Even though its usually evil stuff, Bush usually pulls out a hail mary for these kind of events (privatizing social security, going to war with Iraq) — but this speech seems like a big nothing.
Archive for January, 2006
A year ago, he had capital to spend. This year, it’s a footnote in his speech:
Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security, yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away and with every year we fail to act, the situation gets worse. So tonight, I ask you to join me in creating a commission to examine the full impact of Baby Boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This commission should include Members of Congress of both parties, and offer bipartisan answers.
A “commision” to study it? What is the sound of a dream dying?
What about going to Mars. C’mon, Mars, bitches!
UPDATE: George Bush has the amazing ability to prompt “I know he didn’t just…” moments. I had one of those where he says in effect, “Yeah I spied on Americans without a warrant and I’ll do it again… because, well, just because”.
Oh no he didn’t.
UPDATE 2: We’re going to cut the deficit in half by 2009? You know it was zero before you got into office, right George?
I remain unconvinced of the value of a filibuster - though I certainly don’t believe the hype about its negative consequences (What, Republicans may finally start saying mean things about Democrats?). But this factoid shows how spineless the Dems have become:
Had everyone who opposed Alito backed a filibuster, he wouldn’t be a Supreme Court Justice today.
It instead they voted for him before they voted against him.
[Martin Luther] King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, appears to have made a profession at being a widow in mourning, and used that stature to milk as much money as possible for herself and her family from an unsuspecting public.
Members of the black leadership network Project 21 are mourning the passing of Coretta Scott King. Project 21 members praise her legacy of exhibiting strong family unity in the face of great personal tragedy and for maintaining her husband’s dream of equal rights for all.
Phony would be one way to describe these bunch of hucksters, but that would be way too nice.
Every dark cloud has occasional silver lining. NARAL’s boy Lincoln Chaffee voted for cloture but will vote against Alito and that has made the cons angry. Steve Laffey is the right wing loon being pushed by the big pockets at the right-wing Club for Growth, and even though the RNC realizes the only way to keep hold of the Rhode Island senate seat is to have someone relatively moderate like Chaffee in there- to the point where they’ve run ads bashing Laffey, the GOP base may just push Laffey over the top.
This is good for Democrats. Because it then makes one of the slightly competitive senate seats into a very competitive one, with Democrats Matt Brown or Sheldon Whitehouse offering themselves up as candidates more in line with Rhode Island’s temperament (RI went 60-39 for Kerry).
So, go Steve Laffey!
He has accused Senator Kennedy of.. “molesting” Mrs. Alito.
What the hell is wrong with that guy? And why does NBC/Universal employ someone who would say something so insane?
Kevin Drum is asking what the confirmation of Alito means for the emerging liberal blogosphere.
Certainly I think it speaks volumes that Washington - that is the elected Democrats and the insular consultants who feed on their failure - still sees blogs as an ATM and not yet a part of their message machine. I think it’s clear that blogs are the liberal version of talk radio (you get more mileage out of getting something on Atrios, Dailykos, etc. than you would on Air America right now, for instance) and if Democratic politicians were remotely interested in doing something more than add some bling bling to their campaign coffers, they’d really work the blogosphere (John Kerry, this means you, who all of a sudden “discovered” blogging last week).
But I think the failure to even present a remotely coherent case against Samuel Alito falls squarely on the head of the legal eagles on the progressive side. The primary reason for groups like People for the American Way, Alliance for Justice, etc. to exist is to be the front line of defense for Supreme Court nominations. These guys were around a long time before anyone had a freaking clue what blogging or the internet were.
It speaks volumes when you fail at your organization’s primary mission. Not that their mission was to stop Alito - I don’t know that that was ever possible simply because we didn’t have the numbers - but that Roberts and Alito both sailed through the process unassailed. The Republicans had Progress for America and the Committee for Justice (among others) on their roster - and the left just got rolled.
Why? For the same reason the national Democrats have been getting rolled - they’re fat and dumb and playing the game by the rules of the ancient. An election is a contest of each party’s ability to get the faithful energized and the swing vote convinced. Something like a supreme court nomination, the intracacies of which bore the heck out of Joe America (for good reason) are supposed to be the kind of thing that a political movement can rally around.
Somehow I don’t think the progressive legal infrastructure has been girding up all these years in order to produce the Phil A. Buster cartoon.
It’s amazing how broken the whole thing is. Time to take a match and burn the danged thing down.
We know they seem to be predisposed towards this sort of thing, but does the Republican party think its a good idea to hold a party where they’ll be hanging and beating a black politician in effigy?
UPDATE: Looks like it may be a hoax.
As Exxon announces record profits made on the backs of the American consumer and the blood of the American soldier, raise a toast to them!
There’s going to finally be a museum of African American history in Washington, likely right on the Mall.
Just thought this needed some highlighting
Another study presented at the conference, which was in Palm Springs, Calif., explored relationships between racial bias and political affiliation by analyzing self-reported beliefs, voting patterns and the results of psychological tests that measure implicit attitudes — subtle stereotypes people hold about various groups.
That study found that supporters of President Bush and other conservatives had stronger self-admitted and implicit biases against blacks than liberals did.
[snip]
The analysis found that substantial majorities of Americans, liberals and conservatives, found it more difficult to associate black faces with positive concepts than white faces — evidence of implicit bias. But districts that registered higher levels of bias systematically produced more votes for Bush.
“Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president,” said Banaji, “but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice.“
It’s science, kids.
UPDATE: Predictably, Michelle Malkin is pulling a “look over here” complaining that the scientists that conducted the study donated to Kerry. It’s as if the Bush people have a history of not being pro-science or something. Look, 2+2 equals four - even when a Democrat is adding it up. Similarly the knuckle dragging bias pimps at Newsbusters (where they still can’t come up with funny comic strips) swear that merely reporting the results of a scientific study is clear evidence of liberal bias.
Notice how the “criminalization of politics” talking point has died out, apparently due to the fact that so many Republican politicians are turning out, in fact, to be criminal.
As he attempts to extricate himself from the kooky religious right in preparation for his ill-fated presidential run, Bill Frist acknowledges how wrong the Republican congress was to insert itself into the Schiavo family’s private business.
Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” if he had any regrets regarding the Schiavo case, Frist said: “Well, I’ll tell you what I learned from it, which is obvious. The American people don’t want you involved in these decisions.”
Yes, Bill, you shouldn’t stick yourself in the middle of people’s personal private decisions. Common sense to some, a revelation for a Republican.
Proving my point. Again on the media roundtable segment of “Meet the Press”, the left just refuses to show up. You’ve got Roger Simon, David Broder, NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell, and National Review’s Byron York. Would it have killed The American Prospect, The Nation, or christ, even The New Republic, push NBC to have one of them on there to counter a commited idealogical “journalist” like York?
Christ.
Everyone from left to right seemingly has put their two cents in on this story, with the right-wing blogs amplifying the Washington Post’s preconceived notions that there’s any sort of idealogical battle between Democratic politicians (in the “center”) and liberal bloggers (”on the far left”).
I’m kind of tired of this sort of thing, but what the hey. It’s fallacious, untrue, and a misrepresenation of reality. The vast majority of liberal bloggers are not advocating the party make a turn to the left. I can certainly speak for myself and say that isn’t what I’m advocating or have ever advocating. Frankly I’m quite fine with the party’s positioning on practically every major position (though I’m personally to the Democratic left on social issues and to the right on justice and fiscal issues).
I don’t care if you’re a liberal, moderate, or conservative Democrat - I just want you to open your yap. The Democrats seem to believe that sitting down like dumb ninnies even if they agree with Bush is a smart way to go about things. We’ve lost two national elections doing it that way, believing the predominant beltway/consultant consensus that the Republicans will hang themselves if we give them enough rope (but hey, the Democratic consultants get paid so what do they care - although you’d think they’d like to have a larger rather than shrinking pool of clients). That’s just ridiculous.
Eight years of Clinton showed us that even when President Clinton did nothing wrong, the Republicans found some reason to go to the press and make noise (at various times he was accused of being a drug dealer or a rapist, his wife was accused of being a lesbian, and they said his daughter looked like a dog). Sadly, the Bush Team has given us tons of material to work with and Democrats refuse to make hay with it — the simple act of issuing a press release seems to be beyond the capacity of the Democratic press secretaries.
If you don’t make any noise, the media has nothing to cover, and Bush’s policies are assumed to be without opposition and the press reports that “consensus” has been achieved.
By God, if issuing a press release is now tantamount to wide-eyed liberal madness the Democrats deserve to have even smaller constituencies than they already have.
Will the last Democratic senator please turn out the lights? Thanks.
(I do think its funny that advisers to the Gephardt and Kerry presidential campaigns are giving out advice on how to win. Right after that the Buffalo Bills and Minnesota Vikings are going to give us a chat on how to win Superbowls.)
BY THE WAY: As far as Tim Kaine doing the Democratic Response to the State of the Union? I don’t care. It is simply useless. It was lame when we had Pelosi/Reid do it, and it was lame when the Republicans wheeled out J.C. Watts to do it when Clinton was President. The response is useless and it would be better if we just didn’t have one and issue a press release saying that the steaming pile of nonsense he shoveled up in the State of the Union wasn’t worth a response.
But sending out press releases is Michael Moore business, sorry, I forgot.
We can’t have any facts dirtying up our propaganda, says Team Bush
The top climate scientist at NASA says the Bush administration has tried to stop him from speaking out since he gave a lecture last month calling for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
The scientist, James E. Hansen, longtime director of the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in an interview that officials at NASA headquarters had ordered the public affairs staff to review his coming lectures, papers, postings on the Goddard Web site and requests for interviews from journalists.
It’s sort of ironic that this perversion of science is coming out on the same day as the Challenger anniversary.
Man, it feels like the Challenger accident just happened. When it occurred I was 8 years old, and obsessed with going into space and the entire process involved in doing so. They were people who died in the pursuit of science and furthering human knowledge of the universe - very noble indeed.
Related to this entry, and the seeming unwillingness of Democrats to even go in front of a camera and just simply say something.
Just 36% expressed a favorable opinion of congressional Democrats, whereas 45% viewed them unfavorably. That’s statistically the same as the showing for congressional Republicans, who were viewed favorably by 38% and unfavorably by 44%.
“I was watching the news & and I heard nothing from the Democrats,” said Dez Jackson, 20, a cashier in Greenville, S.C., who was sharply critical of the president in the survey. “What are they, afraid to speak up?”
I don’t understand what they’re afraid of, or who the risk averse dumbass nincompoops advising them are, but they’ve set us up for failure yet again. Yes, you can wrap a kid in a protective bubble and he may never get hurt, but he never gets to have any fun or make a difference either.
This represents a pretty radical departure for me but I’m just about ready to tell any and all Democrats (no matter their stature) who won’t do the simple act of standing up and be Democrats on every issue no matter how small to go screw themselves - a limp ass Democrat is just as useful as a Republican, quite frankly. Maybe we ought to keep a list. (via Tapped)
The analysis shows that when Abramoff took on his tribal clients, the majority of them dramatically ratcheted up donations to Republicans. Meanwhile, donations to Democrats from the same clients either dropped, remained largely static or, in two cases, rose by a far smaller percentage than the ones to Republicans did. This pattern suggests that whatever money went to Democrats, rather than having been steered by Abramoff, may have largely been money the tribes would have given anyway.
People with brains knew this already, but we have yet another case of facts getting in the way of the Republican belief system.
They called him everything but a cheese eating surrender monkey. CNN: It’s Fox, Only With Less O’Reilly.
The supposedly nonpartisan and nonconservative Glenn Reynolds has made an endorsement for Republican majority leader in the House, which we all know is the sort of thing nonpartisan folks do all the time.
But that’s a joke for the media. Anyone else with suggestions of what should be done to Ann Coulter, you know, as a joke for the media?
During much of Bill Clinton’s presidency, he was a popular president. Even when he had personal failings, the support for him was pretty consistent. Yet, the Republican congress never thought twice about acting as an opposition party, fighting against an agenda they disagreed with. Certainly they regularly went over the line in the sort of tone-deaf politics that Republicans regularly engage in, but you never thought of Newt Gingrich as someone - no matter how odious - who was afraid of taking Bill Clinton on.
Compare this to the work of the modern Democratic party, who has allowed a President who wasn’t even voted for by the majority in his first term and who was re-elected with a thin margin for his second term, to walk all over them like he’s some kind of king.
Even more amazing, lacking a spine from the opposition party and subject to a lapdog media that often appears to just want a good bellyrub than to practice actual journalism, the American people consistently are ahead of the Democrats in their opposition to Bush. Even the polls of our 21st century Pravda, the Fox News Channel, show only 41% support for the president - a number consistent with other numbers from other polling organizations.
But the Democrats, tone deaf as usual, seem more interested in pleasing the whims of the inside-the-beltway set and those ever astute conservative media figures. They must be brain dead, stupid, or both.
Bush is gearing up a state of the union that apparently is going to focus on health care. His social security plan went down in flames, his medicare plan is an unmitigated disaster both from a public relations standpoint and more importantly from a public health p.o.v., but the press will dutifully tut-tut those Democrats who will point out the man’s incredibly bad record on these issues.
Stop listening to these people. They have been wrong on everything.
The president spied on Americans in America without a warrant he could have easily obtained. Investigate it.
Republican lobbyists bought and sold Republican politicians. They’re criminals - clean it up and tell America to demand honest leadership and kick the bums out.
The president has no plan for Iraq and no credibility on military issues. Demand a true plan for getting the hell out of their and don’t allow him to ever again put American lives in danger for his ego.
The president’s economic program is great for the well-heeled but has done diddly for working Americans. In an era where the markets just haven’t moved in five years and employers are laying off thousands of people and getting corporate welfare, it would be ludicrous for Democrats to roll over and play dead for more tax cuts for the top.
Those are just a few of the issues facing us. The majority of American people do not support George W. Bush, and it would be nice if they had a political party that supported their view. The spew that comes out of the Washington Post, Democratic “consultants” (who never want to put a name with their dumb whining to newspaper writers, wonder why) and the conservative media (”So you made Glenn Reynolds happy, awesome.”) is just so much hot air that America isn’t listening to. It’s rare that you can do the right thing and also have it be the popular thing, but that’s the chance the Democrats have now - just don’t start putting things off the table.
In concert with Gastrologica, the food blog, my old friend Steve has launched a new podcast. Do check it out.
Why do our military commanders insist on giving aid and comfort to our enemies (based on the Republican definition of such things)?
The top U.S. commander in
Iraq acknowledged on Thursday that the U.S. Army was stretched but insisted forces here were capable of accomplishing their mission and any recommendation to reduce troops further would be dictated by the situation on the battlefield.
