there is a charitable way to look at George W. Bush's second term personnel changes, it is this: perhaps the White House is scanning the available job postings for a set of dignified drawers they can shove the more prominent neocons into where they won't feel like they're being punished for statements like these, these and these, but where they can do less damage -- namely, positions where they're not in a position to propose any more wars against Muslim countries.

However, in the last chapter of "The Long Emergency" and in interviews you imply that the crash will come fast and hard. Specifically, in an interview you stated that George W. Bush will be impeached before the end of his term due to anger over peak oil consequences. How do you resolve this apparent contradiction? Do you foresee a hard crash or soft landing from the cheap oil fiesta?

The big purpose of the book is to explain why our nation’s entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security are doomed to bankruptcy, and why neither Republicans nor Democrats are likely to do anything about it. Sounds pretty non-partisan, no? Of course, Peterson—a life-long Republican—has many a nasty thing to say about the Democrats and their policies, but he does turn on George W. Bush as well. The only problem is, you’d have to be an arch-conservative to understand why Bush fils isn’t conservative enough.

Wisconsin Democrats are calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Sadly, the negative opinion of Dr. Rice by black Americans, who are also very religious, stems from the demonization of all black Republicans by black Democrats who dominate the media targeted at the black community. Most liberal white women give Dr. Rice a negative rating because of Dr. Rice's position on abortion which is the same as that of President George W. Bush.

George W. Bush is also a supply-sider, but unlike Reagan, he has not learned from his mistakes. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits-expected to top $500 billion in fiscal year 2002 alone-posed a threat to the economy. Cheney cut him off. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said. This explosion of ignorance is typical of the Bush administration’s ideology-before-reality mindset.

Congressional Republicans are trying to repeal the 22nd Amendment, so that George W. Bush can become President * again and again and again... ad infinitum. House Joint Resolution number 24. I'm not making this up, though I sincerely wish that I were. Sigh... Here's one of several relevant links:

O.K., I know it's just the Northern Party, one of 6.2 million political parties in Italy. but Minister of Welfare Roberto Calderoli has been saying things that others have been afraid to say for years. AND it seems like Italian voters tend to agree with him. The squirming sounds you hear are coming from Berlin, Paris and Brussels. The European Socialist Union barely has time these days to criticize George W. Bush.